The WSJ reported Embraer is looking to build a new aircraft to compete with Boeing and Airbus.
The planemaker denied this, but added it "certainly has the capability."
Boeing's recent troubles suggest there could be room for its minor rivals to edge into the duopoly.
The Brazilian planemaker Embraer has denied reports it wants to capitalize on Boeing's misfortune by working on a new aircraft.
On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Embraer is exploring options for a new narrowbody plane to compete with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said Embraer conducted internal assessments which found it has the ability to develop such an aircraft.
The firm is known for making smaller jets like the four-abreast Embraer E175, which is typically used by regional carriers like Republic Airways, operated on behalf of legacy airlines.
Embraer's ambitions for a larger next-generation jet firmed after Boeing's recent crisis in the wake of the Alaska Airlines blowout, the Journal reported.
But an Embraer spokesperson told Reuters it doesn't have plans for a new cycle of spending.
"Embraer certainly has the capability to develop a new narrowbody aircraft. However, we have a young and very successful portfolio of products developed in recent years, and we are really focused on selling those products and making Embraer bigger and stronger," they added.
The Brazilian firm has a market cap of around $5 billion, while Boeing and Airbus are over $100 billion companies.
But as Boeing loses some customers' trust and suffers delivery delays amid the turmoil that saw its CEO resign, there could be more room for minor players to disrupt the duopoly. Airbus' A320neo-family is so popular that it has a backlog of over 10,000 aircraft.
China could also provide an alternative to the main two planemakers' narrowbody jets. The Comac C919 entered service last year, and while it has only received orders from Asian airlines so far, Boeing's problems might make carriers consider it more closely.
In a remote world, the hottest status symbol is your face. It's driving a Botox boom.
Pablo Declan for BI
It's easy to identify a photo from the early days of Instagram and Snapchat. Grainy, greenish sunset photos and dog-eared selfies littered social media during the mid-2010s. Augmented-reality filters went viral for their ability to shrink noses and brighten complexions. They weren't fooling anyone, but they weren't supposed to.
Fast-forward nearly a decade, and filters have significantly stepped up their game. Unlike the flower-crown filters of old, which superimposed a mesh face on your on-screen selfie using facial-tracking technology, the latest filters digest the image's pixels to spit out an entirely new face. Today's online world is awash with images of poreless skin, perfectly arched brows, and plump lips, but it's not always clear who's getting a digital facelift and who has had a real one. The faces that hold social currency on social media — with fox-lift brows and buccal fat removed — are increasingly bleeding into real life.
Noninvasive and antiaging "tweakments," such as lip fillers and Botox, are at an all-time high. From 2019 to 2022, there was an 18% increase in facial cosmetic procedures in the United States. In that time, the number of Botox injections jumped by 73%. And according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Gen Z is helping drive up demand. In a 2022 survey, 75% of facial plastic surgeons reported that more clients under 30 were requesting forehead pokes and lip plumping. Their primary goal? Improving their selfies.
Even before the remote-work boom, writers noticed social media was shaping the way people looked. In 2019, The New Yorker declared it "The Age of Instagram Face," an emerging look popularized by the Kardashians and other influencers that consisted of plump, high cheekbones, catlike eyes, and lush lips. People were starting to look the same, the story argued. Five years later, as even more of our daily interactions take place in the visual-heavy online sphere thanks to remote work, the trend has intensified.
It's not just nice to look better. It's become that we feel like failures if we don't.
Increased accessibility, reduced stigma, and new pressure to keep up with the digital Joneses are propelling a plastic-surgery boom. Increasingly, changing your face is just a matter of staying with the times. "Even though we know that nobody looks like their Instagram profile," Heather Widdows, a philosophy professor at the University of Warwick, told me, "we always compare our actual body to everybody else's Instagram profile."
Visual social-media platforms have long been found to harm young people's sense of self. A 2018 study of teen girls found that the more time they spent using social media, the more likely they were to experience "body dissatisfaction" and depression. Research published by the American Psychological Association in 2023 found that teenagers and young adults who decreased their time on social media by 50% for a few weeks experienced significant improvement in how they felt about their weight and appearance. But people are spending more and more time online, scrolling social media and staring at themselves in Zoom calls.
Even in the early days of social-media filters, researchers were concerned about their impact. A 2018 opinion paper by researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine argued that filters were having a disastrous effect on people's self-esteem, labeling the trend "Snapchat dysmorphia." At the time, the most-used face filter on Instagram featured hearts over the eyes and Cupid's arrows flying across the screen — not exactly a replicable look.
Since then, though, filters have become more realistic. TikTok tricks like Bold Glamour and Teenage Look seamlessly change faces pixel by pixel, creating a fantastical virtual mirror that psychologists say can lead to body dysmorphia. Imperfections are blurred, skin is brightened, and proportions are altered. Old-face filters are a warning: Here's how wrinkly and saggy you'll look if you don't get work done.
A 2020 study by the City University of London found that 90% of the 18- to 30-year-old women they spoke to used social media filters to improve how they looked. A 2019 study found that people who used YouTube, Tinder, and Snapchat — especially their image-editing features — were more likely to be accepting of cosmetic surgery. A 2022 study that looked at Gen Z Instagram users found that people who used filters to edit their photos were more inclined to get cosmetic work done.
Social media has also reduced the stigma of cosmetic work. Plastic surgeons share videos delving into the intricacies of various procedures, while regular users share "day in the life"-style videos that guide audiences from the treatment room to the recovery journey. The 2022 study found that people who followed an influencer who had gotten cosmetic work done were more likely to want to undergo their own procedure. Anne-Mette Hermans, one of the study's coauthors, predicted it would become "more and more normalized."
Remote work has affected how we present ourselves online. People may not see your bag or your shoes, but everyone sees your face.
The shift from surgical procedures to minimally invasive injections has also made cosmetic work safer and more available to average people. "We might have always wanted to look younger," Widdows said, "but there wasn't a lot we could do to actually look younger."
In a 2019 survey by Vice of Snapchat users in the UK, 59% of 13- to 24-year-olds indicated they saw tweakments like Botox and fillers as comparable to getting a haircut or manicure. "Pricewise, there is not always that much difference between going to a high-end hairdresser and dyeing your hair versus getting one or two zones of Botox," said Hermans, an assistant professor of health and well-being at Tilburg University in the Netherlands who studies societal beauty ideals. And when people jump on the bandwagon, it creates a domino effect, she said. "More people are getting it done, which leads to more people knowing about it and getting it done."
Rather than the no-movement face of the 1990s or the "duck lips" fad of the 2010s, today's aesthetic trends lean toward a "you, but better" appearance. The body obsession of the 2000s has been replaced with an antiaging obsession. A market-research firm called Circana found that 19% of Gen Zers used antiaging serums. Prejuvenation, an approach involving a mixture of skincare treatments and cosmetic injections, is being hailed as a global antiaging trend.
"The paradox as a woman is you're not supposed to look like you're aging, but you're also not supposed to do anything about it," Hermans told me. "The solution is basically these natural 'tweaks' that make it look as if you've had nothing done."
While the desire to defy aging is age-old, it's unsurprising that a generation immersed in social media would be particularly sensitive to the natural aging process. "When you have a global beauty ideal," Widdows said, "these kinds of procedures become normal."
Widdows argued that we've shifted away from showcasing status through possessions like the "it" bag or car — now we're after the "it" face. Remote work has affected how we present ourselves online. People may not see your bag or your shoes, but everyone sees your face. "We are moving into much more of a culture where the image speaks louder than the word," she said. "That's why we see people taking pictures not of celebrities to cosmetic surgeons, but their own doctored, filtered, perfect selfies."
After scrolling social media or staring at your filtered face in a video, seeing your reflection — bloated, saggy, aged — may be a sobering reality. "The gap between the identity we present on social media and the self we see in the mirror is growing," Widdows told me. "It's not just nice to look better. It's become that we feel like failures if we don't."
As more people get cosmetic work done, the rest of us lose touch with what's normal. It's easy to see why more and more are folding under the pressure to change their appearance.
Eve Upton-Clark is a features writer covering culture and society.
Dario Amodei, former OpenAI employee turned Anthropic CEO, at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023.
Kimberly White/Getty
Anthropic has launched a mobile app for its AI chatbot, Claude.
The app, a rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT, allows users to sync conversations and analyze photos.
Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Google, does not currently have an Android version.
OpenAI rival Anthropic launched its first smartphone app on Wednesday, a mobile version of its artificial intelligence chatbot called Claude.
The app allows users to sync their conversation with their desktop activity. It also lets users to take or upload photos and use the app to analyze them. Both of these features are available on rival ChatGPT.
Anthropic also launched a team plan for Claude, which gives corporate users more chats than Pro users and access to collaborative tools. ChatGPT offers a similar plan for business users.
Claude is a direct competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which was launched in late 2022 and exploded in popularity. ChatGPT released its iOS app last May and has faced little competition in the smartphone market — until now — as one of the few AI models with a consumer app.
Both ChatGPT and Claude have similar pricing: about $20 per month for premium versions. One of the main differentiators between the apps is voice chat and image generation. ChatGPT allows both, while Claude does not.
Anthropic has not detailed plans for launching on Android yet. Claude is not available in Canada or European Union countries.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at OpenAI. The startup quickly drew major backers including Amazon and Google, both of which have their own AI chatbot projects.
Amazon invested $1.25 billion into Anthropic last year and pledged an additional $2.75 billion in March. The partnership, which gives Amazon minority ownership in the startup, was seen as the tech juggernaut's power move in the ongoing AI wars.
Anthropic said it will use Amazon Web Services' cloud servers and chips to train and power its large language models, allowing them to produce human-like outputs.
OpenAI, meanwhile, is backed by Microsoft and, most recently, venture capital investors Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and K2 Global, in a February deal.
Former Spirit AeroSystems employee Joshua Dean, 45, died after contracting a sudden illness, The Seattle Times reported on Wednesday. Dean's aunt, Carol Parsons, told the outlet that Dean went to the hospital after he had trouble breathing some two weeks ago.
Parsons said her nephew was intubated, and his condition began to worsen. Dean developed pneumonia and MRSA, a serious bacterial infection, per The Seattle Times.
"Our thoughts are with Josh Dean's family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones," Joe Buccino, a spokesperson for Spirit, told The Seattle Times.
Dean testified against Spirit in a shareholder lawsuit last year, where the former quality auditor accused the company of poor quality control in the production of Boeing's 737 Max.
Dean told The Wall Street Journal in January that Spirit fired him for pointing out wrongly drilled holes in fuselages.
"It is known at Spirit that if you make too much noise and cause too much trouble, you will be moved," Dean told The Journal. "It doesn't mean you completely disregard stuff, but they don't want you to find everything and write it up."
Spirit told The Journal that it disagreed with Dean's assertions, adding that it would defend itself in court.
Dean's death comes after the passing of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, 62. Barnett died in March, in the middle of his deposition against Boeing.
The former Boeing manager died from "what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound," the Charleston County coroner's office told BI in a statement. No further details were provided.
Dean's lawyer, Brian Knowles, told The Seattle Times that he did not want to speculate about the timing and circumstances of Dean's death. Knowles also represented Barnett.
"Whistleblowers are needed. They bring to light wrongdoing and corruption in the interests of society. It takes a lot of courage to stand up," Knowles said of Dean.
During its recent earnings call last month, Boeing revealed that it had posted a net loss of $355 million in its latest quarter. The company said it burned through $3.9 billion in cash in the year's first quarter.
"Near term, yes, we are in a tough moment," Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in a letter to his employees on April 24.
Representatives for Knowles and Spirit AeroSystems did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
Now, it looks like Japan is tapping into its vast hoard of dollars to help the yen, which has fallen 13% against the greenback in the last year — and the US may get involved, too.
It appeared that Japan spent nearly $35 billion to prop up the beleaguered yen on Monday and returned to the markets late in the US trading day on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.
After a surge late Wednesday that traders attributed to central bank action, the yen dropped 0.5% against the dollar to 155.30 on Thursday, per Reuters.
This week's operation was the first Japanese currency intervention since 2022, when the government spent around $60 billion.
Japan doesn't typically comment on trading, and an official told Bloomberg on Thursday that data will be available at the end of the month. Former top Japanese finance official Mitsuhiro Furusawa told Reuters on Tuesday it was highly likely Japan had intervened.
But the currency remains near its weakest exchange rate, compared with the dollar. The US may step in to aid its ally, with more "specific" and "public" talk, former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill told Bloomberg.
In mid-April, the finance ministers of the US, Japan, and Korea met and issued a statement about their joint work, including about Japan and Korea's "serious concerns" over currency depreciations.
"At some point, it will come to a head as it is also reasonably clear that the Bank of Japan and Japanese officials won't want a continuous decline in the yen," O'Neill told Bloomberg. "Nor will the rest of Asia, Beijing included, which also probably means the US Treasury won't be too pleased either."
Japan's currency has been depreciating largely due to high US interest rates, which make the dollar more attractive to investors, compared with Japan's near-zero interest rates.
A historic rate hike in Japan last month — the first since 2007 — did little to reverse the downward trend, indicating that investors are more concerned about US monetary policy than that in Japan.
Japan had about $1.1 trillion in foreign currency reserves at the end of March, according to the finance ministry's most recent data.
A boy sitting on the shoulders of a visitor observes several vehicles, including the Bradley IFV.
Contributor/Getty Images
Russia's monthlong open-air exhibition features more than 30 vehicles captured in the Ukraine war.
Many of them are NATO-made, including the US Bradley and Abrams, as well as the German Leopard 2.
The variety of vehicles also shows the sheer diversity of weaponry that Ukraine is using on the battlefield.
Russia launched an exhibition on Wednesday showcasing more than 30 military vehicles it's captured from Ukraine since the invasion began, in an open-air "trophy" display gloating over its seized NATO equipment.
The exhibition was packed with visitors on opening day, which coincides with Russia's International Workers' Day. It is being held for a month at Moscow's Victory Park.
Photos of the "Trophies of the Russian Army" exhibition show equipment from over a dozen countries, giving a glimpse of the sheer diversity of weaponry used by Ukraine's forces since 2022.
Not all of them were recently obtained. Some vehicles, including American-made ones, were already displayed in an earlier exhibition in August.
Dutch-based open-source outlet Oryx reported that Ukraine has deployed more than 5,640 vehicles, about 1,000 of which were captured during the war.
A special focus of the exhibition was an Abrams M101 battle tank, a heavy tank-buster with a track record of punching through Soviet armor.
A US Abrams tank was put on display for Moscow residents to see in an open-air exhibition featuring equipment from nearly a dozen NATO countries.
Russian Ministry of Defense
Reuters reported that the wrecked Abrams tank has been a favorite for Russian state media, with one TV correspondent saying it's not been the "wonder weapon" that the US thinks it is.
"But that was all nonsense — look at this — all of its reputation has been destroyed," he said, per a translation by the wire.
Ukraine received 31 of these from the Pentagon, five of which were lost in battle.
A special focus for the show was a US Abrams M101 battle tank. Ukraine received 31 of these from the Pentagon, five of which were lost in battle.
Contributor/Getty Images
The US on April 26 said Ukraine is withdrawing its Abrams tanks from the front lines, over concerns that they were being undermined by drone attacks.
Russia also displayed an American M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
A Bradley IFV with a mounted dummy.
Ali Cura/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ukraine was given 186 Bradleys, which are armed with a 25mm gun that can fire 300 rounds per minute.
Around 63 Bradleys were captured or damaged by October 2023, though some have been repaired and returned to service, per Dutch open-source outlet Oryx.
Other US equipment showcased included a Humvee (with a Slovenian TAM-150 in the background)…
A Humvee with a cracked windshield on display in Moscow.
Russia also showed off an M777 Howitzer, a prominent artillery piece used widely on the Ukrainian front.
Visitors take photos of an American M777 Howitzer.
Russian Ministry of Defense
Kyiv says the towed artillery units have been key to staving off the Russian advance, but a lack of ammunition in recent months has severely affected the weapon's effectiveness on the battlefield.
Another highlight of the exhibition was a German Leopard 2A6 tank.
Visitors take a selfie at the "Trophies of the Russian Army" open-air exhibition, which paraded an array of Western-made military hardware captured by Russian troops.
Contributor/Getty Images
Ukraine has received several dozen Leopard 2 tanks from several countries, including Portugal, Canada, Poland, and the Netherlands. At least 18 were delivered by Germany.
A captured Marder, a German-made infantry fighting vehicle, was also put on display.
A captured infantry fighting vehicle made by Germany.
Ulf Mauder/picture alliance via Getty Images
The Marder has been in service since 1971. It was notably used by Ukrainian forces to breach Russian lines and defenses during their counteroffensive.
Vehicles from the UK were also featured, like the Husky…
A man snaps a photo of a Husky with bullet holes in its windshield.
Contributor/Getty Images
Some of the vehicles can be seen displayed with a NATO symbol. Russia continues to amplify its rhetoric that NATO's supplying of weapons to Ukraine essentially constitutes a war between the treaty organization and Moscow.
… a Saxon AT-105…
A Saxon AT-105 seized by Russia.
Ali Cura/Anadolu via Getty Images
Dubbed, the "battle-taxi," the Saxon is a 4×4 vehicle that's low-cost and armored. Ukraine has been using these since before the start of the war.
… and the Mastiff, a heavily armored six-wheel drive vehicle that can typically carry eight troops.
Sweden donated 50 of these armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine when the war began.
… a Finnish Patria Pasi armored personnel carrier…
A Finnish Patria Pasi APC sits in front of an information placard.
Ali Cura/Anadolu via Getty Images
It's not immediately clear how many of these are deployed by Ukraine, but around 10 of them have been reported to be lost in combat in Ukraine, per Oryx.
… and the lightweight French AMX-10 RC fighting vehicle.
A French AMX-10 RC tank with a seemingly fresh paint job is shown off on Victory Park.
Ali Cura/Anadolu via Getty Images
The AMX-10 RC, generally considered a scouting vehicle, is sometimes also seen as a tank. They entered service in Ukraine in mid-2023 and are typically meant to provide fire support and push through weaknesses in the front lines.
However, they were reported to have performed poorly when used at the front of columns in Ukraine's counteroffensive. Oryx reports that at least four such vehicles have been lost in combat.
Non-NATO weapons were also on display. Like this Australian Bushmaster Protected Mobility vehicle…
A visitor takes a selfie in front of an Australian Bushmaster PMV, the left-most vehicle.
Contributor/Getty Images
Australia has sent around 120 Bushmasters to Ukraine, and around 12 were reported by Oryx to be destroyed or damaged. In the first year of the war, Ukrainian troops said they were using the four-wheel drives as infantry fighting vehicles because they didn't have enough of the latter to go around.
… what Russia indicates is a Czech BMP-2…
A BMP-2 fighting vehicle from Czechia.
Ali Cura/Anadolu via Getty Images
The BMP-2 is a Soviet amphibious infantry fighting vehicle that was typically produced in the 1980s.
… and South African Mamba 4×4 armored personnel carriers.
South African Mamba MK2 EE, likely donated from Estonia.
An array of smaller arms from countries like Bulgaria, Israel, and Czechia were also spotted at the exhibition.
Mines and grenades from various NATO countries on display.
Ali Cura/Anadolu via Getty Images
Russia showed off everything from mines to grenades to scopes at the Victory Park exhibition.
Russia has long sought to portray the war in Ukraine as a battle against NATO itself, and it's telling that the exhibition is being held at Victory Park, which commemorates World War II.
A billboard with a masked Russian soldier.
Contributor/Getty Images
The opening also comes as the US approved a $61 billion tranche of long-awaited aid to Ukraine, which Kyiv repeatedly said is vital to its fight against Russia.
Moscow has decried it as insignificant to the war's outcome, saying Russia is starting to win the war and the renewed inflow of US aid won't make a difference.
Meanwhile, international observers and Western authorities say Russia has been taking heavy casualties since the war began, at one point in the winter suffering a reported 1,000 losses per day.
But reports by think tanks like the Royal United Services Institute say Moscow can likely sustain these losses for years as it boosts its recruitment drive and production capacities.
Job seekers should negotiate offers as companies expect it and they are invested in the candidate.
Negotiating base pay is tough but other components like signing bonus, guaranteed bonus, and remote work can be negotiated.
Negotiations should make you feel a little uncomfortable, indicating you've pushed enough and can meet in the middle.
As a 40-plus-year veteran of the corporate world and the former VP of HR at Microsoft, I've seen a lot of people successfully negotiate their job offers.
Yet, many people are reluctant to negotiate. They feel like the offer is a "take it or leave it" proposition. They should think again. Even in a tight market, some negotiation is common and doesn't have to be adversarial.
As with many things in the working world, it helps to look from the other side of the table.
They want you
The most important thing to understand in the job hunt is that by the time you see an offer, they want you.
The hiring team has seen dozens or hundreds of résumés. They've interviewed several people, often through many hours each. They've discussed, even argued, over the last couple of candidates and decided on you.
They are now invested in you. Just as you're thinking how cool it would be to have the job, they are thinking how great it would be to have someone in the role. You should use that.
They expect it
When they present an offer, they don't expect you to just say, "Yep, sure," and sign it. Almost no one does that, especially not at more senior levels.
At the very least, people read it overnight and think about the offer. They discuss it with their families or their confidants. Make sure it's the right thing to do. Companies want you to do that, so you'll be all in when you do commit.
But almost everyone says, "This is great, but…," and so begins a bit of negotiation. They expect it.
In fact, the company has counted on it. They've made the offer a little slimmer than they expect to end up because they know there will be movement.
You're not insulting them by negotiating. It's what happens.
Your stock is highest before you join a company
The very best time to discuss your value to the company is at this very moment, before they actually know you.
Once you've been there, they have seen you in action. They will have performance information, peer feedback, and results. They know all your highs and your lows.
Now, all they have is anticipation, and this anticipation has been building ever since you nailed the interviews.
Your stock is never higher than this moment, so use it.
It's not all about base pay
When most people think about negotiating a job offer, they often think about base pay, or the salary or hourly rate. They think that's the place to negotiate.
While there might be a small bit of room to negotiate the pay, it helps to think from the other side of the table.
Salary is tough for the company to negotiate because base pay is forever. Pay is continuous for years on end, and it virtually never goes down, even if the business goes up or down.
Pay is also the basis for future raises. If they agree to some larger number today, that only compounds in the future.
That's why they have salary bands for almost every job, numbers they need to fall into, and numbers they use for many people. Setting you outside of that range creates a fairness problem.
You might have a little room to negotiate base pay. Especially at the senior-most jobs where the pay bands are quite wide.
But for most people, salary is not a great negotiating point. If you feel strongly, maybe push back a little, but the dealmaking will be hard.
10 things you should negotiate
Fortunately, there are many other places to negotiate. Here are some ideas, though some may or not apply to your situation.
1. Signing bonus
The standard go-to negotiating point is the signing bonus. "This change is tough on me or my family. Can you bridge the gap?" Maybe request 10% of your annual base as a one-time payment right away. Companies like these because they are one-time, not recurring, costs.
2. Guaranteed bonus
If the company uses bonuses, push for a guaranteed first bonus. A given amount is fixed right now, but payable at bonus time. Again, this is a one-time cost to the company.
3. Higher commissions
If you're in a commission-based role, negotiating that number is very akin to a salary number, and it's often hard to argue. But perhaps you can push for different cliffs (where the number changes) or bonuses.
4. More remote work
If you like working remotely and can excel at it, try advocating for more remote work. Maybe fewer in-office days. This can be a fairness issue, but you'll never have more leverage than right now.
5. Better relocation
If relocation is part of the package, push there — maybe full coverage, not just a stipend. Maybe extended temporary housing. Some companies will even use a service to buy your current house.
6. Spousal benefits
It's not uncommon, especially with married couples, to ask for some kind of job assistance for their partner. Perhaps résumé assistance, job counseling, a headhunter, or some other benefit. It often helps to close the deal.
7. More paid time off (PTO)
If the company hasn't already jumped on the "unlimited PTO" train, and vacation is important to you, try asking for more there. There is an equity issue with your peers, but it's worth a shot.
8. Company equity
Stock or stock options are a very common negotiating point, especially with more senior people. There is a whole world of options (pun intended), but this is a frequent deal point.
9. Healthcare
Often, healthcare benefits are seen as a take-it-or-leave-it package. But if you have some extenuating circumstances, perhaps a family member with health challenges, see if there's room for more benefits. Companies, especially larger ones, often have some flexibility here.
10. Creative compensation
With senior roles, you can often get creative in the compensation. Perhaps agree to some incentive structure. If you're brought in to solve a specific problem, you have a specific bonus if you solve that problem by a specified date. The options here are endless; I've even seen this with mid-level roles.
There are so many options to negotiate; there's almost no excuse not to. And again, now — before you actually start the job — is the best time to do it.
It will hurt
If you're at all like me, negotiations are not fun. I'm more than a little conflict-averse, and negotiating feels like torture.
I try to remember something I once heard: if your counteroffer doesn't make you feel a little guilty — like you've gone a little too far — you haven't pushed enough.
Remember, they'll come back somewhere in the middle. Right where you're both happy.
So negotiate that job offer, and get what you deserve.
Chris Williams is the former VP of HR at Microsoft. He's an executive-level advisor and consultant with more than 40 years of experience leading and building teams.
Four Google executives will receive 200% performance-based stock payouts in 2023.
This comes amid layoffs and a turbulent year for the company.
Google's senior VP and chief business officer each got $35 million in stock for 2023.
Google parent company Alphabet paid four of its executives tens of millions of dollars in stock payouts for 2023, based on the company's public-markets performance.
President and chief financial officer Ruth Porat, along with senior VP Prabhakar Raghavan, chief business officer Philipp Schindler, and legal chief Kent Walker, have been awarded the company's maximum number of performance-based stock units, Google said in a regulatory filing last week.
Base salaries for the four executives remained $1 million last year, and they each received a $1.5 million bonus. The executives were also granted millions of dollars' worth of performance and restricted stock units, which vest at different times and depend on the execs sticking around.
The executives' stock-based compensation can range from 0% to 200% of the target number of shares, based on Google's performance relative to the S&P 100.
A 200% stock payout raised the total stock value for Porat and Walker's 2023 compensation to $23 million each. Raghavan and Schindler were compensated $35 million each in stock value, according to the filing.
The executives' compensation was approved in early February after a tumultuous year for the company.
The tech giant axed 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce through last year, and warned it would lay off more workers in 2024.
"We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year. The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices," CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in an internal memo in January.
The layoffs and the slashing of key projects have hurt sentiment within the company, BI reported in January. The company's leadership received strong backlash from some of its employees, who publicly aired their exasperations regarding layoffs on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Rep. Lauren Boebert sparred with pro-Palestinian protesters at George Washington University on May 1, 2024.
Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Rep. Lauren Boebert went to George Washington University on Wednesday.
The Colorado Republican sparred with pro-Palestinian protesters at the university.
Protesters chanted "Beetlejuice," referring to the musical she got kicked out of after fondling her date.
Rep. Lauren Boebert's attempt to engage with pro-Palestinian protesters at George Washington University on Wednesday didn't go very well.
The Colorado Republican was hit with chants of "Beetlejuice" when she arrived on campus. This was likely a reference to an incident in September when Boebert got kicked out of the "Beetlejuice" musical after she and her date were seen fondling each other.
But the hostile reception didn't deter Boebert from making her stance known to protesters.
"This is America, and that shit needs to come down," Boebert told protesters as she tried to remove a Palestinian flag that was draped over a statue of George Washington.
Boebert later threatened to cut the university's funding if the protesters weren't stopped.
"If they don't want to do something to address this? Well, then kiss your federal funding goodbye," Boebert said while using a loudhailer.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said at the presser if the University doesn’t do anything, GW can “kiss their federal funding goodbye” @gwhatchetpic.twitter.com/78x5sE8506
Johnson's and Boebert's calls to crack down on protesters expose a growing rift between the GOP and American colleges over their handling of protests on campus.
A US Abrams tank was put on display for Moscow residents to see in an open-air exhibition featuring equipment from nearly a dozen NATO countries.
Russian Ministry of Defense
Russia is using an open-air exhibition to boast about its "trophies" from the war in Ukraine.
The exhibition featured more than 30 NATO vehicles taken from Ukrainian forces, like an Abrams tank.
Russia has sought to portray NATO's supplying of Ukraine with arms as an act of war.
Russia launched an open-air exhibition on Monday showing off more than 30 North Atlantic Treaty Organization vehicles that it captured from Ukraine.
Among the seized assets on display were a US-made Abrams tank, a German Leopard tank, a British Husky support vehicle, and dozens of vehicles from countries like France, Sweden, and Australia.
Photos of the opening showed visitors snapping selfies with an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank, its nose gun pointed toward the ground, and armor visibly burned and cracked.
"Our victory is inevitable. No Western military equipment will change the situation on the battlefield," the Russian Defense Ministry wrote in a Telegram post announcing the exhibition.
Reuters reported that state media placed special emphasis on the captured Abrams tank, which TV hosts said wasn't the "wonder weapon" touted by the US.
"But that was all nonsense — look at this — all of its reputation has been destroyed," a state reporter said, per Reuters' translation.
Visitors look at a M1A1 Abrams main battle tank, made in the USA, and captured in Ukraine, at the Trophies of Russian Army exhibition, while celebrating the International Worker's Day, at the Poklonnaya Hill, May 1, 2024, in Moscow, Russia.
Contributor/Getty Images
The exhibition, named "Trophies of the Russian Army," is being held for a month at Victory Park, a memorial dedicated to the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.
A range of other military assets was present, including a Ukrainian T-72A tank, a US Bradley fighting vehicle, a French AMX-10 RC fighting vehicle, and an M777 Howitzer.
Smaller arms, such as American mortars, German mines, and an Israeli launcher, were also flaunted.
The BBC's Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, wrote that he saw a "long line of German armor" when visiting the exhibition, including a sign saying: "History is repeating itself."
Russia has sought to cast its invasion of Ukraine as a defense of its sovereignty against NATO. It repeatedly says that Western equipment sent to Ukraine means that nations like the US are already at war with Russia.
The exhibition also comes as the Pentagon withdraws its Abrams tanks from the front lines in Ukraine due to concerns about Russian drone attacks. The US has given 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, and five have been reported lost in combat.
Each costs around $10 million, and the US tanks were once seen as a key tool for Kyiv's attempted retaking of its invaded lands. However, the widespread use of drones on the battlefield has undermined the Abrams' effectiveness because the tanks are more easily detected and attacked.
The US has recently confirmed another $61 billion in aid for Ukraine, resupplying its forces with vital ammunition and arms to resist a grinding but advancing Russian push on the eastern front.
In response, Russia's representatives have said that the Kremlin has already gained the upper hand in the war and that the new tranche of aid "will not change this dynamic."