For two decades, I’ve mentored professionals at every career stage: first as a high school teacher and administrator, and presently as a university professor and corporate consultant. One pattern emerges across every career pathwaythe people who find strong fits for their talents aren’t the ones with the most impressive single credential. They’re the ones who understand how three things work together: Skills. Credentials. Network.
The car mechanic who realized his hands-on skills weren’t enough as cars went digital. So he went to night school and earned his associate’s, bachelor’s, and MBA in four years. During the journey, he took advantage of every professional networking opportunity his job and college offered him. Today he’s a fleet director at a major construction firm.
The product manager who wanted to transition into consulting. She started running experiments online and building an audience for her behavioral design work. That public learning launched her into a consultant role and, eventually, a managing director position at the same company.
The mid-career professional who pursued an online masters degree in data science while aggressively expanding his network. Within two years: book endorsements, podcast appearances, and a transformed career.
Three people. Three different starting points. Same solution: they each tended to the three corners of professional success.
Skills. Credentials. Network. Here’s what each corner means:
Skills: Can You Do the Work?
This is the obvious one, but it’s more layered than most people realize. You need hard skills (can you code, analyze data, design a system?), soft skills (can you communicate clearly, collaborate effectively, adapt to changing circumstances?), and job sculpting skills (can you position yourself effectively through résumés, cover letters, and strategic outreach?).Furthermore, in a world where AI can replicate many technical skills, you need to demonstrate more than competence. You need to show you can apply skills in messy, real-world contexts that don’t come with clear instructions. This comes from years of solving problems and creating possibilities in collaborative, real-world contexts.
Credentials: Can You Navigate Systems?
Yes, the “skills-based hiring” movement is real. But credentials still matter, and not just for the knowledge they represent. A degree signals to employers that you showed up, navigated a complex system, and saw a multiyear commitment through to completion. As one hiring manager told me: “If you finished college, I know you can operate in structured environments, meet deadlines, and push through when things get difficult.” Credentials aren’t just proof of knowledge. They’re proof of persistence and the ability to navigate systems.
Network: Does Anyone Know You Exist?
This is the most overlooked corner and the hardest to measure. Stanford University sociologist Mark Granovetter famously called it “the strength of weak ties”: the acquaintances who know different people and have access to different opportunities than your close friends do. It’s about who knows what you can do, who vouches for you when opportunities arise, and who creates pathways you’d never find on your own. The number of LinkedIn connections doesn’t matter. It’s the depth of contacts and engagements you have with people in your field and adjacent fields that does. Professional associations, internships, alumni networks, mentors: these aren’t “nice to have.” They’re foundational.
Why All Three Matter
Here’s what I’ve seen so many people misunderstand: they’re crushing it in one corner but can’t figure out why their career isn’t clicking. Dazzling skills, impressive credentials, cool connections, yet nothing’s working.
I had one mentee who applied to hundreds of marketing jobs. He had impressive skills but no network and the wrong credentials. No interviews came his way. From where he sat, it was maddening. From the outside, it wasn’t mysterious at all. A strong network may have been able to overcome the credential mismatch, but with neither in place he had to carefully reconsider his next steps.
Meanwhile, often mid-career professionals considering a master’s degree forget to be strategic about all three corners. The best programs aren’t just about the credential. You’re bringing work experience, building new skills, and accessing a powerful alumni network simultaneously. Too often people enter programs with a narrow focus. I’ve seen professionals complete expensive degrees, ace every exam, and graduate with zero meaningful relationships in their cohort. They dont even think about using their student status to land an internship or fellowship at organizations they care about. They paid for one corner and ignored the other two!
Here’s what makes this framework durable: the three corners reinforce each other. When you sharpen someone’s work, you’re building their skills. When you help them navigate complexity, you’re teaching system navigation. When you make introductions, you’re expanding their network. The framework works at every career stage because the fundamentals don’t change.
The world is changing fast. AI disrupts skills, remote work reshapes networks, degree inflation is real. But employers will always need people who can do things well, navigate complexity, and work effectively with humans.
Assess all three corners honestly. Where are you strongest? Where have you been neglecting? Invest there. Your next opportunity won’t come from one thing; it’ll come from understanding how all three work together. And while you can’t control luck, building all three corners means you’re ready when it shows up.
If youre a CEO, entrepreneur, recruiter, or hiring manager, you know how important it is to hire the right people for the right roles. But hiring the right people for the right roles goes way beyond simply attracting the best and brightest of your industry. Just because someone is highly qualified, great at what they do and has impressive experience, doesnt mean they are a good fit for your organization or your culture. If you want your business to thrive in the marketplace, you need to filter out potential employees who may not be a great fit for your organization and attract those who are the most likely to thrive. Here are three ways to attract potential employees who are more likely to fall in love with your brand.
Give candidates a realistic job preview
According to LinkedIn, the biggest concern candidates experience when searching for a job is not knowing what its really like to work at an organization before they apply. If you truly want to give candidates a transparent look at your organization, including the not-so-glamorous side of the role they are applying for, consider adopting Realistic Job Previews as part of your recruitment strategy. Realistic Job Previews (RJPs), as the name suggests, are designed to give candidates a realistic peek behind the curtains of the role they are applying for so they can make well-informed decisions on whether the job is one which they will love and thrive in.
Some companies, like Boston Consulting Group, allow candidates to take a 3D tour of the company and to register for a job simulation. Other companies, such as Marriott, use gamification to give candidates the opportunity to perform the digital equivalents of the tasks they would perform on the job if they are successful in their application. This gives candidates a close approximation of the difficulty level of the jobs they are applying for and can help them decide whether the job they are applying for is a good fit for them.
If you simply dont have the budget for these high-tech solutions, an effective low-tech alternative may be to simply allow candidates applying for a job at your organization to spend an entire day in your workplace shadowing team members in the department they are applying to be a part of and speaking with any of your team members individually or in groupsunsupervised and without any intervention or interruption by any member of our leadership team.
This allows candidates the opportunity to have a truly unfiltered and uncensored view of your business from the perspective of employees without management running interference. Candidates who like what they see will be more likely to apply for (and love) a role at your organization, while those who dont will look elsewhere for employment (saving you valuable time and money). This is RJP in its purest and most transparent form.
Dont worry too much about scaring off candidates with the truth, because when you stop and think about it, if they join your team, it wont be long before they see both your strengths and weaknesses for themselves. Its much better to be upfront with candidates so they can make an informed choice rather than to hide the truth and have your new employees quit after a few months, weeks, or days after they experience your culture for themselves!
Articulate an inspiring purpose
Research by Gallup shows that employees with a strong sense of purpose in the workplace are 5.6 times as likely to be engaged in their jobs compared to those with a low sense of purpose. And research conducted by McKinsey indicated that 82% of employees believe its important for their company to have a purpose. Thats why its important to carefully articulate your purpose in a way that inspires potential employees who are aligned with your purpose to want to work with you.
If your purpose is, for example, to help alleviate poverty, it will attract individuals who love the idea of helping people improve their quality of life. If your purpose is to create technologically advanced products that improve the lives of customers, that purpose will help attract individuals who genuinely love being involved in the process of technological innovation. And, if your purpose is to help preserve the environment, you will attract employees who are passionate about conserving natural habitats.
If your company doesnt have a thoughtfully articulated and documented purpose, take the time to do so right awayit just might help you to attract individuals who will love working at your organization.
Demonstrate that you value career development
If you want your employees to love your organization, let them know upfront what career opportunities they may be eligible for across the organization beyond the role for which they are applying. Deloittes Explore Your Fit initiative does a good job of this by using technology that allows candidates to answer a series of questions about themselves, their experience, and their interests. Based on the responses, Deloitte will provide candidates with a custom digital guide to help them navigate career opportunities within their fit area.
If you prefer a more personal touch, have a conversation with candidates that includes a review of your organizational chart, and what positions they may be eligible for if they excel at the position they are currently applying forespecially if your company has a history of promoting from within the organization. Some companies that value career development have even been known to create custom positions for high performers they want to retain even after they have outgrown the positions they originally applied forsomething you may want to consider if you want to ensure that you retain your top talent, even in roles you may not have previously envisioned.
When employers demonstrate that they value career development, candidates are more likely to have confidence that their work will be meaningful and lead to future opportunities within the organizationhelping them make a more informed decision and more likely to fall in love with the jobs they have applied for.
Of course, there are several other ways to attract employees who will love working for your organization, but these three activities are an excellent way to start the process of having potential employees who will fall in love with their roles in your organization.
Can I say it?
If you have ever scrolled on social media and felt like you joined a conversation halfway through, with no context at all, you are not alone. Over the past few weeks, a type of posting has resurfaced online with the sole purpose of ragebaiting everyone.
It is called vagueposting, and it involves being intentionally cryptic as a form of engagement bait. Common vagueposts include can I say it? without ever saying anything, or insisting you wont like the answer without ever revealing the answer. Or oh thats not What? WHAT?
The practice is not new. The term was originally called vaguebooking, which referred to posting emo Facebook statuses that pandered for attention. One example might be writing worst day ever without offering any details, or posting a black square paired with a pointed platitude.
The first meme of the year was one example of vagueposting in action. It started with a TikTok posted in December about rebranding for 2026. In the comments, others shared their own strategies and self-improvement tips for the upcoming year. A user named Tamara shared her own method involving 365 buttons.
@poptrish #tamara #365buttons #2026 #rebrand long live tamara and i wonder what they buttons are for ?? I was very intruiged before i even realized that was the whole comment section Sybau – KCK Mixes
When pressed to explain what the 365 buttons were for, she simply responded: Hey, so it actually only has to make sense to me for me to do it and I dont feel like explaining it to anyone else.
Vagueposting has also resurfaced on platforms like X in December and early January. On X, one user noted, Why has this entire site turned to fucking vagueposting in the past month, like every viral tweet means nothing anymore because there’s no context.
Why has this entire site turned to fucking vagueposting in the past month, like every viral tweet means nothing anymore because there's no context— FPSthetics (@FPSthetics) December 15, 2025
Another added: Many dreadful things are happening online, but I’m really impressed by how utterly maddening the vagueposting for likes trend is.
Many dreadful things are happening online, but I'm really impressed by how utterly maddening the "vagueposting for likes" trend is— Clarissa Aykroyd (@stoneandthestar) January 26, 2026
The fact that vagueposting is proliferating on X right now is not a coincidence. Elon Musks new monetization policies have warped the platform. Those who remain are in a race to the bottom, competing against AI slop in pursuit of clicks and engagement.
Vagueposting is a trend because the algorithm senses that you are clicking on those tweets (engagement) to see the replies for context, one X user explained. So it promotes vague tweets over ones that explain enough that you can read and scroll past them.
vagueposting is a trend because the algorithm senses that you are clicking on those tweets (engagement) to see the replies for context so it promotes vague tweets over ones that explain enough that you can read and scroll past them.— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) January 11, 2026
As the internet continues to eat itself, what remains across beleaguered social media platforms are half-formed thoughts, clips stripped of necessary context, and engagement baits designed to hook our shrinking attention spans and further trigger our dysregulated nervous systems.
youre probably not gonna like the answer.
Women in all parts of my life are encountering similar obstacles in their health journeys. The common thread is that when we dont advocate for ourselves and ask the right questions, we dont get the care we need.
While volunteering as a womens heart health advocate and immersing my public relations agency in the health innovation ecosystem, Im constantly thinking about how to bring to light the issuesand solutionsthat are all around us.
Women are dying because we aren’t marketing life-saving therapies to them, said Rachel Rubin, MD, a urologist and sexual medicine specialist, and assistant clinical professor in urology at Georgetown University Hospital. She made these comments in her 2-hour conversation last May with Peter Attia, MD, on his podcast The Drive. The podcast discussion helped illuminate the decades-long debate around hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Since then, the FDA removed its 20-year-plus warning label on HRT for menopause.
STORYTELLING CAN HELP
This is where storytelling can lead to real change, bringing awareness to previously misunderstood or underreported issues that can save lives.
At the very least, we need to encourage each other to find the right provider, ask the right questions, and not settle until we get the answers we need.
Professionally, the optimist in me cant help but see opportunities to help connect these dots. Here are four immediate steps we can take:
Education: Over the last year, Ive heard countless stories of women dismissing seemingly minor symptoms that turned out to be the precursor to a heart attack or undiagnosed cardiovascular health issue. The message is clear: We need to empower women to listen to our bodies by giving patients and providers the platforms to share their stories. Fortunately, journalists are looking for sources to speak with every single day, and PR professionals can play matchmaker.
Funding: Media coverage can help the next round of health innovators secure funding and support. If you share your stories and expertise with journalists and podcasts, and on social networks like LinkedIn, you can create a butterfly effect that can influence these sources of funding.
Reach and scale: Even early-stage startups, regional providers, small practices, and nonprofits have the opportunity to get quoted in national media outlets. Every day, journalists are looking for credentialed medical experts across topics like menopause, fertility, heart health, nutrition, and mental health to comment on the stories theyre filing for trusted news sources. You can enlist the help of a PR team or respond to queries yourself, if you have the time.
Partnerships: While there are incredibly innovative health solutions popping up around the world, the massive opportunity in womens healthand healthcare overallrequires the whole ecosystem to take part. A PR strategy focused on increasing visibility in industry publications and at conferences can help innovators and payers form meaningful partnerships.
Strategic partnerships between femtech and big tech, femtech and pharma, femtech and retail, and more are on the rise. These success stories illuminate a powerful way for womens health startups to rapidly scale in both reach and credibility, Theresa Neil, founder of Femovate and a deep femtech advocate told me.
Building on the momentum over the last year, Im encouraged by the direction of womens health conversations, and yet I still know too many women who struggle to get the help they need.
We can all play a part in amplifying these stories.
Amy Jackson is founder and CEO of TaleSplash.
For decades, women business owners have faced a persistent challenge: access to capital. Despite owning nearly half of all small businesses in the U.S., women often encounter barriers to financing. Ive seen from my experience at the SBA and now First Women’s Bank, that one of the biggest drivers of the gender lending gap isnt just rejection, its that many women dont come forward for financing at all. Whether due to lack of awareness, confidence, or systemic hurdles, access captures both those who are denied and those who never apply.
Also driving the gender lending gap is the type of capital women seek. Women often seek startup capital that is difficult to obtain, rather than growth and acquisition capital. Especially pronounced is the lack of acquisition financing in the womens economy. Women are starting businesses at twice the national average, yet based on my experience, the number of women engaged in financing business acquisitions versus startups is relatively low.
That matters because when women choose to bootstrap startups and grow organically rather than acquiring an existing business, they are choosing the long road to success. Business acquisitions can be a powerful shortcut to scale. Starting from scratch means building infrastructure, cash flow, and customer relationships, one step at a time. Acquiring an established business gives you all that on day one, plus brand equity and proven operations. Its a way to bypass early-stage risk and accelerate growth by leveraging whats already working.
SBA LOANS AND REAL ESTATE
And back to the issue of access to capital. A startup, from a banks perspective, can be risky to finance and difficult to underwrite as the bank can only review projections. Financing an acquisition can be more achievable, as the bank can underwrite the acquisition targets past business performance. SBA 7(a) loans are a strong financing option for business acquisitions, and combining an equity raise with SBA financing is yet another strategy that can create a healthy debt-to-equity structure and lower the debt burden for the business post-acquisition.
Financing the acquisition of owner-occupied real estate, or in other words, acquiring real estate for your business to operate from, is another underutilized strategy in the womens economy. Real estate assets can strengthen your balance sheet by adding real estate collateral, which can be used to secure future growth financing. Real estate ownership can stabilize expenses, eliminate landlord restrictions, and build long-term control and consistency. Over time, these assets dont just support operations; they enhance your business value to your banks and investors. For owner-occupied real estate acquisition, SBA 7(a) and 504 loans can offer lower down payments for those who qualify.
ACQUISITION FINANCING TO CLOSE THE GAP
Strategic acquisition financing can lead to women controlling more assets, gaining negotiating power, improved financing terms, and the ability to reinvest in their companies and communities. Financing the acquisition of both business and real estate assets creates a virtuous cycle of empowerment, growth, and credibility, a critical step toward closing the gender lending gap.
Marianne Markowitz is CEO of First Women’s Bank.
Elon Musk is merging his rocket maker SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a deal that changes what a future SpaceX IPO represents.
After rumors surfaced last week, Musk confirmed the move Monday in a SpaceX blog post, calling the combined company the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, spanning AI, rockets, space-based internet, and his social media platform, X. Public records filed in Nevada and obtained by CNBC show the deal was completed February 2, with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. listed as the managing member of X.AI Holdings.
Bloomberg reports that the merged company is expected to price shares in an initial public offering that could value it at $1.25 trillion. At that scale, the story is no longer just about rockets. It is about AI and Musks claim that the future of compute will not be confined to Earth.
A $1.25 trillion IPO that looks very different
Before the deal, a SpaceX IPO would have given investors exposure to space launch services, government contracts, Starlinks satellite internet business, and Musks long-term Mars ambitions.
Now it would also include a frontier AI company and a new thesis: AI cannot scale on terrestrial infrastructure. It must scale in orbit.
SpaceX was valued at about $800 billion in a secondary share sale last year. And xAI was valued at roughly $230 billion in a $20 billion funding round earlier this year. The percentage uplift is larger for SpaceX, while xAI shareholders gain stability by being folded into one of the most profitable private aerospace companies.
Reuters reported last week that SpaceX generated an estimated $8 billion in profit on $15 billion to $16 billion in revenue in 2025, citing people familiar with the results. By contrast, xAI is still burning cash as it races to build infrastructure to compete with OpenAI and Google, which remain ahead in the model race. The merger ties those two trajectories together.
It looks like Elon Musk has one window to do a big IPO, and he wants to make the most of that, Edward Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and an auto industry analyst, told Fast Company last week.
Musks core claim: Earth cannot power the future of AI
Musk argues that AIs reliance on power-hungry data centers is unsustainable, as rising demand strains both electrical grids and the environment. His solution is to move the problem off-planet. Space is called ‘space’ for a reason, he said in the blog post, arguing that there will be more room off the planet.
My estimate is that within two to three years, the lowest-cost way to generate AI compute will be in space, Musk continued. This cost efficiency alone will enable innovative companies to train their AI models and process data at unprecedented speeds and scales.
SpaceX has already asked the Federal Communications Commission for authorization to launch up to 1 million satellites as part of what Musk calls an orbital data center.
Orbital data centers powered by the Sun
The orbital data center plan would require launching 1 million tons of satellites per year. Each ton generates 100 kilowatts of compute, which equals 100 gigawatts of AI capacity added annually.
Even in 2025, the most prolific year in orbital history, humanity launched only about 3,000 tons of payload into space, mostly Starlink satellites aboard Falcon rockets.
The difference now is Starship. Musk envisions Starship rockets launching every hour, carrying roughly 200 tons per flight, and delivering millions of tons to orbit per year.
SpaceX already operates the worlds largest satellite constellation through Starlink, with more than 9,000 satellites in orbit and roughly 9 million customers. The operational lessons from Starlink form the foundation for something much larger: satellites that function as AI data centers.
A familiar Musk playbook
This is not the first time Musk has merged his companies to move faster. Early last year, he merged xAI with X (formerly Twitter). Now xAI is being folded into SpaceX. Tesla, the primary source of Musks liquid wealth, said last week that it has agreed to invest about $2 billion into xAI.
The merger also pulls SpaceX into xAIs regulatory scrutiny.
Currently, xAI is facing probes in Europe, India, Australia, and California after its Grok AI tools allowed users to generate sexualized images of children and nonconsensual intimate images of adults from photos found online. These investigations add risk to a company that is already spending heavily to catch up in the AI arms race.
Folding xAI into SpaceX gives it financial cover and operational scale, but it also ties SpaceXs future IPO to those controversies.
Beyond orbit: the Moon and deep space
Musks vision does not stop with satellites circling Earth.
Starships ability to land heavy cargo on the moon opens the possibility of lunar manufacturing. Factories could use lunar materials to build satellites and deploy them deeper into space using electromagnetic mass drivers. Musk argues that at that scale, humanity begins to harness more of the suns energy.
The business case is simpler. If space becomes the cheapest place to run AI compute, everything else follows.
“The capabilities we unlock by making space-based data centers a reality will fund and enable self-growing bases on the moon, an entire civilization on Mars, and ultimately, expansion to the universe,” Musk wrote in the blog post.
Oracle shares fell 2% Monday following the company’s announcement it planned to raise upwards to $50 billion in 2026.
Funding rounds of that size are no longer unusual. The surge in AI investment and the growing need for cloud capacity and data centers have pushed many companies to seek massive financing. But Oracles recent run has been unusually volatile. Just a few months ago, its shares jumped 40% in a single day, briefly making CEO Larry Ellison the worlds richest person (ahead of Elon Musk).
That spike came after Oracle reported a 359% increase in its remaining performance obligation (RPO, which are expected revenues based on customer commitments). That was driven by a $300 billion contract with OpenAI. Things haven’t gone so well since then, though.
The stock saw a big tumble after the company reported earnings in December that fell short of analyst’s revenue expectations, the stock saw a big tumble. And Oracle shares today are well below where they stood before the spike. As of Monday, they were more than 30% lower than the mid-September level.
The need to build out the infrastructure remains, though, thus the hunt for financing, which will be raised in debt and equity. Oracle, on Sunday, said it plans to use the $45 to $50 billion it hopes to raise this year to expand its cloud capacity as demand increases from customers including Nvidia, Meta, OpenAI, TikTok and xAI.
While the stock was higher at times on Monday, investors began to have doubts as the day went on. In recent months, the market has become increasingly concerned about Oracle’s aggressive AI buildout plans, as well as the debt the company is taking on. That has led to the underperformance of the stock.
An overreliance on OpenAI may also be a factor. While Oracle’s RPO announcement last fall gave shares a boost, a similar announcement from Microsoft last week (where RPO jumped 110% to $625 billion, with 45% of that number being a commitment from OpenAI) saw that company’s stock tumble.
Like Microsoft, Oracle has significant exposure to OpenAI’s ability to delivery on its promised business. While OpenAI has been successful in its ongoing fundraising efforts, it has made $1.4 trillion in total commitments over the next eight years. That’s despite the company still not being profitable and continually hunting for additional funding (Amazon could be the next big investor, as the companies are in talks for the retailer to purchase up to a $50 billion stake. And a possible IPO looms by the end of the year.)
Some analysts see Oracles financing plan as a way to reduce that dependence. By issuing equity and slightly diluting existing shareholders, Oracle can help fund its expansion without jeopardizing its investment-grade credit rating, a key factor for more conservative investors such as pension funds.
“Oracle is not only saying they’re committed to investment-grade debt, but they are sending a clear message to bond investors and the rating agencies that they are,” Guggenheim analysts said in a note to investors.
Oracle’s hunt for additional funding underscores just how competitive the AI field is these days. The company is racing to catch up in the cloud infrastructure field with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. The more infrastructure-as-a-service (essentially computing power and storage it can rent out) Oracle has available, the more it can share in the cash outflow that AI companies are doling out.
Whether Oracle can regain investor goodwill on an ongoing basis will likely be determined March 9, when it is next expected to report quarterly earnings. Investors will be looking for guidance about cloud capacity and AI partnerships. If revenues growth in that segment outpaces spending, Oracle could reverse the decline it has been seeing for the past several months.
China has become the first nation to outlaw the Tesla-style concealed door handle. Demanded by Elon Musk against the safety concerns of his own engineers, the handle and its electronic opening mechanism have been implicated in multiple fatal incidents where trapped passengers couldnt open their doors from the inside, and emergency rescuers could not access from the outside.The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued new safety rules, mandating all cars sold in the country must feature a mechanical release accessible from both the inside and outside. The new lawwhich takes effect on January 1, 2027kills the flush, electronic handles that have increasingly become the norm in the electric vehicle market.An animation demonstrating the use of the exterior handles in a Tesla model 3, taken from the user guide. [Image: Tesla]This regulation marks a critical turning point in the automotive industry, perhaps signaling that the era of prioritizing sleek aesthetics over basic human survival is finally ending for good. While regulators in the United States and Europe are still investigating the hazards of electronic latches, it may be Beijings massive market leverage that forces a return to traditional, safer mechanical controls. A detail showing interior electronic door release button in a Tesla model 3, taken from the user guide. [Image: Tesla]It is a necessary correction to a broader trend of manufacturers replacing reliable physical hardware with cheap electronic substitutes and touch interfacesa design choice that can lead to distracted driving and accidents. According to the state newspaper China Daily, 60% of China’s top 100 selling EVs have these doors, from the popular Xiaomis SU7 to Teslas Model Y and Model 3 (the vehicles that popularized the feature). Anticipating the regulatory crackdown, some major players like Geely and BYD had already begun pivoting back to traditional mechanical handles on new and incoming models. The door of a Tesla Model S, 2025. [Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images]New rules to stop a growing problemUnder the new Chinese rules, automakers must meet precise manufacturing specifications that ensure a human hand can always open a car door. The regulations dictate that the door’s exterior must have a recessed space measuring at least 2.4 inches by 0.8 inches to allow for a firm manual grip. The interior must also feature clear signage, no smaller than 0.4 inches by 0.3 inches, indicating exactly how to operate the emergency release. While the primary ban starts in 2027, models currently in the final stages of approval have been granted a grace period until January 2029 to retool their assembly lines.The mandate arrives after a series of tragedies exposed the lethal flaw of relying on electronic controls to open a door. The popular Xiaomi SU7 electric sedan was involved in two separate fatal crashes in Chinaone in March and another in Octoberwhere power failures reportedly prevented the doors from unlocking, trapping victims in fires. A Xiaomi SU7 interior, 2025. [Photo: FOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images]The incidents mirror the deaths of four friends in Toronto last October, who perished inside a burning Tesla Model Y after its electronic opening mechanism failed, leaving a single survivor who only escaped because a bystander smashed the window with a metal bar. A December 2025 Bloomberg investigation uncovered that at least 15 people have died in a dozen U.S. crashes over the past decade specifically because Tesla doors wouldn’t open. More than half of those deaths occurred since November 2024, indicating a worsening crisis as these vehicles proliferate and age. For years, manufacturers have justified these mechanisms with claims of improved aerodynamics and range efficiency. Technical studies cited by Chinese media reveal that hidden handles improve a vehicle’s drag coefficient by a negligible 0.005 to 0.01, a figure so small it has virtually no impact on real-world driving. Wei Jianjun, chairman of the Chinese car group Great Wall Motor, has publicly slammed the design as being “detached from users’ needs,” noting that it fails to lower power consumption while introducing severe risks like freezing shut in cold weather or pinching fingers.Back to basicsWe can only hope that this norm to reclaim door reliability and safety turns into a more vigorous push for physical controls everywhere in the car, worldwide. While the European New Car Assessment Program announced that starting in 2026, vehicles will be penalized with a lower safety score if they lock essential functions behind touchscreens, that doesnt have the legally binding power that Beijing has imposed on one of its most powerful industries.For now, China’s decision effectively locks in a new global standard. As Bill Russo of the consultancy Automobility told Bloomberg, China is shifting from being a mere consumer market to a rule-setter for vehicle technology. This may work in a way similar to the European Union banning Apples Lightning Port and other non-standard phone ports in favor of USB-C, forcing a design change worldwide.These markets are too large to ignore for international giants. Hopefully the EU and U.S. will follow Chinas lead. Better yet, they could one-up China and mandate physical controls everywhere in the car, leading to vehicles with doors that open properly and radios with volume knobs. What a concept.
Finally, some good news: the Tiny Chef, who captured the hearts of internet users around the world this summer, when his Nickelodeon show was cancelled, will finally grace our screens again. This time, hes making Swedish meatballs.
The Tiny Chef Show was a Nickelodeon series that aired from September 2022 to March 2025. In it, the Tiny Chef (a stop-motion creature vaguely resembling a sentient pea) made plant-based meals for his friends from his home inside a tree stump. But in June, 2025, the Tiny Chef took to his YouTube channel to announce in a heartwrenching video that his series had been canceled unexpectedly by Nickelodeon. It now has nearly two million views and 8,000 comments, nearly all of which are expressing an outpouring of support for Cheffy.
Months later, Tiny Chefs ardent supporters wishes have been answered: According to a press release, hes teaming up with Ikea for a three-episode series, the first of which is out now. Its a welcome job success story to kick off 2026.
Tiny Chef’s return (with Ikea)
In the months since Tiny Chef was cut off by Nickolodeon, hes struck out on his own. Series creators Rachel Larsen and Ozlem Akturk have kept the character alive on socials, where he posts recycled clips frequently, and via a website where theyre currently crowdsourcing to keep Cheffy afloat in some capacity.
In a November article for the Los Angeles Times, Larsen and Akturk said theyd raised $130,000 in one-time donations and launched a new fan club, merch, and brand partnership wing to maintain their 20-person team. That work has clearly paid off through this new partnership with Ikea, which will introduce the character to a new audience and potentially set the stage for future collaborations.
Per the press release, the three-episode miniseries will begin with the Tiny Chef visiting an IKEA store in search of a spatula, only to find a job application. He will then become an ambassador for Ikeas new falafel balls (a vegan dish made from chickpeas, which Ikea recently added to its iconic meatball line-up) and join the brands restaurant team.
We are excited to partner with Tiny Chef, showing people that plant-based eating should be joyful, creative, and full of flavour, not just better for the planet, Lorena Lourido Gomez, Ikea Retails global food manager, said in a press release. We believe this partnership will bring a smile, while inspiring people to try something new.”
In the wake of a year full of job market uncertainty and endless layoff news, the Tiny Chefs positive work update is the win we all needed.
The Trump administration plans to deploy nearly $12 billion to create a strategic reserve of rare earth elements, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of these hard to process metals as leverage in trade talks.
The White House confirmed on Monday the start of Project Vault, which would initially be funded by a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in private capital. The minerals kept in the reserve would help to shield the manufacturers of autos, electronics, and other goods from any supply chain disruptions.
During trade talks last year, spurred by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the Chinese government restricted the exporting of rare earths that are needed for jet engines, radar systems, electric vehicles, laptops, and phones.
China represents about 70% of the worlds rare earths mining and 90% of global rare earths processing. That gave it a chokehold on the sector that has caused the U.S. to nurture alternative sources of the elements, creating a stockpile similar to the national reserve for petroleum.
The strategic reserve is expected to be the highlight of a ministerial meeting on critical minerals that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host at the State Department on Wednesday, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the event have yet to be released.
Vice President JD Vance plans to deliver a keynote address at the meeting, which officials from several dozen European, African, and Asian nations plan to attend. The meeting is also expected to include the signing of several bilateral agreements to improve and coordinate supply chain logistics.
The government-backed loan funding the reserve would be for a period of 15 years. The U.S. government has previously taken stakes in the rare earths miner MP Materials, as well as providing financial backing to the companies Vulcan Elements and USA Rare Earth.
Bloomberg News was the first to report the creation of the rare earths strategic reserve.
Trump is scheduled on Monday to meet with General Motors CEO Mary Barra and mining industry billionaire Robert Friedland.
Josh Boak and Matthew Lee, Associated Press
