• Benedetto Vigna has been Ferrari's CEO since 2021, overseeing the company's transition to EVs.
• His background is in tech, with previous experience as an executive at a semiconductor company.
• Vigna likes the nimbleness of tech startups and removed layers of bureaucracy at Ferrari, per WSJ.

Ferrari's CEO would prefer if the company moved fast like its cars.

Since he assumed his chief executive role in 2021, Benedetto Vigna introduced changes to Ferrari so the more than 80-year-old company could move with the speed of a tech startup as it ventured into the competitive space of electric vehicles.

To do so, Vigna stripped away layers of bureaucracy, creating a flatter hierarchy inside the company, The Wall Street Journal reported — a move other CEOs have been exploring to improve a company's performance or ability to innovate.

Previously, there were six levels of employees between the CEO and test drivers, for example. Now, there are three.

"When the environmental condition is changing at high speed, you need to have a team that is able to adapt at high speed," Vigna told the Journal.

Vigna's leadership approach stems from his long background in tech, according to the outlet.

A trained physicist, Vigna previously spent about 25 years at STMicroelectronics, a semiconductor company, where he started as an engineer and later became an executive, according to a press release from Ferrari.

At Ferrari, Vigna saw what he called a high "bureaucratic mass index," where employees were too far removed from the CEO, the Journal reported.

Vigna has previously expressed his desire for Ferrari to work faster and with less corporate bloat.

In a 2023 interview with Bloomberg, Vigna said he believed that companies work more efficiently through smaller teams.

"In a big team you feel like a number," he told Bloomberg. "In a small team, you are a person that's contributing one way or another. Also, the speed of learning from mistakes is much faster."

So far, Wall Street has responded well to Vigna's arrival.

According to the Journal, the company stock price has nearly doubled since Vigna took control of the company.

Ferrari also plans to roll out its first electric car by the end of 2025.

A spokesperson for Ferrari did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.

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• Donald Trump said on Truth Social that absentee and early votes are "good options" for Republicans.
• The reversal comes after years of Trump sowing doubt in the voting system, arguing it's rife with fraud.
• The new stance, while unlikely to stick, won't reverse the damage he's done, a political scientist told BI.

Donald Trump has inexplicably flip-flopped from his years of previous remarks disparaging the voting system and is now supporting absentee and early voting.

"Absentee voting, early voting, and election day voting are all good options," the former president wrote on Truth Social on Friday afternoon. "Republicans must make a plan, register, and vote!"

Representatives for Trump responded to a request for comment from Business Insider, saying his Friday statement "speaks for itself," and declined to answer further questions.

The latest remarks split decisively from the rhetoric Trump has espoused over the better part of the last decade, in which he has repeatedly claimed the voting system is rigged and rife with fraud. The former president has even backed lawsuits trying to end the practice of mail-in voting in seven states.

While "vote-by-mail" and "absentee voting" are phrases often used interchangeably, there are minor differences in the procedures for each system. Most states that allow absentee voting require voters to request a ballot ahead of the election, with some requiring a reason they will be unable to vote in person on election day, while states with vote-by-mail systems proactively mail out ballots to registered voters.

Only eight states allow all elections to be conducted entirely by vote-by-mail systems. Both absentee and vote-by-mail systems allow voters to mail their ballots through the US Post Office.

Trump has previously targeted "mail-in ballots," claiming their widespread use in 2020 would lead to "the most RIGGED Election in our nations history," The Los Angeles Times reported.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, in his effort to prove Trump attempted to illegally overturn the 2020 election results, has pointed to social media posts as far back as 2012 — in which Trump claimed without evidence that voting machines switched ballots cast for candidate Mitt Romney to votes for then-candidate Barack Obama — as proof Trump has intentionally "sowed mistrust in the results of the presidential election" for years.

Nicholas Grossman, an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois, told Business Insider it's unlikely Trump will maintain his newfound position supporting absentee and early voting. He added that the Truth Social post sounds like a statement a GOP official or campaign staffer would encourage Trump to post to drum up enthusiasm for the coming election.

CNN reported that ranking Republicans have recently embraced early and mail-in voting — and Trump may be following suit in an attempt to have the strongest turnout during this year's election.

But even if Trump suddenly had a change of heart, Grossman said, it would be too late to reverse the damage he has done by sowing doubt in the electoral system. Trump's most stringent supporters, Grossman noted, aren't likely to suddenly have faith in our electoral procedures just because Trump changed his messaging on the topic a few months ahead of the election.

"Because the conspiracy theories have flourished in part from Trump, but also from a whole lot of media for the last decade or so, that damage is, to some extent, permanent," Grossman told Business Insider. "And even despite this latest statement, he's still casting doubt on the election in general. That's been his rhetoric for years at this point — trying to undermine democracy and especially undermine American's faith in the democratic system."

"If Trump loses, he's going to lie about it like he did in 2020. And if he wins, he will probably still lie about it — like he did in 2016 when he claimed millions of people voted illegally in California, and claiming he actually won California," Grossman added, "Even winning the election, he couldn't help himself with lying like that, so I expect that he will again."

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• The AI revolution has sparked fears that machines will replace human workers.
• But former OpenAI exec Zack Kass told BI that human qualities will become even more essential.
• And he offered one simple way to set yourself apart: Be likable.

Workers are worried about competing with machines for jobs as the AI revolution takes off.

But in a world where AI can code, write, and analyze data proficiently, what makes us "human" matters maybe more than ever, Zack Kass, a former exec at OpenAI, told Business Insider.

That means leaning into areas where humans still outpace AI — like critical thinking.

In the coming years, it'll be more important that we "hire lawyers not for how fast they are, but for how well they understand a problem really uniquely," Kass said.

He said it'll also be critical to embrace what makes you likable, someone with whom other humans ultimately want to work.

"AI is going to commoditize most of our knowledge and many of our skills," Kass later wrote by email. So our "immutable human qualities" like "courage, vision, wisdom, empathy" will become more important.

Those qualities could also set you apart as AI takes over tasks for workers at all levels. Studies have already shown that AI is bound to be an equalizer in the workplace. So, Kass says, workers should emphasize their personal qualities.

"Why would anyone hire 'assholes' in a world where everyone is smart," he said with a laugh.

A workforce made up of likable people can also boost a company's bottom line. People with work friends are not only more likely to stay in their jobs, but they're also more productive, engaged, happier, and healthier.

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• Lawyers for Pink, often stylized P!nk, filed legal action against Pharrell Williams on Thursday.
• The Notice of Opposition was filed against Williams' attempt to trademark "P.Inc."
• The notice said the resemblance between "P!nk" and "P.Inc" would "cause confusion."

Pink has taken legal action against Pharrell Williams to stop his attempt to trademark the term "P.Inc."

Pink, 44, filed the Notice of Opposition against Williams through her company, Lefty Paw Print, on Thursday. Williams, 51, is represented by his company, PW IP Holdings.

Documents included in the Notice of Opposition show that Lefty Paw Print owns several trademarks for Pink. The first trademark application was filed in 1999 and registered in 2001. Lefty Paw Print wrote that Pink "has spent substantial time, effort and money promoting the goods and services" under the trademarks.

Lefty Paw Print wrote that Williams filed a trademark application for "P.Inc" in May 2023.

"Applicant's P.INC Mark is similar to the PINK Marks in sight, sound, meaning, and commercial impression," the document read.

The company added that Williams is "likely to market and promote its goods through the same channels of trade and to the same consumers" as Pink.

The Notice of Opposition said that the resemblance between Pink — sometimes stylized "P!nk" — and "P.Inc" would confuse consumers.

"Such registration would be a source of damage and injury to Opposer," the document said, referring to Pink and Lefty Paw Print.

Representatives for Pink and Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Pink's notice isn't the only trademark battle Williams is facing right now.

Williams' longtime collaborator, Chad Hugo, accused him of seeking sole control of The Neptunes' trademarks, according to Variety. Hugo's lawyers said Williams' trademark attempt violates an agreement between him and Hugo to split everything equally.

"Throughout their over 30-year history, [Hugo] and Williams agreed to, and in fact, have divided all assets," Hugo's attorney wrote in the legal action. "By ignoring and excluding [Hugo] from any and all applications filed by the applicant for the mark 'The Neptunes,' applicant has committed fraud in securing the trademarks and acted in bad faith."

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• The House passed a bill to provide military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
• It's part of a larger package that includes Ukraine aid and is likely to pass the Senate next week.
• Dozens of progressive Democrats — and some hard-right Republicans — voted against it.

The House of Representatives on Saturday passed a bill that includes more than $14 billion in military aid to Israel and more than $9 billion in humanitarian aid, much of which will go to Gaza.

The bill passed by a 366-58 margin, but dozens of progressive Democrats — and a cohort hard-right Republicans — voted against it.

Under an unconventional plan from House Speaker Mike Johnson, the bill will be sent to the Senate as part of a package that includes aid for Ukraine and Taiwan and a third bill that forces a sale of TikTok and allows the United States to confiscate Russian assets. Lawmakers voted individually on each component.

The combined bill closely mirrors a $95.3 billion national security bill passed by the Senate in February. Three senators voted against that package over the Israel aid.

President Joe Biden has pledged to sign the bill into law after it passes the Senate in the coming days, a move that could anger those on the progressive left who have called for him to take a different approach to Israel's war in Gaza, where over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed.

It's not the first time in recent months that Democrats have voted en masse against Israel aid. They've become more comfortable doing so amid the devastation in Gaza.

In November, all but 12 of them voted against a bill that would have paired Israel aid with cuts to the Internal Revenue Service, a non-starter for Democrats. And in February, just 46 Democrats voted for an Israel aid bill that didn't include those cuts, with Democrats largely taking the position that they wanted to see Ukraine aid paired with Israel aid.

14 House Republicans voted against the latter Israel aid bill in February, with many citing the cost of the aid.

But Saturday's vote was different — this bill is all but certain to be signed into law, and the significant number of Democrats who voted against Israel aid shows how quickly the issue has shifted in recent months.

"To give the Netanyahu government more offensive weapons at this stage is to condone the utter destruction of Gaza we've seen over the last seven months and risks fueling a deadly regional war," said Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, a progressive Jewish Democrat, in a statement ahead of her vote. "The United States cannot continue to support the extreme offensive that has caused unimaginable suffering to the Palestinian people."

This story will be updated with a list of lawmakers who voted against the bill when it becomes available via the House Clerk.

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• The House passed a more than $60 billion bill that provides more military aid to Ukraine.
• It's part of a larger foreign aid package that's likely to pass the Senate and be signed into law.
• 112 Republicans voted it against — the most ever, and a majority of the GOP conference.

The House of Representatives on Saturday passed a more than $60 billion bill to provide military and economic aid to Ukraine.

A solid majority of Republicans voted against the bill, which passed by a 311-112 margin. 101 Republicans voted for it, and one Republican voted "present."

The Ukraine aid bill came to the floor after months of delay and despite staunch opposition from the hard right, including a threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to call a vote to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson if he allowed such a vote.

Under Johnson's unconventional plan, the Ukraine bill will be sent to the Senate as part of a package that includes aid for Israel and Taiwan and a third bill that forces a sale of TikTok and allows the United States to confiscate Russian assets. Each component received its own vote in the House on Saturday.

The bill is widely expected to pass the Senate in the coming days, as it generally mirrors a $95.3 billion national security bill passed by the upper chamber in February. President Joe Biden has pledged to sign it into law.

Saturday's vote marked the first time the House had approved billions of dollars in Ukraine aid since December 2022, when Democrats still controlled the chamber.

In the two years since Russia's invasion, opposition to aiding Ukraine has grown from a fringe position to a majority view among House GOP lawmakers. Many argue the money should be spent domestically or that policy changes at the US-Mexico border should take precedence.

The new infusion of aid comes at a make-or-break moment for Ukraine, which has faced ammo shortages and insufficient air defenses.

As a result of his move, Johnson could face a vote on his ouster in the coming weeks. The GOP speaker, however, has grown more willing to confront the threat from the right, and Democrats have suggested that they're willing to protect him from an ouster effort if he allowed a vote on Ukraine aid.

"If I operated out of fear of a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job," Johnson told reporters this week. "History judges us for what we do. This is a critical time right now."

This story will be updated with a list of House Republicans who voted against the bill when it becomes available via the House Clerk.

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• Young people are relying on TikTok for abortion information amid legal uncertainty in the US.
• Confusion over abortion laws is increasing online engagement on the issue, researchers say.
• American lawmakers on Saturday voted to force the sale of TikTok in the US or ban it entirely.

Young people confused about abortion bans in their state are turning to TikTok for advice.

Now, the US government wants to ban TikTok too. House lawmakers voted Saturday to force the sale of TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, to an American company or face a domestic ban, citing national security concerns.

Wildly popular in the United States with 170 million users, TikTok has become a resource for American women trying to navigate the complex and varied laws on abortion.

Half of US states have passed bans or limits on abortion, including 11 states that have implemented gestational limits, some of which are as early as 6 weeks — before most women can even tell they are pregnant. Many of those bans are facing legal challenges and the issue is poised to be a central one in the upcoming presidential election.

The labyrinth of abortion laws is why American women need "legal abortion without borders," Merle Hoffman, a lifelong abortion activist who has run a New York City-based women's clinic since the 1970s, told Business Insider.

"I so firmly and deeply believe that the right to reproductive justice is just as fundamental and transcendent a right as the right to vote, the right to worship, the right to assembly. Just think if you had to have the right to vote in New Jersey but didn't have it in Wyoming. That would be absurd because we're all citizens, right?" Hoffman said.

As more people turn to social media for information about abortion, more women are sharing their personal experiences on TikTok. Some women are sharing videos detailing their medical procedures and home methods like mifepristone.

"I was really torn about whether or not I was going to make this video, but I think it's important," Sunni says at the start of her TikTok video, according to The New York Times. "It's the video I was looking for. I was like 'what's going to go on?'"

Sunni's video, which received over 400,000 views, details her experience with mifepristone. The video attracted attention from anti-abortion groups. Protect Life Michigan responded directly to the video on TikTok, calling it "heartbreaking."

Rebecca Nall, founder of abortion access nonprofit Ineeda, told The Times that "more and more people are going online" with questions about abortion because of "the chaos and the confusion and the stigma" of abortion bans.

Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, an OBGYN who shares women's health information on TikTok, said in a video that it's important for other women to show their experience with medication abortions for visibility.

"Shes fantastic for doing this," Lincoln says. "She showed what it was like, and in doing that, she's normalizing it. She's de-stigmatizing it. She's telling you, honestly, what happened."

Mikaela Attu's TikTok video about the day she had an abortion was viewed over 3.5 million times. Mikaela demonstrated various medical equipment, like the device used for her ultrasound. Ending the video, Attu said she felt completely normal after the procedure.

In a follow-up video, Attu said her procedure, which she had in Canada, took about 5 to 10 minutes. "I was totally happy with the process," Attu says in the video. "I went about my day. My husband and I went and had dinner."

"It's something that so many people go through," Sunni told the Times. "There are people walking around you going through this thing, and until they feel normal and accepted, they're not going to be able to heal."

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• The House voted in favor of a bill that could result in an American ban on TikTok.
• The bill would force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell to an American company or face a ban.
• The bill now heads to the Senate, where it's also expected to pass.

The House advanced legislation on Saturday that could lead to a TikTok ban in the United States.

The bill forces TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to secure American ownership in about a year or face a domestic ban. Earlier versions of the legislation gave ByteDance just six months to find a new owner.

To fast-track the bipartisan legislation, House Speaker Mike Johnson combined it with a bill to allow the US to confiscate Russian assets, then bundled it into a package containing aid bills for Taiwain, Israel, and Ukraine, which have all been delayed for months amid congressional infighting.

That package of legislation will head to the Senate in a matter of days, where it's likely to pass. In February, the Senate approved a similar $95.3 billion package that did not include the TikTok bill.

American politicians have for years expressed security concerns over TikTok because ByteDance is obligated to share data with the Chinese government. TikTok has an estimated 170 million users in the United States alone.

Toward the end of his presidency, former President Donald Trump sought to ban the app. He has since flipped on the issue, arguing that TikTok's demise could bolster Meta, Facebook's parent company, which he referred to as "an enemy of the people."

President Joe Biden has signaled his intent to sign the legislation next week if it passes the Senate. Even though the legislation could result in a forced sale instead of a full-on ban, TikTok's company leadership is fearing the worst and is expected to challenge it in court. Legal challenges could also come from TikTok's users and creators.

"This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States," a ByteDance spokesperson said last month.

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• Jared Moskowitz mocked MTG, calling to make her "Putin's Special Envoy" to Congress.
• The move came in response to Greene's amendments that proposed Ukraine aid supporters enlist in the fight against Russia.
• "If you want to fund the endless foreign wars, you should have to go fight them," Greene said.

Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat representing Florida's 23rd congressional district, has openly mocked Marjorie Taylor Greene by saying he submitted an amendment appointing her as "Putin's Special Envoy to the United States Congress."

Moskowitz submitted the proposal in response to Greene's amendments to the Ukraine aid bill.

One of Greene's amendments called for supporters of the bill, which would see tens of billions of dollars in aid sent to Ukraine, to enlist in the country's military in its fight against Russia.

Rebekah Maciorowski, a US citizen who has been serving as a combat nurse on the front lines in Ukraine, replied to Greene's call, saying: "I did."

Moskowitz also introduced a second amendment trolling Greene, seeking to rename her office in the Cannon House Office Building to the "Neville Chamberlain Room" — a reference to the former British prime minister famed for his failed attempts at appeasement toward Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

Greene has frequently come out with anti-Ukraine rhetoric and has sought to delay the $95.3 billion aid package that would allocate $60.84 billion to Ukraine.

All eyes are now on the upcoming votes in the House and Senate.

While the bill has been bogged down in delays, Ukraine has been suffering serious ammunition shortages, hindering its efforts on the battlefield.

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• Elon Musk won't be going to India this month.
• Musk cited "heavy Tesla obligations" in an X post on Saturday. 
• Tesla has faced Cybertruck recalls, layoffs, and rival competition in recent months.

Elon Musk has postponed his trip to India amid the ongoing chaos at Tesla.

Musk announcement the decision via X — the social media site he purcahsed two years ago — on Saturday. The Tesla CEO was expected to visit India early next week to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year," Musk wrote.

Musk didn't publicly share many details about the trip, but sources told Reuters he planned to announce a $2 to $3 billion investment in India. Musk wants to build a new factory in India, where the EV market is tiny but gaining steam, thet outlet reported.

Musk hinted at India's growing EV market in an X post last week.

"India commits to sell only electric cars by 2030. It is already the largest market for solar power," he wrote.

Musk's decision to postpone coincides with Tesla sharing its Q1 earnings on April 23, when Musk and investors will reckon with the company's tumultuous start to 2024.

BI reported in early April that Musk's Tesla has struggled to compete in China's EV market as rival companies make "aggressive price cuts." An equities strategist told BI that Tesla's troubles in China likely contributed to the company's first-quarter delivery miss.

Around that time, Tesla stock slid 7%.

By mid-April, Musk announced that Tesla would layoff 10% of its global workforce in an internal memo to staff. The recent layoffs were further bogged down by reports that some employees received "incorrectly low" severance packages. Another round of layoffs hit its recruiting department on Friday.

Tesla also recently recalled almost 4,000 of its Cybertrucks over faulty accelerator pedals. Musk wrote on X that Tesla was unaware of any "injuries or accidents" related to the problem.

"We are just being very cautious," Musk wrote.

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

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