• Israel showed it can take out a key part of Iran's air defenses with a single missile.
• The S-300 damaged is the most advanced air defense system Iran has acquired from Russia.
• Iran must field better air defenses like Russia's S-400 to stand a chance against a barrage.

In the early hours of April 19, Israel sent a message to Iran with an air-launched ballistic missile that took out a critical part of its air defense network: a radar belonging to one of its advanced Russian S-300 missiles.

The Israeli missile scored a direct hit, and the next day Iran tried to cover up the damage with an inferior replacement radar, according to images obtained by the Economist. The incident in the city of Isfahan may force Tehran to upgrade its air defenses, possibly from more advanced Russian systems, to defend itself from the possibility of larger Israeli missile attacks.

"I think it's quite clear that Iran is woefully unprepared for such attacks unless it receives significant help from Russia, which it has failed to do so far," Arash Azizi, senior lecturer in history and political science at Clemson University and author of "The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US, and Iran's Global Ambitions," told Business Insider.

"The attacks will also have given valuable operational information to the Iranians in charge of missile defense in that they'll have a better sense of their limits," Azizi said.

Israel is known to possess ballistic missiles it can launch from fighter jets. One example is its 15-foot-long Rampage missile. Weighing 1,200 pounds, the supersonic missile can hit targets up to 186 miles away. Britain has shown interest in buying it.

Freddy Khoueiry, a global security analyst for the Middle East and North Africa at the risk intelligence company RANE, believes it's possible Israel used the Rampage on April 19. However, he noted that missile debris uncovered in neighboring Iraq suggests it was more likely Israel used Blue Sparrow missiles, which have a purported 1,250-mile range.

"Either way, the debris in Iraq and local reports of fighter jet activities over Iraqi airspace that same night suggest Israeli fighter jets possibly fired the missiles from a distance closer to the Iranian borders," Khoueiry told BI.

While Iranian air defenses failed to stop Israel's strike they have hugely improved in recent years. In the early 2000s, Iranian radars couldn't detect American and Israeli drones operating inside Iranian airspace. Even bulky US tankers supporting missions in Afghanistan and Iraq flew over parts of Iranian airspace undetected.

That's all changed. Iran shot down a sophisticated American RQ-4A Global Hawk surveillance drone flying at high altitude in 2019, claiming it used its indigenous 3rd Khordad system.

"For the past few years, Iran has heavily invested in its air defense capabilities but simultaneously knows that it might not be enough against the technologically advanced Israeli or US weapons in a potential conflict," Khoueiry said.

That's one reason Iran has placed its most sensitive installations in mountainous regions.

"I believe the April 19 Isfahan strike will likely make the Iranians think more in terms of countering Israel's radar-evading systems by improving their radar capabilities while continuing to improve their air defenses, especially because we did not see Iran's best air defense equipment on display," Khoueiry said.

The S-300PMU-2 is the most advanced air defense system Iran has acquired from Russia. Following the Isfahan strike, it's likely Tehran will conclude it needs more advanced Russian systems, such as the S-400 they've by some accounts been asking for.

Khoueiry doesn't rule out the prospect of Iran seeking the S-400, given its "more advanced stealth capabilities" and ability to track aircraft at lower altitudes. These capabilities are "crucial" for defending vital Iranian installations, especially given the S-300's failure to intercept Israeli weapons on April 19.

Clemson University's Azizi believes an S-400 acquisition remains "crucial" for Iran and one of its "best bets." Therefore, he anticipates Tehran will continue pushing for it.

"I think the April episode will certainly have convinced Iranians that they need to be more serious about getting help from Russia," Azizi said. "But I think they ultimately have very little leverage unless Moscow wants to play Israel and the West by giving help to Iran."

Iran has a strong card to play. It's become a major supplier of Russia's war against Ukraine via thousands of Shahed loitering munitions and hundreds of short-range ballistic missiles. But this may not be enough.

"Moscow will be the key decision-maker here, not Tehran," Azizi said. "The drone help is important for Moscow but not indispensable."

Iran could have a local solution in the form of indigenous systems, such as the 3rd Khordad that felled a Global Hawk and the Bavar 373.

"Theoretically these Iranian systems should do better than the S-300 given that the Iranians upgraded the Bavar 373 in 2022, claiming that it's now a competitor of the S-400," Khoueiry said. "In practice, this could go either way, depending on the amount of Israeli missiles that would be hypothetically launched and from where."

Khoueiry anticipates that early detection by Iranian air defenses could give these Iranian-made systems "more chances" against Israeli missiles.

Conversely, Azizi believes these systems are "quite unlikely" to fare any better than their Russian counterparts.

"These are impressive systems for Iran to have devised on its own but they are ultimately no match for Israel's significant offensive capabilities," Azizi said.

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• WeWork has a new plan to get out of bankruptcy — and it doesn't involve Adam Neumann.
• Neumann is seeking to acquire the company he created for more than $500 million.
• "We anticipate there will be robust objections to confirming this plan," a Flow attorney told BI.

WeWork has a new plan to get out of bankruptcy — and it doesn't involve Adam Neumann, who wants to acquire the flexible office provider he created.

WeWork announced Monday that it has raised $450 million in equity funding, which it could use to emerge from Chapter 11. The company also said it has a plan in place to "eliminate all of its $4 billion of outstanding, prepetition debt obligations."

A vote on the plan — which has support from the owners of most of WeWork's debt — is scheduled for May 30, according to Bloomberg.

The majority of the funding — $337 million, to be exact — would come from Cupar Grimmond, and SoftBank would still own a stake in the company, according to the outlet.

But Neumann, who has recently expressed interest in purchasing WeWork for more than $500 million, doesn't plan to go down without a fight.

"After misleading the court for weeks, WeWork finally admitted it is trying to sell the company to a group led by Yardi for far less than we are continuing to propose," Susheel Kirpalani, an attorney for Neumann's new real estate startup Flow Global, told Business Insider in a statement, adding, "so we anticipate there will be robust objections to confirming this plan."

WeWork parted with Neumann five years ago following its failed IPO. The company filed for bankruptcy in November 2023 after the pandemic dealt a massive blow to its business model.

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• Russian forces are poised to advance toward the "fortress belt" of four eastern Ukrainian cities.
• The cities are a stronghold for Ukraine in Donetsk Oblast just northwest of Avdiivka.
• Russia has been making gains in area, forcing Ukrainian troops to withdraw. 

Russian troops appear to be making tactical advances just northwest of Avdiivka toward a so-called "fortress belt" of Ukrainian cities, war analysts report.

Though it remains to be seen whether Russian command will turn its focus its troops on that area, they're setting the stage for offensive operations in that direction. And they've long aimed to capture these four cities.

With Russian forces continuing to solidify their positions northwest of Avdiivka, a war-torn town they captured in February, they now have choices on which objectives to pursue. Ukraine has repeatedly warned that Russia seeks to capture Pokrovsk, southwest of Bakhmut.

But according to a new assessment from The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington DC-based think tank that has followed the conflict closely, Russia has the option "to conduct possible complementary offensive operations" around Chasiv Yar, a city near Avdiivka that "is operationally significant because it would provide Russian forces with a staging ground to launch offensive operations" near two of the "four major cities that form a fortress belt" for Ukraine in the Donetsk Oblast.

Chasiv Yar, another town under tremendous pressure, is close to Duzhkivka and Kostyantynivka, the two southernmost cities in the belt. The other two, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, are located a bit more north, but still along the same highway.

"The Russian military command could decide that advances north along the H-20 highway would allow Russian forces to conduct subsequent complementary offensive operations from the east and south against the southern edge of the Ukrainian fortress belt in Donetsk Oblast," ISW wrote.

But the effort wouldn't be rapid or easy for Russia, the analysts added. And they may still yet decide to prioritize advancing toward the west, going after the borders of Donetsk Oblast, rather than heading northwest out of Avdiivka towards the fortress belt.

At the moment, ISW reported, Ukrainian officials say Russia has deployed as many as four brigades, "roughly a reinforced division's worth of combat power," northwest of Avdiivka to stabilize sections of the front and support penetration operations.

The Russian situation is not without its challenges though.

Ukraine appears to have slowed down Russian gains near Avdiivka with reconstituted reinforcements in the area, despite facing a severe manpower shortage and disadvantages overall. That said, in recent days, Ukrainian military officials have acknowledged Russian tactical gains in the area, reporting a dire situation as they wait for the arrival of US aid.

The potential for advances in this sector comes ahead of an expected Russian offensive this summer, when Moscow's troops could have the opportunity to make significant gains in the Chasiv Yar area and beyond.

At this time, it remains unclear what weapons packages and security assistance Ukraine will have received by then and whether the country's forces will be able to sufficiently defend against a Russian offensive.

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• Business Insider is compiling its first list of rising stars in the US sports-betting industry.
• We're looking for early-to-mid-career staffers behind key efforts at operators, suppliers, and more.
• Submit nominations through the form below by May 13, 2024.

We're seeking nominations for our inaugural list of rising stars in the US sports-betting industry, and we want to hear from you.

As the industry expands in North America, we've highlighted the leaders shaping it, from DraftKings' Jason Robins and FanDuel's Amy Howe to sports-betting executives at the major leagues, media companies, and industry suppliers to top investors.

Now we're spotlighting up-and-comers who are working behind the scenes to solve some of the industry's toughest problems and making waves in the sector. We're looking for early-to-mid-career staffers focused on the US market at operators, industry suppliers, or media companies in sports betting. These people also have big ambitions to be the future leaders in the industry.

Please submit your nominations here or through the form below by Monday, May 13, 2024, at 6 p.m. ET.

Criteria and methodology

We will consider several factors to determine who to spotlight in this list, including the nominee's specific role and responsibilities and the person's impact on the industry. We will also consider what leadership efforts the person has demonstrated.

Please include as much detail as possible about the nominee's role when submitting a nomination below.

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Paramount announced Monday that its president and CEO Bob Bakish is stepping down and getting replaced by a trio of execs.

Bakish is exiting the entertainment studio as major shareholder Shari Redstone inches closer to a sale of her controlling stake in the company.

David Ellison's Skydance Media has been angling to buy Paramount.

For the time being, three executives — CBS head George Cheeks; Chris McCarthy, the president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Nickelodeon boss Brian Robbins — will run the company as an "Office of the CEO."

"The Office of the CEO is working with the Board to develop a comprehensive, long-range plan to accelerate growth and develop popular content, materially streamline operations, strengthen the balance sheet, and continue to optimize the streaming strategy," Paramount's board said in a statement. "The Board has great confidence in the leaders comprising the Office of the CEO, all of whom are senior creative executives and business leaders with a track record of success running meaningful businesses within Paramount Global."

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• Over 1 million student-loan borrowers are being transferred from MOHELA to new servicers in the coming months.
• MOHELA requested the transition, and Federal Student Aid agreed to allow for "the best service."
• The Education Department withheld pay from MOHELA last year for not fulfilling some of its obligations.

A major student-loan company has requested that it no longer manage some of the borrowers in its servicing portfolio.

On Monday, Federal Student Aid released a blog post — first reviewed by Business Insider — announcing that beginning this week, it will begin transitioning some student-loan borrowers' accounts from MOHELA to other federal servicers.

An Education Department spokesperson told BI that it expects this transition will impact over one million borrowers, but that number is subject to change as the transition progresses.

"MOHELA requested these transfers and FSA, as part of its work to ensure borrowers receive the best service and support, agreed to this path," the blog post said.

According to FSA, it has already started to work with MOHELA and the other servicers to manage these transitions effectively. Impacted borrowers will receive a notice from both MOHELA and their new servicer notifying them of actions that they need to take to complete the transition. Those include creating an account with their new servicer, ensuring their new servicer has their contact information, and making sure any payment settings — like banking information — are up to date.

The transition is expected to be completed "over the next several months," per FSA, and impacted borrowers will still be able to benefit from reforms set to be implemented over the summer, including some new provisions in the SAVE income-driven repayment plan to allow for lower monthly payments.

With regards to the borrowers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, the Education Department already announced that beginning May 1, the program will be paused as PSLF borrowers switch from being managed by MOHELA to being managed through Federal Student Aid. Monday's announcement will work in accordance with that shift.

"MOHELA continues to serve as one of the Department's federal student loan servicers and will continue their support for millions of student loan borrowers," the blog post said. "FSA will work closely with MOHELA and our other federal student loan servicers throughout the transition period to create a smooth process for borrowers."

This announcement comes as the Education Department is working to overhaul the student-loan servicing industry to make it easier to use for borrowers. Since student-loan payments resumed in October after an over three-year pandemic pause, many borrowers have reported hourslong hold times with their servicers, along with inaccurate and delayed billing statements, among a list of other errors.

MOHELA was the first servicer to receive punishment from the Education Department in October for failing to send on-time billing statements to 2.5 million borrowers, resulting in over $7 million of its pay withheld. The department has since released an accountability framework to enforce oversight over servicers, vowing to take additional action if it finds any federal servicer is failing to fulfill its contractual obligations.

Some Democratic lawmakers have also been pushing for greater oversight over MOHELA. Sen. Elizabeth Warren held a hearing earlier in April to examine MOHELA's performance, and while the company's CEO declined to attend, MOHELA said in a statement that it is instead offering private briefings with lawmakers to answer their questions.

Warren told BI in a statement that less than three weeks after she held the hearing, "the Education Department is taking critical action to protect student loan borrowers."

"There is more that the Education Department can do to hold MOHELA accountable, but today's action is an important first step," Warren said.

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• Successful people across industries are known for waking up early.
• They also practice other healthy habits like exercise and meditation.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up between 4 and 5 a.m. and starts his day by answering emails.

There are two types of people in the world: those who welcome the morning sunshine and those who try to snooze it into oblivion.

People like Issa Rae and Tim Cook belong to the former category, crafting tailored morning routines that begin while their peers are still dreaming.

Some of the benefits of waking up early include higher levels of energy and mental clarity, a higher likeliness to succeed, and, for women, a decreased risk of developing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, Business Insider reported in 2019.

But the most successful people's healthy habits don't stop with their early alarms; some common recurring themes in their routines include meditation and regular exercise, both of which are beneficial to the mind and body.

"Research has found that meditation can reduce stress and anxiety, improve focus and concentration, and increase feelings of calm and relaxation," wrote Business Insider's Rebecca Cairns.

Of course, there's no one-size-fits-all method to hacking a perfect morning routine — especially with specific career demands, commute times, childcare needs, etc. — but if you're looking for a little motivation to make a change, here are 15 successful early risers you can draw inspiration from.

Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up between 4 and 5 a.m. to read emails from customers.

Cook was featured as a guest on a 2023 episode of the podcast "Dua Lipa: At Your Service," and he revealed he likes to wake up between 4 and 5 a.m. to respond to emails.

"I read emails from a lot of customers and employees, and the customers are telling me things that they love about us or things that they want changed about us. Employees are giving me ideas. But it's a way to stay grounded in terms of what the community is feeling, and I love it," he said.

The rest of his morning involves strength training, getting ready for work, coffee, and a light breakfast.

Issa Rae wakes up at 4 a.m. to work out.

"Insecure" creator, "Barbie" president, and Sienna Naturals cofounder Issa Rae has a lot on her plate.

In a 2024 interview with Glamour, Rae was asked about her favorite way to take a moment for herself. "It's in the early morning," she said. "Honestly, I get up at four and that is my workout time."

"And then literally after that time, I sit with coffee and a journal and just sit with my thoughts," Rae added.

Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel gets up around 5 a.m. for "Evan Time."

The 33-year-old described his motivation for waking up early in an interview that appeared in Entrepreneur's Handbook in 2018.

"I get up really early, because that's the only time that's 'Evan Time' for me, when people aren't really awake yet. I get a couple hours between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. to do whatever I wanna do," he said.

Snap told Business Insider in 2024 that after Spiegel wakes up, he takes 30 minutes to check the app and his email and drink a double espresso. After that, he'll do a 45-minute workout at the gym or do Kriya meditation before showering, reading the news, and having breakfast with his family around 7 a.m.

Spiegel shares three kids with wife Miranda Kerr and helps co-parent Kerr's child from her previous marriage to Orlando Bloom.

Multi-hyphenate Shonda Rhimes wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to start writing.

The mind behind hit series like "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," and "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story" collaborated with MasterClass in 2016 to teach writing for television.

In episode 11, "Writing a Script: Effective Habits," Rhimes said, "I used to think that there was like a special magic golden hour in which I wrote better than any other time. But that keeps changing, so I no longer think that's true."

At the time, she said her schedule involved waking up at 5 a.m. to get a lot of writing done, then focusing on writing again in the office around the middle of the day.

Despite her early wake-up time, Rhimes is an advocate for work-life balance, telling Fast Company in 2017, "I do not answer phone calls or emails after 7 p.m. I do not work on weekends … I mean, I write. I just don't answer phone calls or emails."

Tennis star and new mom Naomi Osaka wakes up between 5 and 7 a.m.

In a February 2024 interview with The Cut, Osaka said, "I wake anywhere between 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. depending on the day. I try to start with a five-minute meditation, if I can squeeze it in with the baby."

The four-time Grand Slam singles champion welcomed her first child, a daughter named Shai, with her partner Cordae in 2023.

Michael B. Jordan told Vanity Fair he wakes up naturally at 5 a.m.

"I hit the snooze button all the time. My body is a natural alarm clock. Whether I like it or not, I get up around 5 o'clock in the morning but then I go back to sleep depending on what I have to do; it's like a second sleep, it's like a really really good sleep," Jordan said in a 2018 episode of the Vanity Fair series "In a Day."

When he's actually ready to get up, Jordan said he gets out of bed on the right foot — literally. He always ensures his right foot is the first to touch the ground.

Then, he'll meditate while he showers, have breakfast, and work out.

Mark Wahlberg follows an intense morning routine that starts at 3:30 a.m.

In October 2023, Wahlberg told Today.com he wakes up at 3:30 a.m. to work out. Later, it takes him multiple trips upstairs to convince his kids to get out of bed.

"I've been going like, 3:30 wake up, 4 o'clock in the gym, kind of finish that, get my reading and my prayer time done, and then start the process of waking them up, which usually ends up taking — I'm up and down the stairs at least three times to get the teenagers up and I get them off to school, and then I usually start the rest of my day," he said.

He has four children with his wife, Rhea Durham: Grace, 14, Brendan, 15, Michael, 18, and Ella, 20.

Pinterest's CMO Andréa Mallard wakes up at 5 a.m. to work out and meditate.

In 2022, the Pinterest CMO told Business Insider's Robin Madell that she goes to bed at 9 p.m. so she can start her days at 5 a.m.

Her morning routine consists of 45 minutes of intense cardio, then listening to a five-minute meditation while in the shower. Mallard then makes a breakfast smoothie, which she drinks around 6:30 a.m. while preparing for her workday.

This includes checking emails and reviewing and taking notes on pre-read materials, giving her at least two hours of uninterrupted work before she pauses to help get her three kids ready for school at 8 a.m.

"I'm definitely at my most creative or innovative in the very early morning hours, well before anyone wakes up. If a work challenge needs lateral thinking or requires serious creative muscle or a tough decision, it's the first thing I'll tackle in the morning," she said, as reported by Madell.

Disney CEO Bob Iger wakes up at 4:15 a.m. to enjoy some quiet time.

In his MasterClass on business strategy and leadership, the Disney CEO revealed his methods for using his time effectively.

"I happen to believe that in every day you need to have some quiet time to think, where you're not really being bombarded by external forces," Iger said.

Part of his quiet time comes from working out, which he does after waking up at 4:15 a.m., Business Insider reported in 2018.

"The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is work out. And I work out in solitude, typically in a darkened room, listening to music," he told his MasterClass.

"It's my most creative time in many ways. I also make sure that I don't look at any email before I work out. Because if I do so, that tends to distract me and, at times, can be really mood changing in nature. And I need that time to be kind of cleansed of too many external forces or influences so that I can really have clarity of thought," Iger added.

He said he usually arrives at the office between 6:30 and 6:45 a.m., which gives him time to ease into the day.

Emmy-winning comedian, actor, and screenwriter Quinta Brunson usually wakes up at 5 a.m.

In a 2023 episode of Elle magazine's series "Waking Up With…," "Abbott Elementary" creator and star Quinta Brunson shared that although she was waking up at 8 a.m. for the video, she wakes up at 5 a.m. a lot.

The first thing she does in the morning is wash her face with water, a washcloth, and makeup remover wipes before moving on to skincare products.

Nike CEO John Donahoe, who wakes up at 5:45 a.m., trains four mornings a week.

A self-described "creature of habit," the Nike CEO told The Wall Street Journal in 2021 that he wakes up every weekday morning at 5:45 a.m.

"The first thing I do is drink 33 ounces of water and two cups of coffee, and then I stretch using the Hyperice Hypervolt. I meditate for 10 minutes and then I have a Nike personal trainer — his name's JC Cook. I work out from 7 to 8, four mornings a week with him," Donahoe said.

To keep up with the early wake-up time, he said he tries to get "seven-plus" hours of sleep per night. "Sometimes that's unrealistic, so I target getting 70 hours every 10 days," he said.

Gymshark founder and CEO Ben Francis wakes up between 5:30 and 5:45 a.m. every day.

In a 2022 interview with Business Insider's Kiera Fields, Francis said he likes to simplify his mornings by doing the same thing every day.

This includes waking up between 5:30 and 5:45 a.m., much to the dismay of his wife, he said.

He starts his mornings with breakfast and time with his dogs before getting ready and heading to the office, where he works five days a week.

Olabisi Boyle, the senior vice president of product planning and mobility strategy at Hyundai Motor North America, wakes up at 5 a.m.

"I start work between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m. but wake up at 5 a.m. to give myself time to breathe," said Boyle in an interview with Business Insider's Lola Christine Alao in 2023.

Boyle said she likes to start her mornings by checking on yearlong goals and progress. "Everything I do ties into these initiatives, so it's important to start my mornings by breaking down what needs to be done in order to achieve our goals," she said.

Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in chief and global chief content officer of Condé Nast, starts her days between 4 and 5 a.m. to read the news.

The media legend gave a MasterClass on creativity and leadership in 2019, telling viewers in episode two, "Getting the Work Done: Anna's Management Tips," that she has "a pretty consistent structure" for her day.

"I wake up early, between 4 and 5:30 a.m. I read both the British and American papers online, so I know what's happening. I often play tennis. I eat breakfast consisting of Starbucks," she said.

Her motivation for waking early is to get ahead of the day's tasks before they "creep up on you," she said, MasterClass wrote.

Bumble founder and former CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd's schedule can require waking up at 5:15 a.m.

"Most of my days are unpredictable and start at different times, so I try my best to keep up with a stable morning routine. I sleep with the drapes open to rise with the sun," Wolfe Herd told Entrepreneur in 2017. "I think that's a healthy thing to do because even if you don't like to wake up early, your body does adjust," she added.

Wolfe Herd gave The New York Times a glimpse into her "unpredictable" days in 2019. Throughout the week, her mornings included everything from a 5:30 a.m. call with her London-based Bumble founding partner Andrey Andreev to homemade celery juice and Chinese takeout for breakfast and a monthly directors' meeting.

After becoming a mother to two boys, Wolfe Herd told Time magazine in 2023 that she likes to operate one hour at a time.

"I try to do the drive to preschool with no calls so I can pay attention to him," she said of her oldest son, Bobby. "And then the minute I drop him off, literally as I'm giving him a hug out the door, I have to dial into something. But I've structured it so that that call on the way home is totally sequenced perfectly to get back to my computer to then pick up another two things on Zoom."

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• Viviane Ghaderi, a former Amazon exec, is suing the company, alleging misconduct and discrimination.
• She said her boss told her to ignore legal advice to limit the material an Amazon AI model could use.
• Ghaderi also alleged that Amazon demoted her for taking maternity leave.

A former Amazon executive is accusing the company of telling her to violate copyright law to compete with other tech giants in AI.

Viviane Ghaderi filed a lawsuit against Amazon in Los Angeles Superior Court, saying she was discriminated against and ultimately fired.

The complaint, dated April 16, was reported earlier this week by The Register, which published the document in full.

Ghaderi said she was tasked with flagging possible legal violations in how Amazon was developing its LLMs, or large-language models.

(LLMs are text-generating services like Open AI's ChatGPT or Google's Bard.)

The complaint says Ghaderi's boss, Andrey Styskin, told her to ignore legal advice and Amazon's own policies to get better results.

From the lawsuit:

Styskin rejected Ms. Ghaderi's concerns about Amazon's internal polices and instructed her to ignore those policies in pursuit of better results because "everyone else"—i.e., other AI companies—"is doing it."

The allegation about Amazon's AI work came in a larger case where Ghaderi alleges she was demoted and ultimately fired for taking maternity leave.

In a statement to Business Insider, Amazon spokesperson Montana MacLachlan did not directly address Ghaderi's claims.

She did say that Amazon does not "tolerate discrimination, harassment, or retaliation in our workplace," and that it investigates allegations and punishes wrongdoing.

Ghaderi said she took her complaints to HR, which mostly dismissed her claims before ultimately firing her.

BI also sent messages to Ghaderi and the Amazon employees named in the complaint but did not immediately hear back.

Ghaderi's lawsuit alleges that Amazon violated California's law protecting whistleblowers and statutes outlawing pregnancy discrimination.

Her attorneys said in the filing that Amazon's haste to compete in AI left employees like her as "collateral damage in the battle for the future of the technology industry."

"It takes a lot of courage to come forward against a company like Amazon," said her lawyer, Julian Burns King, a partner at King & Siegel LLP. "We are proud to represent Ms. Ghaderi and look forward to proving her allegations in discovery and at trial."

Ghaderi's LinkedIn said she worked at Amazon until January 2024, though the complaint says she was fired on November 17, 2023.

Ghaderi doesn't appear to have spoken about her departure from Amazon other than in the lawsuit.

Though Ghaderi's case is yet to be tested in court, the context of a frantic rush in Silicon Valley to develop AI products is well-attested.

That haste reached Amazon, too — in November 2023, Business Insider's Eugene Kim reported that it was racing to launch new AI products comparable to Microsoft's.

AI development is straining the limits of copyright law, as tech companies and publishers wrestle over the ownership and usage of the vast quantities of text the AI models ingest.

Some publishers allege that tech companies owe them billions of dollars for using their work.

The New York Times is pursuing a landmark case against OpenAI, which it says owes it big for using its content to train ChatGPT.

Others have taken a different approach — Axel Springer, BI's parent company, struck a deal with OpenAI allowing use of its articles.

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• The share of prime working-age US men with a job has declined from about 96% in the 1950s to 86%.
• The effects of recessions, globalization, and disabilities can partially explain the decline.
• But there are also several other reasons men aren't working like they used to.

America's working-age men are employed at much lower rates than they used to be, and a combination of factors — from recessions to globalization to rising addiction rates — could be playing a role.

In the early 1950s, as many as 96% of prime working-age American men, who were between the ages of 25 and 54, had full-time or part-time jobs, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of March, about 86% of working-age men were employed, and this cohort's employment rate has lagged behind many developed countries in recent years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found.

As such, many men are struggling to support themselves financially. And mental-health experts say the longer people are out of the workforce, the higher the chances they'll experience mental-health challenges.

Here are a few factors that could explain what's happening.

It could be about recessions

Since the 1950s, whenever the US economy fell into a recession, men's employment rate tended to suffer a longer-lasting blow.

When the economy entered a recession in 1953, the share of prime-age men with jobs dropped from 96% to 92.8% and never fully recovered to the prerecession level, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.