• Biden signed a bill making the bald eagle the official national bird of the United States.
• The bald eagle, an iconic American symbol, was endangered but has since recovered.
• The bill received bipartisan support and was backed by eagle advocates.

One prominent member of American society received a promotion with bipartisan support this holiday season: The bald eagle is now the official bird of the United States, a proclamation nearly 250 years in the making.

On Christmas Eve, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that amended title 36 of the United States Code and designated the bald eagle as the official national bird. The bill was sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and co-sponsored by fellow Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, as well as Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. The bill was introduced on June 20, 2024 — which is also National American Eagle Day.

"The bald eagle has long been a symbol of freedom and patriotism for our nation," Senator Mullin said in a statement touting the bill's passage. "It's only fitting we officially designate the bald eagle the national bird of the United States. I was glad to join my colleagues in leading this bipartisan effort and appreciate the House's swift consideration."

Bald eagles have had a long — and somewhat rocky — history in the US. The bird was officially adopted as part of the country's Great Seal in 1782 and has since become synonymous with patriotism and other American values. But bald eagles teetered on the verge of extinction in the 1900s, and the species was designated as endangered in 1967. Since then, the species has soared to recovery; as of 2020, there were 316,700 bald eagles in the US, although over 40 bald eagles succumbed to bird flu in 2022. More recently, bald eagles have made headlines for adopting rocks, stealing pizza, and fostering abandoned chicks.

The move to officially enter the bald eagle into law drew support from eagle advocates, who have been pushing for the measure. A press release from The National Eagle Center crowed "The Bald Eagle Is Ready To Spread It Wings And Soar As The Country's Official Bird."

"This is an exciting day. The Bald Eagle has symbolized American ideals since its placement on the Great Seal in 1782," Preston Cook, the cochair of the National Bird Initiative for the National Eagle Center and author of "American Eagle – A Visual History of Our National Emblem," said in a statement. "With this legislation, we honor its historic role and solidify its place as our national bird and an emblem of our national identity."

• Swiss snowboarder Sophie Hediger died in an avalanche in Arosa, Switzerland.
• Hediger was snowboarding with a companion, who alerted rescue services. She was found buried under the snow.
• She was a rising star, securing World Cup podiums in the 2023-2024 season.

Sophie Hediger, who represented Switzerland in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, died in an avalanche in Arosa, Switzerland on Monday. She was 26.

According to a police report, Hediger was snowboarding with another person on a closed black diamond slope in Arosa, a town and a resort in eastern Switzerland. She left the closed slope and was caught in an avalanche.

Hediger's companion contacted rescue services, who found her buried under the snow about two hours later. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful, and she died at the scene.

The Zurich native had been making waves in the snowboarding world, securing her first two World Cup podium finishes in the 2023-2024 season. In late January, she placed second in a Word Cup race in her home country. The next month, she earned third at an event in Gudauri in Georgia.

She also represented Switzerland at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where she competed in snowboard cross.

Walter Reusser, the chief executive of Swiss Ski, said in a statement, "For the Swiss Ski family, the tragic death of Sophie Hediger has cast a dark shadow over the Christmas holidays. We are immeasurably sad. We will honor Sophie's memory."

Tributes from teammates, coaches, and fans poured in following the news of her death.

Hediger's teammate and friend Aline Albrecht wrote on Instagram, "With you I lose my best friend."

Another teammate, Sina Siegenthaler, wrote: "Keep on shredding in the clouds."

The Swiss snowboard cross team mourned the loss of their athlete.

Oxess, who makes the board that Hediger used, wrote, "Her passion for the mountains and her dedication to the sport touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing her."

• Recruiters say Wall Street firms are planning to hire more tech talent next year.
• Jobs at AI companies like Nvidia and OpenAI, or ones that work with their products, are highly sought after.
• Recruiters Ben Hodzic and Matt Stabile outline how jobseekers can stand out in the hiring process.

It's been a tough year for software engineers on the job market, but one bright spot is starting to emerge on Wall Street for technologists looking for a new gig.

Banks, hedge funds, and investment firms bullish on AI are expected to hire more tech talent in the new year, according to two headhunters who recruit engineers and data scientists for finance firms. That's good news for jobseekers in these sectors, which were long considered to be recession-proof careers but were hit this year with waves of layoffs, job freezes, and hiring cutbacks.

Ben Hodzic, a managing director at recruitment firm Selby Jennings who finds talent for hedge funds and investment banks, told Business Insider there's "a lot of optimism" around AI in financial services.

"Financial services institutions are slowly adopting their workflows and they've come to a reality where you need the right talent to actually build and implement and manage those products," he said.

In some cases, the hiring spree is already happening. Jamie Dimon, the boss of America's biggest bank JPMorgan Chase, said earlier this year that he's anticipating adding thousands of jobs related to AI in the next few years. Hedge fund and proprietary-trading firms are shelling out as much as $350,000 in annual salaries for top-tier AI researchers and engineers. Meanwhile, private-equity firms have been "clamoring" to hire AI operating executives to improve their portfolio companies.

Hodzic said the rosier outlook stems from a desire to build AI tools in-house and boost worker productivity in areas like wealth advisory, investment banking, and trading. More clarity on the direction of macroeconomic factors, like inflation and the impacts of the US election, is also providing tailwinds for banks looking to invest in human capital in 2025, he said.

While AI is expected to drive an uptick in tech hiring, the technology is also changing what it takes to get a tech job on Wall Street. BI spoke with recruiters to find out how candidates should adapt and what they need to do to stand out.

They outlined some of the industry's most in-demand skills, explained why having Big Tech experience might not get you that far anymore, and shared the companies that hiring managers want to see on resumes. They declined to disclose specific client activity due to privacy agreements.

Here's what software engineers need to know to get hired on Wall Street

Big Tech experience will only get you so far

A few years ago, Matt Stabile, a tech recruiter who works with buy-side firms including Two Sigma and Susquehanna International Group, could almost guarantee an interview with a hiring manager if a candidate was coming out of a FAANG company.

"Now, due to overhiring and layoffs, those resumes seem to be a dime a dozen," Stabile told BI.

It's true that Big Tech companies have shed thousands of workers this year, flooding the job market with resumes touting the same companies, like Meta and Amazon. And only certain divisions of Big Tech companies on a resume will catch hiring managers' eyes, like Google's DeepMind, for instance, Stabile said.

Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic are all the rage

Finance firms witnessing the AI transformation from the sidelines want to get in on the action and build their own homegrown solutions. That's created demand among hedge-fund clients to ask for technologists specifically from Nvidia, Hodzic told BI.

"There's definitely an inherent need for people to understand the infrastructure side as well, how to actually construct the computer in the right way to be able to process some of this information and what quality of chips are needed in order to actually produce the output they're looking for," Hodzic said.

Stabile is seeing the same, with hiring managers getting excited to see talent coming from the $3.6 trillion chipmaker, AI startup Anthropic, and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. He said these are the resumes that are getting through and being considered over all the others.

Even if you haven't worked at any of these companies, Stabile said experience and exposure to their software tools is still a highly sought after skill. He specifically highlighted the Nvidia Triton Inference Server, an open-source software that's key to deploying and executing AI workloads, Nvidia TensorRT-LLM, used to optimize the performance of large language models, and Nvidia Fleet Command, which is important for scaling AI deployments.

Highlight your migration experience

If you haven't worked at a large AI company, or haven't worked with their latest products, not all hope is lost.

Wall Street banks especially rely heavily on legacy technologies. Some are built on codebases that have likely been around longer than the developer working on it has been alive. To be clear, that hasn't stopped financial firms from building entire businesses and offerings on modern technology.

What that has introduced, however, is the need to ensure that systems old and new can work together and exist in the same environment without introducing bugs or dependency issues. And in the case of firms moving on-premise systems to the public cloud, sometimes entire back-end systems have to be rebuilt.

As a result, hiring managers often light up when candidates can talk about their experience with software migrations, Selby Jennings' Hodzic said. If you've shifted data or software from one system to another, or translated code from one language to another, be sure to bring it up during the interview process.

"People who can demonstrate that engineering skillset of recreating and reconstructing things are really sought after," Hodzic said. "I think what a lot of clients want are people who can come in and show them what's not working well, how to iterate and how to improve, and then actually do it."

• Blake Lively filed a complaint against Justin Baldoni alleging sexual harassment and retaliation.
• Baldoni's ex-publicist Stephanie Jones also sued his current publicists for orchestrating a campaign against Lively.
• Here's a breakdown of everyone involved in the saga.

While the film "It Ends With Us" has already come and gone from theaters — grossing over $350 million globally along the way — the drama is still unfolding.

Speculation over tensions among the film's actors began brewing over the summer, when costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni did not interact with each other during the press tour. Around the same time, Lively faced online backlash for her lighthearted promotion of the film, which tackles topics like domestic violence, and past controversies, including a resurfaced 2016 interview.

But a recent bombshell legal complaint from Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and using social manipulation to tarnish her reputation. Since the complaint was made public, costars and fellow celebrities have spoken up in support of Lively — including Colleen Hoover, the author of "It Ends With Us."

The complaint's revelations — which include a trove of text messages and emails from Baldoni's publicists — have also sparked their own separate suit. Publicist Stephanie Jones sued Jennifer Abel, a former employee who worked with Baldoni as a publicist, and Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications professional, alleging that the two orchestrated the campaign against Lively without Jones' knowledge and set out to wreck her firm's reputation.

Here's a breakdown of all the key players in this saga.

Blake Lively

Lively is a prominent actor who played florist Lily Bloom in "It Ends With Us," and produced the film. She is suing costar Baldoni, publicists Abel and Nathan, Baldoni's company Wayfarer Studios, Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath, Wayfarer's cofounder Steve Sarowitz, and Jed Wallace, a contractor.

"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted," Lively said in a statement to The New York Times.

Lively's legal team

Lively's complaint lists legal teams from two firms — Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The attorneys listed on the complaint are Esra Hudson, Stephanie Roeser, and Catherine Rose Noble of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, and Michael Gottlieb and Kristin Bender of Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Justin Baldoni

Baldoni played Ryle Kincaid in "It Ends With Us" and directed the film; he's listed as a cofounder of Wayfarer Studios. Bryan Freedman, Baldoni and Wayfarer's attorney, said in a statement that accusations against Baldoni and the studio were false.

"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," the statement said.

Bryan Freedman

Freedman is a heavyweight Hollywood lawyer who's been hired by the likes of Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson. He is representing Baldoni, Nathan, Abel, and their respective companies.

Melissa Nathan

Nathan is a crisis communications professional whose firm, The Agency Group, was brought in by Baldoni and Abel in July, per Lively's complaint. Nathan's past clients have included celebrities like Johnny Depp and Drake.

Jennifer Abel

Abel is Baldoni's publicist, as well as Wayfarer's. She started her own company, RWA Communications, and was previously a partner at Jonesworks, another PR company.

Stephanie Jones

Jones is the founder and CEO of Jonesworks; she's filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, as well as Abel and Nathan, that alleges that Abel and Nathan conducted the campaign against Lively behind her back, used social manipulation tactics against her firm, and stole clients when Abel left Jonesworks.

Abel previously provided BI with a different account of how she left Jonesworks, sharing emails and text messages that show her submitting her resignation in July and planning to launch her own firm.

Kristin Tahler

Tahler, an attorney at Quinn Emanuel, is Jones' lawyer. "For months, this group has gaslit and disparaged Stephanie Jones and her company for financial gain, to settle personal scores and most recently to distract from their disgraceful smearing of Blake Lively," Tahler said of the defendants in Jones' suit.

• Elon Musk went all-in to get Trump elected. Now, he's trying to shake up Washington.
• He's racked up some wins so far. But some of the limits of his influence are coming into view.
• Here's a running list of Musk's wins and losses since Trump was reelected.

Since pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into helping President-elect Donald Trump win the 2024 election, Elon Musk has emerged as a major Washington power player.

Musk has the ear of the incoming president, is set to co-lead a "Department of Government Efficiency" initiative with Vivek Ramaswamy, and has already demonstrated an ability to influence the course of major legislation.

He hasn't won every single time, though. Musk's brash style has clashed at times with how Washington typically works, and he's encountered some losses here and there.

Here's a running list of where Musk has won as he's sought to influence Washington — and where he's lost.

Loss: Trying to get Rick Scott elected as Senate GOP leader

The week after Trump's reelection, Musk made his first major foray into the politics of Washington, enthusiastically backing Sen. Rick Scott of Florida to become the next Senate GOP leader.

Over the course of a dayslong online pressure campaign led by several MAGA-world voices, Musk referred to one of Scott's competitors, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, as the "top choice of Democrats." Senators privately grumbled that they were being bullied by outside figures.

It didn't work.

Scott received just 13 votes, and Thune — a close ally of outgoing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell — won the prize instead.

One key factor in Scott's loss may have been the fact that the vote was conducted via secret ballot, insulating senators from public backlash.

Win, for now: Lawmakers' rapturous embrace of DOGE

Perhaps the biggest win for Musk on Capitol has been lawmakers' outpouring of support for DOGE.

When Musk and Ramaswamy visited Capitol Hill in December, they were greeted like celebrities, with Republicans eyeing the government-efficiency initiative as an opportunity to enact all sorts of spending cuts they've long sought.

Some Democrats are even interested in getting involved, particularly when it comes to defense cuts.

What remains to be seen, however, is what DOGE ends up becoming in practice — and whether Musk and Ramaswamy are able to implement the trillions of dollars in spending cuts they've floated.

Win: Trump appoints a key ally to chair the FCC

Musk is likely to benefit significantly from Trump naming Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission.

It's not just that Carr might be generally favorable toward Musk. He's also emerged as a public cheerleader of the billionaire businessman, including posting a photo with him earlier this year on X.

Elon Musk has transformed long-dormant industries, and he’s developed a first principles “production algorithm” to deliver results.

It’s a great blueprint for reforming the Administrative State, driving efficiency in government, and unleashing a new cycle of American innovation. pic.twitter.com/JySzEtCsyj

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) August 26, 2024

Carr has publicly gone to bat for Musk before, including sending a letter to Brazilian regulators excoriating them for enacting a "cascading set of apparently unlawful and partisan political actions" after the country briefly banned X.

Musk may also benefit financially. The FCC oversees the country's broadband systems, and Musk's Starlink could see a windfall under the incoming Trump administration.

When the FCC denied government subsidies to Starlink and another broadband provider in 2022, Carr blasted the decision.

Loss: Trying to get a kids' online safety bill passed at the last minute

In December, Musk threw his support behind the Kids Online Safety Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that would force social media sites to alter their design to protect users under the age of 17.

Versions of the bill have been around since 2022, and online safety has become a bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill in recent years.

While the bill passed the Senate in June, it's been stalled in the House, where some Republicans have raised freedom-of-speech concerns. Musk and X helped negotiated a revised version of the bill in a bid to gain more support.

That effort was shot down by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who told reporters that the bill wouldn't be moving before the end of the year.

Speaker Mike Johnson tells ⁦@mkraju⁩ that it is unlikely KOSA (kids online safety act) gets done this year

Johnson said he thinks the bill needs "a little more tweaking," and that ultimately it will be able to move forward "early next year." pic.twitter.com/mvPV7U8din

— haleytalbotcnn (@haleytalbotcnn) December 12, 2024

Win, sort of: Tanking a government funding bill

Musk's highest-profile flexing of his muscles on Capitol Hill happened in mid-December, when he led an online pressure campaign that resulted in the tanking of a short-term government funding bill.

The billionaire businessman and other conservatives cast the legislation as an example of just the kind of wasteful spending they're hoping to eliminate via DOGE.

In doing so, he got out ahead of Trump, who didn't weigh in on the legislation until well after it became clear that it wouldn't advance. That led Democrats to mockingly refer to Musk as the real leader of the GOP, a notion that Trump's team sought to tamp down.

While Musk succeeded in killing the initial bill, lawmakers didn't end up shutting down the government, as he suggested they should.

And Congress eventually passed a spending bill that, while significantly shorter than the initial bill Musk opposed, did many of the same things.

At one point, Musk publicly wondered if it was a "Republican bill or a Democrat bill."

So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill? 🤔 https://t.co/C54cbLGoGR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024

• I'm already getting sad that all of my kids will be out of high school in half a decade.
• I'm also excited about all the things I'll have time to do when I'm an empty nester.
• I'm taking steps now — like building better friendships — to ensure I'm not lost when they leave.

I realized earlier this year that if everything goes according to plan, all four of my kids will be out of high school in just five years.

Even if they don't move out of the house, then I'll have a lot more free time. Right now, I'm still driving some of them around. They have school, practices, classes, and clubs. Our evenings and weekends often revolve around their plans and performances. I love being part of this whirlwind of activity.

But as I think about the fact that I'm close to an empty nest, I oscillate between being excited that I'll have time to pursue other interests and being sad that I won't be spending all that time with my favorite people in the world.

I'm trying to set myself up now so that when this stage is over, I won't be a lonely, empty nester and feel left behind.

I'm working on other relationships

When it first hit me that I could have an empty nest in five years, I realized I'd need some friends. It's going to be strange to go from a rowdy house that once held four noisy children to a quiet home with two middle-aged adults.

I made a conscious decision to strengthen my relationships with my friends about a year ago. I listed a handful of people whom I wanted to know better, and I'm trying to build those relationships. I meet up with them for dinner, drinks, or coffee. I text people when I'm thinking of them. I check up with friends after they return from a trip or something big happens.

These things don't come naturally to me. I'd rather be in my PJs by 5:30 p.m. and curled up on the couch than go to dinner. But I never regret spending time with my friends. We have good, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes important conversations. We've been friends since our kids were little, but now we have more time to invest in each other. It's also been helpful to have other women in my life who are experiencing the same feelings I am.

I'm also making a deliberate effort to connect with my husband. As the kids have gotten older, we've taken some trips without them. We have date nights or try to do other activities together. Our kids have consumed a lot of our time these past two decades, and I want to make sure we still know each other when those kids move out.

I'm already planning the activities I want to try when the kids leave

I've wanted to volunteer at several places in my community over the years, but our family schedules haven't allowed it. So, I'm looking forward to checking out those opportunities when my schedule opens up.

My husband and I also want to do a lot more traveling, which will be easier when we don't have to consider school schedules. We already have a list of places across the globe that we dream of going. We're already doing research and planning travel budgets, and it's getting me excited about seeing the world.

I'm prioritizing exercise and my body

It's a cruel irony that just when I get some extra time for hiking, travel, and other active things that I love, my body is beginning to slowly fall apart.

It's nothing big — yet. But I have a funny twinge in my knee sometimes. I sneezed, and my back hurt for two days. Lots of small parts that I never thought about before hurt randomly now.

I'm exercising and trying to maintain the mobility I'm lucky enough to have. I'm doing cardio, and I've added weights to strengthen my bones and fight off osteoporosis. I want to climb mountains and walk city streets in far-flung places, so I need to keep my body working as well as I can.

It's time to look inward

I'm also noticing that as my kids get older, I have more time to reflect on myself. It's hard to wrestle with who you want to be at your core when you're in the midst of diapers, spills, and messy faces. Now, I have time to think again.

I'm spending time meditating and focusing more on my spiritual life. I'm thinking about who I want to be as a person in the second half of my time on this planet.

I'm also thinking about career moves now that I can spend more time on my work. Do I need any coaching to advance? Is there somewhere I really want to work? Do I need more education or to make other changes?

I'm also staying open to the idea of therapy or counseling. This stage of life, when we say goodbye to our fledgling children, comes at the same time as a lot of other stressors. Lots of us worry about the next big thing on the horizon — like retirement.

I'm already feeling many emotions about this next chapter in our family. My husband came downstairs the other day to find me having a good cry because our son is graduating … in a year and a half.

I know planning for our empty nest doesn't mean I won't feel sad, nostalgic, or even lonely despite my best efforts. But I think this next phase will also be exciting and fulfilling as all of us in this family continue to grow.

• A report concludes that human error caused the deadly collision at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in January.
• The pilot of the Japan Coast Guard plane misinterpreted air traffic control instructions.
• Limited visibility and air traffic control oversight were additional factors in the collision.

A report released Wednesday from the Japan Transport Safety Board concluded that human error was the primary cause of a deadly collision at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The incident occurred on January 2, 2024, when a Japan Airlines (JAL) passenger plane arriving from New Chitose Airport in Sapporo barreled into a Japan Coast Guard plane waiting on the runway.

According to the report, the Coast Guard pilot mistakenly believed he had clearance to enter the runway. The air traffic controller told the coast guard plane that it was "No. 1," meaning it was first in line to take off and meant to stop and wait at a holding point. The pilot misinterpreted the instruction, believing it to be permission to enter the runway for takeoff.

In the final moments before the collision, the Coast Guard pilot ordered his co-pilot to go through a checklist that is typically performed once final takeoff clearance has been granted. The pilot, who survived, told investigators he thought he heard "cleared for takeoff" from the control tower.

The report noted that the pilot said he was in a hurry, which could have contributed to the misinterpretation. The Coast Guard plane was traveling to the city of Niigata to deliver emergency supplies after recent earthquakes on Japan's west coast, and the pilot said he was worried about his crew getting home late from the mission.

The report said that there were other contributing factors to the collision: Air traffic control failed to realize that the Coast Guard plane had entered the runway, despite the runway occupancy alert, and the JAL plane didn't see the other aircraft as it was descending due to limited visibility. The accident occurred around 5:47 p.m., after sunset.

Five of the six people aboard the Coast Guard aircraft died. The pilot survived but was seriously injured.

All 379 passengers and crew on the passenger plane escaped just before the jet erupted into flames.

• My mom made the holidays special.
• The first Christmas without her in 2018 I basically turned into The Grinch.
• I re-found joy in the holidays while also grieving my loss.

My mother had a penchant for making things special.

She knew how to grab joy where she could. She decorated our home for every holiday, donning earrings and sweaters that matched the occasion.

On Christmas, she'd watch with joy while we opened her thoughtful gifts and ate our favorite holiday dishes. I don't remember a lot about the first Christmas without her in 2018. But for the next few years, like The Grinch, I wanted Christmas gone. If I'd had energy that wasn't solely dedicated to staying upright amidst my grief, I might have even taken down a Christmas tree or two in the night.

Nothing could compare to what my mom did

At 20-years-old, I didn't know how to make things special myself. I wasn't really interested in trying, either, or welcoming anyone else's efforts.

Nothing could compare to the holiday scene she'd set. No one else could make the food, decorate the house, or wrap the presents right.

I couldn't accept this truth: that everything would change. So I put a wall up between Christmas and I, white-knuckling my way through December. I didn't want to watch holiday movies or listen to holiday music. I wanted to dismiss it as any other insignificant day.

I'd get together with my family and try to pretend I was happy to be there, but I felt guilty for pretending and resentful of having to. Yet I didn't think not pretending was an option.

The thing about grief, though, is that with each year, the tide rose, washed away more grit, and left me softer.

I had to find beauty in things again

From the spring of 2019 through the spring of 2020, I spent a year living in Denver. I needed to change my surroundings — and make a change that was in my control — to teach my brain that there could be beauty in newness. I needed to learn what the newness would make of me.

When I returned to Michigan at the start of the pandemic, I returned as someone who had made new memories in a new place. It helped me accept that things could look different and still be good. The holidays could still be special if I wanted them to be.

During the Christmas of 2020, my sister and her family had COVID-19, so I stood outside their window in the snow for 15 minutes before going back to my apartment alone. I noticed, with sad poignancy, how much I wanted to be inside with her, my brother-in-law, my nephews, and my dad.

In 2021, I met my now wife, and I had the delicious instinct to make things special together. To create our own traditions. She prioritizes fun, and it rubbed off on me. I came to love taking part in her family's traditions, too. It became clear that there was so much celebration to go around, no matter what it looked like.

I look forward to the holidays now

This year will be the seventh Christmas without my mother, and I look forward to the holiday now.

My wife and I put up our tree on November 3rd. To me, Christmas symbolizes coziness, a focus on joy, an excuse for good food and extra sugar and sitting around a table with people I love.

While there are traditions, new and old, that I cherish, it's less about the specifics and more about the feeling. And, grief is a part of that feeling. It's just not such a sharp ache anymore — more like a familiar smell that reminds me of a warm and nostalgic childhood memory.

Holiday grief (and any grief, for that matter) isn't a thing to be conquered and moved on from, but a thing to accept and learn how to live alongside. In those early years, much of my strife came from wishing I could prevent change and control my feelings. When I don't set rigid expectations of myself, and instead let the tide wash over and soften me, that softness allows space for grief and joy.

I've learned how to appreciate specialness any way it comes and grab joy where I can — even if it means putting the Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving.

• US home sales just ended a 39-month year-over-year decline, signaling the end of the bear market, NDR said.
• Affordability issues, driven by high mortgage rates, drove the 3-year decline in home sales activity.
• Investors could take advantage of the setup by buying the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF, NDR said.

The bear market in US home sales is finally over, according to a recent note from Ned Davis Research.

The firm highlighted that total single-family home sales finally turned positive year-over-year after 39 months of consecutive declines.

The 39-month decline in home sales was only outdone by the 43-month decline during the housing bubble from 2005 through 2009.

"But the recent affordability-driven pandemic bear could not be more different than the credit-driven housing bubble bear," Pat Tschosik, a strategist at Ned Davis Research, said.

The main difference between the two notable declines in home sales is affordability.

Whereas the affordability index rose 53 points from 2005 through 2009, it plunged 39 points from 2021 through 2024, driven by high mortgage rates and ever-rising home prices.

"Homeowners, locked into low rates and unwilling to move, added to low supply and higher prices," Tschosik said.

Additionally, the stocks of homebuilders outperformed over the past three years, compared to them underperforming during the 2005 through 2009 stretch.

The recent rebound in home sales activity suggests to Tschosik that the housing market should thaw in 2025, enabling a rebound in durable and home improvement spending.

For investors, that means the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF could be a worthy addition to portfolios for next year. The ticker symbol is "ITB."

"We are watching ITB for an upgrade. If inflation fears are overblown, the recent ITB correction could be a great buying opportunity," Tschosik said.

The ETF has declined by more than 15% since fears of a rebound in inflation gripped the market in late November.

The top holdings within the Home Construction ETF include home builders D.R. Horton, Lennar Corp, NVR, and Pulte Group, as well as home-improvement retailers Home Depot and Lowe's.

• TikTok could be banned come January, but what are the other fascinating creator-economy stories?
• BI's media team rounded up the most intriguing stories for the year ahead.
• Our picks ranged from a battle between Spotify and YouTube to what will happen in "IRL social."

There are many fascinating stories popping up in the creator economy every day. So, which ones have really caught the eye of Business Insider's team of reporters and editors?

We're all closely tracking whether TikTok will be banned in the US in January. But that's not the only story that could shake up the industry.

As we head into 2025, BI's media team rounded up the creator-economy storylines we are most excited to dig into next year.

Dan's storyline to watch: Influencers look to become QVC-style live shopping hosts

Live shopping has really begun to catch on in the US. Next year, I'm watching to see if top influencers embrace live selling and become QVC-style hosts — or if its momentum fades.

US creators have always hawked goods on behalf of brands, but live selling hasn't been a popular approach. It makes sense, as it's much easier for a creator to make a quick sponsored post than to film a 2-hour live sellathon.

TikTok Shop sought to popularize live selling in the US by working with outside partners to train live-selling creators and aggressively promoting the practice. I expect that will continue next year (if TikTok isn't banned), alongside efforts to drive up livestreams among e-commerce competitors like Amazon, Whatnot, and TalkShopLive.

But will creators whose content has nothing to do with e-commerce choose to try out live selling in 2025? Will live shopping replace static brand deals as the predominant way US creators make money, as it has in other regions like Asia? We'll be watching.

-Dan Whateley, senior reporter

Amanda's storyline to watch: Spotify and YouTube battle over video podcasting

Creators are launching their own talk shows in the form of video podcasts.

As this growing trend of serialized long-form content takes over screen times, two tech giants — Spotify and YouTube — will continue to compete to be the best platform.

YouTube is already a strong leader in the creator economy and a go-to creator platform. Spotify has also had a good year, reporting increased profitability in its Q3 earnings.

As video podcasts rise in popularity, these two platforms will have to convince both creators and viewers why they're the best place to earn money, engage with fans, and reach new audiences.

The race has already begun. YouTube took a stand by releasing a suite of tools and features that creators can't get on other podcast platforms — including the ability to go live, respond to comments, and earn revenue from donations.

Meanwhile, Spotify invested heavily in video in 2024, developing its own tools and more ways to pay creators for video podcasts through subscription earnings and ad revenue.

So, how will these platforms compete in 2025, and who will ultimately win in the video podcast race?

-Amanda Perelli, senior reporter

Sydney's storyline to watch: The future of IRL social apps

Social-media platforms are great for entertainment ... but for making new friends and maintaining IRL relationships? Less so.

However, a wave of startups that have either launched or expanded in 2024 plans to fill that gap. From in-person dinners offered by apps (like 222 or Timeleft) to event platforms (like Partiful or Posh), some startup founders are finding product-market-fit amid a loneliness epidemic. The trend extends beyond mobile apps, too, with in-person clubs or groups growing in popularity, like reading groups or running clubs.

While some of these startups are already raising capital and dabbling with monetization, will these solutions to loneliness stick around in 2024? And if they do stick, who will be category winners and what will success be defined by?

-Sydney Bradley, senior reporter

Nathan's storyline to watch: Creators on TV

The walls between the TV and the creator worlds are being torn down brick by brick, particularly by YouTube.

In November, as it has been for a while, YouTube was the top streaming service on TVs in the US, coming in at 10.8% of viewing compared to Netflix's 7.7%, per Nielsen.

With the lines blurring, will we see more streamers and even traditional TV networks look to creator-style content, as ESPN has done with Pat McAfee?

Creator TV shows have had a muddled history, but I'd argue that their struggles often came from networks trying to parachute an influencer into a traditional "TV" format. What about meeting them halfway?

On that point, it's been interesting to see the convergence of podcasts and video. YouTube (hello again) is the top podcasting platform in the US, ahead of Spotify (which is also looking to beef up video) and Apple Podcasts.

What's stopping the likes of Netflix, or even CNN, from licensing podcasts as long as they get the video quality up to snuff? CNN+ wanted to give Scott Galloway a show once upon a time. Maybe they should just put one of his hit podcasts on the air. The cable TV business is in freefall. It's time to get creative.

-Nathan McAlone, deputy editor

• Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, likely has dementia, his lawyers say.
• Jeffries stands accused in an international sex-trafficking case.
• The illness means Jeffries won't be able to contribute to his own defense, his lawyers say.

Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries likely has dementia and possible Alzheimer's disease, casting doubt on his ability to stand trial in a sex-trafficking case, his lawyers have said.

According to court papers filed Monday and seen by Business Insider, a neuropsychologist has assessed that "the combination of Mr. Jeffries' cognitive impairments" means that he would be unable to contribute to his own defense.

Jeffries, 80, along with his partner Matthew Smith and a third man, were arrested in October on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Earlier this month, lawyers for Jeffries filed a motion to determine his competency to stand trial.

The neuropsychologist found "a significant neurological deficit" after examining him in October last year and said her "initial diagnostic impressions" were consistent with dementia, the latest filing states.

Follow-up tests this year gave further "diagnostic impressions" of dementia and "probable" late-onset Alzheimer's, it says.

A diagnostic impression is a preliminary assessment of a patient rather than a final diagnosis.

"The Michael Jeffries who presented himself did not even come close to resembling a Master's degree-educated individual," the filing said.

The issues include "impaired memory, diminished attention, processing speed slowness, and ease of confusion," it continued.

The doctor has deemed his disease to be "irreversible" and said it will worsen over time, the filing said.

A so-called competency hearing has been scheduled for June next year, the BBC reported.

Jeffries, who left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014, has pleaded not guilty to the sex trafficking charges, as have Smith and the third accused man.

Prosecutors say that they ran an international sex trafficking and prostitution business, coercing vulnerable men connected to the company into taking part in "sex events."

Between about 2008 to 2015, the accused men used the "so-called casting couch system" in their scheme, Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, alleged in a news conference announcing the charges in October.

The indictment states that the men used Jeffries' power and wealth "to run a business that was dedicated to fulfilling their sexual desires and ensuring that their international sex trafficking and prostitution business was kept secret, thereby maintaining Jeffries' powerful reputation."

His arrest came after a high-profile BBC investigation cited a number of men who said they were exploited or abused as part of the events Jeffries is accused of.

Jeffries was hired as CEO in 1990, ushering in a period in which the brand relied heavily on sex appeal to sell its preppy outfits. Huge popularity came alongside a 2003 class-action lawsuit that alleged racialized and looks-based discrimination against staff and prospective employees, which was settled in 2004 without admission of wrongdoing.

• BNY CEO Robin Vince said the bank is currently in a "recharge period" until 2025.
• Employees at the finance giant are encouraged to focus on "core business activities." 
• The move is part of a larger push by the bank to provide mental health support to its workers.

The CEO of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. says it's OK to be more laid back at work during the last weeks of the year.

Robin Vince, who also serves as president of BNY, announced Monday that the bank is bringing back its end-of-year "recharge" period for its employees.

Beginning December 23, a spokesperson told Business Insider that BNY employees are encouraged to narrow their focus to client and core business activities, postponing more routine items until the New Year.

Non-essential activities, like internal meetings, work that isn't time-sensitive, and in-office requirements, will be paused until January 3, they told BI.

In a LinkedIn post, Vance said he's "missing the free Starbucks at our global HQ, but it's worth it to be able to spend more time with my family, all home together, while taking a break from the more routine work to really focus on what matters for clients and driving our company forward these next two weeks."

Vince told Fortune in June that BNY asks employees to be in the office "more days than you're not." BNY first introduced its two-week recharge in December 2023 to allow employees more time to focus on family than non-urgent work tasks.

It's part of a larger push by the bank to improve compensation and benefits for its employees. BNY announced Thursday that it'd increase the minimum hourly wage for US employees from $22.50 to $25, starting March 2025.

This year the company also partnered with Spring Health to bring more mental health services to employees and their families.

"We want talent to feel appropriately compensated and enjoy an industry-leading employee experience — and benefits are a part of that strategy," said Shannon Hobbs, chief people officer at BNY.

• Lyft sued San Francisco, saying it was unfairly charged $100 million in taxes from 2019 to 2023.
• Lyft argues the city's tax formula unfairly includes passenger payments as revenue.
• The lawsuit highlights global gig-economy debates over worker classification.

Lyft has accused the city of San Francisco in a lawsuit of overcharging it $100 million in taxes over five years, arguing that the city used a calculation that doesn't reflect the ride-hailing firm's business model.

The lawsuit, filed at the California Superior Court in San Francisco, says the city calculated Lyft's 2019 to 2023 taxes based on the total amount passengers paid for rides. But Lyft says it makes money from what drivers pay to Lyft, not what passengers pay to the drivers. Drivers make at least 70% of what the passenger pays, according to Lyft's website.

Lyft considers drivers as customers who use its service and not employees, the company said in the state court complaint. The city's formula is "distortive and will grossly overstate Lyft's gross receipts attributable to Lyft's business activities in the city," the filing says.

The filing says the US Securities and Exchange Commission doesn't consider driver's fees as part of Lyft's revenue. Driver fees are also not recognized as income for income-tax purposes on a state or federal level. Lyft is seeking a refund for the amount it overpaid.

Lyft and the San Francisco City Attorney's representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

"Lyft doesn't take operating in San Francisco for granted and we love serving both riders and drivers in our hometown city," the company said in a statement to Bloomberg on Wednesday. "But, we believe the city is incorrect with how it calculated our gross receipts tax for the years 2019-2023."

The complaint is another example of ride-hailing and quick-delivery platforms such as Lyft, Uber, and DoorDash making it clear that drivers on their US platforms are gig workers, not employees. Having drivers on a payroll would mean paying employment benefits such as vacation and overtime pay, minimum-wage protection, and health insurance.

Last year, gig-economy companies scored a big win after a California appeals court upheld a law that classified gig workers as independent contractors, not employees. But that argument hasn't always worked out for these companies in other markets: In 2021, the UK ruled that Uber drivers must be treated as company employees and not independent workers after a five-year legal battle.

• Apple is exploring new headsets and smart-home devices to expand its lineup.
• Its plans don't always work out; it scrapped a car project and faces weak demand for the Vision Pro.
• Apple's future profits depend on the success of devices other than the iPhone.

Apple's possible future product lineup suggests the giant is entering a new era.

Many devices are reportedly in the works at the tech giant, and many of them are very different from its golden child, the iPhone. Apple followers including the Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman and the Taiwan-based supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have said it's exploring new headsets, smart-home devices, and more.

The tech industry has long speculated about Apple's next big thing. The answer may lie in the slate that people have been reporting on for the past several months.

Creating a hit product isn't easy. The company in February scrapped plans for a car, and its $3,500 Vision Pro has gotten mixed reviews in the months since its release. On November 10, Gurman said Apple was focusing on smaller wins that could generate revenue on the same level as its iPads or wearable tech.

That requires Apple to tiptoe into new territory where competitors may already be making strides.

Bloomberg, also in November, reported on a wall-mounted smart-home tablet in Apple's production lineup that could operate home appliances, use Apple Intelligence, and access Apple apps.

The report said the project, code-named J490, could come as early as March, a month before new Apple Intelligence features are expected to roll out.

Though smart-home tech isn't a cash cow for Big Tech, another futuristic smart-home device is said to be on Apple's radar: a tabletop robot with an iPad-like display and a robotic arm.

Analysts from Morningstar, Deepwater Asset Management, and EMARKETER were skeptical about the device's profitability — or the probability of its existence — when Business Insider asked them about it in August.

Apple is also reportedly developing a smart lock and doorbell system, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. The device would allow a person to open their home's door by scanning their face, the report said. It's unclear whether the doorbell system would work with existing third-party locks or if the company would partner with a lock maker.

The technology could certainly introduce competition to Amazon's Ring and Google Nest. However, the report said it's unlikely the product would launch until the end of 2025 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Kuo, known for his often accurate Apple product predictions, said in early November that the tech giant had delayed production of a cheaper Vision Pro to "beyond 2027" and would move ahead with a Vision Pro with its M5 processor and Apple Intelligence for 2025.

In the wearables category, Apple is said to be exploring AR glasses — perhaps inspired by the prototype Orion glasses Meta showed off in September — though they're far from production stages. The Morningstar analyst William Kerwin previously suggested that smart glasses are likely Apple's ultimate eyewear goal.

CEO Tim Cook, who's been in the role for 13 years, is guiding the company into a new future. The next line of products Apple launches could solidify his legacy.

• Paul Ollinger was Facebook's vice president of sales before he left the company.
• He grew up middle class with a scarcity mindset, he said.
• Today, he wants to teach his own kids about priorities and gratitude.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Paul Ollinger, author of "Reasonably Happy: The Skeptics Guide to Achievable Contentment." It has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up one of six kids in Atlanta. When I was around 11, my dad was taking me to get my first cavity filled. I was super nervous, but my dad, it turns out, was thinking about money. As we walked in, he said, "Don't get the novocaine. It's $20."

That anecdote sums up everything about finances in my childhood home. My father worked for the power company, so he always had a job, but he was never rich. I had everything I needed, but scarcity was the subtext of our economic reality.

That's very different from how my own kids, who are 13 and 15, are being raised. I was one of the first 250 employees at Facebook. I left the company about 13 years ago, but due to good pay and stock options, I'll likely never need to work again as long as I make smart choices.

My son asked if we were hiring a private chef

That means my kids are growing up in a very different financial reality. When my son was 7, he came home from one of his even richer friend's house. He said, "When are we going to hire a chef?"

The reaction in my head is one I can't repeat here. I wanted to yell, "A chef? The only chef I grew up with was Chef Boyardee!" But I realized my son only knew what he sees.

I joked about sending my kids to middle-class camp at Grandpa's, where they had to face horrors like having a fan instead of air conditioning. I approach the difference between my upbringing and theirs with humor, but the truth is no one imagines raising kids in an economic situation that's so vastly different from how they were raised.

I want my kids to learn to prioritize financial decisions

One book that's helped me greatly is "The Opposite of Spoiled" by Ron Lieber. He talks about the importance of giving kids allowance, because that allows them to make mistakes with small amounts of money.

My wife and I give the kids a modest monthly allowance. That means we don't have to talk with them about money every day, and they weigh up whether they really want something, like a new soccer ball.

It's important to me that the kids know that money isn't in endless supply. If they buy X, they might not have enough money to buy Y. Although I have substantial wealth, I still prioritize my financial decisions.

For example, I could fly private, but that would require me to work in a traditional job to have more income coming in. Yet, it's more important to me to be able to do the type of work I enjoy, comedy, which happens to pay less. I value professional flexibility more than the status of flying private or the joys of getting to skip TSA, so I prioritize that.

Financial security has let me chase my dream

I've loved comedy since I first got onstage at Dartmouth College during grad school. My parents paid for college, but I had $80,000 in student loans for graduate school back in 1997. That financial reality meant that I had to take a traditional job in the tech world rather than chase my dream of being a comedian.

After working in tech for a few years and paying off my student loans, I quit to pursue comedy full time for two years. My standard of living was still good because I had a lot saved. But when I met my wife and knew we wanted kids, I returned to the tech world because I wanted more financial security than life as a standup comedian could give me.

Working at Facebook ended up being a bigger home run than I could have ever imagined. I remember saying to my wife, "This might be as big as MySpace one day." I couldn't even imagine how big Facebook would become or the changes it would bring to my life.

Now that I spend time writing jokes about my financial situation and talking about money on my podcast, I've realized that happiness comes from making a choice to be grateful, not from a number in your accounts.

• My mom and I have always been close.
• However, I didn't realize how much I still needed her until I had my own kids.
• Becoming a mother helped me understand her unconditional love for me.

I've always loved my mom dearly, but after I had kids, I found I felt even closer to her. I never thought that having a baby would change my relationship with my own mother, but it did.

Growing up, my mom was the warm, fun, cuddly sort of mom who was always heavily interested in us four kids. We always knew we were loved fiercely and unconditionally.

I vividly recall lying in bed as a child, waiting for her to come and say goodnight. She would appear at my bedside and smother me in hundreds of kisses while I giggled and said, "Stop, Momma."

When I was little, life was always a great adventure with my mom. There were spontaneous trips to the drive-in movies. Fun family barbecues and mud flights at the local lake.

I didn't realize how much I still needed my mom

In my 20s, I wanted to stretch my wings, so I moved overseas from Australia to Canada, and then to London. I didn't see my mom for several years, and while I missed her, I was busy doing my own thing and seeing the world.

When I returned to Australia at 29 and had my first child at age 30, she offered to come and help. I was living in Melbourne then, so she flew down from the Gold Coast, where I grew up, and stayed with my husband and me for seven weeks.

I realized during that time just how much I still needed her. Navigating parenthood for the first time really does rock your world, but having someone to support you who has walked that road before makes a world of difference.

In those first few weeks after our son was born, mom was a powerhouse of energy. She cooked us meals, rocked my son to sleep, and counseled me when I cried about my post-childbirth body.

When I felt completely shattered from sleep deprivation and like I couldn't cope, she would take the baby out for a walk and tell me to catch up on some sleep. On days that I needed cheering up, she'd say, "Get dressed, honey. I'm taking you to lunch."

I remember watching her burping my son over her knee one morning in our little flat, and feeling like I was seeing her through fresh eyes, almost as if for the first time. Suddenly, I felt like I understood her better.

Having my own child helped me understood her unconditional love for me

I could finally relate to the boundless love that comes with becoming a parent. My husband always says my mom is my greatest ally and will defend me to the death, even when I'm clearly in the wrong. Finally, I got it. She loved me unconditionally, just like I loved my son.

I thought about the many sacrifices mom had made for me and my siblings so that we could have a better life. Growing up, she never blew money on herself. She didn't wear name-brand clothes or have the flashiest furniture or cars. But somehow, she and my dad always found money for us kids, whether we needed it for orthodontics, acne treatments, or our many hobbies.

When it was finally time for Mom to head home and I was driving her to the airport, I felt terrified. I didn't know how I would manage without her.

"I don't want you to go," I said, tears streaming down my cheeks as I hugged her goodbye. "It's time, honey. I'm only a phone call away. You'll be OK," she said, and then she was gone.

Mom was right, of course. I was OK in the end. She'd held my hand through one of the most life-changing experiences there is, and she'd helped me find my way. Just as she did when I was a child.

• I was estranged from my mother for 11 years before she died.
• Our relationship always gave me feelings of sadness, but they often intensified over the holidays.
• Seeking therapy and embracing my emotions helped the me find joy amid holiday grief.

Tis' the season for joy, making holiday cookies in the comfort of your cozy kitchen, the smell of pine needles and sipping piping hot cocoa. But for many folks who are estranged from loved ones, including me, it's also the season for something a little less merry: grief.

My mother and I were estranged for eleven years. I say were because she is no longer earthside, but somewhere out in the ether, depending on who you ask. Of course, with that loss comes its own kind of bereavement. But before she died in 2019 after a methamphetamine overdose, our estrangement felt something like an eternal sadness, one that can't be taped over and wrapped with a bow — especially around the holiday season.

The months that mark the end of the year, a supposed-to-be-happy shift into a new year are, perhaps, the hardest months when you're estranged from a loved one, a friend or for many people, their entire family. For me, that was certainly the case. My mother, the person we all are connected to deeply in ways we can't always understand, wasn't around. She always loved Christmas time, but Halloween was her favorite, and as our eleven-year estrangement went on, I found myself a little melancholy as the spooky season approached. It went well into December, too.

We missed out on the wrapping of presents together, the jaunt to go look at the holiday lights or even watch silly movies about elves and St. Nick and those Hallmark movies she loved. And with every missed holiday together, it marked something we could never get back. Time. Memories. Joy. Sorrow. Love. This came and went every year.

Finding a way to cope

Amid our estrangement, around year three, I decided to find ways to cope with the sadness. I didn't want to stay stuck in this loop. After all, I wanted to enjoy the holidays, too. We all deserve that. So I set out to do what I knew would help me: I got a therapist booked out, every year, to talk to before the holiday season kicked in. Even if I didn't keep the sessions throughout the months, I found that having someone (a trained professional) to make a plan with — like what to do when I feel depression coming on or what I could do to help myself if I got angry messages from my mother — was a way to protect myself.

I always knew that, around the holidays, each of our feelings would be exacerbated. I'd feel the call to continue to protect myself, and she, a struggling addict, would feel the call to reach out to me and reconnect. I'd feel sad to not be able to hug her, and she'd, presumably, feel sad she couldn't hug me, too.

I used to imagine her sitting in her home that I'd never seen or been invited to before, and I'd wonder if she thought about me, or what we'd do if we were together. Over the years, I found that, instead of pushing these thoughts and feelings away, embracing them actually made things easier. We should feel all of our things, and even if they're hard, that is the reality of many folks who are estranged.

Living a joyful life

Making the decision to get professional help, and let myself notice and acknowledge how I felt, gave me permission to live in the duality: I could have complicated emotions and still live my joyful life. Of course, it also helped to confide in trusted friends, indulge in my Granny's Christmas cookies, head to the three-story mall with my little sister to shop for gifts and give myself restful days when I needed them.

Now, even after my mother has passed on, I think the process of grieving her while she was still alive, was somehow, more difficult than grieving her death. That's the thing about estrangement, it forces us to grieve a person who is still living, but who, in some ways, feels dead. Around the holidays, this always leaves me still with a sadness, that I suppose will always be there. But I can continue on.

A few years before my mother's passing, I got a card in the mail a week after Christmas. It was postmarked on December 24th. The address was one of a drug addiction treatment center, where she had checked herself in on Christmas Eve, a time when the holidays must have helped her reevaluate her life. The note simply read, "Merry Christmas, I love you." For the first time, I wholly knew, she felt the hardness of the holidays, too.

• Space junk has filled up so much of Earth's orbit that it's endangering satellites and astronauts.
• The company Kayhan Space issues roughly 1,000 space-collision warnings per day.
• Earth-orbit experts fear debris will cause an "unstoppable chain reaction" that cuts off launches.

So much junk is filling Earth's orbit that collision avoidance has become a busy business.

"We're talking about the dead satellites, the rocket bodies, the fairings, the wrenches, the gloves, and things like that that have been left up in orbit," physicist Thomas Berger said in a press briefing at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington DC on December 11.

Along with those recognizable objects, there are millions of bits of debris in orbit traveling faster than a bullet.

All that stuff is building up and increasing the risk of explosive space collisions, which is dangerous for astronauts and satellites.

Earth's orbit is so crowded with junk now that roughly 1,000 warnings about possible impending collisions go out to satellite operators each day, Berger said.

For example, Araz Feyzi, a co-founder of the orbital data company Kayhan Space, told BI in an email that some of its customer satellites get up to 800 alerts per day from the US Space Force.

Siamak Hesar, the company's other co-founder, later wrote in a SpaceNews editorial that the company tracks "more than 60,000 alerts per week for a constellation of around 100 satellites."

Most of those warnings come from one neighborhood of Earth's orbit, around 550 kilometers (340 miles) in altitude, where SpaceX's Starlink satellites live.

"It's getting difficult for satellite operators to determine which of these warnings is important and which they have to pay attention to," said Berger, who is the executive director of the Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Because trackers can't perfectly predict objects' positions in space, these collision warnings are triggered when objects are expected to pass each other at a close distance. Only a small fraction of warnings actually end in a collision.

When space objects do collide, they eject high-speed debris in multiple directions, creating a new zone of hazardous junk in orbit.

"It could generate a chain reaction, an unstoppable chain reaction of further collisions, ultimately resulting in a completely filled-up space environment," Berger said.

In the worst-case scenario, orbit could become so crowded that there's no safe space for new rocket launches.

That's a situation experts call Kessler syndrome, and "that we hope to prevent," Berger said.

Close calls and near-misses

While rare, major collisions and explosions have happened a few times.

In 2009, an American satellite and Russian satellite crashed together, ending in nearly 2,000 bits of debris large enough to detect — at least 4 inches wide — with thousands more smaller bits.

In 2021, a Chinese satellite and a Russian rocket chunk collided, creating at least 37 pieces of debris large enough for ground systems to track.

And anti-satellite missile tests by Russia, China, and India have blown up dead spacecraft in orbit, sending thousands of chunks flying.

Each of these events created its own field of hazardous debris which still rockets around the planet today with potentially dire consequences.

For example, several times a year, astronauts on the International Space Station get debris alerts and prepare to evacuate if the station is struck. When this happens, spaceships docked to the station will burn their engines to push it out of the way.

Satellite operators often respond to warnings by moving their satellites out of the way. SpaceX told the FCC in July that its satellites had conducted nearly 50,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers in just the first half of the year, Space.com reported.

Unfortunately, not all satellites are maneuverable.

In March, NASA had to sit on its hands and watch as a long-dead Russian spacecraft careened toward the agency's TIMED satellite, which was designed in the 1990s and doesn't have the ability to move on command.

Luckily, the two spacecraft missed each other by 17 meters (56 feet) — not very far by space standards.

"That would've been a hypervelocity impact creating thousands of pieces of debris," Berger said.

Daniel Baker, who directs the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at UC Boulder, urged the US Congress to pass the ORBITS Act. The legislation would require federal agencies like NASA and the FCC to support technologies that can remove junk from orbit.

"I believe that we are watching the tragedy of the commons play out in low-Earth orbit right before our eyes," Baker said in the briefing.

"We have to get serious about this and recognize that unless we do something, we are in imminent danger of making a whole part of our Earth environment unusable," he added.

• United Airlines' share price has more than doubled in 2024, outperforming competitors.
• The airline benefits from its hub airport structure and has been smart with deploying capacity.
• Strong finances and planned share buybacks have also helped.

United Airlines may be Boeing's biggest customer, but the two companies have had wildly different years.

A quality-control crisis and seven-week labor strike have led to layoffs, increased regulatory scrutiny, and — perhaps most problematically — production delays.

And despite massive headwinds across the entire airline industry, United has outperformed most of its peers, with its stock price up 148% in 2024.

Financial analysts and industry consultants say the airline's strong finances, share buybacks, broad network, and a coming fleet refresh are among the reasons it has been doing so well.

That's despite impacts from Boeing delivery delays, which forced United to offer pilots unpaid leave and rethink its flying this year. The airline coped by leasing planes and shrinking its domestic supply.

Clark Johns of Alton Aviation Consultancy told Business Insider that United's advantageous hub structure and hundreds of incoming narrow-body aircraft helped position the airline to better manage Boeing-related headwinds.

The carrier also benefited this year by refocusing on long-haul flying to boost business and revenue.

"Basic economy is still a major revenue stream for them, and they're expanding their premium seating," Johns said. "In some senses, they're kind of firing on all cylinders."

United flies to more overseas cities than any other US carrier

Among the biggest boons for United has been international flying.

Analysts at HSBC raised their price target for United in December to $116 —about 14% above current levels — citing its international network as a key driver.

"Its exposure to the international markets is well above its peers, and the international demand is quite strong," HSBC said, adding that United's 2024 transatlantic winter bookings — typically a slower period — are 30% higher compared to pre-Covid levels.

Johns said United "has done a good job with regards to the timing" of deploying its capacity amid delays to deliveries of new Boeing planes.

He said United had a strong performance in Europe — operating long-haul routes when demand was high but more modestly on domestic routes when overcapacity impacted US airline revenues.

United has also expanded its capacity on flights to Asia. Tokyo's Narita Airport has been a particularly key base for United, and Johns praised the airline as "tactical" in redeploying aircraft there from weaker routes out of its Guam base. In 2025, it plans to further expand in the region.

United's diverse hubs provide a strategic advantage

United benefits hub airport locations that create strong network opportunities across oceans and the Americas.

Large population centers, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Newark, New Jersey, act as strong international gateways.

Johns said these airports help United target high-yielding premium and business traffic.

The airline also feeds passengers through hubs in Chicago, Denver, and Houston, providing good connectivity across the interior US.

In an October report seen by BI, Deutsche Bank analysts said they anticipate 2025 will be a "strong year of regional growth" for the airline's network.

Johns said Delta and American don't have the same vast hub structure and have dominance in fewer places, like Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte for American and Atlanta and Detroit for Delta.

United is revamping its fleet with hundreds of new planes

A fleet renewal plan that includes 270 new Airbus and Boeing narrow-body planes, plus 150 widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliners, is powering United's expansion.

Data from the manufacturers show that as of November 30 this year, United had received 21 Airbus A321neos, 31 Boeing 737 Maxs, and one Dreamliner. The 737 deliveries are less than half of the 71 Max planes United received through November 2023.

As it shifts capacity, United has removed the yet-to-be-certified 737 Max 10 from its future fleet plan. It has 150 units on order.

United also has new planes from rival Airbus to look forward to in the coming years, including its first A321XLR in 2026.

United's SVP of global network planning and alliances, Patrick Quayle, previously told BI the airline plans to replace its aging Boeing 757s with the A321XLR and fly to new destinations, like northern Italy and West Africa.

This influx of narrow-body planes could help United lower costs and make the airline even more competitive.

United's fleet allows for diverse revenue streams, including basic economy and money-making premium cabins; the latter is especially lucrative as corporate travel remains on the rise.

Deutsche Bank analysts said United's adjusted pretax margin of 9.7% "reflects the company's advantage of having revenue diversification with premium customers, basic economy customers, and domestic road warriors."

United's third-quarter premium revenues, including Polaris business class and premium economy, were up 5% year over year.

Basic economy was up by a fifth, signaling United's discounted fare has likely poached some business from budget carriers struggling to maintain customers who prefer more perks when flying.

Share buyback signals strong finances

In its third-quarter earnings, United's adjusted earnings per share of $3.33 beat analysts' estimates. It also announced plans for a $1.5 billion share buyback.

"We intend this buyback to be the beginning of a consistent and disciplined return of capital that is paced by our ability to generate increasing levels of free cash," said CFO Michael Leskinen.

Johns told BI that this was another sign of United's progress toward becoming a dependable "blue-chip" stock as it works to reduce its debt-to-earnings ratio.

"I think that's probably the market broadly seeing the positive aspects in terms of how the airline is performing," he said.

In a recent earnings call, United CEO Scott Kirby said the airline has been confident for the past two years that the industry is evolving to produce higher margins.

Deutsche Bank analysts are also bullish, saying: "We believe the solid earnings momentum will continue into the next two years."

• Andy Palmer, the "godfather of EVs," explains how China took the lead in the electric-car race.
• Palmer got the moniker after developing the Nissan Leaf, the world's first mass-market EV.
• He said Chinese EVs offered "remarkable" value for money and better battery tech than Western rivals.

The man often known as the "godfather of EVs" has a warning for automakers thinking of ditching electric vehicles for hybrids.

Andy Palmer, a former Aston Martin CEO and Nissan exec, told Business Insider that delaying transitioning to EVs in favor of selling hybrids was a "fool's errand" and warned that automakers doing so risked falling even further behind Chinese EV companies.

Palmer's moniker comes from his time as chief operating officer at Nissan.

He led the development of the Nissan Leaf, the world's first mass-market electric car, which has sold more than half a million units since it launched in 2010.

"I wish I could say that it was driven by a motivation to better the world. But actually, it was driven by the Toyota Prius kicking our ass," Palmer told BI.

Rather than copying the success of the hybrid Prius, Palmer said, he pushed Nissan to build a fully electric vehicle, eventually securing the support of the CEO at the time, Carlos Ghosn.

Over a decade later, he's skeptical of automakers — including Aston Martin, the company Palmer ran as CEO from 2014 to 2020 — who have taken the opposite path and turned to hybrids as EV adoption has slowed.

"Hybrids are a road to hell. They are a transition strategy, and the longer you stay on that transition, the less quickly you ramp up into the new world," Palmer said.

"If you just delay transitioning to EVs by diluting it with hybrids then you are more uncompetitive for longer, and you allow the Chinese to continue to develop their market and their leadership. I honestly think it's a fool's errand," he added.

China races ahead

Over the past few years, the auto industry has been shaken by the booming growth of Chinese brands such as BYD, which have conquered their home market with a range of affordable and high-tech EVs and hybrids and are now rapidly expanding abroad.

"The Chinese cars are bloody good. The Chinese vehicles offer remarkable value for money for what they deliver," Palmer said.

"Their battery technology's class-leading, and they've concentrated very much on their software," he said.

Palmer told BI that the success of China's EV industry was down to the country's long-running industrial strategy.

One study found that the Chinese government had spent at least $230 billion on subsidies for EV makers since 2009.

Palmer, who previously served on the board of Dongfeng Motor Company, a joint venture between Nissan and the Chinese state-owned automaker Dongfeng, said he saw firsthand how aggressive China's EV strategy was.

"The edict [from the Chinese government] was to move to new energy vehicles," he said.

"It starts with an industrial strategy. That's the big thing to learn. For the best part of 14 years, we have not had an industrial strategy," Palmer added.

Both the US and Europe have responded to the rise of Chinese automakers by imposing tariffs aimed at protecting their own auto industries, but Palmer said tariffs would only harm Western companies' ability to compete with their Chinese rivals.

"My experience with tariffs is it just makes your indigenous industry lazy. The gap becomes even bigger," he said.

Instead, he argued that automakers should prepare for a "survival of the fittest" battle with Chinese automakers, especially in Europe, where the likes of BYD and Xpeng have ambitious expansion plans.

"I think the Chinese firms will learn from competing in Europe, because that's the toughest market in the world. If they can do that, then they're going to be unbeatable," Palmer said.

Japanese carmakers stumble

The surging growth of China's EV giants has put Palmer's former employer Nissan and its Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda under severe pressure.

Nissan announced it would lay off 9,000 workers in November, while both Toyota and Honda are facing declining sales in China and slumping profits. In December, it was reported that Nissan and Honda were in merger talks.

Palmer said that while Toyota's decision to focus on hybrids paid off initially, it had left it and other Japanese automakers exposed as key markets such as China transition quickly to EVs.

"Toyota took the Japanese industry down a cul-de-sac, which it is going to struggle to recover from," he said.

The former Nissan executive said his old company, meanwhile, had "shot itself in the foot" and squandered a promising lineup of electric vehicles and a 10-year lead in EV tech.

"My last board meeting in July 2014, I was under enormous attack from the bean counters who were saying; these things don't make money, we are going too fast. I managed to win the day in that meeting, but I left the company," Palmer said.

"Nissan finds itself now with a very poor lineup of products and without obvious leadership in EVs, and that's the direct result of poor management," he said.

How to get EVs moving again

The past year has been tough for electric vehicles. While sales are still growing, the pace of adoption has been slower than expected, causing automakers across the globe to roll back investments.

For Palmer, the reason some consumers have proven reluctant to go electric is simple: EVs are too expensive.

"Prices have got to align to those of internal combustion engines. And to make that happen, you've got to be able to offer cars with smaller batteries," Palmer said.

The average price of an electric vehicle in the US in October was $56,902, according to Kelley Blue Book, compared with $48,623 for gas-powered vehicles.

Palmer said selling cheaper vehicles with smaller batteries and less range would require governments to incentivize the rollout of charging networks to alleviate range anxiety.

He added that the West could learn from China's approach to industrial strategy — especially when it comes to batteries, an industry that China dominates.

"If the West wants to catch up, I would advocate copying the Chinese," Palmer said.

"The alternative is everything is Chinese at the moment — even if you were building your own battery cells, you've still got to get all the minerals from China," he said. "The whole supply chain is stuck."