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Stocks moved slightly lower in midday Friday trading as investors returned from the Christmas holiday. Trading is expected to be light. The S&P 500 index was down 0.1% as of 12:15 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite was down less than 0.1%. Institutional investors are largely closed out of their positions for the year. The S&P 500 has climbed nearly 18% this year, helped by the deregulatory policies of the The President administration as well as investor optimism about the future of artificial intelligence. Gold and silver prices continued to climb, with silver rising more than 7% to $76.88 an ounce. Gold w…

A number of airlines are waiving change fees ahead of what is expected to be a major winter storm forecast to hit the Northeast on Friday afternoon, affecting millions of people traveling after Christmas, during one of the busiest times of the year. A winter storm warning from the National Weather Service (NWS) is in effect for New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut from Friday afternoon through Saturday, for up to 9 inches of snow and freezing temperatures, creating the potential hazardous travel conditions, flight delays, and cancellations. 1-6 inches of snow is expected from northeastern Pennsylvania up into New England; while freezing rain and sleet, are expec…

High-speed rail systems are found all over the globe. Japan’s bullet train began operating in 1964. China will have 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of high-speed track by the end of 2025. The fastest train in Europe goes almost 200 mph (320 kph). Yet high-speed rail remains absent from most of the U.S. Stephen Mattingly, a civil engineering professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, explains why high-speed rail projects in much of the country so often go off track. Dr. Stephen Mattingly discusses the problems that come with implementing high-speed rail in the U.S. The Conversation has collaborated with SciLine to bring you highlights from the d…

Nvidia has agreed to license technology from AI startup Groq for use in some of its artificial intelligence chips, marking the chipmaker’s largest deal and underscoring its push to strengthen competitiveness amid surging demand. Here is a list of multi-billion-dollar AI, cloud and chip deals signed recently: OPENAI DEALS Amazon and OpenAI Amazon is considering an investment of around $10 billion in OpenAI, though talks remain “very fluid,” according to a source who requested anonymity due to the private nature of their talks. Disney and OpenAI Walt Disney to invest $1 billion in OpenAI and will let the ChatGPT-parent use characters from Star Wars, P…

If you’re embarrassed every time you have to hand over that Gmail address you came up with in 2006, you’re in luck. Google is finally allowing users to change their Gmail username without creating an entirely new account. The update will allow you to edit your email address to any that isn’t taken. Until now, Google only offered the option to create an alternate email and forward your mail to a new @gmail.com address. But, if you wanted any of your documents, pictures, or other media, then it required you to transfer all the data over—a process that is far from smooth. Now, Google is offering the ability to keep all of that information, whether you’ve changed y…

AI is no longer the future of healthcare; it’s already reshaping how patients are diagnosed and treated. Some of the most interesting developments involve systems that sense and respond to human emotion. Cedars-Sinai’s Connect platform, for example, adapts care based on patient sentiment; CompanionMx interprets vocal and facial cues to detect anxiety; and Feel Therapeutics uses emotion-sensing wearables to tailor interventions in real time. At the same time, clinical tools are evolving. Hospitals are pairing large language models (LLMs) with AI note-taking apps such as Nabla and Heidi, which can listen, summarize, and respond to the nuances of doctor–patient conversat…

For the past three years, AI’s breakout moment has happened almost entirely through text. We type a prompt, get a response, and move to the next task. While this intuitive interaction style turned chatbots into a household tool overnight, it barely scratches the surface of what the most advanced technology of our time can actually do. This disconnect has created a significant gap in how consumers utilize AI. While the underlying models are rapidly becoming multimodal—capable of processing voice, visuals, and video in real time—most consumers are still using them as a search engine. Looking toward 2026, I believe the next wave of adoption won’t be about utility alone, …

California, soaked from days of relentless rain and recovering from mudslides in mountain towns, was hit with another powerful storm Christmas Day that led to evacuation warnings and high surf advisories. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California issued an evacuation warning for Wrightwood, a mountain town about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, a day after rescuing people trapped in cars during a mud slide. The National Weather Service said waves near the San Francisco Bay Area could reach up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) Friday. Statewide, more than 70,000 people were without power Thursday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.u…

As 2025 comes to a close, business leaders are inevitably already planning how 2026 will shape up, particularly as the last year proved to be a tumultuous one. The so-called AI boom is still booming, corporate DEI initiatives have shrunk or disappeared altogether, and return-to-office mandates have tightened. No one has a crystal ball to predict emerging technologies, financial headwinds, political hurdles, and market trends for the next year. But that doesn’t mean that companies can sit back—there are steps to take now to help insulate your company against potential turbulence in the coming year, while simultaneously fostering success by focusing on the human aspects…

What’s one thing most Americans likely don’t know? Demand for donor sperm is increasing. Initially established in the 1970s to help men undergoing vasectomies and facing cancer treatments, sperm banks today support people facing a wide range of challenges on their path to pregnancy. Alongside heterosexual couples dealing with infertility issues like azoospermia and young men facing cancer diagnosis, single mothers by choice, and same-sex couples are frequently turning to sperm banks in hopes of building their family. With approximately 1,500 sperm donors serving the entire United States, a new sperm bank, Premier Sperm Bank, is venturing to address modern family build…

A Powerball ticket purchased at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas, won a $1.817 billion jackpot in Wednesday’s Christmas Eve drawing, ending the lottery game’s three-month stretch without a top-prize winner. The winning numbers were 04, 25, 31, 52 and 59, with the Powerball number being 19. The winning ticket was sold at a Murphy USA in Cabot, lottery officials in Arkansas said Thursday. No one answered the phone Thursday at the location, which was closed for Christmas. The community of roughly 27,000 people is 26 miles (42 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock. Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot higher than previous expected, making it the second-largest in…

It’s time to reckon with the reality that nonstop doomscrolling has delivered us: a hard-to-ignore erosion of our cognitive skills. We’ve lost the ability to focus on words for long stretches of time . . . er, read books. Years of turning everything worth consuming into “content” that’s been “optimized” for attention has turned our brains into mush, shoved our mental health into free fall, and reduced our ability to pay attention to anything for more than five seconds at a time. (In fact, I clicked away from completing this sentence to check Facebook Marketplace for credenzas on sale.) While we’re still in the early days of what the long-term impact of artificia…

In Denmark, a grocery store chain used a black star. In Canada, it was a maple leaf. President Donald The President’s trade war inspired new country-of-origin “Made In” labels this year as shoppers outside the U.S. looked to avoid buying American-made goods and shop local instead. In the U.S., though, the “Made in USA” brand is losing its domestic appeal. Country-of-origin labeling is designed to be a stamp of authenticity and quality. Countries police their own rules to ensure products labeled “made” or “assembled” in their country really were made or assembled there and that they meet national standards. When the Copenhagen-based think tank 21st Century int…

Vince Gilligan spent a decade ruminating about his next TV series before he had a clear vision of what it was going to be. But through all that time, the writer/director, who is best known for creating Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, knew one thing for sure: it had to be entirely different from what he’d made before. In fact, it had to be completely unlike any other show, period. “As far as a prime directive, it is always: A) how can we make this show look different than any other show on TV? That’s the most important one,” Gilligan told me during a recent call. “And B, how can we make the show look and sound and feel different from the other shows we’ve already …

When you hear the phrase “family business,” you might think of the backstabbing Roys of Succession or the dysfunctional Duttons of Yellowstone. But while TV’s family companies are entertaining, their real-life counterparts may be even more compelling. Around the world, family businesses produce about two-thirds of all economic output and employ more than half of all workers. And they can be very profitable: The world’s 500 largest family businesses generated a collective US$8.8 trillion in 2024. That’s nearly twice the gross domestic product of Germany. If you’re not steeped in family business research—and even if you are—their ubiquity might seem a little strange…

2025 was unquestionably the year of the AI boom at work. When generative AI like ChatGPT entered the scene a few years ago, it started as a novelty. Early adapters saw its potential to change the way we work, but for most people it was a way to rewrite Keats’s poetry in pirate speak, or remix their favorite memes. But in 2025 AI rolled into offices everywhere, taking up residence as the boss who set performance goals, the on-call therapist-cum-coach, and the silent brainstorm partner. A McKinsey study found that 33% of organizations used genAI at work in 2023, and 55% used AI. This year, that leapt to 79% and 88% respectively. Here are five ways AI changed work in 20…

If you’re an entrepreneur, at the end of the year you’re probably excited about the prospect of time off, but also daunted by the new year’s potential and all the deadlines you should be setting. Traditional planning methods like to-do lists and calendars are no longer enough for the complexity of modern careers and lives. This year, I leaned into AI to approach planning differently. When used thoughtfully, AI becomes a partner in strategy, and a system that helps you transform aspirations into structured, executable plans. Here’s how I recommend using AI to clarify where you’re headed and offer more clarity on how to get there. Redefine the role of AI …

This holiday season, an unexpected treat has stepped into the limelight and onto the buffet table at many a festive gathering: the Jell-O shot. But the shot in question, which is currently going viral on TikTok and popping up on high-end menus across New York City, is nothing like the ones you probably remember from the sticky basement of a college frat party. Instead, these treats are sleek, refined, classy, and coveted—in short, the opposite of electric green slime in a plastic cup. Brooklyn-based Solid Wiggles, cofounded by pastry chef Jena Derman and mixologist Jack Schramm, is among the pioneers of this Jell-O shot revival. Founded in 2020, the company des…

It’s normal—perhaps even biological—to slow down at the end of the year. Winter weather brings less sunlight, causing our bodies to produce more melatonin and less Vitamin D. Humans have to fight the urge to hibernate like bears because of the exhausting holiday season. If you find yourself behind and needing to cross off some last-minute items on your to-do list, here’s a handy guide to your options on Christmas Day 2025. Are banks open on Christmas? No. Christmas is a federal holiday, so brick-and-mortar locations are closed. Online banking and outdoor ATMs are available. Is mail delivered on Christmas? The United States Postal Service will not delive…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. There’s no doubt about it: Housing market softening across the Sunbelt—the epicenter of U.S. homebuilding—has caused homebuilders to lose pricing power over the past year. Amid the additional margin compression, some giant homebuilders are adjusting their strategies. Lennar is finally easing up a little on its market share, taking volume-over-margin strategy, while KB Home—a homebuilder ranked No. 526 on the Fortune 1000—said on December 18 that it plans to lean even harder into built-to-order (more on that below). At the end of last week, KB Hom…

Apple and Google would like to see your identification, please. With the former’s “Digital ID” launch last week, both companies now let you scan a digital version of your passport at more than 250 Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, using an iPhone or Android phone. A growing number of U.S. states already support digital driver’s licenses for the same purpose. But the push for these digital IDs isn’t merely about airport security (which still requires you to carry a physical license or passport anyway). It’s really part of a broader effort to verify who you are online, one that can finally start in earnest with passport-based digital IDs that are a…

Somewhere between endless meetings and half-finished projects, we all went looking for better ways to get things done this year. These are the 2025 titles that helped people stay organized, focused, and finally finish what they started. Learn something new every day with “Book Bites,” 15-minute audio summaries of the latest and greatest nonfiction. Get started by downloading the Next Big Idea app today! Move. Think. Rest.: Redefining Productivity & Our Relationship With Time By Natalie Nixon A creativity whisperer to the C-Suite keynote speaker teaches how to harness the power of everyday activities to stress less and be more productive. Listen to o…