• My wife and I got married earlier this year, and planning the wedding was stressful.
• Leading up to the holiday season, I felt pressure to make our first Christmas together special.
• After talking to her, I realized that just creating memories together was enough.

After a stressful year of planning our perfect September wedding, I wasn't prepared to face additional pressure now that the holidays are approaching. This wasn't an ordinary Christmas filled with relaxation, eggnog, and just a sprinkle of family drama; this was the Christmas that would mark our first milestone as a married couple and set the tone for years to come.

During our first year planning the holidays as a married couple, we learned that navigating the season as a twosome is more stressful than we thought. Whose side of the family will we see? What traditions do we want to create or partake in? There were so many choices to make, and people pulling us in different directions, even with good intentions. Since we'd only get one shot at our first Christmas as a married couple, I worried that if we didn't create the perfect holiday, we would ruin this special moment.

I felt pressure to make our first Christmas together special

We live in New York City, and when we decided that visiting my family in Texas was too far this year (weddings are expensive!), we offered to host my wife's family, who were only a few-hour drive away. Foregoing travel would mitigate some of the holiday stress. However, marrying into a big family like I did, I was still worried our celebration as a newlywed couple would get lost in the holiday chaos. This is without any fault to my amazing new family; it simply can't be helped.

Many of their family traditions are also different from my own. For example, they like to celebrate on Christmas Day, while I love the magic of a sparkling Christmas Eve. I can still bring traditions to their family, like decorating gingerbread houses, which I've done every year. Part of the original excitement toward the holiday was thinking about all the family traditions we would create together.

It took me a long time to voice my concerns to my wife, worried I was overthinking it or wanting too much attention to still be on us. After all, we got married four months ago. However, my fears ended up being unfounded because, like the loving wife she is, Taryn listened and asked me what would make our holiday feel special. The truth was, I didn't know. Though I had all these expectations that this Christmas was supposed to feel different, I had no idea how to make that happen.

I had to get real with myself and understand that, just like when planning a wedding, putting too much pressure on yourself is the fastest way to steal the joy out of the process. Letting go of the idea of making things perfect allows me to focus on what truly matters: creating memories with my wife.

My wife and I decided to focus on creating memories together

So how do you go about making a newlywed Christmas as memorable as possible? We started with Christmas cards. Since we had a small wedding, not everyone in our life got to celebrate with us. Sending out Christmas cards we made together to those who are important to us helped us share our love — and our wedding photos. Speaking of wedding photos, there's no better Christmas gift for our family than a photo album to remember the special day.

We got an ornament with our wedding date on it for the tree, started planning out a festive dinner for our family, and, most importantly, we decided to prioritize spending time together. Little things like these helped me reclaim the excitement of our first Christmas. I realized I didn't have to put pressure on myself — or my wife — to do big things each day to have a special holiday season. We could do simple things, like share quiet moments or cook new holiday dishes as a couple.

I'm most excited to wake up on Christmas and have a private gift exchange (and not just because I love presents). Seeing Taryn open her gift will bring me irreplaceable joy, which I'm excited to share with her as a married couple. We made our mission simple: pick out a new winter scarf we think the other will love.

Our Christmas as newlyweds won't be the only one we spend together, no matter how special it feels. Romanticizing our first holiday was great in theory until it became a pressure cooker for perfection — decidedly unromantic. But in the process of reframing my mindset, I found that there was still magic and romance for the taking.

• Early on in our marriage, my husband and I decided to split the house chores evenly.
• He takes care of all the outdoor chores while I focus on the inside ones.
• We are more than happy to help each other out, but we have the final say over our domains.

Very early on in our marriage, my spouse coined the phrase "Outside mine, inside yours."

It has been our guiding principle. The saying meant he took care of all the outdoor work, and I handled all the indoor chores.

In other words, I could decorate however I wanted, and he didn't want any gruff about how short he was cutting the grass.

This mantra has worked for us for 10 years, and I think it's the key to happiness in marriage.

We separate our chores evenly

My husband tills the garden, plants, and schedules watering. He also cleans the chicken coop and fills their food and water containers. He chops wood, mows, mulches leaves, and does anything else that needs to be done. In winter, that includes salting and shoveling snow.

The "outside" part of our mantra also includes vehicle and camper maintenance.

We were gifted an antique metal set of monkey bars that he'll soon install in the backyard. Between that and his garage projects, it's more than enough to keep him busy. Our two young boys also enjoy helping with the outdoor chores.

As the trio tromps happily outside, I fold laundry and scrub dishes in peace — usually with an audiobook playing in my ear.

It helps us take ownership of our domains

We will ask for the other's opinion about a planned project, but ultimately, we have the final say in our own areas.

For example, we had a small rustic fence that my husband wanted to remove. I wanted to paint it and decorate it with antiques, but because the task was technically in his domain, he ultimately decided to remove it. I stepped back and let him handle it.

Indoors, I have often rearranged and ordered rugs, chair covers, etc., and he lets me without comment.

But we also help each other out when needed

Just because the indoors is my lane doesn't mean he's immune to inside tasks — or vice versa. I'm regularly asked to feed pets or help with the birds. Meanwhile, my husband helps with laundry and often cleans the bathroom.

Our arrangement is less about "I'm only doing this" and more about "You are the manager of this area." It removes the mental workload from the other's list and allows us to focus on one area. While I don't mind helping in the duck pond, it's nice that I don't have to remember when it needs to be done. In the same way, I'll often ask if he can clean the counters or fold the towels because it's on my list of what needs to be completed and not his.

My more flexible work schedule also affects what chores I complete and when. As I'm home more, it's simply easier for me to run laundry. However, he folds and puts his own away.

Winter also means fewer outside chores that need to be completed. Meanwhile, with four of us helping inside, the indoor workload is lowered for all.

This division helps us stay united

We end up with a fairly even set of tasks that also highlight our individual skills. By dividing and conquering the mental load of outdoor vs. indoor chores, we're able to get everything done with less stress and planning in advance.

It also shows our sons that gender-specific chores don't exist; it's about working as a team and putting your abilities where you're most talented. To really send this home, we rotate the chores that they are in charge of completing, whether it be putting dishes away, vacuuming, stacking wood, sorting laundry, or cleaning the garage. We focus on the fact that we all live under one roof, and a part of that is helping take care of the space, whether it's inside or out.

This setup helps my husband and I avoid arguments about one doing more work than the other. In this way, we are a team and happier for it.

What happens when a chemical engineer, who’s previously built a hydrogen-powered drone, becomes a venture capitalist? Energy Revolution Ventures (ERV), that’s what. The VC has now closed an $18 million seed and Series A fund to invest in deep tech, such as energy storage, carbon capture, and, yes, hydrogen technologies.  Marcus Clover, co-founder and partner […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Principle Venture Partners will write early-stage checks anywhere from $100,000 to “single digit millions.”

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

• Healthcare-focused AI startups are raising billions to help improve the US system.
• AI can help streamline clinical documentation, drug research, and medical billing.
• This article is part of "Trends in Healthcare," a series about the innovations and industry leaders shaping patient care.

The founder of Suki, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to automate healthcare documents, raised $70 million in funding from investors in a Series D round that was disclosed this past fall.

He said it really didn't take that much persuading: With an epidemic of stressed- and burned-out physicians, there was an obvious need for their AI software, he added.

"Most of the investor conversations over the last year and a half have been, 'Well, it looks like the market is here,'" said Punit Singh Soni, Suki's founder. "Are you going to be the winner or not?"

Suki sells an AI-powered assistant that takes notes during a conversation between patients and clinicians. The notes can be reviewed by the doctor and submitted as an electronic health record. This saves time on administrative tasks and allows physicians more time to take care of patients, a resource that's becoming increasingly limited among healthcare professionals.

Surveys have consistently found that doctors and other medical workers are burned out from working in an often overloaded, convoluted, and inefficient system. The US spent $4.8 trillion on healthcare in 2023, according to a January report from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The US also spends more per person than nearly all other developed nations, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Despite this, health outcomes were poorer, with Americans facing a lower life expectancy, higher rates of treatable and preventable excess deaths, and less efficient healthcare systems.

Cash-strapped hospitals and private practices have lagged behind the financial-services and telecommunications industries in applying newer technologies, but the healthcare industry is increasingly considering artificial intelligence as it contends with high labor costs and a lot of opportunities to automate routine tasks. The pandemic exacerbated these challenges with staffing shortages as overworked doctors and nurses quit the profession.

To make healthcare more efficient, AI startups like Suki, Zephyr AI, and Tennr have raised millions with vast promises, including making repetitive tasks like billing and note-taking easier, improving the accuracy of clinical diagnosis, and identifying the right patient population for emerging treatments.

But the challenges are vast. The healthcare industry's budget allocations for generative AI are trailing those of many other core industries, such as energy and materials, consumer goods, and retail. Clinical diagnosis will continue to require a human in the loop, so the process can't be fully automated. The healthcare industry is highly regulated, and quite often, venture capitalists will wait for clarity on laws from the federal government before aggressively pushing AI tech advancements forward.

A $370 billion bet on boosting the healthcare sector's productivity

The consulting firm McKinsey estimates that generative AI can boost productivity for the healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and medical-products industries by as much as $370 billion by accelerating drug research, making clinical documentation easier, speeding up medical billing, and helping doctors make diagnoses.

Some big funding rounds announced in 2024 highlight the diverse use cases for AI in the healthcare sector. They include $150 million raised by the clinical-documentation AI startup Abridge in February, the drug-discovery AI startup Xaira Therapeutics bringing in $1 billion before its launch in April, Atropos Health's $33 million Series B in May to help doctors analyze real-world evidence with generative AI, and the medical-billing-automation provider Candid Health raising $29 million in September.

Parth Desai, a partner at Flare Capital Partners, has steered investments into healthcare startups such as Photon Health and SmarterDx. He said that healthcare organizations had been dedicating more money to bolster their AI strategies, beginning in late 2022 and accelerating through 2024. That's boosting demand for the tools these startups are developing. There's also less pressure to immediately prove a return on investment, which budget-conscious health systems have closely monitored in the past when allocating dollars for technology.

"The thing that we're really studying before making an investment decision is: Do budgets exist today to pay for this technology?" Desai told Business Insider. "Or are they going to exist in a large-enough fashion in the next five to 10 years to support this technology?"

Candid Health and Akasa aim to cut costs and automate medical billing

One area of particular promise has been medical billing, which could benefit from large language model automation. An LLM could, for example, analyze a large volume of claims in a client's system and accurately match them with insurers' unique billing codes, a process required for repayment to a physician for their services. Hospitals have traditionally relied on human medical coders to hunt down reimbursements from insurers.

"The software used to do billing was built a long time ago and basically wasn't kept up to date," Nick Perry, a cofounder and the CEO of Candid Health, said.

Malinka Walaliyadde, the CEO of Akasa — another medical-billing-focused AI startup — said the company builds customized LLMs for each healthcare institution it serves. Typically, the aim for these LLMs is to lower costs by lessening the reliance on human medical coders. This often reduces errors in billing and speeds up repayment cycles.

"We looked at what are the biggest pain points for health systems," Walaliyadde told BI. He said that Akasa's focus is on developing LLM products for medical coding and simplifying prior authorization, a process that requires approval from a health-plan provider before a patient can receive a treatment. "Those are the ones where you could really move the needle," Walaliyadde said.

AI for health screenings

George Tomeski, the founder of Helfie AI, is in the middle of pitching investors to raise as much as $200 million in a new round of funding that he hopes to close by the first half of 2025.

Tomeski said the funding would help Helfie scale as it exits beta testing for the company's app. The app, also called Helfie, uses a smartphone camera to do medical "checks" that screen for illnesses including COVID-19, tuberculosis, and certain skin conditions.

"We're targeting all the health conditions that lead to avoidable mortality," Tomeski said, adding that the app focuses on respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. The intention is for these checks —which can cost as low as $0.20 a person per screen — to serve as a form of preventive care and as an incentive to go see a doctor in person.

While some funding is going toward sales and marketing, talent acquisition, and ensuring adherence to regulations around privacy and healthcare data, a large chunk is still being allocated to product development as AI tech advances quickly.

Dr. Brigham Hyde, a cofounder and the CEO of Atropos Health, said his latest funding announcement, in May, was timed to coincide with the geared-up launch of ChatRWD, an AI copilot that can answer doctors' questions and quickly churn out published studies based on healthcare data. Hyde said he's keen to bring in big partners this time, including the pharmaceutical giant Merck and the medical-supplies and equipment maker McKesson.

But Hyde also had to show some restraint. He said that when Atropos Health moved forward with its Series B rounds, dozens of venture capitalists expressed interest in leading the round. The company was offered up to $100 million but took only one-third of that amount.

"I don't always think that's a good idea," Hyde told BI. "As a founder, you want to raise the right amount of money for your business and for the stage you're at."

It may be tempting to take more, as many healthcare AI startups — a vast majority still in the seed and early-stage funding rounds — are racing to outmaneuver rivals. Even if the technology is right, it has to get past regulatory approvals and persuade cautious hospitals and health systems to open up their wallets.

"You can build as much product as you want, but you can never build a market," Soni of Suki said. "It shows up, or it doesn't show up."

When the Sun is blazing and the wind is blowing, Germany’s solar and wind power plants swing into high gear. For nine days in July 2023, renewables produced more than 70 percent of the electricity generated in the country; there are times when wind turbines even need to be turned off to avoid overloading the grid.

But on other days, clouds mute solar energy down to a flicker and wind turbines languish. For nearly a week in January 2023, renewable energy generation fell to less than 30 percent of the nation’s total, and gas-, oil- and coal-powered plants revved up to pick up the slack.

Germans call these periods Dunkelflauten, meaning “dark doldrums,” and they can last for a week or longer. They’re a major concern for doldrum-afflicted places like Germany and parts of the United States as nations increasingly push renewable-energy development. Solar and wind combined contribute 40 percent of overall energy generation in Germany and 15 percent in the US and, as of December 2024, both countries have goals of becoming 100 percent clean-energy-powered by 2035.

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• Single women in the US are outpacing men in homebuying, the National Association of Realtors found.
• In 2024, single women represent 20% of all homebuyers, compared to 8% for single men.
• Three single women shared with BI their motivations for buying a home without a partner or a spouse.

Karla Cobreiro, 33, lived with her parents for nearly a decade after college, diligently saving to buy her own home.

"I didn't want to be house-poor or struggle financially," Cobreiro, a publicist, told Business Insider. "I waited for the right moment — when I had a higher-paying job, had saved up a large down payment, and had built a solid emergency fund.

In 2022, she purchased a 900-square-foot condo in Downtown Doral, a Miami suburb, for around $400,000. She was 31 and single.

"I didn't have a partner at the time, but I didn't think that should stop me," Cobreiro said. "So I went for it."

Cobreiro is one of many single women in the US who haven't let the absence of a relationship or marriage stop them from buying a home — an achievement long seen as a key milestone of wealth building and the American dream.

An analysis of data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows that single women have consistently outpaced single men in homebuying since the organization began tracking data in 1981.

The chart below shows that since 2020, the share of single women homebuyers has continued to increase steadily, while the share of single men has declined.

By 2024, the gap has reached its widest, with single women representing 20% of all homebuyers, compared to 8% for single men.

Single women find independence in homeownership

So why are single women statistically more likely to purchase homes than single men?

Brandi Snowden, NAR's director of member and consumer survey research, told BI that it largely comes down to lifestyle choices and women's unique societal roles.

Snowden explained that many single women purchase homes because they desire independence, have experienced divorce, and are responsible for raising children.

NAR found that female buyers are typically older than their male counterparts, with the median age for single women at 60, compared to 58 for single men.

"These buyers may be recently divorced or purchasing a home not just for themselves but also for their children and parents," Snowden said.

"It's just me and this mortgage."

Cobreiro said that buying a home without a spouse has its own challenges, such as settling for a smaller condo since she's not part of a DINK household — an acronym for "dual income, no kids."

Data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances shows that DINKs have a median net worth of over $200,000. This financial advantage enables them to more easily afford housing or spend their disposable income on luxuries like boats and expensive cars.

Despite the financial benefits of a two-income household, many women have chosen to live independently in an era of increasing financial and social autonomy.

Cobreiro is responsible for a 30-year mortgage, which includes $2,500 in monthly payments and an additional $1,000 in HOA fees — all of which fall entirely on her.

"Though I live comfortably, If I get laid off, break a leg, or face an emergency, I'm on my own, she said. "I always joke to my friends, "It's just me and this mortgage."

Still, she believes the benefits of sole home ownership outweigh the risks of waiting to purchase with a boyfriend.

"I'm glad I didn't wait until I was in a relationship or married to buy a home," she said. "Owning a home with someone you're not committed to can get tricky, especially if you break up. There's no prenup; if you disagree about selling, that can get messy."

Some women say no prenup, no co-owning

New Yorker Jessica Chestler, 33, shares a similar perspective to Cobreiro.

In 2022, Chestler, a real-estate agent with Douglas Elliman and a business owner, purchased a three-bedroom condo in Williamsburg for $3.25 million.

She told BI that she viewed homeownership as an investment in her future, one she wasn't willing to risk with someone she wasn't fully committed to.

"When you're buying a home with someone else, there's obviously a lot more to consider, especially if you're not married," Chestler said. "There's always that uncertainty: What happens if you break up — how do you divide the assets?"

Chestler, who also renovated her home, said the greatest benefit of owning solo is the ability to rely on herself and the freedom to live on her own terms.

"I only had to consider myself," she said. "I didn't have to worry about anyone else's opinion. I loved the apartment, knew my numbers, and was confident I could make it work — That sense of comfort was really important to me."

Women say they don't need a knight in shining armor

Some single women who buy homes may have boyfriends but aren't waiting for a ring to start building wealth through home equity.

Take real-estate agent Ayriel Von Schert, who, in February, purchased a 2,280-square-foot townhouse for $365,000 in Mesa, Arizona, without a cosigner.

Although Von Schert, 30, is in a long-term committed relationship, she wanted to take control of her financial future.

"I think many women feel the same way: Why wait for someone else to help you achieve your goals?" she told BI.

Her decision to buy alone could pay off in the long run. Another unit in Von Schert's complex is on the market for $410,000. If it sells for that price, her home will have appreciated by about $35,000 in one year.

"In a few years, I might sell this place or keep it and rent it out while buying another property," she said. "My long-term goal is to build a real estate portfolio and earn residual income, and I feel like I'm definitely on the right path."

For now, she and her boyfriend are living like roommates, equally splitting the bills for the home, including utilities and the mortgage.

She said it's a win-win situation for both of them.

"I don't think he minds because we no longer have a landlord telling us what we can or can't do," she said.

Are you a single or unmarried woman who purchased a home? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

Puffs of smoke rose above a meadow in northeastern Washington as a small test fire danced in the grass a few feet away from me. Pleased by its slow, controlled behavior, my crew members and I, as part of a training program led by the nonprofit organization The Nature Conservancy and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, began to light the rest of the field on fire. The scene had all the trappings of a wildfire — water hoses, fire engines, people in flame-resistant outfits. But we weren't there to fight it; we were there to light it.

It might sound counterintuitive, but prescribed fires, or intentionally lit fires, help lessen fire's destruction. Natural flames sparked by lightning and intentional blazes lit by Indigenous peoples have historically helped clean up excess vegetation that now serves as fuel for the wildfires that regularly threaten people's homes and lives across the West and, increasingly, across the country.

For millennia, lighting fires was common practice in America. But in the mid-to-late 1800s, the US outlawed Indigenous burning practices and started suppressing wildfires, resulting in a massive buildup of flammable brush and trees. That combined with the dry, hot conditions caused by the climate crisis has left much of the country at a dangerously high risk of devastating wildfires. The top 10 most destructive years by acreage burned have all occurred since 2004.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, federal land managers reevaluated their approach to fire and did the first prescribed burns in national parks. We're still making up for lost time: Scientists and land managers say millions more acres of prescribed burns are necessary to keep the country from burning out of control.

But the scale of the task doesn't match that of the labor force, whose focus is often extinguishing fires, not starting them. Responding to the increase in natural disasters has left America with few resources to actually keep them from happening. As Mark Charlton, a prescribed-fire specialist with The Nature Conservancy, told me, "We need more people, and we need more time."

This fall, I outfitted myself in fire-resistant clothing and boots, donned a hard hat, and joined a training program called TREX to better understand how prescribed burns work. TREX hosts collaborative burns to provide training opportunities in the field for people from different employers and backgrounds. The hope is that more people will earn the qualifications they need to lead and participate in burns for the agencies they work for back home.

The program's emphasis on learning, coupled with the support of the University of Idaho's Artists-in-Fire Residency (which helped pay my way), is why I, a journalist with no fire jobs on my résumé, could join a prescribed-fire module of about two dozen more experienced participants. I had to pass a fitness test — speed walking three miles with a 45-pound backpack in under 45 minutes — take 40 hours' worth of online coursework, and complete field-operations training to participate as a crew member. While hundreds of people have participated in TREX burns across the country since the program's inception in 2008, the dramatic growth of wildfires is outpacing the number of people being trained to reduce their impact.

The Forest Service manages 193 million acres of forests and grasslands across the country, burning an average of about 1.4 million acres, roughly the size of Delaware, each year with prescribed burns. It burned a record 2 million acres in fiscal 2023. But it's still not enough preparation, considering wildfires have burned over 10 million acres in recent years and people continue building and living in wildfire-prone areas. "It's a huge workload we have, and we know it," said Adam Mendonca, a deputy director of fire and aviation management for the Forest Service who oversees the agency's prescribed-fire program. The agency plans to chip away at the problem with the roughly 11,300 wildland firefighters it employs each year who squeeze the work in during the offseason, when there are fewer fires to fight.

But relying on wildland firefighters can be problematic. "We only have those resources for a short time," said Charlton, who served as the incident commander on the Washington burns I joined this fall. "After a long fire season, people are exhausted. It's hard to get people to commit." Plus, wildfires are increasingly overlapping with the ideal windows to do prescribed burns — often the spring and the fall, when conditions are cooler and wetter, making fires easier to tame.

That was especially true this year: Multiple large fires burned across the West into October. These late-season wildfires, coupled with two hurricanes that firefighters helped respond to, strained federal resources. That month, the nation's fire-preparedness level increased to a 5 — the highest level — indicating the country's emergency crews were at their maximum capacity and would've struggled to respond to new incidents.

In response to the elevated preparedness level, the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group urged "extreme caution" in executing new prescribed fires, saying backup firefighters or equipment might not be available. "We get to the point where we're competing for resources," said Kyle Lapham, the certified-burner-program manager for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and the burn boss on the Washington burns.

There's also a qualification shortage. Prescribed burns require a well-rounded group with a variety of expertise and positions — including a burn boss, who runs the show and must have years of training. Charlton estimated that hundreds more qualified burn bosses are necessary to tackle nationwide prescribed-burn goals.

Just as concerning is an interest shortage. The Forest Service has struggled to hire for and maintain its federal firefighting force in recent years, in large part because of poor pay (federal firefighter base pay was raised to $15 an hour in 2022) and other labor disputes over job classifications, pay raises, staffing, and more. The agency is also expecting budget cuts next year and has already said it won't be able to hire its usual seasonal workforce as a result.

Legislation inching its way through Congress could help, though its fate under a new administration is unclear. The National Prescribed Fire Act of 2024 would direct hundreds of millions of dollars to the Forest Service and the US Department of the Interior for prescribed burns, including investment in training a skilled workforce — but it hasn't progressed past a Senate subcommittee hearing in June.

Without a boost in funding, the agency will continue relying heavily on partnerships with nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy and the National Forest Foundation to staff prescribed burns. The Forest Service also recently expanded its Prescribed Fire Training Center to host educational opportunities out West. Critically, though, time is of the essence.

During my TREX training in October, about 20 foresters and firefighters from as far south as Texas and as far north as British Columbia worked beside me. Our group included employees of the Washington Department of Natural Resources and two citizens of the nearby Spokane Tribe of Indians, who have a robust prescribed-fire program of their own.

Over two weeks I got a front-row seat to how much planning (sometimes years) and time a single prescribed burn takes. We conducted several burns in the mountains north of Spokane on the property of a receptive landowner who'd hosted TREX in previous years. He provided the training ground and, in exchange, got work done on his property. This isn't a common scenario — burning on private land can be more complicated, and so more burns happen on state or federal property.

When I arrived, the burn's incident-management team had already put together a burn plan detailing our objectives — reducing wildfire risk to the landowner's house, thinning small tree saplings, knocking down invasive weeds, opening up more wildlife habitat — and the exact weather conditions, like wind speed, relative humidity, and temperature, we needed to safely burn. Prescribed burns on federal lands also go through an environmental review.

At the site, we scouted contained areas we would burn, called units, with trainees making additional plans for how to ignite and control fires. Keeping a fire in its intended location, called "holding," meant lots of prep work, like digging shallow trenches to box the fire in. During the burn, teams monitored smoke and occasionally sprayed the larger trees we wanted to preserve with water when flames threatened their canopies; others poured fuel on the ground, igniting bushes, grass, and smaller trees to slowly build the fire.

Managing the fire didn't end when we finished burning the 30 or so acres. In some cases, it can involve days of monitoring and cleanup. To make sure the fire was out, my crew and I combed through areas we'd burned the day before for smoke or heat. If we discovered something still smoking, we'd churn up the ground with a shovel or pickax, douse the hot spot with water, and repeat. Just when we thought we were done, we'd find another spot we'd missed.

I went to bed those nights dreaming of little puffs of smoke and woke up with small flakes of ash embedded behind my ears. The work was rewarding and exhausting — I left with a deeper appreciation for the workers who do it for a living.

While every prescribed burn is different, it's always a careful equation. Everything needs to line up: supportive communities, the right weather, and, of course, the workers necessary to plan, burn, and extinguish. Only then can you light the match.

Kylie Mohr is a Montana-based freelance journalist and correspondent for the magazine High Country News.

• Durelle and Samantha Bailey reframed how they set their New Year's resolutions.
• They hold an annual end-of-year meeting to workshop their goals together.
• They add them to a spreadsheet with deadlines and check in every week.

Durelle and Samantha Bailey used to struggle with accomplishing their New Year's resolutions.

Durelle, 30, told Business Insider that the married couple's goals felt too broad and left room for procrastination. Plus, having separate goals sometimes meant they weren't on the same page. While Durelle identifies as a saver, Samantha prioritizes spending money on travel.

Their careers inspired them to rethink how they set goals. Durelle, who is in the US Air Force, and Samantha, 30, who works as a recruitment marketing manager, saw how bigger organizations planned ahead with consistent cross-team meetings.

They realized that just like a corporation has multiple departments, their lives were also divided into categories like finance, travel, home, and professional advancement.

They held their first annual meeting in 2019, and have been hosting them every December since.

Durelle described it as a "game-changer." This year, they were able to hit their financial goal of collectively saving six figures. They also traveled more than they originally budgeted for, taking their dream trips to Greece, Switzerland, Italy, Nova Scotia, and Mexico while squeezing in smaller vacations.

They credit their end-of-year meetings. "Over the years, we've learned how to do them better," Durelle said.

They book a meeting room

The Baileys, who live in Washington, DC, always book a meeting room in a coworking space. It helps them get away from distractions at home, like their dogs. "It really locks us into what we're doing," Durelle said.

They each think of their goals a few weeks prior to the meeting. "We'll both take time to individually reflect on, 'Ok, what held us back this year? Were there some goals we didn't accomplish, and why?'" Samantha said.

Then they use the whiteboard to "brain dump everything we want out of the year ahead," she said, splitting the board into columns for different themes like "home" and "finance."

They bounce ideas off each other

As they share their ideas, they discuss them with each other before committing to real goals. Some goals need to be more specific, and others might not be feasible for the year ahead.

Because they know each other so well, they can tell when the other person is setting a benchmark that's too high. Samantha gave the example of Durelle aspiring to read three times as many books as he had the past year. "We've learned to be realistic so that you don't set yourself up to be discouraged," she said.

It also helps them work through goals that might clash, like simultaneously saving money and spending it on travel.

Sitting down and looking at the bigger picture helps them prioritize where their money goes, allowing them to strike a balance.

Once they've decided on their goals, they transfer them to a shared spreadsheet with deadlines (such as a month or within a quarter) per goal. They also include drop-down options for status updates, like "in progress" and "completed." It helps them stay accountable.

The couple blocks off dates and locations they want to travel to in advance, so they can budget and properly schedule time off for vacations.

"Being more specific about it has helped make them a reality," Durelle said.

They check in throughout the year

In addition to the spreadsheet, the couple hosts "life meetings" every week in their home to check in on their progress. They use the time to update the spreadsheet and talk through any obstacles. They also hold larger monthly meetings "just to kind of continue strategizing and making sure we're on track," Samantha said.

While it requires effort and consistency, the couple enjoys the sessions. "Just have fun with it — it's not meant to be stressful," Durelle said. The point is to find more direction for the year.

The couple says the routine meetings have helped them grow in their marriage. The Baileys were married at 22 and lived "paycheck to paycheck," Samantha said.

"This has really taught us to be intentional about our lives," she said. "When you have a plan and you're realistic about your goals, you can achieve them."

• During a recent trip to Italy, I visited Solomeo, a small village in the Province of Perugia.
• The fairytale-like village was restored by billionaire fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli.
• I loved exploring the 12th-century town, which feels pristine but honors the past.

On a recent trip to Rome, I left the major tourist city behind to spend an afternoon in Solomeo, a small village in the Province of Perugia.

The stunning village, with cobblestone streets and beautiful views of the rolling hills, looked like something straight out of a fairytale.

One of the most fascinating things I learned, though, was that Solomeo was restored by billionaire Italian fashion designer and regional native Brunello Cucinelli.

Here's what it was like to explore this charming Italian village.

The 12th-century town feels pristine but honors the past

Cucinelli, best known for his eponymous luxury-fashion brand, has invested significantly in restoring and conserving the village over the past 35 years.

The conservation efforts date back to 1982 when Cucinelli bought the village's castle and converted it into his company's headquarters. Today, most of the company is based out of buildings in the valley below Solomeo.

In part because of all of the restoration work, Solomeo felt like a postcard. The town, which is called a medieval hamlet, sits high atop a high hill overlooking stunning rolling hills.

As I walked around, I felt transported into the past. Although the city looked old and historic, I didn't see any cracks or crumbling foundations that these types of cities often have. Everything felt overwhelmingly peaceful.

Today, the village is mostly home to businesses and private residences

Only several hundred people call the village home, and I hardly saw anyone during my midday visit.

As I explored the city, I passed a lot of brick-laden private residences, a Brunello Cucinelli boutique, the company headquarters and factory, and the School of Contemporary High Craftsmanship and Arts, which opened in 2013.

Live entertainment, including concerts and ballet shows, is a fixture of the village. Events are hosted at the Cucinelli Theatre, which opened in 2008.

The theater was inspired by Renaissance architecture and has modern touches. There wasn't a show happening during my visit, but I was able to explore inside. The intimate theater had a clean, minimalistic design, with mostly white tones that drew the eye to the oak details.

The town is also home to the centuries-old Church of Saint Bartholomew. With its soaring ceilings and colorful, ornate details, it was stunning to see in person.

Solomeo was a can't-miss destination in Italy

Although I only spent a few hours exploring the small village, my visit was memorable.

Solomeo is truly a picturesque place to explore with its hilltop views and thoughtfully refurbished buildings.

My day trip felt like a nice way to get a taste of the past and was unlike any place I've experienced. It's definitely worth a stop if you're nearby.

• Kayla Barnes-Lentz spends all day optimizing her health to try to live to 150.
• She also runs her own business, so has to fit her biohacking around her busy workday.
• She has a 2.5 hour-long morning routine, takes regular biohacking breaks, and goes to bed by 8:30 pm.

From the second Kayla Barnes-Lentz wakes up, her day is built around enhancing her health.

Barnes-Lentz, 33, told Business Insider that her extensive biohacking routine has helped her to reverse her biological age by 11 years. Biological age is a measure of how healthy a person's cells and organs are, but scientists don't agree on the definition.

As a co-owner of a longevity clinic in Cleveland and the host of a podcast about health optimization, she counts this routine as part of her work.

"During work, I have my office optimized for optimal productivity, and I incorporate health optimization practices throughout the day," she said.

Barnes-Lentz's habits aren't all scientifically proven. But she and other biohackers, such as the millionaire entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, take a chance on experimental treatments to live as long as possible. Barnes-Lentz wants to reach 150, while Johnson's mantra is "don't die."

She's inspired by naturopathic medicine, which is based on folk healing methods rather than evidence-based medicine. Barnes-Lentz and the medical team at her clinic use scientific literature to "guide" what she describes as her "health protocols." She said she has also hired female PhD candidates to "dive into the literature" around women's health and longevity to inform her female-focused protocols, which she sells.

For the average person, experts say that getting the basics right can make a big difference to longevity. For example, a study published last year found that a healthy diet can increase lifespan by up to 10 years, and Nathan K. LeBrasseur, a physiologist at Mayo Clinic, previously told BI that spending just 3% of your day exercising can contribute to healthy aging.

Barnes-Lentz shared how she fits biohacking around running her business.

Before work, she spends 2.5 hours biohacking

Barnes-Lentz's morning routine is 2.5 hours long. She starts with what she describes as an "oral protocol," which includes tongue scraping, water flossing, and oil pulling. Tongue scraping and flossing are commonly recognized as effective ways to reduce bacteria and plaque in the mouth. But there's not enough evidence that oil pulling, an Ayurvedic practice that involves swishing oil around the mouth, is good enough for oral health to be recommended by the American Dental Association.

She also does her first round of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, a noninvasive treatment in which bursts of electric currents are sent through soft tissue across the body.

"I think of our body as a battery, and PEMF can increase your charge," she said.

Evidence suggests that PEMF could be useful in treating osteoarthritis and bone fractures, but more evidence is needed to confirm this, according to the authors of a 2023 review of research published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Barnes-Lentz also works out, gets some sun exposure to regulate her circadian rhythm, spends time in a sauna, showers, and measures her biometrics (body composition, grip strength, lung health, and blood pressure) before breakfast.

She does red light therapy while working

Barnes-Lentz works from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. most days, running her longevity business, podcast, and social media accounts, including her Instagram account, which has 383,000 followers. She tries to do 10,000 steps a day and move her body as much as possible.

To do so, she takes calls while walking and takes breaks every 90 minutes to walk or do what she considers a biohack, such as standing on a whole body vibration plate.

Even when she does desk-based work, she said she's biohacking. This involves sitting on a "biohacking desk chair," which encourages good posture, and wearing a red light therapy cap to help her hair grow faster and thicker. Red light therapy has been found to help with hair regrowth and increasing thickness and length in some large randomized trials, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

In her office, she has an air filtration system and uses natural light instead of LEDs to avoid interrupting her circadian rhythm. In a 2023 research report published in the journal Frontiers in Photonics, experts agreed that blue light from LEDs can disrupt sleep when people are repetitively exposed to it for prolonged periods at night.

Barnes-Lentz also inhales humid air using a NanoVi machine —which is advertised as a means to repair proteins in the body damaged by oxidative stress — to improve her cognition and brain health. Research suggests that oxidative stress, which is caused by factors including sunlight, alcohol, and certain medications, plays a role in aging and the development of neurodegenerative diseases.

A small 2022 study suggested that it could help improve cellular health and cognition in older people. Published in the International Journal of Molecular Science, it involved four people with cognitive impairment who used a NanoVi over 12 weeks. However, more research is needed.

A cold plunge at lunchtime

"My mid-day routine consists of a whole body vibration plate and cold plunge, which gives me a natural increase in energy, followed by a hyperbaric chamber session," Barnes-Lentz said.

She does five hourlong sessions in a hyperbaric chamber each week, using the time to catch up on messages on her phone. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers contain a pure, pressurize form of the gas to increase its absorption in the body. They are used to treat conditions including burns, wounds, skin and bone infections, and hearing and vision loss. Small studies have found that they might have anti-aging benefits too, although the FDA hasn't approved them for this use.

After work, she goes for a walk and optimizes her sleep schedule

Barnes-Lentz and her husband eat dinner at around 5 p.m., more than three hours before they go to bed at 8:30 p.m., to help them sleep.

She knows that a varied diet is good for the gut microbiome, so has different organic, seasonal vegetables and fruits delivered each week. The structure of her meals is always the same: vegetables, high-quality proteins, healthy fats, and carbohydrates that don't spike her blood sugar too much a few times a week, she said.

After dinner, the couple walks for 50 minutes in the hills around their LA home to aid digestion, catch up on their days, and get in more zone two cardio.

"Then, we begin our wind-down routine, which may involve more PEMF or relaxing together. At sunset, we ensure that the house is only red light to promote the release of melatonin," she said.

Some studies have found that using artificial red light at night can improve sleep quality, but a 2023 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found no evidence that red light increases melatonin secretion and, in some cases, can increase alertness.

"I've worked really hard to build the life that I have. I'm incredibly blessed and very fortunate that I get to move my body and get to do all these things. And I'm excited to see what that's going to lead to in the future," Barnes-Lentz said.

How do you fit 32 terabytes of storage into a hard drive? With a HAMR.

Seagate has been experimenting with heat-assisted magnetic recording, or HAMR, since at least 2002. The firm has occasionally popped up to offer a demonstration or make yet another "around the corner" pronouncement. The press has enjoyed myriad chances to celebrate the wordplay of Stanley Kirk Burrell, but new qualification from large-scale customers might mean HAMR drives will be actually available, to buy, as physical objects, for anyone who can afford the most magnetic space possible. Third decade's the charm, perhaps.

HAMR works on the principle that, when heated, a disk's magnetic materials can hold more data in smaller spaces, such that you can fit more overall data on the drive. It's not just putting a tiny hot plate inside an HDD chassis; as Seagate explains in its technical paper, "the entire process—heating, writing, and cooling—takes less than 1 nanosecond." Getting from a physics concept to an actual drive involved adding a laser diode to the drive head, optical steering, firmware alterations, and "a million other little things that engineers spent countless hours developing." Seagate has a lot more about Mozaic 3+ on its site.

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• I'm a solo traveler who recently visited Alaska for the first time.
• I recommend taking the Alaska Railroad for its scenic views and efficient transportation.
• I loved taking in the wildlife at Kenai Fjords National Park and Potter Marsh.

Over the years, I've watched many of my friends and family members go on weeklong cruises to Alaska.

As a solo traveler, I thought a cruise would be the best way to see the state. However, I didn't want to spend my entire trip on a boat and decided to make my own itinerary instead.

Here are four activities I recommend to those visiting Alaska for the first time.

Take advantage of the views on the Alaska Railroad.

During my trip, I loved talking a ride on the Alaska Railroad, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023.

Since I was staying in Anchorage and wanted to see Kenai Fjords National Park, I took the train from Anchorage to Seward and back.

If you have the means to splurge a bit, I recommend opting for the GoldStar service, which featured glass-dome ceilings and incredible panoramic views of Alaska.

Cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park.

Taking a boat ride through Kenai Fjords National Park is a terrific option for anyone who doesn't want to spend their entire trip on a boat. I loved seeing the fjords and watching the playful sea lions and orcas.

Our ship even stopped for lunch on Fox Island. Although there isn't much exploring to do on the small island, it was nice to get off the boat and warm up with some soup and salad.

Take a flightseeing tour to Denali.

I knew booking a flightseeing tour to Denali was a gamble because of how weather-dependent the activity is.

When I arrived at the office, though, I was disappointed to find out the cloud cover would prevent us from seeing Denali, the tallest mountain in North America.

However, the pilots had a backup plan, and I still got to see lots of gorgeous glaciers and breathtaking snow-covered mountains.

Check out the wildlife at Potter Marsh.

If you're looking to enjoy some fresh air and see different species of birds, Potter Marsh is the place to go. I loved walking along the wooden boardwalk and having close-up views of the wildlife.

Although there are tours of Potter Marsh, I'm glad I drove myself and could take my time soaking in my surroundings.

• Like regular body language, digital body language refers to what's unspoken in texts.
• It includes how often a person texts as well as how even a conversation feels.
• A dating expert shared the digital body language signs someone is interested in you.

Conversations on dating apps can be tricky to navigate.

Is it a red flag if a new connection takes three days to respond? Is a text paragraph vulnerable, or self-centered? Does replying with a lone "k" really mean someone hates you?

Logan Ury, the director of relationship science at Hinge, told Business Insider that this is what's known as digital body language (DBL), and it isn't much different from in-person body language, conveying what is unsaid.

Ury said DBL includes "how long somebody waits to respond, whether or not they double-text, what punctuation they use, and if they use emojis."

From her internal research at Hinge, she's learned that users — particularly Gen Zers — rely heavily on DBL to quickly gauge a match's interest in them. Among those daters, there are some widely agreed-upon indicators that a person isn't actually into you, even if they technically always respond to your texts.

To prevent wasting your time on a confusing situationship, "you want to be good at deciphering somebody's DBL," Ury said. She added that it's important to be aware of how you come off when you do like someone, so that they're "not misinterpreting how you feel about them."

She shared some digital body language signs that someone's not really interested in you.

They always respond, but never consistently

Healthy relationships are built on trust and communication. Naturally, daters look for signs of it from the very first message.

According to a 2024 Hinge report surveying 15,000 Gen Z users, Ury said users have a 44% higher chance of getting responses when they answer messages within 24 hours. Their matches sense more seriousness.

This goes beyond the first few messages. She said 76% of users also look for message consistency. Someone who texts for hours one day but then is MIA for three is widely considered as disinterested.

Because of that, she discourages matches from "playing it cool" or delaying responses when they really like someone. "It's much better to just not play games and respond quickly because those people are more likely to get onto dates and into relationships," she said.

Your text bubbles are imbalanced

Deep relationships require reciprocity and a sense of evenness. Beyond timing, Ury said the flow of conversation is a big sign of how interested someone is in you.

But it's about more than just taking turns hitting each other up, Ury said. "For iPhone users, there needs to be that mix between blue and gray" text bubbles, she said. That includes the match "leading with a question and then offering answers that build conversation," she said.

If they write you walls of text without asking anything back, it doesn't indicate that they're interested in knowing who you are. Ury has a term for these people: "ZQ," or "zero questions." ZQs indicate a lack of genuine curiosity to learn more about you, she said.

They're 'bad' at texting, but don't connect in other ways

Not everyone loves texting a lot — plenty of people prefer calls or simply can't be on their phones during the work day.

Ury said that if they're interested, they should be communicating with you about how they want to stay in touch. If they're offline during the workday, they should be transparent about that — and find other ways to share that they're thinking of you, such sending voice notes, memes, or photos of their day.

But if they don't make an effort to be clear about liking you, it comes off like they're not that interested in you.

It's why Ury emphasizes meeting in real life quickly if you hit it off with someone: digital body language isn't a science, and sometimes it's worth having conversations around communication differences.

Plus, the better way to confirm if someone likes you is to meet them in person.

"You need to get to the date as soon as possible," she said. "You don't know if somebody's in-person vibes will match their digital body language."

• Over 2,000 older Americans and counting have shared their financial and other regrets with BI.
• Some experienced financial distress after losing their spouses to illness or accidents.
• This is part of an ongoing series about older Americans' regrets.

Karen Lauer's husband died without a will. On top of the grief of losing the person she loved, Lauer's finances were thrown into chaos.

She's one of many older widows and widowers who have shared their stories with Business Insider in recent months. They're among the more than 2,000 Americans who've responded to a reader survey about their life regrets. This story is part of an ongoing series.

Some widows told BI they lost substantial amounts of their household income or were thrust into complex legal battles for their spouse's assets.

Others regret not outlining a will, skipping a life-insurance policy, or not building savings before their spouse's death: "Having been widowed twice and left with three girls to raise alone, I wish I would've saved money for my retirement years," one survey respondent wrote.

"I hate living without my husband — I needed to prepare for widowhood while making the most of our last years together," another said.

For Lauer, sorting through the pieces of her husband's estate has been painful.

"Because we didn't have a will, I feel like I'm going through a divorce between my dead husband and myself," Lauer said.

We want to hear from you. Are you an older American with any life regrets you'd be comfortable sharing with a reporter? Please fill out this quick form.

How losing a partner can take a painful financial toll

Lauer, 64, smiles thinking about the man nicknamed "Cowboy Steve." She pictures him cantering on his horse at their ranch in western Nebraska, gathering a thin layer of dust on his leather boots.

Her husband died following an accident last year. Without a will, she said the local court told her that all of her husband's money and assets would go into probate, a legal process used to divide a deceased person's estate, typically among their blood relatives. Lauer said because the ranch was in Steve's name, not hers, she was required to move off the ranch during the process so the house could be sold. She said she's now experiencing homelessness.

She's house-sitting for a friend in Lincoln, Nebraska, but doesn't know where she'll live next. With limited savings of her own, Lauer said she's surviving on less than $2,000 in monthly Social Security payments. She said it's not enough to cover essentials or rent her own apartment.

Lauer's financial experience mirrors that of others. In fact, on average, widows have lower 401(k) balances, less savings, and a more limited monthly retirement income than married retirees, BI found in an analysis of individual-level data from the Census Bureau's 2023 Survey of Income and Program Participation.

The average monthly income of widowed retirees is higher than that of divorced retirees and retirees who never married. But at an average of $2,381 monthly, their income is still several hundred dollars lower than that of married retirees with a surviving spouse. The analysis looked at retirees' income from pensions, Social Security, retirement accounts, or insurance benefits.

Doug Ornstein, the director of wealth management at TIAA, told BI that losing a spouse could have "devastating" financial impacts.

"If the person who handled most of the money passes away unexpectedly or early, the surviving spouse might not have financial literacy," he said. "Or maybe the couple undersaved for retirement — that person has to figure it out themselves."

A report published in June by the financial firm Thrivent found that less than half of widowed women feel prepared to manage their finances after a spouse's death. Twenty-nine percent of women surveyed said they created a will with their spouse, while 41% said they had no financial plan before their spouse's death. The firm surveyed a national sample of 422 female widows in May 2024.

Lauer wishes her "marriage license came with instructions," she said. Steve died unexpectedly, and Lauer said she didn't have enough knowledge about the probate and asset-division process, or how it would affect her livelihood as the surviving spouse. She advises other married people to write a will and make a financial plan as soon as possible.

How to protect your finances if your spouse dies

Ornstein said there are a few key ways that Americans can financially protect themselves if their spouse dies.

The first step is creating a will and having regular conversations about finances as a couple. A life-insurance policy — which people can buy or opt in to through their employer — can provide further financial security to a deceased person's family after their death. Typically, people pay a regular premium for the insurance throughout their career and can name a spouse or children as their beneficiaries.

Ornstein told BI that widows and widowers should work with an estate-planning attorney, financial advisor, and tax professional directly after their spouse dies. He added that, when preparing for those meetings, it's best to collect as many legal and financial documents as possible: a death certificate, a marriage license, bank statements, tax returns, benefits paperwork, insurance policies, and a will.

With an attorney and financial advisor, widows and widowers should apply — or reapply — for benefits such as Social Security and pensions, Ornstein said. They may be entitled to spousal benefits or higher monthly government aid. He added that a surviving spouse would likely have to transfer ownership of assets like a house, credit card, retirement account, or loan to themself or another family member.

"Take things one step at a time," he said in a follow-up email. "It's normal to feel stressed, overwhelmed, and anxious in this situation."

Still, not all widows or widowers have regrets about their money habits, even if they're in a precarious financial position.

Looking back on his 48 years of marriage, Robert Berkeley feels good about how he spent his money. He and his wife, Lourdes, spent decades traveling, dining at their favorite restaurants, and hosting big family holiday gatherings in their eastern North Carolina home. After their respective careers as an intelligence analyst and a dental hygienist, the couple decided to retire in their 60s — living largely on their monthly Social Security checks and the few thousand dollars they had saved.

Twelve years later, in 2022, Lourdes was diagnosed with cancer. The disease was aggressive, and she died within a couple of months.

Now 78, Berkeley is struggling to make ends meet. He and his wife didn't have a life-insurance policy or robust savings. He said it's been difficult to afford housing, utilities, groceries, and transportation without two Social Security incomes. Berkeley receives a $1,650 monthly payment, but he's in debt and behind on bills. He's hoping the part-time security guard job he landed recently will help fill the gaps.

Despite his limited budget, Berkeley feels at peace with past spending habits: "We decided to live our life in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, right up to hitting our early 70s," he said. "We weren't the kind to squirrel money away for something that might happen in the future."

The couple lived — and spent — in the moment, he said. He may not have much wealth left as he ages, but Berkeley said it's worth it for the years he had and the memories he made with his "darling wife."

Are you struggling with finances after losing a spouse? Are you open to sharing your experience with a reporter? If so, reach out to [email protected].

• Ukraine said that North Korean troops had accidentally killed 8 Russian soldiers in Kursk.
• Ukrainian intelligence said it was a "friendly fire" incident caused by a language barrier.
• Experts previously told BI that language issues would pose a challenge for the military alliance.

Eight Russian soldiers were killed by North Korean forces in a recent "friendly fire" incident in Kursk, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

North Korean soldiers opened fire on Russian military vehicles, Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said on Saturday, attributing it to a language barrier between the two forces.

It didn't say when the incident took place, but added that language barriers continue to be a "difficult obstacle" for Russian and North Korean personnel, per The Kyiv Independent's translation.

Business Insider could not independently verify the report.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia in its fight against Ukraine, officials from South Korea, Ukraine, and the US have said.

Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine's ambassador to South Korea, told Voice of America last month that the number could reach 15,000, with troops rotated out every two to three months. He said a cumulative 100,000 North Korean soldiers could serve in Russia within a year.

Experts on the relationship between the two states have previously said that the language difference between North Korean and Russian soldiers would be a key logistical issue.

Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., an expert in North Korean defense at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, told BI that though the two countries have historical ties, they rarely learn each other's language.

"To conduct combat operations with an allied force that doesn't speak your language presents real problems," he said.

North Korean soldiers have been sent to aid Russian forces in Kursk, an area of Russia that was partially occupied by Ukraine in August.

The North Korean soldiers are reported to have been scattered across various Russian units and had already come under Ukrainian fire as of early November.

Audio intercepted by Defense Intelligence of Ukraine in October suggested a chaotic start to the Russia-North Korea partnership, not least because of language difficulties.

In the intercepted audio, a Russian soldier complained about leaders having "no fucking clue" what to do with the new troops and remarked that they had been allocated one interpreter per 30 soldiers.

The soldiers reportedly killed in the friendly fire incident were from the Ahmat battalion, Ukrainian intelligence said — a group under the control of Chechen warlord and Putin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov.

"Kadyorovites," as they are known, have been fighting in Kursk since August, according to reports.

Ukraine initially seized a large swathe of Kursk in its surprise cross-border raid — around 500 square miles — but Russian forces have retaken about 40% of that land, a senior Ukrainian military source told Reuters in late November.

• Florence Pugh has said it's "exhausting" to be a young woman in the acting industry.
• Pugh told The Times of London that female movie stars face being called divas if they don't follow stereotypes.
• "There are fine lines women have to stay within," she said.

Florence Pugh has opened up about what it's like to be a young woman in Hollywood, describing the experience as "exhausting."

In an interview with The Times of London published on Sunday, the 28-year-old British star reflected on her decadelong career as an actor and issues in the industry.

"There are fine lines women have to stay within, otherwise they are called a diva, demanding, problematic. And I don't want to fit into stereotypes made by others," Pugh said. "It is really exhausting for a young woman to just be in this industry, and actually other industries."

Pugh rose to fame after making her movie debut in "The Falling" in 2014. She followed that up with roles in "Midsommar," "Black Widow," "Oppenheimer," "Dune: Part Two," and "Little Women" — the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination.

Pugh told The Times that throughout her career, she had loved challenging ideas she didn't like, such as how women in the public eye are expected to look.

"I remember watching this industry and feeling that I wasn't represented. I remember godawful headlines about how Keira Knightley isn't thin anymore, or watching women getting torn apart despite being talented and beautiful," she said. "The only thing people want to talk about is some useless crap about how they look. And so I didn't care to abide by those rules."

Pugh has frequently spoken out over comments to do with her body or look.

In 2019, the actor called out a publication for "singling out my 'chunky' thighs" in a review of one of her movies.

The "We Live in Time" star also told The Telegraph in 2022 that she was told to lose weight and change her "look" when she was cast in a failed television pilot at the start of her career.

Pugh also spoke out over comments she received after wearing a transparent pink gown to a Valentino Haute Couture show in 2022.

In the interview with The Times, Pugh said: "I wanted to challenge how women were perceived, how we are supposed to look."

"Actually I wasn't trying to challenge. I just wanted to be there, to make space for a version of a person that isn't all the things they used to have to be," Pugh said. "I'm proud I've stuck by myself and look the way I look — I'm really interested in people who are still angry with me for not losing more weight, or who just hate my nose ring."

"I am not going to be able to just change the way that things are — but I can certainly help young women coming into this industry by making conversations happen where they weren't before," she added.

The actor recently revealed that she had been previously diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis and that it had prompted her to freeze her eggs.

• Undersea cables between Finland-Germany and Lithuania-Sweden were cut, potentially sabotaged.
• The incident is one of a number of similar incidents in recent years, highlighting the vulnerability of these lines.
• NATO is enhancing surveillance and coordination to protect critical underwater infrastructure.

Last month, an underwater data cable between Finland and Germany and another between Lithuania and Sweden were discovered cut within a day of each other. The damage to the cables, which European officials said appeared deliberate, highlights just how vulnerable these critical undersea lines are.

Yi Peng 3, a Chinese-flagged cargo ship that had departed from Russia's Ust-Luga port in the Gulf of Finland three days before and was tracked loitering near the two locations, is suspected in connection with the incident. It is said to have dragged an anchor over 100 miles, damaging the cables.

"No one believes that these cables were accidentally cut," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in November. "We have to assume it is sabotage," he added.

In a joint statement with his Finnish counterpart, Pistorius said the damage comes at a time when "our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors."

As Russia received added scrutiny, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian involvement in the incident, saying that "it is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason."

Critical but vulnerable

In recent years, a string of incidents involving damage to underwater infrastructure has occurred, many of them in the same region.

Last year, Newnew Polar Bear, another Chinese cargo ship, damaged a gas pipeline running between Estonia and Finland. China's investigation concluded the damage was accidental; however, Estonia and Finland's investigation is still ongoing.

In 2022, a Norwegian underwater data cable was damaged, and there were indications of human involvement in that incident. In 2021, a 2.5-mile-long section of another data cable disappeared from waters north of Norway.

The incident that received the most attention, though, was the sabotage of the Nord Steam gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in September 2022. There have been indications that Ukrainian elements might have been behind the sabotage, but this has not been confirmed.

Underwater infrastructure is increasingly critical to modern life. The vast majority of internet traffic passes through underwater fiber-optics cables, and underwater energy pipelines are common in many regions. But protecting this infrastructure, which can stretch for hundreds or thousands of miles, is difficult.

"There's no way that we can have NATO presence alone all these thousands of kilometers of undersea, offshore infrastructure," then-NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg said in 2023. Yet, NATO can be better at collecting and sharing information and intelligence "and connecting the dots," he added.

Indeed, NATO and the European Union are trying to do that.

In May this year, NATO held its first Critical Undersea Infrastructure Network meeting and launched its Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure to better coordinate the capabilities of its members and increase collaboration between them.

Further, the EU is funding several initiatives to develop uncrewed surface and underwater systems to surveil critical areas and detect threats early.

But there are also legal difficulties to protecting underwater infrastructure, as it usually traverses the territorial waters of several countries and can also pass through international waters.

The usual suspects

Although it can often be difficult to establish a culprit whenever such infrastructure is damaged, officials have pointed out that Russian activity near underwater cables has intensified.

In 2017, the US admiral in charge of NATO's submarine forces said the alliance was "seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don't believe we have ever seen."

The war in Ukraine has added another dimension to this matter.

"There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life, to gain leverage against those nations that are providing security to Ukraine," David Cattler, NATO's intelligence chief, said last year.

Russia has developed a number of underwater capabilities and has a specialized unit, the Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research, committed to the task.

GUGI, as the operation is also known, is an elite Russian unit that employs specialized surface and underwater vessels capable of underwater sabotage and surveillance. Yantar, one of GUGI's special-purpose spy vessels, which nominally acts as a survey vessel, has often been spotted near underwater cables.

Furthermore, a joint investigation released in 2023 by the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland discovered that Russia, over the past decade, employed a fleet of 50 boats — masking as research or commercial vessels — to gather intelligence on allied underwater cables and wind farms in the Nordic region.

"When you look at the evidence of their activities now, the places they are doing surveys, overlaid with this critical undersea infrastructure … you can see that they are at least signaling that they have the intent and the capability to take action in this domain if they choose," Cattler said.