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A rescue team dog, like this one, found the skier over two hours after the avalanche occurred.

AAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A father and son went skiing in Breckenridge, CO Saturday and got caught in an avalanche. 
The father was able to free himself and called 911, but his son was found dead two hours later. 
Deadly avalanches are becoming more common as a result of climate change. 

A father was unable to help rescue his son after the two were swept up in an avalanche while skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado. 

The two had been backcountry skiing at some 11,600 feet, when, at 1 p.m., packed snow cascaded down the side of the mountain, partially burying the father and fully burying the son, according to a Colorado Avalanche Information Center report released Sunday. 

The father was able to free himself and searched for his son to no avail. He moved to find cell service and called 911, but his son was found dead by a rescue dog at 3 p.m. after authorities arrived, the report stated. 

The site of the avalanche.

Colorado Avalanche Information Center

The two skiers’ names were not publically released, but the Denver Post identified them as father and son. 

The son was one of two to die this season in an avalanche, according to the information center. 

Deadly avalanche accidents in Colorado are bound to become more common in the changing climate, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center Ethan Greene told CBS in November, because there is greater fluctuation in temperature throughout the ski season, so there are more “rain-on-snow” events even during the coldest months of the year, making avalanches more likely. 

While avalanches used to be common for a specific and narrow period of time each year, they are now happening throughout the season, according to CBS’ report. 

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People look at literature for sale at the Boulder Public Library.

Jeremy Papasso/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera via Getty Images

A Boulder, Colorado library closed after testing revealed meth contamination in the bathrooms.
After a spike in reports of people smoking in the bathrooms, several employees got sick.
The contaminated areas require professional clean-up and the bathrooms may never reopen, the city said.

A public library in Boulder, Colorado closed after testing revealed methamphetamine contamination in bathrooms and seating areas.

The library first closed on December 20, 2022. In a Wednesday update, the City of Boulder said that further testing had identified “nearly all” the contamination was on the surfaces and in the air ducts of public-facing bathrooms. Meth was also found in some high-traffic seating areas, according to the statement.

The city said these areas would require professional clean-up, and the furniture in the seating areas may be replaced with something that can be cleaned regularly.

“It is not yet clear if, and when, public restrooms will be brought back,” the update said.

The library building could reopen on Tuesday at the earliest.

“This is truly a sad situation and represents the impact of a widespread epidemic in our country,” David Farnan, the city’s library director, said in a statement.

Crystal Methamphetamine (Crystal Meth).

REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

The city first ordered testing after a spike in reports of people smoking in the library’s public restrooms, and two incidents where employees reported symptoms consistent with exposure to meth. Medical staff evaluated and cleared those employees, Farnan said.

Symptoms of meth exposure include nausea, vomiting, headaches, confusion, and respiratory irritation.

“Meth contamination is not primarily transmitted through air. The issue is the residue on surfaces that individuals can come into direct contact with, through touch, and then transmit on their skin and clothing to other surfaces,” the update said.

According to the city, risk of serious health effects from one-off exposures is low.

“Nonetheless, the results in the impacted areas are troubling,” the update said.

The city said it was awaiting a full report and results from the contractor it hired for environmental testing. With that information, the city said it would confer with its health department to plan clean-up and reopening, and release the results within a week.

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A Russian Su-25 at its base after being struck by a man-portable air-defense missile over Ukraine in March 2022.

Russian Ministry of Defense

Russia’s air force has struggled in combat over Ukraine
It entered the war lacking fully trained pilots and used the ones it has poorly, a British think tank says.
Other decisions by Russian commanders are setting the air force up for future problems.

The Russian air force lacks fully trained pilots and has made poor use of the few good pilots that it has, according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

“Ukrainian assessments concluded that given limited flight hours and the practice of training being delivered in units, the VKS entered the conflict with fewer than 100 fully trained and current pilots,” the report said, referring to the Russian air force by its initials.

But Moscow is doing something even more dangerous for the long-term health of Russian airpower. It is committing instructor pilots to battle, which means that pilots being trained now and in the future will have fewer experienced mentors.

A Russian pilot at the Army 2022 forum near Moscow in August.

avel Pavlov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“The mobilization of trainers from their flying schools to frontline formations has also hampered the ability to generate new pilots,” according to the report, which covers events between February and July. “The Ukrainian military has noted a rise in both very young and very old pilots in the VKS, with ageing pilots returned to frontline service.”

It is normal practice in many air forces for experienced pilots to be rotated from frontline duties to training units, where they can pass expertise to rookies. One reason Nazi Germany lost World War II was because a desperate Luftwaffe committed its instructor pilots to combat operations, which led to a progressive decline in pilot quality.

Russia, too, is relentlessly committing its experienced pilots to combat.

“With a military culture that assigns the most dangerous missions to the most experienced crews, attrition in the VKS has fallen disproportionately on this cadre, reducing the overall effectiveness of the force and its ability to train new pilots,” the RUSI report says.

That’s one reason Moscow has sought the return of veteran pilots in negotiations over prisoner exchanges with Ukraine.

The tail of a downed Russian Su-25 attack jet on display in Kyiv in May.

Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

It is possible for an air force to have well-trained pilots but otherwise be hobbled by obsolete aircraft or lack of spare parts. However, an air force that lacks qualified pilots is likely to have other problems.

Sure enough, the RUSI report pointed to issues with Russian ground crews. Among the most glaring was a failure to remove covers from aircraft sensors prior to combat operations over Ukraine — “an easily avoided mistake which has a severe impact on effectiveness and should be considered negligence. This suggests challenges in discipline and junior leadership among maintenance crews in the VKS,” the report says.

Another sign of poor discipline is the habit of stacking munitions next to aircraft parked at Russian air bases. With Ukraine now using drones to strike airfields hundreds of miles inside Russia, the failure to store ammunition safely could mean the loss of more precious aircraft and pilots.

How badly are all these problems undercutting Russian airpower? RUSI believes they have “corresponded with a significant reduction in the scale and complexity of VKS air operations over Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.”

An Su-57 fighter jet takes off the 15th MAKS air show in Russia in July 2021.

Mihail Siergiejevicz/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Still more ominous are the implications for future Russian air operations over Ukraine. With a peace treaty or ceasefire appearing unlikely in the near future, the war could drag on for years, which may mean Russia will wage a protracted air campaign.

Long air campaigns – including the Battle of Britain, the Allied bomber offensive over Germany, and the US bombing of North Vietnam – required careful management to avoid wearing out aircraft and aircrews.

Russia needs to maintain a flow of properly trained pilots, as well as competent and disciplined ground crews. If it squanders its pool of veteran pilots for short-term gains, the skies of Ukraine will become even more unfriendly for Russian airpower.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master’s in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance’s son, Slater Vance, quickly posted an apology about participating in the TikTok trend.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Slater Vance joined in on a TikTok trend where users lie about celebrity deaths to their parents.
He then apologized for lying about the death of Bassett’s Black Panther co-star, Michael B. Jordan. 
Many social media users have called the trend distasteful. 

It was another TikTok trend that went too far. 

That’s what 16-year-old Slater Vance learned last week, after joining in on it using his own famous parents: actors Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance. 

The trend involves users pranking their families on camera, pretending that celebrities — usually ones beloved to their parents — have died. The trend grew in popularity over the holiday season as families gathered and children flocked home for vacation, with TikTok users temporarily bluffing in living rooms, kitchens, and grocery stores across the world.

As of January 1, the hashtag “celebritydeathprank” had over 174 million views on the app, with “deadcelebrityprank” clocking in nearly as many. 

Slater Vance joined in by pretending to read the news that actor Michael B. Jordan had died at the age of 35 years old, which Bassett reacted to in apparent shock and distress. 

Social media users were quick to note that Jordan actually being a colleague of Bassett’s — they co-starred in 2018’s Black Panther and its sequel together — might have escalated the prank from distasteful to harmful. Chadwick Boseman, another young Black Panther co-star of Bassett’s, died of colon cancer in 2020, news that also came abruptly to the film’s cast and crew. 

The elder Vance has also worked with Jordan, with the two executive producing the show “61st Street” on AMC. 

Vance has since removed the video from TikTok, and posted a remorseful apology about creating the video.

“I would like to apologize for taking part in such a harmful trend,” he said on Saturday. “I apologize to Michael Jordan’s entire family, extended family directly because he’s an idol of mine, and taking part in a trend like this is completely disrespectful.” 

Even as many continue to enjoy and share the videos, some social media users were prophetic about the trend’s potential to go south as it did with Vance, including Grammy-winner Finneas O’Connell. 

“I haven’t laughed once at any of your videos of you telling your parents somebody died when they didn’t actually die,” O’Connell, who often collaborates with his sister, Billie Eilish, said in his own TikTok video. “It’s mean. Your parents are showing vulnerability for a brief second and you’re laughing at them. It’s mean. Stop.”  

Twitter users say that Slater Vance’s New Year’s Eve TikTok may have killed the viral prank, which has seen the names of Jon Bon Jovi, Oprah Winfrey, and Cher taken in vain. 

“Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance just put an end to that TikTok trend and we owe them a debt of gratitude,” one user said. 

Slater Vance expressed his wish that others could learn from him. 

“I own this mistake and hope this can be a teaching lesson to anyone who uses social media as a tool and a source of entertainment to truly understand that their actions can have consequences that extend beyond you,” he said. 

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President Donald Trump greets newly-appointed Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey before signing the Education Federalism Executive Order in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 26, 2017.

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File

You don’t need a permit to carry guns in half of US states. 
Alabama’s permitless carry law went into effect with the start of the new year. 
Over the past two decades, gun control laws have weakened at the state and federal levels. 

With the start of the new year, it became significantly easier for Alabamians to legally carry guns.

The state passed a law last year allowing people to carry concealed handguns without state permits, a change that went into effect on January 1. 

The law signaled a gun rights landmark for the US: Now, half of the 50 states allow people to carry handguns without permits. 

It’s a mark of how gun control rights have expanded within the US over the past two decades. In 2010, for instance, only two states allowed people to carry guns without permits. In the 13 years since, however, almost 24 states have passed similar laws, 11 of which were greenlit in the last three years, The Huffington Post’s Roque Planas reported Sunday. 

State governments have loosened gun control over the past 20 years, even as activism in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and others ramped up. More than 600 mass shootings transpired in the US in 2022, making it the second-highest annual total for mass shootings on record, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit tracking gun violence. 

There were more mass shootings in the last half decade than in any other five-year period going back to 1966, the Marshall Project found last year. 

One recent study from left-leaning public policy think tank Center for American Progress found that homicide rates were higher in states with weaker gun laws. 

Alabama lawmakers in particular faced pressure from pro-gun advocates and groups such as the National Rifle Association to pass the new law. 

It’s proved politically popular for many Republicans across the country. Over 100 television ads from GOP Midterm candidates have used guns as talking points or “visual motifs” last year, according to a New York Times analysis. 

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey highlighted her support for the law during her re-election campaign, which included an ad showing Ivey at her desk at the Alabama Capitol pulling a handgun out of her purse, followed by lipstick and a cell phone. 

“Lipstick, an iPhone, maybe a little Smith & Wesson .38,” she says.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that the US Constitution protects an individual’s right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense in a 6-3 decision that dramatically expanded Second Amendment rights — a move that the Department of Justice opposed. 

Guns have become a part of political protests, too, such as at an anti-trans rally attended by the Proud Boys, which the Southern Law Poverty Center classifies as a hate group, last year.

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This photo provided by Monroe County (Pa.) Correctional Facility shows Bryan Kohberger.

Monroe County (Pa.) Correctional Facility via Associated Press

Idaho killing suspect Bryan Kohberger was arrested in connection with the four students’ murders Friday. 
Kohberger allegedly tracked the victims’ phones before the killings, a source told the Daily Mail. 
A local brewery owner told NBC that Kohberger was known to be “creepy,” to female employees.

More details have emerged about possible links between the suspect in the murder of four Idaho college students and his alleged victims. 

Bryan Kohberger, 28, who is currently in a Pennsylvania jail, was arrested Friday on first-degree murder charges in the deaths of four University of Idaho students, and one count of burglary. Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found dead in their home over a month ago by two other roommates, who police said likely slept through the killing. 

The Washington State University criminal justice graduate student, who lives just miles from the crime scene, was connected to the killings through DNA and his car, officials told CNN. 

But some connected to Kohberger, a Pennsylvania native, claimed he has a history of lashing out at women, followed the victims before the killings, and was careful to avoid police after the murders, according to reports in the New York Post, the Daily Mail and NBC this weekend. 

A source who is a cousin of one of Kohberger’s childhood schoolmates, the Daily Mail reported, said the suspect allegedly tracked the four victims’ phones for weeks before the killing. Police have not confirmed the detail.

After the killings, Kohberger traveled back to Pennsylvania, where he was staying at his parents’ home.  A Pennsylvania police officer was among those who followed Kohberger leading up to the arrest, the source told the Mail, and observed that Kohberger wore gloves each time he went to the local supermarket in a possible attempt to avoid getting caught. 

He also allegedly was “creepy” toward women before, Jordan Serulneck, who knows the suspect told NBC. Kohberger was a patron at Serulneck’s brewery, Seven Sirens Brewing Company, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, not far from DeSales University, where Kohberger got a master’s last year. 

Kohberger was flagged as problematic at Seven Sirens after female employees and customers repeatedly complained that he was harassing them. He allegedly asked them where they lived and who they were there with, then would get angry when they did not respond, Serulneck told NBC. 

Kohberger also once called one of the employees a bitch for not answering him, Serulneck said.

When he was a master’s student at DeSales, he reportedly researched the emotions of individuals committing crimes. Criminologist Casey Jordan told CNN that it seems Kohberger was simply “obsessed with crime.” 

“From the outset, we had to understand this was an organized killer,” she told the network. 

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Wally McNamee/Getty; Photo 12/Getty; Brandon Bell /Getty; Michael M. Santiago/Getty; Anna Kim/Insider

The Soviet Union became a gerontocracy in its final years, contributing to its collapse.
Historians say it’s a cautionary tale for the US, whose leaders have been in power for decades.
One Soviet historian told Insider these US politicians “seem to hold on to office like grim death.”
Read more from Insider’s “Red, White, and Gray” series.

President Ronald Reagan once joked that Soviet leaders “kept dying” on him during his first few years in office.

Though Reagan at the time was the oldest president to ever enter the White House — he was 69 at his inauguration in 1981 — the US didn’t hold a candle to the Soviets when it came to geriatric leaders.

In 1981, the average age of the powerful 14-man Politburo that ruled over the USSR was 69 — a solid 13 years more senior than the average age of Reagan’s Cabinet that same year.

And Reagan was right: Soviet leaders had consistently died on the job. Leonid Brezhnev, who led the USSR for 18 years, died at 75 in 1982. He was followed by Yuri Andropov, who died in 1984 at 69. Andropov’s successor, Konstantin Chernenko, died in 1985 at 73.

Fast-forward to 2022.

The United States’ leadership has more parallels with the latter days of the USSR than those leaders might care to admit. President Joe Biden is 80. His predecessor, Donald Trump, entered office at 70 and six years later is considered a frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is 82. The average age in the Senate is 63, and the average age in the House is 58. Meanwhile, the median age in the US is 38. When it comes to age, Congress is not especially representative of the general population.

Yelena Biberman, a political scientist and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, told Insider that the age of an individual politician should be inconsequential because “mental and physical acuity varies greatly between individuals at old age.” But she added that it’s “very concerning” when there’s “an entire cohort of very old politicians at the highest levels of the federal government.”

During the final decades of the USSR, its corrupt, aging leaders embraced policies that derailed the Soviet economy as they continued to live in opulence. They refused to embrace large-scale changes and helped set the next generation up for failure.

Historians and political scientists say the Soviet Union’s morphing into a gerontocracy toward its end contributed to its demise, arguing that this serves as a cautionary tale for other countries — particularly the US, at a time when many of its top leaders are well beyond the age of retirement typical in other fields.

Insider’s “Red, White, and Gray” series explores the costs, benefits, and dangers of life in a democracy helmed by those of advanced age, where issues of profound importance to the nation’s youth and future — technology, civil rights, energy, the environment — are largely in the hands of those whose primes have passed.

Recent history from across oceans offers insight.

‘Detached’

The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow on May 9, 1981.

Laski Diffusion/Getty Images

When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he was the fourth leader the Soviet Union had seen in three years. At 54, he was also the youngest Soviet leader in years. Within six years, he would oversee the downfall of a superpower.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR was largely controlled by old men who were increasingly detached from the public and whose calcified rule left Gorbachev with a mountain of problems that he ultimately failed to overcome. Gorbachev desperately tried to reform the Soviet system via perestroika and glasnost, vying to pump life into the stagnant economy by introducing elements of free-market capitalism while opening the door to increased freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

But the changes could not repair the damage. As Gorbachev put it in his resignation address in December 1991, “the old system collapsed before the new one had time to begin working, and the crisis in the society became even more acute.”

Biberman, a Russia scholar who’s an associate professor at Skidmore College, said the Soviet gerontocracy wasn’t the main reason the USSR dissolved but was intrinsically tied to the problems underpinning the collapse.

Economic stagnation and “unsustainable levels of military spending” were probably far more to blame, Biberman said, but there was also a general sense that “the world-historical mission that motivated the early cadres of the Soviet state” wasn’t worth believing in anymore. It made Soviet politics “a very stale affair which didn’t inspire the younger generations and ossified the ruling caste in place,” Biberman said.

Biberman pointed to similarities in the US system now.

“There is an aging — and already quite old — cadre of American politicians at the federal level who seem to hold on to office like grim death,” Biberman said, adding that this “stagnant caste” of US politicians has been “quite detached from the material concerns of ordinary citizens since perhaps the end of the Cold War.”

Much like the Soviet Union’s leaders, these politicians — on both sides of the aisle — aren’t offering society much in the way of “new ideas or political motivation,” Biberman added.

Susan Grunewald, a historian of the Soviet Union at Louisiana State University, told Insider that she’d be hesitant to directly compare the US and USSR but that “you can certainly see parallels.”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Soviet Union or the United States — there’s always a clash” between older and younger generations, Grunewald said.

The older generation is grounded in years of experience and years in power, meaning those people “don’t necessarily want to change or radically alter the status quo,” Grunewald said. “And the youth has a different life experience. They have different approaches. They look at everything with a different perspective. And so naturally there’s going to be a disagreement.”

‘They clung to power’

Vladislav Zubok, a top Soviet historian at the London School of Economics who grew up in the USSR, told Insider that there was no single thing that led to the fall of the Soviet Union. But he emphasized that during that era of gerontocracy, “we were all aware of something going deeply wrong.”

“It looked like the generation of Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and all of them — they clung to power. They were afraid to let it go,” said Zubok, the author of “Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union.”

The Soviet government in those days was a subject of ridicule, Zubok said. “When people began to realize, for instance, that Brezhnev couldn’t quite speak properly, he quickly became a comical person,” he added.

Brezhnev’s health took a turn for the worse after a stroke in 1976, but he remained in power for years. The historian Roy Medvedev claimed in 1988 that Brezhnev had suffered clinical death in 1976 and went on to rule in a daze for the rest of his tenure.

“Many people in his entourage who were influential but totally wallowing in corruption needed Brezhnev to appear from time to time in public as at least a formal head of state. They literally led him around by the hand,” Medvedev said at the time.

Zubok said the Soviet gerontocracy was largely derived from the generation who fought World War II and felt they had a “special credibility” to rule, but by clogging up the system for so long they made it difficult to prepare the leaders of tomorrow. They also resisted reforms that might have improved citizens’ quality of life, a period that Gorbachev called the “era of stagnation.”

By the time Gorbachev took over, Zubok said, he’d “inherited so many systemic problems converging at the same time.”

Gorbachev’s lack of experience created within him the impression that he was there to change history and made him more willing to take risks, Zubok said, adding: “He began to experiment without sufficient knowledge of how these experiments might backfire but with great idealism. And that did become a central factor in the demise of the Soviet Union.”

‘Pernicious role of money’

People hold signs and cheer during a rally calling for an end to corporate money in politics on January 21, 2015, in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Though the political systems of the US and the USSR are drastically different, Zubok underscored that what happened in the Soviet Union still serves as a warning. The fact the US is a democracy makes it even “more painful” to see it move toward being gerontocratic, Zubok said, laying much of the blame on the “pernicious role of money” in the seemingly nonstop cycle of elections.

With no congressional term limits, incumbents in Congress are offered ample opportunity to consolidate power and influence. This often translates to congressional incumbents raising more money than their opponents and helps explain why they win most races each election.

For the past 40 years, incumbent reelection rates in the US House have hovered between 85% and 98%, according to the nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets. In the Senate, reelection rates for officeholders have ranged from 75% to 96%. And while some lawmakers choose to quit in their primes, others stay well into advanced age amid questions about their abilities to carry out their duties.

In short, it’s very difficult to defeat a congressional candidate who’s already in Congress. And it’s a large part of the reason some congressional lawmakers remain in their seats for decades.

Even with “periodic elections” in the US, Zubok said, it’s still ending up with “the same kind of people who grow old” in power. Biden is just one example of current leaders in Washington who’ve served in powerful roles for decades. He became a senator at 30 in 1973; half a century later, he’s in the White House. Pelosi, meanwhile, has been in Congress for 35 years.

‘People who don’t know when to go’

Brezhnev’s 75th-birthday celebration at the Grand Kremlin Palace in December 1981.

Laski Diffusion/Getty Images

Fiona Hill, who served as the top Russia advisor on the National Security Council in the Trump administration, said that “of course” the gerontocracy in the Soviet Union contributed to its ruin.

But she also cautioned against writing off the elderly or succumbing to ageism, saying that “some of our greatest thinkers have come into their own late in life.”

Even so, Hill said that in the US, some groups seem to “have been bypassed in the political system,” and Americans have to ask why that is.

Joe Biden in 1978, when he was a US senator representing Delaware.

Getty Images

Hill said the issue with politicians like Biden is not so much their age but how long they’ve been in power, which is why many voters turned against political dynasties like the Bush family or the Clintons in recent election cycles. “People were looking for something fresh and new,” she said, emphasizing that the problem is the “ossification of the system.”

Political institutions in the US “just seem to be dominated by people who don’t know when to go” and appear to view their positions as “lifetime appointments,” Hill said, creating the perception that it’s “an arena that is so out of touch with reality, and increasingly so.”

A system with clogged arteries

A gerontocratic government is not necessarily an inherent sign of democratic decline — but in a country like the US, it can point to deep flaws in the system.

“The American gerontocracy is composed of a group that has for decades refused to relinquish power,” Biberman said. “A healthy mix of generations in political office would have its advantages.”

Countries with younger leaders have been applauded for their approaches to major issues. Finland, led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin, 36, was ranked the happiest country in the world for the fifth consecutive year in 2022. As economic powerhouses with older leaders like the US struggled with their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, 42, was lauded for her measured approach that helped prevent the virus’ spread.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin arrives for a European Union summit in Brussels on July 17, 2020.

Photo by Pool/Getty Images

That’s not to say that countries with older leaders cannot be innovative or that nations with young leaders are always prosperous. But there are few examples in the past century of countries ruled by a gerontocracy where the leadership adopted reforms that increased economic competitiveness or improved their citizens’ quality of life.

Now, countries with older leaders clinging to power tend to be autocratic. The Chinese leader Xi Jinping, for example, turned 69 in June, breaking the customary age limit of 68 for top leaders in the Communist Party. He’s overseen the elimination of presidential term limits and is on the verge of an unprecedented third term. That Xi broke from China’s past efforts to prevent gerontocracy is one of many signs of the country becoming increasingly authoritarian under his rule. It’s clear he intends to rule for life.

A country led by people who have been in power for decades — regardless of whether its government is authoritarian or democratic — points to underlying problems that can induce stagnation and instability.

“It shows that the system does not perform well, that the arteries get clogged at some point,” Zubok said. “Instead of pushing new blood up upwards, they’re clogged.”

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The Mexican fast-food giant has some new menu items that McDonald’s fans may find awfully familiar (even if it’s not intentional).

Taco Bell has built its business, at least partially around the idea of not being McDonald’s (MCD) – Get Free Report or any of the other fast-food burger chains. The Yum Brands (YUM) – Get Free Report chain even used the phrase “think outside the bun” as a tagline and it launched its breakfast offering by making fun of the Egg McMuffin and other Golden Arches classics.

The Mexican chain has not been above borrowing things from its burger chain rivals. Its Nacho Fries are, well, fries. Yes, they have a bit of a spin to make them fit the Taco Bell menu, but they’re just french fries with some Mexican spices and nacho cheese dipping sauces.

Still, Taco Bell has resisted blatantly copying McDonald’s. It doesn’t offer a spin on a burger or its own variation of the Big Mac. Now, however, the fast food chain has been testing some new burritos and fans are questioning whether the items are actually what they’re being marketed as.

Instead, some people have suggested that Taco Bell’s new $2 Chicken Poblano Caesar Burrito seems a lot like a beloved McDonald’s classic that many fans want the chain to bring back.

Shutterstock

McDonald’s Fans Miss the Snack Wrap

The McDonald’s Snack Wrap was an attempt by the chain to add a menu item for people who were hungry but did not want a full meal. The line first apeared in 2006 and it was a pretty simple product — a tortilla filled with a Chicken Select (a piece of fried chicken), lettuce, cheese, and ranch sauce.

Snack Wraps have been off the chain’s U.S. menu since 2016 when franchisees pushed to get rid of them because they were complicated to make. It’s not that it was actually hard to make them, but they required processes that slowed down the overall kitchen.

McDonald’s has teased its fans multiple time recently hinting at a return for the Snack Wrap. In November, it made a Twitter joke about getting Taylor Swift tickets, “its easier to order snack wraps than it is to get these tickets.” that seemed to tease a return. That followed an informal social media poll earlier last year where the chain simply Tweeted “Bring back ____.”

Snack Wraps was one of the, if not the, most-requested items in that very popular Twitter vote. Now, it seems like Taco Bell has knocked off the Snack Wrap, even if it;s calling the new item a buritto.

Taco Bell Fans Clap Back 

Taco Bell customers have taken issue with the skimpy Chicken Poblano Caesar Burrito being called a buritto, Eat This, Not That reported.

“At what point does a burrito become a wrap?” asks reddit user u/FileError214. “This is just a salad wrapped up in a tortilla.”

“I don’t know where the line is but this seems firmly in the wrap category,” u/StockAL3Xj added.

“I don’t dislike Caesar salad wraps, I just think it’s silly to call them burritos,” said another.

The Chipotle Ranch Grilled Chicken Burrito, another $2 item Taco Bell has tested in select locations, has been directly called a take on a McDonald’s Snack Wrap by some on social media.

“Holy Sh*t…the Chipotle Ranch Grilled Chicken Burrito is 🔥🔥🔥…Reminds me of the old McDonalds snack wraps,” u/895501 posted on Reddit.

That comment touched off a long chain noting how similar the Taco Bell offering is while also clamoring for McDonald’s to bring Snack Wraps back.

“I know this is a Taco Bell sub but man do I miss the crispy ranch snack wrap…,” KaterWaiter wrote.

Another commenter noted not just similarity, but that McDonald’s could easily bring the Snack Wrap back.

“It’s even worse because mcdonalds overseas has them, we just don’t deserve good things ,” howardtheduckdoe wrote.

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TheStreet 

KFC customers maybe surprised at the change which takes away a really popular item.

While Yum Brands (YUM) – Get Free Report Taco Bell gets more attention for its seemingly endless menu drama, sister brand KFC actually sort of paved the way. It used gimmick products like the KFC Double Down, a sandwich that used chicken patties instead of buns, to get a lof of media attention.

In many ways, the chicken chain ushered in the current era of stunts that make people wonder whether the chain is serious. The KFC chicken-flavored lip balm is a key example of that where it was real, but it’s hard to think the chain was doing anything more than trying to get media and social media attention.

Now, the fast food giant has another change planned and fans of the brand may not like it. KFC plans to start the year by phasing out a popular menu item in favor of another one that customers may not like as much.   

Matthew West/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

KFC Makes a Big Menu Change

KFC is making a switch and dropping its Popcorn Chicken, from the menu. The snack-size chicken menu item has been around since 1992. It was dropped and brought back a couple of times. The popcorn chicken will again be phased out of the KFC menu in the beginning of this year. 

KFC is replacing the Popcorn Chicken with Chicken Nuggets made with all white meat, according to a tip given to The Fast Food Post. The Chicken Nugget is bigger than the Popcorn Chicken.

Popcorn Chicken has a lot of fans and there are some practical reasons why some people, especially parents, may like it. Kids have bite-size chicken and parents may not have to cut the Popcorn Chicken in half like they may do with a bigger Chicken Nugget.

If the national rollout is the same as the test market, the new Chicken Nuggets will be sold in three options, 8, 12 or 36 pieces. None of which would be considered “snack size” like the Popcorn Chicken. 

KFC has dropped Popcorn Chicken before so it’s possible this could be a temporary change. The fast-food chain has also dropped its fan-favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie.

KFC Menu Changes Continue

KFC has found yet another way to anger its customer base over in Australia. The Aussie KFC has the Zinger box, which has come with a Zinger burger, three wings, hot chips, potato with gravy plus a beverage.

“Since adding ‘Hot and Crispy’ to our permanent menu, we’ve put a new spin on our Zinger Box, offering it with two pieces of Hot and Crispy instead of three Wicked Wings,” per a spokesperson for KFC to News.com.au.

This change has sparked an outcry, and KFC responded, “But fear not, Zinger Box fans, you can still get your hands on the classic Zinger Box with three Wicked Wings if that’s the way you swing. Just ask our friendly team or update in the KFC App.”

Fast-food chains have been tweaking their meal deal and value menu offerings based on rising food costs. This has been common in the U.S. where multiple chains have tweaked prices and/or changed quantities of certain items in various deals. 

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Business Insider 

Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an event at Mar-a-Lago on November 15, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Donald Trump is the only Republican who has made a ’24 run official.
But many others have been floating the possibility of entering the GOP contest.
From Pence to Haley, here’s how Republicans are laying the groundwork for presidential runs.

It’s beginning to look a lot like 2016. 

Former President Donald Trump is the only Republican so far who has announced a 2024 presidential run, but numerous others are signaling that they’re toying with the same idea. 

They’re doing all the things they’re supposed to do to test their chances: Visiting early primary states, writing books, showing up on the Sunday shows, campaigning with other Republicans ahead of the 2022 midterms, and weighing in publicly on President Joe Biden’s policies — and even Trump’s latest controversies. 

The next step will be hiring teams in Iowa and New Hampshire, Doug Heye, a longtime GOP aide and strategist, told Insider.

“You have got a stable of people who are essentially putting themselves all in the starting gates and all have their own timetable about when and if they decide to run,” he said. 

December would be a “frustrating month” for political watchers because “no one is going to move that much,” said Kristin Davison, vice president and general consultant at Axiom Strategies. But hopefuls would be floating what she called “trial balloons” — in which they publicly raise the prospect of a run to see how donors and the press will react. 

Whoever seizes the nomination will likely face Biden, though he has yet to formally declare his candidacy. But, Heye said, “it’s a real possibility” that the GOP lineup will be large like it was in 2016.

The stakes for losing the nomination aren’t all bad, even if Republicans might come out of it with an unforgettable Trump nickname. After all, one of the people running for president could end up getting chosen as running mate or get a seat on the new president’s Cabinet.

And there are other perks to formally seeking the White House, such as raising one’s profile and having a better shot at the presidency during a future cycle. Candidates could also wind up selling a lot more books or leave politics to get a prime TV or radio show. 

“It’s a long, difficult process,” Heye said, “and you’re more likely to lose than not.”

Trump’s legal, political, and personal liabilities have been piling up in the last month, leading many in the GOP to say the party needs not just a fresh face but to be led by a candidate who can actually win. 

Insider identified 17 people who could seek the Republican nomination in 2024, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Tim Scott of South Carolina who are up for re-election this cycle and will therefore be in campaign mode anyway. Each will have to effectively answer the “why I’m running for president” question and find their lane in the party — which will inevitably include defining, or redefining, their relationship with Trump. 

“I don’t think you can discount any of them at this point,” Heye said. “It’s too early to determine who outside of Trump is a frontrunner.” 

Scroll through to see the lawmakers listed here in alphabetical order. 

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