Author: openjargon

• Mark Cuban pays out bonuses to his employees every time he sells a company.
• The billionaire said his payout practice has helped hundreds of people become millionaires.
• Cuban told Business Insider he thinks it's "the right thing to do." 

Billionaire Mark Cuban isn't opposed to sharing the wealth.

In a Tuesday post on X, the investor said he's maintained a business practice throughout his decadeslong career that has helped hundreds of people cross over to millionaire status.

When selling a company, Cuban said he always sets aside some of the profits to pay out his employees.

"In every business I've sold, I've paid out bonuses to every employee that was there more than a year," Cuban wrote.

The approach dates back to 1990 when Cuban sold his first company, MicroSolutions, a software firm that garnered $6 million at the time, he told CNBC Make It.

Cuban said he paid out 20% of that profit to the company's 80 employees, which, if distributed equally, would equal $15,000 per staffer.

In the years that followed, Cuban was an early investor in the streaming platform AudioNet, taking operational control of the service that would eventually become Broadcast.com.

When he ultimately sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock in 1999, Cuban said 300 of the company's 330 employees became millionaires thanks to his employee payout practice.

Cuban said he's continued to set aside profits for loyal employees since becoming a billionaire in 1999. The businessman sold his majority stake in HDNet, now AXS TV, in 2019, paying out 20% of what he made to employees, he wrote.

Cuban added that HDNet was the only one of his companies to do layoffs immediately following its sale.

The billionaire, who bought the Dallas Mavericks NBA team in 2000, said he paid out more than $35 million to employees after selling his majority stake in the basketball team last year.

"I just believe it's the right thing to do," Cuban told Business Insider on Friday. "Everyone that contributes should benefit as well."

Cuban is worth an estimated $5.4 billion, according to Forbes.

• France announced this week it would send Ukraine Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets.
• It's the second warplane that NATO has promised Kyiv, after American-made F-16s.
• The Mirage is a good aircraft, but it may not be the one that's best suited for Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine is slated to receive Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets from France in the coming months, adding another aircraft to Kyiv's coming arsenal of Western combat planes.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will provide Kyiv with the Mirage fighter aircraft after training pilots how to fly the warplanes through a program that will begin this summer. He added that Paris will build a coalition with other countries to supply the jets and that Ukraine could even be flying them by the end of the year.

Macron's announcement comes as Ukraine eagerly awaits the seemingly imminent arrival of American-made F-16s, which will be Kyiv's first Western fighter jet. Four NATO countries promised to send these fighters.

The Mirage 2000-5, like its F-16 counterpart, is a good fourth-generation fighter jet that will bring some additional capabilities to Ukraine's fleet of aging Soviet-era warplanes. But neither aircraft is necessarily the best fit for Kyiv given the current battlefield conditions.

With next-gen systems not even up for discussion, the plane that is most suitable for Ukraine remains Sweden's JAS 39 Gripen. But it is also out of reach, at least for the time being.

Limited air-to-air reach

The Mirage is a multi-role, delta-winged fourth-gen fighter jet manufactured by French company Dassault Aviation. Around 600 of these aircraft have been produced since it was designed in the late 1970s, and they are currently operated by a small number of militaries, including Greece and Taiwan.

Like the F-16, the Mirage 2000s are combat-proven aircraft, having flown sorties in conflicts across the Middle East and in the Balkans.

The 2000-5 variant, which is what France has promised to send Ukraine, first flew in 1990 and, compared to previous versions of the aircraft, features an upgraded radar system. The jet can be equipped with air-to-surface and air-to-air missiles, as well as laser-guided bombs.

Macron told French broadcasters on Thursday that the pilot training will begin this summer and take place in France. The program typically lasts around five to six months, he said, and an undisclosed number of Mirage jets will be transferred to Ukraine following the completion of that training.

Under normal conditions, the French Mirage 2000-5 would be perfectly suitable for a country like Ukraine, but that's just not the situation right now, Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, told Business Insider.

The effectiveness of the Mirage 2000-5 is primarily limited by the MICA beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, which has a much shorter range than the AIM-120 AMRAAM variants that Kyiv could use with its F-16s, Bronk said.

And the AMRAAM is already an unsatisfactory tool to address Russian air threats near the front lines because Moscow's formidable ground-based surface-to-air missile systems force Ukrainian fighters to fly at relatively low altitudes, putting limitations on the effectiveness of their missiles, Bronk said.

Investing resources to get Ukraine another Western fighter that has an even shorter air-to-air reach won't necessarily improve this dilemma.

The Mirage can carry powerful long-range cruise missiles like the French-made SCALP-EG, but those can also be launched from Ukraine's existing fighter fleet and have already been used to great effect.

Additionally, Bronk said, Ukrainian pilots who are able to be trained quickly on operating and maintaining a system as complex as a fighter jet are also in extremely limited supply. Many of these individuals are already training on the F-16 at sites in Europe and the US.

Doug Birkey, the executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told BI that the Mirage is an "older capability" on par with what Ukraine is getting out of the F-16. Rather than split the focus between aircraft, creating new supply lines, maintenance processes and diverting resources, some NATO partners have argued it might make more sense to simply stick to the F-16.

Like the F-16, the French fighter jet's effectiveness, he said, will ultimately come down to how it's used and whether Kyiv can strike inside Russian territory. Last month, Macron said Ukraine should be allowed to use Western weapons to do so, a stance more NATO countries are taking.

"It's very difficult to try to win and succeed in the campaign when you're largely stuck to defense," Birkey said.

A fighter designed for the Ukraine war

Air warfare experts like Bronk have argued throughout the conflict in Ukraine that the most suitable Western combat aircraft for Ukrainian forces would be Sweden's JAS 39 Gripen.

Built by Swedish defense and aerospace firm Saab, the Gripen is a 4.5-generation multi-role fighter aircraft that has been in production since the 1980s.

The Swedish fighter jet was designed with the idea of a dispersed fighter force taking on Russia without having the benefits of being in NATO and facing a very dangerous surface-to-air missile threat. Essentially, it was designed for the exact conditions in which Ukraine is fighting.

Sweden's Gripen is considered by experts to be a highly capable, effective, and efficient fighter. It is relatively inexpensive to operate, easy to maintain, and requires less runway space than some other aircraft for taking off and landing.

The jet also features advanced electronic-warfare capabilities that were specifically designed to be able to counter the radars on Russian aircraft and ground-based air-defense systems.

Furthermore, the Gripen can be equipped with various air-to-surface missiles and bombs, as well as longer-range air-to-air missiles. Among the latter is the Meteor air-to-air missile, which, with a range of up to 80 miles, delivers a much longer reach than the French MICA and even some Russian weaponry.

Compared to the F-16 and Mirage, the Gripen is far more flexible in terms of operational requirements — especially when it comes to cost and maintenance — and is more resource-efficient.

The downsides of the Swedish aircraft are that it has yet to see combat and is rather limited in availability, unlike the F-16 and its support systems, which are available across Europe.

Sweden previously explored sending Gripens to Ukraine, but those considerations were recently put on hold to allow Kyiv to focus on the F-16. But France has announced its intention to send the Mirage, seemingly contradicting this rationale.

"Why you would then have another non-F-16 fighter being supplied that is less effective for Ukraine's requirements and less well-suited in every way than the Gripen seems slightly odd," Bronk said.

Ukrainian officials have long pushed for the West to provide fighter aircraft, and regardless of any drawbacks, they have expressed their delight publicly over both the F-16 and Mirage pledges.

"French combat aircraft — brilliant fighter jets that, under the control of Ukrainian pilots, will prove that Europe is stronger," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a Friday speech to France's National Assembly, referring to the Mirages.

Until these aircraft arrive, though, Ukraine will have to continue making do with its Soviet-era fleet. For Kyiv, any Western deliveries may prove valuable — regardless of the type of aircraft.

"The best fighter they can get are the ones they can get," Birkey argued. "It still remains that."

France's announcement on its plans to send Mirage fighters comes as Kyiv's partners step up their support for the country in the wake of Russia's new offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Macron on Thursday also revealed plans to train and equip a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers, which will be a significant development and a notable break from some previous training schemes.

"One of the biggest problems that Ukraine is currently facing is a lack of training capacity, particularly the capacity to train at a larger unit level, so battalions and brigades, rather than companies and smaller," Bronk said.

Instead of offering lots of short courses for smaller numbers of troops — a strategy that showed its limitations during Kyiv's failed counteroffensive last summer because it didn't generate officers — the French plan offers a way for Ukrainian troops to train as a unified formation with standardized equipment, Bronk said.

That, he added, "is an incredibly useful and an incredibly well-thought-out way of increasing and stabilizing long-term support. That's really potentially impactful."

• Apple is expected to unveil iOS 18 with new AI features at its WWDC event on Monday.
• The AI features will reportedly require at least an iPhone 15 Pro or the upcoming iPhone 16 lineup.
• Expected features include AI email composition, custom emojis, and a ChatGPT-like chatbot.

It sounds like Apple is betting its long-expected AI features will be enough to convince you to upgrade your iPhone — especially if the AI requires a top-of-the-line device.

Apple is expected to reveal iOS 18 at its annual developers conference, WWDC, on Monday.

The company's new AI software, which Bloomberg reported will be called "Apple Intelligence," will include features that run on-device — meaning they're powered directly by the iPhone's chips rather than relying on cloud servers. Some of the AI services will still rely on cloud-based computing, according to the report, but many will not.

So which iPhone models will make the cut? Not many, apparently.

The new AI features will require at least an iPhone 15 Pro or the upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, Bloomberg reported. The iPhone 16 and public launch of iOS 18 are both expected in the fall. Those with iPads and Macs will also require models with an M1 chip at minimum, according to the report.

Apple will be integrating the AI technology into several apps, including Mail, Voice Memos, and Photos, but users can choose to opt-in, Bloomberg reported.

The features will reportedly be focused on helping with everyday tasks, ranging from summarizing and helping compose emails to AI-suggested custom emojis while texting. Siri will also be getting an AI overhaul to allow users to command more specific tasks within apps, such as asking Siri to delete an email, according to Bloomberg.

Apple also inked a deal with OpenAI to help power some features, including a chatbot similar to ChatGPT, The Information and Bloomberg previously reported.

CEO Tim Cook, who has acknowledged that the smartphone market has been "tough" in the US recently, is likely hoping that the new generative AI offerings spur a big device upgrade cycle.

Apple's WWDC keynote kicks off Monday at 1 p.m. ET. Business Insider will be liveblogging the event.

• GitHub Copilot is partly responsible for bringing a focus on generative AI to Apple, a report says.
• Apple's senior vice president of software engineering became a "convert" after trying it, per The Wall Street Journal.
• Apple execs were also impressed by ChatGPT and subsequently wanted to upgrade Siri, The New York Times previously reported. 

An Apple exec was inspired to drive a focus on generative AI in his division after using one such tool from the competition, a new report says.

Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, became a "convert" over the 2022 Christmas break after using GitHub Copilot, an AI code completion tool, according to a Wall Street Journal article published Wednesday, citing people familiar with his experience.

Federighi subsequently asked employees in his software engineering division to devise ways to integrate generative AI into products, former engineers and execs told the Journal.

It's not the first time competitors' generative AI tools reportedly motivated Apple to work on its own.

Federighi and John Giannandrea, Apple's senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, decided Siri needed an upgrade after spending weeks using ChatGPT themselves, The New York Times reported last month, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Apple hopes generative AI will help Siri perform better at existing tasks and take on new ones, like summarizing texts and chatting, the Times reported, citing three sources familiar with Apple's work.

Apple is expected to make some sort of AI announcement at WWDC, its annual developers conference, next week.

Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

• A recent study looked at different cat breeds to try and determine which live the longest.
• Burmese and Birman cats topped the list, but it's unclear clear why.
• Many factors can impact how long a cat lives, including whether it lives indoors or outdoors.

Burmese cats are active, outgoing, and excessively fond of grooming, according to some research. They may also be one of the cat breeds that live the longest.

Most cat breeds are less than 150 years old, and there isn't a lot of information on how differences between the various types affect their lifespans.

To help change that, a recent study compared 12 common cat breeds to determine which ones live the longest.

Learning more about the different breeds will allow cat owners "to predict the future life expectancy for their cats based on novel scientific methods and the power of big data," said study co-author and veterinarian Dan O'Neill in a statement.

The researchers found Burmese and Birmans live the longest, with an average of 14 years, about two years longer than the average cat. But why these breeds outlive their peers isn't clear.

Predicting the life expectancy of cats

For this recent study, researchers from London's Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan looked at the ages of 7,936 cats who died between 2019 and 2021.

Over 7,000 of the cats in the study were mixed breeds. Most of the other 11 breeds included breeds like British cats, Maine Coons, Ragdolls, and Persians.

Typically, cats' life expectancies ranged from about 9 to 14 years, the researchers found.

For example, siamese and mixed-breed cats' life expectancies were over 11.5 years, whereas others — Norwegian Forest, Maine Coon, Russian, and British — were over 9.5 years.

Here's a table of what the researchers found:

*Some breeds, like Sphynx cats, may not have had enough data to accurately reflect lifespans, said Leslie Lyons, who studies domestic cat genetics at the University of Missouri.

While the researchers' findings did indicate Burmese and Birmans lived longest, almost every breed had at least one cat that lived to be over 20 years old.

Limitations with the data

One potential issue with some of the data is that it can be tricky for people to know their cats' breeds, Lyons said.

"Some of these cats listed as a particular breed might not really be what we would call a pedigreed breed," she said. An owner may assume their shelter cat with silvery fur is a Russian Blue, for example, when it's actually a mixed breed.

Unlike dogs — some of which have been used for hundreds of years to hunt, corral sheep, or pull sleds — cats were often bred for aesthetic reasons rather than personality or athleticism.

That's why breed differences aren't as dramatic in cats as they are in dogs and might not impact cats' health in the same way.

It's not like comparing a Doberman to a Pekingese. That's because cats' aesthetic traits are genetically less complex than dogs' behavioral and functional ones, Lyons said.

However, these breed preferences can still have unintended consequences, like Persian cats' short noses, which can cause breathing difficulties.

How long a cat lives depends on plenty of factors

In addition to breed, the study looked at a number of factors, like sex, weight, and whether the cat was spayed or neutered. Females and fixed cats both tended to live a bit longer.

Lyons sees this study as a jumping-off point for further investigations into factors that impact life expectancies like time spent indoors or outdoors, which the study didn't account for.

Car accidents, parasites, and fights with other felines are just a few of the dangers for cats who venture outside. As a result, some research suggests outdoor cats have an average lifespan of only two to five years.

The authors, who published their study in the peer-reviewed "Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery," said further research is needed into the causes of death in companion cats, including in the Sphynx breed.

• The US is considering deploying more strategic nuclear weapons, a senior Biden official said.
• Russia, China, and North Korea are increasing their nuclear capabilities rapidly, said Pranay Vaddi.
• The US must modernize its nuclear arsenal to deter threats and preserve stability, the official said.

The US is considering deploying more strategic nuclear weapons after years of post-Cold War cutbacks, a senior Biden administration official said.

Speaking at the annual meeting Arms Control Association (ACA) on Friday, Pranay Vaddi, the top National Security Council arms control official, said, "We may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required. We need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision."

Vaddi warned that adversaries of the US, specifically referring to Russia, China, and North Korea,"are all expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals at a breakneck pace, showing little or no interest in arms control."

Along with Iran, these countries "are increasingly cooperating and coordinating with each other in ways that run counter to peace and stability, threaten the United States, our allies and our partners and exacerbate region tensions," he said.

Vaddi's comments contrast with the US government's position on nuclear proliferation outlined by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the ACA meeting last year.

Sullivan said that the US did not need to "deploy ever-more dangerous nuclear weapons to maintain deterrence" or engage in a Cold War-style arms race.

"We've been there. We've learned that lesson," Sullivan said.

In February last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin withdrew from the 2010 New START treaty, which placed controls on the number of nuclear weapons that Russia and the US could have at their disposal.

The limits meant that neither country could have more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads.

Putin said that to resume treaty activities, the US would need to stop its support for Ukraine and force France and the UK to attend arms control talks.

At the time, President Joe Biden called Putin's decision a "big mistake."

Last week, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened nuclear strikes on the West, Reuters reported.

The former president held office from 2008 to 2012 and currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council.

Reuters reported that Medvedev said, "Nobody today can rule out the conflict's transition to its final stage."

In May, Russia announced drills with tactical nukes near Ukraine, which it said are being held in response to recent "threats" from the West.

Speaking about the growing threat of a nuclear conflict, Vaddi said, "We will have no choice but to adjust our posture and capabilities to preserve deterrence and stability."

"We need to persuade our adversaries that managing rivalry through arms control is preferable to unrestrained competition," he said.

• Saudi Arabia's Neom megacity is facing some big challenges.
• The kingdom has struggled to attract the foreign investment needed for the project, experts say.
• They say the financial realities mean the project is unlikely to achieve its lofty goals.

Saudi Arabia's vision for its futuristic desert city, Neom, has always been the stuff of fantasy.

Touted as one of the most ambitious projects in the world, the megacity includes plans that could have been lifted from a sci-fi film. It features a high-tech linear city that will house more robots than people, a year-round ski resort featuring artificial snow, and theme parks that combine virtual and physical worlds.

When Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman first revealed the high-tech project in 2017, it was met with some skepticism. Since then, details about the project have been relatively scarce, with planners reportedly bound by strict non-disclosure agreements.

But recently, a picture has emerged of a country beginning to feel the strain of its mighty ambitions.

"Neom was like was an imaginary city when it was announced," Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, told Business Insider. "Now, they're finding it much more difficult to turn that imaginary vision into some sort of reality on the ground."

The main issue is the enormous cost of Neom. Saudi Arabia has struggled to attract the foreign investment needed for the megaproject, and experts say it's not likely to secure it anytime soon.

Lack of foreign investment

The kingdom was counting on foreign investment to fund a large part of Neom, but things have not gone entirely to plan.

"When Vision 2030 was announced back in 2017, the assumption had been a lot of the funding would come in from foreign investment — that didn't happen," Ulrichsen said.

The drive for foreign cash hit an early stumbling block in 2017.

Just 10 days after the megacity was announced, 400 of the most prominent and influential Saudis were rounded up and detained in Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel, which had just hosted the Neom launch event.

The mass arrests spiraled into a full-blown purge and became the most contentious in the kingdom's modern history.

"The hotel basically became a detention recap of the Saudi business elites who might have been expected to be the ones partnering with foreign investors," Ulrichsen said. "Saudi foreign investment levels — they had been declining anyway — collapsed after this, and it's been very difficult for them to build back up."

In 2018, Saudi faced further global isolation after the brutal murder and dismemberment of dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a crime the CIA said was likely committed on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's direct orders.

"Generally, no one in the West wanted anything to do with the Saudis at this time, and investors pulled out in large numbers," Andreas Krieg, a Gulf specialist at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King's College London, said.

Spiraling costs

The Saudi Public Investment Fund has propped up the lion's share of the financial burden — but officials at the sovereign wealth fund are reportedly getting nervous about the spiraling costs.

The official estimate for Neom is $500 billion, but planners have dismissed the figure as unrealistically low. Other estimates have put the projected costs at as much as $1.5 trillion.

In April, Bloomberg reported that the financial realities of the country's Vision 2030 plan, which includes Neom as its centerpiece, had started to cause concern within the government.

In February, Saudi also started borrowing to help fund some of the ambitious megaprojects.

In public, the Saudis have been keen to insist the project and funding are on track. In private, though, recent reports suggest that the Crown Prince is open to having "tough conversations" about the Vision 2030 ambitions.

Krieg said Saudi Arabia's public spending bill was "extremely high," raising questions about wasteful spending on megaprojects. "Vision 2030 consumes a lot of money, and there's a lot of inefficiencies, especially when it comes to Western consultancy firms."

Renewed scrutiny

In April, the kingdom once again became the subject of international scrutiny over alleged human rights abuses.

An explosive BBC News report claimed Saudi Arabia had authorized the use of "lethal force" to clear the way for Neom. The area was mostly populated by the Huwaitat tribe, which traditionally dwelled on areas earmarked for the megacity.

One of the villagers, Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti, was later killed by Saudi authorities, according to Saudi activists.

In the wake of the report, human rights organizations began pressuring governments and businesses to act on the report — prompting at least one politician, UK deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, to raise the allegations with the Saudi government.

Lina al-Hathloul, a human rights activist and head of monitoring and advocacy at human rights organization ALQST, told BI that Neom was being "built on Saudi blood."

"This project symbolizes the current state of the country: it was decided without the people's consent, and when they oppose it, they are sanctioned in courts that lack independence," she said.

The country has long tried to silence those who speak out against the project. Last summer, a Saudi woman was jailed for 30 years for criticizing Neom on Twitter.

"The reality behind such futuristic projects is the brutal repression of citizens and residents," said Dana Ahmed, Amnesty International's Middle East researcher.

"Businesses have a responsibility to conduct a thorough human rights risk assessment before operating in an environment that poses credible human rights risks, such as in Saudi Arabia."

At least one company has withdrawn from Neom over human rights concerns. Malcolm Aw, CEO of Solar Water, previously told BI that he had pulled out of a $100 million Neom contract because of alleged Saudi human rights abuses.

Drawing The Line

There's no doubt Saudi Arabia is barrelling ahead with The Line — the most prominent aspect of Neom.

According to executives, the number of people working on the project doubled in the past year. Satellite images provided to BI also show the extent of construction underway at the site.

But many questions remain about the project. Saudi Arabia has already reduced estimates for the number of people set to live in Neom by 2030, per Bloomberg.

According to Ulrichsen, many of the project's lofty goals have always been "moving targets," with several deadlines already pushed back.

As the Saudi government nervously eyes the ever-growing bill, Neom needs to generate enough excitement to attract foreign funds.

Despite the fresh scrutiny over human rights abuses, Krieg says that Saudi is now more palatable than ever on the international stage, and the outlook for the kingdom is positive.

Krieg said Neom's very premise was built on levels of foreign investment that now seem unlikely to ever materialize. Meanwhile, competition from Saudi's regional rivals such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi is heating up.

"There's been some Chinese investments, but they are nowhere near where they need to be," he said. "There's always going to be a shortfall of foreign investment in Saudi to pay for all of these projects."

Representatives for Neom did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Get ready for flying spiders the size of your palm. They could be coming to your neighborhood soon.
• Joro spiders have been rapidly spreading across the southeast US, and are now moving north.
• Though venomous, Joro spiders aren't harmful to humans and prefer to stay outdoors.

It sounds like the stuff of nightmares: venomous, monster-sized spiders floating through the air and invading the northeastern US this summer.

But some experts say invasive fruit flies can do more damage than the colorful Joro spider, AP News reported.

It's easy to understand why the spider sounds terrifying, though.

They can measure up to 3 inches with their legs spread, about the size of your palm and far larger than a quarter-inch house spider.

Giant spiders migrating to the Northeast US

Originally native to Asia, they've been rapidly moving across the southeast US since first appearing in Georgia around 2010, according to a study published last year in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

And the invasive species has been heading north, according to the study's authors. Once they arrive, people are likely to spot their webs — a distinctive golden color — in trees or on their porches, according to UGA Today.

"This spider is going to be able to inhabit most of the eastern US," David Coyle, a professor at Clemson University who worked on the research, told Clemson News in 2023 adding that "their comfort area in their native range matches up very well with much of North America."

Colder temperatures don't seem to bother them. The black-and-yellow spiders survive just fine in northern Honshu, Japan, where winter temperatures can reach between 25 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Penn State Extension.

"Barring some unforeseen circumstance, we expect the range of these things to continue expanding, likely to the north, and we've already seen that with some populations in Maryland," Coyle added.

Experts from NJ Pest Control predict that the spiders could arrive in New Jersey and New York this year, potentially as soon as this summer.

"It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," Russell Sieb, an entomologist and the owner of NJ Pest Control told Business Insider.

"They are going to make it up to the northeast at some point, and we think that they're going to be up here sometime this year," he said, adding that they've already been spotted in Baltimore.

A shy spider who prefers the outdoors

Though the massive creatures are venomous, they aren't dangerous to humans beyond potentially causing a swollen, red bite, Sieb told BI. And they don't want to take a nibble out of you, anyway.

"They aren't looking to bite things they can't eat if they can help it," Jonathan Larson, University of Kentucky entomologist, said in 2022.

They're also not a danger to pets, and researchers have found they may be the "shyest" spiders ever documented.

Beyond their size, there's another characteristic of Joro spiders that makes them a little creepy: They can fly. Well, kind of.

'Flying' Joro spiders

The orb-weaving arachnids don't have wings, but they can travel by "ballooning," a technique where they release a strand of silk that allows the wind to carry them. Sieb said they can travel around 3 miles using this method.

Luckily for arachnophobes though, Joro spiders typically don't want to go inside homes — they're outdoor pests that usually opt to form webs in open spaces like parks, ball fields, or suburban properties, though they may also seek out wooded areas or the doorways to buildings, Sieb said.

And, although the species is invasive, you probably won't be fighting off bazillions of them right and left.

"It's not going to be like any Alfred Hitchcock movie or anything like that with them all over the place," Sieb said.

Though they do live close to each other, Joro spiders don't seem to interact much with other individuals, per UGA Cooperative Extension.

"This is a predator," Sieb told BI. "So there's going to be a carrying capacity for the area. So you might have two on a property maybe, or not even two."

Just how these spiders will impact the ecosystems they invade is still an open question. Joro spiders love to eat another invasive species, lanternflies. However, there's no chance the spiders will help eradicate the plant-eating pest, per AP News.

"A lot of people think that this spider is destroying the ecosystem, and we actually don't think that, at least not yet," Andy Davis, an assistant research scientist at the University of Georgia, told UGA News.

• Emily Levine is an exec VP at the recruiting firm Career Group Companies in Los Angeles.
• Levine specializes in finding staff for A-list celebrities, wealthy clients, and top executives.
• The firm uses NDAs to ensure confidentiality and avoid attention for high-profile clients.

Emily Levine, 36, is executive vice president at the recruiting firm Career Group Companies in Los Angeles. She finds people to work for A-list celebrities in music and entertianment, high-profile execs, and wealthy clients. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

I grew up in LA and have been running my practice at Career Group Companies for about 14 years. The way I started recruiting for some of the bigger names in Hollywood was by getting someone a job who had worked as a personal assistant to a celebrity or for an entertainment company. Then, when they would resign, they would introduce me as the resource to fill their old job.

Celebrities often find themselves in these difficult positions where so many people want to work for them, but they also want to weed out fans. Our clients are really looking for somebody who doesn't have ulterior motives to be in the limelight themselves.

Because well-known people can't just post online that they're looking for someone and sort through all the responses, they go to a more discreet service like us, where we handle these types of searches for the most high-profile people in the world.

The majority of my work is catering to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and celebrities. I also work with the C-suite at major companies, though usually in entertainment. I still have my finance clients and fashion clients, but most of what I do is this celebrity niche.

How I find candidates

When it's time to fill a job, usually I'll get a text — a 911 text — that says something like, "Help, we need to find a personal assistant for this confidential person." Or I'll get a call or an email. Then, I do a job intake where I connect with either the talent themselves, a spouse, a family member, their business manager, or their agent to get a deep understanding of the problem I'm trying to solve. What does this person or what does this family need?

I get details — from somebody's compensation to what the schedule will look like. Does it involve travel? Do they need experience being a family assistant or nanny? Will this be a chief of staff or an estate manager job? I have a roster of candidates looking for jobs. I then go play matchmaker.

We have a lot of candidates who know that Career Group Companies is a place to get a job like this. They're applying on our website. I'll get DMs through my Instagram. People will contact me on LinkedIn.

Our job postings are vague. That's intentional because we're under such strict NDAs with our clients. Based on conversations I have with applicants — and on social media checks that I do — I can determine who I feel is suited for this line of work.

With the social media checks, it depends on the celebrity I'm recruiting for, but most people would shy away from applicants with too large of a social presence. Clients would love someone who isn't looking to be in the limelight themselves. It feels like, "Oh, no, is this person going to try to use this job as a stepping stone to become famous, to go on a reality show, or to write a tell-all book?"

People get really concerned about confidentiality and discretion. They want to bring people into their orbit who don't attract much attention.

I have a roster of great, pre-vetted people I can call when I get a job that I feel would be a good fit. I'll connect with a candidate over Zoom. I meet with them, and a few other people on my team will also meet with the applicant. We ask similar but different questions and compare notes.

I'll then send some résumés to a client. The client might ask who are the top two or three candidates based on the résumés I've sent. Someone on the client side might do a Zoom with a candidate. Then, maybe another member of the client's team might grab a coffee with the candidate. Then, they'll typically take the top two and introduce them to the client.

If a candidate gets selected for an interview — even an initial one — I'll send them an NDA. I recently had a client who wanted me to send the candidate a generic NDA. Because if I sent the client's NDA, it would be divulged in the document who the celebrity was. Then, if the candidate moves forward in the process, the client would use their specific NDA.

What I look for

Somebody's résumé tells a story. If they have a new job every six months or every year, it becomes apparent that it could be an issue with the candidate and not previous employers.

Clients really gravitate toward candidates who exemplify loyalty and longevity because even when a job gets hard — and these jobs are very difficult — the client wants to know that their executive right arm, their personal assistant, is going to stick with it.

I tend to find people with experience working in the industry or for high-profile executives. If somebody wants to become an executive assistant to a celebrity, there are certain paths you can take. A talent agency can be a great entry point to this world because it's competitive and fast-paced. Agents can be difficult. You're operating with intensity, and there are many high-profile people around you.

Candidates with this experience usually aren't starstruck because they're already in the industry. They need to be able to handle sensitive information and be a strong communicator. I find that the talent agency route is like executive assistant boot camp.

I also often find that people who were involved in sports in college or high school are super collaborative. They're usually good team players and really determined, disciplined people. In any case, I really need to get to know the candidates to understand their character.

Interviewing — with a celebrity or not — can be nerve-racking for most people. Then add on top of it that you're sitting across from someone that you recognize, and you feel like you know them, but you don't. It can add an extra element of stress.

What it takes to succeed

People need to be pretty flexible to take on a role like this because it typically involves a 24/7 schedule, long hours, and the ability to travel. The executive assistants might have responsibilities around photoshoots, security, the media, stylists and wardrobe, brand partnerships, and agents and managers.

Even if you've been at a talent agency, working in someone's home is much more intimate. Respecting somebody's privacy is key. You're literally in their kitchen or bedroom or traveling with them on their plane. So, it means really understanding that there needs to be a firm boundary between friendship and employer-employee. Often, that line can get blurred.

Career Group Companies has hundreds of celebrity clients. We fly under the radar because we have ironclad NDAs. Some of the clients I've worked with include Kevin Costner, Scooter Braun, Maria Shriver, and the Kardashian-Jenner family.

I've also worked with corporate clients like Imagine Entertainment, Tiffany & Co., Endeavor Group, and Paramount Pictures. With some of these companies, we'll staff their corporate offices, but also the celebrity's homes.

Depending on the size of someone's team, we can be recruiting for a celebrity who has a chief of staff and estate managers. The estate manager oversees housekeepers, chefs, gardening and landscaping crews, pool people, butlers, a driver, and security.

Then you have a chief of staff overseeing perhaps four executive assistants, people who run errands, and the nannies. Then you have people who might have a production company, skincare line, or denim brand. I am tasked to staff their receptionist, HR manager, and their head of design. The list goes on.

I handle these searches with just as much care as I handle my financial services searches because, at the end of the day, whether someone's an investor or an NBA player, I'm dealing with people. It's really the same across the board, but this one gets more attention because people are naturally curious about celebrities.

• McDonald's has a restaurant in Chicago that sells items from its international menus.
• When I visited, the lineup included dishes from Spain, Thailand, Hong Kong, Finland, Japan, and Canada.
• My Thai spicy chicken sandwich was delicious, but the speedy table service was even more impressive.

McDonald's has more than 40,000 restaurants across the world. But one of its Chicago locations has a menu that makes it stand out from the rest.

The McDonald's in Chicago's West Loop looks unassuming from the outside. It's sleek, modern, and very clean, but there's nothing to set it apart from the chain's other modern-image restaurants.

But the restaurant, located underneath the burger chain's headquarters, is actually a one-of-a-kind McDonald's that sells menu items from the chain's vast empire of restaurants around the world.

As well as items from McDonald's regular US menu, the restaurant has a rotating range of "global favorite" dishes.

These were advertised heavily on digital screens throughout the restaurant.

This was the global line-up when I visited the restaurant in mid-May. The menu featured three burgers, a portion of fries, an ice cream, two doughnuts, and three flavors of McPops. The items came from McDonald's menus in Spain, Thailand, Hong Kong, Finland, Japan, and Canada.

I opted for the Samurai McSpicy chicken sandwich from Thailand. Like with other burgers and sandwiches, you could turn it into a meal.

You could also customize the sandwich. I added pickles and tomato, the latter of which came with a $0.39 price tag. The sandwich came to $7.38, or $8.25 after tax.

The global menu burgers were priced similarly to the items from McDonald's core US menu, which surprised me. I had expected higher prices — I'm sure that diners would have paid a few extra dollars to be able to sample the chain's international cuisine.

When I completed my order at the digital kiosk, I was told to take a number and place it on my table. I don't eat at McDonald's often, and I'd never been to one with table service before.

While I waited for my food, I looked at the decor. The restaurant seemed quiet for a Saturday night and was impressively clean.

There was a range of seating options, and I liked these sleek light fittings.

One part of the restaurant contained a long table with 18 stools and a door so that it could be closed off. I wondered if McDonald's used this for private company events.

Though you could order at a cashier, there was an emphasis on digital kiosks, which typically bring in bigger revenues for restaurants. There were QR codes on each table so you could order from your phone, too.

Source: Business Insider

There were also dedicated shelves for customers to collect mobile orders they'd placed in advance.

On one wall, McDonald's had a large world map, with Golden Arches that the chain previously said were lit up to indicate which countries were included in its current global menu. When I visited, all the Golden Arches were lit up apart from the one over Russia. McDonald's sold its Russian business in 2022 after the country invaded Ukraine.

Sources: McDonald's, Business Insider

It took less than five minutes from me placing my order for it to arrive at my table. I was very impressed by the speedy service. Though I hadn't ordered a drink, it was served with a cup of water.

Sadly the sandwich was served in a plain ol' box. For many products, McDonald's has custom packaging.

The only part of the presentation advertising my meal as anything out of the ordinary was this piece of paper covering the tray.

This is what my sandwich looked like. My first thoughts were "that's a lot of lettuce" and "this is going to be messy." The sauce had already oozed onto the box.

The sandwich was made up of a McSpicy patty, teriyaki sauce, mayonnaise, and lettuce, served in a sesame seed bun. I'd added on pickles and tomato.

The sandwich was dripping with teriyaki sauce. I have a low spice tolerance, but the sweet and sticky sauce and mayonnaise meant that the McSpicy patty wasn't as hot as I'd expected.

It was a delicious burger. I really enjoyed it, but it was perhaps a bit too messy thanks to all the sauce — and there was simply too much lettuce to hold in the bun.

I decided to get a dessert, too. Sadly, quite a few of the desserts from the McCafé menu were out of stock. I opted for a pack of three White Chocolate McPops from McDonald's Spain for $3.99, or $4.46 after tax.

This time, there was just two minutes between me placing my order and it arriving at my table. And, once again, it was served with a glass of water.

The McPops were slightly smaller than the palm of my (pretty small) hand. They were essentially doughnut dough with a gooey filling inside.

They tasted fine but, if I'm honest, quite boring. I would have liked them to contain more of the white chocolate filling, too. I regretted not ordering the Boston Cream Donut from the Canadian menu or the Hot Fudge Waffle Cone from Japan.

Overall, visiting the global menu restaurant was a fun experience. I would have liked to have seen a wider range of international items — perhaps some drinks or another side in place of some of the desserts. McDonald's France, for example, sells a range of company-branded flavored water and McDonald's Germany sells chili-cheese pops.

The Samurai McSpicy tasted great, but what blew me away was the speedy table service. It was a new experience for me and I was very impressed.