• Scott Disick, 41, says he doesn't plan to introduce his kids to a new partner unless it's "the right person."
• He has been co-parenting his three kids with his ex, Kourtney Kardashian, since their 2015 split.
• Dating as a single parent can be difficult since it can bring up complex emotions for your child.

Scott Disick, 41, says he has no plans to get into a serious relationship until his children get older.

Khloé Kardashian interviewed Disick on the first episode of "Khloé in Wonder Land," her new podcast, which premiered Wednesday on X. Disick spoke about navigating the dating landscape as a single dad.

Disick has three kids — Mason, 15, Penelope, 12, and Reign, 10 — with his ex, Kourtney Kardashian. The former couple called it quits in 2015 but continue to co-parent.

"They'd like me to be with somebody, I think. And they do voice to me that they'd like me to be with someone," Disick told Khloé, referring to his kids. "And I kind of say, until I find the right person, I don't really want to bring another person around unless it's like the end all, be all person."

The reality star said he didn't want his kids to "get attached" to somebody else in the meantime.

"But they're all starting to get older and it's not that much longer until they're of age, all of them," Disick said. "So for the next 5, 6, 7, years — if my attention is on them, I have the rest of my life to be a single guy."

He added that he likes that his focus is on his kids right now.

"And if I was with somebody else, I'd still be a good dad but I would have somebody that I'd be putting on a pedestal near them," Disick said.

Since his separation from Kourtney, Disick has been romantically linked to several other celebrities over the years — most notably Sofia Richie, whom he dated between 2017 and 2020.

Dating as a single parent can be difficult, especially since it can bring up complex emotions for your child.

"Children always respond with some confusion about their parent's new partner and what's different," Ron L. Deal, a licensed marriage and family therapist told Business Insider previously. "Confusion means 'I'm not sure what to do with you, where to put you in my heart, or what role you're going to play in my life.'"

A good way to manage the transition would be to talk your kids through the decisions you're making in the relationship and listen to their concerns, Deal said.

It can also be beneficial to reach out to professionals for support, such as through family therapy.

A representative for Disick did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular office hours.

• China has expanded its trade-in program to boost consumer spending on home appliances.
• The program, launched in March, includes subsidies and has shown positive results.
• China faces economic challenges including deflation fears and low consumer demand.

China's cautious consumers are spending less, prompting Beijing to dish out incentives even for small home goods.

On Wednesday, China added home appliances, including microwave ovens, water purifiers, dishwashers, and rice cookers, in a trade-in program designed to spur demand.

The program, which was first rolled out in March, already included bigger appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, TV sets, and air conditioners. The Chinese government subsidizes up to 20% of the price of a new appliance.

The Chinese government, which had allocated 81 billion yuan, or $11 billion, for the trade-in program, said on Wednesday that the program had yielded positive results.

Li Gang, a Chinese commerce ministry official, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the trade-in program resulted in 920 billion yuan worth of auto sales and 240 billion yuan worth of home appliances sales last year.

China is trying to boost consumption in the world's second-largest economy, which is beset by multiple challenges including a property crisis and high youth unemployment.

China deflation fears

Economists are especially worried about a deflation spiral, which would result in a vicious cycle of dampened consumer demand and lower prices.

Official inflation data released on Thursday gave little cheer, with China's consumer price index last year inching up just 0.2% from a year ago.

In December, China's CPI edged up just 0.1% more than a year ago in its fourth straight month of decline, with food price declines dragging inflation down. In comparison, November CPI was 0.2% higher than a year ago.

The headline inflation figure did not fall into deflation territory thanks to non-food inflation — which edged up 0.2%.

However, the data about non-food prices "does not inspire too much confidence in an uptick of consumption yet," wrote Lynn Song, the chief economist for Greater China at ING, on Thursday.

Prices of clothing, education, and healthcare moved up in December.

However, prices of transportation, communications, daily use goods, and rent were in the deflationary zone.

Factory gate prices were in deflation for the 27th straight month.

Analysts generally expect China's inflation data to pick up this month thanks to seasonal factors as Chinese New Year, which starts on January 29.

However, official data about wholesale farm product prices in China so far this month point to food prices being "subdued and weaker than traditional seasonality suggests," wrote Nomura economists on Thursday.

• Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said she looks for candidates who love to learn new things.
• Sweet said in a podcast interview that she would ask people what they have learned recently.
• The former lawyer said it didn't matter even if people just said they learned how to bake a cake.

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said there's one key question she poses to people who want to work for her.

"There's one question that we ask everyone, regardless of you're a consultant or you're working in technology or whatever you do," Sweet said in an interview with Norges Bank Investment Management CEO Nicolai Tangen on his "In Good Company" podcast, which aired Wednesday.

"We say, 'What have you learned in the last six months?'" she added.

Asking this question, Sweet told Tangen, is a practical way for her to determine if candidates are interested in learning new things.

"If someone can't answer that question, and by the way, we don't care if it's 'I learned to bake a cake,' if they can't answer that question, then we know that they're not a learner," Sweet said.

This wouldn't be the first time Sweet has talked about her expectations for new hires at Accenture. The consulting firm said on its website that it employs around 799,000 employees and operates in more than 200 cities.

The former lawyer said in a 2019 interview with The New York Times that she looks for candidates who demonstrate two main traits.

"The first is curiosity. The new normal is continuous learning, and we look for people who demonstrate lots of different interests and really demonstrate curiosity," Sweet told The Times.

"The second piece is leadership. I don't care what level you are, there is the need to offer straight talk when you're working with clients. You have to have the courage to deliver tough messages," she added.

Representatives for Sweet at Accenture did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Sweet isn't the only C-suite executive who places a premium on learning.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that students should devote their time to learning and reading, and less time on social-media platforms like TikTok and Facebook.

Dimon was speaking at the Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy's annual Financial Markets Quality Conference in September when he was asked if he had any advice for the students in attendance.

"My advice to students: Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. If you're Democrat, read the Republican opinion, the good ones. If you're Republican, read the Democrat ones," Dimon said.

"Read history books. You can't make it up. Nelson Mandela, Abe Lincoln, Sam Walton. You only learn by reading and talking to other people. There's no other way," he continued.

• Behrouz Esbati, an Iranian general, partially blamed Russia for the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria.
• In a speech in Tehran, Esbati accused Russia of bombing an empty desert instead of hitting Syrian rebels.
• While difficult to verify, his frank remarks are notable since Russia is one of Iran's strongest allies.

A top Iranian general has accused Russia of lying to Tehran by saying its jets were attacking Syrian rebels while they were instead bombing the open desert.

In a rare break from Iran's diplomatic line on Syria, Brig. Gen. Behrouz Esbati partially blamed Moscow for the fall of Bashar Assad's government during a speech at a mosque in Tehran.

An audio recording of the speech was published on Tuesday by Abdullah Abdi, a Geneva-based journalist who reports on Iran.

"We were defeated, and defeated very badly, we took a very big blow and it's been very difficult," Esbati said of Assad's fall, per a translation by The New York Times.

In the recording, Esbati, a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Russia told Tehran it was bombing the headquarters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group spearheading Assad's ousting.

But Moscow's forces were instead "targeting deserts," Esbati said.

Esbati further accused Russia of turning off radars when Israel launched strikes on Syria in 2024, allowing Tel Aviv's forces to attack more effectively.

The general also largely blamed internal corruption for Assad's fall, saying that bribery was rife among Syria's top-ranking officials and generals.

He added that relations between Damascus and Tehran grew tense over the last year because Assad refused an Iranian request to facilitate attacks on Israel through Syria.

Business Insider could not independently verify Esbati's claims. But they represent an exceptionally frank assessment among Iran's top ranks of its position in Syria, where a new political leadership is still coalescing in Assad's absence.

Iran officially held a much milder tone as Assad's government fell, saying at the time that the fate of Syria would be up to its people and that it "will spare no effort to help establish security and stability in Syria."

Assad, a longtime ally of both Iran and Russia, fled Damascus in early December as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces stormed toward the capital from the northwest. International observers believe that the rebel advance largely happened as Moscow, a key source of military strength for Assad, found its resources stretched thin by the war in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Esbati's remarks came as a former senior aide to Assad told the Saudi government-owned outlet Al Arabiya on Monday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had stalled military assistance for Syria.

Kamel Saqr said that Assad had asked Putin to personally approve airlifting military aid to Syria — and that the Russian leader agreed.

The aid was to be transported via Iranian aircraft, but Saqr said that Tehran told Assad it did not receive any requests from Moscow.

Assad then asked Moscow about this, but "no answer came," Saqr said.

Assad's fall, which neither Moscow nor Tehran stepped up to prevent, has brought deep implications for Russia's forces in the region. Moscow had previously relied on an airbase and a naval base, which it maintained under a deal with Assad, for its operations in Africa and the Mediterranean.

It's unclear if Russia will eventually be able to continue maintaining those two facilities, but reports show that it's preparing to move much of its equipment out of Syria. On January 3, Ukraine said that Moscow was planning to move its assets to Libya.

• The Los Angeles wildfires could cause up to $57 billion in damage, Accuweather estimates.
• The fires are destroying expensive real estate in Santa Monica, Malibu, and other neighborhoods.
• Insurance providers like State Farm pulled new coverage before the fire due to catastrophe risks.

The Los Angeles wildfires could cost between $52 billion and $57 billion in damages and economic losses, according to a preliminary estimate from weather forecasting service Accuweather.

The wildfires tearing through Santa Monica and Malibu, among other areas, are destroying some of the country's most expensive real estate, where median home values exceed $2 million, Accuweather said in a release on Wednesday. Wildfires in the Los Angeles Pacific Palisades neighborhood have destroyed the homes of celebrities including Paris Hilton and have evacuated actors Mark Hamill and James Woods.

The cost estimates include damages to homes and businesses, as well as negative impacts on tourism and health from smoke inhalation, Accuweather said. Property that has not been destroyed by the fire may also have smoke or water damage.

The company said that the estimate is early and may change as some areas have not reported damages and injuries.

"This is likely to end up being one of the most expensive wildfires in modern California history and it will also be one of the most damaging in terms of the numbers of structures that have been destroyed,"Jonathan Porter, AccuWeather's chief meteorologist, said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the company declined further comment.

The last major disaster was the Camp Fire, which destroyed Paradise, Califronia in 2018. German insurance company Munich Re estimated it caused overall losses of $16.5 billion.

"These fires will likely be the costliest in history, not the deadliest, and that is the only silver lining right now," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA told LAList.

Five people have been reported dead and 100,000 were told to evacuate.

Health costs could stem from the inhalation of hazardous air from the burning of homes, vehicles, chemicals, and fuels.

Property insurance providers, such as State Farm, pulled new California homeowners' insurance services in 2023, citing risks from catastrophes. Last year, the company said it would end coverage for 72,000 homes and apartments in the state for the same reason.

Five separate fires hit the city and its region in recent days. High winds have hampered emergency services' responses.

• Microsoft Azure is Microsoft's vaunted cloud computing platform.
• Azure offers a range of cloud-based solutions for the creation and management of applications.
• Most Azure products use a pay-as-you-go pricing model, but some products can also be used for free.

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that offers a range of cloud-based computing, networking, and data storage services.

Microsoft Azure boasts "solutions that enable organizations to build, deploy, and manage applications and services through Microsoft's global network of data centers."

Crystal clear, right? Don't worry, we'll break it down for you, but first just to clarify, Azure is indeed a computing platform, not just a storage platform.

In short, Azure lets you do things that require much more processing power than your computer has because the computing is done far from your desk, couch, or that coffee shop table. Now for the longer view.

When was Microsoft Azure created?

The same company that brought you PowerPoint, Word, and more, launched Azure as Windows Azure back in 2010, rebranding it to Microsoft Azure in 2014. With the launch of the company's AI interface Copilot in 2023, using Azure became easier than ever, as the smart chat interface can help less tech-savvy users take advantage of Azure's many uses.

Azure is now used by a plethora of small and large businesses and organizations. Indeed, Azure has become such a valuable platform and suite of services that Microsoft offers certifications in dozens of different Azure features and softwares to help IT professionals, developers, and engineers learn the intricacies.

Azure has become a critical component of Microsoft's business model since its 2010 launch, with executives often boasting of Azure's revenues in earnings calls.

However, Azure has not been immune from the turbulence within the tech industry in the post-pandemic era. Large rounds of Microsoft layoffs tend to be a "when" and not an "if" sort of thing, so it was hardly a great shock when hundreds of Azure employees were laid off in early summer 2024.

The large round of job cuts specifically targeted workers in the Azure for Operators and Mission Engineering departments, and were part of a pattern of layoffs begun in 2023 and expanded in 2024.

Microsoft Azure Services

Azure allows you to use an already immense and ever-growing catalog of services; it would be way too heavy of a lift to cover them all here, so we will showcase a few of the things you can do via this cloud computing platform.

Azure AI Search: This service allows you to conduct advanced, tailored smart searches and build up a vectored database of relevant retrieved information.

Azure Open Datasets: Host and share curated datasets that are honed and refined through machine learning, growing more accurate over time.

Speaker Recognition: This service allows for the ever-improving recognition of speech and integrates spoken words into programming, documents, and more. It is multilingual, of course.

Azure AI Content Safety: Azure can automatically watch out for images, text, and video content that might be inappropriate — or simply irrelevant — and filter them out of your content.

How much does Microsoft Azure cost?

Most Azure products use a pay-as-you-go model rather than fixed rates for different products or a flat monthly fee. Your costs could be as low as pennies each month for basic cloud storage or the managed hosting of a simple website or well into the thousands of dollars for enterprise-level use of myriad AI-enabled products.

Many Azure products can also be used for free. New users can enjoy 25 services free for 12 months, while others remain free at all times to all people. These include API management, the Azure AI Bot Service, and the Azure AI Metrics Advisor, to name just a few.

Microsoft Azure vs. AWS and Google Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the heavy hitter in cloud computing and storage, arguably leading the way in networking, cloud storage, mobile development, and cybersecurity.

Google Cloud Platform GCP is big on data analysis and arguably allows the easiest user experience and more seamless interaction with products created by other brands.

Microsoft Azure, for its part, provides vastly scalable and efficient software products, and it's usually cheaper than Google Cloud or AWS.

• The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance have struck a deal.
• This deal averted a potential strike involving thousands of dockworkers.
• The strike would have crippled shipping lines along the East and Gulf Coasts.

The International Longshoremen's Association and the US Maritime Alliance said Wednesday they had agreed on a new six-year master contract.

The two sides said in a joint statement that this will allow them to avoid any work stoppages on January 15.

"This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports — making them safer and more efficient, and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong," the joint statement read, adding that the deal was a "win-win agreement."

The ILA and USMX said they would get their members to review and approve the agreement before it is released publicly. For now, both sides will continue to operate under their current contract until the terms of the new agreement are ratified via a vote.

The strike would have potentially paralyzed shipping lines along the East and Gulf Coasts.

Details of the agreement were not made public, but the joint statement said dockworkers received some protections against having their jobs replaced by automation, which was one of the union's key concerns.

The ILA had the support of President-elect Donald Trump, who said in a Truth Social post in December that the amount of money saved by automation on US docks was "nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen."

Members of the ILA previously went on strike in October for three days. The strike ended when the union secured higher pay, while other contract negotiations continued, and members returned to work. That agreement provided a 62% pay increase over the next six years.

• Zou Qiang, 39, is the founder of a tailoring brand based in Shanghai.
• She met her partner 11 years ago and, like an increasing number of women in China, doesn't plan to get married or have kids.
• Part of her decision is due to money and time, but it's also a personal choice.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Zou Qiang, a fashion designer and owner of a tailoring brand in Shanghai. The following has been translated and edited for length and clarity.

My parents divorced when I was young, and I didn't have a very happy childhood. After I grew up, I wanted to do things that made me happy. I don't want to give to other people; I just want to make up for that time. Maybe that's selfish, but I've thought that for a long time.

I met my partner on an online dating forum. We were both based in Shanghai and, after a few months of chatting online, met up in person for Japanese food.

After a couple of months of dating, we decided to make it official. We shared the same perspective on what a relationship should be — monogamous best friends who are attracted to each other.

We've been together for 11 years now. We rent a two-bedroom apartment in the center of Shanghai, where we pay 10,000 yuan a month in rent, or $1,370. It's relatively cheap as we rented it unfurnished.

My mom often gets asked by her friends why I don't have children and why she doesn't put pressure on me. She points out to them that they have to look after their grandchildren every day and how it's aged them while she can go traveling. She's not the typical Chinese mother.

Many of my friends' parents believe that since they raised their children, they are entitled to be repaid with grandchildren or to be cared for in their old age. They see their kids as investments, not as individuals. My mom just wants me to be happy, and she says that makes her happy.

My partner's parents have been asking if we'll have children. They live in a village about 140 miles from Shanghai and have told my partner that it's embarrassing not to have grandchildren. But so far, I haven't changed my mind. Sometimes, parental pressure gets to my partner, and we discuss having kids, but I'd be the one carrying the baby, and I don't want to.

I have no interest in being a mom

Two other concerns I have about having a child are finances and who would take care of them. Having a child costs a lot of money. In Shanghai, I would need around 200,000 yuan, or $27,400, spare for hospital costs and basic necessities the first year. Also, to keep up with my job, I might need to hire a nanny.

My partner works in sales for a tech company, commutes to the office, and makes more than me. As I work from home and run my own business, I know I would be the one responsible for taking care of the child.

I've noticed that after a few of my friends had kids, they often started complaining to me. They tell me what hard work it is and about conflicts with their partners. None of them put pressure on me to have a child. About half of my friends have kids. The other half don't want kids or haven't found a suitable partner.

My fashion line is my baby

I started my own brand 12 years ago, and it's like my child. I even feel like every piece of clothing I make is like a child. When I'm designing, I start with an idea, look for the fabric, and find the buttons. After it's made, I still think about and care about each piece.

This winter, I designed a series inspired by a story about my partner's father. He rarely came home, but when he did for Lunar New Year, he'd pull money from a pocket sewn inside his coat. Each coat in my series features a unique inner pocket, meant to hold a piece of your childhood while keeping an adult appearance.

I design around four seasons of clothing a year for my brand, Duet, and also make individual pieces. I price them from 600 yuan for a pair of trousers to 3,000 yuan for a dress or coat. Everything is tailored. My clients tend to be women aged 35 to 50. My brand combines traditional Chinese elements with more modern Western styles.

I get to do what I like

Before I started my brand, I studied marketing and international tourism. I worked in human resources and then as a Mandarin teacher. When I had to go to an office, I couldn't sit still, and I felt bored. I'm doing work that I like now, and I can do whatever I want.

I eat out at least five times a week and travel several times a year. The last trip I took was to Russia with my partner, and we spent around 20,000 yuan on bear watching, climbing a volcano, and whale watching. We both like snow-capped mountains, so we travel to mountainous places every year. I would find it hard to give up my lifestyle to have a kid.

Despite China's efforts to encourage childbearing — including monetary rewards and subsidies — I come across more and more people who, like me, are not interested in having kids. In the past, people would think that you were weird if you didn't have children.

There are more and more weird people now, so it's become a normal thing.

Do you have a personal essay about life as a millennial in China that you want to share? Get in touch with the editor at [email protected].

• NASA scrapped its $11 billion plan to return samples from Mars to Earth by 2040.
• It now has not one but two new options to choose from — both are faster and cheaper.
• The samples could return as soon as 2035 and may contain the first-ever signs of ancient alien life.

The Perseverance rover is building up a stash of rocks on Mars that could contain the first-ever signs of alien life, but NASA is scrambling to figure out how it will bring them back to Earth for analysis.

NASA had a plan but it got "out of control," in the words of the agency's administrator, Bill Nelson. After a series of delays, the cost ballooned to $11 billion and the samples wouldn't be landing on Earth until 2040.

So Nelson scrapped that plan in April and called for new proposals from outside and within NASA.

After months of assessment, on Tuesday, Nelson announced that "the wizards at NASA" had come up with a new plan, which could bring the Mars rocks to Earth as early as 2035 for as cheap as $5.8 billion.

"We want to have the quickest, cheapest way to get these 30 samples back," Nelson said during a NASA presser on Tuesday.

For that to work, he said the incoming Trump administration will need to get on board.

"This is going to be a function of the new administration in order to fund this," Nelson said. "And it's an appropriation that has to start right now, fiscal year '25."

The search for alien life on Mars

NASA is not looking for active alien life but rather fossilized hints of long-gone microbial life.

The $2.4 billion Perseverance rover has spent the last four years exploring Jezero Crater, which was a lake billions of years ago. If microbes ever lived on Mars, this is the ideal spot to search for evidence of them.

In fact, in July, Perseverance stumbled on a rock in Jezero Crater that contained some of the strongest potential evidence of ancient alien life to date.

One of the rock's outstanding features was tiny white "leopard spots" that could suggest the presence of chemical reactions similar to those associated with microbial life on Earth.

It's still uncertain whether this is truly a sign of alien microbes. There could be non-biological explanations for the spots. To check, NASA needs to get that rock here to Earth for study in laboratories.

NASA's new plan

Bringing Perseverance's Mars samples to Earth will be complicated.

NASA must launch a mission that collects the samples from the Martian surface and launches them into Mars' orbit, where they must meet up with a European spacecraft designed to grab them and carry them back to Earth.

To make things simpler and reduce costs, NASA focused on how it would drop that mission to the Martian surface.

In order to maximize the chance of the sample return mission moving forward, NASA chose not one but two options to pursue.

The first option would involve using existing technology that's previously landed on Mars. That's a sky crane, similar to the ones that helped lower NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on Mars' surface.

The second option involves working with existing commercial partners, like SpaceX and Blue Origin. In that scenario, NASA would use new commercial technology, untested on Mars, like a heavy lander, Nelson said.

Both paths would cost around $6 or $7 billion and deliver the samples to Earth before 2040, NASA determined.

Nelson said he expects NASA to choose one of those paths forward in 2026 since the engineering work required to fully understand each option will take about a year.

He added that NASA will need $300 million to do that work in fiscal year 2025. Trump would have to include that expense in his budget proposal, and Congress would have to approve it.

"And if they want to get this thing back on a direct return earlier, they're going to have to put more money into it, even more than $300 million in fiscal year 25. And that would be the case every year going forward," Nelson said.

As part of the transition to the new Trump administration, Nelson will likely be handing the agency over to Trump-nominee Jared Isaacman, a billionaire and two-time SpaceX astronaut.

After Trump nominated him for NASA Administrator, Isaacman wrote in a post on X that "Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars."

His position on the Mars Sample Return mission is unclear. Nelson said he had not spoken with Isaacman about it.

• The Palisades and Eaton fires are devastating parts of Los Angeles, destroying entire communities.
• Photos offer a glimpse at the scale of destruction that occurred in just a day and a half.
• The situation is still ongoing and dangerous, with evacuation orders in many areas.

The Palisades and Eaton fires are ripping through parts of Los Angeles and causing mass destruction.

Firefighters are still struggling to contain the blazes, which grew rapidly and have continued for more than 24 hours.

The fires have destroyed at least 1,000 homes. Five people are reported dead. These counts are preliminary, as the situation is still dynamic.

It's difficult to grasp the scale of these fires, but emerging photos paint a grim picture.

The massive Palisades and Eaton fires ripping through Los Angeles show how quickly brush fires can escalate under dry, windy conditions.

More than 70,000 people were under evacuation orders on Wednesday afternoon. Officials have warned that people in many other surrounding regions should prepare to leave their homes at a moment's notice.

Pat Durland, a wildfire-mitigation specialist and instructor for the National Fire Protection Association with 30 years of federal wildfire management experience, told Business Insider that if he lived in the area, he would leave before evacuation orders even hit his home.

"I would have left and gone to the beach or gotten a hotel," he said.

A giant smoke plume was rising over Santa Monica within an hour of the Palisades Fire igniting Tuesday morning.

UC San Diego's ALERTCalifornia camera network captured it from the other side of Santa Monica. At that time the fire covered about 200 acres.

So many people had to evacuate that Palisades Drive was gridlocked.

Many people abandoned their cars and fled on foot.

Since then, the Palisades Fire has burned through more than 15,800 acres. This was the area with evacuation zones early Wednesday afternoon.

That's where the acreage stood at 2:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday. Throughout the morning it was increasing hour by hour.

The most up-to-date evacuation orders and warnings are available through CalFire.

Photos are emerging from areas where the Palisades Fire has burned its way through.

The Eaton Fire in nearby Pasadena also rapidly ballooned overnight and Wednesday morning.

The Eaton Fire covered 10,600 acres as of 1 p.m. PT on Wednesday.

Images from that area show a similar situation to Pacific Palisades: frantic evacuations and destroyed homes.

The smoke from the fires filled the Los Angeles area, darkening the skies and causing unhealthy air quality.

A powerful windstorm spread the flames quickly, sending embers flying and igniting new spots, even jumping across roads.

Hurricane-force winds peaked overnight and Wednesday morning, and firefighters were unable to contain the blazes.

"Despite the efforts we put in with well-trained firefighters and equipment and aircraft, the wind and the weather still are ruling these situations," Durland said of major, fast-moving fires like these.

Another ALERTCalifornia camera captured the rising smoke from a ridge on the other side of the fire about an hour after it started.

This was the view from the same trailhead Tuesday night. This camera has since gone offline.

Bone-dry vegetation provided abundant fire fuel due to a phenomenon called weather whiplash.

The last two winters in Southern California have been quite wet, even causing flooding. That led to an explosion of grasses and shrubs, nearly twice as much as a normal season, according to the UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.

However, this winter has been different. Months without precipitation have dried out all that vegetation, blanketing the LA hillsides with fire fuel.

Grasses and shrubs help spread the fire, but it's "human fuels" that ignite homes, Durland said.

"It's bark mulch, it's ornamental grasses, it's structures that are readily flammable," Durland said.

"This is an urban fire. We're burning urban fuels," he added.

That means that cities and homeowners can do something about it. More fire-resistant landscaping and construction can help protect homes from future firestorms like this.

There are always houses that survive wildfires, Durland said, and everyone can learn from that.

It helps to build homes with ample space between them and maintain a perimeter of at least five feet that's totally free of dry or flammable vegetation or mulch.

Homeowners can also keep their roofs and gutters clear and remove anything flammable from underneath porches and decks.

The Palisades were full of multi-million-dollar homes, which means this could be the costliest fire in US history, Swain said.

According to a preliminary estimate from JP Morgan, insured losses alone could amount to $10 billion.

The Eaton fire, burning in Pasadena and Altadena, was at 0% containment as of Wednesday afternoon.

• Multiple blazes raged out of control in Los Angeles and Southern California Wednesday.
• Business Insider spoke with three residents about their experiences fleeing the scene.
• They called it terrifying, devastating, and apocalyptic.

The fires storming through Los Angeles and Southern California have left over 1,000 structures burned, at least two people dead, and tens of thousands of others displaced as they heed mandatory evacuation orders.

Business Insider spoke with three people who encountered the devastating impacts of the blaze firsthand. Their words have been edited for length and clarity.

'I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go'

Alisa Wolfson, a journalist, lives in the Palisades with her husband and two daughters, ages 7 and 10. They evacuated to a friend's home and then the Beverly Hilton before losing their home in the fire.

My husband and I both grew up in the Palisades and bought our home there in 2018. My mom's still there, too. We love our neighborhood, and there's a strong sense of community. There's a reason that it's impossible to buy in and that Bill Hader lives on our street. It was like a storybook — too good to be true.

I was sitting in my home office Tuesday looking out the window when a girlfriend called me to see if I had heard that there was a fire nearby. I looked up and saw a little thing of smoke, but I thought we'd be fine. Within 10 minutes, it grew beyond what I ever thought was possible. I went out to the street and could see that the nearby hillside was engulfed in flames. I called my husband at work and said, "You need to come home right now."

Very quickly, it turned into all of our neighbors on the street throwing things in their cars and driving off. It was terrifying. I grabbed our dog Gus and just as I was leaving, my neighbor across the street called and asked me to pick up her dog since she wasn't home. I went back into my house, got her key, and put her dog in the car.

A friend whose daughter goes to the same school as mine picked our girls up, and we met at her house, which was just outside the evacuation zone. We put all the dogs in the yard, and the girls played with their friends. I thought we'd just camp out for a few hours — but then things started to look terrible really quickly. Around 1 p.m., my husband borrowed our friend's e-bike and rode to our house to see if there was anything he could do and to grab a few things left behind. He saw tons of smoke, firemen, and the hillsides burning — it was really wild.

We stayed at our friend's house until they lost power, then checked into the Beverly Hilton. It was like all of West Los Angeles had descended upon the hotel — it took 40 minutes just to pull into the driveway.

We paid $560 for the night for a room with two beds, which doesn't seem outrageous to me. They've been wonderful here. They greeted everyone in line, handing out water bottles. Henry Winkler was checking in ahead of me, and Cisco Adler's here. It's like a real LA tale. My mom is staying in the room next door with her dog — the number of dogs in this hotel right now is insane.

The front page of the LA Times featured a house on our street in flames. The images looked apocalyptic. Our daughters kept asking, "Is our house safe?" but we weren't sure.

This afternoon, a neighbor who rode his bike into the neighborhood confirmed it: We've lost our home. Our neighbors have been texting that they have too. I'm utterly devastated and in a state of shock, barely functional. I haven't been able to break the news to my daughters yet. I don't know where everyone in our community is going to go. Our entire town appears to be gone.

This isn't something that should be happening. People need to elect local officials who really care about the climate and do what's needed to prepare for or prevent events like this. Last night, my husband asked me, "Where do you think you want to spend the rest of your life?" We have family in Connecticut, and last night it crossed my mind — do we just bail and start fresh? I don't know. For now, we're just taking it hour by hour.

'It was like the apocalypse, in a way''

Katie Cassidy, an actor and close friend of Alisa Wolfson, lives three minutes away from Wolfson in the Palisades. On Tuesday afternoon, she and her significant other evacuated to her parents' home in another part of Los Angeles.

My significant other, who is Canadian, woke up around 10:15 a.m. and said, "Oh my gosh, this weather is so beautiful, and the wind is so nice," and I was like, "Oh no, wind is not good." I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so I'm aware of fires and the Santa Ana winds, especially around this time of year.

I went outside and smelled smoke. My close friend Alisa lives up the street, so I called to check on her and her family. Moments later, firetruck after firetruck and helicopter after helicopter passed by. My gut knew that this was not good. I started to pack away our things and valuables.

We kept our eye on the situation. There were more helicopters and more smoke. The sky turned darker and red, and we started seeing ashes.

Around noon, my partner looked out the window and said, "Babe, there are people running down the streets with their suitcases and bags and kids and strollers." We threw everything in the car, brought our cats and dog, and left.

Luckily, my parents live in another part of Los Angeles, so we came here. We later saw on the news that the people we saw running down the street were people who'd abandoned their cars on Sunset Boulevard because they were stuck in traffic. It was really terrifying and devastating to see; it was like the apocalypse, in a way.

I wish I would've left earlier. I was trying to get a better gauge of what was going on and trying not to panic. People need to be aware and not be stubborn and stay in their homes thinking it'll never happen because it will; it's happened to me. I don't know if our house is still there, but if it isn't, it'll be the second home I've lived in that has burned to the ground in LA; my childhood home in Bell Canyon burned down in a fire some years after we sold it.

Even though my parents' place is safe at the moment, the winds can change. Our bags are packed, and we're ready to move with our fur babies when and if need be. At the end of the day, we're just grateful to be alive.

'There's only so much you can take'

Adam Wood, a 45-year-old film producer, director, and editor, lives in North Hollywood and helped his friend evacuate from Pasadena early Wednesday morning.

Everyone was aware there was a fire building in Altadena around late Tuesday afternoon, and we've had issues up there before. My friend has an urban farm up there that houses rabbits, pigs, and chickens. My thoughts and concerns were with him — if he had to get out, he'd need as much help as possible. I went over there in the early evening Tuesday to help.

At first, evacuators didn't think the fire would come down toward where we were, but at around 2:45 in the morning, we got the evacuation order through an alert on the phone. Then a fire official knocked on the door, and we had about half an hour to pack as much as we could, including a young pig, into the back of my friend's Tesla.

Thankfully, we got everyone out, and all the animals got out OK. My friend had already packed his documents and anything of physical value in his wife's SUV and his Tesla. The chickens were huddled together in one cage, and the rabbits were also hutched in one of the cars.

His wife and two kids were also there, and they all took a bunch of personal items, a suitcase each, and some computers. Of course, there's only so much you can take. The cars were jam-packed, but much of their personal property had to be left behind.

As we drove away, it was pretty hectic given that it was a rush and the whole neighborhood was also leaving at the same time. Thankfully it wasn't replicable to the scenes in the Palisades where people abandoned their cars. But the glow of the fires was visible on the horizon, and smoke filled the air.

He lives in a very nice house, and God knows if that still exists.

Now, there is the Woodley fire, which is closer to my home, so we are keeping a watchful eye on my place and hoping we won't need to evacuate ourselves.

• Co-living company Common is accused of negligence in a new lawsuit.
• The lawsuit alleges Common housed a man with a "dangerous" roommate who was later charged with murder.
• Common disregarded safety concerns and requests for relocation, the lawsuit said.

Common, once North America's largest co-living operator, has been accused of housing a recent college grad with a "dangerous" roommate who was later charged in the serial killings of four people— and ignoring the grad's repeated pleas for help as he feared for his life.

In a 15-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, William Castagna said that Common breached its duty to him when the company placed him with a roommate it knew to be "dangerous and unfit" and "ignored and denied" his requests to be relocated after he raised concerns about his safety.

"This is a case about a co-living real estate company that willfully disregarded its most fundamental role — to secure safe homes for its paying consumers," the lawsuit said.

Common, a New York-headquartered startup, was founded in 2015 and offered residents private furnished bedrooms in shared apartments. The company, which once operated about 7,000 units across more than a dozen US cities, filed for bankruptcy in late May 2024. At that time, Common announced that it would cease operations because it could not pay its debts.

Castagna said in his lawsuit that his housing ordeal began less than a year before the company filed for bankruptcy.

The lawsuit said Castagna's concerns over his housing situation started on his move-in day in August 2023 after Common placed him in a shared four-bedroom unit at the Los Angeles apartment complex, Common Elmwood, where Jerrid Powell had already been living.

Powell, 34, was arrested and charged later that year with four counts of murder in connection with the shooting deaths of three sleeping homeless men in Los Angeles and the fatal shooting of another man at a home in California's San Dimas. Prosecutors say the killings spanned a four-day period in November 2023. Powell, who remains held without bail pretrial at a Los Angeles jail, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"At the time Common offered a lease to Mr. Castagna, Common was already aware that Mr. Powell had exhibited abnormal and alarming behavior and had not paid his rent for over a year," the lawsuit said.

Representatives for Common and attorneys for Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Business Insider for this story.

Castagna alleges months of living in fear

Castagna said in his lawsuit that during his roughly three months of living with Powell, his roommate displayed "erratic behavior," repeatedly made threats, including one to "slap the shit out of him," and stole his food. The lawsuit also alleges the torture of a dog inside the apartment.

In the lawsuit, which only names Common as a defendant, Castagna accuses the company of negligence and a breach of warranty of habitability.

"Common made absolutely no effort to try to investigate the complaints, to do any sort of safety assessment," an attorney for Castagna, Carrie Goldberg, founder of the Brooklyn-based law firm C.A. Goldberg, told BI.

Castagna said in the suit that Common forced him to "endure an untenable and unsafe living situation that continued to escalate in severity."

On move-in day, Powell "forcefully asserted" that he owned Common and later claimed he owned Nike and BMW, the suit said. Powell also claimed to be God, Castagna alleges in the lawsuit. With shards of glass scattered around the floor, it appeared that a mirror had been punched, shattering it, the lawsuit said.

A note was later posted on the apartment's front door stating that Powell owed nearly $18,000 in back rent, the lawsuit said.

Common tried to profit from Castagna's desperation, lawsuit said

Shortly after moving in, Castagna began contacting Common to raise his concerns about his living situation, the lawsuit said. He contacted the company for help on how to proceed with his "seemingly unstable and unpredictable roommate," but received no response, the lawsuit alleges.

Within a week of moving in, the lawsuit said Castagna contacted Common a second time, explaining that he felt unsafe within the apartment, but no one responded to him until days later.

In that email to Common, the lawsuit said Castagna reported that Powell was playing "extremely loud and disruptive" YouTube videos of goats in the middle of the night. Castagna said in the suit that when he asked Powell to lower the volume, Powell said, "What are you going to do about it?"

Castagna said in the email that he feared for his physical wellbeing, the lawsuit said.

Following repeated emails from Castagna asking to transfer units, the lawsuit said Common eventually told him there would be an up-to-$500 transfer fee and an additional security deposit.

Castagna had moved to Los Angeles for a new job at a biosafety lab in a children's hospital and did not have disposable money to pay additional fees or a higher rent, the lawsuit states.

The company treated the situation as "nonurgent" and told Castagna there would be a 30-day waiting period before a transfer would be possible, the lawsuit said.

In the meantime, the lawsuit states that Powell "became increasingly menacing."

LAPD called after 'piercing sounds of animal distress'

On November 24, 2023 — just days before Powell's arrest — the lawsuit alleges that Castagna overheard "piercing sounds of animal distress" coming from Powell's bedroom, prompting Castagna to call the Los Angeles Police Department. LAPD records obtained by BI show that a 911 call was made on that date to the Common Elmwood complex for a report of animal cruelty.

The lawsuit said the LAPD knocked on the apartment door, which Powell answered, and police could not gain access.

"Mr. Castagna later saw an injured dog in the common area of the apartment with a prolapsed anus," the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit said Castagna contacted Common about the matter, and Common emailed Castagna the following week and said, "These allegations about Jerrid's treatment of the dog are false. There is no further action for our team to take."

Powell was arrested in connection with the killings on November 30, 2023, about six months before Common filed for bankruptcy.

The lawsuit said that it was not until LAPD officers broke through the apartment door on the day of Powell's arrest and briefly handcuffed Castagna "simply because he was living in the same apartment as an accused multiple-murderer and thus treated as an accomplice" that he was "freed from this endless loop of disturbance and fear."

"However, the emotional impact and psychological scars still remain very present and real in Mr. Castagna's life to this day," the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages and a trial by jury, said.

• Thousands of LA County homeowners face a volatile home insurance market.
• In recent months, State Farm — California's largest home insurer — dropped thousands of policyholders.
• Some have turned to the state's insurer of last resort.

Thousands of California homeowners at risk due to the Los Angeles County fires find themselves exposed in a volatile home insurance market.

Last year, California's largest home insurer — State Farm — canceled thousands of policyholders' plans across LA County, including the Pacific Palisades and parts of Santa Monica and Calabasas, that are under evacuation orders and warnings as the fires rage. Nearly 70% of State Farm policyholders in the affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood were dropped by the company beginning in July 2024.

The following table shows the ZIP codes that were under evacuation orders or warnings as of Wednesday afternoon that had the highest rate of nonrenewals from State Farm last year.

Several other major insurers have dramatically restricted their coverage across California in recent years, citing surging costs from more frequent and intense disasters coupled with rising home repair costs and inflation.

Thousands of LA County homeowners who haven't been able to obtain private insurance have joined the ranks of those covered by the state's insurer of last resort — the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plan. The FAIR plan is regulated by the state government and backed by a slew of private insurance companies. But its premiums tend to be much higher than typical private insurers and its coverage is often more restricted.

This table shows how FAIR insurance coverage has changed in the above ZIP codes between 2023 and 2024.

As private insurers have stepped back in recent years, the number of residential FAIR plan holders across the state jumped 123% between September 2020 and September 2024. The FAIR plan's dollar-value residential exposure surged from $271 billion in September 2023 to $431 billion in September 2024.

It's not clear how many homeowners impacted by the LA County fires are uninsured. Most mortgage lenders require homeowners to purchase insurance, and some require additional insurance for specific disasters, including fires.

Some major home insurers, including Farmer's — the second-largest in California — have recently begun to expand their offerings in California after the state announced new regulations requiring insurers to cover a certain percentage of homes vulnerable to fire in exchange for allowing them to use future risk modeling to calculate premiums.

In 2023, California had the fourth-highest home insurance nonrenewal rate among states, according to a recently released Senate Budget Committee report. Six of the top 10 counties in the country with the highest rates of nonrenewals by large home insurers in 2023 were in California, the report found.

But rising home insurance costs and rates of dropped policies are nationwide problems. The National Bureau of Economic Research recently reported that average home insurance premiums spiked by 13%, adjusted for inflation, between 2020 and 2023. The share of home insurance policies from large insurers that weren't renewed increased last year in 46 states, the Senate report found. And more than 200 US counties saw their non-renewal rates spike threefold between 2018 and 2023.

Areas more vulnerable to disasters, including flooding, wildfires, and hurricanes, have seen the biggest spikes in premiums and dropped policies.

"Our number one priority right now is the safety of our customers, agents and employees impacted by the fires and assisting our customers in the midst of this tragedy," a representative for State Farm told BI.

A representative from the California FAIR Plan Association also told BI in a statement that the insurer is "prepared" to handle the wildfire impact, and "has payment mechanisms in place, including reinsurance, to ensure all covered claims are paid."

Representatives for Farmer's did not respond for comment.

Have you been dropped by your home insurance company or are you facing a steep premium increase? Email this reporter to share your story: [email protected].

• In the past week, Trump has fought in four courthouses to block Friday's hush-money sentencing.
• Safeguarding his golf resort liquor licenses may be one reason he's fighting sentencing so hard.
• Sentencing will let NJ officials resume last year's efforts to revoke his licenses in the state.

Over the past week, lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump have fought in four courthouses to make his Friday hush-money sentencing date disappear — and safeguarding the liquor licenses at his three New Jersey golf courses may be one reason for that effort.

Little will change for Trump, practically speaking, if his sentencing proceeds in a Manhattan courtroom despite an 11th-hour US Supreme Court challenge filed by his lawyers. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has said he's inclined to hand down a zero-punishment sentence. Trump won't need to attend in person.

However, the instant he becomes a sentenced felon, Trump will have received what Jersey liquor officials consider to be a final judgment of conviction.

That finality would allow the state's Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control to resume last year's efforts to revoke two of his licenses, an ABC spokesperson told Business Insider on Wednesday.

The ABC began these efforts soon after Trump's May 30 conviction, by pulling the liquor licenses for two of Trump's Jersey clubs — the Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck, and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.

In anticipation of a hush-money sentencing initially set for July 11, 2024 the ABC gave the two clubs interim permits to continue selling and serving alcohol and set a July 19, 2024 date for a Trenton liquor license revocation hearing.

As Trump continued to win sentencing delays over the past half year, the ABC, run by Jersey's attorney general's office, has kept those revocation hearing plans on ice.

Meanwhile, the interim licenses at the Colts Neck and Bedminster clubs have remained in effect, "allowing the facilities to continue serving alcohol until a hearing on the renewals is held," the spokesperson told BI Wednesday.

Trump's third Jersey club is the Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia, located 45 minutes from that city, in Pine Hill. Last June, the Borough of Pine Hill renewed the club's license for one year, the ABC spokesperson said. Pine Hill officials did not immediately respond when asked Wednesday for their plans regarding that license.

All three licenses are in Donald Trump Jr.'s name, not his father's, but the ABC said last summer that the president-elect is the sole financial beneficiary of those licenses, a finding officials continued to stand by on Wednesday.

"There has been no change to ABC's review that indicates that the president-elect maintains a direct beneficial interest in the three liquor licenses through the receipt of revenues and profits from them, as the sole beneficiary of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust," the spokesperson said.

State law requires revocation if anyone who either holds or is the primary beneficiary of a liquor license commits a crime of moral turpitude.

"In New Jersey, felony convictions are universally considered to be crimes of moral turpitude," said attorney Peter M. Rhodes, partner at the Haddonfield-based law firm Cahill Wilinsky Rhodes & Joyce.

"Obviously, it's a fairly unusual circumstance when a president-elect is the felon," added Rhodes, whose firm has served for 50 years as counsel to the New Jersey Licensed Beverage Association.

The three Jersey golf club licenses are set to expire on June 30. Once Trump's felony status is finalized at sentencing, the ABC can immediately set a hearing, at which Trump's side would have the burden of proving he remains qualified to profit from the licenses.

A spokesperson for The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What about his licenses in other states?

Trump golf resorts in other states also have liquor licenses, but officials in those states have not signaled they are in jeopardy as a result of the president-elect's felony conviction.

Regulators with the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control in California, home to the Trump National Golf Club outside Los Angeles, "are not aware of his having any direct or indirect beneficial interests in any ABC license," a spokesperson said Wednesday of the president-elect.

A spokesman for the State Liquor Authority in New York, where Trump has two golf courses, issued a similar response. Officials in Florida, where Trump has three courses, and in North Carolina, where he has one, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• The reaction among creators to Meta's content-moderation changes has largely fallen along political lines.
• Some influencers worry the changes could cause harm to the LGBTQ+ community.
• Others questioned Meta's decision to feature more political content.

Getting "Zucked" — a term for having your account suspended or content removed due to community violations — is a staple in the creator lexicon.

Despite that, creators who spoke with Business Insider had mixed reactions to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans to reduce content moderation in the name of free speech.

On Tuesday, Meta unveiled new policies that included winding down fact-checking, loosening content moderation, and introducing X-style "Community Notes."

The creator community largely reacted along political lines, with some left-leaning influencers expressing disappointment.

"This is really about just pandering to the Trump administration in a way that feels extremely obvious," LGBTQ+ advocate and "Gay News" host Josh Helfgott told BI.

Left-leaning filmmaker Michael McWhorter also said he felt the changes were catering to Trump and his MAGA base.

"You're not trying to balance things out," McWhorter said of Meta. "We are shifting to the other side of things."

Elsewhere, some right-leaning creators cheered the changes.

Christopher Townsend, an Air Force vet and conservative rapper with over 300,000 Instagram followers, told BI he thought the policy overhaul was "a great step toward the decentralization of information and the end to the control legacy media has had on the prevailing narrative."

Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted a video on Wednesday outlining how the new policies would impact creators. He said the company would correct its "over-enforcement" of content moderation and begin recommending political content again.

"If you're a creator who likes to post about political content, this should mean that you feel comfortable doing so on any of our platforms," Mosseri said. "We will now show political recommendations."

Meta didn't respond to a request for comment.

Some are wary of Community Notes

As part of the policy overhaul, Meta is getting rid of fact-checkers in favor of Community Notes in the style of Elon Musk's X. Users will be able to volunteer to contribute to Community Notes, which will appear on content when people with a range of different perspectives agree a correction is in order.

"Like X, it gives the user community more authority over the platform instead of biased third-party administrators," Townsend said.

McWhorter said that while Community Notes were a "great equalizer," he felt they were not an adequate replacement for fact-checking. He said he wished Meta would rely on a combination of both systems.

A former Instagram staffer told BI that they felt placing the responsibility to moderate content on users and creators "on a platform with massive global reach and historical harmful content issues" was a step in the wrong direction. They asked for anonymity to protect business relationships; their identity is known to BI.

Concerns about anti-LGBTQ+ discourse

Helfgott expressed concern about Meta's plan to decrease moderation around certain political topics. The company's blog post specifically noted immigration and gender identity as areas of debate where it plans to decrease restrictions.

Helfgott said that while Meta's plans were described in the language of "political discourse," he felt the changes could lead to bullying of the LGBTQ+ community.

Alongside Tuesday's announcement, Meta updated its Hateful Conduct policy.

"We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation," the company wrote, "given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird.'"

"This is the most anti-LGBTQ announcement that a social-media platform has made in recent memory," Helfgott said.

While McWhorter told BI he felt his content had been Zucked — or unfairly suppressed — in the past, he said he'd prefer a stricter moderating system even if it had "flaws."

"I'd rather that I take the hit for a joke that it didn't understand than that stuff being allowed to be spread all over the platform," he said, referring to potentially harmful posts.

Meta's increased political emphasis marks an about-face

Some creators were flummoxed by Meta's about-face on the amount of political content it plans to recommend. The company had previously cut back significantly on promoting political content in feeds in recent years.

Malynda Hale, a creator and activist with 65,000 followers, said this change could benefit political creators but questioned the company's motives.

"I think the fact that Meta is going to be serving up more political content is actually positive for creators like myself, but I don't think it's with the intention to keep the community informed," she told BI.

She said she felt Meta wanted to boost engagement even at the cost of division and disagreement.

Despite some misgivings, the creators who spoke with BI said they weren't going anywhere.

"I'll work with the system as it's presented to me, and I'll find my way to work around it," McWhorter said. "I constantly have to do that on all different platforms."

Helfgott said he felt "handcuffed" by Meta because if he stopped posting on Instagram, he would lose out on millions of people seeing his content each month.

"Meta knows this," he said. "They know that creators may not like this, but we need the reach, and we will keep posting there."

• Kacey Musgraves has evolved her style from Western casual to designer chic.
• She once wore a mix of colorful jeans, classic cowboy boots, and patriotic tops.
• Her current wardrobe, however, features more feathered hats and crystal-covered dresses.

On her 2018 album "Golden Hour," Kacey Musgraves famously sings about being "all right with a slow burn" life.

She's seemingly taken the same approach to her fashion, too.

After entering the music scene over a decade ago in colorful jeans and cowboy boots, Musgraves slowly became a fashion superstar.

Now, her wardrobe consists of feathered hats, crystal-covered dresses, and bold accessories.

Here's a look at how her style has evolved over the years.

When Kacey Musgraves entered the music scene, she did so wearing colorful jeans and cowboy boots.

One of her earliest appearances was in 2013 at the SiriusXM Studios in New York City.

She wore red jeans, brown cowboy boots, and a denim button-up shirt for the occasion, creating a casual and classic country look.

Musgraves then accessorized with gold hoop earrings, a silver nose ring, and an assortment of bangles.

She quickly developed a red-carpet style that was feminine and retro.

When Musgraves walked the red carpet at the 2014 CMA Awards, she was photographed wearing a pink, short-sleeved gown designed by Oscar de la Renta.

It had mesh paneling across the neckline and silver sparkles decorating the gown from top to bottom.

However, it was the musician's sky-high hair that stole the show. She wore a '60s-inspired beehive with modern highlights — a style that became her go-to that year.

Musgraves went full Americana with her outfits in 2015.

The outfit she wore to perform at Stagecoach that year is just one example.

For the concert, she wore an American flag bralette, a fringe miniskirt, and blue bedazzled cowboy boots. Her accessories included sparkling tights, oversize hoop earrings, and statement red sunglasses.

It was relaxed, casual, and patriotic — as were many of her ensembles in 2015.

The "Pageant Material" musician later blended glamorous and alternative styles.

Her former aesthetic was on display at the 2016 CMA Awards, where she wore a custom Christian Siriano ballgown.

The lavender dress was strapless, crafted from tiers of tulle, and completed with a black waistband.

To contrast its elegance, Musgraves wore it with smoky eye makeup and deep-purple lipstick.

The singer experimented with high-fashion designs in 2018.

Musgraves has been wearing designer ensembles since the start of her career. But she took things to another level in 2018, specifically at the CMA Awards.

She walked the red carpet that year in black trousers and a mesh blouse designed by Versace.

The Western-inspired top had only a single button, creating a deep slit in the shirt's center. It was also embellished with gold Swarovski crystals across its sleeves, shoulders, and chest.

The next few years were all about taking fashion risks, leading Musgraves to really come into her own around 2021.

You couldn't miss her when she walked the red carpet at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.

Valentino designed her purple minidress, which was sleeveless, ruched, and complementary to her massive feathered hat.

And the look didn't stop there. She wore see-through sandal heels and red leather gloves that extended over her elbows.

The outfit was bold, fashion-forward, and, most importantly, true to Musgraves' vibrant personality.

Among her fashion signatures are feathers, shades of pink, and bodysuits.

She wore all three at the same time for the 2023 Grammy Awards.

Her Valentino ensemble included a baby-pink catsuit beneath a floor-length feathered cape and pink satin heels that matched both pieces.

Musgraves perfected the look with rosy pink makeup, an updo hairstyle, and minimal jewelry.

Musgraves stayed true to her unique sense of style in 2024.

Returning to her Western-style roots, Musgraves attended the 2024 CMA Awards in a denim minidress.

It was designed by Georges Hobeika to feature a sweetheart neckline, feathered sleeves, and teardrop crystals decorating the piece.

• Polymarket lets people bet on a variety of things, like election outcomes and pop culture events.
• It's also taking bets on the Palisades fire in California — with at least nine different wagers.
• Polymarket says the wisdom of the crowd can lend "unbiased forecasts for the most important events impacting society."

As the Palisades fire is still tearing through parts of the Los Angeles area on Wednesday, Polymarket — the prediction market platform — is allowing people to place wagers on certain elements of the disaster.

There were at least nine different predictions you could place money on as of Wednesday afternoon that were related to the fire. The topic had its own trending module on the site.

One question asked: "Will the Palisades fire be contained by Friday?" Only 2% of bets said yes. (California officials said Wednesday morning that the fires raging through California are "zero percent" contained. Two people have been reported dead in the wake of the disaster.)

Each wager has its own page on the site — and on those pages with bets related to the fire was a disclaimer from Polymarket.

The disclaimer reads:

Note on Palisades Wildfire Markets: The promise of prediction markets is to harness the wisdom of the crowd to create accurate, unbiased forecasts for the most important events impacting society. The devastating Pacific Palisades fire is one such event, for which Polymarket can yield invaluable real-time answers to those directly impacted in ways traditional media cannot.

Note: There are no fees on this market.

On its site, Polymarket says that users can submit suggestions for markets, but a new prediction market, like the ones about the fire, can only be created by Polymarket.

A spokesperson for Polymarket told Business Insider: "Polymarket charges no fees — and generates no revenue — from these markets and provides them as a service to those looking for unbiased and up-to-date information during fast-moving events."

Other wagers available as of Wednesday:

• "Palisades fire burns 10,000 acres by Friday?" (Bettors said this was 99% "yes.")
• "Will Palisades fire spread to Santa Monica by Sunday?" (Bettors gave this a 14% chance.)

So far, it appears the markets have drawn only small bets, with one question drawing a little more than $8,000 and another drawing more than $30,000, according to tallies on the site.

Polymarket, where bets are placed in crypto, became popular during the 2024 election. It showed the odds of Donald Trump winning far above what traditional polls were showing.

In addition to politics and sports, Polymarket offers bets on news and pop culture topics like Oscar nominations or the odds of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce getting engaged this year.

• Job cuts are continuing into 2025 following waves of reductions last year.
• Companies like Microsoft, BlackRock, and Ally have all confirmed cuts.
• See the list of companies letting workers go in 2025.

Layoffs and other workforce reductions are continuing in 2025, following two years of significant job cuts across tech, media, finance, manufacturing, and retail.

While companies' reasons for slimming their staff vary, the cost-cutting measures come amid the backdrop of technological change. Some 41% of companies worldwide are expected to reduce their workforces over the next five years due to the rise of artificial intelligence, according to a recent World Economic Forum report.

Companies like Dropbox, Google, and IBM have previously announced job cuts related to AI. Meanwhile, tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030, according to the WEF.

Here are the companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2025 so far.

BlackRock is reportedly cutting 1% of its workforce

BlackRock told employees it plans to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, according to Bloomberg.

The reductions are more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.

BlackRock President Rob Kapito and Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein said the cuts will help realign the firm's resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.

Bridgewater is cutting approximately 90 staff

Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff on Monday in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

The layoffs at the world's largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.

Founder Ray Dalio said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees leave the firm within 18 months.

The Washington Post is cutting 4% of its non-newsroom workforce

The Washington Post is eliminating less than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported Tuesday.

A spokesperson told the wire service that the changes would occur across multiple areas of the business and indicated that the cuts would not affect the newsroom.

"The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are," the spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

Microsoft is planning an unspecified number of cuts

Microsoft is planning job cuts soon, and the company is taking a harder look at underperforming employees as part of the reductions, according to two people familiar with the plans.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed cuts but declined to share details on the number of employees being let go.

"At Microsoft we focus on high performance talent," the spokesperson said. "We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action."

Ally will cut less than 5% of workers

Digital financial company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI. The impacted employees were notified on Tuesday.

"As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the company is offering severance, out-placement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

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• I've followed the Mediterranean diet for over 2 years, and I buy a lot of staples at the store.
• I regularly stock up on olive oil, Greek yogurt, whole grains, and peanut butter.
• Other essentials in the Mediterranean diet include foods high in healthy fats and protein. 

My grocery haul used to be filled with processed junk and sugary snacks, but once I switched to the Mediterranean diet, it looked more like a vegetable patch filled with color and lots of leaves. 

The Mediterranean diet, which has been considered one of the healthiest ways to eat, emphasizes whole grains, vegetables, fruit, legumes, and healthy fats. Fish, seafood, and eggs are my primary sources of protein (although you can also have white meat like chicken). Dairy, in the form of yogurt or cheese, appears on the menu a few times a week.

In the years I've followed the Mediterranean diet, I've cut out red and white meat (I still eat fish) and swapped the processed buys for fresh food.

Here's what I tend to buy whenever I go to the grocery store for all of my Med-diet needs.

Olive oil is a staple in nearly every dish

Olive oil is the staple ingredient in everything I eat on the Mediterranean diet. I use the most affordable cooking oil I can find, whether I'm frying fish, blitzing together a vegetable soup, or baking. 

I'll also splash out on the fanciest olive oils (ideally when they're on sale) and use them to drizzle on leaves, whole-grain salads, pasta dishes, seafood, and grilled vegetables.

I typically buy the biggest size I can find for the best value because I use so much olive oil. 

Greek yogurt adds the perfect amount of protein

Although plain yogurt is not as exciting as its flavored counterpart, the low-sugar, high-protein Greek-style version is always my grocery store pick.

I love to top the yogurt with fruit like blueberries and pomegranate seeds, sometimes with a drizzle of honey as a breakfast staple or dessert.

Greek yogurt is also great as a dip for savory dishes and can add creaminess to dressings. It's delicious mixed with olive oil, lemon, white-wine vinegar, garlic, and some herbs, like cilantro. I've recently discovered that you can add Greek yogurt to soups for extra creaminess.

Now that I've been eating Greek yogurt for so long, I no longer miss the fruity, ultra-sugary kind. 

Canned tuna is an affordable alternative to fresh fish

Fish is a big part of the Med diet that's delicious and nutritious, but it can be pricey. Fresh fish is my indulgence, but with the right herbs, frozen or canned tuna does the trick just as well at a fraction of the cost.

I'll have tuna for lunch a couple of times a week. I'll make a Nicoise salad with spinach leaves, a couple of hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, a few potatoes, and a dressing made with olive oil, lemon juice, and mustard. It's so easy to throw together and tastes just like those Nicoise salads I used to gobble up in French bistros.

I always stock up on canned sardines, too. They're perfect when grilled with lemon juice and served on whole-wheat bread.

Onions and garlic are my favorite ways to add flavor

My cupboards are always bursting with red and white onions and shallots. I also keep scallions in the fridge.

I use onions in most meals I make: soups, stews, pasta, protein dishes, omelets, the list goes on.

Garlic is another essential ingredient. I've found if you add more garlic to a dish, you need less salt. Also, this is purely anecdotal, but I'm pretty sure the more garlic I eat, the less sugar I crave. 

I elevate my dishes with fresh and dried herbs

I'm often trying to save money on food by seeking out frozen or canned alternatives, or in the case of herbs, dry ones instead of fresh.

I use plenty of dry herbs in my cooking, but I'll always buy some fresh, too. My taste buds have started getting used to that extra kick of fresh dill in an omelet or a sprinkle of cilantro in a salad. My new favorite side dish combines cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, and chickpeas.

The diet has exposed me to many herbs I've never had before, which is one of my favorite things about it. For example, I dusted sumac, a tart, purple-colored spice, on homemade french fries the other day, which was delicious. 

Peanut butter is a delicious way to add healthy fats to smoothies and soups

One of the best things about the Med diet is that all of those "high-fat" foods, like peanut butter, you dream of but aren't supposed to eat are encouraged in this one.

Peanut butter is one of my favorite snacks — I'll eat it off the spoon, mix it into smoothies, smear it on celery or apples, or spread it on whole wheat pita bread. It's delicious, and I always buy the biggest tub I can find.

Peanut butter adds great texture and flavor to savory recipes, too. English chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a great recipe for butternut squash soup with peanut butter. I use olive oil instead of butter to make it Med diet-friendly.

Tahini is a versatile essential

Similar to yogurt, tahini, a sesame paste, has become a staple cupboard ingredient for me.

I add tahini to homemade hummus, blend it into soups, use it as a sauce, and spread it on whole-wheat pita with some falafel.

You can add some lemon juice and honey to turn tahini into a dressing or use it for baking. 

Pre-cooked whole grains like rice and quinoa save a lot of time in the kitchen

No trip to the grocery store is complete without some whole grains.

I tend to buy a mix of pre-cooked packs so that if I have a busy work week, I can still manage to eat a healthy lunch simply by combining a couple of packs.

I also make sure I have the cheaper versions that require cooking. I've found that adding whole grains to salads makes them much more filling.

If you need inspiration beyond brown rice and couscous, try freekeh, an ancient grain high in fiber and protein. I'll mix it with halloumi cheese and tomatoes or serve it alongside roasted eggplant.

Canned legumes are great for hearty, filling dinners

Before starting the Med diet, I used to have canned beans sitting in my cupboard for months at a time.

I'd buy them because I thought they represented what I should be eating, but I'd never had any idea what to do with them. Now, I'm happy to say I mix chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, and other legumes into my diet daily.

I always buy extras because I know they'll go quickly — if I'm hungrier one day, adding chickpeas to a salad takes it from a light lunch to a filling one. I love making stews with beans and Med-diet-friendly chili dishes. I also buy canned tomatoes in bulk because I use them in everything from soups and pasta to sauces and stews. 

My family loves to snack on and cook with a rainbow of fruits and vegetables

Vegetables are a huge part of my diet.

I always have peas and spinach in the freezer for a quick side with any meal, but I like to get fresh vegetables whenever I head to the store because they're my family's go-to snack. We eat veggies and hummus, salads, and raw carrots all day long.

No trip to the grocery store is complete without purchasing some combination of peppers, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

After being home 24/7 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and incorporating fruit and vegetables into most meals, I now buy a weekly produce box of misshapen vegetables and fruit that would otherwise go to waste.

This story was originally published on January 13, 2022, and most recently updated on January 8, 2025.

• Matt Garman leads AWS with 11 executives amid rising cloud and AI competition.
• Garman, an Amazon veteran, became AWS CEO in June, succeeding Adam Selipsky.
• Julia White, ex-SAP and Microsoft, is the latest addition as AWS's chief marketing officer.

A leaked Amazon Web Services organizational chart shows the 11 executives helping new CEO Matt Garman lead the unit through a period of intense competition in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Garman, an 18-year veteran of AWS, became its CEO in June. He took over from Adam Selipsky, who led the unit for three years after previous AWS CEO Andy Jassy was promoted to run all of Amazon.

Garman, who previously ran AWS sales and marketing, made a few changes to the cloud business when he took over, including combining global sales teams.

Since then, the biggest change to Garman's team was to hire Julia White as chief marketing officer.

Here are the 11 executives who report to Garman:

Julia White: VP, WW AWS Marketing

White joined AWS as CMO in November. She was most recently the chief marketing and solutions officer at SAP. Prior to that, she spent nearly two decades at Microsoft in roles including corporate vice president of product marketing for the Azure cloud unit.

"Julia will join my leadership team and further develop and execute our global marketing strategy, playing a pivotal part in AWS's growth," Garman wrote of White in an email announcing her appointment.

Peter DeSantis: SVP, AWS Utility Computing

DeSantis was one of the first AWS employees and played a critical role building up its technology. He's a member of Andy Jassy's senior leadership team at Amazon, called the "s-team."

DeSantis took over utility computing in 2021 when Charlie Bell, considered one of the founders of the cloud unit, left for Microsoft.

Prasad Kalyanaraman: VP, AWS Infrastructure Service, Infrastructure Leadership

Kalyanaraman, who has spent nearly 20 years at Amazon, took over infrastructure and network services for DeSantis when Bell left.

Colleen Aubrey: SVP, AWS Solutions

Aubrey has spent nearly 20 years at Amazon, but switched to AWS in May around the time Selipsky left. She leads the AWS unit responsible for business applications. Aubrey is a member of Jassy's s-team.

Elizabeth Baker: VP, Private Pricing

Baker has been at Amazon since 2016 and runs the unit responsible for custom agreements between AWS and customers, providing terms like discounts based on usage. Baker's past roles include positions at SAP and Oracle.

Werner Vogels: VP and CTO

Werner Vogels is technically the chief technology officer of Amazon overall, but he has another important role within AWS. He acts as one of the public faces of the company's cloud business and technical infrastructure.

Greg Pearson: VP, AWS Global Sales

After Garman became CEO, he integrated global sales teams under Greg Pearson, combining AWS Global Sales, WW Public Sector, the Greater China Region, and Sales Strategy and Operations.

Kathrin Renz: VP, AWS Industries

Renz leads the organization responsible for industry-specific AWS products for customers. She's had the role since 2020 and Garman expanded her purview when he took over as CEO to include AWS Enterprise GenAI sales and business development VP Scott Rosecrans's team.

Laura Grit: VP/Distinguished Engineer, Technical Advisor

Grit, a 17-year Amazon veteran, is the technical advisor to the AWS CEO. She previously led Amazon.com's migration from on-premise data centers to AWS cloud services.

Ruba Borno: VP, AWS Specialists & Partners, AWS WWCO Partner Management

Borno has been at AWS since 2021. When Garman took over, he put Borno in charge of a new unit combining its Channels and Alliances team, responsible for relationships between global partners and customers, and its WW Specialist Organization, which connects service teams to customers.

Uwem Ukpong: VP, Global Services

Ukpong runs the AWS Global Services Organization, which includes training, professional services in commercial and public sectors, customer support and managed services, and security. Garman expanded Ukpong's role last year to include its Sovereign Cloud and International Product Management teams.

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