• In 2024, vintage watches and expensive alarm clocks were the epitome of luxury.
• This year, however, $600 calendars and stained-glass lamps have become the new status symbols.
• Giant tote bags from Coach and oval-shaped Miu Miu glasses also signify luxury and taste in 2025.

A new year calls for fresh routines, lofty goals, and the latest luxuries.

While 2024 was all about vintage watches and expensive alarm clocks, different status symbols are taking over in 2025.

Home decor is now all about stained-glass lamps and $600 calendars. Fashionable outfits, on the other hand, aren't complete without giant tote bags and fancy glasses.

Here's a closer look at the luxurious products you'll see everywhere — and probably be tempted to buy — this year.

• Many Americans may experience sticker shock when buying a mocktail or glass of NA wine.
• Restaurants and bars said high-quality ingredients and labor-intensive prep adds to the price.
• Americans, especially those under 25, are spending less on alcohol and looking for NA options.

As Americans spend less on booze and browse menus for non-alcoholic alternatives like mocktails and wine, sticker shock can be a common reaction.

At Binge Bar in Washington, DC, the city's first fully non-alcoholic bar, "spirit-free" cocktails cost between $11 and $14. A glass of NA wine is $15, while a can of NA beer is $5. Prices are similar at other hot spots in Washington, DC. Moon Rabbit, an upscale Vietnamese restaurant, sells several "spirit-free" cocktails for $13 to $14 compared to about $19 for regular cocktails.

On social media, mocktails have been criticized as "glorified" or "sexy" juice that shouldn't be priced similarly to alcohol.

Restaurant owners and bar managers told Business Insider that alcohol alone doesn't drive the price. Mocktails are often made with high-quality ingredients such as botanicals, herbs, and spices, and can take longer to make. That way, customers still feel like they're getting the cocktail experience. Plus, NA whisky, gin, or wine can cost just as much — if not more — than traditional booze in part because removing alcohol is an additional step for manufacturers.

Ingredients account for about 18% of a drink's menu price, according to restaurant industry standards. The rest covers operating costs like labor, rent, and utilities, bar managers said.

This comes at a time when many participate in Dry January or reflect on their drinking after the US Surgeon General released its recent report linking alcohol to cancer.

Gigi Arandid, owner of Binge Bar, said NA cocktails are just as complex as those with alcohol. She spends a lot of time educating customers about special ingredients in Binge Bar's drinks and the health benefits of avoiding alcohol. Sales are up 45% between 2023 and 2024, Arandid said.

She created the most popular drink on the menu, a Cucumber Mangorita, with fresh cucumber juice, mango puree, lime juice, herbs, spices, and tonic. It costs $11 or $14, depending on whether you add a non-alcoholic tequila. The prices reflect the fresh ingredients, labor-intensive prep, and Reposado Tequila, she said.

Do you plan to change your drinking habits in response to the Surgeon General's recommendation? Tell us why in this survey

Unique syrups, herbs, and spices can up prices

At Moon Rabbit, bartenders infuse NA whiskey with five spice, a spice blend commonly used in Vietnamese and Chinese cooking, for 24 hours. The whiskey is made by Lyres, one of the most popular brands in the sector, and at $26 a bottle, it is more expensive than some traditional spirits, said Thi Nguyen, bar director at Moon Rabbit.

"We're not just putting a bunch of juice together," Nguyen said, adding that ingredients like purple shiso and soursop are expensive and challenging to source. "We are really intentional and want to highlight Vietnamese culture."

At Bresca, a Michelin-starred bistro in DC, spirit-free drinks are $12, while regular cocktails are in the $18 to $20 range.

Bresca's Cintronnade al la Menthe, a play on the mint lemonade you might find in France, is a three-day process. While the ingredients are simple — mostly lemon, cardamom, mint lemongrass, and sugar — bartenders make a citrusy syrup known as oleo from scratch, then lightly ferment and carbonate it, said Will Patton, beverage director for Hive Hospitality, which operates Bresca.

Non-alcoholic beer is more accessible

For those not interested in cocktails, NA wine is slowly gaining popularity as manufacturers improve the taste. But don't expect it to be cheap, because winemakers and brewers have to take an additional step to remove the alcohol.

"As a winery, you've already invested in making great quality wine, and then it's more work to run it through an industrial process to remove the alcohol," Sarah Kate, founder of non-alcoholic drinks magazine Some Good Clean Fun, said. "When you do that, you're also removing some of the characteristics of the wine."

Patton said mid-range NA wines cost between $17 and $25 a bottle, comparable to traditional bottles.

The beer industry is further along, with more than 150 brands, such as Athletic Brewing, Heineken, and Budweiser, making NA products. Athletic cofounder Bill Shufelt said in an email that the company's "off-premise" sales — or those at supermarkets and convenience stores — grew by more than 50% between 2023 and 2024. Athletic is now the most popular brand in the category, holding more than 19% market share, Shufelt said.

He added that the company has worked hard to match the price of widely distributed craft beer. Six-packs of Athletic are typically priced between $9.99 and $10.99 on retail shelves. The price is budget-friendly, even after Athletic re-engineered nearly every step of the brewing process to make its products free of alcohol.

"While some may assume that the absence of alcohol should make NA beer less expensive, the reality is that it can cost just as much — or even more — to produce," Shufelt said.

• Dana Bull has invested in long-term rentals throughout her entire career.
• She's experimenting with a mid-term rental in 2025 to combat high interest rates.
• Generally, mid-term rentals offer higher revenue but require more management than long-term leases.

Dana Bull started building her real-estate portfolio in 2012 when she bought her first property.

Over the next decade, she expanded to more than 20 units in her Massachusetts market and hit financial independence by sticking to the same general strategy: buying quality properties with upside and filling them with long-term tenants.

Bull, who is also a real-estate agent and consultant, told Business Insider that she "swore off investing a couple of years ago." Managing properties is time-intensive, noted the mother of four.

But when a charming single-family in Marblehead came on the market in the fall of 2023, she broke her promise.

"This little place in my town caught my eye, and I really wanted somebody else to buy it," said Bull. "It was when the interest rates were the highest that they've ever been, like 7.75%, so nobody wanted to buy anything. And I was like, 'You know what, I'll do it.'"

Listing it as a mid-term rental to combat high rates

Higher interest rates mean a higher monthly payment. For an investor, that can make it more challenging to generate positive cash flow.

To make the numbers work on her latest acquisition, Bull decided to experiment with a "mid-term rental," which targets people looking to stay for one month or more, but less than a year.

"It's my first experience with something other than a long-term rental. I'm kind of in uncharted waters, but it's been great," said Bull, who plans to test out the mid-term rental strategy for at least 18 months. It's more work than managing a long-term tenant, but she said she's bringing in more revenue doing shorter leases.

She could earn even more if she had more time and could lease the unit herself, rather than working with an agent.

"I have a leasing agent who I pay a lot of money because it's a lot of work to continue to keep it leased," she said. "It's a great strategy for anybody that has the availability to do the leasing on their own."

The leasing aspect of the mid-term rental strategy is the most challenging because it's less mainstream than the short- and long-term strategy.

"If you want a long-term rental, you know you're going to be on Zillow or work with a real-estate agent. If you want a short-term rental, you also have set channels: You have Airbnb, Vrbo," Bull explained. "There's a website called Furnished Finder geared toward mid-term rentals, but it's not very well known, and it's not nearly as big as something like Airbnb."

She advertises her place on Furnished Finder, takes it on and off Zillow depending on when it's available, and sends neighborhood mailers.

It helps that she's starting to understand her typical tenant, she added: "The trend is that grandparents want to come and help out with the kids, but the parents don't have room in their home, or the grandparents want their own space, so that has been my target audience."

Mid-term rentals as a viable strategy for 2025

Bull doesn't expect mortgage rates to drop in 2025. She also doesn't advise letting rates or other factors outside your control dictate when you buy real estate.

"I wouldn't base my whole plan around, 'Well, I keep hearing rates are supposed to drop,'" she said, noting that current rates are in line with the historical average. "This is kind of where rates sit. So, if they were to drop, that would be great, but I wouldn't be banking on it."

If you're financially prepared to invest in real estate in 2025, rather than waiting, run the numbers to see if a short- or mid-term rental could make sense in your market.

"Look at some alternative leasing approaches. Usually, they're more lucrative if they're shorter," said Bull. "One idea would be to start with something like an Airbnb, with the goal of transitioning after two or three years into something more passive, like a long-term rental."

Real estate is a long-term game, she added: "You have to look beyond year one — the numbers are always going to be tight year one, no matter what the market conditions are — so, what are your projections going to be by year five?

"And then, what can you do in the interim to maybe make this property work? That would be focusing on neighborhoods and communities where you can balance both of these plays: It's going to attract a short-term rental tenant but, down the road, you can pivot into a longer-term tenant."

That's likely what she's going to do, especially if she can refinance again.

Bull has already refinanced once, which shaved about $250 off her mortgage, she said: "I'd love it if they dropped again and I could save another 250. At that point, I probably would transition it to a long-term rental because it would be lucrative enough and less of a headache, but right now I'm just experimenting for my own curiosity and I want to understand more about this niche."

Christine Litteken told Newsweek she was left feeling emotional at the "wholesome" reason why her son called.

Texas dominated the list of counties with the highest share of their under-65 population lacking health insurance.

Ahead of Trump's inauguration on January 20, the President-elect has said he is planning a meeting with Russia's leader, which the Kremlin has denied.

AI technology is advancing rapidly and if you're not already using it at work, brace yourself.

Why it matters: That was Sam Altman's message, buried in a recent blog post.

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• "We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents 'join the workforce' and materially change the output of companies," writes the OpenAI founder.

State of play: The possibility of using AI agents to do work instead of expensive humans has some companies super excited. It's making many workers super anxious.

• Distinct from an AI chatbot, an AI agent can work autonomously. You tell it what to do, and the agent goes off and does it in the real world. In other words, it could theoretically fully replace a human.

For example, a scientist could use a bot to conduct research and possibly even design an experiment.

• But an AI agent, when prompted, can act as a research assistant — it can not only do the research and design an experiment, the agent can conduct it and compile the results. (In a recent paper, scientists at AMD and Johns Hopkins University described how they successfully had an agent do just that.)

Zoom out: Altman, of course, has a big interest in a future where AI plays a bigger role at work. And it's not clear yet what happens to U.S. workplaces in 2025.

• But the idea of AI agents in our workplaces is hardly just an AI entrepreneur's fantasy, researchers and experts say.

Zoom in: Some companies are already experimenting with AI agents in limited pilot programs — to conduct drug discovery, for project management, or to design marketing campaigns.

The big picture: The key question is what happens to people's jobs? Most experts agree that agents will change the nature of work over the coming years — particularly for those who work at a desk in front of a computer.

That could mean an agent starts doing some of your work. "In an ideal world, this is a multiplier of effort where I delegate the worst parts of my job to AI," says Ethan Mollick, a management professor at Wharton who studies AI.

• Altman said something similar in a podcast interview. He doesn't think about "what percent of jobs AI will do, but what percent of tasks will it do," he said on Lex Fridman's podcast last year. AI will let people do their jobs, "at a higher level of abstraction."
• AI has made workers more efficient, but there's still a lot more work to do. "The one thing I'm not worried about is that we're running out of work," GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke told Axios.

Yes, but: While humans will still absolutely be needed to supervise the AI's work, agents will start replacing humans over the next two years, says Anton Korinek, an economics professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and Visiting Scholar at Brookings

• "Any job that can be done solely in front of a computer will be amenable to AI agents within the next 24 months," Korinek said in an email, assuring this reporter that he was not himself an AI. (He also agreed that he could be replaced by one.)
• "From my conversations with business leaders, the majority of large companies employing white-collar workers are looking into what they can automate with AI."

Between the lines: Humans are moving more slowly than the technology. Companies have to figure out how to adjust operations to accommodate AI workers, says Lareina Yee, a senior partner at McKinsey and AI expert.

• And that can be a costly endeavor.
• The biggest challenge to moving AI agents into the workplace isn't the tech, it's the people, she says. "This is not a technology strategy moment, it's a business strategy moment."

President-elect Trump understands the U.S. auto industry better now than he did during his first term, says Ford chairman Bill Ford, who's hopeful that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will use his close relationship with Trump to advocate for all automakers.

Why it matters: Trump had a fraught relationship with Detroit carmakers during his first term, and the companies often sparred with the president over labor, trade, tariffs and regulations.

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• But this time around, he's keenly aware of the competitive threats they face, especially from heavily subsidized Chinese rivals.

Driving the news: Ford said Trump called him "out of the blue" recently and the two men spoke for "a long, long time" about what U.S. automakers need to succeed.

• "He's very tuned into the importance of a strong American industry. He wants to not only keep it strong, but actually strengthen it from here," Ford told reporters on the sidelines of a product announcement at the Detroit Auto Show.
• "It's very clear what his intent is."
• Ford also said he wasn't too worried that Musk will use his close relationship with Trump to get an advantage over Tesla's rivals.
• "We are aligned on a lot of different things," he said of Musk.
• And given that Trump has his number, Ford said, "I feel very confident that, going forward, Ford will have a voice, and a seat at the table."

Between the lines: Ford said affordability is the key to facing the "crucible" of Chinese competition on electric vehicles.

• "It's not matching the technology. It's not matching how the vehicles are put together. It's really not even matching the battery itself. But it really is the affordability to the customer that becomes, sort of the crucible, whether this is going to succeed or not. We're working really hard on that."

• Los Angeles' fires threaten to hamper the entertainment industry's recovery.
• LA's share of film and TV jobs has declined, and some are thinking anew about leaving.
• One producer and director said he felt he could improve his financial situation by leaving LA.

The fires tearing through Los Angeles are a new threat to an entertainment industry that has been trying to rebound from a studio spending slowdown and twin labor strikes.

"Survive till '25" was the mantra in Hollywood for much of 2024. Now, some in the entertainment industry are wondering whether they should stick around.

"If there's no longer a need to be in LA, the question arises: Do I stay here?" asked Adam Wood, a producer and director in North Hollywood. He said the shift during COVID to remote work had made it easier to build an entertainment career outside LA. Wood hasn't had to evacuate yet, but helped a friend leave and is monitoring conditions.

"I could improve my lot financially by not being here," he said. "LA is the spiritual home of the industry, but at the same time, it's not loving me back."

Like many in entertainment, Wood works on a freelance basis. While he feels tied to the entertainment mecca, he said he's also counting the days of work lost to the fire.

Productions and premieres have largely been paused

The fires have paused production on shows including Amazon's "Fallout" and CBS Studios' "NCIS," while studios from Paramount to Universal canceled premieres.

Stars, including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal, have lost their homes in the tony Pacific Palisades neighborhood, which is favored for its proximity to the studios. Countless others have lost or fled their homes.

FilmLA, the city's film permitting office, issued a statement Thursday warning that permits in or near evacuation zones could be canceled, while new applications to film in or near these areas would be denied.

It previously said the LA County Fire Department ordered film permits to be revoked for the communities of Altadena, La Crescenta, La Canada/Flintridge, and Unincorporated Pasadena.

Hollywood was already hurting before the fires

Before the fires, the entertainment spending slowdown had already hit the industry's biggest market hard.

LA has also been hobbled by an exodus of productions and workers to other entertainment hubs in lower-cost places like Atlanta and Miami. Greater Los Angeles' share of US-produced TV and film projects declined from 23% in 2021 to 18% in 2023, according to FilmLA.

LA accounted for 22% of US film and TV jobs in August, down from 33% two years earlier, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures by Patrick Adler and Taner Osman of Westwood Economics & Planning Associates.

Despite the downturn, producer Adam Fratto said he had been feeling pretty good about the state of the industry before the fires started.

"I was taking some projects out, and who knows if they're going to sell, but the fact that TV folks were open to pitches, that's good," he said. "Before a couple days ago, I felt a little upbeat about 2025."

While it's still early to say how far the destruction could spread, Fratto said he expected the fires to cause some people to reassess their commitment to the area and industry.

"I think there will be folks who just decide to take their chips off the table and do something else or relocate," he said.

Still, Adler, the economic researcher, said he doubted LA would lose its position at the top of the entertainment industry.

"In the likes of film, television, content creation, and video games, LA has been the place where major decisions have been made, where talented people collaborate, and where deals get done," he said. "This has remained true as the city has persevered through multiple earthquakes and riots, not to mention periodic industry downturns."

• 2025 is already an exciting year for television — and it's only just begun.
• Shows like "Stranger Things" and "Severance" will be back this year.
• BI's entertainment team is also excited about new series like "The Residence" and "Suits LA."

2025 is shaping up to be an exciting one in television.

Start off your new year with the return of "Severance," Apple TV+'s bizarre (complimentary) and wildly innovative workplace series about a group of people who have two completely discrete personas for work and their outside lives. You'll be able to pick up other returning favorites, like "The White Lotus" season three in the spring and the fifth and final season of "Stranger Things" later in the year.

There are a few exciting new series on the docket for 2025 this year like "The Residence," a White House whodunnit from Shondaland starring Uzo Aduba. If you're looking for something with a stronger sci-fi bent, FX's "Alien" franchise series "Alien: Earth" is set to hit screens later this year as well. Or, if you devoured the docuseries "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace," watch the story dramatized in Hulu's upcoming "Good American Family."

Here are our most anticipated television series of 2025, in order of premiere date.

• The Kremlin is closely watching Greenland after Trump expressed interest in the US acquiring it.
• The Kremlin's press secretary said the Arctic is a zone of national interest for Russia.
• Trump said earlier this week that he would not rule out using military force to seize Greenland.

Russia is keeping a close eye on President-elect Donald Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland.

The Kremlin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia is "watching the rather dramatic development of the situation very closely," according to a report by Reuters.

"The Arctic is a zone of our national interests, our strategic interests," Peskov said. "We are interested in preserving the atmosphere of peace and stability in the Arctic zone."

Russia has ramped up its military presence in the Arctic in recent years. For example, it has deployed a substantially larger fleet of icebreaker ships — which break up ice in strategic waterways and increase maneuverability for other ships — to the Arctic than the US.

Trump, who expressed interest in buying Greenland as early as 2019, resurfaced his proposition in December and has since doubled down on his stance.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Trump said that he would not rule out using force to secure Greenland, which is an autonomous Danish territory, and regain control of the Panama Canal, a critical waterway for trade.

When asked for assurance that he would not resort to "military or economic coercion" to seize the two, he said, "I can't assure you."

"I'm not going to commit to that," he added.

"People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for National Security," he said of Greenland in the press conference.

He then threatened to impose tariffs on Denmark "at a very high level" if the Scandinavian country resisted giving up control of the Arctic territory.

Russia's statement comes after Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., landed in Greenland on Tuesday and met with locals in Nuuk, the capital city, according to his X posts.

A Tuesday video on his X showed the president-elect calling his son to talk to Nuuk locals.

In response to Trump's comments, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said to a local news outlet on Tuesday that Greenland is "not for sale."

Greenland's Prime Minister, Múte Egede, said in a December Facebook statement, "We are not for sale and will never be for sale."

Trump, meanwhile, has also talked about seizing control of the Panama Canal, a roughly 50-mile canal built in 1914 to link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It was under US control until it was given to the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) in 1999.

Trump called for the canal's control to be returned to the US, slamming "exorbitant" fees for US ships passing through it.

Representatives of Trump and the Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.

While a majority of states allow you to collect unemployment for up to 26 weeks, there are exceptions.

Eugene Levy, Miles Teller and other high-profile celebrities have lost their homes as wildfires continue to burn through California.

Common tax deductions can increase your tax refund, but some are in danger of being reduced or eliminated.

Credit repair services help fix credit mistakes on your credit report. You can hire help with this process or do it on your own.

None of the Los Angeles County fires that have killed at least 10 people are among California's 20 largest wildfires, but they're among the most destructive on record as they burned more structures overnight.

The big picture: Mayor Karen Bass described this enduring "firestorm" that prompted tens of thousands to evacuate after erupting Tuesday amid extremely dry conditions and Santa Ana winds that reached hurricane-force intensity as "the big one in magnitude."

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State of play: Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said at a Thursday briefing it's "safe to say" the largest blaze, the Palisades Fire, is "one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles."

• It's estimated the blaze that ignited in Pacific Palisades has burned at 6% containment 5,316 structures across 19,978 acres in the affluent L.A. area between Malibu and Santa Monica as of late Thursday, per Cal Fire.
• That makes the blaze that's killed at least two people is California's third-most destructive blaze on record, in terms of structures burned.
• The Eaton Fire, which has killed at least three people, ranks fourth in Cal Fire's top-20 most destructive wildfires, with "5,000+" structures destroyed.
• It's burned at 0% containment an estimated 13,690 acres north of Pasadena late Thursday, though fire officials said growth had been "significantly stopped.

Of note: The largest fire ever recorded in California, 2020's August Complex Fire, razed more than 1 million acres north of Sacramento and destroyed 935 structures, per Cal Fire.

Driving the news: Many of the fires ignited in densely populated areas during an extreme wind event that's been more catastrophic than the last big one to hit Southern California in 2011 as much of the region endures "moderate drought" conditions.

• There's been no meaningful rainfall for months in some areas, which Axios' Andrew Freedman notes are experiencing the driest conditions on record for early January following an unusually hot summer that dried out vegetation. This time of year is typically the region's wet season.
• Bass noted at a briefing Wednesday, "Hurricane-force winds are usually accompanied by rain storms, but these are hurricane-force winds are combined with extremely dry drought conditions."
• Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell at the same briefing described the situation as "unprecedented."

Between the lines: Climate change, "while certainly not only relevant factor, has indeed increased risk of extreme" California wildfires," wrote UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain on Bluesky.

• "The main reason is increasing temperatures & atmospheric 'thirstiness,"' but increased precipitation "whiplash"/seasonal shifts is also an emerging factor," he added, referring to when there are rapid swings between intensely wet and dangerously dry weather.
• "The evidence shows that hydroclimate whiplash has already increased due to global warming, and further warming will bring about even larger increases," said Swain in a statement announcing a study he led on the matter that was published in Nature Review Wednesday.
• "This whiplash sequence in California has increased fire risk twofold: first, by greatly increasing the growth of flammable grass and brush in the months leading up to fire season, and then by drying it out to exceptionally high levels with the extreme dryness and warmth that followed."

What we're watching: Swain said during a livestream he expects the "urban firestorm" will likely become "the costliest wildfire disaster in California, if not national history, along with a number of other superlatives."

• But the extreme weather threat is far from over. Wind gusts of up to 55 mph were forecast into Friday, with more gusty north-to-northeast winds expected to develop over the weekend.
• A stronger offshore wind event could occur over Monday night and Tuesday, per the National Weather Service.

More from Axios:

• LA's wildfires sparked by rare collision of climate factors
• California fires stress already pressured insurance industry
• Los Angeles County fires' destruction shown in before and after images

• Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said that competition within the auto sector will be even more heated in 2025.
• He said in an internal letter that the industry will face an "elimination round" from 2025 to 2027.
• The Xpeng founder-CEO said in November that most Chinese carmakers wouldn't survive the next decade.

Competition within the auto industry will become even more cutthroat in the years ahead, Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said in a letter to his company's staff last month.

"The period from 2025 to 2027 marks the elimination round in the automotive industry," He wrote in an internal letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

"Competition in 2025 will be fiercer than ever," He added.

In 2024, Xpeng delivered 190,068 vehicles, a 34% increase from the 141,601 vehicles delivered in 2023, per a company filing. The company's vice-chairman and president, Brian Gu, said in March that Xpeng is on track to "achieve profitability at some point in 2025."

Tesla, the world's largest EV maker, delivered 1.79 million vehicles in 2024, a 1% decrease from the 1.81 million vehicles delivered in 2023.

Xpeng did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

He made similar statements on the auto industry's outlook last year. In November, the Xpeng founder-CEO said in an interview with Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times that most Chinese carmakers won't survive past the next decade.

"From 300 start-ups, only 100 of them survived. Today, there are fewer than 50 companies that still exist, and only 40 of them are actually selling cars every year," He told the outlet.

"I personally think that there will only be seven major car companies that will exist in the coming 10 years," he added, without specifying who he thought the surviving companies would be.

In March, He told Singaporean broadcaster CNA that the Chinese EV industry will see a "knockout tournament" in the next three to four years, followed by an "all-star competition" in the next seven to eight years.

To be sure, He isn't the only auto executive who expects intense competition in the industry.

In October, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius told attendees at the Berlin Global Dialogue conference that Western automakers are fighting an existential battle against their Chinese counterparts.

"It's strange. It's a Darwinistic-like price war, market purification. And many of those players that are around now. Many of those are not going to be around five years from now," Källenius said.

• Blackstone encourages junior staff to speak at deal meetings, fostering open dialogue.
• It can be "scary," said Jon Gray, the firm's president, on a recent podcast.
• A former intern told BI last year that a senior leader said to him "rank doesn't matter here."

Blackstone's president said that senior executives often ask the most junior people in the room to speak at the private equity firm's deal meetings.

"We'll go around in many of these committees and ask the most junior people in the room, 'hey what do you think?' We want them to articulate why they have conviction," Jon Gray said on a recent podcast hosted by Norges Bank Investment Management. Norway's sovereign wealth fund has invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Blackstone.

The 54-year-old, who started his career at the firm, said that it can be "scary" for a young person, and that the committee is "not the most patient group of people."

Gray added that meetings get into questions immediately, with people "drilling" the presenters about the companies in question.

"What we try to do is make sure a lot of please and thank you's and be appreciative to the group, but there's really sort of a truth-telling exercise," Gray said.

Blackstone is the world's largest alternative asset manager, with more than $1 trillion in assets under management. The firm has 12,700 real estate assets and 240 portfolio companies as of June, according to the company's website.

Last year, an associate who interned twice at the firm told Business Insider that juniors were encouraged to make their presence known.

"Senior leaders were constantly coming out to the bullpen and asking the most junior person on the team what they thought about the deals that we were currently in process with, what they thought about up-and-coming trends," said Marshall Plumlee, who was a US Army infantry officer before his Harvard MBA. He's now working at Blackstone full time.

Plumlee said that one senior leader explained it to him this way: "Rank doesn't matter here; your thoughts are just as valuable as the next guy."

Blackstone had 4,735 employees as of December 2023.

Talent development initiatives

The private equity firm has made other commitments to developing talent, too.

In 2020, it launched Career Pathways, a program to help portfolio companies solve talent problems by creating internal trainings. Last year, it started a data program to find and train people to fill specialized technical positions. In September, the company said the portfolio companies that took part in the program have hired over 10,500 people from underrepresented groups.

"We put it inside of our portfolio operations side of the business," Gray said at the time. "It's not a charitable effort. It's designed to drive talent to companies."'

The executive is also known for being in charge of the iconic Blackstone holiday videos, which started in 2018 when the firm had grown too large to host company-wide Christmas parties. Business Insider previously reported that Gray is usually the first person to come up with the idea for the holiday video — a comical sketch sometimes filmed in the style of the television show "The Office" or with other pop-culture bents.

A federal appeals court paved the way Thursday for special counsel Jack Smith to release a final report on President-elect Trump's two dismissed federal criminal cases.

The big picture: Trump and two of his former co-defendants have fought the release of the report on his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election and handling of classified documents. The ruling leaves open the possibility of a further appeal.

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• Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.

Zoom in: The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta comes in response to a request from Trump aid Walt Nauta and former Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, who were both charged in the dismissed classified documents case.

• The timing of the report's release remains unclear.
• A lower court ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, which temporarily blocked the report's release is in place for three days.
• A separate part of the report, which details Smith's investigation into Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents, appears likely to remain sealed for now, per the Washington Post.

What they're saying: Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that criticized Smith the decision from the 11th Circuit "keeps Judge Cannon's injunction in place and prevents any report from being issued."

• He called on President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, whom Trump's lawyers have asked to block the release of Smith's report, to "do the right thing and put a final stop to the political weaponization of our Justice system."

Context: Smith initiated a winding down of his two federal criminal cases against Trump after the president-elect's November win.

• A judge then granted the special counse's request to drop all charges against Trump in the case alleging that he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
• Smith also asked a federal court in Florida in November to pause his appeal related to Cannon's dismissal of the classified documents case.

Go deeper: Trump seeks to stop Smith releasing final report

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

• Drew Barrymore says her female friendships have kept her "anchored" through the years.
• Research has shown that having strong friendships is as important as exercise for longevity.
• However, it can be difficult to make and maintain friendships in adulthood.

Drew Barrymore, 49, is grateful that she has supportive female friends to rely on.

During Wednesday's episode of "The Drew Barrymore Show," which featured guest Julianne Moore, the talk show host spoke about the strong friendships she shares with the women in her life.

"I think female friendship has been the thing that probably anchored my life the most," Barrymore said.

"Most of my friends I've had for 30 and 40 years — I'm going to be 50 — so it's like my whole life I've known these people," she said. "I trust them implicitly."

The "Never Been Kissed" star had a troubled childhood: She was 13 when she entered a youth rehab center for drug use, and she was 14 when she was legally emancipated from her mother.

Barrymore said her friends are "very honest" with her and know what she's been through.

"I feel like not having had traditional family, everything is possible through my female friendships," Barrymore said, adding that they help her get through her heartbreaks "much easier."

"Every time I've ever been dumped, my first phone call is my girlfriends. They make it so much better," Barrymore said.

In particular, Barrymore has been open about her friendships with her "Charlie's Angels" costars, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.

The three of them have made public appearances together over the years, including the premiere episode of Barrymore's talk show in 2020.

Barrymore revealed in a 2021 Instagram Live that she was friends with Diaz long before they shared a screen.

"We met when I was 14 and she was 16. I was working at a coffee house and she was a junior model. She's still my bestie," Barrymore said.

There are plenty of celebrity best friends in Hollywood, including Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, who became friends after a snowstorm in 1976, and Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, who have known each other since meeting on set in 1980.

Research has found that having good friendships could be as important as exercise and diet for living longer.

However, adult friendships can be tricky to form and maintain, Dr. Frederick Smith, a psychologist, told Business Insider previously.

"As adults, we have many obligations," Dr. Smith said. "We may have responsibilities to our job, family, children, or education. We spend a lot of time doing these things, so we may not have enough time to devote to going out and developing friendships."

However, there are ways for people to improve their friendships, he said. This includes practicing healthy boundaries, communicating clearly, and actively working to keep the relationship alive.

"Both people have to work to maintain it," he said. "Friendship should not be one-sided. If you only call me when you need something, or you only call me when you're going through some type of turmoil, and then I never hear from you, then that's a problem."

A representative for Barrymore did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular hours.