• Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said the coffee giant will cut 30% of its menu offerings this year.
• In an earnings call, Niccol told investors the cuts are part of Starbucks' plan to streamline service.
• Since becoming CEO in September, Niccol has rolled out efforts to "get back to Starbucks."

Starbucks' increasingly complicated menu is a thing of the past, CEO Brian Niccol told investors during a Tuesday earnings call.

Niccol said the international coffee chain plans to cut 30% of its food and drink offerings by the end of its fiscal year — which for the company is in September — as part of his effort to streamline service at Starbucks stores.

"We've been focused on simplifying our menu to position partners for success, improve consistency, drive customer satisfaction, and enhance our economics," Niccol said. "As part of this work, we made some late simplifications to our holiday product line-up and believe we have more opportunity ahead as we follow a discipline stage-gate process to innovate and bring to market, fewer, better beverage and food offerings that reflect our premium positioning."

The Starbucks corporate office will continue to work with its in-store partners for inspiration on new product lines based on changing consumer preferences like it did with its lavender drinks last year, Niccol said, as well as release new cultural offerings like its current Dubai matcha drink.

A representative for Starbucks declined to answer specific questions about the planned menu simplification — such as which menu items will be targeted or when the cuts will be made — when reached by Business Insider.

The new CEO, who took the job in September 2024, has rolled out several "back to Starbucks" initiatives in an attempt to fix slumping sales at the coffee giant and improve the chain's reputation, which in recent years has been marred by inconsistent drink preparations and long wait times. One longtime barista previously told Business Insider the chain has become a "soulless fast-food empire" rather than the quirky local coffee shop it started as.

Niccol's strategy — which includes rolling back surcharges for non-dairy creamers, bringing back handwritten notes on your coffee cup, and installing new, more comfortable decor — has earned the approval of Starbucks' former CEO, Howard Schultz, who last year said he has total faith in Niccol's back-to-basics plan.

It also appears to be resonating with customers and shareholders, as the company's first-quarter earnings beat expectations, despite a decline in sales, and shares are up more than 10% in the last month.

• A judge has paused President Donald Trump's pause of federal grants.
• The directive would have temporarily frozen federal grants to agencies like FEMA and the SBA.
• The judge's ruling pauses the order until Monday afternoon, protecting funding for existing programs.

A federal judge has temporarily prevented President Donald Trump's directive to freeze federal grants from taking effect Tuesday evening.

US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan's decision will protect funding for existing programs until Monday afternoon.

The government's freeze directive, which caused widespread panic among federal employees when it was announced early Tuesday, would have impacted funding at agencies including FEMA and the Small Business Administration.

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

AliKhan's order gives the government until 5 p.m. Thursday to file a response explaining why the funding freeze should be reinstated.

The reprieve was won by a coalition of nonprofit, healthcare, and small business advocacy groups that sued the federal Office of Management and Budget to halt the freeze.

The lawsuit, filed by the National Council of Nonprofits, the American Public Health Association, the Main Street Alliance, and the nonprofit SAGE, said the freeze order was "devoid of any legal basis" and would harm hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on federal grants.

The groups were represented by attorneys for the legal organization Democracy Forward, who said they were grateful for the time "to sort through the chaos created by the Trump administration's hasty and ill-advised actions."

"This is a sigh of relief for millions of people who have been in limbo over the last twenty-four hours as the result of the Trump administration's callous attempt to wholesale shutter federal assistance and grant programs that people across this country rely on," the statement said.

The National Council of Nonprofits lawsuit was one of two major legal actions filed Tuesday to challenge the threatened funding freeze. The other is being brought by the state attorneys general of New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

"The OMB Directive would permit the federal government to rescind already allocated dollars that have been included in recipient budgets — monies that are otherwise necessary for the Plaintiffs to ensure that their residents have quality healthcare, the protections of law enforcement, the benefit of safe roads, and assistance in the aftermath of natural disasters, among many other key services," the lawsuit states.

The Trump administration had said the freeze would not affect Medicare, Medicaid, student loans, food stamps, or Social Security.

However, during a press conference Tuesday afternoon, New York Attorney General Letitia James said funding for some programs, including Medicaid, had already been frozen.

"Head Start was frozen in Michigan, access to child development block grants were frozen in Maryland," she said. "At least 20 states have been frozen out of their Medicaid reimbursement systems,
including New York," she told reporters.

Both lawsuits seek an eventual permanent injunction against the freeze, which the OMB said was necessary to ensure that some $3 trillion in annual spending on federal grants and loans remains compliant with Trump's recent executive orders.

The federal government would no longer be funding "wokeness" and "the weaponization of government," the OMB had instructed federal agency heads on Monday.

"The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve," the acting OMB director, Matthew J. Vaeth, had told agency heads in a memo ordering the funding freeze.

• The US tried to limit China's AI advancements through export limits on semiconductors.
• The limitations may have inadvertently fueled the innovation behind DeepSeek instead.
• China's DeepSeek disrupted the AI industry with more efficient computing at scale.

The US government has for years actively tried to curb China's access to semiconductor chips, a key component in generative AI models. Instead, those export limits may have fueled the innovation that led to DeepSeek's R1 — a large language model that's disrupting the domestic AI industry and the booming economy built around it.

Brian Colello, a tech analyst for Morningstar, said the quote "constraints lead to creativity" came to mind.

"These Chinese models were processor-constrained, so it led to some creative techniques in training, and the DeepSeek model has come out with better-than-expected performance given the processors that it's been trained on," he told Business Insider.

DeepSeek disruption

DeepSeek, a China-based AI startup, dropped the app version of its R1 model last week. The model appeared to rival those from major US tech companies, like Meta, OpenAI, and Google — but at a much lower cost.

DeepSeek said it spent nearly $6 million in computing power to train its new system, a fraction of what US tech companies have spent on their models.

DeepSeek said its models were trained with fewer and less powerful semiconductor chips than their competitors typically use.

Since 2022, US sanctions have made it illegal for manufacturing leader Nvidia to sell some of its chips to China, including its most advanced chips. The sanctions aimed to limit China's advancements in AI and military technology.

"Sanctions forced DeepSeek to use H800s, which were less powerful than H100s," Patrick Moorhead, the CEO of Moor Insights and Strategy, told BI of the Nvidia chips DeepSeek has used.

"In a roundabout way, sanctions initiated in the Biden administration motivated DeepSeek to be more creative in how it trained and ran models," he added. "No one should be surprised, as 'necessity is the mother of invention.'"

Murky training and computing costs

Some experts and analysts who spoke to BI expressed skepticism over DeepSeek's claims about the cost of the models and the number and type of chips they were built on. However, it remains unclear exactly what semiconductors were used to train and deploy DeepSeek.

Still, some analysts said the startup showed that it's possible to do more with less when it comes to AI.

Deutsche Bank analysts Adrian Cox and Galina Pozdnyakova wrote of DeepSeek in a research note published Monday: "They've had to squeeze more value out of their software and methods such as chain-of-thought reasoning and using several models at once, instead of just throwing more computing power at the problem."

Chris Miller, author of the 2022 book "Chip War," told BI the DeepSeek models are impressive but that costs in AI have come down dramatically since 2023, so he did not find the company's latest paper especially surprising.

He also said the idea that DeepSeek was working on a "shoestring budget" was not true, saying the company used a "very narrow definition of training costs." Miller said it's "pretty clear that the training cost is an order of magnitude higher" than DeepSeek suggested.

Ineffective chip restrictions

Alexandr Wang, the CEO of Scale AI, said during a January 23 CNBC interview that DeepSeek had 50,000 H800s, which Miller said would be a "substantial number. " While that number is still much less than what US firms have, Miller said, it's likely a lot more than US export officials would've wanted a single Chinese firm to accumulate.

Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told BI that the developments at DeepSeek suggest AI development in China "seems to be at least on par with the US."

However, she said, "we're still at the beginning of the race" for AI dominance.

"It certainly serves as a good reminder for American policymakers that technology restriction may not work, depending upon what the end goal is," Liu said.

Several experts said they thought the latest developments with DeepSeek could lead to even more semiconductor sanctions on China but would not necessarily stop further innovation.

"The US could put sanctions on China all day long," Colello said, "but there's always the threat: What if China comes up with some breakthrough anyway?"

• President Donald Trump addressed the rise of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI app, on Monday night.
• He said the ability to train AI cheaply, which DeepSeek said it has done, is a good thing.
• Experts told BI that DeepSeek challenges the idea of US tech dominance, but that may be positive for AI.

President Donald Trump said the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's ability to train AI more cheaply is a "positive" development and should be a "wake-up call" for tech industries.

Trump's comments followed DeepSeek's ascension to the top of Apple's free downloads chart, which sent shockwaves through the US tech market on Monday morning.

"So you won't be spending as much, and you'll get the same result hopefully," Trump said Monday evening in a House Republican members conference meeting. "The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company, should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win."

China has been heavily investing in its tech sector, with state-backed initiatives to boost domestic chip production and AI capabilities, aiming to reduce reliance on US technology.

Meanwhile, the US has expanded the existing export controls on advanced semiconductor technology to China, adding dozens more types of chips and 140 entities to the restriction list.

Last Tuesday, Trump announced the launch of the Stargate Project, a joint artificial intelligence venture with OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and investment firm MGX. The initiative plans to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the United States by 2029, with the first data center already under construction in Texas.

Last week, Trump called the project a "monumental undertaking" in a press conference with Larry Ellison and Sam Altman, and touted that it will create 100,000 jobs.

Experts told Business Insider that DeepSeek challenges the idea of US tech dominance, but that may be positive for the future of AI.

Chris Tang, a UCLA professor and global supply chain scholar, called this moment a "trigger" that may motivate OpenAI or Gemini to open up their source code to allow more people to participate in AI development.

"It's still very much early in the game," said Zongyuan Zoe Liu, senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, "but it certainly serves as a good reminder for American policymakers that technology restriction may not work."

Gadjo Sevilla, a senior tech analyst for AI and tech briefings with BI's sister site EMARKETER, wrote that there is potential for "a race to the bottom for AI pricing and adoption in the coming months," which "runs counter to US Big Tech initiatives where we have Microsoft ($80 billion) and Meta (65 billion) looking to spend on hardware, data centers, and sustainable energy for AI."

"China is not going to slow down. They will do as much as they can with what they can," said Brian Colello, an equity strategist for Morningstar. "It's just such a fast-changing space. Nobody has a clear, sustainable lead, so there will be more breakthroughs and they could come from anywhere. It could come from the US, it could come from China."

• President Donald Trump visited California on Friday to discuss the Los Angeles fires.
• During a roundtable with California officials, Trump promised to help fund relief efforts.
• The meeting came after weeks of Trump threatening to withhold federal funds for recovery.

President Donald Trump traveled to California on Friday afternoon to meet with local leaders, pledging to provide federal disaster relief for people affected by the deadly wildfires ravaging the region.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom greeted Trump cordially on the runway at the Los Angeles International Airport despite tense exchanges between the pair in recent weeks. The governor and president embraced briefly before addressing reporters for short remarks.

"We're going to need your support. We're going to need your help," Newsom said as he stood next to Trump. "You were there for us during COVID, I don't forget that, and I have all the expectations that we'll be able to work together to get this speedy recovery."

"We are going to get it fixed, and we're going to get it permanently fixed," Trump responded, "We're looking to get something completed and the way you get it completed is to work together. They are going to need a lot of federal help."

During a subsequent roundtable with California officials, Trump promised to help fund relief efforts but did not specify how much federal aid would be provided to the state. He also said he would issue an executive order to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California and Central Valley for "beneficial use," echoing a statement in an earlier memo directed to the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior.

Trump's visit to the state came after the recently inaugurated president repeatedly criticized California's water policies and threatened to withhold federal aid to help Los Angeles recover from the Palisades and Eaton fires, which killed 28 people. AccuWeather estimates the economic damage from the wildfires totals more than $250 billion, making it one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern US history.

Newsom and Trump have had tense relations since the president's first term. They clashed over California's declaration as a "sanctuary state" for immigrants in 2017 and the state's right to set its own vehicle emission standards. Trump canceled nearly $1 billion in federal grants for California's high-speed rail in 2019. Newsom also characterized Trump as a threat to American democracy throughout much of last year's presidential campaign, while Trump frequently refers to the governor as "Newscum."

Ahead of the meeting, the Los Angeles Times reported that Newsom had been excluded from a list of participants released by the White House who would attend the briefing.

Over the past week, Trump also repeatedly accused Newsom of having water "pouring into the Pacific Ocean" and of creating "an inferno," including during a press conference on Tuesday where he announced massive funding for an AI initiative.

"I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water flow down," Trump said in an interview with Fox's Sean Hannity on Wednesday, referring to a perceived lack of water being diverted from Northern California to the more drought-prone south.

Newsom's spokesperson, Izzy Gardon, told Business Insider the Governor is "committed to advocating for the needs of Californians in partnership with the federal administration."

Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Los Angeles obtains water from various sources, mostly imported from outside the county. Aside from 660,000 acre-feet of local groundwater every year, a large amount of water comes from the city's 112-year-old aqueduct that runs from the Owens Valley east of the Sierra Nevadas. The city also imports water from the Metropolitan Water District, which relays water from the Colorado River.

"Presidents and their administrations do have the power to stop or delay disaster funds, although they rarely do," wrote Karrigan Börk, professor at the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis, in a blog post, citing when the first Trump administration delayed $20 billion in disaster aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Börk also warned that interference from the president would fundamentally change authority over water rights from the state to the federal government, which would risk opposition from many western states, and that water flowing into the ocean is needed to keep salinity down so that water can remain fresh for human use.

It remains unclear how much federal funding California will receive for Los Angeles. Trump said at an earlier stop in North Carolina on Friday that he might issue an executive order to "fundamentally reform and overhaul FEMA" or "recommend that FEMA go away."

• Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as defense secretary after a tie-breaking vote by JD Vance.
• The outspoken Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News host faced major controversies.
• Hegseth's confirmation suggests major changes may be in store for the Pentagon.

Vice President JD Vance on Friday delivered his first tie-breaking vote in the senate, confirming Pete Hegseth, a Trump confidant and Iraq veteran, as defense secretary after a contentious battle over his qualifications.

Democrats and three Republicans questioned Hegseth's readiness to lead the Pentagon, as the US Army National Guard veteran and former "Fox & Friends" host lacks experience in the defense industry or running large organizations that have characterized past defense secretaries.

Hegseth was barely confirmed on Friday night after a 50-50 Senate vote, which required a tie-breaking vote by Vance. Republican Senators Mitch McConnell from Kentucky, Susan Collins from Maine, and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska voted against Hegseth. All Democratic senators voted no.

The confirmation was only the second time in US history that the Vice President has been required to break a tie for a cabinet appointment. The first was Betsy DeVos' 2017 confirmation as secretary of education during President Donald Trump's first term.

Hegseth's confirmation is one of the closest ever for the position, which has often seen strong bipartisan support. For comparison, Lloyd Austin, a retired Army general tapped by former President Joe Biden, received 93 votes in 2021. In addition to Hegseth, one of the other closest votes occurred in 2013, when the Senate confirmed former President Barack Obama's pick, Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator and Vietnam combat veteran, by 58-41.

Hegseth's nail-bitter confirmation in the GOP-led Senate is a victory for Trump's unconventional Cabinet nominations. Since Trump announced his pick in November, Hegseth's personal history, controversial comments on culture war topics, and qualifications for the position have all been under fire.

At the Fox News host's confirmation hearing in January, he faced intense questioning, walking back previous comments he made against women serving in combat roles and promising to bring a warrior ethos back to the Pentagon.

He has also received support from many Republicans and veterans. Tim Kennedy, a retired Army Green Beret and mixed martial artist, has repeatedly advocated for Hegseth's candidacy, calling him "an agent of change." On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said that Hegseth would bring "a warrior's perspective to the role of defense secretary and will provide much-needed fresh air at the Pentagon."

Hegseth's confirmation may bring radical changes to the Pentagon that had been resisted in Trump's first term. It was Hegseth who then advised Trump to pardon troops accused or convicted of war crimes over the objections of top Pentagon leaders who worried this would erode the discipline and order in their ranks.

By rhetoric and background, Hegseth has been seen by lawmakers and officials as an unconventional pick.

Hegseth, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was among a group of National Guard members who had their orders to secure then President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration revoked after the January 6 insurrection due to controversy over his tattoo of a Jerusalem cross; he also has a tattoo of a Christian motto that dates to the Crusades and has been adopted by the alt-right.

Hegseth has also received backlash over his views of women serving in combat roles. During a podcast episode after Trump's reelection, Hegseth said, "I'm straight-up just saying we should not have women in combat roles," arguing it hurt the military's readiness. At his confirmation hearing in January, he took a different tone.

"Yes, women will have access to ground combat roles, given the standards remain high, and we'll have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded in any one of these cases," Hegseth said, noting that if he's confirmed, he'll initiate a review of gender-neutral standards.

He has also been grilled about his drinking, beliefs against diversity, equity, and inclusion, and his personal history. During a media blitz to shore up his struggling candidacy, he vowed "there won't be a drop of alcohol on my lips" while he's the SECDEF.

In November, sexual assault allegations against Hegseth from an incident in 2017 were made public. At the time, Hegseth told police that the encounter was consensual and denied any wrongdoing; he was never criminally charged. In November, he told reporters that the matter was fully investigated and he'd been cleared.

Hegseth, an avowed opponent of the Defense Department's efforts to diversify its disproportionately white workforce, suggests major changes may be in store beyond the removal of any DEI or so-called "woke" policies.

His selection by Trump is also a sign the White House is focused on purging the military's top ranks of purported "woke generals," along the lines of the "warrior board" reviews first reported by The Wall Street Journal. 

• Starbucks' new CEO, Brian Niccol, made nearly $100 million in his first four months running the company.
• His total compensation between taking the gig in September and the end of 2024 was $95,801,676.
• The pay was mostly in stock awards but also included a $5 million bonus after one month on the job.

Starbucks' new CEO, Brian Niccol, made almost $100 million in his first four months at the company, a new filing shows.

Niccol's executive compensation package for 2024, valued at $95,801,676, encompasses the total pay he earned between taking the gig on September 9 and the end of the year.

While the compensation was mostly in stock awards — his base salary is $61,538, before his award of $90,291,772 worth of stocks — his pay package also included a $5 million sign-on bonus after completing his first month on the job.

The package also included $418,071 in additional compensation, which the filing indicates includes $143,567 of temporary housing expenses — as Niccol was not required to relocate from his home in Southern California to the company's headquarters in Seattle, and instead supercommutes using Starbucks' company jet.

Niccols' commute costs the company an additional $72,398 of expenses "related to his use of Starbucks aircraft for travel between his city of primary residence and Starbucks headquarters" and $19,367 "related to his other personal use of Company aircraft," the filing notes.

"Mr. Niccol's aircraft expenses represent the aggregate incremental cost incurred by the Company to operate the aircraft for such use, including fuel costs, flight crew travel expenses, in-flight catering, landing fees, communication expenses, and other trip-related variable costs, and do not include fixed costs that would be incurred regardless of whether there was any non-business use of the aircraft, such as aircraft purchase costs, pilot and crew salaries, insurance costs, and maintenance," the filing reads. "For trips that involve mixed non-business and business usage, we include the incremental cost of any non-business usage (i.e., the excess of the cost of the actual trip over the cost of a hypothetical trip without the non-business usage)."

Starbucks also footed the bill for $6,303 in COBRA insurance reimbursements, $48,671 in reimbursements in legal fees related to negotiations over the terms of his employment, and $127,765 worth of physical protection security expenses.

"Personal driver services were provided to Mr. Niccol at no incremental cost and is fulfilled by Starbucks salaried partners as part of his executive protection support," the filing reads.

• President Trump took aim at federal DEI policies in his inaugural address on Monday.
• He pledged to reverse executive orders from Biden, in favor of a "merit-based" society.
• On Tuesday, the White House issued a presidential action ending DEI-based hiring in the FAA.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government.

Federal agencies and departments have 60 days from the signing of the order to end DEI-related practices.

The executive order will be carried out by the US Office of Personnel Management and the Attorney General, who will review all existing federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies to ensure compliance with the DEI termination order.

"Federal employment practices, including Federal employee performance reviews, shall reward individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements," the order read.

A separate order for the FAA

On Tuesday, Trump issued a separate presidential action ending DEI-based hiring in the Federal Aviation Agency.

All DEI initiatives in the FAA, the order said, will be replaced with practices of "hiring, promoting, and otherwise treating employees on the basis of individual capability, competence, achievement, and dedication."

As of Tuesday night, the contents of at least two web pages detailing DEI initiatives and DEI hiring at the FAA have been taken down.

The FAA and its overseeing body, the Department of Transportation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Targeting DEI

Trump also used his inaugural address Monday to target DEI initiatives in the federal government.

"This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life," he said Monday. "We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based."

He said it will be official US policy that "there are only two genders: male and female."

The remarks echoed his statements during a rally a day earlier when he pledged to end DEI mandates in government and the private sector.

Like many orders Trump signed on his first day, the move aims to undo several orders issued by Joe Biden during his presidency.

In one executive action from June 2021, Biden said the federal government is the largest employer in the nation and, thus, "must be a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, where all employees are treated with dignity and respect."

In response, the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Talent Sourcing for America initiative was launched in September of 2022.

A 2022 report from the Office of Personnel Management said the government-wide DEIA initiative included a plan to prioritize equity for LGBTQI+ employees by "expanding the usage of gender markers and pronouns that respect transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary employees; and working to create a more inclusive workplace."

The report showed minimal changes in the federal workforce's demographics between fiscal years 2017 and 2021, which encompassed most of Trump's first term. This included "minor" changes in the shares of the federal workforce by race and gender.

A 2024 report from OPM found minor increases in federal staffing diversity under the Biden administration after the DEIA objectives were announced, but indicated the office's targets for diversity and equity initiatives were not met.

Though there had been only slight workforce demographic changes under the Biden administration, the Trump administration's first official statement released Monday reiterated his plans to "freeze bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas to end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried into the federal workforce," and "establish male and female as biological reality and protect women from radical gender ideology."

Meanwhile, several companies — including the nation's largest private employer, Walmart — have been reversing course on DEI initiatives in the weeks following Trump's election in November.

• President Donald Trump is known for having a penchant for the bold strokes of a Sharpie marker.
• His handwritten notes are the subject of iconic images, as well as internet jokes and ridicule.
• From executive orders to hurricane forecast maps, here are seven times Trump wielded his signature pen.

Former President Donald Trump has been known to use a Sharpie as his writing utensil of choice — wielding it on presidential documents and fan autographs alike.

The former president displayed a penchant for using the distinctive black marker on documents throughout his first presidency. The bold strokes can be seen on anything from executive orders to speech drafts to allegedly altered hurricane maps.

Trump loved to use a Sharpie so much that he even reached out to the stationary company to design a custom pen for him to sign documents, emblazoned with his mountain-peak-like signature.

In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, he made no secret of his love for a Sharpie pen — and how much he hated using government-ordered writing utensils traditionally used by presidents.

"I was signing documents with a very expensive pen and it didn't write well," Trump said, referring to the government pen. "It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive."

He added: "And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, 'Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.'"

Trump's distinctive bold Sharpie signature made an appearance long before he even entered the White House.

The Trump Organization — but not Trump himself or his children — in 2022 faced charges of criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and filing false tax returns in a scheme to defraud the state.

After the trial kicked off, documents from the Trump Organization were presented to jurors by the trial's first witness, Jeffrey McConney, the company's longtime controller.

McConney identified the signatures — in distinctive bold Sharpie — on some half-dozen documents, which included important letters and payroll documents, as that of the former president.

In a May 1, 2005 letter detailing an overhead projection, Trump personally authorized a $6,500-a-month lease for a Manhattan apartment to be lived in exclusively by his longtime chief financial officer.

"In other words, Donald J. Trump authorized Donald J. Trump to sign the lease" for the apartment, Joshua Steinglass, one of the two lead prosecutors, said during the trial.

The president wasn't only reaching for a Sharpie to sign off on important documents, but also for campaign speech notes.

Trump's notes were clearly visible to cameras — aided by his tendency to hold them up to the crowd for emphasis.

At a campaign rally in Virginia in 2016, Trump touted national polling numbers and talked about Jeff Sessions, who was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.

Trump also mentioned Ashley Guindon, a Virginia police officer who was killed on her first day on the job, and he vowed to "restore law and order [and] respect [for] the men and women who protect," per his notes.

It wouldn't be a Trump press conference if his bold Sharpie notes weren't visible from afar.

In a press conference ahead of declaring a state of emergency amid the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, Trump briefed the nation on the distribution of ventilators and respirators ahead of the rapidly spreading respiratory disease that was then shrouded in mystery.

In his notes, the president jotted down to mention how "good govs are getting it done, bad ones are not."

"We're really backing up the governors. The governors have to go out and do their things and you have a lot of governors, they've done a fantastic job," Trump said during the press conference on March 22, 2020. "You have some that haven't. Usually, it's the ones that complain that have the problems."

He added: "But we've had a great relationship as an example with Governor Cuomo, with Governor Newsom," noting them specifically due to the "hotbeds" of infection that were transpiring in their states respectively.

But Trump's felt-tip marker wasn't exclusively reserved for paper — he once signed his $147-million border wall that replaced the old wall.

One of the platforms that Trump infamously campaigned on for his first presidential campaign was building a wall at the border, which eventually came to fruition — though not to completion — during his first administration.

In September 2019, he paid a visit to a border wall construction in Otay Mesa, a neighborhood in San Diego County, California. With a hefty price tag of $147 million, the 14-mile section of steel beams, concrete, and rebar replaced the construction of a decades-old wall that was previously installed in the 1990s.

"You can fry an egg on that wall," Trump told the reporters and officials gathered during his visit, referring to the wall's design to absorb heat.

And without fail, the president brought out a Sharpie to sign one of the slats of his beloved border wall, which he said was at the request of the border patrol agents at the site.

"I autographed one of the bollards," he said. "There are a lot of bollards. That's a lot of bollards."

Perhaps one of the notorious moments the president put Sharpie-to-paper was when he allegedly altered a forecast map of Hurricane Dorian, in a superficial scandal later dubbed "SharpieGate."

In September 2019, ahead of the devastation brought in by Hurricane Dorian, the president said the storm was headed to Alabama.

"In addition to Florida - South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated," Trump tweeted at the time. "Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!"

In a bid to quell public panic regarding the former president's errant forecast, the Birmingham branch of the National Weather Service set the record straight, blatantly correcting his prediction.

"Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian," the agency said in a tweet the same day. "We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east."

But Trump doubled down once again on his claims and refused to accept the NWS' forecast, instead presenting a map of Hurricane Dorian's path with a black Sharpie stroke extending the storm's path over Alabama. The incident later became known as "SharpieGate," prompting its fair share of internet mockery and memes in its wake.

—The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) September 4, 2019

 

#SharpieGate wasn't the only time the former president's scrawl prompted iconic internet discourse.

During Trump's first impeachment inquiry, Gordon Sondland, former US Ambassador to the European Union, delivered damning testimony publicly confirming the quid pro quo request from Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The articles of impeachment were related, in part, to Trump's reported efforts to strong-arm Zelensky into launching politically motivated investigations against the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election and withholding vital military aid while doing so.

But like Trump's persistent spoken words in denying the accusations of quid pro quo, his written ones echoed the same denial, as written in bold Sharpie on Air Force One stationary in 2019.

"I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo," he wrote. "Tell Zelensky to do the right thing. This is the final word from the pres of the US."

And, of course, the note had its heyday on the internet as people turned it into Eminem jokes, Pearl Jam setlist jokes, and lyrics of a Morrissey song.

On his second Inauguration Day in 2025, Trump showed his love for Sharpies hadn't faded since he left office after his first term.

On the first day of his second administration, Trump showed the world his love for Sharpie pens persists.

He signed a flurry of executive orders to usher in his second non-consecutive term in the White House, including a freeze on federal hiring, a return-to-office mandate for federal workers, and an order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord — each bearing his name in thick Sharpie strokes.

The president's supporters appear to share his penchant for the black permanent marker, with one fan in the inaugural audience calling for Trump to toss him a pen after signing an order with it. Trump did, throwing each Sharpie he used to sign the orders into the crowd. 

• Donald Trump did not immediately impose tariffs on Inauguration Day, despite his campaign promises.
• He vowed tariffs are coming February 1 and will lead to "massive amounts of money" entering the US Treasury.
• Trade experts have said broad tariffs could increase prices for consumers and spark inflation.

President Donald Trump is back in the White House, and one of his top priorities is tariffs and trade.

While no tariffs were imposed on January 20, Trump said on Inauguration Day they'd be coming on February 1.

The president said during his inauguration speech that he plans to create the External Revenue Service, which would collect tariffs, duties, and revenues. He said this agency would lead to "massive amounts of money" coming into the US Treasury. Trump first announced his plans for the creation of the External Revenue Service on January 14.

The details of the plan are unclear, and creating a new agency requires approval from Congress.

"Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens," Trump said during his inauguration speech.

In a second speech on Inauguration Day, Trump reiterated his plan to implement new tariffs before signing a flurry of executive orders, including a freeze on federal hiring, a return-to-office mandate for federal workers, and an order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.

"Tariffs are going to make us rich as hell," Trump said. "It's going to bring our country's businesses back."

Trump said on Monday that he'd impose a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada on February 1, citing illegal immigration and drugs entering the US from those countries. He's previously warned of an additional 10% tariff on all goods imported from China on top of the tariffs he had already proposed.

Answering questions from reporters while signing additional executive orders at the White House on Monday, Trump said he believes tariffs will bolster manufacturing stateside.

"We're going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs. You know, if you don't want tariffs all you have to do is build your plant in the US. So we're going to have a lot of workers coming in, but we have to have legal immigration," he said.

Asked if he was still considering a universal tariff on all countries, Trump responded, "I may, yeah, but we're not ready for that yet."

Trump's past comments on tariffs

On the campaign trail, broad tariffs were a cornerstone of Trump's platform. He proposed a 60% tariff on all goods imported from China, along with a 10% to 20% tariff on all imports from other countries.

Trump also threatened the BRICS group — which consists of emerging countries including Brazil, Russia, India, and China — with a 100% tariff on imports from those countries unless they committed to not creating another currency that competes with the US dollar.

On Monday, he reiterated his interest in slapping a 100% tariff on BRICS nations while also appearing to include Spain as part of the group. Spain is not part of BRICS.

Trade industry experts previously told Business Insider that Trump's tariff proposals could cause the prices of impacted goods to increase, leading consumers to pay more for products like electronics or apparel, creating a form of consumption tax.

A number of companies have already announced that they are preparing to raise prices in anticipation of the tariffs. Some economists have also predicted that broad tariffs could increase inflation, likely causing the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Trump has denied that his tariff proposals would hurt the economy and consumers, saying during a speech in August that his plans have "nothing to do with taxes to us. That is a tax on another country."

Many economists have argued that the costs of tariffs could largely fall on US consumers; the left-leaning Center for American Progress estimated that the president's trade plans could cost the typical American household an extra $1,500 a year.

Brian Hughes, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told BI that Trump "has promised tariff policies that protect the American manufacturers and working men and women from the unfair practices of foreign companies and foreign markets."

"As he did in his first term, he will implement economic and trade policies to make life affordable and more prosperous for our nation," Hughes said.

How tariffs will impact consumers and the economy

Trump implemented tariffs during his first term, which did not significantly impact inflation. Some economists, however, predict his proposals this time around could have a larger impact on the economy given their broader scope. For example, the nonpartisan Peterson Institute estimated that Trump's 60% tariff on goods imported from China would boost inflation by 0.4 percentage points in 2025.

During his inauguration speech, Trump touched on inflation concerns, which he blamed on government overspending and high energy prices. He vowed to direct members of his Cabinet to fight inflation and bring prices down by focusing on expanding domestic energy supply, specifically for oil and gas, and ramping up domestic manufacturing.

"Today, I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill," Trump said.

It's unclear how quickly consumers could see the tariffs translated into higher prices on goods or whether a drop in energy prices could counteract the effect.

In a recent report, the National Retail Federation predicted that Trump's tariff plans would raise prices on apparel and shoes, furniture, and appliances. An October report from the Consumer Technology Association estimated that the proposed tariffs would increase laptop and tablet costs by 45%.

"It's tough to say right now at what point consumers would feel the impact," Jonathan Gold, the vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, previously told BI.

"It could also depend upon the individual companies and what their tariff mitigation plans are and how much they can try and lessen the impact on the consumers," Gold added.

Trump's tariffs could also face legal challenges due to their potential violations of the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, a free-trade agreement negotiated by Trump in his first term that went into effect in July 2020.

• The FTC released a staff report about partnerships between cloud service providers and AI companies.
• The report raises antitrust concerns about deals between industry leaders like OpenAI and Microsoft.
• Such deals may deprive startups of key AI inputs and undermine fair competition, FTC Chair Lina Khan said.

The Federal Trade Commission, in its latest staff report issued Friday, suggested that partnerships between artificial intelligence leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic with cloud service providers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google could be the subject of future antitrust action.

The report outlines key elements of existing CSP and AI developer partnerships that may be subject to federal scrutiny, such as the equity and revenue-sharing rights that underpin these partnerships and exclusivity rights CSPs retain through massive investments with AI developers.

Specifically, the report mentions OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft and Anthropic's deals with Amazon and Google as potentially having an outsize impact on the broader industry.

"For an individual using an AI chatbot to write a wedding speech or a small business owner generating logo ideas with an AI image generation model, corporate partnerships may seem abstract or distant," the FTC's staff report reads. "Yet, these partnerships may potentially impact AI model development — including which firms may effectively participate in the marketplace — and may determine many aspects of those individuals' and firms' experiences."

FTC Chair Lina Khan, in one of her last official statements before leaving office, cited the deals between the companies as a reason for "enforcers and policymakers" to "stay vigilant to guard against business strategies that undermine open markets, opportunity, and innovation."

"The FTC's report sheds light on how partnerships by Big Tech firms can create lock-in, deprive start-ups of key AI inputs, and reveal sensitive information that can undermine fair competition," Khan said.

Microsoft and Google have faced particularly pointed antitrust action in recent years. The FTC opened a probe into alleged anticompetitive behavior related to Microsoft's licensing agreements, while Google has faced federal antitrust cases over its advertising strategies and search business.

Google lost one antitrust case in 2024 when US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled it held a monopoly in its search business. Mehta's finding prompted the Department of Justice to propose that Google be forced to sell its Chrome browser as a remedy in the case. A final ruling in the case is expected in August, Business Insider previously reported.

In Donald Trump's incoming administration, Khan will be replaced as Chair by current FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, the president-elect announced in December on Truth Social.

While Khan was the subject of intense political vitriol during the election for her staunch antitrust enforcement, Ferguson, in a post on X, vowed to continue the office's mission to promote innovation and "end Big Tech's vendetta against competition and free speech."

"We will make sure that America is the world's technological leader and the best place for innovators to bring new ideas to life," Ferguson wrote.

Representatives for Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Donald Trump has been sworn in as president once again.
• He signed a slew of executive orders on Monday.
• They included establishing DOGE and declaring a "national energy emergency."

A political comeback is complete: President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were sworn into office in a ceremony beneath the Capitol Rotunda on Monday.

"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said in his inaugural speech.

A host of dignitaries — including lawmakers, foreign leaders, and members of Trump's coming cabinet — were on hand. Tech leaders in attendance included Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

In a series of speeches throughout the day — his inauguration speech at the Rotunda, a more freewheeling speech in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol, and a third at Capital One Arena — Trump previewed a flurry of forthcoming actions, including declaring a national emergency at the southern border and establishing an "External Revenue Service."

At Capitol One Arena, he signed several executive orders, including one that rescinded 78 Biden-era executive orders and actions. Later on Monday, in the Oval Office, he signed several more, including pardons for January 6 rioters.

Here's what Trump has pledged to do on day one — and what he's actually done.

Energy and environment

Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accords, which he also did when he took office in 2017.

Increase fracking and oil drilling: Trump signed an executive order declaring a "national energy emergency" and another designed to ease permitting processes.

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 is set to complicate those actions. While the White House 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 such as the Keystone XL pipeline that companies have since dropped.

Government restructuring

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

On Monday, he signed an executive order instituting a temporary hiring freeze, saying it was "to ensure that we're only hiring competent people who are faithful to the American public." The order says the hiring freeze doesn't apply to the military or "to positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety."

Trump also signed a separate order requiring federal employees to return to in-person work immediately.

Create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): Trump signed an executive order establishing DOGE in the Oval Office on Monday, saying Elon Musk would be "getting an office for about 20 people" in the executive branch.

The order says DOGE will implement the president's push for government efficiency "by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity."

As part of the order, the US Digital Service is set to be renamed to the US DOGE Service. The US Digital Service was created by then-President Barack Obama in 2014 and provided IT consulting services to federal agencies.

Trump's order also includes the formation of DOGE teams at each federal agency. The order says each team will have at least four members, which could consist of a team lead, an engineer, a human-resources specialist, and an attorney.

Shortly after noon on Monday, several organizations filed lawsuits in a bid to get DOGE to comply with a 1972 law. In the meantime, congressional Republicans eagerly welcomed Musk's efforts and have set up ways to coordinate with DOGE.

Trade

Trump didn't impose any tariffs on Monday, saying his planned tariffs on Canada and Mexico would be imposed in February. He didn't specify a date for his planned tariffs on China, saying he was "going to have meetings and calls" with the country's leader, Xi Jinping.

Trump said on Monday that he was considering imposing a universal tariff on all goods entering the US. He added that while the US was "not ready" for a universal tariff, it could be implemented rapidly.

"You put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the United States, because they're coming in and they're stealing our wealth," Trump said.

Twenty-five percent tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian goods: Just before Thanksgiving, Trump said he'd levy significant tariffs on the US neighbors because of illegal immigration.

Thanks to Congress, presidents can impose tariffs without legislative action. In his first term, Trump used a law that allows the president to impose them because of 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 to as high as 60% on all Chinese goods. He's also mused about other wide-ranging tariffs.

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

The creation of an external revenue service: In his inaugural speech, Trump said he'd establish a new agency to collect tariffs and other foreign fees. "It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources," Trump said.

It's unclear exactly how this service will be set up. Customs and Border Protection is already responsible for collecting customs, and only Congress could set up a new agency.

Effectively pulling the US out of the global tax deal: On Monday, Trump signed an executive order declaring that the "Global Tax Deal has no force or effect in the United States."

This move withdraws US support for the international tax agreement, which aims to establish a 15% global corporate minimum tax. Congress never passed measures to comply with the deal, leaving participating countries able to impose top-up levies on some US multinationals.

The order also calls on officials to look into "options for protection from extraterritorial tax measures."

Crackdown on illegal immigration

Trump signed several executive orders related to immigration on Monday, including declaring a "national emergency" at the southern border.

He also signed an executive order that aims to revoke birthright citizenship, setting up a legal challenge over the meaning of the 14th Amendment.

Trump and his allies have argued that the amendment shouldn't be interpreted to apply to the children of people living in the country illegally. Multiple groups have said they'd challenge any such executive action in court.

He also signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Trump said numerous times during the campaign that starting on his first day, he'd take action to begin "the largest deportation operation" in the nation's history.

In his inaugural speech, he said he'd "begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came."

Later, in the Oval Office, Trump said Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids would start soon, though he didn't specify a time.

Crime and justice

Pardons for January 6 rioters: Trump signed an executive order pardoning roughly 1,500 people who were involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The order Trump signed also commuted the sentences of 14 other individuals, who included members of far-right extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

Culture war

Trump said in his inaugural address that it would "henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female."

The president signed an executive order in the Oval Office that an aide described as "protecting women from radical gender ideologies," which included preventing federal funds from being used to "promote gender ideology" and changes in federal policy to rigidly define terms such as "sex," "man," and "woman" as binary phrases.

Trump also took broad aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and pro-LGTBQ+ policies put in place by the Biden administration. In another order, he ended all federal DEI initiatives and terminated all DEI-related and "environmental justice" offices and positions, such as "chief diversity officer" positions, and all "equity" actions, initiatives, or programs and "equity-related" grants or contracts.

Another executive order renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a change that Senate Democrats earlier this month indicated they'd be willing to support if the president worked with them on an economic plan to reduce the cost of living for average Americans.

TikTok ban

Trump signed an executive order halting the ban on TikTok for 75 days. While signing the order, Trump told reporters that TikTok could be worth $1 trillion and that the US should own half of it.

According to the divest-or-ban law passed by the Senate in April, TikTok had to cease its US operations on January 19 unless its China-based owner, ByteDance, divested itself from its US holdings.

Correction: January 20, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated Jeff Bezos' current position at Amazon. He is the founder and executive chairman, not the CEO.

• 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.

• Many of the world's secrets, from individual finances to national security, rely on encryption.
• Major developments in quantum computing call for new security procedures, researchers told BI.
• Quantum computers could end encryption as we know it and risk geopolitical instability.

As Donald Trump prepares to take office, he's leaning into his self-proclaimed title of "crypto president," launching his own official meme coin and working on a potential federal reserve of bitcoin.

Crypto holdings are widely regarded as ultra-secure due to the blockchain they are traded on. The high value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, worth over $100,000 each at the time of publication, could serve as a hedge against inflation or pay down the national debt.

Recent advancements in quantum computing could undermine that security — and a whole lot more — two researchers on the advanced technology explained to Business Insider.

"What we're talking about is the possibility of a hack, not just into individual cryptocurrencies, but our larger financial markets," Arthur Herman, director of the Quantum Alliance Initiative at Hudson Institute, said.

Quantum computing is a rapidly evolving technology that combines the disciplines of computer science, mathematics, and quantum mechanics to solve more complex problems more quickly than is possible through classical computing.

Where classical computing uses binary digits — 0s and 1s, called bits — to represent information, quantum computing relies on the quantum equivalent of bits, called qubits, which are represented by a superposition of multiple states, such as 0, 1, or a combination of both.

Qubits themselves are unstable, and it's difficult to predict their behavior. They behave differently when observed, making measuring their state challenging, and require specific conditions such as low light or extremely cold environments to replicate results reliably and without errors. The errors become especially pronounced, and the qubits behavior less reliable, when scaling the computing power up using additional qubits — making advancement in the field slowgoing.

A qubit's capacity to exist in multiple states at once, like a spinning coin appearing to show both heads and tails simultaneously, allows quantum computers to quickly calculate equations with multiple solutions and perform advanced computations that would be impossible for classical computers.

Researchers in the field agree that the previously unsolvable computations could help discover new drugs, develop new chemical compounds, break our current encryption methods, and reverse the pseudonymity of the blockchain.

Supercomputers: 10 septillion years behind

Last month, Google unveiled Willow, its new quantum chip, which represents a major advancement in commercial quantum computing. The company says Willow can perform a standard benchmark computation, an industry-accepted calculation used to measure the performance of quantum computers, in under five minutes — a task that would take the current fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years to complete. That's 10 followed by 24 zeroes, a timeframe that exceeds the age of the universe.

Willow also solves a challenge related to correcting errors in the qubits' behavior while scaling the computing power up, which has plagued the industry for 30 years. Other private companies, like IBM and Microsoft, allies like France, and adversaries including Russia and China, are also working to develop the tech.

Karl Holmqvist has served as a quantum security advisor to major government bodies, including the Department of Defense and NATO. He is the CEO of Lastwall, which provides cybersecurity solutions designed to protect users from quantum computing threats. Holmqvist said that while the timeframe for creating a large, fully functional quantum computer — compared to the midsize versions with still unreliable qubit behavior we have now — remains unclear, the things such a device will be able to do when the technology becomes more stable are starting to come into focus.

"A really concerning thing is that, right now, when we store personal information, we encrypt that data, and we often encrypt it with systems that use public key cryptography — and that's what quantum computers may come to actually break," Holmqvist said. "So we have to think of all the databases and all the systems that have records of what we do, and there is a problem for privacy."

It's not just basic data privacy or the risk of personal financial details becoming public. Encrypted data, from national security secrets to the blockchain and beyond, will be readily accessible and, more worryingly, manipulatable by anyone with a quantum-capable system.

"When you start peeling back the layers, it's like anything that's internet-connected will likely have problems," Holmqvist said. "A lot of the time, we trust that the links between systems are secure and the data that's gone between them is secure, and there's no way to get into those that they're encrypted. If you take away that default assumption, it allows so many new entry points into systems that it becomes quite concerning."

Herman, the director of the Quantum Alliance Initiative, told BI that a hack from a quantum computer would be "totally stealth" due to a quantum machine's potential ability to lay bare encryption and operate inside computer systems without leaving a trace, meaning a bad actor could cause "catastrophic" damage without being detected.

"It's not a situation like with a conventional hacker, where he breaks into one system, into one bank or one cryptocurrency exchange, and then when he's finished with one, has to move on to the next," Herman said. "Once you've cracked one system, you've cracked them all, and you can help yourself, almost instantaneously, to whatever assets or moneys you want."

Herman said the race to achieve reliable quantum computing mirrors the nuclear arms race, but officials aren't taking the risk nearly as seriously as he thinks they should.

"From the point of view of where we stand in our competition with Russia and particularly China, the race to a quantum computer should be one of the major factors and threats that we want to be able to deter," Herman said. "But it's also a challenge that we want to come out on top of and be the first ones with a quantum computer because, ultimately, that'll be the real deterrence to this kind of threat: If you try to do it to us, then we can do it with even more devastating effect on you."

• TikTok has turned off its app for US users.
• The move comes after the company lost a legal challenge to a divest-or-ban law in the Supreme Court.
• The shutdown may not last forever, as TikTok hopes President-elect Donald Trump will step in.

TikTok shut down its app for its US users on Saturday, shortly before the January 19 deadline ordering the app to go dark.

The stoppage came after the company waged a monthslong legal battle against a law that required its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest from its US app or effectively cease operating in the country.

"Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now," a message popped up on the screen starting around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!"

The final blow for TikTok came on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled against the company's legal challenge. President Joe Biden's administration signaled on Friday that it would not enforce the ban. A spokesperson said that given the "sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday."

Still, a TikTok spokesperson said the same day it would need to go dark unless the Biden administration stepped in and offered assurances to its "most critical service providers" that the law would not be enforced.

The White House said Saturday that TikTok's threat to go dark was a "stunt."

While TikTok has shut its doors to its 170 million US users, the app will continue to operate elsewhere. The company said in 2021 that it had over 1 billion users globally.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, the app's creators and users took to TikTok to mourn the loss and reflect on the end of an era.

"Losing the majority of my audience is a difficult reality to face, and while I'm doing everything I can to prepare, it's hard not to feel like I'm starting over," Sofia Bella, a TikTok creator with 4.8 million followers, told Business Insider.

TikTok's creators and business partners have had weeks to contemplate the prospect of a January 19 app shutdown. Many have crafted plans for transitioning off TikTok if the app disappeared forever, beginning with downloading all their videos.

Some influencer marketers put contingency plans in place to assure brands that creators would post sponsored content on other apps like Instagram if TikTok goes dark. TikTok Shop merchants and their partners began easing off the app in recent days, with some halting US warehouse shipments or pausing distributing free samples to TikTok creators. And marketers put together plans to shift spend to other platforms like Facebook, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts.

Yet, even as users have spent days memorializing the app, posting nostalgic video round-ups, and begging fans to follow them on other platforms, it seems possible that TikTok could rise again.

While TikTok lost all of its legal challenges to the divest-or-ban law, it's now hoping that President-elect Donald Trump can find a political solution to keep its app around.

Trump told NBC on Saturday that he would "most likely" grant TikTok a 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer for the platform.

"I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it's appropriate. You know, it's appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It's a very big situation," Trump said, according to the outlet.

"If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday," he added.

TikTok's CEO Shou Chew thanked the incoming president in a video on Friday for the "opportunity to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States."

Trump's options to rescue TikTok from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are limited, legal experts previously told Business Insider. The simplest option may be to help try to split off TikTok's US entity from the rest of the world, something TikTok's lawyer, Noel Francisco, told the Supreme Court would be "extraordinarily difficult" over any timeline.

Trump wrote in a social media post on Friday that he would make a decision on the app soon after reviewing the situation.

• Small businesses are struggling to stay afloat in the wake of the deadly Los Angeles fires.
• Many structures have been destroyed, but others left standing are damaged, with no foot traffic driving business.
• For some industries with slim margins, just days without business has forced permanent closures.

As deadly fires continue ripping through Los Angeles, leveling residential and commercial districts alike, even small business owners whose storefronts have been left standing aren't out of the woods.

Though more than 12,300 structures have been destroyed by the fires, commercial buildings that haven't been totaled are still struggling with costly damages to repair and with no foot traffic driving business.

For some industries with slim margins — like bars and restaurants — going just days without business has begun to force permanent closures.

AccuWeather estimates the damages and economic loss from the wildfires totals between $250 billion and $275 billion, making it one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern US history.

"We have come to the heartbreaking decision that at this time, operating The Ruby Fruit is no longer possible due to financial impact from the current natural disaster," Emily Bielagus and Mara Herbkersman, owners of The Ruby Fruit, a lesbian wine bar in the Silver Lake neighborhood, posted Sunday on the bar's Instagram page.

"Sadly, along with all the feelings of grief and shock that we have experienced over the last few days, also came this undeniable reality: that running our small business is no longer sustainable. The hospitality industry functions on a day-by-day basis and right now, as they say — the math just isn't mathing," they wrote.

The announcement was met with an outcry from fans and devoted patrons of the bar — one of the city's only bars catering specifically to lesbians and "those who fall under the sapphic umbrella," according to the bar's website.

Some customers, in the comments of the bar's closure announcement, begged Bielagus and Herbkersman to create a community fundraiser to save the business. The Ruby Fruit's GoFundMe campaign, raising money to provide wages for the bar's staff — has raised about half its $15,000 goal in three days.

Bielagus and Herbkersman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Financial aid is available for small businesses trying to recover from the aftermath of the wildfires. The Small Business Administration's disaster loan program offers up to $2 million in loans with low interest rates for eligible businesses suffering economic losses and physical damage due to disaster. Interest on these loans does not begin to accrue for a year.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced extended tax filing deadlines and relief from interest and penalties for businesses impacted by the fires. However, tax breaks and interest-accruing loans are nothing compared to regular business, and the costs accrued from being closed stack up quickly.

"Thankfully we are safe and, as of now, able to operate," Betsy Martinez, owner of Fan Girl Cafe in West Hollywood, told BI. "However, business has definitely been impacted by the situation and we are navigating it the best we can."

Martinez, who runs Fan Girl Cafe with her wife, said the pair lost roughly $5,000 in just two and a half days of closures, in addition to the slow business in the days since. As a new restaurant in its first year of operations, margins were already tight. They're now considering debt consolidation and taking out a new loan and have contacted their existing lenders asking for extensions on their bills.

Some business owners are turning to the local community for financial support, but such funds are inconsistent — and largely targeted toward businesses that have been destroyed. Restaurants, including Fox's Restaurant, The Little Red Hen Coffee Shop, and The Reel Inn, have all burned down and have started GoFundMe campaigns to raise money to rebuild.

Martinez said she and her wife aren't comfortable starting a GoFundMe, given how tight funds are for everyone else — and that other businesses are dealing with more severe losses.

"It's just a heavy time right now for everyone," she said. "Right now, we're just looking at who we can help, even those of us who need help."

For now, many small business owners in the Los Angeles area are white-knuckling it through another costly disaster just a few short years after the COVID-19 pandemic saw more than 7,500 small businesses shutter across the county, the California Business Journal reported.

"We closed last week and are closing this week. We hope to reopen next week," the owners of Honey's at Star Love, a queer bar in Little Armenia, told BI in an email. "We're taking it all day by day."

• The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk.
• The new suit alleges Musk violated securities law related to his purchase of Twitter shares.
• It's not the first time the Tesla leader has gone toe-to-toe with the SEC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk, alleging he violated securities law related to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, according to a federal docket.

The complaint alleges Musk "failed to timely file with the SEC a beneficial ownership report" disclosing his purchase of Twitter shares before he announced his ownership of the company.

"As a result, Musk was able to continue purchasing shares at artificially low prices, allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his beneficial ownership report was due," the complaint reads.

Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, told Business Insider in an email that Musk "has done nothing wrong."

"Today's action is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case — because Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is," Spiro said. "As the SEC retreats and leaves office — the SEC's multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tak complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty."

This isn't the first time the SEC has sued Musk. A 2018 complaint from the commission stemmed from Musk's "funding secured" tweet, indicating he'd planned to take Tesla private, which eventually resulted in a settlement under which Tesla and Musk both paid fines of $20 million.

The SEC has not responded to a request for comment from BI.

Correction: January 14, 2025 — An earlier version of this story mistated the defendant in the story's URL and meta description. The SEC sued Elon Musk, not Tesla.

• The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk.
• The new suit alleges Musk violated securities law related to his purchase of Twitter shares.
• It's not the first time the Tesla leader has gone toe-to-toe with the SEC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk, alleging he violated securities law related to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, according to a federal docket.

The complaint alleges Musk "failed to timely file with the SEC a beneficial ownership report" disclosing his purchase of Twitter shares before he announced his ownership of the company.

"As a result, Musk was able to continue purchasing shares at artificially low prices, allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his beneficial ownership report was due," the complaint reads.

Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, told Business Insider in an email that Musk "has done nothing wrong."

"Today's action is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case — because Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is," Spiro said. "As the SEC retreats and leaves office — the SEC's multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tak complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty."

This isn't the first time the SEC has sued Musk. A 2018 complaint from the commission stemmed from Musk's "funding secured" tweet, indicating he'd planned to take Tesla private, which eventually resulted in a settlement under which Tesla and Musk both paid fines of $20 million.

The SEC has not responded to a request for comment from BI.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

• Los Angeles is bracing for high winds that could worsen ongoing wildfires.
• The fires have burned more than 40,500 acres and destroyed 12,300 structures. Authorities reported 24 dead.
• Evacuation orders are in effect for more than 92,000 people as fires threaten more areas.

After nearly a week of wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, the area is bracing for worsening conditions as high winds on Monday threaten to spread the flames.

The fires have burned through more than 40,500 acres in and around Los Angeles County, displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, and killed at least 24 people. More than 12,300 structures have been destroyed, local authorities have said.

Firefighters made some progress containing the blazes over the weekend — the Palisades Fire, the largest, is 14% contained, and the Eaton Fire, the second-largest, is 33% contained as of Monday afternoon, according to Cal Fire, a state agency.

Cal Fire reported that a new blaze, the Auto Fire, had broken out in Ventura County on Monday night. As of press time, the fire had burned through 56 acres and was 0% contained.

Strong Santa Ana winds are forecast to pick up again Tuesday, with gusts up to 75 miles an hour creating "extremely dangerous fire weather conditions" across coastal southern California, the National Weather Service said.

The NWS said these high winds have the potential to cause widespread power outages, worsen existing firefighting efforts, and make the ignition of new fires much more likely.

The NWS issued a "particularly dangerous situation red flag warning" for parts of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles Counties through Wednesday. The red flag warning signals fire danger. Though the winds aren't expected to reach the same highs as last week, they still pose "a high risk for large fires with potential for very rapid spreading of any fires that may develop."

The fires are predicted to become the worst natural disaster in US history, and the death toll will likely rise, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday.

"I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope," Newsom told NBC. "I've got search-and-rescue teams out. We've got cadaver dogs out. And there's likely to be a lot more."

Around 92,000 people near the Palisades and Eaton fires are under evacuation orders, and another 89,000 are under evacuation warnings, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a Monday morning press conference.

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica has burned through over 23,700 acres and was 14% contained as of Monday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.

The cause of the fire, which started on Tuesday morning, is still under investigation. It threatens to spread into Brentwood, Encino, and Westwood.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has reported eight deaths tied to the Palisades fire so far.

Eaton Fire

The Eaton Fire, which has devastated parts of Pasadena and Altadena since it began on Tuesday, has now burned through more than 14,100 acres, according to Cal Fire. It is 33% contained as of Monday afternoon.

"In my career, I've never seen the amount of devastation and destruction that exists here. So, a lot of work. It's going to be long-term," Ernie Villa, an operations section chief for the California Interagency Incident Management Team, said at a Sunday press conference.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has reported 16 deaths tied to the Eaton fire so far.

Hurst Fire and others

The Hurst Fire, which began late Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 799 acres and is 97% contained as of Monday evening, Cal Fire said.

Though the fire has been mostly controlled, Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned Monday morning, "We are not in the clear as of yet." She added, "We must not let our guard down, as we have right now extreme fire behavior."

The most recent fire, the Auto Fire in Ventura County, started late Monday night. According to Cal Fire, it has spread over 56 acres and is 0% contained as of press time.

Several other fires have also sparked over the last week, together burning more than 1,400 acres.

The Kenneth Fire erupted at the Victory Trailhead near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties on Thursday, burning just over 1,000 acres before it was fully contained.

The Sunset Fire broke out in the Runyon Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday, quickly spreading to scorch over 40 acres and threaten major LA landmarks before it was fully suppressed.

A large structure fire consumed two large homes in the Studio City area but firefighters were able to stop its forward growth at just one acre and prevent another brushfire, Crowley said.

Yet another fire, the Lidia Fire, started Wednesday in Acton near the Antelope Valley, about 20 miles northeast of the San Fernando Valley. It consumed 395 acres but is now 100% contained, according to CalFire.

The Woodley Fire, which began Wednesday in the southern part of the San Fernando Valley, burned 30 acres before it was contained.

Bad actors are taking advantage of the situation by looting

LA officials have reported instances of looting, burglary, and other crimes in wildfire-ravaged areas.

Luna, LA County's sheriff, said at Monday's press conference that his officers have made 34 total arrests — 30 in the Eaton Fire area and 4 in the Palisades Fire area.

Those arrests were related to burglary, looting, illegal drone operations, people entering restricted areas with guns and narcotics, and curfew violations, Luna said.

LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said Monday that his officers had made an additional 14 arrests related to the fires — for things like felony vandalism, impersonating a firefighter, possession of burglary tools, and shoplifting.

In at least one instance, which is under investigation, an individual near the scene of the Palisades fire wore a firefighting jacket and helmet in the course of an attempted burglary, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said during a Monday afternoon press conference.

"This behavior is despicable. We cannot tolerate it, and as we continue to help people heal through this suffering, we cannot allow people to pray on the devastation that has already happened," Horvath said. "And I want to be clear that goes not only for individuals who are preying on these locations, but also for the corporations and the businesses and the price gouging and the ways that they're taking advantage of people in this very difficult moment."

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office had already seen instances of price gouging for medical supplies and hotels, as well as landlords overcharging above the legal limit. During a state of emergency, businesses are prohibited from raising their prices on essential goods and services above 10% beyond what's normal.

"For the criminals who view this as an opportunity, let me again give you this warning, an absolutely unmistakably clear warning, that if you go ahead and you want to rip off people and the system and governments that are trying to help the people who have suffered from these tragedies, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted, and we will seek maximum punishment against you," Hochman said Monday.

Jason Oppenheim, the star of "Selling Sunset" who co-runs real estate brokerage the Oppenheim Group, has also reported seeing landlords engaging in suspected price gouging.

Hochman also urged residents to be vigilant against scams related to the recovery efforts, like possibly fake GoFundMe fundraisers and insurance scams.

California's insurance crisis will only grow

The devastating fires this week will likely only worsen California's ongoing insurance crisis, where many homebuyers already struggle to get approved for loans, home insurance, and fire insurance — even in areas outside the typical risk zones.

And while some insurance companies have stopped signing new policies in the region entirely, there are other ways companies try to cut down on disaster payouts.

Some companies go so far as to hire private firms to protect their policyholders' homes, both before a fire breaks out and after it has passed.

David Torgerson, the CEO of Wildfire Defense Systems, previously told Business Insider that his company partners with dozens of carriers to seek to protect homes before they are in the line of fire — and that his employees have been "actively working" to help combat the LA wildfires.

"We are typically working hours in advance, or days in advance of the fire passing over a property, and we call that the pre-suppression," Torgerson told BI. "We're preparing the property to survive the amount of time that the fire is in proximity to the structure, and then we quickly come back in after the fire is passed to secure the property."

His company takes proactive steps to fire-proof homes, like applying fire-blocking gels, removing flammable materials, cleaning out gutters, and running sprinkler systems, according to a company fact sheet. After a fire has passed through a neighborhood, Torgerson's staff go back to insured homes to extinguish remaining spot fires and assess further risk, he said.

And while some homeowners pay high premiums for special fire protection perks, it's not only the wealthy whose homes are protected by these services.

Celebrities and many others have lost their homes

The Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles has long been a draw for celebrities. Some Hollywood stars lost their homes in the Palisades Fire.

Paris Hilton, Milo Ventimiglia, Billy Crystal, Mel Gibson, Miles Teller, and Anthony Hopkins all said the fire had destroyed their houses.

Of course, not everyone in the area is a celebrity. One 22-year-old renter told Business Insider that she'd had to evacuate her apartment in the Pacific Palisades — and feared that everything could be lost after seeing news footage showing buildings on her street that had burned.

A journalist and her husband and their two daughters told BI they evacuated their Palisades home on January 7 — only to find out later that the fires destroyed everything. They're now staying in a hotel.

Meanwhile, an $83 million mansion that had been featured in HBO's "Succession" also was destroyed.

LAX is open, as is Disneyland — but some attractions are closed

Los Angeles International Airport is open and is "operating normally," the airport said.

LAX has remained open throughout the fires, though over the weekend, around 500 flights were delayed, and around 13 were canceled.

The airport said customers should check with their airline to make sure there are no issues before starting their journeys.

Los Angeles attracts around 50 million tourists each year — and visitors to the area will find some things aren't open. Disneyland was open as of Monday, as was Universal Studios Hollywood. Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Hollywood said it would be closed through Tuesday.

The famous Griffith Park and its Griffith Observatory were both listed as closed through at least Wednesday. And Lake Hollywood Park, a city park beneath the famed Hollywood sign, also was closed.

The Getty Center said it would be closed through Thursday. The Getty Villa survived the Palisades fire.

The Santa Monica Pier was open, but warned of air-quality issues on its website. AccuWeather listed the air quality in the area as "poor" as of Monday morning local time.

This is a developing story. Please refresh for updates.

• Wildfires are ravaging the Los Angeles area, spreading rapidly due to dry and windy conditions.
• The fires have burned through over 40,000 acres. Officials report that at least 24 people have died.
• Analysts estimate damages caused by the fires may top $50 billion — breaking previous state records.

Across Los Angeles, a series of wildfires fanned by the powerful Santa Ana winds have been leveling homes in the area for nearly a week, leaving a path of record-breaking destruction in their wake.

The largest of the fires, ripping through the wealthy enclave of the Pacific Palisades, was just 13% contained as of late Sunday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

On Sunday, it was moving toward the densely populated neighborhood of Encino in the San Fernando Valley.

About 30 miles northeast, the Eaton Fire, which is now 27% contained, is threatening the city of Altadena.

Over 40,000 acres have burned in four separate blazes, and the LA County Medical Examiner has reported 24 deaths related to the fires so far.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Sunday the fires would likely be the worst natural disaster in US history, noting that the death toll is expected to rise.

"I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope," Newsom told NBC's Meet the Press. "I've got search and rescue teams out. We've got cadaver dogs out. And there's likely to be a lot more."

Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said during a Sunday morning press conference that over 100,000 residents near the Palisades and Eaton fires are now under evacuation orders, and authorities have told another 87,000 to be ready to leave at any time.

The National Weather Service said in a Monday update that "extremely dangerous fire weather conditions" were due to develop across coastal southern California, with gusts of up to 70 mph by Tuesday.

It issued a high wind warning early Sunday morning for the mountain areas near the Hurst and Eaton fires, and a high wind watch for the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area from Monday evening to Wednesday afternoon.

"We're expecting north, northeast wind gusts anywhere from 35 to 55 miles per hour, maybe locally stronger on Tuesday, very low humidity, and again, the vegetation is still very, very dry," NWS meteorologist Rich Thompson said during a Sunday afternoon press conference.

"That leads a recipe to produce some very critical fire weather conditions," he added.

Dennis Burns, a fire behavior analyst for the California Incident Management Team, said during a Sunday press conference that, in addition to fanning the existing flames, the anticipated winds over the coming days increase the risk of new fires breaking out.

"With the predicted winds, we could potentially see spot fires up to two miles away, maybe even farther," Burns said.

A representative for the electric services company Southern California Edison said on Sunday that around 63,000 residences were without power, a number that has grown due to implementing power shut-offs for public safety.

Local water districts have also issued numerous water advisories, warning residents not to drink or use the water, which may be contaminated with debris from the fire.

Moderate air pollution has also been reported in many parts of LA.

Amid the devastation, residents have also faced opportunistic looters targeting empty properties, inaccurate evacuation orders sent out in error through the county's emergency alert system, and rapidly spreading misinformation online regarding evacuation zones and the cause of the fire.

Analysts from JPMorgan have estimated that the blazes tearing through the region may lead to about $50 billion in total economic losses — including over $20 billion in insured losses.

If the estimates prove to be accurate, the damage caused by the current fires would be significantly more severe than the 2018 Camp Fires, which racked up $10 billion in insured losses.

California has, in recent years, been subject to a mass exodus of major insurers, including State Farm. The company announced in 2023 that it would stop accepting new home insurance policies in the state, citing risks from catastrophes.

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica has burned through over 23,700 acres and was 13% contained as of late Sunday, according to Cal Fire.

The cause of the fire, which started on Tuesday morning, is still under investigation.

Over 5,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed. Officials have confirmed that more than 420 homes in Malibu and the Pacific Palisades have been incinerated.

The wealthy enclave houses many celebrities who have now lost their homes, including Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, and Milo Ventimiglia.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has reported eight deaths related to the Palisades fire so far.

Eaton Fire

The Eaton Fire, which has impacted the Pasadena-Altadena area since it began on Tuesday, has now swept through more than 14,100 acres, according to Cal Fire. The blaze is 27% contained.

"The firefighters have made good progress coming up the west side of the shoulder of the fire," Ernie Villa, an operations section chief for the California Interagency Incident Management Team, said during a Sunday afternoon press conference.

However, as wind conditions are expected to worsen in the coming days, firefighters will have their work cut out for them to keep the area safe, he said.

"In my career, I've never seen the amount of devastation and destruction that exists here. So a lot of work. It's going to be long-term," Villa added.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a press conference on Sunday morning that more than 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the Eaton Fire.

Sixteen deaths have so far been attributed to the Eaton Fire, according to a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office report.

Other fires

While the Palisades and Eaton fires have grown to be the largest in size, additional smaller fires have been reported throughout the region.

The Hurst Fire, impacting the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, started late Tuesday night and spread to about 800 acres. According to Cal Fire, it was 95% contained as of late Sunday.

Evacuation orders for the area were lifted on Thursday afternoon.

The Kenneth Fire, now 100% contained, has covered just over 1,050 acres across Los Angeles and Ventura counties after starting on Thursday, per Cal Fire. The evacuation orders related to the blaze have been lifted.

Further North, the Lidia Fire broke out Wednesday in the Angeles National Forest and burned 395 acres in three days before being 100% contained, Cal Fire said.