• Elon Musk said Tesla needs to be "absolutely hard core about headcount," The Information reported.
• He also reportedly called for the resignation of any exec who kept more than three direct reports who aren't stars.
• Musk also reportedly announced hundreds of additional job cuts.

Elon Musk wants there to be no doubt that Tesla needs to be "hardcore."

Musk reaffirmed the company's need for meaningful layoffs and cost-cutting in an email late Monday night, according to a report from The Information.

In the email, Musk announced the departure of two executives at the company: Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of the company's Supercharger group, and Daniel Ho, head of new products, according to the report.

All staff reporting to the executives would also be cut, although a small number of workers would be reassigned, the report said. The dissolving of the Supercharger group led by Tinucci would result in around 500 layoffs, the report said. Musk also said in the email he would be getting rid of the public policy team whose director left the company on April 15, according to The Information.

"Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction," Musk wrote, according to the email viewed by The Information. "While some on execstaff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so."

Musk also said starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, he would ask for the resignation of any executive "who retains more than three people who don't obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test," according to the report.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

This isn't the first time Musk has sent a threatening late-night email to his employees or talked about the importance of a "hardcore" culture. Musk previously made a similar move after taking over Twitter, telling employees to commit to an "extremely hardcore" work schedule — or get laid off with three months of severance.

The latest cuts at Tesla arrive weeks after Musk announced Tesla layoffs that would impact more than 10% of its workforce. The automaker began notifying impacted staff on April 14 in another past-midnight email, and more cuts followed later that week. Tesla's job cuts come as Tesla struggles to deal with slower demand for EVs.

Within a few hours of the announcement notifying employees about layoffs, workers received notice of layoffs through emails, though some found out they were impacted when they showed up to work and were escorted away after their badge scans failed.

Tesla reported an 8.7% year-over-year revenue drop for the first quarter in its company earnings last week, though its gross margin beat expectations. Its earnings per share missed consensus forecasts, however, and its free cash flow was negative $2.5 billion in the quarter — a 674% year-over-year drop — amid a $1 billion spend on AI infrastructure investments.

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• Any plane carrying a US president is called Air Force One.
• John F. Kennedy was the first to use a jet designed specifically for a US president.
• President Donald Trump proposed new paint colors for the exterior of Air Force One in 2019.

Since the mid-20th century, US presidents have flown on special planes designated as "Air Force One" while carrying out their official duties.

Nicknamed the "flying Oval Office," today's Air Force One is equipped with everything the president might need, including office spaces, two kitchens, sleeping quarters, and a fully functional operating room.

Here's how the design of Air Force One has changed through the years.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to travel on a jet aircraft in 1959.

Eisenhower's Boeing 707 Stratoliner, nicknamed "Queenie," featured a section for telecommunications, room for 40 passengers, a conference area, and a stateroom, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

John F. Kennedy was the first to use a jet specifically designed for the US president. It had the tail number 26000.

The Boeing 707 included a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Raymond Loewy designed the plane's blue and white exterior.

The plane's design featured an American flag on the tail and presidential seals on the nose.

After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on Air Force One.

It marked the first and only time a presidential swearing-in ceremony took place on an airplane.

Johnson met with Cabinet members on the presidential aircraft in 1966 in a small seating area.

The small alcove was decorated with a globe decal on the wall and curtains lining the windows.

In 1972, Richard Nixon was the first president to use the Boeing 707 plane with tail number 27000 as Air Force One.

Nixon stood behind the plane's bar while meeting with military and civilian leaders en route to Vietnam.

When President Gerald Ford took office after Nixon resigned, seats in the rear cabin were upholstered with striped fabric.

Presidents would occasionally make their way back to the rear cabin to chat with reporters.

Ford's office, just off the stateroom, also featured striped furniture.

Ford is pictured with Candice Bergen, the first female photographer to shoot a behind-the-scenes story on an American president.

President Jimmy Carter outfitted the press area with blue carpeting.

Carter talked to reporters on his way back from a trip to Europe in 1978.

President Ronald Reagan used 27000 as his primary presidential aircraft.

In 1983, Reagan met with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and national security advisor-designate Robert McFarlane in a meeting space that featured a magazine rack, teal chair, wood grain table, and photos of him and first lady Nancy Reagan.

Reagan also hung pictures of himself in Air Force One's rear cabin.

The photos showed Reagan toasting with a champagne glass and waving while boarding Air Force One.

New blue striped curtains matched the blue carpeting and furniture in another meeting area.

The meeting room also included a television set.

In 1990, George H. W. Bush began using new Boeing 747 planes with tail numbers 28000 and 29000 as Air Force One.

The presidential office was updated with a stately desk, gray carpeting, and leather chairs.

The staff and secretarial area was decorated with neutral whites and grays.

The staff area featured plenty of phones for official business. Air Force One is also known as the "flying Oval Office."

The new plane's annex could also be configured for medical use.

The annex is pictured in executive configuration, with seating for meetings.

The new planes featured over 4,000 square feet of space, which President Bill Clinton often used to hold meetings.

Clinton met with a delegation from North and South Dakota in 1997 to address flooding in the area.

In the guest area, Clinton's Air Force One featured tan chairs and blue carpeting.

Clinton met with members of Congress to discuss nuclear waste management in 1999.

President George W. Bush flew 27000 one last time in August 2001 before it was retired to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The plane flew 444 missions adding up to over 1 million miles, according to the Bush White House.

When the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked on September 11, 2001, the Secret Service kept Bush in the air aboard the new Air Force One.

Bush insisted on returning to Washington, but the Secret Service refused since they were unsure if more attacks were coming.

In a 2016 interview with Politico, Bush's assistant White House press secretary Gordon Johndroe described Air Force One that day as "the safest and most dangerous place in the world at the exact same time."

Bush conferred with chief of staff Andy Card in his stateroom, designed by Nancy Reagan.

The president's suite included a small bed, light-pink couch and carpeting, and a desk with a brown leather chair.

Bush walked down a hallway arm-in-arm with Harriet Miers, assistant to the president and staff secretary.

The hallway was lined with a beige couch with side tables and lamps on either side.

When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, Air Force One's conference room had been updated with a television screen and brown leather chairs.

The plane has 85 phone lines as well as encryption and scrambling devices to ensure secure communication, CNBC reported.

On the other side of the conference room, a decal that read "Air Force One" was displayed on wood paneling.

The food and drinks are provided by the plane's galley kitchen.

The plane's senior staff room featured more phones, a coat closet, and leather chairs.

Obama met with chief of staff Jack Lew, senior advisors David Axelrod and David Plouffe, and former president Bill Clinton in the senior staff room in 2012.

The presidential office furniture was also updated, with mahogany chairs and sofas replacing the gray.

The carpeting was updated to a subtle star pattern, which also appeared in the conference room.

The plane's guest section was reserved for special visitors like members of Congress.

The chairs featured a subtle polka-dot pattern, and the tables folded down to make more space.

The rear cabin for press looked just like a standard commercial airliner.

Journalists can wander the rear cabin freely, but they aren't allowed to walk forward to speak to the president — the president has to come back to them.

President Donald Trump proposed new paint colors for the exterior of Air Force One in 2019.

As part of the Air Force's Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program updating Air Force One planes, Trump proposed a red, white, and navy blue color scheme for the new models.

The Air Force ultimately rejected Trump's proposed color scheme because it would have been more costly and caused engineering issues.

The darker paint color would have caused overheating issues and been too costly, Politico reported.

Instead, President Joe Biden selected a baby-blue color scheme similar to the current model. The new VC-25B Air Force One planes are expected to be ready by 2027, according to the Air Force. The project has already cost Boeing over $2 million due to various manufacturing and supply-chain issues.

In Biden's Air Force One, the conference room has the same star carpeting as the plane's presidential office.

Plain beige carpeting continues down the hallway.

The placard in the conference room has been updated to read "Aboard Air Force One" with an image of the iconic aircraft.

Biden took his first overseas trip as president in June 2021, visiting Europe for the G7 leaders' summit. He is scheduled to attend the 2024 G7 summit in Italy in June.

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• Facebook and Instagram now have Llama 3 integrated into their search fields.
• This is confusing. We're used to the search bar for looking up people, groups, or tags.
• And the suggestions for searches are oddly chipper and G-rated.

Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have integrated Meta AI into the search fields of their mobile apps. And it's getting weird.

The search bar in the Facebook and Instagram apps is one place you probably know very well. You've searched plenty of things there —the names of people you went to high school with, a local business whose page you want to find, a celebrity whose latest controversial post everyone is talking about.

We all know what to expect in the search bar of Facebook and Instagram: you find things — people, pages, groups, tags, locations — that already exist on Facebook and Instagram.

What you are not expecting is an AI chatbot interface that can do any number of things completely unrelated to Instagram or Facebook: generate an image for you, answer questions, give advice about things, etc.

This creates a really odd situation. You come to the Facebook search bar to type in the name of your local Buy Nothing group, but instead, you see an animated blue circle with "Ask Meta AI anything."

Huh???

This intrusion into the sacred space of the search bar isn't the only thing Meta is doing with AI that feels a little off.

Fast Company describes how it feels like AI has made Meta's apps "unusable," with the proliferation of clickbait-y AI images like shrimp Jesus or a creepy comment in a parent's group from the Meta AI bot saying it had a gifted and disabled child.

What makes the "Ask Meta AI anything" prompt in the search tab even stranger is the list of potential suggestions it gives you for searches. Meta wisely realized that most humans will be somewhat baffled by an AI chatbot — most people have never even knowingly interacted with AI. Pew reports that as of March 2024, only 23% of US adults have tried ChatGPT, and 34% have never even heard of it.

So there are a ton of suggestions for what to search or ask for. And these suggestions are, I guess, fine? But they make me feel like I've been living in some saccharine alternate-reality bubble where everyone is focused on their unproblematic hobbies. Here are a few of my top suggestions:

• 🏡 Landscaping 101

• 🐕 Dog breed recs for me

• 🌱 Eco DIY home decor ideas

• 🏙️ Tips to roam a new city

• 📺 Top ocean docs

• 🚀 Can you sleep in space?

These are all fine. Pleasant. A mix of helpful, curious facts and fun things. (There are a few suggestions, like "Imagine a 70s living room," that lead to image generation.)

But, like … Facebook. You know me. Come on, it's me, Katie! We've been together for, what, 15 years? I've given you so much data. You know I don't want to roam new cities or learn about eco DIY home decor. I'm a garbage gremlin who logged onto Facebook eight times today to do the same gremlin stuff I've been doing for years. I'm not suddenly interested in improving myself! I don't want to know about space! I want to know what people are complaining about in my neighborhood group, and I want to shop for used furniture on Marketplace, and I want to feel bad when I'm done.

This arrangement has satisfied and nourished my spirit for years — and I've been a loyal user. Now you think I want to do landscaping??? I'm hurt.

A representative for Meta told me that these suggestions can change based on popular searches. That might explain at least one surprising search suggestion I got: "Rick Lax net worth." (Rick Lax is a magician behind a lot of Facebook viral content and is largely only popular ON Facebook.)

On Instagram, the search suggestions are slightly more Instagrammy, like "5 tips for glowing skin," "Cheerleading reels," and "Write a spring fashion guide." The request for cheerleading Reels does lead to a suggestion of a bunch of other Reels.

I asked the Meta AI if there was a difference between the AI used for Facebook and Instagram, and it told me, "While the core LLaMA 3 model remains the same, its applications and fine-tuning differ on Instagram and Facebook to cater to each platform's unique requirements and user experiences." A representative for Meta didn't respond to a question about whether this was accurate.

For me, what feels strangest isn't whether Llama 3 is "good" at answering these queries — or noticeably better or worse than any other competing AI. It works, but the best thing going for it is that it's fast with its output, it's free, and it's right there in an app I already use a lot.

And if Meta's goal here is to start getting people's feet wet with the idea of using generative AI — without having to download a different app or think up ideas of what to ask it — well, mission accomplished.

It's part of Meta's push into an AI arms race, and one where it's well-equipped with more compute power. Meta also has an edge when it comes to getting its LLM into the hands of as many users as possible to try it out: It has a lot of humans who open its apps every day and search stuff in the search bar.

So, yes, jamming Meta AI into the search bar feels really weird and confusing, but Meta isn't shy about muscling new features on users — even if they complain — to get the new feature adopted by a critical mass of users (cough Reels cough).

But for we gremlins who are used to searching for old flames, new acquaintances, celebrities, and embarrassing other things in the Instagram search bar, this is certainly a strange new world.

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• A video shows a Chinese ship colliding with a Philippine vessel while firing water cannons.
• The Philippine Coast Guard says the vessel took damage from the attack.
• The confrontation, inside the Philippine's exclusive economic zone, is the latest between the two countries.

Chinese Coast Guard ships confronted a pair of Philippine vessels this week, harassing, ramming, and firing water cannons at them, according to Philippine authorities.

Official videos and other footage from media members show the latest flare-up between the two countries as China continues to defy international legal rulings on South China Sea territory and engage Philippine vessels in Manila's exclusive economic zone.

The Philippine Coast Guard shared video footage on Tuesday of the incident.

The footage shows Chinese vessels firing water cannons at a Philippine Coast Guard ship and a vessel of the country's Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the BRP Bagacay and BRP Datu Bankaw, as the two vessels carried out a "legitimate maritime patrol" near Scarborough Shoal, a contested area of the South China Sea inside the Philippine's exclusive economic zone where China forcefully exerts control.

In the released footage, two larger Chinese vessels surround one of the Philippine ships, firing water cannons from each side.

"During the patrol, the Philippine vessels encountered dangerous maneuvers and obstruction from four China Coast Guard vessels and six Chinese Maritime Militia vessels," Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

The latest confrontation resulted "in damage to the railing and canopy," Tarriela added, including a picture for evidence. "This damage serves as evidence of the forceful water pressure used by the China Coast Guard in their harassment of the Philippine vessels."

The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said in a statement that China's behavior was "shocking and appalling" and that embedded press were able to witness and experience firsthand the "illegal, coercive, aggressive, and dangerous actions" of the Chinese side.

Local News5 journalist Gio Robles published videos to X from the incident showing scenes from aboard the Datu Bankaw.

The Telegraph's Asia correspondent Nicola Smith was aboard the Philippine Coast Guard ship Bagacay and wrote of the experience that as the Chinese ships hammered the vessel with their water cannons, "all you could hear was the thundering of the water and more frantic shouts of the crew."

Smith said the ship's canopy broke under the intense assault and that the Datu Bankaw suffered interior flooding and damage to the onboard radar.

China's Coast Guard said in a post on the country's Weibo social media platform that it had expelled the Philippine vessels for "intruding" in its waters "in accordance with the law."

The Philippines, on the other hand, said the vessels "stood their ground and continued their maritime patrol. They were not deterred and will persist in carrying out their legitimate operations to support Filipino fishermen and ensure their safety."

The video posted on X of a Chinese Coast Guard ship colliding with the Datu Bankaw while spraying it with water notably showed that the Chinese ship was "specifically targeting the Philippine ship's navigation and communication equipment," Tom Shugart, a former US Navy officer and current adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, wrote on social media.

"It's aiming to do damage, not just ward off," he said.

It's the latest fight between the two countries as China continues to dominate disputed waters in the South China Sea, defying international law and asserting its dominance in the strategic waterway. Scarborough Shoal, which has a constant Chinese Coast Guard presence, but the Philippines continues to press its claims to this area.

There have been numerous Chinese attacks on Philippine ships. A recent one in March saw a Chinese water cannon destroy a Philippine ship's windows and injure four sailors.

The Philippine Coast Guard said Tuesday that China had reinstalled a roughly 1,200-foot floating barrier that "covers the entire entrance of the shoal, effectively restricting access to the area," a prime fishing spot.

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• The Biden campaign sees abortion as an issue that can put Florida in play for Democrats this fall.
• Floridians will vote on a ballot measure that could enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
• But it'll be a tough road for Democrats, as registered Republicans now outnumber them in the state.

In recent decades, Florida was often seen as the quintessential presidential swing state.

Republicans dominated the Panhandle and North Florida, while Democrats usually cleaned up in Miami, with the I-4 corridor between the Orlando and Tampa areas serving as a swing region where independents often helped decide the outcome of statewide races.

However, Florida has not backed a Democratic presidential nominee since Barack Obama in 2012. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state to Donald Trump in 2016. And President Joe Biden lost the state to Trump by 3 points in 2020.

But the Biden campaign is banking that abortion could give them a chance to win Florida this fall, despite the distinct red hue that the state has taken on in recent years.

In November, Florida voters will have a chance to vote on whether or not they want to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution via a referendum. This comes as a strict six-week abortion ban, which was approved by the GOP-controlled legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, will go into effect on Wednesday.

Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans have struggled to counter Democratic messaging on reproductive rights, with the issue playing a major role in key 2022 Senate races and last year's elections in Kentucky and Virginia.

The Biden campaign hopes to capitalize on what is poised to be robust voter support for abortion rights in Florida. With its 30 electoral votes, a Biden victory in the state would give the president considerable breathing room as he aims to hold swing states like Arizona and Georgia that he flipped in 2020.

But Democrats face a challenging political environment in Florida.

Trump effectively made Florida his political home base after leaving the White House in 2021, and the former president has deep support among Republicans up and down the ballot in the Sunshine State. DeSantis won reelection over former Gov. Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points in 2022. For the first time since Reconstruction, no Democrats hold statewide elected office in Florida.

More consequentially, there are now nearly 900,000 more registered Republicans than registered Democrats in Florida, a warning sign for Democrats given the state's high voter turnout in presidential years. As recently as 2020, Democrats had a voter registration edge in the state.

But the Biden campaign believes abortion rights can give them the lift that they'll need in a state where even some Democrats are skeptical of the president's chances.

"This campaign's posture reflects the seriousness with which we're taking Florida," Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters last week.

"You've seen our investments begin to pop up in the state of Florida," he continued. "We've got staff on the ground. It is one of many pathways that we have to 270 electoral votes, and we're going to take it very, very seriously."

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• Bumble is getting rid of its signature requirement that women start the conversation — well, sort of.
• The dating app is introducing a new feature called "Opening Moves."
• It lets women set a question that all matches can respond to, meaning men might be first to message.

Bumble is doing away with its defining feature that required women make the first move.

The dating app on Tuesday announced something called "Opening Moves" that will see men sending the first messages in some cases.

Starting today, the new feature lets women set a question that all of their matches can answer to get the conversation started. They can choose one of the questions Bumble offers or create their own. In non-binary or same-sex matches, either person can set or reply to the question.

Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones said in a press release that the option represents a shift "from a fixed approach to giving women more options in how they engage."

"In listening to our community, many have shared their exhaustion with the current online dating experience, and for some, that includes making the first move," she said. "We're also hearing from women that empowerment today is not only about control but it's also about agency, and we're excited to offer more choice in how women make the first move with our new Opening Moves feature."

Bumble found in testing that Opening Moves increased "chat initiation and reply rates, as well as lengthening time spent in conversation," according to the release.

Jones had recently hinted that Bumble might move away from making women reach out first. In a fourth-quarter earnings call last month, she told investors that making the first move "feels like a burden for a subset of our customers today."

The new change marks the first time Bumble will let men reach out first since the app was founded in 2014 by former CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd.

Besides Opening Moves, Bumble is also shaking up its look with a redesign, one of several changes it's made since Jones took over as CEO in January.

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• The Great Green Wall is a project to restore degraded land in nearly two dozen African countries.
• Deforestation, agricultural expansion, and drought have caused desertification across the continent.
• The $36-billion-plus project aims to generate 10 million jobs and sequester tons of carbon by 2030.

Over the past several decades, deforestation, agricultural expansion, and drought have all contributed to desertification in parts of the African continent. Once-fertile soil has become drier and less productive.

More than a dozen African countries have been fighting this desertification with an ambitious project to grow trees and other vegetation on 247 million acres of degraded land, an area roughly 2.3 times the size of California.

The goals of the 17-year-old Great Green Wall project — estimated to cost between $36 to 49 billion — also include generating 10 million jobs and sequestering 250 million tons of carbon by 2030.

Countries from Senegal to Djibouti are trying to regreen the semiarid Sahel bioclimate, a band stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

The dangers of land degradation include soil erosion and lessened biodiversity.

West African forests once covered over 50,000 square miles. Since 1975, deforestation, mainly from agricultural expansion, reduced the size to about 32,000 square miles, according to the US Geological Survey.

In addition to making soil less fertile, desertification can make it more prone to wind erosion and less able to retain moisture. It also leads to a loss in biodiversity of plant and animal species. All of these factors make it more difficult for human populations to survive.

The Great Green Wall initiative launched in 2007 as a plan to plant trees across a large swath of the African continent.

The African Union formally began the project in 2007. Originally, the GGW included 11 countries — Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. In the years since it started, a handful of others have joined as well.

At first, the plan was to fill a 10-mile-by-4,350-mile area of the Sahel with trees. Trees can help slow soil erosion, absorb carbon dioxide, and promote biodiversity by providing food and shelter for animals.

However, critics started pointing out flaws, and the project hit several speedbumps.

The GGW project hit some early snags.

One big problem with the tree-planting plan was the trees themselves. Some saplings either grew poorly or died. They were planted in remote regions, which made them difficult to care for. Warmer temperatures and low rainfall also contributed to the problem.

Some communities thought their government hadn't fully involved local and indigenous populations in their projects. Other governments had purposefully removed groups of people from their homes in forests and conservation areas, Corporate Knights reported.

The success of the GGW has also been difficult to monitor in some areas, according to Corporate Knights. External experts have had trouble independently verifying some governmental data, for example.

By 2020, the project was only 4% completed.

In 2021, world leaders, including France's Emmanuel Macron, pledged $19 billion as part of the Great Green Wall Accelerator to help measure and facilitate the project's success.

By then, GGW's focus had started to shift to a mix of projects that drew on traditional growing and irrigation methods.

Niger and Burkina Faso found success with different approaches outside the GGW project.

Before the GGW project began, locals in parts of Niger and Burkina Faso started using a technique called farmer-managed natural regeneration, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

French colonial authorities had once encouraged farmers to remove trees on agricultural land, according to Yale Environment 360. Droughts in the 1980s prompted the shift back to earlier methods.

Instead of planting new trees, farmers in south-central Niger encouraged the growth of existing shrubs and trees. The practice has helped regreen 12 million acres and grown 2 million trees.

In Burkina Faso, farmers drew on traditional knowledge to adapt after droughts in the 1970s and 1980s. They dug deep pits called zai and assembled stone barriers to help capture and retain moisture.

One farmer, Yacouba Sawadogo, was so successful that a film was made about his work in 2010, called "The Man Who Stopped the Desert."

The GGW isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.

Since the start of the GGW, many countries have seen success with farmer-led projects. In Senegal, farmers started planting zai gardens during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Known as Tolou Keur in Wolof, the country's language, the half-moon pits hold and direct water toward plants.

While not all the Tolou Keur have survived, others are thriving. Farmers are growing everything from sorghum and millet to mint and hibiscus plants.

Part of their attraction lies in the fact that they're quick to build, don't take up a lot of space, and only need about 10 people to maintain them, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

The GGW is now a mosaic instead of a wall of trees.

At this point, the Great Green Wall is a bit of a misnomer.

"We moved the vision of the Great Green Wall from one that was impractical to one that was practical," Mohamed Bakarr, the lead environmental specialist for Global Environment Facility, told Smithsonian Magazine in 2016. "It is not necessarily a physical wall, but rather a mosaic of land use practices that ultimately will meet the expectations of a wall."

The project incorporates technology like drones and satellite imagery.

Drones and satellites recently started providing detailed information on restored land, using AI to identify the species of individual trees.

Tech startups and organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are collaborating to help Sahel communities map and track the populations of baobab trees, which can help reduce soil erosion.

Many countries have seen success regreening areas of the Sehal.

Ethiopia, Niger, and Senegal have all regreened parts of their land. In addition to its zai gardens, Senegal planted 50,000 acres of trees, according to National Geographic.

In 2023, the UN Development Programme reported that the GGW project was 18% completed, restoring over 49 million acres of land and creating 350,000 jobs.

But not all countries have seen the same amount of success.

With 2030 approaching, the GGW is facing setbacks.

Conflict and instability in some countries make meeting the GGW's goals difficult as residents move to avoid fighting. More resources also seem to go to stabler countries, while Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Sudan receive less investment from donors, according to Nature.

Yet with the climate crisis and expanding population, the GGW's mission remains as pressing as ever.

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• Susan Johnson, 62, said she went for a hospital appointment only to be told she was dead. 
• Hospital records said she'd died four months earlier. 
• Johnson still doesn't know how or why the mistake, now corrected, happened. 

A woman reportedly learned she had been registered as dead when she went for a hospital appointment.

Susan Johnson, 62, went into Bridlington Hospital in Yorkshire, England, for a scan in March 2023. But when she arrived, staff told her that records showed she had been dead for four months, the BBC reported.

"I gave them my letter, and their first words were, 'Ooh, you're dead.' I said, 'pardon?' I was in shock," said Johnson.

The staff entered some details onto the computer so she could still receive the scan, but the experience left her "shaking like a leaf," Johnson told the BBC.

She contacted her primary-care doctors, Scarborough Medical Group, who told the BBC the mistake had been fixed.

However, when Johnson called the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the UK government department responsible for welfare payments, the call handler told her, "On the computer, you're dead," she recalled.

NHS England told Business Insider it was "aware of an issue involving a civil death registration being incorrectly recorded against a patient's medical record."

In a statement, it said: "This was removed within 24 hours of it being reported to us in March 2023 and the patient was re-registered by their GP. We would encourage the patient to contact us directly so we can explain further."

But NHS England would not have notified another government department, such as the DWP, of a death.

Scarborough Medical Group had not responded to a request for comment from Business Insider when this article went live.

Johnson still does not know how she came to be registered as dead.

"I need to find out why it happened, how and by whom, and that person, whoever has pressed a button, shouldn't be working wherever they are," she told the BBC.

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• The US has supplied long-range ATACMS to Ukraine, a powerful weapon that can hit high-value targets.
• Ukraine has used the weapons to strike Russia's prized S-400 air defense launchers in Crimea.
• One analyst said they have the potential to render Crimea "militarily worthless."

Long-range ATACMS provided by the US to Ukraine have the potential to make Crimea "militarily worthless" to Russia, according to one military analyst.

Last week, The New York Times reported that the US had secretly shipped about 100 Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, to Ukraine, which has reportedly already put them to use.

The US has previously sent ATACMS with a shorter range, which aided Ukraine's fight last fall. But the versions sent recently can travel about 190 miles — which puts higher-value targets in Ukraine's crosshairs.

This includes Crimea, occupied by Russia in 2014 and crucial to its military strategy in Ukraine.

Philip Karber, a military analyst with expertise on Ukraine, told Radio Free Europe that "the delivery of ATACMS is a big breakthrough."

He said the weapons "could basically make Crimea militarily worthless."

Crimea has been heavily fortified since President Vladimir Putin's forces occupied it, and it serves his military by both land and sea. It's home to the advanced port of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

It also serves as a crucial logistics hub and military supply route to occupied southern Ukraine, and has been the launchpad for a series of devastating Russian missile and drone attacks.

Ukraine has landed many blows on Crimea before — vastly weakening Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the port of Sevastopol, and periodically targeting the strategic Kerch Bridge that connects the peninsula to Russia.

These have been variously conducted by weapons including air and naval drones, and likely the UK- and France-supplied Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles.

But ATACMS have a key advantage over Storm Shadows, Radio Free Europe reported, in that they travel much faster.

In mid-April, Ukraine claimed to have struck the Dzhankoi military base, in northern Crimea, including a prized S-400 air defense launcher, without elaborating on the weapon used. A senior US official later told the Times that it was among Ukraine's ATACMS targets.

Last month, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Congress to agree on an aid package for Ukraine, he pointed to ATACMS as a key weapon for targeting Crimean airfields.

"When Russia knows we can destroy these jets, they will not attack from Crimea," Zelenskyy told The Washington Post.

"It's like with the sea fleet," he added. "We pushed them from our territorial waters. Now we will push them from the airports in Crimea."

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Hey there! Leave it to the Hamptons to figure out a way to turn riding the bus into something fancy.

In today's big story, we examine how tough the job market is for the well-paid employee.

What's on deck:

• Markets: The brutal reality of life as a first-year investment banking analyst.

• Tech: Elon Musk secures a big win for Tesla in China.

• Business: Higher-for-longer interest rates aren't going anywhere.

But first, the plight of the upper middle class.

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The big story

High pay, low vibes

More money; more problems.

That's the current job trend, as higher-paid employees are having trouble finding work despite a historically strong labor market.

It's creating what Business Insider's Aki Ito describes as a "white-collar recession." The hiring rate for workers making less than $55,000 annually (1.5%) is well above the rate for those making more than $96,000 (0.5%).

It's true not many people need work, so the lack of open roles isn't critical to the economy. But not everyone is happy at their job.

The dearth of hiring for higher-paying jobs has created a "trapped in place" economy, a concept previously highlighted by BI's Emily Stewart.

There are worse problems than making six figures at a job you don't particularly like. Especially considering the number of Americans struggling to afford basic necessities but making too much to get help.

But as Aki points out, white-collar workers' issues could be a sign of bad times to come for everyone. Companies' hesitancy to hire expensive talent might be about preparing for a market downturn.

The so-called white-collar recession could also have a lasting impact on the job market for high earners.

It comes as high-paying jobs have faced some recent headwinds. Last year saw the demise of middle managers.

And the long-term impact of AI on white-collar roles remains an ongoing question. For example, a key job for aspiring Wall Streeters — investment banking analyst — might face a hiring pullback thanks to the benefits of AI.

It speaks to the broader theme of efficiency Big Tech companies have touted for the better part of a year.

There's still money to be made in corporate America, to be sure. AI specialists remain a sought-after asset for most businesses. Cybersecurity is another good bet, as firms are investing big in the space.

But for the rest of us, the era of cushy jobs with healthy salaries and light responsibilities might be ending.

Maybe that's why Gen Z is going through its own divide. While some young workers are quickly looking to climb the corporate ladder, others have completely disconnected from work or school.

3 things in markets

1. From a dream job to a nightmare. Christine Ji's long days as a junior banker took their toll, and the workload ultimately led her to collapse in the office. The event forced her to reevaluate the career she thought she always wanted.

2. It's a big week for stocks. The Federal Reserve's rate-cut decision and press conference. The April jobs report. Tech giants Amazon and Apple's earnings reports. Raymond James' chief investment officer Larry Adam breaks down what to watch out for during a busy week for the market.

3. Amazon crashes the earnings party. The e-commerce giant is set to report its results for the first quarter after Tuesday's closing bell. Top Wall Street banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are bullish on the "Magnificent Seven" tech stock.

3 things in tech

1. Elon Musk's trip to China paid off. Musk made a surprise visit to meet with Premier Li Qiang to discuss the rollout of full self-driving in China. Approval of the tech could boost Tesla sales in the country, but wouldn't be without intense competition, as local rivals are developing their own versions of FSD. Tesla stock surged on Musk's FSD "home run."

2. Introducing the top defense tech VCs. The space has boomed in recent years; According to PitchBook data, defense tech startups received more than $109 billion from investors between 2021 and 2023. Meet the people behind the push.

3. Nvidia's boss has no qualms about being a demanding leader. CEO Jensen Huang has a formidable reputation — and that's the way he likes it. "It should be like that," he said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." "If you want to do extraordinary things, it shouldn't be easy."

3 things in business

1. Sorry, America. High interest rates are here for a while. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest decision on interest rates — and traders believe borrowing costs will likely remain unchanged, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

2. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish stepped down. For the time being, three executives will take his place. Bakish's exit comes as major shareholder Shari Redstone inches closer to a sale of her controlling stake in the company.

3. Shopify plans a switch-up in its Support division. Support director David Kohl said in an update posted to the e-commerce firm's internal Workplace page that Shopify had seen success in its AI experiments, sparking fear among some employees that job cuts are coming.

In other news

• I took the new Hyundai Kona on a family road trip: It's a practical car with pizzazz that I'd be comfortable letting my teenager drive.

• Supreme Court gives SEC a win over Elon Musk.

• Adam Neumann got cut out of WeWork's restructuring deal.

• A VC and former student-athlete who played with Aaron Rodgers breaks down 7 big opportunities in the burgeoning NIL startup scene.

• I make over $2,500 a month from focus groups. Here's how I decide which ones are worth my time and how to find the highest-paying ones.

What's happening today

• Today's earnings: Amazon, Starbucks, Pinterest, and other companies are reporting.

• Binance founder Changpeng Zhao will be sentenced following his guilty plea to failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program.

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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