• Ukraine has been releasing excerpts of what its forces say is a North Korean soldier's diary.
• They include a stick-figure sketch of using a comrade as "bait" to shoot down a drone.
• Other entries include musings on class struggles and a confession for stealing undisclosed Russian items.

Excerpts from a North Korean soldier's diary released by Ukraine show a glimpse at how Pyongyang's troops in Russia believed they could defend against drones and artillery strikes.

Ukraine's special forces have been releasing excerpts of the diary since Christmas week, saying the entries were written by a now-deceased North Korean private named Gyeong Hong Jong.

The latest of these, published on Thursday, appeared to feature the young soldier confessing that he was stealing items from his Russian allies to sell. He did not specify what the stolen goods were but wrote that he had been caught.

"While working in the barracks, I thought that no one was watching me and put the Russians' things in my pocket," the diary excerpt said, per Ukraine's special forces.

"I will no longer trade in other people's things. I will heroically advance in the forefront and destroy the enemy," the soldier added.

Other entries released by Ukraine included praises of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and musings on class struggle.

"Longing for my homeland, having left the warm embrace of my dear father and mother here on Russian land. I celebrate the birthday of my closest comrade Song Ji Myong," another entry read, per a translation by The Wall Street Journal.

One of the earliest entries, published by Ukraine on December 26, featured a stick-figure drawing of what the soldier described as "How to eliminate a drone."

The simple illustration showed a figure standing upright on open ground while another two stick figures fired at a quadcopter drone.

"If a UAV is spotted, gather in groups of three," the diary read, per The Journal's translation. "One person must act as bait to lure the drone while the other two take aim and neutralize it with precision shooting. The bait must maintain a distance of seven meters from the drone. The other two should prepare to shoot down the drone from a distance of 10 to 12 meters. When the bait stands still, the drone will stop and it can be shot down."

Ukraine's special forces said the North Korean soldier also wrote of how to avoid artillery strikes. An excerpt of his diary said that Pyongyang's troops were supposed to "disperse in small groups" if fired upon by artillery.

The excerpt also said he could hide in the location of "the previous hit" because he believed artillery doesn't repeatedly strike the exact same spot.

Business Insider couldn't independently verify the authenticity of the diary entries. Ukraine posted photos of what it said were the soldier's corpse and passport. The Journal also cited a former North Korean soldier and a former South Korean major general who said the choice of words in the diary aligned with the ideology and vernacular of North Korea's troops.

The soldier's diary could give insight into how North Korean forces are adapting battlefield doctrine for combat in Russia.

The West worries that Pyongyang's involvement will allow its forces to glean valuable lessons from battling Ukraine, especially as they face off against American and European equipment and encounter drone warfare.

Dorothy Camille Shea, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, said on Wednesday that Pyongyang "is significantly benefiting from receiving Russian military equipment, technology, and experience, rendering it more capable of waging war against its neighbors."

Western and South Korean intelligence says that 12,000 North Korean troops are stationed and fighting in Kursk, a Russian border region that Ukraine attacked in the summer of 2024.

Moscow hasn't addressed the presence of Pyongyang's troops on its soil, but Ukraine has increasingly been trying to cast a spotlight on North Korea's direct involvement in the war.

Most recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published images of who he said were two captured North Korean soldiers. He did not provide evidence that they were North Korean, though Seoul's intelligence service backed up his claim.

"This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other North Korean military personnel usually execute their wounded to erase any evidence of North Korea's involvement in the war against Ukraine," Zelenskyy wrote. He has said that around 3,000 North Korean soldiers were wounded or killed.

Thousands of North Korean troops serve as a valuable source of manpower for Russia, which is relying on mass infantry assaults along the front lines to whittle down Ukraine's defenses.

Still, Pyongyang's reinforcements are still few compared to the over 600,000 people that Ukraine and the West believe Moscow has lost.

Russia is believed to be providing Kim with much-needed finances, economic support, food, and technology in exchange for the latter's troops.

• Microsoft Outlook is an email platform with productivity features like calendar and file-sharing.
• Microsoft discontinued its old email platforms, MSN and Hotmail, and folded them into Outlook.
• Outlook is free for personal accounts, but paid subscriptions offer greater storage and security.

In case you hadn't noticed, Microsoft has a released a lot of software over the past five decades. From its groundbreaking Windows operating system to its search engine Bing to stalwart programs like Word and Excel, now a part of the subscription-based Microsoft 365 suite, the company is a juggernaut of the software industry.

And when a company has released a plethora of programs, it's no surprise that the company has cancelled, merged, or rebranded many programs, too.

What is Microsoft Outlook?

Microsoft Outlook is, first and foremost, an email platform, but it goes well beyond just sending and receiving electronic mail. It also features a calendar, an easy way to store and manage contact information, file sharing of data saved in the cloud, and schedule and task tracking.

Microsoft Outlook is free to use for personal email and calendars, but there are some limitations. For example, a free Outlook account can only store up to 15 GB of mail, and that cap can be surprisingly easy to reach. Also, advanced security features are only available with a paid subscription.

Using Outlook is a great way to streamline your work and home life, keeping yourself up-to-date and aware of appointments, assignments, travel, deadlines, and more. You can set it up such that flight or hotel reservations are automatically added to your calendar, so that it will remind you of scheduled events, and you can set it to flag important messages for you — and to screen out the unimportant, too.

What happened to Hotmail and MSN?

Both Hotmail and MSN, also known as MSN Messenger, have been discontinued for a number of years, folded into other products. Chat messaging platform MSN was first released in 1999 and was rebranded as Windows Live Messenger in 2005.

Though it was used by hundreds of millions of people each month, following the acquisition of Skype in 2011, Microsoft found its own messaging platform redundant. The company shut the messenger service once known as MSN down for good in 2013. MSN email addresses still work, but they are managed via Outlook

Interestingly enough, the year 2013 also tolled the death knell for Hotmail. The mail platform was founded in 1996 and acquired by Microsoft the following year, and would enjoy nearly 17-year run until it was folded into Microsoft Outlook. You can still get an email address using @hotmail.com, but you'll need to sign up for it via Microsoft Outlook.

Is Microsoft discontinuing Outlook?

There are no plans for Microsoft to discontinue its Outlook platform. In fact, the company announced that as of the end of 2024, its Mail and Calendar applications would no longer be supported and that their functions would be rolled into Outlook, so Microsoft is putting even more of the proverbial eggs in the Outlook basket.

Outlook vs. Gmail

From contact management to calendar services to, of course, email, Microsoft Outlook and the Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Google Meet, Google Drive, and Google Docs, have a lot of crossovers.

Google's professional suite is great for collaborative teams, offering more storage space and easy ways to connect, work on shared documents, and to swap files. Alternatively, people wanting advanced email features and numerous optional automations might prefer Outlook.

Both are superb workflow suites; it's truly a personal call.

• As the mom of two tweens, I really wish schools would keep snow days.
• I have so many great memories from those unexpected magical days growing up.
• I feel like my kids spend too much time on screens for school already; let them have fun.

As temperatures drop, I hope school administrators call for at least one "old-fashioned" snow day this season. I think it's important that kids across the country — including my own two pre-teens — experience the style of snow days that I did growing up, and not because I got to stay inside relaxing. In fact, I learned surprising lessons in those days about history, science, and art.

Lawmakers in states including Iowa, New Jersey, and Virginia have introduced bills to make it easier for districts to replace traditional days off with remote classes. I hope this doesn't become the preference. Kids will lose out if they're robbed of the unexpected time to be curious.

I have fond memories of my snow days

When I think back to the snow days I enjoyed growing up in the 1980s — in the farm-filled New Jersey town of Freehold — I picture long strings of glowing red lights.

My dad would drive my brother and me to Monmouth Battlefield State Park, where lit-up displays at the visitors' center outlined routes that Washington's Army and British soldiers took to get to the bloody battle in which as many as 400 died. We were actually there because the hilly park has become a popular sledding destination, but after we took turns careening toward the woods on our creaky Flexible Flyer, we'd head inside to thaw out and study the displays.

I remember learning about the long battle that took place on a hot day, pondering what it was like for soldiers to battle the elements through the seasons as they battled each other. Reading history in a textbook was one thing; seeing a display or demonstration was more impactful.

I learned a lot while out of the classroom

When winter came, I used to write the forecasts on a wall calendar near my bed. Tracking temperature trends, probabilities, and records is a terrific introduction to the principles of empirical evidence.

One of my best lessons from a snow day was about small joys and art. I was 9 years old, gazing out my kitchen window as I sipped soup, and I spied — on a snow-covered pine — a cardinal sitting sentinel, observing the terrain. The contrast of the red on white was so beautiful that I longed for a camera, but my dad never let me use our cheap Kodak 110. I vowed to get a camera of my own someday, and a few years later, I bought a 35-millimeter with babysitting funds. To this day, I take photos for my job. I love framing and capturing a scene to share the beauty with others.

Nature's handiwork can be surprising, powerful, and treacherous. I want my kids to appreciate all of it. It's hard to watch the snow fall, build with it, and play in it when chained to a Chromebook all day.

It can be hard as a working parent

As a working mom, I understand the nervousness of watching the forecast and wondering about childcare if schools close. Inclement weather days should, of course, be used sparingly. But when safety precautions force a closure anyway, the default shouldn't always be remote learning. Those days can be just as challenging for a caregiver.

Some traditions aren't coming back. I remember the wonder and joy of gazing at the streetlights when a storm was predicted, hoping to catch the first flakes fluttering when it was too dark to see the street. My classmates and I would snuggle in our beds the next morning, listening to our clock radios to see if our district would be on the list of closings read by the announcer. Parents also had not-so-reliable phone trees to spread the word decades before robocalls. But even with communication becoming less personal, I've observed the magical reactions of kids who realize they're getting a snow day; I actually heard cheering outside my window last February when our district made the announcement via email in advance of a storm the next day.

I think schools are over-relying on technology in general. I was disappointed this past summer when one of my kids was expected to do all of the summer assignments on a Chromebook, including the actual reading. I placed an order for the physical book anyway. Kids spend enough time stuck to their screens. If a day comes this winter when it's unsafe to go out, let them have their magical time to explore and dream — at least once.

• Andrew Taylor, 70, left the US to retire in Malaysia a decade ago.
• He now lives in a 2-bedroom condo in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city, that costs about $620 a month.
• "I probably would not be retired if I were still in the US," Taylor said.

At 60, Andrew Taylor retired and left the US to move to Malaysia.

Taylor, who used to do administrative work, started thinking about retirement when he was in his mid-fifties. However, the high cost of living in the US made it feel like a pipe dream.

"I realized that I was probably not going to be able to stay in the United States, or I was going to have to work until I was 80," Taylor, now 70, told Business Insider.

He started considering retiring abroad, and it was through his then-partner — who lived in Penang, a state in the northwestern part of Malaysia — that he first learned about the Malaysia My Second Home, or MM2H, visa program. The MM2H program was introduced by the government in 2002 to attract foreigners to retire and live in Malaysia.

The conditions for the visa have been tightened over the years.

Based on the most recent rule changes announced in 2024, there are now three different categories: Platinum, Gold, and Silver. Depending on the category of visa they apply for, applicants are required to have minimum bank deposits of between $150,000 and $1 million and also buy property in Malaysia. The validity of the visa ranges from 5 years to 20 years. Because Taylor got a visa under an earlier version of the visa rules, he wasn't required to purchase property in Malaysia.

Having visited multiple times before, the idea of living in Malaysia appealed to him. He said he saw the visa program as something that could help him retire much earlier.

In late 2014, he applied and was approved a few months later. In 2015, Taylor packed up his bags and moved from Washington, D.C. — where he had lived for 40 years — to start the next chapter of his life.

Creating a dream apartment in the city

It's been 10 years since Taylor arrived in Malaysia. He spent seven years in Penang before moving to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city, three years ago.

He's been in his current rental — a two-bedroom condo — for about five months.

Taylor said that his previous unit was on two floors, and he had to climb 20 steps to reach the bedroom. "I'm 70 and the stairs are irritating to me now, so I want it to be all on one floor," he said.

Taylor says he took just one weekend to find his apartment, which was about two miles outside the city center. The view of the city immediately caught his attention.

"I'm on the 22nd floor, and I can see the Twin Towers. I can see all the major towers in KL, and it's just a beautiful view. I think if I'm going to be in KL, that's what I wanted," Taylor said.

His rent costs 2,800 Malaysian ringgit, or $620, each month. It's a two-year lease with an option for a third year. Unlike his previous apartments, he opted for an unfurnished unit this time.

"I really never liked the furniture in the apartments that I was renting," he said, adding that he has always been interested in interior design. Most of his furniture is sourced locally.

"It's sort of eclectic," he said, describing his apartment. "I have oriental carpets and things like that, but with modern furniture."

His apartment block is part of a five-building condo development, which offers amenities like a pool and a gym.

This is Taylor's fifth apartment in Malaysia, and he says he plans to continue renting and riding around the city on his Vespa for the foreseeable future.

Lessons learned along the way have contributed to his decision. The first place he moved into after arriving in Malaysia was on the 35th floor of a building in Penang.

"The landlord said, 'Oh, they'll never build in front of it.' Well, yes, they built right in front of it immediately," he said. "If you buy a place, it's just harder to move on."

Americans are retiring abroad

Taylor isn't alone in his decision to retire abroad.

Analyses in the past year have estimated that a single person would need to earn $96,000 a year to live comfortably in many major US cities. It comes as no surprise that more and more Americans are being priced out of the US.

There's also a retirement crisis sweeping across the nation, with more people over 65 still punching the clock because they can't afford to retire.

An AARP survey of 8,368 people conducted in January 2024 found that 1 in 5 Americans 50 and over reported having no retirement savings. Over half of them also said they do not think they'll have enough money to keep them afloat in retirement.

It's a sentiment that Taylor shares. "I probably would not be retired if I were still in the US," he said.

In contrast, the MM2H visa has made Malaysia an attractive destination for expats.

As of January 2024, there were 56,066 active MM2H pass holders in the country, Malaysia's Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Tiong King Sin said during a parliament session, per local paper The Star. Chinese nationals form about 44% of pass holders, followed by those from South Korea and Japan. There were 1,340 pass holders from the US. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent by BI.

'Pretty similar' lifestyles in both countries

While Taylor's lifestyle in Malaysia is "pretty similar" to the one he had back in the States, the lower cost of living here means that his money can go further each month.

"I would say I used to try to keep my budget to $2,000. Now it's a little bit more than that. I would say $2,500 is what I live on now," Taylor said, adding that he doesn't think he could live on the same amount back in the US.

He has a basic health insurance policy that costs 340 Malaysian ringgit each month.

"There are other much better policies, but I went with the cheap option," Taylor said. He says it only covers hospitalization and related costs.

He's also satisfied with Malaysia's healthcare facilities.

"And you don't have to wait long for an appointment or wait long at your appointment," he added.

Cost of living aside, Taylor says he also feels safer in Malaysia.

"I've never felt safer anywhere. Where I lived in my last place outside D.C., sometimes I would hear gunshots from outside my window, and that just is so foreign here. There's nothing like that," he said. "I've never ever felt any uncomfortable feeling when I'm out, even alone walking around."

These days, Taylor spends his time filming YouTube videos about what it's like to live in Malaysia.

However, he says that such a drastic move might not be for everyone — especially for those who have children, grandchildren, or even aged parents. It only worked for him because he had loose family connections.

Looking back, Taylor says he's learned not to be afraid of living outside his comfort zone.

"My family thought I would last about six months, and then I would come back. 10 years later, and I'm still here, and I have no intention of ever going back to the US," he said.

Have you recently relocated to a new country and found your dream home? If you have a story to share, contact this reporter at [email protected].

• Shruti Dhumak navigated maternity leave amid Google's AI industry shift and layoffs.
• She split her leave to maintain visibility and manage family support from India.
• Dhumak focused on self-improvement and open communication to regain her work efficiency.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shruti Dhumak, a cloud customer engineer in Google's Boston office who gave birth in February 2023. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified her employment history.

Before I had my son, I always doubted how I was going to manage being this overly ambitious person with motherhood.

I've been with Google for about four years. I had my first child in February 2022 and split up my maternity leave in three phases to make the most of temporary support I had when my family visited.

Between Google's policy of six months of maternity leave, one month of prepartum leave, and one month of paid time off, I had a total of eight months of time away from work. I knew I was fortunate to have this time off because it is rare in the US, but going on leave and the anxiety of being replaced while I was away was one of the hardest things I have dealt with.

I'm a customer engineer, and a large part of my role revolves around managing relationships with our cloud clients. If someone takes over for me, the customers end up being closer to that representative and I risk losing my accounts to someone else.

I was also paranoid that my absence or my performance below my peak, once I returned, would make me more susceptible to a layoff. Two weeks before my delivery, Google announced its biggest, 12,000-people layoff. As someone on an H1-B visa, a layoff would mean I would have to find another job in a matter of weeks or risk having to move back to India with a newborn.

When I came back to work, I was not a hundred percent myself — not as a person and not as an employee. I was not a hundred percent efficient. I've had my moments where I broke down and lost my train of thought during a call.

Despite my efforts, some other senior people were preferred by the business partners for some responsibilities. To add to it, Google was entering the artificial intelligence industry. Being away months felt like I was behind by many years.

But I was able to turn my performance around. In 2024, I got awards for my performance, and it's just the opposite of how last year went.

There were four things I did to make the transition easier on myself:

1. Split up my leave

Google offers employees the flexibility to take their maternity leave for up to a year after the baby is born. I broke up my leave into three stages, which allowed me to come back to work periodically to ensure I was visible and my work was not forgotten.

I took my first break a month before the baby was born. I returned in my third month after the delivery and went back on leave in the months of September, November, December and January. It was designed based on who was there to help me with the child throughout the year — first my parents and then my in-laws.

2. Highlight my work

Nobody is going to talk about me until I do, which is something I have struggled with in my previous companies.

I made sure to speak up when things weren't going right and made sure to collect evidence of my efforts and achievements.

I took advantage of the help I had and spent evenings and weekends taking exams and completing certifications to upskill myself and show others that I was coming up to speed.

3. Have open, honest conversations

What helped me through the year was my manager. She saw what was happening when I missed things because I've been a good performer all these years.

I shared everything with her openly during one-on-ones, which helped because she understood my challenges. She also helped me maintain visibility with upper management, because Google is strict with grades and the ratings you get.

It made a world of a difference to have a female manager and a work culture where men could empathize, too. My job involves a lot of talking and explaining, and I suffered from shortness of breath during my third trimester. My male counterparts recognized this and asked me to take breaks and go off-camera, which helped me work until the day I left for leave.

I also built my network and spoke to women who are managers in other teams in the company. Women who have been outperformers shared their experiences crying secretly after they became parents, and nobody said they had it all sorted out. Now, I share my journey with others.

4. Taking it one day at a time

During the wave of tech layoffs in 2022, I had at least three close friends who were laid off from Google, Microsoft, and Meta, which lingered on my mind and made me paranoid about my own situation.

The stress and postpartum depression is not behind me, but I decided to take it one day at a time.

I decided to be laser-focused and do things as they come up. There have been times I feel like delaying a reply but do it anyway, because I know it could lead to more tasks that I can add to my annual review.

Do you work in Big Tech and have a tip or story to share? Please reach out at [email protected].

• Wendy Altschuler has traveled around the world with her husband and three sons.
• Her kids agree that Japan has been their favorite destination.
• Sumo wrestling was the highlight of their trip.

My kids have been fortunate to enjoy the benefits of my main work perk as a longtime travel writer: accumulating airline miles.

Of all of the places we've traveled around the world — including Peru, Greece, Dominican Republic, Thailand, India, Singapore, UAE, and Aruba — Japan remains the absolute favorite for all three of my boys.

During our summertime trip to Japan, we explored incense-heavy shrines, wandered through gardens bursting with hydrangeas, marveled at castles, indulged in street food, met wild monkeys, and sauntered through a bamboo forest. The kids made it clear that Japan lights up all five of your senses — no matter what age you are.

We all enjoyed finding a beach full of smooth pottery pieces, remnants from a long-ago shipwreck; and watching a crazy robot show in Tokyo with swirling lights and loud music while eating dinner.

But the highlight of their trip was learning about sumo wrestling.

The whole family tried sumo wrestling

In Nara, near Kyoto and Osaka, we encountered sacred deer that bowed when we fed them crackers. It was near there, at the foot of Mt. Nijo in Katsuragi City, where I had another quest for my boys — to learn about Japan's oldest sport: Sumo wrestling.

Katsuragi is the origin of sumo, Japan's national sport with 1,500 years of history. At Kehayaza Sumo Museum, we took our shoes off and sat in a box seat on top of cushions to watch.

We were the sole spectators at the event that aims to educate visitors on the art of sumo. Rather than attend a Grand Sumo Tournament, which can be difficult to visit with only six tournaments held each year, the museum is much more open, affordable, and accessible for families on a year-round basis.

There was beautiful singing, a display of flags, and rice throwing to purify the elevated ring, which was made of clay and covered in rough sand. Two massive rikishi, or sumo wrestlers, entered the circular ring, the dohyo, wearing only a mawashi, or loin cloth. We observed as the two athletes lifted and stomped each leg, slapped their stomachs, and prepared for the match.

They learned about Japanese culture

Sumo originated as a ritual dance to entertain the gods at shrine festivals. Nowadays, professional sumo has six divisions. Wrestlers move up the ranks depending on their skill, and their pay increases as they progress and evolve. The Grand Champion, or Yokozuna, is an exclusive title that can earn the wrestler 2.8 million yen, or $18,000 per month, per the South China Morning Post.

Tickets for standard seats to the tournaments start at around 2,500 yen and go up to around 20,000 yen for ringside seats. Box seats, which accommodate four people, can cost up to 60,000 yen per box.

A benefit of visiting the museum is that entrance is free for visitors with foreign passports.

We all stepped into the ring

With eyes wide, my boys were dialed in as the straight-faced men collided while endeavoring to push each other to the ground or out of the ring to win the match. We were told that in sumo, often, the opponents aren't the same size or weight, like in American boxing, which allows spectators to root for an underdog.

After the match, my husband was asked if he wanted to try. He cautiously stepped into the ring with the largest of the two wrestlers and went through the entire ritual — tossing the rice in the air, bowing, clapping, crouching down with his fists on the ground, mirroring the correct footwork, and facing his opponent. I went next. Then each of my boys got a chance to test their mettle.

While a referee — dressed in a long red and gold robe, black pointed hat, white belt, and holding a small paper fan — officiated, my boys followed the ceremonial tasks and squared off with their skilled challenger. I'll never forget how the athlete, who seemed so imposing when he was brawling with his opponent, morphed into a playful fellow when my kids each entered the ring.

When the near-naked wrestler picked up my firstborn son, who was 12 at the time, and swung him around by his mawashi, I roared with laughter. I still smile when I think about how high-pitched the wrestler's giggle was, completely contrasting his size and power.

My youngest pressed firmly into his challenger's belly, not moving him an inch, and then, par for the course, he became airborne, just like his older brother. My middle son took a different strategy: he stood on his tippy toes and went for the shoulders, attempting to drive his adversary off balance.

The final match was unfair: all three boys were against their dad. After the match, we thanked the sumo wrestlers for the immersive education.

Later, at home, I organized a postcard writing project in which short travel stories were mailed to isolated seniors. My youngest wrote about getting in the ring with a 400-pound sumo wrestler in Japan: "I was only 8, I obviously lost."

• With Trump's inauguration fast approaching, more details about DOGE have emerged.
• Musk, who Trump tapped to co-lead DOGE, may become a "special government employee."
• SGEs have less stringent ethics rules — to a degree — compared to regular federal employees.

With President-elect Donald Trump set to take office next week, a key detail has emerged regarding the Department of Government Efficiency, the forthcoming commission that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will co-lead alongside businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

Some DOGE staffers who are expected to work unpaid for six months before returning to their more lucrative jobs would be classified as "special government employees," and Musk could be among them, The New York Times reported.

A special government employee is an individual who can be paid or unpaid and is categorized as a temporary worker. The federal government can employ that individual for no more than 130 days amid a consecutive 365-day span.

The designation is significant because special government employees — who are generally brought in to offer outside expertise to the federal government — are subject to more limited conflict of interest rules compared to regular federal employees.

When Trump tapped Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, to co-lead DOGE, government watchdogs, and some Democratic politicians questioned how he could handle such a role given potential conflicts of interest involving SpaceX, Tesla, and X.

Musk's omnipresence within Trump's political orbit in recent months has only reinforced those concerns. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent a letter to Trump's transition team asking if the tech executive would adhere to conflict-of-interest rules in his forthcoming role.

"Putting Mr. Musk in a position to influence billions of dollars of government contracts and regulatory enforcement without a stringent conflict of interest agreement in place is an invitation for corruption on a scale not seen in our lifetimes," Warren wrote at the time.

"Currently, the American public has no way of knowing whether the advice that he is whispering to you in secret is good for the country — or merely good for his own bottom line," she added.

Musk in 2024 spent over $250 million to help send Trump back to the White House and aid other GOP candidates in their respective races.

Business Insider reached out to Trump's transition team for comment.

• A former Disney employee agreed to plead guilty to altering allergen info on restaurant menus.
• Michael Scheuer admitted to the hack, as well as adding swastikas to the memus.
• He faces up to 10 years in prison for his charges, according to the plea agreement.

A former menu production manager for Disney World has admitted to altering allergen information and adding swastikas to menus as part of a plea agreement.

Federal authorities charged Michael Scheuer in October with causing the transmission of a program, information, code, or command to a protected computer and intentionally causing damage. Disney had fired Scheuer months earlier for misconduct, according to the criminal complaint.

In a plea agreement filed Friday in Florida federal court, first reported by Court Watch, Scheuer pleaded guilty to hacking and one count of aggravated identity theft. He faces a maximum of 10 years and a mandatory minimum of two years in prison for the charges.

The plea says the government agreed to recommend that Scheuer receive a downward adjustment on the length of his sentence for agreeing to take responsibility for the charges.

Scheuer also agreed to pay restitution to his victims, including Disney.

The agreement says that Scheuer changed allergen information on some of Disney's menus to falsely show that items were safe for people with allergies, which "could have had fatal consequences depending on the type and severity of the customer's allergy."

Scheuer also admitted to changing the regions of wines on some menus, some of which he changed to the locations of mass shootings, the plea agreement says.

"Scheuer also added or embedded images to one or more menus, including in one instance a swastika," the document says.

On some Disney menus that contained a QR code to show a digital version of the menu, Scheuer changed the code to direct to a website promoting the boycott of Israel, the document says. Manufacturers printed some menus with the falsified QR codes, but caught the change before they were distributed.

By the end of his hacking campaign, Scheuer had impacted "nearly every menu in the system," according to court documents.

"The entire repository of menus had to be reverted to older versions and brought up to date manually," the agreement says.

Scheuer's attorney, David Haas, did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider. Haas told CNBC that Scheuer is "prepared to accept responsibility for his conduct."

"Unfortunately, he has mental health issues that were exacerbated when Disney fired him upon his return from paternity leave," he told the outlet.

Disney did not immediately return a request for comment about Scheuer's plea agreement.

Disney became embroiled in a separate controversy involving food allergens in 2024 when a widowed husband filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the entertainment giant. The lawsuit said the man's wife experienced a "severe acute allergic reaction" and died after eating at a restaurant operated at Disney Springs.

Lawyers for Disney asked an Orange County court to dismiss the lawsuit because the husband previously purchased theme park tickets and signed up for a free Disney+ trial, but criticism from the public caused them to reverse course.

• Jamie Dimon urges incoming president Donald Trump to prioritize immigration policy in his second term.
• Trump has said he plans to conduct mass deportation in his second term.
• Dimon also advocates for education reform and doubling the earned income tax credit.

With Donald Trump set to take office in about a week, top Wall Street leaders are coming forward with advice.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon honed in on immigration policy when asked what advice he'd give Trump for his second presidential term in a CBS News interview posted Sunday. "Get immigration, border security right," he said. "Then proper immigration after that."

Since his debut on the political stage, Trump has been outspoken about immigration policy. On the campaign trail last year Trump said he would carry out the "largest domestic deportation in American history." He also plans to end birthright citizenship, build new ICE detention centers, and reinstate his first-term policies. During his first term in office, he curtailed legal immigration rates, signed an executive order that suspended several types of work visas, including H-1B visas, which are crucial for the tech industry, and completed hundreds of miles of construction on a border wall between the US and Mexico.

Dimon says he agrees with Trump's big-picture view on immigration. "You could talk about specifics and disagree, but the concern around border security, obviously, every country in the world is concerned about that," he said.

Beyond immigration, Dimon says he wants to see changes to our education system. "I would love to see high schools, community colleges, and colleges measured on what is the outcome of the kid being educated. Like do they get a job that's well paying, not do they do math well," he said. "I believe that would put a lot more pressure on schools to teach skills that can give you really good paying jobs." That includes jobs in fields like data analytics, manufacturing, nursing, compliance, and financial skills, he said.

He's also in favor of eliminating tax breaks, even for the wealthy. He proposed doubling the earned income tax credit: a refundable tax credit for low to moderate-income workers, particularly those with children. "That alone would put a lot more money into the pockets of people who are working who are lower income, it would go into their communities, into their families," he said.

• Dana White grew the UFC into a multibillion-dollar company after acquiring it in 2001.
• In that time, White also became a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump.
• Now, he is joining Meta's board of directors.

Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White has been on quite the journey over the last two decades.

From managing MMA fighters to appearing at the Republican National Convention three times to support President-elect Donald Trump, White has become a global figure in both sports and politics.

And now he's entered the sphere of Big Tech, joining the board of directors at Mark Zuckerberg's Meta.

Here's how White went from a small-time trainer to the board of one of the world's most influential tech companies in just a few years.

White purchases the UFC in 2001 for $2 million.

White started out as a boxing trainer in Las Vegas and then Boston before shifting focus to mixed martial arts, he told Forbes in a 2014 interview.

Eventually, White managed MMA fighters who participated in UFC bouts, which resulted in a contract dispute with the UFC. White told the outlet that the contract dispute motivated him to find a way to beat the UFC.

His plan involved two of his childhood friends, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.

"I ended up finding that out, that they're in trouble, and they're probably going to go out of business," White said, referring to the UFC. "And I'd been to a [UFC] event, and I was looking around and thinking, 'Imagine if they did this, and imagine if they did that. This thing could actually be really big.'"

So, White said, he called his friends and suggested that together they try to buy the UFC.

The brothers founded Zuffa, LLC and purchased the UFC for $2 million in 2001. White took over as president and received a 9% stake. He then began to turn the company into an MMA juggernaut.

That year, White hosted a UFC battle at the now-defunct Trump Taj Mahal casino and resort in Atlantic City.

White told The Hill in 2018 that the UFC's popularity grew, in part, because of Trump's early support. When he first purchased the UFC, the company, as well as mixed martial arts more broadly, the sport faced criticism for its violent fighting style.

"Any good thing that happened to me in my career, Donald Trump was the first to pick up the phone and call and say 'congratulations,'" he told the outlet.

White takes the UFC mainstream.

Under its new leadership, the UFC gradually became a mainstream success. MMA stars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey attracted more attention to the sport, which led to more ticket sales and higher revenue.

In 2016, the company said it raked in $17.7 million in ticket sales, and over 20,400 guests attended UFC 205, its inaugural event in New York City. UFC 306, held last September in Las Vegas, generated $22 million in ticket sales.

The official UFC website said its programming is now broadcast in over 165 countries and territories to over one billion households worldwide. BetMGM, a sports betting partnership between MGM Resorts International and Entain Holding, valued the UFC at $12 billion in November 2024.

White faces controversy as head of the UFC.

White's time with the UFC hasn't been seamless. Some fighters have accused White of underpaying them.

Last October, a Las Vegas judge approved a class action settlement that requires the UFC to pay $375 million to fighters who accused the UFC, and its parent company, of violating antitrust laws to block rival promoters and maintain exclusive deals with fighters. The UFC and White have denied any wrongdoing.

Some also criticized White for his push to hold UFC events during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and after a video published by TMZ showed him slapping his wife, Anne White, in 2023.

The UFC is sold in a multibillion-dollar deal.

The Fertitta brothers sold the UFC in 2016 for just under $4 billion. White remained its president after the sale and became CEO in 2023 after the UFC's parent company merged with WWE to create TKO Group Holdings.

White remains the face of the UFC, which often attracts celebrities and other big-name figures to events. Trump attended UFC 309 after winning the presidential election in November. Elon Musk, Kid Rock, and Joe Rogan also appeared.

Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos have also attended UFC fights.

White told The Hill in 2018 that he would "never say anything negative about Donald Trump because he was there when other people weren't."

White joins Trump's inner circle.

White has advocated for Trump and his political positions since the beginning of the president-elect's political career. He spoke onstage during the 2016 Republican National Convention, appeared virtually in 2020, and again at the most recent convention in 2024.

White has also appeared at Trump campaign events and gave a speech during Trump's 2024 presidential election night event.

"Nobody deserves this more than him, and nobody deserves this more than his family does. This is what happens when the machine comes after you," White said, according to The Hill.

White called Trump a "fighter."

"I'm in the tough guy business, and this man is the toughest, most resilient human being that I've ever met in my life," he said, standing among Trump's family.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta appoints White to its board of directors.

Meta announced in January that White and two others would join its board of directors.

"I've never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta's board. I am a huge believer that social media and AI are the future," White said in a statement. "I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level."

Zuckerberg's interest in MMA and the UFC has helped foster a relationship between the two men. Like White, Zuckerberg has also supported Trump and his policy positions. Zuckerberg recently announced Meta would roll back DEI efforts and dial back content moderation.

Zuckerberg told Rogan on his podcast last week that he is "optimistic" about Trump's potential impact on American businesses.

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

• Meta announced big changes to kick off the new year, including ending third-party fact-checking and DEI programs.
• The moves illustrate the latest evolution in Mark Zuckerberg's leadership.
• You might call it Zuckerberg 3.0 — and it comes as Donald Trump takes power.

Mark Zuckerberg has shown himself to be the ultimate Silicon Valley shapeshifter, and in the first couple weeks of 2025, we got our best look yet at the latest version of the Meta CEO.

To kick off the new year, Zuckerberg made some big changes at his company, including ditching third-party fact-checking and slashing DEI initiatives.

He appears to be remaking Meta, which did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, at least partly in the image of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. And he doesn't seem too concerned about the backlash he's facing in some quarters, including from the same people who villainized him during the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the 2016 election, or even his own Meta employees — many of whom have reacted negatively to his latest decision to roll back DEI efforts.

His recent moves hint that he's entering a new era, one in which his leadership increasingly reflects Trump's tastes.

Zuckerberg's transformation

For years, Zuckerberg was known as an almost robotic presence in Silicon Valley. Some people criticized him for copying ideas rather than innovating, and others held onto his image as a wunderkind wearing hoodies or too much sunscreen.

By the end of 2023, though, the Meta CEO had undergone a substantial makeover and was garnering praise in business and cultural circles.

Zuck got shredded and was winning jiu-jitsu competitions. He went on popular podcasts, like Joe Rogan's, to discuss his workouts and make fun of himself.

As a business leader, he acted as the adult in the room and led Meta's "year of efficiency," which turned the company's stock around.

In 2024, he continued his transformation: He ditched his jeans and hoodie uniform for designer T-shirts and gold chains. And his adoration for his wife Priscilla Chan — as evidenced through gifts like a statue of her, a custom Porsche minivan, and his very own version of "Get Low" — won him fans.

His newfound swagger grew into a new kind of boldness.

In the fall of last year, he said his biggest regret in his two decades of running Meta was taking responsibility and apologizing for problems that he believed weren't Meta's fault.

Zuck's next era comes as Trump takes power

Cut to 2025. Zuckerberg now appears to embrace some of the "anti-woke" ideas favored by some political billionaires like Musk, Peter Thiel, and, of course, Trump.

While Zuckerberg didn't endorse Trump — or Harris — in the 2024 election, he and other tech CEOs were quick to congratulate Trump on his victory. Zuck met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago weeks after the election and, through Meta, donated $1 million to his inaugural committee.

Now, he's taking what he calls "masculine energy" and putting it into action at Meta.

"Masculine energy, I think, is good, and obviously society has plenty of that, but I think that corporate culture was really trying to get away from it," he said in an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that aired on Friday. "It's like you want feminine energy, you want masculine energy."

"But I do think the corporate culture sort of had swung toward being this somewhat more neutered thing," he added.

He started the new year by putting Dana White, the UFC CEO and Trump's longtime ally, on Meta's board and replacing the company's head of policy, liberal Nick Clegg, with former GOP lobbyist Joel Kaplan.

Then, he ended third-party fact-checking on Meta platforms, which some conservatives have criticized, in favor of a more hands-off approach. Like X, Meta will now use "community notes" to allow users to police each other.

"The recent elections feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech," Zuckerberg said while announcing the changes, implying that the choice was, at least in part, a response to the political landscape.

Meta's CMO, Alex Schultz, also told BI that Trump's election influenced the policy change.

The decision has come under scrutiny, with some saying the lack of content moderation opens the door to hate speech.

Under the policy, Meta users can say that members of the LGBTQ+ community are mentally ill for being gay or transgender, for example.

Dozens of fact-checking organizations have signed a letter calling it "a step backward for those who want to see an internet that prioritizes accurate and trustworthy information."

Still, others, including Musk and Trump, lauded the change.

"Honestly, I think they have come a long way, Meta, Facebook," the president-elect said on Tuesday.

In the recent Rogan interview, Zuckerberg said while some may see the timing of the content changes as "purely a political thing," it's something he has been thinking about for a while.

"I feel like I just have a much greater command now of what I think the policy should be and like, this is how it's going to be going forward," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg's recent decision to cut Meta's DEI initiatives could also placate conservatives, who have criticized such policies.

While Trump has not commented on the DEI decision, he has criticized DEI policies in the past.

On Friday, Meta's vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, said in an internal memo that the company would no longer have a team focused on DEI or consider diversity in hiring or supplier decisions.

"The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing," she said in a memo.

The decision sparked a backlash among some. Internally, nearly 400 employees reacted with a teary-eyed emoji to the announcement; one called it "disappointing," and another said it was a "step backward," BI reported on Friday.

"Wow, we really capitulated on a lot of our supposed values this week," another employee commented, seemingly referring to both the DEI and fact-checking moves.

Others, though, did seem to support the move: 139 employees "liked" the post, and 57 responded with a heart emoji.

• A luxury Pacific Palisades mansion once featured in "Succession" has been destroyed by the LA fires, the Daily Mail reported.
• The San Onofre estate was purchased by tech CEO Austin Russell in 2021 for $83 million, per Realtor.com
• The Palisades Fire has now burned through more than 23,000 acres.

A luxury Pacific Palisades mansion once featured in the television drama "Succession" has been destroyed by the wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area, the Daily Mail reported.

Photos published by the Mail seemingly show the house reduced to charred beams and rubble.

The mansion was purchased by the founder and CEO of the lidar manufacturer Luminar Technologies, Austin Russell, for $83 million in 2021, per Realtor.com.

The 20,000-square-foot house, known as the San Onofre estate, featured six bedrooms and 18 bathrooms and had been available to rent for $450,000 a month.

The house had previously featured in the season four premiere of the Emmy Award-winning HBO series "Succession" in 2023.

A representative for Russell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, which was sent outside regular working hours.

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica is one of a number of blazes raging through the Los Angeles area this week.

The Palisades Fire has burned through over 23,000 acres and is 11% contained as of Sunday, according to Cal Fire.

The blaze, which began on Tuesday, has so far damaged or destroyed over 5,000 structures.

The Pacific Palisades area is home to a number of celebrities, many of whom have now lost their homes to the fire. Those affected include Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, and Milo Ventimiglia.

The Palisades Charter High School — used as a set for movies like "Carrie" and 2003's "Freaky Friday" — has also been damaged in the fires.

Meanwhile, a Spanish Colonial revival mansion in Altadena that was featured in "Hacks" and the Marvel series "Runaways" was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Other Los Angeles landmarks related to the industry have also been lost, including the Will Rogers Ranch house.

The LA County Medical Examiner has reported 16 deaths related to the wildfires so far, with five linked to the Palisades Fire.

• Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, Trump's pick to lead the EPA, made $186,000 from paid op-eds and speeches.
• Some of those op-eds criticized climate policies and ESG.
• The former NY congressman also made $45,475 from gambling at casinos.

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, has made millions of dollars in recent years from consulting, speaking fees, and paid op-eds, according to a financial disclosure made public on Saturday.

That includes tens of thousands of dollars to write about environmental and climate change-related topics. In one instance, Zeldin was paid $25,000 for an op-ed in which he likened environmental, social, and governance investing, or ESG, to the practices of disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried.

A staunchly pro-Trump Republican first elected to Congress in 2014, Zeldin left office after mounting an unsuccessful bid for governor of New York in 2022. As retiring lawmakers in both parties often do, Zeldin cashed in, establishing a consulting firm to advise corporate clients while enmeshing himself in the well-funded world of conservative political advocacy.

It's paid off. According to the disclosure document, which covers Zeldin's major financial activities since the beginning of 2023, the ex-congressman has made a total of $775,000 in salary income and between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from his main firm, Zeldin Consulting.

He's also received $144,999 from America First Works, a pro-Trump nonprofit where he has a board seat, along with $65,500 from paid speeches and $15,000 from an entity called "Plymouth Union Public Research."

He also got lucky — literally — winning a combined $45,475 in the last two years from gambling at the Golden Nugget, Venetian, and Atlantis casinos.

"All nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their respective agencies," Trump-Vance Transition Spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement.

Zeldin did not respond to a request for comment.

$120,500 for writing op-eds

The ex-congressman's disclosure reveals a variety of income streams, including substantial speaking fees from GOP organizations in Florida and California, a Long Island synagogue, and a Turning Point USA event in Michigan in June. In multiple instances, Zeldin was paid over $10,000 for a single appearance.

He also disclosed a combined $26,775 in payments from Fox News and Nexstar Media Group for "use of media studio."

The document lists payments from several public relations firms for paid op-eds, listing the news outlet and the date of publication. The titles of those opinion pieces are not listed, but Business Insider identified several that matched the publication and date included in the disclosure.

Among the most notable were a series of paid op-eds on climate issues — Zeldin could soon lead the agency responsible for the federal government's environmental policies.

In an op-ed for Real Clear Policy published in March 2023 entitled "How Congress Can Stop the Next FTX," Zeldin called on Congress to investigate ESG practices and the nonprofit watchdog Better Markets, arguing that companies may use ESG to avoid regulatory scrutiny in the same manner that Bankman-Fried used political contributions to curry favor with Washington.

The disclosure indicates that Zeldin was paid $25,000 to write that op-ed. He also appears to have made an additional $10,000 for another Newsday op-ed in August about ESG and $3,000 for a Fox News op-ed in July that criticized New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's climate policies and called on her to lift the state's fracking ban.

Zeldin was also paid to write about other topics, including $10,000 for a New York Post op-ed criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris' housing policy proposals, $10,000 for a Washington Times op-ed calling on regulators to crack down on China-linked financial platforms, and $15,000 for a Washington Examiner op-ed accusing the Biden administration of targeting Republican-run states via Medicaid regulations.

In some cases, Zeldin was paid even when the articles never saw the light of day. His disclosures list two op-eds that were never published, for which he received $10,000 and $30,000.

In total, Zeldin reported $120,500 in op-ed payments. The original clients who made those payments are unclear, and Zeldin and the Trump-Vance transition did not respond to a question about the original sources.

As with other nominees, Zeldin has agreed to divest himself from his consulting business if he's confirmed as the next EPA administrator, according to his ethics agreement. His confirmation hearing is set for Thursday, January 16.

• TikTok faces a potential US ban if its owner, ByteDance, doesn't find a buyer in about a week.
• TikTok allows users to download and save video content, but it can be tedious.
• Some competitors, like Triller, also offer ways to migrate TikTok content.

With a potential TikTok ban in the United States fast approaching, some social media users are looking for the best way to archive their content.

Congress passed a law last year that would limit the influence of social media apps tied to countries the United States deems foreign adversaries. The US then gave TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, which is Chinese, a January 19 deadline to find a buyer for the app in the United States or face a ban.

TikTok then challenged the law in court. On Friday, the Supreme Court heard arguments from TikTok and the Biden administration as it considered whether to delay the law's effective date, which is now set for January 19.

Legal experts told Business Insider that they expect the Supreme Court will uphold the TikTok ban. "I expect the court to deny the stay, probably soon, and also uphold the law," Matthew Schettenhelm, a litigation and policy analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said.

During Friday's hearing, lawyers for TikTok said the social media app could "go dark" and "essentially stop operating" in the United States if the court upholds the law.

If that's the case, TikTok's millions of users may be looking for a way to extract their content ahead of time. Here are a few options.

How to migrate TikTok videos

Triller, a media and marketing company that once positioned itself as a competitor to TikTok, unveiled this week a service that promises to "back up" all of a user's TikTok videos and reupload them to the Triller app.

However, the feature's process is not as easy as the "click of a button" that Triller promises, according to TechCrunch. Once users agree to the terms of service, they can connect their TikTok account to the website, which gives Triller access to videos, profile information, and more.

Triller sends users an email once all of their TikTok content has been downloaded. Then, users have to make a Triller account and follow instructions on uploading their TikTok content onto the Triller app.

How to save your TikTok videos manually

For users who want to avoid giving their personal information to yet another social media platform, the best way to save their TikTok content is likely already inside the app.

Though it is a more tedious process, TikTok allows users to download their content one video at a time from inside the platform.

Inside the TikTok app, you can go to any video you want to download, press the "Share" button, and tap "Save video" to download the video to your device. According to TikTok, if the "Save video" option does not appear, that means the person who posted the content does not allow video saves.

TikTok also allows you to save a copy of any content you post to your device while posting it to TikTok. Inside the "post" screen, you can tap the "more options" button and choose "save to device."

TikTok also lets users download a copy of their entire profile data from inside the app. Inside the TikTok app, users can tap the "profile" button at the bottom of the screen, then tap the "menu" button at the top of the screen and navigate to "settings and privacy." Users can then choose "Account" in the settings menu and tap "Download your data."

• Donald Trump's suggestion for increased NATO defense spending has divided European countries.
• Trump called for NATO members to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP.
• Many European NATO members have struggled to meet the current 2% defense spending goal.

Donald Trump's suggestion that NATO members should allocate 5% of their GDP on defense has prompted mixed reactions in Europe.

The president-elect floated the figure — which is more than double the current target — at a press conference on Tuesday.

"I think NATO should have 5%," he said. "They can all afford it, but they should be at 5%, not 2%."

Currently, no alliance member spends 5% of GDP on defense.

NATO estimates showed Poland was set to lead the alliance in defense spending as a percentage of GDP in 2024, with Warsaw investing more than 4% of its economic output on defense. Estonia and the US followed, spending 3.43% and 3.38% respectively.

Trump's remarks sparked dismay among some European officials.

Ralf Stegner, a member of Germany's Social Democratic Party, wrote in a Facebook post that Trump's comments were "delusional and truly insane."

"Where are the resources supposed to come from to solve the real-world problems?" he said. "We have too much poverty, environmental destruction, civil wars, migration, and too few resources to combat this more actively."

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto cast doubt on the feasibility of Trump's proposal: "I don't think it will be five, which at this time would be impossible for almost all nations in the world," he said, per Italian news agency Ansa.

But Crosetto added that he did expect the target to be raised above 2%.

Italy was on track to spend 1.49% of GDP on defense in 2024, while Germany — which is gearing up for a snap federal election in February — was set for 2.12%.

For nations closer to Russia and its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, increasing defense expenditure may not seem like such a bad idea, however.

Warsaw has already signaled its support for Trump's demand, with the Polish defense minister telling the Financial Times that Poland "can be the transatlantic link between this challenge set by President Trump and its implementation in Europe."

In Estonia, the shared border with Russia has led to heightened tensions and an increasing focus on defense.

Reacting to Trump's comments, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told Politico that it was the "message that Estonia has been advocating for years."

"This is a clear signal to Putin that he should not dare to test NATO's nerves and that we are prepared for it," he said.

At a Northern Group partners' meeting last year, Estonia's defense minister urged allies to increase spending to 2.5% to counter the threat of Russian aggression.

Sweden, which has also increased defense spending since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, also backed the call for increased spending.

"There is a broad consensus in Sweden that we need to invest more in our defense," the country's foreign minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, said, per Politico. "US governments have long urged European countries to increase their defense spending and to bear more of their own defense costs. We share this view."

Lithuania has also prioritized defense spending amid the growing Russian threat. Its president, Gitanas Nausėda, recently called on European countries to "show more support for the US global agenda" by increasing their share of the defense burden.

For his part, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said Europe knows it must spend more on defense.

During a trip to Warsaw in November, Rutte praised Poland for its defense spending efforts, saying it sent "a clear message not only to our adversaries but also to the United States. That Europe understands it must do more to ensure our shared security. And that starts with spending more and also fielding more capabilities."

Nevertheless, analysts say Trump's 5% figure is unrealistic.

"Many European NATO countries are funding higher military spending through debt, cuts in other expenditure areas, and proposals to increase taxes," Nan Tian, a senior researcher and program director at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, told Business Insider. "These existing increases would push military spending to a level about half of what Trump proposed of 5% of GDP, thus I don't think this is a realistic target."

"5% of GDP level would be higher than the same countries spent at the height of the Cold War," Tian added.

Ruther Deyermond, a senior lecturer at King's College London's Department of War Studies, went further, calling Trump's suggestion a "coercive tactic."

"It looks as if the point of the 5% demand is for it to be unachievable - the intention seems to be that states will fail," Deyermond wrote on X. "It's a coercive tactic (pay up or your country gets it) that also signals that NATO is no longer a meaningful alliance."

• 22-year-old Tabitha Snavely evacuated her apartment ahead of the Palisades wildfire.
• Snavely, who works multiple jobs, said many in her building were blue-collar workers or older people.
• She evacuated to her parents' house and told BI she needs to find a new place to live that is closer to work.

This as-told-to essay is based on interviews with Tabitha Snavely, a 22-year-old living in the Palisades. Her identity and employment has been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm 22 years old, and I live alone in a rented medium-sized apartment building in the Palisades. I've lived in California my whole life so this isn't my first time dealing with a fire.

On Tuesday night, I woke up to the alert of an evacuation. I had about 45 minutes to pack and feed my dog really quickly because I didn't know when we'd be in a safe area. As I was packing up, I started smelling smoke in my unit. As soon as I started smelling the smoke, I was like, "OK, I need to leave now."

I threw some clothes in a suitcase, grabbed my dog, loaded up my car, and started driving. I grabbed everything that I had the instinct to get out in an emergency, like my phone, laptop, some clothes.

When I pulled out of the parking garage, I could see so much smoke and then hundreds of cars trying to get out. Luckily, I am closer to the Pacific Coast Highway, so I was able to get out pretty quick.

I evacuated to San Diego. My family thought it was a better idea for me to evacuate here with them than to go to a friend's in Santa Monica or Hollywood because as the fire keeps growing, more people seem to keep getting evacuated.

The aftermath

I saw on the Watch Duty app on Wednesday that my apartment building was in a bright red zone — indicating it was in the path of the fire. My unit specifically is tucked away on the inside of the building, so I was hoping that not everything in my unit was demolished.

I planned to check on it over the weekend. Now, I've seen news footage showing my street and buildings that burned, including my apartment building.

Everything I left behind may now be gone: photos, books, my college diploma. I had my great-grandmother's quilt that she made for me before she passed away. I also had a set of plates and mugs that my grandma gave to me when she died. A lot of my things are thrifted or are hand-me-downs so they're not easily replaceable.

At the same time, my parents are selling their house, so the place I could stay for evacuation, although it isn't close to my job, is very temporary. I feel like a floater with nowhere to go because I don't want to impose on my friends too long without a secure plan for where to go.

A lot of my friends live in Santa Monica, Brentwood, or Malibu, and they have been starting to get evacuated now, but some of them have been able to return to their homes.

I'm close with a lot of the older people who have lived in the Palisades for decades. I would hang out with them at the coffee shops for hours. I don't know how any of them are doing because many of them only have home phones and not cellphones.

I have a hard time feeling at home, but this apartment finally felt like home. I loved everything about it.

It's not only wealthy people living in the Palisades

I know also that a lot of people think that the Palisades is very wealthy, but I don't feel rich. I have multiple jobs. A lot of the people in my building are blue-collar workers, and there are a lot of older people in the Palisades.

I work at a coconut water company, which allowed me to work remotely for the next week before returning in person. I also am a personal assistant for someone who owns a film production company, which also gave me the week off.

Luckily, I have renter's insurance, but I don't know where I will be living. Airbnb has offered a free week to people who have lost their homes, but I filled out the form and haven't heard anything back yet.

I have friends who have offered their couches for me to sleep on while I figure out what to do next, but I still do not have a definitive plan because I've been so scatterbrained since the fire evacuation alert woke me up.

I think we need to keep more compassion alive at this time because online, I've been seeing a lot of people say that the Palisades is very rich and they can all just afford to rebuild.

No one deserves to lose their home.

• China has been busy lately showcasing its military might and hybrid warfare tactics.
• The moves come ahead of Trump's return to the White House this month.
• Its activities highlight China's ambitions and intentions and the challenge it poses.

Since the 2024 US presidential election, China has been surprisingly busy with overt and covert displays of might that represent a challenge for the US, both the current and incoming administrations.

China, long identified as the Pentagon's "pacing challenge," has flexed new military capabilities, increased pressure on US allies and partners, and engaged in hybrid warfare in cyberspace.

Over the past couple of months, suspected next-generation Chinese combat aircraft have appeared, China's navy has launched new warships, the Chinese military simulated a naval blockade of Japan for the first time and carried out massive drills near Taiwan, the US has blamed Chinese hackers for major hacks of the Treasury Department and telecommunications firms, and concerns have been raised about China's involvement in damage to critical undersea infrastructure.

Some of Beijing's recent actions might be "part of a long-term strategy to shape a new (or returning) administration's approach to China and deter external support for Taiwan," Matthew Funaiole, a senior fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider.

China has been flexing its military muscles in a big way

China deployed around 90 of its navy and coast guard vessels around Taiwan, as well as southern Japanese islands, for a large-scale exercise, Taiwan said in December. Beijing didn't announce anything ahead of time and hasn't acknowledged it as a military drill.

Taiwan recorded over 60 incursions into its air defense identification zone and said Chinese forces were simulating attacks on foreign ships and disrupting the navigation of others.

The exercise was China's largest since the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis. It followed Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's visit to several Pacific partners, which Beijing condemned, and came ahead of Trump's return to the White House. China routinely ramps up demonstrations of military power at symbolically important times for both international and domestic audiences.

Giselle Donnelly, a senior fellow in defense and national security policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said that the timing of these exercises "is more than coincidence," not unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts over the last few months to put pressure on Ukraine before Trump takes office and US aid to Kyiv faces an uncertain future.

Chinese leadership may see exercises like this as a way to "get an early read" on the incoming Trump administration's approach to US-Chinese politics, she added.

In December, China also held military exercises resembling a naval blockade in the Miyako Strait between Japan's main island and Miyako Island, Japanese officials told The Yomiuri Shimbun, which reported the news earlier this month.

And just before ringing in 2025, China announced its air and naval forces were conducting combat readiness patrols around the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed area in the South China Sea near the Philippines that was the site of heightened and repeated confrontations between Beijing and Manila last year. Chinese vessels were accused of harassing Philippine ships, in some cases ramming them and blasting crews with water.

China has unveiled new capabilities

In November, China unveiled advanced aircraft at its Zhuhai Airshow, including the J-35A land-based stealth fighter. The Chinese developer hailed the fifth-gen jet's stealth, informationization, and networking capabilities, calling it a "point guard" for Chinese airpower — similar to how the F-35 stealth fighter has been referred to as a "quarterback" by Lockheed Martin and the US military.

The next month, however, China surprised Chinese aviation watchers with what observers suspect are prototypes of next-generation aircraft. The Pentagon said in its latest Chinese military power report that Beijing is developing new medium- and long-range stealth bombers to strike regional and global targets." It's unclear if the aircraft, which were flown in broad daylight, are part of those efforts.

China also launched the warship CNS Sichuan, China's first Type 076, and the world's largest amphibious assault vessel — an upgrade from China's Type 075 warship. The large ship features an electromagnetic catapult system for launching and retrieving fixed-wing and unmanned aircraft.

For several years now, the US Department of Defense has noted China's growing navy, already the world's largest, and shipbuilding prowess, as the industrial juggernaut churns out new vessels.

China has been called out for dangerous cyber activity

Washington has accused Chinese actors of engaging in major hacks lately.

Just before the new year, the Treasury revealed that suspected Chinese state-sponsored hackers had breached its systems and were able to "access certain unclassified documents" from department workstations. The department said it was working "fully characterize the incident and determine its overall impact."

The hack followed the discovery of a yearslong breach by China of US telecommunications companies. Top targets of the hack included Trump, his pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, and current VP Kamala Harris. Washington linked this hack to an incident involving Microsoft last summer. Lawmakers have expressed concern that encrypted calls and texts may no longer be secure.

White House Deputy national security advisor Anne Neuberger said that data belonging to millions of Americans was likely compromised by the hack and noted the US doesn't believe these hackers have been "fully removed" from targeted systems. 

Chinese actors are also believed to have accessed the Justice Department's list of wiretapped phone numbers related to potential espionage crimes. There have long been concerns about China's hybrid warfare and its potential for systems destruction warfare in a crisis situation.

China has also been accused of sabotaging undersea cables near Taiwan and been linked to an incident in the Baltic Sea. Experts and officials have assessed the efforts are in line with the larger hybrid warfare tactics employed by Beijing.

Over the past two months, China has showcased capabilities and engaged in actions that represent potential challenges for the US and its allies and partners. These are issues the incoming Trump administration will continue to face.

And it isn't China alone. US and other Western officials have increasingly expressed alarm at cooperation between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, all of which have been stepping up their efforts to confront the US-led world order.

• I get manicures every month, and I prefer structured nails when I don't do extensions.
• I spent $110 on a structured Gel-X set, which included soft builder gel, nail art, and cuticle oil.
• I liked the low maintenance of this manicure, and it lasted four weeks.

For most of 2024, I tested several different types of manicures, from Japanese and Russian to intricately painted press-ons and at-home gel. By the end of the year, I was thrilled to be going back to basics with my go-to Chicago nail tech.

For this appointment, I opted for a $110 structured Gel-X manicure with some added artistic flair.

A structured manicure is similar to a regular gel set, except there's an extra layer of soft or hard gel to build up your natural nail before applying the polish. This layer creates an apex, making for a stronger foundation that lessens the likelihood of breakage.

With nail health and manicure longevity at the top of my priorities list, here's how it went.

It was nice to return to my usual nail artists.

After months of experimental manicures, I went back to my usual licensed nail tech, Teresa "Tere" Rodriguez, a Chicago-based artist who specializes in gel extensions and structured manicures.

I get manicures once a month, which can really put a gamble on my nail health. I adore long, heavily decorated nails, but those tend to be more damaging — especially when I break one.

Whenever I'm looking for a break from extensions, I opt for structured manicures to (hopefully) better protect my nail health.

Plus, I like that they typically last three to four weeks as opposed to the standard two to three.

The manicure prep followed a pretty simple process.

Based on Rodriguez's website options, I booked a "Tier 3 Extra Intermediate" appointment for 6:30 p.m. That level included charms, textures, and nail art.

Rodriguez started the appointment by prepping my nails and conducting cuticle care like any standard manicure.

Next came the builder gel.

Once the nails were prepped, Rodriguez followed up by applying a slip layer, which is a thin layer of builder gel. They then added a thicker layer of soft builder gel, which created a solid apex.

After the builder came a base layer of black gel polish.

I opted for a flashy gold design.

I sent Rodriguez inspiration images for my manicure a week before my appointment. The main theme was gold glamor with lots of gemstones.

Since I'm only working with the size of my actual nail beds (as opposed to longer extensions), I had to be picky about the size, shape, and color I wanted the gemstones to be.

Rodriguez got to work adding 3D effects and rubbing gold chrome on top of the black gel on each nail. They then hand-placed a gemstone on nearly every open spot and secured them by curing the gel under the lamp.

Before curing each nail, the tech made sure I was happy with the design, which I really appreciated.

The set took about two hours in total.

With prep work, builder gel, curing, and designing, I knew I was in for the long haul.

Rodriguez and I usually chat to pass the time during the appointment, but they also offer silent appointment options, where clients can listen to a podcast or watch a show instead of talking.

I like to be involved in the design process of each nail, which can be time-consuming, so I wasn't surprised when my phone read 8:30 p.m. as Rodriguez applied cuticle oil to my finished nails.

After four weeks, I thought my nails still looked pretty decent.

Overall, I enjoyed how low-maintenance this set was. Although I feel more confident with long nails, I took comfort in the fact that I didn't have to worry much about breakage.

After four weeks, my manicure was still holding up — with the exception of a few wayward gemstones, which can be chalked up to my hands-on lifestyle. Because of the gold base, the missing gems didn't put much of a dent in the overall aesthetic.

Luckily, I didn't think the grow-out was too bad, which ultimately saved me money because I could skip a mid-month appointment. However, I was really interested in the health of my nails under the gel.

When I got the set removed, my nails looked a little thin but not as flimsy as I anticipated.

I wouldn't use a structured gel manicure as a way to grow out my natural nails, but I think it's great for low-maintenance upkeep.

• My daughter graduated from college and moved by herself.
• Still, as her mom, I can only think of the worst-case scenarios.
• As an empty nester, I feel a bit pushed to the side by her, and at the same time, I get it.

This past year, my now 22-year-old daughter graduated from college, moved out, and (in not so many words) told me she was fine on her own; thank you very much.

Of course, we all want our kids to fly the nest. We pray that they are strong, independent, and self-sufficient. Mine is all of the above and more; I marvel at her strength, determination, and resiliency — not to mention her ability to navigate the New York City subway system.

Still, my worry when she was a child and prone to skinned knees is nothing compared to how much I worry today.

I jump to worst-case scenarios

My mind imagines only the worst-case scenarios whenever she fails to answer a call or text. I send her cautionary news on Instagram and cringe when she and her boyfriend fly at odd hours into odd airports, seemingly to save money but also to give me a bleeding ulcer.

As she outlines their trip to Iceland, I bite my tongue and zone out somewhere between "climbing glaciers" and "exploring ice caves." For her 21st birthday, she went skydiving. I called my therapist, begging for her to prescribe me Valium. Instead, we agreed it was OK if I simply did some day drinking until I heard that she was back on solid ground. Did I mention she also recently scaled the side of a skyscraper and went axe-throwing?

I know my born-and-bred New York offspring has street smarts and can balance her own checkbook. Another bit of reassurance I have is that her boyfriend is skilled in martial arts and would hurl himself in front of a Marvel villain to protect her.

I just need to trust that she will Google what she doesn't know if she won't ask me. But resisting the urge to interfere takes nerves of steel. I freak out or offer advice a bit too emphatically: "No! You can't eat week-old salmon! No! You can't microwave tin foil! Yes! You need to wash your sheets once a week!" I weigh in when not asked for my viewpoint — it's a force of habit.

I have to let her grow

I know her better than she knows herself. I know what items she would order on a menu, what shoes would go with that dress, and what Netflix shows she would love. I want to spare her the pain of making mistakes and missing out, but I realize that will not allow her to grow.

So, instead, I resort to sending my suggestions in texts or DMs — that way, she can ignore them if she chooses. But I secretly rejoice every time she responds or "hearts" one. I feel appreciated and acknowledged as a member of her inner circle, though I am clearly on the outside looking in. To be left "unopened" is brutal, a crushing blow to my mom heart. But I know I need to get over it — or at least pretend not to be hurt.

My husband is much more hands-off, saying things like, "If she misses her flight because she leaves only an hour to get to the airport, she'll learn." But will she? Will she actually self-correct without me there to whisper in her ear? When, of course, she does, part of me wants to jump for joy, while the other part is a little sad. Does that mean I'm no longer needed?

As empty nesters, this next part of parenthood is tricky and treacherous. I feel a little bit like nearly-expired milk pushed to the back of the supermarket shelf. But I know this is how it's supposed to go. You raise them to let them go.

All of this is new and scary and fraught with emotion (and often, tears), not unlike her baby and toddler years. Sometimes, my heart aches like someone has torn a piece out of it. But I have adjusted these past 12 months, trying to give my daughter space and grace and myself the same. Like my now all-grown-up child, I will find my strength and balance — one small baby step at a time.

• Wealthy travelers are increasingly seeking luxury train trips.
• The Glacier Express' luxurious Excellence Class seats are often the first on the train to sell out.
• A ticket for the eight-hour journey through the Swiss Alps costs about $540, ten times the basic fare.

Glacier Express' Excellence Class seats could turn any miserable 8 a.m. train commuter into Francis Bourgeois.

That is if you can afford it.

A ticket for the plush eight-hour journey through the picturesque Swiss Alps costs about $540, tenfold the price of the train's basic fare. However, the sweet seats may be worth the cost.

The Glacier Express operates one of the most beautiful train trips in the world. Plus, they come with trendy bragging rights — these seats have become a hot commodity.

Frank Marini, president and CEO of Railbookers Group, told BI that his train-focused tour company saw a 68% spike in luxury bookings from 2023 to 2024.

"It keeps snowballing," Marini said. "We see passengers that have come back traveling with us on a lot of luxury rail, and they're like, 'well, where else is there luxury rail?'"

The answer? Around the world and especially in Switzerland, which has become "immensely popular" for luxe train experiences, Andrew Channell, Railbookers' senior vice president of product and operations, told BI, adding that it's one of his favorite destinations.

In the Swiss Alps, you'll find a particularly popular pick — the Glacier Express.

The iconic train brings guests on an eight-hour journey between the resort town of St. Moritz and the base of the iconic Matterhorn in Zermatt.

Along the way, travelers pass through 91 tunnels and 291 bridges, providing a picturesque peek at the snow-capped peaks, majestic gorges, and popular tourist towns.

With views like these — and a fortuitously ongoing rise in "coolcations" — it's no surprise that the train is often sold out, a company spokesperson told BI in an email.

Demand for the Glacier Express' top-tier Excellence Class seats has been particularly strong.

A red carpet rollout and Champagne welcome the train's highest-paying guests to their eight-hour journey (at a window seat, of course).

Relish the Swiss sights as you dine on a five-course meal with a wine pairing.

Expect dishes such as smoked trout with roasted beets and horseradish cream cheese.

If the included booze isn't satisfactory, you could buy a drink at the crystal chandelier-topped Glacier Bars exclusive to Excellence Class guests.

These upscale seats ring in at 490 Swiss Francs, about $537, each.

It's a steep price compared to the cheapest seats, which cost CHF 49, or about $54.

Yet, the sumptuous accommodations — which see a 94% to 96% occupancy rate throughout the year — are often the first section to be reserved, according to the spokesperson.

The company saw more than 281,300 passengers in 2023, the strongest year in its more than 90-year history.

To keep up with demand, the Glacier Express increased its winter capacity in 2024, accommodating almost 290,000 guests. (It operates 1,820 trips annually, about 70% in the summer.)

After all, Disney's Matterhorn bobsleds likely don't compare to views of the real thing.