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☆ Fact Check-Ukrainian church fire from 2021 likely started by electrical fault, according to priest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A 2021 video of a burning church in Ukraine has circulated online with a caption that baselessly claims it was set alight by Ukrainian nationalists. The posts claim that “Ukrainian nationalists” started the fire after the church rector refused to switch from the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its 11th month, has led many Ukrainians to rally round the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which they see as more pro-Ukrainian than its rival, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Dnipropetrovsk Eparchy published a statement at the time with videos and photos of the church (here ). The video shows a fire at a church in the Dnipropetrovsk region in 2021.

☆ Pay in tech is dropping fast as firms like Microsoft, Snap and more use layoffs and a looming recession to wrest power from workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Pay is getting lower, stock grants smaller and offers, if they come at all, are take it or leave it. In November, Snap employees heard some frank talk from CEO Evan Spiegel on his plans for compensation after enacting a mass layoff a couple of months before. "In general, we've noticed a decrease in pay across the entire tech industry," said Zuhayeer Musa, founder of Levels.fyi, a platform that collects data on tech compensation. Aalap Shah, a managing director at Pearl Meyer who advises tech companies, said he's been expecting such a retreat on pay. An estimated 200,000 tech employees have been laid off since last year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which compiles data on hiring in tech and is not part of Levels.fyi.

☆ Twitter is bracing for further layoffs as Elon Musk shrinks the employee headcount to its lowest level in over a decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is seeing rolling layoffs despite Elon Musk's claims that he was done laying people off. Musk says Twitter is in dire financial straits. Layoffs are picking up again at Twitter about six weeks after Elon Musk told his new employees he was done with such actions. By the end of these cuts, the company could see its lowest headcount in over a decade. Employees are expecting that plans to close many international offices and several smaller offices in the U.S. will result in even more layoffs.

☆ True, a budding social platform with $15 million in backing from Microsoft veteran Paul Maritz, takes aim at Facebook by rejecting user tracking and targeted ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

True is another newer entrant into the social media space, long dominated by Facebook and Twitter. Bret Cox and Paul Maritz want to prove that a social media platform can be a sustainable business without tracking and selling users' every online move. "It's not nearly as lucrative as targeted advertising, but it will be sustainable," Cox said. Although he admits True is something of an "experiment" in the world of social media. Do you work in social media or are you someone else with insight to share?

☆ JPMorgan sues the founder of the college financial-planning website it acquired, alleging she falsely inflated its user numbers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

JPMorgan alleged that college financial-planning website Frank lied about its growth and users. JPMorgan's suit accused Frank's founder Charlie Javice and its former chief growth officer Olivier Amar of being in on a scheme to juice its user numbers. The pair used that list to make the inflated user numbers seem credible. The bank claimed that the startup provided the false user numbers while it was conducting due diligence when looking into acquiring the company. As of Thursday morning, JPMorgan had closed down Frank's website, a representative for the bank confirmed to Insider.

☆ Twitter is closing or getting kicked out of many international offices as Elon Musk skips rent and dramatically shrinks operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is leaving at least a dozen international offices due to closures or not paying rent. Elon Musk is closing many of its international Twitter offices as he continues to cut costs and try to find ways the company can make money. Twitter previously had more than two dozen international offices spanning nearly all regions of the world. The Singapore office, which first opened in 2015, even expanded last year, with more office space and engineers brought on to grow in the region. As for other international offices, most were smaller outposts for business operations, including engineering and ad sales.

☆ Bed Bath & Beyond is closing dozens of stores in 2023 — see the full list
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Bed Bath & Beyond released an updated list of store closures set to take place by March. San Leandro: 15555 East 14th St., Suite 24015555 East 14th St., Suite 240 Burbank: 201 East Magnolia Blvd. ArterialKansas:Lawrence: 3106 S. Iowa St., Suite 2153106 S. Iowa St., Suite 215 Manhattan: 425 3rd PlaceKentucky:Elizabethtown: 1998 N. Dixie Ave.1998 N. Dixie Ave. New Hartford: 4805 Commercial Drive4805 Commercial Drive Kingston: 1187 Ulster Ave.1187 Ulster Ave. Plattsburgh: 73 Centre Drive, Suite 10073 Centre Drive, Suite 100 Farmingdale: 251 Airport Plaza Blvd. Wisconsin:Mequon: 11110 N. Port Washington RoadPuerto Rico:Bayamon: Plaza Del Sol, 725 West Main Ave.Do you work for Bed Bath & Beyond?

☆ It might be possible to fight a traffic ticket with an AI 'robot lawyer' secretly feeding you lines to your AirPods, but it could go off the rails
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

DoNotPay wants to put AI to the courtroom test, and plans to use it to advise defendants in traffic cases. Judges could alert bar associations to a rogue "robot lawyer" on the loose, legal experts said. But DoNotPay's founder Joshua Browder plans to put his app's AI "robot lawyer" to just such a test in an upcoming traffic court case in February, according to a report in the New Scientist that heralds the first AI-powered defense in court. "The traffic court judge might have questions about who's really doing the talking here." As Browder courted headlines with the bold move to take DoNotPay's "robot lawyer" to court, he also tweeted an incredible offer on Sunday.

☆ Twitter alternatives like Mastadon see downloads plunge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Downloads of the iOS app have grown 290,000% to 1.5 million since Oct. 24, with daily users up 660,000% to 321,000, according to Apptopia data.

☆ A group of laid off Twitter employees finally got paltry severance agreements. Now they must decide whether to sign, or pursue legal action against Elon Musk's company.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After two months of waiting, laid off Twitter employees got severance agreements from Elon Musk. By comparison, laid off workers at Facebook received six months of severance when that company enacted mass layoffs in November. The website also uses Twitter's official blue and white bird logo and the official separation agreements are said to show Musk's signature. As for the separation agreements, they appear to be mostly boilerplate, offering one month of pay to laid off employees as severance. Such clauses are typical for severance agreements.

☆ Macy's is closing another batch of stores in 2023 — here's the full list
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Macy's will close four additional stores across the country in the first quarter of 2023. Macy's has been experimenting with opening smaller concept stores outside of suburban malls. A Macy's spokesperson told Insider that employees at the affected stores would be offered roles at nearby stores or severance packages. Macy's closed stores in 2020, 2021, and 2022, including seven locations in January of last year. The department store chain has been experimenting with opening smaller, trendier concept stores known as Market by Macy's, which are located outside of suburban shopping malls.

☆ Elon Musk, who has used fertility treatments to conceive most of his 10 children, just cut a major fertility benefit for Twitter employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The most recent is to a fertility benefit, coverage of which is now reduced by 50%. Musk has used fertility treatments to conceive most of his children. Elon Musk continues to cut costs at Twitter, with the latest move drastically reducing a benefit that helped employees with the cost of fertility treatments and adoption. The benefit is provided through a third party, Carrot, which last week emailed Twitter employees telling them of the change in coverage. Two former employees noted that the change will likely become part of the five lawsuits and group arbitrations that have been filed over Musk's treatment of Twitter employees.

☆ Elon Musk throws out Twitter's political advertising ban in a quest for revenue to save his floundering social media company
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk is lifting Twitter's ban on political ads. Billions are spent on political ads each year. Twitter will be "expanding" the amount of political advertising allowed on the platform and "relaxing" current rules around all "cause-based" advertising, the site's safety department said on Tuesday. TV advertising falls under the oversight of the Federal Communications Commission, which does not fact check any form of advertising, political or otherwise. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter at the end of October, the company's finances have deteriorated as brands and advertisers fled.

☆ Facebook lost several notable leaders in 2022, from Sheryl Sandberg to John Carmack, with more changes likely to come
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As Facebook began 2022 with a quiet reorganization, several executives and well-known leaders left the company. Along with executives leaving the company, Meta also laid off 11,000 employees, with even more cuts possible in the coming weeks. Sheryl SandbergSheryl Sandberg Facebook COO. Maria Angelidou-SmithAngelidou-Smith joined Meta in 2014 and spent five years as head of monetization for the Facebook app. When the company began to quietly reorganize and plan for layoffs in late summer, the Facebook app was not immune.

☆ Big Tech predictions for 2023: A rival for Twitter, Amazon deceleration, Google's AI wake-up call, Microsoft's serious game, cloud bills, and DTC decline
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Hugh Langley | Kali Hays | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The painful adjustments will ripple across the industry in 2023.Insider's Big Tech reporters share what to watch this coming year. At $44 billion, the debt-fueled deal was completed quickly at valuations from the frothy tech bull market of 2021. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe slow breakdown of Twitter under Musk appears to be upon us. Mastodon has experienced a major influx of users, hitting more than 5 million accounts after Musk took over Twitter. With intense tech antitrust scrutiny, these new services are unlikely to be gobbled up by Big Tech.

☆ Here's the 'most overlooked' skill young people need to be successful, says millennial therapist
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Tess Brigham | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

As a psychotherapist who works primarily with millennials and Gen Z, I've found that the most overlooked skill young people need to be successful today is knowing how to tune out all that excess noise. For the next three days, keep a record of your social media habits. responding to a DM, saying hi to a friend, boredom) How you feel before you open the app (e.g., like you're missing out, anxious) What you're doing (e.g. Don't forget to be mindful about when social media has helped you. The key is to be more aware of when social media lifts you up, and when it starts to cloud your thinking.

☆ Twitter alternatives that got traction after Elon Musk takeover are suddenly seeing downloads plunge. Which has staying power and who is the next Clubhouse?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Yet, it has maintained more than 500,000 daily users.

☆ Elon Musk is still cutting costs at Twitter, killing features and conducting layoffs as he tries to draw new investment
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Efforts to cut costs are ongoing, resulting in some Twitter features shutting down. Elon Musk is still very much in charge of Twitter and continues to drastically cut costs as he searches for new outside investment. Meanwhile, he's begun in earnest to solicit new funding from previous investors in his Twitter takeover. It was run mainly by Twitter's Curation team, which was almost entirely let go during Musk's first round of layoffs. Cost is top of mind in conversations that come up with Musk on any Twitter feature, the two people familiar said.

☆ An employee laid off by Meta says he got a strange package from the company marked 'leaver' with two emojis inside and no note
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

One former Meta employee received a 'peculiar' gift in the mail just in time for the holidays. Matt Motyl says he was one of the 11,000 staff members laid off by Meta in November. Researcher Matt Motyl was laid off from Meta in November despite exceeding expectations in performance reviews, he said. But their true purpose is unclear since the only context for the package was the word "leaver" written on the box, Motyl said. In the thread of tweets related to the box, which Motyl called "peculiar," he said he'd heard from other former Meta employees about strange things delivered to them from the company.

☆ European countries switch off Christmas lights this winter to cut energy usage as Russia keeps tight hold on gas supply
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

European countries have turned off or reduced Christmas lights this year to cut down on energy use. Russia's crackdown on gas supplies to Europe has led to energy-saving measures on the continent. United KingdomThe infamous Christmas lights in London are running for fewer hours this year, according to the organizer the New West End Company. Smaller towns across the UK have also decided to switch off their Christmas lights in order to save money, per reports. GermanyAccording to the German non-profit environmental organization, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, Christmas lights in houses, apartments, and cities should be unplugged this year.

☆ How this 31-year-old tech worker built a community to help her peers bounce back from layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

These circumstances have left many Americans unsure about the future of their careers – but Fana Yohannes is dedicated to changing that. Through her Instagram account, Here2Help, Yohannes is providing access to mentorship, networking opportunities, and resume advice to over 4,000 followers. She launched Here2Help in May 2020 as a response to the surge of layoffs caused by the pandemic. For example, I'm able to onboard so many mentors and mentees because I'm very precise in the directions that I'm writing in a post. "All of the learnings that I'm able to see from Here2Help as it comes from being a social media manager, I'm able to apply it to my day-to-day job."

☆ Tesla investors plead with Elon Musk to leave Twitter and refocus on the electric car company in 'a vote of no confidence in Elon'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Some high profile investors agreed Tesla's stock is down because Musk is distracted with Twitter. Musk is trying to get new investment for the platform, and just sold $3.6 billion in Tesla stock. "We all know why Tesla stock is down and it has nothing to do with the company," Gerber said. Both Gerber and Black suggested that Musk is selling Tesla stock to invest in Twitter, a company that Black noted "makes no money and probably never will." That should make a long-term stock investment like Tesla more intriguing to investors.

☆ In scathing exit memo, Meta VR expert John Carmack derides the company's bureaucracy: 'I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

John Carmack, the consulting CTO for Meta's virtual-reality efforts, announced his exit in an internal memo. Carmack joined Oculus in 2013 before Facebook acquired it, and moved to a new consulting role at Oculus in 2019. John Carmack, the consulting CTO for Meta's virtual-reality efforts, announced plans to leave the company Friday in an internal memo viewed by Insider. The scathing note, posted to the company's internal Workplace forum, openly criticized Meta's AR and VR work, core to its metaverse ambitions. "We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort," Carmack wrote in the memo.

☆ John Carmack, the consulting CTO for Meta's virtual-reality efforts, is leaving. 'I wearied of the fight'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Carmack joined Oculus in 2013 as CTO, prior to its acquisition by Facebook. John Carmack, the consulting CTO for Meta's virtual-reality efforts, is leaving, according to two people familiar with the company. Overall, Carmack said he simply "wearied of the fight" with Meta, formerly known as Facebook, which acquired Oculus in 2014. Despite being one of the best known and more popular VR headsets on the market, Meta changed the name of the brand last year to Meta Quest. During Meta's developer conference in October, Carmack hosted a solo hour-long talk about the company's Oculus or Quest headset.

☆ Twitter suspends multiple journalists who have been covering, criticizing Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter suspended several journalists' accounts on Thursday. Many of the affected writers had been covering or criticizing Elon Musk in the preceding days. But Rupar told Insider that he didn't believe he had tweeted or even retweeted anything about the ongoing private jet saga. Nearly all of them had been reporting on Twitter, covering Musk, or writing critically about the billionaire in the days leading up to their suspension. The flight data Musk is trying to keep off Twitter is available online to anyone and relatively easy to track.

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