Tag: Business

• The 2025 Miss Universe pageant is streaming on Peacock on Thursday night.
• Nine Miss USAs have won Miss Universe in its 74-year history.
• R'Bonney Gabriel, who won in 2022, was the last Miss USA to be crowned Miss Universe.

Beauty queens worldwide are getting ready for the biggest night in pageants.

On Friday in Thailand, 120 women will compete in the 74th annual Miss Universe. The competition will be streamed on Peacock in the US on Thursday night.

This year, Audrey Eckert from Nebraska will represent the United States at the pageant. She took home the crown at Miss USA 2025 in October following years of turmoil and leadership changes at the pageant.

Miss USA 2022 R'Bonney Gabriel was the last American to win the Miss Universe pageant. It had been a decade since a contestant from the US took the crown.

In honor of the coming competition, take a look back at the nine Miss USAs who have won Miss Universe.

1954: Miriam Stevenson

Stevenson was crowned Miss Universe in 1954, making her the first American to win the pageant. She won after initially tying with Miss Brazil Martha Rocha, with Stevenson ultimately taking the crown because the judges decided she had a better physique than Rocha, according to Telemundo.

Stevenson was a student at Lander College when she started competing in pageants, first representing South Carolina in the Miss USA pageant in 1954, according to the college, which is now called Lander University.

After her reign came to an end, Stevenson finished her studies and became a TV host, Telemundo also reported. She met her husband, Donald Upton, through work, and they share two children.

Stevenson is still alive today.

1956: Carol Morris

Morris won Miss USA while representing Iowa before she went on to become Miss Universe.

The then-20-year-old was studying elementary education at Drake University when she found pageant success. After her win, she left her college career behind to act, according to the Des Moines Register.

Morris' last IMDb credit is for an "ITV Film of the Week" episode, and the Register reported that she stepped back from acting after she got married and had her four children.

Morris is still the only representative from Iowa to win both Miss USA and Miss Universe.

1960: Linda Bement

Bement, who died in 2018, won the 1960 Miss USA pageant while representing Utah before becoming Miss Universe the same year.

She was the first Miss Universe winner to be crowned during a live television broadcast, helping to bring the pageant to a larger audience around the world.

Bement coached other pageant contestants following her win, according to her obituary.

She also had two children with her ex-husband, Manuel Ycaza, a hall-of-fame jockey, and at the time of her death, she had five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

1967: Sylvia Hitchcock

Hitchcock became Miss Universe in 1967 after winning the Miss Alabama and Miss USA pageants while she was a student at the University of Alabama. Though she represented Alabama during her pageant career, Hitchcock actually grew up in Miami.

According to AL.com, Hitchcock modeled and appeared in a few film productions after winning Miss Universe, and she didn't finish her studies at the University of Alabama. She also served as a judge for the 1972 Miss Universe pageant following her reign.

Hitchcock married William Carson in 1970, and they had three children and seven grandchildren. She died in 2015, according to her obituary.

1980: Shawn Weatherly

Shawn Weatherly became the second Miss USA from South Carolina to take home the Miss Universe crown after she won in 1980.

Weatherly launched a career in Hollywood following her reign. She starred as Cadet Karen Adams in "Police Academy 3: Back in Training" in 1986 before landing the role of Jill Riley in the first season of "Baywatch" in 1989, according to her IMDb page.

She made cameos in several successful shows throughout the '90s, including "Thirtysomething," "Murder, She Wrote," and "Chicago Hope." Weatherly has not appeared in a film or TV series since the 2014 movie "Love in the Time of Monsters."

1995: Chelsi Smith

Chelsi Smith became the first Miss Texas to take home the Miss Universe crown when she won in 1995. She was the third African American woman to win Miss USA, as well as the first African American woman to win Miss Texas.

Smith moved to Los Angeles after her reign to pursue a career in Hollywood, according to People. In addition to modeling and acting, she signed a record deal and her first single, "Dom Da Da," appeared on the soundtrack for the 2002 film "The Sweetest Thing." She also appeared in the 2003 film "Playas Ball," according to IMDb.

Smith died of liver cancer in September 2018 at the age of 45. This year, the Miss USA organization announced it had renamed the Miss Congeniality award in honor of Smith.

1997: Brook Lee

Brook Lee, who took the crown in 1997, is the first and only native Hawaiian to win Miss Universe. At the age of 26, Lee was the oldest Miss Universe winner at the time.

Lee appeared on several TV shows after winning the crown, including "The Nanny" and "Boy Meets World," according to her IMDb page.

The pageant queen then turned her attention to hosting shows, including "Hawaii Sports Adventure" on ESPN, "Top Ten Beaches of America" and "Cruises We Love" on the Travel Channel, and "Casting Session" for Fox Movie Channel, according to her official website.

Lee also created her own show, "Modern Wahine Hawaii," and co-hosted the podcast "It's A Hawaii Thing."

2012: Olivia Culpo

Olivia Culpo entered her first pageant in 2012 when she competed in Miss Rhode Island USA. After taking home the crown, she won Miss USA and Miss Universe that same year.

Following her reign, Culpo — like many of her predecessors — began acting in Hollywood. She appeared in "The Other Woman" with Cameron Diaz in 2014, as well as the 2018 film "I Feel Pretty" with Amy Schumer, according to her IMDb page.

With 5.5 million Instagram followers, Culpo has since launched a successful career as an influencer. In 2022, she starred in the TLC reality series "The Culpo Sisters" with her family.

Culpo and her husband, Christian McCaffrey, who plays for the San Francisco 49ers, had their first child in July.

2022: R'Bonney Gabriel

R'Bonney Gabriel became the second Miss Texas to win Miss Universe after she took home the crown in January 2023.

Gabriel only began competing in pageants in 2021 after a hairstylist convinced her, she told Business Insider after winning Miss USA in October 2022.

The fashion designer made history as the first Filipino American to win the pageant. But the day after she was crowned, more than a dozen Miss USA 2022 contestants said the competition had been rigged in her favor. They pointed to multiple conflicts of interest between Gabriel and Miss USA's national sponsors, as well as then-Miss USA president Crystle Stewart. The Miss Universe Organization launched an investigation and suspended Stewart.

Gabriel denied the rigging allegations, and a Miss Universe spokesperson told Business Insider in January 2023 that the investigation found no evidence of rigging. The organization announced it had parted ways with Stewart in August 2023.

After Gabriel won the Miss Universe title, she told Business Insider it was the "sweetest victory" following the Miss USA scandal.

"No matter if people try to knock you down or there are misconceptions about you, you can't let that get to you," she said. "Just keep going, and you'll get what you deserve."

• David Ellison's Paramount Skydance wants to buy Warner Bros. Discovery before it splits.
• A Paramount-WBD pairing could form a superpower that challenges Netflix and Disney.
• Mega-mergers are rare, but there are reasons the Trump administration might green-light this one.

Don't bet against Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison — especially if he has President Donald Trump on his side.

Paramount made a bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery in time for the media conglomerate's self-imposed Thursday deadline, according to The New York Times. Comcast and Netflix are also bidding for the streaming and studios side of WBD, The Times reported.

Spokespeople for Paramount and WBD declined to comment. Spokespeople for Comcast and Netflix didn't respond to requests for comment.

A Paramount-WBD deal would be the largest media tie-up since Disney bought Fox's TV and movie studio in 2019. While mega-mergers of that magnitude are rare, legal experts say that Ellison's apparent rapport with Trump may help Paramount get around antitrust concerns.

"If we were talking about this a year ago, there's no way," said Corey Martin, an entertainment lawyer at Granderson Des Rochers in Los Angeles. "But we're not under a Biden administration."

Trump said in June that the then-incoming Paramount CEO was "great" and would "do a great job" at the media company. More recently, Ellison was invited to a White House dinner for Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday night. Ellison's father, the billionaire Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, has been a closer supporter of Trump for years.

David Ellison has said he doesn't want to "politicize our company in any way, shape, or form." Despite this stance, his move to appoint the anti-woke media entrepreneur Bari Weiss as the top editor at Paramount's CBS News made waves in the worlds of politics and media.

Paramount is the most logical bidder for WBD because it has the clearest path on the financing and regulatory fronts, and is the most motivated to make a deal, Raymond James media analyst Ric Prentiss wrote in a mid-November note.

WBD's other bids have holes

WBD put a for-sale sign on itself in late October, after CEO David Zaslav said it had received "unsolicited interest" from multiple suitors. It appears Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix are most interested, though only Paramount seems to have the appetite to swallow all of WBD, which is separating its studio and streamer from its cable networks.

Rival Comcast is spinning off most of its cable TV assets, so adding more networks from WBD wouldn't make sense. Its stagnant stock price and high debt load may also limit how much it's able to bid without an equity partner, Raymond James' Prentiss wrote.

Another negative factor: Trump has expressed disdain for Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, as well as for MSNBC (which Comcast is spinning off) and NBC News.

The fit between Comcast and WBD "on paper, is nearly perfect," media analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a mid-November note. But the MoffettNathanson cofounder also said "the regulatory/political impediments to an acquisition could prove to be insurmountable."

And while Netflix has the financial firepower to compete with Paramount in a bid, it has no interest or need for legacy TV networks. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company is "choosy" about dealmaking on its latest earnings call.

Netflix "is merely doing its due diligence" on WBD and "would not pay a premium to the current price in a competitive bidding process," MoffettNathanson's Robert Fishman wrote last week.

Plus, the streaming giant could run into regulatory roadblocks, either in the US or abroad.

Morgan Stanley's Ben Swinburne said in a Wednesday note that Netflix had the "smallest synergy opportunity," meaning cost savings from a WBD deal, "and perhaps the toughest regulatory path."

Concerns abound — but perhaps not from regulators

Wall Street's excitement isn't shared by Hollywood creatives and some Paramount employees.

A Paramount marketing strategy staffer expressed concern that a merger would lead to more layoffs, although they said they had grown accustomed to cuts.

"Everyone at Paramount is used to it, in a sinister kind of way," this person said of layoffs. Ellison's company laid off 1,000 staffers in late October, and a person familiar with Paramount's plans told Business Insider that about 1,000 more cuts are coming, though the timeline on that is unclear.

Industry analysts say a merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. would be challenging to get through in a normal regulatory environment, as a consolidated studio could potentially pay creatives less while raising prices.

Antitrust regulators typically focus on how a merger of two powerful companies could impact the labor market and their pricing power over consumers. However, Martin, the entertainment lawyer, said much of that conventional analysis "is out the window" in the second Trump administration, in which personal relationships play a larger role.

Trump's apparent goodwill toward Paramount and Ellison, along with his administration's M&A-friendly stance, has legal experts feeling rosy about the chances of Paramount's WBD bid.

"There's room for some optimism by the companies that they would be able to consummate this merger if they wanted to," said Ray Seilie, an entertainment litigator at Los-Angeles-based law firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir.

'Now or never'

If WBD splits itself next summer, the two companies couldn't get acquired for two years without incurring significant tax penalties. That could delay any bidding process until 2028, when it's unclear who will control Congress and have the inside track to the White House.

In other words, Paramount Skydance might be thinking it's "now or never" to get a deal done for the WBD assets, Seilie said.

While Hollywood may complain about one firm controlling the Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. studios, Ellison's plea to the Trump administration may be simple, legal experts said: buying WBD is the only way to survive when competing against deep-pocketed tech giants in a cutthroat industry.

"It's possible that the way things are right now are unsustainable, and they need this merger in order to effectively compete against Netflix," Seilie said.

Pairing Paramount+ with HBO Max and Warner Bros. could make Paramount a streaming superpower.

By bidding on WBD, Ellison can "take advantage of a much larger opportunity to redefine Paramount's future," MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wrote.

• The TSA proposed an $18 fee for travelers without acceptable ID at airport security checkpoints.
• The fee aims to fund biometric kiosks to streamline identity verification and reduce delays.
• It's not a guarantee flyers clear security, and the $18 is non-refundable.

The Transportation Security Administration has taken a page from the budget airline playbook.

The agency filed a new proposal on Thursday that would charge travelers $18 at security checkpoints if they show up without a REAL ID or another acceptable government-issued ID, such as a passport or permanent resident card.

The fee covers the cost of creating and maintaining the new program and would essentially be required for an agent to access a biometric kiosk system designed to verify a traveler's identity more quickly than the current manual process.

The fee is optional, but flyers without acceptable ID risk not being allowed on their flight if they don't pay up.

It's unclear when the rule to spur more REAL ID adoption could go into effect. The filing said it'll begin when the agency opens registrations for the program on its website.

Under the proposal, the $18 would be valid for 10 days, meaning travelers without compliant ID documents wouldn't necessarily pay the fee every single trip within that window.

The TSA said the new technology would be less time and resource-intensive than the current process when a flyer lacks these IDs, which involves providing personal information or answering detailed questions to match flyers to government databases. They also face extra screening of their carry-ons and persons.

But it added that the kiosks would just be an alternative attempt to verify a flyer's identity — it's not a guarantee. Those who can't clear airport security through any means would not be refunded the $18. And they may still be subject to additional screening.

The TSA said the program would require spending on data infrastructure, software development, program management, and compliance. It added that it may impose a limit on how many times an individual could use the kiosk.

It's unclear if TSA agents would be the ones to collect the fee when a flyer opts into the program. The TSA did not immediately respond to a question about where the fee will be paid and what payment types it will accept.

The fee-based system would be separate from the TSA's existing use of facial recognition technology, which is already deployed voluntarily at dozens of airports nationwide — including major hubs like New York-JFK, Boston Logan, Denver, and Atlanta.

"This notice serves as a next step in the process in REAL ID compliance, which was signed into law more than 20 years ago," a TSA spokesperson told Business Insider. Congress passed the REAL ID Act of 2005 in response to the 9/11 attacks, but it just rolled out in 2025.

They added that additional guidance would come in the "coming days" and that the rate of ID compliance is around 94%; a REAL ID card shows a star inside a circle in its upper right corner.

In May, the TSA began requiring travelers to present a REAL ID or another government-approved identification to pass through airport security checkpoints.

• Jeff Perera became a stay-at-home dad after he lost his job in retail.
• He and his wife had been searching Florida for a true New York-style bagel — until he started to make them himself.
• They sold their house, raised $28,000 on Kickstarter, and opened a bagel shop

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeff Perera, 48, the cofounder of Jeff's Bagel Run. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I met my wife while working at Target, marking the beginning of what became a decadeslong career in retail. Over the years, I moved into leadership roles at several major brands before eventually joining a senior living company in a senior role.

Then, in August 2019, I got a call that changed everything: I was being let go. At the time, my wife, Danielle — who'd also built a successful career — was home full-time with our four kids.

At first, settling into the role of stay-at-home dad wasn't natural — not because of the dad part, but because I was often the only dad at the park or play group.

Still, it gave me a rare chance to slow down. Danielle, who had decided to return to corporate work around that time, helped me realize I'd never really taken a step back to ask what I wanted next.

My identity had been closely tied to my job for years. I had no idea that space would make room for a question that would change everything: "Jeff, can you make me a bagel?"

When you can't find the best bagel

Some people go on coffee runs. Others go on Target runs or beer runs. For Danielle and me, it was always a weekly bagel run. But living in Central Florida — a true bagel desert — meant driving 45 minutes to find a decent New York-style bagel.

So when my wife popped the question, given my newfound free time, I decided to try making her the perfect bagel.

Danielle has vivid childhood memories of bagels, riding in her mom's station wagon on Long Island, eating one fresh from the bag. The best foods, of course, can transport us back to moments we just want to taste one more time.

The problem was, I'd never baked anything in my life. I had zero culinary training. I just looked up the first recipe I could find and got to work. Those first bagels were terrible — dense, misshapen, and far from New York standards. But that only inspired me to try again.

Every day, Danielle would come home from work to a new batch waiting for her to critique.

Then the pandemic hit, and my family was locked down with a mad bagel scientist. I'd make up to six dozen bagels a day. Bowls of dough covered the counters, each marked with recipe notes. My kids helped knead and mix, turning the kitchen into a full-on test lab.

Danielle would taste and review each one — the chewiness, the salt, the crust. Eventually, she joked that her work clothes might stop fitting if I didn't stop baking. So, we started giving them away.

Getting it right

The look on my wife's face when I finally nailed the perfect bagel was unforgettable. We looked at each other and asked: Could we actually sell these?

I made a simple flyer, posted on Instagram, and sold a few dozen. One of our early customers was a local journalist who wrote about us, and suddenly we had more orders than we could handle.

Our kitchen exploded into a full-scale operation. We had five refrigerators stretching into the garage, extension cords running everywhere, and breakers popping constantly. We upgraded our confection ovens.

In the third week of the pandemic, we started posting our bagel menu. Our bagels were selling out in seconds. During one stretch, we baked for 27 days straight. I delivered bagels across town, spreading a little joy during lockdown.

Scaling up

In 2020, we did our first in-person market. People lined up for a block to buy bagels. The next year, a downpour hit mid-market, and every other vendor packed up. But our line stayed. We threw tarps over the bagels, and people showed up soaked to buy half a dozen. That's when we knew we had something real.

We sold our house and launched a Kickstarter campaign with a $10,000 goal. We raised over $22,000 from 276 backers, enough to buy equipment and take the next step. Danielle quit her job, and together we opened our first store in Ocoee, Florida, in 2021.

Today, Jeff's Bagel Run — named after our weekly drives to find the best bagels — is a growing franchise with more than 100 stores in six states, and counting.

Peace, love, and bagels

Starting a business with your spouse can be tough. We make it work by having short memories; what happens at work stays at work.

Our corporate leadership training kicks in when we need to manage challenges or each other, but at the end of the day, we always choose "us" over the business.

Building something from scratch taught me a lot about trust, not just in my partner but in myself. In my corporate days, I always had a mentor or a boss to call for advice. Now, it's just us.

• Miss Universe director Nawat Itsaragrisil went viral after yelling at Miss Mexico Fátima Bosch.
• In response, Miss Universe president Raul Rocha said he'd restrict Itsaragrisil from future events at the 2025 pageant.
• Itsaragrisil has still been seen at many Miss Universe events, taking photos with contestants and leadership.

After a video of Miss Universe director Nawat Itsaragrisil yelling at Miss Mexico Fátima Bosch went viral, the organization took swift action — but it appears to be business as usual.

Miss Universe president Raul Rocha posted a six-minute speech to Instagram on November 4, the day of Itsaragrisil and Bosch's confrontation, and said the director had committed a "serious abuse."

"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," Rocha said.

Despite these statements, Itsaragrisil has been photographed at numerous Miss Universe events in the lead-up to the crowning, which will stream in the US on Peacock at 8 p.m. on Thursday. On the eve of the finals, Itsaragrisil even posted pictures on Instagram that show him smiling and posing with Rocha.

Miss Universe and Itsaragrisil did not respond to requests for comment.

A confrontation heard around the world

Itsaragrisil is the director of Miss Thailand and the host for the 74th annual Miss Universe. He was holding a meeting with the Miss Universe contestants on the first day of the pageant when he got into a heated argument with Bosch, accusing her of not participating in a sponsorship event.

During the exchange, captured on Miss Universe Thailand's Facebook livestream, Itsaragrisil criticized Miss Mexico's team before appearing to tell Bosch: "If you listen to your director, you're a dumbhead."

Itsaragrisil, who has a history of shaming pageant contestants, later told reporters that the word he had used was "damage."

"I have a voice," Bosch told Itsaragrisil at one point during their argument. "You are not respecting me as a woman."

Itsaragrisil then tried to call security on Bosch, prompting multiple Miss Universe contestants — as well as Miss Universe 2024 Victoria Kjær Theilvig — to walk out of the room in protest.

Miss Universe responds

Rocha didn't hold back in his video statement, saying that the organization planned to take corporate and legal actions "as a result of the malicious acts committed by Nawat."

"I will not allow the values of respect and dignity toward women to be violated," Rocha added.

Rocha said he had also instructed Miss Universe CEO Mario Búcaro to "travel immediately to Thailand and take control" of the pageant because he no longer had trust in Itsaragrisil.

Then, turning his attention to the contestants, Rocha said, "None of you should ever allow incidents like this to happen in your life, no matter who they come from. We must always defend this principle."

A tearful Itsaragrisil apologized during a press conference the following day, telling reporters: "I am human. I didn't want to do anything like that."

Is it business as usual?

Despite Rocha's comments, photographs show that Itsaragrisil has been present at a number of the pageant's main events.

He was pictured at the Miss Universe swimsuit fashion show on November 14, posing alongside Búcaro and Theilvig. The following night, Itsaragrisil was seen in photographs attending a gala dinner, being snapped with Miss Universe contestants and leadership. He was also photographed standing onstage with Búcaro as the CEO gave a speech. Itsaragrisil also attended the November 19 national costume contest and preliminary competition, where he posted the pictures of himself and Rocha on Instagram.

Omar Harfouch, who was one of the original judges for the Miss Universe 2025 pageant, told Business Insider that he helped reconcile Itsaragrisil and Rocha.

"I reached out to both Raul and Nawat with the idea that unity between pageant leaders could only strengthen the global pageant community," he said. "I offered to mediate a respectful meeting. We sat together, shared ideas, and I believed, for a moment, that bridges were being rebuilt."

Harfouch posted a video of Itsaragrisil and Rocha's reunion on Instagram on November 17. The next day, he dropped out as a judge, alleging that the organization had carried out a "secret vote" to select the top 30 by "individuals who are not official members of the jury, myself included."

Miss Universe responded in a statement shared on its Instagram on November 18, 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.

Amid all the chaos, there are still 120 women hoping to become the next Miss Universe. After weeks of competition, one of them will finally be crowned Thursday night.

• A few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine Saudi Arabia — or any Gulf state — owning a piece of an American media giant.
• Now it seems plausible: Larry and David Ellison, who own Paramount, have reportedly been looking at oil states to help finance a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
• There are a bunch of reasons that may worry you. But American CEOs — and an American president — really want to do business with the Saudis.

Here's a very 2025 headline, courtesy of Variety: "Paramount Bid for WB Discovery Backed by Saudis, Qatar and Abu Dhabi."

But a few hours after that one was published on Tuesday, it got a rewrite: "Paramount Skydance Denies That Its Warner Bros. Discovery Bid Involves Arab Sovereign Wealth Funds."

Variety's earlier story, Variety explained, had been swatted down by Paramount PR, which called it "categorically inaccurate."

So there you go. Larry and David Ellison, who own Paramount and now want to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, aren't going to use Middle Eastern oil money to make that deal happen. Got it?

Except: Variety isn't the only publication to suggest that the Ellisons might, actually, be interested in partnering with a petrostate for a $71 billion deal.

On the same day Variety ran its stories, the Financial Times reported that David Ellison had recently met with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund "and other officials from the region after they independently expressed an interest in participating in the bid." That evening, The New York Times also suggested that "the Saudi sovereign wealth fund could be part of [the Ellisons'] deal."

Neither of those stories feature denials from Paramount. A Paramount rep tells me the company isn't commenting on its bid for WBD. (And yes, while Larry Ellison is one of the world's richest men — one who has been getting much richer during the AI boom — even he might want partners to finance a $71 billion deal.) The Saudi fund didn't respond to a request for comment.

The truth is, we don't really know if Saudi money, or money from any other part of the Middle East, is going to be involved in any of the bids for Warner Bros. Discovery.

But the fact that petrostates could be in the mix tells us a lot about 2025. The notion of oil money flowing into some of American media's prized assets would have seemed impossible a few years ago. Now it feels close to inevitable.

That's because the petrostates have already been using their money to buy some or parts of all kinds of high-profile assets in recent years — including big media properties. The Saudis, for instance, have created their own golf league and stocked it with high-profile players; bought the storied Newcastle United soccer team; and financed much of the $55 billion deal to take video game powerhouse Electronic Arts private.

There's ongoing debate about whether these deals are really "green-washing" — an attempt to burnish Saudi Arabia's reputation — or if they represent an actual interest in turning a profit, with a focus on deals that can bring tech and know-how to the country.

But there's little debate about whether big American companies want that money. When Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman toured the US in 2018, America's mogul class clamored for an audience. More recently, American business leaders have been showing up at Saudi-run business conferences, flying out to the desert to attend high-profile events alongside Donald Trump; and packing the White House for this week's events feting bin Salman.

The only time American interest in oil money has flagged was after October 2018, after the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi — a shocking act the CIA concluded was ordered by bin Salman himself. In the fallout of Khashoggi's death, many American firms scrambled to distance themselves from Saudi money; Ari Emanuel, the high-profile Hollywood agent, made a point of returning a $400 million investment the country had made in his Endeavor agency.

But within a few years, Americans were open to doing business with the kingdom again. In fact, many media and tech leaders say, they have no choice but to work with the Saudis and other petrostates — because that's where the money is. And now the Trump administration is actively courting oil money — and bristling at suggestions that Kashoggi's death is a reason not to do that.

"Things happen," Trump told reporters this week, while continuing to insist that bin Salman had nothing to do with the murder. "He knew nothing about it."

If oil money does end up financing a Paramount bid for WBD, it wouldn't be the first time we've seen foreign money in American media. Australian-born Rupert Murdoch became a US citizen specifically so he could build Fox in the 1980s. Japan's Sony has been in Hollywood since 1989, when it bought what was then called Columbia Pictures. French conglomerate Vivendi used to own Universal Studios.

So if you want to, you can shrug and say that money from Saudi Arabia, or Qatar, or Abu Dhabi, is nothing new — money is money.

But some money is trickier to accept than other money. See, for instance, the recent flare-up when a group of high-profile comedians accepted outsize checks to perform at a Saudi-sponsored festival. And it's certainly worth wondering what oil money might mean in a media company that makes movies, TV shows, and runs multiple news outlets — like a combined Paramount-WBD. Would there be pressure — explicit or implicit — to create content that's more acceptable to the country writing the checks?

We don't know. But we do know that they can afford it — and that today's political climate suggests they might be able to pull it off.

• Colleen Hoover says legal drama between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni overshadowed "It Ends with Us."
• The author said she was "completely unaware" of drama while the movie was being made.
• Hoover said the controversy around the movie impacted her family and the actors' careers.

Author Colleen Hoover has broken her silence about the controversy surrounding the movie adaptation of her book, "It Ends With Us."

Hoover, 45, didn't hold back in an interview with Elle magazine about the legal drama between the 2024 movie's two stars, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, saying it "overshadowed" her book.

"I can't even recommend it anymore," Hoover said of her book. "I'm almost embarrassed to say I wrote it. When people ask what I do, I'm just like, 'I'm a writer. Please don't ask me what I wrote.'"

In December 2024, Lively sued Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment, retaliation, and attempting to smear her reputation. That set off a cascade of subsequent lawsuits brought by Lively, Baldoni, and even tangential characters like Baldoni's ex-publicist Stephanie Jones.

In June 2025, a judge threw out Baldoni's $400 million countersuit against Lively. Baldoni was allowed to file an amended complaint, but in November, the judge formally ended the suit after the deadline for Baldoni to do so had passed.

Lively's original lawsuit against Baldoni is still ongoing.

At the time of the Elle interview, Hoover said she was a few weeks away from giving a deposition, but told the magazine that outside of getting an executive producer credit on the movie and being on set a few days while filming a cameo, she was "completely unaware that anything was happening" between the two stars.

Hoover said the headline-grabbing back-and-forth between Lively and Baldoni also affected her mother, whose experience with domestic violence was Hoover's inspiration for writing "It Ends With Us."

"The book was inspired by her story, and now it gives us PTSD to think about it," she said. "I feel awful because I almost feel like she's gone through more with the aftermath of this film, more pain than she went through with my dad, just seeing the ugliness of it," Hoover said.

"I was very proud of that book," Hoover told Elle. "And I'm still proud of it, but less publicly so. Maybe I need therapy, I don't know."

• Google is offering UK-based staff a voluntary exit package.
• The company confirmed it was offering the package to "support our important work ahead."
• It has made similar offers to several US divisions this year, often framed around AI priorities.

Google is offering voluntary buyouts for employees in its UK offices, Business Insider has learned.

An email went out to UK staff this week offering them a voluntary exit package, according to two people familiar with the matter and confirmed by a Google spokesperson.

It's unclear which UK organizations the offers went to, or how many buyouts were offered. Google did not respond when asked for comment about this.

"Earlier this year, some of our US teams introduced a voluntary exit programme with severance for U.S.-based Googlers, and we are now also offering the programme in the UK to support our important work ahead," the Google spokesperson said.

"We are committed to investment in the UK and continue to hire for critical roles and important projects aligned with our company priorities to ensure we can deliver on the opportunity that AI offers the UK economy," they added.

The voluntary buyouts are the latest example of Big Tech firms finding ways to reduce head count this year to become more efficient, flatten management structures, and lean into AI. Companies such as Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft have announced layoffs, while Microsoft has also offered some employees money to leave.

The exact package being offered by Google in the UK would depend on how long the employee had worked at the company, staff were told. Google employs more than 7,000 people in the UK, according to its own figures.

Google has offered voluntary buyouts across various parts of its US business this year, including its Android and Core engineering orgs. Much of the framing of these has been about how Google is reorienting its company around AI, and that it wants employees who aren't excited about that goal to feel like they can leave.

In October, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan offered employees a voluntary exit package as part of a reorganization around AI priorities, according to a memo seen by Business Insider.

"It's an incredibly exciting time at YouTube and many opportunities and challenges lie ahead. But we also understand some of you may be ready for a new challenge, so we've decided now is the right time to offer a Voluntary Exit Program," Mohan wrote.

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• Audrey Eckert, 23, is competing at Miss Universe after winning Miss USA in October.
• The Nebraska native has been competing in pageants since she was 9 years old.
• Eckert told Business Insider she wants to break the "Toddlers and Tiaras" stereotype of pageant queens.

Just a week after winning Miss USA, Audrey Eckert hopped on a plane to Thailand to begin competing at Miss Universe 2025.

It's been a lifelong goal for the 23-year-old, who began competing in pageants when she was a child.

"The moment Nebraska was called as Miss USA 2025, that's when I said to myself, 'Here we go, my life has changed,'" Eckert told Business Insider after she was crowned on October 24. "I knew I was going to be ready to hit the ground running."

Eckert will find out if her dream has come true at the 74th annual Miss Universe pageant in Thailand on Friday morning. Due to the time difference, the pageant will stream on Peacock in the US on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.

Here's how Eckert made it to the Miss Universe stage.

Audrey Eckert began competing in pageants when she was 9 years old.

Eckert told Business Insider that she began competing after she received a letter in the mail inviting her to participate in a local pageant.

"My mom and I wanted to do it. We were excited, but we had no clue what we were doing," she recalled with a laugh. "My first evening gown didn't even touch the floor."

Eckert said pageantry changed the "trajectory of my life." That's why she's hoping to break the "Toddlers and Tiaras" image often associated with young pageant queens.

"I think it's extremely important to break that perception, and I think social media is helping us do that," she said. "If we can show, as titleholders, the positive impacts we're having on our community, the events we're attending, the hard work we're putting in behind the scenes, I think it helps break down those stereotypes."

Eckert placed in the top five at Miss Teen USA in 2020.

Eckert won Miss Nebraska Teen in 2020 and placed third runner-up at the Miss Teen USA competition that year.

"I was over the moon excited," Eckert recalled. "That kind of peeled back a layer and showed me I could really do this, I could be Miss USA someday, which has always been the biggest goal."

The pageant queen has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Eckert was also an NCAA Division I athlete and captain of the Husker Cheer Squad, receiving awards from the Big Ten Conference for her academic achievements and community service.

"I always said growing up that I had two sports — one being pageants and the other being cheerleading," Eckert told Business Insider.

Eckert is now a competitive cheer coach, working with hundreds of athletes every week.

She works for a human-rights fashion brand.

Eckert is the social media and marketing coordinator for Sapahn, a company that sells leather handbags made in Thailand.

The pageant queen told Business Insider she was excited to visit Thailand for Miss Universe and "really immerse myself in the culture that I've heard about for the last year and a half."

"I've been communicating and working with women in Thailand, but I've never actually been," she added. "That is what I'm most excited for."

Eckert is following in Sarah Rose Summers' footsteps. The fellow Miss Nebraska won Miss USA in 2018 before competing at Miss Universe in Thailand that year. Though she didn't win Miss Universe, nine other Miss USAs have claimed the title in the pageant's history.

Eckert decided to enter Miss Nebraska 2025 just five weeks before the competition.

The Miss USA pageant has had a tumultuous few years, dealing with allegations of rigging, accusations of bullying against former CEO Laylah Rose, and the resignations of Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava in May 2024. For most of this year, no one seemed to know when — or if — the Miss USA 2025 pageant would take place.

Eckert said she wasn't sure of the "ins and outs that were happening" within the organization, but she didn't want to put her goals on hold.

"I decided to go for it because it has always been my dream to be Miss Nebraska and Miss USA," she said. "I wasn't going to let the current state of anything hinder that. It was time to start going for it."

When Thom Brodeur was announced as Miss USA's new president and CEO in September, Eckert said she knew the pageant was going to be "back and better than ever."

"In my class of women at the 2025 Miss USA pageant, we were so excited for this new administration," she added. "The moment the new leadership took over, we all felt better."

Eckert competed in the most diverse Miss USA in the competition's 74-year history.

This was the first year that Miss USA had a top 20 with women over the age of 28 since they became eligible to compete in 2024. The top five included Miss Nevada Mary Sickler, the first woman with a public alopecia diagnosis to compete at Miss USA, and Miss Oregon Chantea McIntyre, the first mother to ever place in the pageant.

"It was so incredible to see so many women from all walks of life," Eckert said. "We're at very different stages in our lives, but we were all there for one common goal, and that was to bring back the power of pageantry and compete for the title of Miss USA."

"Knowing that there is a place for everyone in pageantry is really special," she added.

After she won Miss USA, Eckert headed straight to Los Angeles for a week of Miss Universe preparation.

"We're getting my wardrobe ready, we're getting my styling ready, but we're also taking time for me to relax and try to rejuvenate so that I can be my best self in Thailand," Eckert told Business Insider two days before she boarded a flight for Bangkok.

Despite the quick turnaround, Eckert said she felt ready for her first global beauty pageant.

"When I was preparing for Miss USA, I always knew in the back of my head that I could be going to Miss Universe shortly," Eckert said. "So I was already working to achieve that level of stage presence."

And Eckert has a pre-competition superstition that she'll be following at Miss Universe.

Before every big interview, Eckert tries to eat a banana. It's a tradition that began when she first started competing in pageants as a child.

"My mom and dad would always say that I had to eat something before going into the interview room, and nothing sounded good, so I would eat a banana," Eckert told Business Insider, adding that it became a good luck ritual she "continued to carry for every single pageant."

"So when I get to Thailand, I'm definitely going to have to try to find a banana the morning before my interview," she said.

After Miss Universe, Eckert hopes to inspire more American women to join the world of pageants.

"One of my goals as Miss USA is to get more people involved, to get more people excited about pageantry, and get more people competing at the state level," Eckert told Business Insider. "Miss USA has changed my life, and I would love for more women to experience that."

• I often love Ina Garten's easy, flavorful recipes, so I gave her buttermilk mashed potatoes a try.
• The buttermilk made this dish more flavorful than other mashed-potato recipes I've followed.
• From now on, I plan on making this recipe every time I host Thanksgiving or a dinner party.

Whether you're a traditionalist or you like to change up your holiday menu every year like me, your Thanksgiving table is probably incomplete without a big bowl of piping-hot mashed potatoes.

That said, there's nothing worse than digging into a pile of fluffy potatoes, only to discover that they're bland or dry.

Although there are dozens of ways to dress up spuds with mix-ins like cheese, sour cream, and extra butter, kitchen queen Ina Garten has a wonderfully simple recipe that I had to try.

I'm so glad I did. Not only is Garten's recipe short and sweet, but the results are flavor-packed, ultra-creamy, and something you'll find in every future holiday spread in my house.

Here's how to make them.

The ingredient list is short and simple.

You only need six ingredients for this holiday side dish: kosher salt, potatoes, whole milk, unsalted butter, buttermilk, and black pepper.

Garten recommends using a potato that's easy to boil, such as Yukon Gold. Russets would work well, too: Compared to other potatoes, these varieties contain more starch, which breaks down when mashed into a light and fluffy texture.

Yukons are my personal preference, since I've found them to be slightly creamier.

The potatoes took me less than 10 minutes to prep.

Once I collected my ingredients — and set a big pot of well-salted water to boil on the stove — I started on the prep work.

The first step here is peeling the potatoes, but don't worry about doing a perfect job.

I've found that, as long as the spuds are clean, a few pieces of potato skin in the mix won't really change the dish's quality. You may even like to leave some skin on for extra texture.

The potatoes should then be cut into roughly equal-sized pieces so they cook at the same rate.

Garten recommends 1 ½-inch cubes, but it's OK if you're not too super precise since everything will be mashed together later.

Cook the potatoes, and don't let them get gummy.

Once the water reached a boil on the stove, I added the prepped potatoes to the pot and reduced the heat to maintain a gentle simmer with the lid off.

An important part of the recipe is to avoid boiling the potatoes, which can cause them to become gummy. Instead, keep the water at a nice simmer until you can easily pierce the spuds with a paring knife. This took me between 10 to 15 minutes.

When they're done, drain the potatoes in the sink and return them to the pot to finish the dish.

While the potatoes simmered, I warmed the butter and milk.

A mixture of melted butter and whole milk infuses the cooked potatoes with rich, creamy flavor and texture.

A key step in Garten's recipe is to warm the two ingredients in a small saucepan while the potatoes cook. The butter will melt into the milk, causing an emulsion.

Dry spuds absorb hot liquids better than cold, and they're easier to combine with no cold lumps of butter.

Don't let the mixture come to a boil, which can cause the milk to separate from the butter.

Then, I mashed the potatoes.

When the potatoes are done cooking, strain the water out over the sink and return them to the pot. It's time to mash them.

Garten's calls for using a food mill to break down the potatoes, but I live in a New York City apartment with barely enough room to store a pot big enough for this recipe — so, I used a good old-fashioned potato masher.

Once I'd crushed the potatoes into a mostly uniform mush, I added the warm butter and incorporated it with a rubber spatula, per Garten's instructions.

I added just enough buttermilk for a super creamy mash.

Once you've folded the butter and milk into the potatoes, it's time for the star ingredient: buttermilk.

This ingredient truly sets Garten's recipe above others I've tried. Buttermilk is rich and tangy. It adds a slight tinge of acid that potatoes (which, let's be honest, can be a bit "blah" if not properly seasoned) need.

I halved Garten's recipe, which typically feeds five or six, and decided to add a half cup of buttermilk. At first, I was worried I'd overdone it — my mash looked soupy.

After a little more stirring and time, though, the starchy potatoes absorbed the buttermilk, and I had myself an incredibly light and fluffy mash.

The seasoning — and the buttermilk — made Garten's recipe stand out from the rest.

Adding the right amount of salt and pepper is essential for any dish, but mashed potatoes are often tragically overlooked in the seasoning department.

Garten recommends adding another 2 teaspoons each of salt and pepper to the mash for the full recipe, and I agree wholeheartedly.

The result is a rich, tangy, and flavorful side dish you don't need to wait for a holiday to make. I'll be bringing these potatoes to Thanksgiving dinner this year and for the foreseeable future.

In my opinion — and perhaps Garten would agree — the typical Thanksgiving menu could use some tangy, acidic additions, and these potatoes are the perfect way to sneak in extra flavor without angering the purists.