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☆ What to expect from the jobs report on Friday
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Minneapolis CNN —Friday’s jobs report is expected to show that the US economy added 200,000 jobs in December, with the unemployment rate holding steady for the third-straight month at 3.7%. “The preponderance of evidence suggests that the labor market is still nowhere near back to normal,” said Julia Pollak, senior economist with ZipRecruiter online employment marketplace. Historically tightThe US labor market remains atypically tight — something that was reinforced Wednesday when the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for November. It showed there were still north of 10.5 million job openings, or about 1.7 available positions for every unemployed person looking for work. “But it’s unclear how far inflation can fall without the labor market deteriorating, or rather, it’s not clear what the underlying pace of inflation is with the labor market this tight.”—CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.

☆ Only 3 countries have managed to build 5th-generation fighters, but nearly a dozen are already working on 6th-gen jets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

(The recently unveiled B-21 bomber is billed as the world's first sixth-gen aircraft, but little is known about its capabilities.) Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and Boeing are believed to be competing to build the jets, and all have released illustrations of sixth-gen aircraft. FCAS/SCAFA full-scale model of the Future Combat Air System at the Paris Air Show in June 2019. An illustration of Japan's next-generation fighter aircraft concept. While China is making heavy investment in military aviation, Russia's ability to develop next-generation jets may be shrinking.

☆ Belarus official: 'Unlikely' downed Ukrainian missile entered by accident
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 30 (Reuters) - The secretary of Belarus' Security Council said in an interview on Friday that it was "unlikely" that a Ukrainian air defence missile downed on Thursday had entered Belarusian airspace by accident. "An example of this is the recent incident with the destruction of the Ukrainian S-300 missile. Belarus' defence ministry said on Thursday its air defence forces had shot down a Ukrainian S-300 surface-to-air missile near the village of Harbacha in the Brest region, some 15 km (9 miles) from the Belarus-Ukraine border. A regional military official in Belarus had played down the cross-border incident shortly after it occurred, saying: "Unfortunately, these things happen." Ukraine's defence ministry said it would investigate the incident, suggesting it was a Russian provocation and reserving the right to protect its own skies.

☆ Mental Illness Shouldn’t Be Kept Out of Sight
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Jay Neugeboren | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Because our parents had bailed out on him early on and retired to Florida, I was his caretaker and advocate during these years. His first major psychotic breakdown occurred when he was 19. By the time he was hospitalized at the Bronx Psychiatric Center, formerly known as Bronx State Hospital, in 1997, it was the consensus of the staff there that he would probably have to live in a state hospital for the rest of his life. But Dr. Alvin Pam, the director of psychology at Bronx State, disagreed, and within a year of treatment under his direction, a seeming miracle occurred. In perhaps the clearest sign of his improved mental health, his sense of humor returned.

☆ Belarus protests to Ukraine after downing stray air defence missile
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dec 29 (Reuters) - Belarus protested to Ukraine's ambassador on Thursday after saying it had downed a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile in a field, during one of Russia's heaviest aerial onslaughts against Ukraine since the start of the war. A Ukrainian military spokesman in effect acknowledged that the missile was a Ukrainian stray, saying the incident was "nothing strange, a result of air defence" and something that "has happened more than once". The S-300 is a Soviet-era air defence system used by both Russia and Ukraine. "Fragments were found in an agricultural field ... the wreckage belongs to an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile fired from the territory of Ukraine," the defence ministry said. BelTA published photos and video of what it said were parts of an S-300 missile lying in an empty field.

☆ Hit by climate change, farmers in Cambodia are risking everything on microfinance loans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The loans are also seeing farmers put assets including their land up as collateral, even when the loans are high-interest and have short repayment windows. Taylor Weidman | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesNGOs estimate around 167,000 Cambodians have sold their land to pay microfinance loans over the last five years. A 2016 book published by the World Bank argued microfinance loans had reduced poverty and increased incomes in Bangladesh, and banking giant HSBC still promotes its funding of microfinance in the country. But the World Bank, an early and longstanding advocate of microfinance, has also been warning for years of risks including overindebtedness and the growing commercialization of the industry. In the capital Phnom Penh, she added, she commonly meets people working seven days a week to pay off spiraling MFI loans.

☆ It's time to revive the 'pink-slip parties' of the early 2000s
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

First: Remember "pink-slip parties"? Now, 20-some years later, pink-slip parties are being floated as a way to ameliorate the pain felt by recently laid-off tech workers. Pink-slip parties originated with the dot-com bubble burst, when laid-off employees would gather to commiserate, laugh, drink, and meet prospective hiring managers. Hemming began running regular meetups for laid-off tech workers — misery loves company, after all — giving them an opportunity to network. She shared her thoughts on everything from the current hiring landscape to the benefits of pink-slip parties for younger generations.

☆ She says she was fired in retaliation. Hearst Magazines says she was insubordinate. Here's how Delish's hit YouTube show 'Budget Eats' came crashing down.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Produced by the Hearst-owned food brand Delish, "Budget Eats" was the kind of digital success story that traditional magazine giants crave. As Xie worked her day job developing recipes, "Budget Eats" was morphing from a pandemic experiment to a bonafide hit. A career recipe developer at work, the "Budget Eats" Xie doesn't even measure out ingredients. "It felt like she was afraid that putting 'Budget Eats' from her kitchen onto this cable network might dilute the honesty," Lennon-Simon said. As for "Budget Eats," Delish recently posted what is presumably the last episode.

☆ Australia FA pledges to "weed out" trouble-makers after violent pitch invasion
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MELBOURNE, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Football Australia (FA) has launched an investigation into the violent pitch invasion that left a player injured during the abandoned A-League derby between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City. The pitch invasion shocked Australian soccer, with Socceroos goalkeeper Danny Vukovic, who plays for A-League side Central Coast Mariners, describing it as the "darkest day for football in Australia". Melbourne Victory managing director Caroline Carnegie said the club would assist a police investigation into the incident and apologised to Glover, King and the camera operator. "There’s no place at our club, no place in the game, no place in the league for that sort of behaviour." The pitch invasion occurred amid a fan backlash against the A-League's decision to sell its men's and women's title-deciding Grand Final matches to Sydney until 2025.

Perry was chatting with his mother at 10:06 p.m. EST Nov. 13 as they approached campus, his parents, Happy and Sean Perry said. Minutes after hanging up, social media lit up with word of an active shooter on the Charlottesville campus, his parents said. “He said they were on the way back almost to campus and his phone was going dead," his mother told NBC News. Former Virginia football player Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. has been arrested and charged in the deadly shooting. "If we don't do something about it, it will continue," Sean Perry said.

Tensions had been growing between Salesforce Inc.’s co-Chief Executives Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor over their responsibilities and how the business was run for months before the business-software provider said last week that Mr. Taylor would exit the role, people familiar with the executives said. Mr. Benioff, who is also co-founder, became frustrated about how Mr. Taylor was spending his time, the people said. Among his concerns were whether Mr. Taylor was spending too much time in a new role as Twitter Inc.’s chairman, too much time with other CEOs and customers and not enough time on Salesforce product and engineering, the people said.

☆ Salesforce has a succession crisis. Cofounder Marc Benioff is taking increasing control over the company — alienating his top lieutenants and dialing up pressure on employees.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Salesforce insiders attribute these departures to Marc Benioff's response to recent economic headwinds. Last week, Salesforce revealed heir apparent Bret Taylor's plans to leave the company — exactly one year after taking over as co-CEO alongside Benioff. Lately, employees said, Benioff has turned those meetings into a tribunal for his sales executives. While the pandemic was a boon for the company, Salesforce has since trimmed its annual revenue projections to roughly $30 billion down from the roughly $31 billion in May. Salesforce's co-CEO model has failedAs Benioff puts pressure on sales executives, people close to him said he's exerting increasing control over C-Suite executives.

The tech industry accounts for about one-quarter of this year's job cuts, Challenger data show. The automotive industry has had 30,669 job cuts announced, compared with 10,277 through November 2021. And real estate has had 7,919 cuts announced this year, compared with 2,762 in 2021 year-to-date. "We've seen a lot of job cuts around mortgage origination and fintech firms in mortgages. U.S.-based employers announced 76,835 cuts in November alone, more than double the 33,843 cuts announced in October and four-times the number of cuts announced last November, Challenger data show.

☆ Cristiano Ronaldo dropped to bench as Portugal thrashes Switzerland to reach World Cup quarterfinals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —No Cristiano Ronaldo, no problem for Portugal as it produced a dynamic display to thrash Switzerland 6-1 and reach the quarterfinals at Qatar 2022. The superstar striker was dropped from the starting lineup on Tuesday by Fernando Santos but the bold decision paid off for the Portugal manager. Either way, the news of his absence from the starting lineup was the major talking point ahead of the crunch game. The decision to drop him from the starting lineup was truly vindicated with Portugal looking far more threatening in attack. With all his experience, though, Ronaldo can still have a role to play in Portugal’s World Cup campaign but it’s yet to be seen whether that’s from the bench or in the starting lineup.

☆ Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield is leaving Salesforce two years after deal was announced
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Salesforce said on Monday that Slack founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield is leaving the company. "Stewart is an incredible leader who created an amazing, beloved company in Slack," a company spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. "He has helped lead the successful integration of Slack into Salesforce and today Slack is woven into the Salesforce Customer 360 platform. Noah Weiss, senior vice president of product at Slack, will replace Yehoshua, Butterfield said in a Slack message to all Salesforce employees that CNBC viewed. Months later, Taylor told Butterfield that while Salesforce wasn't interested in selling Quip to Slack, Salesforce was interested in buying Slack.

☆ Meet incoming Slack CEO Lidiane Jones, who will take over when co-founder Stewart Butterfield departs in January
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Lidiane Jones is taking over Stewart Butterfield's role as CEO of Slack. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield is exiting the company in January, and Salesforce has confirmed that Lidiane Jones will be his successor. "Slack will have a new CEO: Lidiane Jones. This is good: Lidiane is amazing," Butterfield wrote in the post, which was viewed and published in full by Insider. A spokesperson for Salesforce wrote in a statement to Insider that Butterfield was "instrumental" in choosing Jones as his successor.

☆ Salesforce employees say they're blindsided by Bret Taylor's departure as Marc Benioff swears he'll get him back: 'don't think you're gonna somehow get out of this alive because you're not'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Matthew Lynley | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Salesforce co-CEO and heir apparent Bret Taylor announced he is leaving the company. Benioff wasn't alone: many at the company were blindsided by the departure with no notice given, employees and others close to the company told Insider. At Salesforce, Taylor oversaw the $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack as COO and the launch of its real-time customer analytics tool, Genie, as co-CEO. "Just when Benioff thought he had his succession plan all figured out Taylor steps down," a recent former employee told Insider. Multiple people close to the company told Insider that Salesforce's "bench" was thin, though Benioff heavily complimented Taylor's team when asked about a potential replacement on the earnings call.

☆ Marc Benioff's 2023 to-do list after his co-CEO's shocking departure
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Salesforce is seeing it's co-CEO Bret Taylor depart and facing slowing revenue growth. While earnings beat analyst expectations, it also revealed the slowest revenue growth in the past two years, at 14%. Figure out the future of SlackTaylor's departure also raises questions about Slack, since Taylor spearheaded the $27.7 billion acquisition in 2020. Figure out how to jump-start revenue and land big customersWhile it wasn't a huge shock given the overall economic environment, Salesforce's slowed revenue growth is worrying. Secondly, as part of its larger platform strategy, Salesforce has been going after larger customers and looking to land deals for multiple Salesforce products versus just one or two.

[1/2] Police officers are deployed as fishermen protest near the entrance of the proposed Vizhinjam Port in the southern state of Kerala, India, November 9, 2022. "We won't let them in," a protestor was seen screaming at police officers near the port entrance site. The Adani Group has said the project was in full compliance with all laws and that many studies in recent years have rejected allegations linking the project to shoreline erosion. The Kerala state government says erosion has occurred due to natural disasters. A previous attempt by Adani in October to move trucks out of the port also failed.

Lee County suffered none of the state’s 123 Irma deaths. That experience influenced many people’s decisions not to flee Hurricane Ian. “Hurricane Ian is going to be the strongest outreach messaging for southwest Florida ever,” said Gleason, the Charlotte County spokesman. “When you live through it, then that message sinks in deep and forever.”A view of the Matanzas Pass side of Estero Island, home to Fort Myers Beach, Fla. Fort Myers Beach is expected to take years to rebuild. Thomas Simonetti for NBC NewsMichael Yost's two closest friends in Fort Myers Beach drowned in Hurricane Ian.

☆ Analysis: Australia's climate policies don't match its big talk at COP27
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Praveen Menon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Albanese's climate change minister, Chris Bowen, telling the conference Australia was a "willing climate collaborator", made a pitch to host COP31 in 2026 along with the Pacific island nations. "But if you turn to see the other side of the face it's all about the fossil fuel development and the government's addiction to fossil fuel royalties and revenues," Hutley told Reuters in a phone interview from COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. Australia's biggest contribution to the climate crisis is its export of fossil fuels. More than 100 fossil fuel developments continued in various stages as of December 2021, the council said in a report this month, based on government data. "There is clearly a policy gap in Australia that is allowing fossil fuel companies to continue expanding and developing new fossil fuel projects," said Will van de Pol, asset management campaigner at activist investor group Market Forces.

☆ Twitter verification trolls targeted the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, falsely announcing that 'insulin is free' before claiming it would cost $400-per-vial
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Two Twitter accounts pretended to be insulin-producing pharma firm Eli Lilly and Company. Another account mimicked the real Eli Lilly's apology, then claimed insulin prices would rise. Both accounts pretended to be Eli Lilly and Company, who introduced the world's first commercially available insulin product – a necessity for people with diabetes. TwitterThe real company then apologized for the "misleading message from a fake Lilly account" and added that users should only trust the "LillyPad" account. Eli Lilly told Insider it was "in conversations with Twitter

☆ Village near Kherson rejoices at Russian rout, recalls life under occupation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Reuters could not independently verify those accounts and Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the allegations. In surrounding towns and villages, residents told of life under occupation following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. LOOTING, DEATH, DISAPPEARANCESVillagers estimated that about 100 Russian troops had held Blahodatne. Villagers said that throughout the occupation, Russians broke into vacant homes and looted them, removing furniture and appliances such as televisions, stoves and refrigerators. At the entrance of Blahodatne, Ukrainian troops inspected a large stockpile of 120 mm mortar shells, some with their fuses screwed into their noses, abandoned by Russians in a dilapidated warehouse.

Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty Imageswatch nowSaylor was speaking on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" as FTX's demise roiled the crypto market. Bitcoin tumbled 19% in December, as investors rotated into assets deemed safer in a tumultuous economy. David Marcus, former head of crypto at Facebook parent Meta , used a phrase that would soon enter the lexicon. "It's during crypto winters that the best entrepreneurs build the better companies," Marcus wrote in a Jan. 24 tweet. Ryan Gilbert, founder of fintech venture firm Launchpad Capital, said the crypto world is facing a crisis of confidence after the FTX implosion.

☆ Americans convicted in Japan on Carlos Ghosn’s escape return home
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO — An American father and son convicted in Japan on charges of helping former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn escape to Lebanon by hiding in a box have been returned to the U.S., their lawyer said Tuesday. The U.S. and Japan have an extradition treaty, while Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan. Peter Taylor has already been released, and is back with his family in Massachusetts, said Kelly, whose office is based in Boston. During their trial in Tokyo, Michael and Peter Taylor apologized and acknowledged guilt, saying they had been misled by Ghosn. He says he fled because he could not expect a fair trial in Japan.

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