Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, released Grok 3, its long-awaited flagship AI model, last week. Grok 3 powers the Grok chatbot apps for mobile and the web, as well as the Grok experience on the Musk-owned social network X. Given that there’s so much competition in the AI chatbot space these days, it wasn’t a […]

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Though new episodes of Andor dropped individually (for the most part) during the show’s first season, Disney Plus is switching things up when the show returns this April.

Along with a new Andor  trailer showcasing some of the action Cassian (Diego Luna) is going to get into in the show’s second and final season, Disney announced today that the upcoming episodes (there are 12 total) will be released as four weekly chapters. In a statement about the new season, creator and executive producer Tony Gilroy teased that that, because it follows Cassian’s adventures during the four years leading up to Rogue One, the show is going to feel even bigger this time around.

“One of the great thrills of making Andor is the scale of the story and the number of characters we’re able to meet — ordinary people, Imperial overlords, passionate revolutionaries,” Gilroy said. “They are real people making epic decisions, all of them staring down questions with terrifying consequences. Cassian’s journey is the soul and spine of our story, but it’s the choir that makes the show.”

The trailer definitely makes Andor’s second season seem like its stakes are going to be raised to meet its scale as Cassian marches towards a fate we’ve already seen play out. The weekly episode was part of what made the first season work so well, but these new batch drops might be a refreshing change of pace when Andor season 2 premieres on April 22nd.

Warm beverages are a winter staple, particularly when the flu is making the rounds. Keeping your favorite drinks warm is a battle if you’re not one to chug; however, the Verge-favorite Ember Mug 2 lets you sip and savor your beverage of choice at the ideal temperature all day long. And right now, Amazon and Best Buy are selling the 14-ounce smart mug in select colors starting at an all-time low of $89.99 ($60 off).

The Ember Mug 2 hides heaters in a stainless steel body to keep your drinks uniformly warm at any temperature you want — so long as that temperature is between 125 degrees to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. It can last up to 80 minutes per charge, but it also runs indefinitely if you set it on the included charging coaster, which has a configurable LED to indicate its charging status. You can also use Ember’s app on iOS or Android to set the temperature and create presets for your favorite drinks.

Washing is a cinch, too, thanks to its IPX7 rating, which means you can dunk it in up to a meter of soapy water, with a scratch-resistant coating that should keep it looking neat. It’s not dishwasher safe, however.

Monday’s deals continued

• If you’re running out of storage space on your Xbox Series X / S, the 2TB WD_Black C50 is on sale for $199.98 (about $260 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and SanDisk’s online store, which is about $10 more than its best price to date. If you’re working with a smaller budget, you can also pick up the 1TB version for $109.99 ($48 off) from Amazon, B&H Photo, and SanDisk, which is also $10 more than its record low. Unless you’re an exceptionally heavy gamer, either should be enough to harbor your daily rotation of Series X / S games. Western Digital’s officially licensed expansion cards are one of two that are fast enough to play those games directly from your console’s storage, so it’s worth the investment if you’re tired of constantly redownloading or moving games around.
• Prime members can get the Shargeek 170 Power Bank for $99 ($69 off) at Amazon and directly from Sharge, which is an all-time low. The 24,000mAh charger is doubly unique in appearance, with a prism-shaped exterior and a translucent window that exposes some of its electronics. That window also offers a clear view of the dot-matrix LED display that communicates charging status and capacity. It has two 140W USB-C Power Delivery 3.1 ports and a single USB-A port. All three are exposed, yet the charger bears an IP66 rating for protection against dust and water, making it an ideal option for those who frequent the great outdoors.
• Now through February 28th, Woot is offering steep discounts on a host of popular games and quality accessories, including a number of first- and third-party Nintendo Switch titles. You can get the excellent Super Mario RPG for an all-time low of $29.99 (50 percent off), for example, along with Donkey Kong Country Returns HD for $44.99 ($15 off). 8BitDo’s Ultimate 3-mode Controller — which works wired on Xbox and wirelessly on Windows and mobile — is also down to $39.99 ($30 off) right now. It’s the newest version with Hall effect sticks and triggers, too, and ships with a charging dock.

Irish leaders will skip St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the U.S. this year to protest President Donald Trump calling for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

St. Patrick’s Day celebrations are an opportunity for Irish leaders to reinforce diplomatic relations abroad, particularly in the U.S., where the annual trip to Washington, D.C., commemorates the historic and cultural ties between the countries. This year, the Irish prime minister, known as Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, will represent Ireland without Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill.

"I followed with growing concern what's happening on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank, and like many other Irish people, have listened in horror to calls from the President of the United States for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and the permanent seizure of Palestinian lands," McDonald said.

"Such an approach is a fundamental breach of international law, is deeply destabilizing in the Middle East, and a dangerous departure from the U.N. position of peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis, and the right of Palestinians to self-determination."

TRUMP’S GAZA RELOCATION PROPOSAL SPARKS HEATED DEBATE AMONG PALESTINIANS: ‘NO LIFE LEFT HERE’

While acknowledging the important opportunity to reinforce the U.S. and Ireland’s relationship, McDonald said she decided not to attend the White House events this year "as a principled stance against the call for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza."

O’Neill echoed McDonald’s comments, vowing to maintain diplomatic relationships with the U.S. while taking a stance against Trump’s comments. 

JOURNALISTS SOUND ALARM OVER TRUMP’S 'PREPOSTEROUS' GAZA COMMENTS, WARN OF 'ETHNIC CLEANSING'

"I have taken the decision as First Minister not to attend events at the White House this year," O'Neill announced in a post. "We have all witnessed the heartbreak and devastation and the suffering in Palestine, and the recent comments by the U.S. president around the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza is something which I cannot ignore."

O’Neill said she is standing "firmly on the side of humanity" by protesting Trump and supporting the Palestinian people. 

"I will continue to engage with the U.S., both politically and economically, to better people's lives. But people rightly look to leaders to stand against injustice. And in the future, when our children and our grandchildren ask us what we did when the Palestinian people endured unimaginable suffering, I will say I stood firmly on the side of humanity."

McDonald said she supported Martin’s standing St. Patrick’s Day visit to Washington, D.C., because the prime minister would have more access and an expected audience with Trump. She urged Martin to use the "opportunity to reflect the view of the Irish people in relation to Palestine, in support of international law, and to reject threats for the mass expulsion of Palestinian people and seizures of their land."

When asked about the boycott, Martin told reporters, "Sinn Féin does what it always does – it engages in politics. I have a responsibility to the country."

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) called the boycott "reckless" and "short-sighted."

"The United States is a key economic partner for Northern Ireland," said DUP Leader Rt. Hon. Gavin Robinson. "Turning away from that relationship, particularly at a time when we need continued international support, is a reckless move that does nothing to advance the interests of people and businesses in Northern Ireland."

Trump said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month that the U.S. would "take over the Gaza Strip." Trump also suggested relocating Palestinians to rebuild Gaza as the "Riviera of the Middle East." Trump’s comments sparked international backlash. 

Ireland is a long-time supporter of Palestinian independence, as many Irish draw parallels with the British occupation of Ireland. Ireland has advocated for full Palestinian statehood and a two-state solution throughout the war in Gaza. Irish citizens have vocally opposed the war in Gaza and consistently protested in support of Palestinians since the war began. 

Sinn Féin is an Irish Republican party with historic connections to the Irish Republican Army that has grown in popularity and power in Ireland and Northern Ireland over the past few years. Sinn Féin believes in Irish reunification by returning the British-controlled counties of Northern Ireland to Irish rule. 

Just as the U.S. has played a critical role in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the U.S. was a key negotiator in the Good Friday Agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1998, which ended decades of conflict and brought peace to the region. 

The U.S. is home to the largest Irish diaspora. The U.S. and Ireland have maintained close diplomatic relations, and traditional St. Patrick’s Day events at the White House have become an opportunity to celebrate and develop that relationship. Former President Joe Biden visited Ireland and Northern Ireland as president in 2023 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. 

We wanted to find all the differences between two popular Italian food chains, Olive Garden and Zizzi.

• Many companies turn to layoffs to reduce costs, yet some purposefully refrain from making cuts.
• CEOs of companies that have never done layoffs told BI they think the approach is good for business.
• When workers aren't worried about getting cut, they expect to have better careers — and often do.

When the pandemic hit, friends at other companies began calling Melanie Dulbecco to ask whether she planned to lay off workers.

"It's the very last thing we would do," she told them.

Dulbecco has spent decades running Torani, a maker of flavored syrups used in coffee and other beverages.

Stay-at-home mandates presented a crisis for the company whose bottles line the shelves of innumerable cafés.

"We were ready to breathe into a paper bag," Dulbecco told Business Insider.

Instead, company leaders gathered to sketch out how big the blow to sales might be — and how to keep workers safe. The team then set a goal that might only amount to a nice-to-have at other companies: save the business without cutting a single employee.

Layoffs are so commonplace, even outside recessions and life-bending health emergencies, that companies like Torani are among a rarefied few that have never pink-slipped workers en masse.

Such employers are a study in the cultural tailwinds that can spin up when companies eschew broad-based job cuts.

'Grow, baby, grow'

One of Torani's values, and Dulbecco's mantra, is "grow, baby, grow." Yet, she said, it's not just about sales; it's also about employees' well-being. That's been good for business, Dulbecco said.

When she became Torani's CEO in 1991, annual revenue was less than $1 million. This year, the company's centennial, Dulbecco expects sales to top $600 million.

The grocer Publix is also a member of the no-RIF club. The Florida-based chain is the country's largest employee-owned company, with more than 255,000 workers.

One of them is Alec Jones. The 26-year-old has served as a cashier and a bagger and, lately, has been spending more time in the produce department at a Publix in Bonita Springs, Florida. Jones has been with the company for a decade, while many of his friends who work elsewhere have moved from job to job, he said.

"I've been having fun," Jones told BI. He said he feels more secure in his role, knowing that there would have to be a good reason to get fired.

A Publix spokesperson told BI that the company provides clear expectations, mentorship, and training to its associates to help them achieve their best.

The no-layoff bounce

For companies that avoid layoffs, the payoff can be big, said Darryl B. Rice, an associate professor of management at Miami University. He left a career in finance and moved into academia after watching banking colleagues lose their jobs amid the 2008 financial crisis.

He found that organizations that forgo layoffs create a sense of psychological safety that allows workers to thrive.

"Employees believe they are more likely to have career success," Rice told BI. That, in turn, makes it more likely they will do so, he said.

Layoffs, by contrast, tend to pierce that sense of safety and exact a "tremendous" cost in terms of workers' productivity and trust in leadership, said Wayne Cascio, a distinguished professor of management emeritus at the University of Colorado Denver.

When organizations start making cuts, those left standing often spend time doing things like sprucing up their résumés, Cascio told BI. Then, in the year that follows, the workers most likely to leave are the "good performers" because they tend to have more options, he said.

"There's an old saying: 'The first casualty in a downsizing is employee morale,'" Cascio said.

A subsequent casualty can be an employer's reputation with prospective employees, Rice said.

Millennial and Gen Z workers, in particular, have watched parents and grandparents get laid off at various points. That means, Rice said, there's often little sense that an employer would trade profits for people if the business soured.

Not having to think about cuts

Yet worker loyalty can grow when an organization hangs tight to its employees during a crisis.

That's what the window and door maker Marvin did during the 2008 global financial crisis — the deepest economic pothole in generations and one that emanated from the housing market.

As a result, the company saw an unprecedented drop in demand for its products. To make up for lost sales, Marvin temporarily cut full-time workers to 32 hours a week. For three years, the family-owned business also suspended a profit-sharing program, Paul Marvin, the company's chair and fourth-generation CEO, told BI.

During those lean years, "there was no money made," he said. That was the case for the Marvin family and the company's workers, Marvin said.

For more than a century, the manufacturer has been a mainstay in Warroad, Minnesota, a city of about 2,000 people along the Canadian border.

Laying off workers would change a place like Warroad forever, Marvin said. The company's long-term goal is to provide meaningful jobs in its hometown and beyond, he said. That matters more, Marvin added, than something like an annual dividend.

He said many employers are quick to say workers are their most valuable asset.

Yet, "When it comes time to back that up, it's like, 'Did you really mean that? Because it's the first thing you're cutting,'" Marvin said.

He said treating the company's 8,000-plus workers fairly — and the gratitude that results from successful efforts to save jobs in tough times — benefits the business far beyond even a protracted slump in sales.

As at Marvin, workers' tenures at Torani are often measured in decades rather than years.

Francisco Santos joined the San Leandro, California, company in 2002 and has risen to become a team lead for its first manufacturing shift each weekday. Despite his 4 a.m. start time, the 65-year-old isn't ready to give up working at a place where the support for employees is unlike anything he's experienced elsewhere.

For Santos, that includes not having to worry about himself and his colleagues when he hears about other employers laying off workers.

"You don't have to think about that," Santos said.

Following Android in January, the Gemini app on iPhone has received a homescreen redesign that will auto-open the keyboard on launch.

Following Android in January, the Gemini app on iPhone has received a homescreen redesign that will auto-open the keyboard on launch.