• We lived in Quincy, Massachusetts, for 12 years and enjoyed being in Boston's neighboring city.
• We didn't love our housing or school options there, so we relocated to Norwell.
• Now, we're happy to have a more suburban home with access to good schools and more space.

I've had the privilege of living in and around Boston for at least 12 years.

After renting for years, my husband and I bought our first house in Quincy, a city in the greater Boston area, in 2018.

Buying in this city felt tough with just our budget, so we split a two-family home with two 800-square-foot units with a friend for $598,000.

We loved having a house on the subway line and living in a city minutes from Boston. Our front door was steps away from a pretty harborfront restaurant, a small beach, and lots of nearby activities in the historic downtown.

I figured Quincy would be an ideal long-term home base for us. Unfortunately, this feeling didn't last.

We began finding it hard to picture raising a family in this city

In 2020, we found out we were pregnant.

Although I couldn't get enough of Quincy's foodie scene, cultural events, parks, and waterfront, I began wondering if this would be an affordable and practical place for us to raise a family.

At times, the city felt a little overwhelming and crowded with its tens of thousands of residents.

Our current home seemed like it would be too small for us, our dog, and our newborn — and we weren't sure if we could afford a bigger one here on our own. Plus, we weren't thrilled with the ratings of the public schools nearby.

So, we took advantage of the seller-favored housing market at the time and sold our place for $715,000.

We moved an hour south to my parents' house in Plymouth and spent the next few months saving and looking for our next home.

Eventually, we set our sights on a different part of Massachusetts

After some research, I set my sights on Norwell, which is about 20 minutes south of Quincy. It's a small town next to a coastal enclave of beautiful New England-style communities such as Hingham and Cohasset.

It feels less trendy (and slightly more affordable) than those because it's landlocked and smaller, but it's still minutes from the beaches and harborfronts.

We searched for about a year until settling on a three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home with a gorgeous sunroom for $830,000. Being able to save for a year while living with family made this purchase possible.

To be honest, Norwell isn't much cheaper in Quincy. Houses generally sell for more money, although the median price per square footage of listings in Norwell is $87 less than listings in Quincy, according to data from Realtor.com.

Although this home was more expensive than our last place, we felt we were getting more space with our investment. Plus, we feel we get more value for our money here.

Our property taxes are higher, for example, but we now live near some of the best public schools in Massachusetts. We no longer wonder if we should spend thousands sending our kids to private schools.

Norwell is quieter than Quincy, but we have access to everything we need

It's felt pretty nice and peaceful to go from living in one of the biggest cities in Massachusetts to Norwell, which has about 11,000 residents.

Although our town doesn't have much happening, major shopping and dining spots are just a few minutes' drive away.

Several grocery stores and other conveniences are very close by, and we found a wonderful preschool down the road for our oldest daughter, where she gets to be out in nature most of the day.

We're also just 15 to 20 minutes from a beach and five minutes from the highway that can fairly easily get us into Boston.

Although I miss living in Quincy and the buzz of a city sprawl, we're happy in our woodsy town of Norwell and have enjoyed two great years so far as residents.

The best part is that Boston is still less than an hour away by car or ferry whenever we feel like visiting a trendy restaurant or concert.

• Many Americans seem to be tuning out of mainstream media after the election, a sign of news fatigue.
• The shift is especially evident on the left after Kamala Harris' defeat.
• Newsrooms are shifting gears to regain audiences amid declining trust in some corners.

Are people checking out of mainstream media?

After a year of Americans seemingly being transfixed by politics, early signs suggest they're exhausted and tuning out of the news.

A big question in media circles has been whether there would be another "Trump bump." The term refers to the traffic surge many media outlets saw from covering scandals under Donald Trump's first term.

They shouldn't count on it.

The early indications are that the road ahead could be hard, especially for mainstream and left-leaning media.

Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN got big ratings boosts in 2024, with Fox topping the ratings charts. But viewership of the latter two fell off after the election as liberals licked their wounds following Kamala Harris' defeat.

Many news sites showed similar postelection dropoffs. The New York Times, CNN, and Fox News each saw double-digit declines in traffic from October to December, according to data from SimilarWeb.

On social media, where many people are increasingly finding news, news publishers' engagement on Facebook and X generally dropped off sharply after the election, according to NewsWhip data. The data looked at a sample of about a dozen top news publishers including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, MSNBC, and Fox News.

And the fatigue may have set in even before the election ended.

Overall, the 2024 general election drew less readership than the previous one. Chartbeat data from nearly 100 publishers showed 2024 election-day traffic among news publishers was about a third of what it was in 2020 when outlets benefited from COVID-related lockdowns.

Fatigue on the left

With Democrats facing a second Trump administration, news fatigue appears stronger on the left.

About two-thirds of American adults said they recently felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government because of overload, according to a December survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. More Democrats (72%) than Republicans (59%) felt that way.

Howard Polskin, founder of The Righting, an outlet that reports on right-leaning sites with a critical eye, said a significant number of his newsletter readers unsubscribed after November 5. He said readers told him they just wanted to tune out Trump news.

"They also said, 'It's not just you, it's The New York Times, it's The Atlantic,'" he said.

A changing landscape for media

The dropoff comes as some mainstream and left-leaning newsrooms are in flux.

MSNBC faces an uncertain future under a new leader as it prepares to be hived off from NBCUniversal, along with other declining cable networks, into a new company. Mark Thompson's remaking of Warner Bros. Discovery's CNN is still underway. The Washington Post is facing internal discontent and big-name defections.

More broadly, newsrooms are fighting for limited subscribers and digital ad dollars, leading some to lay off staff.

Some newsrooms are making moves to capture the audiences they're missing. The Washington Post just unveiled a new mission statement underscoring a desire to reach "all of America." The Los Angeles Times' owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, recently said he wants to introduce moderate and conservative columnists in an effort to broaden its reach.

One Post staffer said that, with politics in the outlet's DNA, some think the answer is to double down on politics reporting, but others worry the audience is burned out.

"There's a real difference in opinion," said the staffer, who, like some others in the story, asked for anonymity to freely discuss company strategy. Their identity is known to BI.

Is it a blip or something larger?

One key question is whether the decline is temporary or part of a more sustained downturn. It's common for audience numbers to drop off in some fashion after the general election.

Internally, MSNBC sees some early signs of viewership recovering from the post-election dip, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Hannah Poferl, assistant managing editor and director of audience for The New York Times, said the paper takes confidence in its subscriber base that reads consistently, regardless of the news cycle. She pointed to strong readership since November for news about the Los Angeles wildfires, Jimmy Carter, and more.

"Our news audience has been largely stable, despite the studies that suggest news fatigue, and our subscribers are consuming more pieces across the total report than in the past," Poferl said in a statement. "Beyond this, we're also seeing increases in time spent engaging with us, beyond just page visits."

CNN similarly downplayed to BI its reliance on political news, pointing out that its top story of 2024 was an entertainment story on Sean "Diddy" Combs.

That said, established news outlets are also facing competition from influencers, podcasters, and others. Almost half of adults under 30 get their political fix from social media, twice as many as those ages 30 to 49, according to Pew Research. And newsrooms continue to face declining trust in some corners.

"The challenge for the business is explaining why it's different to get news on NBC versus from a creator who's also a bartender but has funny hot takes on TikTok," a news talent agent told BI.

• In my early 20s, I landed a job that became more about partying than working.
• I became close friends with my coworkers, and we all spent weekends together.
• Now, I work for one of those friends, and our dynamic is difficult to manage.

When I first graduated from college, I landed a sales job in New York City. The friends I met there in the first few months were some of the closest I had ever had in my life.

Nothing brings you together like late-night work sessions and huge commission checks you spend on anything you want because you're 22 and have never heard of a high-yield savings account.

Making work friends in my early 20s gave me the college experience I never had. We often had weekday sleepovers, where we would roll into the office in the same clothes we wore the day before. The idea of professional boundaries never even crossed my mind.

That's until my close friend at that job recently became my direct manager.

I got a new job at a tech startup and learned about professionalism

When I started working at a tech startup, I spent the next seven years forming close relationships with my co-workers, direct reports, and even my boss.

I was introduced to the delicate balance you can create between a boss and a direct report that allows you to be completely yourself while also maintaining mutual respect and a sense of authority.

We could seamlessly jump between presentation prep and sharing personal anecdotes about our struggles, our goals, and everything in between. The dynamics were playful and professional, whereas my first job was all play and no work.

As it usually goes, after seven years at the tech startup, I decided to part ways with the business. Unemployed, I found myself at a wedding next to an old friend and coworker from my first play-only job. She had recently gotten recruited to take over the office and offered me the opportunity to come on board as a contractor for a few months to earn some extra cash while I was in between jobs.

A few months turned into a full-time position

After everything I learned about this delicate balance of coworker and friend, nothing could have prepared me for that reporting line shift. The last time I worked with my now boss, we were 23 years old, night swimming on Fire Island at three in the morning on a Thursday. Now, I'm filling out my end-of-year review, reflecting on how I did so that my friend can decide whether or not to give me a raise.

To put it simply, it felt pretty weird.

I have always thought of her as a wild friend first and a coworker second, but since rejoining the company, we have both had to flip that prioritization. It helps that we're almost 10 years older, but it's still been a hard transition.

We have had to put our friendship on the back burner and be more professional with one another. We use Teams to catch up instead of texting. We share weekend plans during our 1:1 instead of naturally calling each other to check-in. I find myself more hesitant to say things that I wouldn't have given a second thought to before, and I can feel her hesitation as well.

In some ways, it feels like I am mourning the loss of our pure friendship, which is now muddled by salary discussions and time off requests.

As hard as it is, there are also a lot of benefits to reporting to a friend

Maybe it's a loss of a pure friendship, but it also feels like a gain of something pretty incredible.

I have always felt that the most important thing about a work environment is who you work with. I feel safer and more comfortable knowing that I have a friend in my corner, and I think she feels the same way, too.

I never would have even known about this job opportunity without my friend encouraging me to take the role. Even more importantly, she knows me so well that she has faith in my abilities and trusts me completely. I have been given more responsibility and autonomy in a few months than most people get after years because it takes time to build that level of trust with a new manager.

Working for a friend works for me — for now

Right now, in my career, I crave autonomy and trust. I believe I have earned that faster by working for a friend.

There may come a time when I'm seeking more mentorship or diverse experience from my manager. When that time comes, I will need to shift away from reporting to a friend and start fresh.

When I consider the times I have worked with friends vs. when I have not, working with them comes out on top every time. But working for them might be something I only do a few times in my career.

• I taught preschool for two years and loved it.
• But at the same time, I couldn't support myself financially.
• I applied for an office job and was reminded of how to interact with other adults.

I taught preschool for two years. Frankly, it was delightful. It was fulfilling, meaningful work that left me feeling full-hearted at the end of every day.

The problem was I couldn't support myself and my son on that salary as a newly single mom. Instead, I dove into the corporate world head-first, but it wasn't without sacrifices.

The job search process was time-consuming

First came the job application process. I spent hours each day sending résumés to whoever might take me, desperate to step into the breadwinner role now that I was on my own.

After three months of crafting bespoke cover letters for every employer I sent an application to, I finally found it: an entry-level marketing role at an online health publisher that had my name all over it.

That's when the culture shock really set in.

As a preschool teacher and the mother of a toddler, I had hardly touched my laptop for the last two years. My son and I had a set routine of attending school together every day: his place of learning and my place of work.

I was home in time to make dinner every night, and our weekends were filled with parks and playgrounds. We were a part of a small, tight-knit community of teachers, administrators, and a few involved parents. It was cozy, comfy, and sweet as can be.

I wondered whether it was worth it

Now, I was suddenly thrust into the fast-paced, competitive environment of San Francisco's startup world — and my head was spinning.

My son was the first kid at day care and the last to come home owing to my new 3-hour roundtrip commute. Before, he got to attend the school I taught at for free. Now, half of my paycheck went to childcare.

I started to question whether it had all been worth it, whether I had given up something precious and rare just to make money — like so many others — and still barely make ends meet. But I told myself to stick it out, trusting that even if I couldn't see where my new career would take us, we'd land where we needed to be.

Once I started adjusting to my new role, there were plenty of perks to enjoy.

There were perks

For the first time in my life, I had quality benefits (full medical, vision, dental, and a 401k), and it was refreshing to be in an office with people my age. It was the first time I had meaningfully interacted with adults outside a kid-focused setting in years. I had sort of forgotten what grown-up me was like. Frankly, I probably came on really strong.

I felt like a fish out of water as a 20-something kid-at-heart hippie in a corporate setting wearing blazers and flats for the first time in my life, but it was exhilarating to try on a new and dynamic persona and see how it all played out.

At the same time, I genuinely missed my role as a teacher and all that after-school time with my son.

Sure, we had cold brew on tap and office-sponsored happy hours every Thursday. I got to lead the Celebrations Committee and organize extravagant parties for special events and birthdays on the company dime.

Still, that didn't compare to watching a whole community of children growing from babies into school-ready kids over the course of a year. It didn't compare to the showers of heartfelt gratitude we teachers received from parents for caring for their children when they were away.

And it certainly didn't compare to storytime snuggles, end-of-day hugs, and the love and trust that we earned from our students for being there for them day after day.

All that said, I wouldn't change a thing. My career had a bumpy, awkward start, but now I get to work from home, homeschool my son, cook dinner every night, and spend zero time commuting. I can contribute to my community, grow a garden, and walk my dog.

I'm even nursing a little fantasy about one day returning to preschool teaching just for the joy of it — and supporting myself with a freelance career. We'll see what unfolds, but I don't regret rolling the dice, even though I still miss all the kids.

• Walmart has a shiny new 350-acre headquarters in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.
• The sprawling corporate campus features bike trails, a food hall, and childcare facilities.
• Here's an inside look at the multibillion-dollar project.

Walmart has come a long way since 1962.

The world's largest retailer just officially opened a new 350-acre headquarters in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.

Friday marks the start of a phased opening, with two office buildings open now and 10 more to follow.

Elsewhere on the sprawling campus, employees and visitors can access bike trails, a food hall, childcare facilities, and a massive fitness center.

"Our founder, Sam Walton, knew that when we all work together, ideas flourish," CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. "This campus will allow us to keep making a positive difference in our customers' lives for generations to come."

Here's an inside look at the multibillion-dollar project.

Sam Walton Hall sits at the heart of campus.

The building features conference and educational facilities to host gatherings of corporate workers and field employees.

Inside the hall is a two-story, 200,000-square-foot auditorium.

The hall hosts the campus' official grand opening on Friday.

Outside Walton Hall is an amphitheater named for Sam's wife, Helen.

Terraced seating and a tree-lined lawn will be available for company and community gatherings, Walmart said. More broadly, there are 750,000 native plants, including 5,000 trees that are indigenous to the Ozarks.

A network of bike paths connects the various buildings.

The 350-acre campus has seven miles of paths and more than 1,000 bike spaces.

Employees and visitors can also rent bikes to get around.

Walmart says green spaces represent half of the total campus.

One of the first office buildings to open is named "Cheer."

Many stores start the day with a cheer that spells out the letters of the name Walmart.

Walmart has made a big push to get employees back to in-person work.

Last year, the company required many workers to relocate to Bentonville from other areas of the country.

Walmart says its campus represents the largest application of mass timber construction technology in the US.

The buildings are designed for LEED Platinum environmental certification, and feature a slew of eco-friendly tech, such as dynamic glass and LED lighting.

8th & Plate is a "dynamic food hall" that offers food from around the world.

The food hall features seven coffee shops, spaces for food trucks, grab-and-go options, street-front retail, and a rooftop lounge.

Childcare is provided at the Little Squiggles Enrichment Center.

The center opened last May and offers services for children from infancy to pre-K.

Affordable, on-site childcare was one of the most-requested amenities by employees.

The 73,000-square-foot facility accommodates 500 children and is the largest childcare center in northwest Arkansas, Walmart says.

Early last year, the company unveiled the Walton Family fitness center.

The massive 360,000-square-foot center features a yoga studio, pools, a nutrition center, and more, serving more than 31,000 employees and family members.

True-blue Walmart fans can stop by the welcome center to pick up company gear.

Earlier in the week, Walmart unveiled its first brand refresh in 17 years, with tweaks to its colors, font, and logos.

• Saudi Arabia wants to increase tourism and diversify its economy with the help of Riyadh Air.
• Its launch has been pushed back due to Boeing delivery delays, Bloomberg reported.
• Riyadh Air chose Airbus for its second order after months of speculation.

Riyadh Air has postponed its launch because it won't get enough jets due to Boeing's problems, Bloomberg reported.

The new airline is a pivotal part of Saudi Arabia's drive to attract more tourists.

It wants to compete with the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways that are also based in the Middle East.

In 2023, Riyadh Air announced it had ordered 39 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, with options for 33 more.

The airline had expected to take delivery of eight such aircraft this year, but now expected to get just four, Bloomberg reported.

As a result, Riyadh Air has pushed its planned launch back from early 2025 to the third quarter.

"We have obviously pivoted like everybody else has on a number of occasions to be able to adjust to the latest forecast," CEO Tony Douglas told the outlet.

"I am confident, given the latest forecast, that we'll get deliveries this year," he added. "Is it completely without risk? Obviously no, it's not."

Boeing said in a statement: "We continue to work closely with Riyadh Air on their delivery schedule and look forward to supporting Riyadh's inaugural operations."

Riyadh Air did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Delivery dips

It is the latest disruption sparked by Boeing's recent woes.

The planemaker delivered 348 aircraft last year — its lowest output since the pandemic — as it grappled with the fallout from an Alaska Airlines 737 Max losing a door plug during a flight.

Regulators capped production of the aircraft, while output was also hit by a seven-week strike in the Seattle area.

The 787 Dreamliner is assembled in South Carolina, but the planemaker has slowed down as overhauls processes to ensure safety and quality.

The delays come as a blow to Saudi Arabia's ambitious plans for Riyadh Air.

It aims to serve at least 100 destinations within five years to bring more tourists to the kingdom and help diversify its oil-dependent economy.

The airline has already announced a partnership with Spanish soccer team Atlético Madrid. It also plans to use AI in its systems, to offer a last-minute fast track through security if a passenger is running late, for example.

Riyadh Air has also ordered some single-aisle aircraft for its short-haul operations.

Shortly before the 2023 Dubai Airshow, reports suggested that Riyadh was set to order as many as 100 Boeing 737 Max jets. However, no deal materialized.

In October 2024, the airline announced an order for 60 Airbus A321neo jets.

• Marc Andreessen said DOGE will prioritize return-to-office for federal workers in Washington, DC.
• Andreessen criticized remote work, citing low occupancy rates in federal buildings.
• DOGE, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, aims to cut government spending and increase efficiency.

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has said pushing a return-to-office policy for government staff in the "ghost town" of Washington, DC, is a top priority for DOGE.

Referring to himself as the "unpaid intern" at the Department of Government Efficiency, the Silicon Valley billionaire and a cofounder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz described the number of federal employees working remotely as a problem in an interview with the Hoover Institution earlier this week.

DOGE is a newly formed unofficial government department that President-elect Donald Trump created to cut federal government spending. Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy were appointed to lead the agency.

While Andreessen has no formal position, he was involved in the early planning of DOGE.

"The Washington, DC federal government complex is basically a ghost town," he said, adding that these buildings have an average 25% occupancy rate. A 2023 report from the Government Accountability Office found that the offices of 17 agencies were at 25% capacity or less.

A September 2024 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget said government agencies should aim for occupancy of 60%

"The security agencies are still full-time, the other agencies are not," Andreessen alleged.

He said that federal workers have unionized in some government agencies, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they struck agreements allowing them not to return to the office.

Andreessen claimed that in "extreme cases," federal agencies allow working in the office for just one day a month, and some of their employees are pairing their workplace days by showing up for two days every two months.

"You ask any CEO in corporate America, like how is this whole thing going, what are your employees doing," he said, "every CEO will tell you: 'What on earth is happening? Are these people working?'"

Andreessen continued by asking if Trump may have the legal authority as president to order people back to the office.

"Does it count to be an employee of the federal government if you're not in the office?" He asked.

• Growing up in the US, I wasn't interested in being a mother.
• Then, I moved to the Netherlands for work and discovered I was pregnant.
• I now know why the Netherlands is ranked among the top countries to raise kids.

Before becoming a parent, I thought I had a clear idea of what motherhood should be — and I didn't want it.

I saw mothers lose time, ambition, and a sense of self, transforming into someone who primarily existed as a "mom."

That vision left me hesitant to embrace parenthood. Instead, I spent years building my financial education business and podcast, finding fulfillment in my entrepreneurial pursuits.

Everything shifted in 2023 when I moved to the Netherlands for career opportunities and discovered I was pregnant.

The Netherlands ranks among the best countries for raising kids, and — being a new mom — I can attest to that first-hand.

From the moment I gave birth, I began to experience a completely different approach to parenthood than the one I'd known in the US. It didn't reduce me to a single role.

At first, giving my daughter so much independence felt strange

In the Netherlands, independence begins practically at birth.

One of my first encounters with this philosophy came through the kraamzorg — a government-provided maternity nurse who supported us the first week after my daughter was born.

She introduced me to the Dutch parenting mantra: "Let them be, observe, offer support, then let them be again."

This way of living challenged everything I thought I knew about motherhood. Growing up in the US, I was always within arm's reach of my mom.

Rides to school and constant supervision were the norm, and my family insisted I should always keep a close watch on my child.

Conversely, Dutch parenting encouraged me to let my daughter explore and learn on her own.

Initially, it felt strange and counterintuitive to leave the room or focus on work while she played nearby.

I constantly questioned whether I was doing the right thing, but seeing how other families practiced and modeled independence gave me the confidence to stick with it.

At just five months old, my daughter was already engaging in solo play, exploring food at her own pace and self-soothing. As a result, she can easily adapt to new environments and has developed a calm, curious nature.

Seeing those results made it easier for me to let go of the overprotective mindset I grew up with.

I'm able to nurture my daughter and my career without sacrificing either

The Netherlands' parenting approach gave me a freedom I didn't expect. I was able to return to my business just two months after giving birth, a relief that brought a sense of normalcy and balance back into my life sooner than I had anticipated.

Being able to nurture my career while showing up for my daughter felt outrageous compared to what I saw growing up, but it was completely normal here. All the other mothers in my neighborhood were doing it.

It's not just the mothers. The community here actively supports these norms. Many coffee shops, for example, have dedicated kids' corners so when I go out for coffee with friends I can be fully present in the conversation while my daughter plays nearby.

Moreover, libraries host programs that encourage children's autonomy and provide spaces for moms to connect and learn from each other.

Watching 4 and 5-year-olds confidently walk on top of their wheeless bikes to school with little supervision — and seeing them navigate completely independently by age 7 — showed me how independence is deeply ingrained here.

It's refreshing and a relief to feel supported by a community that celebrates independence, allowing both parents and children to thrive.

• Apple has temporarily disabled AI summaries of news notifications in a new software release.
• The feature has faced criticism from media outlets over concerns that AI generates factual errors.
• Apple has been betting big on AI to trigger an iPhone upgrade cycle.

Apple is pausing a feature in its artificial intelligence software designed to summarize news notifications following backlash from media companies that said the technology was making major errors.

The technology giant unveiled the change to its Apple Intelligence platform on Thursday following its latest software release to developers. The iOS 18 beta 3 update shows that generative AI-enabled notification summaries are "temporarily unavailable" for news apps.

In a statement, Apple confirmed to Business Insider that notification summaries for news and entertainment will be temporarily unavailable with its latest beta software releases across iPhones, Macs, and iPads. "We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update," the company said.

The decision comes just months after the company introduced its generative AI platform, Apple Intelligence, to users. Apple touted the summarized notifications feature as one that surfaces "what's most important" to users.

However, the feature has prompted criticism from some outlets, who complained that the generative AI powering Apple Intelligence notifications repeatedly made mistakes when summarizing news headlines.

The BBC raised serious complaints with Apple last month after an AI summary of a story on Luigi Mangione — the suspect behind the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — falsely told some iPhone users that Mangione had shot himself.

It's the latest sign of the challenges Silicon Valley companies face with the technology that their industry has rallied around since the launch of ChatGPT.

Major tech companies like Google and OpenAI have also seen their AI generate major inaccuracies, raising concerns about the technology's potential to spread false information.

It's also a sign that Apple faces teething problems with a technology that CEO Tim Cook has called a "new chapter in Apple innovation."

Analysts have been examining whether Apple Intelligence can match the performance of generative AI offerings from rival firms and trigger an iPhone upgrade cycle.

Not all have been convinced it will. Apple received a "sell" downgrade this month from Craig Moffett, senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, who told Bloomberg that there are concerns consumers are "unmoved by AI functionality."

• A Southwest Airlines pilot was charged with driving under the influence as he prepared to fly.
• David Paul Allsop was going through pre-flight checks when police entered the cockpit.
• A TSA agent contacted police after screening him, saying he smelled of alcohol and seemed intoxicated.

A Southwest Airlines pilot was arrested shortly before takeoff on Wednesday.

David Paul Allsop, 52, was charged with driving under the influence after the incident in Savannah, Georgia, according to Chatham County Sherriff's Office records.

He was due to fly from Savannah to Chicago Midway Airport before airport police boarded the plane.

A Transportation Security Administration officer contacted law enforcement after "encountering an individual in the crew screening lane who smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated," an agency spokesperson told Business Insider.

"TSA always reminds passengers that if you see something, say something, and that is exactly what our Transportation Security Officer at Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport did when they saw something out of the norm," it said.

Allsop was performing pre-flight checks in the cockpit when the police asked him to step out for questioning, per an incident report seen by CNN and the New York Times.

CNN reported that the responding officer said there was a "noticeable odor emanating" from Allsop, who he described as having "bloodshot, watery eyes and a flushed complexion."

He told police he drank a "few light beers" the night before, the Times reported.

Allsop failed a field sobriety test and declined to take a blood test, the arrest report said, per CNN.

Data from Flightradar24 shows the Boeing 737 landed in Chicago nearly five hours later than scheduled.

In a statement shared with the outlets, Southwest said the "employee involved in the situation on Flight 3772 Wednesday morning from Savannah has been removed from duty."

"Customers were accommodated on other flights and we apologize for the disruption to their travel plans," it added.

Allsop was released after posting a $3,500 bond, the sheriff's office records show.

Chatham County Sherriff's Office, the TSA, and Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by Business Insider outside US working hours.

This isn't the first time an airline pilot has been arrested after being suspected of being under the influence.

Last March, a Delta Air Lines captain pleaded guilty to reporting for duty as a pilot while being impaired through drink or drugs, after Airport security officers found two bottles of Jägermeister in his luggage.

And in 2023, a United Airlines pilot was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after showing up to work more than six times over the legal alcohol limit for pilots.

• A fire broke out at California's Moss Landing Power Plant on Thursday.
• The plant, said in 2023 to be the world's largest, stores energy for the California grid.
• 40% of the battery plant was burned, officials said, terming it a "disaster."

A major fire broke out Thursday at one of the world's largest battery storage plants.

The facility, in Moss Landing, northern California, stores energy for general use as part of the state grid, and is a significant part of California's efforts to use cleaner energy.

It caught fire Thursday afternoon, officials in Monterey County said, prompting evacuation orders for more than 2,000 people.

A Monterey County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told the local news channel KSBW 8 that 40% of the battery plant had burned.

A law enforcement spokesperson told CNN that concerns around chemical spills and hazardous material burning had prompted broad evacuation orders.

Officials had not commented publicly on the cause of the fire as of early Friday.

The facility is operated by Vistra Energy, a Fortune 500 firm based in Irving, Texas, which has some four four million residential and commercial customers across 20 states.

Its stock price was down just over 5% in premarket trading on Friday, but has soared more than 330% in the past 12 months, valuing it at $59 billion.

One of the batteries at Moss Landing, the Elkhorn Battery, was built in partnership with Tesla.

The system uses Tesla Megapack battery units, which contain lithium-ion batteries and power conversion equipment, and has a capacity of 730 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy storage.

Vistra did not immediately respond to Business Insider requests for comments made outside working hours.

Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church told KSBW-TV that the fire was a "worst-case scenario" and a "very severe" situation. But he said he didn't expect the fire to spread beyond the concrete building it was enclosed in.

Even so, "there's no way to sugarcoat it," he added. "This is a disaster."

Jenny Lyon, a spokesperson for Vistra Energy, told Politico that the cause of the fire has yet to be identified but that an inquiry would begin once it's extinguished.

In a press release announcing the plant's expansion in 2023, Texas-based Vistra Energy said it was one of the world's largest battery storage plants.

The site has experienced problems before. In 2015, a transmission tower at the power plant collapsed, resulting in a significant power outage.

A failing heat detector also caused damage to the battery complex in 2021, and in 2022 a fire broke out at a nearby Pacific Gas & Electric-owned battery plant.

The fire burned as authorities in southern California, some 250 miles away, continued to battle the wildfires in Los Angeles that began early last week.

• I am a smart, capable adult. I thought I was too clever to get caught up in a scam. I was wrong.
• It happened when I turned to social media to seek help with a travel-related issue with my car rental.
• Next time, I'll remind myself to take a breath and go slow when someone comes to my aid.

I know full well that new internet scams are popping up every day. I'm suspicious to the point of being cynical and I've worked in online media for more than 15 years. I thought I was scam-proof. I was wrong.

Stressful travel made me feel desperate

At the tail end of spending time back East with my family, my son got sick on the day we were supposed to fly home to LA, so I delayed our flight for two days. The plane ticket was easy to switch with no extra charges, but when I went to extend my rental car, the company website said they'd charge me more than $3,000 for a rental car that was supposed to be just $51 per day.

I was panicked. I told myself this must be a mistake and called their customer service number for help. After an hour of getting redirected to automated lines over and over I felt sick. I couldn't pay for this — it would cost more than our entire trip. If I could just get in touch with a live person, I had hope that everything could be worked out.

I turned to social media for help

I remembered I had had luck contacting corporations through social media before and found the rental company's official Facebook page. I posted a message about my situation with a plea for help.

I was flooded with relief when I received an immediate reply from a profile with the title "Customer Service". The person on the other end asked for my phone number and email address, and I got a call minutes later. With a shaky voice I explained what was going on and the voice on the other end of the phone — someone named Kenneth — apologized for the error and said he could help.

And that's when he got me. I was so desperate to connect with a live person, that I was willing to follow every instruction that he gave me to rectify the situation.

Kenneth (who knows if that was even his name) said that not only would I not be charged the exorbitant fee for the extra two days, he would make my extra two days complimentary just for my trouble. All I needed to do was confirm my credit card number.

He said for safety reasons I shouldn't tell him the number over the phone, but instead download an app called Remitly where the number would stay confidential. He said he would send a $100 refund to my card to make up for the extra two days I'd be charged. Looking back, I now realize this doesn't make much sense and it wasn't even the right amount. It should have been $102 if he was crediting me for two days. But, I didn't even hesitate for a second. No warning bells went off in my head or my gut. I was just so glad to finally be getting help. I followed his instructions.

And then, it happened again

Then I got another Facebook message from a different "Customer Service" profile stating they were trying to contact me but I wasn't picking up the phone. "It's OK," I typed. "I'm talking to someone right now."

"Hang up," they wrote. "Hang up the phone."

A chill crept over me from head to toe. "Oh my God," I wrote back. "It's a scam. I just gave this guy my credit card number."

I hung up the immediately and the phone rang again. Now someone allegedly name James was available to help me. Now I was snapped out of my daze and hung up on him as well.

Finally, I heard from a real person

Eventually, the rental car company wrote back on Facebook saying none of the messages or calls had come from them, and that I'd have to work the extra fees out at the rental counter when I returned the car.

I was humiliated and even more panicked now. I called my credit card company and cancelled the card.

I spent the next 36 hours berating myself for being so foolish. When I arrived at the rental car counter, I was able to find a manager who cancelled the $3678.07 charge that caused me to reach out to customer service in the first place, but by then I was a complete wreck.

In the end, the scammers ended up charging me $100 and I don't know if I'll ever get that money back, but realize I'm lucky that's all this annoying lesson cost me.

I'll do things differently next time

The next time I'm up against a stressful customer service issue, I'll remind myself to take a deep breath and go slow. When I feel that sense of relief that someone is coming to my aid, I'll always take a pause and verify that they are who they say they are, especially when I'm reaching out via social media. And the next time someone calls me cynical, I'll tell them "It comes from experience."

• An Alaska Airlines crew member says she was fired after posting a video of herself twerking in uniform.
• She said she posted the video on TikTok to celebrate the end of her probation period.
• Alaska Airlines didn't comment on the incident but said it holds all staff to "high standards for conduct."

An Alaska Airlines flight attendant says she was fired after posting a video on social media of her twerking in an aircraft cabin.

Nelle Diala uploaded the dancing clip to TikTok in late November alongside a caption describing herself as a "ghetto bih."

"Don't let the uniform fool you," she added. It has since garnered more than 90,000 views and thousands of likes.

In the video, she wears an Alaska Airlines uniform while dancing to the song "Ghetto" by musician E.K.E.

Since her apparent dismissal, Diala has launched a GoFundMe page, on which she detailed the incident that led to her firing.

Diala explained that she posted the video to her personal social media account to celebrate the end of her six-month probation period. She said she filmed the video at 6 a.m. while waiting for the plane's pilots to arrive.

Diala said the airline told her she had violated its social media policy and that she was terminated without notice or an investigation.

"Although it was a poor decision on my behalf I didn't think it would cost me my dream job," she wrote.

"I explained that the video wasn't intended to harm anyone or the company, but they didn't want to listen."

Diala described losing her job as "devastating." As of Friday, her GoFundMe had raised just over $2,000.

Alaska Airlines told Business Insider it did not comment on personnel matters: "We hold all flight attendants to high standards for conduct and guest care. All new flight attendants are subject to probationary periods, just like all Alaska Airlines employees."

Diala did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Business Insider asked three software engineers to share key industry slang newcomers need to learn.
• Understanding tech slang helps new software engineers fit into their company's culture.
• Terms like rubber ducking and zero-day are crucial for effective communication in tech.

Software engineering has its own slang terms only heard in the industry. Business Insider polled three IT experts with computer and software engineering experience and/or education who collectively bring two decades of industry experience for a list of phrases newbies should familiarize themselves with before they join the industry.

Burak Özdemir, a software engineer with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a master's in informatics, has navigated plenty of tech lingo during his seven years in the industry.

"In our field, we use a vibrant mix of industry-specific terms and slang," Özdemir, the founder of the Character Calculator, told Business Insider. "These terms often capture complex concepts, tools, or experiences in a concise and sometimes amusing manner."

Özdemir said that for anyone aspiring to become a software engineer, knowing key terms and buzzwords not only helps in understanding conversations and documentation but also signifies you're part of the tribe, comfortable with its culture, and more likely to fit in:

1. Rubber ducking

Özdemir describes rubber ducking as "a surprisingly useful problem-solving method where you explain your code line by line to a rubber duck (or any inanimate object)."

He said this act of vocalization helps uncover flaws in logic that weren't apparent while working silently.

2. Bikeshedding, aka The Law of Triviality

"This refers to the phenomenon where disproportionate attention is given to trivial issues in software development, while more complex or crucial issues are overlooked," Özdemir said.

"It comes from the idea that people will debate the color of a bike shed while ignoring the design of the nuclear power plant it's meant to house."

3. Boilerplate

Boilerplate refers to sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration. "It's often seen as a necessary evil and a potential place for future optimization," Özdemir said.

4. Spaghetti code

Özdemir described spaghetti code as a disparaging term for software with a complex and tangled control structure — especially one using many GOTO statements, exceptions, threads, or other unstructured branching constructs. "It's a nightmare to read, debug, and maintain," he said.

5. Easter egg

An Easter egg in software engineering refers to a hidden feature or novelty the programmers have put in their software.

6. Refactoring

The process of rewriting existing code to improve its readability, structure, or performance without changing its behavior is known as refactoring.

"It's like tidying up your room," Özdemir said. "It doesn't make it any bigger, but it does make it easier to navigate."

Komal Fatima has a BS in computer software engineering and a master's in computer software technology. She currently works at Gaper, which hires remote software engineers, as a senior SEO manager. Although she is fairly new to the tech industry, with three years under her belt, she's had a crash course in the lingo.

Fatima's list includes rubber duck and bikeshedding as well, and she added these three industry slang terms and definitions:

7. Code smell

Code smell is poorly written or structured code that may contain bugs or inefficiencies.

8. Yak shaving

Getting sidetracked by unrelated tasks before addressing the original problem is also known as yak shaving.

9. Legacy code

Older, often outdated, software that requires maintenance and lacks proper documentation is called legacy code.

"There are so many slang terms which are specific to the software industry, I think it's impossible to exhaustively list them all," said Abhinav Upadhya, a seasoned engineer with expertise in robotics and automation who has a decade of industry experience and is currently a senior engineer at L&T Technology Services Limited.

Upadhyay founded the podcast search engine DrPawd and writes about programming in the newsletter Confessions of a Code Addict.

His list of terms for software industry newbies includes:

10. Duck typing

Also called dynamically typed languages, duck typing refers to a class of programming languages that don't have strict typing. "Basically, this means that if an object behaves like a duck, then it is probably a duck, but the language will not ensure or enforce that it is actually a duck," Upadhyay said.

"Such loose requirements make it easier to churn out code, however, at the cost of potential bugs and code readability." He added that many companies use these languages, such as Python, Ruby, and JavaScript, to name a few.

11. Bare metal

Bare metal, according to Upadhyay, usually refers to running the code directly on the hardware without using any virtualization or abstraction layers between the code and the hardware.

"It's commonly used in the embedded systems world, and if you decide to work in that domain, you should know this," he said.

12. RTFM

RTFM stands for "Read the Fucking Manual." "This is an old acronym, and you'll hear old-timers using this to point newcomers toward reading the documentation before asking questions," Upadhyay said.

13. KISS

Software engineers use another common acronym — KISS, for "Keep it Simple, Stupid" — as a guiding principle when designing code.

"The idea is that the design should be kept as simple as possible and delay introducing complexity as late as possible," Upadhyay said.

14. Magic numbers

People often need to use hard-coded numbers as parameters in their code — Upadhyay said software engineers refer to these as magic numbers.

"They usually use trial and error or guessing to arrive at good values for these numbers," he said. "However, they don't have a good explanation for why those work. Such hard-coded numbers in the code are usually called magic numbers because they work like magic as no one understands how they work."

He added that you may read the phrase magic number in industry textbooks or documentation and hear it used by other engineers.

15. Zero-day

The term zero-day refers to a security vulnerability that's unknown to the software vendor or developer.

"It's called zero-day because it's being actively exploited in the wild by the attackers before the developers have had zero days to fix it," Upadhyay said. "If working in the computer security area, this is a must-know term."

• Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks in 2024, according to Cox Automotive estimates.
• The Cybertruck's high price and slowing demand contributed to underwhelming sales figures.
• Despite challenges, the Cybertruck was the top-selling electric pickup, surpassing the Ford F-150 Lightning.

I once had a reservation to buy a Tesla Cybertruck. I canceled it last year and ended up buying a Model 3.

It was December and Tesla was offering juicy year-end incentives that won me over. I picked up the car at a Tesla dealership south of Silicon Valley.

Before driving off, I saw about 20 Cybertrucks lined up in the parking lot. I asked a Tesla employee about these vehicles and he said roughly half of them were spoken for. So about 10 were unsold with three weeks left of the year.

Sales numbers

I don't know what happened to those specific Cybertrucks, but overall sales of Elon Musk's angular, divisive electric pickups underwhelmed in 2024.

Cox Automotive recently released EV sales numbers for the US market. This firm estimates that Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks last year.

In late 2023, I collated some Wall Street forecasts for Cybertruck sales and found that Tesla was expected to sell about 48,500 units in 2024. That was the average of estimates from analysts at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Bernstein, and Wedbush.

So, Tesla missed by almost 10,000 units. I asked Cox about this and Stephanie Valdez Streaty, the firm's director of industry insights, got back to me.

"Demand for the Cybertruck showed signs of slowing down towards the end of the year and was lower than many Tesla enthusiasts and boosters might have expected," she said.

Cox also adjusted its third-quarter Cybertruck sales number to be lower than initial estimates.

"The Cybertruck's current price point — more than $100,000 according to Kelley Blue Book estimates — will make it difficult to achieve the volume sales that were promised prior to launch," she added. Similar electric trucks from Ford and Rivian cost quite a bit less.

A little context

The Cybertruck is unique and has some groundbreaking technology. Some people love the design.

It ended up being the fifth best-selling EV in the US last year, according to Cox. It beat the Ford F-150 Lightning, making the Cybertruck the top electric pickup in terms of sales.

The top EV was the Model Y, followed by the Model 3. Together, those vehicles accounted for more than 600,000 sales in 2024.

So, the Cybertruck it has not been a massive flop, but it hasn't been a runaway hit either.

The outlook

More than 1 million people put $100 down to reserve a Cybertruck after it was first announced in late 2019.

It's unclear how many people canceled their reservations, like me.

"The electric pickup truck market is becoming increasingly competitive, with new models from established automakers," Valdez Streaty said. "This heightened competition will continue to challenge the Cybertruck's market share."

"We are likely through many of the early Tesla Cybertruck adopters. Initial demand was driven by enthusiasts and early adopters," she added. "The focus now is on appealing to a broader market to sustain sales momentum."

• The Chevrolet Trax subcompact crossover SUV is the most affordable model in the GM's lineup.
• I recently drove a 2025 Trax in range-topping 2RS trim.
• I was impressed by its strong feature content, attractive design, and great value.

The Chevrolet Trax is not only the most affordable model in the Chevy lineup but also the lowest-priced model offered by General Motors in the US.

I recently reviewed a 2025 Trax 2RS with an as-tested price of $27,085. I was impressed by the its strong slate of features, competitive pricing, and attractive styling.

The subcompact SUV, which launched in 2024, competes with the Toyota Corolla Cross, Nissan Kicks, Hyundai Kona, and its corporate cousin, the Buick Envista.

Here are 15 features that show why the Trax is such a compelling economy SUV.

Athletic looks

The Trax features a muscular and athletic design with broad shoulders that GM says is inspired by the big brother, the Chevrolet Blazer.

The design gives the impression that the Trax is bigger and wider than it actually is. I think it looks terrific.

Great value

The Chevrolet Trax comes in five versions, with the base LS trim starting at $20,400. The range-topping 2RS and Activ trims start at $24,300.

Freight fees, a sunroof, and optional driver assistance tech pushed the as-tested price of my Korean-made Trax 2RS test car to $27,085.

Three-cylinder power

All versions of the Trax are powered by a 1.2-liter, turbocharged, direct-injected Ecotec three-cylinder engine that produces 137 horsepower and 162 lb.-ft. of torque.

The turbo three, shared with the Buick Envista, is mated to a shiftable six-speed automatic transmission driving only the front wheels.

The engine has enough juice to tackle daily errands around town but can feel overmatched when the vehicle is loaded with passengers or cargo.

My 2RS test car boasts solid EPA fuel economy ratings of 28 mpg city, 32 mpg highway, and 30 mpg combined.

Sensibly designed cabin

The Trax's cabin is intuitively designed with decent material quality. The Chevrolet Trax is a great example of delivering an interior on a budget without it feeling cheap. It would be a stretch to call the interior luxurious or premium, but it also doesn't punish you for being frugal.

Interior quality is good, and there are plenty of soft-touch materials in the high-contact area. The red turbine-design air vents that felt out of place in the pricier Blazer EV worked well here to add a pop of color and visual appeal to the cabin.

Large infotainment screen

My test car came with an 11-inch infotainment touchscreen. The Trax's infotainment system has fairly limited features, but what it does have is very intuitive to use.

Lower trims get a smaller eight-inch screen.

There's standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, as well as a backup camera.

Heated steering wheel

The Trax 2RS comes with a stylish heated flat-bottom steering wheel.

Digital instrument display

The Trax comes standard with a traditional analog gauge cluster, but higher-end models come with an eight-inch digital instrument display.

Steering wheel audio control

As with most recent GM models, the Trax comes with handy audio controls on the back of the steering wheels.

Remote engine start

My test car came with remote engine start, which activates by pressing the "curved arrow" on the Chevy key fob.

The feature is also available on lower trim levels but as part of an optional convenience package.

Roomy rear seats

The Trax offers an impressive amount of room for a subcompact crossover. With 38.7 inches of legroom, the offers 2.5 inches more than the Mazda CX-30 and six inches more than the Toyota Corolla Cross.

Rear seat passengers also have access to dedicated USB-A and USB-C plugs.

Evotex seats

My test car comes with comfortable RS-branded Evotex faux leather upholstered seats. Lower trims have traditional cloth seats.

Stylish alloy wheels

My 2RS trim test car came with optional 19-inch black-painted machined aluminum wheels. The base Trax LS has 17-inch steel wheels, while all other trims have 17-, 18-, or 19-inch aluminum wheels.

Spare tire

Spare tires are becoming increasingly rare these days, especially in lower-priced vehicles where the carmaker is trying to keep weight and cost under control. So I appreciate Chevy for making the decision to offer them instead of giving us a can of fix-a-flat.

Standard safety tech

The Trax 2RS comes standard with the Chevy Safety Assist, which includes key features such as forward collision alert, lane keep assist, Intellibeam headlights, front pedestrian braking, and automatic emergency braking.

Adaptive cruise control requires an extra Driver Confidence Package.

Good cargo capacity

Behind the rear seats, the Trax boasts a formidable 25.6 cubic feet of cargo space. The Trax's 60/40 split rear bench can fold nearly flat to expand cargo room to 54.1 cubic feet.

• TikTok creators face losing their income as a potential US ban looms.
• In response, some TikTokers are vowing not to pay taxes on their earnings from the app.
• TikTok supports 224,000 US jobs and contributed $24.2 billion to GDP in 2023, according to one analysis.

As the deadline to decide TikTok's fate nears, some creators are wondering what it means for their income.

Some say that if their social media business is suddenly yanked away, they won't be filing their taxes — 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.

TikTok Shop, for example, pulled in millions in sales a month on the platform last year, including $100 million on Black Friday alone.

As the potential ban inches closer, creators have been flocking to alternative apps, including Chinese-owned Lemon8 and RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshum.

• 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 — 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.

Then came the looming TikTok ban and the Americans. By Monday, RedNote became the most downloaded iPhone app in the US. As of Thursday evening, it still holds the top spot.

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.

Last week, TikTok appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to pause the divestment deadline. The court is expected to rule on TikTok's fate this week.

New US users, calling themselves "TikTok Refugees," flooded RedNote 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 — yet potentially contentious — 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 — a heavily censored topic on the Chinese internet — 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.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month and plans to attend Trump's inauguration.

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.

• 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 second inauguration on Monday, and several CEOs are reportedly attending.

Microsoft CEO Sundar Pichai and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew are just two of the latest Big Tech executives planning to attend. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos are also reportedly attending.

Companies have also been making donations toward Trump's inauguration festivities. Google, for instance, is making a $1 million donation — 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 — 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 administration were direct in congratulating him.

Elon Musk, who became an economic advisor to Trump during his first term, ended up parting ways with the president in 2017 after Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on the climate crisis.

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.

For instance, Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan earlier this month that he thinks Trump will help US businesses.

"One of the things that I'm optimistic about with President Trump is I think he just wants America to win," he said during the podcast.

At The New York Times' DealBook Summit in December, Bezos said he wanted to help Trump reduce government regulations.

"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 — 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.

This December, though, the former Amazon CEO was on terms good enough for Trump to host Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, at his Mar-A-Largo estate for dinner.

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.

• 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 — including Hermès, which managed to reap rewards with classic designs. Hermès'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.

Chinese luxury consumers, who have long been logo-hungry, also started adopting a quiet, old-money aesthetic 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 — those who spent big bucks on luxury immediately after the pandemic — 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.