Author: openjargon

• Opening statements in Donald Trump's first criminal trial began on Monday. 
• The former president's family has not attended jury selection.
• But their presence, especially Melania's, could have a powerful impact, legal experts say. 

Donald Trump enters his first criminal trial every day flanked by lawyers, court officers, Secret Service members, and political advisors.

But not his wife and children.

Melania Trump and the former president's children have not attended this past week as seven men and five women were chosen as jurors for his historic Manhattan hush-money trial.

And while it's not uncommon for family members of defendants to sit out the slogging jury-selection process, legal experts say their presence — especially that of Melania Trump — could have a strong positive impact on jurors.

Opening statements in the trial got underway on Monday and Melania Trump, nor any of Trump's other family members for that matter, did not show up in court.

Trump ignored a shouted question from a reporter on Monday morning asking him where Melania Trump was before he headed into the 15th-floor courtroom. Instead, Trump took the opportunity to bash the case against him as a political "witch hunt."

"I'm here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and lots of other places campaigning, and it's very unfair," Trump told reporters in the courtroom hallway.

'No question that Melania is the most important'

Mark Bederow, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney's office, told Business Insider, "There's no question that Melania is the most important family member to be there."

Bederow explained that Melania Trump's courtroom support could be "potentially very powerful" given the salacious nature of the hush-money case against Trump.

Making Trump at least look like a wholesome, beloved husband and father might help him.

"Certainly, if Melania were there supporting him, that potentially sends a message that 'I support him, I'm OK, I believe, perhaps, this didn't happen,'" Bederow said. "I think that can only have a positive impact on the jury."

This is especially important in a trial where the words "porn actress" and "extra-marital affair" will be lobbed at Trump by prosecutors.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office say Trump falsified 34 business records to disguise a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The payment to buy Daniels' silence over an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with a married Trump was part of an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election, according to prosecutors.

Jill Huntley Taylor, a jury consultant, told BI that the presence of Trump's family will likely magnify the jurors' other impressions of the case.

If the jurors are inclined to side with Trump, thinking the case is lousy, then they'd understand why his family didn't show up, she said. If they side against Trump, they might wonder why none of his family members are supporting him.

"Trump doesn't want to be there," Huntley Taylor said. "I could see jurors, if they're favoring him thinking, 'Well, he's not going to make his family be there.' And I can see jurors who are not favoring him thinking, 'Well, wouldn't your family want to support you in this while you're on trial?'"

His family — or lack thereof

Courtrooms are, by design, "sensory deprivation tanks," joked Julia Vitullo-Martin, a criminal justice consultant and former director for the Citizens Jury Project, an initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice.

So when there's downtime in the courtroom, jurors, who don't have their electronics, have little else to do but study the defendant and whoever is with them.

"So you look around, and you assess the defendant's demeanor, his clothes, his family — or his lack thereof," Vitullo-Martin said.

Jurors have sworn they will judge Trump's case solely on the evidence. But their observations of the defendant — and any family present — will influence their eventual verdict, she said.

"They're human beings," she said of jurors.

"And defense attorneys have always known this, which is why they are so conscious of how their client is coming across to the jury."

'Kind of the elephant in the room'

Whether family shows up for Trump should not matter to the jury, but Bederow said it's only natural for jurors to wonder why Melania Trump or any other family member might not show their solidarity in the courtroom for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"It's not evidence of anything, and it's not the kind of thing they're supposed to consider, but I think it's kind of the elephant in the room," Bederow said.

Even in criminal trials with more dire stakes — and where defendants have been accused of far worse — it's common for family members to attend and show support.

Fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried had watched his parents in the front row of the gallery for every day of his monthlong trial. Even Ghislaine Maxwell, who trafficked girls to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein for sex and sexually abused them herself, had two sisters and a brother attending her trial nearly every day.

Melania Trump did not show up for her husband's past Manhattan trials

But Melania Trump has been a no-show in Trump's other three Manhattan trials, all of which he lost, and at a cost of more than $600 million in judgments against him.

The former First Lady also did not attend either Trump's first or his second E. Jean Carroll federal defamation trials, in April, 2023 and in January of this year.

She was also a no-show at last year's civil fraud trial.

 Trump himself stayed away entirely from the first Carroll trial, at which a jury found him liable for sexual assault.

These absences likely do not make jurors' hearts grow fonder, according to legal experts.

"A defendant's demeanor and appearance in front of a jury is critically important, from the very start of jury selection through the return of a verdict," defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Justin Danilewitz told BI.

Danilewitz added, "And although a defendant cannot, of course, communicate directly with a jury, perceptive jurors will note the courtroom surroundings and the support of family a defendant may have."

Former Brooklyn prosecutor Arthur Aidala echoed those remarks.

"Typically, you want family members there to show the jury that the defendant has a lot of support," he said.

Aidala, a criminal defense attorney who has represented Rudy Giuliani and Harvey Weinstein, agreed Melania Trump's presence at the trial would be "key" but noted that he did not believe the attendance of family would have much of an impact in this case.

"It's not the kind of case where sympathy matters. Usually family matters when you want the sympathy of the jury for the defendant. That's not the case here," Aidala said. "People know Trump. Family will not change their opinion."

Danilewitz said Trump's defense team may have a different strategy in mind when it comes to Melania Trump.

"Ordinarily, in a case like this, the appearance of a spouse may well send an important signal of support," said Danielwitz. "But the defense strategy here is likely to signal that this trial is not worth the time of the defendant, and even less the time of his close family."

"Attending could suggest a level of importance the defense does not want to give the case," he said.

Instead of family, Trump has been surrounded in court by lawyers and support staff.

They include his four main criminal defense lawyers in the case — Todd Blanche, Susan Necheles, Emil Bove, and Gedalia Stern — and a rotating cast of political aides working for his 2024 presidential campaign, including Steven Cheung, Jason Miller, Margo Martin, and Natalie Harp.

On Friday, they were joined by Clifford Robert, one of Trump's family's lawyers in the New York attorney general's civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization last year.

Melania Trump is portrayed as the 'mistreated wife' in the hush-money case

They spend a lot of time together, but they're not the wife and kids.

Melania Trump "is the mistreated wife in this narrative that the DA is saying," Bederow said, explaining, "If she's not there, jurors may take note of that. Certainly the media will."

Given that the prosecution's narrative includes Trump having an affair, Trump's lawyers may have deemed it wiser to keep Melania Trump away, according to Huntley Taylor, the jury consultant.

"It seems like you would have to really think twice about whether you want to put her through that," she said.

The presence of Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, at her father's criminal trial could also be impactful, but the appearance of his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. likely wouldn't matter, according to Bederow.

"Let's be honest, if Donald Jr. and Eric Trump showed up, is that going to make it any better? No. Probably, if anything, it potentially makes it worse," said Bederow. "But it's a different story with Melania and Ivanka."

"People who are inclined not to like Donald Trump probably view the sons in the same way just because they're very vocal defenders of their father, which is natural and expected," Bederow continued. "But they're also very involved in the political game and the media game that surrounds everything involving Trump."

Melania Trump has privately called the charges against her husband "a disgrace," even though she was initially furious at him when news of the alleged affair broke in 2018, according to the New York Times.

If Trump's family does decide to show up to support Trump in court during the trial, they might want to wear sweaters. The temperature in the courtroom is very cold.

This story was originally published on April 21 and has been updated.

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• The marketing field is changing as some companies have eliminated CMO roles.
• Gen Z marketers early in their careers told BI about their outlook on the profession.
• Despite the grim news, young marketers are optimistic about their future, in part due to role models like Rare Beauty's Katie Welch.

Marketing is going through a very visible transition. The CMO role at several companies, including Walgreens, Uber, and Starbucks, has been eliminated. A 2023 McKinsey report found that 40% of Fortune 500 companies don't have a CMO or another growth- or customer-related position in their CEO's executive committee.

This shrinking presence is also seen in recent trends that show companies increasingly shrinking their B2B marketing presence or decentralizing these teams. Businesses are quickly adopting artificial intelligence to support their marketing initiatives, adding to the complexity of the role today.

With marketing undergoing the tumultuous period of CMO departures and the constant changes brought by new technology and shifting corporate priorities, it can be hard for people just entering the profession to feel secure about the future. But role models like Rare Beauty's CMO, Katie Welch, offer young marketers hope for the profession's future.

Business Insider spoke to three early-career marketing professionals to get their take on the state of the marketing profession.

CMO is a central role that needs to innovate

Piper Phillips graduated from college in 2022 and started working as the director of marketing at the beverage company Tru until late 2023. Over the past few years, she has been documenting her career journey on TikTok.

In 2022, Phillips made a series of videos on TikTok saying she thought the CMO was the second most important position in a company. "If you don't understand who you're selling to, if you don't understand your audience, if you don't understand what they need, then you don't have a business," Phillips told BI.

Phillips has seen the impact of marketing shake-ups on the younger generation: "For many people in Gen Z, they're early in their careers, and they're getting laid off, or they're having trouble looking for a job. It can be so disheartening."

On the trend of eliminating CMO roles, Phillips spoke to the importance of the position. "There needs to be a chief brand officer or someone representing the brand of the company because for many companies, their brand identity is their competitive advantage and their differentiating factor," she said.

Facing a changing marketing profession and her experience with social media, Phillips' own career goals have shifted.

"I always envisioned myself as a CMO over a huge corporation," Phillips said. "After seeing all the opportunities at startups or building one's own personal brand, I've realized there are many ways to make an impact and reach consumers in the marketing world outside of just traditional marketing roles."

But even amid these issues, Phillips is still optimistic about the future of CMO roles. "Gen Z is poised to become incredible marketers, incredible CMOs, because the way that we think about things and interact online is so natural to us, and that translates very well into marketing as a whole," she said.

Eliminating marketing is not the way forward

Natasha Badger, a marketing associate at the AI startup Akkio, has watched the marketing field closely since high school. She interned at LinkedIn in 2020 and makes videos giving marketing career advice on TikTok.

Badger observed that marketing teams are often some of the smallest departments, especially at the tech companies she has worked at — and also the first departments to have layoffs when budget cuts are made. "Businesses that are eliminating the CMO role or pulling it into something else, the leadership in those companies don't see the value of marketing," she said.

Despite these obstacles, Badger said that being a CMO "has been my end goal" and is hopeful about the role's importance. She said that the companies that "are still investing in their marketing efforts" and keep CMO roles "are the ones who are gonna succeed in terms of seeing their brand last throughout the market and throughout how the industry changes."

Gen Z is looking to new kinds of CMOs like Rare Beauty CMO Katie Welch

Industry changes are being seen as promising opportunities for young marketers who have more social media savvy and online experience. That's the point of view shared by Lindsey Hyams, a 2023 graduate who worked as a community associate at Bubble Skincare before recently starting as an Assistant Account Executive at Push The Envelope PR.

"Gen Z has a really great comprehensive understanding of trends on the platforms," Hyams said.

Hyams points to Katie Welch, the CMO of Rare Beauty, as an example of how C-suite marketers can adapt to a changing landscape. "She knows how to market to Gen Z," Hyams said. "She's someone that I see growing into this field."

Marketing to Gen Z led Welch to build a growing audience on TikTok where she gives career advice and marketing insights.

Welch is also excited about how seasoned marketers can learn from the insights of the younger generation "Their social media-informed POV combined with brand marketing tenants makes for a powerful marketing approach," Welch told BI. "They have honed a new ability."

Her visibility on social media has allowed Welch to show more young marketers what a CMO can look like. Her advice to those early in their career who want to be CMOs is to develop critical thinking. "Understand what makes a good idea. Stay curious," she explained. "For example, pay attention to attention — how and why is it captured and by whom? Have a point of view and speak up. Be patient."

While some traditional CMO roles are being eliminated, Hyams is optimistic about how the younger generation can breathe new life into these positions. "Gen Z is definitely taking the field in that C-suite level. There's a lot of people that are building their own connections. They're building their own networks." Hyams continued, "I think that's what's next for the industry."

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• This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Happy Earth Day! The holiday is a perfect time to visit One Planet, Business Insider's hub for climate news, analysis, and action.

In today's big story, we're looking at a new group of Americans preparing for retirement despite not really having the assets to comfortably do it.

What's on deck:

• Markets: The secret is out (sort of) on Jane Street's $1 billion trading strategy.

• Tech: AI has racist tendencies. Scientists and founders are trying to fix it.

• Business: Why there are so many annoying customer feedback surveys these days.

But first, a new silver tsunami.

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If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

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The big story

Boomer blowup

Ready or not, the youngest boomers are retiring.

The elder generation's final segment — more than 30 million Americans — is quitting work for good. But unlike their older peers, this group isn't as prepared for retirement.

The majority of so-called "peak boomers" have $250,000 or less in assets, according to a recent report, write Juliana Kaplan and Ayelet Sheffey. Still, that's not stopping many of them from retiring, meaning they'll eventually rely on Social Security as their primary source of income.

If you're a bit surprised by the dire economic situation of peak boomers, I wouldn't blame you.

For a while, we've heard about how good things are for boomers. They own homes either outright or with rock-bottom mortgage rates. Sky-high interest rates mean they can get decent returns on low-risk investments. And they're sitting on mountains of cash.

That might be true for elder boomers, but not everyone is as fortunate. In fact, some boomers envision themselves having to work until the day they die.

One reason for the intra-generational disconnect: pensions. Older boomers had the benefit of employer-subsidized retirement plans before a shift in the workforce left younger boomers to fend for themselves.

Peak boomers' retirement struggles might end up being a wake-up call for younger generations.

Most Gen Xers, millennials, and Gen Zers are in the same boat as peak boomers when it comes to taking a DIY approach to retirement savings thanks to the decline of pensions being offered.

There will be plenty of lessons learned from peak boomers entering retirement without the safety net of a pension. And things could be even worse for younger generations as Social Security could be in trouble in less than a decade.

Large economic events have already had lasting impacts on these generations, from the financial crisis (millennials) to Covid (Gen Zers). Perhaps watching a retirement crisis unfold will kickstart younger cohorts' savings plans.

But finding the money to save won't be easy. A growing number of Americans are struggling to just get by.

ALICEs — asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed — don't qualify for government help but can't afford rent and healthcare. For them, thinking about tomorrow is hard enough, let alone retirement.

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News brief

Your Monday headline catchup

A quick recap of the top news from over the weekend:

• House votes to ban TikTok in US unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells to American company.

• These 112 House Republicans voted against Ukraine aid.

• These 37 House Democrats and 21 Republicans voted against Israel aid.

• Private equity bet on special-education schools: 'It's just a moneymaking machine'.

• Google's worker firings show that the office actually isn't a place to be yourself.

• As most AI execs scramble for more data, Mark Zuckerberg says there's actually something more 'valuable'.

• A Gen Xer who got $250,000 in student loans forgiven said he can now finally start saving for retirement — and consider his dream of studying in India.

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3 things in markets

1. A mega preview for mega-cap tech earnings. Magnificent Seven stocks like Tesla, Google, and Meta are set to report earnings next week. These are the biggest things investors are on the lookout for once the numbers drop.

2. Secrets emerge about an elite Wall Street firm that prides itself on privacy. Jane Street is suing two former traders and rival Millennium over a lucrative trading strategy. On Friday, details about the trade, including the country it involves, were revealed in court.

3. Bitcoin halved. The cryptocurrency underwent its long-awaited halving event on Friday evening, cutting the rewards earned by miners by 50%. JPMorgan is warning that the token is now in overbought territory, meaning its price could be set to fall.

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3 things in tech

1. AI has a racism problem. Last summer, a Black woman was wrongfully arrested due to the faulty facial-recognition AI used by the Detroit Police Department. Despite its major flaws, the AI is being used around the world — and some scientists and founders are scrambling to fix it.

2. More layoffs at Tesla. After Elon Musk announced a 10% reduction of staff early last week, the EV maker informed some of its recruiters they'd been laid off. Tesla closed out one of its toughest weeks ever by slashing its car and software prices in China, the US, and Europe.

3. Medium is cutting its cloud spend. CEO Tony Stubblebine expects the online publishing company to turn a profit for the first time ever sometime this year, thanks in part to a somewhat unexpected strategy. He told BI that employers found a lot of unused space with cloud storage providers like AWS and Snowflake, enabling Medium to cut its monthly costs by over $500,000.

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3 things in business

1. On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to recommend this newsletter? Customer feedback surveys have become the modern-day robocalls — they're abundant, annoying, and often ignored. Companies are using them as a cheaper way to try to retain customers, but nobody seems to know what to do with the survey results.

2. The cautionary tale of Tulsa's Queen of Airbnb. Post pandemic, property manager Dani Widell promised investors an easy windfall from what was supposed to be Tulsa's Airbnb gold rush. Instead, her Airbnb empire came crashing down — and her subjects were left to pick up the pieces.

3. America has become a nation of hate spenders. Inflation has steadily crept up again in recent months, but consumers appear to be spending their way through it. Experts told BI's Emily Stewart that shoppers probably know prices aren't going back to 2019 levels and have decided they may as well just live it up.

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In other news

• Bill Gates added a $43 million beachfront home to his sprawling real estate portfolio last year. Here's a closer look at his empire.

• What Taylor Swift's new album means for her $1 billion fortune.

• Zuck's new AI drop is cool and all, but he's still playing catch-up with Sam Altman.

• I knew Trump Media's stock would tank, but even I'm surprised it happened this fast.

• I'm the son of a billionaire. Here's how my family's wealth affected how I made friends and dated.

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What's happening today

• Today's earnings: Verizon and other companies are reporting.

• It's Earth Day.

• Keep an eye out: The Lyrid meteor shower, one of the oldest known showers, will peak tonight.

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The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. George Glover, reporter, in London. Grace Lett, associate editor, in Chicago.

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• A class action claim against Grindr accuses the app of sharing users' HIV status with third parties.
• Austen Hays, a law firm in the UK, alleges these breaches took place over at least two years.
• The firm says that "thousands" of UK users had their private information shared with third parties.

A class action claim filed against LGBTQ+ dating and hookup app Grindr alleges that "potentially thousands" of UK app users had their private information, including HIV statuses, shared with third parties.

The claim, lodged on Monday by UK-based law firm Austen Hays, accuses Grindr of breaching UK data-protection laws by sharing sensitive information with third parties without users' consent.

The information disclosed included users' HIV statuses, as well as data on their ethnicities, sex lives, and sexual orientations, according to a press statement provided to Business Insider.

Austen Hays alleges that the data breaches occurred before April 2018 and between May 2018 and April 2020, "although they may extend to further periods," it said.

It added that the data was shared with advertising companies Localytics and Apptimize, which the law firm said "would allow a potentially unlimited number of third parties to target and/or customize advertisements to its users."

According to Austen Hayes, Grindr received payment from the third and fourth parties it shared personal data with, and it alleges that companies retained some of this data after the advertisements had been served.

With more of us finding love and connections online, the risk of extremely personal data being shared and potentially monetized is growing.

Over 670 claimants have already signed up to the class action, according to Austen Hays, which claims it is in discussions with "thousands" of others who are interested in joining.

Austen Hays said that those affected could receive thousands of pounds in damages if the case succeeds, "given the severity of the breach."

Breaches of data privacy regulations can lead to costly fines for companies that are found to violate them, and can also cause embarrassment for users.

With an app like Grindr, known for facilitating LGBTQ+ hookups for its millions of users worldwide, a breach could involve the sharing of highly sensitive information.

"Our clients have experienced significant distress over their highly sensitive and private information being shared without their consent, and many have suffered feelings of fear, embarrassment and anxiety as a result," said Chaya Hanoomanjee, Austen Hays' managing director.

Grindr has been punished for data breaches in the past.

In December 2021, it was fined 65 million Norwegian kroner, roughly $6 million, after the Norwegian Data Protection Authority found that it had disclosed personal data to third parties for advertising without a legal basis.

In 2022, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office also reprimanded the company after finding that it had violated the UK's General Data Protection Regulation.

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

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• As a tax lawyer, Mark Klein, has seen wealthy individuals continue to relocate to tax-free states.
• While savings are the main reason, cultural fit also plays a role in relocation.
• For movers, it isn't as simple as picking up a driver license — you must prove that you live there.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with partner and chairman emeritus at Hodgson Russ LLP, Mark Klein, who specializes in tax law. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

I'm a tax lawyer who specializes in residency issues, and half of my job is helping people move to other states without triggering all sorts of nasty taxes — and, in other cases, avoiding high taxes and going to low-tax states.

When people realize they have this greater flexibility, and if all other things are equal, why not save a bunch of money?

Many of my clients don't just put the money in their pocket. They use it for good things, they use it for charitable means that are important to them, and they just don't like what the government seems to be doing with the money, so it makes sense for them.

One of the reasons that the Florida real estate market was booming after Covid is because people realized that they could work just as effectively from anywhere. You didn't need to go to the office when you could do just as well with a computer and a telephone. And so a lot of people moved to Florida.

Finance is big, but consulting services are as well. If you're a consultant, you just need to be where a telephone is.

I thought we'd seen the bulk of the moving as a result right after Covid, but no: it seems to have continued unabated.

And we're seeing a lot of people who are enjoying liquidity events. They're about to sell their business that they've been working at forever. New York City, depending on your income, you could pay 15% tax on whatever it is you make, so you sell your business for $100 million, which is a lot of money, but still $15 million goes just from taxes.

People feel that they could do a lot better with $15 million than the government. I think that's one of the reasons that we're seeing a continued push for people moving to places like Florida or Nevada or Texas or wherever.

The more income you have, the more flexibility you have.

Saving money is a large factor, but not the only one

Some of my clients are billionaires with a capital B, and they have tremendous sources of income that would not be taxed by a state like New York if they were simply a Floridian.

They can continue to come back to New York now and then and they can keep a place in New York. Some of them even have their own planes, so they don't worry too much about getting in line at TSA. They can go where they want to go when they want to go, and it does save them a lot of money.

My clients are all over the country. I think Nevada has become very popular, especially the Lake Tahoe area for people who were in Los Angeles or the Silicon Valley area. You can live on one side of Lake Tahoe and pay no taxes versus the other side of Lake Tahoe and pay California taxes, which is around 12%.

We're seeing people move to Wyoming, of all places because there are no taxes. And people absolutely love nature and their ability to commune with wild animals. That seems to be popular.

Some people are even moving up to Washington state, which really doesn't tax you unless you are a gazillionaire. It depends on where your interests lie. Some people are into nature, and so Wyoming would be perfect. Some people are into the Miami scene.

New York to Florida is still the most popular — especially to the east coast of Florida. We find a lot of people from New York City and Long Island find that the culture is kind of the same on the East Coast, whether it's Palm Beach or Boca or Delray or Miami.

Clearly, Florida has a tremendous attraction in the winter, given that you can leave Florida in the middle of summer and hurricane season.

People with means absolutely find themselves going to Florida, but I don't think it's just for the money. I think also it's a better way of life. They can drive to the grocery store in the middle of winter and not worry about icy roads. But certainly saving 15% is kind of gravy.

In order to avoid an audit, you need more than just paperwork

A lot of people don't understand the rules. The very common misconception is that if I go to Florida and I spend 183 plus one days, I'm a Floridian. And nothing could be further from the truth.

The law says you have to move to a place like Florida, and you have to prove that you did it by clear and convincing evidence. Now, I don't know what that means, but I know what it doesn't mean.

If you're in New York for six months and in Florida for six months, that's not clear and convincing. That's anything but. The other misconception is that people think that if they go to a place like Florida, they fill out an affidavit of domicile, they register to vote, they get the homestead exemption and a driver's license, somehow the residency fairy will tap them on the shoulder and make them a Floridian.

Should you do those things? Sure. But states don't have a lot of respect for paperwork. If I went to Florida right now and filled out a bunch of paperwork, does that make me a Floridian? No. It just means I'm really good at papers. It's the way you live your life. People who want this to work have to be willing to change the way they live their lives.

God forbid you're ill and you come back to the Tri-state area for medical care, that's okay. We expect people are going to look for the best medical care they can. But if you need to go to the dentist to get your teeth cleaned, shouldn't you go to a dentist near your home? It's very unusual for people to travel 1,500 miles north just to get their teeth cleaned. It's the kind of thing you do at home.

An even better indicator is, tell me where your spouse is. Most spouses wait at home when the other spouse needs to travel for business. Tell me where your dog is located. Who keeps their dog with them when they commute to work or when they're on vacation?

Where do you sleep at night? There are a lot of people here in Manhattan who don't pay a penny of New York City income tax, even though they're here every day and their job is here.

We look at what they call the "near and dear test," where are things that are important to you located?

The assumption is that most people have their good stuff — their nicest stuff — in their homes. It's going to really look weird if you don't claim to be a New Yorker, but you've got a $5 million piece of artwork on the wall, and your Peloton is here, and your best golf clubs and your Steinway piano, or whatever the heck you're into, are in New York.

Auditors look at that, too. We always tell people that being audited for residency is kind of like the tax version of a colonoscopy. It's very intrusive.

The political climate is not really favorable for the super-wealthy, and they feel kind of put upon. Here in New York City, the top 1% of the taxpayers pay almost 50% of the New York City income tax. One percent pays 50%. The idea that my clients are told in the press that they're not paying their fair share and that we should increase taxes on them doesn't sit well with them.

They feel that they're doing their fair share, they're paying more than their fair share, and to make them pay more because they can, that drives people away. And people are a lot more mobile than they used to be as a result of the pandemic.

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• Ukraine says it hit another of Russia's Black Sea Fleet ships, setting it ablaze.
• The Kommuna, Russia's oldest serving ship, was struck in Crimea, a Ukrainian spokesperson said.
• The 111-year-old Kommuna has historical value — but is also of practical use, one expert said.

Ukraine says it has struck another of Russia's Black Sea Fleet ships — this time, its oldest active-duty naval vessel.

Ukrainian navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk told Ukrainska Pravda that the ship was set ablaze at the port city of Sevastopol, in Russia-occupied Crimea, in an attack on Sunday.

"The type of damage caused to the ship is being established, but early reports indicate that the ship is not fit to perform missions," Pletenchuk told the paper. Business Insider has not independently verified the claim.

He didn't clarify the nature of the claimed attack, but prominent Crimea-based Telegram accounts reported an explosion and the deployment of firefighters toward the port early Sunday local time.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, wrote on Telegram that Russia's military had repelled an anti-ship missile, whose falling fragments had caused a small fire that was quickly put out.

(It is not unusual for Ukrainian officials to say an attack succeeded and for Russian ones to say that it failed.)

Unverified video circulating on social media showed smoke rising from a port.

"Another bad day for the Russian Black Sea Fleet," wrote the Defense of Ukraine X account after the attack, posting a 2008 stock image of the Kommuna with crosshairs superimposed.

If confirmed, the claimed strike on the storied ship continues a pattern of Ukrainian success in the Black Sea.

Losing a beloved ship would be a blow to morale in Russia soon after the US finally approved $61 billion in military aid — which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said gives the country a chance at breaking the land war's deadlock.

First launched in 1913, the Kommuna is woven into Russia's naval history, having served in multiple 20th-century conflicts, according to KHCF, a Russian site devoted to following the Black Sea Fleet.

Open-source naval expert HI Sutton, remarking on its antique status, said the Kommuna "gets a degree of sympathy because she is an ancient and beautiful ship." But, he said, "objectively she is a legitimate target and provides Russian navy with valuable capabilities.

"She often participates in submarine trials and can conduct seabed warfare," he added.

According to Sutton, the Kommuna was in 2022 deployed to the sinking of the Moskva flagship — Ukraine's most striking victory against the Black Sea Fleet.

Much of the fleet relocated to the port of Novorossiysk last fall after Ukraine pounded the port of Sevastopol. At the end of March — after Ukraine claimed attacks on two large landing ships — the UK's Minister of Defence Grant Shapps said the fleet had been rendered "functionally inactive."

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• A $61 billion package of US military aid for Ukraine is being signed off. 
• The aid will provide much-needed support for Ukraine over the summer months.
• But it still faces massive challenges in its battle against Russia's invasion. 

Relief swept the front line in Ukraine on Saturday after the US voted to release a long-delayed $61 billion package of military aid to help defend against Russia's invasion.

"We thought that our partners had forgotten about us," a Ukrainian intelligence officer with the call sign Bankir, told CNN.

The US House of Representatives approved the aid package, having been held up for months amid opposition from far-right Republicans. It will now be voted on by the US Senate, where it's widely expected to pass.

But while it's likely to help kill Russia's momentum and give Ukraine much-needed support in the coming months, experts are cautioning that it doesn't ensure victory for Ukraine.

A race against time

Mark Warne, the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair, told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that military equipment should be "in transit by the end of the week."

It's a race against time for Ukraine. Its military is running low on ammunition and artillery supplies, and struggling to fend off intensifying Russian attacks. Meanwhile, its air defense systems are also short of missiles, meaning Russia is increasingly able to target Ukraine's cities and power plants.

In recent weeks, Ukraine's leaders have issued increasingly stark warnings that it faces the prospect of defeat to Russia without more money from its allies.

Analysts said the aid bill will bolster Ukraine's defenses against a possible planned Russian offensive this summer.

US-made missiles have been crucial to Ukraine in targeting Russian supply lines and troop gatherings, while artillery has been vital for defending its positions from attacks.

The aid will allow Ukraine to replenish its supplies of these vitally important weapons, which reports say it had to start rationing on the front line in recent weeks.

Ukraine "will likely be able to blunt the current Russian offensive assuming the resumed US assistance arrives promptly," said analysts at the US think tank The Institute for the Study of War.

The equipment "will help to slow down the Russian advance, but not stop it", one senior Ukrainian official told the Financial Times.

Ukraine's future remains uncertain

Experts have long believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to grind down Ukrainian resistance, exploiting the fact that long-term Western support for Ukraine remains uncertain.

"Please don't forget that Russia's annual military budget is more than $100 billion," noted Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko on X on Saturday evening. "We have won time today, but we have not won the war. We will still need to finish the job."

Even with the huge injection of money, it's likely not enough to enable Ukraine to launch a campaign to drive Russian forces back, George Beebe, a former head of the CIA's Russia analysis unit, told BI recently.

And the long-term future of US aid remains in doubt, with Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, having repeatedly said he opposes funding Ukraine's war effort.

Ukraine's European allies haven't wavered in their commitment to helping Ukraine, but have struggled to produce enough ammunition and equipment to make up for the US aid shortfall this year.

Many believe the best Ukraine can hope for is to use the money to reinforce its current position, continue to inflict losses on Russia, and hope that its allies keep the aid flowing next year.

"Such a large aid package may be the last this year. Moreover, there is a fairly high probability that all subsequent aid packages for Ukraine will be much smaller in size," a former Ukrainian officer who operates the Frontelligence Insight newsletter said, as cited by The Financial Times.

"The aid provided by the US buys us and the European Union time, about one year."

For Ukraine to feel confident in winning the war against Russia, it will need more military aid beyond 2024. There's currently no guarantee it will get it in sufficient amounts.

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• Elon Musk was criticized by an Australian minister for refusing to remove X posts about a stabbing.
• Tanya Plibersek told 7News that Musk is an "egotistical billionaire" after Musk resisted the calls. 
• Social media posts on the attack contained a lot of misinformation, the Guardian reported. 

An Australian minister slammed Elon Musk as an "egotistical billionaire" over his refusal to take down X posts.

The posts included comments on the stabbing of Sydney-based bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, which occurred last week. Video clips of the attack have since circulated on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Tanya Plibersek, Australia's minister for the environment and water, made the remarks on news station 7News after the stabbing was captured on the church's livestream and shared on X, per the Guardian.

Plibersek said on Monday, "It beggars belief, doesn't it, that this egotistical billionaire thinks it's more important for him to show whatever he wants on X or Twitter … for him to have his way than to respect the victims of the crimes."

In a post, X's global government affairs account said that it received a "demand" from Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, or face a "daily fine of $785,000 AUD."

Musk responded in an X post Friday, "The Australian censorship commissar is demanding global content bans."

According to the Guardian, significant amounts of misinformation was spread on social media after the attack, after which there was a riot.

X owner Musk has maintained that the platform is a site for free speech since he acquired the company, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022.

More recently, the billionaire has resisted calls from a top judge in Brazil to ban accounts that spread election misinformation and are associated with the far-right.

Brazil's supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes responded and said the court would investigate Musk and that he'd face a fine of about $20,000 a day for each blocked account reinstated in Brazil, Associated Press reported.

X has in the past taken action and removed certain accounts, like in January when it banned an account tied to Hamas' military wing. But for the most part, Musk has resisted removing content from the platform as he thinks it can restrict free speech.

In a wide-ranging interview with Don Lemon last month, he defended his position on X's content moderation policies and said, "Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship."

X didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• We're about to find out if Elon Musk has a plan to save Tesla.
• The EV maker is expected to report a 40% profit drop on Tuesday after a bruising year.
• Demand is falling, competition is rising, and a push to make robotaxis is worrying some investors.

If Elon Musk has a secret rescue plan for Tesla hidden away, now would be a great time to show it to the world.

On Tuesday, the company is due to report first-quarter earnings for Tesla after a decisively brutal year so far that's left his electric vehicle maker looking like a shell of its former self.

Since the start of the year, Tesla's share price has been in freefall, sliding more than 40%, leaving it worth about $460 billion. Musk's own fortune has suffered a $61 billion drop too, though he's still the world's fourth-richest person.

Tesla is facing a host of problems.

Demand for electric vehicles has seemingly been vaporized, with deliveries of Tesla's vehicles plummeting hard and fast. This month, Tesla said it delivered about 387,000 vehicles in the first three months of the year, marking a 20% decline from the previous quarter.

As a result, Tesla is expected to report a 40% profit drop on Tuesday, per Bloomberg, as well as its first revenue drop in four years. Last week, it emerged that it was laying off more than 10% of its staff globally as it adjusts to this new reality.

After the job cuts were announced last week, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Wall Street needed to know the "rationale for the cost-cutting, the strategy going forward, product roadmap, and an overall vision from Musk" on its investor call.

More price cuts

The demand issue has been particularly prominent in one of Tesla's most important growth markets, China. Musk has engaged in a high-risk price war in the country with local rivals such as BYD as they win more buyers with cheaper — and, some say, better — vehicles.

Just this weekend, Tesla slashed the prices of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China that previously sold for 245,900 yuan ($33,900) and 263,900 yuan ($36,500) respectively. It also cut prices in the US and Europe too.

Those cuts look like a significant move to boost sales after a punishing year for Tesla. But they might not be enough to stop a full-blown car crash.

Investors have grown skeptical of Musk's wider strategy to fulfill his ambition of popularizing electric vehicles for the mass market, which would see Tesla hitting an extraordinary sales goal of 20 million EVs per year by 2030.

In part, it's because Musk's promises of delivering a mass-market car significantly cheaper than Tesla's current offerings look less certain than ever.

Robotaxi dreams

As recently as November, there had been suggestions that Tesla planned to build a sub-$30,000 car at its Berlin factory, but a Reuters report this month said Tesla plans to pivot the focus of its small-vehicle platform to robotaxis instead.

Though Musk — who has planned a big robotaxi event for August — denied the report, the emphasis on driverless cars has left people close to the company feeling "unsettled by the changes the CEO wants to push through," Bloomberg reported.

Autonomous driving has been a long-standing interest for Musk, but scaling such technology has proven challenging for the wider industry. General Motors' autonomous unit paused operations in November over regulator concerns after a collision, for instance.

To top it all off, Tesla is voluntarily recalling all the near-4,000 Cybertrucks it's so far produced over a fault with their accelerators, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

For most CEOs, these issues would be plenty to keep them awake at night. But Musk also faces several other distractions in the face of a big legal battle over his Tesla compensation package, retaining advertisers at X, as well as making headway in the AI industry with Grok.

Will Musk prioritize Tesla over everything else? We're about to find out.

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• An edited image showing Mark Zuckerberg with a beard has raised a lot of eyebrows.
• The image inevitably drew the attention of the Meta boss and his wife Priscilla Chan. 
• The picture has been shared widely, with some users failing to notice Zuck's new beard was fake.

The internet has a new crush: bearded Mark Zuckerberg.

An edited image of Zuckerberg with a fake beard has been going viral on social media.

The original screenshot was taken from an Instagram video posted by the Meta CEO, during which he announced a new version of the company's AI, Llama 3.

But one game designer found a different use for the new video — fitting the tech boss with fake facial hair.

The fake image has proved popular with social-media users, with some enthusiastically sharing versions of the "hot" bearded Zuckerberg.

Some users even took the opportunity to encourage the Meta CEO to grow some real facial hair.

"Bro, grow your beard out," one user commented on Zuckerberg's original post. "I saw what it would look like."

Even Zuckerberg himself acknowledged the trend. After the image was posted on Instagram by The Shade Room, Zuckerberg commented: "Okay who did this?

Zuckerberg's wife, Priscilla Chan, also shared a photo of her bearded husband on her Instagram story, per People. "Anyone seen my husband???" she joked. "And who is this guy?"

While it's not clear exactly how the image was altered, digital manipulation of images has become a wider concern recently, following the furor around Kate Middleton's admission that she edited a picture of her family released by Kensington Palace last month.

As for the Zuckerberg photo, the image was shared so widely on X and other platforms that some users failed to notice it was fake.

"That bearded photo of Zuck wasn't real, but it subtly changed some people's perception of him," entrepreneur Varun Mayya said of the photo in an X post. "Post-truth era."

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