• Last year was the toughest for entry-level home affordability in four decades.
• Prospective buyers have reasons to be hopeful, but mortgage rates aren't among them.
• Here's what top real-estate analyst Ivy Zelman thinks will happen in 2025.

The US real-estate market is bound to have a better year in 2025 after a historically horrible stretch for housing affordability, but those looking for major improvements may be disappointed.

Entry-level home affordability reached a 40-year low last year, according to data compiled by Zelman & Associates, the real-estate research firm led by famed analyst Ivy Zelman.

Would-be homebuyers were battered by exorbitant property prices and mortgage rates. Although both aspects of affordability improved modestly from peak levels, it wasn't enough to give home sales a meaningful jumpstart.

Younger generations who didn't already own property had it toughest. First-time homebuyers made up less than a quarter of purchases, Realtor.com found — the lowest rate since 1981. Housing analysts are likely sick of references to the 1980s, which was one of the toughest times on record for home affordability.

The new year often brings optimism, and 2025 is no different for those hoping to buy a house.

But it may be best to stay patient, based on year-ahead projections from Zelman and her team. Their estimates for mortgage rates, home sales, prices, and supply in a January report indicate that the year ahead will be better in many ways than 2024, though still full of headaches.

Heeding Zelman's calls has historically paid off. Nearly 20 years ago, Zelman was famously skeptical about the housing market. Shortly after came the housing bubble and financial crisis. She also warned of higher home insurance costs this summer due to rising global temperatures, before the devastating California fires that some observers say are climate change-related.

Below are eight charts from Zelman's report showing what's next for US real estate, which includes the housing and rental markets.

1. Mortgage rates stay stuck high

Many of last year's upbeat predictions about the housing market, including from Zelman, centered around declining mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed rate had tumbled from 7.8% in late October to 6.6% by New Year's, and analysts said it would fall further as interest rates dropped.

Rates then reversed higher through April to 7.2%, which was a major surprise for Zelman. The unexpected jump in borrowing costs postponed sales, though it looked like a blip once rates trended lower through the summer and into the early fall.

But in the last four months, rates have steadily risen back to highly restrictive levels. The US economy is even healthier than expected, and investors think President-elect Trump will usher in even stronger growth and potentially higher inflation.

Either way, markets are counting on higher-for-longer rates, as is Zelman. She thinks rates will be roughly flat this year and sees the 30-year hovering around 6.7% before slipping to 6.5% in 2026. That means buyers shouldn't hold their breath for lower borrowing costs.

2. Home sales march higher

Elevated mortgage rates are a dealbreaker for many buyers and unacceptable for others.

About three-quarters of current owners have mortgage rates below 5%, Zelman's firm found, and over half (56%) are locked into rates lower than 4%. It's no wonder why they're reluctant to swap that rock-bottom rate for a 7% mortgage.

However, those who need to move may decide they can't wait any longer, given that rates may stay near current levels for years.

Both new and existing home sales should rise about 5% next year in a healthy economy, in Zelman's view. A year ago, and last April, she thought sales would surge 8% in 2025, which reflects how higher-than-anticipated rates are weighing on demand.

3. Existing home prices rise at a modest pace

Homeowners are already reluctant to move, so it stands to reason that they'll hold out for higher prices. Properties already on the market should sell for about 3% more than last year, according to Zelman & Associates, though that's below last year's rate and the expected figure for 2026.

4. New home prices inch up

A glut of new homes entering the market will keep prices at bay, Zelman and her team say. They expect freshly made properties to sell for 1% more than in 2024, following a year of flat prices.

5. Single-family rent growth stays in check

On the rental side, Zelman thinks landlords will still score price hikes, though at much lower rates than in the mid- and post-pandemic boom.

Rent growth should fall below 3% for single-family units for the first time in a decade, as rising inventory means that the occupancy rate isn't nearly as stretched as it was a few years ago.

6. Multi-family rent growth remains below-trend

Rent for multi-family units, which includes apartments, will also stay subdued, Zelman's firm said. Rent in these setups may drift north of 2%, but that's still well below levels from the 2010s.

7. Rent hikes will trail wages again

The silver lining for renters is that these increases shouldn't break the bank. Wage growth outpaced rent growth last year for the first time since at least the mid-2010s, according to Zelman & Associates, and the trend should continue this year and into 2026.

8. Multi-family supply growth slows but stays strong

There's a simple reason why rent growth isn't budging much: tenants increasingly have options since apartment supply is soaring.

Last year saw the ninth-biggest increase in multi-family inventory in the last five decades, Zelman and her peers noted. Over 600,000 new multi-family setups went online in 2024, and while that figure may fall this year, it still should be a big year for apartment construction.

• Starbucks is in the middle of a turnaround effort.
• The coffee chain is making changes, including some later this month, aimed at improving sales.
• Here are the biggest shifts, from more free refills to the end of Starbucks' open-door policy.

Starbucks is starting off 2025 with some big changes.

Former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol took the helm of the coffee chain in September. Since then, Starbucks has announced a series of shifts meant to get customers ordering drinks and food again.

The turnaround attempt comes as Starbucks' sales, both in the US and globally, fell during its fourth quarter.

Here are the biggest changes that Starbucks has announced over the last few months:

Starbucks will require a purchase to hang out

Starbucks visitors will have to order something or be with someone who does in order to hang out at one of the chain's stores, starting January 27.

The coffee chain confirmed the change on January 13. It replaces the previous open-door policy, which Starbucks implemented after two black men were arrested in 2018 after one asked to use the bathroom at a Philadelphia store without buying anything.

The new policy, part of the "Coffeehouse Code of Conduct," is meant to "prioritize our paying customers who want to sit and enjoy our cafés or need to use the restroom during their visit," a Starbucks spokesperson told Business Insider.

Starbucks is offering free refills to more patrons

Another change taking effect on January 27 will allow all Starbucks customers, not just members of the chain's rewards program, to get free refills on many brewed coffees and teas.

Customers can get them by using a clean reusable cup of their own or an in-house ceramic one provided by the chain. They also have to order their drinks in-store, and refills are only available on a beverage during a single visit.

Starbucks' self-serve condiment bars are returning

Starbucks said last year that it would bring back self-service condiment bars in early 2025.

The change means customers will have to add their own milk, sugar, and other condiments to their drinks instead of relying on baristas to do it behind the counter. It will cut the time it takes baristas to serve hot cups of coffee, Niccol said on an earnings call in October.

Rewards members are getting fewer promotions through the app

The days of plentiful buy-one-get-one-free Frappuccino deals appear to be over.

Starbucks has been cutting back the number of promotions that it has offered rewards members through its app, the Wall Street Journal reported in October. It's part of a push to make the coffee chain feel more upscale, the Journal reported at the time.

The change was welcomed by some baristas, who previously said that they were overwhelmed when customers used the Starbucks mobile app to order multiple drinks at once, including through deals such as four beverages for $20.

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

• I always enjoyed my mother's cooking, but didn't learn from her while she was still alive.
• Returning to Libya helped the me reconnect with family and learn traditional recipes.
• I feel my mother's presence in my own kitchen as I now have the confidence to cook and entertain.

I was 18 when my mother died. As difficult as it was to process, another tragedy loomed over me, one far less visible to the naked eye — I never learned how to cook from her.

Food was the thread running throughout my mother's life. There was fluffy Libyan couscous topped with glowing orange slices of pumpkin for dinner, pink Barbie princess cakes and strawberry jammed pastries for birthdays, as well as platters of her bright mouthwatering lasagna that fed our entire mosque congregation. Libyan rishta kiskas that summoned her archaic pasta maker from the darkness of the kitchen cabinet; There was also her her pastries — basbousa, abambar, pasta flora, fruit tart — which she crafted for every house party she threw.

In her life, food stretched far beyond nourishment. It was one enormous show of love, one tangible anchor of memory. I reveled in her cooking, but I never took interest in learning. My inability to carry on my mother's culinary legacy caused me to feel I'd colluded in her death in my own way.

A sparse kitchen, and even fewer skills

After the funeral, I moved into the only place I could afford, a rundown apartment unit with not a whisper of a kitchen — no sink, no stove, no oven — which deepened my distance from food.

With only a thrifted fridge and a cheap electric cooktop I purchased from Walmart, I strove to learn. I would try making tilapia which I season poorly and cooked to shreds. Ultimately, I gave up on the kitchen, haunted by my lost inheritance. I survived off whatever I could unearth at the corner store or the surprise aluminum trays full of home-cooked meals community members dropped off.

A new chance to get it right

At 23, everything shifted when I left California to return to Libya for the first time since my mother's death to be with her family. Still entrenched in grief, being able to finally mourn together enabled me to wholeheartedly approach the kitchen.

I asked my Auntie Leila to teach me how to make couscous, and she happily agreed. It was a favorite dish growing up, one my mother would typically make on weekends. I peeled carrots and potatoes as she seasoned the bubbling lamb stew. My prodding about measurements and cooking times did nothing but elicit her to huff out an age-old Libyan proverb that roughly translates to "my eye is my scale."

It was a bittersweet compensation for all the years I missed with my mother in the kitchen. Though the couscous was not an exact replica of my mother's recipe, it managed to capture the essence of it, giving me the strength to move forward on my own culinary journey.

Finding the confidence to try

Upon returning to California, I cobbled together the best kitchen I possibly could. I splurged on a new fridge, a new cooktop, and thrifted a shelf to store spices. I even procured my first apron, which felt as symbolic as planting a flag atop Mount Everest.

I made dishes from around the world: gochujang chicken, doro wat, çilbir, and shokupan. At my mother's friends' homes, where I had always sat on the outskirts of their kitchens, I began to invite myself beside them at the stove. I learned their beloved recipes and I taught them the ones I had recently learned. I fell in love with the transformative ritual of kneading, mixing, and stirring. Most of all, I fell in love with how I was transforming, how each dish made my grief easier to carry.

Years later, I moved out of my unit and into a home fit for the living. The apartment was modest, but it felt like a palace to me, complete with a sink, stove, and oven. I ecstatically hosted my first-ever gathering. As I flitted from one corner of the kitchen to the next to prepare dinner, I felt my mother's gentle presence wrap all around me like I was being guided by her spirit while still making the kitchen my own.

I used to wish for a romantic story of how I learned to cook side-by-side with my darling mother. But the real story, pieced together in her absence, is no less filled with love.

• President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration is slated to be full of major business CEOs.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang isn't among them — he's celebrating the Lunar New Year in Asia.
• Huang met with tech leaders and attended local celebrations in Taiwan over the weekend.

Many of Silicon Valley's tech titans are getting ready to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration today — but not Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

On Friday, Huang was in Taiwan, where he told reporters he wouldn't be at Trump's inauguration as he will be celebrating Lunar New Year with employees.

"The year-end party is very important for us because the employees work so hard and it's my opportunity to thank everyone," Huang said, referring to festivities ahead of Lunar New Year, which starts on January 29.

Huang also told reporters he hasn't spoken with the incoming Trump administration but is looking forward to congratulating the team.

During his visit to Taiwan, Huang attended year-end parties at Nvidia and Wistron, a Taiwanese supplier, according to local media reports.

He also hosted a lunch with tech leaders including TSMC Chairman CC Wei and Foxconn Chairman Young Liu, highlighting the key role Taiwan plays in the world's tech supply chain amid geopolitical tensions with Beijing, which claims the island as its territory.

Huang's Taiwan trip also included a visit to his regular hair salon, stops at night markets, and dinner plans at TSMC founder Morris Chang's residence. Huang left Taipei on Sunday morning and is in China, according to local media reports.

An Nvidia spokesperson told Business Insider it doesn't comment on the travel schedules of its company executives.

Last year, Huang was also in Asia celebrating Lunar New Year in China.

'Jensanity' in Taiwan

Huang's 55-hour visit to Taiwan ignited excitement on the island, where he was swarmed by the media and by fans wanting his autograph.

Seen as the local boy who made good, Taiwan-born Huang is a star in Taiwan. The phenomenon has been coined "Jensanity."

During a visit to the island in June, Huang received a rockstar's reception and even signed one woman's chest. On Halloween, at least one Taiwanese kid dressed up as Huang, with his mom telling BI at the time that her 5-year-old son knew he was "dressed as a very remarkable person."

Huang has also become a tech celebrity, with his memo-writing style, fashion sense, and organizational style becoming topics of discussion.

Nvidia is the leading producer of AI chips — a key domain the US and China are competing in. The company's share price has skyrocketed in the past two years.

Nvidia is now one of the world's most valuable companies, with a market capitalization of $3.4 trillion. Huang is the 12th-richest person in the world, with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimating his net worth at $117 billion.

Nvidia shares closed 3.1% higher on Friday. They are up 2.6% year to date and 131% higher over the past year.

Tech leaders in the US prepare for Trump 2.0

Trump's four-day inauguration celebration kicked off on January 18.

Major tech CEOs — including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla's Elon Musk, Google's Sundar Pichai, and TikTok's Shou Zi Chew — are expected to be at Trump's inauguration.

The inauguration has also drawn donations from tech giants. Google and Meta each donated $1 million to the event.

Earlier this month, Huang said he had not yet met Trump, but that he would be "delighted" to get an invite to visit Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Palm Beach resort.

Nvidia declined to comment to BI on whether the company or Huang has donated to Trump's inauguration.

Trump's inauguration also coincides with the first day of Davos in Switzerland, which draws heads of business and state from around the globe.

• Keith Romes moved to Mexico to work remotely when the pandemic hit without telling his employers.
• Romes sought a better quality of life and lower living costs than he had in California.
• He plans to work remotely abroad again because he values affordable living and cultural exploration.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Keith Romes, a 40-year-old tech professional based in California. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I didn't go to college after graduating from high school. Instead, I started applying for work right away in 2005. I enjoy tech, video games, and Star Wars, so I wanted to get a job in that world.

I became good at interviewing by doing group interviews and seeing what others did, and I landed a position doing quality assurance for LucasArts. I had a six-month contract to work on the video game Star Wars Battlefront II.

I landed more contract roles at Electronic Arts, Friend Finder, and eventually companies like Meta and TikTok. For my first few contract roles, I was living in California.

During some of my more recent contracts, I worked remotely from Mexico without telling anyone — and got away with it.

While working at Friend Finder, I took my first international trip

My pay at Friend Finder was enough to take my first international trip to Tokyo, which started my love for travel.

I stayed at Friend Finder until 2008 and then got a great opportunity — my first full-time job at Apple in the App Store division. I worked at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.

I had a crazy schedule because the launch of the App Store involved a lot of work. I worked 80-hour weeks and reached burnout.

I realized I didn't want my work to be my entire life. I stayed there for two years and then decided to take shorter contracts again and build more breaks into my work.

I re-entered the world of contract work in 2010

I got a contract with Google to work on the Google Play store and did the same quality assurance work I had done at Apple. I was at Google for close to a year and left in 2011.

After that, I worked for a video game company called Kabam in San Francisco for six months before leaving to take on a series of contract roles at Meta, working in developer operations and testing chatbots.

I did analysis work on Facebook's news feed feature but left because I felt like I had a terrible work-life balance and was burning out again.

After Meta, I worked for six months on a project-based contract at Twitter's headquarters in 2016. Then, I decided to take some personal time off to regroup.

In 2018, I returned to Meta for another contract role.

I realized I wanted a better quality of life and fewer bills than in California

I had been looking into dental work in Mexico because the cost was lower, and I heard there was a better quality of life there. I decided to move to Mexico in 2020 but had to figure out the logistics.

When the pandemic started, we were told remote work would be mandatory. That made the decision to go to Mexico much easier. I started that contract in California but didn't tell my bosses about my decision to move to Mexico.

I moved with just some luggage, set up my life and workstation in Cancún, and started working for Meta remotely from Mexico. I had no time zone challenges.

The cost of living was incredible compared to California — it was the total package for me. I enjoyed beach access, amazing food, the amenities of my apartment complex, and friendly people.

My new lifestyle was very affordable

I easily lived on less than $1,200 a month. For the first year, I lived in an Airbnb, and my expenses were one-third to one-fifth of my living costs in California.

I worried at first about having an issue remote working from another country, but as soon as I got there, I connected to Meta's systems. I didn't have to use a VPN for remote work — just a regular WiFi connection.

While in Mexico, my pets and I survived two hurricanes, and WiFi was pretty good both times — I didn't lose any data. The streams were great for holding meetings.

I had no issues working remotely internationally, so I stopped worrying about it

While still in Mexico, I got a second contract job as an app marketing manager for Avalara, an automated sales tax compliance software company for businesses. I used a family member's address in California to apply for the role and did not tell Avalara I lived in Mexico.

I had to fly back to California to pick up a company laptop but then returned to Mexico. I don't know if they would've fired me for quietly working from another country, but I didn't want to take any chances.

I took my meetings from my villa in Mexico, and I was loving life. I also visited cities near Mexico City, such as Guadalajara, and took mini-vacations often.

I worked both jobs until December 2021, when my contract at Meta was completed. Then, I continued to work only in the role at Avalara.

A new job brought me back to the US

In March 2022, I left Avalara and started a new contract role at TikTok. That October, TikTok ordered me back into the office, and I returned to California to regroup.

I didn't want to leave Mexico but needed the money from the TikTok job. I stayed at TikTok until February 2023.

Currently, I work in two remote roles focused on content review and AI content from California.

I want to move abroad again

I plan to return to Mexico or explore other countries like Colombia, Japan, or the Philippines.

My salary averages around $40,000 per six-month contract. I plan to set up a side hustle in addition to my contract positions to make more money and have more flexibility.

I want to leave the US again for a better quality of life. Less expensive, universal healthcare and opportunities to explore other cultures are important to me.

It was a chilly night in Berkeley, California this past November when Sarah decided to stop by a buzzy after-party for an AI conference called The Curve. A year and a half ago, the 27-year-old had left her lucrative job as a trader in London to look for work in AI safety, which she considers the most important issue in the world, and she was eager to connect with others who felt the same. She certainly didn't expect to end the evening vilified as a Chinese spy.

At the party, the topic du jour was a recent article in The Economist, provocatively titled, "Is Xi Jinping an AI doomer?" Sarah, who was born in China a few hours from Shanghai, discussed the question with various AI researchers and policy analysts. Then one exchange turned sour.

"There's been rumors of espionage in Silicon Valley," Sarah recalled one person saying, "Like people preying on young, male, impressionable software engineers." The guy looked at Sarah. Uncomfortable, she excused herself from the conversation.

"I'm a Chinese national, but it's not like I'm a spy," she later recounted to another attendee.

Her comment was overheard by Samuel Hammond, an economist at the Foundation for American Innovation and an AI policy advisor for Project 2025. He posted it to X, where it attracted millions of views.

"So definitely a spy?" read one reply on X. "She was from Beijing and had a very posh accent," responded Hammond. (Sarah is from an entirely different part of China.) Other partygoers piled onto the speculation. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that," one said. Another insisted: "I can't dismiss the idea that she was CCP… If there's a plausible risk, & there is, she shouldn't be allowed in."

Sarah, who asked that I use just her first name, replied on X to clear up the confusion about why she left the conversation — it was cold and she had already been asked the same question by other people — but by then the exchange had reached escape velocity, spilling out across Silicon Valley. "Everyone knows," she said about the encounter. "I had to stop going to networking events. I just wanted this thing to die down."

As the race to develop advanced AI systems before China does ramps up, a new Red Scare has taken over the tech world. I spoke with Chinese workers and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional, personal, or legal repercussions, and found that Sarah's experience was far from rare. The same fear of Chinese espionage that forced TikTok to shut down is now pushing out Chinese-born AI professionals at the exact moment that American AI experts report a critical talent shortage in the field.

Concerns over Chinese spying have been on the rise since the early 2010s, when the US escalated its efforts to address Chinese cyberattacks. In 2018, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump undertook a controversial "China Initiative," which aimed to prevent industrial espionage in the research community by investigating hundreds of academics suspected of having ties to China. It found only a few cases of actual spying.

The plurality of investigations, Bloomberg and MIT Technology Review reported in 2021, involved undisclosed funding and affiliations to Chinese institutions, while "just three claim that secrets were handed over to Chinese agents," Bloomberg wrote. Instead of catching spies, many cases just indicted professors for bureaucratic oversights — those found guilty claimed they didn't disclose their funding because they didn't think they had to.

The China Initiative's slipshod approach upended many people's lives. Gang Chen, a nanotechnologist, and Anming Hu, a physicist, were both US-based tenured professors who were arrested by the FBI, only for authorities to later realize they had made a mistake. During the yearlong investigations, Chen was barred from his university's campus, and Hu was suspended without pay and his work authorization revoked. (Though both were later reinstated to their positions, Chen said he would no longer take federal research funding). The suicide of the neuroscientist Jane Ying Wu last year came after a China Initiative investigation shut down her lab.

The Biden administration escalated Trump's competitive approach toward China. The 2022 CHIPS Act, which aimed to bolster domestic production of semiconductors, the essential hardware powering AI, also restricted US investments, manufacturing, and research collaborations in China. Last April, Biden signed a bipartisan bill ordering the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok on grounds of national security.

Now, the fear of espionage has shifted to Silicon Valley. In June last year, AI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner said he was fired from OpenAI for sharing concerns about foreign espionage with the OpenAI board. He then published a paper-cum-manifesto titled "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," about the race to AGI, or artificial general intelligence — what he calls the "most powerful weapon mankind has ever created," comparable to nuclear weapons. "If we're lucky, we'll be in an all-out race with the CCP; if we're unlucky, an all-out war," he wrote. In a section called "The Free World Must Prevail," Aschenbrenner paints a dystopian scenario where the Chinese Communist Party steals model weights and algorithms and uses them to target "advanced bioweapons" at "anybody but Han Chinese," "individually assess every citizen for dissent," and "enforce the Party's conception of 'truth.'" The paper was widely circulated in Silicon Valley and even shared to X by Ivanka Trump. (OpenAI has said the concerns Aschenbrenner shared with the board were not the reason he was fired.)

The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen entertained a similar thought experiment last March. "Let's assume that AI in 2024 is like atomic technology in 1943," he wrote on X. "What we see is the security equivalent of swiss cheese. My own assumption is that all such American AI labs are fully penetrated and that China is getting nightly downloads of all American AI research and code RIGHT NOW."

In response to mounting concerns, the Financial Times reported that Google, OpenAI, and several other US tech companies have tightened personnel screening. Some startups are turning to third-party tools like Strider Technologies, which scours public data to investigate individuals' connections to "state-sponsored risk," as Strider's website puts it. If a current or prospective employee is flagged by Strider's AI, FT reported that its "due diligence" process will then investigate their "family or financial links abroad as well as their travel history."

A spokesperson for Google said they hadn't stepped up their screening processes and told me that the company has "strict safeguards" for preventing the theft of trade secrets, "none of which are based on employees' nationality." OpenAI did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Meanwhile, members of the Chinese diaspora in Silicon Valley are feeling the strain and paranoia of geopolitical tensions pressing on their social and professional lives. One 26-year-old woman who works at a San Francisco startup said she was once called a "honeypot" by a dance partner at a local bar. "He told me he worked on a nuclear-related company," she said. "He was like, 'I cannot share anything with you. Are you looking at my phone? You don't seem like a honeypot, but I have to be careful given that you're a Chinese national.'"

As a tech worker, she has turned down AI-related job opportunities to avoid scrutiny for herself and her family from both the US and Chinese governments. She also tries to downplay her Chinese accent and cultural identity. "A lot of Chinese nationals don't agree with the Chinese government" on issues like Uyghur repression in Xinjiang, she said. "But in social situations, you have to vocalize it passionately just to lower the guard people have toward you."

Sarah affirmed this sentiment. She hoped to contribute to global AI safety work by bridging the information gap between Chinese- and English-language researchers and policymakers, but the hawkish environment has made collaboration difficult. "Whenever you say anything neutral about China, people will think, 'That's pro-China, and this person is bought by the CCP,'" she said.

Many Chinese startup founders are also deemphasizing their nationality. One founder of a consumer AI startup told me that an investor asked her to remove the word "China" from a pitch deck and replace it with "Asia." It's a notable shift from the start of the century when top venture-capital firms were eager to invest in Chinese super-apps and open China-based funds.

HeyGen, a generative-AI startup founded in Shenzhen, dissolved its Chinese operation to rebrand and relocate to the US in 2023. It asked its Chinese investors to sell their equity, then raised a new Series A round from US- and UK-based funds to more easily purchase semiconductors under the CHIPS Act. One of HeyGen's original Chinese investors told me that it's now common for Chinese founders to turn down Chinese capital to avoid US governmental scrutiny.

Similarly, the TechCrunch journalist Rita Liao wrote that a Chinese company refused her coverage because her byline made them look "too Chinese." She said another Chinese founder told her: "We work for no government. We just want to build businesses."

Several people I spoke with described their situation as a "double bind." On one hand, they came to the US to pursue opportunities and liberties that Chinese society didn't afford them. But these days, eerily similar state and social sanctions are intruding on their work.

In some cases, the tensions are making it difficult for people from China to stay in the US. Ordinarily, foreign workers on visas who temporarily leave the US must get a stamp from a local US consulate before reentering. But more tech workers are being put through extra processing required for people working in sensitive industries before they can reenter the US, resulting in some people getting stranded abroad for months or years.

On forums for Chinese nationals, anxious students and professionals fret about how to avoid extended processing. "I work as a machine learning engineer in the Bay Area," reads one post from October. "I work on some AI product applications and do no core AI research. I thought that 'sensitive fields' referred to advanced defense research, but now I heard that any STEM field can be subject to checks. I'm feeling panicked."

Unlucky visa holders who get flagged have no choice but to appeal for an extended leave of absence from their university or workplace. One AI Ph.D. student wrote in November, "I have now waited for more than 130 days. My school has deferred me for one semester, but I cannot defer it again."

As tensions ramp up, many Chinese tech workers are reconsidering whether the American dream is worth the risk. When Microsoft offered its China-based employees a chance to relocate to another country, tensions between the US and China made some reluctant to take the offer, according to reporting by Rest of World. Going viral on X turned out to be a tipping point for Sarah. She returned to China in December. "Initially I was afraid of trouble on the Chinese side, but it turns out that the other side is more problematic," she said about the US.

Meanwhile, the US faces a critical talent shortage in AI. A 2021 report by the National Security Commission on AI found that the number of US-born STEM and AI doctorates is not nearly keeping pace with the industry's growth. While 42% of top-tier AI researchers worked in the US in 2022, only 18% of them received their undergraduate degree here, Macro Polo's AI Talent Tracker found. China is currently the largest source of these top-tier researchers — and more are choosing to stay in China.

"For the first time in our lifetime, the United States risks losing the competition for talent on the scientific frontiers," the NSCAI report says. "Immigration reform is a national security imperative."

Divyansh Kaushik, a tech and national security expert at Beacon Global Strategies, told me that America needs policies that are a "scalpel, not a sledgehammer." He recognizes the risk of espionage, citing China's 2017 National Intelligence Law, which legally obligates all Chinese citizens to "support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work." But Kaushik considers blanket bans on foreign nationals just as counterproductive. He instead pointed to policies that restrict students from specific Chinese-military-affiliated universities from obtaining visas. "There will be false positives and false negatives," but the US can mitigate the risk without overreaching, he told me.

Other experts believe that nationality-based anti-espionage efforts are more security theater than reality. Yangyang Cheng, a physicist and China researcher at Yale Law School, told me that AI risks "are not exclusive to Chinese firms or unique products of the Chinese authoritarian system." She cited examples of American professors who helped build biometric technologies for ethnic oppression in Xinjiang, arguing that we should be focused on preventing harm wherever it originates. She thinks the TikTok ban makes the same mistakes. "The focus on the Chinese government's subpoena power overlooks the many ways American companies cooperate with the state," she wrote for Wired.

It's unclear what stance this Trump administration will take. Some in Silicon Valley are hopeful that the president-elect will expand the visa program for high-skilled immigrants. During a recent intra-Republican fight over H-1B visas, Trump aligned with Elon Musk, telling supporters: "We need smart people coming into our country." But Trump's 2016 term oversaw higher costs, longer wait times, and increased denial rates for H-1B applicants. During a private dinner conversation in 2018 reported by Politico, Trump said, referring to China, "almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy."

Those who are staying in the US, meanwhile, say they feel exhausted. "I've been in the US for almost a decade," a Chinese-born data scientist and UC Berkeley graduate told me. "Many of us left to escape that political environment, and are the most liberal-leaning Chinese you can find. We spend so much time going through the American education and immigration system — and now the US says it doesn't welcome us either. It feels like we have this talent that no one wants."

Jasmine Sun is a writer covering tech, politics, and culture from San Francisco. She publishes a weekly newsletter on the "anthropology of disruption."

I had no idea about patio heaters before the pandemic. I mean, I knew they existed, but I hadn't really thought about them. During the pandemic, I thought about them too much — where they were, where they weren't, whether they worked. Where there's a will, there's a way, and in 2020 and 2021 I had All The Will to leave my apartment and socialize on cold New York City days. That meant any trip to a restaurant or bar entailed careful consideration of the outdoor heat situation. I kept mental rankings of the various types. The best outdoor heater I experienced was a little propane guy at a restaurant in Philadelphia that was sneakily effective. The worst was one of those tower ones at a wine bar down the street — the owner had put it under an umbrella in the rain, and it caught on fire. That glass of pinot grigio came at a very cold, wet expense.

As the pandemic subsided and people returned to the great indoors, I assumed patio heaters would largely disappear, like toilet-paper hoarding and clapping for essential workers. But they've stuck around, becoming fixtures at restaurants and bars and hotels and people's homes.

Shutdowns of gathering places and lockdowns that kept people at home fostered a new appreciation for the outdoors. It sparked a greater openness to spending more time outside even when the temperature isn't a perfect 72 degrees Fahrenheit. And a lot of homeowners rethought the utility of their spaces, which led to a pandemic-driven surge in renovations featuring new patios and decks they'd very much like to take advantage of year-round. Your mileage may vary on how effective these devices are — no heater is going to get you sitting outside comfortably in Chicago in February, and there's a lot of variation in quality across products. But heaters are ubiquitous, and they're not going away.

For establishments such as restaurants and bars, keeping patrons warm outdoors was a key part of survival. For people bored at home, a patio heater became a way to keep themselves from going stir-crazy. While businesses and consumers aren't scooping up patio heaters at the rate they were four years ago (or enduring the accompanying price gouging), they're still buying them more than they were before the pandemic.

Adobe, which tracks online sales during holidays and major shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, found patio and outdoor heaters were still a hot seller last year. Spending on the items ramped up earlier in 2024 than it did in 2023, likely driven by deeper and earlier discounts on appliances. Cyber Week sales of outdoor heaters were up by 314% over daily average sales in October, compared with 262% for appliances overall. Tabletop and portable models in particular were popular. Vivek Pandya, a lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, says it's not just first-time buyers scooping patio heaters up — it's repeat purchasers.

"If we think about the pandemic, we're about four years outside of that," he said. "You then have a cycle where maybe consumers are replacing certain items or interested in getting certain items."

Google Trends suggests that searches for patio heaters usually pick up in the fall as people prepare for the cold months ahead. While search interest is well below where it was in the fall of 2020, it remains elevated from where it was before the pandemic.

Eric Kahn, the founder and director of Alfresco Heating, which specializes in patio and outdoor heating, saw sales fall after 2020 as consumers shifted their spending toward traveling and dining out rather than beefing up their homes. He thought 2024 would be his third consecutive year of a decline in gross sales, but a big bump in the fall salvaged his year. The season was "even pandemic-level strong," he said, and business remains above the pre-pandemic level.

"Our overall numbers are about halfway between what they peaked out at the pandemic and what they were before that," Kahn said.

Leah Langford, a marketing manager at Bromic Heating, told me the company saw a "huge boom" in sales of its outdoor heaters during the pandemic. It's always done solid business on the commercial side, but residential interest in heaters took off, too — and it's stuck. "Residential is where we're seeing the biggest boom, and really our focus right now is homeowners and educating on the different types," she said. "It just really shifted the awareness that they exist."

The greater awareness of the possibilities of outdoor spaces (and the importance of heating) has shifted Tara L. Paige's life and career. During the pandemic, she created a Facebook page for Black women who love outdoor living spaces. It now has nearly 250,000 members. Paige grew up as what she described as an "outside girl" — her dad always had a fire burning outside — but she's aware that's not true for everyone.

"The pandemic opened up everybody's world and to being able to extend their inside to their outside. And now it's like, OK, patio heaters are essential, fire pits are essential," she said. "People started sitting outside and feeling like, man, this is freedom, this feels good. And just because it's cold outside, I don't have to stop."

Paige created an outdoor-living lifestyle brand, The Patieaux Chick, and is launching her own line of patio furniture. She's not doing heaters, but she's got thoughts on them, especially living in a windy part of Texas. "I'm looking for one that's really sturdy," she said. Otherwise, the right wind gets it, and "it'll knock the whole thing over."

While people are still buying patio heaters, what's not clear is whether they're buying good ones. There's a ton of variation — propane or infrared, portable or permanent — and it's tough to know whether you're getting bang for your buck.

To learn the lay of the land, I reached out to Thom Dunn, a writer for Wirecutter, The New York Times' product-recommendation section, who focuses on home heating and cooling. He said there are generally two options for heaters he focuses on: the propane ones, where you sort of see actual flames, and the red radiant ones. The former keep you warm "as much as a fire could keep you warm," he said, so they do better when you're huddled around it. The latter feel better when they're directly on you, like the rays of the sun, but they warm only the parts of your body they hit. He prefers the kind with an elongated, vertical glass tube and flame that shoots up the middle — it's nice to gather around for parties. "With the fire tube, it feels more welcoming, to be like, cool, let's sit out here," he said. But maybe a red heat lamp on the wall is fine if someone wants to stand outside for a bit to smoke a cigarette or something. "That's fine to get a little warmth on you," he said, "but I'm not going to stay outside."

Kahn, from Alfresco Heating, told me he doesn't usually recommend the tube ones. While the aesthetic is nice, they don't do much heat-wise, in part because the glass acts as an insulator. But the real bane of his existence is the cheap portable heaters people buy online. He jokingly refers to them as "disposable lighters." The low-quality options often end up breaking after a year or two, meaning consumers get stuck in a cycle of buying bad product after bad product instead of just investing in one decent one. "They think they're junk, so they're buying junk," he said.

"Overall, if people are wanting a good experience for a long period of time, then investing in permanent — particularly overhead — patio heaters can be a very worthwhile investment," he said.

Almost everyone I talked to acknowledged that a lot of the heaters that popped up at restaurants in the pandemic — the tall mushroom-topped ones that shoot flames 10 feet into the sky — were not great. (Langford described them as "really shitty," adding, "You get one season out of them.") If restaurants really wanted to lure customers outside and actually keep them cozy, they'd invest in more effective, thoughtful installations.

Patio heating does seem to have a bit of a reputational problem. People clearly are in search of options for outdoor warmth, but many are skeptical about how well they work and feel overwhelmed by all the types. I talked to one person who's been in the market for a heater for two years and hasn't landed on one — all the options have left her paralyzed with indecision. But the confusion could be beneficial to the industry, too. It gives companies the ability to educate consumers, market to them, and sell them nicer options than the ones they're acquainted with. Perhaps someone with a bad experience will swear off the devices altogether, but maybe they'll decide it's worth it to trade up. And as the saying goes, hope springs eternal — including that a little heating device you plug in might make that grim February day more bearable. Indoors is open for business once again, but thanks to patio heaters, the outdoors is staying open for business, too.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

• DOGE is asserting itself in DC, with Elon Musk reportedly set to work minutes from the White House.
• Tech leaders and normal Americans are involved, and staffers will be embedded in federal agencies.
• Lawmakers told BI they hope to suggest "low-hanging fruit" to DOGE to cut in the first quarter.

There's another inauguration happening on Monday in DC.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy aren't getting formally sworn in, but it's nonetheless the launch of their Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the new commission that aims to slash federal spending and cut regulations.

Though many questions remain about how exactly DOGE will function, it is poised to start interfacing with federal agencies and lawmakers to suggest budgetary and regulatory reforms.

Their recommendations are likely to roll in fast. As Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida, the co-chair of the House's DOGE caucus, told Business Insider, "The iron is not just hot, but it's molten."

Musk and Ramaswamy, the co-leaders of DOGE, have recently scaled back their goal of cutting $2 trillion from federal spending by the time the commission disbands, no later than July 4, 2026. Still, the two have floated a slate of reforms, from deleting agencies to firing federal employees.

DOGE won't be a formal, Congressionally authorized department. Rather, it will operate as an advisory group outside the government. It won't be able to make spending cuts — that's Congress' job — but Musk and Ramaswamy have said they plan to suggest changes to Trump, whom they said can use executive actions to start implementing some reforms. Law experts have told BI that the legal logic remains dubious.

"DOGE will supercharge the US economy by cutting wasteful spending and eliminating anti-growth regulations," James Fishback, CEO of investment firm Azoria and an associate of Ramaswamy's who is providing outside advice to the counsel, told BI.

Representatives for Musk, Ramaswamy, and Trump did not respond to BI's request for comment.

Here's how they plan to do it, starting on day one.

Staffers, including Musk, will reportedly work close to the White House

DOGE staffers will be embedded in the political center of DC, with Musk reportedly to inhabit an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, per the New York Times.

The building is next to the West Wing and houses various agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget. In an opinion piece outlining their plans for DOGE, Musk and Ramaswamy said they plan to work closely with the OMB as it drafts President Trump's budget.

A source familiar with DOGE's planning told BI that Musk and Ramaswamy will each run separate teams that will work in tandem. Musk will focus on broad spending and Ramaswamy on deregulation, according to the source. Politico reported similar news, with a source telling the outlet that other staffers will implement the two leaders' suggestions.

However, Ramaswamy's future at DOGE is uncertain as the commission officially gets off the ground, with multiple outlets reporting that he intends to run for governor of Ohio in 2026. Should Ramaswamy run, he would need to begin campaigning long before DOGE's self-imposed end date in July of that year.

DOGE will deploy staff to most federal agencies

The source confirmed to BI that the commission will deploy two staffers to most federal agencies where they have relevant experience, news that the Times reported earlier. Those who aren't embedded in agencies plan to work out of the US Digital Service, the outlet said — again, minutes from the White House.

Vice President Al Gore led a government reform initiative from 1993 to 2001, and John Koskinen served as the deputy director for management at OMB during some of the efforts. He fielded many of the group's recommendations and said the best way to find waste at agencies is to talk with employees.

"The people who live with the system and live with it every day are going to be the best people to make suggestions as well as identify the problems," he told BI.

Koskinen said that DOGE's reported efforts to embed at agencies could be an effective method of determining where to cut.

Still, turning recommendations into action will be difficult, especially before all federal agency positions are filled, Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute who helped lead Gore's efforts, said.

She told BI that her team made around 400 recommendations in its first eight months, but it took years for any of them to be implemented.

Silicon Valley leaders and others are already getting to work

Trump has already announced two official hires at DOGE: Republican lawyer William McGinley as counsel and former administration official Katie Miller in an unspecified role.

Beyond the formal announcements, Musk and Ramaswamy have reportedly tapped a wide range of Silicon Valley and tech leaders to help guide the commission, with the Times reporting that venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Boring Company president Steve Davis are among those involved. They join a slate of other big names in tech coming to power in Washington on Monday.

It's not just titans of the private sector that will fill the DOGE offices.

DOGE said it was beginning to hire this month for full-time salaried engineering, HR, IT, and finance roles. Musk had previously said that DOGE employees would not be compensated and must be able to work more than 80 hours per week. It remains unclear which workers will be compensated.

DOGE workers will likely be required in the office

DOGE had hired 50 people by early January who were working out of SpaceX's DC office, per the Washington Post. SpaceX was founded by Musk.

Musk and Ramaswamy have both been critical of federal agencies that don't use much of their office space in DC and have floated return-to-office mandates for federal workers — so it seems likely that DOGE employees will need to work in person. A source confirmed to BI that nearly all employees will be required to work in person.

Employees' — including Musk and Ramaswamy's — specific employment status remains unclear. They could be special government employees who are allowed to work for the federal government for up to 130 days a year. They can be paid or unpaid and are considered temporary workers.

Compared to typical federal workers, special government employees are subject to less strict conflict of interest rules. Some of Musk's companies are under investigation from federal agencies and have government contracts.

Lawmakers aim to start working with DOGE leaders immediately

In early December, Musk and Ramaswamy visited Capitol Hill to meet with members of the House and Senate's DOGE caucuses, as well as a larger group of Republicans. There's some Democratic bipartisan interest in working with the DOGE leaders.

Reps. Bean and Blake Moore of Utah, the co-chairs of the House's DOGE caucus, told BI less than a week before inauguration day that they aim to provide the commission with suggestions for potential changes within the first quarter of the year.

"We're chatting and we're hanging out," Bean said of his communication with Musk and Ramaswamy. He told BI that he wants to advise DOGE on "low-hanging fruit" to target in the first-quarter report.

He told BI that he imagined holding a "DOGE Day" where lawmakers drop around a dozen bills.

Moore said that he expects some early executive orders from Trump, and that while those won't necessarily come straight from DOGE's recommendations, the commission "can be part of it."

Rep. Ro Khanna of California is among the Democrats interested in DOGE and was once in touch with the leaders. Yet Khanna told BI that he hasn't been in touch with Musk and Ramaswamy for more than a month.

"Waiting to see," he said when asked about DOGE's potential first steps, indicating how secretive the commission's plans have been. "Really don't have any details."

Matt Weidinger, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank The American Enterprise Institute who has written about DOGE, said it's still unclear how exactly the commission will communicate with Congress, which controls spending cuts.

"The sort of wild card — the 'we don't know' part of this — is the intersection between DOGE and legislation and the DOGE caucuses: where they will take the DOGE recommendations, if there are any, in terms of legislation to achieve savings in federal programs, which is where the real money resides," he said.

DOGE flexed its power even before inauguration day, though. Musk and Ramaswamy came out against and eventually tanked a Congressional spending bill in December, bringing the government to the brink of a shutdown.

Now that the Trump administration and DOGE are officially taking the reins in Washington, the scope of the commission's influence will likely crystalize, recommendation by recommendation.

Have you applied to work at DOGE? Share your experience and thoughts with this reporter at [email protected].

• Laid-off workers are taking lower-paying jobs amid a tough job market for white-collar roles.
• Many workers struggle to regain previous salary levels post-layoff.
• More than 800 people who experienced long periods of unemployment shared their frustrations with BI.

Some Americans who were laid off from high-paying jobs are responding to a tougher job market for white-collar workers by accepting a much lower-paying or lower-level role than they previously had.

Bill Rees, 65, said he earned about $130,000 annually as a hotel general manager, but after a layoff last year, he's struggled to secure anything in that pay range.

Rees now earns about $25 an hour at a property management company in Wisconsin, where he moved to care for his mother. He said bills are tight, and his high Medicare insurance premium is straining his finances. He said he doesn't spend much time looking for other jobs after hundreds of applications, though he's continuing to work hard to make ends meet.

"I just can't afford anything anymore," Rees said. "I anticipate having to work until at least 20 years after I'm dead to make it all come out even."

We want to hear from you. Are you struggling to get a job? Have you previously struggled but have a job now? Please fill out this quick form.

Rees is one of many Americans who have had difficulty finding work recently. Since October, more than 800 recent job seekers between ages 18 and 76 responded to Business Insider's informal, nonrepresentative surveys on job hunting and shared their stories with reporters through emails.

Struggling to make ends meet

Jamie Jewell, 58, worked in public relations and administrative assistant roles and made about $50,000 at the peak of her career with a company car and benefits. Between layoffs, she held temporary jobs as a radio producer and defensive driving instructor, though she's struggled over the past few years to find stable employment that pays her bills.

Jewell faced a divorce in 2016 that set her back financially, and she moved in with her uncle six years ago when finances got tight.

Jewell, who's based in the Dallas area, makes about $1,000 monthly answering phones for a generator company and cares for her dad and uncle. She said she has no money to retire or financially assist her children, and she plans to continue working. Despite hundreds of unsuccessful applications, she said she's holding onto hope that she'll land something better-paying.

"In a corporate restaurant interview, a bunch of people in their 20s and early 30s came into the room and immediately looked at me, starting to grow gray hair, and their faces fell because even though I was perfect for the position, they wanted somebody younger," Jewell said.

BI previously reported that older Americans often had regrets about their careers, such as not prioritizing education and switching jobs too often. Statistics show it's often harder for older Americans to return to a comparable role after a layoff. Contributing to that is what some see as age discrimination. In a 2022 survey conducted by AARP, 64% of people over 50 say they'd either experienced or witnessed workplace age discrimination.

The struggles of those laid off and seeking work have been partly driven by a hiring slowdown in the US. Excluding a two-month pandemic-related dip in 2020, US businesses are hiring at the lowest rate since 2013, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Per the BLS, about 1.6 million people had been looking for work for at least six months as of December, up from 1.3 million a year prior.

To be sure, the unemployment rate remains low compared with historical levels, and the layoff rate remains low, according to BLS data.

How to navigate a tough job market

Cam, 60, worked as a graphic designer and tech manager, making in the mid-$200,000 range before a layoff in June 2023, followed by a rescinded offer. After 18 months, he took a vice president of marketing position for a plumbing company in November — an upgrade in title but with a salary in the high five figures, less than half his previous role.

"I regret allowing myself to get pigeonholed within a single industry, as I think that has made my time getting re-employed particularly difficult because I was entirely in the technology industry," Cam said.

Cam, who asked to use his first name due to ongoing salary negotiations, said he may not have struggled as much with applications if he diversified his résumé. He's struggled to find work in the six figures, and finances are tighter than he anticipated. Still, he said he's hopeful he will land a position meeting his salary expectations and has enough to stay afloat.

In a challenging labor market, accepting a lower-paying or lower-level job can serve as a "career stepping stone rather than a step back," Jennifer Herrity, a career expert at Indeed, told BI.

Herrity said that workers who accept jobs quite different from their desired role should use the opportunity to gain experience, develop skills, and network effectively. When applying for roles, Herrity said that job seekers could consider excluding a role from their résumé if they think it's completely unrelated to their desired role.

Andrew McCaskill, a career expert at LinkedIn, said taking a "bridge job" can help people "stay connected to the workforce, gain experience, and avoid résumé gaps, which can ultimately make it easier to land your desired role when the job market improves."

However, this career decision comes with risks. McCaskill said accepting a lower-paying role could have long-term implications on earnings, as it could take a while for someone to work up to their prior salary. Additional challenges could come with taking a significantly different job "if the skills and experience gained cannot easily transfer to the roles you're pursuing," he said.

Individuals who transition to lower-level roles within their industry could have a better chance of bouncing back. Scott Fite began looking for IT roles when he was laid off from his systems analyst job last April. He said he spent a couple of hours every day applying for jobs but had little luck.

"I applied to everything that I could be considered qualified for, even if it might have been an inconvenient commute," Fite, who's in his 60s and based in Pennsylvania, told Business Insider.

When Fite's severance payments ended in October, he was still unemployed. It wasn't until late November that Fite said he received his first job offer: a programmer position that was fairly similar to his prior role. The downside was that the pay was $68,000 annually, roughly $21,000 less than he made at his last job. He decided to accept the offer.

Fite said his lower income has led him and his wife to eat out less, cut a few subscriptions, and pay for repairs for their two vehicles rather than buy new ones. Looking forward, Fite is optimistic that he'll be able to catch up to his prior compensation level.

"I think in three or four years, I'll be back where I was salary-wise," he said. "If I receive another offer for more money, I can always accept that one. I just needed to get going again."

• Drinking alcohol impacts everyone a little differently.
• Musculature, water, genes, tobacco use, and other factors change an individual's risk equation.
• Here's how alcohol affects a person's body, from a first sip to potential long-term fallout.

This Dry January, the US Surgeon General is warning that the cancer risks of drinking rival smoking and obesity. A lot of this has to do with how our body processes alcohol, breaking it down into potentially cancer-causing substances along the way.

Everyone is a little different when it comes to how alcohol is managed in the body, so it's not exactly scientific to say "there is no safe level of alcohol."

Our body size, sex, muscle-to-fat ratio, how much water is in our system to dilute a drink, and certain genetic mutations all play key roles. So does the alcohol content of what we drink. A shot of vodka is more toxic to the body than a sip of beer, for example.

Given all this, developing hard and fast rules about how much alcohol is too much, and whether a little bit of alcohol is definitely harmful, is complicated.

What alcohol does to your body in the first hour of drinking

Alcohol is a tiny molecule, bathing nearly every cell in the body when we drink.

The basic trajectory of liquor in the body is from a person's mouth, through the esophagus, to the stomach, intestines, and the liver, where about 80-90% of the alcohol people consume is processed.

The liver can only process a little bit of alcohol at a time, though. How long it takes depends on how much you drink and your size, plus other factors, including how much water you have in you (muscles are more watery than fat).

As a general rule, most people will clear out one drink (like a quickly consumed shot) in two hours or less. But if a person is binge drinking, plowing through four or five drinks within a couple of hours, it's going to take about six to seven hours for the football-sized liver to metabolize that alcohol.

During that time, lots of alcohol in the "queue" is spilling out into our bloodstream, running around the body and infiltrating the brain, biding time until the liver is ready for it. This is how people get drunk.

"Once your blood alcohol level gets to a certain level, it becomes a ubiquitous substance in every part of your body," Dr. Stephen Holt, who runs the addiction recovery clinic at Yale School of Medicine, told Business Insider. "It basically goes to every organ in your body. It goes to your heart, your kidneys, your liver, of course, your brain, it's going to your bones."

About 15-30 minutes after a drink, alcohol seeping into the brain begins to change how we feel.

Inside the brain, alcohol binds to several different receptors, calming down the sympathetic nervous system, lowering stress, fear, and anxiety — helping press pause on life's worries. It also boosts feelings of euphoria, triggered by a release of dopamine, which can motivate people to seek out another drink. And finally, there's a release of beta-endorphins, our natural painkillers, for both physical and emotional woes.

The next day

The first chemical produced when our liver breaks down alcohol is acetaldehyde, a known cancer-causer.

Acetaldehyde plays a big role in hangovers: it causes nausea, which works in conjunction with the anxiety, unease, and restlessness people feel as their brain overcorrects for last night's drunken chemical imbalances.

Some folks are very efficient at turning over acetaldehyde into a vinegar-like substance (acetate) that we can pee out. Other people, including many people of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese descent, have genetic factors that slow down how fast they can process acetaldehyde, making their face flush.

It's the long-term effects of acetaldehyde on the body that scientists are most concerned about: the potential for DNA damage, chronic inflammation, liver scarring, heart disease.

People with the flushing ALDH2 gene mutation (roughly 8% of us) are at greater risk of developing issues like cancer from drinking, due to acetaldehyde's toxicity. But they're also less likely to become addicted to alcohol because they feel extra awful after they have a drink.

Over time, there's evidence that regular drinking can lead to changes in:

Head and neck:

As alcohol starts its journey down a person's throat, it can do DNA damage in oral cells.

People who smoke are able to absorb more carcinogenic chemicals in tobacco if they are drinking at the same time, as tissues become more permeable.

"A carcinogen will impact folks individually in different ways," American Cancer Society chief scientific officer Dr. William Dahut said during a recent media briefing. "There are clearly patients at higher risk for cancer, whether that's due to inherited genetic mutations, whether that's prior radiation, tobacco use."

Heart:

Controversially, there's some evidence that moderate drinking can be good for the heart, improving HDL cholesterol, and acting as a blood thinner. Federal data suggests that while roughly 178,000 Americans are killed by alcohol every year, there are about 16,000 other people across the US whose lives are saved by drinking, as they avoid more deadly heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes.

The dose here may make the poison: heavy drinking can up a person's risk of developing irregular heartbeat issues like atrial fibrillation (AFib) and raise blood pressure, increasing the chances of a heart attack.

Breasts:

Breast cancer is responsible for most (60%) of the alcohol-related cancer deaths in women.

The risk gets stronger after a woman goes through menopause, and also increases the more she drinks. This is because drinking alcohol increases estrogen production in the body, upping the odds that cancer cells may sprout up.

The risk of developing breast cancer for a woman who drinks once per week is ~11%. But that goes up to 13% for women who have one drink a day, and 15% for women who have two.

Colon:

Irritation of the gut is probably the most important part of disease risk linked to alcohol consumption.

"It irritates the gastrointestinal lining," Aaron White, the senior scientific advisor at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told BI. "That sets off widespread inflammation."

Acetaldehyde and the oxidative stress from drinking also prompt DNA damage and cellular proliferation, which can lead to cancer.

Alcohol can also mess with the gut microbiome, increasing intestinal permeability, and suppressing the immune system.

Additionally, drinking alcohol can put a dent in a person's nutrition, preventing the body from absorbing folic acid, which is critical to all our cells. It can also block the uptake of important nutrients like B12 and zinc.

Liver:

Regular, heavy drinking can lead to cirrhosis, irreversible scarring and hardening of the liver.

Brain:

People often say that drinking can shrink your brain, and this is sort of true.

"By bathing all your neurons in a somewhat toxic substance, you are losing some neurons," Holt said. This can, over time, lead to early dementia.

The good news is that there is pretty solid evidence that even people who are heavy, lifetime drinkers, once they stop drinking, see much of their brain rebound in just six months, after an initial period of withdrawal.

"At any age, if you quit drinking, a lot of that damage looks like it can recover," White said. "You're not doomed."

• Donald Trump has laid out an ambitious day-one agenda filled with executive orders.
• He could soon issue one of the most sweeping pardons in history, raise tariffs, and begin mass deportations.
• Inauguration Days are historically uneventful, but Trump has little time to waste.

Donald Trump has completed his political comeback. Inauguration Day begins his final sprint to solidifying his legacy.

In the hours after he returns to the Oval Office, Trump has pledged to do everything from issuing potentially thousands of pardons to kicking off a likely legal battle over immigration. Just this past week, he tacked on a plan to possibly create a new government agency, the External Revenue Service. Fox News reports he'll sign more than 200 executive actions his first day back in power.

Technically speaking, he doesn't even have to be behind the Resolute Desk. Trump's flurry of actions will likely begin shortly after his inauguration when he sits down in the president's ceremonial office on Capitol Hill.

While campaigns are littered with "day one" promises, Inauguration Day itself is often uneventful. New presidents have a packed schedule full of pomp and circumstance, starting with a traditional service at St. John's Church near the White House and stretching late into the evening at multiple celebratory balls. In between, there's tea with the outgoing president and first lady, lunch with congressional leaders, and a parade.

It's not an itinerary conducive to Trump's joke about being a dictator. In 2017, Trump signed just one bill and one executive order on day one. His major actions, including a travel ban on people from mostly Muslim countries, came days later.

This isn't 2017, though, and Trump has no time to waste. As the first former president in over 130 years to reclaim the White House, he will be constantly reminded of his lame-duck status. Republicans narrowly have complete control of Washington, but historically such trifectas are fleeting.

Here's how Trump has pledged to spend his first day.

Trade

25% tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian goods: Just before Thanksgiving, Trump said he would levy significant tariffs on the US neighbors due to illegal immigration.

• Context: Thanks to Congress, presidents can impose tariffs without legislative action. In his first term, Trump used a law that allows the president to impose due to national security emergencies. President Joe Biden even expanded some of those duties.

A 60% tariff on all Chinese goods: On the campaign trail, Trump discussed raising tariffs as high as 60% on all Chinese goods. He's also mused about other wide-ranging tariffs.

• Context: Trump has long complained that the US trade deficit with China is too large. The influx of deadly fentanyl, of which the Drug Enforcement Agency has said China is a major source, has only exacerbated those tensions.

The creation of an external revenue service: In his final days before taking office, Trump pledged to create an "external revenue service" to collect tariffs and other foreign fees.

• Context: It's unclear exactly how this service will be set up. Customs and Border Protection is already responsible for collecting customs. Only Congress could set up a new agency. Regardless, it illustrates Trump and his advisors' view that the US should return to trade policy circa President William McKinley and the 1890s.

Crackdown on illegal immigration

The start of mass deportations: Immigration was one of Trump's signature issues in the 2024 campaign. He said numerous times that starting on his first day, he would take action to begin "the largest deportation operation" in the nation's history.

• Context: Trump has said his goal is to deport everyone who is in the US illegally. In December, he told NBC News that while the logistics of such an operation would be massive, "You have no choice." He said initial deportations would focus on criminal offenders, a long-held policy by US Immigration and Enforcement. Trump has also said he will declare a national emergency and use US troops to help manage deportations. There are legal limitations on how US troops can assist law enforcement, though Trump may invoke the Insurrection Act to get around those restrictions.

Repeal birthright citizenship: Trump has pledged to end birthright citizenship, a protection enshrined by the 14th Amendment.

• Context: No president has the power to overturn the Constitution unilaterally. Trump and his allies have argued that the amendment should not be interpreted to apply to the children of people living in the country illegally. Multiple groups have said they would challenge any such executive action in court, kicking off a legal fight that may eventually reach the Supreme Court.

Energy and Environment

Increase fracking and oil drilling: Trump has said he will "drill, drill, drill," starting immediately after taking office.

• Context: Trump's Interior Department will have the power to offer new leases for drilling and natural gas extraction on federal lands, A last-minute Biden administration ban on deep offshore drilling will complicate those actions. The White House's bigger issue is that while it can speed up approval and auction off more leases, it's ultimately up to the energy industry to expand production. Trump also wants to revive canceled projects like the Keystone XL pipeline that companies have since dropped.

Government restructure

Remove civil service protections for federal workers: Trump has said he will return to his sweeping first-term policy that would have made it easier to fire tens of thousands of federal workers.

• Context: Biden repealed Trump's Schedule F order amid court challenges and before its full implementation. Russ Vought, Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, testified to lawmakers last week that reviving the policy is a "day one thing." Federal unions challenged Trump's initial 2020 executive order and have said they would do so again. The Biden administration sought to create new obstacles to a similar order, but, likely, those may only temporarily hold Trump back.

Create the Department of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk has already begun hiring staffers to help the outside organization Trump created to advise on ways to cut federal spending.

• Context: It remains to be seen how Trump will organize DOGE. Only Congress can create a new cabinet department. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, DOGE's co-leaders, have also said they will remain outside government. There is a law concerning outside advisory panels, which legal experts previously told Business Insider will apply to DOGE. In the meantime, congressional Republicans have eagerly welcomed Musk's efforts and have set up ways to coordinate with DOGE.

Move federal agencies out of DC: As president-elect, Trump said his administration would go to court to force federal workers to return to offices. His allies want to move 100,000 jobs outside of the nation's capital.

• Context: During his first term, Trump's efforts to move even a small number of employees ran into many obstacles. Some workers just quit or switched agencies to avoid being forced to move — a similar struggle on a much larger scale could begin as soon as today.

Crime and Justice

Pardons for January 6 protesters: Trump has repeatedly said he would pardon supporters who were convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot that briefly delayed the certification of Biden's victory.

• Context: Trump has sent conflicting messages about the extent of offenses he pardoned. Vice President-elect JD Vance recently told NBC News that if someone committed violence on January 6, "obviously you shouldn't be pardoned." Roughly 900 people received misdemeanor charges related to their actions during the riot, according to Politico. About 500 January 6-related cases are still pending in federal court. Since Trump's 2024 win, the FBI has continued to arrest people on January 6-related charges, as recently as last week.

Culture War

Ban minors from receiving gender-affirming care: In January 2023, Trump pledged a series of actions to restrict minors from receiving certain types of healthcare.

• Context: Trump has laid out some ways he would restrict transgender rights. One of those ways concerns the ability of minors to receive medical and mental health services. A handful of Republican-led states have already imposed similar restrictions. In June, the Supreme Court said it would hear a case about the constitutionality of state-level bans.

Ban transgender people from military service: In December, Trump told conservative activists that he would take several actions to "stop the transgender lunacy," including restoring his first-term ban on transgender people openly serving in the US armed forces.

• Context: There are an estimated 15,000 transgender troops. Trump's policy to restore his ban could lead to an immediate medical discharge for those people. Just as they did in 2017, Service members and activist groups will likely challenge the policy. The US Supreme Court ultimately allowed the first ban to go into effect. President Biden revoked the ban five days after taking office.

Withdraw funds from schools that teach "critical race theory": In October, Trump said he would sign an executive order that would revoke federal funding for schools "pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content."

• Context: No president has the power to cut funding to schools immediately. Instead, Trump will likely turn to his Education Department to open civil rights investigations. Like other campaign promises, he'll also need some help from Congress.

Prohibit funds from going to schools with vaccine mandates: In August, Trump said, "not one penny" would go to schools that require mandatory vaccinations.

• Context: There is no federal law requiring vaccines. Rather, each state has its own policies — meaning, it's unclear how Trump could impose such a prohibition. At the federal level, the Centers for Disease Control has a panel that advises vaccine schedules. Trump has also selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, to lead his Health and Human Services Department. Efforts to undermine or outright repeal vaccine mandates exploded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Revive a presidential commission focused on patriotic education: Trump has said he would reinstate his 1776 Commission, created in the wake of The New York Times' publication of an essay project dubbed "The 1619 Project," which sought to reframe the story of the US' creation around slavery.

• Context: Trump has the power to create advisory panels. Two days before he left office in 2021, his initial 1776 panel released a report. President Biden dissolved the panel on January 21, 2021. Trump's previous order creating the power reiterated restrictions on the federal government creating a national school curriculum.

• Instagram announced a new video-editing app called Edits as TikTok and CapCut face US restrictions.
• Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the tool, which will be released on March 13, on Sunday.
• Edits will offer video editing tools and analytics, Mosseri said.

Instagram announced a new video-editing app called "Edits" on Sunday, a day after rival ByteDance apps TikTok and CapCut went dark in the US.

The app is slated to be released on March 13, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced in a video posted on the platform. Meta owns Instagram.

Mosseri said the app will include a higher-quality camera, video editing tools, a feature to share drafts with others, and Instagram analytics on how those videos perform. The app can be used to make videos for platforms besides Instagram as well, he said.

"There's a lot going on right now, but no matter what happens, it's our job to provide the best possible tools for creators," Mosseri said.

Meta also ran sponsored ads for Instagram on the iOS App Store for a few hours on Sunday, in another sign the tech giant is capitalizing on the lack of clarity regarding TikTok's future. Users who typed "TikTok" saw an ad for Instagram, Bloomberg reported. The ads had stopped appearing as of late Sunday evening.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the sponsored App Store ads. In addition to Instagram, Meta owns Facebook, Threads, and WhatsApp.

Edits is available for preorder on the iOS App Store, but it won't be available to download until next month, Mosseri said.

The app stands to compete with existing video-editing platforms such as Adobe's Premiere Rush and ByteDance's CapCut, the latter of which is blocked and no longer available in US app stores. TikTok has restored its services in the US but is no longer available in app stores.

Last year, a bill to ban TikTok received bipartisan support in the House and Senate due to national security concerns with ByteDance's Chinese ownership. Biden signed the TikTok ban bill into law in April 2024.

The company spent months challenging the law that required it to be divested or banned from the US before January 19. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the ban.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to issue an executive order following his inauguration on Monday to extend the time before the TikTok ban is enforced. He did not mention if other ByteDance apps, such as CapCut and Lemon8, will return under this executive order.

• The global exports of Champagne fell 9.2% in 2024, with 271.4 million bottles shipped out from France.
• Consumers are just not in the mood for celebration, the chief of the French Champagne producers association said.
• It said that global political and economic crises have dulled the festivities.

People around the world aren't in the mood for glasses of bubbly.

Shipments of Champagne have slumped in 2024 because consumers are not in the mood for celebration, according to Comité Champagne, the Champagne producers association.

Global exports of Champagne totalled 271.4 million bottles in 2024, but that was a 9.2% decrease from 2023, the association said in a statement to BI.

Maxime Toubart, co-president of the Comité Champagne, said in the statement that Champagne is a "true barometer of consumer mood."

"And this is no time for celebration, with inflation, conflicts around the world, economic uncertainty and a political wait-and-see attitude in some of Champagne's biggest markets, such as France and the United States of America," Toubart added.

John Noble, the director of Comité Champagne's Australia bureau, added that customers are "justifiably cautious" about buying the luxury product, given the "current economic environment with high inflation and cost of living concerns."

In July, LVMH, the world's largest luxury conglomerate, also sounded concern over its bubbly sales, attributing it to a bleak global outlook.

Sparkling wine sales spiked significantly in 2021 following the relaxation of pandemic restrictions, particularly in the US. But it was a short-lived high.

According to LVMH's 2024 first-half earnings report, the company's revenue from Champagne and wines declined 12% in the first half of 2024 compared to the year before.

"Champagne is quite linked with celebration, happiness, et cetera," LVMH's finance chief, Jean-Jacques Guiony, said in the earnings call in July. "Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of Champagne. I don't really know."

Champagne is not the only luxury product facing a reckoning. In 2024, overall luxury spending stagnated, with big brands seeing their share prices drop.

Kering, the owner of Gucci, YSL, and Balenciaga, saw its stock fall more than 40% last year.

LVMH's sales declined by 3% in the third quarter of 2024, partly because of weakened consumer confidence in China.

The industry was also hit hard by "aspirational" luxury shoppers — those who spent big bucks on luxury immediately after the pandemic — reining in on their spending.

• Elon Musk's X is introducing a dedicated video tab for users in the US.
• The new feature comes amid the turmoil surrounding the ban on rival platform TikTok.
• TikTok briefly ceased its US operations on Saturday night before resuming on Sunday.

X, formerly Twitter, debuted a new feature for its US users on Sunday — a tab dedicated to watching videos on the platform.

"The Video Tab has arrived. LFG," X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote in a post on the platform on Sunday night.

According to X's promotional video for the feature, the new tab is located between the dedicated Grok button and notification panel. Grok is an AI chatbot developed by X owner Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI.

To be sure, the app has experimented with video content for years, though this tab marks an intentional shift toward displaying it more prominently. The platform first rolled out its TikTok-like "immersive media viewer" in September 2022, before Musk acquired it.

"X's updated immersive media viewer expands videos to full screen with a single click, allowing you to easily access the full, immersive viewing experience," the company wrote in a blog post at the time.

"Once the video has been launched in full screen mode, we've made video discovery easier as well. Just scroll up to start browsing more engaging video content," the blog post added.

X's new feature comes amid the turmoil surrounding the ban on TikTok.

According to a law passed by the Senate in April, TikTok had to cease its US operations on January 19 unless it divested itself from its Chinese-based owner, ByteDance. TikTok briefly went dark for US users on Saturday night, before restoring services on Sunday.

The resumption of service came after President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that he plans to issue an executive order to delay the enforcement of the TikTok ban.

"We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive," TikTok said in a statement to Business Insider.

X did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Musk's X isn't the only social media company that's making moves while TikTok navigates its regulatory hurdles.

On Sunday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a new video editing app called Edits. The app is set to be released on March 13, per its listing on Apple's App Store.

The announcement comes a day just after Apple had removed CapCut, a video editing app made by ByteDance.

Mosseri said in a Threads posts on Sunday that Edits is like "CapCut, but more for creators than casual video makers."

"Not just video editing, but an inspiration tab, idea tracking, and insights built in," Mosseri wrote in his Threads post.

"It's been months and I think it'll end up pretty different than CapCut," Mosseri added.

• Ukrainian strikes have forced Russia to reduce its ammo usage, Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
• The Ukrainian commander in chief said Russian shell usage has "practically halved" for months.
• Ukraine has been hitting ammo depots, oil facilities, and factories deep inside Russia for months.

Ukraine's military commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russia has cut down its artillery ammo usage in recent months due to Ukrainian strikes on the Kremlin's production facilities.

"For several months now, the artillery ammunition expenditure rates in the Russian army have practically halved," Syrskyi told Ukrainian broadcaster TSN in an interview released on Sunday.

"Here is a vivid example," Syrskyi added. "If previously the figure reached up to 40,000 rounds per day, it is now significantly lower."

Syrskyi attributed the reduction to Ukraine's attacks on "industrial enterprises" that manufacture ammunition, missile parts, and other weaponry on Russian soil.

His comments come as Ukraine has increasingly reported that it's been carrying out long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities, munitions factories, and ammunition depots across the border.

On Tuesday, Kyiv said it had launched its "largest attack" on Russian targets with missiles and drones, including hits on a fuel storage facility for bombers and a factory that produces rocket parts and artillery ammo.

Russia's defense ministry said that it shot down nearly 150 drones that evening, providing an indicator of the operation's scale.

Ukraine says its attacks on Russian facilities continue, with another reported strike on a gunpowder factory in the Tambov region on Thursday.

Its monthslong pattern of long-range attacks underscores Kyiv's ability to break through air defenses and hit facilities deep inside Russian territory.

Some of its most notable strikes happened when Ukraine attacked three ammunition depots in Krasnodar and Tver in September, areas that are hundreds of miles behind the border.

The UK's defense ministry said at the time that at least one of these depots saw the loss of 30,000 tons of ammunition, saying that the trio of strikes resulted in the largest loss of Russian and North Korean ammunition up to that point in the war.

North Korea has been supplying artillery systems and millions of shells to Russia since early 2024.

Any strain on Russia's ammo production and reserves would likely be significant for the war because analysts say it's becoming increasingly clear that the fate of the battlefield hinges on the quantity of weapons and manpower available to either side.

To meet the war's demands, Russia's defense sector has swelled to staggering levels when considering its total spending. Its defense budget grew from $59 billion in 2022 to $109 billion in 2023. The Kremlin is planning to spend about 13.5 trillion rubles, or about $131 billion now, on defense in 2025.

That's nearly a third of its entire federal budget and is up from 10.8 trillion rubles in 2024.

Russia's defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

• Two days into a family trip, I spiked a 103 fever and didn't feel great.
• At the hospital, I was diagnosed with sepsis and felt guilty for ruining my family's trip.
• I learned I can't control what happens and should let go of mom guilt.

Two days into a Disney World vacation with my husband Anthony, our two daughters, and my in-laws, I became very sick. With a fever of 103, I shook with chills, ached all over, and dry-heaved repeatedly.

We'd been excited about this trip. Every day before we left, I drew a Disney-themed picture on my 8-year-old daughter's snack bag. I counted the days, with the number eight hidden in Cinderella's castle, Mickey's four-fingered glove, and a glittery two alongside Tinkerbell.

And then, I was in the room feeling guilty while my family explored Magic Kingdom. I'm no stranger to illness. Born with heart disease, I've recovered from four open heart surgeries, but I rolled around the bed moaning in pain. I cried to Anthony on the phone, delirious from the fever, the lorazepam I'd taken, or both.

I didn't think anything was seriously wrong, but I called my cardiology nurse after a few days. She said I likely had a virus, but since my mechanical valve and pacemaker are breeding grounds for bacteria, we should rule out blood infection. She sent me to the emergency room for blood cultures.

Things were worse than I imagined

"She's septic," the triage nurse said.

Maybe I couldn't register her words through the pain; maybe Anthony was getting me a blanket at that moment because once I was in an exam room, neither of us understood why the clinicians seemed so serious. This was a virus; I was only here as a precaution.

But my pressure was 70/40, my white blood cell count was elevated, and I had an infection somewhere. The culture results would take days, but they treated my symptoms and started antibiotics. Once I could think clearly, the guilt returned.

This wasn't how I'd imagined this vacation. I was supposed to watch my daughters spin around in oversize teacups, not see the room spin around me. Instead of pulling on a hospital gown, I should've been helping my 8-year-old pull on her princess dress. I wanted to be pushing my 4-year-old in her stroller, not being pushed through the hospital on a gurney.

The culture came back positive. I was moved to an inpatient floor, and the guilt festered. I was in the hospital for about a week, but it felt like forever. I cried often — when my kids flew home without me, before every medical test, petrified the results would keep me away from them longer, and each time, my in-laws sent me a picture of their faces.

If I'd paid attention, I would've noticed those smiling faces. While I was wallowing in guilt, they were having the time of their lives.

We made our way through it together

I remained guilty when I returned home and spent four months on IV antibiotics, which ravaged my stomach and kept me curled on the couch for half that time. I was lucky to have my husband home temporarily, my mother, who moved in while I recovered, and extended family and friends willing to help. It killed me that I could hardly take care of my girls, but we found a way. We cuddled while watching TV and played games. They decorated my IV pole for my birthday.

In the end, I didn't need to feel so guilty. My kids are OK. It wasn't easy. My older daughter admitted later that she cried herself to sleep while I was in the hospital. My younger one cried so much before preschool during that time, we pulled her out. It was hard, but so is life. They got through it and learned they had parents who loved them and an entire village willing to care for them when their mother couldn't.

I learned that this ever-pressing guilt we moms carry is futile. I can't control what happens to me. Inevitably, I'll have more medical issues down the line. Maybe my kids will be better prepared to handle it. At least now I know we can get through it together. And I know not only that I love them, sometimes to a painful degree, but that they love me too, even when things are difficult and even if sometimes I ruin their good time.

• Once my single mother got a handle on her eating disorder, she decided to go to college in her 50s.
• She's now a counselor and helps people with substance abuse issues.
• My mother and I went through treatment together, and I also struggled in college.

My mom began her college education at 55 years old, shortly after completing an eating disorder treatment program.

As a single mother battling mental health issues, she never had the opportunity to go to college or explore her interests. But, after I flew the coop and she got help for her eating disorder, she finally chased her goals.

Like her, I also struggle with mental health issues and found it difficult to put college first.

Together, we overcame our biggest obstacles and achieved our dreams.

My addiction hindered my college journey

While I don't have children, I, too, relate to a non-traditional college journey. I'm in recovery from substance use disorder — a glorious mix of alcohol, drugs, and countless other self-destructive behaviors created a myriad of hurdles to my education for a decade.

As anyone on a recovery journey knows, substance use disorders are usually accompanied by undiagnosed mental health issues or personality disorders. We often think it's easier to self-medicate than to ask for help.

This life outlook makes "simple" tasks like finishing homework and going to class feel impossible. I took college courses on and off, binge drinking and bartending until 2 a.m.

I dropped out of school more times than I can count, finally graduating with a degree in business administration at age 28.

Motherhood and mental health issues got in the way of my mom's dreams

Mom always wanted to be a counselor because she genuinely enjoys helping others, but she couldn't prioritize education as a single mom with limited support. Mom went back to work when I was six weeks old while also juggling childcare and undiagnosed mental health issues.

A single parent living paycheck to paycheck rarely has the luxury of time to peruse college admissions pamphlets or the countless hours needed to fill out financial aid forms or write scholarship essays — not to mention how challenging life can be with mental health struggles, leaving little room for motivation to flourish.

But when she finally put herself first in her 50s and dealt with her eating disorder, she met a treatment counselor. My mom figured she was a seasoned veteran based on her age. Apparently, this woman returned to college later in life, ultimately inspiring my mother to do the same.

Mom now works in her dream career as a substance abuse counselor, while I also work in my dream career as a published author and entrepreneur in the sobriety space.

Figuring ourselves out is one day at a time, too.

Our lives have long been intertwined

My mom addressed her eating disorder at the same time I addressed my substance abuse. Going through this shared recovery journey showed us how eating disorders and substance use disorders stem from similar desires to escape reality through self-medication. Her drug of choice was food; mine was alcohol and drugs.

Mom is a strong, independent woman who inspired me to be the same way.

We bring our inclusive approach to recovery to our work, too. We understand that addiction is addiction — whether it's drugs, gambling, shopping, food, or self-harm. Life is freaking hard; many folks don't have the tools or resources to address our various coping skills.

She has some advice for anyone wanting to pursue their dreams

I asked my mom if she had any words of wisdom for someone reading this, thinking about returning to school.

"Make an appointment with an advisor and learn your options. If your advisor isn't helpful, find another one," she told me.

Pursuing education is similar to mental health recovery: It's all about self-advocacy, asking for help, and leaning into peer support.

"Making an appointment with an advisor was easy, but actually going to the meeting was so hard," she continued, "I luckily found an advisor who listened to my goals and mapped out my options. She was one of the most important people in my education."

Through our journeys, we both learned that if you have the right people in your corner, you can achieve anything.

• Johan and Sabine Bogaerts left the Netherlands and moved to Thailand to open a beach resort.
• The couple says they always dreamed of running their own business instead of working for someone else.
• While life now feels "slower, and definitely more fulfilling," Johan, 54, says it's not all play.

In November 2022, Johan and Sabine Bogaerts packed up their lives and moved from the Netherlands to Koh Lanta, an island off the west coast of Thailand, with their two sons.

They had traveled to Thailand countless times on vacation and loved everything about the country, but it was the pandemic that gave them the idea of moving there.

"Life just happens really fast, and we wanted to do something else before it was too late, physically and also mentally," Sabine, 51, a former chef, told Business Insider.

The couple always dreamed of managing something on their own instead of working for someone else.

"We've agreed to change our life a little bit, get out of the rat race, and do something totally different in a beautiful country that we knew already," Johan, 54, a welding engineer, told BI.

But the real decision was made after they saw some ads on Facebook about properties for lease in Thailand, Sabine said.

"We found this piece of property online. We were interested, and we knew the area since we've been here a few times," Johan said.

The property was located less than 200 feet away from Klong Khong beach, a popular tourist destination on Koh Lanta.

Koh Lanta is part of the Krabi province and is about 45 miles from Krabi International Airport. Visitors can also reach Koh Lanta via a 1.5-hour ferry ride from Phuket.

It was already built like a resort with freestanding rooms but looked dated, with minimal furniture and basic finishings. Due to the pandemic, the original resort had ceased operations, and the humid climate had left the property in a bad state.

Despite that, the couple saw its potential and made their decision during a video call with their agent.

Since foreigners can't own land in Thailand, the couple leased the property for 20 years instead. They declined to share specifics, but estimated that their total costs — inclusive of renovations — came up to about 200,000 euros, or about $206,000.

The couple also said they managed to sell their house in Holland, which helped cover their costs.

Running a resort by the beach

Thailand has long been a popular spot for tourists and expats alike, thanks to its rich culture and relatively low cost of living.

In recent years, it's also been a popular destination for retirees: Thailand was ranked 10th on International Living's 2025 Annual Global Retirement Index.

However, the couple says that they knew they weren't ready to retire and decided to start a business in Thailand.

"I think retiring at 50 would be so boring for us," Sabine said.

"You have to be really comfortable. We were doing OK, but we weren't ready financially to totally retire yet," Johan added.

When they got the keys to the property, the first thing they did was start renovating and getting it up to their own standards.

"We took out some walls, made them bigger, redid all the bathrooms, made new balconies, new paint — everything is brand new," Johan said.

The resort has 16 guest bungalows, a pool, a restaurant and bar, and a laundry area.

Their busiest season runs from the beginning of December until the end of March, since that's when the weather is sunny with less rain. Room rates during the low season are about one-third of the price of the high season, Sabine said.

During the low season, the cheapest room is around 1,100 Thai baht, or about $32. During the high season, the same room can go for around 2,600 Thai baht, or about $75, Johan said.

The couple also employs nine full-time staff, including a receptionist, housekeepers, kitchen staff, and gardeners.

One of the biggest challenges they faced during the renovations was differing expectations of when things would be completed.

"With us, a deal is a deal, and a time of finishing is the time of finishing, but that's a little bit different here. So, we really have to adapt to that," Johan said.

A "slower, and definitely more fulfilling" life

One of the things they loved most about their lifestyle now compared to back in the Netherlands is that they no longer feel the need to keep up with the Joneses.

"You decide yourself. For me, it's that you're not being driven by something that needs to be done. When we were living in Holland, everything had to be the way things were," Johan said. "You have a lot of possessions and you were only busy trying to maintain and to upkeep all the possessions that you have."

Not only that, the couple gets to spend more time outdoors compared to before.

"We have beautiful surroundings. We have many palm trees, and we hear the birds, and we can look at the ocean from here," Sabine said.

However, there are times when they miss the Netherlands, too — especially the weather. Thailand has a humid tropical climate, and the weather is either "hot or really hot" or "raining or not raining," Johan said.

"We do have to say that we miss a little bit of cold sometimes," he said. "We're seasonal people. We grew up in the four seasons, so that's something you tend to miss a little bit."

Even the Christmas season doesn't feel the same anymore.

"We, of course, never ever worn a jacket anymore or proper shoes or trousers," Sabine said, adding that her go-to outfits now are sleeveless tops and shorts.

Work-life balance in Thailand

These days, the couple's routine starts by dropping off their youngest, 7, at school before heading to the resort to check in on things. Their other son, 21, returned to the Netherlands last March.

They say their youngest son is adjusting well to life on the island.

"It's a little more difficult for him to visit friends sometimes, like he did in The Netherlands, but he loves the beach life here," Sabine said.

The rest of the couple's day is usually spent on miscellaneous tasks — such as fixing things around the property and getting groceries for the restaurant — to ensure the resort runs smoothly,

While life now feels "slower, and definitely more fulfilling," Johan says it's not all play.

The couple has been busy getting the resort up and running over the past years, and they've only just begun to somewhat settle down — considering that they also recently opened a restaurant nearby serving European and Thai cuisine.

"People think, 'Ah, you must be so happy you can watch the sunset every evening.' We hardly do because we're always busy," Sabine said. "At the moment, everything is sort of done. Of course, in a resort, you are never truly done, but all the massive projects are done. So, I don't know, maybe life is going to be different now."

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

• To kick off 2025, Erin Liam visited Hong Kong for the first time in January.
• Having grown up in Singapore, she had expected the cities to be similar.
• However, she was surprised by several ways of life, including sharing tables with strangers.
  

When I told my family I was planning a trip to Hong Kong, they responded, "Why? Isn't Hong Kong similar to Singapore?"

In some ways, they are right. Hong Kong and Singapore — where I grew up — are often compared to one another. Both cities have high population densities, serve as global financial hubs, and are known for being expensive.

But on a four-day solo trip there in January, I was surprised to see how different the cities were.

1. Sharing tables with strangers

On my first night, I settled into a cozy beef noodle restaurant and was mid-slurp when a middle-aged man sat across from me at my table. Without even a glance in my direction, he ordered his dish and tucked in.

Although initially confused, I learned that table sharing, known as dap toi, is a dining norm in the city. The practice isn't meant to be intrusive, nor is it an invitation to make conversation. It simply arises from the lack of space and the need for efficiency.

It makes sense. Hong Kong, a city slightly smaller than Rome, has a population of around 7.5 million, per its mid-2024 census. Yet, government data from 2018 showed that only about 24% of land area is built-up. The result is a densely populated city where space is a luxury.

2. Speaking up on minibuses

Hong Kong is not a city for the soft-spoken. I learned the hard way that you must speak up to get what you want — on minibuses, at least. Also known as public light buses, minibuses provide an efficient mode of transportation to areas that Hong Kong's standard buses may not easily reach.

On route to the start of a hiking trail to Braemer Hill Peak, a spot to catch sunset views of the city, I took a minibus to avoid the 1-mile climb up. When the minibus reached my stop, however, it simply zoomed past and traveled back down.

As it turned out, not all minibuses have "stop" buttons that I was familiar with. Instead, passengers alert the bus driver when they want to get off by saying "yau lok," which means to stop the bus in Cantonese. It was, not surprisingly, a daunting task for an introvert.

On that day, I resigned myself to walking back up the hill and avoided minibuses for the rest of the trip.

3. French toast is not breakfast

If there's one thing that fueled my desire to visit Hong Kong, it's the food. The city is a foodie's dream, with 79 Michelin-starred restaurants in 2024. Local cafés, or cha chaan tengs, and open-air food stalls, or dai pai dongs, are also mainstays of the food scene.

I was eager to try Hong Kong-style French toast. Unlike French toast in the US — typically pan-fried and served with maple syrup — Hong Kong-style French toast is usually stuffed with peanut butter, deep-fried, then topped with condensed milk. The dish was introduced to Hong Kong during British colonial times and evolved to adapt to local tastes and ingredients.

When I attempted to order the treat for breakfast, however, the waiter wagged her finger and pointed to another menu — the afternoon tea menu. French toast, it seems, is considered a tea-time snack that is usually enjoyed later in the day. Instead, I settled for macaroni soup for breakfast. Funnily, it was something I would consider more of a lunch dish.

The next afternoon, I returned to a nearby cha chaan teng to attempt to order the dish again — only to be served french fries due to miscommunication.

4. Lines are everywhere, but they usually move quickly

On my first day, I walked miles to check out Hong Kong's famous eateries, only to give up upon seeing the long lines. But when I took a chance on one, I was surprised by how quickly it moved. As a city that prioritizes efficiency and speed, people eat and leave quickly, so lines move fast.

As a solo diner, I saw the benefits of dap toi. It was like joining a single-rider line at Disneyland, and I soon got used to sharing tables with strangers in crowded eateries.

Looking back, I could have enjoyed egg tarts and steamed rice rolls if I had been a little more patient.

5. Everything moves at twice the speed

When I met up with a local friend for dinner, she finished a plate of roasted pork rice within minutes. "You're done already?" I asked in amusement. "Hong Kong speed," she simply replied.

Indeed, everything moves quickly in Hong Kong. In busy districts like Mong Kok and Central, the Mass Transit Railway train arrives every other minute. People walk as if they are on a mission, and waiters almost expect you to know what to order the moment you sit down.

I was used to the fast pace of life in Singapore and assumed Hong Kong would match it. Instead, it surpassed my expectations and, at times, felt jarring. But, it was the bustling energy that made the city feel truly alive.

I'll be back again. Next time, I'll make sure to order my French toast correctly.

• TikTok restored services in the US after 12 hours of downtime, easing some creators' concerns.
• Creators rely on TikTok for income, from product sales and ad deals to the app's affiliate program.
• With TikTok's future still uncertain, some creators are planning to diversify how they sell online.

TikTok restored services in the US on Sunday, easing the concerns of content creators and entrepreneurs who make their living from the platform — at least for now.

The platform was down for 12 hours starting late Saturday night and was restored following a Truth Social post by President-Elect Donald Trump, who said he'd issue an executive order on Monday to delay the ban. TikTok's future remains unclear, as its China-based parent company, ByteDance, has so far refused to divest from the app as required by law, but for now, the economy driven by TikTok can continue to churn.

"My whole livelihood was on the line this weekend," Live shopping host Kimberly Balance told Business Insider. "Never experienced anything like this the entire time that I've been a business owner."

Balance, who goes by KIMMIEBBAGS, sells luxury consignment goods on TikTok, Instagram, and the marketplace platform Whatnot. Last week, she relocated her business from Florida to California to expand her live shopping operations.

Balance was set to host a six-hour live shopping show on TikTok on Saturday as part of a new live shopping partnership she had struck with Reunited Luxury. On Thursday evening, TikTok informed her that her Friday meeting with the platform's luxury sales manager was canceled. Her show on Saturday was canceled soon after, in a blow to her business' revenue.

Since it launched in 2023, TikTok's online marketplace, TikTok Shop, has quickly become a prime source of revenue for creators on the platform. The app also has an affiliate program where creators can earn a commission for sales they help drive by tagging products in videos or live streams. Creators can also package products from different sellers on their profiles for users to search through. TikTok takes a cut of each transaction.

In its April 2024 economic impact report, the company said TikTok "brings tens of billions of dollars to the US economy," including $15 billion in revenue to small businesses that use the app, supporting more than 224,000 jobs. Business Insider could not independently confirm these internal statistics.

Before TikTok "went dark" on Saturday night, some creators on the platform told Business Insider they worried the ban could hurt them financially.

In a press release for the social media app Own, one creator, ChalkDunny, said he made more than 60% of his income in 2024. Another creator, izzybizzyspider, said in the release that TikTok is her "biggest source of income and biggest platform."

She warned that creators on the app have to be "prepared to be flexible and adapt quickly."

Nadya Okamoto, founder of menstrual-care brand August, which sells products on TikTok, told Business Insider she is "relieved" that TikTok came back online. However, she said the ongoing volatility over the ban prompted her to develop a contingency plan that reduces her reliance on the app.

"I've been encouraging my followers to connect with me on platforms like Instagram and YouTube for updates," she said. "I'm also exploring other affiliate shopping opportunities, such as YouTube Shop, where I've started adding shoppable products—particularly in my skincare-related videos."

Balance said she plans to switch up the platforms where she does business, given TikTok's still-uncertain future.

"We're going to continue probably to lean on the other channels like Instagram and possibly launch a YouTube," she said. "I think this is just an eye opener for all small businesses that we need to have a diverse way to reach our audiences."

TikTok did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider for this story.