• Donald Trump champions the working class but his policies are bad news for them, Paul Krugman says.
• The Nobel-winning economist says tariffs and deportations will hurt instead of help the poor.
• "A lot of people are going to get brutally scammed," Krugman said.

Donald Trump rode to victory in the US presidential race by pledging to put America first and fight for blue-collar workers. Paul Krugman says he'll only make their lives harder.

The economist, who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2008, criticized the president-elect's plans to raise tariffs and cut taxes during Tuesday's episode of "The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent" podcast.

He told The New Republic show that those and other policies would lead to the working class paying higher prices while high earners keep more of their money.

"Even more than usual for a Republican, he appears to have an extremely regressive economic program in mind, one that really will effectively redistribute income away from working-class voters to the top," Krugman said.

American households are already being pinched by inflation, which spiked to a 40-year high of more than 9% in the summer of 2022 and remains above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

On top of higher prices for food, fuel, rent, and other basics, many consumers are also paying more toward their credit cards, car loans, and mortgages.

That's because the Fed, in a bid to curb inflation, increased its benchmark rate from zero to north of 5.25% in under 17 months, and has kept it as high as 4.5% for now.

The battle over groceries

Krugman, a former MIT and Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist, zeroed in on grocery prices. Trump said during his campaign that he would reduce them, but he's walked that claim back in recent weeks.

Yet recent surveys show that his supporters still expect him to do so, Krugman said, despite the fact that broader prices are still rising and deflation is almost universally regarded as undesirable for an economy.

A CBS News/YouGov survey, conducted in late December with a nationally representative group of 2,244 US adults, found that 40% of Americans expect Trump to make food and grocery prices go down, exceeding the 36% who expect him to make them increase.

"A lot of people are going to get brutally scammed," Krugman said. Trump isn't just misleading people by saying they'll be better off once he's in office, he also doesn't appear to know how he'll deliver on his promises, Krugman continued. "So the scam is there is no plan."

Trump said last year that lowering grocery prices would be tricky, but improving supply chains and boosting domestic energy production could lower costs for farmers, who could then pass those savings onto consumers.

Tariffs and immigration

Separately, Krugman nodded to the fact that tariffs are a tax on imports, and businesses usually pass on their increased costs by charging higher prices to consumers.

He described their impact as "really bad," and said the fallout from Trump's proposed mass deportations would be "much, much worse." They'd be hugely disruptive and drive up prices in industries like agriculture, food processing, and construction, Krugman said, leaving the US with a shortage of workers for large-scale programs like rebuilding Florida after a hurricane.

The author and blogger also rang the alarm on Trump and his allies' fierce criticism of colleges and skepticism of higher education.

"We've been pulling ahead on technology, but an administration that's extremely hostile to universities and education is going to undermine that source of advantage as well," Krugman said.

"Trump wants to turn the clock back to 1896, and that's not good for the US economy."

• A Stanford law professor dropped Meta as a client in the wake of Mark Zuckerberg's recent changes.
• Mark Lemley represented Meta in a 2023 AI copyright case involving comedian Sarah Silverman and others.
• Zuckerberg's recent changes at Meta more closely align with Elon Musk's opinions and strategies.

Mark Lemley, a Stanford law professor and lawyer who represented Meta in a 2023 AI copyright case, says he has dropped the company as a client because of what he described as CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness."

"I have fired Meta as a client. While I think they are on the right side in the generative AI copyright dispute in which I represented them, and I hope they win, I cannot in good conscience serve as their lawyer any longer," Lemley, a partner at the law firm Lex Lumina, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday.

Lemley and Lex Lumina represented Meta when comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors sued the Facebook owner in 2023, saying it violated copyright by training the Llama AI model on books they had written.

At the time, Meta's lawyers argued the claims should fail because the authors could not prove Llama generated text that closely resembled their books. The case is ongoing.

In the LinkedIn post, Lemley also said he was changing how he used some Meta products.

He has deactivated his Threads account as he did not want to "support a Twitter-like site run by a Musk wannabe."

The lawyer also said he will no longer buy anything from ads he encounters on Facebook or Instagram.

"While I have thought about quitting Facebook, I find great value in the connections and friends I have here," Lemley wrote.

Lemley is a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. At Lex Lumina, he works with clients on cases pertaining to intellectual property, antitrust, and internet law.

Lemley, Lex Lumina, Sarah Silverman and Meta did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Changes at Meta

Since the start of the year, Zuckerberg has made sweeping changes to Meta. They include eliminating third-party fact-checking on the platform in the US in favor of community notes.

Meta also planned to reduce diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Zuckerberg recently said Meta needs more "masculine energy."

"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 told the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast.

Zuckerberg's changes at Meta resemble those made by Tesla and X owner Elon Musk.

Musk has spoken out against DEI and content moderation. Politically, Musk has thrown his support behind right-leaning political parties and figures in Europe and the US.

He's a prominent supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, and is joined lead of a commission called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

In politics and relationship-building with Trump, too, Zuckerberg's actions are starting to mirror Musk's. Meta donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. Zuckerberg also declined to endorse any candidate during the 2024 election campaign.

These moves mark a distinct change in how Zuckerberg approaches Trump.

In 2020, after Facebook was criticized over the then-president's violent remarks on the platform, Zuckerberg said he was "deeply shaken and disgusted by President Trump's divisive and incendiary rhetoric."

Trump was barred from Facebook and Instagram in 2021 for what Meta called praising "people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6." Meta reversed the decision two years later.

• "Ghost jobs" are roles that employers list as open even though they're not actually trying to fill them.
• Employers may post them for various reasons, but they can waste applicants' time and sour them on the company.
• Here are some tips on how to sniff out these job listings.

We've all heard of being ghosted in the hiring process: You apply for a job and go through a few rounds of interviews, only for a prospective employer to disappear in the end.

But what about jobs that weren't actually there to begin with? So-called "ghost jobs" are roles that employers say they're actively hiring for when they're really not.

And they're a pain point for many job seekers: Between 18% and 22% of jobs listed on Greenhouse in any given quarter are considered ghost jobs, the hiring platform said in its 2024 State of Job Hunting report.

Employers may post bogus job listings for several reasons: They may be trying to give the appearance they're growing or trick overworked employees into thinking they'll get some relief soon. Or, companies may be trying to build their talent pool for real job openings in the future.

Regardless of the reason, there are some signs candidates can look for that suggest a position is likely just a ghost job. One big indicator is if a job post has been up for several months.

"If the job has been posted for 30 days or more, that's something that you could put in the back of your mind and say, 'Well, this posting's been open for a while and they haven't hired anybody yet. Maybe they're not in a hurry to hire,'" says FlexJobs lead career expert Toni Frana. "The sooner you can apply to a job in relation to when it was posted, the better."

If you saw the role advertised on a job site like LinkedIn or Indeed, double-check it's still posted and active on the company's own careers page.

When reading the job post, you want to see as much specificity as possible.

"Sometimes if job descriptions are vague and don't provide a lot of detail to explain what the role actually is, then it's possible that someone from the company may have quickly typed something up and posted it to see if candidates will apply and to see the quality of those candidates," said human resources administrator and former recruiter Jackie Cuevas. "So pay close attention to the actual quality of the job description — the more information, the better."

If you make it to an interview, ask about the timeline for filling the position, says Charnay Horton, a career coach and CEO of resume writing firm Resume Addict. 

You can say, "Can you tell me more about the interview process, and when the hiring manager is looking to make a decision?" or "Can you provide additional insight regarding why this opportunity is available?"

You could also consider asking, "How does this position contribute to departmental success?" to gauge how important the role is and how urgently it might need to be filled.

If your point of contact is dragging their feet throughout the process, it might be a sign they're not actively trying to fill the position.

"When employers are actively hiring, they move quickly, especially if you are qualified for the role," Horton said. "They want to get you in front of the hiring manager quickly so that they do not lose you mid-process. If you get a sense that the company is lagging with responses, they may not be serious about filling the role."

Ultimately, you want to "be as proactive as you can in your search," said Frana.

"It's not just about reading the job postings and applying," she said. "You can find out a lot of information on a company's website, on social pages like LinkedIn and Twitter, or if you just do a Google search of the company hiring and see what results you get. That is all information-gathering that can be really helpful for you as a candidate, and it's one of those action steps that helps job seekers focus on the things they can control in the process when so much of it is outside of their control."

• Football season is a key time for chain restaurants to draw in customers.
• We tried boneless chicken wings from five chains to determine the best option for game day.
• Applebee's and Chili's impressed us with their juicy, flavorful wings.

As football season kicks off, restaurant chains are rolling out crowd-pleasing tailgate favorites and value-focused deals to win over fans.

In a new series, "Tailgate Taste-off," Business Insider is pitting these chains against each other to uncover the best versions of popular game-day dishes.

Whether you're deciding which chain has the best Buffalo wings or offers the best value for delivery, this guide will help you make the most of your football season dining experience.

Boneless wings are one of the most popular options at chain restaurants on game day, and chains that specialize in chicken wings, such as Wingstop, are also experiencing significant growth.

In October 2024, the chain, which focuses its menu on bone-in chicken wings, boneless wings, and other chicken items, announced 38.8% year-over-year revenue growth.

Chains like Applebee's also know the value of delivering high-quality boneless wings.

"We've ensured our promotions during the season were available in-restaurant and for ordering to-go or delivery so we can be part of guests' football moments no matter where they like to watch," Joel Yashinsky, Applebee's chief marketing officer, told Business Insider, adding that "a key element" of Applebee's football-season strategy this year has been to highlight the chain's boneless wing options.

We ranked boneless wings from five chain restaurants — Applebee's, Chili's, Buffalo Wild Wings, TGI Fridays, and Wingstop — based on taste and value.

My least favorite wings came from Buffalo Wild Wings, which surprised me.

I tried the same three flavors of wings from the five chains: Buffalo, garlic Parmesan, and barbecue.

At Buffalo Wild Wings, an order of 15 boneless wings, which included up to three different sauce flavors, cost $24.99, excluding tax.

However, Buffalo Wild Wings has been running a number of promotions recently that could help lower costs.

The chain is offering a value deal that includes 20 boneless wings in up to four sauces and a large order of fries for $16.99, excluding tax, when ordered online or through the BWW app.

Given that the chain is famous for its wings, I was surprised that the chain's boneless wings landed last in my ranking.

Buffalo Wild Wings' boneless wings looked more like chicken nuggets than boneless wings.

Some of the wings were meatier than others, but I thought Buffalo Wild Wings' wings were the smallest when compared to the other chains.

Still, I enjoyed the flavor of the boneless wings, particularly the classic Buffalo wings. They had a sweet buttery flavor without packing too much spice.

The flavor of the Parmesan garlic wings could have been amped up.

The wings had a slightly pungent garlic savoriness, but they weren't as flavorful as the ones I tried from the other chains.

The breading was crunchy and had a peppery flavor to it, but I thought it slightly overpowered the sauce.

The honey barbecue wings were coated in the most sauce.

Of the three kinds I tried from Buffalo Wild Wings, these were my favorite. The wings were sticky and sweet, thanks to the addition of the honey in the sauce, and paired nicely with the chain's creamy ranch.

The inside of the boneless wings was moist.

The wings were juicy on the inside, which balanced nicely with the crunchy outer breading.

In some ways, these boneless wings reminded me of standard chicken nuggets.

Boneless wings are made exclusively from chicken breast, while nuggets are typically made from a blend of various chicken parts. These did taste better than most chicken nuggets I've had, though I wasn't blown away overall.

In the end, I'll go for the burger next time.

Next up were the boneless wings from TGI Fridays.

I ordered boneless wings from TGI Fridays in three flavors: Buffalo, garlic Parmesan, and apple-butter barbecue. I ordered them as part of the chain's combo platter, which allows you to choose three appetizers to try.

At the TGI Fridays I visited in Massachusetts, the order cost $18.29, excluding tax, and came with eight of each flavor wing.

The Buffalo wings were small but packed a decent amount of flavor.

TGI Fridays doesn't seem to have its own house Buffalo sauce and instead douses its wings in Frank's Red Hot Buffalo sauce, a pretty standard grocery-store hot sauce.

I did enjoy the overall flavor, but these wings didn't bring the heat for me. Compared to the other Buffalo boneless wings I tried, these were just average.

I was most impressed by the Parmesan garlic boneless wings.

The wings had a super crispy coating and were drenched in a savory, garlicky sauce.

The wings had a crunch when I bit in — which I didn't quite get with the Buffalo boneless wings — and paired excellently with the chain's ranch.

I also liked the apple-butter barbecue wings.

I could distinctly taste the apple butter in this sauce, which gave it a sweet, almost molasses-like flavor. Though the size varied, these wings also were slightly bigger and crunchier than the Buffalo wings.

The wings were filled with a good amount of chicken breast meat, but the sauce truly stole the show.

The wings were reasonably thick, but the chicken and breading lacked seasoning or flavor on their own — the sauces provided the majority of the flavor, which wasn't necessarily a criticism but an observation.

The boneless wings from Wingstop landed in the middle of the pack.

Boneless chicken products like boneless wings, chicken nuggets, and tenders are having a moment right now.

However, Wingstop's senior director of culinary, Larry Bellah, told Business Insider that the chain's bone-in traditional wings are still its most popular offering.

Bellah also said the five most popular sauce flavors at Wingstop are lemon pepper, Original Hot, hickory-smoked barbecue, garlic Parmesan, and hot honey.

I ordered 20 boneless wings, which allowed me to select up to three sauce flavors for $24.69, excluding tax.

The Buffalo boneless wings were crispy on the outside.

They were smaller than the top two brands I tried but had a lot of flavor. Wingstop doesn't have a Buffalo sauce, but their Original Hot flavor is the chain's own spin on a classic.

They were buttery, with just the right level of spice.

The garlic Parmesan wings were covered in cheese.

I found the wings to be quite flavorful overall, but the Parmesan cheese stood out much more prominently than the garlic. The garlic flavor was subtle, almost overshadowed by the richness of the cheese.

The hickory-smoked barbecue flavor was sweet and smoky.

The sauce had a bold, smoky flavor with a rich balance of sweet, tangy, and savory notes, and coated every square inch of the boneless wing.

Of all the sauces, this flavor paired best with the chain's ranch, which was creamy and mildly tart.

The chicken meat inside was juicy and filling.

Though these wings were small, they were thick. I thought they were an excellent value for the price. The chicken meat inside tasted high-quality and shredded apart with every bite.

My second favorite wings came from Applebee's.

Applebee's seriously delivered on flavor. However, the chain didn't clinch the win for me based on value.

I found it difficult to try a variety of different flavors of boneless wings from Applebee's. The chain has an appetizer platter called the Classic Combo that's somewhat similar to the Triple Dipper from Chili's, but it's not fully customizable.

I ended up ordering two separate orders of eight boneless wings, which cost $16.99 each, at my local Applebee's in Brooklyn. I also got another order of eight boneless wings as part of the chain's "2 for $2X" deal, which included an appetizer and two entrées for $30, excluding tax.

In the end, I ended up paying more than at any other chain so that I could try multiple flavors. However, Applebee's does sometimes offer promotions like $0.50 boneless wings that could cut costs.

The Buffalo wings were packed with flavor.

As the official grill and bar sponsor of the NFL this year, I expected the chain's boneless wings to be good — and they delivered.

Out of all the boneless Buffalo wings I tried, these were the spiciest and most flavorful. They paired seamlessly with the chain's ranch, which was tangy and creamy and perfectly balanced out the heat.

The garlic Parmesan wings were also super flavorful.

The outside of the wing was crispy and crunchy, and the garlic Parmesan sauce added a savory, nutty flavor to each bite.

The honey barbecue wings came coated in a sticky sauce.

The wings were perfectly balanced between sweet and smoky.

I was also impressed by the thickness of these wings.

The wings were impressively large and packed with tender, juicy chicken.

When it came to flavor, Applebee's was exceptional. All three sauces I tried were well-executed and flavorful. However, the garlic Parmesan stood out as my favorite.

Its rich, creamy blend of nutty Parmesan and savory garlic created a bold and indulgent flavor that took the wings to another level. While the other sauces were delicious, the garlic Parmesan offered a perfect balance of crispy breading and zesty flavor that kept me going back for more.

Chili's came in first place for its flavorful boneless wings at a great value.

I got 15 wings in three different flavors as part of Chili's highly popular Triple Dipper appetizer combo, which allowed me to select three appetizers for $17.29, excluding tax, at a Chili's in Massachusetts.

The chain has seen great success with its viral Triple Dipper.

CNN reported that the TikTok-famous appetizer, which the company says is especially popular among younger customers, now accounts for 11% of Chili's sales. Triple Dipper orders grew by 70% over the last year, boosting foot traffic to Chili's restaurants and cementing the chain as the brand to watch.

The boneless wings from Chili's were the largest out of all the chains.

The wings appeared to be baked in the Buffalo sauce rather than tossed in it after cooking.

The Buffalo sauce was sweet and slightly spicy, with a light buttery flavor. I got a strong citrus flavor coming through, which I also enjoyed.

The garlic Parmesan boneless wings were really flavorful.

I was again impressed by the size of the wings and thought the savory punch of garlic really came through. The wings were moist yet crispy, and I couldn't get enough of them.

The barbecue wings came coated in a smoky sauce.

Unlike the others, which were almost dry to the touch, these boneless wings came completely drenched in the chain's house barbecue sauce.

I thought the sauce was smoky with a slight sweetness, but they could have benefited from a little acid for some brightness.

I loved the breading and the thickness of the wings.

They were full of chicken meat, which made this an incredibly filling appetizer to share among a few people at a Super Bowl party … or keep all to yourself while catching the game.

For under $20, the Triple Dipper delivered incredible value, offering a generous portion of high-quality wings that didn't skimp on flavor or size.

It's a standout deal that perfectly balances affordability with crave-worthy flavor — it's no surprise this menu item has become such a hit.

• "Conclave" leads the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards nominations with 12 nods.
• "Emilia Pérez" received 11 nominations while "The Brutalist" got nine nods.
• All three are nominated for best film, along with "Anora" and "A Complete Unknown."

The nominations for the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards have been announced, as the road to this year's Academy Awards heats up.

"Conclave," Edward Berger's papal drama starring Ralph Fiennes, received the most nominations, making it the one to beat at this year's BAFTA awards, which are set to take place at London's Royal Festival Hall on February 16.

"Conclave" is in the running for 12 awards — one more than Jacques Audiard's musical "Emilia Pérez," which recently took home four Golden Globe awards.

Meanwhile, Brady Corbet's critically acclaimed "The Brutalist" received nine nods. The three films will compete for best film alongside James Mangold's Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown" and Sean Baker's sex worker drama "Anora."

Here's the complete list of 2025 BAFTA nominations.

Best film

"Anora"

"The Brutalist"

"A Complete Unknown"

"Conclave"

"Emilia Pérez"

Leading actor

Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist"

Timothée Chalamet, "A Complete Unknown"

Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing"

Ralph Fiennes, "Conclave"

Hugh Grant, "Heretic"

Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice"

Leading actress

Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked"

Karla Sofía Gascón, "Emilia Pérez"

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Hard Truths"

Mikey Madison, "Anora"

Demi Moore, "The Substance"

Saoirse Ronan, "The Outrun"

Supporting actor

Clarence Maclin, "Sing Sing"

Edward Norton, "A Complete Unknown"

Guy Pearce, "The Brutalist"

Jeremy Strong, "The Apprentice"

Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"

Yura Borisov, "Anora"

Supporting actress

Ariana Grande, "Wicked"

Felicity Jones, "The Brutalist"

Isabella Rossellini, "Conclave"

Jamie Lee Curtis, "The Last Showgirl"

Selena Gomez, "Emilia Pérez"

Zoe Saldaña, "Emilia Pérez"

Best director

Sean Baker, "Anora"

Brady Corbet, "The Brutalist"

Edward Berger, "Conclave"

Denis Villeneuve, "Dune: Part Two"

Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Pérez"

Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"

Outstanding British film

"Bird"

"Blitz"

"Conclave"

"Gladiator II"

"Hard Truths"

"Kneecap"

"Lee"

"Love Lies Bleeding"

"The Outrun"

"Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"

Original screenplay

"Anora"

"The Brutalist"

"Kneecap"

"A Real Pain"

"The Substance"

Adapted screenplay

"A Complete Unknown"

"Conclave"

"Emilia Pérez"

"Nickel Boys"

"Sing Sing"

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

"Hoard"

"Kneecap"

"Monkey Man"

"Santosh"

"Sister Midnight"

Film not in the English language

"All We Imagine as Light"

"Emilia Pérez"

"I'm Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui)"

"Kneecap"

"The Seed of the Sacred Fig"

Animated film

"Flow"

"Inside Out 2"

"Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"

"The Wild Robot"

Documentary

"Black Box Diaries"

"Daughters"

"No Other Land"

"Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"

"Will & Harper"

Original score

"The Brutalist"

"Conclave"

"Emilia Pérez"

"Nosferatu"

"The Wild Robot"

Casting

"Anora"

"The Apprentice"

"A Complete Unknown"

"Conclave"

"Kneecap"

Editing

"Anora"

"Conclave"

"Dune: Part Two"

"Emilia Pérez"

"Kneecap"

Cinematography

"The Brutalist"

"Conclave"

"Dune: Part Two"

"Emilia Pérez"

"Nosferatu"

Special visual effects

"Better Man"

"Dune: Part Two"

"Gladiator II"

"Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"

"Wicked"

Costume design

"Blitz"

"A Complete Unknown"

"Conclave"

"Nosferatu"

"Wicked"

Sound

"Blitz"

"Dune: Part Two"

"Gladiator II"

"The Substance"

"Wicked"

Makeup and hair

"Dune: Part Two"

"Emilia Pérez"

"Nosferatu"

"The Substance"

"Wicked"

Production design

"The Brutalist"

"Conclave"

"Dune: Part Two"

"Nosferatu"

"Wicked"

British short film

"The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing"

"Marion"

"Milk"

"Rock, Paper, Scissors"

"Stomach Bug"

British short animation

"Adiós"

"Mog's Christmas"

"Wander to Wonder"

EE rising star award

Marisa Abela

Jharrel Jerome

David Jonsson

Mikey Madison

Nabhaan Rizwan

• Inflation accelerated for the third straight month.
• The consumer price index rose 2.9% year-over-year in December, matching the consensus expectation.
• The Federal Reserve is expected not to cut interest rates later this month.

Inflation sped up in December as expected, marking the third consecutive month of acceleration.

The consumer price index, an inflation measure, increased 2.9% over the year this past December. That matches the forecast increase and is above November's year-over-year increase of 2.7%.

While the 2.9% is the highest rate since July, it falls short of the roughly 3.1% in January 2024. Inflation was around or above 3% for the first half of the year; it slowed from the year's peak of 3.5% in March to 2.4% in September.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 3.2% over the year in December, below the expected forecast of 3.3%, which would have matched November's rate.

The Federal Open Market Committee could consider the new data in its interest rate decision at the end of the month. After three consecutive cuts, there likely won't be another interest rate cut just yet.

Traders have been expecting the Federal Open Market Committee to hold the Fed's target rate steady at 2025's first scheduled meeting. CME FedWatch, which indicates what traders expect to happen to rates based on market activity, showed before the CPI release a 97% chance the Fed's target rate would be unchanged.

Fed chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference on December 18 that "the Committee will assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks" when figuring out any additional changes to its target rate.

"We know that reducing policy restraint too fast or too much could hinder progress on inflation," Powell said after the most recent interest-rate decision. "At the same time, reducing policy restraint too slowly or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment."

The recent jobs report, published last Friday, showed job growth exceeded the forecast in December, while unemployment fell from 4.2% in November to 4.1% in December. Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said the labor market report "validates the stance that we've seen from the Fed recently."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• I got breakfast at fast-food chains Wendy's, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, and Burger King.
• At each place, I tried to order a breakfast burrito, potato side, and an iced coffee drink.
• Burger King's breakfast was the best fast-food breakfast I had, and Taco Bell was a close second.

In search of the best fast-food breakfast right now, I visited five popular chains near my New York City home and ordered similar meals at each.

I got a breakfast burrito with a potato side and coffee drink at Wendy's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, and McDonald's. Then, I rated every component of each breakfast on a scale of one to 10 and tallied up the scores to rank the five chains.

Here's my fast-food breakfast ranking, from my least favorite to my top pick.

Wendy's breakfast was new to me.

I've eaten many dinners and lunches at Wendy's, but this was my first experience with its breakfast. The chain has tried to serve breakfast many times over the years without luck and most recently brought it back in 2020.

I chose a sausage-burrito combo with a side of seasoned potatoes. I opted for a cold-brew coffee with Frosty creamer for a $1.45 upcharge, bringing the total cost of my meal to $8.97.

Wendy's burrito wasn't bad, though some hot sauce helped.

Wendy's breakfast burrito with sausage seemed more substantial than it looked in the pictures I saw of it online.

It contained a square sausage patty split in two, two eggs, American cheese, cheese sauce, and some of the same seasoned potatoes that came on the side.

When I tried the cheese sauce in isolation, it had a nice, cheddar-like taste, but its flavor was lost when I bit into the whole burrito.

This was a fine fast-food breakfast burrito, but the sausage was a little dry, and I didn't love the texture of the eggs — these were the only ones I tried that didn't appear scrambled, and they felt unnaturally fluffy for fried eggs.

I liked that my burrito came with two packets of Cholula hot sauce, which made it much tastier.

Rating: 5/10

The potatoes on the side didn't impress me much.

Every other fast-food chain I visited served hash browns in some form, but Wendy's has seasoned potatoes instead.

In my opinion, overseasoned potatoes would be a better name for them. They were too salty for my liking and not as crunchy as I wanted them to be.

The smaller, crunchier potatoes tasted like seasoned curly fries, which was good. The larger, mushier ones were less exciting.

Rating: 3/10

My coffee from Wendy's fell short.

Unfortunately, Wendy's cold brew felt entirely punchless, like a weak coffee-flavored beverage instead of actual coffee, which is the light of my life.

To me, the Frosty creamer tasted pretty indistinguishable from the little vanilla-flavored creamer containers you find in big bowls next to the coffee station at chain hotels.

Rating: 2/10

I'm pretty familiar with McDonald's breakfast.

I more closely associate McDonald's with breakfast than I do any of the other chains I visited. My McDonald's breakfast preferences were forged long before its burritos became available, though, so I'd never tried one before.

In the combo meal I ordered, I got two sausage burritos and a hash brown on the side. I paid a 40-cent upcharge to have my coffee iced instead of hot, which brought my total bill to $9.13

The burrito from McDonald's was my least favorite of the ones I tried.

McDonald's sausage burrito was my least favorite — and not because it was the smallest.

It contained scrambled egg, sausage, cheese, and bits of tomato and pepper. I thought it lacked flavor and that there wasn't enough sausage.

Plus, the tortilla itself was squishy and soft, almost like it had been steamed. The salsa packet this came with did add some sweetness and mild spice, but this seemed no better than a breakfast burrito I might microwave for myself at a convenience store.

Rating: 2/10

The chain's hash brown was a bit too greasy for me.

I'm sure I've eaten a thousand McDonald's hash browns before this one, and each has brought me some regret.

They're tasty for a few bites, but they tend to be quite greasy. This one was no exception, coating my fingers in oil as I ate it. Some of the edges still had a nice crunch from the fryer, but the middle was soft from the grease.

Rating: 3/10

McDonald's had the best coffee drink I tried.

Just when I was feeling pretty disappointed about the quality of my breakfast at McDonald's, I took a sip of my iced coffee.

I loved its smooth and surprisingly rich coffee flavor.

It was undoubtedly the best fast-food coffee drink I tried, even though it had maybe a touch more cream than I'd prefer.

Rating: 9/10

It felt weird not ordering chicken at Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A's chicken biscuit is one of my favorite fast-food breakfasts anywhere, but I'd never tried one of its burritos before.

It felt strange not ordering chicken at the chain that's famous for it, but for the sake of consistency, I ordered my hash-brown-scramble burrito with sausage.

The meal came with a side of hash browns. After a $1.16 upcharge for iced coffee, the bill came to $13.23.

This was the most expensive of the meals I tried, but it may be partially due to prices at this specific location. The Chick-fil-A I visited was in midtown Manhattan — which is famously expensive — and the other four restaurants I went to were in Queens (McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King) or Brooklyn (Taco Bell).

The burrito was large but I didn't care for the tortilla.

Chick-fil-A's burrito felt large, but the tortilla seemed almost too big for the eggs, sausage, cheese, and hash browns it contained.

I liked the mild peppery flavor of the sausage and the fluffy, moist texture of the scrambled eggs. However, the hash browns that give the burrito its name seemed completely unnecessary — they had lost all their crunch, so the flaky bits of potato felt almost like rice, adding bulk and grease but not much flavor.

I didn't love the tortilla itself, which didn't seem to have been heated in any way and had the taste and texture of a deli wrap.

Rating: 6/10

Chick-fil-A's hash browns underwhelmed me.

I'll say this for Chick-fil-A's hash browns: There were a lot of them. Otherwise, I was underwhelmed.

Like every fast-food hash brown, these were very greasy, but given the smaller individual pieces, I felt like these should've been crispier.

Plus, in my opinion, they fell short on flavor.

Rating: 4/10

The coffee was pretty solid.

Chick-fil-A's coffee was definitely among the better and stronger drinks I tried for this taste test. It had a bolder, darker flavor than the others, but some sips bordered on tasting burnt.

Rating: 7/10

Next, I tried Taco Bell's breakfast.

I visited Taco Bell a little after 10 a.m. — shortly before it began serving lunch — and there was no coffee available.

They might've brewed up a pot if I asked, but I didn't want to make a fuss, so I had my late breakfast with a Mountain Dew Baja Blast Zero and got a coffee at a later date.

With a hash brown for a side, the combo came to $8.05.

Taco Bell had a pretty tasty burrito that only needed a touch of hot sauce.

I've had breakfast burritos from Taco Bell before, and most of them had fresher-tasting tortillas.

Still, I like that Taco Bell uses the same grill press for its breakfast burritos as it does for the stuffed ones on its lunch and dinner menu. It makes the tortilla nicely toasty.

The diced tomatoes were a highlight of the burrito, a nice touch that added a juicy brightness none of the others I tried had.

Everything else inside was also good — the eggs were moist, the sausage was flavorful, and the cheese was melty and gooey. The burrito tasted surprisingly mild by Taco Bell standards, but a packet of Fire Sauce helped.

Rating: 7/10

This chain had the best hash brown I tried.

I'm pretty sure this was my first experience with a Taco Bell hash brown, and I was pleasantly surprised.

It was greasy, of course, but not quite as unreasonably greasy as some of the others I ate. It had a strong crunch and a sneaky black-pepper spice that made it the most flavorful, best hash brown of all I tried.

Rating: 10/10

The coffee I got at a later date didn't impress me, though.

In the interest of fairness to Taco Bell, I went back to try its coffee.

A few days later, I went to the same location at an earlier time, but once again, it didn't have coffee. Eventually, I was able to find some at a different location in Queens.

This Taco Bell didn't have regular milk available for its iced coffee, just sweetened vanilla creamer.

Unfortunately, the coffee disappointed me. It tasted fairly strong, but it was also very acidic, and I didn't like the overwhelming sweetness of the creamer.

Rating: 3/10

It had been a while since I'd been to a Burger King.

Twenty years ago, I was in a band, and the only place to eat near our rehearsal space was a Burger King. It happened to be a terrible one where somehow everything took forever to cook but somehow never tasted particularly fresh.

This may have been the first time I've visited a Burger King since I quit that band in 2006.

I ordered the Egg-normous burrito combo, which came with an iced coffee (no upcharge) and a side of hash browns for $7.61, the least expensive of the five combos I tried.

Burger King had the best breakfast burrito I tried.

The name is no joke: Burger King's breakfast burrito was, in fact, Egg-normous. Inside, it was stuffed with generous portions of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, cheese, hash browns, and spicy sauce.

The spicy sauce had a sweet, spicy flavor that resembled hot honey or pancake syrup mixed with hot sauce.

Historically, I've found fast-food bacon is rarely crispy, yet Burger King's bacon was extremely crisp. The sausage had a nice kick of pepper, and the packets of salsa that came with the burrito added some spice and tomato flavor.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Burger King sold my favorite fast-food breakfast burrito.

Rating: 10/10

Its hash browns weren't bad.

Burger King's coin-sized hash browns looked similar to Chick-fil-A's, but they were crunchier and not any greasier.

I wouldn't go out of the way to order them again, but they weren't bad.

Rating: 6/10

The coffee wasn't bad, nor was it especially good.

I appreciated that there was no upcharge for Burger King's iced coffee, but there wasn't a ton else about it that stood out.

It seemed to be adequately punchy, and it didn't taste bitter or stale. Still, the coffee wasn't especially good.

Rating: 5/10

Overall, Burger King beat Taco Bell by just one point.

Final breakdown:

• Wendy's: 10/30
• McDonald's: 14/30
• Chick-fil-A: 17/30
• Taco Bell: 20/30
• Burger King: 21/30

In last place is Wendy's, with an OK breakfast burrito and a meal I found to be disappointing overall. Coming in fourth is McDonald's, where a good cup of iced coffee was the saving grace of my otherwise disappointing meal

Chick-fil-A is in third for its good coffee, decent breakfast burrito, and disappointing hash browns. Fourth is Taco Bell: I was impressed by its breakfast burrito and loved its hash brown. If it had decent coffee, it could've won.

First place goes to Burger King, which I hadn't expected. Its superior burrito made its combo the most satisfying, even though its coffee and hash browns were middle-of-the-road.

Maybe it had an unfair advantage for having both sausage and bacon in its burrito, but no one's stopping the other chains from also doing that.

• A new report recommends doctors stop using Body Mass Index to diagnose obesity because it isn't nuanced enough.
• Doctors should consider a patient's overall health instead of their weight, it said.
• A leading obesity expert told Business Insider why BMI is bogus and how to better assess the risk of overweight.

The previous version of this story was published in 2022, when Business Insider spoke to Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford. It has been updated to reflect the findings of a new report. 

Chances are, a doctor has at one point measured your Body Mass Index to check if you are a healthy weight. But a new report suggests that BMI should no longer be used as a measure of an individual's health. 

BMI is calculated using a person's weight and height, and doctors may tell those who fall into the obese or severely obese categories that they could be at risk of health issues including diabetes and cancer. The solution?: Lose weight.

But the report, published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology on Tuesday, suggested that having obesity according to the BMI scale doesn't mean a person is unhealthy. It comes after the American Medical Association raised similar concerns about BMI in 2023. 

The report includes recommendations from 58 experts in multiple medical specialties and from multiple countries, as well as input from two people with lived experience of obesity.

The experts concluded that people should be diagnosed with "clinical obesity" if their weight negatively affects their organs or they struggle with daily activities. If patients have excess fat but no health problems, they should be diagnosed with "preclinical obesity," and not be treated for their fat levels.

"It doesn't tell you anything about the health of a person," Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician and associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, previously told Business Insider.

Here's why BMI is a bogus way to evaluate your health and what you should be paying attention to instead, according to experts who spoke to BI in 2022 and prior, before 2025 Lancet report was published. 

Higher weight is not a death sentence

Having a higher body weight increases the risk of developing a life-altering disease such as diabetes or high-blood pressure, but not everyone who has excess body fat has "significant disease," Stanford said.

The problem with BMI is that it puts too much emphasis on a target weight, which can be misleading.

Stanford recalls the case of a patient who weighed 550 pounds and had obstructive sleep apnea and low testosterone levels, in spite of an active lifestyle.

He reduced his weight to 300 pounds, and no longer had any health problems caused by severe obesity, she said, despite his BMI still being "very high."

BMI is an arbitrary and outdated metric

When BMI was created, it had nothing to do with health. 

Albert Quetelet, an astronomer and sociologist, first defined a metric relating weight to height squared in the 1830s, and this later formed the basis of BMI. Originally, it was meant to help describe the dimensions of the "perfect" or average man.

Quetelet only looked at white French and Belgian men, a very narrow representation of humanity. His ideas were later used to justify racist and eugenic policies and have been discredited. 

Quetelet never intended the ratio to be linked to health. That came in the 1900s when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company used Quetelet's formula to build actuarial tables based on height and weight, and used data from their mostly white policyholders.

So the metric is deeply biased, and was only designed to measure your risk of dying if you're white, said Stanford.

Studies, including one led by Stanford, have shown that Black and Asian people may not be at the same risk as white people with the same BMI. 

Waist size is a better predictor of ill health — but still isn't perfect

The 2025 report suggested that health is much more complicated and individual than BMI can show.

"Where we carry our adipose or fat is much more important than how much fat we have," Stanford said.

That's because not all fat cells are created equal. Fat that wraps around internal organs is much more likely to lead to disease, but fat around the hips may have a protective effect against heart disease, for instance, Stanford said.

Plus, BMI doesn't take into account the differences between fat and muscle, or differences in fat distribution among different ethnicities, the report said.

So while BMI can be useful when studying the health of a population, the authors of the report recommended that other measurements be used to assess individual patients' health, such as a direct measurement of body fat or waist-to-hip ratio. 

Stanford said that waist size is a reliable measure of weight-related health risk.

Women with a waist size over 35 inches and men with a waist larger than 40 inches are at higher risk of developing metabolic diseases, she said. 

Regardless, without other measures of ill health — such as blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, or cholesterol, insulin, and testosterone levels — it is very difficult to tell if a person is unhealthy, said Stanford.

What if your doctor only looks at BMI? 

Some doctors will use BMI to assume ill health and prescribe weight loss, Stanford said.  

Stanford advises patients whose doctor only focuses on BMI to challenge them.

"Say: 'Okay doctor, I hear that. And I do see that BMI does exceed these guidelines, but how does this relate to my current health status?', which will probably challenge them because they've only thought to think of it in terms of BMI," she said.  

The recommendations made in the report were endorsed by 76 organizations worldwide, including scientific societies and patient advocacy groups.

Erin Brodwin contributed reporting to a previous version of this article.

• Dr. Dhivya Srinivasa is a double-board-certified surgeon who runs a private practice in California.
• Srinivasa had three kids while pursuing her medical career and is glad she didn't delay motherhood.
• She shares how she manages her busy schedule by prioritizing specific events with her kids.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dr. Dhivya Srinivasa, a California-based breast reconstruction surgeon. Business Insider verified her employment with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Some moms are at every PTA meeting, class party, and basketball game. Then, they're cooking dinner when their kids arrive home. You won't find me doing all of that — and it doesn't mean I love my kids any less.

I grew up with a physician as a mom. She had me and my siblings during her residencies. When I was born in India, my dad told my mom she didn't have to give up her career and they would make it work.

I grew up with strong examples of working parents and I hope to pass this on to my children. You can balance a career with parenting and what being an involved parent can look like is evolving.

I often felt misunderstood as a parent in my working environment

When I became pregnant during my fourth year of residency in 2013, I remember not wanting to tell anyone. I was the only female in my class.

I was a hard worker and supervising physicians' favorite, but I felt like things shifted when I got pregnant.

One time during residency, I remember being in a long surgery that was going past the scheduled end time. I let my attending physician know I needed to leave for a prenatal appointment, which was common practice for health-related appointments.

He said, "Sometimes I feel like you book them early on purpose." He had two kids of his own and should have known there weren't ever later appointments.

I had my first child in 2014 while working as a medical resident, and I was back at work four weeks after a difficult c-section, often pushing through 80 to 100-hour workweeks with an infant at home. Luckily, I had a nanny and my in-laws supporting me, and I completed my residency.

I had my second child in 2016 while completing a fellowship in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Michigan from 2015 through 2018.

After having my third child in 2020, I started working on faculty at a hospital in L.A. Some doctors I worked with didn't acknowledge I'd just had a baby. I'd pump in my car as there was no lactation area in the hospital. I felt my colleagues doubted my ability, but I made it clear being a mom only made me a better surgeon.

I'm now a double board-certified plastic surgeon and run my own business for breast reconstruction.

Learning how to succeed at both

I started my private practice in September 2021. Now, I can be a physician and mother on my terms.

I had kids early in my career on purpose. My kids are now five, eight, and 10. I didn't want to wait and compromise my fertility for my career. I knew I could succeed at both, but it meant making sacrifices.

I had to learn where my energy was best directed. I used to prioritize pick-up until realized my kids didn't really care about that. But, I value their education, so I do their homework with them every night.

I've also learned to be proactive when selecting which of my children's events I can attend. When I first started my practice, I didn't block my schedule for certain school events. After my oldest child shared with me that he missed having me at these events, I started proactively blocking out time for my children — even if it meant requesting classroom activities from teachers at the start of the school year.

Now, I always take off Halloween for classroom parties and second-semester field trips. In the office, We've established color codes on my calendar so they're aware when a calendar event is non-negotiable and dedicated to my children.

As my kids get older, I make those decisions with input from my kids about what events are most meaningful to them. I cancel work for one on-campus activity per kid a year. On those days, we go all out. It isn't just a stop by the school for a few minutes, we dress up and plan our activities weeks in advance.

Their excitement, and mine as well, have shown me it isn't the number of events you're at as a parent, but your presence at the ones you can come to.

I've sacrificed at work too. I moved to running my practice versus the world of medical academia. In opening my practice, I had to make the tough decision to stop working with trainees. Though I love teaching, it slows down cases and I had to prioritize my family.

It does take a village — and it makes my kids well-rounded people

My husband Ravi is an interventional radiologist and professor. He is the parent the school calls if a kid needs to be picked up because I'm sometimes in surgery. While he also works full time, he's easier to reach due to set office hours and less time in the operating room.

We also talk to teachers at the beginning of the year about our setup so they know I won't be available at the last minute. I love that they learn that dads might be the first point of contact, not just moms.

My kids spend almost every weekend with their grandparents and sometimes weekday evenings. They are getting a rich education by spending time with their first-generation immigrant grandparents and have learned things I'd never be able to teach them. This assuages any guilt I have about my schedule.

Similarly, I have precious videos of my husband at the park with my kid, which he'd send to me while I was working.

These sweet moments are made sweeter as they show that my kids have so many different people who love them.

• An American Airlines passenger is suing the airline, saying he was racially profiled.
• The complaint says Anthony Williams was falsely accused of trafficking his own wife.
• Williams' lawsuit also highlights similar claims of racial profiling by the airline in 2023 and 2024.

A Black passenger is suing American Airlines, saying he was racially profiled and falsely accused of trafficking his wife on a 2022 flight from Phoenix to Miami.

Former police officer Anthony Williams and Katsiaryna Shasholka, who is white, boarded the flight to Florida for their honeymoon in September 2022.

According to the suit, filed in the Southern Florida District Court, a fellow passenger believed Williams was trafficking his wife, Shasholka, and reported this to American Airlines employees Michael Wilfong and Angel Rodriguez.

The lawsuit says that the employees did not question Williams or conduct any kind of investigation but instead "falsely reported to law enforcement that Plaintiff Anthony was human trafficking his own wife."

When the aircraft landed at Miami International Airport, Williams and Shasholka were "falsely imprisoned" by American Airlines staff who escorted them off the aircraft, the suit says.

The two then waited, "confused and embarrassed," as the other passengers disembarked the plane and walked past them before they were questioned by police officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department, and were "detained, falsely imprisoned, questioned, and humiliated," the suit says.

It says the biracial couple were "racially profiled, and discriminated against based on their race by employees and/or agents of American Airlines, at Miami International Airport."

Williams and Shasholka seek damages in excess of $75,000, not including interests and costs.

The complaint then lists three other instances between 2023 and 2024 in which Black passengers say they were mistreated by American Airlines.

In September 2023, singer-songwriter and guitarist David Ryan Harris — who played in John Mayer's band for two decades — was accused of trafficking his children on an American Airlines flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

Harris and two of his sons were met by an airline employee and police officers at the top of the jetway as they were deplaning.

"A flight attendant had called ahead with some sort of concern that his biracial children were not his children, because they were unresponsive during an interaction with her," the lawsuit says.

American Airlines declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

• Crime+Investigation UK's "The Eunuch Maker" is about a man who performed castrations on volunteers.
• Marius Gustavson ran a pay-per-view website where he livestreamed the procedures.
• He made almost $360,000 from the site.

Marius Gustavson, dubbed "The Eunuch Maker" for performing castrations on livestreams, is the focus of a new true crime documentary.

Released on Crime+Investigation UK on Monday, it follows a bumper year of true crime in 2024, with shows including "American Nightmare," "Baby Reindeer," and "The Man with 1000 Kids" getting audiences talking.

The show tells of how Gustavson, a 47-year-old Norwegian living in London, had his penis and testicles removed by a male escort in 2017. He then posted on extreme body modification forums that he was interested in castrating volunteers himself.

He nicknamed himself the "eunuch maker," and performed the procedures in apartments and hotel rooms in London, which he livestreamed on his website and charged viewers a subscription fee. He made almost £300,000 ($365,000) from the website between 2017 and 2021.

The Independent reported that the site had 22,841 registered users.

Gustavson was arrested in 2021 after the London Metropolitan Police launched "Operation Vicktor" to investigate the illegal castrations and other procedures that he carried out on the website.

Marius Gustavson was sentenced to life in prison in 2024

In May 2024, Gustavson was given a life sentence. He can face a parole board after serving a minimum of 22 years, per court documents.

Gustavson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, making and distributing indecent images of a child, and possessing extreme pornography.

During the proceedings, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said that Gustavson also engaged in cannibalism. He said: "On one occasion Gustavson cooked what appeared to be human testicles which were then plated to be eaten, and kept other body parts as 'trophies.'"

Gustavson's defense said he had body integrity dysphoria, a condition that causes a person to feel as if a healthy body part doesn't belong to them.

Rashvinderjeet Panesar, his lawyer, said that Gustavson started to modify his own body in 2017 shortly after the breakdown of his marriage in 2016.

Panesar said: "He was stuck in a body he wanted to make changes to, and understood there were more people out there who wished to do the same."

• My parents were incredibly involved in my childhood and made sure I had endless opportunities.
• I'm 27 years old and constantly fight with my parents about my decisions.
• I feel cognitive dissonance when making choices my parents don't agree with.

I'm the youngest child of two, so it's not shocking that I'm the "rebel" between my sister and me, and I definitely drive my parents crazy because of it.

Despite currently living on the other side of the world (a choice they weren't thrilled to hear about), I still find myself bickering with them over every single decision I make — living location, my relationship, career choices, and more.

It's created a lot of strain on our relationship, especially in adulthood.

My parents did everything right

My parents were incredibly involved as a child, providing me with opportunities that other children never experienced. For example, when my school's mathematics curriculum changed in a way my parents believed would slow the class's progress, they transferred me to a new school to ensure I remained challenged.

During the summers, they found ways to enroll me in programs offered in the neighboring town that weren't available in my own town. This allowed me to sign up for tennis camp, take cooking classes, and become a level-five swimmer — opportunities my classmates didn't have.

In high school, they fought tirelessly at every school board meeting to save the Mandarin course I took from getting cut due to budget constraints. Thanks to their relentlessness, I went on to minor in Mandarin in college, and I'm currently spending a year working from my company's office in China.

These are just a few examples of the many times my parents showed they were overqualified for the parenting role.

My parents blame themselves when I make decisions they oppose

To quote my mother from our most recent kerfuffle: "I didn't fulfill my motherly duties." This isn't the first time I've heard my mother say something along these lines, but it's yet another instance where I wholeheartedly disagree with her.

While my mom and dad will always be my parents, I'm not turning to them to pick me up from soccer practice, help me read over my essays, or pay my cell phone bills. In my late 20s, I just want to know I can go to them for sound advice when I ask for it and that they'll always be in my corner.

I want a closer relationship with my parents

It's challenging to hear that my parents disagree with my choices. While they're only trying to help, our disagreements result in a constant feeling of cognitive dissonance, and instead of consulting my parents about big decisions, I tell them about things after decisions have already been made — such as sky diving, moving to Philadelphia, or taking a trip a self-guided trip to Egypt.

Over time, this reluctance to share decisions I know they'll criticize has caused me to subconsciously stop sharing updates altogether. For instance, I didn't tell them when I got promoted — a moment I would normally want to celebrate with my parents. Avoiding conversations about choices they might disapprove of made me overlook sharing news of which they'd be proud. I was mortified when my dad mentioned he learned of my promotion via LinkedIn.

The last thing I want is a strained relationship with my parents. I hope they'll eventually see that, while I may never think like them or share all their perspectives, I'm more than capable of making thoughtful, sound judgments and navigating life's challenges — skills they've spent my entire life teaching me. I don't expect them to agree with me all the time, but it would help if they showed trust in my decision-making by leading with a supportive attitude and offering their concerns as suggestions to consider rather than implying my choices are misguided or need to be corrected. Constantly feeling at odds is exhausting.

I know my parents love me deeply and only want to protect me from potential mistakes, but I wish they could see that their job now that I'm an adult, isn't to shield me, it's to trust the person they've raised. My choices aren't a rejection of my parents' values; they demonstrate the independence and confidence my parents have instilled in me. I don't want my parents to feel worry or guilt; I want them to be proud that I'm creating a life that reflects what they've taught me and who I've become. More than anything, I want our relationship to grow stronger, built on mutual respect, trust, and the understanding that even if our paths differ, their guidance has always been — and will always be — my foundation.

• This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Hello there! Business Insider's Alistair Barr thought he was doing the right thing when he discouraged a colleague from joining a little-known startup back in 2016. Turns out he was wrong. Really wrong. The startup was OpenAI, and the former colleague, who thankfully didn't listen, is now an AI billionaire.

In today's big story, Meta is looking to quickly get rid of low performers with companywide cuts as it prepares for what Mark Zuckerberg says will be an "intense year."

What's on deck

Markets: The saga of finding Jamie Dimon's replacement takes another twist.

Tech: Microsoft employees across multiple divisions have been laid off.

Business: President-elect Donald Trump announces plans for an external revenue service.

But first, on the chopping block.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Raising the bar

Tired: Move fast and break things. Wired: Move fast and get rid of underperformers.

Two years after Mark Zuckerberg's famous "Year of Efficiency" the Meta CEO is ratcheting things up a notch.

The tech giant announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce with a focus on the lowest performers, Business Insider's Jyoti Mann and Hugh Langley report. Based on Meta's most-recent earnings report, that would amount to about 3,600 roles.

In a memo to staff, Zuckerberg said the company is entering an "intense year" and the decision was made to "move out low-performers faster."

So how does Meta plan on doing that? Jyoti and Pranav Dixit got their hands on an internal memo from a human-resources executive explaining how the job cuts will work.

The key is reaching a 5% non-regrettable attrition rate this year. In case you don't speak HR mumbo jumbo, that describes workers Meta wouldn't mind losing.

To get there, Meta managers will need to identify 12-15% of employees with performance ratings of "Met Most Expectations" or worse. Those who receive ratings of "Met Some" and "Did not Meet" will definitely be fired while those with a "Met Most" rating will be further evaluated by a director and VP before a decision is made.

They won't have a lot of time to do it. Employees based in the US will find out about the cuts by February 10.

Meta employees had plenty of questions about the strategy.

Some got behind the idea. One wrote on an internal message board viewed by Jyoti and Hugh that "there is a need to raise the bar and I absolutely support this."

Others, however, weren't as optimistic. Some wondered how — dare I say — efficient the process would be.

The process is "marginally better than 'monkey's throwing darts,'" another employee wrote.

Like it or not, it might be here to stay. An internal FAQ document viewed by BI hints that performance-related layoffs could become an annual tradition at Meta.

The bigger question is whether the approach catches on at other companies. You could argue Zuckerberg's 2023 efficiency push kicked off a wider trend. (Or maybe it was bound to happen anyway.)

Regular performance-based cuts aren't the standard in tech like they are in other industries, but they also aren't unheard of. Amazon, in particular, has leaned on performance-improvement plans in recent years.

News brief

Top headlines

• South Korea's impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested.
• TikTok tells US employees they'll still have jobs even if the app gets banned.
• TechCrunch cuts staff amid 'evolving needs.'
• SEC accuses Elon Musk of securities violation in new suit.
• LA fires could leave a 'staggering' $275 billion of damage in their wake, one estimate now says. And it could get worse.
• MSNBC president Rashida Jones has stepped down.
• Exclusive: VC firm IVP has hired Atlassian's top sales boss as it builds out its brain trust.
• Kate Middleton says she's in remission nearly a year after her cancer diagnosis.
• A casino is getting into the ad-network business as 'commerce media' continues to surge.
• How Starbucks, Disney, and other companies are reacting to the LA fires.
• Toyota's North American employees are the latest to be ordered back to the office.

3 things in markets

1. Crypto might be a lot of things, but a currency isn't one of them. For all the attention digital currencies like bitcoin have gotten over the years, the likelihood they'll replace money (as some predicted) still seems farfetched. BI's Adam Rogers writes about how crypto has just become another way for people to gamble.

2. JPMorgan and BlackRock shake-up their executive ranks. Daniel Pinto, the bank's president and COO, will step down in June and plans to retire at the end of 2026. Jennifer Piepszak, currently a co-CEO of JPMorgan's commercial and investment bank, will replace Pinto as COO. The promotion isn't about CEO Jamie Dimon grooming a successor, though. Piepszak doesn't want the top job, leading to more questions about Dimon's succession plans. Meanwhile, the race to succeed another Wall Street titan — BlackRock's Larry Fink — took a turn with the departure of Mark Wiedman, who was widely viewed as a top candidate for the job.

3. What the Los Angeles wildfires mean for the economy. AccuWeather estimates the total economic cost could reach $275 billion. Goldman Sachs says it could rank as one of the costliest natural disasters as a share of GDP in US history. However, the bank isn't concerned about higher insurance costs meaningfully impacting inflation. In the meantime, here's a rundown on who could foot the enormous bill.

3 things in tech

1. TikTok's fate hangs in the balance. US users are flocking to the Chinese app RedNote, and TikTok Shop sellers are testing out other e-marketplaces. Selling the app to an American owner isn't out of the question, though — there are reports that Chinese officials are considering an eleventh-hour sale to Elon Musk. MuskTok? Sure, why not.

2. Apple takes a hit despite launching AI iPhones. The tech giant had a standout 2024 with the debut of Apple Intelligence and the Vision Pro. However, its global market share of smartphone sales slipped due to the iPhone losing ground to competitors and its new AI feature not being available in Greater China — one of the company's major markets.

3. Exclusive: Layoffs sweep Microsoft. Employees in security, experiences and devices, sales, and gaming faced job cuts, two people familiar with the matter told BI. The layoffs are separate from the recent cuts targeting low-performers within the company, which BI previously reported.

3 things in business

1. Justin Baldoni's New York Times lawsuit could hinge on an emoji. The "It Ends With Us" director accused the paper of taking his publicists' quotes out of context. He said the paper omitted an emoji — an upside-down smile — that would've made it clear his publicist was being sarcastic, not serious.

2. Trump's got tax plans, but Congress holds the strings. The president-elect vowed to create an "external revenue service" to collect tariffs and revenue from foreign nations on Day One. It's not clear how the new agency would work, but establishing it would require congressional approval. Back home, Americans could see their tax bills change this year since Trump's 2017 package is set to expire.

3. Come for the coffee, stay for the refills. Starbucks announced all its customers — not just rewards members — can get free refills of many brewed coffee and tea drinks at participating stores starting January 27. But the freebies end there, as the company is closing the door on its open-door policy that allows non-paying guests to use store facilities.

In other news

• Australian ugg-boot maker forced to rebrand after trademark battle with American rival.
• Seven mistakes to avoid making during a job interview, according to a business-etiquette expert.
• A therapist has worked with clients worth at least $30 million for a decade. He shares four problems the ultra-rich discuss in sessions.
• Biden signs executive order to accelerate AI infrastructure build-out in the US.

• Gold is one of the 'least effective' inflation hedges, according to Goldman Sachs. Here are three investments that actually protect your portfolio.

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  What's happening now

• BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup report earnings.
• President Biden delivers farewell address to the nation.
• Sinaloa cartel's "El Mayo" in court on drug trafficking charges.
• CPI data released.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

• Ukraine launched waves of drone and missile strikes deep in Russia.
• It comes a week before President-elect Trump is to be sworn in.
• Both Ukraine and Russia have intensified attacks ahead of Trump's second term.

Ukraine struck targets deep inside Russia using missiles and drones in one of its biggest recent attacks as Donald Trump prepares to start his second presidential term next week.

The strikes were carried out on January 13 and 14 on industrial and military targets up to 680 miles into Russia in Bryansk, Saratov, and Tula oblasts and the Republic of Tatarstan, Ukrainian officials said.

Among the targets struck were an oil refinery near Engels, Saratov Oblast, which provides fuel for the strategic bombers, and a chemical plant in Bryansk that provides material for missile systems, the officials said.

Russia's defense ministry claimed to identify the missiles used, saying they were among the most advanced sent to Ukraine: the British/French Storm Shadow missiles and US ATACMS.

It said 146 drones were also involved in the attack.

On Monday, Russia launched with drone and missile strikes at energy infrastructure targets across Ukraine.

Both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries said they intercepted most of the missiles, a claim that was not possible to verify.

The Ukrainian amount to a show of strength just before President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term on Monday.

Trump has harshly criticized Ukraine's strikes on Russia, and President Joe Biden for allowing the involvement of US weapons.

In a December interview with Time magazine, he said: "It's crazy what's taking place. It's crazy. I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? We're just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done."

Trump officials have suggsted that Ukraine could be forced to cede some territory now occupied by Russia in a peace deal.

Analyzing the moves, the former UK foreign minister William Hague told Times Radio Tuesday that both sides were seeking to "position themselves" for a new Trump administration.

"The Russians have been trying to grab more territory. The Ukrainians have been striking back harder in order to get them settled positions," said Hague.

In the run-up to Trump's inauguration, fighting has intensified between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine has attacked sites in Russia using missiles and drones, Russia has made important advances on the front line in east Ukraine.

It's also intensified its bid to oust Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine still holds territory.

• Corruption has been plaguing China's military, including senior leadership.
• The issues and purges raise questions about China's military readiness and its ambitions.
• China's military has long struggled with graft, but it's growth and modernization can't be overlooked.

Corruption investigations have led to significant high-level purges in the Chinese military. A US Department of Defense official said that these purges are "just the tip of the iceberg" and that the issues affecting the military could hinder its ambitions, including Taiwan.

The Defense Department released its annual report on China's military last month, assessing that the People's Liberation Army has "experienced a new wave of corruption-related investigations and removals of senior leaders that may have disrupted its progress towards stated 2027 modernization goals."

China's leadership has directed the PLA to be fully ready to execute a potential invasion or blockade of Taiwan as a professional fighting force should Beijing opt to pursue that path.

The PLA has long faced corruption scandals, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping has spent the last decade cracking down as part of a wider campaign to root out corruption and ensure loyalty to the Communist Party. But the latest string of cases has left the Pentagon questioning China's military ambitions and their ability to achieve them in the Pacific.

At an event in mid-December with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Chase said the US has assessed "the anti-corruption campaign — the corruption challenges themselves — and how they could present real obstacles to accomplishing the goals that Xi has set for the PLA for 2027."

"Just the tip of the iceberg"

Over the past year and half, China has sacked at least 15 high-ranking military officers and defense industry executives. A prominent example includes the dismissal of Defense Minister Li Shangfu. China also expelled Li and another defense minister from the ruling party over graft. The suspension of Adm. Miao Hua from his position as the Director of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission in November 2024, was also significant.

Leaders within the People's Liberation Army's Rocket Force have also been removed.

PLARF's leadership has faced allegations of fraud in the construction of silos for ballistic missiles, and US intelligence has reported on missiles filled with water and intercontinental ballistic missile silos equipped with improperly functioning lids that could derail a missile launch.

At CSIS last month, Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner said a key takeaway from the corruption crackdown: corruption investigations such as this are typically highly secretive. Beijing has often publicly described the current wave of dismissals as "serious violations of discipline."

"We often don't hear about them until they're done," Ratner said of the Chinese corruption investigations. "And what that should lead us to believe is that what we are seeing now — which already has been substantial, right, 15 senior PLA officials already rounded up — is just the tip of the iceberg."

Chase added that there can be a spiral effect in these kinds of situations, where an investigation may reveal further corruption in a different branch or program. That's broadly been the case in the current wave of allegations.

China's military growth and Taiwan

The PLA has long suffered from corruption issues. Since he took office, Xi's anti-corruption campaign has been seen as a renewed effort to root out problems while also ensuring the PLA is both politically loyal to Chinese Communist Party leadership and prepared for any military directives Xi gives it.

China has pursued massive military buildup and growth over the past decade or so, with its eyes set on Taiwan and challenging the US as a peer adversary, but that's also driven corruption.

"The PLA is modernizing so quickly, and they're spending significant amounts of money to build up their forces," said Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said that widespread graft is, in many ways, also "a manifestation of the rapid pace of PLA modernization."

A concentration of the PLA purges being in equipment procurements and the defense industrial base supports the argument that the corruption could be tied to how quickly and aggressively the military is attempting to build up its forces and capabilities.

That raises questions of whether the PLA is on track to meet its mandated modernization goals — a concern that likely keeps Xi up at night, Hart said.

"Does that really undermine the PLA's ability to fight and win wars, especially when it comes to Taiwan?" he asked.

The Pentagon said in its recent report that an investigation announced in July 2023 related to weapons procurement programs dating back to 2017 pointed to "significant concerns with the PLA's modernization efforts more broadly."

What does corruption mean for China's military goals?

Despite the corruption, China's military has achieved tremendous military growth across its branches, from procuring advanced aircraft and bolstering its naval forces to doubling the number of missiles that can reach Guam.

Its military exercises in the Western Pacific, specifically around Taiwan, have grown in size and frequency, and it puts pressure on US allies. And there have been other demonstrations of might.

In September 2024, PLARF carried out an intercontinental ballistic missile test in the Pacific for the first time in 40 years, an apparent signal that despite its challenges with corruption, it maintains power and ambition.

Since the US election, China has been flexing its muscles, sending a clear message to the incoming Trump administration.

The ultimate goal, Hart explained, of Xi's anti-corruption campaign has been to ensure the PLA can modernize on the timeline he has implemented. Even with some issues along the way, China's military growth shows that effort has seen its successes.

Despite the Pentagon's observations, it remains unclear if the PLA's corruption problems will impact China's 2027 goals.

• California has banned undervalued and unsolicited property offers in fire-hit areas of Los Angeles.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order targeted speculators trying to exploit victims of the LA fires.
• The order covers areas like Pacific Palisades and Altadena, which have been devastated by the fires.

California just made it harder for predatory real estate investors to take advantage of victims of the Los Angeles fires.

On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order temporarily banning unsolicited and undervalued offers for properties in specific Los Angeles County zip codes.

The order will be in place for three months, with the zip codes including areas such as Malibu, Altadena, Pasadena, and Pacific Palisades — some of the areas worst hit by the ongoing fires.

The LA wildfires, which have been raging for more than a week, have burned more than 40,000 acres, damaged over 12,000 structures, including many homes, and killed at least 25 people.

"As families mourn, the last thing they need is greedy speculators taking advantage of their pain," Newsom said in a press release.

The governor described how real estate speculators are exploiting the situation, saying he'd heard firsthand from victims who had "received unsolicited and predatory offers" from speculators offering cash far below the market value.

The executive order prohibits offers below the fair market value as of January 6, 2025 — the day before the fires started.

The press release said that the order was inspired by a similar measure issued by Hawaii Gov. Josh Green in August 2023, designed to protect residents after wildfires devastated much of Lahaina.

Violating the order during a state of emergency is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, six months in prison, or both.

Altadena, a "working-class neighborhood" hit hard by the Eaton fire, was cited as an example where undermarket offers could displace vulnerable residents with long-standing ties to the community.

"We will not allow greedy developers to rip off these working-class communities at a time when they need more support than ever before," Newsom said.

Even in areas like the Palisades, which has some of the most expensive real estate in the country, not all victims were wealthy.

A 22-year-old living in the Palisades, who works multiple jobs and said many in her building were blue-collar workers, told Business Insider about having to evacuate her rental apartment.

Concerns about exploitation in the rental market are also growing, as those who have lost their homes look to the future.

Jason Oppenheim of Netflix's "Selling Sunset" said that greedy landlords have been taking advantage of the fires by price gouging, or illegally hiking rents.

He told Business Insider: "This is a time for people to put aside any opportunities for financial gain. If anything, we should be giving back financially, not trying to be rewarded financially from the situation."

• Boeing delivered 348 commercial aircraft last year, fewer than half as many as rival Airbus.
• It's the sixth year in a row Boeing has lagged behind its European competitor.
• After a troubling year, the planemaker has a plan to turn things around.

Boeing reported last year's delivery figures late Tuesday, and they show the scale of the challenge that lies ahead.

The embattled planemaker delivered 348 commercial aircraft in 2024 — down by just over a third since the year before. It was its lowest figure since the pandemic.

Boeing also delivered fewer than half as many planes as rival Airbus, which last Thursday reported 766 deliveries.

Last year was especially arduous for Boeing as it not only dealt with the fallout from January's Alaska Airlines blowout but also a seven-week strike that crippled production.

However, it was also the sixth year in a row it has lagged behind Airbus.

The bulk of both companies' deliveries consist of short-haul, single-aisle aircraft.

Boeing's 737 Max has become almost synonymous with its recent woes, while Airbus is helping airlines unlock new routes with an extra-long-range version of its A320neo.

The A320neo overtook the 737 Max as the best-selling narrow-body jet following the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes in 2018 and 2019, in which a combined 346 people died.

After a door plug came off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max in midair last January, the Federal Aviation Administration limited Boeing's production of the type to 38 a month.

However, it has stayed below that as it works to overhaul its safety and quality processes.

Boeing was also behind Airbus for orders last year, receiving 569 compared to the European manufacturer's 826. Although, it does have a smaller backlog to work through, of 5,595 versus 8,658.

On the one hand, backlogs are a sign that both firms have plenty of business — as airlines order planes years in advance. However, it is also a challenge to work through the order book and ensure airlines receive their jets on time.

Several Boeing customers voiced their annoyance with delivery delays last year. The planemaker also announced further delays to the certification of its 777X jet.

The industry has also had to contend with supply-chain constraints, with Airbus scaling back its delivery target.

For Boeing, there is a road map to increase production without compromising quality.

In 2024, it acquired the bulk of Spirit AeroSystems — a key supplier that was formerly part of Boeing before being spun off into its own entity.

Integrating Spirit back into the company should help keep production on track and minimize traveled work, where planes are assembled out of sequence.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has also made clear that he wants company leaders on the factory floors, so that workers have more trust in management and their concerns and challenges are better understood.

The latest delivery figures show there is a lot of work ahead for Boeing to better challenge Airbus, let alone reclaim the upper hand in the duopoly. But the new boss has a plan in place.

• My eldest daughter had to learn to become self-sufficient at an early age.
• I have limited time for her because most of it is spent caring for my youngest.
• It's not the life I would have chosen, but my family is stronger for it.

My eldest daughter is self-sufficient at 10 years old. She gets herself breakfast and lunch, manages her own schedule, and finds ways to fill her time.

I never dread her school breaks on holidays and in the summer, I don't arrange entertainment for her, and she very seldom whines about being bored.

I just wish all this was by choice.

My 6-year-old has a debilitating disease

Instead, my eldest daughter's independence has come about because of my family's unusual circumstances. My six-year-old daughter has a rare progressive disorder called Rett Syndrome.

Her disease has stolen her words, hand use, independent mobility, and much of her swallow function. It has left her with a wheelchair, speech-generating device, feeding tube, and epilepsy.

With the help of my husband, I spend most of my time doing tasks like blending food, preparing medications, coordinating in-home helpers, fighting insurance denials, and driving to medical appointments.

Our workload intensifies whenever my youngest is not in school, her in-home helpers cancel their shifts, or she becomes ill. Because of her weakened immune system, she spends most of the winter sick. Meanwhile, my husband and I spend most of it caring for her.

Unfortunately, all this leaves little time for my eldest daughter.

My eldest's self-sufficiency is a silver lining

I struggle to do the most basic things with her, let alone, coordinate playdates, drive to after-school activities, or act as her entertainment director.

Instead, my eldest plays a vital role in our household. She relays messages, fetches supplies, helps with her sister's feeding tube, and operates our van's wheelchair ramp.

This might sound like my eldest has the short end of the stick. But her self-sufficiency has been one of the biggest silver linings of her sister's disease.

While my eldest daughter's peers are whisked from one activity to another, remain glued to tablets, or complain about being bored, she has the freedom to make what she wants of her time.

When she's not in school she's typically playing with neighborhood kids outside or, when the weather keeps her indoors, reading, designing art projects, or writing stories and poems.

The moments I spend with my eldest are precious and wonderful

I do spend time with my eldest daughter, of course, but not in the way I envisioned when I first became a mother.

Our moments together aren't as frequent as I would like and require a good bit of coordination.

However, because they are so few, they are also precious and highly enjoyable.

When my youngest is healthy and an in-home helper or my husband can care for her, my eldest and I plan activities together.

Sometimes she chooses a recipe and I give her a cooking lesson. Other times we spend a night in a hotel or have a "spa night" painting our nails and playing Mad Libs.

We look forward to these pockets of time when we laugh, talk, and share meals without stress or interruption.

This isn't the life I would have chosen but our family is stronger for it

Sometimes I worry that my eldest's limited extra-curricular activities will eventually make her a less competitive college applicant. She won't have an application filled with sports, language lessons, after-school activities, or service projects.

However, when I feel guilty, I remind myself that she will have many of the things one needs to succeed in life — self-reliance, independence, resilience, flexibility, and compassion.

Though this is not the life I would have chosen for my family, we are all stronger and wiser for it. My eldest daughter is a perfect example.

She doesn't fidget in the doctor's waiting room, even when she doesn't have a phone or a tablet. She doesn't walk by someone in a wheelchair without acknowledging them. She opens doors for others, stands up for her sister, and calmly accepts any last-minute changes to our plans.

I couldn't be prouder of the person she is becoming.

• Firefighters are bracing for strong gusts of winds, fuelling the deadly LA fires.
• The fires have burned through 40,000 acres and could cost up to $275 billion in damage.
• Over 8,500 firefighters have been deployed to fight the blazes. 25 people are reported dead.

Officials have warned that the fires raging across Los Angeles could soon get worse, with the "highest risk" of gusty winds to intensify on Wednesday.

The wildfires, which have now been raging for more than a week, have already burned through 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 12,000 homes and other structures.

Preliminary estimates from AccuWeather show the total damage and economic losses associated with the Southern California wildfires could amount to $275 billion, making it one of the most costly wildfires and natural disasters in recent US history.

According to Goldman Sachs, the total damage from the LA fires could rank among the top 20 costliest natural disasters in US history, in terms of GDP.

More than 8,500 firefighters have been marshaled to fight the blazes, which have caused at least 25 reported deaths.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said 34 people had been reported missing, 21 of whom had been found safe.

Of the 13 remaining, two have most likely been found dead but have yet to be identified, he said.

Fires rage on

On Tuesday night, the LA County Fire Department said that a red warning for the Eaton Fire, one of the major blazes, had been extended through 6 p.m. on Wednesday, local time.

Moderate to strong winds were expected to persist, and gusty winds were at the "highest risk" of impacting the fire early Wednesday morning, it said.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the next 24 hours would be another "dangerous" period, with high winds set to hit the region.

And in an update Tuesday, the National Weather Service of Los Angeles said "critical" fire weather conditions may extend to next week, when another round of Santa Ana winds could take place.

The Palisades and the Eaton Fires were 18% and 35% contained as of the early hours of Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, while the Hurst fire was almost fully contained, it said.

Looking beyond the destruction

LA officials are already looking beyond the fires, despite firefighters still struggling to put out the larger blazes.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order to speed up the city's building permit review process, calling for reviews to be completed within 30 days of submission.

The executive order also aims to streamline processes for clearing debris.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday issued an executive order barring land developers from making unsolicited and undervalued offers to buy properties.

"Make no mistake — this is a prosecutable crime," he said in an X post.

Southern California Edison, an electric utility company serving California's Central, Coastal, and Southern regions, said on Tuesday that 70,250 customers were without power as of 4 p.m. local time.

It added that because of dangerous conditions, it could take days to restore power, and that customers should be prepared for extended and potentially intermittent outages.

• Millennials and Gen Z are packing up and leaving cities with high housing costs.
• They're moving to suburban and exurban communities while balancing hybrid work schedules.
• Here are 8 hot housing markets located outside major metropolitan areas, according to Zillow.

Young Americans sick of the high housing costs in major cities but unwilling to commit to going country are exploring a third option: moving to the burbs.

This development is a marked departure from the "back to the city" movement pioneered by millennials in the 2000s and 2010s. However, considering the historical context, moving out of crowded urban areas isn't unprecedented.

Suburbs are as American as apple pie. Armed with postwar GI Bills providing housing assistance and bank accounts bolstered by economic expansion, Americans poured out of cities and into mass-produced suburban Levittowns in the 1950s and 60s. Thus, the American dream of a home with a white picket fence was born.

According to Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow, young Americans are taking it one step further and moving to the exurbs — communities located past denser suburban areas but still within commuting distance to the metropolitan center.

"These communities strike a balance between suburban amenities while being located less than 90 miles outside of the offerings and thriving job markets of large urban centers like New York City or Boston," Divounguy told Business Insider in an email.

Post-pandemic, millennials, and increasingly, Gen-Z, have been giving up city life for the suburbs and exurbs, partly because they're getting priced out but also because they've developed changing lifestyle habits regarding flexible working arrangements.

"The increase in hybrid work models is likely contributing, leading more people to discover hidden gem cities that they may have previously overlooked when daily commutes were standard," Treh Manhertz, senior economic research scientist at Zillow, wrote in a recent report.

According to the moving company Hire a Helper, cities like New York, San Jose, and Los Angeles were top of the list for cities millennials moved out of in 2023. And between 2021 and 2022, millennials and Gen Z comprised almost two-thirds of the total number of departees from New York, an analysis conducted by Business Insider found.

That's not to say city living is out. Young people are still moving into expensive markets, according to Divounguy, but there's an undeniable proportion of the younger population leaving the cities.

This trend was reflected in 2024 Zillow user preferences. The real estate company analyzed metrics such as page-view traffic, home value growth, and days on market to gauge which housing markets with the highest level of consumer demand. Out of the top 10 most popular housing markets on the site, seven were suburban or exurban locations, which are listed below.

7 exurban communities homebuyers are eyeing

Manchester, New Hampshire

Approximate distance to nearest metro area: 50 miles away from Boston

Stamford, Connecticut

Approximate distance to nearest metro area: 35 miles away from New York City

Columbia, Maryland

Approximate distance to nearest metro area: 20 miles away from Baltimore

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Approximate distance to nearest metro area: 60 miles away from New York City

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Approximate distance to nearest metro area: 60 miles away from Philadelphia

New Haven, Connecticut

Approximate distance to nearest metro area: 80 miles away from New York City

Waterbury, Connecticut

Approximate distance to nearest metro area: 80 miles away from New York City