• Torrey Grant commutes eight hours each week for a teaching job at Syracuse University.
• That job is in addition to his account executive role at a PR agency where he works full time.
• The share of supercommutes in the 10 largest US cities has grown from four years ago.

Torrey Grant said his roughly eight-hour weekly commute for his part-time gig is worth the time because he enjoys the job and it supplements his income.

In June 2022, Grant and his wife moved from Syracuse, New York to New York City so they could be closer to her family. Grant landed a Manhattan-based account executive role at a public relations agency that specializes in the food, wine, and spirits industries. He was also able to retain his part-time gig of more than five years: teaching a wine and beer appreciation course at Syracuse University, his alma mater.

During typical weeks when school is in session, he wakes up at 4:30 a.m. on Tuesdays in his Manhattan residence, drives roughly four hours to Syracuse, and is at his desk by 9 a.m. During the day, he works remotely for his public relations job. He then teaches two courses in the evening, stays overnight at a hotel, works remotely for his PR job the next day, teaches two more classes in the evening, and then drives home Wednesday evening.

"It's well worth it to keep a great job and it keeps my wife and I close to her family," said Grant, 50, when referring to his teaching position.

Grant is among the supercommuters who are defined by traveling more than 75 miles to work. The share of supercommutes in the 10 largest US cities was 32% greater between November 2023 and February 2024 than between the same time period four years prior, per a study from Stanford University that was published in June.

The researchers said this increase was likely driven by the uptick in remote working arrangements. For example, some Americans who moved away from their offices — in part for lower housing costs — decided they could stomach a long commute when their employers rolled out return-to-office policies after the pandemic.

Driving several hours is worth it for the job and pay

Grant said he earns between $80,000 and $100,000 annually from teaching, depending on the number of courses he teaches — which can vary based on student interest, among other factors. Grant estimated that he dedicates about 30 hours a week to his teaching job, which includes 12 hours of lecturing and additional time spent in meetings, conducting office hours, preparing for classes, and grading.

Grant said that his round-trip commuting costs typically include between $40 and $50 for a full tank of gas, roughly $80 for one night at a hotel, about $25 in tolls, and $36 to park at the school — a total of about $200 per round-trip.

Before he committed to driving as his preferred mode of transportation, Grant said he tried taking the train and flying. However, he said the train can take up to six hours if there are delays, and that flying — which can also come with delays — typically doesn't save any time.

Looking ahead, Grant said he plans to keep supercommuting for the foreseeable future. He said the biggest downside of the commute is that he has to be away from his wife two days a week. However, he said he enjoys teaching and that working with students helps him stay up to date on what's popular with younger wine and beer consumers — which can also give him a leg up at his public relations job. He said he's considered looking for teaching jobs closer to home, but only a few schools offer similar courses.

Ultimately, he said the teaching job's pay — and the limited travel costs — are what's made his commute sustainable. In the future, he said the job could bring about another financial benefit: discounted college tuition for his children.

"Financially it still makes sense," he said of the commute. "I'd love to say I would do it even if it wasn't but that's not realistic."

Do you have a long commute to work? Are you willing to share your story with a reporter? Reach out to [email protected].

Jessica DeBenedetto has only been on compounded tirzepatide for a couple of weeks, but she already feels like it's a life-changer. Her doctor prescribed the cheaper, generic version of the weight-loss drug after her insurer refused to cover Zepbound, the brand-name version made by Eli Lilly. DeBenedetto, now 43, tells me she's been prediabetic since her 20s, and after going through hormone injections with IVF, she's put on a worrying amount of weight she just can't take off. As we talk, she marvels that she's had a box of chocolates on her desk all day that she still hasn't touched, which is probably the result of both the drug and a psychological shift, since she hasn't been taking the injections that long. Still, the optimism is palpable. Those chocolates would "normally be gone in an hour," she says.

DeBenedetto's excitement has been stunted, however, by recent developments that will make compounded tirzepatide no longer widely available. The FDA has removed the drug from its shortage list and set a timeline for pharmacies to stop making compounded versions of the drug — meaning the only version available will be the FDA-approved, pricier type. She feels like the rug has been pulled out from under her.

"I'm so devastated that this option is going away," she says.

For now, her doctor is going to switch her over to compounded semaglutide — the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk. The problem is, that's a temporary fix, too. While semaglutide is still on the shortage list, the FDA is expected to eventually end that designation, and compounders will have to stop making it, too. Lots of people could be in DeBenedetto's situation: The perfect candidate for a miracle drug whose miracle will no longer be easily accessible.

GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide and tirzepatide are at the center of a weight-loss drug revolution. The biggest development in weight-loss medicine since bariatric surgery (not to mention less invasive), the medications, which were initially approved to treat type 2 diabetes, have exploded in popularity in recent years. People say the drugs help them drop pounds by cutting the "food noise" — making them feel fuller longer and quieting their appetites. Recent research suggests these drugs could help treat a variety of other conditions, from sleep apnea to heavy drinking.

The drugs became so popular so fast that manufacturers began running out, and patients scrambled to find Ozempic or Wegovy (the brand-name versions of semaglutide) and Monjauro or Zepbound (tirzepatide). There were other barriers to access: The brand-name versions of the drugs are expensive, in most cases costing thousands of dollars a year without insurance, and insurers have been hesitant to cover them. Moreover, not everyone who wants to lose weight has a clinical need to — a doctor saying no to a prescription doesn't always quell the desire to get one.

Some of these access issues were alleviated when the FDA put the drugs on its shortage list in 2022. This allowed compounding pharmacies to get into the GLP-1 game by creating their own versions of the injectible drugs using active ingredients obtained from chemical wholesalers and manufacturers that they could dispense when prescribed by a provider. Even though the FDA warned patients about the potential dangers of getting non-FDA-approved, compounded GLP-1s, the cat was out of the bag. Compounding pharmacies and telehealth companies saw an enormous opportunity to meet the demand for these copycat medications and offer them at a lower price point. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, obviously, didn't love the setup, but there wasn't much they could do to stop it, given the shortages.

The thing about shortages is that they don't last forever. After some legal wrangling, the FDA pulled tirzepatide from its shortage list in December, giving compounders a short grace period to wrap things up. That means people taking the copycats will soon need to switch to the name-brand version, find another drug, or stop taking anything altogether. The party is over — or at least it's supposed to be.

"We all knew when semaglutide went into shortage and then when tirzepatide went into shortage that this was not a permanent status. Eventually, those drugs would be available in quantities sufficient enough to meet demand," said Scott Brunner, the CEO of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, an industry group. Since October, when the FDA first determined the shortage was resolved, they've been warning members that "the end was near," he said.

Compounders aren't eager to pack it in. The Outsourcing Facilities Association, another industry group that represents compounders that produce large batches of medications, has sued to overturn the FDA's decision. Eli Lilly has since joined the FDA as a defendant to try to make sure the shortage stays resolved — it wants people taking and paying for its Monjauro and Zepbound, not cheaper copies.

In a statement to Business Insider, an Eli Lilly spokesperson said the FDA has "correctly determined" that tirzepatide is not in shortage and that it was "clear that compounders must immediately begin transitioning patients taking compounded tirzepatide knockoffs to FDA-approved tirzepatide medicines," adding that the company will "vigorously defend" the FDA's decision. The spokesperson said the best way to ensure patients get tirzepatide is for "employers, insurers, and the government to recognize that obesity is a chronic disease and to increase coverage of medicines to treat it."

The OFA did not respond to a request for comment on this story. The APC has not joined the suit in defense of the compounders, but Brunner expressed concerns that Eli Lilly's brief had gone too far, and if the court agrees, it could end compounding by smaller pharmacies of common drugs, such as lidocaine or amoxicillin, if they were to happen to fall into a shortage for one reason or another.

The bigger picture is that there's a lot of money on the line when it comes to GLP-1s, and the parties involved know it. Compounders have found a big revenue stream they don't want to easily give up. At the same time, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have market exclusivity — meaning no generics are allowed — for a limited amount of time and they want to make as much money as they can before it runs out.

For patients, this all adds up to a lot of confusion, changes, and, potentially, interruptions in treatment. The transition period will not be seamless.

"You're going to have a lot of very disappointed people," said Melanie Jay, the director of the NYU Langone Comprehensive Program on Obesity.

Many providers have begun to switch patients from tirzepatide to semaglutide or, when they can afford it, to the brand-name drug. The telehealth company Ro, which in the past offered compounded tirzepatide, in December announced it would be offering single-dose vials of Zepbound to patients with obesity. (It comes at a lower price point than the medication when delivered in an injection pen.) "We'll follow the FDA's guidance on compounding, and we'll work to ensure our patients have the best treatment options available," a Ro spokesperson said in an email.

Some compounders and telehealth companies may try to find workarounds and loopholes, especially once semaglutide is no longer in shortage. John Hertig, an associate professor at Butler University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, explained that much of this depends on what's determined to be "essentially" a copy of the GLP-1 in question, meaning it's too close to see it as anything other than a duplicate. Compounders can make patient-specific (and prescription-specific) versions of medications if, for example, a person is allergic to a dye in the FDA-approved version or has trouble swallowing something in pill form. But they're only allowed to make "essential" copies in very specific circumstances — say, a drug shortage.

"There is a space in this world where compounders are important when things go on shortage or if there's a supply chain issue or you need a patient-specific alteration of a medicine because of that patient's condition," Hertig said. The problem, he added, comes when compounders are "playing games" and "skirting that essential copy regulation" by adding a minor ingredient to make the drug technically different or changing its form of delivery.

The question now becomes what counts as too close a copy to be allowed and whether a small alteration is really different — some entities might try to add vitamin B12 to their drugs or deliver it in oral form and argue that it's OK. This could very well become battleground territory.

GLP-1s are a golden goose no one wants to give up, and investors know it. When the FDA took tirzepatide off of its shortage list in December, the stock price of Hims & Hers fell amid concerns about the telehealth company's GLP-1 business. In January, Citi downgraded its rating on the stock based on the assumption that semaglutide would be off the shortage list within the next year. Hims & Hers has not offered compounded tirzepatide in the past, a spokesperson for the company said, but it does offer compounded semaglutide.

The spokesperson said it's heard from patients who are "unable to access branded GLP-1 medications" and that over half of its customers couldn't access GLP-1s they were prescribed because of its price. They added that compounders serve a "critical purpose" and pointed to part of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that "permits the compounding of medications to address patients' clinical needs irrespective of whether a particular drug is subject to a shortage." When I asked whether that meant they would keep compounding semaglutide, the response was vague. It indicated that, at the very least, they're going to keep trying but in a way that's "personalized" for patients, though it's unclear how they'll achieve that for thousands of individuals.

"Many patients benefit from the standardized dose of GLP-1s, and right now, in this current shortage, we are committed to unlocking access to these life-changing medications," the spokesperson said. "With that, many patients can benefit from something different than the standardized dose, they need something more personalized, and this is an option that we make available on our platform and plan to do that for the long term."

A spokesperson for the FDA said the agency recommends patients use FDA-approved drugs when available and that compounded drugs should "only be used to fulfill the needs of patients whose medical needs cannot be met by an FDA-approved drug." The agency also warned that compounded drugs pose a higher risk to patients.

To further complicate things, the new presidential administration means new leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA, and Donald Trump has picked Ozempic-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the health department. In January, Hims & Hers donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund.

In the short term, this is going to be a mess. The spigot is turning off for patients on compounded tirzepatide, and compounded semaglutide's days are numbered, too. Some providers will try to find workarounds, but it's not clear how successful they'll be — or how successful regulators will be in stopping them. Patients can access the brand-name drugs, but insurance coverage and affordability remain problems. Once more reputable compounders leave the market, people might resort to sketchier operations, which could lead them to scammers, counterfeiters, and unsafe concoctions.

On the flip side, this could also be a moment for a reset. It could lead to the healthcare industry taking a better approach to GLP-1 access and care.

"Up to 70% of people with obesity who start these meds are not on it at one year anyway," Jay said. "There's a lot of reasons why people go off of it. Certainly insurance and costs, but also because I don't think people really know what they're getting into or don't have the support to really stay on them, or they think that somehow once they lose weight, they can go off of them, which is not true."

"If you're Eli Lilly, you're also looking at, how do we work with patient access?" Hertig said. "How do we work with insurers? How do we manage the cost here where we're then incentivizing more patients to go to the manufacturer, which is FDA-approved? My hope would be that the manufacturers are also looking at that patient access."

Generic versions of Ozempic and Monjauro won't be available until their patents expire. What happens with compounding is unclear, but once these drugs are no longer in shortage, compounders are supposed to stop making them, except under very specific circumstances. Within that framework, "the real thing is expensive" is not a valid reason for copying, as much as many patients wish that was the case.

It's impossible to untangle exactly who's to blame here, to the extent any one party is at fault. It's the result of how the American health system is set up. Brand-name GLP-1s are much cheaper in many other parts of the world than in the US, and the drugmakers could slash their prices, but the profit motive dictates that if they don't have to, they won't. Compounding pharmacies have been filling in a legitimate gap, though some have overstepped — it's quite easy to get GLP-1s from many providers without much of an examination. Both the big guys and little guys are pushing these drugs onto consumers through ads on television and online. Of course, people are clamoring for drugs that will improve their health, help them lose weight, and reduce the stigma around their weight.

DeBenedetto said it's "ridiculous" that the government would take compounded tirzepatide away from her, even though the government is just doing what's outlined in the law. But like many other people, she didn't realize that. For the most part, the drug makers and marketers have papered over the fact that while the medications are ubiquitous, they're not widely available at a price point patients can easily afford.

"It's always about money," DeBenedetto said. "Everything's always about money, and it sucks."

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

• Trump's first day in office on January 20 included proposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
• Trump's tariff plans could raise the costs of some medications for Americans.
• Additionally, Trump said on the campaign trail he would impose a 60% tariff on Chinese imports.

Tariffs are already a central feature of President Donald Trump's second-term agenda — and those could have a significant impact on what Americans pay for some medications.

In his inauguration speeches and Day One executive orders, the president detailed his plans for imposing sweeping tariffs on foreign goods, including a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada. Trump said the tariff policies could begin on February 1. It follows his tariff proposals from the campaign trail, including a 60% tariff on imports from China.

Some trade policy experts previously told Business Insider that broad tariffs on key trading partners like Mexico and Canada could increase the prices of goods imported from those countries. This could also stretch to key medical drugs like pain relievers, antibiotics, and cancer treatments, several of which are used in the US and manufactured abroad.

Countries like China, Canada, and Mexico not only make prescription and over-the-counter medicines, but they also supply drug ingredients. In many cases, foreign-manufactured medications are more affordable than those directly made in America — but prices and access could change with tariffs.

Trump has previously denied that his tariff policies will increase prices for Americans. Trump's press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

What tariffs mean for your medicine costs

Under Trump's tariff plans, frequently used medications could become more expensive. Per the nonprofit organization KFF, importing some pharmaceutical drugs or ingredients from other countries has made some medicines more affordable in the US than if they were manufactured domestically due to lower production costs and cheaper labor.

In 2023, Mexico exported 165 of the 350 pharmaceutical products and drug ingredients designated as critical by the International Trade Administration. Although it was a small share of America's total pharmaceutical imports — about 1.5%, per the nonpartisan policy research firm Wilson Center — Mexico supplied key ingredients for medicines like pain relievers and antibiotics. Major pharmaceutical and vaccine companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca also have operations in Mexico.

Canada, too, manufactures some generic forms of over-the-counter and prescription medications, like pain relievers. Per the Census Bureau, the US imported about $5.8 billion in pharmaceutical preparations in 2023.

Some states, like Florida, have previously proposed importing some prescriptions from Canada to increase affordability. The FDA signed off on imports from Canada to Florida on a range of drugs, including those used to treat HIV, AIDS, and diabetes, and other states are working to get approval to import drugs from Canada in bulk to lower high prices.

Trump proposed even steeper tariffs on China, which could affect drug prices. A 2023 report by the policy analysis firm Atlantic Council found that, between 2020 and 2022, US imports of Chinese pharmaceuticals grew by over $8 billion, and China remains one of America's major medical suppliers. China manufactures many healthcare products used by Americans like pain relievers, cardiovascular medicine, cancer treatments and immunosuppressives, cold and cough medicine, antibiotics, and bandages.

Tariffs and trade restrictions on foreign pharmaceuticals could also lead to higher prices and drug shortages if the US is unable to manufacture cheaper alternatives. Trump has suggested enforcing a "universal tariff" on all imported goods, which may impact other main suppliers of medicine, like Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and India.

Details are unclear on how exactly Trump will impose these tariffs, and the legal authority he uses would likely determine how soon the US could see the prices of goods change. Still, tariffs are not the only avenue through which Americans' healthcare could be impacted. On Monday, Trump signed a range of executive orders — some related to healthcare — including plans to pursue actions that will "eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices" that raise healthcare costs.

Are you changing how you approach healthcare costs with to the new Trump administration? If so, reach out to [email protected] and [email protected].

• Regeneration.VC is taking over the management of Sky Ocean Ventures' climate portfolio.
• The US-headquartered fund now counts nearly 50 companies in its global portfolio.
• Regeneration.VC is also expanding in Europe amid US policy shifts, adding a new partner.

Climate tech fund Regeneration.VC, which is backed by Leonardo DiCaprio as a limited partner, has taken over the management of Sky Ocean Ventures' climate portfolio.

Launched in 2022, Regeneration.VC bills itself as a consumer climate fund backing companies that are making industries such as food, apparel, and electronics more sustainable, partner Jamie Rowles told Business Insider in an interview.

Its portfolio includes the likes of recycling startup Greyparrot and textile dyeing company Colorifix.

Sky Ocean Ventures, the impact investing arm of British telecoms company Sky, had backed early-stage climate and cleantech startups working on everything from recycling technology to combatting the plastic pollution crisis. Regeneration.VC will take over the management of these companies, but Sky will still retain a financial stake in them.

Regeneration.VC now counts nearly 50 companies in its global portfolio.

"We are backing these consumer companies because those categories of climate have received less funding than energy and mobility," said Rowles. "And we're seeing a really exciting trend of some of the world's biggest corporates wanting to make changes in their value chains and their supply chains."

Trump 2.0 is spurring climate funds to invest in Europe

Along with the expansion of its portfolio, Regeneration.VC is adding a new partner to its European office. Narina Mnatsakanian, who was UBS' former head of impact investment, will also be the fund's new chief impact officer. In 2023, Regeneration's founding partner, Michael Smith, moved to the Netherlands.

Rowles also joined the firm in November 2024 in a bid to double down on its presence in the UK, and raise capital from limited partners for its second $150 million fund.

Europe is fast becoming an attractive hotspot for climate VCs amid a change in the US administration. Trump has been vocal in his support for oil and gas initiatives and has threatened to push back on the Inflation Reduction Act, which facilitated investment in clean energy. A potential shift in climate policy has encouraged some climate tech investors to look to Europe for more investment opportunities, Rowles said.

In the past year, US-based climate tech funds such as Voyager Ventures and Energy Impact Partners have also grown their European footprint with new appointments on the continent.

"The concept of sustainable and impact investment will have better tailwinds in Europe for the next few years," Rowles told BI. "Can sustainable investing survive Trump 2.0? For us, it's strategic to have a European presence, even though the DNA of the firm is the US. We have to be aligned with EU systems."

Regeneration.VC will still be investing in the US because of its "great pools of capital and risk appetite," — but Rowles emphasized that being aligned with the European Union on climate was a huge priority for the fund.

"We will see more climate tech funds with more of a presence in Europe," he said. "The reality is, you need to be in both markets to do the type of work we're doing. But in Europe, there's better regulation and better mechanisms to avoid greenwashing," he added.

• Staci Rice lost 64 pounds on a compounded form of the weight loss drug semaglutide.
• It was expensive so she tried to maintain her weight loss without the medication, and gained 26 pounds.
• Rice started a side hustle so she could go back on the medication.

The weight loss drug semaglutide was a "miracle" for Staci Rice, making cravings and "food noise" disappear and helping her to lose 64 pounds in around eight months.

To afford to keep taking the drug, she started a side-hustle in digital marketing alongside the 40-hours a week she worked to get her new insurance business off the ground.

Semaglutide, marketed as Wegovy for weight loss and Ozempic for diabetes, is part of the family of appetite-suppressing drugs called GLP-1s, which includes products such as Mounjaro. Many insurance companies cover the drugs for diabetes but not weight loss.

Rice, 42, from Georgia, is among users who take compounded GLP-1s that aren't FDA-approved, because they are significantly cheaper than branded products that can cost around $1,000 a month.

In August 2024, Eli Lilly reduced the price of its GLP-1 Zepbound by almost 50% to compete with knock-offs. It now sells for $399 to $549 a month, down from $1,059. In November, the Biden administration proposed a new rule to expand Medicare and Medicaid coverage to include GLP-1s for weight loss, but it's unclear if President Donald Trump will follow through.

But even the compounded form, which cost Rice $499 at the time, was expensive.

Rice stopped using semaglutide and gained 20 pounds

Rice started taking weekly injections of semaglutide in May 2022. After she achieved her goal of losing 64 pounds, she saved up for a $18,500 "mommy makeover" (tummy tuck and breast augmentation) in April 2023, she told Business Insider.

GLP-1 users are encouraged to build up from a low dose to minimize side effects like nausea and constipation. At first, a $499 supply lasted Rice three months, reducing to a month as she upped the dose.

After the surgery, she started injecting the medication less frequently to maintain her weight rather than lose more. In early 2024, money was tight after Rice changed jobs and semaglutide seemed like something she could cut back on. She bought the compounded drug online, so she made these changes without the guidance of a medical professional.

Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, an obesity specialist and founder of a virtual health clinic specializing in GLP-1s, told BI that it's not advisable to change doses without consulting a doctor.

"I thought that I could go less and less, and eventually, I got to where I was forgetting to take the injection," Rice said. "I was thinking I had this, I was thinking, 'Now I'm set. I don't need to take the medicine anymore.'"

Rice maintained her weight for a couple of months. And although she started eating more, she presumed it wouldn't affect her progress.

But the "food noise" in Rice's head — cravings for sugar and sweet treats when experiencing heightened emotions — gradually returned, and she regained 26 pounds over about six months.

Rice had a small amount of medication left which she would take now and then, but it wasn't enough to lose weight, and she couldn't afford her previous maintenance dose.

"I started to notice my clothes were getting tighter," Rice said. Knee problems, a swollen finger, and various other aches and pains returned.

Nadolsky said he'd seen clients who abruptly stopped taking GLP-1s because their insurance no longer covered them or there were shortages. However, regaining weight is the biggest risk associated with coming on and off the medicine, he said.

"Obesity is a chronic disease and these medicines work by helping people manage their appetite and food noise," he said. "The cost of these medicines must come down. And if insurance doesn't cover them, it would be ideal that the cost would be low enough to pay out-of-pocket for them. The medicines are not a short-term fix. They are designed and used for the chronic disease of obesity."

Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, the CEO of Novo Nordisk which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, has previously blamed insurers and middlemen for the high prices of the drugs.

A side hustle to fund semaglutide

Towards the end of 2024, Rice had started her side hustle and restarted the medication on a low dose to minimize costs, deciding when to start and stop without medical guidance. The cost was different depending on the provider, and she used the money from her "very stressful" jobs to pay for it.

She now takes a low weekly dose (0.25 milligrams was her lowest, and her highest 2.5 milligrams). A 10-week supply costs her $305, and she is budgeting to afford it.

"I'm going to get back on track and I'm going to get back to where I was," Rice said. "But I hate that I ended up spending a good amount on a mommy makeover."

Rice said she feels guilty that she put her family in a financial bind and, if she could go back in time, isn't sure she would have had the surgery.

She hopes she'll be back at her goal weight by February, and then plans to stay on a maintenance dose long-term. She sees regaining the weight as a valuable lesson that maintainance without medication isn't as easy as she thought.

"It is a miracle medicine," Rice said. "I'm always going to be an advocate for it."

• Dame Judi Dench, 90, says she doesn't enjoy attending events alone.
• "I'm not good at that at all, nor would I be now," the Oscar-winning actor said on a podcast.
• But these days, her deteriorating eyesight means she doesn't go out alone anymore, she added.

Dame Judi Dench, 90, isn't a fan of going to events on her own.

"I'm not good at that at all, nor would I be now," the Oscar-winning actor said during an appearance on the "Fearless" podcast hosted by Trinny Woodall.

"I'm always nervous before going to something. I am nervous about — I don't know — I have no idea why," Dench said.

The "James Bond" star said she usually needs to have a partner — such as her agent — accompany her.

"Somebody will always be with me," Dench said. "I have to now because I can't see, and I will walk into something or fall over."

In 2012, she told The Mirror that she had been diagnosed with macular degeneration, a disease that affects a person's central vision. It is the leading cause of vision loss among Americans 65 and older, per the CDC.

But "fortunately," she doesn't have to go out alone now "because I pretend to have no eyesight," she said.

In 2023, Dench said on "The Graham Norton Show" that her vision had gotten so bad she couldn't read scripts anymore.

"It has become impossible, and because I have a photographic memory, I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page," Dench said. "I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them."

Dench has been with her partner, conservationist David Mills, since 2010. She shares one daughter, Finty Williams, with her late husband, the actor Michael Williams, who died of lung cancer in 2001.

Despite a career spanning almost seven decades, Dench has hinted at retirement due to her worsening vision.

When asked by a reporter in 2024 if she had any plans for future roles, Dench responded with "No, no, I can't even see," per The Guardian.

Her last onscreen role was in 2022's "Spirited," per her IMDB page.

She previously told The Mirror in 2023 that she wanted to work "as much as I can."

"I have an irrational fear of boredom," she said. "That's why I now have this tattoo that says carpe diem. That's what we should live by."

A representative for Dench did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

• President Donald Trump announced Stargate, a new joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Stargate will allow AGI to be built in the US, creating more jobs.
• Altman said that a project like Stargate may not have been possible without Trump.

The US will be able to achieve AGI, or artificial general intelligence, with President Donald Trump's new Stargate AI project, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Tuesday.

Altman was at the White House on Tuesday when Trump announced Stargate, a new joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. Stargate is expected to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the US.

"This means we can create AI and AGI in the United States of America," Altman said of Stargate during a Tuesday interview with Fox News's Bret Baier, adding that Stargate wouldn't exist without Trump.

"I think with a different president it might not have been possible. But we are thrilled to get to do this, and I think it'll be great for Americans, great for the whole world," Altman told Baier.

Building AGI in the US would create "hundreds of thousands of jobs," Altman said at the press conference following Trump's Tuesday announcement.

"I'm thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America. I think this will be the most important project of this era," Altman told reporters at the White House.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

To be sure, the US is likely not close to achieving AGI just yet. Altman, too, took to X to temper expectations that OpenAI is on the cusp of achieving AGI.

On Monday, Altman wrote in an X post that OpenAI was "not gonna deploy AGI next month, nor have we built it."

"We have some very cool stuff for you but pls chill and cut your expectations 100x!" Altman wrote on X.

Still, OpenAI is developing new offerings — and rolling them out quickly. The OpenAI chief wrote in a blog post on January 5 that companies could start using AI agents this year.

"We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it. We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents 'join the workforce' and materially change the output of companies," Altman wrote.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva predicted in a blog post in January 2024 that AI's impact on the job market would be uneven. Around 60% of the jobs in advanced economies will be affected by AI, Georgieva wrote.

"Roughly half the exposed jobs may benefit from AI integration, enhancing productivity," Georgieva wrote in her blog post.

"For the other half, AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labor demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring. In the most extreme cases, some of these jobs may disappear," she added.

• President Donald Trump said he would be open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok.
• Trump previously floated a joint venture, saying that the US should own half of the app.
• Trump has signed an executive order that gives TikTok another 75 days to figure out a new game plan.

A day after his inauguration, President Donald Trump said he'd be on board with Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison buying TikTok.

In a Tuesday press briefing announcing a $500 billion artificial intelligence joint venture with Oracle, Trump said he was open to the idea of Ellison or Musk buying TikTok.

When asked by a reporter if he would be open to Musk buying the app, Trump said, "I would be, if he wanted to buy it, yes."

"I'd like Larry to buy it, too," he added.

While Musk has not directly expressed interest in buying TikTok, he said on X on Sunday that he has "been against a TikTok ban for a long time" because it "goes against freedom of speech."

A handful of big-name investors have shown interest in buying the app. "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary has said that he, in collaboration with former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, would be interested in purchasing the app.

YouTuber MrBeast also said in an X post on January 13, "Okay fine, I'll buy Tik Tok so it doesn't get banned." MrBeast has joined a group of investors led by tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, who have expressed interest in buying the app, the group's spokesperson told Bloomberg.

In 2024, ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese owner, said it would rather shut down TikTok in the US than sell it.

For now, TikTok's fate in the US hangs in the balance after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the divest-or-ban law. This law requires ByteDance to divest from the platform in the US, or stop operating in the country.

TikTok went dark for its 170 million US users on Saturday. Hours later, its operations were restored.

Shortly after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order to pause the ban, which gives TikTok another 75 days to figure out a game plan.

Trump also suggested on Monday that the US should own half of TikTok.

"So I think, like a joint venture, I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We'll see what happens," Trump added, without specifying who he wanted to have as TikTok's US partner.

Trump's order to delay the TikTok ban has prompted some opposition from within the GOP.

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas — who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — and Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska wrote in a joint statement on Sunday that there is "no legal basis" for TikTok to get an extension.

In the statement, the senators lauded Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for complying with the ban.

"President Trump said he signed the executive order to 'make a deal to protect our national security,'" Ian Swanson, Ricketts' press secretary, told BI.

"Senator Ricketts agrees that protecting our national security is paramount and that can only be done by ridding TikTok of all ties with Communist China," Swanson added.

Representatives for Musk, Oracle, and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Ukrainian paratroopers said a North Korean soldier they captured ran into a pillar to knock himself out.
• They said they found him alone on the battlefield with a grenade, a knife, and some food.
• Their prisoner closely resembles one of the two North Koreans Ukraine said it captured.

Ukrainian paratroopers in Kursk said they captured a North Korean soldier who tried so hard to evade capture that he intentionally ran into a concrete pillar to knock himself out.

Three members of the 95th Separate Air Assault Polissia Brigade spoke of the encounter in a video published on Tuesday, describing how one of their drones found a lone North Korean on the battlefield after an assault had ended.

The clip was published by the brigade's press service on its YouTube, Facebook, and Telegram accounts.

The paratroopers said they enveloped the North Korean with guidance from drone operators and found that he didn't respond to commands in Ukrainian, Russian, or English.

"With gestures, we showed him what to do," one of the paratroopers said.

The soldier was carrying a grenade, a knife, and a sausage, the paratroopers said.

They said the North Korean was also visibly wounded, with his jaw bandaged and one of his hands appearing to be injured.

One paratrooper said the injured soldier appeared calm at first but grew agitated when he saw a vehicle coming to pick him up.

"When we brought him near the road, suddenly he ran headfirst into a concrete pillar at full speed. He hit it very hard and probably passed out," he said.

But the paratrooper also suspects it might have been a ploy by the North Korean soldier, because the latter fell backward, not forward, as one might expect when a charging person faints.

"I think he was faking it, trying to get us close so he could grab a weapon and attack us," he said.

The paratroopers said they eventually hauled the North Korean into a vehicle and took him away from the front lines, after which he received food and watched romance films upon request.

An older paratrooper said in the video that the North Koreans' tactics appeared to mimic Russia's Soviet-era fighting, with frontal assaults where "they try to crush simply with massive numbers."

But he added that while Russian forces in Kursk tend to attack in groups of two or three, the North Koreans would conduct assaults with groups of at least six.

The paratroopers said that Pyongyang's forces would fight to the end if cornered, adding that their brigade reported instances where wounded North Koreans blew themselves up to avoid capture.

"They are not in a mood to surrender," one of the paratroopers said.

The man they captured appears to be one of two North Korean soldiers whom Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced had been seized from the battlefield in early January.

One was captured by Ukraine's special forces, while the other was found by the Polissia brigade.

The paratroopers posted a clip of their prisoner on January 11, which they referenced when recounting the events of his capture in their Tuesday video.

Another North Korean soldier, separate from the pair shown by Zelenskyy, was captured in December, but South Korea's intelligence service said he died of his injuries shortly after.

Western and South Korean intelligence estimate that 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia, where they've been deployed to fight a Ukrainian incursion in the Kursk region.

Their presence in the war is a significant sign of Pyongyang and Moscow strengthening an economic and military partnership spurred by Russia's isolation since the war began.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is believed to have received food, financial assistance, and Russian expertise in space and weapons technologies in return for his troops and guns.

Meanwhile, the West fears that North Korean troops are gaining valuable combat experience from fighting in Russia.

A captured North Korean soldier's documents obtained by The Washington Post discusses guidance related to the six-man frontal assaults the paratroopers spoke of.

"In modern warfare, where real-time reconnaissance and drone strikes are conducted, failing to disperse combat teams into smaller units of two to three members could lead to significant casualties from enemy drones and artillery," one document read, per The Post.

• Trump signed an executive order requiring federal government employees to return to the office.
• Union leaders opposed the mandate and said it was based on misconceptions about federal workers.
• They also said telework was crucial for recruiting talent and emergency preparedness.

Leaders of unions representing federal government employees say President Donald Trump's return-to-office mandate won't make the government more efficient — and could have some unintended consequences.

Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, or NFFE, and Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, said the RTO mandate would make the government less effective.

"They're trying to score political points by insinuating that people on telework aren't coming to work when nothing could be further from the truth," Erwin told Business Insider in an interview.

If not for telework and other family-friendly work methods, the federal government "would not be able to recruit and retain the talent that it needs," Erwin said. The NFFE is the oldest union in the US and represents more than 110,000 federal workers.

"When you can't make anywhere near what you could be making in the private sector, some family, flexible work policies become a very, very important thing," he said, adding that some current federal workers may also choose to leave.

Kelley, who leads AFGE, the largest federal employee union representing 800,000 members, also said telework was important to attracting and retaining top talent within the federal government.

"Providing eligible employees with the opportunity to work hybrid schedules is a key tool for recruiting and retaining workers in both the public and private sectors," Kelley said in a statement.

Erwin told BI the mandate suggested a lack of understanding about how the federal government works and that "there's this myth that federal workers aren't coming to work."

An August report from the Office of Management and Budget found that about 10% of civilian workers across two dozen agencies worked remotely without expectations that they would regularly work in the office.

Erwin said comments from the Trump administration, including Elon Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have misrepresented the federal workforce.

"I don't think he knows the first thing about the federal workforce, who they are, where they are, and the valuable services that they provide," he said of Musk, adding, "They're making everybody sound like some innovation-blocking bureaucrat."

Erwin said most federal employees are not based in Washington, DC, and are nationwide. Less than a fifth of the federal workforce in the Office of Personnel Management database lives in DC or the nearby states of Maryland and Virginia, a recent Pew analysis found.

Kelley also said lawmakers and Trump's transition team "spent months exaggerating the number of federal employees who telework and accusing those who do of failing to perform the duties of their jobs."

"The truth is that less than half of all federal jobs are eligible for telework, and the workers who are eligible to telework still spend most of their work hours at their regular duty stations," he added.

Both Erwin and Kelley said telework was also essential to ensuring the federal government's continued smooth operation in a state of emergency.

Erwin said that after September 11, the ability to telework was considered essential for the federal government, adding, "It is only very recently that telework has been frowned upon in the federal government." He said the COVID-19 pandemic showed how the ability to telework enabled the government to continue operating relatively smoothly.

Kelley said remote work has been "a critical tool for federal agencies to maintain continuity of operations in emergencies, increase disaster preparedness, and improve efficiency."

He also said hybrid work has been so successful that many agencies have consolidated or sold off office space that's expensive to maintain, "meaning there may no longer be enough office space to accommodate an influx of on-site workers."

Some federal employees who are union members have collective bargaining agreements that explicitly allow for remote or hybrid work. Erwin said an executive order would not override those agreements, at least for as long as they are active.

Erwin said the return-to-office mandate showed the "problem with governing by completely political, manufactured talking points."

"They're going to force people back into the office, and it's not going to make people more productive for the American taxpayer," he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• President Trump announced a private sector AI infrastructure investment of up to $500 billion.
• OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank will work together to create a venture named Stargate.
• The US aims to maintain AI leadership against China as geopolitical stakes remain high.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion for artificial intelligence infrastructure across the country.

OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank will work together to create a venture named Stargate, with the president calling it "the largest AI infrastructure project in history" while touting the role of the US in leading the effort.

"Together these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate … a new American company that will invest $500 billion at least in AI infrastructure in the United States," he said.

"Put that name down in your books, because I think you're going to hear a lot about it," he added.

Trump said the venture would create more than 100,000 American jobs, with the investment set to be made over the next four years.

Oracle's stock rose close to 5% in after-hours trading, while SoftBank rose over 9% in Japan following the announcement.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, and SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son attended the White House announcement.

Altman, in his remarks, said he was "thrilled" by the venture and said it'll be the "most important project of this era."

"The fact that we get to do this in the United States is just wonderful," he said. "I believe that as this technology progresses, we will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate."

And Ellison, at the White House, described Stargate as a "very exciting program for Oracle to be a part of."

AI is energy-hungry

For foundation models to keep improving, companies that use them — like OpenAI and Anthropic — need lots of fuel.

That fuel comes in the form of chips, energy, and talent, and the Trump administration's policies on each stand to shape the future of computing, potentially creating winners and losers along the way.

The stakes are high. Growing AI in America isn't just a money-maker, it's a geopolitical card played against the other big global tech player: China.

Trump on AI

Trump on Monday revoked the Biden Administration's Executive Order on AI from October 2023. The order pushed for greater transparency from large companies developing and using AI.

After winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump appointed a new AI and cryptocurrency czar in venture capitalist David Sacks.

In his first term as president, Trump issued an executive order focused on AI leadership and non-regulatory approaches to expanding and maintaining it.

Chips

In his final weeks in office, President Joe Biden's Department of Commerce published new, sweeping export restrictions on the kind of semiconductors required for AI.

The regulations, set to go into effect early in Trump's second term, would restrict and cap the amount of computing power companies can amass in most countries outside a list of 18 allies.

If maintained by the Trump administration, the impact of these changes will likely be to concentrate AI data centers in the US.

Last week, Biden signed an executive order to grant federal sites to construct data centers and "clean energy."

Talent

The two ways AI companies acquire game-changing talent are in question as the US transitions from Biden to Trump.

The first is mergers and acquisitions. Nvidia, along with Microsoft and OpenAI, are the subject of a Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission investigation into possible antitrust violations.

The scrutiny created a cooling effect across the AI ecosystem. Trump's anti-regulation tendencies suggest a more open field for mergers and acquisitions in his term.

The second factor impacting the availability of AI talent in the US is the H-1B visa program. In recent weeks, there has been some disagreement within Trump's party regarding the program, which is designed to facilitate the immigration of skilled workers to the US.

Energy and data centers

AI also needs chips, but assuring an ample supply of those is for naught without enough energy to run the data centers. Since AI chips are hungrier than traditional computer chips, power is the most important limiting factor to the industry's growth.

"They have to produce a lot of electricity," the president said on Tuesday. "And we'll make it possible for them to get this production done easily, at their own plants if they want."

Trump's views on energy production and the climate crisis differ greatly from Biden's. The new president has long focused on continuing American leadership in fossil fuel production.

Shubhangi Goel contributed reporting.

• Meta executives met with advertisers in recent days to reassure them following some company changes.
• Meta has cut third-party fact-checkers and replaced them with community notes.
• It said it would let users see political content and lift restrictions on certain discussion topics.

A Meta executive says the company has recently met with advertisers to reassure them that the changes it has made regarding free speech won't lead to harmful content running rampant on its platforms.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Nicola Mendelsohn, head of Meta's global business group, said the company had been in contact with advertisers after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta would stop using third-party fact-checkers on its platforms and instead rely on user-made community notes. He also announced that users would again have the option to see political content on their feeds.

"From an advertiser perspective, we've obviously been talking to them over the last week," said Mendelsohn in a roundtable discussion with Business Insider. "What they've shared back actually is the reassurance that all the commitments that we have to brand safety, brand suitability on the platform, none of that changes."

Zuckerberg posted a video earlier this month announcing some of the changes around content moderation. He blamed the existing systems for causing "too much censorship" and said it was time for Meta to return to its "roots around free expression."

The company has also removed some restrictions on certain topics, such as gender and immigration, allowing users to post what could previously have been determined to be hate speech.

The changes sparked concerns among advertisers, the Financial Times previously reported. Mendelsohn said advertisers will still have control over where their ads are placed.

"So, for example, if you have an advertiser that doesn't want to be next to societal issues, political issues, their ads won't appear next to it," Mendelsohn said.

Mendelsohn said the advertisers Meta had been speaking to wanted to understand more about what was happening.

"They wanted to get past the headlines," she said, adding that it is "all still very early days" in the new era of Meta.

The changes around content moderation were among other broader changes at Meta, which included rolling back its DEI programs and a push to cut low performers faster. The company has ushered in these changes amid President Donald Trump taking power.

"From a US perspective it is a different political and societal change that we're seeing there," Mendelsohn said. "But from a company perspective, I don't feel or see anything different."

Got more insight to share? You can reach the reporter Hugh Langley via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-628-228-1836) or email ([email protected]).

• The film editor for "The Brutalist" revealed the movie used AI in post-production.
• Writer-director Brady Corbet responded to the controversy and defended the film's use of AI.
• This likely won't affect the Oscar nominations, as voting ended before the controversy went mainstream.

People online can't stop talking about "The Brutalist." But this time, the chatter isn't about the movie's over three-hour runtime, its eye-catching visual style, or the acclaimed performances propelling it to awards season glory. It's about AI, and whether the film's use of it should make it less deserving of artistic praise and potential awards.

The controversy reached a peak this weekend after excerpts from an interview with "The Brutalist" editor Dávid Jancsó went viral online.

Jancsó told online tech magazine Red Shark News that the production team used AI to perfect minute pronunciation details in the Hungarian accents of stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, who play Hungarian Jews who flee Europe after World War II in search of a better life in America. (The film includes scenes in both Hungarian and English.)

Jancsó, who is a native Hungarian speaker himself, said the language is one of the most difficult to learn to pronounce. So while Brody and Jones had dialect coaching and did a "fabulous job" learning the language, the filmmakers wanted to perfect the dialogue "so that not even locals will spot any difference."

'The Brutalist' used AI to improve Adrien Brody's accent

Jancsó said they first tried to use ADR (automated dialogue replacement) in post-production, but it didn't work. So the team opted to feed Brody and Jones' voices into Respeecher, a Ukrainian software company that uses AI to let one person speak in the voice of another, then fed in Jancsó's own voice to finesse it.

"We were very careful about keeping their performances. It's mainly just replacing letters here and there," he said in the interview. Jancsó added that generative AI was used to craft the final sequence where viewers see architectural drawings and completed buildings in the style of Adrien Brody's fictional architect László Tóth.

The editor said that he knew it was controversial to talk about using AI in film, but maintained that "there's nothing in the film using AI that hasn't been done before."

"It just makes the process a lot faster. We use AI to create these tiny little details that we didn't have the money or the time to shoot," Jancsó said.

Some fans are turning on 'The Brutalist,' but the news won't impact Oscar nominations

The revelation, which comes days before Thursday's Oscar nominations announcement, threw social media into a frenzy, with many film fans criticizing the movie's use of AI. Some have even suggested the movie (or Brody) should be disqualified over it.

The nearly four-hour epic has been a sensation since premiering at the Venice Film Festival in September, where director Brady Corbet won the festival's Silver Lion award. In the months since, it's continued to rack up more wins, most recently taking home three Golden Globes: best director for Corbet, best actor in a drama for Brody, and best motion picture drama.

Users on X joked that "The Brutalist" is the latest best picture contender to be knocked out of the race after "Anora" faced backlash for not using an intimacy coordinator, clearing the way for papal thriller "Conclave" to win.

But if the Ralph Fiennes drama does clinch a nomination and "The Brutalist" doesn't, it likely won't be due to the latter's use of AI: Oscar voting, which was extended due to the LA fires, concluded on Friday January 17, after the interview was published but before online chatter over the controversy picked up steam that weekend.

As for whether it will affect the chances of "The Brutalist" actually winning anything, that's less clear and all depends on how the voting bodies that make up the Academy feel about AI usage (that is, if the voters even finished watching the whole movie).

Director Brady Corbet responded to the uproar

In an email statement shared with BI by the film's distributor A24, Corbet defended and clarified the use of AI in "The Brutalist," maintaining that Brody and Jones' performances are "completely their own" and that nothing was substantively altered.

"Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed," Corbet said. "This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity's performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft."

Corbet also said that AI wasn't used to render any of the buildings, which were all hand-drawn. "To clarify, in the memorial video featured in the background of a shot, our editorial team created pictures intentionally designed to look like poor digital renderings circa 1980," he said.

The Brutalist' isn't the only movie to use AI

AI has been major point of contention in Hollywood, particularly during the 2023 writers and actors strikes, when creatives demanded reassurances that the technology wouldn't replace their work.

The popularity of AI, and Respeecher in particular, is growing. The company struck a deal with Lucasfilm to clone James Earl Jones' voice for use in the 2022 Star Wars series "Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"The Brutalist" also wasn't the only film that used AI in 2024. Respeecher said in a Facebook post that "Emilia Pérez," another awards season favorite, used its software, though it didn't say in what capacity.

Reps for "Emilia Pérez" didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but an interview with the movie's sound mixer indicates AI cloning tools were used to help Karla Sofia Gascón sing beyond her vocal range, per The Guardian.

Other 2024 films like "Civil War," "Furiosa," "Alien: Romulus," and "Late Night With the Devil," also faced varying degrees of criticism for their use of AI in visuals.

Reps for "The Brutalist" and Respeecher, as well as Brody, Jones, and Jancsó, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Netflix had a blowout quarter, helped by live sports events.
• But Netflix insists it won't break the bank with sports.
• Netflix sees sports as part of live programming, which benefits its ad growth.

Netflix just delivered another blockbuster quarter, helped by record-breaking sporting events. But the streamer was quick to tamp down speculation that it'll charge headlong into big (AKA pricey) sports deals.

Netflix highlighted live sports events in ticking off the strengths of the fourth quarter. It mentioned the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson bout, which it called the most-streamed sporting event ever, and the NFL Christmas Day games, which it said were the two most streamed NFL games in history. Netflix just began a big partnership with the WWE and got exclusive US rights to the FIFA Women's World Cup for 2027 and 2031.

Many analysts would like Netflix to add more sports as they become available, and sports-related questions were prominent on Tuesday's earnings call.

"We believe NFLX would benefit from expanding its sports portfolio but note few US sports rights are up for renewal over the next few years," Citi analysts wrote in a recent note.

The NBA is tied up for the next 11 years, and the NFL signed its 11-year deal in 2021. ESPN's UFC rights are coming up for grabs in 2025, though, and could look more attractive. That's especially true after the Paul-Tyson fight.

Netflix execs were quick to emphasize Tuesday that they're not changing their strategy around sports. They said they plan to keep treating it as part of its live programming, which includes things like "The Roast of Tom Brady."

Live programming — sports especially — can create a sense of urgency that can help fuel Netflix's ads business. Netflix is counting on ads to help it accelerate in 2025 and beyond.

That said, Netflix doesn't want to give the impression it's giving up on cost discipline. With the cost of live sports skyrocketing, Netflix underscored in its shareholder letter that its live programming would "likely be a small percentage of our total view hours and content expense." Netflix has also expressed aversion to renting versus owning its entertainment.

That could be music to the ears of some TV networks. They are being squeezed by the ever-increasing cost of live sports rights and are increasingly outbid by tech giants for them.

"We are constantly trying to broaden our programming, and live is one of those things, and sports is one of those live events," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the call. "But it doesn't really change the economics of full seasons sports being very challenging."

"We're going to be mindful of the bottom line," he added.

Of course, Netflix has been known to change its tune on things before — like ads, password-sharing, and yes, live sports.

• Netflix is raising prices in the US to $18 for its standard plan.
• The hikes come as the company crushed Wall Street's expectations for Q4 subscriber growth.
• These charts show why a Netflix subscription is still a pretty good deal.

Netflix hiked prices in the US on Tuesday. Even at $18 a month, data shows a subscription is a pretty good deal.

The standard Netflix plan now costs $17.99 a month, up from $15.49, while the premium plan that includes 4K video goes for $24.99, versus $22.99 before. For the first time, Netflix also increased the price of its ad-supported plan to $7.99 from $6.99.

These price hikes aren't too surprising. YouTube TV just raised prices by $10 a month, and Disney has consistently charged more for its streaming services. Disney+ now charges nearly $16 for its basic plan — more than double what it did when it launched in late 2019.

Netflix last raised prices in the US in October 2023.

Still, Netflix is by far the cheapest service on a per-hour-of-consumption basis, according to a recent note from UBS media analyst John Hodulik.

Before Tuesday's increase, customers on Netflix's ad-free plan paid $0.33 per month per hour they watched, according to Nielsen and company data analyzed by UBS. That suggests the average customer is watching the service for a staggering 47 to 70 hours a month.

That's cheaper on a per-hour basis than Netflix's major streaming rivals and traditional TV, UBS found.

Those on Netflix's ad plan are also getting a steal. UBS found that they're paying $0.15 per hour they watch, and the data suggests they're watching just as much as those on the ad-free plan.

The streaming giant also has an industry-leading churn rate: 1.8% of its customers canceled last quarter, according to streaming data firm Antenna. This is a sign that subscribers largely think they're getting their money's worth.

The price hikes come as Netflix invests in more live programming, including NFL games, which have drawn large streaming audiences.

The company added nearly 19 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024, shattering Wall Street's estimates for the period. Netflix generated $1.8 billion in net income during the quarter and said it expects to rake in close to $2.5 billion in Q1.

• James Fishback, an outside DOGE advisor, told BI that he wants to take Vivek Ramaswamy's spot.
• Ramaswamy left DOGE on Monday and is expected to run for governor of Ohio.
• Fishback said that he wants to refocus DOGE on regulatory reform, but hasn't spoken to Trump or Musk.

One day after Vivek Ramaswamy announced he is leaving the Department of Government Efficiency, James Fishback, co-founder and CEO of the investment firm Azoria, told Business Insider he's ready to fill the open role.

Fishback, a confidant of Ramaswamy, has said he's already worked as an outside advisor to DOGE. Should he take over as DOGE co-head, he told BI he'd want to focus on deregulation, as NBC first reported Tuesday.

It's not yet clear whether someone will step into Ramaswamy's role as co-leader with Elon Musk or how the decision will be made.

"I think it's honestly going to be up to two people: Elon and President Trump, the latter having, of course, more sway," Fishback told BI. He said he didn't know of other people vying for the role, but added that it was a "fast-moving situation."

As of Tuesday afternoon, Fishback told BI he had not talked to President Donald Trump or Musk about his desire to take Ramaswamy's place.

Though he's based in Florida, Fishback said he plans to stay in Washington, DC for a few more days and will meet with employees in the White House.

"And it's not necessarily to make the case for me, it is primarily to make the case that the regulatory work that Vivek Ramaswamy was leading first and foremost — that to be reintegrated back into DOGE in one way, shape, or form," he told BI.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order establishing DOGE as an agency inside the White House, instead of an external group as was widely expected.

The order seemingly limited DOGE's mission, scaling it back from a commission devoted to deregulation and trillion-dollar spending cuts to one focused on updating the federal government's tech systems.

Representatives for Musk and Trump did not respond to BI's request for comment.

• When I first tried keto, I lost 130 pounds quickly but found that the diet was unsustainable for me.
• Now, I'm counting macros to lose weight and rebuilding my relationship with different kinds of food.
• I want to eat meals that make me feel good about myself without attaching morality to certain foods.

Many people sing the praises of the keto diet, and I used to be one of them. I lost 130 pounds over 14 months while being able to stuff my face with bacon. Although the diet was restrictive, it felt sustainable — until it wasn't.

I no longer follow the keto diet because I ultimately found it wasn't suitable for me. For example, following it raised my cholesterol and gave me food fatigue. I also gained a lot of weight back since I stopped doing keto.

Instead, I'm now counting macros — adding up the total number of grams of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats I consume per meal. By counting macros, I'm focusing on getting enough protein to maintain muscle mass while eating in a caloric deficit.

It's been a few months of following this method, and I already feel happier and less obsessed with my diet.

I'm trying to develop a truly healthy relationship with food

Though keto helped me shed weight quickly, I'm one of those people who didn't find the diet helpful in every way.

Keto didn't do me any favors when it came to healing my relationship with food, and it furthered my disordered eating by assigning a certain level of morality to what I ate.

If I went out to dinner with my partner and had a few french fries, I had an overwhelming sense of guilt and felt I'd "failed" in some way.

This time around, I'm trying to find a true middle of the road and learn the meaning of moderation, which is easier said than done.

I'm focusing on how food makes me feel rather than how it makes me look

I'd be lying if I said I don't want to lose the weight I regained after stepping away from keto, but it's not my primary focus this time.

As I start my macros journey, I have an incredible level of fitness under my belt, which is much different from when I began my keto experience. I'm also approaching food as a vehicle for making me feel stronger and giving me more endurance for workouts.

This is a real mindset change, and I'm more drawn to foods that make me feel good instead of things I feel like I have to eat because they fit a certain diet.

I'm eating fewer processed and 'keto-fied' treats

Not everyone on keto falls into this trap, but some of us end up eating a lot of processed foods to make up for what's missing in our diet.

For instance, when I was on keto, I ate sausage, bacon, and other processed meats on a daily basis. It wrecked my cholesterol levels. Because I couldn't enjoy regular ice cream or cookies, I'd also load up on protein bars or other keto-friendly versions of treats that were typically high in calories and fat but not very nutritious.

Now that I'm counting macros, I make lean protein my priority and fill my plate with plant-based foods like sweet potatoes, beans, leafy greens, and squash. If I want a cookie, I eat a real one. I still occasionally eat sausage and bacon, too. 

I'm learning to practice patience

When I followed the keto diet, it felt great to quickly shed weight, but I also found out how unsustainable it was after I gained it back.

My method of counting macros will likely mean it'll take much longer for me to lose a few pounds. But this time, I don't want to lose quite as much and I want to do it right.

Above all, I'm treating counting macros as a lifestyle change, not a diet with a finish date and end goal.

This story was originally published on August 23, 2022, and most recently updated on January 21, 2o25.

• Trump's Office of Personnel Management asked federal agencies to make lists of employees they could fire.
• Impacted employees would include those who have been in their roles for under two years.
• Employees in probationary periods can be fired without triggering their right to appeal.

President Donald Trump's administration is asking federal agencies to compile lists of employees they could easily fire in an effort to slash the government workforce.

Charles Ezell, acting director of the US Office of Personnel Management, sent a memo to the leaders of all federal agencies on Monday asking them to evaluate their workforces and consider firing employees who have been with them for under two years.

The memo requested that, by no later than January 24, agencies identify all employees on probationary periods and "promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency."

According to the memo, employees in probationary periods can be fired without triggering their right to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which helps oversee federal personnel management.

Federal regulations require government workers to undergo a probationary period, defined as employment in a career position for less than a year, or two years in an expected service appointment for employees who didn't go through the typical competitive hiring process for the role.

A separate memo released Monday from Ezell and Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, offered additional details on Trump's executive order to implement a hiring freeze on federal employees. It stated that while no vacant positions existing as of Trump's inauguration day can be filled, employees who received an offer letter and accepted their positions with a start date on or before February 8 can keep their jobs.

Some union leaders criticized the latest orders impacting federal workers. American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a Monday statement that "there is no legitimate rationale for slashing the size of the federal workforce."

Trump's press team and the OPM did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on further details regarding the two memos, including when potential terminations would go into effect.

The OPM's efforts to reduce the federal workforce reflect the goals of DOGE, Trump's new advisory committee aimed at slashing government spending. Led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk — Vivek Ramaswamy, who was initially selected to co-lead DOGE, has stepped down — the commission set forth goals on the campaign trail that included reducing the federal workforce.

"DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions," Ramaswamy and Musk wrote in a November opinion piece.

As of an executive order on Monday, DOGE is officially part of the White House and will have the power to hire government employees, although its mission is more narrow than originally proposed: updating the government's IT systems. Along with Trump's executive order to freeze hiring for federal workers, he also issued a mandate requiring government employees to return to the office full-time.

Are you a federal worker willing to share your thoughts? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• Ham, hot dogs, and other processed red meats are increasingly linked to health problems.
• Eating processed meat regularly may raise the odds of developing dementia, cancer, and heart disease.
• Studies suggest switching to foods like beans and fish instead helps improve longevity and health.

Bacon, ham, and sausage could be shaving healthy years off your life, growing evidence suggests. Research over the past few years has linked processed meats to a higher risk of illnesses like cancer, heart disease, and most recently, cognitive decline and dementia.

Like other ultra-processed foods, processed meats typically contain additives like salt, sugar, and preservatives to keep them shelf stable.

Scientists say there's plenty more research to be done to confirm a direct cause-and-effect link between meats and disease risk.

So far, the latest science offers five compelling reasons to cut back on processed meat.

Link to higher risk of dementia

Daniel Wang, nutrition professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently authored a study which found eating as little as two slices of bacon or a hot dog daily can age your brain.

Wang and his team studied data from more than 130,000 American healthcare workers over more than four decades.

His analysis found that people were more likely to develop dementia if they ate processed meat regularly. Eating a quarter of a serving daily, on average, was enough to make a difference, according to the data. People who ate processed meat were also more likely to self-report symptoms of cognitive decline like memory problems or loss of concentration.

Their brains also aged more quickly, measuring about 1.6 years older per serving of processed meat.

The findings were shared in a preliminary presentation in August 2024, and published January 15 in the journal Neurology.

Nitrates in bacon and ham may increase cancer risk

Foods like deli meat, ham, and bacon get flavor and color from substances called nitrates, which also stave off bacteria.

Nitrates are also a known carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization, because they can form cancer-causing compounds.

Nitrates are particularly linked to higher risk of some cancers — a 2022 study found that eating more of them was linked to higher risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer.

2 servings of bacon puts you at risk of high blood pressure

Sodium, or salt, is another ingredient that gives processed meats flavor and prevent spoiling.

Too much salt contributes to high blood pressure, known as hypertension, by causing your body to hold on to more fluid. Current dietary guidelines recommending sticking to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day. A serving of bacon has more than half the daily allowance at 1,430 mg, while a serving of ham or sausage has between 760 to more than 1,000 mg.

Reducing your blood pressure to healthy levels by eating less sodium can help prevent heart attack and stroke.

Preservatives in meat linked to Type 2 diabetes

Nitrates and other stabilizing ingredients in processed meat may also increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to some research. Scientists suspect that's because the preservatives can damage the pancreas which helps regulate blood sugar.

While most diabetes prevention focuses on managing carb and sugar intake, cutting back on processed red meat may be helpful too.

Red meat and heart disease

Bacon, sausage, ham, and other processed red meats also tend to be high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which studies have linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular problems like heart disease.

The research is complex, since diets high in processed meat tend to be high in other processed foods, making it difficult to work out which foods are the culprit in certain health risks.

Still, the latest recommendations advise limiting saturated fat and cholesterol for a healthy heart.

Swap in fish, beans, and nuts for healthier aging

Eating for longevity isn't just about cutting out unhealthy foods, but also eating more nutrient-dense foods.

Some of the world's healthiest ways to eat, from the Mediterranean diet to the MIND diet, are high in longevity superfoods like beans and nuts.

Here are some options:

• Try replacing one daily serving of processed red meat with nuts or legumes — in Wang's recent study, that was linked to about 20% lower risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
• Switch to seafood. That was linked to 26% lower dementia risk in the study.
• Add berries, leafy greens, olive oil, and whole grains to your diet. They're rich in nutrients like fiber, healthy fats, and magnesium, which help support a healthy brain, gut, and heart.

• Melania Trump has been in the public eye since the 1990s.
• Her style has evolved as she went from a model and Donald Trump's girlfriend to first lady.
• Melania set a new tone for her political style at the 2025 inauguration.

Melania Trump has been a public figure since she first became involved with Donald Trump in the 1990s.

Melania, 54, was working as a model at the time, and her life changed dramatically as she became a high-profile businessman's wife and eventually first lady — as did her style.

Take a look back at Melania's fashion evolution, from her days walking red carpets to her political life.

When Melania first started making public appearances in the late 1990s, her style was similar to other models of the day.

At a "Celebrity" party in 1998, Melania chose a figure-hugging silk dress in periwinkle. Its neckline scooped gently.

At an awards show in June 1999, she embraced sparkles.

Melania arrived at the 1999 Annual Fragrance Foundation Fifi Awards in a form-fitting dress covered entirely in pink sparkles.

The gown's subtle slit was sexy without being over the top.

Melania also experimented with sheer fabric in the early days of her career, as she did at a film premiere in October 2000.

She attended the New York premiere of "Charlie's Angels" in a white skirt suit, but she added a daring edge to the look with a lace, sheer top.

Strappy heels completed her outfit.

The daring neckline on her dress for the March 2001 Academy Awards wasn't uncommon for Melania at the time.

When she accompanied Donald Trump to the Oscars, Melania wore a form-fitting white dress embellished with sparkly sequins.

The gown had a V-neckline, which mirrored the slit running up the center of the dress.

In September 2002, Melania showed off a more laid-back style during New York Fashion Week.

Before her life had political ties, Melania was often spotted in casual looks, like this all-orange ensemble she wore to a Fashion Week show.

She paired the silk off-the-shoulder top with wide-legged pants that featured a striped pattern and sparkles.

The gown she wore to the Angel Ball in October 2003 featured a strapless neckline.

A full skirt accented the gown's form-fitting bodice.

The black-and-tan dress featured a feathered skirt with sheer detailing, and she paired it with coordinating shoes.

The night she got engaged, Melania wore a semi-sheer dress to the Met Gala.

Trump proposed to Melania on April 26, 2004, the evening of the Met Gala.

She paired her 15-carat engagement ring with a black ball gown, which had a corset covered in cutouts.

A few months after she got engaged, Melania showed off her casual style once again.

Attending a Fashion Week event, Melania paired fitted jeans with a sheer pink babydoll top. High heels completed the look.

Melania still leaned into daring looks when she was pregnant in October 2005.

Melania attended the Night of Stars party in October 2005 when she was expecting Barron Trump.

She wore an empire-waist black gown to the event, which featured sheer fabric on the neckline and sparkly embellishments.

See-through fabric and lace continued to be staples for Melania in September 2006.

Black dresses with sheer detailing became a bit of a uniform for Melania in the early 2000s, as she showed with her dress for the Metropolitan Opera Opening Night Dinner in 2006.

The silk dress had lace detailing on the sheer bodice and the neckline. Crisscross straps and lace paneling on the skirt added to the sexy gown.

She still looked every bit the model at the 2007 Met Gala.

At the 2007 Met Gala, Melania wore a shiny gold minidress with tassels of fabric that swayed as she walked. She paired the look with coordinating gold shoes.

In February 2007, Melania showed off a chicer side of her style at a Fashion Week event.

Melania was photographed attending a Fashion Week event in 2007 alongside Donald Trump.

She wore all-black, and her hat and wrap featured fuzzy detailing. Knee-high boots completed the wintry ensemble.

Her dress for the 2008 Met Gala was hot pink.

Melania kept up her streak of eye-catching Met Gala looks in 2008, arriving in a strapless Vera Wang dress that was bright pink.

The dress had a bow on the neckline and ruffle detailing on its mermaid skirt.

Melania seemed to still be a fan of sparkles in December 2009.

At the premiere of "Nine," Melania wore a short, long-sleeved dress embroidered with sparkles, which she paired with pointed-toe shoes.

Melania's style was simple but chic at a November 2010 event.

Melania's black cocktail dress had a form-fitting bodice with a subtle sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps. The dress hit her knees, and she paired it with open-toe shoes.

But when she appeared at a SiriusXM event in September 2011, Melania showed off a more professional side of her style.

Melania's black suit was simple, featuring flared pants and a fitted jacket. The top buttons of her white blouse were open, and the sleeves poked out from under the jacket.

Black, pointed heels complemented the ensemble.

Melania donned a more modest dress for an August 2012 appearance on "Good Afternoon America."

Melania's gray dress for her "Good Afternoon America" appearance had a professional feel.

The fitted dress had a V-neckline and covered her knees, and a black belt cinched her waist. She also wore black heels.

She wore an all-white look to a golf event at Mar-a-Lago in January 2013.

When Trump hosted an Invitational Grand Prix at Mar-a-Lago in January 2013, Melania showed that she could nail a dress code.

Her white, sleeveless dress had a scooped neckline and a pleated skirt that felt like an elevated version of a golf ensemble. She added white heels to the look.

Melania's outfit for the New York Ball in November 2014 blended her love of sheer with a professional edge.

The jumpsuit featured long sleeves, subtly flared pants, and semi-sheer paneling on the bodice adorned with black lace.

Black heels accented the ensemble.

When she appeared on a Barbara Walters special in 2015, Melania looked every bit the politician's wife.

After Trump announced he was running for president in the summer of 2015, he and Melania appeared on "Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2015."

Melania chose a simple pink dress with short sleeves and a modest neckline for the interview. Her pink, pointed shoes matched the dress.

Her white dress for the July 2016 Republican National Convention was simple, aside from its playful sleeves.

Lauren A. Rothman, a style strategist and image coach, told Business Insider that Melania seemed to be telling "two narratives" with fashion throughout her life, leaning into glamour and slightly more daring looks when she was first in the public eye.

But after Trump entered politics, Rothman said Melania's looks became more intentional because "she was trying to say something with more storytelling" about her identity and her husband through her fashion, as she showed at the 2016 RNC.

For the RNC, Melania wore the "Margot" dress from Roksanda, which she bought from Net-a-Porter, according to Vanity Fair. The modest white dress had a high neckline, a knee-length hem, and quarter-length sleeves that ended in ruffles.

The dress was simple and elegant, striking a similar tone to first ladies of years past.

Melania nodded to Jackie Kennedy with her outfit for Trump's inauguration in January 2017.

Melania attended her husband's inauguration in a powder-blue dress designed by Ralph Lauren Collection. The dress was paired with a matching shrug and gloves.

The silhouette was reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy's outfits during her time as first lady.

"It was so curated," Rothman said of the look. "It was an instant revival of that Jackie memory."

Rothman said the nostalgia in the look lent Melania some of the power Jackie Kennedy held in the American mind, striking the right tone for the beginning of her tenure as first lady.

Ralph Lauren is also a classic American designer, though Melania would go on to wear European designers throughout Trump's presidency.

Her dress for a 2017 inaugural ball was custom-made.

Melania changed into a gown custom-designed by Hervé Pierre Braillard for his Hervé Pierre line.

The form-fitting, cream dress had off-the-shoulder sleeves made of the same fabric as a three-dimensional swath of fabric that cut across the bodice, creating volume. The same fabric flowed on the skirt, creating a train on one side, and a red belt cinched her waist.

Braillard became Melania's stylist and strategy consultant throughout Trump's first term.

Melania didn't always send the right message after she became first lady.

In 2018, Melania visited the Texas-Mexico border to speak to child migrants wearing a green jacket that said "I really don't care, do u?" on the back.

The Zara jacket instantly became controversial, leading people to speculate that the first lady was sending a message to the president or migrants at the border.

In her book "I'll Take Your Questions Now," Stephanie Grisham, Melania's former aide, wrote that Trump yelled at Melania for wearing the jacket, though he later told media outlets she wore it to send a message to "fake news" outlets. Melania later repeated Trump's comments on the jacket, CNN reported.

But she dressed for the occasion when she had dinner with the royal family in June 2019.

Melania dined with members of the royal family at Winfield House in June 2019.

She wore a red Givenchy cape dress, a silhouette favored by royals like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle.

She leaned into a professional look to accompany Trump to a September 2020 presidential debate.

Melania accompanied Trump to the debate in a pinstripe Dolce & Gabbana suit.

She wore the jacket open over a white blouse with no tie and completed her look with Christian Louboutin heels.

Melania wore contrasting looks on Inauguration Day 2021, sending two different messages.

When the Trumps left the White House on January 20, 2021, Melania wore an all-black outfit comprising a Chanel jacket with gold button detailing, a dress from Dolce & Gabbana, and Christian Louboutin heels. Black gloves and sunglasses completed the somber but chic ensemble.

But when they arrived at Mar-a-Lago later that day, Melania exited Air Force One in a $3,700 Gucci dress, though she wore the same sunglasses she had on earlier that day. The loose gown featured quarter-length sleeves and an orange and navy print that hit her at the ankle.

"Like anyone, sometimes we take off our work clothes, and we put on our play clothes," Rothman said. "She went from wearing something super fitted to something loose that is right out of Palm Beach."

Her public appearances became less frequent in 2022, but Melania wore sparkles for a New Year's Eve party.

Melania kept her public appearances more limited after Trump left office, but she appeared alongside him at a New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago in December 2022.

For the occasion, she wore another Dolce & Gabbana dress. The knee-length, silver gown had long sleeves. It was covered in sparkles, as were her pointed-toe shoes.

When photographed entering Trump Tower in June 2023, she wore a more casual look.

Melania paired a black long-sleeved top with a high-waisted, midi-length brown skirt from Martin Grant, which was belted with a bow at her waist. Her Chanel ballet flats featured both colors.

A black Chanel bag completed her look.

When she attended the July 2024 RNC, Melania had returned to the first lady playbook.

Melania appeared at the Republican National Convention in July after being largely absent from Trump's campaign.

She attended in a blazer and coordinating skirt designed by Christian Dior. The entire outfit was red, the color of the republican party, even down to her pointed-toe, red heels.

Rothman said the outfit struck the perfect tone for the occasion because it seemed to send a specific message.

"There's more intention," she said. "From the red shoe to the red suit to the brighter hair on the stage, there's just more of a power punch of intention with that story than what she was wearing before she was in that role and was in her 20s."

"She understood the assignment," Rothman added.

Before her husband took office again, Melania wore a more daring look for New Year's Eve 2024.

Melania stepped out at Mar-a-Lago in a black Versace dress for the last day of 2024.

The gown had an asymmetrical neckline that scooped low, and the gown hugged Melania's figure before forming a slit on one leg.

It was glamorous and more reminiscent of her looks before Trump entered politics.

Her navy ensemble for the 2025 inauguration struck a different tone than her 2017 look.

Melania arrived at the 2025 inauguration in a custom navy coat designed by Adam Lippes.

The double-breasted jacket was elegant, and Melania paired it with navy pumps and a white scarf. However, the standout element of her look was her Eric Javits hat, which was also navy and white.

"It's a huge fashion moment," Rothman told BI of Melania's hat. She said the summery shape of the hat nodded to Melania's day-to-day life at Mar-a-Lago while the wool texture and dark colors spoke to the role she was stepping back into.

"She wore a hat that bridges her worlds together," she added.

Melania changed into a black-and-white gown for the 2025 inaugural balls.

Melania again turned to Hervé Pierre for her evening look at Donald Trump's inaugural balls, donning a strapless white dress. Black fabric crisscrossed the bodice and the skirt to create a slit on one side.

A black choker made of the same fabric tied the look together.