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Autonomous-truck companies like TuSimple are starting to go public.

Courtesy of TuSimple

• Self-driving cars may not be a reality yet, but the young industry is evolving fast.
• For those hoping to get a leg up in this space, staying on top of trends is key.
• From the rise of robo-trucks to a potential SPAC bubble, here's what to know about AVs right now.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

1. Self-driving tech will deliver your packages and food before it replaces your Uber driver

During the 2010s, automakers and startups were confident self-driving taxis and consumer vehicles would be available by the early 2020s. Their predictions have mostly fallen flat, though there are robotaxis open to the public in parts of Arizona and Nevada.

Long-haul trucking and local deliveries have come to look like more promising applications in the near term, since they present fewer technological challenges than robotaxis and arguably offer stronger business models.

Startups like Nuro, Gatik, and TuSimple are already making deliveries for customers like Walmart and UPS. Aurora Innovation, seen as one of the top players in the robotaxi space, has decided to focus on launching self-driving semi trucks ahead of passenger vehicles..

2. The industry's leaders have emerged

The gap between the AV industry's haves and have-nots has grown in recent years, leading some companies to give up while others form partnerships with automakers or sell themselves to deep-pocketed buyers. The shakeup has left the industry with a clear group of leaders that will be hard for new entrants to challenge.

Waymo has emerged as the consensus number-one. It operates the only autonomous ride-hailing service in the US, has partnerships with the likes of Stellantis and Daimler, and boasts the industry's largest funding round.

Experts generally rank a similar group of companies just below it, including Cruise, Argo AI, Aurora, and Motional. Each has raised more than $1 billion and, aside from Aurora, has announced plans to launch ride-hailing or delivery services by the end of 2023. (Aurora has said it intends to have its vehicles ready for use in commercial ride-hailing services "over the next few years.")

3. The first wave of public listings has begun

The stock market's appetite for young, high-upside companies set off a wave of public listings for pre-revenue electric-vehicle startups in 2020 and early 2021. Autonomous-vehicle startups are beginning to follow. 

Three companies focusing on self-driving semi trucks — TuSimple, Embark, and Plus — have gone public this year or announced their intention to do so in the coming months, while Aurora and Argo AI are reportedly considering public listings later this year.

Those that become the dominant providers of automated-driving technology could produce Tesla-like payoffs for their backers, but progress in the industry has been slow. Billions of dollars of funding and more than a decade of development has yet to produce a single national or even statewide autonomous-vehicle service. It remains to be seen how patient public investors will be.

4. Elon Musk has adopted a controversial self-driving strategy

Self-driving tech tends to fall into one of two buckets: systems that can handle some driving tasks in certain environments but require that the driver be ready to take over if they run into trouble, and systems that can operate without driver supervision.

Tesla's Autopilot feature falls into the former category, but the company is trying to push it into the latter. The company has gradually increased the number of tasks Autopilot can handle and the range of environments in which it can drive. 

CEO Elon Musk believes this approach will make drivers and passengers safer — Tesla has published data showing lower crash rates for vehicles with Autopilot enabled — and give Tesla a bigger and better data set it can use to improve its technology. But critics argue that Tesla's strategy is unlikely to lead to a robust self-driving system and is reckless because it breeds a false sense of confidence in drivers that leaves them unprepared if Autopilot makes a mistake.

Critics point to fatal crashes involving the feature and argue that the crash statistics Tesla have released don't include enough detail to prove that Autopilot makes drivers safer.

If Musk is right, Tesla could become the first company to sell self-driving consumer vehicles, a scenario that could reduce collisions and give the company a major selling point its rivals can't match. If Musk's critics are right, Tesla will be stuck with an incomplete technology that makes drivers inattentive to its risks.

5. A key group of suppliers is generating excitement

Nearly every company in the industry sees lidar sensors, which bounce beams of light off nearby objects to measure how far away they are, as an essential piece of hardware for self-driving vehicles. That perception has made the companies which make them attractive merger or acquisition targets. A number of lidar startups have teamed up with SPACs or been acquired by autonomous-vehicle companies like Aurora and Argo AI.

But the lidar industry isn't completely reliant on fully autonomous vehicles. Volvo plans to begin introducing the sensors on its vehicles next year, while Apple has started including them in iPhones and iPads. Soroush Salehian, the CEO of the lidar startup Aeva, believes the sensors will have an impact on consumer technology similar to the introduction of color cameras.

Do you work in the autonomous-vehicle industry? Do you have a news tip or opinion you'd like to share? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@insider.com, on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address mmatousek@protonmail.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider

The inaugural flight of David Neeleman's Breeze Airways.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

• Insider interviewed more than a dozen flight attendants about the rise in passenger violence.
• Flight attendants said they have been called expletives when reminding people to wear masks onboard.
• Many flight attendants said the increase in verbal harassment has hurt their mental health.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

The fourth time Monica, a flight attendant, asked a group of men to put their masks on aboard her flight, one of the passengers called her "the mask bitch."

Monica, who is based in Houston and requested to speak under a pseudonym to protect her job, told Insider she has faced verbal abuse and been called expletives when asking passengers to wear their masks.

Flight attendants like Monica across the country are facing a wave of verbal and physical abuse on airlines as US travel surged this spring and summer. Since January 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration has received 2,500 reports of unruly behavior by passengers, most of which involve travelers refusing to comply with the federal mask mandate.

Monica said the verbal harassment has negatively impacted her mental health and that she now feels wary before every flight.

"At that point, it's just like, you know what, I'm really just trying to get through this day," she said in an interview with Insider. "I didn't come to work for this."

Over the last three months Insider has interviewed more than a dozen flight attendants, some of whom shared stories of harassment they've encountered. All workers requested anonymity, and Insider confirmed their identities and employment prior to publishing.

One Chicago-based flight attendant recalled an encounter on recent 6 a.m. flight.

After other passengers complained of a man refusing to wear a mask, the flight attendant gently asked him to wear one. She said the man stood up before cussing and flipping off the flight attendants. His shouts woke up sleeping passengers and disturbed children on the plane, the flight attendant said.

Read more: These aviation startups are taking off by moving cargo - not people - across the sky

"It's disturbing because you're like, 'Is this guy going to hit us?' the flight attendant said. "You don't know what he's going to do next."

Some altercations between passengers and flight attendants have become physically violent. A video recently circulated depicting a passenger punching a Southwest flight attendant so hard two of her teeth fell out. In mid-May, the FAA issued its largest fine ever - $52,000 - against a passenger who physically assaulted a flight attendant.

A Los Angeles-based flight attendant told Insider a passenger told her she "better watch her back" while swearing at her for telling him to put on a mask.

She said the passenger resisted and claimed being told to wear a mask infringed on his freedom. She added mask wearing has become politicized, and several passengers believe flight attendants enforcing the Biden administration's mask policy for airlines are infringing on their rights.

Nas Lewis, another flight attendant based out of Chicago, said she had been told, "If I had a Black Lives Matter shirt on, this wouldn't be a problem," by an intoxicated passenger when she cut him off from drinking more alcohol.

Lewis, who founded the non-profit th|AIR|apy to help flight attendants address mental health, said passengers are bringing angst from the heated political climate and the stress of the pandemic aboard aircrafts.

"We're just expected to just roll with it, but it becomes abusive," Lewis said. She told Insider she's seen a rise in activity in th|AIR|apy support groups over the last three months, including instances of flight attendants sharing photos of themselves crying.

"There's sometimes a lack of respect for our profession," Lewis said. "And because they see a bunch of women a lot of times, they feel like they can speak to us in any kind of way. It becomes very emotionally abusive."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Getty

• Snap, the company behind Snapchat, has been on a growth tear in 2021.
• Insider analyzed public data to get a sense of how much Snap pays its employees in the US.
• Snap has offered some US staffers annual salaries between $59,000 and $500,000.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is hiring for hundreds of jobs in the US as the tech company expands into areas like augmented reality, short-form video, and original shows.

The growth spurt comes as Snap reported during the first quarter its highest year-over-year revenue and daily active user growth rates in three years.

Insider analyzed how much Snap pays for certain roles in the US.

We combed through public data to get a picture of Snap's salary levels. The data, released by the US Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification, shows how much Snap offered to pay employees who it wanted to hire in the US through work visas.

Snap offered certain US staffers between October 2020 and March 2021 annual salaries ranging $59,000 to $500,000 for various roles, according to the data.

Snap said it's committed to paying all employees a livable wage that "contributes to healthy work-life integration and to the local economy in which we work." It offers a minimum of $15,000 in equity grants to new hires, and said its baseline annual pay rate for employees at its headquarters in Santa Monica is $70,000.

Our full analysis breaks down salaries for jobs including product, research, engineering, and marketing roles.

Read more about how much Snap employees make, including recent salary offers for specific roles at the Snapchat makerRead the original article on Business Insider

The Cube Two.

Nestron

• Singapore-based Nestron is now shipping its prefab tiny home Cube One and Two models to the UK.
• The company expects to sell over 100 units in the UK by the end of 2021 following massive online interest.
• Take a look inside the two AI-powered models with smart furniture.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Interest in prefab tiny homes skyrocketed during COVID-19. The Cube One.

Nestron

Now, one Singapore-based company is looking to capitalize on this trend by introducing its artificial intelligence-powered tiny homes to the UK. The Cube Two.

Nestron

Meet Nestron, the brains behind several wildly popular tiny homes that have since become a "worldwide phenomenon," Choco Toh of Nestron's marketing team told Insider in December. Paneling the Cube One.

Nestron

Source: Insider

Its tiny homes were such a hit, Nestron's website crashed for a while, likely due to an influx in webpage visits and "extremely overwhelming" popularity, Toh said. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

Source: Insider

To expand its reach, Nestron is now in the process of preparing its debut in Northampton, UK, a little over 65 miles from London. Cube One's structure.

Nestron

Toh says Nestron will close about 10 deals before the homes actually debut in Europe … The interior of the Cube One.

Nestron

… but estimates that by the end of the year, it'll sell over 100 units in the UK. The Cube Two.

Nestron

"We believe with the increase in marketing activities upon our debut, there are nearly 100,000 potential users in the UK, which will bring explosive and continuous growth to our local distributors," Toh told Insider in an email statement. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

Like other companies that ship products internationally, Nestron has struggled to move its tiny homes in the face of jammed ports and shipping delays. The models being shipped.

Nestron

But before we dive into how the company is overcoming these issues, let's take a look at the two futuristic tiny homes that will debut in the UK: the $34,000 to $52,000 Cube One and the $59,000 to $77,000 Cube Two. The Cube Two.

Nestron

These prices vary widely due to a list of possible extra add-ons, such as solar panels, heated floors, and additional smart appliances. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

The Cube One is more popular with solo occupants, while the larger Cube Two has been a hit with families, couples, and as a backyard unit. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

Nestron debuted both units well before its UK plans but has since made sizing changes ahead of its overseas delivery: the Cube One's size was boosted about 16.2 square-feet, while the Cube Two was expanded by about 25 square-feet. The models being shipped.

Nestron

Let's take a closer look at the Cube One, which stands at about 156 square feet. The interior of the Cube One.

Nestron

This square footage holds the living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen space (which comes with cabinets, a sink, and a stovetop, according to renderings of the unit). The interior of the Cube One.

Nestron

Like any typical home, the living room has a dining table and sofa, while the bedroom has a side table, closet, and of course, a bed. The interior of the Cube One.

Nestron

Moving towards the bathroom, the tiny Cube One comes with a shower, towel rack, and sink, all in one enclosed space. The interior of the Cube One.

Nestron

The little living unit also has built-in necessary amenities like lights, storage units, electric blinds, and a speaker. The interior of the Cube One.

Nestron

There's even room for a modern-day must-have: air conditioning units. The interior of the Cube One.

Nestron

Now, let's take a look at the larger Cube Two, which can accommodate three to four people with its two beds, both of which sit on opposite ends of the tiny home. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

Like its smaller sibling, the almost 280-square-foot Cube Two has a living room, two beds, a kitchen, and a bathroom, all with the same furnishings as the Cube One. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

However, the dining table in the Cube Two is noticeably larger, and there's a skylight for added natural light and stargazing. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

Both models come insulated and have smart home capabilities using Nestron's "Canny," an artificial intelligence system. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

Canny can complete tasks like brewing your morning coffee or automatically adjusting your seat heights. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

Everything is "smart" these days, which means the Cube One and Two can also come with motion-sensing lights and smart mirrors and toilets. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

You might be wondering how Nestron plans to move its Cube One and Two tiny homes overseas in one piece. Well, let's move on to everyone's favorite topic: logistics, and how the company managed to ship its tiny homes despite global delays. Cube Two's structure.

Nestron

According to Toh, Nestron has had a "solid foundation built in the industry ... allowing it to have a good relationship with experienced and professional forwarding partners." A worker applying the insulation layer.

Nestron

Despite this foundation, like other companies, Nestron has experienced delays related to the global supply chain jam, specifically congested ports in the UK. The wiring and plumbing systems.

Nestron

As a result, the company's forwarding charges were tripled what it initially expected, according to Toh. Paneling the Cube Two.

Nestron

But instead of charging its clients extra money for immediate shipping, Nestron decided it would pause shipping until costs were lowered. Paneling the Cube One.

Nestron

To bypass these congestion issues, Nestron also decided to reroute its original plan to ship straight to the UK. The wiring and plumbing systems.

Nestron

"In the end, [we] decided to travel over to Antwerp, Belgium, and then land in the UK," Toh said. "This way, by the time we reach the UK port, the congestion would've been clear." One of the tiny homes under construction.

Nestron

Despite this detour, shipping costs were still higher than expected, in part because the company and its distributors still wanted to make the debut timeline. The water and sewage connection points.

Nestron

"Since the demands are growing and people want to experience touch and feel with Nestron, we took the chance and sent the units off earlier this month, expecting them to arrive late July [or] early August," Toh said. The interior of the Cube Two.

Nestron

To aid in the transportation process, the tiny homes have built-in retractable hooks to help make it compatible with cranes. The models being shipped.

Nestron

The homes' structures are also stable enough to withstand the stress of moving, according to Toh. Cube Two's structure.

Nestron

And all the little living units are also packaged in waterproof fabric to both avoid rusting and to allow for easy inspection. A completed Cube One in the factory.

Nestron

Being in the UK will allow potential consumers to "engage with Nestron units directly," Toh said. "The experience will definitely influence the market interest and purchase power." The tiny homes on a road test.

Nestron

Read the original article on Business Insider

President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama at the Invictus Games Toronto 2017.

Samir Hussein/Getty Images

• The US post-pandemic rebound could be much faster than the 2009 recession.
• One expert said the economy may even end up stronger, which "is crazy to think about."
• Still, experts caution that even a blitz of emergency spending could leave people behind.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Last week, President Joe Biden alluded to Ronald Reagan's famous "Morning in America" remark, saying "the sun is coming out." And the economic data supports that. It's a lot like morning in America, 2020s style.

After enduring a year of shutdowns, the country may now be on course for one of its fastest growth periods since the 1980s. The economy regained 850,000 jobs in June, a sharp increase after disappointing gains in May and April. Unemployment claims are falling steadily as well. Should job growth maintain the June trend, payrolls would fully rebound by February, exactly 24 months after the pre-pandemic peak. By comparison, it took 76 months for the US to recoup all jobs lost during the Great Recession.

The recovery from the Great Recession was, by several measures, the most sluggish in US history. The policy response to the coronavirus, including $6 trillion of emergency spending, has not only been more effective, but appears to be crafted with the mistakes of 2009 in mind.

"I'm incredibly encouraged when it's compared to the Great Recession," Mike Konczal, director of macroeconomic analysis at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, told Insider. "Responding at the speed and level of crisis as we did with fiscal and monetary support ... means that our economy may not only recover so fast, but it may be stronger than it would have been without it, which is crazy to think about."

The chart below shows the rate of job losses and gains after the Great Recession compared to the coronavirus recession.

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Withdrawing federal support in 2012 caused "a lot of scarring" in the labor market, and lawmakers learned from it, Claudia Sahm, a former Fed economist and senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute, said.

"I think of March of 2021 being this pivotal moment like the end of 2012 was," Sahm said. "This time, Congress did the right thing, in terms of pushing more money out."

A new playbook for economic revival

The sheer size of the pandemic-era relief bills dwarfs those seen during the Great Recession. The Obama administration was wary of passing a $1 trillion package in 2009, as officials feared the price tag would erode support from Republicans and even moderate Democrats.

The scope is also drastically different. Instead of allocating funds to tax credits and federal spending programs, recent stimulus sent money directly to households through checks and enhanced unemployment insurance. The use of direct cash relief was the most encouraging aspect of pandemic-era support, Sahm said.

"This time we didn't monkey around with [tax credits]," she told Insider, adding stimulus checks helped Americans pay down debt, build financial buffers, and maintain spending.

To be sure, the two recessions boast some critical differences. The COVID-19 recovery hinged on thwarting the virus's spread. The financial crisis was far more systemic in nature, and it took more than a year for the recovery to even begin.

"Everything about this crisis has been much faster than during the Great Recession," Sahm said. "The bottom fell out, then we hit the bottom, and then we started moving up."

Other experts argued that last year's response deserves a larger share of the credit. "I think fiscal policy in 2020 was really important and what we've seen so far this year has been unneeded and created some real risks in the economy," Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former head of the Congressional Budget Office and GOP aide to George W. Bush, said in an interview.

Most signals point to a healthy recovery

Holtz-Eakin is among the conservative economists arguing that Biden's stimulus has caused a stronger rise in inflation than expected. Indeed, popular gauges of price growth rose at the fastest pace since 2008 in May as rebounding demand ran up against dire supply shortages.

For now, the Federal Reserve and the Congressional Budget Office both expect inflation to weaken as shortages are addressed. And early signs point to price growth cooling into the summer.

Other signals are similarly encouraging. Wages are rising for workers in the leisure and hospitality sector, and Americans surveyed in a recent Gallup poll say they're the happiest they've ever been as vaccinations become more widespread and restrictions ease up.

Though most signs are good, experts are still urging caution given the huge hit absorbed by low-income workers, many of whom are Black and Hispanic.

"We should also remember that the road to recovery is long, even at this optimistic, faster timeline, it's still gonna be until the end of next year to get to pre-pandemic levels and there's gonna be a lot of people who are worse off," Konczal said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Hello!

Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider's Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.

What we're going over today:

• We found Jeffrey Epstein's little black book from 1997, and discovered new connections to the convicted sex offender.
• Joe Rogan is sparking outrage inside Spotify with his controversial show.
• A secret club helps prepare young CEOs to take over the world.
• America is in the middle of The Great Reshuffle.

Christopher Helali; Hollis Johnson/Insider; Samantha Lee/Insider

What's trending this morning:

• Amazon Care is approaching big health insurers to get coverage. But it's struggling to get some of them on board.
• VC firm DCM beats its top competitors by generating 30x fund returns. Its secret: Not drinking the Silicon Valley "Kool-Aid."
• Wall Street is buying and building entire neighborhoods. And getting rich in the process.
• Where is Trump's White House staff now? We created a searchable database of more than 327 top staffers to show where they all landed.
• New York's top brokers swear by their 7 a.m. to midnight schedules. Oren and Tal Alexander have sold nearly $1 billion worth of real estate this year -and share their routines with us.

Inside Jeffrey Epstein's little black book

Insider has obtained a never-before-seen address book that appears to have belonged to Jeffrey Epstein in the '90s, connecting him to a new network of prominent financiers and political figures:

The Epstein book came to light through a circuitous and unusual path: A self-described "enigmatic rock chick" living in Manhattan's East Village found it on the sidewalk in the late 1990s.

Denise Ondayko, a former musician who now lives in the Bay Area, said she was walking down Fifth Avenue when she spotted a black address book on the ground. Flipping through, she found addresses and phone numbers for members of the Trump and Kennedy clans, and iconic chroniclers of wealth such as Robin Leach. She decided to hold onto it, slipped it into a box, and forgot about it.

In May 2020, Ondayko and a relative were cleaning out an old storage unit she had rented in Michigan when the long-buried book emerged from a box of odds and ends. Thumbing through it - and seeing the dozens of entries for Epstein's myriad properties - the relative immediately recognized who the owner was.

Here's what we discovered in Epstein's book:

• We found Jeffrey Epstein's other little black book from 1997. Search all 349 names in our exclusive database.

Also read:

• There are 1,510 people in Jeffrey Epstein's little black book. Now you can search them all for the first time.

Spotify employees are frustrated with Joe Rogan and his show

Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Spotify has benefited from Joe Rogan's unfiltered style - but not everyone at the company is a fan. Some employees are frustrated with his controversial show, and say he's making the company so much money it refuses to rein him in:

Rogan, who has a $100 million licensing deal with Spotify, is one of the most powerful figures in media, and one of the most controversial. On his show, he's aired COVID-19 misinformation, laughed as a guest described sexual harassment, and hosted a prolific conspiracy theorist three times.

Spotify, which owns the exclusive rights to stream "The Joe Rogan Experience," has stood by him, despite removing a few dozen episodes from his archive. But some of the company's employees have been irritated by Spotify's largely hands-off approach and have pushed leadership to rein Rogan in. Spotify hasn't budged.

See what employees are saying:

• Joe Rogan is sparking outrage inside Spotify with his controversial show. But some say he's making the company so much money it refuses to rein him in.

Also read:

• Megyn Kelly on switching from NBC to SiriusXM and why she'd rather interview Donald Trump Jr. over Donald Trump
• People are fleeing the ad industry and it's leaving agencies struggling to fill hundreds of open roles

America is experiencing "The Great Reshuffle"

Malte Mueller/Getty Images

Millions of Americans are voluntarily leaving their jobs for better ones at a speed we haven't seen since the turn of the millennium:

In the 25 years that Dawn Fay has been in the recruiting business, she's seen a hot job market several times. But nothing, she says, comes close to the frenzy she's seeing right now, as the economy begins to boom in the wake of the pandemic. "There is so much movement in the market," Fay, a senior district president at the staffing firm Robert Half, said. "The churn is amazing to see."

"Churn" may be something of an understatement: It's downright chaos at HR departments across the US. So many Americans have quit their jobs this spring that the resignation rate has skyrocketed to a two-decade high. And people aren't just looking to switch employers - some are jumping into new professions altogether, while others are climbing the ladder at their current workplace.

The result is an economy-wide game of musical chairs - a wholesale transformation of the job market that has left employers scrambling to retain employees and attract new ones. Call it The Great Reshuffle.

Here's what that means for the American economy:

• The Great Reshuffle

Also read:

• HR professionals are being recruited relentlessly and have their pick of top jobs
• Americans don't take nearly enough vacation days - and experts say it's because companies think about PTO all wrong

This secret club helps prepare young CEOs to take over the world

YPO; Samantha Lee/Insider

Young Presidents Organization, or YPO, is an ultra-exclusive social group that offers business leaders a chance to speak openly about what it's really like running a company:

Founded in 1950, YPO has a reputation as a fraternity for ultra-rich white men who inherited their family's business, and, for a time, it was.

But over the years, it has recruited more entrepreneurs, who tell Insider that the exclusive club is worth the price of admission: a $7,950 upfront fee and chapter dues ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 annually. Plus, the club's secrecy doesn't hurt.

Confidentiality is required by a code of conduct, and members say that clandestine atmosphere is part of the appeal. Executives can unload about work or their personal lives, trusting that nothing will slip out. In fact, the group's code of conduct has an often-repeated line - "Nothing, Nobody, Never" - that serves as an unofficial slogan.

Take a look at the organization that boasts 30,000 members worldwide:

• Inside the secret club that helps prepare young CEOs to take over the world

Also read:

• How to become a top diversity executive and lead change in corporate America
• Carol Tomé was hired to whip UPS into shape, but some insiders worry she's killing what made the company great in the first place

Finally, here are some headlines you might have missed last week.

- Matt

• I rage-quit my job of 6 years when a new employee was promoted over me. I don't regret leaving in such an emotional way, but there are a few things I should've done differently.
• 20 sought-after female political strategists to watch as more women in the US enter politics
• Andy Jassy's first email to employees as Amazon CEO is a master class in memo-writing
• How to mine doge: An 18-year-old TikTok influencer shares his process for earning crypto
• Junior bankers lament 'Goldman discount' as other firms raise pay and analysts who complained about 100-hour work-weeks get nothing
• A crypto evangelist shares 5 altcoins that could explode in value, including one with 100-times potential

Read the original article on Business Insider

Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card comes with built-in trip insurance for when things go wrong.
• Trip delays, trip cancellations, and baggage delays are covered under certain circumstances.
• I was delayed by 12 hours after two American Airlines flight cancellations and could spend up to $500 on expenses.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Flight delays and cancellations can be costly. Hours and even days can be wasted that could lead to unplanned expenses through no fault of a traveler's.

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty

I was left high and dry by American Airlines in June when flying home from Bogota, Colombia in June. Two back-to-back flight cancellations extended my trip and left me with no clear way to get home. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Read More: I was stranded in Bogotá airport for 10 hours and it taught me the true value of credit card perks and not taking no for an answer

At first, I was faced with an eight-hour delay that quickly turned into an overnight stay. American was going to pay for a hotel but I'd be largely on my own for meals, plus any other expenses I might incur thanks to the extended trip. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

In total, I incurred $127.39 extra expenses incurred from the delay but because of the credit card I used to book the trip, I was reimbursed for all of it. Here's how my credit card ended up saving my bank account. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is a premium travel credit card that costs $550 per year but comes with perks like a free $300 in travel credits, complimentary Lyft Pink membership for a year, and built-in travel insurance.

David Slotnick/Business Insider

Read More: Chase Sapphire Reserve card review: One of the best premium travel cards, with unbeatable bonus rewards

While many credit cards offer some form of travel insurance, not all are equal and some only kick in if the cardholder dies in a plane crash. But the Sapphire Reserve offers three types: trip cancellation/interruption insurance, baggage delay insurance, and travel delay reimbursement.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

As its name suggests, trip cancellation/interruption insurance covers expenses when a trip is "cut short or canceled" due to instances like sickness, severe weather, injury, loss of life, terrorist action, hijacking, and unpostponable jury duty or court subpoena. Chase will cover up to $10,000 per trip, if eligible.

REUTERS/Mike Segar

Baggage delay insurance covers "essential purchases" in the event luggage is lost by an airline, bus company, cruise ship operator, or train company for more than six hours.

fizkes/Shutterstock.com

And finally, trip delay insurance covers travelers if a trip is delayed for more than six hours or requires an overnight stay. This is the insurance for which I qualified when American canceled my flight and rescheduled me for a later flight to New York. Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

This insurance is pretty comprehensive and will cover meals, lodging, transportation, and additional unreimbursed expenses up to $500. Coverage only applies if the flight was booked using the Sapphire Reserve and I make sure I book every trip using the card for that reason. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The perk will also apply to mileage award tickets, even if only the taxes are paid using the card. If travelers are booking flights with a travel credit, they can also get the coverage by paying as little as $.01 using the card. Booking an award ticket using a Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

I called up Chase while stranded in Colombia to confirm I could use the credit and they gave me the green light. I didn't need to call Chase but this was my first time using the perk so I wanted to be sure I was using it correctly. Calling Chase customer service.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

I was ecstatic to have $500 at my disposal because that goes really far in Colombia. But I wasn't trying to extend my vacation, I wanted out. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

My first plan was to take the 12:15 a.m. flight to New York and so I began my long wait in the airport. I took a walk and started plotting how I could spend $500. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

American, for its part, gave all the passengers on my first canceled flight a meal voucher for around $12. I decided to use that for my first meal and save Chase's travel insurer some money. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

But beyond that, I was hesitant to spend any money because I didn't want to get into a situation where something wasn't covered. Again, this was my first time using the perk. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

So, I left Colombia using exactly $0 of the $500 and didn't spend anything until landing back in the US. After my second flight to New York was canceled, I was routed to Phoenix via Dallas leaving the same night because I was starting a trip to Phoenix and American couldn't get me home in time for my flight to get there. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

After I landed in Dallas, American had given me a hotel voucher, at my request, so I could have a shower during my four-hour layover. I took a hotel shuttle to the hotel, around five miles from the airport itself, and only planned to shower in the room, then head back to the airport. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The shuttle, however, was hourly, and I only had 20 minutes from the time I got to the hotel to the time it was leaving again. That didn't include checking in and getting to the room. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

So, I figured, what better time to use the $500. I took my time in the shower and then ordered a Lyft for $19.27, including tip, to get me back to the airport. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Transportation, after all, is covered under the rules of the perk. Of course, I wouldn't know for sure until I submitted the claim. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

I got to the airport and American, once more, had given me another $12 meal voucher. But it was too early to eat so I only used around $6 of it to buy two water bottles for the flight to Phoenix. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

I landed in Phoenix after a nightmare of a travel experience and asked American if they'd arrange a taxi for me to get to my family's home. I thought it was a reasonable request being as I arrived a day early and my family members couldn't pick me up. Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

But the airline didn't think so and I was on my own to arrange an Uber, at peak time, for a total of $107.65 with a tip. Time to file my claim. Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

First, I needed proof of the delay being greater than six hours. That was easy as American sent an email telling me that I was rebooked on a later flight after the first flight cancellation. Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Next, I needed my expenses. All of my Uber and Lyft receipts were digital, so getting them was just a matter of taking screenshots from their mobile applications. Uber Grocery app

Uber

Then, I needed a verification letter from American confirming that my flight was delayed due to a covered reason. In my case, a mechanical delay. Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Even that was surprisingly easy. American has a request form just for "delay verification requests." Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

That letter came three days later and I was then able to submit the claim. Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

To my surprise, it was approved with no questions asked three days later. Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The check did take a while to arrive but I took it straight to the bank. Using credit card trip insurance.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

And with that, my escape from Colombia was complete. I even got credit card points from the two purchases. Depositing a check at a Chase ATM.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Read the original article on Business Insider

Cindy Ord/Getty Images

• The S&P 500 could surge 9% to 4,700 by year-end, Fundstrat's Tom Lee told CNBC on Friday.
• Lee sees a renewed surge in interest rate on the horizon, with the 10-year drifting towards 1.75%.
• That reversal in interest rates should drive cyclical stocks higher, according to Lee.
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.

The stock market is on track to continue its uptrend and surge as much as 9% by year-end, Fundstrat's Tom Lee said in an interview with CNBC on Friday.

Lee said the S&P 500 could surge to 4,700 by year-end as "strong markets stay strong," representing potential upside of 9% from Thursday's close. That move higher will likely be driven by cyclical stocks as interest rates drift back towards their recent cycle-high of 1.75%.

Since the start of June, the 10-Year US Treasury rate has fallen to as low as 1.27% as investors question the durability of the post-pandemic economic recovery and expectations of higher inflation. The drop in rates helped fuel a rotation out of value and into growth stocks, but according to Lee, rates and growth stocks could begin to rise together as they become "detached" from their often inverse relationship.

"I think FAANG is going to detach itself from interest rates, meaning they're going to have a great second half, not because rates are going to fall, but because these are great companies that almost did nothing during the first half [of 2021]. We think if the S&P 500 ends the year up 25%, and a lot of these FAANGs are up 5%, they could be up 20% in the second half, that makes them an overweight," Lee told CNBC.

While Lee believes mega-cap tech stocks in the "FAANG" group can continue to perform well, epicenter stocks tied to the physical reopening of the economy will be best positioned for more upside.

"Epicenter stocks will rally strongly, as they are the most sensitive to rising rates," Lee said in a note on Friday.

Fundstrat

And within epicenter stocks, Lee has the most conviction on the energy sector, as bullish divergences between energy stocks and oil prices continue into the back half of the year. Lee sees a potential squeeze in the supply of oil occuring just as the economy gets back on its feet and demand is high, likely leading to a continued uptrend in prices.

"[Oil] Supply will get even tighter into 2022 as the $300 billion in shortfall in capex past 24 months robs future production capacity," Lee explained. Those potential supply constraints come as OPEC members fail to reach a deal on an expected production increase.

"Bottom line: If interest rates reverse, buy epicenter which is gonna rally most," Lee concluded.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

• Astra Taylor, founder of the Debt Collective, told Insider student debt is threatening democracy.
• She said that after the Civil War, debt was used to wield power over marginalized communities.
• Biden is "playing with fire" not following through on his promise to cancel student debt, she said.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Debt is all-American, Astra Taylor says. And she doesn't mean that in a good way.

Taylor, who founded the Debt Collective, which calls for the cancellation of all forms of debt, namechecks Thomas Jefferson as a founding father of how we understand debt today.

In the early 1880s, he wrote in a letter that debt should be used as a tool to control Indigenous people "because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands." This idea has "carried over through the 20th century," Taylor said, and she's made it her mission to end in the 21st. Our relationship with debt can be all-American in a different - and better - way, she said in an interview with Insider.

Her organization is the country's first membership-based union for debtors and allies, and she said it's a necessary step for true democracy to finally emerge in the US. She's offering her help to President Joe Biden, even drafting an executive order she wants President Joe Biden to sign to cancel student debt for all borrowers.

Even if he can cancel all student debt by simply signing a piece of paper, Taylor said it wouldn't be enough - all debt in the country has to be erased so borrowers are no longer controlled by money they will never be able to pay off.

Founder of the Debt Collective, Astra Taylor.

Astra Taylor

"I think it's really important to understand that relationships of credit and debt are always political," Taylor said. "It's a power relationship masquerading as a relationship of equality," adding that it's time for Americans to move beyond that dynamic.

Many Americans who hold student debt fear they will never be able to pay it off before dying, as Insider previously reported, and given that multiple left-leaning studies have shown that debt cancellation would stimulate the economy by freeing up money for borrowers to spend elsewhere, Taylor said there's no reason why Biden should not act on the opportunity.

The roots of debt and democracy

As Taylor explained in an opinion piece for The New York Times last week, the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War had another name among formerly enslaved people: the Jubilee. But although slavery was abolished, debt quickly took its place in the form of "sharecropping," which served as a tool to control marginalized communities and allow white landlords "generations of exploitable labor."

This kind of coercion through debt mutated but never went away, Taylor said, citing predatory lending and redlining, or the practice of housing discrimination based on race which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found evidence of this year. Lawmakers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren argue that student-loan servicers are currently taking advantage of borrowers in a similar way.

Taylor said the economic recovery Biden touts does not reflect the disproportionate debt burden on minority communities. For example, upon graduation, Black student debt borrowers typically owe 50% more than white borrowers. Four years later, Black borrowers owe 100% more, according to 36 civil rights organizations.

The Debt Collective's work to ensure debtor's remain politically independent will help eliminate the disproportionate burden of debt, and, as Taylor put it, "revive the Jubilee." Taylor's ideas are intersecting more and more with the mainstream. For example, this week Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast interviewed "independent renegade economist" Steve Keen, who called for a "modern Jubilee."

Biden is 'playing with fire' on debt cancellation

During his campaign, Biden promised to immediately cancel $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers, but he has not yet fulfilled that promise and has not commented on if, or when, he will follow through. Taylor told Insider that there are "tremendous risks" accompanied with not delivering on debt cancellation.

"They're playing with fire," Taylor said. "To break this promise they fully have the ability legally to do is just so dangerous."

Taylor argues that instead of investing in debt collection, Biden should invest in free education. Plus, she says, eliminating debt would allow people to invest in other things, like housing.

The Education Department has so far cancelled some debt for certain groups of people, but Americans continue to hold $1.7 billion in student debt.

Biden promised he would cancel student debt, Taylor said. "Why would you risk all of the disappointment and bad faith that will result from not meeting the moment?"

Read the original article on Business Insider

Starbucks is testing a 'Social Sips' ordering program.

Starbucks

• Starbucks is testing a new system for ordering off-menu drinks that have gained popularity on social media.
• While it's a smart idea, the QR scanning function didn't work during my visit.
• I tried the $6 Pink Drink Remixed.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Starbucks is running a limited test that allows customers to order drinks that became popular on social media through ads on Facebook and Instagram. Starbucks.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Over the weekend, I was excited to see one of the ads come up while tapping through Instagram stories. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Starbucks

When the ad comes up, you have the option to swipe up and try the drink, which of course I did. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Starbucks

I was served the ad for the Pink Drink Remixed, a social media creation based on the Pink Drink, which was itself initially a fan creation that was added to menus. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Starbucks

There are two options for ordering the drink: order ahead as you would with any mobile order, or order directly from a barista. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Starbucks

The ad has a QR code that the barista should be able to scan, along with a written out way to order the drink. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Starbucks

I wanted to test out the QR code function, so I visited the closest Starbucks near my road trip route in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Starbucks

The scanner was not able to pick up the QR code from my phone, though luckily I still got my order. A Starbucks in Orlando, Florida.

Getty/Jeff Greenberg

Starbucks says that it is getting scans from other locations in the program, so this isn't the case in every store. Starbucks barista.

REUTERS/Mike Blake

The barista helping me told me that he's seen different scanning equipment at different stores, so not all locations necessarily have the same equipment. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

I got to watch the worker make my drink, which consists of a Strawberry Acai Refresher with coconut milk, topped with Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

The drink tastes something like strawberry short cake turned into a milkshake. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

It's not my favorite, but I can see why people might like it. The drink comes out to $6.41 with tax for a venti. While I think it was worth a try, I won't order again. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Customer-created drinks on social media have always been part of Starbucks' business and introducing a way to make ordering them easier for customers and baristas seems like a necessary next step. I think this could be the future of Starbucks, once some bugs are figured out. Starbucks introduced the Social Sips program.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Liam McBurney/PA Images/Getty Images

• I visited Sonic and McDonald's to compare the two chains drive-thru experiences.
• McDonald's embodies the classic drive-thru style, while Sonic operates a drive-in.
• McDonald's model is more versatile, but I think Sonic's innovations will help it stay successful.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Drive-thrus are key for McDonalds. About 95% of the chain's nearly 14,000 US locations have drive-thrus, with 25,000 worldwide. A McDonald's 24 hour drive-thru.

Getty

Source: Restaurant Dive

"Drive-thru made McDonald's what it is today," McDonald's CEO and president Chris Kempczinski said in an earnings call in April. McDonald's U.S President Chris Kempczinski speaks about fresh beef expansion at a McDonald’s event in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States March 5, 2018.

Richa Naidu/Reuters

During the pandemic, drive-thrus became more important than ever, making up 90% of orders. McDonald's Drive Thru service could soon become much more automated.

AP Photo/Seth Perlman

I gave the classic drive-thru experience a try to see how one of the biggest chains in the world stands up to other formats.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Source: Insider

I used the McDonald's app to order a quarter pounder and Big Mac, and of course fries.

McDonald's

The app is pretty standard compared to other fast food mobile ordering. I selected my order and location and then went to pick it up through the drive-thru.

McDonald's

The app gave me a short code to give the worker at the speaker, which I think made things move slightly faster than trying to repeat my name a few times.

McDonald's

My McDonald's location has double drive-thru lanes, a relatively recent innovation that was added to reduce wait times and bottlenecks.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

McDonald's corporate has been pushing franchisees to upgrade drive-thrus since 2019 after years of increasingly long wait times.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Source: Insider

McDonald's average drive-thru wait times got slower every year for six years through 2019, leading to an all-time high of 273 seconds.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Source: QSR

Along with double lanes, consolidating menus by removing options like grilled chicken sandwiches, salads, and all-day breakfast cut wait times.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Source: Insider

I had a fairly simple order, but I didn't wait more than five minutes to receive my food.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

McDonald's has also been investing in a curbside pickup program, with designated numbered parking spots where employees can bring out food to waiting customers.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Next up, I went to Sonic, which has a drive-thru along with a drive-in.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Source: Insider

Sonic's drive-in model thrived during the pandemic as competitors closed dining rooms.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Sonic operates a drive-thru, dining room, and drive-in. The drive-in has 15 to 20 parking spots with their own speakers to order food, which is brought outside by the car hop. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

The drive-in area is under a covering that keeps it comfortable in hot temperatures or rainy weather. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

The drive-in section is just across the parking lot from the entrance. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

There's also a small outdoor seating area. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Normally customers would also have the option of ordering and eating inside, but the dining room was still closed. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Each drive-in spot is essentially a drive-thru in miniature, with a sign displaying Sonic's massive menu. Customers press the red button to signal that they are ready to order, and a worker will take their order through the speaker. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Most of the sign is a static display, but there is also a digital screen that shares information. In this case, it said that some ingredients were not available because of supply issues across the entire industry. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

I ordered through Sonic's app before I arrived, which gave me time to look through the extensive menu that experts say is key to the chain's success. Sonic grew during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Source: Insider

The menu has typical fast food fare comparable to McDonald's - burgers, chicken sandwiches, and fries. Sonic grew during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Unlike many competitors, it also has a wide selection of snacks including different types of tater tots, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and soft pretzels. Analysts said that the comfort food not tied to a specific meal time may have also contributed to Sonic's success. Sonic grew during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Sonic's drinks are a major part of its appeal to customers. Sonic's president told Insider that 25% of all orders are drink-only, and there are 1.3 million possible drink combinations on the menu. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Source: Insider

There are so many options to add to a drink that it's almost overwhelming. I finally went with a diet coke with cranberry flavor and lime. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Once you finish ordering on the app, check out and pay. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

When you arrive, the app prompts you to say where you are parked. Each spot in the drive-in has a corresponding number. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Both Sonic and McDonald's have added ID numbers that reduce the chances of miscommunication between customers and employees. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

The app gives updates about order status while you wait. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Once you're checked in on the app, you can also see your order status on the screen. The screen informed me when a carhop was heading out with my order. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Carhops bring out food and drinks to customers waiting in parking spots. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

A server brought out my food and drinks within a few minutes, boxed up conveniently for transport. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

The drinks, a milkshake and a flavored coke, were probably the highlight of our trip - and definitely worth a visit on their own. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Some people eat in their cars, but I chose to drive home because the snacks I ordered were fairly messy. Sonic restaurants have over 20 drive-in spots.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

After my visit, I'm not surprised that Sonic grew so much during the pandemic. It sells snacks and drinks that make a perfect treat any time of the day, and the drive-in has very minimal contact with other people for safety. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Sonic has a lot of room to grow before it rivals McDonald's, but I wouldn't be surprised if the success continues. Sonic's drive-in model is a smart way to get around the bottlenecks that plague drive-thrus. Sonic was massively successful during the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

The typical drive-thru exemplified by McDonald's is more versatile, though. It takes up less space, and adding a few curbside spots has a similar effect as the drive-in. Both are well-positioned to grow off-premise dining as it stays key to their businesses. Nadine McNally hands a food order from the window of the reopened McDonald's drive-thru at Bloomfield Shopping Mall in Bangor, Wales.

Liam McBurney via Getty

Read the original article on Business Insider

The forward fuselage seen as it rests on the ocean floor.

Sea Engineering Inc. via NTSB

• The NTSB's undersea photos show the wreck of a cargo plane that ditched off the coast of Hawaii.
• The plane hit the water at about 1:30 a.m. local time on July 2. Both pilots escaped.
• The wreckage was found on the ocean floor at depths between 360 and 420 feet.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released the first underwater images of a Boeing 737-200 cargo plane that plunged into the sea near Honolulu on July 2.

Transair Flight 810 was forced to ditch at around 1:30 a.m. local time after experiencing engine trouble. There were two pilots on board, both of whom escaped.

To locate the wreckage, investigators used undersea robots and sonar scanning technology, the NTSB said.

The engine inlet case.

Sea Engineering Inc. via NTSB

Major components of the airplane including the fuselage, both wings, both engines, and the tail, were located on the ocean floor at depths between 360 and 420 feet. The depth meant that divers were unable to recover flight data and cockpit voice recorders, the NTSB said.

The aft fuselage of Transair flight 810.

Sea Engineering Inc. via NTSB

The airplane plunged into the sea two miles from Kalaeloa Airport.

"The pilots had reported engine trouble and were attempting to return to Honolulu when they were forced to land the aircraft in the water," the Federal Aviation Administration said.

According to audio recordings obtained by HawaiiNewsNow, one of the pilots told air traffic controllers: "We've lost number one engine and we're coming straight to the airport. We're pretty low on speed. It doesn't look good."

Both pilots were rescued by the Coast Guard, authorities confirmed. One pilot was in critical condition and the other was in serious condition, HawaiiNewsNow reported.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Alex Mead said the critically injured pilot had reached a point of extreme exhaustion by the time he was pulled to safety, and that he was unable to verbally communicate, per HawaiiNewsNow.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

• Long-haul aircraft come with compartments in which bunks are available for flight attendants to rest and sleep.
• The hostel-like setup can be a second home for cabin crew on ultra-long-haul flights.
• Flight attendants will take turns servicing the cabin while the others rest.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Next-generation aircraft are flying further than ever before and airlines are constantly adjusting their products and offerings to ensure passengers are comfortable. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Read More: The 10 longest routes flown by airlines in 2019

The Airbus A350 family of aircraft, for example, flew four of the 10 longest routes in the world before the pandemic. It currently flies the longest flight in the world between New York and Singapore, operated by Singapore Airlines. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Read More: Inside the new world's longest flight: What it's like to fly on Singapore Airlines' new route between Singapore and New York

But while flyers are lounging out in plush lie-flat seats to endure the long journeys, flight attendants don't have that same luxury. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Rather, they don't even stay in the passenger cabin for their breaks and retreat to a hidden hideaway above their passengers. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Take a look at where flight attendants go when they need to rest onboard this SAS Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A350-900XWB. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The extreme back of the plane is where passengers will find the rear galley. It's just one of the main workstations for a flight attendant where drinks, food, and other items are kept. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Just opposite the galley, however, is a small set of stairs that appears to lead to nowhere. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

A door marked "crew only" with a red no entry symbol hides the compartment above. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Open the door, and the crew rest area reveals itself. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

It's a narrow space and climbing up and down the stairs takes some getting used to. But long-haul flight attendants have plenty of opportunities to practice as they routinely spend countless hours in the air. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The compartment is completely separate from the passenger cabin so it's not like the crew can look down on passengers from above. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Once inside, six bunks comprise the crew rest area. There's not much headspace and some crouching is required to navigate the compartment. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Each bunk has the essentials including a pillow, blanket, and mattress pad so flight attendants can get a good sleep. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

But beyond that, they're quite bare save for a few storage pockets. While passengers below have access to thousands of hours of in-flight entertainment, flight attendants don't. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

That's because these areas are meant solely for rest and the bare-bones setup reflects that. Flight attendants can choose to do other things like read books or go on their phones but that's not the intended purpose. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

A personal reading lamp provides the only light in the bunks as otherwise, it gets quite dark in the space. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Flight attendants can close the curtains for privacy and block any ambient light coming from the galley and main entryway. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Seatbelts are installed so resting flight attendants can sleep while safely strapped in during turbulence or any other time the seatbelt sign is on. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Smaller storage areas line the aisle and an emergency exit is available that will see flight attendants pop out from overhead bins in case of trouble. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Hangars are also available for the crew to hang up their uniforms. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The narrow passageways are reminiscent more of a spaceship than an airplane. That said, it would've been easier to maneuver had there been no gravity. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Crew rest is mandatory on longer journeys and flight attendants will take turns servicing their cabins while others rest. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Pilots have a separate rest area that's closer to the cockpit, with this rest area solely for cabin crew. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

The crew rest area is connected to the cabin below via an intercom, allowing flight attendants to keep in communication. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

On some of the longer flights of which aircraft like the Airbus A350 are capable, this can become a second home for hours on end. The flight from New York to Singapore is scheduled at 18 hours and 50 minutes in duration, for example. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Read More: Singapore Airlines says 6 unique seats always sell out on the world's longest flight — here's why

All the while, the average passenger will likely never realize that flight attendants are resting just feet above their heads. It's one of the closely kept secrets of an airplane. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

But if a flight attendant disappears for a few hours, that's likely where they're going. Touring SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Airbus A350-900 XWB.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Not all crew rest areas are as secluded, however. On smaller aircraft, a crew rest area can be a single-row in economy, often the very last row. Retreating to the last row.

Thomas Pallini/Business Insider

JetBlue, for example, is flying to London in August and blocking one of the last rows in economy for its flight attendants to rest on the journeys. Inside JetBlue Airways' new Airbus A321neoLR.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

A Mint business class seat is also reserved for flight attendants to use transatlantic flights. Inside JetBlue Airways' new Airbus A321neoLR.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

So while the average traveler may never know if flight attendants dream of flying sheep, they'll now have a better idea of where they sleep. Flying Delta Air Lines in first class from Phoenix to Minneapolis.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

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Used car and truck dealers have bought models for more than their original sticker price.

Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images

• Used-car prices have skyrocketed over the last year.
• A supply crunch in new cars is spurring demand for used models.
• Prices may not return to normal for at least a year, one expert told Insider.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

If you're looking to get a sweet deal on a used car to take advantage of the warm summer weather, it's not going to happen.

The market for secondhand cars is absurdly and unprecedentedly hot right now. Used vehicles went for a whopping 40% more in June than they did before the pandemic in February of 2020, according to data from JPMorgan.

The average nine-year-old car changed hands for $13,250 in June, according to automotive research site Edmunds. That's a 30% hike over the same month in 2020, while a five-year-old vehicle will run you a staggering $24,000 - up more than $6,000 from a year ago.

The insanity all comes down to simple economics: demand for used cars far outweighs their supply, pushing prices higher and higher. But the reasons for scant inventories and such high interest in used cars get a bit more complicated.

Why are used cars so expensive right now?

The market for used cars is deeply intertwined with the market for new ones, says Kayla Reynolds, an analyst at Cox Automotive. The latter is going through a rough patch, and those troubles are trickling down into the used market.

A devastating shortage of microchips - which are necessary for all manner of critical electrical components - is slowing car production worldwide, choking the supply of new models and driving their prices skyward. High dealer markups and a lack of options are forcing more buyers to shop secondhand, chipping away at used-car inventories, Reynolds said.

To put the magnitude of this shortage into perspective, new-car inventory in the US was down 54% in June as compared to the same month in 2019, according to Cox. Dealer incentives have plummeted and transaction prices for new cars have hit all-time highs as a result.

That's bringing a whole new set of customers to the used market, people who were prepared to spend serious money on a brand-new set of wheels and are, in turn, driving up used-car prices, says Ivan Drury, senior manager of insights at Edmunds.

Read more: Meet 9 former Tesla execs who left Elon Musk to become power players at rivals like Apple and Rivian

A drop in new cars rolling off assembly lines has upended the flow of vehicles to and from rental agencies, which are typically a major source of used inventory. Rental companies, which sold off cars en masse during the pandemic, usually buy some 2 million new cars every year and turn them over every 1-2 years, Drury said.

With travel surging back, they've resorted to snatching up used cars - and they're not giving them up.

Moreover, with new-car prices through the roof, people are holding onto their aging vehicles longer instead of trading them in, cutting off the flow of cars onto the used market. For the same reason, they're opting to buy their leased vehicles at the end of the term, rather than swap them in for a new lease.

When will the madness end?

There is good news. Prices seem to have peaked in May and are heading back to Earth.

Between May and June, wholesale car prices declined for the first time since December, suggesting that demand and supply are on a path toward some kind of equilibrium, Cox's Reynolds said.

She expects that retail prices will soon follow, and that shoppers will start to notice prices on car lots gradually dropping by the fall. The pandemic-induced car-buying frenzy tapering off partially explains the shift, she said.

But the supply crunch brought on by the chip shortage isn't going away anytime soon, meaning it could be quite a while before shoppers see used-car prices they're accustomed to. Even once new models are back in stock, the secondhand market won't snap back to normal overnight, Drury said.

His advice to car buyers: "I'd say give it at least six months. And in all honesty, if you can hold off for an entire year, you're better off with that."

Are you a car dealer, buyer, or private seller with a story to share about what it's like to buy and sell cars in this red-hot market? Contact this reporter at tlevin@insider.com

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Amazon cofounder and former CEO Jeff Bezos.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• It turns out that Amazon Prime isn't necessary, even if you're ordering from Amazon frequently.
• I canceled my subscription in May 2020, and it has had zero impact on order speed or pricing.
• On the plus side, I'm saving at least $120 annually on the expensive membership fee.
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

In April 2020, just as the pandemic lockdowns were taking effect in New York City, I canceled the Amazon Prime subscription my wife and I shared.

In the year-plus since that subscription ended, I've not missed it a single time - and we're saving $130 annually, plus tax, by not paying for the service.

We aren't anti-Amazon crusaders by any means: This year so far, I've placed 15 separate orders for products delivered through Amazon. Last year, the total was 20 orders.

How much were my shipping costs for all of those orders? A grand total of $17.57 for 2020, and a whopping $12.26 in 2021 so far.

That includes two air conditioners (with free shipping), two large Tommy Bahama beach chairs (again, free shipping), and a variety of gifts sent to a relatively remote town in Pennsylvania.

In the email confirming my Amazon Prime cancelation there is a massive button to re-join Amazon Prime, naturally.

Ben Gilbert/Insider

While it's true that some of those items we purchased would've come with a slight discount through Prime, or that some would've been delivered the very next day (rather than two or three days later), it's extremely unlikely that those discounts would add up to the over $100 difference between what we're paying in shipping now versus what we were paying for a Prime membership.

Moreover, even without a Prime membership, most items we buy through Amazon are delivered shockingly fast.

Living in Brooklyn, not too far from a major Amazon distribution center on Staten Island, assuredly doesn't hurt! But I've had similarly positive experiences sending gifts through Amazon to family in Pennsylvania and Ohio, where packages arrived days ahead of projected arrival times.

But what about Prime Video? Frankly, we weren't using it, and we're already paying for Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max. I can name specific reasons for those subscriptions - shows, movies, or entire libraries that justify the ongoing subscription fee. With rare exception, that didn't happen with Prime Video for us.

More often than not, the video we did want to watch on Prime Video still required a rental fee. That happened enough times that we stopped turning on the service altogether.

My context isn't everyone else's context, of course. My wife and I don't have kids, we live in a major city, and we own a car. Frankly, there weren't a lot of good reasons for us specifically to pay for Amazon Prime.

Do we really need the Frankie's Spuntino cookbook delivered the next day, or is it okay if we wait a few days? I kinda think we'll survive.

But maybe you're a new parent and you need diapers tomorrow, no matter what? Or you've got a job that keeps you from getting errands done during normal business hours? Or any other number of perfectly reasonable situations? I get it!

There is more to the calculation here than strictly financials, and the decision depends on a lot. For $120 annually, though? It's a decision worth considering.

Got a tip? Contact Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@insider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

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Set Jet.

Set Jet

• Set Jet is a private airline offering private jet flights for similar prices as domestic first class.
• A monthly membership costs $99.95 and flights on wide-cabin Bombardier jets start at $449.95 one-way.
• A total of 11 year-round routes are offered with a New York-Los Angeles route coming in the next year.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

One company is bridging the price gap between flying first class and flying private and opening up the glitzy side of aviation to those that were traditionally priced out of it.

Set Jet is a membership-based private airline offering seats on a true private jet for as low as $449.95 one-way. Members pay a monthly fee of $99.95 and are given access to flights on 11 year-round routes throughout the American West.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company isn't the first to sell seats on shared private aircraft but its founders say they've found a way to make the business model sustainable, and open up private flying to a larger audience. Having the monthly fee also discourages those that truly aren't able to fly private from signing up, for which companies like JetSmarter were infamous.

How it works

Only Set Jet members can fly on Set Jet aircraft and a limited number of memberships are available in each market so flyers can get a seat when they want. Anyone can sign up for a membership and the only initiation fee is a one-time "security fee" of $99.95.

Members can then initiate or buy seats on flights throughout Set Jet's network, which covers four states and Mexico. Flyers can book a seat up to 30 minutes before a flight's scheduled departure time.

Not all routes are operated daily, though, and some are offered as little as twice-weekly. Once a flight is initiated, Set Jet will perform it even if there's just one person onboard paying that's paying $449.95.

Set Jet's flagship jet is the Bombardier Challenger 850 that rivals in size to wide-cabin Gulfstream or Dassault aircraft. The cabin is tall enough for most to stand up in and as many as 19 people can be seated comfortably.

Set Jet.

Set Jet

It's open seating onboard the plane but there are no bad seats, as Insider found on a demonstration flight from Scottsdale to San Diego, California. A cabin attendant welcomes passengers onboard the aircraft and offers complimentary snacks and drinks, with in-flight WiFi also available.

Private terminals are used at all destinations to complete the private jet experience. Security checkpoints are non-existent and flyers can arrive just minutes before the flight's scheduled departure.

How Set Jet makes money

Set Jet has the heart of a low-cost airline that's offering an incredibly luxurious product, and its choice of aircraft is the perfect example. Buying parts for Challenger 850s is cheaper because of the aircraft's second life as an airliner known as the CRJ200.

"If you go to buy a set of brakes for a Challenger 604 and you tell them you're buying them for a Challenger 604, it's going to be a $55,000 set of brakes," Trey Smith, Set Jet's chief operating officer, told Insider. "You go to buy a set of brakes for a CRJ200 - same brakes, same part, different part number - it's $5,000."

Flying on private jet firm Set Jet.

Thomas Pallini/Insider

Thousands of memberships offset the cost per passenger and memberships have skyrocketed during the pandemic. "We did see a lot of new memberships that were from people who normally would never have flown with us but they were looking for alternatives to commercial travel because of COVID," Smith said.

Read More: Private jet industry CEOs say business will boom as the wealthy abandon airlines and reveal what they're doing now to take advantage

Smith says that it's easy for wealthier clients to purchase one and forget about it, attributing to a low attrition rate during the pandemic.

Set Jet is eyeing new markets like the Texas triangle and the Northeast. One route launching in the next year will be between New York and Los Angeles.

A higher membership tier will be required, costing $1,000 per month, and the price of a one-way fare will be $3,500. The Embraer Lineage 1000, the private jet version of the Embraer E190, will fly that route.

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Co-founder of &pizza Steve Salis (left) and CEO Michael Lastoria (right).

Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images

• The CEO of restaurant chain &pizza says there's no labor shortage, only a wage shortage.
• He's been paying employees $16/hr since before the pandemic and says he's fully staffed.
• He said he'd received more than 100 applications for each job this year.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Business owners say they're struggling to find staff. Not so the CEO of &pizza, a restaurant chain in Washington, DC, who claims that he's been bombarded with job applications.

Michael Lastoria told Insider that business was booming at the pizza chain's 51 locations and all were fully staffed. He said that the secret was paying staff a proper wage.

The crippling US labor shortage has been felt in all corners of the economy, including hospitality and ride-hailing. It's caused some businesses to slash opening hours, cut production, and raise prices. Nearly half of US restaurant owners said they struggled to pay their rent in May because staffing shortages hurt their revenues.

But it hasn't knocked &pizza, Lastoria said.

While opening 12 new locations this year, Lastoria said he'd received well over 100 applications for each job. "Our new locations are fully staffed and we plan to open another 15 by the end of the year," he said.

Lastoria said he'd been able to dodge the labor shortage by leveraging an employee-centric business model that involves paying staff $16 an hour on average, among other benefits.

"We are living proof that the claims that business owners are making about the impossibility of paying people enough money to live on are false," Lastoria said. Those claims were designed to protect the old corporate mindset that permits shockingly high executive pay and staff exploitation, he said.

Employees working at &pizza are entitled to benefits such as paid leave for activism and healthcare, Lastoria said. "We built this company around taking care of workers because without them we wouldn't exist," he said.

The fact that the average minimum wage worker has to work 79 hours a week to afford rent for a one-bedroom apartment is the real crisis, Lastoria said. "There isn't a labor shortage, there is a shortage of business owners willing to pay a living wage.

"The idea that wages couldn't possibly rise even once over the past 12 years while prices went up, while inflation went up and while the cost of living went up, has resulted in the 'shortage' [business owners] are experiencing today.

"Higher wages lead to greater consumer spending and greater workforce productivity, things every company benefits from."

A competitive labor market has led to workers "rage-quitting" their jobs to protest poor pay and working conditions. A former employee at Dollar General recently told Insider how she rage-quit her job in the spring of 2021 because of the fraught work environment. Similar incidents have occurred at McDonald's, Chipotle, Hardee's, and Wendy's locations around the US.

Lastoria said: "If you aren't paying your employees enough to cover basic survival costs, what possible incentive could a person have to take that job?"

Read the original article on Business Insider

An aerial view shows former docks on the beach at Salton Sea in California.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

• An extreme drought in California is drying up lakes and reservoirs and straining electrical grids.
• Agriculture and tourism could be severely impacted, and wildfires are likely to rage this summer.
• Aerial photographs show how much the drought has already devastated California's landscape.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Boats sit on dry land. Once-lush palm trees are now brown and shriveled. And waterways that were formerly deep and flowing have been reduced to puddles of toxic residue.

This is the landscape in parts of California, which is experiencing a historic mega-drought that is expected to strain the state's electrical grid and dry up water supplies - water levels are 50% lower than normal at more than 1,500 reservoirs statewide, Jay Lund, codirector of the Center for Watershed Sciences at University of California, Davis, told Morning Brew. Given that 25% of the nation's food is grown in California, extreme droughts could decimate crops like avocados and almonds.

The drought has also made is harder for ranchers to supply water to their livestock, the state's boating industry is taking a hit, and tourism, which supports roughly 2 million jobs in California, could be severely impacted by the dangerous heat waves.

As of Friday, more than 85% of the state was classified as being in "extreme drought," according to the National Integrated Drought Information System, and experts say this is only the beginning: The dry conditions make California even more susceptible to deadly wildfires, which burned more than 4 million acres last year.

Read more: Meet the West Coast entrepreneurs founding startups to fight wildfires, combat the effects of climate change, and tap into a market potentially worth billions

"This current drought is potentially on track to become the worst that we've seen in at least 1,200 years. And the reason is linked directly to human-caused climate change," Kathleen Johnson, a paleoclimatologist at the University of California, Irvine, told The Guardian.

On Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked residents to cut back on their water usage by 15% by taking shorter showers and running dishwashers and washing machines more sparingly.

Amid the devastating conditions, Reuters photographer Aude Guerrucci captured aerial photos of the impacts of the drought on California's landscape. Take a look:

Inside Shadow Lake Estates in Indio, California, an artificial lake glistens despite the scorched landscape surrounding it. Reservoirs and lakes are drying up statewide, with some turning completely to dust with no rain expected until later this year.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: Insider, Insider

Elsewhere, dropping water levels have forced houseboat owners to remove their vessels from the water. These boats are anchored in Laka Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in the state, which is at less than 40% of its normal capacity.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: The Weather Channel

This canal in Salton City, California, is almost completely evaporated, leaving being only toxic residue. Salmon that typically swim in rivers and canals like this one between California's Central Valley and the Pacific Ocean have had to be transported to the ocean via truck as those waterways become shallower and shallower.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: The Guardian

The dried up bodies of water are visible from space. Here, boat pillars that used to be submerged in the Salton Sea in Southern California are exposed by the receding water levels.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: Insider

Heat waves are sending temperatures into the triple digits. As another heat wave arrives, the Central Valley could see temperatures as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit, while Southern California, where this boat became beached, could reach 117 degrees.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: The New York Times

These heat waves are occurring more often, starting earlier, and continuing later into the year now than they did in the 1960s, according to Environmental Protection Agency records. At the Salton Sea, docks sit on dry land, hundreds of feet from the water.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: Insider

The extra-dry, extra-hot conditions are obliterating vegetation like these palm trees, and taxing power grids. As temperatures rise, people tend to turn up air conditioning units, increasing the potential for rolling blackouts.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: Insider

In Mecca, California, in the Coachella Valley, agricultural fields reside amid a parched landscape. Agriculture is a roughly $50 billion business in California, and the severe drought could hamper the industry for years to come.

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: Insider

The conditions mean this year's wildfire season could surpass the record-breaking devastation of 2020. "Much of the western United States will continue the trend of hot and dry weather, much like the summer of 2020," Brandon Buckingham, a meteorologist at AccuWeather, recently told Insider. "Each and every western heat wave throughout the summer will only heighten wildfire risks."

Aude Guerrucci/Reuters

Source: Insider

Read the original article on Business Insider

Bill and Melinda Gates head up the Gates Foundation.

LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images

• Gates Foundation staff are "freaking out" about its future, a former exec told the Financial Times.
• Staff worry that "the credibility and standing of the foundation is in jeopardy," they said.
• Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates will continue as co-chairs for at least two years.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

A former top executive at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has said that staff are "freaking out" about the nonprofit's future, according to a report in the Financial Times.

"I think people are freaking out a little bit," the unnamed former insider told the newspaper. "People are really worried that the credibility and standing of the foundation is in jeopardy now, especially in areas like gender empowerment."

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, who co-chair the foundation, announced their divorce in May after 27 years of marriage. An investigation by Insider later found that Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, was an office bully who pursued sexual affairs.

The Financial Times on Sunday reported hearing "murmurs of dissent and doubts" about the organization's future.

Insider has reached out to the foundation for comment.

On Wednesday, the foundation announced that it would add trustees, saying those new voices would help drive its "strategic direction." Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates also committed another $15 billion to the foundation.

"These new resources and the evolution of the foundation's governance will sustain this ambitious mission and vital work for years to come," Gates said Wednesday.

French Gates said: "I believe deeply in the foundation's mission and remain fully committed as co-chair to its work."

However, the release also signaled a shaky bond at the foundation's highest level, with Gates and French Gates agreeing to only a two-year committement as co-chairs.

The press statement said the decision for both to remain was to "ensure the continuity of the foundation's work."

But, it said that "if after two years either decides they cannot continue to work together as co-chairs, French Gates will resign her position as co-chair and trustee."

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