This story is available exclusively to Business Insider
subscribers. Become an Insider
and start reading now. Have an account? .
Russia’s state-owned Roszarubezhneft says its Venezuelan oil assets belong to the Russian state.
Roszarubezhneft holds stakes in oil joint ventures with Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA energy giant.
President Trump has talked about US control and investment after the January 3 military operation.
Russia’s state-owned oil company Roszarubezhneft sought to draw a line around its oil holdings in Venezuela after a US military operation on January 3 reshaped the South American country’s political landscape.
“All assets of Roszarubezhneft JSC in Venezuela are owned by the Russian state,” the company said in a statement carried by Russian news agency TASS on Tuesday.
Roszarubezhneft took over Rosneft’s Venezuelan holdings in 2020 after US sanctions forced the oil giant to exit. It now holds stakes in five joint ventures with Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
The company — owned by a unit of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development — said on Tuesday that the assets were acquired at full market value and approved by Venezuelan regulators.
Roszarubezhneft’s statement came as Venezuela’s oil sector faces fresh uncertainty after the recent US raid that resulted in the capture of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
After the operation, President Donald Trump said the US could run Venezuela and touted plans for American oil companies to invest in the South American country’s vast but rundown oil sector.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented publicly on the operation in Venezuela. Moscow’s relationship with Caracas includes deep energy ties — a key pillar of Russia’s economy — alongside defense and diplomatic cooperation.
The Russian foreign ministry has called for Maduro’s release and for dialoguebetween the US and Venezuela.
Investors are watching whether the tensions spill over into energy flows.
Global oil prices have been weighed down in recent years by ample supply and slowing demand growth.
But analysts say geopolitical risks are rising, with Venezuela and renewed tensions involving Iran back in focus.
Some analysts warn that the risk of an oil price shock — a sudden surge in prices that can ripple through markets and the global economy — is increasing as geopolitical conflicts intensify.
On an episode of the A16z podcast, the Andreessen Horowitz cofounder shared how his venture capital firm maintains a lean operation despite being one of the world’s largest.
“An investing team shouldn’t be too much bigger than a basketball team,” he said, referring to advice he got from famed American investor David Swensen in 2009.
He added, “A basketball team is five people who start, and the reason for that is the conversation around the investments really needs to be a conversation.”
Horowitz cofounded the Silicon Valley VC firm with Marc Andreessen in 2009. Before A16Z, he ran enterprise software company Opsware, which Hewlett-Packard acquired.
A16z has backed marquee companies including Meta, Airbnb, GitHub, and Coinbase.
The VC said he always kept the basketball team size in mind but also knew that the firm had to expand to keep up with how “software was eating the world,” his signature phrase. The solution was to split the firm into different investment verticals.
To maintain good communication, staff attend other teams’ meetings when investment themes overlap.
The firm also organizes a two to three-day offsite twice a year, “with not much agenda.”
Horowitz said that people who join them from other firms say that A16Z has “less politics” than firms with 10 or 11 people because his firm has a culture where politicking is “disincentivized.”
A16z might have been early to the tiny team trend, but it’s catching on fast with VCs and startups across the world.
Startups are actively seeking to stay small, with many having fewer than 10 people. Founders told Business Insider that AI and vibe coding tools have boosted their productivity, allowing them to get things done with far fewer people. Less politics and bureaucracy are also big pluses, they say.
“We’re going to see 10-person companies with billion-dollar valuations pretty soon,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in February 2024. “In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there’s this betting pool for the first year there is a one-person billion-dollar company, which would’ve been unimaginable without AI. And now will happen.”
America is running low on mechanics, electricians, and plumbers.
Ford thinks it can help solve the problem by getting younger workers under the hood of its new pickup trucks, enticing them with free Carhartt gear and tools.
The automaker and 137-year-old workwear brand told Business Insider they’re launching a multi-year partnership to address what both call a looming workforce crisis.
The partnership aims to train thousands of blue collar workers, a bet that the two Detroit-based brands can reinvigorate America’s manual labor pipeline.
The partnership includes three main components: opening a ToolBank USA location in Detroit that will lend 25,000 tools annually to workers and volunteers, outfitting Ford’s auto tech scholars with free Carhartt workwear, and launching a co-branded products for the public.
Ford is also donating an F-150 to ToolBank to extend the program’s mobile reach. The two companies declined to disclose the financial terms.
The partnership comes as Ford CEO Jim Farley has warned that America will face a critical shortage of skilled tradespeople within five to ten years. The company calls these workers the backbone of the “essential economy.”
For Ford, the deficit is top of mind, as the company needs thousands of auto technicians to staff its dealership service bays. Right now, the company says it has 5,000 open positions at its dealerships, including six-figure technician jobs.
At Ford’s inaugural Pro Accelerate event, CEO Jim Farley said the US sat at a critical juncture for blue-collar employment.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
“The problems with the essential economy are problems for all of us,” Farley said in September at Ford’s inaugural workforce development summit, which convened industry leaders and policymakers to address the trades pipeline crisis. “We stopped investing in the trades. If Henry Ford saw what has become of us, I think he’d be kind of mad.”
In a phone interview with Business Insider, Mary Culler, the president of Ford Philanthropy, said part of Ford’s mechanic pipeline issue is a perception problem.
Ford’s current vehicle lineup includes advanced driver-assist systems like backup cameras, lane monitors, and autonomous features — making today’s auto repair roles far more technical than traditional mechanic jobs.
“People we talk to tell us, ‘I didn’t realize it wasn’t the greasy job I expected,'” Culler said. “People don’t understand that it’s a very high-tech job, it’s a very computer-intensive job.”
Ford Philanthropy has been offering $5,000 scholarships to trade- school-level technicians through TechForce Foundation, a third-party nonprofit that provides scholarships for skilled trades education. Now, participants will also receive head-to-toe Carhartt gear, including pants, shirts, and vests.
Student applicants must prove they’re studying the auto technology industries to be eligible.
“Some of this work is put in the philanthropic realm,” Culler added. “But this is a business imperative for the future of the economy and our country. We really need to close this gap on these skill trades.”
So far, the program hasn’t yet kept pace with Ford’s needs. The company has trained 1,400 technicians through TechForce since 2018 — filling less than a third of its current 5,000 open positions in seven years.
But recent jobs numbers show there is growing interest in the sector, according to LinkedIn data released last year. Half way through the year, many of the fastest-growing job titles for young workers were blue-collar, like construction workers, electricians, and mining workers.
Ford representatives said their workforce training programs could get perspective job-seekers onto its NASCAR teams.
Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
For mechanics, cost can be another barrier, as mechanics typically need to buy or rent their own thousand-dollar toolkits.
Culler said Ford provides wraparound support including tool kits and transportation to training facilities. The automaker is also working to expand participants’ sense of career possibilities beyond traditional dealership roles.
“We’ve taken some of the scholars to F1 and Nascar races to show them that it might not be a dealership where they end up working,” Culler said. “You could work for a race team.”
For Carhartt, the partnership serves dual purposes: recruiting workers for its Kentucky and Tennessee manufacturing facilities, and cultivating what it hopes could be lifetime customers. Someone who starts wearing Carhartt gear at age 20 as a Ford tech scholar could be a customer for the next 40 years.
Carharttdoesn’t require four-year degrees at its plants and has partnered with organizations like the National Center for Construction and Engineering Research to connect high schoolers with trades careers.
Linda Hubbard, Carhartt’s CEO, is also worried about the state of the US blue-collar worker pipeline.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
“To me, it’s a bigger calling to amplify people who wear Carhartt,” Linda Hubbard, CEO of Carhartt, told Business Insider. “You might start out as a laborer in the trades, but you could end up owning your own business. I see a lot of these folks working their way up from the field into management into CEO positions.”
Hubbard said she wants Carhartt outfitting those workers throughout their careers, from first day at the repair shop, to their last day running their own companies. Ford, meanwhile, hopes those same workers choose its trucks as their daily drivers for decades.
The commercial partnership will extend to consumer products too.
Carhartt will launch Ford co-branded apparel, while Ford will unveil a Super Duty Carhartt edition truck. Both arrive in the back half of 2026 — the companies declined to share pricing or additional product details.
Both brands are betting their Detroit heritage and cultural cachet can make trades careers more appealing to younger workers.
“We’re raising the perception and elevating the importance of these jobs,” Culler said. “But there’s a real gap. We know there’s a real crisis.
“Carhartt is super cool, we think Ford is super cool. Hopefully we can get the younger generation to recognize this is a real opportunity.”
On Saturday, the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers in an NFL playoff game that had everything: a bitter rivalry, an old-school outdoors atmosphere, and a historic comeback (or choke-job, depending on your POV).
It also happened to be a (mostly) streaming-only game. Did you notice? Or care?
I didn’t. Except for about 30 seconds, when I was trying to find out what network was showing the game, and it took me a beat to realize it was on Amazon’s Prime Video. Then I booted up my app and watched the game without any issue. Just like any other NFL game.
In 2026, “Guy doesn’t have a problem watching the Bears/Packers” is a true dog-bites-man story. But that’s why I’m writing about it here: Not very long ago, the idea of streaming a super-high-profile NFL game — and requiring NFL fans to subscribe to a streaming service in order to watch it — would have been a very big deal.
Now it’s a yawner: I was one of 31.6 million people who watched the game, the vast majority of whom streamed it (fans in local markets could use broadcast TV). That’s a streaming record for an NFL game, and it’s more than some other games got last weekend on conventional TV.
Every time Peter publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Stay connected to Peter and get more of their work as it publishes.
And that tells you just how far sports and streaming have come.
Flash back to 2013, for instance, and the idea of whether the “internet” — a catch-all term that included everything needed to get streaming video onto your screen, from web servers to fiber-optic lines to the router in your house — could support a big NFL game watched by many millions of people was an open question. “Why Web TV Skeptic Mark Cuban Thinks Google Can Make the NFL Work on the Web,” was an ungainly headline I tapped out at the time.
Back then, the NFL and other sports giants were routinely streaming big events like the Super Bowl and World Cup — but only as a sort of secondary outlet for weirdos who didn’t have traditional TV. And anyone who did stream sports had to expect to run into problems, like ESPN did when it streamed a World Cup game in 2014.
Cut to today, and streaming is just a way we watch some football games now. Amazon pays a gazillion dollars a year to show one game a week during the regular season; Netflix has paid up to show a couple games on Christmas Day. A new deal the NFL struck with Disney last year will give the league the opportunity to sell even more games to digital players.
And two years ago, the league passed another new threshold by moving one of its most valuable assets — a playoff game — to Comcast’s Peacock streamer, where it was only available to paid subscribers. That one generated a ton of complaints from people who said they didn’t want to pay another service to watch an NFL game — along with millions of sign-ups for Peacock, which showed they would.
The NFL is not ditching TV for streaming anytime soon. For many people, watching NFL games is the main reason to watch TV, and that gives the league a ton of leverage to extract ever-increasing fees from the likes of NBC and CBS. So they will almost certainly keep the majority of their games on old-time TV for the foreseeable future. But they’re going to sell them to streaming platforms too — because they’ll pay up to get them, and you’ll pay, too.
Ask any professional basketball fan, and they likely will tell you their favorite all-star players across the sport. These players are often part of an annual event featuring a series of All-Star games, where 24 of the top players compete over the course of a long weekend. This year’s games will feature a new format: one team composed of American players and another featuring international players. If you’re hoping to catch the games live, I’ve broken down how to get NBA All-Star games tickets below.
The players chosen to take part in these games are chosen by vote. Half of that vote is done by the fans, providing a huge sense of community and encouragement for the fan base to participate in the process, ensuring their favorite players end up in the games. The remaining half of the leftover votes is split between the media and NBA players. The latest round of fan voting results went forward on January 6.
Chosen players participate in multiple bite-sized games, culminating in a tournament leading up to a championship game to conclude the weekend. In addition to these games, there are also special events. The All-Star series of games (including the WNBA All-Star series) features rising stars in the NBA, celebrity All-Stars, and has two special game events dedicated to highlighting communities and skills.
There will be four different main events happening during the NBA All-Star games. Fans of the WNBA will also have the opportunity to see their favorite All-Star players play ball in the summer.
We’re going to tell you about how you can score the cheapest tickets to see fans’ favorite players in basketball. Check out the lineup below and browse tickets anytime on Stubhub and Vivid Seats.
NBA All-Stars’ 2026 game schedule
This year’s NBA All-Star games locations change annually, but are often held in major cities across the United States. This year, things are headed to Los Angeles County at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome. If the name of the venue sounds familiar, it should. It’s where the Clippers usually play.
The WNBA All-Star games, happening later in the year, are being held in Chicago.
How to buy tickets for the 2026 NBA All-Star Games
Fans can purchase tickets to the games on Ticketmaster, as well as on resale sites such as Stubhub and Vivid Seats. Tickets are in high demand for the games, especially the WNBA games in the summer, which have only a small percentage of tickets available, despite being later in the year.
Tickets for the main NBA games on Saturday and Sunday nights aren’t available on Ticketmaster, which is driving up ticket prices on reseller sites.
How much are tickets?
The cheapest tickets for the special All-Star series of games are for the HBCU Classic game. The HBCU Classic is a special game that showcases players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), highlighting their exceptional skills and rich cultural heritage. You can scoop a single ticket for that game for less than fifty bucks. That’s only a little bit more expensive than the cheapest tickets for parking during the Celebrity All-Star Game held earlier in the evening!
Tickets to the main games on Saturday and Sunday nights are expensive. The closer you get to the court (which is revered for being an amazing experience for those who go), the higher the prices.
That said, the Intuit Dome is a great venue for watching a game. I’ve personally gone to a game there in the past. If you’re a basketball fan, these series of games are going to be ones you’ll want to consider investing funds to see. You’ll get an opportunity to see the best players in the league in one of Los Angeles’ best venues for basketball.
Possible All-Star players to be featured in the 2026 All-Star Games
While the games are hosted in California again this year, multiple highly voted players are some of California’s finest. Some of the top-voted players so far include Los Angeles Lakers ballers Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves. Los Angeles Clippers stars James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are also among the highest-voted players for the coming games. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors also ranked highly in fan votes.
Other possible fan favorites from the Western Conference are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. Eastern conference team players with a lot of current votes include Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers, Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, and Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
See more: Is StubHub legit? | Best sports streaming services | ESPN prices and plans
Follow us on Instagram and WhatsApp for more of the latest deals, buying guides, and reviews.
Jennifer Stavros
Freelance Writer
Jennifer Stavros is a writer and researcher based in Los Angeles. Her writing seeks to unpack culture in its varied nuances, from navigating complex health and science topics to helping people discover ways to unwind in the midst of a constantly buzzing world.Her work has made cameos all over the web. Outside Business Insider, you can find her work in Wired, Playboy, Cheddar, CNET, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, The Independent, and so many other places in print or digital formats. Several of her contributions, including those here on Business Insider, have gone viral.She is currently working on multiple books about necropolitics. When she isn’t writing, you can find her exploring geeky things with artistic or historical twists… often with a classic cocktail or a fancy beer in one hand, wearing vintage or other eye-catching fashions and a giant bow on her head. Follow her day-to-day adventures on Bluesky.
You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here.
Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at reviews@businessinsider.com.
Anthropic’s new working agent was largely built by Claude itself — the latest example of AI coding tools speeding up product development.
On Monday, Anthropic announced the release of Cowork, a “more approachable” AI tool accompanying Claude Code that’s geared toward fulfilling users’ requests that are unrelated to programming. Users grant the agentic AI tool access to specific files on their computer and prompt it to complete tasks.
Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, said that Anthropic’s AI coded “pretty much all” of Cowork.
“@claudeai wrote Cowork,” Product Manager Felix Rieseberg wrote on X. “Us humans meet in-person to discuss foundational architectural and product decisions, but all of us devs manage anywhere between 3 to 8 Claude instances implementing features, fixing bugs, or researching potential solutions.”
As a result, Rieseberg said the first edition of Cowork came together quickly.
“This is the product that my team has built here, we sprinted at this for the last week and a half,” he said during a livestream with Dan Shipper.
Over the holidays, Rieseberg said that Anthropic saw its customers using Claude for an increasing number of non-coding-related tasks.
“This sort of like the research preview, very early Alpha, a lot of rough edges, as you’ve already seen, right?” he said.
Cowork is initially available to Claude Max subscribers on the Mac app.
The launch has made a splash in the tech world, with many online users praising the product and its accessibility.
“I think that’s a really smart product,” Datasette co-creator Simon Willison wrote in a blog about his experience. “Claude Code has an enormous amount of value that hasn’t yet been unlocked for a general audience, and this seems like a pragmatic approach.”
“This is big,” Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian wrote on X.
Because granting an AI agent access and the ability to take action on specific computer files comes with risk, Anthropic cautions that Cowork users should be careful.
“By default, the main thing to know is that Claude can take potentially destructive actions (such as deleting local files) if it’s instructed to,” the company said. “Since there’s always some chance that Claude might misinterpret your instructions, you should give Claude very clear guidance around things like this. “
The latest in a flurry of AI announcements
AI companies wasted no time in launching new offerings and partnerships to kick off the new year.
On Sunday, Anthropic announced Claude for Healthcare, a major addition to its healthcare and life sciences offerings. Its release came on the heels of rival OpenAI signaling its investment in the healthcare space with ChatGPT Health.
Amid AI bubble chatter and scrutiny on the increasing AI investments made by tech companies, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has argued that Anthropic has built a more sustainable business model that allowed it to make more educated bets on its future build-out. While he did not name OpenAI or CEO Sam Altman directly, he made some thinly veiled criticisms of his former company throughout the event.
“I think because we focus on enterprise, I think we have a better business model,” Amodei said at The New York Times’ Dealbook Summit. “I think we have better margins. I think we’re being responsible about it.”
Google, which some experts saw as overtaking OpenAI at the end of 2025, announced a major deal with Apple to have Gemini power Siri’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
Its order of up to 60 Boeing 787-10 planes reinforces Delta’s broader strategy of competing aggressively for premium long-haul travelers — a segment that has made the transatlantic market increasingly lucrative.
The new planes for long-haul routes will add pressure on US rivals American and United, which are also competing for the same international travelers, especially those in premium cabins that generate the most profit for airlines, including Delta.
Delta is hoping for a bigger piece of that pie.
It said the new 787 cabins will feature its signature Delta One business class alongside premium economy and standard coach. United has been particularly aggressive with niche transatlantic routes, while American has rolled out a new business-class product on its Dreamliners.
Every time Taylor publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Stay connected to Taylor and get more of their work as it publishes.
Delta’s new jets won’t arrive until the next decade. Until then, Delta will continue flying its aging 767s, which the Dreamliners will eventually replace.
Delta President Glen Hauenstein said in the airline’s earnings call on Tuesday that the 787 is a “financially great airplane” that offers enhanced cargo capacity, improved fuel efficiency, and ample space for those all-important premium cabins.
Meanwhile, Hauenstein said the airline would grow capacity by 3% this year, with new seat growth concentrated in premium cabins.
Delta didn’t disclose how much it was paying for the new planes.
It’s the airline’s first direct order of the popular jet, which has garnered more than 2,000 global orders. It represents a shift in its long-haul fleet strategy. Delta bought 30 and has options for 30 more.
The 787 will complement Delta’s Airbus widebodies
Delta’s purchase of Boeing 787s is significant for an airline that has long been dominated by Airbus on the widebody side.
The airline inherited a 787 order through its merger with Northwest Airlines back in 2008, but canceled it in 2016, citing delays, quality issues, and a preference for Airbus.
It opted for Airbus A330neo and A350-900 as its next-generation long-haul workhorses, and it expects to receive the larger A350-1000 later this year.
The addition of the 787‑10 diversifies and further modernizes the fleet. The variant ordered is the largest of the Dreamliner family, seating up to 336 passengers, but has the shortest range at roughly 7,300 miles.
Still, it outpaces the aging Boeing 767s that Hauenstein said the Dreamliner is set to replace, meaning it can carry more passengers more efficiently on both existing and new long-haul routes.
Delta’s 767s primarily fly to Europe and South America, where the airline said the 787 would be an “ideal addition.”
The order is a notable boost in confidence for Boeing, which has faced labor strikes, a change in leadership, and significant quality control issues for years — including on the 787 — but is gradually rebuilding trust from customers, investors, and regulators.
Delta made billions of dollars in 2025
The 787 deal comes alongside Delta’s better-than-expected earnings report for the fourth quarter and full-year 2025.
Its net income was about $5 billion, largely driven by continued strong premium and corporate demand, though main‑cabin ticket revenue fell about 7% year-over-year.
The airline previously said the government shutdown shaved roughly $200 million off its pre-tax profit after regulators forced airlines to reduce flying by 10% to alleviate congestion and ensure safety.
Delta’s stock slipped after its earnings report, but it has still gained about 6% over the past year.
President Donald Trump isn’t backing down from his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, even as an increasing number of fellow Republicans express a desire to cool tensions.
“Well, he’s billions of dollars over budget,” Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday morning before departing for a trip to Michigan. “So, he’s either incompetent or he’s crooked. I don’t know what he is, but he certainly doesn’t do a very good job.”
On Sunday, Powell released an extraordinary video statement, confirming that he is under a criminal investigation for testimony he gave before Congress about renovations to the Fed’s headquarters. Powell said that the probe was being conducted in retaliation for his repeated defiance of Trump’s wishes regarding the independent central bank’s setting of interest rates.
“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” Powell said in a nearly two-minute video released by the Fed.
Powell and the Fed have repeatedly denied that there is anything untoward about the cost overruns for the $2.5 billion renovations. In July, Powell accompanied Trump on a tour of the site where the pair sparred in front of reporters about the project.
Every time Brent D. Griffiths publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
Stay connected to Brent D. Griffiths and get more of their work as it publishes.
“You just added in a third building is what that is,” Powell said in July after Trump cited a figure that was higher than other estimates. “It was built five years ago.”
An FAQ on the Fed’s website said the project has been costlier than expected due to a number of factors, including changes to the design, a larger-than-expected amount of asbestos, and the increase in the cost of materials.
Trump told NBC News he had no knowledge of grand jury subpoenas being sent to the Fed. Amid a firestorm, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said that the Justice Department had no alternative but to subpoena the information.
“The United States Attorney’s Office contacted the Federal Reserve on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns and the chairman’s congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of legal process—which is not a threat,” Pirro said in a statement posted on X on Monday night.
In 2017, Trump nominated Powell, who was already a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, to lead the central bank. Since then, Trump has soured on Powell and at times has mused about firing the Fed chair, though legal experts have disputed whether any president would have the power to do so.
The criminal probe into Powell could prove costly for the White House. Powell’s term as chair is up in May. For months, Trump has conducted a public search for his replacement. In a closely-divided Senate, Trump cannot afford to lose Republican support for any potential nominee.
After Powell’s statement was released, Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said he would not support any Trump nominee until the investigation “is fully resolved.” Tillis serves on the Senate Banking Committee, where Republicans hold a 13-11 majority. If Tillis remained opposed, the committee could deadlock — likely stalling the nomination or, at the very least, requiring Republicans to take the rare step of changing the chamber’s rules.
Beyond Tillis, a handful of other Republicans on Capitol Hill have also decried the criminal probe. All three living former Fed chairs, including Reagan appointee Alan Greenspan, have lined up behind Powell, as have the current leaders of central banks around the world.
JPMorgan says it’s going to do something about its desk problem.
America’s biggest bank, which called its roughly 320,000-person-strong global workforce back to the office five days a week last year, has previously experienced internal tensions over desk availability and parking at some sites, like its major tech campus in Columbus, Ohio.
Now, the firm says it will tackle its office woes head-on.
“If you think about what’s happened to the head count of the company over, say, the last five or six years, it’s grown a lot,” Jeremy Barnum, the firm’s chief financial officer, told shareholders during the bank’s Tuesday earnings call.
“There was the whole return to the office, hot desking, remote work, all the stuff,” he added. “The amount of real estate square footage over that period grew a lot more slowly than headcount.”
But the lack of ample space didn’t deter the company from pushing ahead with its full-time office mandate.
“We’ve realized that it’s obviously the case that we need to provide employees a reasonable in-office experience and that, in some cases, means a little bit of de-densification and catching up on some space renovations around the world,” Barnum continued.
Jamie Dimon cut the ribbon to mark the opening of JPMorgan’s new global headquarters at 270 Park Avenue on Tuesday.
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
On the call, CEO Jamie Dimon chimed in.
“Don’t scare them,” he told Barnum, presumably about alarming analysts about rising spending. “Real estate,” Dimon said, “is very small numbers.”
The firm has already opened a new state-of-the-art headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in Manhattan — a cutting-edge skyscraper featuring a bevy of restaurants, a luxurious fitness center, and tech that even remembers how you like the temperature when you reserve a conference room.
The bank’s five-day-per-week return-to-office policy proved a heated flashpoint last year, with Dimon famously telling some of the 12,000 staffers at the Columbus site that he suspected remote workers were texting one another during meetings and not completing tasks.
Last spring, a JPMorgan spokesperson told Business Insider that the firm was “working hard to ensure our sites have the capacity and amenities employees need to return full-time.”
The year 2026 is just getting started, and layoffs are already underway.
Companies, including Angi, the company formerly known as Angie’s List, and the popular web tool Tailwind, have cut staff, citing the impact of artificial intelligence among the reasons for the layoffs.
More than 100 other companies, from Amazon to Nike to Verizon, have filed legally mandated WARN notices about job cuts to come in 2026, according to WARN Tracker. Some of the cuts are part of previously announced reductions.
This year’s cuts follow three years of significant workforce reductions across a broad range of industries, including tech, media, finance, and retail.
The moves come as artificial intelligence, public policy, and broader economic conditions present sweeping changes to the business landscape.
A World Economic Forum survey last year found that some 41% of companies worldwide expected to reduce their workforces in the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence. The survey also found that jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030.
Last year, Business Insider tracked layoffs at around 65 major companies, such as Amazon, Meta, Paramount, and Starbucks. In 2026, we’ll continue to track additional job cuts based on company announcements, WARN notices, and our own reporting.
Here are the companies with job cuts underway in 2026, listed in alphabetical order.
Angi is cutting 350 jobs
Angi, a contractor listing platform, was previously known as Angie’s List. Donald King/AP
Angi, the popular contractor listing site once known as Angie’s List, said in January that it was cutting around 350 jobs “to reduce operating expenses and optimize the organizational structure in support of long-term growth.” The company also said it’s making the cuts “in light of AI-driven efficiency improvements.”
In a January 7 SEC filing, Angi said that the cuts would save between $70 million and $80 million in annual spending. The layoffs will cost the company between $22 million and $30 million, according to the filing.
Citi’s job cuts continue this year
Citibank said it will continue to cut jobs in 2026. Kevin Carter/Getty Images
Citi will cut more jobs this year as part of its plan to reduce its workforce by 10%, or 20,000 employees.
In a statement on January 13, the bank said that it will continue to reduce head count in 2026.
“These changes reflect adjustments we’re making to ensure our staffing levels, locations and expertise align with current business needs,” a spokesperson for Citi said.
The plan was detailed in the company’s January 2024 earnings report and could save the bank as much as $2.5 billion.
Meta is preparing for layoffs
Meta is preparing to slash jobs within its Reality Labs division as the branch’s cash burn continues. Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Meta is preparing to slash jobs within its Reality Labs division, the unit responsible for Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse ambitions, three people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.
Two employees said that teams working on virtual reality headsets and Horizon Worlds, the company’s VR social network, will be disproportionately affected. The New York Times reported that roughly 10% to 15% of the division’s 15,000 employees are expected to be laid off, with announcements coming as soon as this week.
The cuts coincide with a high-stakes division-wide meeting scheduled for Wednesday. Meta’s CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth described the upcoming gathering as the “most important” of the year and urged employees to attend in person.
Tailwind cut 3 of its 4 engineers
Tailwind, a popular web tool, said it cut three of its four engineers in January, citing an AI-driven decline in revenue.
“75% of the people on our engineering team lost their jobs here yesterday because of the brutal impact AI has had on our business,” CEO Adam Wathan wrote in a GitHub comment on January 6 that made waves in the tech community.
Is your company conducting layoffs? Got a tip?
Using a non-work device and an encrypted messaging service is recommended when contacting reporters. michnik101/Getty Images
Have a tip about company layoffs? Contact Business Insider reporter Dominick Reuter using a personal email address, a non-work WiFi network, and a non-work device;here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
