Tag: News

• Meteorologists have an open secret about booking flights: avoid summer afternoons and evenings.
• Because of thunderstorms, late flights in summer are prone to delays or cancellations.
• Meteorologist Chris Bianchi broke his mornings-only rule for summer flights and quickly regretted it.

Chris Bianchi loves flying.

"The fact that you can go from being a 737 sitting on the ground to hurtling through the air at 500 miles an hour in five minutes, is just fascinating to me," he told Business Insider. "I'm never not awestruck when I'm taking off, and on a plane. It's just so cool."

But on the evening of June 26, he didn't get to fly. Instead, he got stuck at LaGuardia Airport overnight waiting for an hours-delayed plane.

He only had himself to blame. As a meteorologist, he should've known better than to book a flight on a summer evening.

With his extra airport time, he made a TikTok about it.

"I broke the one rule you should never ever break," the 9News Denver meteorologist told his followers. "Never book a flight in the afternoon, or especially at night, during the summertime months in the United States."

Soon flight attendants were posting in the comments about how they always book the first morning flight of the day. Bianchi's meteorologist friends started texting him, asking why on Earth he was flying at night.

It's an open secret among those in the know: Summer afternoons and evenings are the most weather-delay-prone time of year for flights.

"It was a fun trip, and I did not have to work the next day," Bianchi told BI. "That's why I was like, I'll roll the dice a little bit on this — full well knowing that I could get screwed, which is what happened to me."

Ultimately, Bianchi didn't get on a plane home to Denver until 7 p.m. the following day.

Summer afternoons are peak thunderstorm time

Three ingredients make a thunderstorm: moisture, unstable air, and some way for that air to get moving.

In summer, the heat of the sun helps get things moving if the atmosphere is unstable enough — either due to differences of temperature or moisture in different layers of the atmosphere. Hot air rises, so the warm summer air near Earth's surface starts to rise to higher, cooler altitudes.

Water vapor (completing the ingredient triad) in the air cools as it rises, condensing into clouds. Eventually, you have a thunderstorm.

"The morning tends to be calmer in most areas. It might take a little bit for that energy to build up for storms to spark," AccuWeather meteorologist Alyssa Glenny told BI. "You might have a calmer flight in the morning."

Bad weather doesn't need to be in your flight path to cause a delay. It could be in a city where your plane stopped earlier that day. A storm in Chicago might delay the plane that's supposed to take you from LaGuardia to Miami.

"Weather in other cities can really disrupt your travel plans," Bianchi said.

April and May are particularly bad-weather months across the central plains of the US and through Tornado Alley, according to Glenny. Then, in the later summer from June onward, hurricane season picks up.

Even if your plane isn't coming from a coastal city in a hurricane's path, those systems often move inland after they make landfall, causing tornados and thunderstorms across the US.

Remnants of Hurricane Beryl, for example, pummeled the Great Lakes and New England regions with rain and heavy winds Wednesday and Thursday, just days after the storm made landfall in Texas. Even before landfall, Beryl led to over 1,000 flight cancellations and thousands of delays, according to Reuters.

Morning flights can help you avoid cascading delays

Booking morning flights doesn't just help you avoid nasty weather — it also cushions you against delays that build up throughout the day.

Even if skies are clear across the country on the afternoon or evening you fly, any planes that were delayed earlier in the day could still be running behind schedule.

"That'll have a cascading effect," Glenny said.

Knowing all that science and flight logistics, Bianchi's takeaway is simple: "Book a flight in the morning in summer," he said.

• AT&T says hackers stole call and text records from "nearly all" of its wireless customers.
• The data includes the phone numbers that customers interacted with.
• It doesn't include the contents of the calls and texts, or Social Security numbers, AT&T said.

AT&T says that call and text records from almost all of its wireless customers were stolen in a hack earlier this year.

The carrier said on Friday that it learned in April that customer data had been "illegally downloaded" from its workspace on a third-party cloud platform.

The compromised data includes files containing AT&T records of calls and texts of "nearly all of AT&T's cellular customers, customers of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) using AT&T's wireless network, as well as AT&T's landline customers who interacted with those cellular numbers between May 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022."

For a "very small" group of customers, the compromised data also includes records from January 2, 2023, AT&T said.

AT&T said that the compromised records show the telephone numbers an AT&T or MVNO cellular number interacted with. In some cases, the records also include cell site identification numbers.

The data doesn't contain the content of calls or texts, personal information such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth, or time stamps of calls or texts, AT&T said.

"While the data does not include customer names, there are often ways, using publicly available online tools, to find the name associated with a specific telephone number," AT&T said.

"At this time, we do not believe that the data is publicly available," AT&T said.

It added that it had recruited leading cybersecurity experts and had taken steps to close off the illegal access point.

"We are working with law enforcement in its efforts to arrest those involved in the incident," AT&T said. "We understand that at least one person has been apprehended."

The carrier said that it would inform affected current and former customers about the hack. "We sincerely regret this incident occurred and remain committed to protecting the information in our care," it said.

• European regulators said Elon Musk's X deceives users and breaches EU rules.
• The European Commission cited issues with data access, advertising transparency, and "dark patterns."
• If the Commission's views are confirmed, X could be fined up to 6% of its global turnover.

Elon Musk's X deceives its users and breaches online content rules, the European Commission said on Friday.

In a preliminary view, the Commission said the platform had broken rules regarding data access for researchers, advertising transparency, and "dark patterns."

The body said X's blue checkmark system for "verified accounts" deceives users as anyone can pay to obtain verified status. The Commission said the system did not correspond to industry practice and negatively affected users' ability to make informed decisions about the authenticity of accounts.

"X has now the right of defence — but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines & require significant changes," industry commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X.

X could be fined up to 6% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider if the Commission's views are confirmed.

Representatives for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

This is a developing story, please check for further updates.

• Democrats could suffer a "landslide defeat," a former Obama advisor told The Atlantic.
• David Axelrod said struggles in Virginia, New Hampshire, and Minnesota could cost them everywhere.
• It would "sweep Democrats out of office everywhere — House, Senate, governor, you name it," he said.

Democrats could suffer a "landslide defeat," sweeping them out of office everywhere, a former Obama advisor told The Atlantic.

David Axelrod, a key strategist behind former President Barack Obama's victories in the 2008 and 2012 elections, discussed the worst-case scenario in which Democrats would struggle to retain Virginia, New Hampshire, and Minnesota.

He made the assessment after President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance last month and as calls grow for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.

"If we get to the point of fighting to hold on to Virginia, New Hampshire, and Minnesota, meaning the main six or seven battlegrounds are gone — then yeah, we're talking about a landslide, both in the Electoral College and in the popular vote," Axelrod told The Atlantic.

"The magnitude of that defeat, I think, would be devastating to the party," he said, adding: "Those margins at the top of the ticket would sweep Democrats out of office everywhere — House, Senate, governor, you name it."

Since his disastrous debate performance last month, Biden has fallen further behind former President Donald Trump — even in states key to Biden's reelection.

While a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll showed Biden closing the gap with Trump in key swing states earlier this month, other post-debate polls show Trump with wider leads than before the debate.

Last week, Sabato's Crystal Ball moved Michigan from "Lean Democratic" to "Toss Up" and Minnesota from "Likely Democratic" to "Lean Democratic."

And on Tuesday, Cook Political Report, a widely respected political prediction group, moved six swing states toward the Republicans, and shifted New Hampshire and Minnesota from "likely" to "lean" Democratic in the presidential race, per Politico.

Meanwhile, Democratic Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine told the outlet: "I truly believe we're a battleground state now."

New Mexico, Virginia and Maine could also be in play if Biden continues to decline.

If accurate, the latest poll numbers would narrow Biden's path to victory, as he is already fighting in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Axelrod told The Atlantic that: "The numbers were daunting before the debate, and now there's a real danger that they're going to get worse."

He made a similar assessment on Sunday, telling CNN that Biden is more likely to "lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race."

• Rashida Jones isn't afraid to admit the privilege she had due to her parents' success in Hollywood.
• Jones is the daughter of music producer Quincy Jones and the late actor Peggy Lipton.
• Experts say there's a fine line between using your network and taking advantage of your privilege to get ahead.

Rashida Jones isn't afraid to admit she's benefited from being a nepo baby.

In an interview with InStyle published on Wednesday, the actor weighed in on the "nepotism baby" discourse and acknowledged the privilege she had due to her parents' success in the entertainment industry.

"People like the story of a legacy family and it's fun to write about and it's fun to think about you know, the 'mini me' and the person who looks like their mom or their dad. And then there's the resentment there too," Jones told InStyle. "But I think about it as, historically, people go into the family business more than they don't."

Jones's father is music producer Quincy Jones, and her mother is the late actor Peggy Lipton.

"My dad said to me, when I graduated from college: 'You're gonna go wait in line with 70,000 other people for a job? That doesn't seem really that practical,'" Jones said. "And he was right, you know."

Jones attended Harvard, where she graduated with a degree in the comparative study of religion in 1997, per The Hollywood Reporter.

According to her IMDb page, she made her acting debut in the mini TV series "The Last Don" that same year. However, Jones was only cast in her breakout role on "The Office" in 2006, when she was 30.

A balancing act

Experts say there's a fine line between utilizing your network and taking advantage of your privilege.

"Using your network and personal connection to learn information and gain introductions is generally seen as acceptable, even sensible. However, using your network to get unfairly hired into a role you may not be deserving of is generally seen as unacceptable," Hannah Salton, a UK-based career coach and author, told Business Insider.

Indeed, Salton said, most reputable companies should have rigorous and fair recruitment processes that don't allow nepotism.

However, in practice, it's often hard to ensure impartial hiring always happens.

"Tools such as 'blind CVs' — where an applicant's personal details are removed from their job application — exist, or a ban on hiring senior management's immediate family exists to try to reduce nepotism, particularly in certain industries that have historically been prone to it, such as law," Salton said.

At the same time, leveraging connections isn't all that different from relying on other talents or qualities that one has, Allison Ching, a Singapore-based life and career coach, told BI.

"We possess different types of arrows in our quiver: some of us are blessed with high IQ, some with specific talents, and some with rich and well-connected parents. It is acceptable to use what we have," Ching said.

"However, parental connections, or any other arrows in our quiver, should be used as a tool at best, but never as a crutch," she added.

Pulling your weight at work

Should people be open about their family connections at work, then?

It's a tricky question to answer, Salton said.

On one hand, being honest and upfront about any connections you have may be the right thing to do in certain circumstances, she said.

"However, if you are involved in an objective recruitment process and keep talking about your family connections, it could be preserved that you are hoping for special treatment," she said.

Ultimately, people should use their judgment and be transparent about their connections when appropriate but avoid using these to intimidate others or imply that they want to be treated favorably, Salton said.

And if people do leverage their parental connections to kick-start or further their career, it must be approached with professionalism and humility, Ching said.

"Acknowledging the advantage and showing gratitude is crucial, as well as pulling your weight and demonstrating competence to earn respect on your merit," Ching said. "Expand opportunities and strengthen relationships based on mutual respect and genuine interactions, rather than feeling entitled to things and relying solely on familial ties."

After all, family connections can only go so far.

"Stay humble, and be willing to offer support and guidance to others who may not have the same advantage to foster a more equitable workplace culture," Ching said.

Hollywood aside, the business world also has its share of nepo babies.

All five of LVMH chairman and billionaire Bernard Arnault's children work at the company and its brands.

Mukesh Ambani, the owner and chairman of Reliance Industries, also has three children holding different roles across his empire.

A representative for Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

• Boeing secured an order for 35 of its 737 Max jets from Aviation Capital Group.
• It's a boost for the firm's troubled jet that faces delays in production and certification.
• However, customers have been warned of further delays to Max deliveries, Bloomberg reported.

Boeing secured a notable 737 Max order, but delays to the flagship narrowbody jet appear to be getting worse.

Aviation Capital Group, the aircraft leasing unit of Japanese leasing firm Tokyo Century Corp, has ordered 35 Boeing 737 Max jets, it announced Friday.

The order includes 16 of the Max 8 and 19 of the Max 10, which is yet to be certified.

It's encouraging news for Boeing, particularly given recent problems involving the Max. On Sunday, the Justice Department said Boeing had agreed to plead guilty to a charge of fraud conspiracy in relation to two Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people.

The aircraft's reputation was further hampered by January's Alaska Airlines blowout when a Max 9's door plug came off in midair. Boeing's share price has since fallen more than 25%.

The 737 Max 10 — the largest version of the jet — has also faced controversy of its own due to certification delays.

In the wake of January's blowout, the CEO of United Airlines — Boeing's biggest customer — said he would build an "alternative plan" without the Max 10 due to its frustrations with the delay. The carrier's chief financial officer later said its order for 277 such planes would be replaced by Max 9 and Airbus A321neo jets.

In Friday's statement, Tokyo Century Corp said it expected its Max jets to be delivered in 2031.

As a result of the Alaska Airlines incident, the Federal Aviation Administration is preventing Boeing from expanding production of the Max until it's satisfied with its quality-control processes. Capped at 38 a month, customers have voiced frustrations with the slow pace of deliveries.

In recent weeks, Boeing has told customers with deliveries scheduled for 2025 and 2026 that they face additional delays, Bloomberg reported. The report added that delays could be between three and six months.

The low-cost carrier Norwegian Air also said Friday that it expected reduced capacity growth this year, "due to aircraft delivery delays from Boeing."

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.

The news comes just 10 days before the start of the Farnborough Airshow, the sector's biggest event of the year. Several substantial plane orders are expected to be announced at the show, and Boeing previously confirmed that it wouldn't exhibit any of its airliners.

• Elon Musk posted on X that he has not "volunteered his sperm" to help start a Martian colony. 
• He also denied SpaceX was working on plans for a Martian city, after the NYT reported it had drawn up designs. 
• Musk has long been fascinated with colonizing Mars, and started SpaceX to help humanity reach the red planet.

Elon Musk has denied that he offered up his sperm to help start a colony on Mars.

The SpaceX founder, who has previously warned that humanity must colonize Mars if it is to survive, said he had not made a personal contribution to that effort after The New York Times reported he had volunteered his sperm as part of SpaceX's plans to build a city on the red planet.

"I have not, for what it's worth, 'volunteered my sperm'" wrote Musk in a post on X.

"No one at SpaceX has been directed to work on a Mars city. When people have asked to do so, I've said we need to focus on getting there first," the billionaire added.

According to the NYT report, which is based on interviews with more than 20 people close to Musk and SpaceX and on internal SpaceX documents, Musk has directed SpaceX employees to investigate the details of how a Mars colony would work, with one team drawing up plans for a series of dome-shaped habitats on the red planet. A SpaceX medical team is also reportedly looking into whether it is possible for humans to have children on Mars, the Times wrote.

Two people with knowledge of Musk's comments also told the NYT the Tesla CEO had volunteered his sperm to help grow the colony.

Musk has long been fascinated with Mars. The billionaire founded SpaceX in 2002 with the express goal of reaching Mars, and has spoken extensively about using SpaceX's powerful Starship rocket to travel to Mars.

Experts told Business Insider that it is unclear how practical it would be for Musk to send sperm to Mars.

Adam Watkins, an associate professor of reproductive biology at the University of Nottingham, said that the sperm could be effectively freeze-dried to transport it through space, but other experts have cast doubt over whether it would be possible to become pregnant on Mars thanks to the reduced gravity and high levels of radiation.

Elon Musk and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

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

• I wanted to use gentle parenting every time my first child threw a tantrum. 
• Gentle parenting was not only not working for us, but it was sucking the joy out of having kids.
• I want my two kids to see me as a whole person, so I do a trial and error approach now instead. 

The first time my toddler threw a tantrum, it caught me off guard. She swiped her bowl of pasta to the ground (something she usually likes) and demanded a "peanut butter sammich" instead.

I froze, wracking my brain for parenting scripts and advice on how to handle this situation. She had eaten a peanut butter sandwich earlier that day, and I wanted to maintain this boundary.

After validating her emotions (twice) and offering two different preferred foods that she swatted from my hands, I felt defeated and perplexed. By this point, my toddler had hummed her sippy cup at the wall and managed to wriggle out of her high chair straps.

"What now?" my husband asked over her anguished shrieks.

"I don't know," I conceded.

I thought about what I had learned about gentle parenting

The voices of gentle parenting experts — more accurately, the Instagram posts by certain accounts such as Big Little Feelings and Responsive Parenting — ran on loops in my mind.

But what happens when gentle parenting doesn't work? Is it really so bad to offer a bribe or just say no? How will our children learn that pitching a fit won't get them what they want? And, more importantly, what about my experience as a parent? Does it really need to be this hard?

As we waded deeper into toddlerhood, it became clear that gentle parenting — on top of being impractical — was sucking all of the joy out of parenthood. Daily transitions made me anxious. Day care dropoffs, trips to the park, and even walks in the stroller became potential hotbeds.

I gave up on gentle parenting

I officially gave up on gentle parenting when my second daughter was born, leaving me with two kids under two. I simply couldn't afford to spend precious time and energy obsessing over my toddler's emotional wellbeing at my own expense.

Gentle parenting is gentle on kids but hard on parents. It centers the child's emotional experience, mandating that the parent shrink in order to make space for the child's "big emotions." Saying things like "that made mommy sad" is forbidden. And, to make things worse, there's a mob of gentle parenting cult followers on social media just waiting to take you down if (when) you mess up.

In hindsight, I've always been a gentle parenting skeptic. As a pediatric speech-language pathologist, the notion that kids shouldn't know how their behavior affects others (including adults) seems counterintuitive. Recognizing social cues and predicting another's emotional state is something we target in therapy as kids grow older.

I want to enjoy my kids

I want my daughters to see me as a whole person, and I don't want to resent them for allowing myself to become their emotional (or physical) punching bag. Moreover, I want to enjoy parenthood and offer myself the same compassion that I extend to my kids.

So, I've exchanged gentle parenting for a more lighthearted, trial-and-error approach. I've gotten off social media and stopped obsessing over every parenting interaction. Now, I can bring my daughter to the park or the beach without worrying about how I'll get her back into the car. I no longer dread dinnertime for fear of a high-stakes negotiation.

My new parenting motto is: life is too short to take myself or my kids too seriously. I only have one shot at being a mom, and I don't want to waste it trying to be perfect. Instead, I want to soak in all the joy that I possibly can.

• Asia's richest man is hosting a lavish wedding in Mumbai for his youngest son this weekend.
• Local traffic police announce road closures, causing frustration among some Mumbai locals.
• Mumbai is already plagued by traffic and faces added congestion from the three-day wedding affair. 

Asia's richest man is throwing a massive wedding for his youngest son in Mumbai this weekend.

Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, is set to wed Radhika Merchant in a lavish affair.

It's expected to delight Bollywood celebrities, business leaders, and politicians who are all on the guest list. But one group of people are not pleased — city residents.

Earlier this month, local traffic police posted a social media notice announcing road closures and diversions from Friday through Monday.

The document, posted on X, noted that a large number of guests and VIPs would be in attendance and added that the measures were being taken "in order to avoid inconvenience" for guests.

The notice and its wording, which also called the wedding a "public event" angered some locals who expressed their frustration on X, saying that Mumbai residents should not be disturbed so that a billionaire can throw a big party.

Mumbai is seen as India's financial capital, and its Bandra Kurla Complex, where the wedding is taking place, is a major business district. The city is also the country's populated, and traffic congestion is a headache for locals.

Sonam Srivastava, CEO of Wright Research, whose office is adjacent to the Jio World Convention Centre, where the Ambani wedding is being held, told Business Insider that the venue has experienced "significant disruptions" due to traffic blockages.

Srivastava added: "This situation has forced us to reschedule critical client meetings and events planned for these dates. It's alarming that traffic in such a prominent business district has come to a standstill, causing significant inconvenience to businesses, for a private event."

The Ambani family hosted pre-wedding parties in Jamnagar in March, which were attended by some of the world's elite, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ivanka Trump.

India's The Hindu newspaper reported at the time that around 150 planes descended into the local airport.

An airport official told The Hindu that the airport organized some extra capacity for the guests by setting up a Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine (CIQ) center at the airport.

• I started working in media, and my first job was severely underpaid and isolating. 
• I interviewed for other roles at the company, but my boss renegotiated my contract for another year.
• Since she did it behind my back, I interviewed anyway and landed a better-paying role. 

As the media industry is notoriously tough to break into, I felt grateful when I landed a yearlong contract at a broadcasting organization in my early 20s. However, after a few months, my excitement turned to frustration when I realized my job wasn't going anywhere.

Looking back, there were red flags right from the start. I worked predominantly with higher-level managers and executives, so I was often alone at my desk while they were in meetings. When they were around, their conversations were generally irrelevant to my role, and I certainly couldn't afford the expensive bars they frequented. I was the most junior on the team yet the managers openly discussed how their salaries weren't high enough — despite being double what I was paid.

My role also meant that I worked almost exclusively with companies outside the organization, so I never had any real opportunity to build or showcase my skills to colleagues in the office. As I desperately wanted to be able to find another job at the company, I became increasingly anxious and my mental health started to suffer. These feelings were exacerbated when I saw my peers moving between jobs and gaining the credits that I also needed to have longevity in a competitive industry.

My anxiety about the job was the red flag I needed

I stuck it out for the first year — until my anxiety became so bad that I knew I would only get better if I left. I told my immediate manager I was applying for new jobs within the company. I didn't worry about it too much as my contract was nearly up.

My plan worked, as I was shortlisted to interview for better-paying jobs at the same company. This was a huge relief, as my role was woefully underpaid, and I needed the extra money.

What I didn't realize was that my higher-up boss had renegotiated my contract with HR for another year without consulting me. It forced me to explain to her that I had interviews coming up — despite already telling my immediate manager. She'd done it because my role was tough to fill, and HR had signed off on a contract extension to avoid recruiting again.

As this was only revealed in the last weeks of my job, it imperiled my plan to leave and feel normal again. Even though I knew this wasn't my responsibility, I still cried during a meeting with my boss. She wanted me to stay and couldn't understand why I wanted to leave. It was also frustrating that the company preferred to retain that role with all its issues instead of changing it to make it more appealing for new recruits.

I stuck up for myself despite being a junior member of staff

Against her wishes, I went to the interviews, and thankfully, I was offered a higher position at the company.

HR eventually accepted my resignation and moved me into my new role — but not without a few weeks left on my current contract. I had to stay on for an additional five weeks while they found someone, which I spent trying to please my team by creating a detailed handover for my replacement. Still, those last days were intensely boring, and my boss's resistance to my resignation cast a shadow over the rest of my time there.

Once I moved jobs, I realized that all of my instincts about the role were correct. Not only was I being paid more for my new position, but it was less stressful, there were more opportunities, and I had coworkers who became my friends. Even within the same company, the situation was entirely different, and I learned many new skills there. Most importantly, I stopped having panic attacks, and my mental health improved.

After years of working in the media industry, I'm proud that I stood my ground despite the intense turmoil I felt while doing it. I now know that people leave jobs and move around all the time for reasons similar to mine.

It should never feel personal to leave a job, nor should anyone have to spend so much time in an environment where they feel unhappy. This is especially true when there are much better career options waiting for you. So I'm glad that I stood up myself, which was scary as a junior staff member but empowering in the long run.