• People stood in a somber silence outside of the Supreme Court building in an impromptu vigil honoring the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Ginsburg died Friday evening due to complications from cancer. She was 87.
• Kalina Newman, who attended the vigil, told Business Insider that she knew she had to leave flowers at the SCOTUS building for Ginsburg as soon as she heard the news.
• "As soon as I saw the candles and the Supreme Court building, I began to cry. I laid my flowers, had a silent prayer, took some photos," she said, adding that after she left the vigil around 9 p.m., the crowd had grown "considerably."
• She was only the second woman and the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Friday marked the first night of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, and vigil attendees recited the traditional Mourner's Kaddish to mourn Ginsburg.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Candles lit up the steps of the Supreme Court building in a somber glow as hundreds of people stood in silence to honor the memory of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ginsburg died Friday evening at her home in Washington, DC, due to complications from cancer, the Supreme Court announced in a statement Friday. She was 87.

People flocked to the Supreme Court building to host an impromptu vigil for the late Supreme Court justice, carrying flowers and signs with her iconic quotes.

Kalina Newman, who attended the vigil, was out to dinner with her boyfriend when she heard the news of Ginsburg's passing.

"[I] immediately lost my appetite," Newman told Business Insider. "I boxed up my food and turned to him and said, 'I need to go place flowers for her.'"

"As soon as I saw the candles and the Supreme Court building, I began to cry. I laid my flowers, had a silent prayer, took some photos," she said, adding that after she left the vigil around 9 p.m., the crowd had grown "considerably."

Newman said she was inspired by Ginsburg in her own life, describing her as a "legend who made a name for herself by being smart, progressive, and fierce."

"As a young woman passionate about progressive politics, she taught me to never take no for an answer," she told Business Insider.

Ginsburg was nominated to the nation's highest court by former Democratic President Bill Clinton in August of 1993.

She was only the second woman and the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Friday marked the first night of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, and vigil attendees recited the traditional Mourner's Kaddish to mourn Ginsburg.

—Eliza Relman (@eliza_relman) September 19, 2020

Her death gives President Donald Trump a third opportunity to nominate a lifetime appointee to the nation's highest court, securing a conservative majority for decades to come.

But just days before her death, Ginsburg dictated one of her last wishes to her granddaughter Clara Spera regarding who would fill her seat on the Supreme Court, according to NPR, which first reported the news of Ginsburg's death.

"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed," she said, according to the NPR report.

—Lauryn Gutierrez (@GutzyLo) September 19, 2020

• Former President Barack Obama said Ruth Bader Ginsburg "fought to the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals" in a blog post honoring the late Supreme Court justice.
• Obama said Ginsburg was a "warrior for gender equality" as well as a "relentless litigator and an incisive jurist."
• He also argued Republican senators should let the next president fill the vacancy, citing their refusal in 2016 to hold a hearing for Merrick Garland, his nominee to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia.
• Ginsburg died Friday at the age of 87 due to complications from cancer.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought to the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals. That's how we remember her," former President Barack Obama wrote in a blog post Friday, honoring the late Supreme Court justice, who died earlier in the day.

"She was a warrior for gender equality — someone who believed that equal justice under law only had meaning if it applied to every single American," Obama wrote, praising her trailblazing career as both a "relentless litigator and an incisive jurist."

Obama said that Ginsburg "inspired the generations who followed her, from the tiniest trick-or-treaters to law students burning the midnight oil to the most powerful leaders in the land," including he and former first lady Michelle Obama.

Obama also referenced Ginsburg's dying wish, which was reportedly that she "will not be replaced until a new president is installed," in calling on Republican senators not to fill the vacancy she left on the Supreme Court.

"Four and a half years ago, when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland, they invented the principle that the Senate shouldn't fill an open seat on the Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in," he wrote.

In 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed just hours after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, nearly 10 months before the election, that the Senate would not hold a hearing for Obama's nominee to replace Scalia.

In his blog post, Obama called on Republicans to adhere to the same standard with the current vacancy and "apply rules with consistency, and not based on what's convenient or advantageous in the moment."

McConnell has already vowed to fill the seat, saying in a statement Friday: "President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate."

• Saudi Arabia let Netflix show explicit content in exchange for the removal of a satirical show that criticized the Crown Prince, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said.
• Netflix confirmed on January 1, 2019, that an episode of "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" was removed after a legal complaint from Saudi Arabia.
• In the show Minhaj condemned Saudi Arabia for covering up the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and mocked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• Hastings told CNN on September 10 that the deal to delete Minhaj's show meant Saudis could watch shows like "Orange is the New Black" and "Sex Education."
• Hastings told CNN that the deal was "a troubling compromise" but that he thought it was "a good move."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Saudi Arabia agreed to host explicit Netflix shows in exchange for the removal of a satirical episode that criticized the kingdom, the streaming giant's CEO said.

On January 1, 2019, Netflix confirmed it removed for its Saudi viewers an episode of "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" in which Minhaj accused Saudi Arabia of covering up the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and slammed the continued bombing of Yemen.

"It blows my mind that it took the killing of a Washington Post journalist for ever one to go: 'Oh, I guess [Crown Prince Mohammed] is not a reformer," he said in the episode.

"Meanwhile, every Muslim person you know was like: 'Yeah, no s---.'"

At the time, Netflix said it deleted the show following a "valid legal request" from the kingdom which claimed the episode violated its cybercrime laws.

But on September 10, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the show was removed in exchange for some of its other, more explicit content could be made available to Saudi customers.

"It's a troubling compromise, not something that we approach easily or lightly, but on balance we think it's a good move," Hastings told CNN.

Hastings said Saudi Arabia agreed to host shows like "Orange is the New Black," Queer Eye," and "Sex Education" in exchange. 

And while Minhaj's episode was removed from Netflix in Saudi Arabia, it remained on the streaming company's YouTube page.

Despite huge social reforms over the last two years — like letting women drive and changing a law that let men control women's movements via app — Saudi Arabia remains an extremely conservative country.

Homosexuality is punishable with the death penalty in the kingdom, and women there do not enjoy anywhere near the same rights as men.

Minhaj mocked Netflix's decision to remove his episode at the time, tweeting: "Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube."

Netflix this week came under fire around the world, for airing "Cuties," a show about a young migrant in France that has been accused of promoting and glamorizing pedophilia.

• Kutztown University professor Ellesia Blaque was the center of a tense back-and-forth with President Donald Trump at an ABC News town hall earlier this week. 
• Blaque called the president out when he started to interrupt her question about healthcare.
• In interviews after the town hall, Blaque said she was so frustrated with Trump's answer that she cried after the event. 
• While she had not been sure whether she wanted to vote at all before the town hall, she says she now knows she wants to vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The woman who got into a tense exchange with President Donald Trump at an ABC News town hall event on Tuesday said she broke down and cried afterwards in frustration over the interaction. 

Ellesia Blaque, an assistant professor at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, asked Trump about healthcare during the event, and when he started speaking midway through her question, she said: "Please stop and let me finish my question, sir." Clips of the interaction went viral the next day.

In an interview with MSNBC after the town hall, Blaque said the moment felt like a student cutting her off during a lecture.

She said she spoke with several friends afterwards who said she acted just as they thought she would. 

"Respect is reciprocal ... You have to wait until I articulate the question in its completion before you determine what the answer is," Blaque said. 

Blaque also said she was not satisfied with the president's answer to her question about whether Trump would make sure that people with preexisting conditions like herself are covered by insurers, as was written into law by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. 

Trump told Blaque that he would, though he has been actively trying to dismantle Obamacare. Trump has long promised to unveil an alternative healthcare plan, though details are scarce.

She told MSNBC: "I walked away and when I got outside of Constitution Hall, I found the first wall to sit on and I broke down and cried in frustration and anger, because he didn't answer anyone's question, let alone mine."

"And he ignored us like we have no value," she added.

In a separate interview with CNN, Blaque said: "He fluffed me off like soot on the bottom of his $3,000 pair of shoes, and I resent it. We have a right to live, we have a right to life, and we have a right to be treated equally within the medical community and among insurance companies."

—CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) September 16, 2020

Blaque, who voted for Hillary Clinton in the last election, said she went to the event not sure whether she was going to vote at all. 

"I'm 57 years old, I've been a dedicated voter since I was 18 years old. And what have I ever achieved or gained from it? Nothing," she told MSNBC. "I don't care if it was a Democrat, a Republican, Obama, it doesn't matter. I really did not gain much, if anything, from their presidency. So what is the point?"

However, after her interaction with Trump, and an interaction with a new American citizen while leaving the event, Blaque said she changed her mind and decided to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

"The person who drove me home is a newly-minted citizen from Turkey, and we were talking about his family in Istanbul and making comparisons," she told CNN. "And he's so grateful to be in the United States and excited to cast his vote. How dare I, an American-born citizen, not cast one of my own? And that's what changed my mind."

"So I am voting for the Biden-Harris ticket. And even though I do so with trepidation ... I'm going to go ahead and put my heart on the line again. And I'm going to go ahead and coast that ballot and keep my fingers crossed and pray to my God that maybe this time somebody will hear my tears and feel my pain."

• Read more:
• CDC guidelines discouraging people from getting COVID-19 tests was published by Trump officials despite objections from scientists, report says
• The US is about to ban TikTok. Here's what that means for users.
• Rumors of an Iranian assassination plot offer lessons that Trump can't seem to learn
• Trump's Northern Ireland envoy warns Boris Johnson not to create a hard border 'by accident'

• The widespread sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms by German police has led to the suspension of 29 officers.
• The officers shared extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers, according to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
• Some face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech while others are accused of not reporting the actions of their colleagues.
• German police have previously faced accusations of not doing enough to weed out potentially violent nationalists in their ranks. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Twenty-nine police officers in Germany have been suspended for sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms.

According to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the officers were allegedly using chatrooms and WhatsApp groups to share extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers.

Most of the officers working in the city of Essen are said to have shared more than 100 neo-Nazi images. The findings come after 34 police stations and private homes linked were raided.

"This is a disgrace for the NRW police," the state's interior minister, Herbert Reul, said on Wednesday, according to the BBC.

"This is the worst and most repulsive kind of hate-baiting... Right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis have absolutely no place in the North Rhine-Westphalia police, our police," he added.

Reul also said he launched an investigation into the extent of extremism among state police departments, adding that authorities had to show a "crystal clear political profile" that rejected the far-right.

Some of the officers face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech, while others are accused of not reporting their colleagues' actions.

"I'm appalled and ashamed," said Frank Richter, who is the chief of police at the force where most of the suspects worked, according to Reuters."It is hard to find words." 

German police have previously faced accusations of not doing enough to weed out potentially violent nationalists in their ranks. 

In July, a retired police officer from Hamburg was arrested on suspicion of sending threatening emails to Turkish lawmakers.

The officer allegedly signed the emails off with the name "NSU 2.0" — a reference to a neo-Nazi gang, which committed ten racist murders between 2000 and 2007.

Displaying images of Swastikas or other SS sig runes is illegal in Germany and considered "symbols of anti-constitutional organizations," according to Deutsche Welle.

The Nazi salute and statements such as "Heil Hitler" are also banned in public.

• Read more:
• How Germany tackled the coronavirus: 9 people tell us they are thankful for good leadership and a robust health system
• 32 things everyone should do in Germany
  
• A 26-year-old American woman ignored quarantine instructions to go on a bar crawl in Germany, and caused a COVID-19 outbreak at the hotel she works in, officials say
• Germany put 500,000 people back under lockdown after a spike in coronavirus cases

• US stocks are on course to close lower for a third consecutive week.
• The S&P 500 has lost nearly 9% since early September's record high, mainly driven by losses in the technology sector.
• But Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank are upbeat the US stock market sell-off is mostly over. 
• Goldman Sachs kept its end-of year S&P 500 target to 3,600 by year end.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The wave of bearishness that has engulfed the US stock market in the last couple of weeks may be past its peak, meaning Wall Street could well be facing brighter days ahead, according to a number of investment banks.

The S&P 500 has fallen for three weeks straight, under pressure mainly from technology stocks, many of which have seen their value hugely inflated this year, as cheap cash and a faster shift to online working and shopping during the pandemic fueled a near-unprecedented buying spree.

As economic data points to an economy that is gradually recovering from the worst effects of the coronavirus crisis, which has killed nearly 200,000 Americans and left millions jobless, investors are increasingly sensitive to anything that suggests this improvement could be derailed, or that a vaccine may not be forthcoming as quickly as they hope.

However, the Federal Reserve has indicated that, while it has no plans to inject any fresh cash into the financial system just now, it is confident that economic growth will continue to improve, but that it will also be able to keep US interest rates near zero until at least 2023.

The S&P 500 is nearly 9% off early September's record high, while the Nasdaq is around 12% below. But both are still up by 20% and 3%, respectively so far this year, regardless of the turbulence in September so far.

As such, a number of big banks now think the worst of the decline is in the past:

Goldman Sachs 

In a note, analysts led by David Kostin said last week they expected the S&P 500 to be at 3,600 by year-end and at 3,800 by mid-2021, supported by hopes that a vaccine will be widely distributed by the first quarter of 2021.

"Despite the sharp sell-off [in recent days], we remain optimistic about the path of the US equity market in coming months," Goldman Sachs said. "The Superforecaster probability of a mass-distributed vaccine by 1Q 2021 has surged to nearly 70% and economic data show a continuing recovery."

Wells Fargo 

"I do think there will be more volatility but I think we have seen the worst of the sell-off," the Wells Fargo's chief investment officer Kirk Hartman told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" in a pre-recorded interview released Tuesday.

"What is interesting to me is the market has priced in a very good recovery in 2021 and, as long as that happens, I think the market, while a bit stretched, is fairly valued," he added. 

Deutsche Bank 

Deutsche Bank took its cue from the options market. 

Deutsche bank said the put-call ratio, which measures the number of bearish contracts compared to bullish contracts, had normalized somewhat with the correction, after having fallen to the lower end of its 10-year range in recent weeks, reflecting extreme investor optimism. 

The bank's strategists led by Srineel Jalagani said in a note this week: "Historically, corrections in the put-call ratio have tended to have sharp but short-lived market impacts."

• "Doom and gloom" about the long-term effects of COVID-19's economic slump may be overdone, according to Capital Economics.
• Compared to the 2008 financial crisis, there are fewer reasons to expect the pandemic will weigh down on economic growth in the long-term as gradual rebounds are already underway, the research group's chief economist said.
• Instead of focusing on output, economic legacy will be seen in other areas such as structural changes, de-globalization, and the role of state.
• Most economies will not return to pre-virus GDP levels for another two to three years, but China — driven by an investment-intensive stimulus — will lead the way.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It isn't all "doom and gloom" when considering the pandemic's long-term effect on the economy, according to Capital Economics.

Pessimism over the economic slump triggered by COVID-19 might just be overdone, Neil Shearing, the research group's chief economist said in a webcast on Thursday.

Compared to the 2008 financial crisis, there are fewer reasons to expect the pandemic will weigh down growth in the long term, he said.

Instead, economic legacy will be found in the pushback against globalization, higher debt levels, a different way of working, and less emphasis on austerity on austerity in particular. 

These factors have major implications for commodity markets, in which some industrial metal prices are above their pre-virus levels and still have further room to go. 

States will be radically transformed with different sectoral makeup for some economies, and some will shrink permanently while others will grow and develop in their place, Shearing said.

He pointed out that most economies will not return to pre-virus GDP levels for another two to three years, but China — driven by an investment-intensive stimulus — will lead the way.

Read More: Goldman Sachs says oil prices are set to move 'meaningfully higher' into next year. Here are 7 reasons why the firm is bullish, and 5 stocks it recommends buying in advance

Throughout the group's forecast horizon, central banks are expected to continue to keep interest rates at rock-bottom levels.

Gold prices will remain elevated in the medium-term, given that real yields, which strip out the effects of inflation, are likely to remain low.

Demand of industrial metals cratered earlier this year following virus-containment measures, and led to record-low price levels in March.

But prices have rebounded quickly, and all except aluminum and lead are now higher year-to-date, James O'Rourke, a commodity economist's report showed. Despite the year's rally, prices can be expected to rise a little more by end-2021, he wrote.

"For one, China's economy is on track to return to its pre-virus path by end-2020, far earlier than any other major economy," O'Rourke said. "The recent ramp-up in China's fiscal stimulus, with its focus on metals-intensive infrastructure spending, has room to run this year, while a further economic boost will come from faster credit growth."

The huge stimulus-led price rally after the great financial crisis came on the back of massive credit growth, on a scale which might not be repeated this time, the report said. 

For oil, international benchmark Brent crude's recent drop to a two-month-low shows its fragile nature of price recovery. An uneven recovery in demand, and the effect of vast surplus oil inventories accumulated in the first half of the year will likely limit any price gains. Brent is unlikely to see much in the way of price gains over the remainder of the year. Capital Economics expects it trade around $45 a barrel by the close of the year, compared with around $43 now.

"Even as most sources of oil demand return to more 'normal' levels as economies recover, we suspect that jet fuel consumption will remain depressed as a result of ongoing travel restrictions and a fall in commercial passenger flights," O'Rourke said.

Demand is likely to run faster than supply, which will help run down some of the overhang of unused fuel in storage tanks, but not fast enough to trigger a large burst higher in the price.  

"We think that the outlook for oil prices will brighten a little next year, as supply fails to keep pace with a continued revival in demand," he concluded.

Read More: Jefferies handpicks the 17 best stocks spanning multiple sectors to buy now — and details why each company's future looks 'particularly attractive,' even in a downturn

• Meet the Inkas Sentry Civilian, the bulletproof SUV that's SWAT on the outside and upscale limo on the inside. 
• The vehicle is a civilian-grade version of Inkas' Sentry APC, an armored personnel carrier. 
• The tough-looking SUV features a lavish interior complete with leather seats and an entertainment system. 
• The Sentry Civilian starts at $350,000 and is made to order. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Lots of VIPs cruise around in low-key armored vehicles that are nearly indistinguishable from an ordinary Cadillac, Lincoln, or Mercedes-Benz. But others prefer to throw modesty out the window and hit the streets in something a bit flashier. 

That's where Canadian firm Inkas comes in. The Toronto-based company sells all manner of discreet bullet-resistant cars, but also offers the Sentry Civilian — a military-style, ultra-high-end SUV that puts any Hummer, Jeep, or G-Wagen to shame. 

The Sentry Civilian boasts a private jet-like cabin complete with leather captain's chairs, an entertainment system, and a long list of optional luxury features. But you'd never know that looking at the vehicle's exterior — on the outside, the SUV gets bullet-resistant glass, run-flat tires, and an armored passenger compartment. 

So, one could call the truck inconspicuous, in its own weird way. 

Keep scrolling to take a tour of the Inkas Sentry Civilian.

The Inkas Sentry Civilian may look battle-ready on the outside, but its interior tells an entirely different story.

Although it's based on one of the company's armored tactical vehicles, the Sentry APC, the Sentry Civilian is meant for private use.

With a base price of $350,000, the Sentry Civilian offers a unique combination of a menacing, bullet-resistant exterior and a luxurious interior.

Inside, the Sentry Civilian boasts everything you'd expect from a high-end limo.

It has heated and cooled captain's chairs made from diamond-stitched leather.

Plus, passengers can watch TV on a screen that electronically retracts to serve as a partition.

Passengers can work the TV, radio, seats, climate control, and other features through control panels positioned throughout the cabin.

And buyers can customize the interior features and layout to their liking.

Inkas offers add-ons like a minibar, safe, and retractable tables.

As far as safety features go, the Sentry Civilian comes standard with bullet-resistant glass, run-flat tires, and an armored passenger compartment.

Inkas also reinforces the vehicle's door hinges and other critical areas.

Buyers can outfit their Sentry Civilian with up to BR6-level armoring, which can protect against high-powered assault rifles and grenade blasts.

Inkas builds the Sentry Civilian on the Ford F-550 platform, but adds in an upgraded suspension setup and brakes.

Inkas says the vehicle can handle extreme climates and off-road terrain.

It gets its power from a 6.7-liter diesel V8 and boasts a 40-gallon fuel tank.

Inkas builds each Sentry Civilian to order, and can ship the vehicles worldwide.

• A CDC study offers even more evidence that the coronavirus spreads on airplanes.
• Epidemiologists traced 16 coronavirus cases back to a single 10-hour flight where one symptomatic passenger was seated in business class.
• The case study showed that 92% of passengers sitting two seats or fewer away from the passenger contracted the coronavirus.
• It's unlikely most of the passengers on the flight were wearing masks.   
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On March 1, 217 people boarded a plane in London, England, bound for Hanoi, Vietnam.

Healthcare workers had already examined each passenger, asking them to report any potential COVID-19 symptoms and doing temperature scans.

But a 27-year-old businesswoman didn't report that she had a sore throat and a cough. And her temperature scan was normal.

However, the woman's symptoms progressed over the following days; she tested positive for COVID-19 on March 6.

Subsequent contact tracing revealed that on that 10-hour flight alone, the woman had passed the virus to 15 other passengers. 

The case study, described in a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offers even stronger evidence that the coronavirus can spread on planes – particularly when passengers aren't wearing masks. In early March, face masks weren't yet mandatory on flights, so it's likely most passengers weren't wearing them. 

92% of passengers within 2 seats of the infected woman got sick

Upon learning of the businesswoman's infection, researchers at Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology contact traced the people on the flight — passengers and crew members. Local health staff interviewed everyone they could reach (184 people), and told anyone with a suspected COVID-19 case to self-quarantine, along with their close contacts.

The 15 cases health workers identified were all considered "flight-associated," meaning they could be reliably traced back to the flight and not another event. None of the other infected passengers had displayed COVID-19 symptoms before or during the flight. And nobody had been around anyone else with a confirmed case of coronavirus except the businesswoman, who'd traveled to Italy with her sister (who later tested positive in London). 

Twelve of the infected passengers were in business class, and all but one of those were sitting two or fewer seats away from the woman – 92% of all the passengers sitting that close got sick. The virus also spread to two passengers in economy class and one crew member.

The researchers concluded that the woman most likely spread the coronavirus to other business-class passengers and the crew member via infected droplets or aerosols (tiny particles that get expelled from the mouth when someone breathes, talks, or yells). 

The two economy-class passengers could have been infected in the airport during customs or at baggage claim, by touching a contaminated surface or standing near the woman for an extended period of time.

Although the researchers said they couldn't completely rule out the possibility that the passengers got infected in other ways, they noted that on March 1, the UK had only 23 recorded COVID-19 cases. Likewise, at the time the passengers arrived in Vietnam, the country had only recorded 16 cases – making it unlikely they'd contracted the disease after they left the airport.

Plus, most of the cases were clustered together in business class – which would be unlikely if they'd come from different sources.

Airlines may need stricter rules to stop the coronavirus' spread

Based on their findings, the researchers think airlines might be downplaying the risks of coronavirus transmission on flights. 

"The latest guidance from the international air-travel industry classifies the in-flight transmission risk as very low, and recommends only the use of face masks without additional measures to increase physical distance on board, such as blocking the middle seats," the authors wrote. "Our findings challenge these recommendations."

However, MIT researchers calculated in a July paper that filling middle seats could double the risk of COVID-19 transmission on a plane flight. (That study has not yet been peer-reviewed, however.)

The epidemiologists behind the new CDC study said even blocking off middle seats can't fully prevent super-spreader events on planes, though, given that the sick passenger on the flight studied spread the virus to those two seats away. Plus, those people were in business class, where seats are larger and more spread out than in economy.

So the researchers suggested that airlines and government officials = implement stricter screening policies for travelers, test everyone who gets off a flight, and make all newly arrived passengers quarantine for 14 days. 

Currently, every major US airline requires passengers to wear masks for their entire flight, except while eating or drinking. But not all passengers cooperate, and getting everyone to wear masks for the entirety of a long flight, like the 10-hour one from London to Hanoi, can be even more difficult. 

• As tech companies gear up to fight misinformation ahead of the 2020 elections, Facebook has received the most scrutiny amid a steady flow of reporting that highlights its missteps.
• Meanwhile, researchers say Google has been "getting a pass on transparency" by hiding behind Facebook and being less willing to share data about its own products, specifically around political advertising.
• Google is the largest digital ads company and plays a key role in what advertisements millions of Americans see while watching YouTube, viewing search results, and across the internet about the electoral candidates, issues, and voting.
• Google said it's "committed to delivering the highest standards in transparency, choice and controls" by verifying advertisers, banning narrowly targeted ads, and making ad details available in a public archive.
• But researchers argued that Google's rules around political ads don't go far enough, and a less robust ad archive means they — and the public — are unable to see the entire picture.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook was thrust back into the spotlight last week after BuzzFeed News published a leaked memo from a whistleblower who accused the social media network of extensive failures to combat political and electoral misinformation around the world.

Amid a steady drumbeat of reports from media and researchers over the past several months, Facebook has repeatedly come under fire for mishandling crises, like its delayed response to threats of violence against anti-racism protesters and an unwillingness or reluctance to enforce its own rules in cases involving high-profile politicians.

With each new revelation about Facebook, however, researchers say another tech giant is continuing to dodge scrutiny: Google.

"Google is really getting a pass on transparency by just staying under the radar," Laura Edelson, a researcher who studies political ads and misinformation at New York University, told Business Insider. "No one's talking about Google."

Google has faced pushback over the years for how its subsidiary YouTube deals with misinformation, hate speech, and radical content posted by users. But when it comes to paid ads across its various products — YouTube, Google search results, Gmail, and ads served on websites across the internet through Google Ads — regulators, journalists, and the public have paid much less attention.

While Facebook still faces major backlash over how it moderates content generated by both users and advertisers, some researchers have praised the social network on the latter issue for actions like sharing more detailed data with researchers and widening its net to track "issue" ads. But between Facebook's corrective steps and its initial missteps, researchers worried that it's taken some deserved heat off of Google.

"We spend a lot of time talking about Facebook, and a big part of why is that Facebook is doing some things," Edelson said, adding: "Google doesn't make that much stuff transparent, which is part of why no one is talking about Google."

"Google owns a larger share of the online advertising market, but has looser standards governing political ads. The company also provides the public with less information about those ads. That means that users may be inundated with manipulative or misleading ads without knowing it," Michael Clauw, a spokesperson for the research group Tech Transparency Project, told Business Insider. (TTP has reportedly received funding from Oracle, a Google competitor).

Google disputed those characterizations, with a spokesperson telling Business Insider the company is "deeply committed to delivering the highest standards in transparency, choice and controls in advertising."

But multiple researchers said that by narrowly defining political ads, disclosing only basic details about them, and at times, failing to detect political ads or advertisers in the first place, Google may be masking the extent to which Americans are encountering misleading information while using its products in the run-up to the 2020 elections.

Tech reigns in the Wild West of digital ads

While Facebook has pulled in the majority of digital political ad revenue in the US during this election cycle — nearly 60% as of February, according to eMarketer — Google still captured almost one-fifth of the market, bringing in more than $240 million. By the companies' count, since they launched political ad-tracking archives in May 2018, Facebook says advertisers have spent nearly $1.7 billion, while Google says that number is just shy of $400 million.

But researchers and campaign finance experts say those numbers don't paint the full picture of who is spending money to sway voters, nor do the numbers say where and how the companies are spending it, particularly in Google's case.

"The main source of the problem is the piecemeal platform-by-platform approach to political ad transparency," Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center. "There are no laws requiring that platforms make political ads publicly accessible. It's entirely a self-regulatory effort."

Unlike TV and radio ads, which are regulated by the Federal Elections Commission and Federal Communications Commission, internet ad companies operate largely on their own terms. In a 2019 study, researchers concluded that Google and Facebook deliberately undermined the FEC's efforts to regulate digital ads.

"Digital advertisements used to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election lacked disclaimers stating who paid for them," the researchers said, arguing it was the result of Google and Facebook putting "profit ahead of the public interest in seeking exemptions from disclaimer requirements, refusing to change the size of their advertisements and downplaying the deceptive potential of political ads."

Left to their own devices, tech platforms have come up with wildly different approaches for detecting and determining what counts as a political ad, what advertisers need to disclose, how much to share with researchers and users, and how to enforce those rules. And it has largely fallen to researchers to hold them accountable.

Slipping through the cracks

One issue researchers raised with Google's approach is its narrow definition of political ads (or election ads, as Google refers to them). Google considers election ads to be anything that mentions federal- or state-level elected officials, candidates, or political parties, as well as state-level ballot measures and initiatives.

But researchers say that misses a crucial category of ads: issue ads, which address often highly divisive political and social issues that are frequent targets for bad actors.

"The entire category of ads that tend to be misinformation or that are most likely to be misinformation, they specifically exclude," Edelson said.

"Many of the ads that were funded by Russia [during the 2016 US elections] didn't mention candidates at all. They instead focused on the divisive, social-political issues," Fischer said.

"Those ads would very likely be included in Facebook's archive because Facebook has a broad definition of political ads," he said, adding: "The fact that Facebook does have a broad standard of political ad ... makes it much more possible to do research and oversight of the kinds of communications that are being disseminated to voters."

In an effort to combat the micro-targeted ads that got Facebook into hot water, Google did announce in November that it would be "limiting election ads audience targeting to the following general categories: age, gender, and general location (postal code level)."

But researchers also pointed to how Google actually implements and enforces the limited restrictions it has imposed, bringing up concerns around the level of detail and searchability of data in its ad archive and the rigor with which it verifies that political advertisers are being properly included.

"The Google archive provides only very big ranges of the dollar amounts that are spent on a particular ad," Maggie Christ, a senior researcher at the Campaign Legal Center, told Business Insider.

"It makes it difficult, especially if you're trying to match up with what a group is reporting to the FEC," she said. "It might mean that it can all be accounted for on Google, or it might mean that tens of thousands of dollars are unaccounted for and might be running on a completely different platform."

Additionally, when Google removes an ad for violating one of its policies or when the advertiser purchases the ad through a third party, researchers can't actually view the ad's content in the archive, making it more challenging to understand how advertisers might be trying to manipulate voters.

"Even in the archives, you couldn't go and uncover it and see which candidate that ad might've mentioned and what the content might've been," Christ said.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal also reported that the archive was "fraught with errors and delays" and had omitted ads run by the campaigns of former Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Google defended its archive and updates it says it has made in recent months, with a spokesperson pointing to how it's "now updated daily with even more information on who purchased the ad, how much they spent, how many people saw it, how they were targeted and in what geographies."

Trust that they're verifying

Absent any oversight from federal regulators, researchers ultimately must take Google's word that it's effectively enforcing its policies — that its AI systems are catching political ads, that it verifies whether advertisers are who they tell Google they are, or that it's able to detect and remove ads that violate its myriad policies against false claims, clickbait, electoral misinformation, and hacked material.

So far, they aren't convinced.

"We know at least anecdotally that their enforcement of their existing rules is poor," Edelson said. "We know that they are not doing a great job keeping political ads off of Gmail, but they just said: 'Well, we don't have political ads on Gmail and therefore we don't make political ads on Gmail transparent.'"

Wired recently reported that a search marketer in New York, as an experiment, was able to bypass Google's political ad detection systems simply by omitting a candidate's first or last name. When contacted about potential loopholes the marketer had identified, Google still declined to consider the search terms where advertisers wanted the ad to appear.

"If you're searching for voting and someone's bidding on those keywords, you might want to see what they're saying ... That's a ripe target for disinformation about voting," Republican digital strategist Eric Wilson told Wired.

Alex Stamos, Facebook's former security chief and now a researcher at Stanford, tweeted last week that he and other colleagues had "discovered misleading Google ads being run on important election integrity search terms by the Washington Times."

—Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) September 10, 2020

"First, we believe that these headlines are not factually supported by the underlying articles and should be disallowed under Google's clickbait policies. Second, an exemption for media companies means these ads are not visible in Google's political ad archive," Stamos said.

Google

Political advertisers — and likely, bad actors — aren't backing down on their use of Google to target Americans ahead of the November elections. President Donald Trump's campaign secured prime ad space on YouTube's homepage in the days before the election for an estimated $1 million per day, despite a history of running ads that violate Google's policies.

Google is taking some steps when it comes to products like search results, announcing last week that it can more quickly detect misinformation during breaking news events and will crack down on potentially misleading autocomplete suggestions about voting information and candidates.

Still, researchers remain concerned and largely in the dark about how moneyed interests could be paying Google to try to influence its users' political attitudes and behaviors.

"Facebook draws a lot of fire for monetizing user data or serving manipulative political communications, but Google often engages in the same practices. In fact, Google has even more data about its users and allows a bigger group of political advertisers to leverage that data. Many users don't realize that they're using Google when they visit a website that serves ads through DoubleClick or contains embedded YouTube videos," Clauw said.

"All of those things make Google Ads, the Google Ad space a real black box, so I couldn't even tell you what's harmful there," Edelson said.

• The 2020 Kia Telluride I reviewed recently also had another feature: a roof tent called the Roofnest Falcon.
• The Falcon is easily set up within minutes and can sleep two adults. It costs $3,395 — or about 50 times the price of this Coleman tent I found on Amazon.
• I have never been camping before and found it to be a great introduction to the whole thing, even if I did cheat a little. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

You and I have never met, dear reader, but if you knew me, then you'd also know that camping is undoubtedly on my shortlist of Things I'll Never Be Caught Dead Doing. 

Which is exactly why I found myself huddled in a tent in the middle of a field while wind and rain lashed about outside. This is for the blogs, I kept telling myself. What I wouldn't do for my children, the blogs.

But before I get into that, let's back up for a second. 

The Roofnest Falcon

Recently, I tested out a 2020 Kia Telluride. It was a nice car! You should read the review. 

But I asked for this particular version of the Telluride from Kia's media fleet because I'd heard it had a roof-mounted tent from a Colorado-based company called Roofnest. Seeing as I was (and still am) living out a global pandemic and social distancing is the name of this game from hell, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try sleeping outdoors.

The tent that came attached to the Telluride's roof rails was the Falcon model: a 50-inch wide, 90-inch long, aluminum hard-shell tent that sleeps two adults. (A piece of free advice: if you're planning on bunking with someone, make sure you're comfortable being very close to them. I brought my boyfriend, whom I live with. We're only quasi-used to sharing a small space together.)

The Falcon opens like a clamshell. Once unbuckled, you simply push up on the top half and its stainless-steel gas struts do the rest of the work, popping the tent up in a matter of seconds. The tent itself is made from waterproof canvas walls with mesh windows that you can zip up in case of inclement weather or a chill. 

The Falcon uses what Roofnest calls a "universal mounting system," which you can use to mount it to "any set of crossbars, similar to a bike rack or storage box," according to emailed press materials.

Inside, there's a three-inch-thick mattress for comfort. Above that, attached to the "ceiling," there's some netting for you to store items such as jackets.

When open, it provides 60 inches of headroom. When closed, it's less than seven inches tall. In all, the whole thing weighs 140 pounds and comes with an 8.5-foot telescoping aluminum ladder that you can keep in your car.

Here's a video of how to open and close the Falcon, if you were curious.

Prices for the Falcon start at $3,395. I don't know anything about camping, but I do know how to do math. One of the most popular and highest rated two-person tents on Amazon — this Coleman Sundome tent — costs $71.19. That means the Falcon costs about 48 times as much as the Coleman.

I suppose you have to think about it like real estate: the further from the ground you are, the more expensive things get. I just never thought that also might apply to tents.

There's also the fact that you don't actually have to do any actual work to pop the Falcon up, especially compared to a conventional tent. But whether that's worth $3,300 and a slightly elevated view is up to you. 

The whole idea of pitching a conventional tent — though having been described to me multiple times as "so easy" and "Christ, Kristen, even a child could do it" — has never been attractive. It always seemed like so much effort for what amounted to sleeping on the ground, a situation that I go out of my way to avoid.

Broader still, I've never seen the appeal in camping. Why would you sleep outside with no running water when perfectly good cabins, houses, and hotels exist that come with hot showers, soft mattresses, flushing toilets, and locks on the doors?

The Falcon was the perfect solution. A penthouse, but in tent fashion. A penthouse tent that raised by itself, came with a mattress, and was scores of feet above the ground on the roof of a roomy and spacious Kia that I could shelter in if the situation outside became suboptimal. 

Night: Part Un

After sufficiently psyching myself up for something I had never, ever had a desire to do, I was emotionally ready. I was in the right headspace to leave my comfortable bed behind and sleep on the roof of a car. 

The spot we selected was a grassy field overlooking a small pond, which would be a lovely sight to wake up to. I flipped the Telluride around so the rear was facing the water and parked it. 

The aluminum ladder telescoped open easily and hooked onto a lip on the side of the Falcon. We unbuckled the pieces locking the tent flat and gave the upper lip a push. It rose heavenward as smoothly as a sun salutation sequence. My boyfriend, the handy one between the two of us, climbed in first to pop out the little awning, and then the tent was set up. It took less than five minutes. 

Once I joined him, I realized our first problem. The Roofnest video said shoe bags would be provided, but we couldn't find them. So we had no choice but to stuff our dirty shoes in the space under the tent and on top of the Kia's roof. Apologies to whoever had to wash that gunk off. 

Neither of us made any comment about the ominous-looking clouds blowing our way, thinking that perhaps if we ignored them, they, too, would ignore us. 

So there we sat, about seven feet off the ground, in our little penthouse tent, drinking our beers. The sun was setting, throwing rose-gold streaks across the sky. With all three windows open, the Falcon was airy and offered a near-panoramic view of our lovely surroundings. It was nice. 

But then the wind picked up. Then rain started to fall. The tent shook. The rain started coming in from the west-facing window. We were forced to close two of the three windows. Doing so plunged us into a gloomy, constricting space. The airiness provided by those big windows vanished, as did my enthusiasm. People do this for fun?

IT CAMPS! Spent a night on top of the Telluride in the Roofnest Falcon (yours for a mere $3,395). Story to come soon on Business Insider. But for now, check out frame two for a dispatch.

A post shared by Kristen Lee (@kristenleeeeeeee) on Sep 16, 2020 at 3:06pm PDTSep 16, 2020 at 3:06pm PDT

I was then faced with two options: Admit defeat, succumb to my suburban ways, pack up, and go home to try again another day. Or, stick it out in the bad weather because that's what Real Campers™ do.

Hahahahahahahahahahahah. Please. What do you think I did? 

Lemme tell ya, the Falcon assembles like the easiest thing in the world. Disassembling it is slightly more challenging. True, we were disassembling it in the rain, but still.

As you pull the top half of the clamshell down, the tent canvas poofs out on all sides. There's a strip of elastic that prevents all of it from ballooning too far out, but it doesn't manage to catch all of the fabric. You still have to move about the perimeter of the Falcon, stuffing the tent material back inside the shell.

Only after that can you buckle the thing. Owing to the fact that I'm short and the Telluride is tall, I could not easily flatten the shell enough to buckle it. The buckles were also located above the trunk of the Telluride, but the car had an extra spoiler (?) piece above its rear window that prevented me from reaching them. 

Ultimately, it was a two-person job. My boyfriend, standing on the ladder, had to gently body-slam the top of the clamshell while I hung from it with my fingers. Together, with our combined weight and some extra help from gravity, we were finally able to flatten it enough to buckle it shut. Have you ever tried to close a suitcase after buying too many souvenirs on vacation? This was like that — except the suitcase is five feet wide and mounted on top of a car.

After that, we went home and watched TV in a dry living room for the rest of the night.

Look: I feel your judgment. It doesn't upset me in the slightest. I could have slept in the rain. I like sleeping when it's raining outside. But in a dark tent? No, thanks.

Night: Part Deux

Thankfully, the second night was perfectly cloudless. With markedly higher spirits, I parked the Telluride in the same spot in the field as the night before. We put up the tent, lined the mattress with pillows and blankets, kicked off our shoes, and settled in for the night. 

After the last vestiges of the sun disappeared behind the mountain, there were still a couple of hours left to kill before it was time to sleep. And because we were already comfortably settled in our little tent above the ground, neither of us really felt like going back down to the ground level, which was dark and required shoes.

Luckily, I had anticipated this. We happily killed two hours watching "Jurassic Park" on my phone — a most fitting camping film, in my opinion. I actually believe it's a documentary about becoming one with nature. Anyway, it's great. Highly recommend.

Then, with the movie finished, it was time to brush our teeth and extinguish the electronics. 

This last task really hit me hard, because I suffer from the horrific habit of doom-scrolling on my phone before I go to bed. As there was no cell service in the field, I was left alone to contend with my own demons rattling around in my head before sleep took me.

I'm only joking. (Sorta.) But the night was so clear and the air so crisp that it hardly mattered that I didn't have a little rectangle of light in front of my nose. The Big Dipper hung just slightly above the horizon and I'd track its movements across the night sky as I woke up periodically. I wasn't used to sleeping with so much openness around me. It pressed down on the tent, its presence noisy.

The night itself was also anything but silent. I typically sleep like the dead, but the sleep was light that night; the hooting of owls, yips of distant coyotes, bellows of bullfrogs, and whispers of wind through the trees blended together in an irregular wood nymph symphony. 

A three-inch mattress perhaps doesn't sound like much on paper, but it was quite comfortable. As the temperature outside dropped, the little nest (hah) we'd built for ourselves became cozier. At 6 a.m. sharp, I was awoken by the bright gilded beams of the rising sun streaming into the tent. They washed over the pond, where clouds of early morning mist hadn't yet burned away. 

This is what made the whole thing worth it, I realized later on. I'd come to that pond dozens of times before, but never just as the sun hit it for the first time of a new day. Never early enough to see the gentle licks of mist gliding across its mirror-like surface. Camping gave me a front-row seat to a view I'd never seen before, and camping on top of the Telluride gave me the peace of mind that nothing was about to crawl next to me while I slept. 

Camping. I think I understood it. I could see why people did it. I grasped — albeit a small piece of — the charm.

But if you think I'm a changed woman and now all of a sudden a Real Camper™,  I have some disappointing news. I'm not. I'd still take a well-situated cabin over a tent any day. The only reason why I was so willing to camp in the first place was because I cheated the hell out of the experience.

How to win at camping: Cheat

Oh, yeah. Of course I cheated. 

That lovely field we parked in, overlooking the magical little pond? That was about 300 feet behind the actual house we were renting. We could see the house from the tent. We didn't have to go looking for a suitable campground, or pay to use it. We didn't have to share it with anyone else. 

We ate a full, home-cooked dinner before driving the Telluride those 300 feet out to the field. No crappy camp food heated over a sad little fire for us. 

We showered and used the bathroom before departing for the evening. I was already in my pajamas by the time I locked up the house and drove to our "campsite." In the morning, we collapsed the tent and drove back to the house and made ourselves coffee and breakfast in a real kitchen. 

And the biggest cheat of all? The ready-to-go tent on the roof of a luxurious, spacious SUV. True, the Telluride wasn't the happiest trundling over the grassy knolls, and the folded Falcon roof tent resulted in a loud humming as wind washed over it on the highway, but both made this excursion possible in the first place. 

By far the most comforting thing to me, however, was the knowledge that if conditions truly went south, we could simply climb down from the Roofnest, get back in the car, and return to the safety and security of the house. The whole thing would have taken five minutes, tops.

It's the same deal with planes and movie theaters: always know where the emergency exits are.

But for absolutely green campers such as myself, the Roofnest provides a great introduction to camping. There's minimal cleanup and the car carries the tent so you don't have to. Of course, where you can pitch the tent is limited to where you can fit the car it rides on top of, so the more adventurous campsites are probably out. 

That didn't matter to me, though. I just wanted a nice, easy first foray into sleeping in the wildness. That's what I got. And for $3,395 — the price of the Falcon — you can, too.

• As the electric-vehicle opportunity has evolved for startups and established automakers, it's become clear that an overall strategy is as important — if not more so — than getting cars to market.
• Tesla, GM, and Ford have each made moves recently that showcase their distinctive EV strategies.
• In a nutshell: GM is developing an operating system for EVs, Ford is leveraging its icons, and Tesla continues to turn buzz into billions.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The biggest mistake that auto-industry analysts and observers have made in the relatively short history of the modern electric car is to assume the consumer is all that matters. Demand, the flawed argument went, would bring buyers into the market and enable EV sales to explode. Competition would follow, and Tesla's first-mover advantage would erode.

That hasn't happened. EV sales remain a tiny percentage of annual, worldwide totals, a disappointment to electrification enthusiasts for the better part of a decade. Despite the arrival of compelling EVs from the likes of Chevy, Audi, and Jaguar, among others, Tesla continues to dominate.

However, the EV race has entered a new phase, with established automakers putting some serious money behind their ambitions. General Motors plans to spend $20 billion on its electric future, and CEO Mary Barra has repeatedly declared that the automaker wants to shift decisively away from the internal-combustion engine.

Last week, Ford announced a $700-million new factory dedicated to building the all-electric version of its best-selling F-150 pickup truck, scheduled to launch in 2022; interestingly, the plant will be part of Ford's legendary River Rouge complex in Michigan, possibly the most famous auto manufacturing site in the history of the American industry.

Tesla is keeping pace. On September 22, the company and CEO Elon Musk will hold a battery event in connection with the carmaker's annual shareholders meeting. It's possible that Tesla could reveal a new battery design, with the aim of vertically integrating its manufacturing, lessening a dependence on Panasonic to supply battery cells.

There is also a range of startups entering the fray: Rivian, Nikola, Fisker, and Lucid.

GM, Ford, and Tesla all ultimately have the same goal for their EVs: for them to perform as well as possible on the burgeoning EV market. But each are attacking that goal in different ways, with one common feature: a focus on not the much-debated competition they'll eventually have, but instead the creation of distinctive strategies.

GM: Creating a pervasive operating system for EVs

Earlier this year, GM unveiled its Ultium battery technology and, at an event near Detroit, executives and engineers outlined how Ultium might evolve — especially in terms of limiting dependence on so-called "rare earth" elements such as cobalt.

More recently, GM has: showcased the Ultium powertrains that will be paired with the battery tech for 22 electrified vehicles slated to arrive by 2023; revealed that it would be using wireless battery management to cut down on manufacturing complexity; and entered into a $2 billion deal to produce a pickup for zero-emissions startup Nikola, the Badger, in exchange for an 11% stake in the company.

With Ultium, GM is in effect creating an operating system for EVs, sort of like an Apple iOS or an Android in the smartphone world. Speaking about the Nikola partnership at a recent RBC conference, Barra said deal "validates our technology [and] it allows us to have more people using the technology, which gives us the advantage of scale, which will help us drive costs down."

GM's big bet here is that Ultium will power not just its EVs, but potentially many other non-GM EVs. In addition to Nikola, GM has also partnered with Honda.

So ultimately, if you'll pardon the pun, GM could have Ultium inside a wide range of electric vehicles, to extend the operating-system analogy into the computer chip realm and borrow Intel's famous slogan. The upshot is that GM will control a critical part of the EV ecosystem.

Ford: Building on the legacy of its icons

The electric F-150 plant at River Rouge is just the latest instance of Ford leverage its numerous in-house brands to support its own EV efforts. In 2019, the company unveiled the Mustang Mach-E, a critically important all-electric vehicle that supposed to begin deliveries later this year. 

It was the first expansion of the iconic Mustang brand since the car debuted in 1964 and a clear indication that Ford wanted to lead with its strengths as it joins the EV hootenanny. The electric F-150 is another shining example: That full-size pickup nameplate has been at the heart of the the top-selling lineup of vehicles in the US for nearly four decades, the F-Series.

GM is a collection of brands — Chevy, Buick, GMC, Cadillac — so it makes sense for Ultium to join that lineup. Ford, on the other hand, is a collection of icons, such as the Mustang, the F-150, and River Rouge. So the logical way to turbocharge its EVs, if you will, is to leverage those icons to capture attention and generate excitement. 

Ford's best, then, is that it can transition the accumulated greatness of the F-150 and Mustang from the gas-burning era to the all-electric one.

Tesla: Riding wave after wave of buzz

Tesla has been on an epic stock rally since the beginning of 2020, minting a market cap that has made it worth more than GM and Ford combined. Critics have pointed out that GM and Ford have been pretty steadily profitable since the Great Recession ended, and that those automakers sell millions of cars and trucks annually, while Tesla still hasn't sold 500,000 in a year.

But Tesla has the buzz, and it isn't afraid to use it. At the beginning of September, the company said it would raise $5 billion by issuing new equity, not long after it announced a 5-for-1 stock split. The raise would take its cash-on-hand position to about $14 billion, a historic high for the company, which is less than two decades old.

That's just one case of Tesla turning buzz into billions. The carmaker's entire future hinges on the passionate loyalty of its customers and significant growth in the number of customers in whom it can engender new levels of passionate loyalty.

Note that it isn't simply consumers with money to buy EVs whom Tesla is looking for; rather, it wants its owners to have an experience that drives beneficial buzz and continues a virtuous process of people loving their Teslas begetting more people who love their Teslas.

That buzz, not incidentally, extends to Wall Street, where investor enthusiasm is a vital type of currency — as demonstrated by the stock rally, which enabled the big capital raise.

Different strokes

GM, Ford, and Tesla are proof that there are multiple strategies available to attack business opportunities. Why does this matter? Simple: If your strategic choice is successful, the strategy itself becomes valuable.

Classic examples would include Ford's creation of River Rouge from 1917 through 1928, developing a model of so-called "vertical integration" in manufacturing — a model that would endure until the 1980s, when it was displaced by "just in time" systems; and GM's ladder of brands, starting customers out with Chevy and sending them off to their final rewards in Cadillacs, with Pontiacs and Buicks in between.

In the 21st century, Tesla has become the first new US car brand to make it since Chrysler in the 20th century by assiduously and skillfully courting popular support. That game plan got it from making almost no vehicles in 2010 to selling more than 360,000 in 2019.

It's entirely possible that all three could succeed, in one form or another. But what's clear is that electric carmakers now need a lot more than a dream — they need a deeper think about how they can use what they've got to define a market whose potential could be enormous, but whose shape remains uncertain.

• I recently tested new electric and acoustic guitars from Gibson, Taylor, and Epiphone.
• The Gibson story has taken a fascinating turn: after declaring bankruptcy in 2018, the iconic company has revamped its lineup and is now offering guitars at a wider variety of price points.
• Gibson-owned Epiphone has introduced two new versions of the Texan acoustic, a guitar made famous by Paul McCartney, who wrote "Yesterday" on the instrument in the 1960s.
• Taylor, meanwhile, has continued to innovate under master builder Andy Powers and has extended it V-Class bracing technology to a new range of acoustic guitars.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Rumors of the death of the guitar are greatly exaggerated. In fact, sales of acoustic and electric guitars have picked up notably during pandemic lockdowns, as new players have taken the plunge and experienced axe-wielders have upgraded and added to their gear.

From my point of view, this is the best time in the history of music to be taking up the six-string. Entry-level guitars are now of remarkably high quality, consumers have a vast array of online buying options, and companies have created entire digital-instruction platforms, such as Fender Play.

Other big names have also stepped up. Gibson declared bankruptcy in 2018 after some ill-advised expansions, but since then the Nashville-based legend has been steadily revamping its lineup, opening up ownership to customers who might have previously thought the brand was out of reach.

And California's Taylor — the new kid on the block, started in the 1970s and going up against names that had been around for over a hundred years — has continued to relentlessly innovate with its acoustic designs. 

Gibson recently let me borrow an electric guitar and a new acoustic from its Epiphone brand, while Taylor let me check out its latest creation, as well as a guitar made from wood that used to be considered trash. Here's what I thought:

The Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute is a stripped-down version of the classic. Gibson sent me an axe in "worn white satin," but cherry, black, and natural finishes are also available. This is a USA-made instrument for $999.

Les Paul's can be pretty snazzy, but the Special Tribute isn't. This is a no-nonsense guitar that's intended for rock-n-roll.

However, it doesn't lack for what you'd find on a far more expensive Lester. The quality of the hardware is high, and the volume and tone controls are responsive.

Simple, simple, simple. From the plastic-button tuners to the unadorned Gibson headstock, this Les Paul might signal "starter" guitar, and it has been built to a price point — there's no fretboard binding, for example — but it's solid enough to carry any player through a lifetime.

Mahogany, rosewood, maple, a nitrocellulose finish, 24.75-inch scale length, and a rounded neck carve that's neither too slim nor too fat — the Special checks every Les Paul box. It also comes with a nice padded gig bag.

The Special Tribute offers two pickup choices: mine had a set of humbuckers, but you can get P-90s, as well, if you're after a nastier tone.

When I took the Les Paul Special out of its case and gazed up the white finish, I immediately wanted to affix a few Steve Jones, Sex Pistols-vintage stickers to the guitar and get to some classic punk-rock chugga-chugga playing. 

A few seconds later, I was plugged into my Marshall amp and doing just that. 

A Les Paul, as befits its jazz-legend namesake, is a versatile instrument. But it's also defiantly so superlative at meat-and-potatoes rock that I cannot imagine why every single aspiring player in that framework wouldn't drop $999 on one of these immediately and never look back. 

The Les Paul-Marshall combo is venerable, so you can run a completely basic rig with this axe and reap the rewards. With Marshall's default crunch, you'll sound more or less like what you want, should your jam be straight-ahead rock. 

On to the acoustics! Taylor Builder's Edition 324ce takes the familiar cutaway Grand Auditorium style that the California company pioneered and expands on cofounder Bob Taylor's passion for seeking out sustainable sources of tonewoods.

The Builder's Edition 324ce uses "Urban Ash," a term that the company has come up with for wood salvaged from trees that have been culled from California's urban forests. This wood would otherwise end up in landfills.

The wood is actually "Shamel ash," and it's found all over the place in the Golden State. For master designer Andy Powers, the timber passed muster for building Taylor-grade acoustics, which are known for their exceptionally high quality and uniformity.

This guitar retails for $2,999 and even with the different wood choice, it's worth every penny: made in Taylor's US factory, with the company's new V-Class bracing under the hood, and decked out with every player-friendly feature the manufacturer has come up with.

The brass-tone Gotoh tuners might have been my favorite touch! Overall, the level of craftsmanship is superb, with basically ever edge rolled and finished beautifully. I sort of felt like the ash trees that ended up in this guitar has ascended to arboreal Elysium.

The antiqued tuners are a nice touch, but they also work like a charm. As with every Taylor I've tested, the setup from the factory was impeccable.

Taylors have a well-deserved reputation for almost extreme playability, a quality that comes from innovative, adjustable, bolt-on necks. Slim and fast, they can be tweaked to offer exceptionally low action that doesn't buzz.

Taylor's ES2 onboard electronics — "Expression System 2" — are my idea of an industry standard. Nothing against Fishman or L.R. Baggs (I use a Fishman soundhole pickup in one of my other guitars), but the ES2 setup is impeccable, and an in-house Taylor innovation.

Taylor isn't alone in seeking sustainable wood solutions, but Bob Taylor has demonstrated admirable leadership and is always looking for new ways to build great guitars that can be built great for years to come. 

The Grand Auditorium design has always been a true player's guitar, and the use of Urban Ash is a revelation: Taylor has basically transformed what was always thought of as junk wood into something magnificent. The 324ce I tested was as comfortable as one would expect from a design optimized for comfort, but it also delivered familiar, abundant Taylor dynamics on the sound front. Getting up and down the neck was a joy. The guitar also looks very, very cool, in a sort of ravaged and reclaimed way that's a bit of a departure for Taylor, whose instruments tend to age almost too gracefully.

 

The Taylor Grand Pacific Builder's Edition 717e is a top-flight example of Andy Power's latest vision: a premium slope-shoulder dreadnought ($3,199 list) with a Sitka spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, undergirded by the V-Class bracing design.

The guitar comes with a gorgeous, tooled-finish hard case.

I'm actually not a huge rosewood fan, but there's no debating its history as a material of choice of acoustics. It's also entirely lovely on this guitar, complementing the wonderful honey burst top and sapelle binding.

The V-Class bracing design delivers a balanced musical rendering of the guitar's sound: it solves the historic trade-off between volume and clarity.

The guitar is a departure tonally for Taylor, which is known for a bright sound. For me, the instrument was bliss — among the best guitars I've ever played, and a majestic choice for fingerstyle.

The ES2 system was also onboard, and it really can't be beaten. But I'd tempted to order the acoustic-only version, simply to have a pure example of a guitar that could go down in history and end up being highly collectible some day.

The Grand Pacific Builder's Edition 717e is the best acoustic guitar I've played in years. It was interesting to test it right before I sampled the new Gibson G-45 because many folks have pointed out that the GP line, with its slope-shoulder design and sonic departure from Taylor, suggests Andy Powers' take on the classic Gibby J-45. 

But the guitars are actually quite different, and the GP 717e does a lot of things the J-45 doesn't, while the J-45 (and G-45) do things that they're supposed to do. The GP both summarizes much of what came before it, in terms of the classic, earthy slope-shoulder sound, but improves on everything from fat necks that were hard to play to the uneven tonal character of big git-boxes, which could deliver way too much bass, intonated poorly, and lacked compelling dynamics.

The Grand Pacific design is definitely reminiscent of the legendary Gibson J-45, a slope-shoulder guitar that is an icon of guitar-making. The J-45 arrived in 1942 and has gone on to become Gibson's bestselling model of all time. But it's around $2,700 for a new model, so enter the G-45.

The Gibson G-45 Standard I sampled is $1,299, a bit more expensive than the $999 Studio model that has captured the music world's attention.

The G-45 Standard delivers something new in a design that's one of the two best known in the history of the acoustic guitar (those would be the J-45 and the Martin D-18/28).

A nice Gibson hard case comes with the axe.

The G-45 Standard features the traditional 24.75-inch neck, with a Sitka spruce solid top paired with solid walnut back and sides (the J-45's are mahogany).

The G-45 is also a bit less deep than traditional dreadnoughts, making it more comfortable to play.

The Gibson logo is emblazoned on the headstock in a simple manner. The rosewood fretboard plays like a dream, and the neck is slim but not skinny.

The G-45 is meant to appeal to a new generation of players who revere the Gibson name but lack the bank account to purchase a new J-45.

A serious musician could not possibly go wrong with the G-45 Standard. An American-made, all-solid-wood instrument that updates the J-45 sound for a modern context? Sign me up! What dazzled me about the G-45 wasn't its found-in-and-old-barn soulfulness, a signature of the J-45, but rather its exceptional versatility.

This thing can do it all, from country blues to pop. The short-scale length enhances comfort and playability, and you can explore a broad dynamic range, from delicate fingerstyle to hard-driving rock to bottleneck slide in open tunings. The G-45 wants to sing, and the design is as suited to the professional stage as it is to a suburban sofa.

Purists might not appreciate the added sparkle, but there are also plenty of folks who find the J-45 to be limited: gotta love that dry bass-y thump for chording, but leave the solos to somebody else. Plus, the Sitka-walnut combo could end up aging into something interesting in a few decades.

The Fishman Sonitone electronics offer a straightforward plug-and-play option for performing musicians. Tone-wise, the G-45 is lovely, but it's also crisp, lacking some of the dry, thumpy bass the J-45 is known for. It makes up for this by being an exquisite player — and a guitar that records exceptionally well.

Now for a real treat: the all-new Epiphone Masterbilt Texan. Epiphone is Gibson-owned and in the midst of a renaissance. The Texan can be had in either a natural or sunburst finish.

This slope-shoulder jumbo has a storied history: Paul McCartney performed "Yesterday" on a 1960s-vintage version. Gibson now makes a pricey update at its Montana factory, but this Masterbilt model is manufactured in Asia and priced at $699.

It oozes vintage cool, but it's also remarkably well made, with a Sitka spruce top and mahogany back and sides — an all-sold-wood guitar at this price is pretty stunning, and the build quality was stunning. The electronics are the serviceable Fishman Sonitone system.

The large Epi headstock isn't for everyone, but it is faithful to the brand's long legacy. This guitar has a bone nut and saddle, and the fretboard is Indian laurel.

The Wilkinson Deluxe tuners have a vintage vibe, with plastic bean buttons. To be honest, I had a hard time putting this guitar down. It might not be the first choice for a serious musician, but it sounds like what the Texan has also sounded like: a J-45 with a longer, punchier 25.5-inch neck. For under $1,000, you can have an axe that looks incredibly cool (I'm a sucker for the parallelogram inlays) but also offers a rather gorgeous tone and is a slick player over the entire fretboard.

Epiphone has a bumpy history as Gibson's "budget" brand, but the name has its own considerable legacy (in addition to Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton was also a Texan player, and vintage examples enjoy a cult following). Of late, Gibson has decided to restore Epiphone's mojo, and for my money, the Asia-made Texan is the opening salvo. 

True, the US-made version is the one that a lot of Epi enthusiasts have been waiting for, but the Masterbilt has spectacular build quality, is all-solid wood, exudes copious rock-n-roll attitude (Oasis's Noel Gallagher and the late Kurt Cobain were fans), and is a true Epiphone guitar, as opposed to the Epi-fied version of a Gibson acoustic. 

It might be the best deal one can find in the guitar universe, circa 2020.

• The Boeing 737 Max is likely mere weeks from returning to passenger service.
• The plane moved another step closer to being recertified this week as a major international review was initiated.
• However, there are few remaining administrative tasks for Boeing and the FAA — and logistical hurdles for airlines — before the plane fully returns to the skies.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Boeing's troubled 737 Max is likely just weeks away from returning to the skies.

Although a scathing report from House Democrats on the Transportation committee condemned the Boeing and FAA missteps that led to the crashes in the first place, the plane has undergone virtually unprecedented scrutiny since it was grounded.

With one of the final stages in recertification beginning earlier this week, there are only a few steps left before the plane can reenter service.

The big steps that are already behind Boeing

Boeing completed the plane's recertification flights with the FAA in late June and early July, among the biggest hurdles for the planemaker to overcome before the plane could be cleared to fly again. During the flights, Boeing and FAA engineers tested the various changes made to the jet.

On August 3, the FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking outlining the changes it will require before the 737 Max can reenter service.

The proposal, one of the last big administrative hurdles, is subject to a 45-day public commentary.

Among the changes, 737 Max operators would be required to install a revamped software system on the plane's flight control computer, following a major redesign to the computer, and upload new software for the plane's display system. 737 Max operators would be required to use a revised flight manual, install new wiring for the plane's horizontal stabilizers, complete tests of each plane's angle-of-attack sensor system, and perform operational test flights.

In the preliminary summary, the FAA wrote that it found that Boeing's proposed changes to the Max design, along with flight crew and maintenance procedures, "effectively mitigate the airplane-related safety issues that contributed to the Flight 610 and Flight 302 accidents."

Now, as the 45-day public comment period nears an end, there are just a few steps remaining in the process.

Review by Regulators

The multinational Joint Operational Evaluation Board (JOEB) — made up of regulators and pilots from the US, Canada, Brazil, and the European Union — will meet for about nine days to review the new training that Boeing plans to recommend for 737 Max flight crews.

That meeting began at London's Gatwick Airport on Monday, September 14, and should wrap up next week, according to the FAA and reports from Reuters.

After that, the results will be incorporated into a draft by the FAA's own Flight Standardization Board (FSB), which sets the minimum required training for pilots. The result of that is published and open to public comment for 15 days, Reuters has previously reported.

The entire process — from the start of the JOEB meeting to the end of the FSB review — takes "roughly probably 30 days from beginning to end, FAA administrator Stephen Dickson has previously said.

Dickson has also said he plans to undergo the recommended training and fly the jet himself before approving anything to move forward.

Given the start date for the JOEB, that suggests the process should wrap up by early-to-mid October.

The FAA did not return a request for comment for this article.

Once the FAA approves Boeing's changes, the legwork begins

After the FSB review is finalized and the FAA reviews the final documentation, the FAA will issue an advisory of a coming safety change, known as a Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community (CANIC).

That would be followed shortly by an Airworthiness Directive (AD) formalizing the changes published in the earlier notice of proposed rulemaking. Within a few days, the FAA would lift the March 2019 order grounding the jet.

However, planes would not be able to return to service immediately. The FAA plans to inspect each individual airplane itself before certifying it to fly again, making sure that all the required changes and updates have been made. In the past, that was a job delegated to Boeing.

"A successful, complete, functional test flight of each aircraft will be required before it is individually re-certified as airworthy," airline consultant R.W. Mann told Business Insider. "It's literally a tail number by tail number approach, not a fleet-wide re-certification. More cumbersome and expensive than earlier imagined."

Airlines will be responsible for training their pilots according to the FSB standard. 

Meanwhile, international regulators can choose to lift their own grounding orders in line with the FAA, or to finalize their own reviews. Both European and Canadian officials have said they would certify the plane independently — both have carried out certification flights, so the decision would likely come quickly after the FAA lifts its grounding.

Finally, as airlines install updates and train their pilots, they'll need to work to pull planes out of storage and get them flight-worthy, inspecting and cleaning aircraft that have been sitting on the ground for more than 18 months.

Conceivably, the plane could reenter passenger service with US airlines by the start of the holiday travel season.

• A Lake Tahoe estate just hit the market for $44 million, making it one of the most expensive homes in the area, Katherine Clarke reported for The Wall Street Journal.
• The seven-bedroom lakefront home comes with 175 feet of private beach, a marina-style pier with a jet ski lift, and a 2,000-bottle wine cellar.
• It's a two-minute drive from the $59 million compound Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg bought last year.
• Sales in Lake Tahoe have been skyrocketing during the pandemic as affluent Californians flee cities.
• A local real-estate agent told Business Insider that most new buyers and renters are San Franciscans and Angelenos looking for more space.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In Lake Tahoe, a wealthy enclave in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, a waterfront estate with 175 feet of private beach has hit the market for $44 million, Katherine Clarke reported for The Wall Street Journal.

The 3.3-acre property is a two-minute drive from Facebook CEO's Mark Zuckerberg's $59 million compound on the lake's west shore. It comes up for sale as wealthy Californians are flocking to Lake Tahoe during the pandemic in search of more space. One of the area's top real-estate agents told Business Insider's Natasha Solo-Lyons that Angelenos and San Franciscans are making over-ask offers and getting into bidding wars for homes surrounding the lake.

The $44 million home on the west shore of the lake, which is listed with Tahoe Luxury Properties, comes with 175 feet of private beach and a marina-style pier with jet ski lifts. Inside is a home theater, a 2,000-bottle wine cellar, and seven bedrooms, including a 1,500-square-foot master suite with a private gym.

Take a look inside the luxurious lakefront estate.

A luxurious mountain estate that sits on 3.3 acres on the shores of Lake Tahoe, one of California's largest lakes, has hit the market for $44 million, per The Wall Street Journal.

It's one of the most expensive listings in the area, per the Journal.

The home comes with 175 feet of private beach on Lake Tahoe, one of California's largest lakes.

During the pandemic, the real estate market in Lake Tahoe has kicked into a frenzy, as Business Insider's Natasha Solo-Lyons recently reported. Affluent Angelenos and San Franciscans have been getting into bidding wars and making offers well over asking, a local real-estate agent told Solo-Lyons.

The lakefront home comes with a marina-style pier with a 12,000-pound boat hoist, a jet ski lift, and two boat slips.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

It's a two-minute drive from the compound that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg acquired early last year.

In the spring of 2019, Zuckerberg spent more than $59 million on two adjacent Lake Tahoe properties that together span 9.5 acres and 600 feet of private waterfront.

This $44 million home and Zuckerberg's properties sit on the west shore of the lake.

The area is known for "old, understated money —less flash, more hunker in the woods," Katherine Clarke reported for The Wall Street Journal last year, adding that neighbors include the families of the late Hewlett-Packard founder Bill Hewlett and the late publishing icon Charles McClatchy.

A slate driveway leads up to the $44 million lakefront estate.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The home was "extensively remodeled" in 2013, according to the listing.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

It has a whopping 12,225 square feet of living space.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The great room features vaulted ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. The home also boasts four fireplaces.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The gourmet chef's kitchen features a double range.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

And there's an attached industrial kitchen for caterers.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The dining room can seat up to 10 people.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The den includes a full home bar.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

Throughout the home, the floors are heated using a hydronic radiant heating system.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The home's master suite spans 1,500 square feet.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

It includes a sitting area, a fireplace ...

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

... and stunning views of the lake.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The master bathroom features a large soaking tub, also with views of the outdoors.

Source: Tahoe Luxury Properties

The house has no shortage of wine storage: its cellar can accommodate 2,000 bottles.

The Lake Tahoe estate also comes with a home movie theater with two rows of seating, as well as well as a lakefront patio patio with a built-in barbecue, hot tub, and two gas fire pits.

• MicroClimate created a visor with air filters that looks like a helmet, called Air.
• Air is just one of many unusual designs for face coverings since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
• People have critiqued the design on social media, with a common theme being it looks too futuristic.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the dystopia of 2020, being able to afford a personal microclimate helmet to wear around might be the next status symbol.

The coronavirus is still spreading, researchers don't know the longterm health impacts of the virus, Dr. Anthony Fauci says most pre-Pandemic activities can return to normal by summer 2022, and a record setting year of wildfires across the western US turned San Francisco's sky orange. Wearing a helmet out and about wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen this year. 

MicroClimate's Air is an acrylic visor that "enables an unobstructed view of the face." It's not the only unorthodox take on masks and face shields that has emerged since COVID-19 spread around the world.  

Toronto-based Vyzr Technologies created the BioVyzr, a shield with what the company calls a "space-age aesthetic," and the venture has raised over $750,000 on Indiegogo. BioVyzr's current preorder price of $379, and regular at $498, make Air look like a relative steal at only $199. 

Take a look at the design here. 

The helmet filters air with fans and HEPA filters, with four hours of battery life.

Cushion liners are included to make it comfortable, while the helmet is made of a washable fabric for cleaning.

MicroClimate seems to be marketing itself to young, tech-savvy professionals, with copy reading "from Uber to airline, AIR by MicroClimate™ will keep you comfortable the whole trip," and promotional photos of wearers in suits.

The company also notes that Air "works well with AirPods." Founder Michael Hall told Forbes that testing with airline passengers has gone well so far.

Like the BioVyzr, part of the appeal is that the wearer can easily see and be seen without the obstruction of a mask. "MicroClimate has some unique technology that makes it feel like there is nothing in front of you while you are wearing it. This makes the experience of wearing it very comfortable" the company said in an email.

Of course, it quickly became the subject of tweets.

—Gene Park (as cited in Brobible) (@GenePark) September 17, 2020

 

Many commented on the emphasis on the word "air," in MIcroClimate's marketing.

—Gene Park (as cited in Brobible) (@GenePark) September 17, 2020

 

There were comparisons to sci-fi movies like Interstellar and Prometheus

—Scott Stein (@jetscott) September 18, 2020

 

At this point, it would be strange but certainly not unthinkable if helmets became the next coronavirus era accessory.

—Feitelberg (@FeitsBarstool) September 18, 2020

 

SPACs, IPOs, and direct listings. These days it seems like everyone's got an opinion about the best method for a company to make its way to public markets. 

• Direct listing fans are bashing the traditional IPO process after Snowflake's massive first-day stock pop, saying it amounted to big money being left on the table. Meghan Morris and Dakin Campbell took a closer look at what's behind the pricing disconnect.
• Opendoor plans to go public by merging with a SPAC backed by tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya. Alex Nicoll rounded up highlights of the SoftBank-backed house-flipping company's investor presentation, which made comparisons to what Amazon has done for retail or Uber for transportation. But not everyone's so happy about all the hype the SPAC route can entail.

The costs of each option are also part of the debate. Two stories this week took a look at how fees are shaking out for bankers and lawyers: 

• Elite law firms are rushing into the SPAC craze, looking to make hundreds of millions of dollars in the process: When SPACs first go public, they often pay around $300,000 for legal advice on their IPOs. But once they pick a target to buy, the merger often results in legal fees that can be three to five times what it cost to go public. 
• Investment banks raked in more than $100 million in fees on Snowflake's mega IPO: Here's a breakdown of how much Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and eight other firms each made.

In case you missed it, check out this must-read investigation from Dan Geiger on how Zumper, a home-listing site that has raised $150 million from backers like Blackstone and Kleiner Perkins, weeded out thousands of Section 8 renters in a practice some experts say may amount to discrimination.

More below on a new impact-investing team at Apollo; the results of Goldman Sachs' annual survey of summer analysts and associates; and the latest fintech investments from Wall Street's biggest banks. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Meredith 

If you're not yet a newsletter subscriber, you can sign up here to get your daily dose of the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.

Goldman Sachs' summer interns prefer Instagram to TikTok, believe remote work hurts relationships, and think Biden will be elected president in November

Goldman Sachs polled its summer analysts and associates on their personal habits, likes and dislikes, their thoughts on the future of remote work and mask-wearing, and other topics. Reed Alexander rounded up some of the most interesting findings. 

You can see the results from the survey here.

Morgan Stanley shakes up its tech and operations team

As Dan DeFrancesco first reported, Morgan Stanley has made two senior promotions within its technology and operations team. That comes as concerns over cybersecurity are top of mind for financial firms, especially during the coronavirus pandemic as more employees have been forced to work remotely. 

Click here to learn more about the moves.

PIMCO wants to create its own version of BlackRock's Aladdin

As Bradley Saacks and Rebecca Ungarino reported, PIMCO, the $1.9 trillion asset manager known for its fixed-income prowess, is creating a new unit focused on getting the firm's research, tools, and analytics into the hands of clients like pension funds and wealth managers.

Read the memo the bond giant sent to employees laying out its approach.

Mastercard is nabbing red-hot fintech customers like Brex and SoFi from rival Visa

Mastercard has set its sights on fintechs in recent years, and formed a new fintech-focused team in February led by Sherri Haymond, executive vice president of digital partnerships.

Dan DeFrancesco and Shannen Balogh took a look at how it nabbed startups like Brex, Dave, MoneyLion, and SoFi.

What execs at Bank of America and JPMorgan are thinking about the future of branches

Top exes at the two biggest US banks by assets have seen digital adoption soar among their retail customers during the coronavirus pandemic. And that's putting a spotlight on how exactly they're thinking about their sprawling networks of physical branches.

Reed Alexander rounded up comments this week from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase execs on what their plans are for brick-and-mortar branches.

How Citi is angling to turbocharge its wealth management business

Rebecca Ungarino took a look at how Citigroup is doubling down on plans to beef up its US wealth management services, creating a new top wealth role in its US consumer bank and hiring a Bank of America wealth executive for the job.

Here's what the push means for an industry-wide battle over Main Street investors.

Which fintechs are catching the eye of banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs, Citi, and JPMorgan have been the most active US banks in fintech investing since 2012, according to CB Insights data. Shannen Balogh took a look at their recent deals, which have largely focused on investments in capital markets, wealth and asset management, and small-business focused fintech.

Here are 10 startups the banks have poured money into so far this year.

Meet Apollo's new impact-investing team

Apollo Global Management rolled out its newly formed impact investing unit this week with the announcement of three leaders. They talked with Casey Sullivan about the key ways they believe the firm will differentiate itself from the pack.

Read more for details on a hiring push and how they plan to tie exec pay to moving the needle on ESG.

Careers

• Inside $8.3 billion Balyasny's Anthem training program, where aspiring portfolio managers are handed hundreds of millions of dollars to prove they can cut it
• How MBA grads can stand out as the Big 4 firms cut back on hiring, according to business school career counselors
• Here's what it takes to get a job at elite law firm Latham & Watkins, according to its hiring chairs and 2 top industry recruiters

Legal

• How Dentons, the world's largest law firm, is using tech to boost its pro-bono caseload by nearly 40%
• A group of Nixon Peabody partners who moved to DLA Piper say they're still owed millions by their former firm, offering a rare look at the disputes that can follow a lawyer's move from one firm to another
• Davis Polk just abandoned its strict seniority-based pay scheme, putting pressure on holdout law firms still using an 'old school' lockstep structure to follow suit
• Davis Polk announces surprise associate bonuses of up to $40,000, becoming the latest firm to tout its financial strength amid the pandemic

Banking

• Citigroup is stepping up its war with the hedge funds that refuse to return Revlon money by ignoring their Bloomberg chats and cutting off pricing information on bonds
• The real reasons behind Citigroup CEO Mike Corbat's retirement
• Read the memo Citi CEO Mike Corbat sent staff quoting race car driver Mario Andretti to get employees to take risk and controls more seriously

Fintech

• Here's the 12-page pitch deck that Alloy, a fintech that helps vet customer identities and prevent fraud, used to raise its $40 million Series B in less than a month
• Inside 2020's buy now, pay later frenzy: why the red-hot twist on financing is a must have for everyone from top VCs to Goldman Sachs
• Bank of America has been nabbing thousands of patents — far outpacing rivals. 2 execs lay out why the firm has embraced that strategy as the best way to drive tech innovation.

Real estate

• 5 commercial real-estate investors who are raising billions laid out the red-hot opportunities and strategies they're leaning into after a major market upheaval
• WeWork CEO commits to paying each employee at least half of their annual bonus this year, saying its 'more important' to reward employees during challenging years than good years
• Authentic Brands may join Simon and Brookfield in a rescue of JCPenney, allowing the new owners to populate the department store chain with Authentic's stable of retailers

Asset management

• Larry Fink says BlackRock needs to do 'much more' to tackle diversity. Here's how it's trying to increase the number of female and Black employees in its 16,000-strong workforce.

• A new report from the nonprofit Rand finds that the median salary would have been as high as $102,000 for a full-time employee if wages increased at the same pace as GDP.
• The median income right now is half that, at $50,000. The average wage of 44% of workers before the pandemic was as low as $18,000, according to Brookings.
• And as wage growth stalled for 90% of workers, the average incomes of the top one percent increased at a whopping 300% of the rate of economic growth. 
• "Unlike the growth patterns in the 1950s and 1960s, the majority of full-time workers did not share in the economic growth of the last forty years," the report's authors wrote. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the US' stark income inequality, as wealthy Americans buy private tutoring and concierge COVID-19 testing while the rest of the population struggles to get by. 

But the country's income inequality problem was one 45 years in the making. A new report from the nonprofit think tank Rand finds that wages for all Americans increased at around the same pace as the the economy from 1947 to 1974. But since 1975, the bottom 90% of earners saw wages increase at a fraction of the pace of the richest Americans — even as the economy continued to grow. 

Without income inequality — or if wages continued to increase at the same rate as overall GDP, like they did in the '50s and '60s — the median salary would have between $92,000 to $102,000 for a full-time employee.

The median income right now is half that, at $50,000. The average wage of 44% of workers before the pandemic was just $18,000, per Brookings, and a typical worker can no longer afford to care for a family of four on a year's salary. 

And as wage growth stalled for 90% of workers, the average incomes of the top one percent increased at a whopping 300% of the rate of economic growth. 

This chart, based on figures from the report, shows the authors' estimates for how real income has changed over time for Americans across the income distribution. While wages at the bottom have barely grown, earnings at the top have skyrocketed over the last few decades:

"Unlike the growth patterns in the 1950s and 1960s, the majority of full-time workers did not share in the economic growth of the last forty years," mathematician Carter Price and economies Kathryn Edwards, the paper's authors, wrote. "During this time period, only the very top of the income distribution saw growth that matched or outpaced the real per capita GDP rate of the same timeframe."

How the coronavirus pandemic laid bare America's crippling income inequality problem

Americans are working harder than ever, and the country has the world's richest economy.

But most people are still broke. 

Since the 1970s, hourly compensation has increased just 9.2%, while productivity, or the output of goods and services per hour worked, increased by 74.4% in the same time period. While a child born in 1945 had a 90% chance of making more than their parents, someone born in 1985 only has a 50% shot of faring better than them. It's easier to achieve the American Dream in China, South Africa, and Brazil than it is in the US. 

Because of the country's high income inequality, Price and Edwards found that the bottom 90% of American workers lost out on $50 trillion in earnings since 1975 due to income inequality, or roughly $2.5 a year through 2020. 

The repercussions of income inequality can be seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, as US billionaires got $637 billion richer since March, while states received over 60 million unemployment claims in the same time period. MIT found that most of the jobs destroyed by the pandemic have been low-wage service sector gigs — roles that also can't easily social distance and have been more susceptible to the disease. After talk of a "V" or "U"-shaped recession, a "K"-shaped recession is emerging instead, one accentuated by inequality.

High-paying jobs have not only rebounded, but those workers have also been relatively safer, as they are at lower risk of contracting the virus due to a greater ability to work from home. 

• Space Hero Inc., a media production company, has announced plans to film the first reality TV show set in space.
• The "Space Hero" series would select one person from a group of contestants to travel to the International Space Station in 2023. 
• The show's creators have already booked a seat aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship. 
• NASA confirmed it is currently in discussions with Space Hero Inc. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

An unusual new reality show plans to blast an ordinary person into space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship.

Space Hero Inc., a US-based media production company, is developing a TV series that could be the first filmed in space, Deadline reported. The show, also called "Space Hero," would send the winner of a worldwide contest on a trip to the International Space Station.

"'Space Hero' is the new frontier for the entertainment sector, offering the first-ever truly off-planet experience," Marty Pompadur, chairman of Space Hero Inc., told Deadline. The show, he added, "is about opening space up to everyone – not only to astronauts and billionaires."

The production company's plan is to first pick a group of space-loving individuals from around the world. The show would follow them as they go through grueling astronaut training, and the competition would culminate in a live episode in which viewers could vote on their favorite contestant.

Once the show declares a winner, that contestant would launch on a 10-day trip to the ISS alongside NASA astronauts; the show would chronicle that person's journey from liftoff to landing. 

Not the first attempt at a space reality show

TV companies around the world have previously attempted to launch at least 10 other space-themed reality series projects, according to The Space Review. For instance, "Milky Way Mission," a joint venture by Sony Pictures TV and Dutch broadcaster Nederland 1, aimed to send Dutch celebrities into space. 

That show was announced in 2013; it still hasn't happened. Neither have the others. 

But the "Space Hero" producers have already secured a seat on an actual mission to the space station. The winning contestant is slated to fly to space on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2023, according to Deadline. SpaceX did not return Business Insider's requests for comment about its involvement in the show. 

To book that seat and plan the mission, Space Hero Inc. is working with Axiom Space, a private space company led by a former ISS program manager. Axiom is also helping the production company nail down other logistics, like training the would-be space travelers.

Separately, Axiom is also building its own module for private space travelers, which it plans to attach to the ISS in 2024. It hopes to send its first paying customers to space next year via SpaceX. 

"We look forward to enabling Space Hero's mission and further expanding human presence in space," the company told The Verge.

In an email to Business Insider on Friday, NASA spokesperson Stephanie Schierholz confirmed the space agency has been "in discussions" with the production company.

"NASA's vision for low-Earth orbit in the future is a self-sustaining space-based marketplace," Schierholz said in a statement. "In this vision, NASA will maximize its resources toward missions beyond low-Earth orbit, while still having the ability to utilize low-Earth orbit for its ongoing needs."

In the future, she added, NASA could allow as many as two private missions per year, in which tourists or other non-agency space travelers – all of whom the agency refers to as "private astronauts" – could visit the space station for up to 30 days. 

• In 2019, James Scullin and Nicole Reed traveled to North Korea from their native Australia to document a part of the country that most of the Western world has never seen.
• North Korea is regarded as one of the most isolated and authoritarian countries in the world. US travelers have been banned from visiting since 2017.
• Scullin and Reed visited and photographed the 11 international hotels built between 1961 and 1996 in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital city.
• In contrast to the uniformity that characterizes much of Pyongyang, the pair discovered whimsical and colorful hotels interiors, from a poolside bar decorated with faux pumpkin vines to neon karaoke bars.
• Scullin and Reed spoke to Business Insider about their journey and shared a preview of their new book "Hotels of Pyongyang," which features over 150 images from their trip.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In April 2019, James Scullin and Nicole Reed ventured to North Korea, one of world's most isolated and authoritarian countries, to document a part of the country most of the Western world has never seen: the 11 international hotels of Pyongyang.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

James Scullin had worked as a North Korea tour guide to Westerners since 2012, but only ever saw the inside of two hotels. Determined to visit and photograph all 11 of them, he recruited photographer Nicole Reed to join him in 2018. The pair spent 12 months mapping out logistics.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Built between 1961 and 1996 to house foreign visitors, many of Pyongyang's international hotels feature brutalist exteriors. From the outside, they exude the sense of uniformity that is prevalent throughout the capital.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

On the inside, however, they tell a completely different story. Scullin and Reed encountered grand marble-lined foyers decorated with fake flowers and pastel colors ...

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

... as well as grand banquet halls adorned with chandeliers and landscape paintings.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Neon lights like the kind "you would have seen in a casino in Las Vegas in the eighties" were plentiful, Reed said.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

While the hotels reflect an attention to detail that's prevalent in North Korean culture, Scullin and Reed were surprised by the colorful and sometimes whimsical designs.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

"In a country with so many rules about aesthetic and ways you represent things, it seems like the Western hotels did permit a flourish of creativity," Scullin said.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Koryo Hotel's karaoke lounge is Scullin's favorite hotel space in Pyongyang. "It just feels like a time machine," he told Business Insider. "It has the beads that hang from the roof and it has this ceramic dog that's in there for some reason."

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Scullin likened the bar, with its futuristic swivel chairs, to something out of the 1960s sci-fi animated sitcom The Jetsons. While several hotels have been renovated since they were built, they have retained their original look and feel, he told Business Insider.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

"I think to a Westerner, they're very nostalgic places in terms of design and furniture choices," Reed said of Pyongyang's hotels.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

While Scullin and Reed couldn't control what parts of the hotel they had access to, they always tried to photograph the dining hall and the foyer, and the bar and pool if a hotel had them.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

During their trip, Scullin and Reed also took 20 portraits of hotel staff, from managers to waitresses, pool assistants, and bellmen.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

One image stands out in particular to Scullin as representative of North Koreans' attention to detail. "There was one room in particular that had a pink dining hall, and then the waitress walked in and she had a corresponding pink blazer on. It has this very Wes Anderson aesthetic where everything's paired so perfectly."

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Many hotels had their own uniforms and insignia.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Scullin described taking the portraits as a "battle against modesty." The two North Korea Travel Association tour guides that negotiated Scullin and Reed's access to hotels often had to convince attendants to pose for photos.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

This portrait is one of Reed's favorite images. She recalls the pool attendant making a comment about wanting to be photographed in a positive way for the rest of the world in order to attract more visitors to the country.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

All tourists in North Korea must be accompanied by a tour guide from the state-run Korea International Travel Company. Since Scullin and Reed visited the hotels during the day when tourists were out on guided tours, the hotels were mostly empty.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Scullin and Reed had just five days to photograph all 11 hotels and were fortunate that their trip went mostly as planned.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

One hotel didn't let Reed use her tripod, and they almost didn't gain access to Koryo Hotel's revolving restaurant, which Scullin calls an "integral part" of the Pyongyang experience, but in the end they were able to visit.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Scullin carried whiskey with him just in case plans fell apart. "The idea would be that I would offer a bottle of Jameson as a gift to someone, one of the hotel managers to grease the wheels a little bit, but I never really had to do that," he said.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Before North Korea closed its borders to tourists due COVID-19, it received just a few hundred thousand tourists per year, mostly from China. In 2017, the United States banned citizens from visiting North Korea following the death of UVA student Otto Warmbier, who was detained by North Korean officials.

Source: New York Times, United Press International, New York Post, US Department of State

"For me, that's always been very ironic that they have these series of international hotels for a country that's so isolated," Scullin told Business Insider, adding that being able to access these hotels was a "privilege."

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang

Scullin and Reed have just a released a new book "Hotels of Pyongyang," featuring over 150 photographs from their trip. The book is divided into 11 chapters, one per hotel. The only hotel they didn't visit inside was the Ryugyong Hotel, North Korea's so-called "ghost hotel" that has been under construction since 1987.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang, Business Insider

Scullin told Business Insider that there are more cities and hotels he would like to photograph in North Korea when travel resumes. Reed would also "definitely go back" given the chance.

Source: Hotels of Pyongyang