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☆ Live Nation exec will face lawmakers about Taylor Swift concert tickets fiasco
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” Swift wrote on Instagram in November. The mergerCriticism of Ticketmaster’s dominance dates back decades, but the Swift ticketing incident has once again turned that issue into a dinner table discussion at many households. Concert promoter Live Nation and ticketing company Ticketmaster, two of the largest companies in the concert business, announced their merger in 2009. ‘Customers are the ones that pay the price’While irate fans were left scrambling to wade through the Swift ticket confusion, their collective anger caught lawmakers’ attention. To me, what happened with the Swift concert tickets was not necessarily the result of Ticketmaster being the dominant player in the industry,” he said.

☆ It's a terrible time to be a sneaker reseller
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Lois Sakany | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Adidas' messy breakup with Ye is the latest in a series of complications for sneaker resellers. Sneaker resellers have felt the effects of the end of the stimulus check and the rise of inflation. Sneaker resellers saw a bot crackdownWhile not as lucrative as Nike in the aftermarket, it was easier to buy Yeezys in bulk on Yeezy Supply using bots. The loss of Yeezy sales then combined with Nike's crackdown on bots. I'm working to expand my team to accommodate the online customer, walk-in customer, and sneaker customer," Falcon said.

☆ Lula replaces Brazil's army commander, source says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Lisandra Paraguassu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRASILIA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired the army commander, General Julio Cesar de Arruda, on Saturday, a source with knowledge of the matter said. His replacement will be General Tomas Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, army commander of the southeast, the source said. Brazil's army and the Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment on the matter. Lula said this week that intelligence services failed on Jan. 8, when government buildings in Brasilia were stormed by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula has said recently that his government would purge hardcore Bolsonaro loyalists from the security forces.

☆ I drove electric SUVs from Kia, Hyundai, and Tesla — and I see why the Korean brands are gaining on Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 are some of the trendiest new electric vehicles challenging Tesla. The trendy Korean SUVs are stylish, fun, and technologically advanced — and are making trouble for Tesla's Model Y. The 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5. The 2022 Kia EV6. The Tesla Model Y. Tim Levin/InsiderPlus, they drive greatThe Model Y accelerates like nobody's business and takes turns like a sports car.

☆ 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.

[1/5] Supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as security forces operate, outside Brazil?s National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023. Launched in November 2020 and run by Brazil's central bank, Pix is free of charge for individuals, allowing them to instantly transfer money to others via online banking apps. Since its launch, over 133 million Brazilians and almost 12 million companies have made or received Pix transfers, according to the central bank. INVESTIGATIVE TRAILPolice, money-laundering experts and central bank officials said Pix donations will be central to investigators' efforts to uncover who orchestrated the insurrection. Pix transfers are covered by bank secrecy laws, and police can only access a suspect's transaction history with judicial authorization.

Twitter staff have spotted cockroaches in changing rooms and showers, sources told Insider. A representative for the company that owns the office building declined to comment. Staff at the office in Chelsea have seen cockroaches in the showers and a changing room at the facility, sources said. Twitter is the only direct leasee at the office building which is listed as a "Class B" building on CoStar, a commercial real estate database. Some staff at Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco have been sleeping in the office after Musk issued an ultimatum for staff to work "extremely hardcore."

[1/2] Security forces operate as supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, outside Brazil’s National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023. The battalion of troops assigned to guard the presidential palace did not respond either until rioters had entered and trashed the palace, according to a Reuters witness. Four on-duty staffers from the National Security Adviser's office (GSI) were quickly overwhelmed inside the presidential palace and their office ransacked. Presidential Chief of Staff Rui Costa said the government now faces the challenge of undertaking a "decontamination" of the security forces and holding those responsible accountable. "This excessive participation of the military and military police in politics is progressively leading to ideological contamination of the forces," Costa said.

☆ Elon Musk tells Twitter employees he's available to discuss urgent product needs: 'We are going to agonize until we achieve as close to the perfect product as possible'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk reportedly emailed Twitter staff saying he was available to discuss urgent product needs. The Twitter CEO told workers he was finished with most of his Tesla work for the weekend and free to discuss Twitter product needs, Platformer's Zoë Schiffer tweeted on Wednesday. Per Schiffer, Musk said in the email: "We are going to agonize until we achieve as close to the perfect product as possible." He told Twitter employees to focus the meetings on "urgent product decision matters, engineering progress, and legal, finance and HR," Schiffer also tweeted. All of Twitter's product changes have to be personally signed off by Musk, per Schiffer.

☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter accused of unlawful staff firings in the UK
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The letter also said Twitter has failed to provide information about the selection criteria used to determine the layoffs. The letter states that 43 affected UK employees are prepared to take the issue to an Employment Tribunal, a UK system for employees to bring legal disputes against their employers, if the company does not agree to cooperate with negotiations over the layoff process. The warning marks the latest challenge to Twitter from former employees affected by mass layoffs that took place after Elon Musk acquired the company in October. Twitter is also facing four proposed class action lawsuits in the United States related to the layoffs. (Typically, negotiations over mass layoffs by UK companies involve discussions of the reasons for terminations and how to minimize their size and impact.)

☆ A lawyer representing hundreds of laid-off Twitter staff has accused Elon Musk of trying to 'fleece' workers over severance pay
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A lawyer fighting Twitter said Elon Musk tried to "fleece" ex-workers with his offers of severance pay. This allegation has already been detailed in one of the four class-action lawsuits Liss-Riordan filed against the company in late 2022 on behalf of former Twitter employees. Musk himself had previously said that people who left the company would be given three months of severance. The former workers told Insider's Kali Hays that they were disappointed by the severance ultimately offered by Musk. "Musk's decision to fleece Twitter workers isn't just shameful – it's also going to be very costly," Liss-Riordan added.

☆ Brazil's Bolsonaro hospitalized in the U.S. with abdominal pain - report
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

SAO PAULO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was admitted to a hospital in Orlando, Florida, with "abdominal pain," newspaper O Globo reported on Monday, a day after some of his hardcore supporters stormed the capital city of Brasilia. Bolsonaro has been hospitalized multiple times in recent years with gut blockages after being stabbed while campaigning for the presidency in 2018. He traveled to the United States two days before Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took the office of president. Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Mark PorterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Former Twitter employees get severance offer after months of waiting. Many are unhappy with it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —After months of uncertainty and feeling left in the dark, many former Twitter employees impacted by a mass layoff in early November began receiving their severance offers over the weekend. The severance offer promises one month’s pay in exchange for agreeing to various terms, including a non-disparagement agreement and waiving the right to take any legal action against the company, according to Lisa Bloom, a lawyer representing dozens of former Twitter employees affected by the layoffs. The former Twitter employees are now stuck deciding whether to accept the money or join the hundreds of others who have already filed arbitration demands or lawsuits against the company. “We’ve been hearing from hundreds of Twitter employees who are considering their options and not happy about only being offered one month severance, after they were promised much more,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, another lawyer working on behalf of former Twitter employees, told CNN in a statement Monday. The severance offer would also require that employees who sign agree not to cooperate as a witness in any legal actions brought by third parties against Twitter.

☆ 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.

☆ Ice Baths. Cryo-Chambers. Hikes at Dawn. Why Spa-Goers Want Hardcore Wellness Now.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Dana Wood | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

I HAD SECOND THOUGHTS awaiting my turn for the (then very rare) cryotherapy tank at Carillon Miami Wellness Resort in 2019. I watched, pale-faced and quivering, as a few brave souls rotated upright in that tank like Sam’s Club rotisserie chickens. I’d white-knuckled it through a colonic at Deer Lake Lodge in Montgomery, Texas, years earlier but 3.5 minutes in a minus-160 degree container for a restorative boost felt extreme. For 2023, spa enthusiasts are seeking out such grueling treatments almost routinely, and paying handsomely for them, all in the name of wellness. It’s no longer about being pampered but going all in to get healthy.

Summary Abraham Accords meant to lead to wider normalisationBut four new Arab partners of Israel now in tough spotHow to deal with rightists without ditching Palestinians? It is expected to be the widest-ranging deal of its kind between Israel and an Arab state. "This is the proof that one can make peace without concessions, without capitulation - but rather, peace, peace, between people who have affection for one another," he said in comments published by the conservative Israel Hayom newspaper. “Arab countries who formed normalisation ties with the state of occupation are required more than ever to revise these agreements,” he told Reuters by phone. Netanyahu has pledged to build on the achievement during his previous term of the Abraham Accords that opened the way for a possible normalisation of relations with other Arab countries.

☆ One of the last remaining execs from 'Twitter 1.0' confirmed he has left the company
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

One of the last remaining execs from pre-Elon Musk Twitter has left the company. Behnam Rezaei, Twitter's head of product and engineering, had worked at the company since 2017. Musk said in December that Twitter had around 2,000 staff left. Behnam Rezaei, Twitter's head of product and engineering, said in a series of tweets that he left Twitter on Tuesday. Former Twitter staff have used the moniker "Twitter 1.0" to refer to the company pre-Musk.

☆ Two months after mass Twitter layoffs, affected employees still waiting for severance offers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Two months after Elon Musk laid off half of Twitter’s workforce, some employees affected say they have yet to receive any formal severance offer or separation agreement. As of early Thursday, however, the former employee said they had yet to receive any documents related to a severance agreement or offer. The company was recently sued by a commercial landlord and a private flight company alleging Twitter has failed to pay bills. At the time of the layoffs, Musk promised that “everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance,” a time period that appears to include the 60-days advanced notice Twitter was obligated to provide. She has also filed three claims against Twitter with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of former employees.

☆ One of the last remaining execs from 'Twitter 1.0' has left the company, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

One of the last remaining execs from pre-Elon Musk Twitter has quit, tech journalist Zoë Schiffer says. Musk said in December that Twitter had around 2,000 staff left. Since buying Twitter in late October, Elon Musk has laid off thousands of the company's staff. Some Twitter users suggested that Marcotte may have chosen to stay at the company until the end of the severance period for the roughly 50% of Twitter staff laid off on November 4. Former Twitter staff have used the moniker "Twitter 1.0" to refer to the company pre-Musk.

☆ Brazil acting president hits out at 'silent' Bolsonaro in New Year speech
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SAO PAULO, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Brazil's acting president, Hamilton Mourao, on Saturday criticized outgoing far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro for allowing anti-democratic sentiment to thrive in the wake of this year's election, in a veiled dig in a New Year speech. Vice president under Bolsonaro, Mourao delivered the New Year speech after taking over on Friday, when the outgoing president flew to Florida to avoid handing over the presidential sash to leftist President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at his Jan. 1 inauguration. Bolsonaro's exit follows weeks of near silence following his defeat in Brazil's most fraught election in a generation. Mourao was elected in 2018 as Bolsonaro's running mate but was ditched in this year's election, with the outgoing president choosing former Chief of Staff Walter Braga Netto to join his defeated ticket. Mourao instead ran for Senate and secured a spot in the upper house of Congress representing the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

[1/5] Federal prison officers take position in front of federal police headquarters during an action by Federal Police and agents of the Civil Police of Brasilia, to serve arrests and seizure warrants issued by the Federal Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Brazil December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Adriano MachadoBRASILIA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Brazilian police said they arrested four people and carried out nationwide raids on Thursday in investigations into an alleged coup attempt during riots by supporters of defeated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Brazilian authorities, led by the Supreme Court, have been cracking down on a small but committed minority of Bolsonaro supporters who refuse to acknowledge leftist President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's election victory and are calling for a military coup. The federal police said on Thursday they were serving 32 search and arrest warrants in eight states under Supreme Court orders. Two arrest warrants were served in the northwestern state of Rondonia, one in Rio de Janeiro and one in Brasilia, Mazzotti said in a press conference.

☆ Investors will stop rewarding digital health startups masquerading as tech companies in 2023, VC Aike Ho predicts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Many digital-health startups enjoy tech valuations without differentiated technology. As record investment has flowed into care startups, many of them have enjoyed valuations that mirror those of tech companies. In 2023, thanks in part to the struggling economy, Ho predicts that digital-health investing will stop rewarding this approach and favor startups with true technology differentiation. Ho said it's the right time for real technology startups to take off in healthcare. She's looking for founding teams with three distinct superpowers: understanding the healthcare landscape, understanding the technology behind products, and understanding that technology's clinical application.

☆ Twitter down: Thousands of global users struggle to login but Elon Musk says it ‘works for me’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Diksha Madhok | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

“User reports indicate Twitter is having problems since 7:13 pm EST,” according to outage detection site Downdetector, where many of the issues were reported. Over 10,000 users had reported trouble with accessing the platform on Wednesday evening, according to Downdetector data. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but its new owner Elon Musk tweeted on the platform that it “works for me,” in response to a user query. Meanwhile, some users, including CNN journalists, were met with an error message that read “Something went wrong, but don’t fret – it’s not your fault. Let’s try again.”According to Downdetector, it was desktop users of the platform, rather than those accessing it on mobile, who were most likely to be affected.

☆ 'Coup-mongering' Bolsonarista's battle cry reveals a radicalized Brazil
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Gabriel Stargardter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Lots of people realized this wasn't a safe place," said Lucas Mello, a 22-year-old TikToker who has lived in the camp since Dec. 5. Three days after the riots, Moraes released Baldin, sent him home with an ankle bracelet, and barred him from talking to the media. "The heavily violent (protests) ... occurred in exactly the same context that motivated the temporary arrest of Milton Baldin," Moraes wrote in his sealed ruling. Bolsonaristas deride Moraes as an unelected despot who has censored free speech and trampled on the president's executive power. On Dec. 9, Bolsonaro broke weeks of post-election silence with an ambiguous message many viewed as encouragement to his protesting supporters.

☆ Elon Musk turned some Twitter offices into bedrooms - take a look
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk turned some office space at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters into sleeping quarters. Take a look inside some of the sleeping quarters, including what appears to be Musk's bedroom. That attracted the attention of the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, which told Insider it was investigating the reports. Musk was not impressed, tweeting: "So city of SF attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl. Take a look inside the office space that's been turned into bedrooms.

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