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The government wants you to eat more butter. Here’s how we got here.

Dairy started to roar back into fashion in 2025 — and if the Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines are anything to go by, it could be about to reach new heights.

The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines, which provide Americans with a framework for what the government considers a healthy diet, advise people to aim for three servings of full-fat dairy per day. The document, released on Wednesday, name-checks butter, whole milk, and “real” cheese.

In the past two years, dairy has had a glow-up as innovative products, blending health and food trends with dairy staples, hit the market. Think indie brands selling cinnamon bun butter and mint chocolate-chip probiotic ice cream, and Fairlife Ultra-filtered milk becoming more popular than ever. Dairy is typically minimally processed, high in protein, and fermented versions are good for gut health.

But the new guidance contradicts a strong body of evidence linking a diet high in full-fat dairy products and red or processed meat, which are high in saturated fats, to cardiovascular disease.

Recommending full-fat dairy like butter is a big pivot from the 2020 to 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which encouraged us to “move to low-fat or fat-free dairy milk or yogurt or lactose-free dairy or fortified make half soy versions.”


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“Whole milk” features high up in the US government’s food pyramid, released Wednesday.

realfood.gov



This was partly why plant-based diets and alt-milks became hot commodities in the 2010s. Then, some shoppers started to wonder if some of types of products were high enough in protein and more processed than they’d realized.

In 2024, the organic dairy sector grew by 9.8% up from 5.6% the previous year, according to data shared with Business Insider last year by New Hope Network, an organic-focused consultancy firm. This is far higher than the one or two percent a year increase seen since around 2015.

During this time, whole dairy products like raw milk and home-churned butter have become synonymous with the Make America Healthy Again movement helmed by the health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an architect of the new guidelines. It’s all part of the conservative vibe shift of the past year.

RFK Jr. said Wednesday these new guidelines are “how we Make America Healthy Again,” but public health experts have been quick to point out their contradictions.

Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said that the guidelines recommend limiting cholesterol-raising “bad” or saturated fat, while simultaneously promoting red meat and full-fat dairy products.

Proceed with caution.




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Lauren Crosby

My friend and I hold presentation nights. We get to know each other better, and it helps us understand who we are now.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rachel Jones, cohost of the “Is It Normal” podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was recently introduced to Eloisa by a mutual friend who was certain we’d become fast friends.

That friend was right, because Eloisa and I clicked straight away. We shared similar interests — books and art — and had this chemistry that I can’t quite explain. I knew we’d be best friends.

As we began to get to know each other, both of us keen to “dig deep” and understand each other as fully as possible, we would often say things like, “To understand this part of me, you need some context.”

We started presentation nights

Although we would have liked to jump into each other’s histories, we were limited by time constraints.

I work full-time, volunteer, own a house, participate heavily in church activities, and have family and friends I’m already committed to. Eloisa has a husband and is a full-time student. We’re both very busy people, but we’re keen to connect on a deeper level because neither of us wants coffee-once-a-month friendships.

In your late teens and early 20s, forming friendships is relatively easy, as people often have less responsibility and more time. But the older you get, the harder it can be to form meaningful relationships — because there are only so many hours in a day. And yet, when you meet friends at an older age, there is so much more life to catch up on, just not the time to do it.

I’d seen on social media a trending way to get to know friends as adults — presentation evenings. Each person involved gives a short presentation about themselves, which may include both serious and humorous topics.

Typically, people create slideshows with lots of pictures to accompany whatever is being presented. I’d seen a huge range of topics: what’s my love language, favorite books, favorite memories, teenage years, and the list of ideas for these nights goes on and on.

Excited about the possibility, I asked Eloisa if she’d be up for it, and as I suspected, she couldn’t wait.

We started with our childhoods

For our first presentation night, we decided to kick off our monthly series by sharing stories about our childhoods.

Just the process of preparing my slideshow was precious. I went through dozens of photos of my family, reflecting on the significant changes I experienced as a child, and remembering how fortunate I was to grow up in such a close-knit family with my parents and three siblings.


Friendship presentation

Rachel Jones started presenting about her childhood to her new friend.

Courtesy of Rachel Jones



We planned to present after dinner one evening, both allowing each other to share without interruption.

When I’m typically getting to know a friend just through conversation, both of us are lovingly interrupting each other, interjecting thoughts in response to what the other person has said. But in presenting, you’re quiet when it isn’t your turn, so the listener has a chance to fully absorb what the other person says.

I listened to Eloise speak about her childhood, and I immediately could piece together why she is the way she is because of her history.

When I presented, I methodically talked about my birthday, my parents, my siblings, and how I had lived in several houses in multiple countries.

It was a lighthearted theme, but even so, she now understands why stability is so important to me, and why I tend to crave acceptance from people. A lot of that is down to my childhood.

We are hoping to do these monthly

As a visual learner, I found the presentation night so helpful in remembering the people Eloise spoke about. So now, when she tells me about her sister, I can visualize her sister and recall Eloise’s relationship with her growing up. Facts about Eloise get ingrained in my memory because I’ve had photos and so much context.

I expect that as we hold these presentation nights more frequently — we’re hoping to do them monthly — we’ll get to know each other better, both on a serious and a silly level.

As we continue to be friends, carrying on with these presentations, we’ll understand each other’s triggers more and be able to respond better and give informed advice.

It’s the first time I’ve had presentation nights with a friend, but I suspect I’ll bring in other friends to join us on our evenings. I also think it would be a really helpful thing to do with a boyfriend or partner in the future.

The fact that Eloise wanted to have these presentation nights with me felt like a privilege, because it’s someone who wants to know me and invest in our friendship.

To be known and feel seen is one of the greatest desires we have a humans, and these presentations provide a way to do this in our busy, modern, adulting worlds.




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Wix says US employees ‘will remain hybrid’ as the Israel-based company announces 5-day office return

Wix is asking employees in three countries to come back to the office. US workers will remain hybrid, though, Business Insider has confirmed.

Nir Zohar, president of the Israeli website management company, told employees in an email Wednesday that “Wix is moving to a full office work week” and impacted workers must come back to the office five days a week starting February 1.

The return-to-office mandate applies to workers in Tel Aviv and Beersheba, Israel; Kraków, Poland; and Vilnius, Lithuania. Ukrainian employees will continue working remotely “from wherever is safest,” Zohar wrote in the email, which he posted to X and LinkedIn.

A Wix spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that all US employees “will remain hybrid.” The company declined to elaborate on why American workers are excluded from the RTO policy.

“Customer Care and the rest of the global teams will have direct communication with local leadership about how this change will affect them,” Zohar emailed his employees.

Zohar framed the return-to-office push as essential for collaboration and innovation, echoing arguments made by other CEOs — like AT&T’s John Stankey and Starbucks’ Brian Niccol — rolling back remote work.

“The unique energy in the office, the quick chats, the unplanned ideas, the feeling of being around each other — it all makes a real difference in how fast things move, how much easier it is to solve problems and how much more connected we feel,” he wrote. “Working together also means challenging each other, encouraging creativity and innovation.”

Wix was initially planning its in-office mandate for the Tel Aviv office in October 2023, but put those plans on hold due to the Israel-Hamas war, Zohar said in the email.

In November, the company reported having 5,344 staffers globally.

Zohar emphasized that Wix would remain flexible for personal circumstances like sick children or family emergencies, saying managers would work with employees on a case-by-case basis.

Wix, which launched in 2006, services more than 200 million users from 10 global corporate offices, according to its website.

The company’s stock jumped 1.4 percent after the RTO announcement. It’s 53 percent in the red in the past year, including a 37 percent loss in the past six months.

Read Wix president Nir Zohar’s email to employees below

Hi everyone,
I want to share an update about how we’ll be working as we head into 2026.
Wix has always been about working side by side, collaborating and building a culture of personal as well as team growth.
The unique energy in the office, the quick chats, the unplanned ideas, the feeling of being around each other — it all makes a real difference in how fast things move, how much easier it is to solve problems and how much more connected we feel. Working together also means challenging each other, encouraging creativity and innovation.
Historically, Covid and lack of office space in Israel pushed us to WFH and then to hybrid mode.
We actually originally planned to move back to full WFO in Israel a few months after we made the full move to the Campus in October 2023, but for obvious reasons decided to hold off.
Now we think it is finally the right time to go back to a full work week at the office.
To give the Campus and different site ops teams time to prepare, we’ll start this on February 1, 2026. This change will be effective for Israel (TLV & BY), Kraków and Vilnius teams.
Our teams in Ukraine will continue working from wherever is safest and works for them best.
Customer Care and the rest of the global teams will have direct communication with local leadership about how this change will affect them.
This will take into account each site’s specific constraints, regulations and needs, so everyone receives clear and relevant information about what working from the office will look like for them.
I want to point out something very important:
Long before 2020, COVID, and the WFH era, Wix has always been a very flexible work place.
This will NOT change. However, this flexibility isn’t about everyone taking a day at home; rather, it’s based on personal needs and managers’ attentiveness to their people’s needs. Some people who live very far from the office may need different considerations. Others may go through specific periods that require more flexibility on where to work from, and for all of us “life happens” every now and then. Kids get sick, family may require attention, and unexpected things come up.
Managers will keep working with you to ensure you have what you need. If something personal comes up, talk to your manager or HR. We’ll handle it together, the same way we always have.
Wix has always been at its best when we’re around each other — learning, building, laughing, solving things, creating things.
I’m really looking forward to bringing that energy back into the office every day.
Nir




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Warren Buffett’s Chevron bet stands to gain if the US delivers a Venezuelan oil boom

Investors are scrambling to identify potential winners from the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and President Donald Trump’s plan to “run” the nation and deliver an oil boom. Berkshire Hathaway is one contender thanks to its large bet on Chevron, the only US oil major still operating in Venezuela.

Berkshire — now led by Greg Abel following Warren Buffett’s recent retirement as CEO — is Chevron’s largest corporate shareholder with a 6% stake worth about $19 billion, assuming Berkshire hasn’t altered the wager since its latest portfolio update.

The conglomerate counted the oil major as its fifth-largest stock position at the end of September 2025, representing about 7% of the total $267 billion value of its US stock portfolio.

Berkshire poised to profit


Greg Abel

Greg Abel took over as Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the start of 2026.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images



Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, but decades of underinvestment in its oil infrastructure mean it only produces about 1% of global oil output.

Chevron has secured short-term exemptions to US sanctions on Venezuela, allowing it to produce and export limited amounts of the country’s oil.

Rivals, including Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, left Venezuela years ago following the nationalization of the country’s oil industry and government seizures of foreign-owned assets.

Trump said over the weekend that he envisions large US oil companies coming to Venezuela, fixing and modernizing its pipelines and refineries, and supercharging the country’s oil production.

Excited investors piled into oil stocks on Monday. Chevron shares surged as much as 6.3% on the day to a nine-month high of about $166, briefly valuing Berkshire’s stake at over $20 billion. They retreated on Tuesday but are still up nearly 3% so far in 2026.

Chevron already has stakes in five production projects in Venezuela, thanks to partnerships with affiliates of the country’s state oil company.

On an earnings call in August, CEO Mike Wirth highlighted Chevron’s deep foothold in the country. He said it has been operating in Venezuela for more than a century, and has “played an important role in regional energy security, as well as maintaining American economic interests.”

Chevron’s presence in Venezuela means it “stands to benefit from any reopening,” Maurizio Carulli, a global energy analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said in a Tuesday note.

The oil major has the personnel, licenses, and oil fields “ready to ramp up immediately,” Charles-Henry Monchau, CIO of Syz Group, also said in a note on Tuesday.

Not an overnight winner

Industry analysts have warned it will take years and huge sums to revitalize Venezuela’s oil sector, and US companies won’t want to invest heavily until they’re confident they won’t have assets seized or contracts changed down the line.

That suggests Venezuela won’t be an overnight game changer for Chevron or Berkshire.

Berkshire has further exposure to the oil industry via Occidental Petroleum, its next-largest stock holding after Chevron. It owns more than a quarter of the energy explorer and producer — a stake worth $11 billion today.

A Chevron spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement: “Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets. We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.”




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A Facebook veteran took a big career risk that resulted in a ‘giant failure’ — but embracing a ‘J-curve’ career path paid off

At 25 years old, Molly Graham was thriving in Facebook’s HR department when a senior executive urged her to transfer out of her stable role and help build a mobile phone instead.

She took the risk — and it could have derailed her career.

But Graham, who later became a C-suite executive at some of America’s biggest companies and philanthropies, now views that risky bet as one of the most important moves she ever made.

“It just felt like falling off a cliff,” Graham, now the founder of Glue Club, said in a recent interview on Lenny Rachitsky’s podcast. “Taking risks, accepting the terrible fall and that experience of falling has been more than worth it.”

Graham described the experience as part of what she calls the “J-curve” — a career trajectory where a risky move leads to an initial drop before eventually producing outsized gains. Visually, she describes it as standing on a ledge, stepping off, sinking briefly, and then rising far higher than where you started — just like the shape of the letter J.

The concept, which she has also written about in her Lessons Substack, challenges the idea of a steady career ladder that steadily moves up and to the right.

Instead of climbing rung by rung with promotions every two to five years, Graham argues that some of the most valuable professional growth comes from jumping into roles you aren’t ready for and surviving any setbacks.

Graham’s own J-curve began when billionaire investor and “All-in” podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya, then Facebook’s vice president of growth, recruited her to help develop a smartphone, encouraging her to make the move by sketching out the J-shaped trajectory on a whiteboard.

He brought her on despite her having no experience in product development, dropping her into rooms filled with engineers and phone specialists with deep subject matter expertise. She recalled feeling like an “idiot” for much of her first six months.


Headshot of Molly Graham, the former Facebook and Google executive, and writer of the Lessons Substack

Molly Graham, the former Facebook and Google executive and writer of the Lessons Substack.

Molly Graham



At her midyear review, Palihapitiya delivered what Graham called the worst performance evaluation she had ever received. But the new experience eventually expanded her expertise.

“Slowly, I remember I had been doing all these trips to Taiwan because we were actually working on hardware and I, at some point, came back from Taiwan and I like drew on a whiteboard for him the layout of a mobile phone, trying to explain to him kind of like why something he wanted to do was not possible,” Graham said. “And I so vividly remember walking out of that meeting being like, ‘Oh like I actually know things.’ And slowly then over the following three years I became an expert in mobile.”

Palihapitiya did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

“The phone itself was a giant failure — a massive, costly failure for Facebook,” Graham told Rachitsky on the podcast. “But it was not a failure for me.”

She credits the experience with teaching her that she could operate far outside her comfort zone — a lesson that later helped her take on senior leadership roles, including serving as COO of Quip, which Salesforce acquired for $750 million, and overseeing operations at the $7.4 billion Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The J-curve, Graham said, is especially common at fast-moving companies like Meta, Alphabet, Nvidia, and SpaceX, where leaders value employees who are willing to take big risks early and learn quickly. In those environments, proving adaptability can matter more than checking every qualification box.

Not everyone supported Graham’s decision at the time. She said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, then the number two at the tech giant, advised against the move — as did her father.

“When wiser, more experienced people questioned the job offer, it definitely made me pause,” Graham told Business Insider in a follow-up email. “But my gut felt really strongly that I needed to take the risk.”

That instinct, she said, ultimately helped her discover what kind of work she didn’t want to do, and where her strengths lay. She didn’t want to sift through mock ups of hardware design and argue about a button’s placement. Instead, she sharpened her management skills and prepared to help lead large organizations.

“The much more fun careers are like jumping off cliffs,” Graham told Rachitsky. “They can take you to places that you never could have imagined.”




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Chong Ming Lee, Junior News Reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau.

Elon Musk says China will ‘far exceed the rest of the world in AI compute’

Elon Musk says China is on track to outpace every other country in the computing power needed to run AI.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said in an episode of the “Moonshots with Peter Diamandis” podcast published Tuesday that “China’s going to have more power than anyone else and probably will have more chips.”

“Based on current trends, China will far exceed the rest of the world in AI compute,” he added.

Musk said China’s decisive advantage in the AI race lies in its ability to scale electricity generation. He estimated that China could reach about three times the electricity output of the US by 2026, giving it the capacity to support energy-hungry AI data centers.

Electricity generation is the limiting factor to scaling AI systems, Musk said.

“People are underestimating the difficulty of bringing electricity online,” he added.

While the US has focused on restricting China’s access to advanced semiconductors, Musk suggested those constraints may matter less over time. China will “figure out the chips,” he said.

Musk added that diminishing returns at the cutting edge of chip performance might make it easier for China to catch up, even without access to the most advanced designs.

Musk has previously pointed to China as a model in areas beyond AI infrastructure.

In an episode of the “People by WTF” podcast published in November, Musk said he wants to turn his social media platform X into “WeChat++,” referencing China’s dominant super app.

“I also like the idea of sort of having a unified app or website or whatever, where you can do anything you want there,” he said. “China has this with WeChat.”

AI’s next bottleneck is power — and China is leading

Musk’s comments come as energy supply and data infrastructure emerge as key constraints in scaling AI, rather than chips or algorithms.

Companies worldwide have rushed to build AI data centers, many of which require as much electrical power as small cities.

A report from Goldman Sachs in November said that an electricity shortage could slow US progress in the AI race.

“As AI demands massive power, a reliable and ample power supply is likely to be a key factor shaping this race, especially because power infrastructure bottlenecks can be slow to solve,” wrote Goldman’s analysts.

The report added that while pressure on the US power grid is increasing, China has been steadily expanding its energy capacity.

By 2030, China could have about 400 gigawatts of spare power capacity, according to Goldman. That’s more than three times the total electricity demand data centers worldwide need.

“We expect China’s spare capacity to remain sufficient to accommodate data center power demand growth while supporting demand in other industries,” the analysts wrote.

In his annual New Year’s address last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping praised his country’s progress in AI in 2025, saying China had “integrated science and technology deeply with industries, and made a stream of new innovations.”

“Many large AI models have been competing in a race to the top, and breakthroughs have been achieved in the research and development of our own chips,” he said in his speech in Beijing.

“All this has turned China into one of the economies with the fastest-growing innovation capabilities,” he added.




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A Venezuela oil revival could set up winners — and losers — in US energy

Not all American energy companies stand to benefit from a potential revival of Venezuela’s oil industry following the US’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Energy stocks rose on Monday as investors priced in potential gains from renewed US access to Venezuela’s massive oil reserves. But analysts say smaller companies could struggle to benefit from a recovery in the country’s energy sector.

Additional Venezuelan oil supply over the coming years could be “negative for shale producers” that don’t have a footprint in Venezuela, Daan Struyven, the head of oil research at Goldman Sachs, said on the firm’s “Exchanges” podcast, published on Tuesday.

That’s because prices and volumes could come under pressure if supply growth over the next five to 10 years comes from Venezuela rather than from US shale, he added.

The potential strain on shale reflects a key difference in oil quality. Venezuelan crude is heavy and sulfur-rich, while US shale production is dominated by lighter oil. Many US Gulf Coast refineries were originally designed to process heavier crude, making Venezuelan barrels a better fit.

Greater access to Venezuelan crude could therefore benefit refiners while undermining demand for lighter shale barrels.

While light shale oil and heavy crude like Venezuela’s are not directly interchangeable, increased supplies of heavy oil can still reshape refinery demand and pricing across the broader market. That kind of change would indirectly pressure US shale producers, who have long been the engine of America’s shale revolution.

“In the US, the first casualties would likely be some oil producers, particularly smaller shale firms with high debt and thin margins,” Philippe Le Billon, a professor at the University of British Columbia who studies the political economy of natural resources, wrote in The Conversation on Sunday.

Furthermore, oil prices have already been under pressure in recent years due to ample supply and sluggish demand growth.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures are trading around $56 a barrel, while Brent futures are around $60 a barrel. Both are down around 2% so far this year after falling 20% last year.

Even an increase in Venezuela’s oil production in the medium term could put downward pressure on oil prices, making it harder for higher-cost US shale producers to justify new drilling, researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy said in a Sunday post.

That dynamic could intensify the pressure on US shale producers.

“This complicates the notion that the US would unambiguously ‘win’ from a Venezuelan oil revival. Energy geopolitics creates winners and losers on all sides,” wrote Le Billon.




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Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO has a higher salary than Warren Buffett

  • Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that Greg Abel will make $25 million in his new CEO role.
  • Abel’s pay is a significant increase from Warren Buffett’s famous $100,000 salary.
  • Abel is expected to maintain Berkshire Hathaway’s investment philosophy.

Berkshire Hathaway is paying its new CEO, Greg Abel, $25 million each year, a big bump from Warren Buffett’s pay.

The company disclosed Abel’s annual cash salary in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. He took on the role at the Omaha-based company on January 1.

Buffett, who retired last year, famously took an annual salary of $100,000 with no bonus or stock awards for over 40 years. Bloomberg estimates his net worth at $150 billion, the tenth-richest person in the world.

As Berkshire Hathaway’s former CEO and current chairman, Buffett recommended to his board of directors how much he should be paid and set compensation for Abel and other executives.

Abel, who was previously Buffett’s deputy, was paid $21 million last year. CEOs of S&P 500 companies were paid an average of $18.9 million in 2024.

At Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting last year, Buffett, who is 95, announced that he would be stepping down after 55 years as the conglomerate’s CEO. Hours later, the board unanimously voted for Abel to replace him.

“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive of the company at year end,” Buffett told the audience at the meeting.

Abel, 62, has been Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chair of non-insurance operations since 2018. He’s also chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which Buffett hailed as one of the conglomerate’s four “jewels” in his annual shareholder letter in 2021, the same year Buffett first tapped Abel as his successor.

Investors expect Abel to maintain the company’s current investment philosophy. He is known for having a more hands-on leadership style than Buffett.




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Donald Trump says Venezuela would give 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, to be controlled by him

  • President Donald Trump announced a plan to import over 30 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the US market.
  • Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has not commented on Trump’s proposal.
  • Trump is considering subsidizing oil companies to expand their operation to Venezuela.

President Donald Trump said he’s wasting no time when it comes to oil in Venezuela.

In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said that the interim president of Venezuela will “be turning over” between 30 and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil, and that the oil would be sold at market prices, with the revenue overseen by him as president to ensure it benefits both Venezuela and the US.

“It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added that he directed Energy Secretary Chris Wright to carry out the plan “immediately.”

It is unclear if the plan will face legal hurdles, and further details are unknown. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

The current interim leader of Venezuela is Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as acting president on January 5, 2026, after the US captured and detained the country’s former President Nicolás Maduro, alongside his wife. Rodríguez is a longtime Maduro loyalist and originally served as the Vice President of Venezuela. She has so far not spoken out on whether she would cooperate with Trump’s plan.

Trump’s comments build on his previous remarks that he would “take back” Venezuela’s oil reserves and revive the country’s battered energy sector, which has faced sanctions and mismanagement.

Trump also previously said in an interview with NBC News that the US could reimburse American oil companies for expanding their operations in Venezuela, but he did not have an estimate on how much the subsidy would cost.

Even though a larger supply could lead to lower costs for American consumers, the downward pressure on prices could disincentivize large oil companies from investing in Venezuela. It could also take years to build functioning infrastructure.

Venezuela’s oil production currently accounts for less than 1% of the global oil output, despite possessing the world’s largest known oil reserves.




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I’m at CES in Las Vegas to check out the latest in autonomous driving. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

  • Robotaxis and autonomous cars once again have a large presence at CES 2026.
  • Several companies, including Amazon’s Zoox, are providing off-site demos.
  • Business Insider is providing an on-the-ground look at the latest in the advanced mobility space.

Business Insider is taking on CES 2026.

I’m on the ground in Las Vegas from Tuesday to Thursday, taking in all there is to know about the latest in the driverless space.

Robotaxis and self-driving cars have already had an outsize presence at the tech conference, especially in the previous hype cycle of the late 2010s and early 2020s.

Things have changed since then. The industry has largely moved on from mere concepts and technology validation to: How are we going to realistically scale autonomy?

It’s day one of the conference, and there’s already a lot to take in.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the Alpamayo family, which will serve as an autonomous-driving stack for OEMs to deal with those stubborn edge cases — or the “long tail” of self-driving.

Uber and Nuro showed off an early look at the Lucid Gravity SUV that the companies hope public riders will be able to take by late 2026.

I’ll be spending less time at keynotes and speaker events and more on real-life demonstrations and meetings with industry leaders and commentators in autonomy

Think of this as my personal notebook, where I jot down everything I’ve learned and seen at the conference.

Check back in for more updates.

Amazon-backed Zoox is unlike any other robotaxi.

Zoox robotaxis line up in front of Resorts World Las Vegas

Lloyd Lee/BI

This is the first year Zoox, an Amazon-backed robotaxi company, will be giving live demonstrations of its service during CES.

I got to take a ride in one on Monday night in front of Resorts World. (The company tagline that I saw from an ad at the Harry Reid International Airport was: “Don’t just do the Strip. Zoox it.”)

My immediate thoughts were that Zoox feels unlike any other robotaxi or pseudo-robotaxi on the market. It felt more like I was on a theme park ride than in an everyday car we’re familiar with.

Unlike Waymo’s robotaxis, Zoox is not a regular car you could buy that’s been retrofitted with sensors. The Zoox car is bi-directional — meaning there’s no real front or back of the car — and the inside has no steering wheel, just seats.

The robotaxis were clearly a great tourist attraction from what I saw. My Uber driver wasn’t too happy about them.

Uber, Lucid, and Nuro have big plans to scale.


Uber, Lucid, Nuro

Left to right: Uber’s Sarfraz Maredia, Lucid interim CEO Marc Winterhoff, and Nuro cofounder Dave Ferguson.

Lloyd Lee/BI

Uber, Lucid, and Nuro had a swanky cocktail hour at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, where they quite literally wined and dined a room full of reporters, analysts, and investors: endless glasses of wine and an open bar, lobster tails, jumbo shrimp, too many appetizers to count, and a giant charcuterie board — the works.

Maybe understandably so? 2026 will be a big year for the three companies.

Uber’s plan is to roll out a robotaxi service by late 2026. The first market is San Francisco, where Uber will directly compete with Waymo. These two companies are partners in other markets, like Austin.

“We’ve been moving very, very quickly,” Nuro’s co-CEO and cofounder Dave Ferguson said. “We signed this partnership last July. We’re already testing the production-intent vehicles on public roads. And very soon, we’re going to have tens of thousands of them worldwide.”

Here’s a 60,000-pound John Deere combine for scale.


John Deere

John Deere’s X9 combine.

Lloyd Lee/BI

A quick image to get a sense of how big CES’s mobility division is at West Hall of the convention center: There’s a 60,000-pound combine from John Deere that’s sitting in the middle of the showroom.

The combine is one of the world’s largest on the market, according to Julian Sanchez, an engineer at the machinery company.

Even so, John Deere doesn’t even have the largest footprint on the floor. This year, it’s Hyundai.

The combine isn’t autonomous in the way we think about self-driving cars, Sanchez told me, but it is self-steering.

The world got a reality check on self-driving cars since the last hype cycle.


Tensor

Tensor aims to sell a personally-owned vehicle that will have Level 4 driving.

Lloyd Lee/BI

There’s a lot of talk of self-driving cars in the automotive industry, but the scope of what it can realistically achieve has narrowed down in the last decade or so.

Paul Costa, an ex-Apple veteran of 25 years who worked on the company’s abandoned self-driving car project, gave me a bit of interesting color from what he saw at CES in 2015 — when the driverless car hype was reaching its peak — and what’s different now.

“My sense at the time was that people really wanted to focus on Level 5 autonomy,” Costa, who now leads Ford’s electrical engineering team, told me. Level 5 is the highest level of autonomous driving set forth by the Society of Automotive Engineers. That means full autonomy in all weather conditions and no geofences. Waymo is currently Level 4.

The tone has been brought down to reality, according to Costa. The focus is on highly advanced driver assistance systems and eyes-off driving or Level 3 systems, he said.

“Now, I feel like here in 2026, L3 is extremely interesting,” Costa said. “It’s interesting for me to see how the industry — its focus has changed over the years.”

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