The CDC said it has found mutations in the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S.

The New York Yankees could fill their hole at third base in a blockbuster trade for Detroit Tigers infielder Jace Jung.

A hair spray has been recalled as it contains a prohibited ingredient.

The Boston Red Sox may end up as potential suitors in the Pete Alonso sweepstakes, which would throw a wrench in the New York Mets' plans.

The Alex Bregman sweepstakes could come down to a bidding war between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

Gleyber Torres' days with the New York Yankees appear to be over. Could he land a deal with the Toronto Blue Jays to remain in the AL East?

Russian missile defense systems were depicted shooting down Santa as he flew through the sky on a sleigh in a new viral short.

2024 will be the second straight "hottest year" on record. But it wasn't supposed to be as hot as it was, coming in far ahead of 2023's alarming global temperature spike.

Threat level: For reasons climate scientists don't yet fully understand, 2024 is even likely to temporarily eclipse the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C temperature target, when compared to preindustrial levels.

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Between the lines: Earth's extreme heat can be partially explained by human-caused warming, the lingering effects of a strong El Niño event, and other factors. But the truth is, researchers aren't completely sure why the planet's fever has increased faster than anticipated.

• The unsettling possibility in play is that climate change is accelerating, which implies that tipping points, such as the shutdown of major ocean currents, are closer than once thought.

The latest: People around the world suffered an average of 41 extra days of dangerous heat this year because of climate change, according to a report out Friday from scientists at World Weather Attribution and Climate Central.

The big picture: Millions of people endured stifling heat this year.

• Northern California and Death Valley baked. Sizzling daytime temperatures scorched Mexico and Central America. Heat endangered already vulnerable children in West Africa.
• Skyrocketing southern European temperatures forced Greece to close the Acropolis. In South and Southeast Asian countries, heat forced school closures. Earth experienced some of the hottest days ever measured and its hottest-yet summer, with a 13-month heat streak that just barely broke.

• Ukraine is facing critical manpower challenges on the battlefield.
• An analyst recently back from Ukraine said Russia is trying to exploit this challenge by using small assault waves.
• "It's death by a thousand cuts. It's very stressful to units who are undermanned," she said.

Ukraine is facing increasingly serious manpower challenges all along the front lines, and Russia is relying on a brutal, albeit costly, tactic to stress Kyiv's defenses.

Dara Massicot, a senior fellow in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Russia and Eurasia Program, recently returned from a research trip to Ukraine, where she met with different units that are all facing manpower shortages and other struggles.

"What the units are experiencing from the Russians is a significant amount of strain from Russian tactics," Massicot recounted from her trip on a podcast this month with the Center for Strategic and International Studies earlier.

She said that the Russians "are attacking [the Ukrainians] in very small groups all the time, day and night. It's death by a thousand cuts. It's very stressful to units who are undermanned."

Russia's small assault wave attacks, sometimes called human wave attacks or meat assaults, have been a problem for Ukraine throughout the conflict, but they have especially been a challenge for Kyiv as it faces critical manpower shortages.

To address this problem, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has lowered the mobilization age from 27 to 25, but the Biden administration has pushed Kyiv to lower it even more to expand the number of civilians who can fight. So far, Kyiv has been unwilling to do that.

Ukraine is not isolated in grappling with manpower challenges. Russia faces its own mobilization issues. They are much less urgent than Kyiv's, but Moscow is taking serious casualties on the battlefield, raising questions about troop sustainment and replacement down the road.

These human wave tactics come at a tremendously high cost. Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said earlier this month that Russia's commitment to maintaining its theater-wide initiative in Ukraine is putting strains on its domestic labor pool.

The "constrained labor pool is likely unable to sustain this increased casualty rate in the medium-term," they wrote in a war update.

Russia experienced its highest number of casualties in any month of the war in November, averaging more than 1,500 soldiers killed and wounded every day, Britain's defense ministry said in an intelligence update earlier this month, citing Ukrainian military figures.

This made November the most costly month of the conflict for the Russian military, with nearly 46,000 total casualties, Britain's defense ministry said. It also marked the fifth straight month that Moscow saw an increase in its monthly losses. ISW said that the West needs to be boosting support to increase Russian losses, which are not sustainable.

"The high rate of casualties is likely reflective of the higher tempo of Russian operations and offensives," the British defense ministry said of the losses, adding that Moscow will likely continue to see over 1,000 soldiers killed and wounded every day as its forces push along the front lines.

Russia employs Soviet-style tactics in which any gained ground justifies the losses, no matter how heavy. It sends wave after wave of soldiers, offering undermanned and undersupplied Ukrainian units little rest or respite. Such tactics have been seen in Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Pokrovsk, among other places.

The Russian leadership has signaled it is willing to suffer these losses in a grinding, attritional campaign that is just not to Ukraine's advantage, given that it is the smaller combatant with fewer resources to throw into this fight.

Massicot said that even though Russia is suffering its highest casualty rates of the Ukraine war right now, Moscow is still applying overwhelming pressure on the Ukrainian forces trying to hold the line against continuous Russian attacks, and these attacks are taking ground.

"The casualties are not causing a cessation of this tactic or these waves of attacks," she said.

Russia is trying to advance against Ukrainian defensive positions in several different directions of the front. One important area of focus is the city of Pokrovsk, a key logistics and rail hub that Moscow is closing in on.

Russia is also trying to push Ukrainian forces out of its own Kursk region, which Kyiv invaded in a stunning move in early August. Thousands of North Korean soldiers have been deployed to this area in recent weeks to help Moscow with its efforts, putting more stress on Ukrainian troops struggling to hold territory.

US and Ukrainian officials have confirmed that North Korean soldiers have engaged in combat alongside Russian forces in Kursk. They have also suffered losses in battle, in part because they don't have any recent experience with this kind of war.

• We asked interior designers about the kitchen trends we can expect to see more and less of in 2025.
• Colorful backsplashes, unique lighting setups, and secondary kitchens could be big in the new year.
• Designers think we'll see fewer all-white kitchens and cool-toned cabinets.

Business Insider asked four interior designers which kitchen trends they think will be popular next year and which are going out of style.

Here are their 2025 design predictions.

• A California woman lost thousands to a scammer posing as Keanu Reeves.
• Romance scams are common online, with older Americans facing the largest financial losses.
• Americans lost about $650 million to romance scams in 2023.

A California woman is out tens of thousands of dollars after sending the money to a scammer she thought was actor Keanu Reeves.

Katherine Goodson, 67, said she sent thousands of dollars to the scammers through bitcoin, gift card transactions, and wire transfers over two years, according to KNSD, a local NBC affiliate. She said she is now living out of her car and had "29 miles of gas left."

"That's the lowest I've ever been," she told the outlet.

Imposter romance scams are among the most common scams on the internet. While romance scams can target people of any age group, older Americans usually suffer the largest monetary losses.

According to the FBI's Internet Crime Report, Americans lost more than $650 million to romance scams in 2023 alone. Americans over 60 reported the most losses to scammers of any age group, totaling $3.4 billion.

Melanie McGovern, the public relations director at the Better Business Bureau, told Business Insider that imposter scams are on the company's "12 scams of the holidays" list because there "are just so many." Scammers will impersonate almost anyone, from an online romantic interest to a health insurance company.

"They'll take any company name and scoop it," McGovern said.

Kate Kleinert, a 69-year-old widow, previously told BI that she lost $39,000 — most of her life savings — to an online romance scam.

"Losing the money — that was devastating. But losing that love and the thought of that family that we had? That's what crushed me," Kleinart told BI.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, some signs that you could be the target of a romance scam are if the person you are messaging refuses to meet in person, asks for money, or asks you to pay them in an unconventional way, such as a gift card or wire transfer.

If you suspect you may be the victim of a scam, stop talking to the person immediately and consult with someone you trust, the FTC says.

"Here's the bottom line: Never send money or gifts to a sweetheart you haven't met in person," the FTC says.

Goodson told KNSD she is sharing her story to help other Americans from becoming victims of similar scams.

"I don't blame anyone but myself," she told the outlet.

While the stars have collaborated on a number of projects, they have never exclusively recorded an album together.

Regular safety and emissions inspections are not required in numerous U.S. states—are you in one of them?

Though there is no proof of fraud, the challenge is now in federal court, and it may go to the supreme court.

The Miami Dolphins have revealed that, in addition to his nagging wrist injury, star wide receiver Tyreek Hill has been battling something else.

A Russian-born U.S. citizen serving a prison sentence in Russia for bribery received 15 more years over espionage charges.

Among the differences between the U.S. and Europe, there was one that a tourist found particularly frustrating.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed the closest-ever approach to the Sun by a manmade spacecraft, coming within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface.

Why it matters: NASA scientists received a signal back from the probe late Thursday night after several days of silence while it conducted the fly-by. The data collected during the historic approach will now help scientists better understand the Sun.

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• The undertaking is a remarkable feat of science and engineering, given the extreme heat (up to 1,800F) and radiation the probe endured as it passed through the sun's outer atmosphere.
• While 3.8 million miles may not seem like a particularly close encounter, the earth is 93 million miles from the sun.

State of play: The approach took place on Dec. 24 and NASA's missions operations team, based in Laurel, Maryland, received the signal just before midnight on Thursday, per a statement from NASA.

• The probe was moving about 430,000 miles per hour.
• The aircraft is in good condition and operating normally.

What's next: The probe is expected to send data back on Jan. 1 to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

• The data will help scientists understand how material in that region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of solar wind and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed.

Context: In 2018, Parker became the first spacecraft to enter the Sun's corona, the outermost part of the star's atmosphere that can be seen during a total solar eclipse.

• Other close passes helped scientists pinpoint the origins of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the Sun's atmosphere.

Go deeper: NASA probe to fly closer to the Sun than ever before

• OpenAI shared new details about its plan to overhaul its company structure.
• Its current for-profit arm has been governed by a nonprofit board.
• OpenAI said its existing for-profit arm would become a public benefit corporation with ordinary shares of stock.

OpenAI has detailed its plans for a new corporate structure that would separate its business from being controlled by its nonprofit board.

In a blog post shared by the company on social media on Friday, the company said its board was considering "how to best structure OpenAI to advance the mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity have been."

"Our plan is to transform our existing for-profit into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation⁠ (PBC) with ordinary shares of stock and the OpenAI mission as its public benefit interest," OpenAI wrote.

"The PBC is a structure⁠ used⁠ by many others⁠ that requires the company to balance shareholder interests, stakeholder interests, and a public benefit interest in its decisionmaking," the company said. "It will enable us to raise the necessary capital with conventional terms like others in this space."

This structure aims to generate profit while also benefiting the public interest. The nonprofit arm would take shares in the public benefit corporation, it added.

OpenAI said it was planning to make the structural change "in order to best support the mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity."

"As we enter 2025, we will have to become more than a lab and a startup — we have to become an enduring company," it added.

In September, OpenAI confirmed that it would convert to a for-profit structure.

The move was also widely reported to be key to its $6.6-billion funding round in October: OpenAI has two years to make the switch, or else investors in the round could ask for their money back, multiple reports said.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last month that a for-profit status makes it easier to attract new funding.

Altman is overseeing the transition just over a year after OpenAI's board temporarily removed him as the company's chief executive, thrusting its nonprofit governance into the spotlight.

While Altman was ousted for a few days, he returned as CEO, and many of the company leaders who pushed him out have since left their roles and new board members were added.

Now, OpenAI said the AI race has proven more costly than anticipated, which requires a structure more amenable to investors.

"The hundreds⁠ of billions of dollars that major companies are now investing into AI show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the mission," OpenAI wrote in its latest blog post.

"We once again need to raise more capital than we'd imagined," it said. "Investors want to back us but, at this scale of capital, need conventional equity and less structural bespokeness."

Opening presents can teach children a few important life skills, says parenting expert Danielle Lindner.