The three megafans managed to snag tickets to all six shows of the Southeast Asia leg of the popstar's Eras Tour by getting tactical and using their network, as per their interviews with Channel News Asia.
"I haven't seen her in nine years, and I felt like this is the best time to just go all out," said Jafar.
The group told CNA they used four devices each and reached out to friends, family, and even relatives they are not close to, to increase their chances of getting the sought-after tickets. They even prepared spreadsheets with their desired seating plan.
The friends said they spent about 1,200 Singapore dollars, or $893, per person for the six shows. They bought expensive tickets for the opening night and chose cheaper seats for the other five days, they told CNA.
Two of them requested time off from their full-time jobs for the show days.
"They know how much of a fan I am and were quite understanding about it. Even my bosses were like, 'Oh, she's going for six days!'" Jafaar said of her workplace.
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado with her ex-husband and four sons.
Lauren Boebert for Congress
Lauren Boebert's son Tyler Boebert was arrested on Tuesday afternoon.
He's facing 22 charges in connection with a series of crimes in Rifle, Colorado.
Amid the family troubles, Lauren Boebert is running for a new seat in Colorado's 4th district.
Rep. Lauren Boebert's 18-year-old son, Tyler Boebert, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon and is facing 22 charges, including several felony charges relating to a string of crimes in her Colorado district.
According to Garfield County Jail's records, Tyler Boebert is facing four counts of criminal possession of a financial device, four counts of criminal possession of ID documents, and a count of conspiracy to commit a felony.
He's also charged with four misdemeanor counts of ID theft, three misdemeanor counts of first-degree criminal trespass, and three misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In addition, he's also charged with three counts of the petty offense of theft of less than $300.
The arrest adds another layer of turmoil to Lauren Boebert's campaign, which is in danger of being completely eclipsed by family issues.
Lauren Boebert announced earlier this year that she intended to run for a new seat in 2024, shifting her campaign to Colorado's 4th district.
She mentioned her family troubles and "children's future" in a Facebook video announcing the decision, calling it a "fresh start following a pretty difficult year for me and my family."
The past year has seen Lauren Boebert's ex-husband arrested twice, the issuance of a restraining order, and her appearing to get handsy with another man in a local theater.
Lauren Boebert has been involved in a contentious and very public split with her ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, with whom she shares four sons.
In December 2022, Tyler Boebert called 911 to say his father was "throwing" him around the house, according to an emergency call obtained by Business Insider's Haven Orecchio-Egresitz.
The teen then called back to say his father hadn't been physical, with Jayson Boebert later telling BI that it was solely a verbal argument.
Three days later, Tyler Boebert accused his father of shoving him to the ground and putting his hand in his mouth, as well as arming himself during the incident, according to a police report. Jayson Boebert was re-arrested.
Jayson Boebert told the Denver media outlet Westword that the restraining order was a "prison sentence" to keep him from his family.
Meanwhile, in March 2023, Lauren Boebert said she was becoming a grandmother at the age of 36, announcing that Tyler was expecting a baby with his girlfriend.
The regular parade of news headlines is unlikely to help her election campaign.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that she was trying to convince her new district that she wasn't all drama.
In a statement provided to BI by email, Lauren Boebert said: "I love my son Tyler, who has been through some very difficult, public challenges for a young man and the subject of attention that he didn't ask for."
She added: "As an adult and father, Tyler will take responsibility for his actions and should be held accountable for poor decisions just like any other citizen."
February 29, 2024— This story has been updated to include a response from Lauren Boebert.
"There were three Willy Wonkas but I was the most unlucky because I went first and stayed for three and a half hours doing it through either commitment or stupidity," actor Paul Connell (not pictured) told The Independent.
Silver Screen Collection via Getty Images; Stuart Sinclair
Actor and stand-up comedian, Paul Connell was hired to play Willy Wonka at an event in Scotland.
The Wonka-themed event was reviled by attendees for its low production value.
Connell said he thought he was losing his mind after playing Wonka over three hours straight.
An actor who played Willy Wonka at a chocolate-factory-themed event in Scotland says he had such a bad time at the gig he felt like he was losing his mind.
The event, which organizers say is entirely unrelated to the Warner Bros. film franchise, has been panned by some attendees.
Several visitors took photos of the venue and complained about the event's production value. And according to Connell, it wasn't just the attendees who said they were having a terrible time.
"I was told I would get a 15-minute break every 45 minutes after each group went through. But I ended up playing Willy Wonka for three and a half hours straight," the stand-up comedian told The Independent.
"I didn't know where I ended and Wonka began. I was losing my mind by that point," he continued.
Connell told the British newspaper that there were barely any props for him to use. The actor said the organizers gave him a script, which he described as "15 pages of AI-generated gibberish."
"There were three Willy Wonkas, but I was the most unlucky because I went first and stayed for three and a half hours doing it through either commitment or stupidity," Connell said.
Connell added that there was also "no chocolate at the chocolate experience."
"There was supposed to be a chocolate fountain somewhere, but I never saw it," he told The Independent.
Stuart Sinclair, a parent who brought his children to the event, said in a Facebook post that he thought the event was "nothing more than an absolute con."
On Saturday, the House of Illuminati apologized and said they would give full refunds to ticket holders.
"We were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realize we probably should have canceled first thing this morning instead," the event organizer said on Facebook.
The House of Illuminati said in a separate post on Wednesday that they "will not be holding any other events in the foreseeable future."
Representatives for the House of Illuminati did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Wendy Williams in the documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?"
Lifetime
Wendy Williams' new documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?" addressed her health and legal drama.
It was originally supposed to be about her career comeback but shifted due to her declining health.
Williams is now at an undisclosed medical facility and her family hopes to regain guardianship of her.
Wendy Williams' recent two-night Lifetime documentary caused a backlash among her most loyal fans, called Wendy Watchers.
"Where Is Wendy Wiliams?," released over the weekend, followed the daytime TV star from August 2022 to April 2023, painfully showing her declining physical and mental health. But getting the documentary to the finish line wasn't without its challenges.
Shortly after this diagnosis was revealed, TMZ and The Hollywood Reporter said that Sabrina Morrissey, Williams' financial guardian, filed a lawsuit against Lifetime's parent company, A&E Television Networks. Still, the four-part documentary aired on Lifetime as planned.
Here's a complete breakdown of the most revelatory aspects of Williams' documentary and the drama that's unfolded since its release.
The documentary was initially conceptualized as a way to follow Williams' career comeback
Wendy Williams in the documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?"
Lifetime
After being a prominent figure of daytime TV for more than a decade, Williams stepped away from "The Wendy Williams Show" to deal with her health issues. The talk show was subsequently canceled and aired its final episode in June 2022.
Executive producer Mark Ford told THR that the documentary was supposed to document Williams launching her podcast and returning to the spotlight.
"But as we filmed, it became evident that this wasn't really going to be a career comeback story, that this was going to be a deeper story, and that there was something ultimately disturbing going on in Wendy's life," Ford said.
As Williams' erratic behavior intensified, the doc's focus shifted to her family's concern
Kevin Hunter Jr. in "Where Is Wendy Williams?"
Lifetime
The documentary offered glimpses of the Williams that fans know and love. Still, the TV personality was often shown to be demanding and aggressive toward her manager, Will Selby, her publicist, Shawn Zanotti, and crew members.
The early parts of the documentary touched on Williams' attempt to get her podcast off the ground. It later pivoted to family members expressing worry about her well-being and the financial guardianship that she was put under in May 2022. The documentary detailed that Williams' family was removed from overseeing her care when the legal guardian was appointed.
Ford told THR that the documentary, which was executive produced by Williams, ultimately became more of a cautionary tale, centered on "the family's point of view and illustrating what can happen when one of your family members is put into a guardianship outside of your control."
Many of Williams' family sat down for interviews for the documentary, including her son Kevin Hunter Jr. (who has an executive producer credit), her dad Tommy Williams Sr., her brother Tommy Williams Jr., her sister Wanda Finnie, her niece Alex Finnie, and her nephew Travis Finnie.
In interviews, Williams' family said they didn't think she was healthy enough to work and felt that people around the star weren't operating in her best interests.
Producers said they wouldn't have filmed Williams if they were aware of her dementia diagnosis
Wendy Williams in the documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?"
Lifetime
The documentary showed Williams struggling with her declining health, alcohol abuse, cognitive abilities, financial struggles, and vulnerable emotional state. Given the intense and heartbreaking material, fans and critics slammed the documentary and called it "exploitative."
"What's now clear is that 'Where Is Wendy Williams?' is not a series about the next chapter of Williams' life but instead an exploitative display of her cognitive decline and emotional well-being," wrote Variety TV critic Aramide Tinubu.
Business Insider reached out to Lifetime for comment. Still, the producers defended the documentary during interviews with THR and Today.com.
"Everyone knows that Wendy has a reputation as one of the most radical truth-tellers in the history of media," Ford told Today.com. "So, we hope that the film honors her legacy of radical transparency even when it's painful. We just really felt, as filmmakers, that it was important to capture the truth and not sanitize it."
Similarly, Ford told THR that the crew was just in the dark as fans and learned new information — like Williams' dementia diagnosis — as they went along.
"If we had known that Wendy had dementia going into it, no one would've rolled a camera," Ford said.
What happens next? The guardianship will be reviewed this year, and her family hopes to be put in charge.
Wendy Williams in the documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?"
Lifetime
In accordance with New York state law, the court must review the guardianship every year. When asked in the documentary if Williams should have a guardian, Hunter said the responsibility should go to her family.
"The family's side of the story hasn't been told, so it's kind of this gray space of who's really telling the truth or what's going on," Hunter said in the doc. "I've always wanted the best for my mom."
"I feel like the situation that she's in right now isn't really the best situation for her journey of trying to heal," he added.
Williams is now at an undisclosed medical facility
Wendy Williams in the documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?"
Lifetime
By the documentary's conclusion, Williams' New York apartment was emptied, and the star was living in a medical facility at an undisclosed location.
In an interview with People magazine released before the documentary's premiere, Wanda and Alex said that Williams appeared healthier recently.
"I spoke with her yesterday and I speak with her very regularly when she reaches out to me. She is, from what I understand, in a wellness, healing type of environment," Wanda said.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Sam Bankman-Fried's family begged for leniency ahead of his upcoming sentencing.
His lawyers suggest a 6.5-year sentence, calling the probation office's 100-year recommendation "barbaric."
His parents warned prison could lead to violence given his poor ability to comprehend social cues.
Sam Bankman-Fried's family members begged the judge who oversaw his criminal trial to give him a light sentence, arguing that his social awkwardness could put him in "extreme danger" behind bars.
"I genuinely fear for Sam's life in the typical prison environment," Barbara Fried, his mother, wrote in a letter to the judge. "Sam's outward presentation, his inability to read or respond appropriately to many social cues, and his touching but naive belief in the power of facts and reason to resolve disputes, put him in extreme danger."
Bankman-Fried's lawyers filed a sentencing submission, asking for a prison sentence of no longer than 78 months — or six-and-a-half-years.
The filing was supported by 29 letters from Bankman-Fried's supporters, two intensely personal documents where Bankman-Fried grapples with romance and social alienation, and documents reflecting his work at FTX — the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange he once led.
Joseph Bankman, in his letter, warned that his son's "odd" social cues — which his lawyers said should be attributed to neurodiversity — could be misread by people in prison as "disrespect, evasion, or lying."
"Such a setting would put Sam in an environment where his responses to social cues will sometimes be seen as odd, inappropriate, and disrespectful; when that happens, he will be in significant physical danger," Bankman wrote. "Nothing can justify putting him at that risk.
In November, a jury found Bankman-Fried guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy at a Manhattan criminal trial overseen by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Prosecutors established that he commingled customer funds at FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, with Alameda Research, his crypto trading firm. Bankman-Fried and several other executives — who pleaded guilty and testified against him — misappropriated billions of dollars of customer money and misled customers, investors, and lenders.
The verdict carries a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. The US Probation Office, which issues sentencing reports that judges typically rely on, recommended 100 years behind bars — which Bankman-Fried's lawyers called "barbaric."
"Only thirty-two years old and with his whole future in front of him, Sam now faces the prospect of spending much of the rest of his life in prison," Barbara Fried wrote in her letter. "His father and I face the very real possibility that we will not live long enough to see him freed. There are no words for the grief we feel."
Bankman-Fried's lawyers said a significantly lower sentence was warranted because FTX's customers would likely regain much of their funds in the company's bankruptcy proceedings.
"That recommendation is grotesque," Bankman-Fried's lawyers wrote. "Sam is a 31-year-old, first-time, non-violent offender, who was joined in the conduct at issue by at least four other culpable individuals, in a matter where victims are poised to recover — were always poised to recover — a hundred cents on the dollar."
Prosecutors will have a chance to submit their own recommendation by March 15 before the sentencing hearing for the 31-year-old former FTX executive on March 28.
'He has never felt happiness or pleasure in his Iife'
In reality, she argued, Bankman-Fried devoted his life to altruism, dropped everything to help friends going through family tragedies, and "has battled depression his entire life."
After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, Bankman-Fried shared with his parents his experience of anhedonia, she wrote.
"We knew about his depression, but he described something deeper and sadder: that he has never felt happiness or pleasure in his life and does not think he is capable of feeling it," Barbara Fried wrote.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers shared personal writings where he reflects on being "unlovable" and quotes Macklemore's rap lyrics.
"I don't feel pleasure. I don't feel happiness. Somehow my reward system never clicked," Bankman-Fried wrote in 2016. "My highest hights, my proudest moments, come and pass and I feel nothing but the aching hole in my brain where happiness should be."
FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried, wearing prison clothing, speaks to his mother, Stanford Law School professor Barbara Fried, across the low partition between the courtroom well and the galley after a hearing.
REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
In another piece of writing, heavily redacted and appearing to be a letter to a former lover, Bankman-Fried apologizes for his behavior and worries about hurting her.
"I hate the pain I've caused you," wrote in the document, dated to 2018. "And I hate myself for causing it. I really wish I could have known how to love you better. I'm sorry."
"I really wish we could have frozen time when things were happy," he added.
Barbara Fried said in her letter that her son's behavior and tics during the trial — where he took the witness stand in his own defense — were associated with "high-functioning people" with autism.
"He is bad at responding to social cues in 'normal' ways, uncomfortable looking people in the eye, uncomfortable with outward shows of emotion," Fried wrote. "He has no interest in small talk but will engage passionately and relentlessly with ideas to the point that can exasperate and exhaust others."
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Michael M Santiago/Getty Images
While those character traits may have let him thrive at MIT, Wall Street, and FTX, they made him look like "a freak with evil intentions" in the eyes of the public, she wrote.
It would be even worse in prison, she wrote.
"It may be that some of the inmates will come to appreciate Sam once they get to know him," Barbara Fried wrote. "But miscommunication in that environment is dangerous, and Sam's traits greatly elevate the likelihood of its occurring."
Putting him in solitary confinement to protect him from others is no solution, she continued. "It just a more certain form of murder, and in many ways, a crueler one, slowly destroying his soul rather than his body."
Carmine Simpson, a former police officer held in the same federal Brooklyn jail on child pornography charges, wrote a letter to the judge praising Bankman-Fried's character. He said Bankman-Fried has already been the subject of "hazing" and "multiple extortion attempts" because of his stature.
"In any setting, Sam is the least physically intimidating person and this is especially noticeable inside a jail," Simpson wrote. "This has and will lead to him being frequently targeted for hazing, harassment, and assault more so than the average inmate.
In the sentencing submission, Bankman-Fried's lawyers said Bankman-Fried "has practiced facial expressions" and made other efforts to overcome his neurological challenges. But it would be difficult, they said, for him to master them in prison.
"Prison often requires inmates to follow the 'unwritten rules,' as defined by other inmates — rules that are often highly reliant on social and emotional communication of deference and power and often at conflict with the written rules," they wrote. "The social dynamics in prison and the scrutiny he is receiving is likely to result in him facing physical violence."
They also included a US Bureau of Prisons official's recommendation that Bankman-Fried be placed in a low-security prison. That's even if he's given a long prison sentence, which normally results in placement in high-security prisons.
Barbara Fried, in her letter, talked about teaching in the San Quentin prison and how the United States's criminal justice system is "an extreme outlier among all democracies" with its punitive nature.
"I have no illusions about the redemptive power of prisons," she wrote. "Being consigned to prison for decades will destroy Sam as surely as would hanging him, because it will take away everything in the world that gives his life meaning."
Bankman-Fried's lawyers say no one really lost money
Joseph Bankman focused on what he described as his son's selflessness. Bankman-Fried had devoted his life to philanthropy through the effective altruism movement, making billions of dollars with the plan to give it away, he wrote.
When FTX collapsed, Bankman-Fried stayed in the Bahamas to work with officials and try to get everyone their money back as fast as possible, he said. When a defense lawyer noted that "there is probably a room of bright, hard-working and ambitious people somewhere whose goal is put you in jail," Bankman-Fried said it was "pretty much irrelevant to me compared to helping depositors," his father recounted.
Sam Bankman-Fried's approach to veganism illustrated his selflessness, his younger brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, wrote in a letter to the judge. Sam "loved meat" but, after seeing a factory farm, thought eating animals was the wrong thing to do, he wrote.
"He didn't do it because he felt a sense of oneness with other creatures; we didn't have pets and he wasn't an animal kind of guy," Gabriel wrote. "He did it because he believed it was the right thing to do."
Sam-Bankman Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried.
The sentencing submission offers a preview of the arguments Bankman-Fried will likely make when he files an appeal.
Lawyers at bankruptcy proceedings have said that FTX may be able to make all of its customers whole, partly because of fluctuations in the company's cryptocurrency holdings and Bankman-Fried's prescient investments in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. But his lawyers weren't allowed to raise the issue at trial, with the judge deeming it irrelevant. In the sentencing submission, Bankman-Fried's lawyers argue that "the most reasonable estimate" for how much his victims lost was "zero."
Barbara Fried — herself a renowned legal ethics expert — said that John J. Ray III, the lawyer who took over FTX after it collapsed, inappropriately ignored Bankman-Fried's efforts to help direct him to customer funds during the bankruptcy process, significantly slowing down the recovery process.
"When John Ray lamented publicly that the internal records of FTX were so bad they could not put together a list of customers, Sam located the relevant documents immediately and wrote to the Ch 11 team offering to show them how to access the preexisting list," she wrote. "They never answered his emails."
It appears to be steadier on its feet this time around, perhaps due to all those yoga moves.
The humanoid bot in the video appears to be the Gen 2 version of Optimus, which is 30% faster and 22 pounds lighter than the previous version, Musk said in December.
Before Saturday's post, the official Optimus X account showed the bot without the shiny white Tesla coating and walking around more slowly and less gracefully.
Despite the apparent recent improvements, there is still work to do to make its walking style look more natural.
Tesla ramped up hiring for its Tesla bot team at the end of 2023. And Musk said there was a "good chance" that Tesla could start shipping some units by next year.
This could prove optimistic. Musk's biographer Walter Isaacson has said the Tesla CEO has been overly ambitious about many timelines, including "how fast self-driving would be; how fast the Cybertruck will be made; how fast we will get to Mars."
Jon Stewart, The Intercept's Murtaza Hussain and Yair Rosenberg of The Atlantic.
The Daily Show.
On Monday night, Jon Stewart presented a solution to the Gaza conflict.
The solution includes the creation of a NATO for the Middle East.
Stewart is not the first to present this option, which experts have previously said would fail.
On his Monday night show, Jon Stewart outlined what he says is a solution to the Gaza conflict.
First, with his signature dry humor, he suggested a scaled-up version of a 2014 event in Maine that involved 95 Israeli and Palestinian teens trading "rockets for rackets" at a summer camp-style gathering.
Second, Stewart, said, "Let's just ask God."
"It's his house, he's the one who started all this. Just ask God, he can tell us who is right," he continued. "Is it the Jews? Is it the Muslims? Is it the Zoroastrians?"
But Stewart then got serious and outlined his proposal for ending the violence in Gaza.
"Starting now, no preconditions, no earned trust, no partners for peace. Israel stops bombing. Hamas releases the hostages. The Arab countries who claim Palestine is their top priority come in and form a demilitarized zone between Israel and a free Palestinian state," Stewart said.
This NATO-like organization would involve Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, and Jordan to "guarantee security for both sides," Stewart said. He dubbed the proposed organization "METO" — "Middle East Treaty Organization" — and said both the name and his proposed pronunciation, which sounds like "me too," could be workshopped further.
"Obviously, I've not worked out the exact verbiage, but anything is better than the clusterfuck cycle we have now," he said.
He also suggested the creation of a demilitarized zone, or DMZ, between Israel and Palestine.
The US-led Baghdad Pact in 1955 did not bring about lasting unity in the region, and the 2002 Arab League resolution also resulted in yet another failed attempt at peace in the region. Attempts by leaders like former President Donald Trump to create an Arab NATO — and unite Middle Eastern nations with deeply conflicting security goals and aims — have fallen flat.
During his monologue, "The Daily Show" host called out various major parties, from Israel and Hamas to the US, the UN, and countries in the Middle East, for not having a feasible solution to the violence.
"The status quo cycle of provocation and retribution is predicated on some idea that one of these groups is going to go away. And they are not," Stewart said.
"If we want a safe and free Israel and a safe and free Palestine, we have to recognize that reality. And I know that there is a twisted and much-contested history in the region that has brought us to this point. But we are at this point," Stewart said.
Employment law attorney Craig Levey shares insights into HR's role in termination meetings.
Levey advises employees to ask about the reason for termination, benefits end date, and severance.
In layoffs, Levey suggests consulting an attorney to understand separation agreements and potential legal claims.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Craig Levey, an employment law attorney and partner at Bennett & Belfort, P.C., a law firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
People need to understand that HR works for the company. The company issues their paychecks, and, at the end of the day, they're most interested in ensuring that the company isn't liable for anything.
Here's how HR professionals are trained in how to conduct terminations.
HR has three main objectives when conducting terminations
There are three main objectives, from the HR professional's standpoint, when terminating somebody.
1. They don't want the employee to have notice of the termination meeting.
The typical scenario is that the employee's supervisor will notify them of this meeting the same day that it happens. In some cases, mere minutes beforehand because they don't want the employee to prepare for the meeting; they don't want them to prepare a list of questions, send out any emails, download documents, or other things of that nature.
And then there's the "HR ambush," in which an employee has been notified of a meeting with their supervisor, but when they show up to the meeting — whether it's virtually or in person — they see HR there. They're obviously shocked.
2. They want the meeting itself to go as fast as possible.
They want it to be a quick and dirty meeting. In their ideal scenario, it only lasts a few minutes.
During that actual meeting, the company will inform them that they're terminated, when their final day is, and when their benefits end. They don't want them to get into much more detail than that.
3. They want to ensure they don't say anything that will make the company liable.
HR doesn't want employees asking questions during this meeting, which is one of the reasons they don't give them notice — they don't want them to prepare for it.
In the US, most employees are at-will employees, so the companies don't need to give them a reason for termination. But the more questions employees ask, the more it opens the company up to liability if HR or the supervisor doesn't answer the questions correctly.
For example, over the last several months, many videos have gone viral on TikTok and elsewhere of employees asking all these questions, and it's led to terrible press for the company. So HR doesn't want the employee asking questions.
What to do if you find yourself in a termination meeting
Some employees have a tendency not to ask any questions because they're so shocked — they freeze, which makes sense.
But you should take advantage of the one to two minutes that you have with HR or the supervisor just to get as much information as possible.
What I suggest employees do is ask three questions:
1. Why am I being fired?
If you're an at-will employee, the company doesn't need to provide you with a reason you're being fired. But it doesn't hurt to ask because, in the worst-case scenario, they say, "We're not telling you."
In most cases of termination, they either end effective immediately or at the end of the month. But you want to know when your benefits end so that you can cover health insurance and other needs, and you need to know how fast to act.
3. Am I being offered severance?
You want to know if the company is offering you any money. Then, you are in a position where you can prepare to potentially hire an employment law attorney or just plan the next steps.
I understand lawyers aren't cheap, but if you've been offered a severance agreement, there's some money at play. Of course, I'm biased because I'm a plaintiff's side employment law attorney, but I think it makes sense to spend at least one hour on an attorney to understand your rights.
The employment attorney can explain to you what you're signing because the agreements are often very hard to understand. At the very least, you'll get value for that knowledge, and if you sign it, you're getting money from the company.
On the flip side, the lawyer may tell you, "You should not sign that because you've got really good legal claims," which could lead to additional money for the employee.
Layoffs have a slightly different approach
Layoffs are a bit different.
Because there are several individuals involved, the company will plan this ahead of time and, depending on how many people are being laid off, decide if they're going to offer them severance or other compensation.
With layoffs, the companies are more concerned with the press that they're going to receive from it. Because, particularly with larger companies, when they're laying off 15% of the workforce, for example, they know that the press is going to catch wind of that.
That's why we often see the CEO calling an all-hands meeting at 9 a.m. and having a carefully crafted script where they discuss the layoffs, why they had to happen, and so on.
It is a very different situation than when HR is terminating just one person for cause.
What to do if you're laid off
As an employee, you likely aren't going to get an opportunity in real time to ask questions in a large layoff. The CEO will go on Zoom, but you won't have the opportunity to comment as you're just listening.
The company will have prepared potentially a separation agreement, and there's going to be a layout process. It's going to be very planned.
They'll often say if you have any questions to contact someone in benefits or HR. So you can email questions, but it's not the same real-time back and forth.
I think from a strategy standpoint, the employee should still approach next steps the same way. If you're offered a severance agreement, it makes sense to meet with an attorney to review it because you want to make sure you understand what you're signing. And you still need to assess whether you have legal claims against the company, just like you would if you were the only person fired.
The only potential issue is that when you're one of a hundred people laid off, it's much harder to prove your legal claim because the company's going to say, "Oh no, we terminated him because he was part of the layoff. He and 99 others got laid off. It had nothing to do with discrimination." It makes it harder to prove potential legal claims.
HR is not your friend
I don't think every HR professional is a bad person, but people need to understand that at the end of the day, one of HR's duties is to look out for the company and to prevent it from liability.
Their allegiance is to the company, not to the employee. Employees need to understand that HR is not your friend.
If you're a former HR executive or professional who has insight into HR practices and would like to share your story, email Jane Zhang atjanezhang@businessinsider.com.
The benchmark S&P advanced by 2% last week to close at a record 5,089 points on Friday, largely fueled by Nvidia beating sky-high expectations with its latest earnings report.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of other currencies, was almost flat at 104 points. It was a similar story for the key 10-year Treasury note, which has climbed from below 4% at the start of this year to north of 4.2% over concerns that stubborn inflation could mean interest rates stay higher for longer than expected.
"US and EU equity futures dipped overnight with Asian shares stalling near seven-month highs as investors turn their attention from Nvidia and the AI craze to this week's inflation data from the United States, Japan and Europe that will help refine expectations for future rate moves," Saxo Bank's strategy team said in a morning note.
Workday, Zoom, and Domino's Pizza are all due to release earnings later in the day. Investors are looking forward to fresh figures for new home sales on Monday, and updates later this week for inflation, unemployment, manufacturing, and house prices.
In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Saturday, Warren Buffett praised the Japanese trading houses — in which he holds about 9% stakes — for treating their stockholders in a "much superior" manner to the standard in the US.
He highlighted their relatively modest executive pay, focus on reinvesting profits and buying back stock instead of paying tax-inefficient dividends, and reluctance to issue shares.
While such moves may help stem immediate market losses, they hurt China in the long run.
Remember — China's recent private sector enterprise crackdown wiped out over a trillion dollars from its tech sector alone and spooked entrepreneurs. Despite efforts to woo investors back into the industry again, stock prices are still far from their heydays.
This time round, Beijing's limits on short selling and quant transactions — just some of many in China's recent flurry of measures to shore up its markets — are fueling frustration and angst among traders, as Bloomberg reported on Monday. They're also likely to dent investor appetite.
Beijing has "basically sent a signal that market transparency and the search for it is not allowed as much." George Boubouras, head of research at Melbourne-based K2 Asset Management, told Bloomberg.
China isn't the first to curb stock market activities — the US also cracked down on short-selling during the 2008 financial crisis. But Beijing's already heavy-handed oversight over much of the country's economy and society isn't lost on investors who are already jittery about putting their money in China.
China's securities regulator said on Thursday it wasn't trying to interfere with trading activities, but will crackdown on "illegal activities" that disrupt market order.
Many economists believe China needs to boost investor confidence and double down on economic reforms and fundamental challenges as the country tries to engineer a convincing post-pandemic recovery.
"Chinese government moves to restore private-sector confidence and boost the economy still lack a broad reform framework," Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University and a former International Monetary Fund official in charge of China, told Nikkei this month.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 0.4% lower at 1:22 p.m. local time. It's down 2.4% so far this year and 16.6% lower over the past 12 months.
The blue-chip CSI300 was also 0.4% lower. It's down 1.2% this year to date and 14% lower over the past 12 months.
Lloyd describes how the cost of childcare means buying a home is out of reach for lots of families — especially considering today's high interest rates and high home prices. That means the homeownership dream is something only DINKS (Double Income, No Kids) can afford.
Zillow found that in 31 of the largest 50 US metropolitan areas with available childcare-cost data, families looking to buy a home could expect to spend more than 60% of their income on mortgage and childcare costs.
Some areas were even costlier: It found that parents in Los Angeles and San Diego would need to dedicate as much as 121% and 113% of their income. (In those areas, the cost of buying a typical home and childcare is so big relative to the median income that Zillow's calculation resulted in figures over 100%.)
Put another way: In areas with high real estate prices, like California, a mortgage plus day care is more than the median family income.
Yikes. Grim.
I'd like to suggest one glass-half-full way of looking at this, however.
But the double whammy of housing plus childcare costs doesn't hit all parents — just parents of very young kids. Something magical typically happens when kids turn 5: They go to free public kindergarten, and those debilitating childcare costs start to melt away.
(A few obvious caveats: Not all kids go to public school, but most do. Some children require special services or therapies that may continue to be costly. School usually ends around 3 p.m., and there are costs for after-school care. However, after-school programs or an afternoon babysitter are typically a fraction of the cost of full-time day care.)
Dividing parents into DINKs vs. POLKS
So it's not just "Parents" vs "DINKs" in how we're thinking about who can afford home ownership. "Parents" can be divided into two separate groups: those who are still paying for day care vs. those with kids old enough to be in free public school.
That's why I'm proposing a new acronym to go along with DINKs, DINKWADS (DINKS With A Dog), and HENRYs (High Income, Not Rich Yet).
I propose we call them: DIPS, or Double Income, Public School.
Yes, of course, older kids and teens can be a financial drain, too. They have costly activities, their clothes cost more than Cat & Jack, they need braces, and Stanley cups, and SAT prep classes. They eat a lot more (parents of teenage boys will confirm, sometimes a lot more) than babies. And don't forget summer camp costs, which are easily more than a mortgage payment.
But parents still hobbled by childcare costs are a different group from the DIPS. Let's call them … POLKs, or Parents of Little Kids.
Nationwide, the average cost of childcare in 2022 was around $10,000 a year per child, according to the advocacy group Child Care Aware of America. But it can be much higher in certain areas, like the Northeast. For example, Massachusetts has the highest average childcare costs, where day care for an infant is $24,472. This is 16% of the median income for a married couple. Iowa is much cheaper — $11,129 for infants, which is only 10% of the median income.
(For the purposes of this article, we're talking about two-parent families, but it's important to consider that, in general, childcare costs are even more burdensome for single parents. In Massachusetts, the infant day care cost is 65% of the median income of a single person.)
And unlike with college expenses that parents might be paying for their kids, there are no 529s, no student loans you can repay later. It's just pure white-knuckling it through those early years. For some families, the math doesn't make sense to keep both parents working. (A Pew report found that 1-in-5 stay-at-home parents are dads.) Some families take on credit card debt; some families postpone other financial goals like home ownership.
It gets better — I promise
The bad news for the POLKs is that life sucks right now. But you'll get through the diapers, the crayon on the walls, the crippling berry budget. All parents look forward to watching their children grow and become little people with ideas, dreams, and interests of their own.
But the most exciting part of all is that one day, they'll go off somewhere for six hours a day and learn a bunch of stuff for free.
I've noticed with some of my friends with older kids that there's a noticeable shift in their lives once their kids are in school.
One friend bought a small vacation cabin upstate, and another started taking family vacations. I'm stuck in between — one kid in public school and a younger one still in day care. My husband and I often dream of all the things we'll do with the extra cash we'll have once she's in school.
Recently, a contributor to Business Insider wrote about the burdens of preschool costs, which left her $8,000 in credit card debt (even after getting grandparents' help to cover the tuition). "I cried the day my son was accepted into a public school pre-K program," she wrote.
Nothing more beautiful than the moment a POLK becomes a DIPS.
Here's a look at some of the hot potatoes Musk's been dealing with.
Tesla's sagging stock price
After a stellar 2023, Tesla shares are down almost 23% since the start of the year as investors fret about China's fragile economy and a potential slowdown in global EV sales.
"I think the market is trying to price in growth rates for next year and might be assuming that slowing EV sales will translate to slowing Tesla sales," Seth Goldstein, an equity strategist for Morningstar, said last month. "Because Tesla is such a high-growth stock, even small revisions downward can have a large impact on its valuation."
Tesla also lost its crown as the world's biggest EV maker to China's BYD. Shares in BYD have also tumbled by about 12% this year, to be fair.
Tesla's stock slide has erased about $188 billion from its valuation this year, according to Business Insider's calculations. The stock closed at just under $192, leaving it worth just over $600 billion at the close of trading Friday.
It's worth noting that the stock is about where it was this time last year. And even though Tesla's value has more than halved since its peak the shares are still up almost 900% over the past five years.
Musk's own wealth is closely tied to his 21% stake in Tesla — and his personal fortune has dropped about $21 billion this year as a result of the EV maker's stock-market struggles, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Before you start feeling too sorry for Musk, though, he's still worth $208 billion.
Shareholders have also had to contend with a Wall Street Journal report last month that said that some executives and board members were concerned about Musk's use of substances including LSD, cocaine, and ketamine. He's denied those claims.
A slightly more youthful Elon Musk at a Tesla launch.
Since the ruling, Musk has slammed Delaware as a place to do business and pledged to call a shareholder vote to transfer the EV maker's incorporation to Texas. And one of his other companies, SpaceX, has reportedly filed to relocate its business incorporation to the Lone Star state.
X's advertiser exodus
Musk has also had to contend with issues of his own making at X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter that's seemingly been in a neverending state of crisis since he took control in October 2022.
Advertisers have started to pull away from the platform in response to Musk doubling down on comments widely perceived as antisemitic and then telling big-name sponsors to get lost (in a slightly more blunt fashion) in November.
Ad spending dropped 54% to $1.89 billion in 2023, according to data from Insider Intelligence, leaving X struggling to sell slots to promote trending topics during the Super Bowl. The advertisers left on X are sometimes for AI "undressing" apps and dubious crypto services, BI previously reported.
In what seems like an effort to drum up advertiser interest, Musk this week sent this an X Ads post to his 173 million followers.
Snag more customers with X Ads! @SnaggedDomains captured their target audience by experimenting with their X Ads campaigns, increasing traffic by 534% and form submissions by 1245%. Get expert help with X Ads and book a meeting today (US only): https://t.co/rkbH7mKNw2pic.twitter.com/Lky2bRPhQl
Asset manager Fidelity has repeatedly marked down the value of its stake in X since Musk took it over and now thinks the company is worth 71% less than the $44 billion he bought it for, per Axios. However, it did raise the valuation of its X holding by 11% last month, Axios reported.
Starlink struggles
A Ukrainian soldier sets up a Starlink satellite terminal in the Chernihiv region.
NurPhoto/Getty Images
Lastly, Musk's SpaceX has been caught up in a row about Russia's claimed use of its Starlink satellite internet terminals.
Ukraine has repeatedly claimed that Russian troops are using Starlink in their territory. Musk previously denied the accusations, but Kyiv said this week it was working with SpaceX to disable Russia's access.
SpaceX also had to delay a launch on Tuesday, again delaying its moon-landing efforts.
On Thursday, Houston firm Intuitive Machines beat it to the punch when its uncrewed Odysseus lander successfully landed on the lunar surface, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to do so.
Clay and AD are clearly into each other, but they have some major compatibility problems.
AD said she's a "fix-a-ho" and feels she doesn't deserve love.
Not to mention, Clay appears fixated on physical appearance and getting better for AD — not himself.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the first nine episodes of "Love Is Blind" season six.
Clay Gravesande and Amber Desiree "AD" Smith might be "Love Is Blind" season six's most polarizing couple.
There's no doubt that the two have chemistry. But building a relationship on physical attraction runs directly counter to the premise of "Love Is Blind," which requires couples to fall in love without seeing each other first.
Despite the premise being right there in the show's title, Clay isn't even remotely pretending that looks don't matter to him. He's also said a number of troubling things to AD, from his doubts over whether he can be faithful long-term to his insistence that she get to the gym to "get right" if she ever gets out of shape — or, heaven forbid, pregnant — in the future.
AD, on the other hand, seems fully aware of Clay's issues. Unfortunately, awareness of a problem doesn't mean the problem is fixed. AD, a self-proclaimed "fix-a-ho," appears to think she can fundamentally change Clay in the two weeks they have before getting married. And Clay seems to think he can change for AD too.
Whether that'll happen remains to be seen. But in the meantime, here's a rundown of all the biggest red flags in Clay and AD's relationship.
Clay says he's trying not to age
Clay didn't want to turn 30.
Netflix
Moments into their first pod date, Clay and AD discuss their ages. AD is a bit older, at 32, and Clay, who's 30, says that he was "trying to hold on to 29 for as long as possible."
AD tries to reassure him that "it's only up from here," but Clay changes the subject. It's giving immaturity.
AD says not being shown love all the time is a problem
AD fears cats and also a lack of affection.
Netflix
In an early pod date, Clay mentions that he's thinking of getting a cat. AD says she's terrified of cats, which is another issue, but she quickly latches on to what Clay says about not needing to show cats love all the time.
"That's a problem," she says before turning the conversation toward herself and how his lack of affection may affect his affection toward her. "I will bring it to your attention."
Clearly, affirmations of love are important to AD, and Clay doesn't seem interested in lavishing that kind of assurance on someone. That's not necessarily a bad thing on either of their parts; it's just a red flag of incompatibility.
AD thinks Clay is a ladies' man
Clay has blatantly said he has a huge ego.
Netflix
In the second episode, AD says that Clay feels like home — but also reminds her of all the guys she's dated.
She also dubs herself a "fix-a-ho," meaning she's up for fixing broken partners. That's never a good sign.
Clay insists he needs to know what AD looks like before proposing
AD is perturbed that Clay appears to have missed the point of the show.
Unfortunately, things go off the rails when Clay makes it very clear that, despite the entire foundation of this experiment, he needs to be physically attracted to his wife.
He tries to convince AD to tell him what she looks like and even lists out the attributes, like lips and butt, he particularly favors. AD is aghast and rightly points out that this goes against the entire point of "Love Is Blind."
More importantly, she has already said she wants someone to desire her for more than just her physical appearance.
AD says she had a stronger connection with Matthew
AD gets stressed when she and Clay have a conversation about her connection with Matthew.
Netflix
The entire conversation between AD and Clay when she explains that she also formed a relationship with Matthew in the pods, doesn't go well at all.
Clay gets irritated and tells AD she'd regret picking Matthew. He seems irate that AD might like anyone else as much as she likes him. (The ego, he freely admits, is real.)
AD reassures Clay that she does like him. "It's not that I don't like you like that. I had a stronger connection, and maybe it was just stronger in my head," she says.
Clay pulls it back in the end, saying he still wants to make this work with her and admitting that hearing about AD's feelings for another man messed with his ego a little bit — and this dude is all ego. Still, it's not a great sign that AD felt more connected to someone else at first or that Clay's jealousy gets the better of him so quickly.
Clay says he's becoming a better man for AD
Clay tears up during a conversation in the men's quarters.
Netflix
While this sounds great on a surface level, it's actually not good. True improvement and lasting change doesn't typically occur unless you're doing it for yourself, not for another person.
Clay says he won't 'let' AD get out of shape
AD's face here is all of ours.
Netflix
Clay's fixation on physical appearance eases off once he meets AD in person and is assured that she is, in fact, super hot. Unfortunately, it pops up again during the couples' trip to the Dominican Republic when they start talking about their eating habits.
Clay mentions that he doesn't watch what he eats and thinks AD's fab body also comes naturally. She corrects him, saying she works hard to achieve her great body. This distressingly pivots to a conversation about how Clay will insist AD get back into the gym if she ever starts getting out of shape.
And yes, that includes during pregnancy. Yikes.
AD says she's been stuck in a weird dating loop and feels like she doesn't deserve love
This is kind of a sweet moment, but also a little troubling.
Netflix
In episode six, AD says she's been stuck in a toxic cycle in her romantic relationships. "The same things keep happening to me over and over and over," she tells Clay. She says that in therapy, she realized that a lot of her relationship issues stem from her relationship with her dad.
While it's great that AD is aware of her dating issues and where they stem from, it doesn't sound like she's resolved to move past what's keeping her stuck in a pattern.
"I get into relationships, and I just feel like everything I've done was just never enough," she says, adding that she doesn't deserve love.
Clay passionately reassures her that she does, of course, deserve love, which is very sweet. But there's only so much convincing someone can do if she doesn't believe it herself.
Clay grew up with cheating being normalized
I'm a little afraid to meet Clay's dad.
Netflix
In episode seven, Clay tells AD about his "suave dad." He recalls how his father would take Clay along with him on "infidelity trips," where he'd go somewhere to cheat on Clay's mom.
He admits he struggles with the idea of just being with one woman, pointing to how the successful Black men he looks up to also have publicized affairs.
"I've never seen a Black relationship where the man is faithful," Clay tells AD.
Interestingly, AD isn't very alarmed by this. Her confidence seems to assure her that this is something they can get through, and she doesn't appear to be concerned that Clay will cheat on her even though he's essentially saying, "I'm afraid I will one day cheat on you."
AD asks Clay if he read all the books on his side table or if they're just decoration
Amber!
Netflix
This just seems… kind of mean? Does she not think he reads?
AD struggles with Clay's schedule as an entrepreneur
Clay and AD's work-life priorities might not align.
Netflix
When AD meets Clay's mom and sister in episode nine, they ask her how she feels about his work schedule and how often he works long hours.
She admits she struggles with it and sometimes feels like he chooses "convenience and comfort" over returning to their home and not prioritizing their relationship in the time he has off.
