• Cypress Hill and the London Symphony Orchestra will perform "Black Sunday" at the Royal Albert Hall.
• The collaboration has been 28 years in the making following a 1996 episode of "The Simpsons."
• Wednesday's performance coincides with the album's 30th anniversary.

It's taken almost three decades, but Cypress Hill and the London Symphony Orchestra will take to the stage on Wednesday for an orchestral rendition of the "Black Sunday" album, which features the hits "Insane in the Brain" and "I Wanna Get High."

The one-off gig at London's Royal Albert Hall was sparked by a joke in a 1996 episode of "The Simpsons" titled "Homerpalooza." In the episode, Cypress Hill mistakenly booked the LSO for a performance, "possibly whilst high."

After mulling a collaboration for years, the hip-hop group — the first rap act to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — contacted the orchestra on social media.

B-Real (aka Louis Mario Freese), one of the two lead rappers in Cypress Hill, told BBC News that performing at the Royal Albert Hall is "one of those checklist moments — it's very special for us."

The rehearsals had one or two miscommunications: some members of the orchestra thought a "glock" was a reference to a glockenspiel, rather than a gun.

"We salute 'The Simpsons' because if they hadn't written the episode, we probably wouldn't have been doing this," B-Real told BBC News.

In the episode, Homer attends the "Hullabalooza festival — a play on Lollapalooza — in a bid to prove he's cool and hangs out with acts including Cypress Hill and the Smashing Pumpkins.

Rock legend Peter Frampton is responsible for trying to book the orchestra in the episode. He's been invited him to the Royal Albert Hall show, but it's not clear if he will attend.

The collaboration follows a string of predictions in "The Simpsons" that later came true, including Donald Trump being elected president, and magicians Siegfried and Roy being attacked by one of their tigers on stage.

The Simpsons was created by Matt Groening and first aired on Fox in January 1990. It's since notched up 35 seasons, making it one of the longest-running scripted prime-time TV shows.

• A Texas-based truck driver went to college in his 40s because he wanted to switch careers.
• He said getting a degree hasn't helped him find a job and that he has over $100,000 in student debt.
• He thinks his age and having a college degree have sometimes held him back in the job market. 

At age 40, Kenneth Ferraro decided to pursue a college degree for the first time. He's come to regret this decision.

Ferraro, who's based in Texas, had worked as a truck driver for decades, he told Business Insider via email. He said the job provided a stable income, but that he long desired a different career. He thought going back to school was the best way to make this a reality.

"I traveled across the country, worked long hours, and was more than a little burned out," he said. "This was not a career I had chosen, but like many people, I happened into it. Going to college out of high school was not financially possible."

In 2018, Ferraro began his studies by attending a local community college part-time, but he said he enjoyed the experience so much that he quit his truck driving job to focus on school. After completing his associate degree, he went on to pursue a bachelor's degree in political science from New York University.

"I knew it would be financially crippling, but I believed the prestigious credential would bolster my employment opportunities after graduation," he said.

However, despite applying for countless jobs over the past few years, Ferraro's had little luck. He said the only role he's been able to land is a delivery driver position for a large beverage company — and he's stuck with over $100,000 in student loan debt.

"After all my hard work and sacrifice, the only work that I have been able to secure is the same type of work that I have been doing my whole life," he said. "My education and dedication to bettering myself have cost me financially and emotionally."

The US male unemployment rate is low compared to past decades, but Ferraro is among the men who have struggled to find work or have stopped looking altogether. In 1950, about 97% of American men ages 25 to 54 had a job or were actively looking for one, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of June, this figure had fallen to about 89%.

Among the several explanations for this trend is that in recent decades, it's become difficult for some men to land a well-paying job without a college degree — a development that's contributed to some men leaving the labor force. These challenges persist today for men even as more companies have started hiring candidates without a degree.

The perceived benefits of a college degree have led more Americans to go back to school later in life. About 34% of college undergraduates and 44% of community college enrollees are age 25 or older, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But as Ferraro and many recent college graduates can attest to, having a degree doesn't guarantee success in the job market. Last November, the unemployment rate of US college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 was 5% compared to the 3.7% overall US unemployment rate. That was the most the "recent graduate" unemployment rate had exceeded the overall rate in the over three decades of New York Fed data. Factor in the cost of college and pursuing a degree might not be worth it for some people.

Ferraro shared the biggest challenges he's faced in his job search, including why he thinks having a college degree has sometimes worked against him.

Being an older college graduate could make it hard to land certain types of jobs

Ferraro always knew that pursuing a new career wouldn't be easy. At age 42, he was happy to spend six months interning for a local congressperson.

However, Ferraro's struggles to find a full-time government job left him frustrated. While having a college degree improved his credentials, he thinks his age has held him back in the job market.

Ferraro recalled applying for an entry-level position in the office of a government official, a role he thought would be the "perfect" job for him to kick-start his new career.

The early stages of the interview process seemed promising, but he said things changed when he had an in-person interview.

"As soon as the hiring manager saw me, his whole demeanor changed," Ferraro said. "He ran through the questions and never truly engaged with me."

A few weeks later, Ferraro learned that he was no longer being considered for the role. The only explanation that made sense to him was that the hiring manager wasn't interested in candidates as old as him.

"A man in his forties, who is the perfect candidate on paper, willing to work, willing to learn, and willing to apply himself to any task, is still a man in his 40s," he said. "Therefore, not a valid candidate."

Ferraro needed an income, and after struggling to land jobs in his field of study, he reluctantly decided to expand his search to the truck driver jobs he'd hoped to escape.

But despite his decades of prior experience, Ferraro said he struggled to land an interview for driving jobs — a development that baffled him. But then he had an idea: What if he removed his college education from his résume when he applied?

"I did not start receiving interviews until I removed the education section on my application," he said. "My degree was holding me back."

Despite Ferraro's challenges, truck drivers have generally been in high demand in recent years, in part due to the e-commerce boom tied to the pandemic. But as online shopping trends have begun to normalize, some drivers have had a harder time finding work.

Ferraro eventually landed a job similar to the one he had before his schooling began in 2018, but he said he's earning about 20% less per hour than he used to. He said his employer prioritizes experience at the company over experience in the broader trucking industry.

As things stand, Ferraro said he regrets going to college. However, he still hopes that his education will eventually help him secure an entry-level government role.

After working as a driver during the day, he said he attends graduate school at night. He's working toward his master's in public administration and is continuing to apply for jobs.

"This situation is very frustrating," he said. "It feels like I am putting in so much effort, without any return."

Have you given up looking for work or are you struggling to find a job? Have you gone back to college later in life? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.

• Apple is ready to put AI on iPhones, iPads, Macs and Watches.
• Samsung has decided to put AI into a ring.
• The Korean company just revealed the Galaxy Ring, a wearable designed to track health biomarkers with AI.

Apple wants to put artificial intelligence in your pocket or on your desk — but Samsung wants to put it on your finger.

On Wednesday, the South Korean company officially unveiled the Galaxy Ring, a wearable piece of smart jewelry it first teased in January.

While the titanium ring's black, silver, and gold models look deceptively simple, they represent Samsung's latest hardware to boast Galaxy AI, its bold alternative to the AI-led Apple Intelligence platform announced in June.

According to Samsung, the Galaxy Ring has been built with health and wellness in mind. Its design features pick up various biomarkers, which its AI can use to give wearers a more "comprehensive understanding" of themselves.

A new feature called an "energy score," for example, will give users an overview of their overall well-being based on an assessment of seven health metrics, such as sleeping, heart rate and activity, carried out by on-device AI.

Other AI features include "wellness tips," which aim to deliver AI-powered advice to users about steps they can take to improve their health based on the assessment made by the energy score feature. There's also a dedicated sleep AI algorithm designed to review and improve sleep quality.

According to James Kitto, head of Samsung's UK mobile division, the ring is a key part of its ambitions to offer users a more personalized and "unified experience."

The more data Galaxy AI can get about a user, the more information it will have to enhance the services it provides to users.

In Samsung's ideal scenario, then, that would mean a user with a smartphone, smartwatch, and smart ring should have a better experience with Galaxy AI than sometime with just one device.

"The Galaxy Ring just adds further to that," Kitto said. "This becomes an integrated passive health data collector that allows you to track your sleep overnight, track long-term health data trends."

Samsung is not first to the smart ring party, though. Finland-based Oura has been selling versions of its smart ring since 2015, for example.

Samsung says users can wear the ring 24/7, whether they're sleeping or going for a shower or swim. It'll just need a recharge every once in a while, as its battery lasts up to seven days.

• Sophisticated US weapons are being jammed by Russian electronic warfare units. 
• A relatively new US-Swedish bomb has been pulled from use, according to reports. 
• Russia is able to scramble the GPS signals used to guide the weapons.

A new precision-guided US weapon has been pulled from use by the Ukrainian military because Russia is taking them out using electronic warfare, according to reports.

Ukrainian and Western officials told The Wall Street Journal that the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), manufactured by Boeing and Swedish company Saab, had failed and was no longer in use pending an overhaul.

The GLSDB is a guided bomb with a range of 94 miles, thanks to its small wings that extend from its body. In 2022, marketing materials for the bomb said its navigation system is "supported by a highly jamming resistance GPS."

As previously reported by Business Insider's Mia Jankowicz, Ukraine received the bombs in early February after months of requesting long-range munitions in the hope of hitting targets in areas like Crimea.

In April, Defense One reported that Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, had said a ground-launched version of an air-to-ground weapon had become vulnerable to Russian electronic warfare. The publication said he was likely referring to the GLSDB.

"When you send something to people in the fight of their lives that just doesn't work, they'll try it three times and they'll just throw it aside," said LaPlante, according to the report, adding Ukraine no longer seemed interested in the weapon.

A month later, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the bombs' guidance systems were running into Russian jamming, causing many of the launches to miss their targets.

Business Insider contacted Boeing, Saab, and the the Ukrainian army for comment.

The weapons are GPS-guided, meaning that Russia has been able to remotely scramble their signals using its sophisticated electronic warfare capability, according to The Journal.

It's one of a number of precision-guided US weapons that Russia has been able to neutralize or reduce the effectiveness of using electronic warfare in Ukraine.

Russian electronic warfare units have blunted the effectiveness of HIMARS-fired Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and air-launched Joint Direct Attack Munitions.

BI reported in May that the US was researching ways to counter the problem should a war break out with a major military power.

Russia has reportedly been able to rapidly adapt to counter the threat of sophisticated US-supplied weapons.

In Ukraine, old-school artillery shells that aren't vulnerable to electronic warfare are playing a major role in the war of attrition on the front lines.

Ukraine's Western allies have struggled to provide enough shells, while Russia has massively increased its production of shells and is also sourcing artillery from its ally North Korea.

After Russia made advances earlier this year during a Ukraine aid block by Republicans in the US Congress, the resumption in the flow of aid has enabled Ukraine to hold off further advances and the war has again become a stalemate.

• Donald Trump vowed to imprison 'election fraudsters,' including Mark Zuckerberg, if re-elected.
• The feud between Trump and the Meta CEO dates back to Trump's presidency.
• Trump was temporarily banned from Facebook after the Capitol Riots.

Donald Trump doesn't want Mark Zuckerberg to forget about their long-running beef.

Writing on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday, the former president said "election fraudsters" would be imprisoned if he gets elected in November. The post name-checked the Meta CEO.

"They have no shame! All I can say is that if I'm elected President, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time," Trump said.

"We already know who you are. DON'T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!" he added.

Trump made the threat in a post about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, more commonly known as the SAVE Act. The proposed legislation would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

It follows a February 2023 Truth Social post in which Trump accused the Facebook founder of cheating in the election, linking to a Fox News report that said Zuckerberg's $2 million donation to a Georgia election board was being investigated.

"Why isn't he being prosecuted?" he said at the time. "The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn't going to take it much longer!"

There is no evidence that Zuckerberg's past donations were partisan.

The likelihood of Trump getting elected is looking stronger each day. Trump is leading Biden in many national and battleground polls after the president stumbled through a disastrous debate, which was marked by verbal slip-ups and incoherent sentences.

Trump's beef with Zuckerberg

The pair's feud goes back several years to Trump's presidency.

In June 2020, Zuckerberg said he was "deeply shaken and disgusted by President Trump's divisive and incendiary rhetoric" after Facebook was criticized for allowing the then-president to make violent remarks on the platform.

Trump was ultimately banned from using Facebook following the Capitol Riots, where violent pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C, on January 6, 2021. It resulted in multiple injuries and five deaths.

In a statement at the time, Zuckerberg said the company believed that "the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great."

The ban was lifted in January 2023.

In September 2022, Trump made confusing statements about his relationship with Zuckerberg at a rally.

He said the Facebook founder has joined him at The White House for dinner "last week," despite being out of office for more than a year at that point.

"Last week, the weirdo — he's a weirdo — Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House, kissed my ass all night," Trump said.

"'Sir, I'd love to have dinner, sir. I'd love to have dinner. I'd love to bring my lovely wife,'" he said, mimicking the supposed conversation.

Representatives for Zuckerberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Western-supplied weapons are having a diminished impact in Ukraine as Russia adapts its tactics.
• A Ukrainian minister expressed frustration at the pace of adaptation, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• But Western manufacturers have little incentive to adapt older weapons.

A Ukrainian minister has expressed concerns over the lack of adaptation in weapons being sent to Ukraine from the West.

Some weapons systems that were immensely effective when they were first deployed in Ukraine have since seen limited results or have even fallen by the wayside as Russian forces adapt their tactics to counter them.

Anna Gvozdiar, Ukraine's minister of strategic industries, told The Wall Street Journal that she was frustrated that these systems were not being adapted to catch up.

In contrast to this, she said Ukrainian forces "learn faster because we are on the front line."

Excalibur artillery rounds — which had a huge impact on Ukraine's fighting ability well into 2023 — had been all but abandoned by this spring after Russian forces repeatedly foiled them with advanced electronic warfare techniques, as The Washington Post reported.

A similar story has played out with US-made HIMARS missiles, whose precision has also been somewhat blunted, the Journal reported.

Ukraine has also given up using Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs, pending a review, according to the Journal.

Sent to Ukraine with some fanfare in February, by this spring their effectiveness was already on the wane, again due to Russian jamming, Reuters reported.

It could take months for manufacturers Boeing and SAAB AB to create a fix, one source told Reuters.

Despite Gvozdiar's complaint, there is little incentive for US manufacturers to try to adjust their weapons to this rapidly changing battlefield.

Many of them are older stocks that are being phased out of the US' inventories anyway, the Journal reported.

Over the course of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has developed increasingly sophisticated jamming methods at a pace that far outstrips the current capabilities of the US, former Pentagon officials have previously warned.

Russian forces have also been able to adapt to threats by moving logistics sites out of range of some munitions, albeit at a cost to their efficiency.

Experts have told Business Insider that the problem of this fading usefulness of allied weapons on the Ukrainian battlefield is compounded by the piecemeal manner of their delivery.

"Weapons systems have been consistently released to Ukraine too late to have their optimal effect, and also have often been trickle fed," Justin Bronk, an air power expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told BI.

"By the time they're available in larger numbers, the Russians have had time to adapt," he said, adding that it was a particular problem during the counteroffensive of 2023, but is still "at play" now.

Some weapon systems are still proving their worth, such as ATACMS and the UK- and France-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, the Journal reported.

But Russia can ultimately be expected to adapt to those, too.

Some Western governments are taking note. In January, the Swedish government launched an initiative to speed up its weapon manufacturers' response to developments in Ukraine, according to the Journal.

Kevin Bacon was a rising 24-year-old actor when he decided to go back to high school.

Not for real, but for a part. To prepare for what would become his breakout role as new-kid high schooler Ren McCormack in the 1984 movie musical "Footloose," Bacon went undercover as a transfer student at Payson High School in Payson, Utah.

He immediately felt out of place — not because he was actually an actor nearly a decade older than his fellow students, but simply because small-town high schoolers don't like being friendly to the new kid.

And they really just thought he was the new kid. "There was a small part of me that thought maybe I would be recognized," Bacon tells Business Insider, explaining that he'd had a few key roles under his belt in movies like "Animal House" and "Diner" by that point. "But there was nothing. I mean, nobody recognized me."

More than four decades later, it would be extremely difficult to say the same. Bacon has spent the ensuing years building a filmography so long and varied that counting how many degrees an actor is from Kevin Bacon has literally become its own parlour game.

And Bacon, 66, isn't slowing down anytime soon. This summer, he appears in two buzzy films: He's the villain opposite Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley in Netflix's long-awaited "Beverly Hills Cop" sequel, and the deliciously sleazy PI John Labat, who's hot on the trail of Mia Goth's fame-hungry former porn star in A24's "MaXXXine," the final chapter of Ti West's acclaimed horror trilogy.

It might seem like Bacon has done just about everything, but he's still hungry for more experiences.

"Listen, there's only so many movies you can do in a lifetime," he says. When filming wraps, he has a mantra: "I don't say goodbye, I just say see you down the road and hope that our paths cross again."

Thankfully, everyone is usually just a few degrees away.

For the latest interview in Business Insider's "Role Play" series, Bacon reflects on waiting tables after being in "Animal House," flubbing a meeting with the Coen brothers, and how he feels having children in the industry.

On signing photos of his dead characters and spending his 'Animal House' paycheck in a week

Your death scene in "MaXXXine" is iconic. But decades before that, you had another iconic horror movie death in one of your earliest roles in "Friday the 13th." Which death scene do you prefer being remembered for: the arrow through the throat in the original "Friday the 13th," or being crushed by the car in "MaXXXine"?

I'm ready to go with crushed by the car, just because arrow through the throat has been around for so many years.

When people meet me on the street or in an airport or something with photographs that they want signed, the number one photograph that I sign is still me with an arrow through my throat. Which is always a little bit disturbing because I think to myself, do you have a picture of me alive? I'd be happy to sign that too!

What was worse for you, filming the arrow to the throat, or the paddling scene in "Animal House"?

I'd say the arrow through the throat was probably worse. I will say that I remember being there in my underwear being shown this paddle [on "Animal House"], and the prop guy said to me, "So, just so you see, this is made out of balsa wood. See, this is not going to hurt at all."

Well, it doesn't hurt if you get smacked once, but for some reason, John Landis just wanted to keep hitting me. I don't know if he wanted more of a reaction or whatever. So Mark [Metcalf] just kept doing it. "Thank you, sir. May I have another?"

But it really wasn't that bad.

Is it true that you spent your "Animal House" paycheck in a week?

Absolutely true. Yeah. I mean, my "Animal House" paycheck would've been scale, whatever was scale for Screen Actors Guild back then, and it wasn't much. I mean, it was more than I had ever seen, but I wasn't — how can I put this? — good holding onto money. I didn't really have the saving gene, so it went quick.

I read that you ended up having to go back to work at the restaurant where you were before getting cast in that movie, is that right?

I did, yeah. I was back waiting tables probably a month after I got back from doing "Animal House," and then I went back to acting school for a little bit.

That was an interesting moment because I was supposed to finish up a two-year workshop and there was something about going back that felt like I was going backwards. And I went to an acting school that was really not very supportive. It was a good school, but it wasn't very supportive of a professional career. And I knew that I wanted to make a living.

Yes, I put a lot of stuff on a pedestal with my work and taking it seriously and the process and the method and all those kinds of things, but by necessity, I wanted to make some money, and I felt like staying in school wasn't going to work for me. So I continued to wait tables and started looking for an agent because I didn't have an agent when I did "Animal House."

On the rumor that he turned down Patrick Swayze's role in 'Ghost' and what he learned from Jack Nicholson

There are some rumors that you turned down Patrick Swayze's role in "Ghost," but you're shaking your head. Is that true?

No, I wish. I don't think I would've turned it down. I mean, I have no memory of that. And by the way, the other piece of that is "Ghost" without Patrick Swayze — I don't know. It could have gone nowhere.

Are there any roles that you really wanted and then narrowly missed out on yourself?

There are. And there still are. I mean, that never ends. Being an actor is a lifetime of rejection. It's a lifetime of getting just close.

I think the only one that pops into my head is "Raising Arizona." And part of the reason is because I love the Coen brothers so much. They went on to make just so many incredible movies, and I had a meeting with them and completely fucked it up. So that's the one that resonates with me.

You were part of this incredible ensemble of megastars in "A Few Good Men." What was it like being in the room for Jack Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth" line? Did you have any sense while he was doing that it would become this iconic movie history moment?

We all did. You could see it. You could see that it was a swish. But it was also, to me, a great lesson and a great use of movie stardom. If you think about that scene, you had to shoot a wide shot, then you had to get a little closer, then you had to get a little closer, then you had to get a little closer, and that's what you do when you're making movies. And he had to do the speech again and again and again and again each time.

And then the camera had to turn around. And he didn't have to, but Jack did the speech for Tom [Cruise] and to me and the jury and the whole thing. And he just kept doing it and just kept doing it and doing it again and again and again. Once he was off camera [in the scene], he was loosening up his Marines uniform — because those uniforms are just awful, I mean, they're just so uncomfortable. And his hair was kind of messed up and he was a little bit disheveled, but he just kept doing that speech for us to react to.

When you have somebody who has that kind of stardom — keep in mind at the time, he was a bigger star than Tom — it was really inspirational.

I was super impressed and also super appreciative, and it gave me a good work ethic lesson. Because he could have done it a few times, and then once he was off camera, got in the car and driven away and had somebody else read the lines.

Is there any costar you've worked with before that you're dying to work with again and haven't yet?

Oh, wow. Well, of course, I'd like to do something with Meryl [Streep] again. She's just one of my acting heroes.

There's a lot of them, man. I was thinking the other day about the group that we had on "Mystic River," which was Tim [Robbins] and Sean [Penn] and Laurence Fishburne, and we had so much fun making that, like fun off-screen, but also just fun as actors and being there with Clint [Eastwood]. I think that all of us, when we finished that movie, were hoping to bottle that group and move it to another situation, including with Eastwood at the helm.

On his scrapped kiss with Matt Dillon in 'Wild Things' and his thoughts on superhero movies

Is it true there would've been a sex scene between your character and Matt Dillon's in "Wild Things" if Matt hadn't nixed the idea?

I don't know if it had to do with Matt nixing the idea. I heard that story, but I never heard that it was Matt, so I can't confirm that. My memory of it was that it wasn't even a sex scene. It was just that the shower door would open, and then he would climb into the shower or something like that, and it would be sort of implied.

But listen, it's a long time ago and my memory is sketchy. I thought it was a cool idea because the movie is all based on these outlandish surprises and twists. It fits right in. But yeah, it didn't happen. I was down for it. I do remember thinking it was a cool idea.

You've acted in basically every genre, from erotic thrillers like "Wild Things" to superhero movies like "X-Men: First Class." Would you ever do another superhero movie, or is that not your jam?

Yeah, I mean, I would, of course. I wouldn't go in just to say, "Oh, I get to be part of the whatever universe." That's not a thing for me.

But if it's a cool part and the movie is in that genre, of course. I don't limit it myself, like, "Oh no, I don't do romantic comedy." It's really about the roles and about the filmmakers and about the scripts and all the other stuff. I don't pick it according to genre.

Your daughter, Sosie Bacon, has also followed in you and your wife Kyra Sedgwick's footsteps in becoming an actor — she was incredible in "Smile" a few years ago. Given your own long and storied career, is there anything you wish that you had done differently that you advised her on while she was embarking on hers?

When she decided to be an actor — well, we didn't think she was going to do that. I can't think of anything specifically, but it was like suddenly, my experience and Kyra's experience in this business that we've been in for so long became a value, and for both of my kids, because my son, who's a musician, is also starting to make films.

Neither one of them were kids that came to us and asked for advice. So it's cool now to be able to share some experience or some knowledge about the ins and outs of the industry.

Not just the technique of acting, because that's something that you really have to learn along with how to learn lines and hit marks and do accents and cry on cue or the other stuff. You also have to learn what happens when you don't like your agent, or [gestures to screen] how you handle a press junket.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

"MaXXXine" is now in theaters.

• An ex-SpaceX employee told Bloomberg that working at SpaceX was like being a "babysitter for frat boys."
• She said some SpaceX employees discussed a drinking game on work email and joked about being intoxicated to oversee launches. 
• The culture at Elon Musk's rocket firm has come under growing scrutiny in recent months.

A new Bloomberg report has shed light on SpaceX's working culture, with a former employee describing her colleagues as "frat boys."

Paige Holland-Thielen, one of a group of former SpaceX employees suing the company over claims of wrongful dismissal, told Bloomberg that employees at Elon Musk's rocket firm used their work email to plan rounds of a drinking game called "nug and chug" in which they would try and consume as many chicken nuggets as possible.

These employees, she said, then joked about drinking heavily before returning to the office to oversee a rocket launch.

Holland-Thielen told Bloomberg that working at SpaceX made her feel like a "babysitter for frat boys," with casual sexism rife. She and her co-plaintiffs filed a civil rights lawsuit against SpaceX in June.

They alleged that Musk personally ordered their firings after they wrote an open letter to SpaceX's management expressing concern over the billionaire's behavior and what they described as a hostile work environment at the company.

Their complaint alleges that female employees at SpaceX were treated as "sexual objects" and said that Musk and other executives appeared in a video screened at one of the company's holiday parties that made light of sexual misconduct.

SpaceX and Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

BI also contacted Holland-Thielen for comment but didn't hear back.

It comes amid increasing scrutiny over SpaceX's working culture. The company has contracts with NASA and the US Department of Defense and is estimated to be valued at $210 billion.

The Wall Street Journal last month reported that Musk was said to have asked one of his direct reports at the company to have his children, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Business Insider previously reported that SpaceX paid a company flight attendant $250,000 to settle a sexual misconduct claim against Musk in 2018, with the flight attendant accusing Musk of exposing himself to her and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage.

Musk denied the claims made by the flight attendant at the time, calling them "utterly untrue."

Do you work at SpaceX or have a tip? Get in touch with this reporter via email at tcarter@businessinsider.com.

• Russia needs a lot of ammo supplies to sustain its offensives in Ukraine, a NATO official said.
• It's already turned to allies like Iran and North Korea to help replenish its stocks.
• But supplies from Iran and North Korea won't be enough, the official said, per Reuters.

Russia needs "significant" ammo supplies from countries other than Iran and North Korea in order to sustain its offensives in Ukraine, a senior NATO official said, per Reuters.

The unnamed official shared NATO intelligence with reporters ahead of the military alliance's annual summit in Washington, DC.

"To sustain real offensive operations, we think that Russia would have to secure significant ammunition supplies from countries beyond what it is already getting from Iran and from North Korea," they said, per Reuters.

Russia has turned to allies like North Korea and Iran to replenish its dwindling ammunition stockpiles as its troops launch grinding offensives in Ukraine and burn through artillery shells.

While the total amount of ammo the two countries have sent to Russia is unclear, South Korea's defense minister said in February that North Korean weapons factories were "operating at full capacity" making arms and ammunition for Russia.

He also said it had sent 6,700 containers to Russia since last August.

Meanwhile, Iran sent 300,000 artillery shells to Russia in 2023, an unnamed NATO official told CNN in March.

Russia has also ramped up its own production.

According to an analysis by consulting firm Bain & Company, reported by Sky News in May, Russia's armaments industry is expected to make or refurbish 4.5 million artillery shells this year — three times more than Ukrainian allies' 1.3 million expected shells.

However, even help from Iran and North Korea won't be enough for Russia to sustain offensive operations on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to the NATO official.

In addition to munition problems, Russia also faces a lack of manpower on the battlefield after its army suffered "very high" losses in Ukraine, the NATO official said, meaning it can't mount a large-scale offensive.

"Vladimir Putin would have to order a new large-scale mobilization," the official said, per Reuters, adding that Russia is having to "order undermanned, inexperienced units to move into areas to achieve unrealistic objectives."

• Some Texas residents used Whataburger's app to track power outages in the wake of Hurricane Beryl.
• They used its restaurant map to see which areas appeared to have regained power.
• 2.26 million customers lost access to power, said CenterPoint Energy, Houston's main energy provider.

People in Texas have been using Whataburger's app to follow power outages in the wake of Hurricane Beryl because of a lack of information from Houston's main energy provider.

CenterPoint Energy said that 2.26 million customers had lost their power access during the storm.

It said that it worked quickly to restore access. But information on where exactly power access had been regained was hard to come by, with no map available because of technical issues stemming from a storm in May, The New York Times reported.

Instead, locals used Whataburger's website and app to track which of its restaurants — typically open 24 hours — were open, thus determining which areas had power.

"The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker, handy since the electric company doesn't show a map," one person wrote in a post on X, which gained 11 million views.

"I really had to download the Whataburger app to keep up with the Houston power outage," another person posted.

Many users pointed out the funny side of using Whataburger as a tracker, with one person writing: "Using the Whataburger app to track power outages after a hurricane is probably the most Houston thing I can possibly imagine."

The chain itself even weighed in, saying in response to one tweet: "Well there's a use for our app we didn't think of! We hope you and everyone else are okay!"

Using Whataburger's app in such a way is not dissimilar to the so-called "Waffle House Index," which is often used to measure the severity of extreme weather and natural disasters.

Waffle House is well-known for staying open whatever the weather, so people know that if their local Waffle House is closed, then things must be bad.

Whataburger CEO Ed Nelson told USA Today that the app only gives a "general idea of power availability" and that people who want to visit one of its restaurants should call ahead to check if it's open. One person posted on X that they had watched cars lined up in a Whataburger drive-thru that was lit up and looked like it was open, but there were no staff on-site. "Each car takes turns sadly realizing this," they wrote.

Business Insider has approached Whataburger and CenterPoint Energy for comment.

More than a million customers still don't have power

As of Wednesday morning, CenterPoint Energy has released a tracking map showing where power has been restored. As of the early hours of Wednesday, more than 1.3 million customers were still without power.

Beryl was the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. It strengthened to a Category 5 storm "unusually early in the year," partly because of "exceptionally warm ocean temperatures," the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. It became the earliest Category 5 hurricane observed in the Atlantic on record, with wind speeds of up to 165 miles per hour.

It made landfall on Carriacou Island in the southern Caribbean on July 1, spread across the Caribbean, leaving devastation in its wake, and made landfall in Texas early on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane.

Texas Acting Gov. Dan Patrick said on Tuesday that the state had been informed of three storm-related fatalities: Two by fallen trees and one by drowning. The AP reported on Monday that Beryl has caused at least 11 deaths.

The US National Hurricane Center expects flash flooding on Wednesday in areas from southeast Michigan into northern New England, and some possible tornadoes.