• The United Auto Workers union won a critical vote at a plant in Tenessee. 
• After a massive strike last year, the union set out to organize more factories that aren't represented, including Tesla. 
• The union's white whale is Tesla, workers of which have never been represented by a union. 

Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voted Friday to join the United Auto Workers union in a huge victory for the once-embattled union as it works toward another run at organizing Tesla.

After two failed attempts by the UAW in Chattanooga in recent years, Friday's victory represents a turning point for the 89-year-old union. After years of dwindling membership, a messy federal criminal investigation, and high-profile automotive industry organizing failures, UAW President Shawn Fain is aiming to usher in a new era for his union.

The counting of the votes by the National Labor Relations Board continued late into Friday night, with Reuters reporting that a final tally of 2,628 to 985, or 73% of the votes, were in favor of unionizing.

After a 46-day strike that hit all three Detroit car companies simultaneously last year yielded some of the richest UAW contracts in recent memory, Fain said the UAW was just getting started.

A massive drive has since gone into full force as the union encourages thousands of non-union auto workers to sign union cards, targeting nearly 150,000 US auto workers across 13 companies — including those outside Detroit and, most notably, Tesla.

This week's victory at Volkswagen makes history as the UAW's first successful organizing campaign at a foreign car company in the South. After the election at Volkswagen, the UAW is pressing deeper into the South next month for another unionization vote at Mercedes-Benz's factory in Alabama.

The warm-up for Tesla

Conquering the South is just a warm-up for the big event for the UAW: Organizing Tesla.

Tesla has never held a union vote at any of its US facilities. The electric car company has long been an organizing target for the UAW, but aggressive anti-union culture and rhetoric from CEO Elon Musk have stymied efforts up until now.

The UAW's previous push at Tesla fizzled out by 2019 as a federal criminal investigation stole union leaders' attention, sent two previous UAW presidents to prison, and dented the public's trust in the union. The UAW has since undergone a government-led reform and Fain became the union's first democratically elected president in March 2023.

Some Tesla workers were in the early stages of forming a union during the UAW's massive strike this past fall, a union official told The New York Times. While Tesla initially benefited from these work stoppages, labor experts have warned that momentum for the UAW at other automakers could spell trouble for Tesla in the long run.

A successful UAW campaign is the last thing Elon Musk needs

Any major clash with the UAW would only add to Tesla's growing list of hurdles this year. After years of growth, Tesla reported declining deliveries in the first quarter of 2024, an early sign that not even the EV leader is immune to an industry-wide softening in demand for battery-powered cars.

On top of that, a year of slashing prices on its cars to appeal to more frugal EV shoppers has taken a toll on the company's industry-leading profit margins.

Tesla already increased wages for factory workers after the UAW's new raises went into effect, a move labor experts have said is designed to quell interest in union activity. Many Tesla workers already make more per hour than their unionized counterparts.

And in Sweden, Tesla is already locked in a dispute with striking mechanics that has worried investors since the start of the year.

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• Explosions occurred at a military base south of Baghdad in Iraq, according to reports.
• The base is used by Harakat al Nujaba, an Iran-backed group, according to The New York Times.
• It's unclear who is responsible for the explosion. The reports come a day after an Israeli strike against Iran.

Explosions occurred at a military base in Iraq early on Saturday, according to multiple reports.

The base, located south of Baghdad, is used by Harakat al Nujaba, an Iran-backed group, according to The New York Times.

An Iraqi security official told CNN at least three people were wounded in the blasts. A local hospital also told the Times three people were injured.

It is not clear who or what caused the explosions.

When reached by Business Insider, US Central Command noted a statement it shared on X, which said: "We are aware of reports claiming that the United States conducted airstrikes in Iraq today. Those reports are not true. The United States has not conducted air strikes in Iraq today."

The Department of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI.

The reports come a day after Israel struck Iran, according to reports that cited unnamed senior US officials. Several explosions were heard near an Iranian military base. The New York Times reported two Israeli defense officials acknowledged the strike on Friday was carried out by Israel.

Those explosions came days after Iran attacked Israel last weekend, launching more than 300 missiles and drones, almost all of which were shot down by IDF and ally forces, like the US.

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• Leaving his NY hush-money trial Friday, Trump said he plans to testify in his own defense.
• This was soon after he sat through a hearing on prior acts the DA hopes to cross him on.
• Trump would be confronted on his history of lying, falsifying documents, and ignoring judges.

If Donald Trump keeps his promise to testify at his hush-money trial, cross-examination could get ugly.

Manhattan prosecutors said Friday that they want to grill Trump about that time he lied under oath, as the judge in his civil fraud trial found in October.

Prosecutors want to roast him on the stand for violating court orders, as the same fraud trial judge also found, in repeatedly citing Trump for gag-order violations.

And they want to barbecue Trump over the way he seemingly couldn't stop defaming his own sex assault victim, writer E. Jean Carroll.

Possibly worse — given that Trump is on trial on charges of falsifying business documents — prosecutors also want to ask him about two trials where he and his executives were found to have falsified business documents. Those were the 2023 Trump Organization payroll-tax-fraud trial, and, again, the civil fraud trial.

"Yes," Trump told reporters as he left court Friday, when asked if he will testify.

It was at least the second time the GOP frontrunner promised to take the stand in his own defense at the trial, in which he is accused of falsifying business documents as part of a scheme to interfere with the 2016 election.

The timing was noteworthy.

Just moments earlier, Trump sat through what's called a Sandoval hearing, where his lawyers and prosecutors argued over what "prior bad acts" could be fair game on his cross-examination.

Trump was visibly angry — scowling at the defense table — as his acts were sorted over.

On his way out of the courtroom, he thumped a wooden railing with his hand.

"We object to each," defense lawyer Emil Bove had said of all the acts prosecutors want to bring into the case.

During the nearly two-hour Sandoval hearing, Bove complained of the DA's plans to the trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

Bove said that the verdicts, judgments, and contempt-of-court orders that prosecutors want to question Trump about are mostly under appeal and "unduly prejudicial," meaning they'd unfairly prejudice the jury against the former president.

The defense lawyer fought especially hard against jurors hearing that a federal jury in Manhattan had found Trump liable for violating Carroll with his hands during an assault in the mid-1990s — an attack that the judge said effectively amounted to rape.

"What is the theory of this trial?" Bove asked angrily. "Are they making arguments about sexual misconduct?" he demanded. "This is a case about documents."

Trump's lying about sexual assault "is critical evidence that the jury should have in assessing his credibility if he testifies," countered Matthew Colangelo, a prosecutor for District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Merchan said he would render a Sandoval decision Monday, to be followed by opening statements.

Prosecutors will then call their first witness, a person whose name has not yet been made public. Their testimony will not be finished before the day breaks early for the first day of Passover, prosecutors said.

When defense lawyers asked for a second time for prosecutors to give advance notice of who would be the first witness, they were again turned down. Prosecutors are under no obligation to give early notice of their witnesses.

When defense lawyer Susan Necheles suggested that not knowing the name now might "delay the trial," the judge reacted sternly.

"Whether you get the name or not you are not going to delay the trial," the judge said.

"We don't want to, your honor," Necheles said.

"Well, you won't delay the trial," the judge snapped back.

Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing in the case. He faces a potential sentence of anywhere from zero to four years in jail if convicted.

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• Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav earned $49.7 million in 2023.
• Zaslav's compensation increased despite actors' and writers' strikes, topping his 2022 earnings.
• Warner Bros. reported losses for the year despite Zaslav's increased compensation.

In a year when thousands of writers and actors were fighting for higher paychecks, one media mogul earned big.

The CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., David Zaslav, raked in a pay package worth $49.7 million in 2023, according to a regulatory filing released Friday.

Despite both the actors' and writers' strikes that lasted nearly 4 and 5 months respectively, Zaslav's pay for the year went up.

In 2023, his total compensation increased 26.5% from the year prior. It included $3 million in base pay, combined with more than $23 million in stock awards and a $22 million cash bonus, along with $1.6 in additional compensation, the filing shows.

But Zaslav's compensation in 2022 and 2023 is still modest compared to what he earned in 2021, when he was in charge of Discovery Inc. before its merger with WarnerMedia. That year, his pay package topped nearly $246.6 million.

At the same time, Warner Bros. as a company lost money for the year despite generating about $1 billion more profit than expected, thanks to costs saved from TV and film production being halted during the strikes, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Meanwhile, thousands of striking actors and writers went without a paycheck as they struggled to pay the bills and fought back against an industry that barely trickled the profits down to them.

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• Rep. Bennie Thompson wants to deprive Donald Trump of Secret Service protection if he's sentenced to prison.
• It's unclear what will happen to Trump if he's sentenced to state or federal prison.
• As a former president, Trump is entitled to Secret Service protection for life.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the former chairman of the House January 6 committee, introduced legislation on Friday that would strip former President Donald Trump of Secret Service protection if he is sentenced to prison.

"Unfortunately, current law doesn't anticipate how Secret Service protection would impact the felony prison sentence of a protectee — even a former President," Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said in a statement released by his office. "It is regrettable that it has come to this, but this previously unthought-of scenario could become our reality."

Thompson is responding to possible concerns that if Trump were sentenced to prison as a result of a conviction in any of the 91 felony charges across the four indictments he faces.

As Business Insider previously reported, there would be major logistical hurdles to overcome if Trump were to be incarcerated. One of the biggest concerns would be what happens to Trump's Secret Service detail. By law, former presidents and their spouses are entitled to lifetime protection unless they decline to accept the security. The children of former presidents are also entitled to protection until they turn 16.

Trump's first criminal trial began in Manhattan earlier this week. New York prosecutors allege that the former president falsified business records related to hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. On paper, Trump could face over 600 years in prison based on the combined charges of the four cases pending against him. In reality, he would likely serve a lot less based on sentencing guidelines. The maximum sentence on each count Trump faces in New York is four years of prison.

Under Thompson's bill, any Secret Service protectee would have their security stripped if convicted of a state or federal offense that is punishable by at least a year in prison. The legislation does not mention Trump directly. As such, it could apply to any future president, vice president, and their families. The Secret Service also protects major presidential candidates.

It's unlikely Thompson's bill will pass through the House, where Republicans hold a narrow majority. Still, it is notable that a Democrat as senior as Thompson is responding to Trump's legal struggles this way. President Joe Biden and his campaign have been largely quiet on the Manhattan trial.

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• B-2 Spirit stealth bombers executed a mass fly-off earlier this week during a major exercise.
• Photos show the bombers taking off from Whiteman Air Force Base. 
• The Air Force's B-2 bombers bring tremendous firepower blended with low-observable characteristics.

More than half of the US Air Force's B-2 Spirit stealth bombers conducted a large-scale exercise earlier this week, staging a massive fly-off.

Photos show the aircraft — known for its flying wing design and ability to leverage its lower-observable, or stealth, characteristics to penetrate even sophisticated enemy defenses and unleash a devastating conventional or nuclear strike — taxiing on the runway before taking off.

The B-2s were flying out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Monday, finishing off the annual Spirit Vigilance exercise aimed at demonstrating the base's B-2 capabilities and readiness. This year's exercise featured the largest mass fly-off of B-2s ever, with 12 of the 20 active aircraft involved. The second largest was eight aircraft in 2022.

According to the Air Force, the B-2, a two-man strategic bomber manufactured by Northrop Grumman, "brings massive firepower to bear, in a short time, anywhere on the globe through previously impenetrable defenses." It's stealth capabilities give it the ability to do what other aircraft, like the B-52 and B-1 bombers, can't.

Video footage from the recent exercise published by Whiteman Air Force Base, the only operational B-2 base, showed the B-2 bombers being prepared for takeoff before hitting the runway and flying off.

Decades after it was first fielded in the early 1990s, the B-2 remains relevant today.

The bomber first saw combat in the Kosovo War in 1999, striking Serbian targets with conventional munitions, and it has flown sorties over Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones.

Its stealth capabilities, payload capacity, and potential to execute long-range strike missions make it a formidable aircraft and deterrent for US rivals. For a long time, it was the only stealth bomber in the world, but the US is making progress on a new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, which achieved its first flight in November last year.

As a penetrating strike stealth bomber, the B-21, the US military has said, is expected to "form the backbone of the future Air Force bomber force."

For now though, the B-2 is the go-to stealth bomber, as the aircraft is able to threaten an adversary's "most valued, and heavily defended, targets. Its capability to penetrate air defenses and threaten effective retaliation provides a strong, effective deterrent and combat force well into the 21st century," the Air Force said.

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Kanzuri is a traditional fermented chile paste that is exclusively produced in Myoko in Japan's Niigata Prefecture by the Tojo family. Before the family started selling the condiment in 1966, it was only made in small batches for household use. Today, a six-year-aged 2.5-ounce bottle sells for almost $20.

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• The US military won't say who won the dogfight between an AI-controlled F-16 and a human fighter pilot. 
• It's the first real-world test of its kind, and officials said the program is progressing even faster than they'd hoped. 
• Back in 2020, AI smoked a seasoned Air Force F-16 pilot 5-0 in simulated dogfights.

The US military won't say who won a landmark real-world dogfight between an artificial intelligence-controlled F-16 and a manned jet, citing national security concerns.

Officials would only say the groundbreaking battle went well. "Things are progressing as well or faster than we had hoped," Lt. Col. Ryan Hefron, ACE program manager for DARPA, told reporters on Friday. "But unfortunately, we can't provide more detail."

The tests occurred last September at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where the two jets flew at speeds of up to 1,2000 miles per hour and practiced a range of dogfighting scenarios. Footage released by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency showed the jets maneuvering through the skies around one another in a step up from previous testing.

The AI-controlled fighter jet, called the X-62A Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft, is a modified version of an F-16.

Col. James Valpiani, commandant of the US Air Force Test Pilot School, said the AI agents in the aircraft were able to be upgraded or switched out between missions, potentially complicating air warfare for the enemy.

"We were able to generate changes to software overnight," he explained, adding that "we were able to upload the software changes to the aircraft while it was holding short, ready to take off and even airborne." He said that "we're able to transition between multiple versions of the same AI agent airborne, between combat sets."

The X-62A has taken at least 21 test flights since it was built in December 2022.

Despite the historic nature of this moment, with DARPA calling it a "transformational moment in aerospace history," the US military isn't sharing an answer to the big question: who won. Officials were mum on details but emphasized how important the exercise was for future progress.

Although it remains unclear if the man or machine prevailed in this moment, AI's track record in this area has been stellar. Back in August 2020, AI won a simulated dogfight against a human operator 5-0. It was a sweep, and the human pilot never even scored a hit.

At the time, former US Navy and US Air Force pilots told Business Insider they weren't surprised by the outcome given that the fight may not have necessarily been realistic.

One argued that the AI algorithm appeared to have had access to information that it wouldn't have in the real world and was operating in a combat environment it was trained for. In many ways, it was like a video game, not actual air-to-air combat with real aircraft racing into the merge. They said they AI would've probably "crashed and burned" in a real fight.

That was years ago though, and the AI has evolved tremendously. Hefron told reporters that they trained this AI model for the real-world fight by conducting "over millions and in some cases, billions" of runs, rewarding specific successful outcomes and reinforcing positive behaviors.

Both Hefron and Valpiani also said that trusting the AI was a key priority for the program, emphasizing a "responsible application of autonomy" and situations where the AI must follow explicit instructions and guidelines.

Dogfights, even in a training situation, can be dangerous. Last September's test built on a previous experience in which an AI agent piloting the X-62A battled simulated threats.

Hefron said that the simulation and real-world have their unique differences, leading to problems when AI has been trained for specific situations that may not happen.

"That's something we've been able to collect data for, we've been able to kind of dissect and understand, and then come up with many new approaches to tackle that problem," he said.

In 2019, DARPA said that "no AI currently exists" that "can outduel a human strapped into a fighter jet in a high-speed, high-G dogfight," but warfare is evolving, especially when it comes to manned-unmanned teaming and autonomous systems.

That may or may not still be true — the military won't say — but the progress in this space is notable.

DARPA said it "seeks to automate air-to-air combat, enabling reaction times at machine speeds and freeing pilots to concentrate on the larger air battle."

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The US debt is skyrocketing to unprecedented levels not seen since World War II. Our investing correspondent explains how we got there and how this looming financial crisis could impact you.

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• "Knowledge spillovers" are IRL meetings that can expand your network or help you learn new things.
• They're more common in industry hubs. 
• It's one reason the big-city exodus post-pandemic could hamper future career prospects.

"Knowledge spillovers" are just one reason why a big-city exodus in the wake of the pandemic could impair future career prospects for people.

Economists define knowledge spillovers as serendipitous meetings — on the bus or in a bar, for example — that can expand your professional network or help you learn new things.

And they're much more common in industry hubs, Business Insider's Aki Ito writes in a feature about the hidden price of leaving big cities:

That's why innovation, as measured by patents, is higher in large markets, and why businesses in big cities tend to have higher productivity.

It's one reason big cities have been "underappreciated" during the pandemic, says economist Enrico Moretti.

A 2022 study on knowledge spillovers in Silicon Valley cited the work of developer AnnaLee Saxenian, stating that "frequent face-to-face interactions, and the knowledge flows that resulted, were a large part of what made Silicon Valley the dominant technology hub it is today."

The study used smartphone data to measure meetings, and concluded that "face-to-face interactions — instrumented by the meetings of workers in adjacent establishments in unconnected industries — substantially increase knowledge flows."

You can read more about the professional benefits to living in a big city right here.

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