• I drove cross-country for a year and saw wildly beautiful places in each region of the US.
• Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore wowed me in the Midwest, and I loved the Everglades in Florida.
• Maryland's Assateague Island National Seashore was a beautiful place to enjoy nature.

When I spent a year driving across the country and living out of a pickup truck, I saw firsthand how each region of the United States has its own distinct flair, history, and geography.

As I explored 49 states, I found myself drawn to unique landscapes and wildlife that I couldn't find anywhere else in the world. I was shocked to find many places that felt remote, wild, and special without having to leave the country.

Here's a standout spot from each region of the US that I visited.

• The "Bridget Jones" actor Renée Zellweger took a six-year career break from 2010.
• She said she was "sick" of her own voice.
• The Oscar-winner used the time to do various activities, from studying international law to adopting dogs.

Renée Zellweger took a break from her acting career because she was "sick" of her own voice, she said. She spent that time doing a variety of things, from studying to adopting rescue dogs.

The actor will return to her most famous role in the sequel "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy," which is out on Valentine's Day. The film follows the titular writer-turned-TV producer as she navigates life as a single parent to two children after the death of her husband, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

Hugh Grant, who plays Daniel Cleaver, Jones' previous love interest, will also reprise his role. To mark the occasion, Grant interviewed Zellweger for Vogue.

When he asked why she took a six-year break from acting in 2010, she replied: "Because I needed to. I was sick of the sound of my own voice. When I was working, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, listen to you. Are you sad again, Renée? Oh, is this your mad voice?' It was a regurgitation of the same emotional experiences."

In the last decade, more people have started using career breaks to develop their personal lives away from work — some have used the time to travel, others focused on their families.

Gen Z, in particular, has been rewriting the rulebook on career gaps, and many have used the time to upskill in the hope of benefitting their careers in the future.

A LinkedIn survey in 2022 found that 69% of people who took a career break said it "helped them to gain perspective and figure out what they want in life."

For Zellweger, that included studying international law and starting a production company, Big Picture Co.

She also adopted a pair of dogs.

Zellweger said: "I wrote music and studied international law. I built a house, rescued a pair of older doggies, created a partnership that led to a production company, advocated for and fundraised with a sick friend, and spent a lot of time with family and godchildren and driving across the country with the dogs. I got healthy."

Her career break ended in 2016 when she returned to the big screen for "Bridget Jones's Baby," which sees Jones fall pregnant.

At the time, Zellweger told Vanity Fair that she returned to the role because it had been 15 years since the original movie, and the team "could take a different and interesting angle on it."

Xalia's father, Carson Matranga, told Newsweek: "That moment felt like such a proud first-time dad experience."

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• Spain's planned 100% tax on non-EU homebuyers is unlikely to solve its housing crisis.
• Spain's prime minister said too many foreigners were buying properties as investments, not homes.
• But hiking taxes could discourage buyers and hurt Spain's economy, economists told BI.

Spain's plan to impose a 100% tax on homebuyers from non-EU countries like the US and UK may fail to achieve its intended results, and could easily backfire on the country's economy, experts told Business Insider.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the measure on Monday, as part of his government's efforts to tackle the country's growing housing problem.

If approved by lawmakers, the 100% tax would effectively double the cost of properties for non-EU homebuyers.

Sánchez said that too many foreign buyers saw Spanish property as an investment, and were buying homes for financial gains rather than to live in.

But experts said the impact may not be what the government hoped.

Jesús Alonso, a real-estate agent with Engel & Völkers, said the tax was unlikely to resolve Spain's housing crisis.

Instead, he said it could trigger a decline in demand for luxury properties, which could reduce new projects, especially in regions reliant on foreign buyers.

He also said the move could hurt regions reliant on foreign spending, as well as the retail and hospitality sectors, especially in coastal regions.

"A drop in demand could discourage new developments and stagnate this market," he added.

According to Spain's Association of Registrars, foreigners bought 24,700 properties in Spain in the third quarter of 2024, accounting for 15% of all real estate purchases.

This included EU and non-EU buyers.

The number was higher in the first half of 2024, when foreigners bought and sold 69,412 properties, or 20.4% of total sales and purchases, according to data from Spain's General Council of Notaries.

Antonio Fatas, a professor of economics at INSEAD, a French business school, said foreign purchases are not large enough to determine market prices.

He described the 100% tax as an "easy" fix to a "complex" problem, one that ignores the underlying cause of Spain's housing crisis, which is about supply and demand.

According to research by Caixa Bank, the supply of new housing in Spain is being weighed down by factors including a lack of land earmarked for development and a shortage of skilled labor.

"In the absence of a significant increase in the housing supply in the coming years, the gap between supply and demand will steadily widen," it said.

Caixa Bank said in September that it expected Spanish house prices to rise by 5% in 2024, and 2.8% in 2025.

José Carlos Díez Gangas, an associate partner at the venture capital firm LUAfund, said the government's strategy is to try to curb demand growth.

However, echoing Fatas' point, he said: "There is a shortage of supply, and the greatest effect will be on prices, which will surely continue to rise until more houses come on the market."

At the same time, Spain has seen many ghost towns spring up, due in part to the 2008 financial crisis, a lack of public services, and migration from rural areas to cities.

Some estimates point to upward of 3,000 abandoned villages, even as other areas struggle to find enough housing.

Still, experts say the latest government idea could backfire on the economy as a whole.

"Does it make sense to make it difficult for a foreigner to buy a home in Spain?" said Fatas, adding: "Clearly, this represents a flow of capital into Spain that can have positive effects on the economy."

He said that stopping these flows would "negatively affect the construction, tourism sector, and anyone who could benefit from such a transaction."

• Jeff Bezos just scored a huge win: Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit.
• Now it's the turn of Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is set to launch Starship for the seventh time later Thursday.
• The two billionaires are locked in a race to dominate the global space industry.

Ahead of the most important moment in Blue Origin's history, Jeff Bezos couldn't help feeling nervous.

"I'm worried about everything," the billionaire Amazon founder told Ars Technica's Eric Berger on Sunday, as Blue Origin's technicians prepped the company's 32-story-tall New Glenn rocket for its first launch into orbit.

"We've done a lot of work, we've done a lot of testing, but there are some things that can only be tested in flight," Bezos said.

In the end, he needn't have worried. After a series of delays due to a vehicle subsystem issue, New Glenn finally roared into orbit in the early hours of Thursday, smashing through a barrier many space companies never cross on their first attempts.

The launch was a huge milestone for Blue Origin, which Bezos founded in 2000.

It is a big step toward Blue Origin's ambitions of using reusable rockets to regularly carry satellites and NASA astronauts into space, and proved that the rocket company can go toe-to-toe with its rivals in the new space race.

One of those rivals was watching closely.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk — who has clashed with Bezos personally away from their respective business rivalries — congratulated Blue Origin's founder on the successful launch.

The spotlight will now turn to SpaceX, which is set to launch its own mega-rocket Starship for the seventh time just hours after Bezos' company completed the feat for the first.

SpaceX steps up to the plate

SpaceX dominates the commercial space launch industry, launching more rockets into orbit than the rest of the world combined last year and making headlines around the world when it successfully caught Starship's 232-foot-tall rocket booster in October.

The company's latest launch, which is set for 4 p.m. CST on Thursday but could be delayed, will see it attempt the booster catch again and also demonstrate Starship's ability to deploy payloads into orbit by releasing several "dummy" Starlink satellites.

Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have ambitious launch schedules for 2025, meaning this will likely not be the first time Musk and Bezos will face off in dueling rocket launches.

SpaceX has signaled it will aim to launch Starship up to 25 times in 2025, while Blue Origin is planning to capitalize on New Glenn's success by launching the giant rocket as many as 10 times this year.

Both companies have contracts worth billions with NASA's Artemis program, with Starship and Blue Origin's "Blue Moon" lunar lander set to carry astronauts to the moon over the next decade.

Blue Origin is also set to carry satellites into orbit for Amazon's Project Kuiper, the e-commerce giant's rival to SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service. Amazon previously bought launch slots for Kuiper from SpaceX.

Space industry braces for Trump

While Blue Origin has finally joined the orbital big leagues, SpaceX could still have a crucial advantage: Musk's newfound political influence.

The billionaire Tesla CEO has been elevated to "first buddy" status in the incoming administration thanks to his support of Trump's presidential campaign, and is set to play a crucial role heading up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump has already announced that Jared Isaacman will be NASA's next administrator. Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut, has flown multiple commercial missions for SpaceX and has voiced support for Musk's ambitions of colonizing Mars.

SpaceX has also got a boost from Sean Duffy, Trump's nominee for Transportation Secretary, who told lawmakers in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday he would review penalties imposed on the company by the Federal Aviation Authority, which has been a frequent target of Musk's ire.

By contrast, Bezos has been attempting to patch up his complex and, at times, antagonistic relationship with Trump.

The billionaire flew into Mar-a-Lago for dinner with Trump and Musk last month and told The New York Times' Dealbook conference he was "optimistic" about Trump's second term.

Ahead of New Glenn's launch, he told Reuters that one thing he wasn't nervous about was the bromance between the new president and his greatest rival.

"Elon has been very clear that he's doing this for the public interest and not for his personal gain," Bezos said. "And I take him at face value."

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• Emirates president Tim Clark told Business Insider how he thinks Boeing can get out of its "mess."
• He said the company should treat workers better: "You look after the people, they look after you."
• Boeing delivered 348 planes in 2024, the lowest number since the pandemic.

The boss of one of Boeing's biggest customers has a blunt message for its new CEO: treat your workers better.

Tim Clark, the president of Emirates airline, told Business Insider in an interview: "You look after the people, they look after you. I think they've been offsided by the previous management for too long."

"Have you got yourself into a mess like this because you prided yourself on treating them badly and not giving them a deal when you were making fat profits and taking bonuses at board level? Really? That's not the way to run a business. You need to get people with you.

"So if you look after the guys and share the loot, you probably won't have such a forceful union," Clark added.

A seven-week strike exacerbated Boeing's troubles last year. Tensions flared and the acting labor secretary went to Seattle to help broker negotiations.

Union members approved the company's fourth offer, which will increase pay by 38% over four years. It also included a $12,000 ratification bonus.

Dubai-based Emirates is one of Boeing's biggest customers. It has the world's largest fleet of Boeing 777s and has ordered more than 200 of the modernized 777X variant, which has faced several certification delays.

The embattled planemaker delivered 348 planes in 2024, its lowest number since the pandemic, as it grappled with the fallout from January's Alaska Airlines blowout.

Boeing is working to overhaul its production processes and get back on track. It's now led by Kelly Ortberg, who took over as CEO in August.

Clark thinks it will take years for the company to fully recover: "The hiatus, for me, is likely to last until the end of this decade."

"Produce good quality, safe aircraft, and the profits will come," he told BI. "If you prioritize one before the other, in an incorrect manner as happened over the last 10 years, then you will reap the whirlwind."

He added: "Don't worry about what City analysts or the Wall Street analysts are telling you what you can and can't do. Just get on with the job, produce very good airplanes. I promise you, we'll buy them in large numbers — we as an industry."

Clark said he wanted to see the planemaker recover from its woes and turn things around.

"We need Boeing — we need them to get back to the type of company that produced the excellent aircraft they always used to do," he said.

Shares in Boeing fell 31% in 2024, making it the biggest faller of the 30 stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

• The US law market is largely off-bounds to Big Four firms due to ethical rules on legal independence.
• KPMG is close to changing that by securing a unique license in Arizona to practice law.
• Traditional law firms shouldn't feel threatened by the move, a legal expert told Business Insider.

KPMG is one step closer to becoming the first Big Four firm to set up a legal division in the US.

On Tuesday, an Arizona judicial committee unanimously recommended that the state Supreme Court approve KPMG US's application for a unique state license that would allow it to practice law.

If approved, the firm will establish KPMG Law US as an alternative business structure (ABS). The Arizona Supreme Court told BI it would weigh the decision on January 28.

Arizona began its ABS program in 2021, scrapping a rule that prevents non-legal ownership of law firms.

The rule was set by the American Bar Association and only allows licensed lawyers to own or invest in law firms in an effort to prevent conflicting interests.

It has held back the Big Four professional services firms — KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC — from establishing legal divisions in the US as they have done in other key markets.

Practicing law in the US "is something that no Big Four network firm can currently do," Christian Athanasoulas, a partner in KPMG's Tax Division and US head of Tax services, told BI.

The firm does provide business advice to legal clients in the US, he explained, but does "not interpret and apply legal standards to legal questions."

Athanasoulas said advances in technology and the growing demand for alternative legal services made it the right time to establish KPMG Law US, and they were "excited by the opportunity" that Arizona's regulatory reform presented.

"Pending approval, this innovation would differentiate KPMG Law US both in the legal and the consulting markets," he said.

The firm aims to focus primarily on large-scale, process-driven work, such as volume contracting, remediation exercises, and M&A-driven harmonization of contracts.

KPMG will position itself as complementing the services of traditional law firms rather than competing with them. It won't work on complex commercial transactions, trademark disputes, and other areas that are "core capabilities of traditional law firms," Athanasoulas told BI.

What they do have over competitors is the ability to harness KPMG's holistic, global suite of services.

"We see opportunities in the market to provide these required tasks, at scale, with better controls and more standardized outcomes than some existing market participants currently provide," Athanasoulas said.

Their work would not be limited to Arizona but could extend nationally, depending on individual state rules.

KPMG is already a major player in the global legal landscape, providing legal services in more than 80 jurisdictions. In the last financial year, the tax & legal division was KPMG's fastest-growing function, expanding by almost 10%.

The Big Four and the US legal landscape

The pending approval of KPMG Law US's ABS status raises questions about whether the other leading firms will follow suit and whether that will change the nature of the US legal market.

The Arizona Supreme Court said it introduced the ABS program to "transform the public's access to legal services," according to a 2020 press release.

"If the rules stand in the way of making those services available, the rules should change," the Court said.

Over 100 firms have since been approved to practice law under the program. Advocates for the Arizona ABS program say it deepens competition, lowers prices, and facilitates easier access to justice.

Utah is running a similar pilot program, and there are exceptions in Washington, D.C., that allow non-lawyers to hold minority stakes in a law firm. But other states have not yet followed suit.

"The most frequently stated concerns are that non-lawyer ownership or investment will create conflicts or low-quality work because of profit motivations," Brad Blickstein, CEO of Blickstein Group, a legal industry consultancy, told BI.

KPMG said any new firm would be governed by the same high ethical standards that apply to other law firms, and there would be no crossover between legal services clients and audit clients.

Legal experts have been predicting that the Big Four will move into the US law market for several years, Blickstein said. While they may take some work over time, traditional law firms shouldn't feel threatened, he added.

"KPMG is somewhat limited in what it can do as an Arizona law firm, and even in markets like the UK where they have free rein, the Big Four has not put too many law firms out of business.

"I continue to believe that the Big Four will eventually have a meaningful - but not existential - impact on US law firms and legal departments," Blickstein said. "This is a step in that direction, but only a step."

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