Some say that if their social media business is suddenly yanked away, they won't be filing their taxes β either out of spite of because they simply won't have access to their earnings details anymore.
"If the government bans TikTok, I'm not gonna pay my taxes," said one creator, Spencer Hudson, in a video. "I said it. TikTok is my job, alright. I get money from this."
Hudson said he paid taxes on his TikTok income last year, but this year, he's "not doing that."
"You can't take away my job and still demand taxes. That's not how this works, alright?"
TikTok's time could be running out. Unless the Supreme Court steps in or delays the divest-or-ban law, the platform will start to "go dark" for US-based users on January 19.
A ban could have a significant impact, with some small business owners warning that their livelihoods will be destroyed.
Some also say they'll no longer be able to access their 1099 forms that are used to report income.
"My place of employment no longer exists," said TikToker Patricia Walker. "What taxes? Uncle Sam, I'm sorry to tell you this, but what money?"
Walker also asked if she could "file for unemployment," adding: "You took my job away."
Sen. Ed Markey's Extend the TikTok Deadline Act, which he proposed in a press release on Monday, aims to fight for the platform on this basis.
He said that TikTok had its problems, but that the "stakes are high" for millions of Americans.
"Like every social media platform, TikTok poses a serious risk to the privacy and mental health of our young people. I will continue to hold TikTok accountable for such behavior," Markey said in a statement.
However, he said a ban "would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood. We cannot allow that to happen."
An Oxford Economics report found TikTok is responsible for 224,000 jobs in the US. In 2023, it contributed $24.2 billion to GDP in 2023, and $5.3 billion in taxes paid.
RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, hit the top spot on Apple's US App Store ranking this week.
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images
RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, has taken the West by storm.
TikTok users have flocked to RedNote ahead of the looming ban on their app.
The sudden influx of users has created a mass cultural exchange, but experts say it may not last.
For over a decade, China's social media has been living in its own world.
Without access to YouTube, Facebook, Google, or Instagram, the country instead relies on local apps such as BiliBili, Weibo, Baidu, and, more recently β Xiaohongshu.
Xiaohongshu, now known in English as RedNote, transformed overnight into a bridge between the realms of China's internet and America's, as a sudden wave of US users downloaded the app this week in anticipation of a national ban on TikTok.
RedNote's rise was relatively recent in the Chinese space, with the app only gaining significant mainstream traction from 2018 onward.
It's most often compared to Instagram, with a heavy focus on photos presented through a grid-like feed. In China, it's been largely defined as a popular app for beauty and lifestyle content, especially among young women.
The sudden surge in interest in RedNote comes as TikTok inches closer to its divest-or-ban deadline on January 19. The Senate passed a law in April that would require TikTok to stop operating in the US if it didn't divest itself from its Chinese-based owner, ByteDance.
New US users, calling themselves "TikTok Refugees," flooded the platform with memes and introduction videos. In turn, their Chinese counterparts uploaded welcome posts and guides on how to use Chinese online slang. Some even asked for help with their English homework.
Cultural exchange on a mass scale
It's a mass cultural exchange on an unprecedented scale.
International users typically have little incentive or opportunity to dive into Chinese social media apps, which cater to local audiences and are often locked behind strict user requirements that align with Beijing's government standards.
Weibo, for example, requires all users to register with their full names, and the app displays their location and gender to other users.
Even TikTok, founded by Chinese company Bytedance, is separate from China's version of the app, Douyin.
Cross-border interactions on RedNote have been mostly friendly, at a time when US-China tensions have dominated global politics.
"It's so amazing to have you here," said one Chinese user in a viral post. "For so long, we haven't been able to connect or talk to each other like this. But now we finally can, and it feels so special."
His video, titled "American friends please stay here," received over 174,000 likes.
Some users began hosting "cultural exchange" livestream audio chats, inviting young American and Chinese people to discuss their lives and befriend each other. One such livestream, seen by Business Insider, was watched by 70,000 users, with hundreds tuning in at a time.
Too early to tell how RedNote will impact US-China relations
Researchers and academics who study US-China relations told BI they're watching the space with interest, but that it's still too early to say how the RedNote migration might play out.
"I think it's likely true that many Chinese are interacting with Americans for the first time," said Stanley Rosen, a professor of political science at the University of Southern California's US-China Institute.
Rosen said China's government might initially be pleased by the influx of American users to RedNote, given how Beijing has criticized the impending ban on TikTok. Congressional leaders who voted to pass the divest-or-ban law against ByteDance had cited concerns about Chinese ownership.
But Rosen added that letting Chinese and American users mingle en masse could eventually disrupt Beijing's careful governance of its online platforms. For instance, a Chinese person's complaints about low pay could be met with well-intentioned β yet potentially contentious β replies from Americans, who might suggest forming a union or going on strike, Rosen said.
American users are still subject to Chinese rules on RedNote. For example, two writers from the entertainment news site The Wrap reported on Wednesday that they uploaded a post about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests β a heavily censored topic on the Chinese internet β and found that it was taken down within five minutes.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, told BI that it's unlikely that any friendly interactions on RedNote would impact US-China relations.
"The tensions between these countries are based on very long-term problems," Wu said.
"I think this sort of passion will die very soon," he added.
RedNote's popularity may not last
In fact, RedNote's newfound popularity in the West could just end up being a temporary phenomenon.
Natalie Pang, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's department of communications and new media, told BI that such massive user migrations from one platform to another haven't always been sustainable.
"Many years ago, when WhatsApp announced certain features on their platform, people also left WhatsApp and migrated to Signal, but those migrations were not sustained," Pang said.
Platforms are only able to retain these new users if their network moves along with them, she added.
"We have to understand that these 'TikTok Refugees' are moving to Xiaohongshu as part of a protest against the TikTok ban. So if we understand this move as part of a protest, then I think we'll see more sustained migration toward the platform if interest in the protest continues," Pang said.
That said, TikTok may not be out of the game just yet.
The social media platform may get some reprieve from President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to take office on January 20, a day after the divestment deadline passes.
Trump had pushed for a ban on TikTok during his first term, but has since reversed his position on the platform. The president-elect filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on December 27, asking the court to pause the deadline so that he could come up with a political resolution.
"You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump told reporters at a press conference last month.
On Wednesday, Trump's pick for national security advisor, Mike Waltz, said in an interview with Fox News that Trump would "find a way to preserve" TikTok.
"He is a dealmaker. I don't want to get ahead of our executive orders, but we're going to create the space to put that deal in place," Waltz said.
(L-R) Donald Trump appears to have improved relationships with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos compared to his first term as president.
Derek French/BI; Scott Olson/Getty Images; Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times; Reuters/Manuel Orbegozo; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Donald Trump's second inauguration is on Monday.
He's received a warm welcome from top CEOs in the tech industry.
Some business leaders are reacting differently to a Trump presidency than they did eight years ago.
Business leaders are treating President-elect Donald Trump a lot differently than they did eight years ago when he first took the White House.
Trump will take the oath of office at his secondΒ inaugurationΒ on Monday, and several CEOs are reportedly attending.
Companies have also been making donations toward Trump's inauguration festivities. Google, for instance, is making a $1 million donation β roughly three times what the company donated to Trump's 2017 inauguration.
Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are also making major donations to Trump's inauguration. Sam Altman is contributing $1 million of his own money to the fund.
It's not unusual for major companies and CEOs to donate to a presidential inauguration. Uber, Qualcomm, and Lockheed Martin were among the companies to make $1 million donations to President Joe Biden's inauguration celebrations in 2021, according to a Federal Elections Commission Filing.
Trump also attracted multiple million-dollar donations for his inauguration in 2017, when net donations reached about $107 million thanks to names like Sheldon Adelson and Charles Schwab. Major tech names didn't contribute, though, according to federal filings.
Trump's inauguration effort this year has raised $170 million so far β a record, according to the New York Times. This time, donations from tech companies and leaders are partly to thank.
How CEOs responded to Trump's first presidency
The level of support for Trump among tech leaders this year contrasts with 2016, when many prominent CEOs distanced themselves from Trump.
In the days after Trump won in November 2016, many CEOs did not mention Trump by name in their public statements.
"We are all blessed to have the ability to make the world better, and we have the responsibility to do it," Mark Zuckerberg posted on Facebook after the election that year. "Let's go work even harder."
Zuckerberg also skipped a December 2016 meeting with Trump and other tech CEOs soon after Trump was elected.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees at the time that the company's ranks included "supporters of each of the candidates."
"Regardless of which candidate each of us supported as individuals, the only way to move forward is to move forward together," he said, according to an email obtained at the time by TechCrunch.
Ahead of the December 2016 meeting that Trump held with tech leaders, there was "a wide spectrum of feeling in the Valley," Aaron Levie, the CEO of the cloud storage company Box, told The New York Times at the time, referring to Silicon Valley in California.
Some business leaders did congratulate Trump directly, though some of their comments were not glowing endorsements.
"Congratulations to @realDonaldTrump," Jeff Bezos wrote on Twitter. "I for one give him my most open mind and wish him great success in his service to the country."
Tech leaders show public support for Trump
When Trump won a second term in November, by contrast, Zuckerberg, Cook, and other CEOs who had avoided saying Trump's name or involving themselves in the inauguration or administrationwere direct in congratulating him.
Yet Musk threw his support behind Trump this time round, and in November, Trump named the Tesla CEO and Vivek Ramaswamy, a politician and entrepreneur who has worked in the biotech industry, to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk has been spending lots of time with Trump during his preparations to take office. He's also referred to himself as the "first buddy."
While seemingly not as closely involved in the transition, other prominent tech figures have also sounded hopeful when speaking about Trump's return to the White House.
"I am very optimistic this time around," Bezos said of Trump's second term.
Trump is also changing his tune
There are some indications from Trump himself that his relationships with many CEOs are on the mend.
In 2021, he called Zuckerberg a "criminal" after he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated more than $400 million to organizations supporting election infrastructure in 2020.
Last September, Trump also published a coffee table book called "Save America" in which he gave an ominous warning to Zuckerberg.
"We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison β as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election," Trump wrote in the caption of one of the images of him and Zuckerberg in the White House.
Instead of sitting in prison, though, Zuckerberg will likely have a front-row seat at Trump's inauguration events.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that Zuckerberg is one of the hosts for a reception for Trump that will be held before the Inauguration Ball, which will take place Monday evening.
Trump has also seemingly changed his tune on Zuck's company, Meta.
In 2017, Trump also called Meta, then known as Facebook, "anti-Trump" in a post on X.
Earlier this month, Trump said the company had "come a long way" after Meta said it would end fact-checking on Facebook.
Trump also took aim at Bezos during his first term, calling him "Jeff Bozo" in a 2019 post on X, criticizing the Bezos-owned Washington Post, and saying that Amazon didn't compensate the Post Office adequately for shipping so many of its packages.
Other business leaders, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Altman, and Zuckerberg, also visited Mar-A-Largo after Trump's win in 2024, underscoring a broader shift in the relationship between Trump and the tech world.
"In this term, everybody wants to be my friend," Trump said in December of all the tech CEOs trying to get an audience with him.
Trump's transition team and representatives for Altman, Bezos, Cook, Musk, Pichai, and Zuckerberg did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
People line up before the Louis Vuitton store in Melbourne, Australia, during Christmas Eve.
Alexander Bogatyrev/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The quiet luxury trend is a big reason luxury brands are performing poorly, Bank of America analysts say.
The analysts said the trend makes it easier to replicate luxury brand looks with low-cost dupes.
The analyst note comes after a particularly bad year for luxury retailers in 2024.
Quiet luxury is a big source of the luxury industry's woes, Bank of America analysts said.
BofA analysts, led by Ashley Wallace, said in the Thursday note that the retail trend of leaning toward subtle, logo-less designs has hurt the luxury industry.
"'Quiet luxury' is still in fashion. But it has created lower barriers to entry/scale and fuelled copycats/dupes," the note read.
For instance, quiet luxury has made the combination of a "beige cashmere jumper with wide gray pants" one of the top fashion styles, the analysts said. This fit, however, is easily replicable when shopping at stores like COS or Uniqlo, the BofA analysts added.
They added that the trend toward products with no logos has lowered barriers of entry into the luxury market, which has allowed for "the rise of niche players like The Row and Khaite as true competition for share of luxury wallet."
The Row, Khaite, and Loro Piana are known for releasing clothes and accessories in solid colors and simple, structured designs.
The analysts suggested that the luxury industry should "pivot back to creativity, fashion content, and newness" instead of leaning harder into simplicity.
"In order to reestablish stronger barriers to entry, we think the logo and fashion content is important," the analysts wrote.
Quiet luxury has boosted some big brands β including HermΓ¨s, which managed to reap rewards with classic designs. HermΓ¨s's revenue of 11.2 billion euros, or $12.1 billion, for the first nine months of 2024 was up 14% from the same period in 2023.
The BofA note comes after a bad year for the luxury market. In 2024, luxury spending stagnated, and big brands saw their share prices drop.
The luxury industry was also hit by "aspirational" luxury shoppers β those who spent big bucks on luxury immediately after the pandemic β scaling back on spending.
Kering, the owner of Gucci, YSL, and Balenciaga, saw its stock fall more than 40% in 2024.
Luxury giant LVMH, the parent of brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Burberry, also saw its sales slide by 3% in the third quarter of 2024, partially due to weakened consumer confidence in China.
Several wildfires have scorched 40,000 acres across Los Angeles, including the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images/MediaNews Group via Getty Images
The top scientist at real-estate firm CoreLogic lives in an LA area affected by the Palisades fire.
Howard Botts said he chose his home's location carefully and added extra protections against fire.
He said his home is safe but that big challenges lie ahead for his neighbors and other homeowners.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Howard Botts, chief scientist and executive leader of CoreLogic's science and analytics team, which studies the climate crisis and risks from natural disasters. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I live in the Rustic Canyon area of Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles β 20 miles west of downtown.
We've had fires in the community before, but usually, they get suppressed pretty quickly. The recent fires are an anomaly.
On the day it all started, I could see smoke and fire on the top of the Santa Monica Mountains in the city. The wind was blowing at 30 to 50 miles per hour. which I knew wasn't good because winds flow from the mountains to the ocean.
My wife and I began packing up essential things, getting ready to evacuate. We had no idea how fast that fire was going to spread. Within a couple of hours, much of our city was engulfed in flames.
We evacuated from our house, along with tens of thousands of residents from Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas.
Last Thursday, I was able to walk into Rustic Canyon. Miraculously, our house had no damage, but there's a lot of ash, debris, and smoke damage that will need extensive clean-up. We may have to remove the drywall and insulation if deep cleaning doesn't remove the campfire smell.
As you go up the hill from where I live, into the main part of the Palisades, it looks like the pictures you see of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped. Literally everything is gone, except for some fireplaces and metal staircases.
Palisades residents didn't anticipate the fires even though the area is high-risk
The Pacific Palisades is uniquely located between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Mountains, which rise about 1,000 feet above the city β just a few miles from the coast. The mountains offer beautiful views but are also heavily covered with chaparral, making the area at high risk for wildfires.
I was very aware of this and avoided living in the hillside area.
A question I get a a lot is, "Why do people live in the Palisades, up in the hillside?"
I think it's a calculated risk. For some, the area's amenities outweigh the perceived risk.
The homes in the neighborhood range from $3 million to $64 million, so people living here have some level of assets and probably feel secure. The area is also unique in that, even though it's part of the city of LA, it has a small-town feel.
I think all of those things caused people to maybe downplay the wildfire risk. They thought nothing like this would ever happen.
The Palisades fire ignited for several reasons
You would never envision an entire community burning, but the wildfires were born from a perfect storm of events.
Increasing average temperatures put stress on vegetation in the mountains that hadn't burned in 30 years.
Extremely high wind speeds also played a major role. The winds carried embers a mile from the wildfire, blowtorching flames out of the mountains and into flat, more urban areas. In those areas, houses, fences, and vegetation were already burning well ahead of the fire's front.
There were also human-caused factors. Fire departments and responders ran out of water, so fire suppression that would normally occur on the ground ceased for a period.
Fires in this area are also typically attacked from the air with airplanes and helicopters. However, those aircraft were grounded due to the high winds, preventing the use of fire retardants and other aerial suppression methods.
I don't plan to leave the Palisades, but I've taken steps to protect my house and family
I absolutely plan to continue living in the Palisades.
As a scientist and a fourth-generation Californian, wildfire risk is always at the forefront of my mind. I've mitigated everything I could around my property, from installing double-paned windows and a fire-resistant roof.
My house is anchored in bedrock, so my earthquake risk is relatively low. Plus, I live high enough above the Pacific Ocean that I don't have to worry about sea level rise.
Botts' pool has some debris from the Palisades fire.
Courtesy of Howard Botts
Conversely, it will take a decade for my community to return.
Many older homes likely had asbestos or lead, requiring major remediation efforts, including removing soil and other materials. This will prevent people from moving back in immediately.
Also, the stores, banks, post offices, and schools are all gone, so any sense of community closeness is lost.
It will be a long time before this area bounces back β that will be the real challenge.
Insurance costs could impact whether people who lost homes rebuild or move
The Palisades is relatively affluent. However, the areas affected by the Eaton fire have many more middle-class residents.
I think the fires will change the character of those neighborhoods, because the key question is, "Can residents afford to rebuild at the cost it will take?"
Building codes have changed, so homes being rebuilt will need to meet the latest standards, including indoor sprinklers for fire suppression and fireproof Class A roofs, which will increase both materials and costs.
Another question is, "Do residents have enough insurance coverage to make rebuilding possible?"
A structure burns in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
In September, a major insurer did not renew my policy. The only fire insurance I could get was through the California FAIR Plan, the insurer of last resort. My overall homeowners premium increased from $2,800 a year to $12,800 a year for less coverage than I had previously.
With higher insurability costs, some of my neighbors are considering moving to lower-cost areas in other parts of California. I think we'll see this play out nationally as well.
Over the next 30 years, we'll likely see people moving to regions they've historically left, such as cities around the Great Lakes β Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit β where climate change impacts are expected to be more moderate.
Californians will also need to adjust how they build homes
A key question is how places like California can stay safe with rising temperatures.
We'll see more happening at the community level, where neighbors band together to clear vegetation around homes to reduce wildfire risk.
Additionally, there will be more pressure on individual homeowners to mitigate wildfire risk on their properties β such as avoiding wood fences, decks, and pergolas attached to the house.
We'll also see insurers incentivizing homeowners to make changes that reduce risk. For example, some neighbors were told they could lower their rates by removing pine or eucalyptus trees from their property.
Going forward, I think there will also be much greater investments in California's public safety, including making sure there is adequate water supply, fire suppression equipment, and other resources.
"The impact of Cyclone Dikeledi on Mozambiqueβa country already reeling from Cyclone Chidoβhas been devastating," Mary Louise Eagleton of UNICEF told Newsweek.
The U.S. has the world's largest carrier fleet with 11 in service, while China ranks second with three and Japan has two ships being converted into carriers.
LOS ANGELES β Elon Musk and his allies are waging a ruthless information war in California, sensing opportunity in the ashes of the most destructive wildfires in state history.
Why it matters: For decades, Republican activists have tried and failed to end Democrats' near-monopoly on power in the nation's most populous state. This time, they insist, the conditions are ripe for a reckoning.
Driving the news: More than a week after the Palisades fire erupted β and with three major infernos still burning β Republicans are still flooding the zone with allegations of gross mismanagement by California Democrats.
As his allies gleefully mused about flipping California in the next election, Musk predicted the state's burdensome regulations would accelerate the electorate's rightward trend.
"The real red pill will come when people try to get permits to rebuild their homes and face multiyear waits," Musk wrote on X, racking up nearly 50 million views on his post.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order this week waiving permitting requirements for fire victims seeking to rebuild their homes, and has pushed to slash red tape as the GOP attacks have escalated.
Zoom in: The political danger is most acute for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, a former U.S. House Democrat who was on President Biden's short list to be his running mate in 2020.
Bass, who was elected in 2022 and is up for reelection next year, has been pilloried for traveling to Ghana a day after the National Weather Service warned of dangerous fire conditions in L.A.
Her 2022 opponent Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer and former Republican, has seized on the crisis as he weighs another run for mayor β or for governor.
Newsom β one of the most prominentDemocrats in the country amid the party's post-election leadership vacuum β is widely expected to run for president in 2028.
He's been front-and-center in countering MAGA's messaging offensive but expressed a desire to work with Trump on the recovery effort, despite their verbal sparring.
"I get the California Derangement Syndrome. I've been living with that for years and years," Newsom told MSNBC, excoriating Trump and Musk for spreading "lies" about the wildfire response.
The big picture: Musk's bluster aside, Democrats acknowledge they face serious challenges in California that predate the fires βΒ and that their supermajority in the legislature makes it difficult to blame Republicans.
Crime, homelessness, illegal immigration, high prices and an intractable housing crisis helped Trump increase his vote share in 45 of California's 58 counties in 2024.
In Los Angeles County β which shifted an astonishing 11 points to the right β a progressive district attorney was defeated by a former Republican who vowed to crack down on crime.
Reality check: The main beneficiaries of California's backlash have been independents and moderate Democrats β not Republicans, and certainly not the strain of MAGA Republicans publicly agitating for a revolution.
Most Californians believe climate change is contributing to the fires, even if they're unhappy with state leadership's handling of the crisis.
House Republicans' threat to condition federal aid to California, meanwhile, risks public blowback at a moment of vulnerability for Democrats.
What to watch: Republicans today are flush with billionaire cash and influence, much of it concentrated in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and other parts of California where supporting Trump is no longer taboo.
Flipping the state is still a "long-term project," as pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk put it last month β but one that could be accelerated by this type of systemic shock.
"We don't see these shifts overnight," California Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher said in a local news interview. "Texas was once a blue state, and slowly but surely it became a red state."
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has an alarm set for 4:20 a.m. But he rarely needs it β he usually beats the buzzer by 10-15 minutes.
His first two tasks of the day: 20 minutes of transcendental meditation ... followed by four shots of espresso. He does an hour of work, then a workout, and is in the office by 7:30 a.m.
Why it matters: Zients, 58, had a lucrative run as a CEO and chairman (The Advisory Board and Corporate Executive Board) and entrepreneur β including co-founding Call Your Mother, the D.C.-area bagel chain.
He has stayed upbeat despite running a White House that is in the dumps and ending on a very downbeat note.
President Obama brought Zients into government as deputy budget director and the nation's first chief performance officer β before making him top economic adviser.
Under President Biden, Zients had the high-stakes, thankless role of COVID response coordinator, helping lead the U.S. back. He took a nine-month break before returning as Biden's second chief of staff.
Over bagels from Call Your Mother in his West Wing corner office (with no computer β just cellphones), he wanted to share leadership lessons learned:
Discuss. Zients is allergic to tackling tough topics over text or email. "They obfuscate precision," he says. So he's known for one-word responses to emails. His favorite: "Discuss." That means to get around a table and dig in. "The hardest decisions require face-to-face conversations, not texts or emails that can blur the precision and debate required to solve the toughest problems," Zients told us.
The 7-minute meeting. That isn't literal β it's how colleagues playfully channel his approach. This is the art of how you "Discuss": His meetings tend to be quick, direct β 15 or 30 minutes. They're often preceded by tightly written memos β upper limit: three pages β so thinking is sharpened before shared. "Short memos in advance of meetings are key to efficient discussion and decision-making," he told us. "Shorter is harder than longer, as it forces rigorous analysis and requires precision." He's not a fan of "graphics for the sake of graphics."
Don't "admire the problem."Β Too many people too often stare at the complexity of an issue instead of solving the damn thing. In government, you don't always choose your problem. You did pick the solution. So get to it.
Dive into it.Β This is his go-to solution when a dirty-diaper issue lands on his desk. So many government leaders want to run away, often in fear. "When something is troubling you, don't fret it or deny it," Zients says. "Dive into it β it only gets better."
Execute, execute, execute. He says it so often it's stamped on a helmet, a gift from a staffer, that sits on the fireplace mantel in his White House office. Executing in government is a tremendous grind, so he delights in the nuts and bolts of managing. Zients pointed to Obamacare as a great example. Obama's crowning achievement almost died during the execution phase after the website powering it crashed. Zients led the team that fixed it.
Face into it. "You need the reps" to master crappy or tough situations, Zients says. His days are full of them. But the more you face them and solve them, the calmer and wiser you grow. He calls it "facing into the problem."
Build the team. "In the federal government, we don't spend enough time on recruiting, coaching and giving feedback," Zients says. "When you build and invest in a team of smart, diverse, and low-ego people who are in it for the right reasons and have each other's backs, you can weather any crisis and capture any opportunity."
Keep it sunny. "Leaders should always be optimistic," he says. "I'm not talking about blind optimism, but optimism coupled with a credible plan to get things done or solve the problem."
The bottom line: Zients says working in business first made him a better government leader because of the private sector's focus on the importance of teams β "from recruiting to coaching and focus on execution/getting stuff done."
Little of that comes naturally in government. "There are pockets," Zients told us, "but not enough focus."
Wildfires in Los Angeles have spurred a political debate over government aid.
Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Wildfires have ravaged Los Angeles for over a week.
Some Republican lawmakers argued that aid to California should be conditioned on policy changes.
Data shows California pays more in taxes than it receives in federal spending.
Los Angeles' wildfires spurred a political debate about whether California should continue receiving unconditional federalaid in the wake of the disaster.
Wildfires have ravaged LA for over a week, having burned through more than 40,000 acres, destroyed over 12,300 structures, and killed at least 25 people.
The scope of the damage and the severe impacts on the state's residents have prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to participate in the conversation aboutwhether the federalgovernment should let more funds flow to help stop the wildfires.
Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the currentaid going to California and supported conditional aid hingedon policy changes in the state. GOP Rep. Warren Davidson, for example, recently told Fox News that he supports more federal aid for wildfires, but policy changes like better forest management should accompany it.
"If they want the money, then there should be consequences where they have to change their policies," he said. Davidson also wrote on X on January 12 that California Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order to help wildfire victims rebuild their homes was "reasonable," but he said more action is needed on water management and fire prevention.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson expressed a similar sentiment, telling reporters on January 13 that "there should probably be conditions" on any wildfire aid that California receives.
But despite thoseGOP criticisms of potentialaid to California, data shows that the state has actually received less from the federal government than the taxes it paid.
The Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public policy think tank, found that in fiscal year 2022, California's federal tax receipts per capita was $17,731 while its federalexpenditures per capita, excluding temporary COVID-19 spending measures, was $14,492 β or a difference of $3,239 taxes paid minusspending received. A dozen other states had higher values of taxes paid than federal spending distributed in a state per capita, including New York and Illinois.
You can hover over the map below to see what this looked like by state.
Some commentators pointed out the disparity between California's taxes and spending. Economist Paul Krugman wrote in a Substack post, which also highlighted similar data from the Rockefeller Institute, that California subsidizes states, "red states in particular, through the federal budget."
Even on the campaign trail, President-electTrump hinted that future funding for wildfires could hinge on California's policies. "We're going to take care of your water situation, and we'll force it down his throat," Trump said of Newsom during an October campaign rally in California, referring to the state's water policies. "And we'll say: Gavin, if you don't do it, we're not giving you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the fire, forest fires that you have."
Trump posted on Truth Social on January 8: "One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It's ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!"
Newsom has pushed back on Trump and other Republican lawmakers' comments on the wildfires, recently telling CNN: "People are literally fleeing, people have lost their lives, kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burning down, and this guy wanted to politicize it," referring to Trump.
The Trump transition team, along with Davidson and Johnson's offices, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
While it's too early to calculate the costs of the wildfire damage, a recent estimate from AccuWeather found the price tag could total between $250 billion and $275 billion. Local and federal governments would likely pick up some of the tab, BI previously reported, along with private and state insurers.
President Joe Biden also said during January 14 remarks that those impacted by the wildfires will receive a one-time payment of $770 to help them quickly purchase necessities.
"Although the federal government is going to cover 100% of the cost for the next 180 days for things like firefighter overtime pay, debris removal, temporary shelters, it's going to cost tens of billions of dollars to get Los Angeles back to where it was," Biden said. "So, we're going to need Congress to step up to provide funding to get this done."
Employees who spoke to Business Insider said the new office policy, which kicked off at the beginning of the year, has resulted in full parking lots, a lack of desks and meeting rooms, and items being stolen from desks.
While some employees praised the new policy as more face-to-face interactions have at times resulted in better collaboration, others say they still spend much of their time on video chats and in other virtual meetings.
BI spoke to seven current Amazon employees about the new office mandate. The employees also shared screenshots of group Slack messages and other private communications.
"Please go back to RTO3," one Amazon employee wrote on Slack, referring to Amazon's previous policy that allowed staff to work two days a week from home. "Or allow employees the option to WFH if they have the proper set up and they are high performers."
That Slack post garnered at least 22 supportive emojis from other Amazon colleagues.
Change is hard
Amazon's Seattle HQ
Amazon
Amazon has 1.5 million workers, of which roughly 350,000 are corporate staff. So those people who are openly complaining about the full RTO experience represent a tiny fraction of the company's workforce.
Some of the complaints may be a natural reaction to what is a drastic change of daily life for thousands of employees who slowly got used to working from home in the pandemic, and now must adjust again to a new reality.
Peter Cappelli, director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources, told BI that forcing employees to return to the office can stoke resentment. But even if management does a poor job with the transition, employees cannot do much because RTO is often "painful." And quitting isn't an option as fewer companies offer remote work these days, he noted.
"Employers have all the power here," Cappelli added.
Some Amazon employees are RTO-happy
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Amazon
Not all Amazon employees are grumpy about working in the office every day of the week.
BI asked Amazon for examples of employees who are positive about the full return to office. The company's press office shared thoughts from two employees.
Rena Palumbo, an Amazon Web Services employee, said re-establishing human connection with colleagues has been important, and she's now more excited about working with them.
Cash Ashley, another AWS employee, said face-to-face interactions have been crucial for building work relationships and creating mentorship opportunities. He said RTO also helps with work-life balance because there's a clear separation between work and home.
"You just can't recreate these connections online," Ashley said.
In an email to BI, Amazon's spokesperson said the company is focused on ensuring the transition is "as smooth as possible."
"While we've heard ideas for improvement from a relatively small number of employees and are working to address those, these anonymous anecdotes don't reflect the sentiment we're hearing from most of our teammates," the spokesperson said. "What we're seeing is great energy across our offices, and we're excited by the innovation, collaboration and connection that we've seen already with our teams working in person together."
CEO Andy Jassy said last year that the new policy is meant to improve team collaboration and "further strengthen" the company's culture. AWS CEO Matt Garman also told employees in October that 9 out of 10 people he spoke to were "excited" about the change.
Lack of desks and meeting rooms
Most of Amazon's corporate employees started following the five-day office return mandate in early January. There are some signs that the company wasn't fully prepared for the logistical challenges.
Some workers found there weren't enough desks and had to track down space in a cafeteria or a hallway, two employees told BI. Others said there weren't enough chairs in offices and meeting rooms.
There's also been a shortage of meeting rooms, one of the people said.Some people got used to speaking openly about private topics while working from home. Now they're surrounded by colleagues in the office, so they are unofficially slipping into meeting rooms and phone rooms to conduct these conversations, this person said. That's clogged up meeting spaces and left some managers having private chats in open areas for everyone in the office to hear.
Full parking and shuttles
Amazon's Seattle HQ
Amazon
Some Amazon employees complained on Slack that when they drove to the office they were turned away because company parking lots were full. Others said they just drove back home, while some staffers found street parking nearby, according to multiple Slack messages seen by BI.
One employee from Amazon's Nashville office said the wait time for a company parking pass is backed up for months, although another staffer there said the company was providing free commuter passes which they described as "incredibly generous."
Another Amazon worker said some colleagues are joining morning work meetings from the road because the flood of extra employees coming to the office is making commutes longer.
Other staffers said they were denied a spot on Amazon shuttle buses because the vehicles were full, according to one of the Slack messages viewed by BI.
Signs of strain
With so many Amazon employees spread out across well over 100 locations around the globe, getting everyone back into an office smoothly is going to take more than a few weeks.
Indeed, Amazon delayed full RTO at dozens of locations, with some postponed to as late as May, due to office capacity issues, BI previously reported. Amazon subsidiaries, such as One Medical and Twitch, have also delayed or received exemptions from the five-day office-return policy, BI reported.
"Our upper 'leadership' has botched this so hard along with so many other things. Makes one wonder what other poor decisions will impact the company in the coming year," an Amazon worker recently wrote on the company's Slack.
Amazon's spokesperson told BI that the company is ready for the vast majority of employees to be back in the office.
"As of early January, the overwhelming majority of our employees have dedicated workspaces and have returned to the office full time," the spokesperson said. "Of the hundreds of offices we have all around the world, there are only a relatively small number that are not quite ready to welcome everyone back a full five days a week."
Office thefts and daily shower reminders
In some cases, basic office etiquette seemed missing as staff returned in the first week or so of January.
Several employees at Amazon's Toronto office complained of their personal belongings being repeatedly stolen from desks, according to the Slack messages.
One person complained that a keyboard and mouse placed on their assigned desk had gone missing, while another urged employees to keep their possessions in a safe place.
"Despite being adults that are well-paid, it's shameful that we can't trust each other with leaving personal belongings unattended," one worker wrote on Slack. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment when BI specifically asked about this issue.
An office "survival guide"
On Blind, which runs anonymous message boards for corporate employees, Amazon staffers posted an "essential survival guide," offering tips for colleagues coming back to the office.
"Operation: Don't Be The Office Menace" listed several dos and don'ts for working around other people.
"Deploy personal hygiene protocols BEFORE leaving your launch pad (home). Yes, that means actually using the shower you've been avoiding since WFH began," read one piece of advice for office life at Amazon.
Another urged colleagues to keep the toilets tidy. "The bathroom stall is not a 'serverless' environment. Flush after use β it's called 'garbage collection' for a reason."
A third tip focused on the types of shoes to wear in the office. "Footwear is not optional. This isn't a beach sprint retrospective β keep those toes contained in their proper containers (shoes)."
'Very little team discussion'
RTO has been one of Amazon's most contentious issues over the past couple of years. Tens of thousands of Amazon employees signed internal petitions opposing the mandate, while internal Slack channels blew up with questions about the change. Jassy has had to address the issue repeatedly during internal all-hands meetings.
This month, some employees were still questioning the logic behind the policy. They said being in the office has so far had little effect on their work routine and has not generated much of a productivity gain.
A considerable portion of their in-office work is still being done through video calls with customers who are located elsewhere, these employees told BI.
Many Amazon colleagues are based in other office locations, so face-to-face meetings still don't happen very often, they added.
"Very little team discussion while here," one employee wrote on Slack.
Do you work at Amazon? Got a tip?
Contact the reporter, Eugene Kim, via the encrypted-messaging apps Signal or Telegram (+1-650-942-3061) or email ([email protected]). Reach out using a nonwork device. Check out Business Insider's source guide for other tips on sharing information securely.
Contact the reporter, Ashley Stewart, via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]). Use a nonwork device.
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Stefan Vorontsov runs Humanity, a Ukrainian volunteer organization that coaches people who want to flee Russian-occupied territories and helps them plan their evacuations.
Stefan Vorontsov
Stefan Vorontsov is a Ukrainian volunteer who secretly coaches those who want to leave occupied Ukraine.
He told BI what it's like to evacuate and prepare for scrutiny from border authorities.
He said the journey's most difficult leg is the border checkpoint, where Ukrainians can get interrogated for six hours.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stefan Vorontsov, a Ukrainian who fled Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka in early 2022. His organization, Humanity, has helped over 6,000 Ukrainians leave southern and eastern Ukraine.
Vorontsov is trying to raise awareness of the situation at the border, and limited his interview to information that he says would not compromise evacuees' safety. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Ukrainians who want to leave Russian occupation have only one path: Russia itself.
It's too dangerous to cross the front line, so we must go through either Crimea or Rostov-on-Don. Each one has a border checkpoint that gives Ukrainians access to Russia, but they are incredibly difficult to pass through.
The Russian border authorities are constantly screening people to catch pro-Ukraine partisans or punish those with family in the Ukrainian forces. One slip-up may mean you go to prison or never leave.
When a Ukrainian evacuee makes contact with us, we give them a "legend." It's the fake story we must create about why they want to enter Russia, about their families and national identity, and about their past.
For example, sick people can say they want to visit a Russian hospital, and families can say they want to go to the Black Sea and chill at the beach.
Ukrainians in occupied Kherson typically try to leave through Crimea, while those in the Mariupol and southern Donbas areas go through Rostov-on-Don. Vorontsov said Ukrainians in Donetsk and Luhansk typically do not need as much help as travel restrictions are more lax there.
Screenshot/Google Maps
It's a lot harder for young Ukrainian men, especially those who are flagged by Russia for making pro-Ukraine posts online. For these people, we have to make sure their legend is strong.
In most cases, I use Telegram's "secret chat" function to message an evacuee carefully. I have to be delicate with what I tell them because I know that Russia may be able to read every word I write.
The Russians search everything about you
There are many reasons Ukrainians did not flee before the Russian army arrived. Many are sick. Many have children. Even though the war is on your doorstep, on your streets, it's so difficult to make the decision to permanently leave your home.
Vorontsov's organization, Humanity, said that it's helped over 2,000 Ukrainian children leave occupied territories.
Stefan Vorontsov
Over the years, I've learned that 95% of an evacuation's success depends on preparation before the person steps out the door.
The most important thing Ukrainians must do is clean up their phones.
The Russians check everything at the border checkpoint, and they're always looking for people with pro-Ukrainian views.
Evacuees must prepare that they could be interviewed for six hours at the border checkpoint, where the guards will meticulously vet everything about them: their phones, their social media posts, and their search history.
Anything related to Ukraine can implicate you. Ukrainian words, text messages from family members, photos of the Ukrainian flag, and even the colors of blue and yellow might land you in trouble. The guards can see if you liked or subscribed to a pro-Ukraine social media channel.
Maps are especially important to delete. The Russians do not like maps, and they think you will use them for sending coordinates.
Photos of buildings or city locations can also be a trap because they might be labeled as evidence of Russian positions.
The Russians will look through your phone contacts and call history, and try to find numbers from their database of pro-Ukraine people or Ukrainian soldiers. Even if it is an unknown number to you, you can still be caught if it's related to someone the Russians don't like.
We also consider the type of phone our evacuees use. If they use an Android phone, it's very easy for the Russians to recover a lot of their deleted data, like messages and photos from the last two or three years.
To help their case, we sometimes tell evacuees to add a bit of Russian flavor to their digital history by following certain Telegram channels or subscribing to pro-Russia YouTubers.
Surviving the checkpoint
Our organization gives free evacuation to those who want to escape, and we try to plan every step for them. We arrange for licensed bus drivers to take them to Crimea or Rostov-on-Don, and if they can't make it themselves to the gathering point, we pay for taxis, food, or hostel stays.
Fleeing Ukrainians pose after arriving at Odesa's railway station.
Stefan Vorontsov
But we have to compete with Russian drivers, who come from the east and offer desperate Ukrainians travel into Russia for $400 a trip. We pay our drivers less than $50 per person.
At the border, the interviewers will try to provoke the evacuees. They will ask questions to make Ukrainians angry and catch them slipping if they support Ukraine.
This is where an evacuee's legend is so important.
If, for example, their brother is in the Ukrainian military, they should never tell the Russians that. They should try to talk about how they hate war and pretend to be as neutral as possible. Sometimes, it's useful to say that they are tired of the Ukrainian government.
The consequences of failing the checkpoint clearance can be great. You can be stuck in occupied Ukraine. Or you can go to prison. Or they can send you to a deep part of Russia without telling anyone.
Dozens of my friends, colleagues, and evacuees have disappeared while making this journey, and I don't know where they are.
Old people, children, and the sick often have an easier time, but it's becoming a lot harder to leave occupied Ukraine. When I left Ukraine in early 2022, it was 40 days after the Russians took Nova Kakhovka.
Many of the evacuees aided by Vorontsov are old, have disabilities, or are sick.
Stefan Vorontsov
Back then, the Russians thought they would take our country quickly. They found photos and information on my phone that revealed I was pro-Ukraine, but somehow I managed to lie my way through to Georgia. Now, they try to break all Ukrainians, even old grannies and mothers.
Since January 2024, Russia has also required all Ukrainians to get a Russian passport for permission to cross the border. That's made our work a lot more difficult, and it introduced new complications. Boys and men, even those as young as 15, get pressured to join the Russian army when they apply for a passport.
If a Ukrainian can overcome all of these obstacles and pass the border checkpoint, they can travel to Moscow. From there, they can take a train to Belarus or Europe and eventually return to unoccupied Ukraine.
The entire process takes about four days. As for myself, I had to pass a second checkpoint and go through another four-hour interview on my way to Georgia, where I stayed for six months. Now, I'm in Western Europe helping to coordinate evacuations.
We don't get paid for what we do. In 2024, my organization helped to evacuate 360 Ukrainians, including 106 children, for a total of $23,500. We also evacuated a horse and dozens of dogs and cats.
We fundraise for train tickets, bus rides, and other evacuee expenses. We have a mission β to save the Ukrainian people, to save the Ukrainian nation. This mission is our driving force, our fuel.
