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☆ Alignment Healthcare's CEO shared 3 reasons he thinks the upstart will win in health insurance — and why it won't unravel like Bright Health
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Young health insurers that went public in 2021 have bled money. Some health insurers that went public in 2021 at high valuations have struggled since then. Several young insurers have bled money as they've grown quickly. Bright Health, another Medicare Advantage insurer, came close to insolvency and had to shut down its health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Growing steadily with a narrow focusBefore the recent market slowdown, growing fast had been a common strategy for newly public health insurers and digital health broadly.

☆ Google engineer who was laid off while on mental health leave says she 'silently mourned' after receiving her severance email at 2 a.m.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Google engineer said she found out she was laid off at 2 a.m. while on mental health leave. Google won't let her drop off her work laptop and other devices at the office, Neil said. Ali Neil, who started working at Google in 2020, told Insider she had been on mental health leave for just over three months when she discovered the tech giant had laid her off. Neil was among the roughly 12,000 employees that Google announced would be laid off from its global workforce. Google felt like a safe and stable environment, where the risk of being laid off was very low, Neil said.

☆ My 7-month-old baby has had COVID, flu, and RSV. I'm angry, but I also know I did my best.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Samantha Smith | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I'm a mom of four kids.The youngest is 7 months oldHe spent his early weeks behind two baby gates, away from his siblings. RSV at 3 months, flu at 5 months, and COVID at 6 months. Our son, Fox, was exposed to COVID the day he was born. Fox spent a lot of time safely stowed in the bassinet behind two baby gates — a place where both he and the dog felt protected. I know I did my best to keep him healthyFox spiked his first fever with the flu.

☆ I launched my brand with $40 in 2016 and hit $4 million in revenue last year. Here's how to start a business with little or no money.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Alexandra York | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tori Dunlap, the founder of Her First $100K, launched a blog as a side hustle in 2016 with just $40. Six years later, her business has booked more than $4 million in annual revenue. The culmination of these efforts helped Dunlap book more than $4 million in revenue in 2022, documents viewed by Insider showed. Here's her advice for building a business with little or no money. When TikTok viewers wanted more-nuanced content than a 60-second video would allow, we invested in launching our podcast in 2021.

☆ They Poured Their Savings Into Homes That Were Never Built
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Isabelle Qian | Agnes Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +13 min

We talked to four people who emptied their life savings and took out huge loans for homes that have not been completed. “It was a simple dream — to have a home, a family,” Mr. Tang said. Mr. Tang, who works in a restaurant, sold a small place he had out in the countryside. “When I think about the unfinished apartment, it’s as if I’m falling from heaven to hell, ” Mr. Tang said. Homeowners atop one of the unfinished apartment towers call for construction to fully resume.

☆ Cheddar News pushed its anchors to think and act like influencers, insiders say, with some on-air hosts hiring agencies at their own expense to boost their social-media followings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Cheddar News was founded with the vision of taking on business news big dogs like CNBC. But the vision has been beset by staff defections, complaints of low morale, and editorial red flags. Some on-air talent felt "pressure" to act like social-media influencers, Insider's reporting showed. Sign up for our newsletter to get the news, trends and strategies that advertising and media pros want to know — delivered weekly to your inbox. An Altice spokesperson said in an emailed statement earlier this month that there were "inaccuracies" in Insider's reporting, but did not provide specifics.

☆ Macao gambling promoter Alvin Chau sentenced to 18 years - public broadcaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Philip Wang | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Alvin Chau, one of Macao’s high-profile gambling promoters, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for racketeering and illegal gambling activities, the city’s public broadcaster TDM reported Wednesday. Chau, 48, was the former chairman of Suncity Group, a Macao-based company that helped promote gambling by lending credit to high rollers. Macao is the only region in China where gambling in casinos is legal. Chau was ordered by the court to pay the Macao government more than HK$6.5 billion ($830 million), the broadcaster reported, as well as $22.7 mlliion to $98 million to a number of casino operators. After his arrest, experts said that the move signaled a tougher stance on gambling in Macao by the Beijing authorities.

☆ Actors Idris and Sabrina Dhowre Elba on how their parents inspired their activism
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Actors Idris Elba and Sabrina Dhowre Elba say their parents were driving forces behind their own activism today, which focuses on food security. For Sabrina Dhowre Elba it was her mother that shaped her drive to give back, she said. "For me, my mother is everything," Dhowre Elba told CNBC. A trip to Sierra Leone also inspired her due to the stories she heard from locals, Dhowre Elba explained. "Why I go on field visits so often with the organization is because you really remember that small things can make such huge changes."

☆ Oscar Health CEO Mario Schlosser shares how the health-insurance upstart plans to finally turn a profit after years of losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Oscar Health has bled money since it was founded more than a decade ago. Oscar Health, the 10-year-old health insurer, has never turned a profit. In an interview with Insider in November, Schlosser said Oscar had already done the legwork to turn a profit. Oscar is doing a better job at lowering patients' medical costs and is raising the prices of its health plans, he said. In 2013, Oscar met with outside actuaries to price its first health plans, Schlosser said.

☆ Read the memo Compass CEO Robert Reffkin sent staff about the third round of layoffs since June
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read the email Robert Reffkin, Compass' CEO, sent to staff announcing the layoffs Thursday morning. Robert Reffkin, the CEO of Compass, told staff on Thursday that the brokerage would be laying off more people. In an early-morning email, he said that the latest staff reduction comes amid "difficult economic times." The size of the layoff appears to amount to around 350 workers, or roughly 10% of the company's remaining staff, though Compass would not confirm a specific number. RobertRobert Reffkin | Founder & CEO

☆ Compass is laying off more staff as it races to cut expenses to cope with a cooling housing market
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Compass is laying off more people after two rounds of job cuts in the past eight months. The firm, which went public at an $8 billion valuation in 2021, now has a $1 billion market cap. The real-estate brokerage Compass told its staff on Thursday that it would be conducting another round of layoffs, with the money-losing firm seeking to further cut costs amid a weakening housing market. These layoffs follow rounds in June and OctoberAt the end of 2021, Compass had about 4,500 employees. In June, Compass let go of 450 employees across corporate departments, including administrative, marketing, and other support staff.

☆ When Does Life Begin?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Bethany Mollenkof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

“It is not black and white.”America’s fight over abortion has long circled a question, one that is broad and without consensus:When does life begin? The question of when life begins has been so politicized it can be hard to thoughtfully engage. Ancient Egypt gave the power to create new human life almost entirely to men. The scientific revolution, from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to reproductive science, disrupted centuries of thought on human life. “When does the responsibility for a life begin and end?”

☆ Meet 3 remote workers who negotiated for better pay, workplace flexibility, or the right to quiet quit — and won
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Remote work has become increasingly popular, and make-or-break for many Americans when choosing jobs. Workers are using their current bargaining power to ask for better pay, flexibility, and work-life balance. Insider talked to three remote workers about how they did so. That's because remote work has changed his life for the better, he said. "Work was definitely a thorn in my side that really affected my entire life," she told Insider.

☆ "Yellowstone" prequel “1923” bring white grievances to Paramount Plus
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Ani Bundel | Ani Bundel Is A Cultural Critic Who Has Been Writing Regularly Since Her Work Can Also Be Found At Elite Daily | Weta'S Telly Visions | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

It’s a grimmer chapter of an ongoing story, and one that is plagued by an inability to articulate why these white men murdering their way across the landscape are heroes worth rooting for. Cultural critics love prestige series. Few celebrated the end of the toxically misogynist “The Big Bang Theory,” or have seemed eager to discuss the resurgence of seemingly endless police procedurals starring white men. But the series has gained viewership year over year, with subsequent spinoffs debuting on new flagship streaming service, Paramount+. Like so many white male grievances, to question the logic is to side with the enemy.

You can get the latest on that and much more from our finance newsletter, 10 Things on Wall Street. It's a snappy weekday read with the biggest stories on the Street, plus the latest on hot-spot restaurants, industry parties, and so much more. On the agenda today:Up first: Senior real-estate correspondent Daniel Geiger is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the recent turmoil at Compass. With home sales dipping amid rising interest rates, Compass has cut workers and bled cash. In June, it laid off about 450 corporate staff, and in October, it let go of about half its 1,500-person tech team.

☆ In Nigeria's long war, a young woman is brutalised by both sides
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

It was a pleasant evening in the summer of 2014, in her Nigerian village near the Cameroon border. Reuters could not reach representatives of Boko Haram or its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, for comment. But by October 2014, the militants were enforcing extreme sharia law in her village, Aisha said. Boko Haram men often came looking for them, knocking on their door and forcing them to hide. But she did not believe she could do so with Bana, as boys were particularly valued in the Boko Haram community.

Three people close to FTX and Bankman-Fried told CNBC that the former CEO lobbied aggressively for a partnership with 11-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift. Bankman-Fried's commitment to getting the Swift deal done despite the deteriorating business environment fit a pattern of ignoring his lieutenants and going it alone, a half-dozen former company insiders and business partners said. The Financial Times reported earlier that FTX held talks with Swift about a potential sponsorship. Part of the Swift deal would have included the production by the singer of a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or digital items that can rise and fall in value. Beyond that, there was a lack of clarity over what Swift would be doing for the company, sources said.

☆ Author Sebastian Junger on his near-death experience and the "ultimate front line"
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( Martha Shade | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Sebastian Junger is used to dodging bullets in war zones, so he didn’t expect to almost die in his own driveway. It was so dire, he needed a transfusion of about 10 pints of blood right into his jugular. A near-death experienceBesides making him an advocate for blood donation, the experience also caused the affirmed atheist to question what happens after death. And there was my dead father welcoming me, and I don’t know why.”The next day, an intensive care unit nurse told Junger he had almost died. That was the experience Junger seemed to have with his dead father.

☆ Clitoris reconstruction offers hope to Kenyan women after childhood mutilation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Mukelwa Hlatshwayo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

That was the transformation being sought by about 60 Kenyan women who had undergone female genital mutilation, or FGM, during childhood and came forward for reconstructive surgery of the clitoris during a recent humanitarian operation in Nairobi. "I basically feel like I'm incomplete," said one patient, a 39-year-old police officer, who requested anonymity due to the intimate subject matter. Bowers had operated on hundreds of Kenyan women during two previous visits, in 2017 and 2019. Bowers said the surgery involves bringing part of the clitoral body to the surface so that women can feel it. "This really affected my life and that is why I opted to get the reconstruction surgery done."

☆ Covid vaccine trials didn't monitor menstrual changes. Researchers say it's part of a bigger problem.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Aria-Bendix-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Aria Bendix | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Although they made up around half the participants in Covid vaccine trials, women were not asked about any menstrual changes as part of that process. Since then, several studies have revealed that Covid vaccines can indeed induce short-term changes in menstrual cycles. A 2021 study found that just eight out of 45 clinical trials that tested Covid vaccines and therapies separated results based on sex. In the past, menstrual changes have also been reported among those who received vaccines for typhoid, hepatitis B and influenza. Researchers don't know why post-vaccine menstrual changes occur.

☆ Ivana Trump's townhome that just hit the market for $26.5M was purchased on the heels of a messy divorce and reflects the opulence of Trump's 'The Art of the Deal' era
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ivana Trump's Upper East Side townhome has an asking price of $26.5 million. She purchased the home in 1992, the same year she finalized her divorce from Donald Trump. The interior reflects a bygone era of Donald Trump's celebrity and one of his favorite colors: gold. Ivana Trump finalizes her tumultuous and very public divorce from Donald Trump that followed two years of finger-pointing and accusations of "fraudulent" prenuptial agreements and slander. Ivana Trump reaped the rewards of auxiliary fame as well when she was married to Donald Trump.

☆ Real-estate tech firms are getting hammered by a cataclysmic reckoning that one VC called a cross between the 2001 dot-com bust and the 2008 market crash
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The proptech sector is battling two challenges at once: a slowing housing market and a tech bust. For almost a decade, a growing group of companies have thrived by introducing tech innovations to a stubbornly analog real-estate industry. "Now we're seeing something that feels like a confluence between the 2001 dot-com bust in the venture-capital world and the 2008 market crash in real estate. Shares of both Opendoor and Redfin, which once drew investor attention to the soaring proptech industry, are worth roughly one-tenth what where they were a year ago. The company hasn't laid off any of its 300-person staff — including a roughly 50-person tech team — and doesn't plan to, Matthews said.

☆ Crypto is in chaos as FTX files for bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

By Friday morning, FTX said Bankman-Fried had resigned as CEO and that the firm was filing for bankruptcy. Failures are not uncommon in the murky, largely unregulated world of crypto, but FTX is not your average crypto startup. Namely, that the bulk of its assets are held in FTT, a digital token minted by Alameda’s sister firm, FTX. On Sunday, the CEO of Binance, FTX’s much larger rival, said his company was liquidating $580 million worth of FTX holdings. After a chaotic week, FTX filed for bankruptcy.

The oil price jump helped push U.S. inflation to the highest level in 40 years. But the sale also bled the SPR, meant to be a protection against shocks in energy markets, to the lowest level since May 1984. And it helped to sour U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia which sided with Russia in early October in a deep oil production cut. Biden said on Oct. 19 the United States is ready to tap the SPR again early next year to rein in prices. Reporting by Katharine Jackson, Timothy Gardner and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The market is moving in-line with seasonal patterns almost perfectly — Post-midterms rally next?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Michael Santoli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In a fully rational and efficient market, seasonal stock-performance factors should be of no use to an investor, and perhaps should not exist at all. This past September was brutal, the S & P 500 down 9.3%, with the downside skewed toward the second half of the month, just as the seasonal script dictated. Since 1950, the S & P 500 has never been down from November to April in a midterm year. Remember all the talk that stocks have tended to rally up to and through the first Fed rate hike? A 17% S & P rally from June-August on hopes of a dovish turn by the Fed and a firming in macro data.

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