Americans may find themselves paying more for a bourbon neat these days. U.S. whiskey distillers throughout the liquor industry are facing financial hardship lately, and economic experts are pointing to the Trump administration’s tariffs as a major cause. This includes Jim Beam, whose troubles have led to a drastic step: closing its distillery.

What brands are being impacted?
The economic slump has affected several iconic brands. This includes Jack Daniel’s, Old Forester and Woodford Reserve, which are owned by parent company Brown-Forman. The company previously announced it was “laying off about 650 employees, or 12% of its workforce, in the face of declining demand,” said The New York Times. Several other whiskey brands, including Garrard County Distilling Co. in Kentucky and Uncle Nearest in Tennessee, have been placed into receivership in 2025.

But Jim Beam, the country’s largest bourbon manufacturer, has taken perhaps the most extreme move by announcing it would halt production at the plant’s main distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, for an entire year. This distillery produces “about a third of the company’s annual output of approximately 26.5 million gallons,” said the Times.

How are tariffs causing these issues?
The ongoing challenges “straining the liquor industry” are “part of the fallout of Trump’s trade war,” said CBC News. These tariffs (and subsequent countertariffs from countries like Canada) led to a trade deficit as “overall exports of American spirits fell 9% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year.” Boycotts of American alcohol brands have also contributed to this decline.

Overall demand for whiskey and bourbon has decreased, which has “caused an oversupply of whiskey,” said Bloomberg. Sales have slumped as consumers “rein in spending and drinking” during downward economic times. And much of the available product can’t even be sold. Most of the 16.1 million barrels of bourbon currently being aged “won’t be ready to bottle until after 2030.”

Even so, Kentucky politicians place the blame on the Trump administration’s shoulders. It’s “hard to overstate just how devastating Trump’s tariffs are for America’s signature spirit,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.) on X, referring to the Jim Beam closure. “Thousands of Kentuckians power the bourbon industry — we will all feel the impact of this.”

Ticket inspections, passport control and further checks at the gate are just three of the barriers that illegitimate plane passengers have to evade, yet some are still managing it. A man boarded a Heathrow flight to Norway without a ticket, boarding pass or passport, in one of the latest cases of sky-high stowaways. 

What happened? 
The unnamed passenger slipped onto a British Airways flight to Oslo on Dec. 13. Having “tailgated his way through the automatic gates at Terminal 3,” said The Telegraph, he passed through “full security screening” before reaching the gate. There, he pretended to be travelling with a family and boarded the Airbus A320. Once on board, he kept moving seats as the plane filled up before the cabin crew realized he wasn’t a legitimate passenger and removed him. 

How are they getting through? 
Stowaways often take advantage of “bottlenecks where passenger processing occurs,” Damian Devlin, an aviation management lecturer at the University of East London, said to The Telegraph. The situation “creates sufficient distraction,” with staff “so focused on a particular task and on maximizing passenger throughput” that they “fail to notice tailgating taking place.” 

An American woman, Marilyn Hartman, was dubbed the Serial Stowaway after she allegedly boarded at least 20 commercial flights without a ticket, including a 2018 British Airways flight from Chicago to Heathrow. It was “crazy” that she was able to get onto flights by simply “following someone,” she said to CBS News in 2021. 

Will breaches continue? 
We “don’t always know exactly how it happens,” because if a breach involves “lapses” at security checkpoints, the “relevant agencies” might not want to “broadcast their vulnerabilities,” said USA Today. But as technology is increasingly used in the airport security process, it will be “less likely” that “sneaking onto an aeroplane is possible,” said Thrillist. 

Technology is “continuously improving and continuously making it more and more difficult for people who have ill intent to accomplish what they are trying to do, whether it’s X-ray machines, metal detection, liquid detection, all of the above,” said Rich Davis of security company International SOS.

People throw hot water into the air to see it instantly turn into ice crystals in the city of Ergun, in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region. Other local winter pastimes include ice sculpting and snow carving. 
CFOTO / Future Publishing / Getty Images

This year has brought its fair share of gloomy news headlines, so it’s no surprise that people might need a solid laugh. As the calendar transitions to 2026, you can check out some of the most popular comedians starring in a series of winter stand-up tours.

Hannah Berner
After getting her TV start on Bravo’s “Summer House,” she became more recognizable thanks to her Netflix special, “We Ride at Dawn,” and two popular podcasts. Berner will perform stand-up shows in the U.S. and Canada starting next year. Her tour comes as she has “made herself ubiquitous in the internet ecosystem, disarming viewers with her unfiltered humor and confessions,” said The New York Times. (through March)

Josh Johnson
While Johnson (pictured above) first made a name for himself as a staff writer on “The Daily Show,” his stand-up has established him as one of the best comedians working today. His YouTube shows have been so well-received that he’s now the “funniest guy on the internet,” said Wired. (through May)

Nimish Patel
Patel made comedy history in 2017 when he became the first Indian American writer on “Saturday Night Live.” Over the last few years, Patel has become an up-and-coming name in the stand-up world, and if you are eager to catch his act, he will be touring the U.S. starting next year. (through May)