Midyat, in southeastern Turkey, has long held religious significance, as evidenced by its monasteries and churches, some of which were built in the 6th century.

In 2020, researchers on an excavation project unexpectedly found an entrance to a sprawling subterranean city, Agence France-Presse reported in 2024. Its construction was even older than the above-ground churches, dating back almost 2,000 years.

The city's inhabitants, possibly fearing persecution, fled underground and created an entire world.

Tunnels carved into the rock connect dozens of rooms in the underground city, known as Matiate. Researchers found coins, human and animal bones, and areas for storing food and wine, The Wall Street Journal reported.

People occupied the site for hundreds of years and had many reasons for seeking shelter under ground.

"To protect themselves from the climate, enemies, predators and diseases, people took refuge in these caves, which they turned into an actual city," Mervan Yavuz, the Midyat conservation director, told AFP.

Some may have been looking for a place to safely practice their religions, Yavuz added. "Pagans, Jews, Christians, Muslims, all these believers contributed to the underground city of Matiate."

"Our aim is to gradually uncover the entire underground city and open it to tourists," excavation leader Gani Tarkan told Daily Sabah last year.

Eventually, Matiate could rival the size and popularity of another of Turkey's underground cities, Derinkuyu.

In 1963, a man in the Cappadocia region of Turkey kept losing chickens during renovations on his basement, the BBC reported in 2022. They would slip through a gap in the wall and disappear. It turned out the wall concealed a tunnel to a long-forgotten city.

Located nearly 280 feet under the ground, the cavernous rooms and tunnels were once home to 20,000 people.

The area's rock is made from volcanic ash and forms natural spires. Known as tuff, the rock is easy to carve and shape, which may have helped residents build the underground tunnels and dwellings.

The city is ancient, with some estimates of its age at around 3,000 years. In 370 BCE, Xenophon of Athens described a site that seemed to match what's now known as Derinkuyu.

After its rediscovery, archaeologists and others began excavating Derinkuyu, eventually finding over 600 openings leading to the city. Storage rooms, stables, and schools covered 171 square miles. There was a well for water and ventilation shafts bringing in fresh air.

While residents didn't seem to live underground permanently, they could hide from violence or harsh weather for months at a time, the BBC reported.

In the 1920s, Cappadocian Greeks left the city behind after the Greco-Turkish War. They likely knew about the metropolis beneath their feet but took that knowledge to Greece.

Following Derinkuyu's rediscovery, it became a huge draw for the region.

Visitors can now explore several levels of Derinkuyu to see how people sought refuge for hundreds of years in the claustrophobic caves.

A decades-long megadrought continues to bake the Southwestern US.

In the early 1980s, Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam's reservoir, was nearing its full capacity of 9.3 trillion gallons of water. In 2022, it was at its lowest level since 1937, when it was first filling up, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.

Satellite images showed a "bathtub ring" of mineralization where water previously covered the shore. A once-wide section of the lake narrowed and then disappeared in the past 20 years.

As the evaporating water revealed the bed below, the remnants of an abandoned town began to emerge.

In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill ordering the construction of what would become the Hoover Dam. It was completed in 1936, causing the Colorado River to start rising.

As water pooled in valleys, Lake Mead began to form. Unfortunately for the residents of St. Thomas, Nevada, they were right in its path.

Mormons settled the town in 1865, though most burned their homes and moved after a dispute over taxes, according to the National Park Service. By the 1880s, newcomers had found the town, which would eventually become home to around 500 people.

When the river water started flooding, the town had everything from a school to a post office to an ice cream shop.

In 1838, the last resident escaped by boat.

"St. Thomas, for a long time, you couldn't get to without scuba diving," Michael Green, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor, told The Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2019.

The drought changed that.

St. Thomas started peeking through the disappearing lake in 2002. Walls, foundations, bits of metal, and broken glass litter the earth now.

The town reemerged in 1945 and 1963 but the lake swallowed it up again. It's unclear when that may happen again because climate change is fueling water loss in the Colorado River, a 2023 study found.

Lake Mead rose 16 feet in 2024 after coming dangerously close to the "dead pool" level, when the Hoover Dam would no longer be able to release water downstream to Arizona and California, SFGate reported.

In April 2024, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists accidentally caught a glimpse of the Cold War past, buried 100 feet under Greenland's frozen landscape.

Over 900 miles north of Nuuk, the country's most populous city, there was once a secret town of Army workers. Now the only way to see the frozen city, known as Camp Century, is through ice-penetrating radar.

"It's sort of like an ultrasound for ice sheets, where we're mapping out the bottom of the ice sheet," Chad Greene, the cryospheric scientist who took the picture, told Business Insider.

While there are other radar images of Camp Century, this newer device, the UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar), is more powerful. "That is the highest-resolution image that we've ever gotten to see at this camp," Greene said.

Remote and inhospitable, northern Greenland seemed like an ideal place for a Cold War military base. The US Army Corps of Engineers started constructing Camp Century 26 feet below the ice in 1959.

They dug tunnels large enough for an electric railroad to connect to a supply base over 150 miles away. The 2-mile-long complex, powered by a nuclear reactor, was large enough for 200 soldiers. So they didn't miss the comforts of home, they would have access to a gym, game rooms, library, and barber shop, Popular Science reported in 1960, while the base was still under construction.

The Army told journalists that scientists used Camp Century as a base for collecting and researching the world's first ice core samples. While that was true, the frozen city was also part of Project Iceworm. That mission, to launch ballistic missiles from under the ice, was kept under wraps and was eventually scrapped.

The Army's expectation for Camp Century after abandoning it in 1967 was that snowfall would keep it "preserved for eternity," a group of engineers wrote in a 1962 journal article. Over the decades, dozens of feet of ice and snow have further covered the base. The problem is that warming temperatures could reverse that trend.

If Camp Century melts, thousands of gallons of radioactive waste could surface as well. A 2016 study predicted the area will start losing ice by 2090.

Luke Auld-Thomas was deep in a Google search when he hit the jackpot … for a graduate student in archaeology, at least. It was lidar data for environmental analysis, but he was interested in what was under the trees.

To capture that kind of information, a plane flies over an area and the lidar sensor emits millions of pulses of light that are used to measure the distance between the plane and the objects below. Some light slips between the tree canopy to the ground, which can reveal forgotten structures.

The dataset covered an area of Campeche in Southeastern Mexico where Lowland Maya civilizations once flourished. However, the area is so dense with trees, it's impossible to see structures from the sky. Archaeologists had never studied this particular spot, so Auld-Thomas wasn't sure what the data would show.

It turned out that there were thousands of structures under the leaves.

"The locals were aware of the ruins nearby, but the scientific community had no idea," Marcello Canuto, a Tulane University professor and Auld-Thomas' advisor, told Business Insider.

When Auld-Thomas and Marcello started looking at the lidar data, they were surprised to see an entire city, packed with buildings. It may have been home to 30,000 to 50,000 people between 750 and 850 CE.

The city covered around 6 square miles. The team found over 6,700 structures, including houses, plazas, temple pyramids, and a ballcourt. Some areas were dense while others were more rural, Canuto said.

"There's also causeways, like roads, terraces, hydraulic canals, reservoirs, things that suggest that the landscape is being modified for a series of reasons," he said, including transportation and growing food.

Based on the city's scope, Canuto said it may have served as a regional capital that would have been home to elites or a royal family.

The researchers called it Valeriana, after a nearby lagoon.

Right now, everything the researchers know about Valeriana comes from the lidar data. That information can help see the size and shape of buildings and the size of the city, but they need to visit the site to learn more.

"What lidar doesn't tell you is what's below the surface," Canuto said. The Maya may have buried some objects or structures, or soil may have covered them.

Canuto said many of the stone buildings have likely crumbled over the centuries. They may be decorated or have important architectural features that lidar can't reveal.

While Canuto isn't planning to go to Valeriana himself, he hopes researchers from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History will study the site.

"That's the point of open data is to say, 'Look, it's open to everybody, so make use of it,'" he said.

Adidas said in January that it would reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, affecting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.

If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.

The news came shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting "better-than-expected" results in the fourth quarter.

An Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown "too complex because of our current operating model."

"To set adidas up for long-term success, we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach."

The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and could not confirm concrete numbers.

The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.

"As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, outplacement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Amazon said in late October it plans to eliminate 14,000 corporate roles, one of the biggest layoffs in its history.

The move is part of CEO Andy Jassy's push to run the company "like the world's largest startup," according to a blog post from Beth Galetti, SVP of People Experience & Technology.

Galetti said rapid advances in AI are changing how Amazon works and enabling faster innovation, prompting the company to get leaner with fewer management layers.

The cuts follow years of belt-tightening since the pandemic.

American Airlines said in November that it is cutting management and support roles to optimize performance and become more efficient.

"We're making a small reduction to our management and support staff team to right-size for the work we do today," American Airlines said in a statement shared with Business Insider.

The job cuts mainly affect positions at the airline's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Bloomberg first reported the cuts.

"We remain focused on continuing to invest in areas that support American's long-term business objectives, and these targeted investments will be made thoughtfully to position our airline for continued success," the statement said.

Semiconductor company Applied Materials said in an exchange filing on October 23 that it would be cutting 4% of its global workforce.

Applied Materials has around 36,100 full-time employees, per its earnings release in August, meaning the cuts will affect about 1,444 employees.

The company said it expects to "incur charges of approximately $160 million to $180 million consisting primarily of severance and other one-time employment termination benefits to be paid in cash, and other non-cash related charges."

It added that the cuts would help position it "for continued growth as a more competitive and productive organization."

Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, said in April it is cutting 16% of its staff globally. The company's website said it has nearly 1,500 employees.

Automattic's CEO, Matt Mullenweg, said in a note to employees posted online that the company has reached an "important crossroads."

"While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels," the note read.

The company is restructuring to improve its "productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest," it added.

The company said it was offering severance and job placement resources to affected employees.

Best Buy is cutting a small number of workers in the customer care and in-home field teams, with affected workers to receive severance, a spokesperson told Bloomberg in September.

The reductions follow a round of layoffs in the Geek Squad division last year as the company looks to improve efficiency and invest in newer areas of the business.

BlackRock told employees it was planning to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, Bloomberg reported in January.

The reductions were more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.

BlackRock's president, Rob Kapito, and its chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, said the cuts would help realign the firm's resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.

Jack Dorsey's fintech company, Block, is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, according to TechCrunch and The Guardian, in its second major workforce reduction in just over a year.

The company, which operates Square, Afterpay, CashApp, and Tidal, is transitioning nearly 200 managers into non-management roles and closing almost 800 open positions, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch.

Dorsey, who co-founded Block in 2009 after previously leading Twitter, announced the layoffs in March in an internal email titled "smaller block."

The restructuring is part of a broader effort to streamline operations, though Block maintains the changes are not driven by financial targets or AI replacements.

Bloomberg is cutting some editorial staff as the company reorganizes its newsroom, according to a memo viewed by BI. The larger strategy aims to have a larger headcount by the end of this year, however.

The newsroom currently employs around 2,700 people, and the changes will merge some smaller teams into larger units, the memo said.

Jeff Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, is laying off about 10% of its workforce, a move that could affect more than 1,000 employees.

In a memo sent to staff in February and obtained by Business Insider, David Limp, the CEO of Blue Origin, said the company's priority going forward was "to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness and efficiency for our customers."

Limp specifically identified roles in engineering, research and development, and management as targets.

"We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," Limp wrote. "It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities."

The news comes after January's debut launch of the company's partially reusable rocket — New Glenn.

Boeing announced on February 8 that it plans to cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program amid delays and rising costs related to NASA's Artemis moon exploration missions.

Artemis 2, a crewed flight to orbit the moon on Boeing's space launch system, has been rescheduled from late 2024 to September 2025. Artemis 3, intended to be the first astronaut moon landing in the program, was delayed from late 2025 and is now planned for September 2026.

"To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025," a Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

The company will issue 60-day notices of involuntary layoff to impacted employees "in coming weeks," the spokesperson said.

Boeing cut 10% of its workforce last year.

BP told Business Insider in January that it planned to cut 4,700 staff and 3,000 contractors, amounting to about 5% of its global workforce.

The cuts were part of a program to "simplify and focus" BP that began last year.

"We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities," the company said.

Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff in January in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

The layoffs at the world's largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.

The company's founder, Ray Dalio, said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees were leaving the firm within 18 months.

In a June 23 securities filing, Bumble said it plans to slash 240 roles, about 30% of its workforce. The dating app company said the cuts will result in charges between $13 million and $18 million in its third and fourth quarters.

"We recently made some difficult decisions to adjust our team structure in order to align with our strategic priorities," a Bumble spokesperson said.

They told BI that the decision to lay off over 200 employees wasn't "made lightly."

Burberry announced 1,700 job cuts in May, or about 18% of its global workforce, as part of plans to cut costs by about £100 million ($130 million) by 2027.

It plans to end night shifts at its Yorkshire raincoat factory due to production over-capacity.

The British company sunk to an operating loss of £3 million for the year to the end of March, compared with a £418 million profit for the previous 12 months.

Carter's, a children's retailer, said it will cut about 300 office-based roles, or 15% of those positions, by the end of 2025. The reduction was announced October 27 alongside plans to close 150 stores over the next three years.

The job cuts are expected to incur a $4 million to $5 million charge in the fourth quarter fiscal year 2025 from severance and outplacement services, the company said in October.

"We are pursuing several initiatives, including closing low-margin retail stores, right-sizing our organization, and honing product choices," CEO Douglas Palladini said in a press release.

Online education company Chegg said on October 27 that it would be reducing its workforce by 45%.

Chegg said it was cutting "388 roles globally" and expects to incur "charges of approximately $15-19 million, representing mostly cash severance payments." Chegg had 1,271 employees as of December 31, 2024, per its annual report.

"The new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers have led to a significant decline in Chegg's traffic and revenue," the company said, adding that the cuts would save it about $100 to $110 million in adjusted expenses for 2026.

This is the fourth time Chegg has announced layoffs.

Chegg said in June 2024 that it was cutting 441 roles, or about 23% of its workforce. Later in November, it said announced cuts for 319 roles, or about 21% of its workforce. Most recently, in May, Chegg said it was letting go of 248 employees, or about 22% of its workforce.

Chegg's shares are down nearly 11% year to date.

Oil giant Chevron plans to cull 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, the company said in a statement to Business Insider in February.

Chevron employed 45,600 people as of December 2023, which means the layoff could cut 9,000 jobs.

The move aims to reduce costs and simplify the company's business as it completes its acquisition of oil producer Hess, which is held up in legal limbo. It is expected to save the company $2 billion to $3 billion by the end of 2026, the company said.

"Chevron is taking action to simplify our organizational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness," a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement.

The cuts follow a series of layoffs at other oil and gas companies, including BP and natural gas producer EQT.

Cable news giant CNN cut about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts amounted to about 6% of the company's workforce.

In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN's CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to "shift CNN's gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN's future as one of the world's greatest news organizations."

The third-largest oil producer in the US, ConocoPhillips plans to cut 20-25% of its global workforce as part of a broad restructuring, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters on September 3.

The company employed about 11,800 people at the end of 2024, per a regulatory filing, which means up to 2,950 jobs could be cut.

ConocoPhillips' stock fell 4.4% the same day.

Other oil giants, including Chevron and BP, have also slashed headcount this year because of falling oil prices.

Coty, which sells cosmetics and fragrances under brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Calvin Klein, and Burberry, is cutting about 700 jobs.

The company said on April 24 it aimed to cut costs by $130 million a year. Sue Nabi, the CEO, said it aimed to build a "stronger, more resilient Coty that is well-positioned for sustainable growth."

CrowdStrike, the Texas-headquartered cybersecurity firm, said in May that it would cut about 500 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, as part of a strategic plan to "yield greater efficiencies."

It expected the layoffs to cost between $36 million and $53 million.

CrowdStrike is aiming to generate $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.

The company reported worse-than-expected annual results in March, signaling that it was yet to fully recover from a widespread tech outage linked to CrowdStrike in July 2024.

Disney confirmed to BI on June 2 that it was laying off several hundred employees globally.

Most of the cuts were to roles in marketing for films and TV under the Disney Entertainment division. Other roles affected included employees in publicity, casting, and development, as well as corporate finance.

In March, the company also cut around 200 people from its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. In 2024, the company also had several rounds of layoffs.

Shortly after Bob Iger returned to the company as CEO in 2022, he said 7,000 jobs at Disney would be cut as part of a reorganization.

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release on February 4 that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.

The cuts will focus on "rightsizing" certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.

Energy giant Exxon Mobil plans to cut 2,000 jobs as part of a global restructuring.

CEO Darren Woods said in a memo to employees that roughly half of the cuts will occur in Europe. A spokesperson for Exxon confirmed the memo's existence, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

The cuts represent roughly 3 to 4% of the company's total workforce. Exxon plans to cut roughly 1,200 positions across the European Union and Norway by the end of 2027, of which roughly half will be layoffs.

"We've seen the value of bringing people together in the same location," the spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "It drives innovation, strengthens execution, enhances career development, and improves teamwork. Our global office network was established decades ago under very different circumstances. To support the collaboration so critical to our success, we are aligning our global footprint with our operating model and bringing our teams together."

Micha Kaufman, the CEO and founder of the freelancing platform Fiverr, said on September 15 that the company was cutting about 30% of its workforce.

Kaufman said in a letter to employees that the cuts would affect around 250 team members across different departments. Fiverr had 762 full-time employees as of 2024, per its SEC filing in February.

He added that the cuts were needed to help turn Fiverr into a leaner and faster "AI-first company."

Kaufman said in a staff memo in April that AI was "coming for your jobs" and was a "wake-up call." In May, he told Business Insider that Fiverr would only hire people who know how to use AI.

"If you don't ensure that you sharpen your knives, you're going to be left behind. It's that simple," Kaufman said.

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain says Geico has reduced its workforce from about 50,000 to about 20,000. Jain revealed the reductions during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on May 3 but did not detail over what time frame they took place. Berkshire Hathaway is one of Geico's parent companies.

Warren Buffett's company reported its 2025 first-quarter earnings on during the May 3 meeting, saying Geico earned nearly $2.2 billion in pre-tax underwriting.

Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal announced 500 job cuts on February 28 after selling the company to Wonder Group for $650 million.

With more than 2,200 full time employees, the number of cuts will affect more than 20% of Grubhub's previous workforce.

According to Reuters, Just Eat Takeaway, an Amsterdam-listed company, sold Grubhub at a steep loss compared to the billions it paid a few years prior after grappling with slowing growth and high taxes.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is cutting 2,500 jobs, or 5% of its employee base, CEO Antonio Neri said on an earnings call on March 6. The cuts are expected take to take place over the next 12 to 18 months.

"Doing so will better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy," Neri said. The company expects to save $350 million by 2027 because of the reduction.

HPE plummeted about 20% after hours on March 6 after it said business would be affected by recent tariffs, slow server and cloud sales, and "execution issues."

IBM said in November that it would be reducing its global workforce by "a low single-digit percentage," an IBM spokesperson told Business Insider.

"We routinely review our workforce through this lens and at times rebalance accordingly," the spokesperson said. "In the past, when we have had rebalancing, we have still met our headcount goals, and we expect to do so again in 2025."

Chipmaker Intel is laying off more than 5,000 employees across four US states, according to a July 16 government filing.

Most of the cuts are happening in California and Oregon, while others are in Texas and Arizona, per updated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings.

Intel began laying off employees in July as part of planned job cuts, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company told staff on June 14 to expect 15% to 20% of employees in its Foundry division to be laid off this summer, according to a memo reported by The Oregonian. Intel confirmed the authenticity of the memo to BI but declined to comment on its contents.

As of December 2024, Intel employed about 108,900 people. In its annual report, the company told investors that it would reduce its "core Intel workforce" by about 15% in early 2025.

"Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution," an Intel spokesperson told BI.

Johns Hopkins University will cut over 2,000 jobs after losing $800 million in funding from USAID.

"This is a difficult day for our entire community," a spokesperson told BI. "The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally."

The news comes after the Trump administration slashed USAID personnel down from over 10,000 to around 300. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently confirmed that 83% of the agency's programs are now dead.

"We can confirm that the elimination of foreign aid funding has led to the loss of 1,975 positions in 44 countries internationally and 247 in the United States in the affected programs," the Johns Hopkins spokesperson said. "An additional 29 international and 78 domestic employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule."

The layoffs at Johns Hopkins represent the "largest" in the university's history, CNN reported. They'll primarily affect the schools of medicine and public health, along with the Center for Communication Programs and Jhpiego, a nonprofit with a focus on preventing diseases and bolstering women's health, according to the report.

Department store Kohl's announced on January 28 that it reduced about 10% of its corporate roles to "increase efficiencies" and "improve profitability for the long-term health and benefit of the business," a spokesperson told BI.

"Kohl's reduced approximately 10 percent of the roles that report into its corporate offices," the spokesperson said. "More than half of the total reduction will come from closing open positions while the remainder of the positions were currently held by our associates."

Less than 200 existing employees of the company would be impacted, she added.

This follows the company's announcement on January 9 that it would shutter 27 underperforming stores across 15 states by April.

The retailer has been struggling with declining sales, reporting an 8.8% decline in net sales in the third quarter of 2024.

Its previous CEO, Tom Kingsbury, stepped down on January 15. The company's board appointed Ashley Buchanan, a retail veteran who had held top jobs in The Michaels Companies, Macy's, and Walmart, as the new CEO.

Kroger Co. is cutting nearly 1,000 corporate jobs as part of a cost-trimming effort following the collapse of its proposed merger with Albertsons, a spokesperson told BI.

In an internal memo viewed by Business Insider, interim CEO Ron Sargent told employees on August 26 that "thoughtful, yet difficult, choices are necessary" for the organization to continue to succeed.

The grocer also plans to reinvest savings into lowering prices, opening new stores, and creating jobs at the store level.

The shake-up comes as Kroger navigates leadership changes after former CEO Rodney McMullen resigned earlier this year amid a board investigation into his conduct.

As of February, Kroger employed more than 409,000 people, mostly in retail roles. The layoff would not affect workers in stores, manufacturing facilities, or distribution centers.

Microsoft cut an unspecified number of jobs in January based on employees' performance.

Workers were told that they wouldn't receive severance and that their benefits, such as medical insurance, would stop immediately, BI reported.

The company also laid off some employees in January at divisions including gaming and sales. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many jobs were cut on the affected teams.

In May, the company announced layoffs affecting about 6,000 workers.

Another round of layoffs in July will affect less than 4% of its total workforce, or roughly 9,000 employees, based on its head count of around 220,000.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he "decided to raise the bar on performance management" and will act quickly to "move out low-performers," according to an internal memo seen by BI in January.

Those cuts started in February, according to records obtained by BI. Teams overseeing Facebook, the Horizon virtual reality platform, as well as logistics, were among the hardest hit.

In April, Meta also laid off an undisclosed number of employees on the Reality Labs virtual reality division.

In October, the company said it was laying off more than 600 employees in its Meta Superintelligence Labs, its AI division.

"By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact," Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, wrote in a memo.

Previously, the company had laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.

Microchip Technology is cutting its head count across the company by around 2,000 employees, the semiconductor company said on March 3.

The company estimated that it would incur between $30 million and $40 million in costs, including severance, severance benefits, and other restructuring costs.

The cuts would be communicated to employees in the March quarter and fully implemented by the end of the June quarter.

Last year, Microchip announced it was closing its Tempe, Arizona, facility because of slower-than-anticipated orders. The closure begins in May 2025 and is expected to affect 500 jobs.

Microchip's stock had fallen over 33% in the past year.

Morgan Stanley is set to initiate a round of layoffs beginning at the end of March. The firm is eyeing cuts to about 2% to 3% of its global workforce, which would equate to between 1,600 to 2,400 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the reductions to BI.

The firm's cuts are driven by several imperatives, the person said, pointing to considerations like operational efficiency, evolving business priorities, and individual employees' performance. The person said the cuts are not related to broader market conditions, such as the recent slowdown in mergers and acquisitions that's arrested momentum on Wall Street.

Some MS staffers will be excluded from the cuts, however — namely, the bank's battalion of financial advisors — though some who assist them, such as administrative personnel in its wealth-management unit, could be affected by the layoffs, the person added.

Nestlé, the Swiss parent company of KitKat and Nespresso, said on October 16 that it will cut 16,000 jobs over the next two years.

The world's largest food and drink company announced that 12,000 white-collar positions across various functions and locations will be eliminated, along with 4,000 roles in manufacturing and supply. This is 6% of its global workforce.

Its new CEO, Philipp Navratil, said the company would be "prioritizing the opportunities and businesses with the highest potential returns" and that it "needs to change faster."

Nestlé estimates the job cuts will save it around 1 billion Swiss francs, or $1.26 billion, by the end of 2027.

Neighborhood social networking company Nextdoor is cutting 12% of its staff, or 67 jobs, it said on August 7 in its second-quarter earnings report. The move is part of CEO Nirav Tolia's plan to achieve profitability and reorganize the struggling company.

The layoffs are expected to reduce operating expenses by about $30 million, it said in the earnings report.

The company reported a net loss of $15 million, compared to $43 million year-over-year.

Nike's turnaround plan is in full swing. It's reducing its corporate staff by 1% as part of its efforts, the company confirmed to Business Insider on August 28.

It's unclear how many jobs will be affected, but CNBC reported that Nike sent employees a memo about the change in August.

"As we shared in Q4 earnings, Nike, Inc. is in the midst of a realignment," the company said in a statement. "The moves we're making are about setting ourselves up to win and create the next great chapter for Nike."

Nike said in June, when it reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, that it would "evaluate corporate cost reduction as appropriate."

CEO Elliott Hill also told analysts at the time that the company would realign its teams as it shifts away from a men's, women's, and kids' structure.

Nike also cut jobs in 2024 amid broader cost cutting.

Japanese car giant Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs by 2027 and reducing the number of factories it operates from 17 to 10 as it struggles with a dire financial situation.

The job losses include the 9,000 layoffs announced late last year, and come as the automaker faces headwinds from US tariffs on imported vehicles and collapsing sales in China.

Nissan reported a net loss of 671 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the 2024 financial year, and said it would not issue an operating profit forecast for 2025 because of tariff uncertainty.

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk said in a statement on September 10 that it was cutting 9,000 jobs, or about 11%, of its workforce. It added that around 5,000 of the cuts would take place in Denmark.

Novo Nordisk's president and CEO, Mike Doustdar, said the cuts were needed because the market for obesity drugs was becoming "more competitive and consumer-driven." Novo Nordisk is the producer of the hit weight loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy.

"Our company must evolve as well. This means instilling an increased performance-based culture, deploying our resources ever more effectively, and prioritising investment where it will have the most impact — behind our leading therapy areas," he added.

Oracle is cutting jobs in its cloud unit, Bloomberg reported. The cuts come as the company works to curb costs amid spending on AI infrastructure.

Sources familiar with the cuts told Bloomberg that some of the cuts were related to performance issues.

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

Panasonic, the Japanese-headquartered multinational electronics manufacturer, plans to cut 10,000 jobs this financial year, which ends in March 2026. The cuts will affect 5,000 roles in Japan and 5,000 overseas.

In a statement on May 9, the company said it planned to "thoroughly review operational efficiency … mainly in sales and indirect departments, and reevaluate the numbers of organisations and personnel actually needed."

"Through these measures, the company will optimize our personnel on a global scale," the statement added.

Paramount told employees it would be laying off 3.5% of US-based staff based in the US, per a memo reported by CNBC on June 10, citing industry-wide declines and a challenging macroeconomic environment.

The move comes after the media company cut 15% of jobs last year to cut costs. Paramount had 18,600 employees at the end of 2024.

It is awaiting regulatory approval of its merger with Skydance Media.

Peloton said in its August earnings report that it would cut its global headcount as part of an effort to find $100 million in run-rate cost savings by the end of the next fiscal year.

"As of today, we will have actioned about roughly half of the run rate savings through the reductions in our workforce and we expect to achieve the remainder throughout the balance of the year," CFO Elizabeth Coddington told investors on the earnings call.

The company employed about 2,900 people last year, and approximately 6% of the workforce will be affected by the reductions, Reuters reported.

Porsche said on March 12 that it plans to cut 3,900 jobs in the coming years.

About 2,000 of the reductions will come with the expiration of fixed-term contractor positions, the German automaker said. The company will make the other 1,900 reductions by 2029 through natural attrition and limiting hiring, it said.

Porsche said it also plans to discuss more potential changes with labor leaders in the second half of the year. "This will also make Porsche even more efficient in the medium and long term," the company said.

The Big Four accounting firm said it's cutting roughly 1,500 jobs in the US because its low attrition rates mean not enough people are leaving by choice.

PwC's layoffs began on May 5 and mostly affect the firm's audit and tax lines, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

"This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step," a PwC spokesperson said.

Rivian said in October it was laying off more than 600 employees, or around 4.5% of its workforce.

"With the changing operating backdrop, we had to rethink how we are scaling our go-to-market functions," CEO RJ Scaringe said in a memo to employees, adding, "These changes are being made to ensure we can deliver on our potential by scaling efficiently towards building a healthy and profitable business."

The electric-vehicle maker has conducted several rounds of layoffs over the past three years.

Bloomberg reported in February that Salesforce, a cloud-based customer management software company, will slash more than 1,000 jobs from its nearly 73,000-strong workforce.

Affected employees will be eligible to apply to open internal roles, the outlet reported. The company is hiring salespeople focused on the company's new AI-powered products.

The cuts come despite Salesforce reporting a strong financial performance during its third-quarter earnings in December.

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.

On July 16, Scale AI laid off about 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors, according to the company.

The 200 full-time cuts make up 14% of the data labeling startup's 1,400-person workforce.

The company is restructuring its generative AI group, according to an email from Scale's interim CEO, Jason Droege, obtained by Business Insider.

The cuts follow Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI in June as part of a blockbuster deal. The deal included the hiring of Scale's ex-CEO, Alexandr Wang, and the purchase of equity in almost half of the startup.

Sonos, a California-based audio equipment company, said in a February 5 release that it's cutting about 200 roles.

The announcement came nearly a month after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down following a disastrous app rollout. Interim CEO Tom Conrad said in the statement that the layoffs were part of an effort to create a "simpler organization."

Starbucks said it would lay off 900 non-retail employees in September and close about 1% of company-operated stores in North America.

The cuts come after the company notified 1,100 corporate employees that they had been laid off in February.

CEO Brian Niccol said in a February memo that the layoffs would make Starbucks "operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

The company is trying to improve results after sales slid last year.

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan announced in February that the company is laying off 15% of its corporate staff, or about 1,750 employees.

He said affected workers will keep their pay, benefits, and bonuses through late April, when the separations will take effect.

The company told investors the cuts would save about $210 million this year and $300 million in 2026.

The move comes as Southwest tries to cut costs amid profitability problems. Jordan said this is the first significant layoff the company has had in its 53-year history.

An activist hedge fund took a stake in Southwest in June and has since helped restructure its board and change its business model to keep up with a changing industry. For example, it plans to end its long-standing open-seating policy to generate more seating revenue.

In recent months, the company has also reduced flight crew positions in Atlanta to cut costs.

Payments platform Stripe laid off 300 employees, primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a January 20 memo obtained by BI.

Chief people officer Rob McIntosh said in the memo that the company still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.

Target said in October it was cutting 1,800 corporate jobs, including about 1,000 employees and 800 open roles.

The company said the cuts accounted for 8% of the team at its global headquarters, and that leadership roles were affected at three times the rate of individual contributors.

"The truth is, the complexity we've created over time has been holding us back," Michael Fiddelke, Target COO and incoming CEO, said in a memo to staff. "Too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions, making it harder to bring ideas to life."

UPS announced on April 29 that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs this year — about 4% of its global workforce — as part of a shift toward automation and a strategic reduction in business with Amazon.

"With our action, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS," the company's CEO, Carol Tomé, said in a statement.

The move follows a sharp 16% drop in Amazon package volume in Q4 and is part of a plan to halve its Amazon business by mid-2026. UPS will also close 73 US buildings by June and automate 400 facilities to reduce labor dependency.

The Teamsters union have said they would fight any layoffs affecting its members.

The telecommunications giant said on November 20 that it plans to lay off 13,000 employees in order to make Verizon "faster and more focused," new CEO Dan Schulman said in a message to employees. Verizon had about 100,000 employees at the beginning of 2025.

The Washington Post eliminated fewer than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported in January.

A spokesperson told the news agency that the cuts wouldn't affect the newsroom: "The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are."

Wayfair announced in an SEC filing on March 7 that it would eliminate its Austin Technology Development Center and lay off around 340 tech workers.

The reorg comes as the technology team has accomplished "significant modernization and replatforming milestones," the company said in the filing. Wayfair said it plans to refocus resources and streamline operations to promote its "next phase of growth."

"With the foundation of this transformation now in place, our technology needs have shifted," the company said.

Wayfair expects to take on $33 to $38 million in costs as a result of the reorganization, consisting of severance, cash employee-related costs, benefits, and transitional costs.

Workday, the human-resources software company, said in February that it is cutting 8.5% of its workforce, or around 1,750 employees. The layoffs came as the company focuses more on artificial intelligence.

In a note to employees, CEO Carl Eschenbach said that Workday will focus on hiring in areas related to artificial intelligence and work to expand its global presence.

"The environment we're operating in today demands a new approach, particularly given our size and scale," Eschenbach wrote. He said that affected employees will get at least 12 weeks of pay.

Have a tip? Contact Dominick Reuter via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

A strawberry shake costs $5 at my nearest Shake Shack in New York. It's made with vanilla custard and "real strawberry," according to the website.

There are 690 calories in a 16-ounce cup, Shake Shack's standard shake size.

This could just be personal bias, as I would never order a strawberry shake under any circumstances, but when I took the lid off and sniffed the shake, I felt like I was sniffing a strawberry-scented candle.

After tasting a sip, I was able to appreciate that this was one of the thickest shakes I tried. But it was just too sweet for me — I could only take a couple sips before feeling like I was rapidly developing a cavity.

The Campfire S'mores shake, which was available this summer, was made with vanilla frozen custard, graham crackers, "chocolate and toasted marshmallow fudge chunks," and finished off with whipped cream and s'mores crumbles, per Shake Shack's website description.

It cost $6.99 and had 1,090 calories.

There sure was a lot in there, but to me, this just tasted like a vanilla shake with some graham cracker bits mixed in, which was pretty unpleasant, texturally speaking.

I couldn't taste chocolate or marshmallows, two of the three key s'mores ingredients.

In my opinion, it was not worth the extra 50 cents or the extra calories.

Nobody is immune to Dubai chocolate, not even Shake Shack.

Shake Shack's version of the viral snack — a chocolate bar filled with green pistachio cream and shredded phyllo pastry — was a shake that costs $9.99 and has 1,080 calories.

It was made with pistachio custard mixed with "toasted kataifi shredded phyllo" and was topped with mashed-up pistachios and kataifi.

It was encased in a crackable shell made of dark chocolate inside the cup, so it made sense that Shake Shack recommended it be best enjoyed cold.

To me, this didn't taste like chocolate at all, since the chocolate was completely frozen and didn't mix with the pistachio custard.

The pistachio custard itself was delicious, but the phyllo mixed in felt strange to drink — almost as if paper had been added to my shake.

Since this was a more expensive shake, I can't rank it any higher. But Shake Shack should definitely add a pistachio flavor to its lineup — I would drink it plain.

Shake Shack didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider regarding its Dubai chocolate recipe or pricing.

I visited Shake Shack's Innovation Kitchen to try out the new holiday flavors, so I didn't pay for this one, but per the chain's website, it retails at $6.99 and has 840 calories.

It's made with sugar-cookie custard and topped with whipped cream and red and green sprinkles.

Nick Wuest, Shake Shack's senior manager of culinary innovation, said that the Christmas Cookie shake has stayed on the menu year after year due to demand, and when Shake Shack tinkered with the recipe, fans let them know that they want it to remain untouched.

I'll give them this: It certainly tastes like a sugar cookie in shake form. However, as just a mild lover of sugar cookies, this was just too sweet for me, although I was impressed at how accurate the flavor was.

This is exactly what it sounds like: vanilla and chocolate custard mixed together. It has 770 calories and costs $5.

Maybe it's because the chocolate was so overpowering compared to the vanilla, which can be more subtle, but this just tasted like a watered-down chocolate shake to me.

This is just frozen chocolate custard. It's $5 and 750 calories.

As a chocolate ice cream lover, I thought this was sure to place high. Instead, this chocolate shake was somewhat middling for me. I thought it had an artificial aftertaste, and I couldn't take more than a couple of sips, something that never happens to me with chocolate ice cream.

But some chocolate is better than no chocolate, hence its spot at No. 9.

The Banana Pudding shake used banana custard made with "real banana," per Shake Shack, and was mixed with vanilla wafer cookies. It was also topped with "vanilla wafer cookie crumble."

It was priced at $6.99 and had 1,010 calories.

Ever since "Sex and the City" put Magnolia Bakery and its banana pudding on the map, I've always associated banana pudding with New York, and I'm a fan.

Banana-flavored anything can be divisive — remember how mad some people would get on Halloween if they got banana Laffy Taffy? — but I thought this was great.

It tasted like real bananas, the cookie crumble on top was good, and the cookies mixed in just added flavor, not a crumb-like texture in the shake.

The Shake Shack site writes that its vanilla shakes are made with "real vanilla" in the vanilla custard. One shake contains 680 calories and costs $5.

This was easily the creamiest, thickest shake I tried. Can you go wrong with a vanilla shake? It's sweet, doesn't have a strong aftertaste, and was the only one that actually felt like I was quenching any type of thirst.

However, it's kind of bland, as many vanilla things are. So I can't put it any higher.

Another holiday offering, the Peppermint Bark Chocolate shake ($9.99, 1,320 calories) is chocolate custard that's been infused with mint chocolate fudge encased in a crackable peppermint white chocolate shell.

It's topped with whipped cream and little pieces of peppermint candy.

Shake Shack's second foray into the crackable shake space is, in my opinion, an improvement on the first. It was much easier to crack and pull out pieces of the shell.

My main critique of the Dubai Chocolate shake was that I didn't really taste any chocolate. Since this was a chocolate shake infused with mint fudge, there was no missing either flavor.

Of course, not everyone likes mint chocolate, but if you find yourself grabbing a peppermint mocha every day of December, I'd give this a whirl.

The Oreo Cookie Funnel Cake shake was made with vanilla custard and "Oreo Cookies and funnel cake crunch" spun into the custard. It was topped with whipped cream and Oreo crumbles.

It had 1,140 calories — the second most of all the shakes I tried — and cost $6.99.

I was curious to see how this would taste different from the regular cookies-and-cream shake, but the two couldn't have been more different.

Somehow, this just tasted exactly like a funnel cake you'd get at a carnival. It even had the sugary aftertaste, which I personally love. It brought me back to summer nights that I spent at my local town fair, licking powdered sugar off my fingers.

If I had to knock it, though, I didn't really taste Oreo in the shake itself, though the crumbles on top somewhat made up for it.

After a five-year hiatus, the coffee shake was reintroduced to the permanent menu in September 2025, ahead of National Coffee Day.

It costs $5 and has 700 calories, and is made with vanilla custard mixed with dark roast coffee.

As a self-proclaimed coffee ice cream aficionado, I was a bit nervous to try this flavor. Sometimes, coffee-flavored products can taste artificial or too sweet, but I didn't have to worry about that with this shake.

Simply put, this tasted like a frozen cup of coffee. If that sounds appealing to you, I'd recommend.

This shake, another holiday flavor, has 930 calories and costs $6.99.

It's made with a vanilla custard base, a piece of sticky toffee pudding cake, and caramelized brown sugar blended together, topped with whipped cream and a toffee pudding sauce.

Of the three holiday flavors, I have the least experience with sticky toffee pudding, a British dessert. I was a bit worried I wouldn't enjoy it, but my fears quickly vanished after the first sip.

To me, the molasses flavoring was like a gingerbread cookie, making it the perfect holiday treat. I also liked that I could feel the little pieces of cake mixed in, giving this an added textural dimension that some of the other shakes didn't have.

This is vanilla custard mixed with chocolate fudge sauce.

It has 770 calories and costs $6.49.

Full disclosure: Before doing this ranking, I thought that a black-and-white shake was just chocolate and vanilla mixed together. But no! It's a vanilla shake mixed with chocolate sauce. I much preferred this.

It had more of a taste than a plain vanilla shake, but it didn't have the watered-down quality of the vanilla-and-chocolate shake, which was overwhelmed by chocolate. This tasted like a hot fudge sundae.

I highly recommend.

The cookies-and-cream shake ($6.49 and 850 calories) is made with vanilla custard and spun with "chocolate cookie crumbles."

In almost any scenario, I am ordering a cookies-and-cream shake. It's been my go-to for years … but that just means that the Shake Shack shake had to live up to my high standards. And it did.

This tasted like drinking a mashed-up Oreo, which is all I ever want from a cookies-and-cream shake. It was creamy, not too sweet, and the texture of the cookie crumbles wasn't off-putting in any way. It had just the right amount of crumbs.

I'd be fine with getting any of the top eight shakes, but cookies and cream will forever be my No. 1 choice.

Jakrajutatip made history when she acquired the Miss Universe Organization for $20 million in October 2022, becoming the first woman to own the pageant since its inception in 1952.

During the Miss Universe 2023 competition, Jakrajutatip promised to usher in a new era for the "global women's empowerment platform."

"From now on, it's going to be run by women, owned by a trans woman, for all women around the world," she said.

That era didn't last long. On October 29, Miss Universe announced that former diplomat Mario Búcaro was the new CEO. Jakjrajutatip had quietly stepped down in June.

Búcaro, previously Miss Universe's vice president for international relations, now works alongside Raul Rocha, who became president after Jakrajutatip sold a 50% stake to his company in January 2024.

Jakrajutatip's resignation comes amid financial issues at her company, JKN Global Group. After defaulting on a multimillion-dollar loan in September 2023, the company petitioned Thailand's bankruptcy court. In June 2025, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Jakrajutatip had included false or misleading information in JKN's 2023 financial statements.

In the statement announcing Búcaro as CEO, the Miss Universe Organization said Jakrajutatip had stepped down to focus on her family. She has yet to make a public comment about her resignation or the SEC complaint.

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

During a November 4 meeting with the Miss Universe contestants, Nawat Itsaragrisil, who was recently named the director of Miss Thailand and host for the 74th Miss Universe competition in Bangkok, confronted Miss Mexico Fátima Bosch and accused her of not participating in a promotional event for the pageant.

In the exchange, which was captured on Miss Universe Thailand's Facebook livestream, Itsaragrisil goes back and forth with Bosch as he criticizes the Miss Mexico team. The other Miss Universe contestants can be seen on the livestream, silently watching from their seats.

"If you listen to your director, you're a dumbhead," Itsaragrisil appears to tell Bosch during the livestream. He later told reporters that the word he had used was "damage."

"I have a voice," Bosch told Itsaragrisil after he told her, "I did not give you an opportunity to talk."

"You are not respecting me as a woman," she added.

Multiple Miss Universe contestants walked out of the room after Itsaragrisil, who also runs the Miss Grand International pageant, called for security to remove Bosch. The director demanded that the contestants return to their seats, saying: "If anyone wants to continue the contest, sit down."

Bosch ultimately decided to stay in the competition, sharing her reason in an Instagram caption. "Mexicans don't give up because giving up has never been part of our history," she wrote on November 6.

Representatives for Bosch, Itsaragrisil, and the Miss Universe Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

"To trash another girl is beyond disrespectful," Theilvig can be heard saying in a clip reposted across Instagram and TikTok as the scandal broke.

"That's why I'm putting on my coat and leaving," she added.

Past winners from Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Grand International — the pageant Itsaragrisil founded and still owns — also posted statements in support of Bosch.

"Since the beginning of this year's Miss Universe competition, those of us on this side of the world have been waking up to 'surprises' every day — and today was no exception," Miss Universe 2023 Sheynnis Palacios wrote on her Instagram story on November 4. "Some of the values that should guide Miss Universe — respect, dignity, gender equality, and transparency — are now being questioned."

"A crown should never come at the cost of a woman's dignity," she added.

Voigt, who resigned her title in May 2024 due to the leadership of former Miss USA CEO Laylah Rose, said she was "shocked, disgusted, disappointed, and genuinely horrified" by the video.

"I understand what it feels like when your voice is dismissed and your dignity is demeaned," Voigt wrote in a November 6 Instagram statement. "I spent years being a chronic people pleaser… but walking away from that fear, speaking up, reclaiming my dignity and my voice was the most liberating act I've ever taken."

Rocha posted a video on the official Miss Universe Instagram on November 4 stating that he would not "allow the values of respect and dignity of women to be violated."

"I have restricted Nawat's participation in the events that are part of the 74th Miss Universe competition, limiting it as much as possible or eliminating it entirely," he said.

Rocha added that Itsaragrisil's decision to call security on Bosch was a "serious abuse," and he accused the Miss Thailand director of having a "constant desire to be the center of attention."

"The only ones who should shine are our delegates who represent each of their countries with dignity," he added.

Itsaragrisil apologized for the confrontation with Bosch a day later while giving a tearful press conference.

"This issue has dragged me down to this point. I understand and I apologize," he added. "I am human. I didn't want to do anything like that."

Miss Universe 1996 Alicia Machado was discussing the argument between Itsaragrisil and Bosch during a November 5 Instagram Live when she referred to him as Chinese. When a commenter pointed out that Itsaragrisil was of Thai descent, Machado said "everyone with slanted eyes" was Chinese to her. The Venezuelan beauty queen then pulled back the corners of her eyes on camera to demonstrate.

Machado's comments prompted a response from Voigt, who made history as the first Venezuelan-American to win the Miss USA title.

Voigt said she was "deeply saddened and disappointed" by Machado's comments, adding that many of her supporters had reached out and asked if she would stand up for the Asian community.

"The statements she made about Thailand, Thai people, and Asian communities were completely inappropriate, hurtful, and untrue," Voigt wrote. "The world of pageantry is unique and passionate… but in recent days, the level of drama and negativity online has gone too far."

Machado is no stranger to headlines since her Miss Universe days. The beauty queen became a central part of Hillary Clinton's campaign in the last days of the 2016 election after the Democratic candidate said Donald Trump had called Machado "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping" when he owned the Miss Universe pageant.

A spokesperson for Trump denied that he called Machado those names in a statement sent to The New York Times following the presidential debate.

Machado, Itsaragrisil, and Voigt did not respond to requests for comment.

On November 6, Miss Chile Inna Moll posted a TikTok video that showed her pretending to snort a line of cocaine.

The clip, part of the "Addicted to You" trend, shows a makeup-free Moll dusting some white powder from a compact on her arm. She then leans down and pretends to snort the powder before the video cuts to her in full glam for a Miss Universe event.

Moll was quick to react to the criticism that followed as people began reposting her TikTok. She removed the clip from her page and posted an apology video to her Instagram stories the very next day.

"I want to apologize to those who were offended," she said in the video, according to Hola!. "The makeup artist told me to record it and, maybe because of the language barrier, I didn't fully grasp what was happening."

"I said no at first, but he insisted, and I went along. I should have said no firmly," Moll added.

Taratorn Aek, the makeup artist behind the video, posted an Instagram statement apologizing to Moll on the same day.

"What I did was thoughtless and without any hidden intent to harm the contestant or the country's image," he wrote. "It was merely a piece of content following a current online trend. I assure you that something like this will not happen again."

While rumors swirled that Moll could be disqualified from the pageant, she remains in the competition and has been frequently featured on Miss Universe's social media pages.

Moll, Aek, and the Miss Universe Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

On November 18, the composer Omar Harfouch announced on Instagram that he was resigning as a finals judge for the competition. Harfouch accused the organization of carrying out a "secret vote" to select the top 30 by "individuals who are not official members of the jury, myself included."

"I could not stand before the public and television cameras, pretending to legitimize a vote I never took part in," Harfouch said. "Viewers would assume the jury made these decisions, and I cannot bear responsibility for a process I did not participate in."

Miss Universe shared a statement on its Instagram the same day, saying Harfouch was confused by the organization's recent announcement of a selection committee for the pageant's "Beyond the Crown Program," which it described as an "independent social impact initiative" that was designed to promote the contestants' charitable causes.

"The Miss Universe Organization clarifies that this eight-person committee operates entirely independently from the official Miss Universe judging panel," the statement said. "This committee does not evaluate the performance of the delegates during the 74th Miss Universe competition, nor do its decisions grant any additional points toward the final results."

On the same day that Harfouch resigned, Claude Makélélé — a former professional French soccer player — said he could no longer serve as a judge for the Miss Universe finals.

"It is with regret that I must announce that I won't be able to attend the Miss Universe 2025 event due to unforeseen personal reasons," he wrote on Instagram. "This was a difficult decision, as I hold Miss Universe in the highest regard. The platform represents empowerment, diversity, and excellence — values I have always championed throughout my career."

Henry was walking during the preliminary evening gown round on Wednesday in Bangkok when she fell off the stage, as seen in clips posted by pageant blogs on social media.

Miss Universe president Raul Rocha posted an update on his Instagram page later that night, saying he had visited Henry in the hospital.

"Thankfully, there are no broken bones and she is under good care," Rocha's statement read. "She will remain under observation for the rest of the night."

Henry, 29, is an ophthalmologist who created a foundation to advocate for people who are visually impaired. It is unclear if she will be able to compete at the November 21 finals.