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Now that I'm a mom, I wish I hadn't banned friends' kids from our wedding. It would have made the day more special.
The author with her husband on their (mostly) kids-free wedding day.Courtesy of Rachel Miranda PhotographyMy then fiancé and I decided not to invite kids who weren't relatives to our wedding.We feared they might misbehave and become a distraction.Now that I'm a mom, I realize it was wrong. It would have been nicer to host them and their parents.Meeting a pair of English friends for a meal during our vacation in my native UK this past summer, it struck me how easily the conversation flowed.Even though we live in America and see the couple around once a year, we pick off where we left off and have a great time.They once made an eight-hour round-trip in one day for lunch with us near the cottage we had rented.We've known them since long before my husband and me got married. Yet, we subtly uninvited them to our wedding in New York City. Why? We'd heard they wanted to bring their young sons along. And we said "no."Kids who were blood relatives were invitedMy then fiancé and I decided that the only children who could attend were blood relatives. At the time, we assumed that other people's offspring would be a distraction, especially if they misbehaved.We also wanted to keep the costs down.Our strict policy applied to a former colleague in England with three school-age kids. "I can't imagine going to another country — let alone another continent — without them," he responded.I was somewhat offended. If he couldn't make it, perhaps we weren't as close as I'd thought.The big day came. Two of my husband's nieces were bridesmaids, and another was the flower girl. The boys were ring bearers and ushers.The groom's niece, the flower girl, was one of the few children who made the cut.Courtesy of Rachel Miranda PhotographyIt was a special event. The children made everyone laugh with their moves on the dance floor. My nephew did the moonwalk and the electric slide.Their presence added to the occasion. "How much did they charge for the entertainment?" a witty friend joked.A couple of years later, by then a first-time mom, I was invited to the wedding of a very good friend. Like us, the couple hadn't invited kids, except for the groom's two nieces.I was still nursing, but there was no way I was going to miss the celebration. My sister watched my daughter at her home, a 45-mile drive from the venue.The wedding was gorgeous, but I couldn't help worrying about my little one as I listened to the speeches and raised a glass to the couple. What if she cried all the time? Was my sister tearing her hair out? I called several times out of concern.The experience made me thinkMy fears were irrational, I know. Still, they felt real to me. We left the lively reception early to pick up our child.The experience made me think. I finally understood why our friends who were parents had declined our wedding invitation. They hadn't felt comfortable leaving their kids behind.I'm not planning to get married again anytime soon — it's been 18 years, and I'm still happy with the man I chose. However, if I had a do-over, I'd invite all my friends' children. Their presence — and that of their moms and dads — would have made our day even more special than it was.I haven't had the guts to apologize to the families whose children we banned. To their credit, they've never let it affect our relationship. Gracious friends, indeed.Read the original article on Business Insider
What the US imports from the 8 European countries facing new tariffs after opposing Trump's proposed takeover of Greenland
Donald Trump posted on Truth Social plans for new tariffs.Tom Brenner/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump proposed new tariffs on eight European countries.That's because of their recent presence in Greenland, which Trump wants the US to buy.The US imports billions of dollars in medicine, cars, and aircraft from these countries.A trade war between the US and Europe is heating up as President Donald Trump demands American control over Greenland.Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and France are four of the eight European countries that could face new tariffs once February kicks off. Trump made the tariff threats after those countries sent troops to Greenland earlier in January.In a Truth Social post, Trump said he will levy a new 10% tariff in February on imports from those countries, set to jump to 25% in June "to protect Global Peace and Security" because these countries "have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown" and "have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable." Trump added that the tariffs will be in effect until a deal to buy Greenland is reached.That new round of tariffs could affect a slew of goods, with medicine and cars leading the way. The US imported a total of $365 billion in goods from the eight targeted countries in 2024. That included about $44 billion in pharmaceutical preparations and nearly $40 billion in new or used passenger cars. Some other main imports included aircraft, industrial engines, and toiletries and cosmetics.window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});"Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral," the countries said in a joint statement. "We will continue to stand united and coordinated in our response."Trump continues to insist the US acquire Greenland, but said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday that he won't use force to do so."We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable, but I won't do that," he said.Read the original article on Business Insider
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Trump's proposed 10% cap on credit card rates would be an 'economic disaster'
Dimon said at Davos that the cap would cause a "disaster."Denis Balibouse/ReutersJamie Dimon said Trump's proposed cap on credit card interest rates could hurt 80% of Americans.Speaking at Davos, Dimon predicted that everyday Americans would hurt more than big banks.Other business leaders have also criticized the proposed one-year cap.If President Donald Trump gets his way on credit cards, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon predicts chaos — but more on the streets of American towns than in the walls of his own bank."It would be an economic disaster," Dimon said when asked about President Donald Trump's proposed one-year 10% cap on credit card interest rates. "And I'm not making that up because of our business, we would survive it, by the way. In the worst case, you would have to have a drastic reduction of the credit card business."Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dimon predicted that, if enacted, the cap could strip credit from 80% of Americans. Dimon proposed that the government test the proposal by forcing all the banks in Vermont and Massachusetts to comply, "and then see what happens," causing a ripple of laughter through the audience."The people crying most won't be the credit card companies," he said, adding that those hurt will include restaurants, retailers, travel companies, and municipalities, "because people will miss their water payments."Whatever the president and Congress decide, JPMorgan will "deal with it," Dimon said. He promised that the bank would provide more extensive analysis of the potential effects, and said that he, too, wants greater affordability.Dimon struck a largely conciliatory tone when asked about some of Trump's geopolitical moves — immigration and NATO, for example — which he called "more qualitative, how it's going to work, what are the pieces, what's their intent." But he said he understands the card issue deeply and has a responsibility, of sorts, to speak up.Dimon, like many other big-bank CEOs and business leaders, has previously said that reducing card interest rates could harm customers with lower credit scores. JPMorgan's CFO warned during the bank's fourth-quarter earnings call last week that enacting price controls could "make it no longer a good business."Read the original article on Business Insider
Meet Nicola Peltz Beckham, the billionaire heiress, actor, and director who's married to Brooklyn Beckham
Nicola Peltz Beckham and her husband, Brooklyn Beckham.Allen Berezovsky/Getty ImagesNicola Peltz Beckham is the daughter of billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz.She married David and Victoria Beckham's oldest son, Brooklyn, in a star-studded wedding in 2022.Peltz Beckham, 31, is an actor, writer, director, and model.Since 2019, Nicola Peltz Beckham and her now-husband, Brooklyn Beckham, have been "inseparable," she said in a 2022 interview.Now, the couple is publicly united amid an apparent rift with Beckham's parents, world-renowned soccer player David Beckham and designer Victoria Beckham. On Monday, Brooklyn Beckham wrote on Instagram that his parents "have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship."Neither couple has responded to Business Insider's request for comment.Here's a look inside the life of the 31-year-old heiress, actor, and director — one of billionaire Nelson Peltz's 10 children — who's been vocal about her commitment to her family, her love for her husband, and her career.Nicola Peltz, now Nicola Peltz Beckham, grew up in New York as one of billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz's 10 children.Michael Loccisano/Getty ImagesThe founder of investment firm Trian Fund Management, 83-year-old Nelson Peltz is worth $1.6 billion, according to Forbes.Trian Fund Management manages $8.5 billion worth of assets. In 2017, Nelson Peltz was ranked the 22nd highest-earning hedge fund manager, Forbes reported.He has contributed millions of dollars to politically conservative causes. During the 2020 election cycle, he donated $200,000 to the Republican National Committee, CNBC reported. In 2018, he donated $650,000 to Citizens for a Strong America, a political organization supporting conservative candidates.Nicola Peltz Beckham has nine siblings through her father.He has two children with his first wife, Cynthia Abrams, whom he married in 1964. They divorced in 1981.In 1985, he married model Claudia Heffner Peltz, and they have eight children, including Nicola, who was born in 1995. She grew up in Westchester County in New York.Since starting her acting career in 2006, she has appeared in films, TV shows, and music videos.Nicola Peltz at Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards in 2010.Kevin Winter/Getty Images for KCAPeltz Beckham's first acting role was in 2006, in the film "Deck the Halls." She has also appeared in "Bates Motel," "The Last Airbender," "Transformers: The Age of Extinction," and "Holidate."In 2014, she was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for breakout star for her role in "Transformers: Age of Extinction," and a Young Hollywood Award for breakthrough actress. That same year, she won a rising star CinemaCon Award.Peltz Beckham has also acted in music videos. Most notably, she was featured in Miley Cyrus's "7 Things" music video, which has been viewed over 290 million times on YouTube since its 2008 premiere. In 2016, she was featured in Zayn Malik's music video for his song "iT's YoU."She starred in Hulu's Emmy-nominated miniseries "Welcome to Chippendales" as Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten.Nicola Peltz on "Welcome to Chippendales."Erin Simkin/HuluPeltz Beckham acted alongside Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett in Hulu's "Welcome to Chippendales," which was released in 2022.In a 2023 interview with Elle, she told the magazine about one of her favorite memories from the show."Finding Dorothy's look for the first time ... like, putting it all together — the makeup, the wig, the costume," she said. "When I got into the costume I really felt changed," she continued.The show picked up five Emmy nominations in 2023."Lola," which Peltz Beckham wrote, directed, and starred in, was released in 2024.Nicola Peltz Beckham at the premiere of "Lola" in February…
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'Big Short' investor Michael Burry sounds alarm on AI bubble that's 'too big to save'
Michael BurryJim Spellman/WireImageMichael Burry says AI is a bubble so big that it will tank the market and economy when it pops.The "Big Short" investor said the government will try to help, but "the problem is too big to save."Burry was responding to a post on X about the challenges facing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.Michael Burry says the AI boom is a bubble of epic proportions, and there's no way to stop it from popping and taking down the stock market and economy with it."The government will pull out all the stops to save the AI bubble to save the market to save the economy," Burry wrote on X late Tuesday. "The problem is too big to save."The investor of "The Big Short" fame issued the dire warning in response to a post by George Noble, a former hedge fund manager and ex-assistant to famed investor Peter Lynch at Fidelity.Noble wrote that "OPENAI IS FALLING APART IN REAL TIME." He pointed to the ChatGPT maker's raft of challenges, including fierce competition from Google's Gemini 3 and other AI models, soaring costs, widening losses, and Elon Musk's lawsuit against it."This is not surprising and will not end with OpenAI," Burry responded on X. The vast sums "being spent and lent by the richest companies on Earth will not buy enough time-by the very definition of mania."This is not surprising and will not end with OpenAI. All the capital being being spent and lent by the richest companies on earth will not buy enough time-by the very definition of mania. The government will pull out all the stops to save the AI bubble to save the market to… https://t.co/aSqbheWzHS— Cassandra Unchained (@michaeljburry) January 21, 2026 Burry, who pivoted from running a hedge fund to writing on Substack late last year, called out OpenAI in his first post for its "dreamy" spending target of $1.4 trillion over eight years.OpenAI's annualized revenue has grown from $2 billion in 2023 to more than $20 billion last year, its finance chief disclosed in a blog post this week.Burry has also compared Sam Altman's company to a dot-com disaster. "OpenAI is the next Netscape, doomed and hemorrhaging cash," Burry wrote in early December.The contrarian investor, best known for predicting and profiting from the collapse of the mid-2000s housing bubble, has previously said on Substack that he's surprised that the startup "kicked off a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure race," and he would short OpenAI if it was a public company.America's eight most valuable public companies — Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Broadcom, Meta, and Tesla — are all tech titans that are betting big on AI. Each has a market capitalization over $1 trillion, and together they're valued at north of $22 trillion.The federal government stepped in to save embattled banks during the financial crisis after determining they were "too big to fail." The decision to bail out financial institutions drew widespread criticism, particularly as many individuals affected by the downturn received limited support. Experts are divided over whether the AI boom is a tech revolution or a temporary euphoria. Jeremy Grantham, a veteran investor and bubble historian, recently said the "probabilities that AI will not bust are slim to none."In contrast, "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary and tech investor Ross Gerber told Business Insider last fall they weren't worried as AI was supercharging productivity and fueling rapid growth.Read the original article on Business Insider
