• Wildfires are burning across Los Angeles County.
• Hundreds of thousands of people are under evacuation orders or warnings.
• Insured losses could top $20 billion, JPMorgan analysts estimated — the most-ever in California.

The Los Angeles area is battling a series of massive wildfires that continue to rip through its picturesque mountains and hillsides — creating a hellscape of burned-out neighborhoods and upended livelihoods that could ultimately be the most costly fire disaster in California history.

Authorities on Friday night expanded the evacuation zone related to the largest blaze, the Palisades Fire, east toward Santa Monica, less than 1.5 miles from the iconic Santa Monica Pier. The zone now encompasses the famous Getty Center, home of the Getty Museum.

Officials have now ordered over 150,000 residents to evacuate and warned another 166,000 to be ready to leave if the fires continue to spread. More than 35,000 acres have burned, and the LA County Medical Examiner has reported 11 deaths related to the fires so far.

At a press conference on Friday evening, officials managing the Eaton fire, which now spans almost 14,000 acres and is one of the largest and deadliest, said they don't expect the blaze to spread significantly over the weekend due to more moderate wind conditions. However, officials said they are anticipating another high-wind event early next week. It was strong Santa Ana gusts of up to 90 miles per hour that first whipped the fires into a frenzy earlier this week.

JPMorgan analysts said the blazes tearing through the region could lead to over $20 billion in insured losses — and about $50 billion in total economic losses. That would make these conflagrations "significantly more severe" than the Camp Fires that struck the state in 2018 and racked up $10 billion in insured losses, the current record.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the scene in LA as apocalyptic, as thick bands of smoke surrounded the city. Los Angeles County is home to about 10 million people.

"Not since the 1990s, when Los Angeles was hit with the fires, the flood, the earthquake, and the riots, have I seen such disaster occur here in our city," Hochman said at a briefing, referring to the Northridge Earthquake and the disturbances in the wake of the Rodney King verdict.

Erroneous emergency alerts telling residents to evacuate areas unaffected by the fires further heightened panic in the region. Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, apologized for the messages at Friday's conference.

"There is an extreme amount of frustration, anger, fear, with regards to the erroneous messages that have been being sent out through the wireless emergency alert system. I can't express enough how sorry I am for this experience," he said.

He reassured residents that resolving the issue is his "top priority" and that he has technical specialists working to identify the root cause. "I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone," he said.

Late Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration warned civilians against flying unauthorized drones in areas undergoing firefighting efforts, after a firefighting plane sustained wing damage from a civilian drone and had to be grounded.

Satellite images of the LA fires showed the destruction left in their wake.

Starlink, Elon Musk's SpaceX subsidiary that provides satellite internet service, said Thursday that people in the Los Angeles area can use the company's network to text loved ones, contact 911, and receive emergency alerts.

Here's a look at the latest happenings in the main fires spreading throughout the area:

Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica was the first fire to strike the region on Tuesday morning. It has spread to nearly 20,438 acres, Los Angeles City's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said a Friday press conference.

Five people have died in the Palisades fire, according to the medical examiner's office.

Due to favorable weather conditions on Thursday night, firefighters managed to contain about 8% of the fire, Crowley said Friday.

Crowley said at an earlier briefing that the Palisades Fire had so far damaged or destroyed over 5,300 structures.

Crowley would not confirm reports that the fire started in a resident's garden, saying the origin is still under investigation.

Some celebrities have lost homes in the blaze, including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal.

On Thursday, a drone hit the wing of one of two Super Scooper planes fighting the wildfires, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at Friday's press conference. He said the plane was under urgent repairs and set to be flying again by Monday. "If you fly a drone at one of these brush fires all aerial operations will be shut down," he said.

Eaton Fire

The second-largest fire in Los Angeles County is the Eaton Fire, which started on Tuesday evening in the Pasadena-Altadena area at the foothills of the Angeles National Forest.

Six people have died in the Eaton fire, according to the medical examiner's office.

The blaze has spread to over almost 14,000 acres, Marrone said Friday afternoon. Only 3% of the fire has been contained and at least 7,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed.

Marrone said the fire had pushed toward Mount Wilson, where a number of communications towers are located. No buildings were damaged.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department has 1,527 firefighting personnel assigned to the incident. One firefighter suffered a significant injury after a fall on Thursday but is expected to make a full recovery.

Marrone said the cause of the fire remains "unknown."

Hurst Fire

The Hurst Fire, which began late on Tuesday night in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, spread to 771 acres and is 37% contained as of early Friday, Crowley said at the press conference.

In an X post on Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the mandatory evacuation order for the Hurst Fire had been lifted.

Kenneth Fire

On Thursday, a small brush fire erupted at the Victory Trailhead near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Marrone said that fire has been stopped, with 35% containment. It burned about 1,000 acres, but no structures were reported damaged.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued for several neighborhoods near the fire.

LAPD said it had detained a possible arson suspect but could not confirm any connection to the fire.

An evacuation notice intended for residents impacted by the Kenneth Fire was mistakenly sent out across LA County due to a "technical error," County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in an X post.

Sunset Fire and others

The Sunset Fire broke out in the Runyon Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, quickly spreading to scorch over 40 acres and threaten major LA landmarks.

As of Thursday morning, firefighters were able to stop the fire's forward progress, Crowley said.

All evacuation orders related to the Sunset Fire were lifted as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, she added.

A large structure fire consumed two large homes in the Studio City area but firefighters were able to stop its forward growth at just one acre and prevent another brushfire, Crowley said.

Yet another fire, the Lidia Fire, started Wednesday afternoon in Acton near the Antelope Valley, about 20 miles northeast of the San Fernando Valley. It consumed 394 acres but is now 75% contained, according to CalFire.

The Woodley Fire, which began Wednesday morning in the southern part of the San Fernando Valley, has been suppressed and there are no current threats, Crowley said.

Patrols were monitoring the area for any flare-ups, she added.

Events canceled and landmarks closed as smoke chokes LA

Major and minor events alike have been canceled or postponed across the Los Angeles area as the city battles the fires.

The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards, set for Sunday night, were rescheduled for January 26. A National Hockey League game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, scheduled for Wednesday night at Crypto.com arena, was postponed. The LA Lakers rescheduled Thursday night's game.

Music venues across the city were also canceling or postponing their shows, including The Troubadour, The Wiltern, The Echo, the Kia Forum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and others.

Flights into and out of LAX, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Ontario International Airport, and Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport were also experiencing delays and cancellations. LAX, however, remains open.

The fires are also shuttering tourist destinations in and around Los Angeles, which attracts nearly 50 million visitors a year.

The fires forced some Los Angeles-area landmarks to close, including the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Broad Museum, the Norton Simon Museum, the Getty Villa and Getty Center, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk, and the Griffith Observatory.

Airbnb told CNN that it would be allowing refunds for bookings in areas affected by the wildfires, following a viral social media post from a customer who said the company refused to offer her a refund.

California already struggled with an insurance crisis

The devastating fires this week will likely only worsen California's ongoing insurance crisis, where many homebuyers already struggle to get approved for loans, home insurance, and fire insurance — even in areas outside the typical risk zones.

In recent years, some insurance companies, like State Farm, have stopped accepting new home insurance policies in the state entirely, as wildfire risks have only increased.

Experts told Business Insider that prices are likely to continue rising for those who can still get insurance.

"I've seen numbers go up 200%, 300%, even 500% in a year," Nick Ramirez, the owner of a California insurance agency, told BI.

And as the fires' estimated damages already climb into the billions of dollars, some homeowners will have to rebuild without the help of insurance payouts.

• Strong winds and wildfires in Los Angeles are disrupting air travel.
• Several airlines have waived change fees for flights to Los Angeles and Orange County.
• Some flights to Burbank were diverted, and passengers photographed the fires from the skies.

The wildfires devastating Los Angeles and the strong winds intensifying them are disrupting air travel in and around the city.

Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX, has remained open throughout the fires and continues to be operational, a spokesperson told Business Insider on Friday.

The airport is advising passengers to check their flight status with their airline.

Since the fires erupted on Tuesday, 126 flights have been canceled at LAX, FlightAware data showed.

Wednesday was the worst day at the city's main airport, with one in five departures being delayed, according to FlightAware.

LAX typically has about 700 flights a day. It's more than 10 miles away from the largest blaze, the Palisades Fire.

Other airports in the area also remained open but faced disruption.

A spokesperson for Hollywood Burbank Airport told Business Insider that on Wednesday, 41 of its scheduled 70 departures were canceled due to winds. It recorded gusts above 80 miles an hour. Officials expect winds to be moderate over the weekend but said they could pick up again early next week.

Several carriers have issued waivers for change fees, including American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue. The waivers apply to travel to or from LAX, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Ontario International Airport, and Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport.

Santa Monica Airport is the closest to the wildfires, about three miles south of an evacuation zone for the Palisades Fire. It is a general aviation airport, which means commercial flights don't typically operate there.

Aviation is also playing a key role in fighting the wildfires. The Los Angeles Fire Department said 12 helicopters and six fixed-wing aircraft were in operation.

The FAA issued two temporary flight restrictions on Thursday near the fires in order to keep the area clear for firefighting aviation operations.

At least 10 people have died and over 150,000 have been ordered to evacuate due to the wildfires. Another 166,000 have been warned to be ready in case winds pick up again and the fires spreads.

• Wildfires have broken out in Los Angeles and are raging through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
• Stars including Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, and Milo Ventimiglia have lost their homes.
• The average house price in the northern LA area is $4.5 million, per Realtor.com data.

The biggest of the wildfires in Los Angeles is tearing through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Stars, including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal, have lost their homes.

The area, located between Santa Monica and Malibu in northern Los Angeles, is home to some of the country's most expensive real estate. The average house price is $4.5 million, according to Realtor.com data. Ben Affleck, for instance, bought his $20.5 million mansion there in July.

Other celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Keaton, Adam Sandler, Miles Teller, and Eugene Levy, also live in the neighborhood.

The fire started on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades before spreading west toward the Malibu stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. On Wednesday, the city of Malibu issued a statement on X advising residents to prepare to evacuate. By Thursday, it had spread to 27 square miles in the area.

Milo Ventimiglia of 'Heroes' watched his home burn down on security cameras: 'Your heart just breaks'

Milo Ventimiglia, who's known for starring in "This is Us" and "Heroes," watched his home in Malibu burn via security cameras with Jarah Ventimiglia, his wife, who is nine months pregnant.

Speaking outside of his home on Thursday, he told CBS it was "heavy" seeing the extent of the damage.

He said: "You start thinking about all the memories in different parts of the house and whatnot. And then you see your neighbors' houses and everything, kind of around, and your heart just breaks."

Ventimiglia also recalled watching his house burn down: "I think there's a kind of shock moment where you're going, 'Oh, this is real, and this is happening.' And then at a certain point, we just turned it off. What good is it to continue watching? We kind of accepted the loss."

He added: "We've got good friends, and we've got good people we're working with. We'll make do. Wife and baby and dog are most important."

Actors Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung, who are married, confirmed on Thursday that their home had burned down, but that their family was safe.

Greenberg shared a photo of the wreckage on his Instagram story, writing: "It was all a dream. Thankfully the family is safe. Thank you to all of the firefighters risking their lives. Stay safe out there."

Mel Gibson said his house burned down while he was recording 'The Joe Rogan Experience'

Mel Gibson told NewsNation on Thursday, that he learned about the fires in his Malibu neighborhood while recording an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" in Texas.

He said: "I was doing the Rogan podcast, and kind of ill at ease while we were talking, because I knew my neighborhood was on fire, so I thought, I wonder if my place is still there. But when I got home, sure enough, it wasn't there."

Gibson added: "Obviously, it's kind of devastating. It's emotional. You live there for a long time, and you had all your stuff. "

He said the fact his family was"out of harm's way" was "all I can care about, really."

Paris Hilton said she 'built precious memories' at her destroyed Malibu home

On Wednesday, Paris Hilton shared on Instagram that she was "heartbroken beyond words" to learn that her Malibu home had been destroyed in the fire.

"Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience," Hilton wrote. "This home was where we built so many precious memories."

Although the loss felt "overwhelming," she said she was grateful that her family and pets were safe.

On Thursday, Hilton returned to her home and posted a video of the wreckage on Instagram.

In the caption, she said: "The heartbreak is truly indescribable."

She added: "This house wasn't just a place to live— It was where we dreamed, laughed, and created the most beautiful memories as a family."

Hilton also noted she wasn't alone in dealing with the destruction and the loss of the "irreplaceable pieces of our lives."

Melissa Rivers, the daughter of late actor and comedian Joan Rivers, said her home burned down in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

"My family and I have safely evacuated, and we are deeply grateful to be unharmed," she wrote. "I am heartbroken by the devastation caused by the fires, which have tragically destroyed my home."

She also shared more details about her evacuation and urged others to be prepared in an live interview with CNN.

"To be 100% honest, I grabbed my mom's Emmy, a photo of my dad, and a drawing that my mother had done of me and my son," she said.

Photos obtained by People showed actors John Goodman, Anthony Hopkins, and Miles Teller lost their homes due to the fires.

The home actor Jeff Bridges shared with his family in Malibu was also lost, the Associated Press reported.

Billy Crystal's home, where he'd lived with his family for 46 years, was burned to the ground.

"We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can't be taken away. We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this," Crystal said in a statement to Business Insider.

"The Pacific Palisades is a resilient community of amazing people and we know in time it will rise again. It is our home," he said.

The Oscar-nominated actor James Woods wrote on X Wednesday: "All the smoke detectors are going off in our house and transmitting to our iPhones. I couldn't believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one."

"The Hills" stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt also lost their home.

"I'm so sad our house is gone. I wish I could have gone back and got more," Montag said as she broke down crying in a video she posted on TikTok on Wednesday.

TMZ meanwhile published footage of Adam Brody and Leighton Meester's home in flames, as well as a photo of Anna Faris' home in ashes.

Rainn Wilson, the actor who played Dwight Schrute on NBC's "The Office," said that his Palisades home had burned in the fire. In a video shared on TikTok on Thursday, Wilson was shown walking through the "remains" of parts of his home that burned. "This is not something I ever thought that I would be doing," he said.

"There's some kind of valuable lesson here, I'm not sure what it is — kind of, death and fire teaches you a lesson about the impermanence of life and the preciousness of what we have, so I hope you all stay grateful today for what you have," he added.

Wilson said he was "grateful" that most of his house was still intact.

The songwriter Diane Warren, a 15-time Oscar nominee who has worked with stars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, shared on Instagram that her beach house of nearly 30 years was likely gone.

"It looks like it was lost in the fire last nite. There's a rainbow shining on it which I'm taking as a sign of hope for all creatures who have been affected by this tragedy," Warren wrote. "The animals and the rescue ranch are OK tho which is the most important thing. Stay safe everyone."

On Wednesday, "The Princess Bride" actor Cary Elwes wrote on Instagram that he and his family evacuated the area safely, but said their house was destroyed.

He wrote: "Sadly we did lose our home but we are grateful to have survived this truly devastating fire. Our hearts go out to all the families impacted by this tragic event and we also wish to extend our gratitude to all the fire fighters, first responders and law enforcement who worked so tirelessly through the night and are still at it."

Ricki Lake, the star of the original "Hairspray" movie and her self-titled talkshow, wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday that her "dream home" overlooking Malibu was "gone."

In the caption Lake said she and her husband escaped from the house with Dolly, their dog, "and not much else."

Mark Hamill evacuated his home and described the fire as 'horrific'

Among the at least 130,000 LA residents asked to evacuate their homes was the "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill. He said on Instagram that he had left his Malibu home on Tuesday with his wife, Marilou, and their dog, Trixie. He described it as the "most horrific fire since '93."

"Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there were small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH," he wrote.

Levy told The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that he got stuck while trying to leave his neighborhood. "The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon," Levy said. "I couldn't see any flames but the smoke was very dark."

Chet Hanks, the son of actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, wrote in an Instagram story on Tuesday: "The neighborhood I grew up in is burning to the ground rn. Pray for the Palisades."

Actor and singer Mandy Moore said in an Instagram story posted on Tuesday that she was among the residents ordered to evacuate. By Wednesday, the singer said in a follow-up story that she was unsure if her home "made it."

"Honestly, I'm in shock and feeling numb for all so many have lost, including my family," she wrote in an Instagram post. "My children's school is gone. Our favorite restaurants, leveled. So many friends and loved ones have lost everything too."

Jamie Lee Curtis said 'many' friends had lost their homes

On Wednesday night, "Halloween" actor Jamie Lee Curtis appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and said, holding back tears: "Where I live is on fire right now."

She added: "It's just a catastrophe in Southern California. Obviously, there have been horrific fires in many places. This is literally where I live. Everything — the market I shop in, the schools my kids go to, friends.

"Many, many, many, many, many friends now have lost their homes."

Kate Beckinsale wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday that "the whole of the Palisades being destroyed is unthinkably horrific.

"My daughter and I lived there for most of her childhood and most of her childhood is gone."

The "Serendipity" actor shared several other posts, including one thanking local firefighters and another sharing information about assembling an emergency bag.

Haley Joel Osment thanked those who 'helped as we lose our home'

On Thursday, actor Haley Joel Osment shared that he had lost his home to the Eaton fire in Altadena.

"My heart would be so full every time I drove home - it was such a special place - I loved living there - our forest and our mountains and our homes - all gone," Osment wrote in an Instagram story.

"I am so sorry for the losses that thousands of people are suffering," he added. "I'm trying to etch in my mind the unique details of this lovely town that are gone forever."

Industry events in Hollywood have been canceled

The Palisades Charter High School was also affected, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The campus was used for films including "Carrie," "Freaky Friday," "Project X," and MTV's "Teen Wolf" TV series.

The premieres for "Wolf Man" and "Unstoppable," scheduled for Tuesday, were canceled.

'It's fire year'

The fire that started on Tuesday spread quickly thanks to the Santa Ana winds, which created up to 100 mph gusts. The drought in Southern California also exacerbated the situation, creating dangerously dry conditions.

Wildfires in the western US have been steadily growing bigger and more severe for decades, while the time of heightened risk known as "fire season" has been getting longer each year.

A paper published in 2023 by researchers from the University of California, Irvine, found the human-caused climate crisis is the "major driver" for the state's increase in wildfires over the last quarter century.

"November, December, now January — there's no fire season, it's fire year. It's year-round," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Back in 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned almost 100,000 acres of land in California, affecting famous Malibu residents like Lady Gaga, Gerard Butler, Miley Cyrus, and several members of the Kardashian family.

Kim Kardashian and her then-husband Kanye West were widely criticized for hiring private firefighters to protect their $60 million home in Hidden Hills.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Suchir Balaji was a researcher at OpenAI who later accused his employer of violating copyright law.
• One of his OpenAI colleagues told BI that he was one of the "true geniuses" at the startup.
• Friends described Balaji as a brilliant person with a passion for artificial intelligence.

Longtime friends and former colleagues gathered at a private memorial service at the India Community Center in Silicon Valley on Saturday to remember Suchir Balaji, who many said was an intelligent but humble individual with impressive technical prowess.

"He was the sharpest person I ever met," Aayush Gupta, who interned with Balaji at Scale.AI in 2019, told Business Insider, adding that he was an "independent thinker." In his speech to the assembled crowd, Gupta said Balaji "seemed like he was entirely self-taught."

That brilliance didn't go unnoticed at OpenAI, where the 26-year-old Balaji worked for nearly four years before he left the company in August and later accused his employer of violating copyright law.

Tarun Gogineni, a research scientist at OpenAI since 2022, told Business Insider that he often bounced ideas about artificial general intelligence with Balaji and that his colleague was a "contrarian thinker" who could be seen getting into long debates on Slack and expressing his opinion.

"He was one of the true geniuses at OpenAI," Gogineni said.

Gogineni recalled how Balaji worked with key figures at OpenAI, including cofounders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, to help launch WebGPT. Gogineni described the project as "in all meaningful ways, a spiritual predecessor" to ChatGPT.

"He worked closely with Ilya and John Schulman and some of the top people at OpenAI to come up with new algorithms for post-training," Gogineni said, referring to the process of fine-tuning an AI model after its initial training.

After Balaji's death, which authorities have ruled a suicide, Schulman wrote in a social media post that Balaji was "one of the three lead contributors" to the WebGPT project.

"I worked with Suchir on and off since around 2021, and he was one of my favorite and most talented collaborators," Schulman wrote.

Sutskever and Schulman left OpenAI in May and August, respectively.

They did not respond to a request for comment.

Balaji goes public on OpenAI

Two months after Balaji left OpenAI, The New York Times published a profile in which the researcher said his employer violated copyright law to train ChatGPT.

OpenAI has denied the accusation.

In a statement, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company was "devastated to learn of Balaji's death" and that "our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time."

Gogineni said he was surprised to read about Balaji's concerns. In the nearly two years he overlapped with Balaji at OpenAI, Gogineni said he never recalled his coworker bringing up concerns about copyright violation.

"It was very surprising," Gogineni said. "I mean, I can't claim I was best friends with him. He was a work friend. But I had never ever seen him express any concern about copyright."

Friends and Balaji's parents described Balaji as an independent person.

Will Gan, who had known Balaji since ninth grade and also attended the University of California, Berkeley, told BI that Balaji usually maintained a sense of humor.

If he ever shared concerns about AI, Gan said Balaji would always be "super jokey" and lighthearted.

"If you ever followed 'Dune,' how they've outlawed machines in that universe, that's what he would joke about that he'd want," Gan said.

In serious matters in his life, however, Gan said Balaji could be reserved.

"I feel like, for example, if he had something serious going on at work or otherwise, he might not necessarily share that openly," Gan said. "I think that was just part of who he was to some extent."

Gan said he never talked to Balaji about his plans to speak with a New York Times reporter.

"He just told us at some point before the article released that he was going to do this, and we were hyping him up and stuff like that," Gan said. "It wasn't like we were discussing, 'Oh shit, what are the ramifications' and stuff like that."

Balaji's mom, Poornima Ramarao, previously told BI that she scolded her son for talking with a reporter and doing it so publicly without remaining anonymous. Ramarao said she is working with an attorney to try to get the SF police to further investigate Balaji's death.

Balaji also had plans to provide documents to The New York Times Co. for its copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, court filings showed. His name appeared in a letter from the Times' attorney on November 18.

Gan said he last saw Balaji during a weeklong trip to Catalina Island on November 22. Authorities found Balaji's body on November 26.

"We were all together in Catalina," Gan said of the trip. "And he seemed fine on that day."

• Former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100.
• Foreign and business leaders celebrated Carter's humanitarian work.
• President-elect Donald Trump said the world owes Carter "a debt of gratitude."

Former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100. World leaders responded with an outpouring of support, celebrating Carter's legacy as a humanitarian.

The Georgia peanut farmer turned politician served as president from 1977 to 1981. But he is perhaps most known for his humanitarian work after leaving the White House.

Carter championed human rights and pushed for peace in various corners of the world. In 1982, he founded The Carter Center to focus on such issues.

In 2002, Carter received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote peace and human rights. Carter also played an active role with Habitat for Humanity until the end of his life.

"My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," Carter's son, Chip, said in a statement via The Carter Center on Sunday.

Biden: Carter was "a man of principle, faith, and humility"

President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he would order a state funeral in Washington for Carter.

"Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian," Biden said in a statement.

"With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us," Biden added. "He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe."

Biden said that the love Carter shared with his late wife, Rosalynn Carter, was "the definition of partnership" and that their leadership was "the definition of patriotism."

Trump: "We all owe him a debt of gratitude"

President-elect Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Carter's presidency "came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude."

"While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for," Trump said in a subsequent post.

Trump had earlier criticized Carter's decision to hand over control of the Panama Canal to Panama, saying in a Truth Social Post on December 21 that his predecessor had "foolishly gave it away."

The president-elect recently accused Panama of charging US vessels "exorbitant prices" and threatened to retake control of the canal.

Former presidents and lawmakers tout Carter's post-presidential record

Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement on Sunday that Carter had "the longest and most impactful post-presidency in American history."

"Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth," the Obamas said.

"And he did — advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection — things like integrity, respect, and compassion," the statement added.

Former President George W. Bush said in his statement that Carter was a "man of deeply held convictions" who "set an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations."

"President Carter dignified the office. And his efforts to leave behind a better world didn't end with the presidency," Bush said.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that Carter had "worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world."

"I will always be proud to have presented the Medal of Freedom to him and Rosalynn in 1999, and to have worked with him in the years after he left the White House," Bill Clinton said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X that Carter led an "extraordinary life" that touched countless people's lives through his vision and generosity.

Sen. Bernie Sanders said on X that Carter would be remembered as a "decent, honest and down-to-earth man" for both his time as president and his later humanitarian work.

"He will be sorely missed," Sanders wrote.

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg shared a tribute to the former president on X, writing that Carter's "leadership, intellect, and moral example ennobled our country, during and ever since his presidency."

Foreign politicians and business leaders hail Carter's peacemaking efforts

On X, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared a photo of the former president wearing a tool belt in front of a construction site with the message: "Today, we honor President Carter's lifetime of service and his commitment to leaving the world better than he found it. May he rest in peace."

Melinda French Gates said in her tribute that Carter was her hero. The philanthropist said she knew Carter best as a "global health advocate" who took on "diseases that impact the world's poorest people, like Guinea worm disease."

"When President Carter left office, there were more than 3.5 million cases of this painful, debilitating disease around the world each year. This year, thanks in no small part to the work of the Carter Center, that number was down to single digits," French Gates wrote.

"One of my favorite teachings says: 'To know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived, this is to have succeeded.' We honor President Carter by remembering that because of him, life is healthier, better, and safer not just for one life, but for millions," she continued.

Carter's death prompted tributes from foreign leaders such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"He was a leader who served during a time when Ukraine was not yet independent, yet his heart stood firmly with us in our ongoing fight for freedom," Zelenskyy said of Carter in his X post.

"We deeply appreciate his steadfast commitment to Christian faith and democratic values, as well as his unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia's unprovoked aggression," he added.

"Jimmy Carter's legacy is one of compassion, kindness, empathy, and hard work. He served others both at home and around the world his entire life — and he loved doing it," Trudeau wrote on X. "He was always thoughtful and generous with his advice to me."

King Charles — one of the few living figures from Carter's presidency still active in public life — also posted a tribute.

In the note, Charles said Carter's "dedication and humility served as an inspiration."

He nodded to Carter's 1977 visit to the UK, where Charles appeared in the background of this photo (top left, you can see his head) showing Carter meeting with G7 leaders and Queen Elizabeth II.

• AI data centers are consuming significant power, impacting the electricity supply.
• Proximity to data centers correlated with distorted power readings, a Bloomberg analysis found.
• Big Tech companies are turning to alternative sources of energy as they build more data centers.

Data centers in the United States are consuming so much power that they may be impacting the flow of electricity to millions of Americans.

AI data centers are sprouting up across the country to meet the increased demand for AI, but they're also sucking up the power on which millions of Americans rely.

The new tech is demanding massive amounts of energy from grids that are, in some areas, already stressed. Researchers have estimated that AI centers could need three to five times the power used by traditional facilities, Business Insider previously reported.

A Bloomberg analysis assessed readings from some 770,000 homes from February to October and found that over 75% of "highly distorted power readings across the country are within 50 miles of significant data center activity."

Stresses on the power grid can lead to inconsistent power quality, and as the power quality decreases, the risk increases, Bloomberg reported. Inconsistent energy flow can cause electronics to overheat, leading to sparks or even house fires.

A small handful of large tech companies own the vast majority of global data centers — and they show no signs of slowing down as they pour billions into building more powerful AI models.

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft own about 65% of the cloud infrastructure market, which includes data centers, according to a 2023 report from market research firm Synergy Research Group.

Google announced in April that it's investing $3 billion to build and expand data centers in Virginia and Indiana. The search engine giant unveiled its latest AI model, Gemini 2.0, in December.

Amazon, which is a large investor in AI startup Anthropic, is investing another $10 billion in Ohio data centers, Gov. Mike DeWine announced on December 16.

Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, said in September that the company has partnered with other investors, including BlackRock, in a $100 billion energy infrastructure project. The project will include "new and expanded data centers," the company said.

To meet AI's increasing energy demands, companies like Google have also started turning to nuclear power to find more reliable and sustainable energy sources.

• A plane carrying 181 people crashed at an airport in South Korea on Sunday, killing 179.
• Photos and videos show the aircraft overrunning a runway before being engulfed in flames.
• It will likely take months or years to uncover why the plane crashed.

A commercial aircraft crashed at a South Korean airport on Sunday, killing 179 people.

Flight 7C2216, operated by the Korean budget airline Jeju Air, was carrying 181 passengers and crew when it tried to land at Muan International Airport at 9:03 a.m. local time but overran the runway.

A video broadcast by MBC News, a South Korean news network, showed the plane speeding down the runway, with smoke coming from its belly, before it crashed into what appeared to be a barrier and burst into flames.

The flight was traveling from Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok.

The aircraft was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 that Ryanair, a budget Irish airline, operated before it was delivered to Jeju Air in 2017, according to the Planespotters.net flight tracking website. It was not a Max variant, which has been embroiled in quality and production problems.

Video footage shows the aircraft landed without its landing gear deployed.

Airline News editor and aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told Business Insider that a bird strike could have caused a mechanical issue on the plane.

"It's possible that the bird strike prevented the standard landing gear operation," he said. "It's possible, however, the pilots could crank the landing gear down manually."

"But if they had multiple failures related to the engines, then they probably didn't have time to do it, and therefore they simply made a belly-up landing on the runway because they had no options," Thomas added.

Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae told reporters on December 31 that the aircraft's pre-flight inspection found "no issues" and "nothing abnormal was noted with the landing gear," the BBC reported.

South Korea's transport ministry said on Sunday that it plans to conduct a safety inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in the country, per Yonhap News.

The Boeing 737-800 is a popular aircraft that is used widely around the world.

Cirium data sent to BI found about 4,400 737-800s are used by nearly 200 airlines, representing 15% of the 28,000 passenger planes in service globally.

In a statement to BI, Boeing gave its condolences to families who lost loved ones and said it was in contact with and "ready to support" Jeju Air.

Spokespeople for Jeju Air did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement posted online, Jeju Air said it was "bowing" its head in apology and would investigate the crash.

A total of 179 people died, including 85 women, 84 men, and 10 others whose gender was not immediately identifiable. Two of the plane's six crew members survived and were conscious, according to local health officials. They were rescued from the tail section of the jet.

On Sunday, South Korea's land ministry said that it had identified 141 out of the 170 bodies, Yonhap News reported.

This is the first fatal crash involving a Jeju plane since the airline was founded in 2005. The last major aviation accident involving a South Korean airline was in 1997 when a Korean Air jet crashed in Guam, killing 228 people.

Reports of birds striking the aircraft

In a televised briefing, Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, said that workers were investigating what caused the crash, including whether birds struck the aircraft.

"It appears that the aircraft wasn't configured for a normal landing — the landing gear wasn't down, and it looks like the wing flaps weren't extended either," Keith Tonkin, the managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting company in Australia, told BI.

The plane was almost completely destroyed, with the tail assembly the most intact part of the wreckage. After landing, the plane hit a wall, which Thomas said was within international standards, but the plane landed fast and far down the runway.

"The airport complied with international standards," he said. "The landing was anything but international standard."

Officials said that air traffic controllers warned about bird strike risks minutes before the incident, and a surviving crew member mentioned a bird strike after being rescued, The Guardian reported.

Thomas told BI that the pilots reported "mayday" shortly after air traffic controllers issued a bird strike warning. The pilots were then given permission to land on the opposite side of the runway.

Thomas said flight tracking was lost at about 900 feet, suggesting a possible electrical failure.

"I think that could well be one of the pivotal factors in this investigation as to why did it fail," he said. "What does that tell us about what was going on in the cockpit?"

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that Muan International Airport has the highest rate of bird strike incidents among 14 airports nationwide.

Black boxes recovered, but one damaged

The Independent reported that transport ministry officials said they recovered the aircraft's two black boxes: the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

These provide investigators with information that helps string together the events before and during a crash.

However, Yonhap reported that officials said one of the black boxes, the flight data recorder, was partially damaged. The cockpit voice recorder — which will have information on what the crew said leading up to the crash — remained intact.

CNN reported South Korean investigators have extracted some data from the cockpit voice recorder — the full process will take two days — but the damaged black box will have to be sent to the US for the NTSB to analyze.

Air crash investigations can often take months or years to complete, meaning the cause of the crash likely won't be known for a long time. The damaged black box could further delay the investigation.

The investigation will be led by South Korea, where the crash occurred and Jeju was registered. The National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, where the Boeing jet was manufactured, along with Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, will also be involved, the agency said in a post on X.

Crashes typically have more than one cause — known as the "Swiss Cheese Model" in aviation, a string of smaller errors often leads to an accident, not just one.

"The biggest risk is speculation because it obscures the actual causes of a near-miss, incident, or accident," Simon Bennett, an aviation safety expert at the University of Leicester in the UK, told BI.

"I appreciate that the relatives of the dead and injured will want answers. Understandably, they will want closure," he said. "However, rushing the investigation would do a huge disservice to the aviation community and airlines' customers."

The crash occurred amid a political crisis in South Korea and two days into the tenure of acting President Choi Sang-mok.

Choi took over from the country's previous acting president, Han Duck-soo, who was impeached two weeks after succeeding President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was himself impeached after trying to impose martial law.

• An undersea cable in the Baltic Sea that provides power to Estonia was cut on Wednesday.
• Finnish authorities say they've seized an oil tanker they suspect caused the outage.
• Finland's president raised concerns of Russia's "shadow fleet" on social media.

Finnish authorities said they've seized an oil tanker on Thursday as part of its probe into the cutting of an undersea cable in the Baltic Sea which provides electricity to Estonia.

Finnish customs authorities and the European Union's executive commission said the tanker may be part of Russia's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers, The Associated Press reported.

Finland police said in a news release that the vessel, Eagle S, was registered in Cook Islands. MarineTraffic, a global ship tracking website, also stated that the ship was flying under the flag of Cook Islands and was sailing between St. Petersburg, Russia, and Port Said, Egypt.

On Wednesday, Finnish authorities began investigating the rupture of Estlink-2, an undersea power cable connected between Finland and Estonia, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on X.

Finland police said in the press release that the case is being investigated as "aggravated criminal mischief."

A spokesperson for Finland's police did not respond to a request for comment sent outside of working hours.

Russia has been using a network of mostly aging ships that are difficult to trace back to the country in order to evade costly Western sanctions that were imposed after the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.

According to the Center for Research on Energy and Clear Air, a Finland-based think tank, more than half of the 369 vessels exporting Russian crude oil and oil products in November were shadow tankers.

"Our main task is to find effective means to stop the shadow fleet," Orpo said at a news conference, according to The New York Times. "The shadow fleet pumps money into Russia's war fund so that Russia can continue to wage its war in Ukraine against the people of Ukraine, and it has to be stopped."

Finland's President Alexander Stubb also said in a post on X that the risks of Russia's shadow fleet need to be addressed.

The damage to the Estlink-2 further highlights growing concerns among countries around the risks of sabotage against undersea power cables and pipelines.

In November, two data cables were cut under the Baltic Sea, linking Germany and Finland as well as Sweden and Lithuania.

German Foreign Minister Boris Pistorius said without evidence that the incident was no accident.

"We have to assume, without certain information, that the damage is caused by sabotage," he said.

• An Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.
• Azerbaijani sources said Russian air defenses, not a bird strike, downed the airliner.
• An aviation safety firm plans to raise its risk rating for the nearby airspace after the incident.

A preliminary investigation pointed to Russian air defenses as the cause of an Azerbaijan Airlines crash in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Azerbaijani sources said.

Russia's civil aviation authority quickly pointed to a bird strike as a possible cause of the crash-landing, which killed 38 of the 67 people on board, including both pilots.

Aviation experts had been skeptical of the Russian government's bird crash explanation due to the plane's erratic course and the holes in the plane's fuselage and tail section.

Azerbaijani sources confirmed that the investigation found an air defense missile fired by Russian Pantsir-S struck the Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft, the New York Times and the Euronews TV network reported Thursday.

Ukraine was quick to put the blame on Russia.

On Wednesday, Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, said in an X post that the plane was "shot down by a Russian air defense system."

Others have also suggested that Russian air defenses likely played a role as images of the crash and the plane's flight track emerged.

Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm, said in a critical alert sent to its clients and shared with Business Insider that the flight was "likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system of unspecified type/variant over the North Caucasus Federal District."

The firm cited video of the wreckage, Ukraine's official statement, and the "circumstances around the airspace security environment in southwest Russia."

It also said that "incidents of civilian airliners being misidentified and shot down by air-defence systems are not unprecedented in the region."

It pointed to examples such as Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which crashed in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after reportedly being hit by a Russian-made missile.

Matthew Borie, Osprey's chief intelligence officer, told BI that the firm was in the process of raising its risk ratings for that portion of Russian airspace to its highest level.

"We have a portion of Russian airspace within 300 kilometers of the Ukrainian border, we have at extreme, we'll be expanding that out to about 600 kilometers from the Russian border now," he said, equivalent to 373 miles.

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight was en route to Grozny, which Ukrainian drones have targeted in recent attacks.

The governor of the Russian region of North Ossetia said in a Telegram post that there were Ukrainian drone attacks carried out on Wednesday in a number of regions of the North Caucasus Federal District, which includes Grozny and the surrounding area.

The governor's post specifically mentioned a drone being taken down in Vladikavkas, which is about 70 miles away from Grozny.

Sources familiar with Azerbaijan's investigation into the crash told The Wall Street Journal that Russia redirected the Embraer-made aircraft from its airspace and jammed the GPS system.

Flightradar24, a live flight tracking website, said in a post on X that the plane was "exposed to GPS jamming and spoofing near Grozny."

Oliver Alexander, an independent OSINT analyst, told BI that "all the evidence I have seen points to the aircraft being hit by shrapnel from an air defense missile, which severely damaged the elevator and rudder controls."

In a thread on X, which cited post-crash footage, he wrote that "every single piece of debris that hit the aircraft had enough kinetic to punch through the skin and not just dent it."

Alexander also dismissed the preliminary information from Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, which suggested that the plane diverted after a bird strike, causing an onboard emergency.

He told BI that a bird strike would produce "a lot of blood" and "a lot of denting," neither of which seemed apparent in footage and images from the crash site.

"The location of the damage is all focused around the tail section," he added, "which would be very unlikely for a bird strike."

Subkhonkul Rakhimov, one of the surviving passengers, told RT, the Russian state-owned news network, that he had heard an explosion in the tail of the aircraft.

He also told TASS state news agency that he had seen the plane make three attempts to land the plane in Grozny.

Russia has cautioned against drawing conclusions.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it "would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses" until the investigation into the crash is concluded.

"We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this," he added, per a translation by the BBC.

Azerbaijan Airline's president, Samir Rzayev, told reporters Wednesday that the plane's black box had been recovered and its analysis was being "conducted in line with international aviation standards."

The country's president, Ilham Aliyev, said in a statement that while there are videos of the crash online, the cause was still unknown.

However, on Thursday, unnamed Azerbaijani government sources told Euronews that a preliminary investigation had found that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the crash.

According to Euronews, the sources said that shrapnel from the missile hit the plane after it exploded during drone activity above Grozny.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Affairs department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Kim Ollerhead let her 6-year-old twins who require booster seats ride in a Waymo.
• Ollerhead, a Scottsdale, Arizona, resident, said the experience felt fun and safe.
• For now, Ollerhead said she doesn't see too many reasons to reguarly use Waymo for her family.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kim Ollerhead, a 43-year-old Scottsdale, Arizona resident and mother of two twin children. It's been edited for length and clarity.

Waymo has become a frequent sight around our neighborhood in Scottsdale, Arizona.

For the longest time, I kept seeing those white, driverless Jaguars in our city — so much so that my kids and I started playing a game where we count how many Waymos we spot in a day.

I took a few rides in a Waymo last summer by myself and was really impressed by the response time of the autonomous driver whenever it detected a nearby pedestrian or cyclist.

After that experience, I decided to surprise my twin children, William and Emerlyn, for a short Waymo ride on their sixth birthday last year. They've been asking to ride in one for some time, asked so many questions about it, and they both finally weighed enough to sit in booster seats.

My kids loved it.

I called a Waymo to take us to a restaurant for dinner about four miles away from our house.

Just like any Waymo ride, the car pulls up with your initials lit up on the LIDAR sensor that sits on the roof of the car. My kids thought that was hilarious.

Installing the booster seat in the Jaguar was super easy. There's two latches on each booster seat and I just tighten them like I would if I was putting them in my car.

I can't say that I would want to call a Waymo if my kids were a few years old and I still had to use a baby car seat, because moving those seats are a pain.

My kids were shocked, but a happy shocked, when the Waymo took off.

They were a little nervous at first. But that changed when they saw how the Waymo came to a stop at a stop sign and successfully made its first big turn.

I don't think they got used to the fact that there was no driver. Throughout the entire ride they were so excited and had so many questions like, "What is it doing? What is that?"

It was a short ride to the restaurant. The car pulled over, I made sure to unbuckle my kids, and we all waved goodbye to the Waymo.

The kids loved their first ride. They wanted to take Waymo to school. They asked how old they have to be take a Waymo by themselves to school.

They even joked: "Mom, can you just pretend you're not here? Can you just not talk to us so we can pretend like we're in a driverless car?"

I'm like, "Yeah, sure."

The few times I've been in a Waymo, I've had mostly safe experiences.

The only reason why I'd hesitate to take a Waymo is because of horror stories I've heard about Waymos making strange maneuvers on the roads. There was also one experience when I was with my sister where the Waymo tried to overtake another car in front of us and we couldn't figure out why it was doing so. That made me a little nervous.

Even then, my family and I took a few Waymos after that experience and everyone was impressed with how the Waymo navigated tough situations, like driving through busy parking lots.

I don't think Waymos will be a part of my kids' daily experience. We're constantly on the go, and I wouldn't call a Waymo to, say, attend soccer practice because of all the stuff I have to fit inside the car.

Also, where we live, nothing is close by so you're jumping in the car and driving 10 to 15 minutes wherever you go. And a lot of mom life is just being a taxi — going to soccer, going to the dance, going to this competition and that — so a lot of the times it's just easier to be in your own car.

I could definitely see a situation where I would call a Waymo for my kids when they get older. For example, I could see myself calling a Waymo to give them a ride to and from a friend's house.

A Waymo spokesperson told Business Insider that riders must be 18 years or older to ride in a Waymo vehicle alone. Passengers 17 years or younger must be accompanied by guests.

I also know some of the "cool moms" who have babysitters were talking about how they love using a Waymo so they don't have to wake up their kids just to drive the babysitter home. They just call a Waymo for the babysitter.

So it's not like the Waymo ride was a once in a lifetime experience for my kids. I definitely wouldn't rule it out.

• Y Combinator group partner Jared Friedman last year switched to using robotaxis exclusively.
• Friedman told Business Insider that he estimated spending 4% of his waking hours in a Waymo in 2024.
• Friedman was also an early angel investor in Cruise, which was acquired by GM in 2016.

Angel investor and Y Combinator group partner Jared Friedman spends a lot of time in a Waymo.

To be more exact, Friedman told Business Insider in a recent interview that he estimated spending about 4% of his waking hours this past year in a Waymo robotaxi, getting to and from his home and office in San Francisco.

"For me, the great thing about self-driving cars is you can really work out of them," he said. "So I just get into the Waymo, I tether my laptop to my phone, and it's basically like my office on wheels."

According to his stats from the Waymo app, which Friedman shared in a post on X, the angel investor has spent 12,536 minutes inside a Waymo, traveling 2,105 miles for a total of 517 trips in 2024.

"Hit 2,000 miles in Waymo last year," he wrote in the post. "Hard to imagine life without it at this point."

A spokesperson for Waymo confirmed to Business Insider that Friedman is in the top 1% of Waymo riders.

Friedman's enthusiasm for self-driving cars may not come as a surprise.

He was an early angel investor in Cruise, the robotaxi company founded in 2013 and acquired by General Motors three years later. Friedman said he knew Cruise cofounder Kyle Vogt back when Vogt was working on Justin.tv, which eventually became Twitch.

Vogt, who stepped down as Cruise's chief executive in 2023, recently criticized GM after the automaker announced that it was pulling back its investment in Cruise.

"In case it was unclear before, it is clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies," he wrote on X.

Friedman recalled one of his first rides in a Cruise from more than 10 years ago and reveled in the progress self-driving technology has made since then.

"I remember getting to do a very early ride in a Cruise car when it was still just driving around in parking lots, and it was very jerky and kind of terrifying — very far from where we are now," he said. "But even at that time, there were some bold people who believed that this would be possible and 10 years and $10 billion later, it is."

Last August, Friedman said on X that he would exclusively get around San Francisco via self-driving cars since Cruise and Waymo at the time were more available to the public.

Cruise paused its robotaxi services in October 2023, shortly after California regulators suspended the company's permit to operate in the state due to several safety incidents.

Friedman said he took his first Waymo ride around the summer of last year. While he believes anyone can work in an Uber, Friedman said the Waymo experience is much smoother. He said he hasn't dealt with safety issues in any of his rides with a Waymo.

"You can do that in an Uber, but the Uber drivers are often quite aggressive," he said. "The Waymos are just very smooth drivers. You can really just focus. I think this has the potential to change the way people live and work."

Few technological innovations in his lifetime have instantly given Friedman that impression.

"One of them was the first time I picked up an iPhone," he said. "One of them was when I first used ChatGPT. And one of them was my first ride in a self-driving car."

"It was just absolutely obvious — instantly — that the world would never be the same," he said.

• 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.