• New York Fashion Week runs from February 11 to February 16 this year.
• Celebrities including Anne Hathaway, Pamela Anderson, and Elle Fanning have attended so far.
• The best looks have sparkled and stood out, while some of the worst were mismatched and understated.

The best of fall and winter fashion is officially on display in the Big Apple.

The first New York Fashion Week of 2026 kicked off on February 11 and will continue through February 16.

Designers like Ralph Lauren and Coach have showcased their new styles, while celebrities, including Anne Hathaway, have made fashionable appearances at runway shows.

Here’s a look at the best and worst A-list looks we’ve seen.

Anne Hathaway was stunning in a black Ralph Lauren gown.

She attended the designer’s fall runway show wearing a high-neck halter gown made from gauze-like fabric.

It wrapped around her body, creating a subtle see-through effect, and its skirt extended into a short train.

She wore it with a fuzzy jacket that she carried around her waist.

Pamela Anderson’s black-and-white outfit missed the mark.

She made an appearance at the Tory Burch fall/winter runway show wearing a preppy look from the brand. It comprised a white pleated skirt with a black, button-up blouse tucked in.

Unfortunately, the two pieces sat loosely on Anderson and appeared too formal.

Her leather belt, sheer tights, pointed heels, and black purse added some fun to the look, but the base layers were ultimately too simple for them to work.

Lili Reinhart was chic in a statement skirt.

While entering the Ralph Lauren show, Reinhart was photographed wearing a brown tweed blazer as a top with a thick brown belt holding it closed at the waist.

She also wore a long black skirt covered in leather fringe, which added texture and contrast to the ensemble.

High black boots and a small brown purse completed the fun, fashion-forward look.

Ana Amelia Batlle Cabral had a sharp fashion moment, but Marcello Hernández’s look needed one tweak.

The couple attended the Tory Burch show together in contrasting outfits.

Cabral, an architect, wore a blue pleated skirt atop a darker, unbuttoned blazer, and brown Tory Burch heels with silver embellishments. The look was stylish and sharp.

Then there was Hernández, the “Saturday Night Live” comedian, who opted for khaki pants, suede sneakers, and a two-toned sweater.

Though the latter two pieces looked great on him, his trousers could have benefited from a bit of steaming and tailoring.

Amanda Seyfried’s mixed metals worked for her.

Also at the Tory Burch show, Seyfried wore a golden, long-sleeved blouse atop a blue midi skirt with silver stripes. She also wore white heels with silver adornments and carried a blue purse.

The mix of two metallic shades with blue tones created a unique, fun color combination that complemented her hair and skin tone.

Suni Lee’s multicolored look overwhelmed her.

Outside the Tory Burch runway show, the Olympic gymnast was photographed wearing an oversize blue jacket with a form-fitting wrap skirt in a vibrant red shade.

The two pieces were drastically different in style, and they overwhelmed her petite frame. They also didn’t match the lime-green top she wore or her black accessories.

Caleb McLaughlin was cool and casual at the Coach show.

The “Stranger Things” actor attended the show in blue jeans, a button-up top, and a leather jacket that matched his sneakers and Coach purse.

The latter piece was especially fun. It featured a prominent pocket reminiscent of a coin purse and two keychains that looked like miniature books.

McLaughlin has been one of the best-dressed men at New York Fashion Week so far.

Elle Fanning’s outfit had potential, but it needed a change.

Fanning entered the Coach show in a white gown with a mesh, star-print overlay. It was fun, feminine, and the perfect piece to pair with her cropped leather jacket and brown purse.

That said, she also wore thick white boots with the outfit. A simple pair of heels or flats would have been more in line with the look.

Kelsey Merritt stood out at the Carolina Herrera show.

The model sat in the stands wearing skinny black pants with a billowing blouse. The semi-sheer white garment had a high neckline, balloon sleeves, and extra fabric at the waist that extended into a train.

The top piece was dramatic and memorable, while her pants were perfectly tailored to highlight her dramatically pointed heels.

Ben Platt needed more color variety in his New York Fashion Week look.

For the Michael Kors runway show, the actor wore an all-white ensemble that included trousers, a loose-fitting blouse, sneakers, and a trench coat.

The outfit would have worked for him if it featured more than one color. Because the entire ensemble was stark white, each piece blended into the others, creating the illusion that he was wearing a baggy jumpsuit.

• The internet is again abuzz with a new Chinese AI model.
• Seedance 2.0, ByteDance’s new video-generation tool, can create hyperrealistic videos.
• Users are making videos of Hollywood actors, raising copyright concerns.

In a new viral AI video, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise pummel each other on a rooftop in a cinematic action sequence.

It’s not a trailer for a new blockbuster, and it’s not actually Pitt and Cruise, though it looks a lot like them. The video is so realistic, in fact, that the clearest sign it’s made with AI is the dialogue.

“You killed Jeffrey Epstein, you animal! He was a good man!” Pitt says as he punches Cruise.

“He knew too much…” Cruise replies.

You can see why Hollywood’s most prominent trade organization is not happy about it.

The scene was created using Seedance 2.0, a new AI video-generation model released Thursday by ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok.

The tool and the hyper-realistic videos of Hollywood actors and characters that users are creating with it have gone viral in China and are now catching the attention of Americans.

“It’s happening fast,” Elon Musk said in response to a video generated using Seedance and posted to X, a reference to the speed at which artificial intelligence is advancing.

“We’re cooked,” another X user said.

The reaction from Americans is reminiscent of the buzz around DeepSeek, a Chinese company that unveiled an AI reasoning model in January last year that rivaled OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other top models, stunning the biggest names in Silicon Valley and ratcheting up the competition between the United States and China in the race to dominate AI innovation.

Seedance 2.0 is another shot across the bow of American AI companies. Its multimodal capabilities span text, image, audio, and video inputs and give creators control over metrics such as lighting, shadows, and camera movement.

In another viral scene, a deepfake version of Walter White — of Breaking Bad fame — points directly at the viewer and says, “You think you’re in control.” It’s a line that feels less like dialogue and more like a taunt.

The uncanny representations of Hollywood actors, as well as characters from the Avengers and other major movie franchises, immediately raised copyright concerns.

The Motion Picture Association, the trade group representing major Hollywood studios and streaming services, released a statement on Thursday accusing ByteDance of infringement on a “massive scale” in a “single day.”

“By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity,” Charlie Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the MPA, said in a statement.

OpenAI’s AI video generation tool, Sora, which can also create AI versions of actors and characters, has also raised copyright issues.

Like with so many of AI’s latest tools, however, it can be hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

• JPMorgan said it’s reorganizing its commercial and investment bank to “maximize” AI in an internal memo.
• The bank appointed Guy Halamish as the chief operating officer of the CIB as part of the effort.
• In his role, Halamish will oversee a group of new data and analytics officers driving the AI push.

JPMorgan is consolidating power to move faster on AI.

The bank is reshuffling its commercial and investment bank to “maximize the impact of AI,” according to an internal memo seen by Business Insider that was sent this week.

The firm has named Guy Halamish as the chief operating officer of the CIB and tasked him with overseeing the ongoing effort to “harness the power of our data and fully leverage rapidly evolving AI capabilities,” the memo, signed by the CIB’s co-CEOs, Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, said. Halamish’s new role was first reported by Bloomberg.

Under the new structure, each major business in the division, including banking, markets, payments, and securities services, will have its own chief data and analytics officer reporting jointly to Halamish and business heads. The bank recently hired Zachery Anderson as the chief data and analytics officer of its payments division, after a nearly six-year stint at UK-based lender NatWest. In a LinkedIn post about the new job, Anderson said he wants to push the “edge of the possible with AI.”

The move is part of a new strategy to break silos across the unit and speed up adoption of AI.

The team of officers will work with the wider firm on a range of efforts, including “preparing our infrastructure for more advanced AI and the expanded use of AI agents” and “driving end-to-end transformation” in areas such as client onboarding.

The CIB is a huge profit driver for JPMorgan — in 2024, it generated $25 billion in net income out of a firmwide total of $58.5 billion, according to that year’s annual report.

JPMorgan, backed last year by an approximately $18 billion tech budget, is one of the financial industry’s leaders in AI, with its own proprietary genAI platform and additional tools in the pipeline. CEO Jamie Dimon defended the firm’s AI spending on a recent earnings call.

“We are going to stay out front, so help us God,” Dimon said about the spending.

Work at JPMorgan or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

• A GoFundMe for James Van Der Beek’s family highlights how expensive cancer is for working-age Americans.
• Business Insider reporting shows that young adults with cancer lose $5,000 in annual wages on average.
• Financial challenges can be compounded by career setbacks and insurance stress.

A GoFundMe for James Van Der Beek’s family highlights a harsh reality of young cancer diagnoses: they can be financially devastating.

“The costs of James’s medical care and the extended fight against cancer have left the family out of funds,” reads the fundraising page.

The effort raised over $1 million in 24 hours following the actor’s death from colorectal cancer on February 11.

Van Der Beek, who was 48, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2023 and publicly announced his diagnosis in late 2024. He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and their six children. The fundraiser says the money will help pay off Van Der Beek’s care, cover household expenses, and support the kids’ education.

The family’s story underscores the financial struggles for millions of Americans navigating a cancer diagnosis under 50. While it’s hard to face steep healthcare costs at any time, it can be especially challenging during prime earning years. Van Der Beek worked in TV and movies from the 1990s to the early 2020s. In his breakout role, he played the eponymous character in “Dawson’s Creek.”

Young cancer patients lose $5,000 in yearly wages

Business Insider heard from dozens of patients as part of a yearlong investigation into young cancer cases. They told us about the credit card debt they incurred from treatment, the skyrocketing cost of health insurance, and the impact of cancer on their working lives long past recovery.

Our newsroom collaboration with health economists at GoodRx found that the average 30-something with a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis spends $45,000 out of pocket in their first year of treatment. Chemotherapy, prescriptions, insurance premiums, fertility treatments, and unexpected costs like transportation and mobility aids are included in that figure.

Lost wages are too — young patients in their prime earning years typically miss out on thousands of dollars in income.

The GoodRx analysis of data in the national Medical Expenditure Panel Survey found that the average cancer patient ages 18 to 44 loses $5,104 in annual wages and 26 days of work due to illness. This is markedly more than older patients outside their prime working window: Patients ages 45 to 64 lose $2,903 in wages and 18 days of work.

These numbers are averages, and a particular patient’s wage losses and costs may vary depending on their age, job, treatment plan, and location. But it highlights a truth for young adults like Van Der Beek: Bills for cancer care can hit at a time when people are financially vulnerable or facing income instability.

Financial challenges can also be compounded by career setbacks. Young cancer patients told Business Insider they struggled to balance their workload with constant medical appointments and worried about losing out on promotions. Some had to quit their jobs, while others couldn’t afford to give up their employer-sponsored health insurance. Medical debt is among the top causes of bankruptcy in the US, and is more frequently reported by millennials than any other generation.

What’s harder to capture in data is the emotional toll young cancer has on patients, especially those who consider their careers to be part of their identities.

As Van Der Beek told Business Insider last year: “All these beautiful things that I love, and I used to define myself as — a father, a provider, a husband — all that got taken away, or at least paused. I had to sit there and say, ‘Well, what am I?’ And it was, ‘I’m still worthy of love.'”

• Apple was hit with a warning letter from the Federal Trade Commission over its Apple News platform.
• FTC’s Andrew Ferguson urged Apple to review its terms of service and the app’s curation of articles.
• Ferguson cited reports that Apple News has promoted ‘left-wing’ news outlets over conservative ones.

Apple is caught in the Trump administration’s crosshairs — this time over its news app.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson issued a letter to CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday, citing recent reports from right-leaning media watchdog Media Research Center that said Apple News promoted “left-wing “publications over conservative outlets.

Ferguson questioned whether Apple was acting in line with its terms of service with its curation of featured articles on the Apple News app.

“As an American citizen, I abhor and condemn any attempt to censor content for ideological reasons,” Ferguson said in the letter, which he published. “Such efforts, whether taken to appease overzealous activists, at the behest of foreign governments, or simply to advance the political views of Silicon Valley elites, stifle the free exchange of ideas, manipulate the public discourse, and are inconsistent with American values.”

While he said the FTC doesn’t police speech and can’t require the company to promote one ideology over another, the FTC Act is meant to protect consumers from deceptive acts or practices by companies.

Ferguson urged Apple to conduct a “comprehensive review of Apple’s terms of service” to ensure it isn’t in violation of the FTC Act.

Apple and the FTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ferguson is no stranger to taking on Silicon Valley. Before he was appointed by President Donald Trump as FTC chair in 2025, he vowed to “end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech.”

The FTC warning is the latest snag in Cook’s political tightrope walk. The iPhone maker took a hit last year from the Trump administration’s tariff policies, though smartphones, computers, and some other electronics were exempt from the most aggressive tariffs. Apple has pledged to invest more than $600 million in American businesses.

• The AI industry is poised to spend big on politics in 2026.
• Multiple super PACs backed by prominent tech-world figures have cropped up.
• Here are the ones to watch as the year goes on.

Artificial intelligence is poised to play a big role in politics this year — and not just when it comes to AI-generated content.

Several super PACs backed by figures in the tech industry have formed ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Some of the groups plan to support candidates who are friendly towards the AI industry and will take a lighter regulatory approach to the technology.

At least one group has been formed explicitly to combat the influence of those pro-AI groups.

It comes as the Trump administration takes a friendly approach toward the industry, including moving to restrict states’ ability to regulate AI. Meanwhile, other politicians are calling for a national moratorium on new AI data centers, and some are just starting to use the technology for themselves.

Here are the super PACs to keep an eye on as the year progresses.

Leading the Future

The biggest player so far is Leading the Future, a pro-AI network of super PACs associated with some of Silicon Valley’s tech elite.

The group’s main super PAC had raised just over $50 million by the end of 2025, according to recent FEC filings.

That included:

• $25 million from OpenAI CEO Greg Brockman and his wife Anna;
• $25 million from Andreesen Horowitz;
• $100,000 from Perplexity.

Brockman explained his philosophy on political giving in a lengthy post on X at the end of 2025, writing in part that “being pro-AI does not mean being anti-regulation.”

The network includes a super PAC for Democratic races, Think Big, along with a GOP-focused super PAC, American Mission.

FEC filings show that SV Angel Founder Ron Conway contributed $500,000 to Think Big.

Meanwhile, 8VC Founder Joe Lonsdale gave $250,000 to American Mission.

The group said in an August release that it plans to serve as the “political and policy center of gravity for the AI industry” and will “support candidates aligned with the pro-AI agenda” and “oppose those that do not.”

The group has already begun spending.

Think Big has spent over $900,000 against Assemblyman Alex Bores in the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th congressional district.

And American Mission has spent over $500,000 backing GOP candidate Chris Gober in Texas’s 10th congressional district.

Public First

In response to Leading the Future, two former congressmen — Republican Chris Stewart of Utah and Democrat Brad Carson of Oklahoma — have formed a competing political network, Public First, to back candidates who support AI regulation.

The group aims to raise $50 million for its effort, well short of what pro-AI groups have raised. But Carson recently told Business Insider he feels good about Public First’s odds, given that the American public is broadly supportive of AI regulation.

“We have $50 million and 85% of public sentiment. They have 15% of public settlement, and $100 million,” Carson said. “I will take our side of that bet any day.”

Carson said that Public First would have financial support from employees at a variety of AI companies.

“There’s going to be people from across the AI sector, as well as far beyond the AI sector, who contribute to the effort,” Carson said.

On Thursday morning, Anthropic announced it was donating $20 million to Public First.

“At present, there are few organized efforts to help mobilize people and politicians who understand what’s at stake in AI development,” Anthropic said in its statement announcing the donation. “Instead, vast resources have flowed to political organizations that oppose these efforts. Public First Action is working to fill that gap. “

The group has two affiliated super PACs: one that supports Democrats called Jobs and Democracy PAC, and another that supports Republicans called Defending Our Values PAC.

Neither has spent in any election so far.

Two Meta-backed super PACs

Meta is also getting into the super PAC game, establishing two different PACs last year to support candidates aligned with their vision for AI regulation.

Unlike the other PACs, Meta’s efforts will focus primarily on the state level.

One PAC, called Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (Meta) California, will focus specifically on the Golden State, where Meta is headquartered.

“As home to many of the world’s leading AI companies, California’s innovation economy has an outsized impact on America’s economic growth, job creation, and global competitiveness,” a Meta spokesperson said. “But Sacramento’s regulatory environment could stifle innovation, block AI progress, and put California’s technology leadership at risk.”

The spokesperson added that the PAC would back candidates in both parties who “recognize California’s vital role in AI development and embrace policies that will keep the state at the forefront of the global tech ecosystem.”

Meta gave $20 million to its California-focused PAC in August, according to documents recently filed with the California Secretary of State.

A separate PAC, the American Technology Excellence Project, will focus on races in other states.

“Amid a growing patchwork of inconsistent regulations that threaten homegrown innovation and investments in AI, state lawmakers are uniquely positioned to ensure that America remains a global technology leader,” Meta VP of Public Policy Brian Rice said in a statement.

That PAC has been seeded with $45 million, according to POLITICO.

Neither PAC has spent significant sums yet.