• President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal.
• Trump blasted the "exorbitant" fees charged to US vessels using the canal.
• Panama's president responded on X, saying that "every square meter" of the canal belongs to Panama.

President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal as he hit out at what he called the "exorbitant" fees charged to US ships traversing the passage.

Panama charges tariffs for vessels traveling through the iconic waterway, with fees varying by size and purpose.

"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding: "This complete 'rip-off' of our Country will immediately stop."

The US transferred control of the canal to the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) in 1999 in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties.

"If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question," Trump continued in a separate post. "To the Officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly!"

Panama President José Raúl Mulino responded in a video statement on X, stating that "every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zones" belongs to Panama.

The president held up a red book titled "Torrijos Carter Treaty" as he referenced the 1977 agreement that would lead to the dissolution of the Panama Canal Zone and hand over the canal to Panamanians on December 31, 1999.

The roughly 80-kilometer (around 50 miles) canal was officially opened in 1914, offering a new link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

According to the PCA's website, between 13,000 and 14,000 ships use the waterway each year, "connecting 1,920 ports across 170 countries." The United States is the largest user of the canal.

In 2023, a shipping company paid almost $4 million on top of regular fees to get through the Panama Canal following a logjam, Bloomberg reported.

Japan's Eneos Group paid $3.98 million in an auction to jump the queue after a drought caused congestion, the report said.

• House lawmakers voted to avoid a federal government shutdown on Friday.
• The Senate passed the stopgap funding bill minutes after the midnight deadline passed.
• The vote caps a week full of drama on Capitol Hill.

President Joe Biden signed a stopgap funding bill on Saturday that prevents a government shutdown. Senate lawmakers passed the bill minutes after the Saturday midnight deadline passed.

Earlier on Friday, House lawmakers voted 366 to 34 for the bill, with one Democratic lawmaker voting present. House Democrats provided significant cover for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who lost 34 Republicans on the measure.

The White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement on Friday that it had ceased shutdown preparations.

Trump downplayed the stakes of a shutdown, but it likely would have affected the transition of power and some planning for his inauguration.

Now that the bill has been signed into law, government funding will run through March 14, giving President-elect Donald Trump a little breathing room once he retakes office next month.

Republicans denied Trump's request to suspend or even eliminate the debt ceiling, which would have resolved a thorny political issue in advance of a likely GOP effort to extend Trump's 2017 tax law. According to Punchbowl News, Johnson said Republicans have agreed to address the nation's borrowing limit next year when the GOP will retake entire control over Washington.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his fellow Democrats ultimately backed a deal stripped of many of the incentives initially included to garner more support among his party.

Elon Musk and other conservative activists opposed the initial bipartisan bill earlier this week, effectively killing it. Trump then urged Republicans to pass a pared-down funding bill and an extension of the debt ceiling. On Thursday night, 38 House Republicans and nearly every House Democrat voted against that plan, raising the stakes as a shutdown approached.

"The last 72 hours highlighted the positive impact that DOGE can have, but it also laid bare the massive lift ahead next year," Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-lead Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" with Musk wrote on X, "We're Ready for It."

Musk also announced his support of the legislation before its passage. Johnson told reporters he had a brief conversation with him.

"The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances," Musk wrote on X. "It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces. Ball should now be in the Dem court."

The episode illustrated that significant divisions remain among Republican lawmakers that even Trump can struggle to paper over. Trump has ambitious plans for his second term, including the potential of using a special procedural power known as reconciliation to ram through tax extensions and border security measures. He'll only be successful if the GOP can remain almost entirely united.

• Starbucks' largest workers' union announced that it would begin an escalating strike on Friday.
• The union first announced a work stoppage in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago before expanding.
• The union said it was protesting Starbucks' labor practices and wages.

Starbucks' largest workers union announced that it would go on strike in cities nationwide, including Seattle, where it is headquartered, just days before Christmas.

Baristas from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle were the first to announce their strike. On Saturday, a union representative confirmed to Business Insider that additional workers from Columbus, Denver, and Pittsburgh had joined the labor stoppage.

"We've been in contract negotiations with Starbucks for several months now, and things have been going smoothly up until this point — when they have now refused to offer us a viable economic package," Shay Mannik, a barista in Denver who is on strike after working at Starbucks for two years, told Business Insider. "They just have not been offering us anywhere close to a living wage."

In a statement made on the union's X account, Starbucks Workers United said the strike would "escalate each day through Christmas Eve... unless Starbucks honors our commitment to work towards a foundational framework."

On Wednesday, the union told BI that it would strike to protest what it described as the company's failure to negotiate a sufficiently comprehensive pay package and hundreds of unresolved cases related to labor disputes.

"Starbucks baristas are going on five days of escalating ULP strikes in response to the company backtracking on our promised path forward, starting tomorrow in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle," Starbucks Workers United said in Thursday statements.

It added that the strikes would soon be "coast-to-coast."

The union said the strikes could reach hundreds of stores unless the company works to achieve collective bargaining agreements.

The company has 11,161 self-operated stores and 7,263 licensed stores in North America. As of October, about 500 — or about 4.5% — of all stores were unionized.

"It's been really reassuring seeing a lot of our community members and the customers coming to support us," Diego Franco, a barista in the Chicago area who has worked at the coffee giant for over five years, told BI. "We've had a lot of our regulars come by, drop off supplies, drop off food, and stuff to help keep us warm."

In a Thursday post on Instagram, the union said, "Since February, Starbucks has repeatedly pledged publicly that they intended to reach contracts by the end of the year - but they've yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal."

Starbucks said in a public statement that the union delegates "prematurely ended" the bargaining session this week and that it was "disappointing they didn't return to the table given the progress we've made to date."

"We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements," the company wrote. "We need the union to return to the table."

A spokesperson for Starbucks told BI in a statement that the company "offers a competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits."

The spokesperson said Starbucks also offers competitive benefits, including "health care, free college tuition, paid family leave, and company stock grants."

"No other retailer offers this kind of comprehensive pay and benefits package," the spokesperson added. "Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, and by 77% over the life of a three-year contract. This is not sustainable."

The union, which represents more than 10,000 baristas, said on Tuesday that 98% of its member baristas had voted to authorize the strike.

News of the strike came just days after CEO Brian Niccol announced a change in the company's parental leave policy for US store employees.

Starting in March, Starbucks will offer up to 18 weeks of paid leave for birth parents and up to 12 weeks for nonbirth parents. The company currently offers US store employees six weeks of paid parental leave and up to 12 weeks unpaid. The increased benefit will apply to employees averaging at least 20 weekly work hours.

• The Food and Drug Administration released new guidelines on what foods can be labeled "healthy."
• The new guidance now allows foods like salmon, avocados, and olive oil to be labeled "healthy."
• "Highly sweetened" yogurts and cereals however can no longer be qualified as healthy, the FDA says.

Your "healthy" yogurt may be getting a rebrand soon.

On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration published its new and improved definition of what constitutes a "healthy" food, tightening up the limits on added sugars, salt, and saturated fat in foods that carry the label.

In a meticulous 318-page document, the federal agency details strict parameters for companies that wish to call their foods "healthy."

For example, a fruit-based food can't be "healthy" anymore if one serving has more than 2% of a person's recommended daily value of sugar. The same goes for veggies, meat, and eggs, while grains can have up to 10% DV of added sugars.

This could change how some brands currently market their food products as a healthy snack alternative.

The last time the FDA issued an update on the "healthy" label was three decades ago, according to the agency.

Under the new standards, the agency said foods such as "water, avocados, nuts and seeds, higher fat fish, such as salmon and olive oil will now qualify to use the 'healthy' claim."

The new guidance comes as competition in the heath food aisle intensifies — the global health and wellness food market was valued at roughly $878 billion last year, according to a 2024 market data study from Data Bridge.

The FDA's report estimates that the changes could make a dent in chronic diseases nationally, saving about $686 million over 20 years.

The cost to manufacturers, meanwhile, comes in at $403 million over 20 years for "reformulating, labeling, and recordkeeping," per the report.

The rule won't change food labeling overnight: it's not slated to take effect until 2028, and it's an optional one — food labels don't have to mention they're "healthy."

But it comes just as President-elect Trump prepares to take office. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump has tapped to lead the US Departmet of Health and Human Services, the umbrella federal health agency that oversees FDA, has recently proclaimed he's waging war against big food companies, vowing to "Make America Healthy Again" and take chemical dyes out of our Fruit Loops. (In case you were wondering: Fruit Loops, with 24% of a person's recommended daily dose of added sugars per serving, do not make the new "healthy" claim cut.)

"If the incoming administration is truly serious about making Americans eat healthier, then they should embrace the power of food labeling," former FDA official Peter Lurie, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told The New York Times.

• Perplexity AI reportedly secured $500 million in its latest funding round this month.
• That puts the startup's valuation at $9 billion, tripling its worth within six months.
• A handful of AI startups have seen its valuation skyrocket amid rapid funding rounds this year.

Perplexity AI closed a $500 million funding round earlier this month, pushing its valuation to $9 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

That means the AI search engine startup has managed to triple its valuation within six months after an investment from SoftBank put the company at a $3 billion valuation in June.

The latest funding round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, the source told Bloomberg. CNBC also reported in November that Perplexity was in the final stages of securing the investment from IVP.

A spokesperson for Perplexity declined to comment. A spokesperson for Institutional Venture Partners did not return a request for comment.

Perplexity is among a handful of buzzy AI startups that have seen their valuation balloon this year amid a feeding frenzy from VCs and investors looking for companies focused on artificial intelligence.

Anthropic, which built the Claude AI model, announced an additional $4 billion investment from Amazon in November.

That same month, Elon Musk told investors that his AI venture, xAI, raised $5 billion, valuing the startup at $50 billion.

In October, OpenAI announced that it had raised $6.6 billion at a historic $157 billion valuation.

Those large investments also come despite some of the controversies AI startups face around data and copyrighted work.

In October, News Corp, the owner of The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, accusing the startup of copyright infringement.

OpenAI is facing a similar legal battle that was filed by The New York Times last year. The publication said OpenAI used "millions" of articles to train the startup's ChatGPT model.

Both startups have denied the allegations.

• Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, died by suicide late last month.
• After he left the company, Balaji raised questions about OpenAI possibly violating copyright law.
• His name appears in a New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI that could have far-reaching implications.

Eight days before the former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji was found dead in a San Francisco apartment, the 26-year-old's name appeared in a lawsuit against his former employer that could have significant implications for the future of AI and the internet.

The lawsuit — filed by The New York Times last December — accused OpenAI and Microsoft of using "millions" of articles published by the newspaper without permission to train the AI startup's popular ChatGPT model. The companies have denied that they violated copyright law.

On November 18, the Times' attorneys asked a judge to add Balaji as a "custodian" in the lawsuit, according to court documents viewed by Business Insider. The attorneys' letter described Balaji as someone with "unique and relevant documents" that could support their copyright infringement case against OpenAI and Microsoft.

Other custodians proposed by the Times include former OpenAI employees such as cofounder Ilya Sutskever. Sutskever's potential contribution to the lawsuit is redacted in the court documents.

The Times' legal case is one of several copyright lawsuits filed against the AI startup after ChatGPT was released in 2022.

If the courts were to side with the Times or other news outlets and authors who have filed a lawsuit, the result could be costly for AI companies and limit the already finite data used to train models.

The Times' lawsuit doesn't demand an exact monetary figure but says OpenAI and Microsoft are responsible for "billions of dollars" in damages.

Spokespeople for OpenAI, Microsoft, and The New York Times did not respond to requests for comment.

Balaji raised concerns over OpenAI's use of copyrighted data

Balaji joined OpenAI in 2020 and worked on training the ChatGPT and GPT-4 models, court documents and reporting from The New York Times show. The researcher, who said OpenAI's work violated copyright law, left the company in August "because he no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that he believed would bring society more harm than benefit," the Times reported.

On October 23, he published an essay on his personal website raising questions about whether OpenAI's use of copyrighted data could be considered fair use.

"While generative models rarely produce outputs that are substantially similar to any of their training inputs, the process of training a generative model involves making copies of copyrighted data," Balaji wrote. "If these copies are unauthorized, this could potentially be considered copyright infringement, depending on whether or not the specific use of the model qualifies as 'fair use.' Because fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis, no broad statement can be made about when generative AI qualifies for fair use."

That same day, the Times published a profile of the former OpenAI researcher.

"If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company," he told the Times.

On November 26, eight days after Balaji's name appeared in the Times' attorney's letter, officers from the San Francisco Police Department responded to a welfare check at a Lower Haight-area apartment around 1:15 p.m.

"Officers and medics arrived on scene and located a deceased adult male from what appeared to be a suicide," an SFPD spokesperson told BI. "No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation."

The office of the city's chief medical examiner later identified the deceased male as Balaji.

"The manner of death has been determined to be suicide," David Serrano Sewell, executive director of the city's office of the chief medical examiner, told BI. He did not provide further comment.

"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," an OpenAI spokesperson told BI when reached for comment on Friday.

• Aritificial Intelligence is likely to disrupt the global workforce, research shows.
• Mark Cuban believes impacted jobs will be those that require simple yes or no decisions.
• Cuban told BI that the impact on a company's workforce will depend on how well AI is implemented.

Billionaire Mark Cuban doesn't believe artificial intelligence will devastate white-collar work.

In an interview published Thursday on "The Weekly Show with John Stewart," Cuban said he believes the fast-advancing technology will not impact jobs that require workers to think.

"So if your job is answering the question, 'yes or no,' all the time — AI is going to have an impact," he said. "If your job requires you to think — AI won't have much of an impact."

Cuban, the CEO of Cost Plus Drugs, an online prescription service, said workers must supervise AI and ensure that the data the models are being trained on and the resulting output are correct.

"It takes intellectual capacity. So somebody who understands what the goal is, somebody who's been doing this for years, has got to be able to input feedback on everything that the models collect and are trained on," he said. "You don't just assume the model knows everything. You want somebody to check — to grade their responses — and make corrections."

AI's recent advancement has raised existential questions on the future of work.

The World Economic Forum reported in 2023 that employers expected 44% of workers' skills to be "disrupted" within five years, requiring a massive effort on worker retraining.

A McKinsey study, however, found that AI won't decimate white-collar roles such as those in legal or finance. Instead, AI can potentially enhance those jobs in the long term by automating about 30% of overall hours worked in the US.

Cuban told Business Insider in an email that AI's impact on any company's workforce numbers will be on a case-by-case basis.

"Every company is different," he said. "But the biggest determinant is how well the company can implement AI."

• Mark Zuckerberg's Meta urged California to halt OpenAI's transition to a for-profit company.
• In doing so, Zuckerberg sided with his occasional nemesis, Elon Musk, who also wants to stop OpenAI.
• It seems the two tech billionaires have finally found some common ground.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk have long-standing beef about everything from artificial intelligence to how they run their respective social media platforms.

While that feud has lasted for the better part of a decade — and has even threatened to get physical — the two tech billionaires now agree on at least one thing: their competitor, OpenAI, should remain a nonprofit.

Zuckerberg's Meta asked the California attorney general on Friday to stop OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company. Meta accused Sam Altman's company of "taking advantage" of its status as a nonprofit to raise billions.

"OpenAI wants to change its status while retaining all of the benefits that enabled it to reach the point it has today. That is wrong. OpenAI should not be allowed to flout the law by taking and reappropriating assets it built as a charity and using them for potentially enormous private gains," Meta said in the letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

OpenAI is one of Meta's biggest competitors in the AI tech race.

"Failing to hold OpenAI accountable for its choice to form as a nonprofit could lead to a proliferation of similar startup ventures that are notionally charitable until they are potentially profitable," Meta wrote in the letter.

With that, Zuckerberg sided with Musk, who is engaged in an ongoing legal fight to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit.

Musk, one of 11 OpenAI cofounders who split from the company early on, launched a second bid in November to stop OpenAI from making the transition, asking a court for an injunction against the company.

The injunction request also argues that OpenAI and Microsoft, the largest corporate investor in the AI startup, have worked together to build a "for-profit monopoly," engaging in anti-competitive behavior that also targets xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence venture.

OpenAI has fought back. On Friday, it published a blog post titled "Elon Musk wanted an OpenAI for-profit." The post includes a series of emails and messages between Musk and other cofounders, including Altman, going back as far as November 2015, a month before the company was founded.

In one of those emails, Musk responded to Altman's proposal to start a Delaware-based nonprofit: "Also, the structure doesn't seem optimal," Musk wrote.

Musk left the organization in 2018 in part because he believed OpenAI's "probability of success was 0," according to an OpenAI blog post from March. Musk has accused OpenAI of straying from its original mission to develop an artificial general intelligence that is safe and benefits humanity.

Almost a decade after its founding as a nonprofit, OpenAI is now eyeing the switch to a for-profit venture to generate more investor capital. In October, the company announced a $6.6 billion funding round, raising OpenAI's valuation to $157 billion. That investment, however, comes with a stipulation that OpenAI become a for-profit within two years.

Meanwhile, Meta said it plans to pour as much as $37 billion on infrastructure costs alone this year, largely related to AI. Musk's xAI told investors last month that it secured $5 billion in funding.

Musk and spokespeople for Meta and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

• Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, was found dead on Nov. 26 in his apartment, reports say.
• Balaji, 26, was an OpenAI researcher of four years who left the company in August.
• He had accused his employer of violating copyright law with its highly popular ChatGPT model.

Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher of four years, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26, according to multiple reports. He was 26.

Balaji had recently criticized OpenAI over how the startup collects data from the internet to train its AI models. One of his jobs at OpenAI was gather this information for the development of the company's powerful GPT-4 AI model, and he'd become concerned about how this could undermine how content is created and shared on the internet.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department told Business Insider that "no evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation."

David Serrano Sewell, executive director of the city's office of chief medical examiner, told the San Jose Mercury News "the manner of death has been determined to be suicide." A spokesperson for the city's medical examiner's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to BI.

In October, Balaji published an essay on his personal website that raised questions around what is considered "fair use" and whether it can apply to the training data OpenAI used for its highly popular ChatGPT model.

"While generative models rarely produce outputs that are substantially similar to any of their training inputs, the process of training a generative model involves making copies of copyrighted data," Balaji wrote. "If these copies are unauthorized, this could potentially be considered copyright infringement, depending on whether or not the specific use of the model qualifies as 'fair use.' Because fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis, no broad statement can be made about when generative AI qualifies for fair use."

Balaji argued in his personal essay that training AI models with masses of data copied for free from the internet is potentially damaging online knowledge communities.

He cited a research paper that described the example of Stack Overflow, a coding Q&A website that saw big declines in traffic and user engagement after ChatGPT and AI models such as GPT-4 came out.

Large language models and chatbots answer user questions directly, so there's less need for people to go to the original sources for answers now.

In the case of Stack Overflow, chatbots and LLMs are answering coding questions, so fewer people visit Stack Overflow to ask that community for help. This, in turn, means the coding website generates less new human content.

Elon Musk has warned about this, calling the phenomenon "Death by LLM."

OpenAI faces multiple lawsuits that accuse the company of copyright infringement.

The New York Times sued OpenAI last year, accusing the start up and Microsoft of "unlawful use of The Times's work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it."

In an interview with Times that was published October, Balaji said chatbots like ChatGPT are stripping away the commercial value of people's work and services.

"This is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole," he told the publication.

In a statement to the Times about Balaji's accusations, OpenAI said: "We build our A.I. models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by longstanding and widely accepted legal precedents. We view this principle as fair to creators, necessary for innovators, and critical for US competitiveness."

Balaji was later named in the Times' lawsuit against OpenAI as a "custodian" or an individual who holds relevant documents for the case, according to a letter filed on November 18 that was viewed by BI.

If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or has had thoughts of harming themself or taking their own life, get help. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress, as well as best practices for professionals and resources to aid in prevention and crisis situations. Help is also available through the Crisis Text Line — just text "HOME" to 741741. The International Association for Suicide Prevention offers resources for those outside the US.

• GM has bowed out of the robotaxi race for now, halting its investment in Cruise.
• Only a few companies have made significant strides in the autonomous taxi space.
• Tesla and Waymo are the two frontrunners due to the progress they've made with self-driving.

General Motors' white flag in the robotaxi race on Tuesday just made the autonomous ride-sharing competition much smaller in the US, showing how challenging it can be for companies, even with the capital, to compete if they haven't already made significant headway in autonomy.

Eight years and more than $10 billion in investment later, GM said that the resource-intensive nature of Cruise and an increasingly competitive market has pushed the company to shift away from its robotaxi dreams. The company said in a statement that GM will be focusing on building up its advanced driver assistance systems for "personal vehicles."

The decision was seen by many analysts as an implicit ceding of the robotaxi race to a few companies who are already far ahead in the game, namely Tesla and Waymo.

"We believe GM's move also potentially implies that other companies (Tesla & Waymo) have better tech and/or that the market may not be appealing for later entrants," BofA analyst John Murphy wrote in a note. "Waymo is already offering a robotaxi service across several US cities and Tesla plans to launch its service in 2025."

While Chinese companies continue to make strides in autonomous ride-sharing services, including Baidu's Apollo, Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, told Business Insider that he believes autonomous vehicles in the western world will be "powered by two or three companies."

Part of the reason is because delivering robotaxis requires solving the autonomous driving equation and only a few companies like Tesla, Waymo, and Amazon have the resources — and shown the goods, to varying degrees — to do so, Munster said.

"We look at 2,000 companies a year that are cutting-edge tech companies, and we never see anybody trying to solve for autonomy," said Munster, who follows the autonomous vehicle industry. "The reason why is that this ship has basically sailed. It's going to be one of those three."

That GM has decided to pull back its Cruise operations is not an indictment against the business opportunity robotaxis itself presents — GM likely made a prudent move to shift its priorities, Tom Narayan of RBC Capital Markets wrote in an analyst note.

Safety incidents involving Cruise's fleet however kept putting the company at odds with regulators.

The company was stripped of its permit to operate in California after a woman was dragged underneath one of its vehicles last October, essentially paving a clear path for Waymo to get ahead of GM in the state.

Waymo began offering ride-sharing services to a few major cities this year and announced plans to expand to the Miami public in 2026. As of October, the Alphabet-owned company said it now provides more than 100,000 paid rides per week.

A Waymo spokesperson declined to provide comment.

Amazon's Zoox is gearing up to offer public rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco in 2025, differentiating itself from competitors through its unique carriage-style vehicles that don't come with a steering wheel. The company also recently hired a key Tesla autopilot executive.

Tesla has yet to provide commercial rides through its recently debuted Cybercab, but analysts are giddy about the company's timeline. CEO Elon Musk said during an earnings call in October that a $25,000 Cybercab will reach volume production by 2026.

Munster noted another advantage Tesla has is its potential to scale autonomous services, given that there are millions of Tesla vehicles on the road today. Those vehicles also provide large amounts of data to help Tesla fine-tune its Full Self-Driving feature.

"My sense is that this is a big data, large language model type of problem," Munster said. "I think that the advantages that Tesla will gain in data will outpace the disadvantage that they have in hardware."

Representatives for Zoox and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

• Amazon plans to donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration, the same amount as Meta, per reports.
• The moves show Big Tech's effort to mend relations with Trump, who has been critical of the industry.
• Trump said Thursday he wanted to "get ideas" from Big Tech leaders coming to visit him in Mar-a-Lago.

First Meta, now Amazon — Jeff Bezos' company will also reportedly donate $1 million to Donald Trump's inauguration.

The Wall Street Journal reported Amazon would donate the same amount as Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, the latest sign that Big Tech and the president-elect are reconciling.

Trump also told CNBC Thursday that Bezos would visit him "next week," and The Information reported Thursday that Google CEO Sundar Pichai would also travel to meet him.

It comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Trump at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago resort for Thanksgiving Eve dinner last month.

″Mark Zuckerberg's been over to see me, and I can tell you, Elon is another and Jeff Bezos is coming up next week, and I want to get ideas from them," Trump told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Thursday.

Spokespeople for Amazon and Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

Meta confirmed to the Journal Wednesday its $1 million donation to the president-elect's inaugural fund. Amazon confirmed its donation to the Financial Times.

The meetings and donations point to a shift in the relationship between tech leaders and Trump, who had previously been critical of them. Trump has previously accused Zuckerberg and Bezos of bias against his administration, among other criticisms.

In previous years, Bezos and Trump have clashed. During his first campaign and term, Trump would take shots at Amazon, once stating that the company was doing "great damage to tax-paying retailers."

Bezos has previously criticized Trump's inflammatory rhetoric, including the president-elect's call at the time to imprison Hilary Clinton.

As Trump took office in 2017, Amazon donated about $58,000 to Trump's inauguration — much less than what other tech companies donated at the time, according to the Journal.

Zuckerberg has criticized Trump's violent remarks on Facebook. In 2021, the social media platform took the extraordinary step of deplatforming Trump after he praised January 6 rioters.

Both tech leaders have appeared to warm up to Trump in recent months.

The Amazon tycoon said at The New York Times' DealBook Summit last week that he's "actually very optimistic" about a second Trump term, saying that Trump has likely "grown in the last eight years" and that he was encouraged by the president-elect's focus on deregulation.

"He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I'm going to help him," Bezos said.

Zuckerberg also appears to be mending his relationship with the president-elect, despite Trump threatening to throw the Meta CEO in prison as recently as July.

After the first assassination attempt against Trump, Zuckerberg called the president-elect a "badass" but stopped short of endorsing him during a Bloomberg interview.

On November 6, Zuckerberg was among the CEOs congratulating Trump's election victory.

"Looking forward to working with you and your administration," Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post.

• US regulations bar China from directly acquiring Nvidia's powerful H100 GPUs.
• That hasn't stopped ByteDance from becoming Nvidia's largest buyer in China.
• The company is also working around the export ban by increasing computing capacity outside China.

ByteDance is the biggest buyer of Nvidia's AI chips inside China as the TikTok owner seeks to establish itself in the artificial intelligence sector, the Financial Times reported.

A US export ban introduced in 2022 restricts China from acquiring Nvidia's more advanced GPUs. One is the H100 — a coveted chip that powers data-hungry AI models and has helped turn Nvidia into a $3 trillion company amid the global AI boom.

The ban limits China to Nvidia's less powerful H20 chip. In May, Chinese government officials asked local tech companies to buy domestic-made chips instead.

Despite the US regulation and China's pleas, ByteDance has emerged as Nvidia's largest buyer of AI chips, sources who spoke to FT said. One source told the publication that ByteDance is Nvidia's largest customer in Asia.

The report did not disclose a figure, but The Information reported in September that the TikTok parent company placed orders for more than 200,000 Nvidia H20s this year.

Bytedance appears to be seeking a workaround to the US ban to get its hands on Nvidia's H100 and Blackwell chips by increasing computing capacity outside of China, including plans for new data centers in Malaysia, sources familiar with the matter told the FT.

ByteDance did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider on Sunday.

The TikTok owner's push to acquire more Nvidia chips is part of the company's broader effort to establish itself as an AI powerhouse.

The company has siphoned top engineers from rival companies and startups, according to the FT. In 2021, the company indicated plans to attract overseas AI talent, Business Insider reported.

Bytedance is also joining a chorus of Big Tech companies looking to disrupt Nvidia's dominance by developing its own chip. Sources familiar with the matter told the FT that the company is building an AI chip for machine learning modeled after Google's Tensor Processing Unit.

Earlier this year, ByteDance unveiled a tool not available to the public called StreamVoice. This tool allows users to change their voice into another person, such as a celebrity, with AI. The company also launched Cici AI, an AI-powered chat assistant that relies on OpenAI's GPT.

Amid its push to become a formidable player in the AI race, ByteDance still faces major hurdles, including a slowed user growth rate on TikTok and an uncertain future in the US, where an appeals court recently upheld a ban on the short-form video platform. Judges concluded that ByteDance must sell TikTok to avoid being banned from app stores.

Several ultrawealthy investors have offered to buy the platform, including Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank," former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, and billionaire former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

"We don't want to see it banned," McCourt said on Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. "I'd add that President-elect Trump has also said he doesn't want to see it banned. So now, let's talk about the sale."

• UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4.
• Police arrested Luigi Mangione, who now faces a murder charge for the killing.
• Mangione has hired prominent New York lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him.

Luigi Mangione, the man police say murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has hired high-profile attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

Friedman Agnifilo is married to Marc Agnifilo, lead lawyer defending Sean "Diddy" Combs against federal sex-trafficking charges.

The Combs and Mangione cases will be handled by the same Manhattan law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, and can be expected to dominate legal news headlines in the coming year.

In getting retained, Friedman Agnifilo bested some half-dozen other prominent attorneys who had been interviewed by the Mangione family last week, according to multiple sources who asked not to be named due to their connection with the case.

Friedman Agnifilo last week left her previous law firm, Perry Law, to join her husband's firm as counsel, representatives for both firms told Business Insider.

Friedman Agnifilo had been a CNN commentator as recently as Wednesday, when she suggested that an insanity defense would be Mangione's best bet.

She told journalist Kaitlan Collins, "It looks like to me there might be a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense that they're going to be thinking about because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did."

On Friday night, Collins broke the news that Friedman Agnifilo had been hired by the Mangione family.

Friedman Agnifilo worked as the chief assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for seven years before pivoting to private practice in 2021.

Mangione faces a second-degree murder charge in New York for the fatal December 4 shooting of Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota. That charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

(A charge of first-degree murder is reserved for those accused of killing a law enforcement official or witness of a crime, or for when a murder is committed during the commission of another high-level crime, including robbery, rape, or kidnapping.)

Mangione is fighting extradition to New York City. The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate appeared for a hearing on December 10 at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse, where a lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told the judge that Mangione was contesting his extradition. Police arrested Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9 on local charges and later arraigned. Mangione made a bail request, which the judge denied during the hearing.

The suspect will remain at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon State Correctional Institution during the extradition proceedings. Dickey told reporters on December 10 that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges in Pennsylvania.

In an interview with CNN that evening, Dickey also said that he anticipates Mangione would plead not guilty to the murder charge in New York and that he hadn't seen any evidence that officials in New York "have the right guy."

Mangione also faces four other charges related to the killing of the insurance CEO: two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second-degree, one count of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree.

A gun found on Mangione matched the three shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a December 11 press conference.

Tisch added that the suspect's fingerprints also matched those found on a water bottle and snack bar wrapper discarded near the crime scene.

During Mangione's arrest, officers found a three-page handwritten document "that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," Tisch said at a separate press conference on December 9.

An internal NYPD report obtained by The New York Times gave the clearest view of the potential motive yet. Based on the so-called manifesto discovered, Mangione "likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices," the NYPD report said, as reported by the Times.

Mangione "appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and 'power games,' asserting in his note he is the 'first to face it with such brutal honesty,'" according to the NYPD report by the department's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, the Times reported.

In a statement to Business Insider, representatives for Nino Mangione — a Maryland state legislator and a cousin of Mangione's — declined to comment on the news of Mangione's arrest.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione," the statement read. "We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest."

Recognized at a McDonald's

Mangione was eating in an Altoona McDonald's when an employee recognized him from the several surveillance images that authorities released in the aftermath of Thompson's killing and called the police, New York police said at the December 9 press conference.

Altoona police found Mangione in the McDonald's with multiple fake IDs and a US passport, as well as a firearm and a suppressor "both consistent with the weapon used" in the shooting of Thompson in the heart of Manhattan, Tisch, the NYPD commissioner, said.

The gun appeared to be a "ghost gun" that may have been made on a 3-D printer. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the press conference that such a gun could fire a 9-millimeter round.

A Pennsylvania criminal complaint filed against Mangione said officers found a black 3-D-printed pistol and 3-D-printed silencer inside the suspect's backpack.

When Altoona officers asked Mangione if he had been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake," the criminal complaint said.

Clothing, including a mask, was also recovered "consistent with those worn" by the suspect wanted for Thompson's killing, along with a fake New Jersey ID matching the ID that the murder suspect used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the attack, Tisch said.

Based on the handwritten document that police found on Mangione, according to Kenny, "it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America."

During a December 10 interview on NBC's "Today" show, Tisch said the "manifesto" revealed "anti-corporatist sentiment" and "a lot of issues with the healthcare industry."

"But as to like particular, specific motive that'll come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and month," the NYPD commissioner said.

NBC News and The New York Times, each citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official, reported that the handwritten document read in part: "These parasites had it coming."

"I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," it added, according to the reports.

Police believe that Mangione acted alone.

NYPD investigators traveled to Altoona last week to interview Mangione after Altoona officers took him into custody.

Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said at Mangione's Pennsylvania arraignment that Mangione was carrying $10,000 in cash, including foreign currency, according to the Associated Press.

Mangione disputed the amount in court.

Mangione was active on social media

Mangione posted and amplified posts about technological advances like artificial intelligence on X. He also posted about fitness and healthy living.

He frequently retweeted posts by the writer Tim Urban and commentator Jonathan Haidt about the promise and perils of technology. He also appeared to be a fan of Michael Pollan, known for his writing about food and ethics.

Other deleted social media posts showed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and expressed skepticism toward both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.

At the top of his profile was a header image with three images: a photo of himself, smiling, shirtless on a mountain ridge, a Pokemon, and an x-ray with four pins or screws visible in the lower back.

Mangione founded a company called AppRoar Studios in 2015 while still in high school. AppRoar released an iPhone game called Pivot Plane that is no longer available.

The two other cofounders of AppRoar could not be reached for comment.

Mangione's X account has been deactivated. A spokesperson for YouTube said his three accounts on the platform were also terminated, but that they had not been active for about seven months.

A manhunt

Mangione's arrest followed a nearly week-long manhunt.

According to police, Manigone was born and raised in Maryland, and has ties to San Francisco, California. His last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The New York Post, citing law-enforcement sources, reported that Mangione's mother reported him missing in mid-November.

Law-enforcement sources told ABC News that FBI agents and members of the NYPD spoke to the mother a day before Mangione's arrest, following a tip, and that in the conversation she indicated that the person in the surveillance photos could be her son.

Kenny, the NYPD's chief of detectives, said that Manigone has no prior arrest history in New York and no known arrests in the US.

A Luigi Mangione with a matching birthday and address received a citation for simple trespass for entering a forbidden area of a state park in Hawaii in November 2023. He pleaded no contest and paid a $100 fine.

"For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips, and processed every bit of forensic evidence — DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses and so much to tighten the net," Tisch said at Monday's press conference announcing the arrest of Manigone.

Thompson was shot multiple times on a Midtown sidewalk as he was walking toward the Hilton hotel. He was steps away from a side entrance to the hotel — where he was set to speak at UnitedHealth Group's investor conference — when a hooded gunman opened fire on him from behind.

The chief executive of the nation's largest health insurer was struck at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf, police said.

Surveillance footage showed the gunman firing his weapon as Thompson, wearing a blue suit jacket, walked several feet in front of him.

The gunman fled the scene, first on foot and then on an electric bike, which he rode into Central Park before ultimately escaping from New York City, police said.

Shell casings and bullets found at the scene had the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" written on them, according to multiple reports citing unnamed sources. BI couldn't independently confirm these details.

In the aftermath of the attack, the NYPD offered a $10,000 reward for tips leading to the gunman's arrest, with the FBI offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

A spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, reacted to news of Manigone's arrest in a statement to BI, saying: "Our hope is that today's apprehension brings some relief to Brian's family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy. We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family's privacy as they mourn."

• Jay-Z was named in a new filing stemming from a lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs.
• The alleged incident occurred in 2000 following MTV's Video Music Awards.
• The victim, who is not named, said she was underage when she was drugged and raped by both men.

Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has been accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in a new court filing stemming from a lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs.

The amended complaint, filed Sunday, says Combs and Carter assaulted the girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.

"Another celebrity stood by and watched as Combs and Carter took turns assaulting the minor," the amended complaint, which modifies an original complaint filed in October against Combs, reads. "Many others were present at the afterparty, but did nothing to stop the assault."

Carter was identified in the original complaint as "Celebrity A," the suit reads.

Before the filing of the amended complaint, Tony Buzbee, an attorney for the plaintiff — who is unidentified in the filing — had sent a letter to Carter requesting he and the plaintiff engage in mediation, Buzbee told Business Insider.

"Jay-Z responded to said letter by not only filing an utterly frivolous lawsuit, but by also orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation against Plaintiff's lawyers, their families, employees and former associates in an attempt to silence Plaintiff from naming Jay-Z herein," the complaint reads.

"This effort was meant to scare Plaintiff and to discredit her counsel. That effort failed. Indeed, Plaintiff chose to file this amendment as a result of the egregious conduct perpetuated by Carter."

Buzbee told BI, "The pleading speaks for itself. This is a very serious matter that will be litigated in court."

Carter has been a longtime friend of Combs. Combs faces a series of sexual assault allegations, civil lawsuits, and federal sex trafficking charges and has previously vehemently denied the allegations against him.

On Sunday, after the allegations became public, Carter, through the X account of Roc Nation, his entertainment company, said in a statement that his lawyer was sent "blackmail" to pressure him into settling out of court for an undisclosed amount. Carter said the move had the "opposite effect" and instead made him want to expose his accusor "in a VERY public fashion."

"So no, I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!!" Carter's statement reads. "These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!! Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case."

Buzbee told Business Insider that the victim never demanded a penny from Carter.

"Instead, she only sought a confidential mediation," Buzbee said. "Since I sent the letter on her behalf, Mr. Carter has not only sued me, but he has tried to bully and harass me and this plaintiff. His conduct has had the opposite impact. She is emboldened. I'm very proud of her resolve."

The two hip-hop moguls, both 55, have created business empires, including Carter's label Roc-A-Fella Records and the streaming service Tidal, Combs' label Bad Boy Records, and partnerships with Cîroc vodka and DeLeón tequila.

Carter has an approximate net worth of $2.5 billion, Business Insider previously reported. Combs' business partnerships have dried up after the allegations against him, with Forbes estimating his net worth now to be about $90 million.

Attorneys for Carter and Combs did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Robotaxis in large cities like San Francisco can be targets of vandalism.
• General Motors, which operates Cruise, has a patent that could address "adversarial" behavior.
• Some measures include auditory warnings and finding a different route, the patent shows.

General Motors has a patent that outlines a detection system for robotaxis that can respond to "adversarial behavior" or "bullying" from pedestrians.

The patent, which was published in November by the US Patent and Trademark Office, shows how a robotaxi could asses the threat level from a pedestrian and respond accordingly.

A spokesperson for GM did not respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.

According to the patent, the detection system involves an "adversarial intent algorithm" that determines whether a pedestrian presents a risk to the autonomous vehicle.

Depending on the level of the risk, the robotaxi could resort to several actions, including "visual and auditory warnings" to the offending pedestrian or finding a different route, the patent said. The system could also alert authorities, the patent said.

The filing is an apparent response to a recurring issue for robotaxi companies operating in busy urban areas such as San Francisco or Phoenix.

In recent years, videos of robotaxis owned by GM's Cruise or Alphabet's Waymo have surfaced online, showing pedestrians taking a hammer to the autonomous vehicles or setting one on fire.

In June, over a dozen Waymos had their tires slashed by a 36-year-old woman, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office said.

"With the introduction of automated driving vehicles, adversarial behaviors by pedestrians and other vulnerable road users toward autonomous vehicles is becoming an issue, particularly in urban environments," GM's patent said. "Adversarial behaviors, often in the form of bullying, come from both pedestrians and other road users."

Waymo has a similar system in which the vehicle can warn a pedestrian, emit a siren, or take evasive maneuvers, such as finding a different route.

GM's Cruise faced a major roadblock last year. It suspended its operations nationwide after California regulators deemed the vehicles dangerous to public safety and revoked Cruise's license. The move came after a pedestrian was dragged underneath a Cruise robotaxi in 2023.

The company said in June that it will restart testing operations in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix.

Meanwhile, Waymo has opened its service to the public in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, providing over 100,000 paid rides a week as of October, the company said.

The Alphabet-owned company said it plans to expand its service to the public in Miami by 2026.

• A gunman fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4 in New York City.
• The NYPD launched a manhunt but has so far failed to capture the suspect.
• The suspect's evasion has revealed holes in surveillance, but police say it's just a matter of time.

The Manhattan shooting Wednesday of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was captured by a surveillance camera and shared on social media, where the footage racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Authorities later released full-color surveillance images of the gunman, including one that showed him with his mask pulled down and smiling.

Yet, the gunman is still at large after four days despite a citywide manhunt led by the largest metropolitan police force in the country. On Friday, authorities told CNN they believed the gunman had managed to leave the city by bus.

The gunman's ability to evade capture so far has highlighted the limits of surveillance, even in a city like New York, where authorities have access to thousands of cameras that can track millions of people daily.

"You have got to remember, he was running around a city of 9 million people," Joseph Giacolone, a former NYPD Sergeant and professor at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, told Business Insider. "You know, it's not that easy to pick somebody up the street, especially if they're all buttoned up."

New York City is under constant surveillance by police and residents

After the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, George W. Bush's administration expanded surveillance across the country.

Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Act that November, creating the Transportation Security Administration. That same year, the Bush administration ushered in the USA Patriot Act, which expanded law enforcement's ability to use surveillance.

The US Congress later created the Department of Homeland Security. The department launched a nationwide campaign — "If You See Something, Say Something" — encouraging citizens to report suspicious activity to law enforcement to prevent terrorism and other criminal acts.

Since then, the emphasis on surveillance and security has spread nationwide, including in New York City, where cameras are now everywhere.

Amnesty International, a human rights organization, said there were over 25,500 surveillance cameras in New York City in a 2022 report. The NYPD has used images from the ubiquitous cameras to track crimes and for use in facial recognition software.

The NYPD's "Facial Identification Section" received 9,850 requests for comparison and returned 2,510 possible matches in 2019 — a roughly 25% match rate. The agency said it's unaware of cases in NYC in which a person was falsely arrested due to a facial recognition match.

This May, New York City Mayor Eric Adams launched a pilot program focused on using technology to increase public safety. The "community-based security camera integration platform" will allow businesses to "voluntarily share information in real-time with the NYPD through existing closed-circuit television cameras," according to a press release.

The emergence of Amazon's Ring cameras and smartphones has added another layer of monitoring. In 2022, the NYPD said it would join and monitor the Neighbors app, where residents share information on crime and safety.

"While the NYPD will not monitor the app around the clock, it will have the capacity to view, post and respond to crime- and safety-related information posted publicly by the users of the app," a press release said.

The NYPD is "processing a tremendous amount of evidence"

Commissioner Jessica Tisch told CNN on Friday that the department had already collected "lots of forensic evidence" and was "processing a tremendous amount of evidence in this case."

She said there is also a "massive camera canvass" of the suspect's movements through the city.

Additionally, a law enforcement official told CNN that investigators found a backpack in Central Park they believe belonged to the suspect but had not officially confirmed where it came from. Authorities took the backpack for tests.

Giacolone told BI that while the shooting suspect has evaded capture for now, it will be difficult for him to elude authorities as they collect more evidence. The NYPD will be looking for what he called "the three horsemen of forensics" to solve the case, which are video surveillance, cellphone records, and internet records.

"I've been on these investigations," Giacolone said. "They know what hole he crawled out of, what hole he went back into. As far as I'm concerned, they already know who he is. They just got to find him."

• Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has resigned and fled his country.
• Rebel forces said they seized control of the capital, Damascus.
• The collapse of Assad's government could have major global implications.

Syrians around the world celebrated as rebels, after more than a decadelong fight, finally toppled the country's longtime leader, Bashar Assad, on Sunday.

The Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday that Assad had resigned from his position as Syrian president and left the country. Russian state news reported that Assad had arrived in Moscow, where he's been granted asylum.

Syrian anti-government forces announced early on Sunday morning that they had advanced into Damascus, Syria's capital.

In a post on social media, rebel commander Hassan Abdul-Ghani said: "We declare Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad."

"Today 8-12-2024 Syria is officially free," he added in a later post.

Hassan Akkad, who fled Syria in 2015 and is now based in the UK, posted to X, "Syria is free. Syria is free. Syria is free. Syria is free. Syria is free. Syria is free. Syria is free."

World leaders react

President-elect Donald Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday that Assad had "fled his country" after losing Russia's support.

"Assad is gone," Trump wrote. "His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer."

In a press briefing on Sunday, President Joe Biden called the fall of Assad's government "a fundamental act of justice" and "a moment of opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country."

Biden said the US would support Syria's neighbors Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Israel "should any threat arise from Syria during this transition." Biden said the United States would also "maintain our mission against ISIS" inside the country, referring to the terrorist group operating in the region.

The US military conducted at least a dozen airstrikes inside Syria on Sunday, "targeting ISIS camps and ISIS operatives," Biden said.

The United States will also support Syria through the United Nations to create a new government through a process determined by the Syrian people, Biden said.

"The United States will do whatever we can to support them, including through humanitarian relief, to help restore Syria after more than a decade of war and generational brutality by the Assad family," Biden said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a Sunday statement, echoed the president's sentiment, saying the US "will support international efforts to hold the Assad regime and its backers accountable for atrocities and abuses perpetrated against the Syrian people, including the use of chemical weapons and the unjust detention of civilians such as Austin Tice."

The Syrian people, Blinken added, "finally have reason for hope."

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called Assad's resignation "a positive and long-awaited development."

"It also shows the weakness of Assad's backers, Russia and Iran," Kallas said in a statement. "Our priority is to ensure security in the region. I will work with all the constructive partners in Syria and in the region."

Geir Pedersen, the UN's Special Envoy for Syria, said in a statement, "Today marks a watershed moment in Syria's history."

How rebels took control of Aleppo

In late November, the coalition of rebel groups launched a surprise offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which traces its origins to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. It has more recently promoted more moderate views.

The rebels quickly took control of Aleppo, one of Syria's largest cities, Hama, and the strategic city of Homs, which sits at an important crossroads linking Damascus to the coast.

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of HTS, is a Syrian who fought against US occupation in Iraq with Al Qaeda. He is believed to have cut ties with the terrorist organization in 2016 but is still designated a terrorist by the US, which has placed a $10 million bounty on his head.

Al-Jolani has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader and promoted messages of religious and ethnic inclusivity as HTS pushed toward Damascus. Still, HTS has a reputation as a hardline Islamist faction.

"This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation," Al-Jolani said in a speech to his followers this weekend, per a translation by CNN. "This new triumph, my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region."

What Assad's ousting means for Russia and Iran

The collapse of Assad's government could have significant global implications, especially for Russia and Iran, which have been two of Assad's strongest allies.

Moscow operates two major military facilities in Syria — the Hmeimim airbase and the Tartus naval base — which have given its forces crucial access to the Mediterranean Sea and a base to launch operations into Africa.

Losing access to these bases would scupper many of Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans in the region, Zineb Riboua, a research fellow and program manager at the Hudson Institute's Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, wrote on X: "Without a strong Russian military base in Syria, all of Putin's plans collapse."

While Russia intervened to prop up Assad in 2015, its priorities have since shifted to the war in Ukraine, and it had appeared reluctant to divert any significant resources to help Assad this time around.

On Sunday, Russia's foreign ministry said there was no security threat to its military bases in Syria but that they were on high alert.

For Iran, Syria has been part of an important land corridor stretching from Tehran to Baghdad, Damascus, and Beirut, helping it support key regional proxies such as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"For Iran, Syria is absolutely essential in order to maintain its proxy network," Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, previously told Business Insider.

But Tehran, too, has been distracted by its conflict with Israel, while Hezbollah has been left in disarray after Israel killed its longtime leader and wounded thousands of its fighters with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.

In a separate post on TruthSocial on Saturday, Trump called on the United States to stay out of the situation in Syria, writing: "Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!"

This story is being updated as the situation unfolds.

• AMD CEO Lisa Su and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are first cousins once removed, a researcher said.
• Su told Bloomberg they did not grow up together and were "really distant."
• "No family dinners," she said. "It is an interesting coincidence."

AMD CEO Lisa Su said in a recent interview that she never met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, her competitor and distant relative, until later in their careers.

"We were really distant, so we didn't grow up together," Su said in an interview with Bloomberg's Emily Chang published Thursday. "We actually met at an industry event. So it wasn't until we were well into our careers."

Former journalist and genealogist Jean Wu said last year that Su and Huang, both Taiwanese chief executives of global chip powerhouses, are first cousins, once removed. Huang, 61, is the older cousin to Su, 55. Huang's mother is a sister to Su's grandfather, a condensed family tree Wu published on her Facebook account showed.

Su confirmed the familial relationship with her competitor in 2020, saying that the two are "distant relatives, so some complex second cousin type of thing."

An Nvidia spokesperson confirmed to CNN last year that Su is Huang's distant cousin through his mother's side.

An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment on this story, and an AMD spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Huang and Su have eerily similar career paths but different upbringings.

Su was born in Tainan, whereas Huang was born in Taiwan's capital, Taipei.

The AMD CEO later moved to the US, where she grew up in New York and studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Huang lived in Washington and Kentucky before settling in Oregon. He later attended Oregon State University.

Su said in the Bloomberg interview that she has a large family she visits when she travels back to Taiwan.

"My dad had like nine siblings, and my mom had like six, so it was like a big family," she said. "So there are lots and lots of cousins and aunts and uncles."

Despite their familial ties, Su and Huang never crossed paths at those family gatherings.

"No family dinners," she said. "It is an interesting coincidence."

• Elon Musk and Donald Trump have had a tumultuous relationship over the years.
• While the two traded barbs during Trump's first presidency, they're now political allies.

• Trump officially added Musk to join his administration to help lead his DOGE effort, and Musk calls himself "first buddy."

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are now spending lots of time together, marking a new era of their working relationship.

The world's richest person and president-elect have become close political allies, with Musk calling himself "first buddy" following Trump's most recent victory and donating more than $200 million toward pro-Trump super PACs.

Trump tasked Elon Musk with recommending cost cuts in the federal government, appointing the Tesla CEO to the new Department of Government Efficiency council.

It wasn't always this cozy between the two billionaires, however.

Here's how they reached this point.

November 2016: Musk says Trump is 'not the right guy' for the job

Just before the 2016 presidential election, Musk told CNBC he didn't think Trump should be president. 

"I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," Musk said. 

The billionaire added that Hillary Clinton's economic and environmental policies were the "right ones."

December 2016: Musk appointed to Trump's advisory councils

After he won the presidency, Trump appointed Musk to two economic advisory councils, along with other business leaders like Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. 

Musk got flack for working with the controversial president, but defended his choice by saying he was using the position to lobby for better environmental and immigration policies. 

June 2017: Musk cut ties with the White House in protest of Trump's environmental policies

On June 1, 2017, after Trump announced the US would pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, Musk resigned from his roles on presidential advisory boards. 

"Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk said in a tweet announcing his departure.

Musk's goal for Tesla is to curb dependence on fossil fuels through electric vehicles, solar power, and stationary energy storage. 

January 2020: 'One of our great geniuses'

During a January 2020 interview with CNBC, Trump praised Musk's accomplishments and intelligence. 

"You have to give him credit," the former president said, referring to Tesla becoming more valuable than Ford and General Motors. "He's also doing the rockets. He likes rockets. And he's doing good at rockets too, by the way." 

Trump went on to call Musk "one of our great geniuses" and likened him to Thomas Edison. 

May 2020: Trump backs up Musk in feud with California covid rules

As the pandemic gripped the US in early 2020, Musk clashed with California public-health officials who forced Tesla to temporarily shut down its factory there. Trump voiced his support for Musk. 

"California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW," Trump tweeted in May 2020. "It can be done Fast & Safely!"

"Thank you!," Musk replied. 

May 2022: Musk said he would reinstate Trump's Twitter account

In May, Musk said he would unban Trump as the Twitter's new owner. 

Musk called the ban a "morally bad decision" and "foolish to the extreme" in an interview with the Financial Times. Twitter kicked Trump off of its platform following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. 

The Tesla billionaire has called himself a "free speech absolutist," and one of his key goals for taking Twitter private was to loosen content moderation. 

July 2022: Trump calls Musk a 'bullshit artist'

In July, Trump took aim at Musk, claiming the businessman voted for him but later denied it. 

"You know [Musk] said the other day 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,'" Trump said during a Saturday rally in Anchorage, Alaska. "I said 'I didn't know that.' He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist."

On Monday, Musk tweeted that Trump's claim was "not true."

July 2022: Musk says Trump shouldn't run again

Musk stopped short of attacking Trump personally, but said he shouldn't run for president again. 

"I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack – don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency," he tweeted. 

He continued: "Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69." Trump is 76 years old. 

July 2022: Trump lashes out

Trump then went on the offensive, posting a lengthy attack on Musk on Truth Social, the social media company he founded. 

"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it," Trump said in a post that criticized two of Musk's ventures, Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. 

"Lmaooo," Musk responded on Twitter.

October 2022: Trump cheers Musk's Twitter deal, but says he won't return

Following Musk's official buyout of Twitter on Thursday, Trump posted to Truth Social cheering the deal. 

"I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country," he said. He added that he likes Truth Social better than other platforms, echoing comments from earlier this year in which he ruled out a return to Twitter. 

On Monday, Musk joked about the potential of welcoming the former president back to his newly acquired platform.

"If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!," the Tesla CEO tweeted. 

May 2023: Musks hosts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' glitchy debut

Musk and other right-leaning voices in Silicon Valley initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis ended 2022 as Trump's best-positioned primary challenger. In November 2022, as DeSantis was skyrocketing to acclaim, Musk said he would endorse him. In March 2023, after enduring Trump's attacks for months, DeSantis prepared to make history by formally announcing his campaign in an interview on Twitter.

The initial few minutes were a glitchy disaster. Trump and his allies ruthlessly mocked DeSantis' "Space" with Musk and venture capitalist David Sachs. DeSantis' interview later proceeded, but his campaign was dogged for days with negative headlines.

September 2023: A Trump-style border wall is needed, Musk says

Musk live-streamed a visit to the US-Mexico border on Twitter, which he had rebranded as "X." Musk said that one of Trump's signature policies was necessary during his visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, to get a first-person look at what local officials called a crisis at the border.

"We actually do need a wall and we need to require people to have some shred of evidence to claim asylum to enter, as everyone is doing that," Musk wrote on X. "It's a hack that you can literally Google to know exactly what to say! Will find out more when I visit Eagle Pass maybe as soon as tomorrow."

Like Trump and others on the right, Musk had criticized the broader consensus in Washington for focusing too much on Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine in comparison to domestic issues like migration. 

March 2024: Trump tries to woo Musk, but the billionaire says he won't give him money.

Trump tried to woo Musk during a meeting at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort. According to The New York Times, Trump met with Musk and a few other GOP megadonors when the former president's campaign was particularly cash-strapped. After The Times published its report, Musk said he would not be "donating money to either candidate for US President." 

It wasn't clear who Musk meant in terms of the second candidate. He had repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden, who looked poised to be headed toward a rematch with Trump.

July 2024: Musk endorses Trump after the former president is shot

Musk said he "fully endorsed" Trump after the former president was shot during a political rally ahead of the Republican National Convention. The billionaire's endorsement marked a major turning point in his yearslong political evolution from an Obama voter. Days later, it would come to light that Musk pressed Trump to select Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

Trump announced Vance as his vice presidential pick at the Republican National Convention.

The ticket, Musk wrote on X, "resounds with victory."

It wasn't just his public support that Musk was offering. In July, the Wall Street Journal reported Musk had pledged roughly $45 million to support a pro-Trump super PAC. Musk later said he would donate far less, but his rebranding into a loyal member of the MAGA right was complete.

August 2024: Trump joins Musk for a highly anticipated interview

Trump, who ended the Republican National Convention primed for victory, stumbled after Biden abruptly dropped out of the 2024 race. The former president and his allies have struggled to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee.

Amid Harris' early media blitz, Trump joined Musk on a two-hour livestream on X that garnered an audience of over 1 million listeners. The conversation covered topics ranging from a retelling of Trump's assassination attempt to illegal immigration to Musk's potential role with a government efficiency commission.

In August, Trump began floating the idea that he "certainly would" consider adding Musk to his Cabinet or an advisory role. The Tesla CEO responded by tweeting an AI-generated photo of himself on a podium emblazoned with the acronym "D.O.G.E"—Department of Government Efficiency.

"I am willing to serve," he wrote above the image.

September 2024: Musk says he's ready to serve if Trump gives him an advisory role

In September, Trump softened the suggestion of Musk joining his Cabinet due to his time constraints with running his various business ventures, the Washington Post reported. However, he also said that Musk could "consult with the country" and help give "some very good ideas."

Musk then replied to a tweet about the Washington Post article expressing his enthusiasm.

"I can't wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go," he wrote.

He later tweeted again to show his interest in being appointed by Trump, writing that he "looked forward to serving" the country and would be willing to do with without any pay, title, or recognition.

Trump is reportedly soon to announce that he has taken Musk's advice and is forming a government efficiency commission.

October 2024: Musk speaks at Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania

Musk joined Trump onstage during the former president's rally, hosted on October 5 in the same location where Trump survived an assassination attempt in July. Musk sported an all-black "Make America Great Again" cap and briefly addressed the crowd, saying that voter turnout for Trump this year was essential or "this will be the last election." 

"President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution," Musk said. "He must win to preserve democracy in America."

The next day, Musk's America PAC announced that it would be offering $47 to each person who refers registered voters residing in swing states to sign a petition "in support for the First and Second Amendments."

By October, the PAC had reportedly already spent over $80 million on the election, with over $8.2 million spread across 18 competitive House races for the GOP. 

The Tesla CEO later told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he might face "vengeance" if Trump loses the election.

November 2024: Trump wins the presidency and names Musk his administration

Musk was by Trump's side on election night at Mar-a-Lago, helping celebrate his victory.

Nearly a week after his 2024 presidential election win, Trump announced that Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy were chosen to lead a newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE, as Musk likes to call it, in reference to the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin).

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pay the way for my Administration to dismantle the Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," Trump said in a statement. 

It's unclear whether the department will formally exist within the government, though Trump said the office would "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government" and work directly with the White House and Office of Management & Budget.

Musk responded in a post on X that the Department of Government Efficiency will be post all their actions online "for maximum transparency." 

"Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!" Musk wrote. "We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."

Outside of administrative duties, Musk has also joined "almost every meeting and many meals that Mr. Trump has had," The New York Times reported, acting as a partial advisor and confidant. The Tesla CEO also reportedly joined Trump's calls with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while both men were at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago club, where Musk seems to have settled in.

"Elon won't go home," Trump told NBC News jokingly. "I can't get rid of him." 

The two's close relationship has extended to a more personal friendship. Musk was seen attending Trump's Thanksgiving dinner and on the golf course with Trump and his grandchildren, where Kai Trump said he achieved "uncle status."

• Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who once faced a DOJ probe, recently joined Cameo.
• Cameo's CEO told BI that Gaetz and others capture the ethos behind the platform.
• The company says it's now allowing "just about anyone" to join the site.

Days after former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his consideration to be Donald Trump's US attorney general in late November, the lawmaker made a move that's becoming increasingly familiar for controversial figures on the Hill.

He joined Cameo, a social platform founded in 2016 that allows fans to request personalized videos from celebrities for a fee.

For Cameo cofounder and CEO Steven Galanis, Gaetz's recent debut on the platform merely captures the ethos of his company, giving figures of pop culture who are, in the CEO's words, "more famous than rich" an opportunity to cash in on their cultural capital.

Whether they faced a federal probe or not is not Cameo's concern, Galanis told Business Insider.

"I think we're a marketplace for people that are notable, right?" Galanis said. "Some are notorious and some are notable, but they're all people that matter in the public zeitgeist. These are all people that people care about."

Gaetz, who was once under investigation by the Justice Department related to sex trafficking allegations, charges $500 or more per video. The ex-congressman has denied the allegations, and the DOJ declined to pursue charges. Gaetz was also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee until he resigned from Congress last month.

A spokesperson for Gaetz did not immediately return a request for comment.

Former Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from Congress last year and pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identify theft in August, is another controversial politician who sought to capitalize on his notoriety through Cameo.

Galanis said Santos had the "biggest first day in Cameo history" last year. The CEO declined to provide exact figures, but the former lawmaker previously said he quickly surpassed the $174,000 congressional salary within a week.

A spokesperson for Santos did not immediately return a request for comment.

To see a Santos-like figure on Cameo may not have always been the case during the social platform's early days, Galanis said. The CEO said Cameo used to have "fairly junior employees" who would decide who to let on the site.

"There might have been someone who said, 'I don't like George Santos so, no, he's not on,'" Galanis said. "And that would've never even got to us."

Cameo also had a criteria that required notable figures to at least have 25,000 followers on any one of their social media platforms.

Now, the company says it's opening its doors to "just about anyone" through an updated policy called CameoX.

"After years of limiting access to select personalities who met specific follower thresholds or were hand-picked, Cameo is now expanding its platform to a broader range of talent through a new onboarding policy called CameoX," the company said in a press release.

With the old onboarding system, Galanis said Cameo may have missed out on "hundreds if not thousands of talent that are the type of people we would've wanted on. But at the time they applied, maybe we didn't realize that yet."

"Imagine a TikToker that hadn't had their viral video. Imagine a baseball player that might've been in college that all of a sudden is starting on the Atlanta Braves," he said.

Cameo's decision to loosen its onboarding policy also comes at a time when the platform is facing financial difficulties.

In 2021, during the height of the pandemic, the platform secured a $1 billion unicorn valuation through a $100 million funding round. Earlier this year, Cameo was unable to pay a $600,000 settlement stemming from the failure to properly disclose ad endorsements on celebrity videos. The company was instead fined $100,000.

Galanis told BI the issue has now been resolved.

"We've moved on," he said.

The company raised $28 million in its latest funding round from March, Galanis confirmed. The Information reported the funding would put Cameo's valuation at less than $100 million — a 90% plunge from its previous value.

With the new onboarding policy, Cameo isn't just open to A-listers or the momentarily famous but also your local beloved high school football coach. But there are still limits, Galanis said.

The platform has moderation rules such as no nudity or inciting violence and hate speech. And like any company, Cameo has to abide by government regulations or sanctions that might bar it from doing business with specific people or entities, the CEO said.

"I can't police what people do off Cameo," Galanis said, "but I can police what they do on it. So we judge people based on their behavior on our platform."