• Trump is planning executive orders aligned with his "energy dominance" agenda.
• His top priorities are expanding fossil fuel exports and drilling on federal lands and waters.
• Trump may hit roadblocks in Congress and the courts in trying to roll back climate rules.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to make a big push for fossil fuels on January 20 through a series of executive orders aimed at boosting US oil and gas production and rolling back the Biden administration's climate rules.

On the first day of his second term, Trump could direct federal agencies to approve new terminals to export liquified natural gas (LNG) and start unwinding restrictions on oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters, several fossil fuel industry lobbying groups helping shape Trump's energy agenda said.

"On day one, we're excited about them lifting the LNG pause, which has been so damaging to the American LNG industry and our reliable trade partners overseas," Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters at an event in Washington, DC on January 14. He added that many executive orders will instruct federal agencies to restore America's focus on "energy dominance."

Other targets include Biden-era regulations that encourage the shift to electric vehicles, including curbs on tailpipe pollution and a federal waiver allowing California to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Trump may also toss out Biden's executive order from 2021 directing federal agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their buildings, vehicles, and supply chains.

Trump campaigned on a promise to "drill, baby, drill" and "unleash Americans' energy production," even with the US already producing a record amount of oil and gas and being the world's largest exporter. Industry executives, employees, and corporate political action committees donated more than $32 million to Trump's campaign, data tracked by Open Secrets shows.

But many of the industry's priorities can't be accomplished with an executive order alone, either because Congress has to change laws or federal agencies have to undertake lengthy rulemaking processes. Attempts to roll back Biden's climate rules will likely be challenged in court, as well.

"When he takes office, President Trump will make America energy dominant again, protect our energy jobs, and bring down the cost of living for working families," Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the Trump transition team, said.

Here's what fossil fuel groups said could happen quickly in the new administration.

Greenlighting new gas terminals

Trump can direct the Energy Department to start approving new permits for LNG terminals immediately via executive order, said Kenny Stein, vice president for policy at the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group advising Trump's energy agenda.

The move would end a temporary pause the Biden administration instituted in January 2024 so the Energy Department could study the impacts of more LNG exports on the economy, national security, and the climate crisis.

The API argued that the pause threatens global energy security and US competitiveness overseas and will cost jobs at home. In December, the Energy Department found that the US is already on track to double LNG exports to 2028 under approved projects, and continuing to approve new projects will increase greenhouse gas emissions fueling the climate crisis.

Environmental groups are expected to challenge new LNG permits in court and could cite the Energy Department's study.

Oil and gas leases on federal land and water

Trump has repeatedly promised to unwind limits that the Biden administration's Interior Department placed on oil and gas drilling in areas like the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.

Trump is expected to direct the Interior Department to revise a five-year offshore leasing plan finalized by the Biden administration. The plan scheduled three auctions between 2024 and 2029 — a record low compared to the 47 sales proposed during Trump's first term.

In Alaska, the president-elect also wants to further open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve to fossil fuel development.

Biden in 2023 approved ConocoPhillips' massive Willow oil drilling project in the National Petroleum Reserve, but then made tens of millions of acres of the reserve off-limits to drilling to protect wildlife habitat.

During Trump's first term, Congress also directed the Interior Department to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling for the first time. The Biden administration auctioned off 400,000 acres in January, the smallest amount allowed under the law, but it didn't attract a bidder. An auction in the final weeks of the Trump administration also didn't attract interest from any oil majors.

The state of Alaska sued the Biden administration over the sale, arguing that the area's size and additional restrictions made oil drilling economically unviable. The Trump administration could potentially expand the sale.

Targeting EVs

Trump is also expected to direct the EPA and Transportation Department to start reviewing and rewriting regulations that encourage the shift to electric vehicles.

"I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one," Trump said during a speech at the Republican National Convention in July. "Thereby saving the US auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now, and saving US customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car."

There are no federal EV mandates, however. In March, the EPA finalized tailpipe pollution limits for cars, SUVs, and trucks sold between 2027 and 2032, which are the strictest to date. The Biden administration said this could boost electric vehicles to up to 56% of new car sales, while hybrids could account for about 13% of sales as automakers adjust production to meet the new standards.

Trump is likely to go after California's recent move to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Under the Clean Air Act, the state can set more stringent limits on tailpipe pollution than the federal government as long as it's granted a waiver from the EPA. The agency in December greenlighted California's plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, which the Trump administration is expected to revoke — similar to a fight with California over the waiver in his first term.

That would likely set up a legal fight with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has moved to "Trump-proof" the state and vowed to defend the state's EV and climate policies.

• Meta is adopting a more aggressive approach to workforce management.
• This shift marks a departure from Silicon Valley's traditional talent retention strategy.
• Tech firms now prioritize lean teams over retaining talent to prevent competition gains.

Meta is adopting a more performance-focused approach to workforce management, one that Amazon embraced years ago: systematically pushing out under-performers to maintain lean, high-performing teams.

This week, Meta announced internally that it plans to cut 5% of its lowest-performing employees, a first for the social media giant, as part of a border strategy to "raise the bar" according to a memo from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

This stance mirrors Amazon's longstanding philosophy of maintaining strict annual turnover targets known as unregretted attrition (URA). Amazon managers are expected to regularly shed a set percentage of employees deemed dispensable. Even Andy Jassy, the company's CEO, has had a URA target in the past to replace 6% of his team annually, Business Insider reported.

"The overarching trend is that corporations feel they have more power over their employees," Laszlo Bock, who oversaw the tremendous growth in Google's workforce as the company's head of people operations from 2006 to 2016, told BI. "The current political environment emboldens these CEOs to take drastic actions."

Donald Trump was reelected US President in November and tech companies, which had championed progressive workplace policies and employee-friendly initiatives in 2016, are now taking a markedly different approach, Bock added.

The shift in how Meta manages employees marks a significant departure from Silicon Valley's traditional talent strategy. Leading tech companies notoriously overpaid for talent for years — even those workers who were not fully productive — to keep them away from competitors.

"Their business model thrived on tremendous margins, so they hired freely, knowing that if some employees underperformed, at least they weren't boosting the competition," Bock explained.

That line of thinking seems to have changed.

Weeding out underperformers

At Meta, managers have been instructed to identify under-performers through a tiered rating system, according to a memo from Hillary Champion, Meta's director of people development growth programs seen by BI.

Last week BI reported that Microsoft is also planning to make performance-based job cuts.

"At Microsoft we focus on high performance talent," a spokesperson previously told BI. "We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action."

Google, too, had its own version of performance culling under Bock's leadership that the company kept secret.

Every quarter, the company identified the bottom 5% of employees in any group of at least 200 people (such as a division), combining smaller teams until they hit that threshold, a process that was separate from regular performance reviews, Bock told BI.

He said some of these people were still good performers. "If your worst person is better than my best person, you're still going to have a bottom 5%," he said. Google then coached, transferred, or terminated these workers. Google did not respond to a request for comment from BI and Meta declined to comment on this report.

Today's tech CEOs, however, are taking a more direct approach.

"Everyone at these companies still gets performance ratings and goes through the motions," Bock said, "But, I think the CEOs are seeing an opportunity in the marketplace and the political environment and saying 'We're just going to pull the bandaid off.' They feel employees are entitled."

The message is clear: If you're not building the future, you might just be history.

If you're a current or former Meta employee, contact this reporter from a nonwork device securely on Signal at +1-408-905-9124 or email him at [email protected].

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• Americans are flocking to Chinese app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, as a potential US TikTok ban looms.
• Some of them are learning Mandarin in an attempt to bridge the language divide on the app.
• Language-learning apps Duolingo and Drops told BI they've seen an increase in US users learning Chinese.

The threat of TikTok going dark in the US appears to have compelled some Americans to start learning Mandarin as they look to communicate on a rival Chinese app.

Many Americans are joining Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, as a potential TikTok ban looms in the US. As they hop from TikTok to RedNote, some of the so-called "TikTok refugees" are learning Mandarin to bridge the language divide.

Language learning apps Duolingo and Drops told BI they've seen a jump in US users learning Mandarin on their platforms recently.

"oh so NOW you're learning mandarin," Duolingo joked in a tweet Tuesday.

However, the spike in interest is real, according to the company.

Duolingo told BI it's seen roughly 216% growth in new Mandarin learners in the US compared to this time last year. The company says this is "a much bigger increase" than that of other languages, even when it comes to some of its most popular offerings. Spanish, for example, saw 40% growth in the same period.

Duolingo also asked new users in a survey how they heard about the app, and said it's seen "a corresponding spike in people selecting 'TikTok' as their answer."

Duoling was the 18th most downloaded free app in Apple's App Store on Thursday.

Another language learning app, Estonia-based Drops, said it has seen an increase in Chinese-language learners too.

Frederik Cordes, general manager at Drops, told BI the app has welcomed "three times as many users learning Chinese during the past few days and five times more US-based users learning Chinese" than what it expected based on the previous two weeks.

While the company has recently added new features, Cordes believes "the current spikes do indicate there are external factors with strong contributions to installs."

Noël Wolf, a cultural expert from Babbel, which does not offer Chinese, told BI that the influx of Americans to RedNote "marks an unprecedented level of direct cultural exchange facilitated by language learning and communication at a scale we've never seen before."

In one TikTok, a user pointed to a cat before saying in Chinese, "Hello, this is my cat. I am learning Mandarin. This is day one."

"Me after literally 2 hours on RedNote," the person captioned the video.

A second TikTok featured another user speaking Chinese, with the text overlay on the video reading, "Trying to learn Chinese to be a more respectful RedNote user."

"I hope this came out alright," the user captioned the video.

And it turns out RedNote's popularity isn't just driving some Americans to learn Chinese. As new users flood the app from the US, some of RedNote's Chinese users are learning English from Americans new to the app.

More than 700,000 new users joined Xiaohongshu in two days, Reuters reported, citing a person close to the company. While the growth is notable, that would represent a fraction of TikTok's 170 million US users.

For now, TikTok's future in the US remains up in the air.

TikTok could be banned from US app stores from Sunday under a law that would require it to divest from its current owner, Chinese company ByteDance. The Supreme Court is currently reviewing TikTok's appeal.

There are some potential US buyers who could swoop in to prevent the ban, though, and President Biden could grant a 90-day extension if there's "significant" progress on a deal.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Monday and supported banning TikTok in his first term, has recently expressed interest in keeping the app operating in the US, saying he has "a warm spot in my heart for TikTok."

• Zendaya is a certified style icon both on the red carpet and off.
• Her fashion is often daring, feminine, and fashion-forward.
• The Emmy-winning actor gravitates toward sheer dresses and historical fashion pieces.

No one does fashion quite like Zendaya.

The 28-year-old actor has been making showstopping appearances on red carpets since the start of her career, and her style only seems to get better with time.

Just look at the orange Louis Vuitton gown she wore to the 2025 Golden Globes and the flashy engagement ring she debuted with it.

She also knows a thing or two about daring ensembles. Here's a look at the boldest looks she's ever worn, from see-through dresses to silver armor.

• David Lynch, director of iconic films like "The Elephant Man" and "Blue Velvet," died at 78.
• Lynch was also known for creating the TV series "Twin Peaks."
• Lynch revealed last August that he had emphysema after years of smoking.

David Lynch, the visionary director of surrealist films like "The Elephant Man," "Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive" and the hit TV show "Twin Peaks," has died, his family announced on Thursday.

He was 78.

Lynch announced in August 2024 on X that he had emphysema following decades of smoking.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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