Tag: News

• When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, it caused enormous devastation.
• The eruption triggered mudslides, an explosion, and plumes of ash that did enormous damage.
• The death of 57 people led to large changes in how the US monitors and prepares for eruptions.

On May 18, 1980, Don Swanson placed a frenzied call to his wife to let her know that he was OK. "That's nice," she said, unconcerned. She had no idea her geologist husband had spent the morning in a plane flying by an erupting volcano.

At 8:32 a.m. Pacific Time that day, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake had shaken Mount St. Helens, leading to its eruption.

Its conical top collapsed into a horseshoe crater, sending rivers of mud and rock down its side and an enormous blast of heat and gas to the surrounding forest. Ash clouds wafted for over 930 miles, all the way to central Montana.

The devastating natural disaster killed 57 people and was the most destructive volcanic eruption in US history. It leveled trees, destroyed bridges, and caused more than $1 billion in damages.

Just a few years before the eruption, The New York Times described Mount St. Helens as a "relatively little known volcano 50 miles north of Portland, Oregon." Its eruption forever changed the way volcanologists, geologists, and other scientists perform their jobs.

To commemorate the anniversary of Mount St. Helens' eruption, here's a series of photos that captured the immense devastation it caused 44 years ago.

Years earlier, scientists predicted Mount St. Helens would violently erupt.

In 1978, the USGS issued a report stating that Mount St. Helens had the potential to violently erupt before the end of the millennium.

The last known eruption had been in 1857. Over the past few centuries, its recent dormant periods lasted an average of 123 years. It was only a matter of time.

In March 1980, earthquakes caused cracks in the volcano, sparking alarm.

In the spring of 1980, Mount St. Helens had been trembling for weeks. Thousands of small earthquakes in March and April caused cracks in the summit. On March 27, steam started pouring out, turning the snow an ashy gray.

"That's when it becomes this multi-agency response because now you have to prevent people from getting too close," Liz Westby, a geologist with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory, told Business Insider. "It could possibly erupt, but that wasn't a for-sure thing."

Meanwhile, people climbed on their roofs to take pictures of the steaming top. "Everyone really wanted to catch that glimpse of Mount St. Helens," she said.

When the earthquake hit on May 18, its northern side collapsed. That triggered a debris avalanche, careening down enough rock, dirt, and snow to fill a million Olympic swimming pools. Some of it traveled as far as 14 miles away.

Ash-filled plumes rocketed 650 feet into the sky.

A super-hot mix of rock, gas, and ash caused incredible destruction.

The avalanche sheared off part of the cryptodome, a magma-filled bulge. It had swollen part of Mount St. Helens' north side by about 450 feet.

Rapidly expanding gas then caused a devastatingly powerful blast that exploded sideways instead of up and formed what's called a pyroclastic flow. The mixture can reach blistering temperatures of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

"That is such a hot, thick, gas-rich flow that it essentially kills everything in its path," Westby said. The heat, force, and high-speed debris can all be deadly. It knocked over trees, leaving them stripped and looking like toothpicks.

Moving at 300 miles per hour, the flow traveled faster than the debris avalanche, covering roughly 230 square miles — an area nearly the size of Chicago.

"Then you see this plume rising up," Westby said. This one, full of ash and rock, rose as high as 80,000 feet. The eruption lasted nine hours.

Melting snow and ice mixed with rocks and ash turned into mudslides.

Mount St. Helen was still snowcapped in May when it erupted. The scorching heat turned ice and snow into gushing water that took rocks and soil with it.

Known as lahars, these 100-mile-per-hour volcanic mudslides ripped up trees, destroyed over 200 houses, and took out bridges.

Millions of tons of ash traveled hundreds of miles, closing highways and canceling flights.

Westby was at Eastern Washington University, not far from the Idaho border, when the volcano erupted. What looked like an ominous line of dark clouds drifted in the sky above. "I thought, wow, that's the weirdest thunderstorm I've ever seen," she said. It turned out to be ash.

Wind blew roughly 520 million tons of ash and volcanic glass to eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana. It was dark enough to obscure the sun in some cities.

It settled on everything, leaving trees that looked like they'd been dusted with snow.

"This ash, it's fine like baby powder," Westby said. Driving through it would stir it back up into the air.

For days afterward, authorities closed highways and canceled flights because of the poor visibility and the ash's potential to damage plane engines, Westby said.

The eruption killed 57 people, including USGS geologist David Johnston.

One of the first USGS geologists at the volcano was David Johnston. He had been closely monitoring Mount St. Helens during its many earthquakes.

On May 18, Johnston was only six miles from the volcano. As the eruption started, he radioed a final message to a nearby Washington city: "Vancouver, Vancouver. This is it."

After that, Johnston's death would have come within a minute, his fellow geologist Swanson wrote.

"It hit home to us as geologists, as volcanologists, how important it is to have monitoring up at the volcanoes and to install sensors before unrest so that we don't have to have people up there in harm's way," Westby said of Johnston's death.

Leading up to the eruption, experts created safety zones around the volcano. Only essential workers could go to the red zone.

However, the majority of the 57 people who lost their lives were outside the red zone, according to NPR. Many were killed by the lateral blast, Westby said. It ended up being more powerful than anticipated.

"It still gets me a little bit, thinking about that," she said, "but that really influences how we feel about hazards today." Now, she said, hazard maps are much more accurate and take into account a range of an eruption's possible outcomes.

The eruption destroyed trees and killed wildlife, but many species survived.

Over a week after the eruption, researchers from the USDA Forest Service started looking at the ecological impact. Ecologists were shocked by what they saw at Johnston Ridge, about six miles from the summit.

They had expected to find nothing. Instead, there were still carpenter ants, frogs, pocket gophers, spiders, and other signs of life.

Thousands of large mammals like elk and bears didn't survive, but other species of plants and animals were buried in snow or sleeping in their dens.

The blast zone where a hot flow of gas toppled trees is now known as the pumice plain, named for the porous rock that volcanoes create.

Initially, nothing survived in this area. It was two years before researchers saw the first plant, a prairie lupine. The purple-flowered perennial is known to be resilient.

It took four years following the eruption for new greenery to shoot up in the "ghost forests" where the volcano left broken and dying trees.

In the decades since, the ecosystem has drastically changed.

In the over 40 years since the eruption, a new ecosystem has slowly emerged. In the absence of larger predators, their prey thrived.

The smaller animals and dormant plants that survived the volcano's destruction are still there, and bears, cougars, elk, and mountain goats have been spotted, too, The Seattle Times reported in 2020.

That doesn't mean Mount St. Helens is back to normal, ecologist Charlie Crisafulli told the Seattle Times. With the pumice plain area starting from scratch, ecologically, what's happening there now is unique.

The eruption spurred changes to how the US monitors and responds to earthquakes.

In addition to ecology, Mount St. Helens offers opportunities for other kinds of scientific research. Two years after the eruption, the USGS established the Cascades Volcano Observatory to better monitor the volcanic range.

The Observatory, which was dedicated to David Johnston, is one of only five in the US. It's become a kind of laboratory for volcanic research and monitoring.

It's also helping to train what could be the next generation of volcanologists. Every summer, Westby and the Mount St. Helens Institute run a camp for middle school girls called GeoGirls.

"We treat them as though they were our field assistants, to give them an idea of what it's like to work on volcanoes," Westby said.

Mount St. Helens could erupt again.

Mount St. Helens continued to have smaller eruptions through 1986 and then had more between 2004 and 2008. "They are active volcanoes," Westby said of the Cascades, the volcanic arc that runs through several states and Canada. "They've erupted in the past, and we know they'll erupt in the future."

Of all the Cascade volcanoes, Mount St. Helens is the most active and most likely to erupt again, Westby said. But the technology to predict eruptions has vastly improved.

In 1980, Mount St. Helens only had a single seismometer, Westby said. "Now we've got 20," she said. These newer devices are more sophisticated and can detect smaller earthquakes that could signal an impending eruption.

GPS data can also alert scientists if the ground is deforming. And software can help them process the data more quickly. In the 1980s, scientists were making the calculations by hand.

As the sensors help geologists keep an eye on what's happening beneath the ground, Westby says people should feel free to enjoy the volcanoes. "They're safe to be around right now," she said, "but you never know what happens in the future."

• China's EV makers are packing their vehicles with high-tech extras in an attempt to woo customers.
• Auto execs and experts say Chinese customers want their cars to be more "intelligent."
• The likes of BYD and Xiaomi are doubling down on autonomous driving and smart features in response.

China's legion of EV companies are facing an increasingly brutal fight for customers — and many are packing their vehicles with high-tech features to woo drivers who increasingly want "intelligent" vehicles.

"The Chinese customer's expectation for an EV is very different compared to the rest of the world," said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida, speaking at the Financial Times' Future of the Car summit this month.

He said Chinese customers expect EVs to be "intelligent," fitted with features like autonomous driving, smartphone integration, and plenty of screens, and that Nissan had been forced to adjust its approach and build vehicles "in China, for China" to compete against local carmakers.

Standing out in a crowded field

After languishing in the shadows of Western, Japanese, and Korean automakers for years, those local carmakers are now booming, thanks in part to the massive growth in demand for electric vehicles.

EVs are expected to account for about 45% of all car sales in China this year, according to the IEA, and local automakers now make up more than half of total car sales in the country, per Bloomberg data.

That boom has sparked a wave of competition and a brutal price war, with around 123 car companies battling for EV dominance last year.

To stand out in a crowded field, many Chinese automakers are adding increasingly high-tech and unusual features, from cars that can shake themselves free of snow to vehicles that transform into living rooms.

Paul Li, CEO of China-headquartered EV tech firm U Power, told Business Insider this was all part of a strategy to attract tech-savvy Chinese consumers, who have radically different expectations to US buyers.

"In China, the EV customer right now is totally different than any customers in the whole world," he said.

Li said that Chinese consumers expect "a high level of intelligence" from EVs and are willing to pay extra for features such as autonomous driving, smartphone integration, and even onboard drones.

"The innovation in the Chinese EV market is not only coming from competition, it is coming from innovation-driven customers. A sophisticated market makes sophisticated products," said Li.

"I very much doubt whether the same level of intelligence is needed for the global market," he added.

High-tech EVs prove popular

This demand for high-tech features has seen the gap between China's EV makers and its tech firms narrow as both try to capture a segment of China's booming electric car market.

Nio, a Chinese EV startup and Tesla competitor known for its network of battery-swapping stations, unveiled its own smartphone last September that allows owners to park their cars remotely.

Smartphone makers Huawei and Xiaomi, meanwhile, are both getting into the EV business, with the latter's SU7 model coming with five screens, smartphone and smart home integration, and Xiaomi's own autonomous driving system.

Unlike in the US, where the technology is still limited and mired in controversy, autonomous driving systems are fairly common in China, with the likes of Xpeng, Huawei, and Nio all offering the feature.

They may soon be joined by Tesla, which is edging closer to releasing its Full Self-Driving technology in China after striking a deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu.

Even BYD, which has experienced enormous success in selling its cheap EVs to Chinese consumers, is feeling the pressure to make its cars smarter.

The Warren Buffett-backed automaker announced in January it would invest 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) in AI-powered features for its vehicles, including improved voice recognition and automated parking.

"The first half [of the game] is about electrification, the second half is about intelligence," said BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu at the time.

Experts agree that for EV makers looking to sell their cars in China, smart car features are now essential.

"Young people in China no longer treat EVs as just vehicles, they want them to [function like] smartphones," Cao Hua, a partner at the Shanghai private equity firm Unity Asset Management, told the South China Morning Post last year.

"Making the cars autonomous and intelligent can draw more Chinese buyers," Hua added.

• Several stories in the news this week shine a light on mothers in the workforce.
• Women with kids under 5 are participating in the workforce at much higher rates than their peers.
• And childcare for two kids now costs more than rent in all 50 states.

For working mothers, it can sometimes feel like even when there's good news, there's also bad news.

Just this week, several stories drove home some of the things that parents and working women already have sensed.

First, some good news: Business Insider reported this week that women are the group of workers that are most successfully getting hired for high-paying jobs. My colleague Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza looked at data from a recruiting software firm with 50 million applications:

The white-collar recession means there are fewer $100K jobs — and women are landing them more often than men — Business Insider

She found that for jobs that paid over $100,000, women were a minority of applicants. But women actually landed those jobs more often than men. She found a likely reason:

An internal study from Hewlett Packard in 2014 indicated that while most men will apply for a job if they meet just 60% of the requirements listed, most women will apply only if they believe they meet all of them. This helps explain why fewer women apply but also hints at why female candidates are more successful: If women are more likely to rule themselves out, those who will apply will be higher-quality candidates.

Basically, women are better at judging whether they have a chance of getting hired at a high-paying job, so when they do actually apply, they're more likely to score it.

Of course, not all women are also parents, and only a portion of women (or anyone) in the workforce is getting those high-paying jobs. But it's a good signal for working moms.

And there's another positive story: Part-time work is booming more than ever. According to Bloomberg, more people are employed part-time or with flexible hours than ever before, and a lot of that rise is coming from working mothers.

Mothers reap benefits of record part-time workforce boom in US — Bloomberg

Bloomberg reports:

Many businesses eager to hire have accepted worker demands for part-time positions, along with other policies meant to give employees more control over their schedules. That's helped bring more women into the labor force than ever before, with about a fifth of them working part time.

Overall, the workforce's share of women — both parents and not — has increased since 2015.

One thing that stuck out to me was a chart in the Bloomberg article showing the percentage of women who are working in different groups: those with no children, teenage children, kids aged 5-12, and kids under 5.

The chart shows that since 2015, the percentage of women working across all those groups has gone up in the last 10 years. But the biggest change was for the group of women with kids under age 5. In 2015, about 64% of moms of babies and toddlers worked — in 2024 it was up to 70%.

The biggest change in that chart happened in 2020 when remote work started to become more popular. Another way to look at that is that remote work has the biggest benefit to moms of kids under 5.

Age 5 is indeed a huge turning point for a parent — that's when kids typically start kindergarten, usually at their free local public school. Suddenly, the decision and ability to work outside the home (even if remotely) is radically changed.

Free public kindergarten also can mean a radical change in the family finances — especially if they were bogged down with paying for day care or a nanny for the last five years. I wrote about this recently:

Meet the DIPS parents: Double Income, Public School. They've got it better than the POLKs, or Parents of Little Kids. — Business Insider

On that note, here's the real bad news. This week, it was reported that for the first time, childcare for two kids costs more than rent in all 50 states and more than the average mortgage in 45 states.

Childcare costs more than a mortgage payment or rent almost everywhere in the US: 'There is no escaping it' — MarketWatch

You don't have to be a genius economist to know that when childcare costs are sky-high, many women will drop out of the workforce.

For many families, the math just doesn't math to have two working parents.

But it's also more complicated. I really was interested in this article this week:

The childcare cliff that wasn't — Vox

You may recall that last summer, there was a threat of a "childcare cliff" — federal subsidies during Covid that helped carry childcare centers through the pandemic had ended, and there was a fear that thousands of childcare centers could close. Some lawmakers urged more federal funding.

The federal funding didn't happen. The "Build Back Better" bill passed without provisions for childcare and paid parental leave.

And yet … that cliff didn't really happen. In fact, as we saw above, instead of a crash of mothers dropping out of the workforce, the percentage of working mothers actually went up. This is largely because of a stronger labor market and economy. But, as Vox's Rachel M. Cohen wrote: "The lesson to take from all of this is not that people should stop advocating for policies that would improve the lives of parents, kids, and those who care for children."

If you're a mother of young children, all this probably feels like something you've already sort of noticed or experienced in your own life or among your friends. Childcare is expensive. Working is hard. Your TikTok feed is full of tradwives. The grandparents aren't available to babysit like you hoped they would.

So maybe, yes, it is harder being a millennial mom than any other generation. (And yes, if you're Gen X or older, I know you'll scoff at that.)

Being a mother is hard work. Is it actually harder on millennial moms? — The New York Times

Reading these articles this week reminded me that everything about parenting is a bit of a paradox — "the days are long and the years are short," they say about kids. It's that same mix for the state of working moms — not all good, but not all bad.

• LinkedIn rolled out verification tools last year to curb spam and fake job ads on the platform.
• Despite the new process, job hunters say fake ads from scammers are still rampant on the site.
• The scams often target recent graduates and young professionals, per the Federal Trade Commission. 

"I'm thrilled to extend to you an offer for the Personal Assistant role following a meticulous review of your qualifications. Your impressive skills and experience are precisely what I am seeking, and I am genuinely excited about the prospect of having you join our team."

The communications sound official enough, often coming from email domains nearly indistinguishable from actual companies job hunters believe they've applied to on LinkedIn.

They can be effusive and complementary, boosting the confidence of applicants searching for a new gig in a job market plagued by massive layoffs.

But all too often, it turns out, it's a scam: While it remains unclear exactly how many people fall victim to fake job scams on LinkedIn each year, the platform says it removed more than 63 million fake accounts from registering on the site between July and December 2023. Yet they're still getting through often enough that the Federal Trade Commission has recently warned the public about the prevalence of fake job scams.

The 'fake check' scam

Chris Conwell had initially applied to a job ad on LinkedIn in early March. The 25-year-old operations manager had been furloughed in October and was starting to get antsy about finding new prospects. He told Business Insider he was so eager to get to work that he very nearly fell for a fake check scam after being offered a personal assistant role — but it was to a fraudster posing as a potential employer.

Fake check scams generally involve a supposed employer mailing a fraudulent check to the would-be employee they're attempting to scam. The scammer encourages the victim to deposit the fake check to purchase work-related items like hardware or software — but the check bounces, leaving the victim with a negative balance and potentially having their account flagged for fraud.

"I have arranged for a check to be sent to you via my client, which you should expect to receive today or tomorrow via USPS," read an email Conwell received from a fake recruiter.

The email from one "Michael Hecht" continued, laying out instructions for Conwell to gather flight options and price information for an upcoming business trip. But, Conwell told Business Insider, something felt wrong.

"When he mentioned that, suddenly, he'd be sending a check, and it would come in the mail, and then he would want me to deposit it to use for, you know, quote-unquote, administrative duties, that really started setting off those spidey senses like, something doesn't seem quite right here," Conwell told BI. "So I kind of started calling out a lot of the things that seemed sketchy, but he would just dodge the questions and just kind of start to essentially expedite his process."

Conwell received a check the same day he received the email from Hecht telling him to be on the lookout for it. And when Conwell took the check to his bank, letting them know he was concerned it was fake, they immediately confirmed his fears.

"They let me know it obviously was fraudulent, the funds wouldn't pass through," Conwell said.

The targets: recent graduates and young professionals

The Federal Trade Commission also recently released a warning about thriving job scams online, saying recent college graduates with limited work experience are at particular risk for being targeted.

Representatives for LinkedIn directed Business Insider to recent statements made by the company about their commitment to bolstering verification procedures on the website, but the company declined to comment specifically on the instances described in this article.

"In the last 12 months, we've expanded verification access thanks to our collaborations with CLEAR, Persona, and Microsoft Entra," Oscar Rodriguez, vice president of product management at LinkedIn, wrote in a post last month. "Globally, 800M members now have the option to verify at least one detail of their professional identity. Today, 50% of job views on LinkedIn are of jobs with verifications on them."

A representative for the company also pointed to internal statistics that indicate LinkedIn intercepts the majority of detected fake accounts and scams before fake recruiters can post. The numbers presented in LinkedIn's report could not be independently verified by BI.

Optional verification tools aren't enough

LinkedIn has rolled out new verification tools over the last year to curb fake ads and spam on the site. One such tool is a third-party service that verifies user identities by having them snap a selfie with their ID, granting users a "verified" badge on their profile.

However, Jordan Bittel, an IT support specialist targeted by a fake recruiter on LinkedIn, told BI that despite the platform's optional verification process, scammers seem to be getting smarter. They emulate the websites of legitimate companies, send recruiting documents through services like DocuSign, and write emails that sound like legitimate invitations to interview.

"I would expect there to be a bit more due diligence on LinkedIn's part," Bittel said. "I know that a lot of places you have to pay to play, so if you want your post to be up there, you've got to pay, whether that's buying the premium account or whatever it is — and I would expect that LinkedIn would do a bit more vetting."

Posting an initial job ad on LinkedIn is free, but it costs to promote the listing to a wider audience.

At the time of publication, the platform's verification tools remain optional for both recruiters and job seekers like Conwell.

"Obviously, I would love for every job board to be as meticulous as possible in trying to vet these things because I mean, realistically, if someone does get really adversely affected by something like this, it kind of begs the question of, can LinkedIn be liable for any kind of harm or damages that happen afterwards?" Conwell said. "Because these people are using their site as a tool to snag these desperate individuals and get them wrapped up in these scams and other possibly really illegal things."

• Jim D. moved from a small town in Canada to the American South to escape cold winters.
• He's lived in the US for 30 years, enjoying better food and easier travel around the country.
• Jim warned Americans looking for greener grass in Canada to lower their expectations.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jim D., a Canadian who moved to the US when he was 27 and currently lives in Arizona between Flagstaff and Phoenix. Jim, 59, asked to withhold his full last name due to privacy concerns. Business Insider has verified his identity. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

I was born and raised in Fort Frances, Ontario, across from International Falls, Minnesota, the coldest spot in America — they call it the freezer of America.

Fort Frances is a little border town with a population of 7,000.

I grew up crossing the border. We were always running into Minnesota. Gas was cheaper, and groceries were cheaper. Our money was worth more back then, so we got more value for our Canadian dollar when we went shopping in the States.

That has changed. Now it's the other way around.

I went to Africa in 1991 and spent two months in Tanzania. I was only supposed to go for a month, but I ended up staying for two months. I was sitting by the pool in the beautiful weather — 100-degree weather — listening to Led Zeppelin. I made a decision: I will never spend another winter in Canada because it's miserable and cold.

In July of that summer, I got a call from an old girlfriend whom I dated for years. She was an American living in Atlanta and said, "Hey, why don't you come and spend the winter with me?" And so it all fell into place.

I sold everything I owned in Canada, packed up my little Toyota Tercel, and drove to Atlanta.

It's so easy to get around the US

There wasn't much I did not like about moving to the US.

I was a young kid. Everything was new and exciting.

It almost seemed like Canada was 10 or 20 years behind, progressive-wise — and I don't mean politically. The amenities, the shopping, the food, and the restaurants in Canada are way behind if you're outside Vancouver or Toronto.

I did not want to be in the cold, so I went south of the Mason-Dixon line and spent the rest of my US time down here by design.

I've lived in Birmingham, Alabama; New Orleans; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Houston. I'm working my way across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Hawaii, and then back through a lot of those same states again.

It's kind of like a typewriter: back and forth.

The roadways were amazing. When you live in northwestern Ontario, getting places is very difficult — and that's in the summer.

The maneuverability to get around the United States because of the well-designed infrastructure of the roadways was phenomenal compared to northwestern Ontario.

Healthcare is free in Canada, but we pay for it elsewhere

Canada has expensive housing, groceries, gas, cost of living, homelessness, and a drug problem.

There's drug paraphernalia all over the ground, needles everywhere in the park. Gang violence is through the roof from Toronto to northwestern Ontario to Vancouver.

Gas prices are also through the roof: $6 to $8 Canadian ($4.39 to $5.86) a gallon.

Healthcare is not free. That's a lie. Nothing is free in this world, but especially healthcare. You are paying for it through many other means.

The goods and services tax is 13% across the board. In Ontario, it's 13% on everything you buy. That is the government taxation that they're supposed to be paying for health insurance with.

The healthcare system in the US is absolutely broken. It's run by the insurance companies, run by lobbyists, and run by the pharmaceutical companies. It's ridiculous that people are paying premiums down here.

But that's run by independent companies. The difference is — and maybe there's no difference because they're both run horribly — Canada's healthcare is run from province to province.

In Ontario, there is the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. It's a government-subsidized program that is broken.

Before I moved to the US, after high school, I moved from Fort Frances to Thunder Bay, Ontario. That was going from 7,000 people to 115,000. In Thunder Bay, they don't even have doctors. There were a couple of doctors who retired last year.

I was in Canada last year, and I wanted to see a cardiologist. I was there for eight months. I couldn't get into one.

I'm still waiting for a letter — two and a half years later — from the government to say, "We have an appointment with the doctor for you."

I don't see why Canada is so appealing to Americans

Canada used to be an admired country worldwide, and now it's horrible. In the old days, when I traveled around the world, I used to proudly wear my Canadian flags. Now I'm embarrassed.

When I went back to Canada, disappointment, disgust, and anger were my emotions.

I think the effects of inflation have hit both countries the same in housing and rental property. I think people who are leaving Canada for the US are running into the same housing problem. The cost of housing is ridiculous in both places.

You can't get a one-bedroom apartment in Thunder Bay for under $2,000. Toronto is as expensive as Phoenix if you're comparing cities in both countries.

I wouldn't advise Americans to move to Canada. I think that people trying to escape each country's downfalls are going to be surprised.

The reality is — no matter which way you come, north to south or south to north — you will be rudely awakened: "Oh my God, they have the same problems, if not worse, in either country."

• OpenAI announced its latest flagship model, GPT-4o, on Monday.
• CEO Sam Altman says he's found a helpful way to use the AI while working.
• He says it helps him stay on task without needing to switch between tabs to look things up.

OpenAI's newest AI model, GPT-4o, has been out for less than a week, and people can use it for everything from providing translations in real time to quite literally reading the room to answer questions based on physical surroundings.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also found it helpful in another way, as he outlined during an episode of the podcast The Logan Bartlett Show published Tuesday.

"I've only had it for like a week or something," he said, but one way of using it is "putting my phone on the table while I'm really in the zone of working, and then, without having to change windows or change what I'm doing, using it as like another channel," he said.

He elaborated, "So I'm working on something, I would normally stop what I'm doing, switch to another tab, Google something, click around or whatever, but while I'm still doing it, to just ask and get an instant response without changing from what I was looking at on my computer, that's been a surprisingly cool thing."

Altman, who has mostly run OpenAI since 2019, also spoke on the podcast about how becoming one of tech's most recognizable figures has cost him his privacy around San Francisco, saying he can no longer dine out in public in the city.

"It's a strangely isolating way to live," he said.

Altman also discussed his brief ousting from OpenAI last year. He said he lived in an "adrenaline-charged state" during the handful of days following his firing before he was ultimately brought back as CEO.

• Target came under fire last year when conservative groups attacked the company's Pride collection.
• In response to protests, the retailer pulled merch and shrunk in-store displays.
• Some on Target's Pride Council and past vendors say the company has done little to rebuild its relationship with the LGBTQ+ community.

On Tuesday, members of Target's LGBTQ+ employee resource group logged on for a much-anticipated virtual meeting to preview the 2024 Pride collection, two council members told Business Insider.

A few days earlier, following the news that only a fraction of stores would be carrying Pride merchandise this year, VP of Brand Management Carlos Saavedra promised to "share all the details" about the celebration in an internal preview.

The two council members said that in prior years, members of the 3,700-person group, known internally as the Pride+ Council, were able to participate in selecting vendors and products to feature in the collection.

Last year, Pride products had already been on sale online for weeks by mid-May, and each of the retailer's nearly 2,000 US stores was busy setting up displays near their front entrances.

As of Friday, the online collection that once boasted over 2,600 items consisted of just a few dozen items — mostly pet gear, a bottle of rosé, and a USB thumb drive — and a promise of new arrivals coming on May 28. A landing page for LGBTQ+ owned or designed brands mostly included a small collection of apparel from the Phluid project and kombucha.

Eager to see what was in store for this Pride Month, Pride+ Council members joined the Tuesday meeting to find that only presenters could speak, comments were disabled, and no products were shown, the two council sources told BI.

It's a far cry from just over a year ago, the members said, when Target was doing something that few large companies had ever done: embracing both halves of the LGBTQ+ acronym.

For the second year in a row, the company had offered a line of functional garments and a range of apparel and accessories boasting slogans that acknowledged and celebrated transgender and nonbinary members of the community.

Target declined to address specific questions when contacted by Business Insider and instead referred to its previous statement on the Pride 2024 collection.

"We have long offered benefits and resources for the community, and we will have internal programs to celebrate Pride 2024," the statement said. "Additionally, we will offer a collection of products for Pride, including adult apparel, home products, food and beverage, which has been curated based on guest insights and consumer research."

At a time of the year when corporations are often accused of "rainbow washing" for Pride month in June, members of the LGBTQ+ community held Target up as an example of what true ally-ship could look like.

But late last May, conservative protesters took aim at Target's Pride collection, falsely claiming the merchandise was "Satanic" and sexualized minors.

In response to what it said was a mounting security threat, the retailer pulled merch and shrunk in-store displays, alienating some of its LGBTQ+ employees, customers, and vendor partners in the process.

Even as conservative groups claimed victory, the backlash continued in the form of a shareholder lawsuit and related shareholder proposal arguing that the company's diversity initiatives are harmful to shareholder value.

Target says it rejects those assertions and is defending itself in court.

However, the two Pride Council members and multiple LGBTQ+ vendors who worked on past Pride collections told BI they feel the company hasn't done enough to rebuild its relationship with its LGBTQ+ partners over the past year.

Erik Carnell, the trans designer whose Target merchandise was pulled due to Satanic references elsewhere in his portfolio, told BI the company declined to provide him an explanation about its decision beyond what was included in its public statements, and he hasn't heard from them since.

"I don't expect to hear from them again," he said.

"I don't doubt that there are people working high up in Target who do genuinely care about or are part of the LGBT community and did honestly want to support the trans community, but these people aren't necessarily responsible for certain decisions," he continued. "At the end of the day, the pink dollar isn't quite as strong as the Christian Right dollar."

Humankind, the trans-friendly swimwear brand that was at the center of the firestorm, first began working with Target in 2021 in preparation for the 2022 Pride collection, according to founder Hayley Marzullo.

After Humankind products were pulled from shelves, a Target representative did reach out to Marzullo, according to emails seen by BI.

"We understand this has an impact to you and your team and wanted to check in to see how you're doing and if there are any questions you might have," the Target representative said.

The emails show that Target and Marzullo discussed a year-round assortment of gender-inclusive apparel in partnership with Humankind, but Marzullo told BI the idea eventually stalled.

She said she eventually learned through a non-Target source that Humankind was not going to be part of this year's June collection.

"Everything was set to continue to expand," Marzullo said. "We spent time and energy developing new products and new colors, only to be cut."

Leslie Garrard, the CEO of TomboyX, said her company was invited to sell through the Target.com marketplace after a successful 2022 in-store collaboration.

The brand still has over 60 items listed online — not in stores — but Garrard told BI she has noticed some items delisted in recent weeks, including a Pride rainbow design and a tucking underwear bottom. TomboyX fulfills all orders itself as Target does not generally stock or ship marketplace products.

"If you're taking your Pride assortment and you're taking out a ton of apparel, or you're just associating Pride with cake mixes, tablecloths, and dog leashes, you're not really showing up for your community," Garrard said.

One of the employees involved in the Pride Council told BI that a lot of LGBTQ+ people, herself included, joined Target specifically because of its stated support for trans and queer rights.

Target's handling of Pride this year so far tells her that "they are here for the L, G, and B, but not the T, Q, I, A, and plus," she said. "This feels very much like a betrayal."

• Americans are the most pessimistic they've been in years about their chances of finding a new job. 
• However, the unemployment rate remains low and the US economy continues to add jobs. 
• A slowing job market, particularly for remote and high-paying roles, could explain some of the pessimism. 

Americans are getting increasingly pessimistic about their chances of finding a new job if they lose their current one.

In the New York Fed's Survey of Consumer Expectations, a nationally representative survey of roughly 1,300 US households, respondents are asked to estimate the chance that, if they lost their job today, they'd be able to find a new job they would accept in the next three months.

As of the recently released April data, the average probability was 50.9%, which means the respondents, on average, viewed their chances of success as effectively a coin flip. This was the lowest mark since April 2021. However, excluding 2020 and early 2021 numbers — when job-finding expectations plummeted due to the pandemic — it hasn't been this low since November 2014.

The NY Fed's survey data reveals a similar trend across education levels, incomes, and regions of the US: Americans are less confident in their ability to find a new job than they were in the years before the pandemic. The one group whose optimism is near record highs is workers aged 60 and older, whose average probability was 55.4% as of April. Older workers have a lower unemployment rate than the national average.

This pessimism about the job market is another example of the disconnect between how Americans say they feel about the economy and the hard economic data, which suggests things are going pretty well despite some evidence of a slowdown in the job market. However, some experts have argued that people have a legitimate reason to be sour on the economy, in part due to the impacts of inflation and high interest rates. Regardless, how Americans feel about economic issues could be a key factor in the presidential election this fall.

Why Americans might be getting worried about the job market

In some ways, Americans' growing pessimism in the job market is perplexing.

In November 2014, when the average job-finding probability among the NY Fed's respondents was 50.1% — similar to this past April's 50.9% figure — the unemployment rate was 5.8%. It was 3.9% as of this past April.

In November 2014, there were over 4.8 million job openings, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were nearly 8.5 million openings as of the most recent March data.

What's more, the median number of weeks Americans remain unemployed is in line with pre-pandemic levels, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. And despite a small increase from March to April in the number of unemployed people dropping out of the labor force, there hasn't been a notable uptick.

While Americans may be more pessimistic about the job market than some economic data suggests they should be, it's arguably less of a surprise that their confidence has trended a bit lower in recent months.

That's because the job market has become more challenging than it was a couple of years ago, when the Great Resignation was at its peak.

In May 2022, when Americans' average job-finding probability was 58.2% per the New York Fed survey, the highest it'd been in over two years, the US had around 11.5 million job openings, not far from the record figure reached two months prior. Compared to May 2022, there were about 3 million fewer openings as of March 2024.

Fewer job postings can lead to more competition among applicants. In a report published in May, LinkedIn stated a 14% increase in the number of applications per open role on its platform between November 2023 and March 2024.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate — while still low compared to historical levels — has ticked up a bit.

In May 2022, it was 3.6%, below the 3.9% rate this past April and not far from the 3.4% reached twice in 2023. The US hasn't had an unemployment rate below 3.4% since the 1950s.

Not only has the unemployment rate risen slightly, but some Americans think they're at a higher risk of losing their jobs.

In addition to surveying people about their job-finding expectations, the NY Fed also asks them to estimate how likely they think they are to lose their jobs over the next 12 months. As of April, the average probability among respondents was 15.1%. While this was lower than the 15.7% in March, it was the second-highest probability since October 2020.

What's more, in May, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index, an oft-cited gauge of economic vibes, declined roughly 13% from April to its lowest level in about six months. In a statement accompanying the release, Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu said that consumers are expecting unemployment to move in an "unfavorable direction in the year ahead."

To be sure, while some experts expect the unemployment rate to rise over the next year, most are projecting only a modest increase.

Struggles to find remote jobs and high-wage roles could be fueling pessimism

The job market can be especially frustrating for Americans looking for remote work, since those roles can be difficult to land.

The share of US remote job postings on LinkedIn fell from over 20% in April 2022 to about 10% in December 2023. Despite the decline, LinkedIn said remote roles accounted for nearly half of all applications in December.

Additionally, no one is a good fit for each one of the US's 8.5 million job openings. So, it's possible that some Americans in certain industries are facing a job market where openings are far from abundant.

For example, there's some evidence that the job market for high-wage roles has cooled over the past year. In April, the industries that added the most jobs were generally lower-paying, including transportation and warehousing as well as retail trade.

Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told Business Insider earlier this month after April's labor market figures were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that it is "no longer a white-hot labor market" or a job "candidate's market in every industry where workers can get whatever they want."

Lastly, it's possible that many Americans think the Bureau of Labor Statistics's job opening figures are overstated. For example, some job seekers have reported encountering "ghost jobs" — listings on job platforms that companies are no longer actively hiring for.

Fortunately for Americans, the strong recent labor force data suggests that the vast majority of people who want a job already have one.

But if layoffs begin to pick up, and more people find themselves looking for work, their job search might be more challenging than their last.

Are you struggling to find a job? Are you willing to share your story? If so, contact these reporters at jzinkula@businessinsider.com and mhoff@businessinsider.com.

• American Airlines opened a $250 million employee-only hotel at its Texas headquarters in 2023.
• The hotel features 600 rooms and numerous amenities, like a gym, an outdoor pool, and a cafeteria.
• The "hospitality complex" is a central space where employees can work, meet, study, and socialize.

American Airlines spent $250 million to build an employee-only hotel at its sprawling Texas headquarters that opened in January 2023.

Complete with 600 rooms and heaps of amenities, the "hospitality complex" is basically a mini-city exclusive for employees traveling to the airline's main hub, Dallas/Fort Worth, on company business.

Think flight attendant and pilot training or annual conferences. Eligibility extends to employees at American's mainline operation and its wholly-owned subsidiaries like Envoy Air, Piedmont Airlines, and PSA Airlines.

American's senior manager of corporate real estate, Holly Ragan, told Business Insider during a recent tour that the hotel's purpose is to have everything in one place where employees can easily access everyday needs. It also creates community and pride among employees, she said.

"Skyview 6 is the central heart of campus where our team members can gather," Ragan said. "We have dining, corn hole, a fitness center, a pool, and just various offerings to help our employees feel a sense of normalcy when they're here."

Take a look inside American's "Skyview 6" hotel, which is not open to the public.

Skyview 6 is a rare perk in the industry. Only a few employee-specific airline hotels have been built in the US.

Republic Airways, a regional carrier that contracts flying from American, Delta, and United, has its own hotel in Indianapolis for employee training.

However, it's more common for airlines to book rooms at nearby hotels for employee training or business rather than running their own space.

The hospitality complex was built on the former site of the industry's first Stewardess College, which American opened in 1957.

The Stewardess College was the airline's flight attendant training center.

American wanted to ensure employees had access to things like food and fitness without having to leave campus, Ragan said.

For example, new hire flight attendants will spend about six weeks at the hotel during training and don't have to venture far for anything.

Meanwhile, Skyview 5 — American's flight academy — is just a short walk from the hotel, so trainees don't have to rely on a car or shuttle to get to class (though there is a service if needed).

The company wasn’t exaggerating — the hotel has literally everything.

The entire Skyview 6 complex is 550,000 square feet and is covered with unique airline memorabilia and artwork.

The private hotel can accommodate everyone from flight crews and corporate employees to airport staff and maintenance technicians.

Employees entering Skyview 6 for the first time will enter through a giant lobby complete with ceiling art that represents different engine types.

"When team members arrive, we don't want them to feel like they are visiting; this is their home, too," Ragan said.

She noted that the company's maintenance team in Tulsa assembled the four engines, which include those from an Airbus A320, a Boeing 777, a Boeing 787, and a Boeing 737.

Along the wall is the famous staircase where early-day American flight attendants stood for their graduation picture.

The staircase represents the graduation ceremony that started at the Stewardess College, where the newly winged flight attendants stood for a photo.

On the day of my visit, it was the graduation of a class of flight attendants. They, too, would pose for the iconic staircase photo.

Ragan said the medallion behind the staircase is the original.

"It makes me appreciate the time period, seeing them just lying on the bed studying," she said, pointing to photos of flight attendants at the Stewardess College in the 1950s. "Especially the new hires, it helps them connect to what was originally here."

Near the lobby is a 10,000-square-foot multi-use ballroom where events like the annual State of the Airline hosted by CEO Robert Isom are held.

The entire space can be sectioned off into smaller rooms, each closed off by a giant garage door that enters into the main hallway.

Besides the CEO's annual meeting, events held here may be leadership development training or business conferences.

There are also conference rooms scattered throughout the hotel's first floor, as well as a coffee and wine bar.

Ragan said longtime employees who may not see each other often will meet up at Skyview 6 after hours to chat over a glass of wine.

The wine bar complements the on-site tavern with a cabin-style fireplace and billiards table.

Employees staying overnight at Skyview 6 will be assigned one of the 600 rooms available on-site.

An elevator takes employees to one of the nine available floors, each representing a different destination in America's network — the higher the floor, the further the city.

The rooms came with everything you’d expect at a regular chain like Marriott or Hilton, including a bed, television, bathroom, desk, and closet.

Ragan said company employees stayed at off-site hotels before Skyview 6 opened.

The bathroom has a standing shower, toiletries, a make-up ring, and a Bluetooth-capable mirror for listening to music or a podcast.

There is also a motion-sensor under-counter light that helps employees find their way in the dark, as well as a hairdryer.

Ragan said the shower is particuarly unique as the shower head and the nob to turn it on and control the temperature are on opposite sides.

She further explained that bulk toiletries are part of the complex's effort to reduce waste, particularly plastic.

The shower door closes all the way to ensure no mess or splashing like in some hotels.

Aviation-themed art nod to the airline without being overbearing.

The art will change from room to room, but the overall layout and size of each space are exactly the same. Ragan said this ensures there isn't a hierarchy among team members.

Aside from the expected hotel amenities, American has added a few special touches based on employee feedback.

Ragan said the input of American flight crewmembers, who stay in hotel rooms far more than the average person, was essential in creating the hotel design.

For example, Ragan said crews travel with clips to hold curtains together and keep light out, so a magnet was added to make them easier to latch.

She said the curtains also have a slight drag to ensure the slit at the bottom doesn't let in any light either.

Another crew-specific amenity is a board to pin up their 'paper tiger,' which is a poster diagram of the cockpit required for pilot training.

"Those little details that resulted from feedback from our team members will make the employee visits more successful," Ragan said.

Meanwhile, employees asked that there be no microwaves in the rooms to avoid unwanted smells like burned popcorn.

Ragan said there is microwave capability on the main floor for employees who need it and that other kitchen equipment like a refrigerator and Keurig are available in the rooms.

The closet area features plenty of hanging space for uniforms, as well as a full-body mirror.

There's also an iron, closet space for a suitcase, and drawers for extra storage.

Outside the rooms are lounges for employees to socialize or study.

"We wanted team members to be able to control their environment as much as possible, so there are breakout spaces throughout the entire complex, from the lobby to the floor lounges," Ragan said.

Ragan said each living space comes with a customized color scheme and artwork representing a destination.

She noted that the floor living spaces are meant to be casual and comfortable, but there is a noise policy because people are actively studying at all times.

As far as food, employees have access to things like a grab-and-go market and a giant cafeteria.

The cafeteria, complete with options like pizza, Chinese cuisine, and hamburgers, can be used by any American employee on the greater HQ campus and was packed with people on my visit.

According to American, the food is free for some team members, like new hire employees in training. Local team members have to pay, Ragan said.

A huge compass covered half of the ceiling, with indicators showing due North and the degrees.

The art complements the other aviation-themed pieces throughout the complex.

The sitting area outside the food hall stretches into a large courtyard where employees can access sports courts and walking trails.

Employees have access to a basketball court, tennis court, pickleball court, and beach volleyball court.

A sign inside the fitness center posted a volleyball tournament being held later that week with a QR code to sign up — it was cool to see those community events.

The centerpiece of the courtyard is the 'Globe of Firsts.'

The 12-foot stainless steel sculpture features names like Bonnie Tiburzi, the first female pilot hired by a major US airline.

The McDonnell Douglas DC-3, which was built in the 1930s after strong insistence from American then-president Cyrus Rowlett "CR" Smith, also made the globe.

For gym buffs, Skyview 6 has a giant two-level facility with everything from treadmills and weights to massage chairs and showers.

A large locker room complete with towels and toiletries is available in the 73,000-square-foot fitness center.

The size of the gym was the most shocking part of the entire tour, and it easily dwarfed my local LA Fitness.

"The gym is complimentary if you stay at the hospitality complex," Ragan said. "We have classes and a few studios for events and fitness in general."

There’s even a pool outside.

The pool is likely an enjoyable perk during the Texas summer heat.

It's clear American didn't cut corners when designing its new employee-only complex.

The hospitality complex is meant to be all-inclusive, and I can imagine employees are happy with the private space, given they were in contract hotels prior to Skyview 6's opening.

"[Skyview 6] establishes a level of pride for our employees," Ragan said. "When you are in a space like this and you walk other training centers, you have a great appreciation for the commitment this organization has made to creating such an amazing experience for its team members."

• Germany is showing cross-party support for defending Ukraine's border regions from NATO territories.
• NATO is currently focused on providing additional defense aid to Kyiv.
• A German politician said the Western defense of Israel from Iran is a blueprint for protecting Ukraine.

The Western response to Iran's barrage of attacks against Israel represents a potential model for defending Ukraine's border regions from NATO territories, a German politician has said.

Calls have been growing for NATO countries to use air defenses based in eastern Europe to take down Russian missiles and drones targeting Ukraine.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's Secretary-General between 2009 and 2014, told the UK's i Paper that interceptor missiles from neighboring NATO countries like Poland and Romania could shoot down Russian airstrikes aimed at Ukraine.

Voices within both ruling and opposition parties in Germany have expressed support for defending Ukraine's border regions from NATO territories such as Poland and Romania, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

Roderich Kiesewetter, a Christian Democratic Union politician and former Bundeswehr general staff officer, compared defending Ukraine to Western efforts to prevent Israel from being hit by 300 missiles and drones fired at Israel in April.

Nearly all the munitions were intercepted by Israeli and partner forces in the region, including the US military.

Kiesewetter told Business Insider in a statement: "Western countries could protect part of Ukraine's airspace from NATO territory and shoot down Russian unmanned missiles. This would relieve the burden on Ukrainian air defenses and allow them to protect the front.

As in the case of Israel, where France, the UK, and others helped, which meant they did not become a warring party."

Echoing Kiesewetter, Rasmussen told the i Paper said NATO could do "exactly the same" and help Ukraine shoot down incoming Russian drones and missiles.

Ukraine believes US-made Patriot missiles are key

Germany has emerged as a key player in the debate over NATO defending Ukraine's airspace. In April, it bolstered Ukraine's air defense capabilities and agreed to equip it with a Patriot air defense system.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Germany has sent Patriot systems with missiles, 2 SKYNEX systems with ammunition, IRIS-T SLM missiles, and Stingers.

Germany's multipartisan calls for defending Ukraine's airspace point to a future of collaborative air defense.

Marcus Faber of the the Free Democratic Party says that after the end of the war, an "international protection force" could be organized by the EU or NATO, per FAZ.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for more Patriots to defend Ukraine's airspace.

More than 100 Patriot air-defense systems could be spared by Ukraine's allies, Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told The Washington Post in April.