A palm oil company, US financiers, and the destruction of Peru's rainforest
Ocho Sur sold 'deforestation-free' palm oil to the makers of Cheetos, Colgate, and Pepsi. Exclusive documents reveal ties between US investors and entities that cleared Amazonian rainforest.
Photographer: Florence Goupil
Ocho Sur sold 'deforestation-free' palm oil to the makers of Cheetos, Colgate, and Pepsi. Exclusive documents reveal ties between US investors and entities that cleared Amazonian rainforest.
Photographer: Florence Goupil
Silicon Valley's 'youthquake': In the age of AI, founders aren't waiting to grow up
It's the golden age of AI, and there's a new gospel in Silicon Valley: Building a startup isn't just for the chosen few. It's the new rite of passage into adulthood. Young founders have long been icons. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and others all bailed on school in their teens and 20s to build their tech empires, inspiring Gen Z founders to do the same.
Photographers: Christie Hemm Klok
It's the golden age of AI, and there's a new gospel in Silicon Valley: Building a startup isn't just for the chosen few. It's the new rite of passage into adulthood. Young founders have long been icons. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and others all bailed on school in their teens and 20s to build their tech empires, inspiring Gen Z founders to do the same.
Photographers: Christie Hemm Klok
Inside Hawaii's 'Forbidden Island'
Native Hawaiians can live on this paradise island rent-free. So long as they play by the owner's old-world rules. The Robinsons are a landlord and employer to hundreds, as they have been for more than 150 years. There isn't a person who grew up on the west side of Kauai who doesn't know who they are.
Photographer: Lila Lee
Native Hawaiians can live on this paradise island rent-free. So long as they play by the owner's old-world rules. The Robinsons are a landlord and employer to hundreds, as they have been for more than 150 years. There isn't a person who grew up on the west side of Kauai who doesn't know who they are.
Photographer: Lila Lee
A night inside a strip club near Ukraine’s front lines
As the dancers make their way to rehearsal, air-raid sirens blare throughout Kharkiv. When the city first came under siege, the alarms would have sent them rushing to the nearest underground shelter, where they'd wait out the shelling. Now, more than 500 days later, the dancers have learned to ignore the sirens. The wails have become part of their soundtrack as they prepare for showtime in Ukraine's easternmost major city, only 15 miles from the Russian border.
Photographer: Iva Sidash
As the dancers make their way to rehearsal, air-raid sirens blare throughout Kharkiv. When the city first came under siege, the alarms would have sent them rushing to the nearest underground shelter, where they'd wait out the shelling. Now, more than 500 days later, the dancers have learned to ignore the sirens. The wails have become part of their soundtrack as they prepare for showtime in Ukraine's easternmost major city, only 15 miles from the Russian border.
Photographer: Iva Sidash
Made to Order: Food-business strategies for an evolving industry
Entrepreneurs in the restaurant industry must perform a balancing act between passion and pragmatism. The realities of running a food business involve analyzing razor-thin margins, bracing for economic uncertainty, and weathering quick shifts in consumer behaviors, which are often fueled by the latest trends. Business Insider's "Made to Order" series explores the inventive strategies chefs, owners, and hospitality leaders are using to navigate this turbulent and quick-to-change market.
Photographers: Amy Lombard, Shelby Moore, Gab Bonghi and Scott Shuman
Entrepreneurs in the restaurant industry must perform a balancing act between passion and pragmatism. The realities of running a food business involve analyzing razor-thin margins, bracing for economic uncertainty, and weathering quick shifts in consumer behaviors, which are often fueled by the latest trends. Business Insider's "Made to Order" series explores the inventive strategies chefs, owners, and hospitality leaders are using to navigate this turbulent and quick-to-change market.
Photographers: Amy Lombard, Shelby Moore, Gab Bonghi and Scott Shuman
The pot farm massacre
When weed came sweeping down the plains, Oklahoma became an unregulated gold rush for cannabis entrepreneurs. Then came the mass murder.
Photographer: Mike Simmons
When weed came sweeping down the plains, Oklahoma became an unregulated gold rush for cannabis entrepreneurs. Then came the mass murder.
Photographer: Mike Simmons
Shelter skelter
Inside the bizarre, bitter feud between America's leading manufacturers of doomsday bunkers.The war between two top survival shelter firms has encompassed court battles, accusations of arson and murder, and wild tales of FBI double...
Photographer: Zerb Mellish
Inside the bizarre, bitter feud between America's leading manufacturers of doomsday bunkers.The war between two top survival shelter firms has encompassed court battles, accusations of arson and murder, and wild tales of FBI double...
Photographer: Zerb Mellish
This Ramadan, queer and transgender Muslims made their own community
Queer and trans Muslims reimagined their childhood traditions this Ramadan, Islam's month of fasting, worship, and community. Armana Khan, a transgender Muslim, said that breaking Ramadan fast alongside other queer Muslims made her feel closer to her faith and identity.
Photographer: Ramie Ahmed
Queer and trans Muslims reimagined their childhood traditions this Ramadan, Islam's month of fasting, worship, and community. Armana Khan, a transgender Muslim, said that breaking Ramadan fast alongside other queer Muslims made her feel closer to her faith and identity.
Photographer: Ramie Ahmed
Returning Ukraine's dead
Photographers: Christopher Occhicone
Meet the 23-year-old investigators tasked with finding Ukraine's missing soldiers. In the back room of a morgue on the outskirts of Kyiv, the stench of rotten flesh hangs heavy in the air, its source a large white bag lying on a metal table. The mortician opens it, and inside is a smaller black bag containing a pair of mud-covered military boots, a mummified body, and a skull. This is all that is left of a Ukrainian soldier returned from captivity in Russia. Now begins the grueling work of finding out who he was.
Photographers: Christopher Occhicone
For God, for country, for rain
How 24-year-old cloud-seeding wunderkind Augustus Doricko plans to save the world. With his new cloud-seeding company, Rainmaker, Augustus Doricko has launched a God-fearing, Zyn-loving tech hub in El Segundo, California.
Photographer: Jett Lara
How 24-year-old cloud-seeding wunderkind Augustus Doricko plans to save the world. With his new cloud-seeding company, Rainmaker, Augustus Doricko has launched a God-fearing, Zyn-loving tech hub in El Segundo, California.
Photographer: Jett Lara
The world in one borough
How nine immigrant-owned restaurants are sharing their owners’ cultures and creating community in Queens, one of the most diverse places in America.
Photographer: Daniel Terna
How nine immigrant-owned restaurants are sharing their owners’ cultures and creating community in Queens, one of the most diverse places in America.
Photographer: Daniel Terna
The professors turned porn stars
They filmed themselves having sex with some of the biggest names in porn. Their university was not pleased. Joe Gow and Carmen Wilson pursued porn as a hobby. Now they're fighting a battle over academic freedom.
Photographer: Simone Lueck
They filmed themselves having sex with some of the biggest names in porn. Their university was not pleased. Joe Gow and Carmen Wilson pursued porn as a hobby. Now they're fighting a battle over academic freedom.
Photographer: Simone Lueck
Illegal Eviction Complaints Rise As Police Fail to Enforce
Tenants facing illegal evictions often call police for help but spotty laws, training, and enforcement mean landlords rarely face penalties. Over the past year, Business Insider looked into illegal lockouts in major US cities. Few cities track them. But police receive thousands of emergency calls.Photographers: Bridget Bennett and Alyssa Pointer, Callaghan O'Hare
How Palm Beach is becoming the life of the party under Trump
Nightclubs are bumping, traffic is snarled, and top restaurants are booked as world leaders and power brokers flock to Trump's "Winter White House." The sunny seaside resort town may never be the same.
Photographer: Martina Tuaty
Nightclubs are bumping, traffic is snarled, and top restaurants are booked as world leaders and power brokers flock to Trump's "Winter White House." The sunny seaside resort town may never be the same.
Photographer: Martina Tuaty
Was mass hysteria behind the mysterious case of 227 middle school students fainting last fall?
The students were hundreds of miles apart. Drugs were blamed at first. But now, researchers believe the truth was far stranger: It was likely one of the first cases of mass hysteria spreading online.
Photographer: Eva Alicia Lépiz
The students were hundreds of miles apart. Drugs were blamed at first. But now, researchers believe the truth was far stranger: It was likely one of the first cases of mass hysteria spreading online.
Photographer: Eva Alicia Lépiz
The gutting of the Eighth Amendment
The Eighth Amendment, which bars "cruel and unusual punishments," was intended by the founders as a bulwark against prisoner abuse. Over the years it came to mean any treatment that "shocked the conscience." But prisoners and civil-rights attorneys have said that it is now nearly impossible to win such claims in court.
Photographers: Shelby Tauber, Nick Oxford, Courtney Coles, Kaylee Greenlee, Alyssa Schukar, Patience Zalanga
The Eighth Amendment, which bars "cruel and unusual punishments," was intended by the founders as a bulwark against prisoner abuse. Over the years it came to mean any treatment that "shocked the conscience." But prisoners and civil-rights attorneys have said that it is now nearly impossible to win such claims in court.
Photographers: Shelby Tauber, Nick Oxford, Courtney Coles, Kaylee Greenlee, Alyssa Schukar, Patience Zalanga
How the 'junk science' of parental alienation infiltrated American family courts and allowed accused child abusers to win custody of their kids.
Photographer: Maggie Shannon
Photographer: Maggie Shannon
She's 93 and still job searching. Why older Americans work, even if they're sick.
America's oldest workers keep clocking in — many despite health issues and disabilities. And some can't afford to retire. The entire US population is aging, too, suggesting that older people are more likely to stay in the workforce in the coming years. In a decade, estimates suggest, there will be more Americans 65 and older than below 18 — a flip of the current distribution of age, and a challenge when it comes to keeping an economy growing.
Photographers: Matt Martian Williams and Melyssa St. Michael
America's oldest workers keep clocking in — many despite health issues and disabilities. And some can't afford to retire. The entire US population is aging, too, suggesting that older people are more likely to stay in the workforce in the coming years. In a decade, estimates suggest, there will be more Americans 65 and older than below 18 — a flip of the current distribution of age, and a challenge when it comes to keeping an economy growing.
Photographers: Matt Martian Williams and Melyssa St. Michael