Category: Business Insider

• A British Airways plane went on a "flight to nowhere" after experiencing a problem.
• After flying in circles for four hours to burn fuel, the plane landed back in Singapore.
• The delay had a knock-on impact on British Airways, leading to a flight from London to LA being canceled.

An already delayed British Airways plane that took off from Singapore landed back at the same airport five hours later after a technical fault forced it to turn back.

The plane, which was set to fly from Singapore Changi to London Heathrow on Tuesday as flight BA12, flew partway over Malaysia before turning back only about half an hour after takeoff, data from flight-tracking site FlightAware shows.

The aircraft, an Airbus 380, flew in circles over the Singapore Strait before landing. It circled for around four hours to burn excess fuel in preparation for its eventual landing.

Aircraft often jettison fuel during emergencies or when they need to land earlier than expected as landing with a full load of fuel is likely to be dangerous due to weight restrictions on landing.

"Planes are designed to land below certain weights," Business Insider previously reported. "A heavier plane is more likely to hit the ground hard and get damaged."

The plane set off at about 3:10 a.m. local time for a planned 14-hour flight and landed back in the city-state at about 8:30 a.m., per FlightAware data.

Passengers had already had to contend with a delay, as the plane was meant to depart at 11:20 p.m. on Monday night.

A Business Insider employee was on the flight and said passengers were initially told before takeoff that the plane's weather radar had failed and returned from the runway to an aircraft stand to fix the problem.

After around an hour, the problem was fixed, and the plane took off. Roughly 30 minutes into the flight, staff announced that the system had failed again and told passengers the plane would need to dump fuel before returning to Singapore.

"We are sorry for the delay to customers' travel plans after the aircraft returned to Singapore Changi Airport as a precaution following a minor technical fault," a spokesperson for British Airways told Business Insider.

"Our teams are working hard to get our customers where they need to be."

The BI employee on the flight said that passengers were provided with accommodation and food upon returning to Singapore, but they didn't have information on which flight they would be transferred to.

"We currently do not have a revised departure time for your flight," British Airways said in an email to passengers at about 9:15 a.m. local time.

The BI employee said a number of passengers had missed their connecting flights from Heathrow.

According to the British Airways app, the airline's next flight from Singapore to London was due to leave at 11:20 p.m. local time on Tuesday but is now not expected to depart until 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Flight cancellations and delays such as that impacting BA12 can cause a snowball effect on airlines, staff, and passengers, leaving crew members and aircraft in the wrong place and disrupting further flights.

In the case of the Singapore to Heathrow flight, the Airbus A380 used was meant to be flying on from London to Los Angeles on Tuesday. However, that flight had to be canceled, as British Airways did not have any other aircraft available.

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The girl was 14 and attending a Dallas dog show. She and her family were talking to a prominent handler and longtime family friend, Adam Wilkerson, 31, when he asked her to help him get coffee for the group. Instead, he brought her to an empty hall closet and instructed her to touch his exposed penis.

She began working as Wilkerson's assistant a few months later. She'd been showing dogs since she was a toddler, her mother told Business Insider. Working for Wilkerson, whose dogs had won awards including best of breed at the lauded Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, seemed like a natural step to achieving the girl's ambition of becoming a professional dog handler.

The dog-show circuit brought them back to Dallas later that summer. This time, the girl was staying in a hotel room with Wilkerson and his girlfriend, also a professional dog handler. Wilkerson emerged from the shower and forced the girl to perform oral sex on him, according to court records. His girlfriend was asleep on the bed.

By the end of the summer, Wilkerson was charged with sexually assaulting the girl across five counties, mostly at dog shows, according to court documents reviewed by BI. He confessed to several assaults, pleaded guilty to indecency with a child, and served 12 years in prison.

He was required to register as a lifetime sex offender when he was released in 2020. He couldn't live near schools or playgrounds and was prohibited from holding certain jobs. But he continued showing dogs.

He was often at the same dog shows as the girl, now an adult, her mother said.

"We'd come to shows and he'd show up, and clubs would have his grooming setup literally 60 feet away from her, weekend after weekend," the mother recalled. "You could toss a ball and smack him." The girl was "terrified," her mother said, that Wilkerson might approach her.

BI does not publish the names of victims of sexual abuse without their consent. The girl declined to comment. Her mother asked not to be named to protect her daughter's identity. Their identities are known to BI.

The mother contacted the American Kennel Club, the organization that oversees most dog shows in the country. The AKC helps local kennel clubs enforce rules about conduct and animal treatment. It routinely bars people from participating in dog shows or, crucially for some dog breeders, registering their dogs with the AKC for violating rules about conduct, recordkeeping, or animal abuse.

But when the mother asked the AKC whether it could stop Wilkerson from attending events, the group's response, she said, amounted to a shrug. The AKC's reply was that it's just a "registry organization," meaning it exists to keep canine-breeding records.

The message she took was that the AKC believed protecting her daughter was less important than protecting Wilkerson.

Wilkerson died in March. But his was not an isolated case. For decades, members of the dog-handling community have clamored for the AKC to take action to prevent the sexual abuse of children, and they say their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

BI identified three other dog-show professionals — a handler, a breeder, and a former AKC employee — who were convicted of crimes against children. None were suspended by the AKC or local clubs, meaning they could return to the sport if they chose. Two of them did so.

As similarly situated organizations have taken measures meant specifically to protect child participants — including instituting background checks for people who work with children, barring people who have been convicted of crimes against children from membership, and publishing guidelines on unsupervised interactions between children and adults — the AKC failed to intervene, critics say, pleading that it was powerless to bar people accused or convicted of child abuse from participating in its events.

At the same time, it enforces strict discipline for infractions such as using curse words at a dog show and sometimes requires members to pay a $500 deposit to lodge a complaint about behavior.

The organization has only recently begun adopting policies to protect children, including expanding the number of people who take mandatory training on child-abuse awareness.

It's also considering an "extensive personal conduct policy designed to cover all manner of criminal behavior," a spokesperson, Brandi Hunter Munden, wrote in response to a request for comment, adding: "This policy will address cases where individuals alleged to have engaged in conduct that is illegal, violent, dangerous, or damages the reputation of others in the sport, and will allow AKC to bar individuals from the sport for that conduct."

Munden declined to share the draft policy with BI and did not answer a question about when it would be implemented.

The AKC markets dog shows as family-friendly events. Children as young as toddlers compete in junior handler divisions. Young teens eyeing a career in the sport often apprentice to professional handlers, a role that can put them in unsupervised proximity to the handler for days or weeks at a time.

But a string of convictions and arrests for handlers and judges has given many in the dog-show world pause.

A handler, Andrew Mansfield, was charged in 2018 with sexually assaulting the 14-year-old daughter of a client at a dog show in Michigan. He left the state before police could execute a warrant for his arrest and continued to show dogs for a year before he was apprehended at a dog show in Florida. He pleaded guilty in 2020 to one count of criminal sexual conduct.

Mansfield spent a year in jail and is serving five years of supervised release, the terms of which limit his interaction with children. He wasn't barred by the AKC or local clubs for his conduct and briefly returned to showing dogs at events overseen by the AKC after his conviction, he confirmed to BI.

In the world of dog shows, "I think there's a lot more that goes on than people ever know or realize," Mansfield said, "from drugs to abuse and anything else."

Mansfield may not have been censured by the AKC for his assault conviction, but he was briefly suspended from showing dogs in 2014 for a different reason: During a show in Louisiana, his dogs damaged a hotel room, prompting a local kennel club to bar him from events for three months and fine him $500.

The AKC was "not made aware" of Mansfield's 2020 conviction, Munden said, adding: "We can only investigate and act upon information that is reported to us."

A Pekingese breeder and handler, Walter Palmerino, was convicted in Massachusetts in 2008 of possessing child-sexual-abuse material. Since his release from prison, he has continued to breed and show dogs in Florida.

While Munden said he wasn't using the AKC's "services at the time of the arrest or conviction," show results indicate he was breeding and exhibiting dogs while his trial was ongoing. When contacted by BI, Palmerino said he's "no threat to anyone," adding: "I don't have children. I don't know children. I'm not around children. I show my dogs and get out of there, and that's it."

A retired American Kennel Club judge, field representative, and breeder, John Cathcart McCartney, was charged in 2014 with molesting three sisters, all under the age of 12. According to court documents, the girls would play with his show dog, Oscar, when they went over to his house, where McCartney made them touch his penis in exchange for candy and other treats.

But in the gossip pages of Dog News, a weekly magazine widely read by show-dog enthusiasts, McCartney's arrest was portrayed as a tragic misunderstanding by the former columnist and editor in chief Eugene Zaphiris.

"Hopefully, this will all work out in John's favor," Zaphiris wrote. Zaphiris did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

McCartney was convicted to life in prison plus 17 years in February after a decade of delays in his trial. An attorney for McCartney declined to comment. The AKC did not receive any complaints about McCartney before his arrest, Munden said, and he passed a background check before he began working for the organization in the early 2000s.

As a retired field representative, McCartney is entitled to receive a pension from the AKC. It's not clear whether he's still paid by the organization.

Two high-profile accusations in March have also rocked the sport. Adam Stafford King, a veterinary ophthalmologist and prominent AKC judge, was arrested on one charge of distributing child-sex-abuse materials. Federal prosecutors claim King also discussed raping a 4-year-old, abusing his toddler-aged niece and nephew after drugging them with Benadryl, and sexually abusing the child he and his husband were expecting via a surrogate.

A week later, Wisconsin police arrested Jacob Boudreau, a dog handler and groomer, charging him with 12 counts of possessing child-sexual-abuse material. Police said they found Snapchat messages with fantasies of having sex with his friend's 5-year-old son, as well as images of sex acts performed on his dog.

King has pleaded not guilty and is "committed to fighting these charges until his name is cleared," his attorney said in a statement, adding: "We look forward to a swift trial where the facts will demonstrate Mr. King's innocence and that he has been wrongfully accused."

Boudreau also intends to plead not guilty, his attorney said.

The AKC "did not condone or participate in any of the actions of these bad characters," Munden wrote in her statement. The AKC is "not always privileged to a person's private legal matters," she added, saying: "AKC advises individuals that they can contact law enforcement if they believe an individual is unlawfully at an AKC event."

The American Kennel Club is not your average, resource-strapped not-for-profit.

Founded in 1884, the organization brought in over $100 million in revenue in 2022, according to the most recent year tax filings are available. Its president and CEO's total compensation in 2022 was $1.3 million. Its headquarters occupy the entire floor of a building on Manhattan's Park Avenue next to Grand Central Terminal.

The bulk of the organization's income comes from the dog-show community, in the form of event and registration fees paid by local kennel clubs and breeders. But it also generated roughly $20 million in advertising, media sponsorships, and royalties in 2022, including from pet-food brands such as Royal Canin, Purina, and Eukanuba. The AKC also has media deals with ABC and ESPN to air exclusive dog-show content.

Four affiliated nonprofits — AKC Reunite, the AKC Canine Health Foundation, the AKC Museum of the Dog, and the AKC Humane Fund — have annual combined revenues of about $20 million. (A fifth affiliated nonprofit, the AKC Purebred Preservation Bank, was established last year; its revenues could not be determined.)

Mars Inc., which owns Royal Canin and Eukanuba, did not respond to a request for comment; neither did Purina or ABC. ESPN declined to comment.

Munden told BI the AKC was blindsided by the charges against King and Boudreau. Their alleged conduct "did not occur in the sport or at an event," she said.

"The entire American Kennel Club Board of Directors and staff condemn alleged criminal conduct by any participant in our sports, and we will continue to examine ways to strengthen our oversight," Dennis Sprung, the AKC's president, wrote last month in The Canine Chronicle, a glossy magazine that's widely distributed at dog shows. "We are committed to the well-being of every fancier, young or old, and will investigate every complaint that is received."

The arrests, though, have galvanized — and divided — parts of the dog-show community.

In an op-ed in Dog News in late March, Margaret Poindexter, the AKC's former general counsel, excoriated what she described as the AKC's "pathetic, pasty, paltry pablum" of a response to King's and Boudreau's arrests.

Another camp advises caution. "Making quick decisions based on current events is not the way to develop good, lasting policy," Deb Cooper, a dog-show gossip columnist and AKC judge, wrote in The Canine Chronicle.

In addition to the pages of dog-specialist magazines, battle lines have been drawn in raucous Facebook groups, some established years ago to share intelligence — and gossip — about bad breeders and bad judges. Dog handlers, fed up with what they see as the AKC's complacency, have compiled lists of people in the community who have been accused or convicted of child-abuse-related crimes. Others have shared stories on social media of abuse and harassment at the hands of judges and handlers.

The debate is taking place as kennel clubs try to entice younger children to show dogs. Many dog shows include competitions for junior handlers, including a "Pee Wee" division for kids under the age of 10. In recent years, some clubs have introduced events for children under the age of 5. Instead of showing dogs, they show their stuffed animals.

Many longtime dog handlers started as children, according to interviews with a dozen people involved in the sport. Teenagers who want to work as dog handlers apprentice as assistants, a sometimes unpaid position that involves long hours and days or weeks on the road.

Munden, the AKC spokesperson, said the organization "does not encourage nor promote minor children traveling to dog shows without a parent or legal guardian" and that parents were responsible for overseeing their children's participation in the sport.

Many people involved in the sport take pains to protect children, in part through a vigilant whisper network, longtime handlers told BI.

One dog handler and AKC judge, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized by the organization to speak with the media, said that as a child showing dogs, it was apparent to them that some adults in the dog-show community found young girls sexually attractive. "I was probably 13 or 14 when I understood that," this person said. "You'd see older men take an interest and it was like, 'Why'd you put your arm around me?'"

"I was probably 13 or 14 when I understood that. You'd see older men take an interest and it was like, 'Why'd you put your arm around me?'"
Anonymous AKC judge and handler

Children who want to work in the sport professionally aim to work for handlers who have led their clients' dogs to the winner's podium, Ashley Miller, a Texas handler who apprenticed to dog handlers as a teenager, said.

At dog shows, professional handlers "flirt; they give compliments," Miller said, adding: "These girls think, 'He wins,' and they want to win too. If you're with someone who wins, you have a leg up."

The AKC, local kennel clubs, and dog-show participants have overlooked or minimized dynamics that can enable child abuse in the sport, Carissa Shimpeno, a professional dog handler, said.

Shimpeno's mother was also a professional dog handler. When Shimpeno was in third grade, one of her mother's clients began sexually abusing her, Shimpeno said, adding that the abuse lasted for years.

Shimpeno's mother "really relied" on her abuser's business, Shimpeno recalled, saying: "That fact was used against me. It made it very complicated. I didn't want to mess up our security." Shimpeno last month helped found a group, Show-Safe, dedicated to expanding the reach of child-abuse awareness training in the dog-show community.

The AKC appears to be listening to its critics and says it's taking reasonable steps to protect children involved in the sport.

In addition to announcing its forthcoming behavior policy, the AKC mandated in April that staff, registered handlers, judges, and local clubs' youth coordinators take a two-hour training from the nonprofit Darkness to Light on recognizing and preventing child sexual abuse. Previously, only AKC staff and registered handlers, a group of about 350 people, had been required to take a similar training.

The group also recommended that children and their parents in the dog-show community take training from the national nonprofit SafeSport for Kids and temporarily suspended King and Boudreau from participating in AKC events.

Such steps are major improvements over the organization's historically anemic response to allegations of abuse and assault, Mary Dukes, a breeder and dog-show judge, said. Dukes is also a former AKC employee; in 2021, she persuaded the AKC to roll out SafeSport training for registered handlers.

"Any movement is a step in the right direction," Dukes said. "I'm happy that they've made a big public start because they've been hesitant to do that in the past."

In her experience, the AKC has been reluctant to step beyond its role as a repository of dog genealogical data to police the conduct of people in the dog-show community, Dukes added. The organization has faced similar criticism from animal-rights groups who have said it should take a firmer stand against animal cruelty and high-volume dog-breeders, with the AKC similarly pleading that it's not a law-enforcement agency.

Others in the sport have already gone beyond the AKC.

A breed club dedicated to a rare North African sight hound, the Sloughi, recently barred people convicted of certain crimes from membership and began requiring background checks for judges, moves it positioned in a public statement as a response to the two recent arrests. Florida's West Volusia Kennel Club announced last year it would no longer allow convicted sex offenders to participate in its dog shows, a change spearheaded by Susan Shephard, the chair of the club's shows, after she said she encountered Palmerino, the Pekingese breeder who was convicted of possession of child sex abuse material, "bold as brass, wheeling his Pekingese ringside" at a dog show.

"I'm over this being swept under the rug."
Susan Shephard, show chair of Florida's West Volusia Kennel Club

Shephard said the rule hadn't been difficult to enforce. If someone comes to her with a screenshot from a state or national sex-offender registry, she will bar the offender from the show, she said.

"I'm over this being swept under the rug," she said.

But the response hints at the difficulty the AKC and other clubs may face if they attempt to implement similar rules. Palmerino said he's in the process of drawing up a lawsuit against the AKC and Shephard for barring him from shows.

"I have some of the top Pekes in the country," and his breeding program has taken a hit, Palmerino said.

Compared with similar organizations, the AKC's existing policies around protecting children from sexual abuse are notably lax. The youth farming and animal-husbandry club 4-H, which has branches across the country, requires volunteers to undergo criminal background checks before they're authorized to work with children. So do the Boy Scouts and many church groups, changes implemented after decades of unaddressed child sexual abuse resulted in damaging media coverage and expensive lawsuits. After child-abuse accusations against a prominent trainer became New York Times headlines in 2018, the US Equestrian Federation announced strict guidelines barring children from unsupervised, one-on-one time with trainers and massage therapists.

In its statement, the AKC disputed that it lacked a process for dealing with inappropriate behavior.

"For decades, the AKC has had measures in place to bar people from the sport for conduct regarding the treatment of dogs or conduct that occurs while at an AKC event that is prejudicial to the sport," Munden wrote, adding that the organization's bylaws allowed people to submit complaints to the board.

But submitting a complaint can come with a hefty price tag: a $500 deposit, which the organization keeps if the complaint is found to be unsubstantiated, according to the AKC's regulations.

Munden said the group wasn't a stickler about the fee. If someone submits a complaint to the organization without a deposit, they may choose to open an investigation anyway, she said.

But having such a rule in the organization's bylaws disincentivizes speaking up about abuse, Tonda Curry, who shows toy fox terriers, said — particularly in light of a common perception that the AKC is an old boys' club. A county prosecutor by day, Curry has helped file complaints to the AKC about various misconduct allegations.

"It creates such a mistrust," Curry said.

When Wilkerson continued to show up at dog shows over the protests of his victim's mother, the AKC seemed to believe that law enforcement was best equipped to determine whether he could attend dog shows, not the AKC or local clubs that take their lead from it.

"Each time" a concern about Wilkerson's presence at a dog show was raised, the AKC advised the person "to contact local law enforcement as it would be their jurisdiction to determine if he was permitted to be on the show grounds or in violation of his terms," Munden said, adding: "After each interaction with law enforcement, we were subsequently advised that he was within his rights to be on the grounds."

That explanation rings hollow to some in the sport. Local clubs, following AKC rules, regularly suspend people for minor offenses such as swearing on show grounds, a review of AKC records showed.

"If you can suspend someone at a dog show for telling someone else to fuck off, which they can, and we can tell them they can't go to the dog shows for six months, it seems like you should be able to suspend someone who's been convicted of a sexual offense against a child," Dukes, the former AKC employee, said. "It seems to track."

Paige McCarver, an Arizona dog groomer who has bred and shown dogs, has experience with what she perceives as a double standard: She was suspended for three months and fined $300 when a spectator saw her trip over one of her dogs, but when she told the AKC that a judge had commented on "how full and luscious my breasts were" and "how good would they taste in his mouth," the organization took no action, apart from privately warning the judge that such behavior was unacceptable, according to correspondence McCarver shared with BI.

Munden said that though people raised concerns about Wilkerson being at dog shows, the organization was never specifically asked to suspend him from the sport. "If a formal complaint was made to AKC regarding revoking his privileges to show dogs at AKC events overall, we would have considered it," she said.

Shortly after Wilkerson's release, Curry started a Change.org petition asking the AKC to ban registered sex offenders from show grounds. The petition garnered nearly 2,800 signatures.

Curry is sympathetic, she said, to the argument that once someone has served their time, they should be allowed to reenter society. She's worked in the criminal-justice system for 34 years, including as a defense attorney.

But she supports barring people convicted of crimes against children from participating in dog shows.

"Are we punishing them for life? Maybe we are," Curry said. "But we're also trying to protect kids."

The mother of Wilkerson's former assistant said she's certain her daughter was not Wilkerson's only victim. After Wilkerson's arrest, her daughter asked her to contact the parents of five other girls she believed were abused. Those parents chose not to pursue the matter, the mother said.

"Of all the alleged victims that there could have been or were, the fact that only a 14-year-old girl had the courage to step forward and say it stops here — the courage that it takes for a child to do that, and carry that weight on her own, is incredible," her mother said. "To have to sit in the courtroom and stare at him while he stares at you. That's tough for anyone."

Meanwhile, the American Kennel Club, the mother said, showed only cowardice.

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• Tesla reports first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
• The EV maker has been under pressure after a reported pivot away from a low-cost vehicle model.
• The company's stock is down more than 40% in 2024.

Tesla will report first-quarter earnings on Tuesday after the closing bell.

The electric-vehicle maker has been under pressure to start 2024 amid reports it will scrap plans to produce a low-cost Model 2, and instead focus on autonomous driving and robotaxis. Wall Street didn't like that idea, pushing Tesla's already-struggling stock lower.

The company has also been dealing with declining demand for its EVs, which has prompted a series of price cuts, the latest of which came on Monday.

Tesla's stock was down 43% year-to-date through Monday's close, badly trailing the the S&P 500's 5% gain.

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

Hello there! If you were disappointed to see basketball star Caitlin Clark's modest WNBA salary, take comfort knowing she just inked an eight-figure endorsement deal with Nike.

In today's big story, we're looking at the steps being taken toward banning TikTok in the US.

What's on deck:

• Markets: Round-the-clock stock trading could be coming.

• Tech: It's time for Elon Musk to reveal his Tesla rescue plan — if he has one.

• Business: How private equity sees profit in the business of educating autistic kids.

But first, for you no one's page.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Tick-tock on TikTok

TikTok's time in the US could soon be on the clock.

The much-discussed ban of the popular app took a big step this weekend. The US House of Representatives passed a bill forcing TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the company or face a ban.

That leaves the Senate to approve it today, which it likely will, followed by President Joe Biden signing the bill into law. When it's all said and done, a TikTok ban could be in place before the week's end.

Sort of.

Business Insider's Peter Kafka explains why the TikTok ban, while more imminent than ever, still has a long way to go.

ByteDance will undoubtedly put up a legal fight over the law, and will also have a year to find a suitor before getting the boot.

Finding a buyer for a company with such a sizable valuation — Bloomberg Intelligence pegged it at up to $40 billion in March — is difficult enough. Although people have already thrown their hats in the ring.

But you're also talking about closing a large deal at a time when interest rates show no signs of slowing down, and M&A has been largely nonexistent.

Oh, and did I mention the seller would be doing the entire process under protest? And their country of origin is in the midst of a brutal trade war with the US?

So yes, what could go wrong?

In the meantime, TikTok keeps scrolling along.

An internal memo sent Saturday from Michael Beckerman, TikTok's head of public policy in the Americas, assured workers it would fight the bill, deeming it "the beginning, not the end."

The ban isn't the only concern for the app. Some Gen Zers feel TikTok has already committed the cardinal sin of internet apps: selling out. At a time when people struggle to get by, TikTok is inundating users with creators hawking products, writes BI's Lindsay Dodgson.

But don't expect TikTok to back off. TikTok Shop has proved to be a big success in retaining customers, outperforming Shein and Temu when it came to repeat purchases, according to one report.

Building out its e-commerce business will likely remain a key focus as it looks to reach profitability. Despite about $20 billion in revenue last year, TikTok is still in its cash-burn era, according to The Information.

A TikTok ban would benefit one familiar face in social media, though, writes BI's Katie Notopoulos. Instagram's Reels, the short-form video player, would be a natural landing spot for TikTokers looking for a new home. Plus, it's already pulled ahead of TikTok in certain categories.

YouTube Shorts, too, stand to grab more attention after a TikTok ban.

But the demise of a rival might be a short-term benefit. The government successfully shutting down a popular app is not the precedent Big Tech wants to set.

3 things in markets

1. How a $3.3 trillion wealth unit is forging ahead after its leader's surprise exit. Andy Sieg's departure from Merrill last year was a shock. But Lindsay Hans and Eric Schimpf, the group's new co-heads, are already putting their stamp on the business by amping up recruitment and unwinding unpopular pay schemes.

2. The New York Stock Exchange might become the trading venue that never sleeps. The NYSE is reportedly considering remaining open 24 hours a day. It's not the only venue pushing for 24/7 trading, as a startup backed by Steve Cohen's VC firm wants to be the world's first 24-hour stock exchange.

3. In China, all that glitters is gold. People in China are snapping up gold, amid signs that the world's second-largest economy is faltering. The country's central bank is also getting in on the act, having upped its holdings of the precious metal for 17 months in a row.

3 things in tech

1. It's time for Elon Musk to deploy his Tesla rescue plan. The company is expected to report a more than 40% profit drop during its earnings call on Tuesday. If Musk has a plan to save the company, now's the time to reveal it.

2. How Mark Zuckerberg prepared for a GenAI wave he didn't even see coming. When he started amassing GPUs in 2022, it wasn't for generative AI. Instead, he was hoping they would help with his metaverse ambitions. GenAI wasn't on his mind — but he still did what he could to be ready for the unexpected.

3. No pitch deck required. Nikhil Teja Kolli's startup MokSa.ai uses AI-enabled security cameras to curb theft and fraud. In March, it closed a $1.5 million funding round — without even having to show prospective investors a pitch deck.

3 things in business

1. Private equity is reshaping special education. New Story is an experiment in the American education system: a network of schools owned and operated by a PE firm. It's a concept that has former staff, researchers, and US senators worried.

2. The real-estate revolution is coming. Thanks to a series of multibillion-dollar class-action lawsuits, the real-estate industry is in the throes of its biggest upheaval in half a century. Homebuying will get more confusing — but there are some new ways for buyers to come out on top.

3. From Amazon to Walmart, here's how much you can make working for big retailers. BI tracked SEC filings to work out the median wage for workers at 19 big-name brands. Spoiler alert: Costco, Amazon, and Nordstrom came out on top.

In other news

• DJT SPAC: Trump Media stock price collapse is only going to get worse.

• Hush money isn't illegal, it's 'democracy,' Trump lawyer says in defiant trial opening statements

• Columbia divided: Israel-Gaza protests push Ivy to shut down in-person classes.

• Saudi Arabia is desperately trying to woo bankers to pay for its futuristic desert city.

• How much the typical worker makes at 19 retailers, from Amazon to Walmart.

• How much Bill Gates pays in property taxes on his pricey real estate portfolio.

• NYC's EV revolution is riding on Uber and Lyft drivers.

What's happening today

• Today's earnings: Tesla, General Motors, Spotify, and other companies are reporting.

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.

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• New England Patriots owner and Columbia donor Robert Kraft is pulling his support for the university.
• Columbia is being divided by protests over Israel's war in Gaza.
• Kraft stated he is "no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff."

Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots and a Columbia University alumnus, has pulled his support for the university, which has been racked by unrest and protests over Israel's war in Gaza.

In a statement through his organization Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, Kraft said that Columbia is "no longer an institution I recognize," adding that he is "no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff."

"I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken," said Kraft, for whom Columbia's Kraft Center For Jewish Life is named.

Students and faculty have been arrested at the school after occupying the campus to protest the Israel-Gaza conflict. Demonstrators have called on the school to divest its investments from Israeli businesses and institutions affiliated with the war, which has killed thousands of civilians.

Jewish leaders on campus, meanwhile, have alleged that protesters have shouted offensive rhetoric at Jewish students, with one rabbi recommending students stay off campus.

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Tyrone White was a member of the 65 Menlo Gangster faction of the Crips gang in South Central Los Angeles during the late '80s and '90s, witnessing police brutality and the LA riots. White speaks with Business Insider about the culture of the Crips and the rivalry with the Bloods. He talks about money-making activities, clothing, and music.

Andy "Rebirth" Pellerano is a former soldier for the Almighty Latin King Nation, or Latin Kings. Pellerano discusses gang life in New Orleans, where the gang spread from its home base in Chicago. He discusses drug-trafficking networks, robbery, and extortion. Today, Pellerano is an evangelical minister and musician.

Alex Sanchez is a former high-ranking member of MS-13. He became involved in the gang in the 1980s in Los Angeles and participated in its expansion. He speaks with BI about tattooing, rules and codes, media perception, and the political language used to depict the gang.

Omar Sharif was involved in gang activity in London. He speaks with BI about county lines, gang colors, and language. Sharif is now a motivational speaker, life coach, and youth worker. He has also worked with large corporations and leaders.

John Pennisi was an associate with the Gambino family through John Gotti Jr. before he became a made member of the Lucchese crime family in 2013. Pennisi says he decided to leave the mob in 2018 after members of his crew falsely accused him of cooperating with law enforcement.

Jay Dobyns is a retired ATF agent who went undercover with the Hells Angels from 2001 to 2003 as part of Operation Black Biscuit. He speaks with BI about his experience with the outlaw motorcycle gang, from weapons to narcotics trafficking. He later served as an instructor at the ATF's National Academy. Dobyns is the recipient of the United States attorney general's Medal of Valor, 12 ATF special-act awards, and the National Association of Police Organizations' top-cops award.

Jimmy Tsui is a former member of Tung On in New York City's Chinatown. He later transitioned into the Sun Yee On triad in Hong Kong, where he became a "426 general" in 1988. He speaks with BI about how the triads make money, such as extortion and protection rackets. He discusses the initiation ceremonies and rules of membership as well as the ties to the movie business.

Mike Moy says he was a gang member in New York City's Chinatown, having been recruited in the 1970s. He speaks with BI about gambling houses, counterfeit money, bootleg kung fu movies, gunrunning, and credit-card fraud. Moy joined the New York City Police Department as an officer in 1995 and worked there for 26 years. He later founded the YouTube channel Chinatown Gang Stories, where he speaks with former gang members about their lives.

Yuyama Shinya is a former member of the yakuza in Japan. He speaks with BI about the ways the yakuza makes money, such as extortion and protection rackets. He discusses the initiation ceremonies and rules of membership as well as the ties the yakuza has to other criminal groups, such as the triads and Russian organized crime. He now runs a YouTube channel.

Find out more:

Andy Pellerano
www.oneaccordministries.net/

Alex Sanchez
www.homiesunidos.org

Omar Sharif
www.omarinspires.com

John Pennisi
https://www.youtube.com/c/Sitdownnews

Jay Dobyns
www.jaydobyns.com/

Mike Moy and Jimmy Tsui
https://www.youtube.com/@chinatowngangstories

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• Elon Musk is clashing with multiple governments around the world.
• His ownership of X/Twitter has pulled him into a new sphere of global politics.
• Musk has been in public spats with Brazil's Supreme Court and the Australian government this year.

Elon Musk is well known for his public spats.

The world's fourth-richest person rarely shies away from face-offs with other prominent figures but, increasingly, he appears to be drawing the ire of national governments too.

That's largely due to his ownership of Twitter, which thrust him into a new sphere of global politics.

In the past year, he's been engaged in several public fights with government representatives over issues including free speech, Starlink sales, and X's content moderation.

Australian demands

Musk has been criticized by the Australian government for ignoring demands to take down certain posts.

Videos and posts commenting on the stabbing of Sydney-based bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel have been circulating on X, which the Australian government seemingly wanted taken down.

X's global government affairs account claimed to have received a "demand" from Australia's eSafety commissioner to withhold certain posts or face a "daily fine of $785,000 AUD."

Musk said on Friday: "The Australian censorship commissar is demanding global content bans."

Tanya Plibersek, the Australia's environment minister, hit out at the X owner, calling him an "egotistical billionaire."

Australia's Federal Court has now ordered X to hide posts with videos of the stabbing incident, Reuters reported.

Musk said on X the content had been "censored" for Australia, "pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA."

He added: "Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian 'eSafety Commissar' is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?

Last October Australia's eSafety Commission fined X almost $400,000 for not fully outlining its methods for dealing with child sexual exploitation content, outlets including BBC News reported.

Brazilian backlash

Musk has been clashing with a judge on Brazil's supreme court, Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The issues began after de Moraes asked Musk to block certain X accounts in Brazil the country amid an investigation into "digital militias" that he alleged were spreading fake news and threats against Brazil's supreme court.

Musk said X would not comply with the request, and later alleged de Moraes was betraying the Brazilian constitution, claiming he should resign or be impeached.

De Moraes has since opened a separate investigation into Musk.

Starlink, Russia, and Ukraine

Musk's SpaceX has been dealing with an ongoing saga over Russia's supposed use of Starlink terminals during the war with Ukraine.

Prominent figures in Russia have lashed out at Musk over the claims.

Last year, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the SpaceX founder over a report Musk had ordered his engineers to block Starlink satellites over Crimea.

Musk has denied the claim and repeatedly denied selling Starlink terminals to Russia.

Several Ukrainian MPs also criticized the billionaire after he posted a meme taunting Zelenskyy's calls for more aid.

Ireland and hate speech

In Ireland, Musk has pledged to fund legal challenges that oppose the country's upcoming hate speech legislation.

He told the Irish outlet Gript that X would "make sure that if there is an attempt to suppress the voice of the Irish people that we do our absolute best to defend the people of Ireland and their ability to speak their mind."

Musk was referring to Ireland's forthcoming Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill, which other public figures, including Donald Trump Jr, have criticized.

X's European headquarters is in Dublin.

Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

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• The bond market's famous recession gauge has been flashing for 18 months.
• A downturn could be delayed for months after the yield curve first inverts, Paul Dietrich said.
• He predicted a recession would hit the economy "sometime soon."

A famously accurate recession indicator has been flashing for 18 months without an economic slowdown materializing — but the inverted yield curve is still correct, and a downturn is looming, B. Riley Wealth's chief investment strategist Paul Dietrich says. 

Dietrich pointed to the inverted Treasury yield curve, a highly accurate recession gauge that flashes when the yield on the 2-year US Treasury surpasses the 10-year Treasury. 

An inversion on the 2-10 Treasury spread has correctly predicted every recession since 1955 — and it's been flashing its infamous warning since November 2022, around the time B. Riley's collection of leading economic indicators also began to signal a coming recession.

The resilience of the US economy has stunned observers, but while some economists have dialed back their warnings of a coming downturn, one is still coming, Dietrich said in a note to clients last week. In the past, recessions have taken up to 28 months to officially start after being signaled by the yield curve and leading economic indicators, he noted.

Stocks also look due for a correction. The US is in the midst of a 15-year secular bull market, the longest in US financial history.

Forecasters have likely been taking their recession calls off the table out of impatience, Dietrich said, though he anticipated recession calls to come back into the picture within the next six months. 

"I think wise investors should be very skeptical of those who tell you we are starting a new bull market and that we will not have a recession. They want you to believe that the natural business cycles of bull markets followed by a recession have been magically suspended and 'this time is different.' It is not different!" Dietrich said. "I don't know the exact date of the next recession, but I know it will come sometime soon."

Dietrich is among the more bearish forecasters on Wall Street, having warned investors of an impending recession for months. Previously, he predicted the economy could see a mild recession as soon this year, which could tank stocks as much as 49%. 

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• Global military spending in 2023 rose to the highest levels ever recorded, analysts said.
• The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said the spike was the steepest rise since 2009.
• Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania saw particularly large increases, it said.

Global military spending surged by 6.8% in real terms in 2023 to reach $2443 billion — the highest level ever recorded, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

SIPRI released its annual report on trends in world military expenditure on Monday, describing last year's spike as the "steepest year-on-year increase" since 2009.

And the trend is truly global.

All five of the institute's defined geographical regions saw rises in military spending for the first time since 2009, with Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania recording particularly large increases, it said.

Global conflicts have been on the rise since around 2012, according to the International Crisis Group, with fighting simmering, breaking out, or expanding in Ukraine, Gaza, Ethiopia, and Myanmar over the past few years — to name just a few.

This, in turn, has ramped up military spending.

Nan Tian, a senior researcher with SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, said the "unprecedented" rise in defense spending came in direct response to the "global deterioration in peace and security."

"States are prioritizing military strength but they risk an action–reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape," he said.

In fact, military expenditure has grown so much that global expenses per person reached $306 in 2023, SIPRI reported.

The institute cited Russia's military spending, which it says climbed by 24% to reach an estimated $109 billion in 2023. It also highlighted Ukraine, which ranked eighth in terms of overall defense spending, following a 51% year-on-year increase.

Lorenzo Scarazzato, a SIPRI researcher, said that two years of Russia's war in Ukraine had fundamentally altered the security outlook for European NATO states.

He added that the NATO target of 2 percent of GDP being spent on defense is now being seen "as a baseline rather than a threshold to reach."

Eleven out of 31 NATO members fulfilled or exceeded the threshold in 2023, the highest number since the agreement was struck in 2014, per SIPRI.

The US, meanwhile, held onto its position as the world's largest defense spender, with its military spending rising by 2.3% to reach $916 billion in 2023, per the institute.

This is far more than China, the world's second-largest military spender, it said, which spent an estimated $296 billion on defense in 2023, up 6%.

At the same time, Israel saw its defense spending rise by 24% to reach $27.5 billion in 2023, mostly due to its large-scale offensive in Gaza, SIPRI's report found.

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• Pinal Air Park in Arizona is one of the largest aircraft storage facilities in the world.
• The multi-million business boomed during the pandemic as airlines worldwide grounded hundreds of jets.
• The airpark is also a hub for maintenance, as well as re-configuring jets when they get a new operator.

As the aviation industry hopes to reduce its carbon footprint, companies are coming up with new strategies to alleviate CO2 emissions.

in April, the Aviation Circularity Consortium, including Australian flag carrier Qantas and other groups, was created as a "joint mission to accelerate supply chain decarbonisation."

The plan is to use the 8,000 "end-of-life retired aircraft" that are sitting in deserts, jungles, and storage yards across the globe. Another 11,000 are expected to be available over the next 10 years.

According to the consortium, the thousands of decommissioned aircraft offer "a new source of valuable circular materials" and address the "significant waste pollution challenges to the shrinking legal boneyards around the world."

These "graveyards" started filling up during the pandemic when airlines had to make drastic cost-cutting changes, including furloughing pilots, cutting routes, and indefinitely storing hundreds of planes in the desert.

One of these facilities is Pinal Air Park in Marana, Arizona — a small town located about 90 miles southeast of Phoenix.

As airlines started to shrink in 2020, hundreds of planes from all over the world flew to the 2,080-acre airpark.

With the influx, Pinal had to take special precautions to ensure the aircraft was ready to fly once travel eventually rebounded.

Because of this, Ascent Aviation Services — the largest aircraft service provider on the airfield — had to beef up its staff to maintain the constant arrivals.

Company CCO Scott Butler told Business Insider last year that starting in March 2020, planes were coming in at about one per hour — requiring over 150 extra mechanics.

Additional parking lots were built to handle the hundreds of planes, which continued to be filled into 2021 and 2022 with jets coming from places like the US, South Korea, UK, Australia, and Canada.

I went inside one of the US' largest aircraft storage facilities and saw how it isn't emptying out despite the rise in air travel

Leasing companies were also filling the airfield after buying up inexpensive planes sold during COVID and storing them at Pinal.

Inside a remote Arizona aircraft boneyard storing nearly 300 planes grounded by the pandemic

However, with travel now roaring back and demand on track to surpass 2019 levels, AAS has gotten back to its roots — maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO).

Basic offerings include simple maintenance checks and on-demand repairs, like fixing the landing gear or inspecting the flight controls.

However, heavy maintenance is the most costly for airlines. This involves a full assessment of the aircraft and can take up to 60 days for widebody jets, Butler explained.

"A narrowbody will cost around $2 million," he told BI in May 2023. "With widebodies, you're easily looking at $3 million."

These projects take a lot of manpower. Butler said the company targets 400-500 hours per day for widebodies and 300 per day for narrowbodies.

Because the checks are so expensive, many carriers opt to sell the aircraft when it gets to that stage in its lifecycle, which is typically every six to 10 years.

Source: National Aviation Academy

Or, the operator will allow an aircraft lease to expire. This means if the lessor finds a new home for the plane, it will need to be fitted for its next contract.

For these conversions, AAS offers additional services, like re-painting liveries, switching out flight systems, and installing new cabins.

Sometimes, aircraft will transition from a passenger jet to a cargo plane — a service the company saw increased popularity during the pandemic, especially with older jets.

See the giant Airbus A330 freighter aircraft that will power a new lucrative cargo operation for Amazon

For flight tests and deliveries, the operator will arrange pilots, who will land and depart on the designated runway stretching Pinal's airfield.

Overall, Butler said AAS can do nearly anything an airline would need from an MRO standpoint.

The main service it can't provide is engine overhauls, which are outsourced to other shops.

"A lot of our current projects are just waiting on engines," Butler told BI. "There's a backlog because no one did engine maintenance during COVID because of the expenses."

He explained this is adding to the already strained supply chain that has caused a slowdown in returning aircraft to service.

While AAS does a lot of work keeping airplanes flying, it also offers aircraft reclamation and end-of-life services — what the consortium wants to capitalize on.

This involves disassembling and disposing of unwanted parts, which make up about 10% of the airplane.

According to Butler, the other 90% is recyclable. These include things like engines and galley carts…

…and avionics and landing gear.

However, he said custom interiors do not have much value except to the original operator.

A plane can spend months being salvaged, with hundreds of collected parts being resold or repaired for future use.

The re-certified pieces can be sent back to airlines who keep them in their inventory as spare parts — meaning retired jets can still provide for current ones.

Inside a remote Arizona aircraft boneyard storing nearly 300 planes grounded by the pandemic

Meanwhile, some carriers will take parts of the metal to create memorabilia, like cutting the logo or airline name from the fuselage and using it as wall art.

In addition to the strong MRO and reclamation divisions, storage and parking is still a strong revenue source for AAS.

"80% of all the stored aircraft worldwide are stored in the Southwest," Butler told BI in 2021.

During an April 2023 tour of the airpark, BI found the main lot full of planes, including two rare Boeing 747SPs.

Mechanics spend up to two weeks getting a plane ready for storage. Important components like the engines, pitot tubes, systems, and landing gear are sealed and protected.

This is especially important to prevent critters and other wildlife from taking up residence in the airplane's openings and small crevices.

Butler told BI the stored aircraft also get regular maintenance checks to keep them airworthy.

Parked planes, on the other hand, do not get this service and can be left to collect dust — giving Pinal its "boneyard" nickname.

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