Tag: News

• Palmer Luckey unveiled his new take on the Nintendo 64, which he said will include new and never-before-seen video game titles.
• The ModRetro M64 faced tariffs and manufacturing concerns, Luckey wrote on X, but the price will remain $199.
• Luckey is an avid video game collector and previously released a ModRetro handheld device that can play Game Boy games.

Palmer Luckey is a gamer at heart — and he just dropped something new.

The Oculus cofounder first made his mark on gaming by changing the VR landscape. Then he began releasing new gaming designs and modern versions of retro consoles.

Luckey is back with another design that was just unveiled: his take on the Nintendo 64.

The ModRetro M64 was fully revealed on Black Friday after Luckey teased the release in an X post with a video. Consumers can join a waitlist for the console on the ModRetro website.

"Much has changed since we launched early bird pricing at $199 earlier this year, things like inflation, component shortages, tariffs, and more," he wrote on X.

These changes haven't increased the price, Luckey shared in a piece of "great news."

"ModRetro can keep the price at $199 not just for early signups, but for Black Friday and beyond," he wrote. "Get ready to see what a couple Benjamins can still buy you."

The ModRetro M64 will feature some of the Nintendo 64's classic graphics, 4K graphics powered by AMD, and additional gaming titles coming soon, according to the teaser video.

It will be available in purple, green, and white.

Luckey's "ModRetro" device collection also includes the Chromatic, a portable console that runs Game Boy cartridges. The device quickly sold out after its release in 2024.

Luckey frames his ModRetro devices as being compatible with Game Boy or Nintendo 64 games, but not exact replicas. Although it resembles the original console in appearance, the Chromatic doesn't feature Nintendo or "Game Boy" branding on the device itself.

Responding to a Fast Company story from 2024 that included an analyst questioning the legality of the Game Boy cartridge-playing device, Luckey wrote on X at the time that the "entire point of our patent system is to trade eventual free use for time-limited exclusivity," and that "1989 was a long time ago."

The Anduril cofounder is an avid video game collector. When the world's largest video game collection went on auction in 2014, Luckey put in an early bid, before bowing out.

In an interview with Bloomberg's Emily Chang one year ago, Luckey described a secret location for his video game collection.

"I put that in one of my missile bases, 200 feet underground," he said.

On Joe Rogan's podcast in October, Luckey showcased his personal ModRetro Chromatic, which he described as "even nicer than the ones we normally sell." He said the device was an Anduril special edition, made from the same alloys the company uses in its attack drones.

On the X teaser, one commenter asked why they would buy Luckey's M64 product and not a rival game console from Analogue. Luckey responded by citing lower latency, open-source hardware, better compatibility with modern TVs, and the device's relative affordability.

"It's better by every objective measure," he wrote. "That's without even getting into how much better our controller is, or our library of new, re-released, and never-released N64 titles we are about to launch."

• Scientists have pinpointed five different "eras" of brain aging, from childhood to old age.
• The eras include a prolonged "adolescent" brain phase that lasts from about age 9 to 32.
• "This is a very cool study," another brain scientist said.

Your brain goes through five distinct life stages as you age, with a massive teenager phase from nine to 32.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge's cognition and brain sciences unit have used images of roughly 3,800 "neurotypical" brains, ranging in age from birth to 90, to pinpoint these turning points where our brains change shape to serve different functions as we grow, age, and eventually decline.

Roughly speaking, ages nine, 32, 66, and 83 mark pivotal shifts in how our brains operate.

"This study is the first to identify major phases of brain wiring across a human lifespan," Dr. Alexa Mousley, who led the research, said in a release. The study used MRI tractography to map how nerve fibers shift, grow, and die throughout our lifetimes.

Mousley said the findings may "help us understand why some brains develop differently," and lead to a deeper understanding of neurodegenerative conditions like dementia.

Scientists have mapped out a precise timeline for when your brain transitions from child to adult, and from healthy into decline

Childhood: 0-9

From birth to age nine, the brain is in growth mode. Billions of connections are generated.

There is a ton of what neuroscientists call synaptic "pruning" and consolidation happening, as important brain connections are strengthened, while weaker synapses die off.

The different colors here show different directions that the neurons are firing: up-down, side-to-side, and front-to-back, revealing which parts of the brain are making connections.

Adolescence: 9-32

Adolescence is a multi-decade process in the brain, lasting from about age nine to 32. During this time, there's more refinement of brain communication, both inside and between different brain regions. Our brain becomes more efficient and integrated.

"We're definitely not saying that people in their late 20s are going to be acting like teenagers, or even that their brain looks like that of a teenager," Mousley told The Guardian. It's just that adolescent-like changes to our brain structure, with more and more neural efficiency over time, continue until our early thirties.

Adulthood: 32-66

By 32, our brain is an adult. The early thirties serve as a major turning point for the brain, structurally speaking. Our intelligence and personality stabilize, efficiency is near-peak, and the brain settles into a less dynamic and more compartmentalized, business-like era that will last for more than 30 years.

"Understanding that the brain's structural journey is not a question of steady progression, but rather one of a few major turning points, will help us identify when and how its wiring is vulnerable to disruption," senior study author Duncan Astle, a professor of neuroinformatics at Cambridge, said in a release.

Early aging: 66-83

At around age 66, things start to noticeably degenerate, in what the scientists call "early aging."

While the brain subtly shrinks, there is a "gradual reorganization" of the brain networks, Mousley said. There is less connectivity between different brain regions, and more disease risk, as blood flow decreases.

Late aging: 83+

Finally, by 83 years old, brain connectivity is in sharper decline. The white matter that was overabundant in childhood, so critical for making diverse connections between different areas of the brain, is fading, and there's a deeper reliance on a few specific brain regions.

Professor Tara Spires-Jones, who directs the centre for discovery brain sciences at the University of Edinburgh, and who was not involved in this research, told the BBC "this is a very cool study" that fits well with what neuroscientists already understand about the aging brain. Still, "not everyone will experience these network changes at exactly the same ages," she said.

• Pope Leo XIV, who succeeded the late Pope Francis in May, took his first trip on Thursday.
• He doesn't fly on a private jet, but instead charters full-sized passenger airliners.
• These state trips can cost tens of millions of dollars, but the Vatican doesn't foot the bill.

One of the world's most influential people doesn't travel by private jet — he and his large entourage need something much bigger.

For his first trip abroad, Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV is chartering a full-size Airbus airliner — effectively a flying Vatican — to transport his staff, clergy, security personnel, and international press as he travels to Turkey and Lebanon from November 27 to December 2.

The Vatican doesn't have its own airline or airport, so the 180-seater A320neo narrowbody is operated by the Italian state-owned flag carrier, ITA Airways. This means ITA provides the aircraft, the crew, and all of the flight-planning logistics.

ITA was founded in 2021 as the successor to the bankrupt Alitalia. In 2025, it sold a 41% stake to the Lufthansa Group to stay afloat after struggling to grow.

As part of that transition, ITA inherited Alitalia's traditional role as the "papal airline." ITA Airways CEO Jeorg Eberhart told Business Insider that the airline didn't automatically secure the contract but had to negotiate one, and ITA must ensure the flights and routes are efficient.

The A320neo emits 20% less CO2 per passenger than previous-generation aircraft. Eberhart said the pope sometimes uses a next-generation Airbus A330neo widebody on longer-range missions or when there is a larger delegation.

Eberhart said he and other ITA executives are required to be at the airport to meet Pope Leo — or any pope — before their departure: "We have to cancel all of our other appointments, focusing on the expectation that we are there to shake hands."

These special papal flights are sometimes dubbed "Shepherd One" — a term similar to "Air Force One" when referring to the aircraft carrying the US president.

Eberhart said ITA coordinates the airports, and that the pope's staff brings his dishes and coat of arms. He added that ITA dresses the seats with Vatican colors. A group of Italian and international journalists accompanies the pope as well.

These individuals typically sit in economy class, while the Pope and his delegation sit in premium cabins up front, Eberhart said.

On the A320neo, this means a basic business layout that is essentially economy class with blocked middle seats. On the 291-seater A330neo, it means wide premium-economy recliners and business-class seats that convert into beds.

The pope often flies home on the flag airline of the nation he's visiting, though an ITA spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that Pope Leo will be flying home with ITA for his upcoming trip.

Among his 47 trips abroad, Pope Francis flew on carriers like American Airlines, Etihad Airways, and LAM Mozambique Airlines. Pope Benedict XVI also flew home on a plane chartered from Qantas during his 2008 trip to Australia.

These trips cost millions of dollars — but the Vatican doesn't pay

For his first official trip, Pope Leo departed from Rome's main international airport — he doesn't use a private terminal — and flew to Ankara, Turkey. He continued on to Istanbul and will fly to Beirut on Sunday. The aircraft will be staffed with three pilots and seven flight attendants.

These trips can cost tens of millions of dollars, largely due to the expenses of chartering an aircraft, lodging, ground transportation, and security.

It's unclear how much Pope Leo's first journey will cost, but the Vatican will likely cover very little of it.

The host nation foots the bill because a papal visit is treated like a state visit, as the pope is both a religious leader and the head of the sovereign Vatican City State.

The Vatican's responsibilities are limited to providing travel arrangements for some clergy, offering religious texts and ceremonial items, and organizing certain religious events and meetings during the visit.

The Canadian Press reported that Pope Francis' trip to Canada in July 2022 cost the Canadian government 55 million CAD ($39 million).

British government documents show a 2010 papal visit to London cost roughly £17 million (about $22.3 million) and was split between the country, the UK Catholic Church, and local authorities.

A visit to Mexico in 2016 involved the deployment of 10,000 police officers to protect the pope.

The US reduced its papal bill for Pope John Paul II because Trans World Airlines, or TWA (now part of American Airlines), sponsored several of his flights to and from the US in the late 1900s.

However, the hefty charter can be offset by charging a premium fare to the journalists who want to fly, The Points Guy reported.

Italian carriers have flown the pope for 60 years

The papal air travel tradition dates back to 1964, when an Alitalia McDonnell Douglas DC-8 flew Pope Paul VI to Jordan — the first-ever time a sitting pope traveled by plane and the first time one left Italy since the 19th century.

Alitalia, which carried every pope until it went bankrupt, assigned these flights the special number AZ4000.

Pope John Paul II holds the record for the most extensive travels of any pope. He visited 129 countries and flew three-quarters of a million miles during his 27 years as head of the Catholic Church, whose global congregation is now estimated at 1.4 billion followers.

ITA operated its first papal mission in December 2021 when it flew Pope Francis to Cyprus. It also flew the pope to places like Canada, Malta, and Indonesia before his passing in April.

Eberhart said Pope Francis was "very humble" during his travels, and that he would often sit in any open space to interact with his guests: "He just wanted to be as normal as everybody else," he said.

• US consumers are projected to spend a record $11.7 billion online this Black Friday.
• Expected top Black Friday sellers include toys, electronics like the iPhone 17, and skincare products.
• AI shopping assistants and big discounts are fueling record holiday e-commerce spending.

American shoppers are coming off a strong Thanksgiving spending period, with Black Friday expected to set a record.

Adobe's initial Black Friday e-commerce data projects that consumers will spend a record $11.7 billion online, up 8.3% from 2024. Shoppers are expected to take advantage of deals early and outpace Cyber Monday spending, as they anticipate finding the best deals on Friday, according to Adobe.

Users are hunting for toys, electronics, and skincare as gifts, with Labubus and Lego sets expected to sell quickly. On the electronics front, demand for the iPhone 17 is strong, Adobe said, and the Oura ring is also a popular choice.

Although the PlayStation 5 remains a highly sought-after item in 2025, it's expected to be dethroned by the Nintendo Switch 2 as the top gaming console this Black Friday. Self-care also appears to be a significant trend, with hair care tools, fragrances, and skincare sets on Adobe's shortlist.

Black Friday follows a better-than-expected Thanksgiving day, which came in at $6.4 billion, a 5.3% bump year over year.

The record spending was driven by big discounts, impulse-led mobile shopping, and AI shopping assistants, according to Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. On Thanksgiving, the number of consumers who visited US retail sites through an AI chat service increased by 725% compared to last year.

Many major retailers invested in their own generative AI chatbots or partnerships in time for holiday shopping. Target, for example, launched a holiday-themed AI shopping assistant that suggests gift ideas based on user prompts.

Overall, Adobe estimates that Cyber Week (the five-day period including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday) will account for 17.2% of spending this season, totaling $43.7 billion.

As locals gossip beneath the low-beamed ceiling of a coffee shop, I ask Audrey Ann Masur to speak up.

"I'm always trying to speak more quietly, so I'm not getting that stereotype," the 37-year-old from Indiana whispers across our table with a nervous smile, her decaf coffee steaming in the autumn chill.

We're in the Cotswolds, an 800-square-mile pocket of English countryside dotted with towns and villages. Masur and her young family moved here from South Carolina five years ago, when her husband was reposted by the US military.

Her accent has prompted older locals to corner her at the grocery store and press her on her political views, Masur says. So, she figures it's best to keep her voice down.

I hope Masur, who documents life in the Cotswolds on Instagram for her 13,700 followers, can help me understand why this area has become a hot spot for transatlantic elites in recent years. I want to know how locals are reacting as old British money and new international money meet and — as the American "invasion" headlines in the British press suggest — clash.

Masur is neither a billionaire nor a millionaire — "I drive a Honda Jazz," she says — but she has met some of the wealthy American newcomers at influencer events and watched businesses change in the relatively short time she has been here.

"There are a lot more places that want to please people of a certain socioeconomic status," Masur says.

Recent high-profile visitors to the area, which straddles six counties, include Taylor Swift, Eve Jobs, who married here in July, and JD Vance, whose security checkpoints put the sleepy village of Dean on lockdown in August. Others, like Masur, are calling it home. Ellen DeGeneres has lived here since 2024, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z are rumored to be looking for property.

This is part of a lucrative boom in Americans heading to the UK. In 2024, there were a record 5.6 million visits from the US, up half a million on the previous year. Those visitors spent a record £7.3 billion, or about $9.5 billion, in 2024 — £1.1 billion more than in 2023, according to data from VisitBritain.

They're also spending more: In 2024, adjusted for inflation, Americans spent £68 more per trip to the UK than they did in 2023.

Figures provided to Business Insider by the UK government show that the number of US nationals applying for British citizenship also hit a record high in the second quarter of 2025, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Between April and June, 2,194 Americans applied — up 50% on the same period last year.

From the sheer number of what sound like American accents I hear during my trip in late October — although I meet some Canadian ladies hurt by my assumption — it feels as though most have headed straight to the Cotswolds.

Two real estate professionals told me they are seeing the spoils of this trend: more American tech founders, media moguls, and billionaires looking for historic properties in the region.

"Once there's a critical mass of like-minded people in the area, it draws more and more people of that profile," says Harry Gladwin, a Cotswolder and partner at The Buying Solution, which advises wealthy foreigners on finding homes here.

Armand Arton, the founder of Arton Capital, which helps ultra-high-net-worth clients secure second homes and citizenships, says US politics has motivated a lot of his clients to seek homes in this part of rural England. But owning heritage properties — castles and country estates that many British aristocrats can no longer afford to maintain — is also about status.

"New money wants old-money trophy assets," Arton says.

The Battle of Little Tew

Nowhere is the tension between locals and new money, much of it American, clearer than in Little Tew. Many of the village's 500 residents have spent years protesting against plans by the billionaire Soho House executive Ron Burkle to build a sprawling estate on a 90-acre plot of land on its outskirts.

In a letter of objection, one villager described the scale of the project, which would involve building a country house, a highway, a lake, and a swimming pool, as "grotesque."

The matter was settled at a parish meeting in October, when 27 residents voted unanimously against the plans — that is, unless Burkle lodges an appeal or submits a revised application.

"We were concerned that this house would probably, if built, be underused," says Anthony Cripps, 59, a recruitment consultant who lives in the village and chaired the meeting.

Burkle hasn't addressed the plans in the press, and his office did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The David and Goliath battle unfolding in Little Tew echoes others in the Cotswolds, albeit on a smaller scale.

A 2024 report by Cotswold District Council found that second homes in the area are putting pressure on an already tight housing supply. Council data provided to Business Insider shows that the number of second homes has gradually risen each year since April 2021, when it first collected data. By April 2025, there were 1,597 second homes in the district — up 3.5% on the previous year and about 6.5% over four years.

A 100% Council Tax Premium introduced in April essentially doubled the bill paid by owners of furnished second homes, with the revenue going toward affordable housing and local services in the Cotswolds. It's one measure aimed at slowing the kind of rural gentrification that risks pricing out longtime, less affluent residents.

"It's seen as the playground of the rich and famous, but if you strip away that veneer, you do have quite a lot of rural isolation going on and poverty," says Paul Hodgkinson, a councillor whose constituency includes the tourist hot spot Bourton-on-the-Water.

The tension here isn't only between Americans and locals, but more broadly about what happens when wealth of any origin starts pouring into a region.

"I don't want to single out Americans," Hodgkinson says.

"It's not just about people from abroad buying second homes and holiday homes," he adds. "It's anyone."

UK government data shows that in 2024, the Cotswolds was among the least affordable places to live in England and Wales, with the average house costing 13.8 times the typical yearly salary of a full-time employee in the area, at £440,000 on £31,795.

Hodgkinson worries that in addition to worsening the housing crunch, more second-homers could have a cultural impact by hollowing out village life — locals congregating at the pub and organizing village fetes risk being replaced by wealthy visitors dropping by for short, luxury breaks.

'Americans are happy to spend more'

While some are uneasy about the changing Cotswolds, others see it as an opportunity.

In a snug four-table room up a narrow, creaking staircase at Stow-on-the-Wold's New England Coffee House, Alison Tighe, the town's mayor, tells me Americans are "bringing investment."

She gestures toward a kind of trickle-down logic. "When you have more investment in this area, you've not just got jobs for local people, you've also got improved services," Tighe says.

To Gladwin, the real estate agent and Cotswolds local, the influx of money has injected some dynamism into the area, which he says was once a "sleepy backwater" for retirees.

"Whether you want a vegan flat white, reformer classes, cryotherapy, or just a long walk with the dogs, you can do everything here," he says.

That much is clear at Daylesford Organic — effectively the Erewhon of the Cotswolds — where I see a woman inspecting £39 collagen and açai supplements as her cavapoo sniffs at a shelf lined with £28 jars of artisan hazelnut spread. Women in activewear holding green juices head into the connecting Bamford spa, where sound healing classes are on offer, and £235 toning massages await.

It's a far cry from the Cotswolds of old, with its muddy wellies and unpretentious tea rooms.

While the money transforming the Cotswolds isn't exclusively American, the US influence on the area's culture is on clear display during my trip.

Ten miles from Stow-on-the-Wold in Burford, Jack Forbes, the general manager of the Bull, a luxury hotel and group of restaurants with a distinctly Soho House feel, tells me businesses are "growing up."

He says Americans, who now make up as much as half of his clientele, are raising the bar in the Cotswolds and bringing with it US tipping culture.

"There's no doubt Americans are happy to spend more," he says.

Lauren O'Brian, the co-owner of The Sweet Shop in Burford, says that in recent years, more Americans have been stocking up on traditional candy — sherbet lemons, rhubarb and custard sweets, and Turkish delight. She thinks they're attracted by the quaint country life depicted in period dramas like "Downton Abbey."

A few doors down, Cindy Kosmala, the owner of Hugo Lovage Patisserie, tells me that American clients, including celebrities, are keeping her business alive.

I hear a similar story at D'Ambrosi Fine Foods back in Stow-on-the-Wold, where a rustic table piled with high-end British deli items sits beneath a taxidermied pheasant. Outside, the window display features packets of Reese's Pieces, Cracker Jack, and "All-American Pancake Mix" beneath a rolled-up American flag.

The 'Hamptons of England'

I ask the owner, Jesse D'Ambrosi, a Massachusetts native who opened the luxury deli six years ago, what she thinks of the Cotswolds being dubbed the "Hamptons of England." "I have said that," she says with a smile, "because it is."

The store's eclectic stock reflects how the Cotswolds' old-money sensibilities are increasingly being curated by and for newcomers with American twangs and expensive tastes.

Outside the coffee shop where we met, Masur and I prepare to say goodbye, and she gestures to Stow's high street.

"At all of these places, all of a sudden, they're serving more iced coffee, which I love — but this has to have something to do with more Americans coming through."

Whether these changes are everyone's cup of tea is a different matter.

• Michael Burry just started a group chat open to all of his paid subscribers on Substack.
• The chat quickly filled with jokes, memes, videos, and questions for Burry.
• The investor of "The Big Short" fame has pivoted from running a hedge fund to writing online.

Michael Burry just invited all of his paid subscribers to a group chat, and it's just as chaotic as you'd expect.

The investor of "The Big Short" fame pivoted this month from running a hedge fund to publishing a Substack named "Cassandra Unchained." It has amassed more than 97,000 subscribers since it launched on Sunday.

"This is a conversation space exclusively for paid subscribers—kind of like a group chat or live hangout," reads Burry's introductory post. "I plan to post updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion."

The first reply on the chat reads: "I think Dr. Burry just broke Substack."

Another early response jokes about Burry's disclosure this week that he owns bearish put options on Nvidia and Palantir stock: "I think Dr Burry is going to make more money from Substack than his NVDA and pltr puts 🤣"

A third poked fun at a potential spike in traffic to Substack. "Someone pray for substacks backend engineers."

"It's gonna be legendburry!!" one subscriber wrote, while another noted: "This chat is gonna be nuts."

"Bro don't allow anyone to start threads. This a spam fest," one concerned poster added.

Other subscribers rushed to post memes, videos, and even photos of Black Friday crowds. The questions to Burry ranged from who the next chair of the Federal Reserve might be, to how an 80-year-old should invest to prepare for a crash, to how the dollar stacks up against other currencies.

Burry resurfaced on X in late October after more than two years of silence, and has wasted no time issuing numerous warnings of an AI bubble and taking aim at key players such as Nvidia and Palantir.

The investor, who has 1.6 million X followers, is best known for predicting and profiting from the collapse of the US housing bubble that triggered a global financial crisis, and for issuing dire pronouncements of crashes and recessions.

He became famous in financial circles after his bet against the subprime mortgage market was featured in author Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short," and actor Christian Bale played him in the movie adaptation.

• The restaurant industry is under pressure as consumers cut back.
• Rising prices and tighter budgets are affecting where people eat.
• Casual dining spots like Chili's are booming, while pricey salad chains like Sweetgreen flounder.

Have you recently given up your salad-bowl lunch habit? You're not alone.

Many American consumers are feeling the pinch, and it's affecting how they shop, and where and how often they dine out.

Consumer sentiment is down, job cuts are on the rise, and dining out has become pricier as operators contend with higher labor, ingredient, and rent costs.

People are looking for value — but not necessarily the cheapest option — through loyalty perks, portion sizes, and perceived quality.

Here's a look at some of the chains that are — and are not — benefiting from this:

What's in: Casual dining, packed lunches

Millennials tried their best to kill off casual dining chains, but the next generation is helping bring them back.

Chili's has been leading the way here and outperforming rivals like Applebee's. The Tex-Mex chain, which also serves American classics like burgers and fries and is owned by Brinker International, reported a 21% surge in sales for the most recent quarter.

Analysts say it was quick to capitalize on rising fast-food prices, offering deals such as its $10.99 Big Smasher burger.

It also simplified its menu and overhauled its marketing to speak to younger diners. Gen Zers seem to be lapping up its content and are making viral videos about its menu items.

At the same time, tighter budgets and hybrid working have also been reshaping midday dining.

Pricier lunch spots, such as Chipotle, said they are losing out as people choose to eat at home more.

"For occasions like lunch, people are substituting things like eating at home, bringing in food from home, or finding cheaper local alternatives," GlobalData Retail analyst Neil Saunders told Business Insider.

Lower-cost grocery chains may be benefiting from this. Walmart's imminently departing CEO Doug McMillon said the chain is continuing to gain market share in grocery and grow its higher-income shopper base.

What's out: $15 salads

The "slop bowl" chains are having a tough time right now.

Execs from Chipotle, Cava, and Sweetgreen all said in recent earnings calls that they're seeing fewer visits from millennial and Gen Zers.

"The whole salad scene has dissipated," Phil Kafarakis, CEO of IFMA, The Food Away From Home Association, told Business Insider.

They've "tripped up over themselves because their economics and pricing don't fit the consumer that they were really so close to," he added.

Sweetgreen's CFO said in the company's most recent earnings call that spending from the 25 to 35 age group, 30% of the chain's consumer base, was down 15% in the recent quarter as this cohort came under pressure.

The challenge now is figuring out how they address their pricing, knowing that their core demographic can't afford it, Kafarakis said.

Investors appear to be wary as well. Sweetgreen's stock price is down over 80% this year.

What's mixed: fast food

"Trading down" has become the buzzword of the retail sector right now, as shoppers switch up their routines to find cheaper alternatives.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski suggested in the company's most recent earnings call that the fast-food sector is seeing an impact from this, as traffic from higher-income diners grows.

It's a double-edged sword, however, as the industry is also seeing a decline in traffic from lower-income diners, he said.

"We continue to see a bifurcated consumer base," Kempczinski said.

We "remain cautious about the health of the consumer in the US — and believe the pressures will continue well into 2026," he added.

• Director Jon M. Chu used silhouette-only auditions to cast Dorothy in "Wicked: For Good."
• Dorothy's face is never shown in the film in order to keep the attention on Elphaba and Glinda.
• Bethany Weaver, a dancer, was ultimately cast as Dorothy.

Dorothy's pigtails and ruby slippers are iconic in "The Wizard of Oz." But when it came to casting someone to play the character in "Wicked: For Good," director Jon M. Chu wanted the rest of her to be as unrecognizable as possible.

Dorothy's face is never shown in the movie — she's only shot from far away, from the legs down, or in silhouette. So Chu decided that for the auditions, he didn't want to see the performers' faces.

"We would put a sheet up, looking at the performer's silhouette," Chu told Business Insider. "Through that, I was looking at how she could walk, but also, could I guide her in that way? The person had to have youthful energy."

"We ultimately chose a dancer, Bethany Weaver," Chu added.

Despite the plan to never show Dorothy's face, Chu admitted that he questioned his choice throughout filming.

"We shot some things where you could see her face," Chu said. "But every time, it was a distraction."

Chu said whenever he was unsure about not showing Dorothy, he would remind himself that the story is ultimately about Elphaba and Glinda.

"So every time it drew us to, 'What does Dorothy think?' we reminded ourselves of that," he said.

Though her face is never seen on screen, Weaver is grateful for landing the role.

"It's been an honour to carry the legacy of the brilliant women before me who have stepped into these shoes and embarked on the yellow brick road," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I hope I have made them proud."

"Wicked: For Good" is now playing in theaters.

• Michael Burry has warned AI giants are overstating how long their Nvidia chips will stay relevant.
• Bridgewater's Greg Jensen said the chips may be used to invent better chips that make them obsolete.
• While Burry has warned about circular deals in AI, Jensen said Nvidia is building an ecosystem.

Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame has said some of the world's largest AI companies are exaggerating how long their Nvidia chips will last to pad their short-term profits. Now, one hedge fund boss has warned that those chips could make themselves obsolete.

Greg Jensen, the co-chief investor of Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates, told the "In Good Company" podcast this week that the "depreciation schedule is probably going to be quite fast, and you hope it has to be in a sense."

Jensen explained there's a "resource grab" in AI as companies compete for scarce land, energy, microchips, and scientists, and tech bosses are hoping AI itself can help.

"One of the things they have to do is figure out how to make the chips more efficient, make the energy more efficient, and they're trying to use AI to do those things," he said.

Jensen predicted that some of the scientific advances that will "depreciate the current assets will come from those assets themselves," as "AI will generate better ways to do this."

Puts, deals, and ecosystems

Burry shot to fame after his massive bet against the US housing bubble was immortalized in the book "The Big Short," and a movie adaptation starring actor Christian Bale as Burry.

He resurfaced on X in late October after more than two years of silence. Since then, he has sounded the alarm on an AI bubble, closed his hedge fund to outside cash, launched a Substack to share his research, and disclosed he owns bearish put options on Nvidia and another AI darling, Palantir.

Burry has taken aim at the AI giants for dragging out depreciation from around three years to six years or longer, pointing out that Nvidia is releasing new chips faster and faster, so the current generation will likely lose value more quickly.

"The hyperscalers have been systematically increasing the useful lives of chips and servers, for depreciation purposes, as they invest hundreds of billions of dollars in graphics chips with accelerating planned obsolescence," he wrote on Substack this week.

The investor has also called out the sprawling web of "give-and-take deals" between AI companies.

Jensen said those aren't a product of "normal bubble dynamics" — companies juicing their financials to justify their lofty valuations — as "Nvidia can get as much revenue as it wants" given the immense demand for its chips.

Instead, Jensen said, Nvidia is scrambling to create its own ecosystem of buyers who won't develop their own chips, in an attempt to stop Alphabet from owning the entire AI "stack."

"They're like Standard Oil in the Gilded Age, trying to create monopolistic control on things," Jensen said about Nvidia. He added that "everybody's got to lock up who do I partner with, where am I going to get my chips and power — and if I don't do it, I'm going to die."

Jensen also said the AI investment boom isn't a typical capital cycle, as bosses such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman believe they're in a race to develop a supreme intelligence, and are willing to spend whatever it takes to win.

• The NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex dates back to the height of the Cold War.
• Initially meant for defense against long-range Soviet bombers, it now provides backup and training.
• The self-sufficient facility is sealed by 23-ton doors and built to withstand nuclear attacks.

Deep inside a Colorado mountain lurks a remnant of the Cold War era.

Buried 2,000 feet beneath Cheyenne Mountain is a secret military complex, where 15 buildings can seal themselves off from the rest of the world within seconds in the event of a nuclear blast.

The complex is said to be designed to withstand a 30-megaton nuclear blast, per the Guardian, which is about 2,000 times as strong as the 15-kiloton bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

Construction on the complex, which is located about 10 miles from downtown Colorado Springs, began in 1961.

Today, the secretive underground complex remains functional as a backup command center for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a US-Canada binational organization that provides aerospace warning and control over North America, and the US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).

Take a look inside.

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is buried nearly half a mile deep into a solid granite mountain.

Born out of the perceived need for a hardened command and control center in the US amid the height of the Cold War, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex was built deep into the Cheyenne Mountain, where solid granite naturally protects operations from outside threats.

The complex cost $142.4 million to build in the 1960s, or over $1.5 billion in today's money.

The complex cost $142.4 million in 1961, or approximately $1.6 billion in today's dollars, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Construction began in 1961.

Over the five years it took to build, the 9,565-foot-high mountain was blasted, and more than 693,000 tons of granite were excavated to make way for the operations center.

The facility became fully operational in 1966 as NORAD's Combat Operations Center.

During the Cold War, the complex continuously tracked potential Soviet missiles, bombers, or spacecraft.

Throughout the following decades, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex housed operations for NORAD, the US Northern Command, the US Strategic Command, and the US Air Force Space Command.

Officers inside the mountain worked around the clock to track potential Soviet missile, bomber, and spacecraft launches.

Today, the center is still functional as a backup and training site.

While the core of NORAD's operations moved to the nearby Peterson Space Force Base in 2006, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex has remained operational as a backup and training facility.

Today, the complex is owned and operated by the US Space Force, with NORAD and USNORTHCOM using only 30% of the complex's floor space and accounting for 5% of the daily population inside the mountain, according to the US Northern Command.

The mountain complex is entirely self-sufficient.

The complex spans over 5 acres inside the mountain across 15 underground buildings, and is entirely self-sufficient.

With over 6 million gallons of water stored in carved granite pools and 510,000 gallons of diesel, as well as efficient food storage and thorough air filtration systems, the complex is equipped to operate for weeks on end when sealed off from the outside world.

The complex is built to endure nuclear, electromagnetic, cyber, and biological attacks.

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex was built to survive nuclear attacks, but its facilities can also withstand electromagnetic bombs or solar destruction, chemical and biological attacks, and cyberterrorism.

Two 3-feet-thick, 23-ton blast doors seal off the complex from the outside world.

In the case of a threatening emergency, the complex is sealed off from the outside world in about 20 seconds by its 23-ton blast doors, which are 3 feet thick and built to endure nuclear shock waves in the case of a nearby explosion.

The doors, which are open during regular operations, will regularly close for drills.

The last time they closed outside drills was during the September 11 attacks in 2001, Wired reported in 2017.

The complex's buildings are mounted on earthquake-resistant springs.

The 15 buildings are mounted atop over 1,300 steel coils designed to absorb seismic shocks in the event of an earthquake or nuclear blast.

The springs hold the buildings 18 inches above the mountain's rock base to ensure the safety of staff and equipment, per the US Space Force.

Inside the buildings, pipes are bendy to avoid bursts during potential ground movements, per Wired.

The complex is also home to the world's "most secure Subway."

Between 350 and 580 people work inside the complex every day, the Air & Space Forces Magazine reported in 2016.

The mountain complex also houses medical and other facilities for staff to use daily and in case of a "button-down scenario," an emergency where the complex closes its doors.

The facilities include a regular clinic, a dentist, a self-checkout convenience store, and a chapel with a nondenominational chaplain.

The gym inside the facility, which transforms into a hospital in the case of an emergency, has regularly scheduled spin classes for those working inside the base.

A Subway located inside the complex, which feeds staff on a daily basis, prides itself on being the world's "most secure Subway" location, per Wired's reporting.

Today, government officials at the complex monitor the skies for nuclear threats.

Today, government officials working from the mountain complex monitor the skies for evidence of missiles or spacecraft launches, nuclear tests, and suspicious space behavior, among other concerns.

The command center also provides backup operations and training for NORAD and USNORTHCOM staff.

To keep communications within the center secure, no electronics connect to outside networks — which are also impossible to reach through the granite mountain — and officials use Defensive Cyber Operations to detect and stop attempts to infiltrate inside networks, Wired reported.

If the main NORAD and USNORTHCOM command post goes offline, the mountain complex can take over anytime.

Aside from providing support and training to the Peterson Space Force Base operations, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is also equipped to take over as a command center for NORAD and US Northern Command if the main command at the base goes offline during an emergency.

Inside, employees are often reminded of where they are and what they do.

Signs like the one above remind employees inside the mountain center that power and personnel are what keep the operations running.

In the case of an emergency, staffers would be sheltered in the complex, but their families or others on the outside wouldn't be allowed entry, a sacrifice that many of them keep in mind often.

In the Wired story, an officer told the reporter that in the case of an emergency, he told his family: "I'm going to be in the mountain doing my job… and I can't help you."

Employees at the complex regularly have "sleepover" drills where they practice leaving their world behind.

The complex is home to confidential communications … but also harmless jokes.

Aside from the inherent heaviness of working inside a mountain bunker built to outlast nuclear destruction, staff pass their days doing their jobs and even keeping inside jokes alive, like the stuffed alien doll that staffers keep on the director's desk.