With a net worth of $250 billion, Elon Musk is officially the wealthiest person on earth.
And with an IQ of 155, he’s also one of the smartest.
However, by openly advocating for a type of energy that the U.S. military says could have a “significant impact on the army, our allies, the international community, the commercial power industry, and the nation…”
I believe Elon Musk has put a target on his back.
And even though you may not know it, or even care…
The coming war on Elon Musk is going to have a direct impact on you, your family, and your financial investments in the years to come.
In this new exposé, you’ll learn what it is that Elon has discovered, and how you can profit from it in the months and years to come. Check it out here…
Black Friday is one of the best times of the year to score some pretty sweet deals on designer bags. Everything from Michael Kors to Tory Burch is majorly discounted right now, which is amazing since they’d make excellent holiday gifts to give friends and family. One designer bag sale that’s sure to score you a jaw-dropping deal is Kate Spade Outlet’s Black Friday Sale happening right now.
The outlet site is has 70% off deals sitewide, with an additional 25% off on top of that. That means, you can walk away with an ultra-cute $400 Kate Spade tote bag for under $90 today. We even found so many great deals under $50 like these adorable bow stud earrings for $15 and this glam wristlet for $29. All you have to do is enter the code SAVE25 at checkout on items as indicated.
We’ve rounded up some of our favorite deals from Kate Spade Outlet’s Black Friday Event. Check out our picks below. If you’re looking to see what Kate Spade’s main site has to offer (spoiler alert: they’ve got deals up to 50% off!), be sure to check those out here.
Before you go, check out our top foolproof holiday gifts for absolutely everyone on your list.
Hennes & Mauritz AB has pledged to offset higher worker wages in Bangladesh by raising prices for clothing made in the country, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg News.
The Stockholm-based company told its garment providers in Bangladesh that it will “absorb the increase of the wages in our product prices,” after the government agreed to raise the minimum monthly wage by 56% to 12,500 taka ($113) from December.
“We support the development of fair and competitive wages in our supply chain and are working toward improving working conditions,” the retailer said in the letter.
The Bangladesh pay deal followed weeks of deadly protests as thousands of garment workers took to the streets to demand a higher wage increase than that proposed by the industry group. Manufacturers in the country had feared the salary hike would eat into their profit margins as fashion retailers continue to pay the same prices for orders.
“I was very worried about the increased wages,” said Mostafiz Uddin, managing director at Denim Expert Ltd., who received the letter from H&M. “It’s a great relief for me and it will help me to ensure fair wages for the workers.” Uddin said he expected other brands to follow suit.
A spokesperson for H&M didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bangladesh has become the world’s second-largest ready-made garment exporter after China, attracting the textile industry with rock-bottom wages. The industry employs about 4 million people and contributed one 10th of gross domestic product in 2022.
DUBAI, Nov 17 – A debate over engine performance has exposed a dilemma facing aerospace firms at this week’s Dubai Airshow – the hottest part of the jet market is also the hottest part of the world.
Airlines want to save on fuel and have the lowest possible maintenance costs. But those forces are pulling against each other in sandy or dusty environments like the Gulf and India.
“Therein lies the problem for Rolls-Royce and Airbus, because this is the region that is buying these airplanes and will buy them in big numbers if the engine issue is resolved,” Emirates Airline President Tim Clark told reporters this week.
The head of the world’s largest international carrier was speaking in the midst of negotiations to buy dozens of Airbus A350-1000 jets powered by Rolls-Royce’s XWB-97 engine, which have foundered for now over maintenance and pricing issues.
Emirates and Rolls papered over differences with a last-minute deal for a smaller quantity of the shorter A350-900, whose engine maintenance is seen as easier to predict.
The rare public dispute comes as engine makers want to be rewarded more for investments in new technology given the fuel savings they are offering to airlines on every mile of flight.
GE Aerospace set the tone under CEO Larry Culp. “We’ll still look to find opportunities to be paid fairly for the value that we create,” he told Reuters after half-yearly earnings in July.
Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic, who took over in January this year, has indicated the company will no longer write unprofitable contracts for the sake of winning new deals, having already provisioned 1.4 billion pounds in loss-making contracts.
Critics say engine makers are paying for the hubris of past shows when they aggressively wooed airlines with conflicting promises of drastic fuel savings and trouble-free performance.
The airline industry, which operates on more slender margins than many of its suppliers, isn’t generally sympathetic.
“I really don’t want to have airplanes that are going to be breaking down all the time. I happen to be a service,” Emirates President Tim Clark told reporters this week.
Rolls-Royce said it was looking at ways of improving durability but denied its XWB-97 was “defective”.
At the heart of this week’s negotiation is a high-wire act between fuel efficiency and durability.
To achieve the fuel savings promised to airlines when the engines were sold, typically around 15-20%, they have to run hotter and push new materials to the limit.
But doing so imposes extra wear and tear.
Sand and dust can clog cooling holes and erode the leading edges of blades, reducing performance and forcing extra repairs.
That’s a problem especially for newer types of engine that tend to be sold using guaranteed service deals, delegates said.
While the visible face of engine makers is technology, the way they generate much of their income resembles insurance.
Jet engines are typically sold at a loss but their designers make money on repairs and servicing spread over 20 years.
Rather than charge for repairs as they arise, engine makers increasingly strike long-term deals priced by the flight hour, agreeing to swallow the cost of planned and unexpected outages.
“It’s an insurance policy,” an engine industry source said.
To airlines, it means having predictable costs.
To engine makers it means generating cash as soon as the engine enters service rather than waiting for shop visits.
Where those complex calculations have become increasingly unstuck is in the sandy or dusty areas of the Gulf and India.
With every “stack” of life-limited parts costing millions of dollars, accurately predicting how many such organ transplants each engine will need over the course of its life is vital.
An errant or maintenance-prone engine can become a financial time-bomb, said one industry executive. Emirates’ Clark said Rolls wanted to increase hourly pricing to adjust to such higher costs. Rolls-Royce declined comment on pricing.
Rolls now faces a quandary whether to invest more in the XWB-97 to help Airbus better compete with the Boeing 777X after Emirates ordered 90 more of the competing GE-powered planes.
Refusing to do so would underscore Erginbilgic’s tough stand on profitability for investors, but risk leaving part of the wide-body market to Boeing and GE, and upsetting Airbus.
Some analysts think the cash would be better used elsewhere.
“Rolls-Royce has ceased to chase market share at any cost: it has learned not to, and it no longer needs to,” Agency Partners analyst Nick Cunningham said.
South Korean automaker Hyundai has joined Honda and Toyota in raising factory worker wages after the United Auto Workers union reached new contract agreements with Detroit automakers.
Hyundai, which has its U.S. headquarters in Fountain Valley, said Monday it will raise factory worker pay 25% by 2028, matching the general wage increase won by the UAW during that period. Toyota raised factory pay 9% to 10% starting in January, while Honda said it will increase wages 11% during the same period.
Labor experts say the increases are at least in part aimed at thwarting UAW President Shawn Fain’s strategy of trying to organize U.S. auto plants run by foreign automakers and Tesla in order to increase the union’s bargaining power. Fain said terrified auto executives at nonunion plants are raising wages, and he called Toyota’s pay increase the UAW bump.
Also see: 85,000 Kaiser Permanente workers ratify contract that’s boosting wages 21%
“UAW, that stands for ‘You Are Welcome,’” he said.
About 146,000 UAW members are voting on new contracts with General Motors, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis that give them 25% general wage increases over the next four years and eight months. When cost of living wages are factored in, workers will get about 33% raises, with the top assembly line employee making about $42 per hour.
Toyota and Honda also accelerated the time it takes for a starting employee to reach the top pay rate, also matching or coming close to the time period in the new UAW contracts.
Also see: SAG-AFTRA reaches a deal with studios; Strike will end Thursday, Nov. 9
Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University, said it’s likely the UAW settlement contributed to the raises at the nonunion factories.
“There’s also a strong labor market, the companies are doing very well,” Katz said. “They’ve always wanted to stay nonunion, and they try to stay close to the Detroit top-tier wages.”
In announcing its factory pay increases, Hyundai wouldn’t say how much the hourly wage is at its factory in Montgomery, Alabama, or how much it will pay at an electric vehicle factory under construction near Savannah, Georgia. By early next year the company said it will have increased factory worker pay 14% in the past year.
Katz estimated that Hyundai now pays around $25 per hour, and he says the nonunion plants’ retirement, health care and other benefits are typically not as good of as what UAW workers get.
“Hyundai continuously strives to maintain competitive wages and benefits commensurate to industry peers,” Jose Munoz, Hyundai’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
With its increases, Toyota’s top factory worker pay will go to $34.80 per hour in January. Honda wouldn’t say what its hourly rate will be, but analysts say it likely is comparable to Toyota’s.
Katz said the UAW’s new contract probably won’t help the union get workers at the nonunion plants to join. The plants, he said, are in areas of the country that are often suspicious of unions.
“Detroit’s wage has been higher than the nonunion before,” he said. “There’s always been a difference and they just haven’t been able to organize them. It doesn’t hurt them to have won such a large deal, but I don’t think it’s going to make that big of a difference.”
When planning for thanksgiving, the host may have to decide if it’s going to be a potluck and what every invitee family have to bring. If it’s not a potluck, then the host family would have to get the number of invitees and ask if they would like to bring something to share or contribute towards the thanksgiving meal. Clipping coupons for shopping will reduce your budget.
Most often, it’s good practice for family to take this opportunity to socialize with one another and with all the invited members. During this period, it’s also important to share phone numbers, address and plans for the up coming holidays. For family traveling to other cities, 2 to 3 days holidays form work is usually the norm.
For family travelling out-of-town, now is the perfect time to shop for tickets in advance. Usually 4 to 6 weeks is an ample timeframe to get great bargain tickets. Some family stay in the hotel or with other family locally.
Typically, thanksgiving meal consist of 1 or 2 turkeys well cooked, with side dishes, vegetables and drinks. Appetizers and desserts such as pies / cake and ice cream of different flavors with tea or coffee as shared to all the family.
Others may want to bring special meal or treats to share and that’s okay.
Keep in mind, that the best part about coming together is to socialize and decide if there’s going to be any gift exchange during the holidays. One simple way, is to write everybody’s name in a piece of paper and have everyone draw one name from the collected names in a basket.
At the end, it’s departure time. Everyone is excited to get back home. Some who may have traveled out-of-town or state would have to leave early to beat traffic to get to the airport on time in order to avoid traffic rush.
Emily St. Martin | Los Angeles Times (TNS)
LOS ANGLES — The youth of America have spoken, and when it comes to sex onscreen, they say “ewwwww.”
The new UCLA “Teens and Screens” study, conducted by the Center for Scholars & Storytellers, found that across 1,500 members of Gen Z, ages 10 to 24, young people wanted to see platonic relationships between onscreen characters, and many felt sex wasn’t necessary for story plot. (Only the respondents ages 13 to 24 were asked about sexual content.)
“While it’s true that teens want less sex on TV and in movies, what the survey is really saying is that teens want more and different kinds of relationships reflected in the media they watch,” said Yalda T. Uhls, founder and director of CSS, co-author of the study and adjunct professor in UCLA’s Department of Psychology.
The survey found that adolescents want to see “lives like (their) own” depicted onscreen and crave “authenticity.” Teens, plus the 18- to 24-year-old demographic predominantly desired by advertisers, think that sex and romance are too prominent in TV shows and movies.
Among those 13-24, 44.3% felt that romance is overused in media, and 47.5% agreed that sex isn’t needed for the plots of most TV shows and movies. More than half of Gen Z wants to see more content focused on friendships and platonic relationships, with 39% saying they’re especially interested in aromantic and/or asexual characters depicted in film and television.
On a list of stereotypes that irked Gen Z, romantic tropes ranked fourth. This included a dislike of relationships being necessary for happiness, male and female leads always having to end up together romantically, and love triangles.
“We know that young people are suffering an epidemic of loneliness and they’re seeking modeling in the art they consume. While some storytellers use sex and romance as a shortcut to character connection, it’s important for Hollywood to recognize that adolescents want stories that reflect the full spectrum of relationships,” Uhls said, adding that recent studies show young people are having less sex than their parents did at the same age and more are choosing to be single.
Survey results say that Gen Z’s values and desires “reach depths beyond what society has typically explored.” It suggests teens and young adults have grown tired of “stereotypical, heteronormative storytelling that valorizes romantic and/or sexual relationships,” particularly depictions of toxic romance.
While the survey’s findings might appear cut and dried, it can’t be ignored that sex-heavy shows often outperform the rest by staggering margins. According to HBO, “Euphoria” Season 2 episodes averaged 16.3 million viewers. That’s the highest viewership for any season of an HBO series over the last 18 years aside from “Game of Thrones,” which pulled in an average of 46 million viewers across its eighth and final season in 2019.
Both shows were known for their gratuitous sex scenes, and the sexual content often played a key role in the plot. (Spoiler examples: Tyrion Lannister kills his father Tywin with a crossbow for sleeping with his girlfriend. Also, would King Joffrey Baratheon have been such a monster had he not been conceived by two siblings?)
In “Euphoria,” one of the main antagonist characters (Nate Jacobs’ dad, Cal) is a sexual deviant. Entire plot points revolve around Cal, and his sexual proclivities create problems for several of the main characters.
And “Bridgerton,” the Regency-era high-society drama filled with angst, sexual tension and an increasingly risqué honeymoon? In 2021, Deadline reported that Season 1 of “Bridgerton” was watched (partially or in its entirety) by a record 82 million households around the world and at the time quickly became Netflix’s biggest series by a wide margin.
While UCLA’s “Teens and Screens” survey might have studios considering giving Gen Z what it wants, it may be hard to ignore the success of those steamy sex scenes saturating both the big and small screen.
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