• Gene Hackman has died, a Santa Fe Sheriff confirmed on Thursday morning.
• Betsy Arakawa, his wife, was also found dead at their home alongside the couple's dog.
• The authorities say they do not suspect foul play.

Gene Hackman has died aged 95.

Santa Fe Sherrif Adan Mendoza told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the Oscar-winning actor died on Thursday, February 27 at midnight at his New Mexico home alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog.

He said there was no indication of foul play.

Mendoza told the publication: "All I can say is that we're in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant. I want to assure the community and neighborhood that there's no immediate danger to anyone."

The Santa Fe Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as more details emerge.

• House Republicans passed a budget plan that could include big cuts to Medicaid.
• Medicaid covers over 72 million Americans, with significant reliance in states like California.
• Mike Johnson said Republicans are focused on "rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse" within Medicaid.

Congressional Republicans are hotly debating their budget plans, and Medicaid cuts may be on the table. It could affect Americans across the country.

The committee that oversees Medicaid's budget aims to cut $880 billion over a decade as part of the House's narrowly passed budget outline. The math points to those cuts including Medicaid, since it and Medicare —which the Trump administration said it would not cut — make up the overwhelming majority of that committee's budget.

In states such as New Mexico, California, and New York, over a third of residents receive Medicaid, per a Business Insider analysis of Medicaid enrollment data from October 2024 and Census Bureau population estimates from July 2024. The analysis found that about 23.3% of all Americans receive Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, which is for children in families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid.

This map shows the percentage of each state's residents who received coverage for Medicaid or CHIP.

Areas with higher percentages of Medicaid recipients included the West, Southwest, and Northeast, while parts of the Midwest and South relied less on Medicaid. Utah was least reliant at 9.7%, followed by Wyoming at 10.8%.

As of October, Medicaid provides health and long-term care coverage to over 72 million Americans of all ages, predominantly those with low incomes and few other resources. Another 7.2 million children under age 18 receive payments from CHIP. Medicaid is financed by federal and state governments.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has argued that the budget plan doesn't explicitly call for Medicaid cuts.

Over the last few months, some Republican leaders have proposed per-capita caps on Medicaid, which would fix federal funding amounts per enrollee. A House Budget Committee proposal estimated this move could save up to $900 billion. Others have backed a proposal to install a Medicaid work requirement.

Tuesday's House vote is only the first step in a long process. Senate Republicans have competing plans, which, unlike the House's proposal, do not include an extension of Trump's 2017 tax law or new proposals like ending taxes on tips. Both sides will need to reconcile their blueprints before they can move forward.

Most states have expanded their Medicaid coverage for those making under a given income threshold — for individuals, about $21,600 a year — an expansion included in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Before the vote, Johnson said Republicans are focused on "rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse" within Medicaid. On Tuesday, he declined to tell reporters that House Republicans would not cut the program, arguing that making sure "illegal aliens" are not receiving Medicaid and eliminating other unspecified fraud will help the GOP save money.

"Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse," Johnson told reporters at the Capitol.

People in the US illegally are not eligible for Medicaid. Hospitals can be reimbursed for emergency care if a patient, regardless of their immigration status, is otherwise eligible for Medicaid. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, $27 billion total was spent on emergency Medicaid for non-citizens from fiscal year 2017 through 2023.

Do you have a story to share about Medicaid? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at nshei0227.30. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Kevin Hartz, an early Uber angel investor, directed his VC firm A Star Capital to take Waymos only.
• Hartz told BI that he believes Waymo is the "least expensive option."
• A former investor at A Star roughly estimated spending about $10K on Waymos in the past year.

Kevin Hartz, an early Uber angel investor and cofounder of Eventbrite, directed his San Francisco-based venture capital firm, A Star Capital, to only take Waymo robotaxis in the city because he believes they provide the best value.

"Waymo is now required in SF as it is always substantially lower price and often faster," Hartz wrote in an email to his firm of 10 employees on January 16, which was shared on X.

The VC head wrote that a ride in an Uber "Green," the sustainable ride option offered on the platform, was $50 to his destination in San Francisco, whereas a ride back with a Waymo, which only operates Jaguar I-PACE electric vehicles, was $19.

Hartz told Business Insider over the phone that his email was indeed a serious mandate given that employees get their rideshare costs comped by the firm.

"Waymo is simply a better value," he said, adding that he believes "it's the safest and the fastest when you think about its ability to calculate the most efficient route."

Employees can substitute Waymo with another rideshare platform if wait times are too long and would make firm employees late to the office, Hartz wrote in the email.

Since Waymo began offering rides to the SF public in June, the Alphabet-owned company has chipped away at the rideshare market in the city that was once solely dominated by Uber and Lyft.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the third-quarter earnings call in October that the company puts Waymo's market share within its limited operating areas of SF at "high single-digits or low double digits." He did not state an exact figure.

Waymo said in a press release that it averages 150,000 rides per week throughout its operating cities. The robotaxi company does not offer rides on San Francisco's highways or to the airport.

A Waymo spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a study conducted last year by Evercore ISI, comparing 1,000 trips across the Waymo, Uber, and Lyft platforms, analysts found that Waymo's pricing has become increasingly competitive in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The average cost of a Waymo ride for that quarter was $21.91, compared to $21.34 for an UberX — the basic level of service the rideshare platform offers — and $22.36 for a Lyft. Prices for Uber and Lyft exclude tips to drivers, Evercore analysts wrote in their report.

An Uber spokesperson declined to comment. Lyft did not respond to a request for comment.

Hartz said he was an early believer in Uber, participating in the company's series B funding round in 2011 at a $300-million valuation. He declined to disclose a figure.

His experience in Waymo has made him a convert, pointing to the privacy the robotaxi offers.

"It's a quiet place where you can kind of reflect," he said.

Khushi Suri, an ex-investor at A Star, had already embraced Hartz's Waymo-only directive long before he shared his January mandate.

As of February 20, Suri took 547 rides, traveled 1,680 miles, and spent 10,005 minutes inside a Waymo, she told BI. She roughly estimated spending $10,000 on Waymo rides in the past year.

"I remember the way there, I was enchanted," Suri told BI of her first Waymo ride. "But on the ride back, I forgot. It's just so natural."

Suri said she was a heavy Uber user, but "resented it." She said the privacy of a Waymo allows her to feel comfortable when she and her friends are going out and dressed for clubbing.

"With Waymo, there's no walk of shame," she said. "It's very intimate."

Uber and Lyft had originally pursued an in-house autonomous vehicle program before selling them off in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Both rideshare platforms are pursuing partnerships with other autonomous vehicle companies to offer a robotaxi service, leveraging its existing user base.

Uber plans to deepen its existing partnership with the Alphabet-owned company by managing a Waymo fleet in Austin and Atlanta sometime in 2025. The company already offers Waymos in Phoenix.

"I wasn't very happy that Uber had discontinued their self-driving program," Hartz said. "I'm glad that they're partnering there."

"I was scrolling through my emails, and it said my Twitter account had been flagged for inappropriate … I don't even tweet anymore," Burr said.

Pyongyang will provide more troops to Russia, who will be deployed to the Kursk region, according to South Korea's intelligence agency.

"It's a bit intimidating but they won't actually bite," Australian man Deano told Newsweek.

The release dates for Civilization 7's first two-part expansion have leaked on the eShop.

The visit comes as the U.S. is assisting Australia in acquiring conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Rafael Fiziev has agreed to step in to face Justin Gaethje in a rematch on less than two weeks' notice at UFC 313 on March 8.

The two-time Oscar winner and his wife Betsy Arakawa, a former classical pianist, were found dead Wednesday, along with their dog.

After calling for the fight following his win at UFC Seattle, Jean Silva will now face Bryce Mitchell at UFC 314 on April 12 in Miami.

Bangladesh and Pakistan will meet in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy on Thursday at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Earlier this month there were reports that the Trump administration was pressuring Romania to lift Andrew and Tristan Tate's travel restrictions.

The Pentagon is moving to disqualify transgender service members from the military within 30 days, per a policy memorandum included in a Wednesday court filing.

The big picture: The memo that builds on existing Trump administration restrictions that target transgender troops states the military will consider granting waivers on a "case-by-case basis," but only if there's "a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities."

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Driving the news: The Trump administration was responding on Wednesday to a lawsuit filed in D.C. on behalf of six transgender service members who are challenging the legality of President Trump's January executive order targeting transgender troops.

• The suit contends the order that states that the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and which calls on the Pentagon to formulate a policy that would target transgender service members is unconstitutional.

Zoom in: "Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service," states the policy, which echoes language similar to that used in Trump's order.

• Service members who seek to obtain a waiver must show they never tried to transition, according to the Pentagon.
• They must also demonstrate "36 consecutive months of stability in the Service member's sex without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning."

Between the lines: Gender dysphoria is defined as distress related to gender incongruence.

• The number of transgender people serving on active duty in the military was estimated to be up to 8,000, per a 2020 study published by the NIH that notes the actual number may be greater due to factors including fear of disclosure.

Flashback: Trump rescinded on his first day in office a policy allowing trans people to serve, implemented by his predecessor, former President Biden.

Go deeper: Senate sets up vote to restrict trans women from women's sports

• Renault's former partner in Russia said the French carmaker may need to pay $1.3 billion to re-enter the market.
• Renault exited Russia in 2022, selling its assets for one ruble amid Western sanctions.
• Foreign firms face challenges returning to Russia, with potential compensation demands looming.

Renault exited the Russian market in 2022, selling its assets for a single ruble.

Now, the French carmaker may need to pay 112.5 billion rubles — about $1.3 billion — if it seeks to return after the war, its former Russian partner Avtovaz said. The stipulation is a sign that foreign firms looking to return to the market could face high compensation demands.

In the case of Renault, Maxim Sokolo, the CEO of Avtovaz, said the company and the Russian state have invested 112.5 billion rubles in the business since its exit through 2025.

"It is clear that these investments will have to be reimbursed somehow upon return," Sokolov said, according to TASS state news agency.

American President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness for the US to reconcile with Moscow, spurring recent discussions about a potential return of Western businesses — such as Renault — to the market.

In 2022, Renault sold its 67.6% stake in Avtovaz to the Russian state with the option to buy back its assets within six years. The automaker took a 2.2 billion euro writedown from the exit from the market that was its second largest, after France.

A spokesperson for Renault told Business Insider said the company doesn't "foresee any change for the short term" when it comes to a return to business in Russia. The company did not comment on Sokolov's statements.

David Szakonyi, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, told Business Insider that Sokolov's about compensation should be taken seriously, even if Russian officials are also posturing.

The exit of foreign businesses created winners at home in Russia, some of whom picked up assets at fire sale prices.

"Freely allowing foreign companies back in is going to diminish their profit streams and make life a lot more competitive, so if that is going to happen, Russia wants some kind of compensation for liberalizing its market," said Szakonyi, who is a specialist in Russia's political economy.

'Even more confident, even more emboldened'

Sokolov's comments echo others in Russia recently signaling tough negotiations for departed companies that wish to return.

Anton Alikhanov, the Russian industry and trade minister, told reporters on Thursday that Russia is "not waiting for anyone with open arms" and that there will be "a price to pay for past decisions."

Russia is likely to continue with such "cocky rhetoric" amid its rapprochement with the US, Szakonyi said.

"It feels that it survived just about the worst the West could throw at it and persevered through that adversity and now comes out even more confident, even more emboldened, to make demands on the West and dictate the terms of both political and economic dealmaking going forward," he added.

Three years into the war in Ukraine, 475 foreign companies have left the Russian market completely, per the Leave Russia database from the Kyiv School of Economics.

Fast food giant McDonald's and coffee chain Starbucks were two high-profile brands that left the market, with their assets bought by Russian businesses. McDonald's rebranded to "Tasty and that's it" and Starbucks became Stars Coffee.

Western companies are not clamoring to go back to Russia

Even though Russia is a large market, analysts have said recently that businesses are likely to be cautious about returning to the country, even if sanctions are lifted.

Russia's wartime economy is facing problems including high inflation, currency volatility, and sky-high interest rates. President Vladimir Putin's ironclad reign presents concerns about the rule of law and safety.

"While Russia says it's open to doing business again, it didn't actually signal any change of tone or policy," said Szakonyi, who added that much of Moscow's rhetoric is likely aimed at the Trump administration's appetite for dealmaking.

Investors are also likely to remain wary after a wave of corporate nationalization and asset seizures in the last few years that redistributed international company wealth to the Russian state and oligarchs.

Szakonyi said Russia has proven that business property rights protections, investor guarantees, and a hospitable business climate are things of the distant past.

"Without them in place, I see no reason why Western companies would risk again with Russia as such a volatile, unpredictable regime," he said. "It has proven that it doesn't care about property rights and that it talks out of both sides of its mouth and is not trustworthy."

• Meta apologized for graphic and violent content recommended on Instagram Reels on Wednesday.
• Meta replaced US fact-checkers with a community notes model in January.
• Meta's content moderation has faced criticism and controversy for years.

Meta apologized for an "error" after Instagram users reported a flood of graphic and disturbing content recommended on their feeds.

"We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider on Wednesday.

Instagram users worldwide reported seeing a flood of short-form videos showing gore and violence, including killings and cartel violence, on Wednesday. These videos were marked with the "sensitive content" label but were being recommended to users back-to-back.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, says it removes "particularly violent or graphic" content and adds warning levels to others. It also restricts users under 18 from viewing such content.

In the first week of January, Meta replaced third-party fact-checkers on its US platforms with a community notes flagging model.

The company also planned to "simplify" its content policies, said Joel Kaplan, the chief global-affairs officer, at the time. Meta would "get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse."

In January, Business Insider reported that the tech giant would officially end its US fact-checking partnerships in March.

Meta has faced a string of controversies since 2016 over lapses in content moderation. It has faced criticism for, among other issues, its role in illicit drug sales. Last year, founder Mark Zuckerberg joined other tech CEOs for a Congressional grilling about safety measures for children online.

Internationally, Meta's lack of content moderation and reliance on third-party civil society groups to report misinformation have been found to play a role in proliferating violence in Myanmar, Iraq, and Ethiopia.

Zuckerberg's content moderation changes resemble those made by Elon Musk on the social media platform X, which he bought in 2022.

• McDonald's is selling $1 Egg McMuffins on its app on Sunday.
• The promotion comes as the Egg McMuffin celebrates 50 years on the market and as egg prices soar.
• Egg prices hit a record high in the US in January, with a dozen large Grade A eggs costing an average of $4.95.

As the food industry grapples with the skyrocketing price of eggs in the US, McDonald's is going the other way and selling $1 Egg McMuffins for one day.

On Tuesday, McDonald's announced it will be selling Egg McMuffins and Sausage McMuffins with Egg for $1 on Sunday, March 2. The deal is only valid for purchases made through the app in the US.

The promotion is being held to celebrate the Egg McMuffin's 50th birthday. The product was introduced in the US in 1975.

McDonald's menu prices vary depending on location. In downtown Manhattan, an Egg McMuffin currently costs $5.99.

The company's North America impact officer, Michael Gonda, wrote a LinkedIn post on Tuesday about the deal. Referencing egg prices, Gonda said customers "definitely WON'T see McDonald's USA issuing surcharges on eggs."

Value strategy

Dipanjan Chatterjee, a vice president at Forrester, a New York-based market research company, told BI the deal fits right into McDonald's value strategy, which includes $5 meal deals and $1 items.

Chatterjee said that with egg prices hitting all-time highs, marketing a "$1 value item" that uses eggs "may seem like an odd choice."

But it's more of an opportunity — because McDonald's now has a chance to position itself as a company that "prioritizes its customers over profit," Chatterjee said.

The move is "likely to pay off handsomely for McDonald's," said Mário Braz de Matos, the cofounder of the Singapore-based branding consultancy agency Flying Fish Lab.

"McDonald's doesn't just stand for fast food, it also stands for value," he said. "In good times, it matters, but in harder economic climates, it makes this particular aspect of the brand more attractive to consumers."

Alexandra Leung, the founder of Monogic, a food-and-beverage marketing and PR agency in Singapore and Hong Kong, told BI that while the deal will be attractive to attract cost-conscious consumers, its real value isn't in the sales bump, but in "digital customer acquisition."

"I think that the measure of success for this promotion might be better evaluated through metrics like app downloads and digital engagement rather than sustained McMuffin sales post-promotion," she said.

Soaring egg prices

McDonald's $1 deal comes as egg prices in the US have soared, partly due to supply chain issues stemming from an H5N1 bird flu outbreak in the US.

The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs in the country hit an all-time high of $4.95 in January.

Given the short supply of eggs, supermarket chains have seen egg cartons sell out minutes after store openings. Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Costco have imposed limits on the number of cartons each customer can purchase.

Restaurant chain Waffle House announced earlier this month that it would start including a $0.50 surcharge on each egg it sold.

Shake Shack's CEO, Rob Lynch, said on Thursday that restaurant chains with big breakfast businesses might dial back on eggs and offer more beef and chicken products instead.

Representatives for McDonald's did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Elon Musk said he wants to "send another email" to federal workers to get them to account for what they do.
• The White House said it received over a million responses, less than half of the entire government.
• President Donald Trump said that sending another email is a "good idea."

Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the Department of Government Efficiency will "send another email" to federal workers asking them to summarize their accomplishments.

"You know, we got a partial response. We are going to send another email," Musk told reporters while attending President Donald Trump's first cabinet meeting.

On Saturday, the Office of Personnel Management emailed federal employees, asking them to submit a list of what they've achieved by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday.

Musk said on Saturday that failure to respond by the deadline "will be taken as a resignation."

Later, on Monday, Musk said that employees who have yet to respond will be given "another chance," but "failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

Musk's email request sparked confusion across the government. At least eight agencies, including the Department of Defense and State Department, told their workers not to respond to OPM's email.

The White House said on Tuesday that more than one million workers responded to the email, less than half of the entire federal workforce.

"I wouldn't say that we are thrilled about it," Trump said of the remaining federal workers who did not respond during Tuesday's press conference.

"Maybe they are going to be gone. Maybe they are not around, maybe they have other jobs," Trump added.

Trump also said at the same press conference that he thinks Musk's plan to send a follow-up email is a "good idea."

"You got a lot of people that have not responded, so we are trying to figure out, do they exist? Who are they? And it's possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired," Trump said.

Trimming the federal workforce has become one of Trump's priorities in his second term.

Last month, the Trump administration gave federal employees from January 28 to February 6 to accept a buyout offer if they did not want to work in his administration. A spokesperson for the OPM told Business Insider on February 6 that over 40,000 workers took the buyout.

Then, on February 11, Trump signed an executive order to limit federal hiring. The order said that each federal agency can only hire one new employee if four employees leave. The restriction does not apply to jobs related to public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement.

"There are too many federal employees. Excluding active-duty military and Postal Service employees, the federal workforce exceeds 2.4 million," the White House said in a fact sheet about the order.

Representatives for the White House and DOGE did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• The Supreme Court halted a lower court's order for Trump to release USAID funds.
• Chief Justice John Roberts granted the stay but provided no reason for the decision in the ruling.
• This stay gives the Supreme Court time to evaluate the case and decide whether the Trump administration must release funds.

The Supreme Court issued a ruling on Wednesday night that halted a lower court's order for President Donald Trump to release funding for the US Agency for International Development.

In its February 26 ruling, the SCOTUS blocked a court order from District Judge Amir Ali related to two cases brought against the Trump administration by aid organizations including the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council.

Ali's ruling on the cases would have compelled the Trump administration to release foreign aid dollars to grant recipients and USAID contractors by midnight on Wednesday.

But the SCOTUS halted Ali's decision after attorneys for the Trump administration on Wednesday said in a court filing that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has already "made a final decision" on what organizations to award funds to.

Sarah Harris, the acting solicitor general, appealed to the SCOTUS on Wednesday to vacate the lower court's order. In her filing, Harris said that the "district court's imminent and arbitrary deadline makes full compliance impossible."

Harris added that the lower court's order required the administration to disburse "nearly $2 billion by 11:59 p.m."

"These payments cannot be accomplished in the time allotted by the Court and would instead take multiple weeks," Harris wrote.

Chief Justice John Roberts granted the administrative stay but provided no reason for the decision in the ruling. Roberts has given the plaintiffs who sued the administration until Friday to respond.

The SCOTUS' stay now gives the court time to evaluate and rule on the Trump administration's request.

USAID was one of the first targets of the Department of Government Efficiency.

The cuts to USAID come after Trump, in a January 20 executive order, called for a 90-day freeze on foreign aid. That executive order and other actions have affected thousands of US workers.

Judges other than Ali have made rulings that slowed the Trump team's attempts to dismantle USAID.

On February 7, Judge Carl Nichols issued a temporary restraining order that paused the administration's USAID staff reductions. But USAID suffered a major court loss on February 21 when Nichols allowed headcount cuts to go ahead, reversing his previous order.

In 2024, USAID distributed close to $32.5 billion in aid, primarily to causes in Africa and the Middle East.

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