• Senate Republicans led the passage of legislation that will avert a government shutdown.
• Nine Democrats voted to avoid a filibuster, despite strong objections from others in the party.
• Republicans can now focus on their sweeping border and tax cut legislation.

Senators voted on Friday to avert a government shutdown just hours before it would occur, sending President Donald Trump legislation that would slash non-defense spending and boost the Pentagon's budget.

The final vote was 54 to 46. Only one Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, joined almost all Republicans in passing the bill. Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, also voted for the bill. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, voted against the funding legislation.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday night that he would support allowing the bill to progress, breaking a filibuster and its 60-vote threshold. Nine Democrats and King joined nearly every Republican to advance the bill to its final simple-majority vote.

Likely in exchange for the Democratic votes moving the bill forward, Senate Majority Leader John Thune allowed Democrats to vote on three different amendments to the funding bill. All of them failed to pass, including a measure by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a Democrat, which would have effectively shut down the White House DOGE office, which is effectively led by Elon Musk.

After passing the government funding bill, senators are expected to pass a bipartisan fix to a provision in the funding bill that would have required Washington, DC, to cut $1 billion out of its budget. The House would need to pass that legislation when they return.

A shutdown would have begun in the early hours of Saturday morning if Congress failed to pass new funding.

This is a major victory for Trump, who is expected to sign the legislation shortly, and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson essentially jammed Senate Democrats by passing the bill through the House on a near-party line vote. He then sent lawmakers home, daring Schumer and Democrats to vote down the legislation and cause a government shutdown.

"Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took 'guts' and courage!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning before the vote. "The big Tax Cuts, L.A. fire fix, Debt Ceiling Bill, and so much more, is coming."

Dissent among Democrats

In contrast, many Democrats are furious with Schumer for pushing to advance the bill. They view the legislation as a green light to the DOGE office and Musk.

"Donald Trump and Republicans are crashing the economy. They plan to take a chainsaw to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits and public schools — all in order to give massive tax cuts to their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies and his two top deputies said in a joint statement. "House Democrats will not be complicit."

Schumer said that he feared a shutdown would further empower Musk and Trump, warning that there was no clear way out of a potential weekslong standoff.

The legislation includes a $6 billion increase in defense spending compared to fiscal year 2024. The bill increases funding for nutrition assistance for women, infants, and children (WIC) by $500 million. At the same time, the bill cuts overall non-defense spending by $13 billion compared to the last fiscal year. Notably, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has warned of a $1 billion cut to the budget of the nation's capitol.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and other progressives had urged Democrats to kill the House GOP-led funding bill citing concerns over its failure to rein in the DOGE office. Some top Senate Democrats, including Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, refused to go along with Schumer's move. Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the bill was a "vote to turn YOUR taxpayer dollars into Trump & Elon's personal slush funds."

Republicans still have tough votes ahead

The bill extends government funding through September 30. Its passage means Trump and Republicans won't have to worry about a potential shutdown as they enter the thick of negotiations for their massive border security and tax bill. Johnson has pledged to send Trump legislation by Easter, an ambitious timeline requiring both houses to reach an agreement soon. The House and Senate are still negotiating whether the legislation will include Trump's tax cuts or if they punt that issue to another time.

This isn't the final fiscal deadline looming. Congress still has to raise the debt limit in the months ahead, possibly as early as this spring.

• MrBeast has opened casting for season two of 'Beast Games.'
• Season one recently wrapped with a $10 million prize.
• 'Beast Games' was Amazon's second-biggest series debut of 2024.

There's a chance for you to compete in the next season of "Beast Games."

The physical competition show, hosted by YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, better known online as MrBeast, just opened casting for season two.

The show recently wrapped up its first 10-episode season on Amazon Prime Video, and the winner was awarded $10 million.

The show's original pitch was a physical competition series in which contestants competed for a $5 million prize (Donaldson doubled the prize toward the end of the season.)

To apply for the chance to compete in season two, contestants must fit a list of conditions, like an age limit of at least 18 and owning a valid passport through January 2026, according to a casting call.

The application asks for a one-minute horizontal video in which applicants answer a set of questions, such as name and age.

Then, they must answer "at least two or three" of the following questions, per the casting call:

• "What kind of competitor are you?"
• '"What was your favorite challenge from BEAST GAMES Season 1, and why?"
• "Who was your favorite contestant from Season 1, and what made them stand out to you?"
• "What makes YOU an unforgettable competitor?"
• "What would you do with $5,000,000?"

What contestants agreed to in 'Beast Games' season 1

In an interview with the "The Iced Coffee Hour" podcast, Jeffrey Allen, the winner of the first season of "Beast Games," said he spoke with investment advisors and tax experts after MrBeast wired Allen the $10 million prize.

The show was less lucrative for Donaldson, who said on an episode of Steven Bartlett's "Diary Of A CEO" podcast that he lost "tens of millions of dollars" making the series.

In December, Business Insider revealed the terms that contestants of the preliminary round of "Beast Games" were asked to agree to. This round was related to the Las Vegas taping, which decided who would make the show's official production round.

The documents included a contestant questionnaire form, the show's official rules and protocols, and agreements, like giving up consent to the use of hidden cameras and recording devices.

The contestants were asked to agree to a set of terms, including how the show portrays them, which may be "disparaging, defamatory, embarrassing, or of an otherwise unfavorable nature" and could expose them to "public ridicule, humiliation, or condemnation."

Contestants also agreed to participate for no money, and the prizes were the only form of compensation.

In recent months, "Beast Games" has led to an uptick in streamers searching for the next big influencer-led show. Agents, producers, and creator-side execs told BI they are on the hunt for creator content.

The show was Amazon's second-biggest series debut of 2024, behind "Fallout," with 50 million viewers in its first 25 days.

Amazon and MrBeast did not respond to BI's request for comment.

• "Opus" follows a young journalist who becomes entangled in a famous pop star's devious plot.
• The movie ends with a twist that turns the climax of the film on its head.
• Director Mark Anthony Green spoke to BI about the ending and an unlikely parallel to Luigi Mangione.

The cult of celebrity is at the forefront of "Opus," and the film's director believes there are interesting echoes between his movie's ending and the story of Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The genre-bending A24 movie, which is parts satire, dark comedy, and musical, follows Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri), a scrappy early-career music journalist who gets invited to the exclusive listening party for the comeback album of reclusive '90s pop star Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich).

Ariel's fellow guests, who are more established professionals like the chauvinistic editor at Ariel's Rolling Stone-adjacent magazine, a gossip talk-show host, and a paparazzi photographer, have no idea why Ariel got the invite. The true reason for Ariel's inclusion is revealed in the movie's final moments.

Business Insider spoke to filmmaker Mark Anthony Green about his feature debut, that devastating twist, and why he thinks there are interesting, albeit unplanned, parallels between Moretti and Mangione.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the ending of "Opus."

The 'Opus' ending has a twist for Ariel

When we first meet Ariel, she's ready for her big break. It seemingly arrives when Moretti's publicist (Tony Hale) announces the pop star's big return after 30 years in seclusion: "Caesar's Request," his comeback album. Ariel is among the small handful of professionals — most of whom have past beef with Moretti — invited to the singer's Utah compound for the debut event.

Ariel arrives eager and ready to work on a story about Moretti, only to have her editor Stan (Murray Bartlett) insist that she hand over her notes for use in his feature about the album. She's the only one among the group who realizes something weird is afoot when it quickly becomes clear that Moretti is running a cult, complete with dozens of devoted sycophants ("Levelists") in matching outfits hanging onto the aging singer's every word. They value artistic perfection and believe that talent gets one closer to godliness, and therefore only artists should be in charge of the world.

Even as her comrades disappear one by one and Moretti's behavior becomes increasingly freakish, no one takes Ariel's concerns seriously. In the movie's climax, Ariel finally demands to leave. Moretti agrees, but coaxes her and the remaining others to attend a bizarre puppet show ("The Tragedy of Billie," where reporters represented by rotting stuffed rats harass a puppet version of the singer Billie Holiday) before departing.

But letting them go was never the plan. The others are violently killed, and Ariel, the sole survivor of that group, is strapped to a chair and forced to watch the Levelists take part in what appears to be a mass suicide ritual, à la the Jonestown Massacre.

One Levelist, another young Black woman Ariel had spoken to earlier, appears to take pity on her and lets her escape. Ariel returns the next morning with the authorities, who find Moretti playing the piano near the dead bodies of the other listening party attendees. Moretti's followers, who presumably all committed suicide, are nowhere to be found.

Initially, it appears to be a (relatively) happy ending. Yes, a bunch of people were brutally murdered, but Ariel stopped Moretti, and a flash-forward reveals that Ariel wrote a book about the ordeal, catapulting her to the fame and success she desired. The only unanswered question is where the Levelists' bodies went.

Moretti, now jailed for the murders, finally agrees to talk to Ariel as she's in the midst of promoting her book. As she's grilling him about his motive for the murders, he reveals that it was his intention all along to allow her to escape. He knew that the ambitious Ariel would capitalize on the trauma by writing a book, and that's exactly what he wanted her to do: spread the world of the Levelists' message. The Levelists aren't dead at all. In fact, they're just getting started, having disseminated across the globe to keep spreading Moretti's teachings.

In the final moments, Ariel realizes with horror that she's played right into Moretti's hands, but there's nothing she can do about it now — she's in the middle of a press tour.

Green believes there are real-world resonances in 'Opus'

Some of the parallels in "Opus" are clear. Moretti, for example, seems to be an amalgamation of male pop stars like Michael Jackson and David Bowie, whose fashion and varying personas drew fans to them as much as their catchy music. Ariel's overeagerness and mistaken ideas about what's important are in part inspired by Green's own background as a young journalist: "A lot of Ariel's mistakes and things that she did, I did," Green said.

But some of the links are less obvious, like the ways that Moretti's method of furthering his cause may mirror Luigi Mangione's.

Mangione is on trial, charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (He has pleaded not guilty to the shooting.) Many have come to view the shooting as a statement against the corruption of the healthcare industry, and Mangione has become something of a folk hero as a result.

For the director, the way Mangione catapulted to fame through an alleged high-profile assassination isn't dissimilar to the way his fictional Moretti aimed to spread his message through mayhem, murder, and a resulting book deal.

"If you look at Luigi, if he protested against the insurance company, I wouldn't know his name and you wouldn't know his name," Green said. "And if he punched that guy in the face, I wouldn't know his name and you wouldn't know his name. But he murdered him and he did it in such a unique fashion that he is a global person."

Of course, "Opus" was written long before Thompson was killed. Still, it served as an indicator to Green that the "thesis statement" of the movie — the dangers of tribalism and the cult of celebrity — wasn't off track.

"Some people think he's a hero, some people think he's a villain, and that is just a real-world example of possibly Moretti's approach having success or validity," Green said.

"Opus" is in theaters now.

• Canadians are canceling trips to the US over growing US-Canada tensions.
• US Airbnb host Robert Carlson tells BI a Canadian man canceled his $7,000 Palm Springs reservation.
• It comes as Trudeau told Canadians to reconsider travel to the US after Trump's proposed tariffs.

Last week, Palm Springs Realtor Robert Carlson received a distressing message from a Canadian friend out of the blue. The 65-year-old retiree was returning to Vancouver and canceling all coming US travel for the year.

"I'm having real trouble sleeping here right now. I'm cutting my stay short and am going home to Canada," he wrote in an email to Carlson.

The guest canceled a $7,000 booking at a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom Airbnb property that Carlson manages. Carlson is now worried that the next booking, a Canadian couple, will cancel a five-month $17,000 stay at the same property.

Carlson said that Canadians make up a significant portion of Palm Springs' population in the wintertime. He's right: A study conducted by the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau found that about 300,000 Canadians visited nearby Indio, California, in 2017, spending about $236.5 million. Now, residents of Palm Springs are worried that more cancellations are coming.

"Nobody seems to have any good answers [about] what to do or to say to calm the situation," Carlson told Business Insider on Friday.

Canadians are canceling US trips amid increased tensions

The cancellation comes after outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadian citizens to reconsider travel to the US amid growing tensions between the two countries.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has called the 158-year-old nation the "51st State" and proposed several tariffs. This week, he said there would be 50% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, although those are seemingly delayed.

Some Canadians are responding. In February, the number of Canadians driving to the US fell 23% compared to last year, according to Statistics Canada, and was the second consecutive monthly decline.

A slowdown in Canadian visitors could have a major economic impact in the US. The US Travel Association projected last month that a 10% decline in Canadian travel could result in $2.1 billion in lost tourism spending in the US.

'People are fed up'

Canadian couple Gary and Carol Cruise told CNN they've canceled two upcoming vacations to the US. The couple said they traditionally spend $30,000 annually on road trips around the country.

"We are furious and horribly insulted by the lack of respect coming out of the Oval Office," Gary Cruise said.

For now, the couple said they haven't officially canceled plans for a November trip to the US. They hope the once-friendly US-Canada relationship will be repaired by then.

"We love your country. We have seen almost all of your country. This is really horrible," Carol Cruise added.

In Provincetown, Massachusetts, a popular summertime destination in New England, vacation rental owner Kent Newton told The Cape Cod Times one guest has already tried to cancel an upcoming summer stay. Newton eventually had to negotiate a discounted rate with them to keep the booking.

Canadian traveler Joe De Rome told the outlet that his family is canceling their annual trip to Cape Cod for the first time in 30 years. He specifically blamed Trump's barrage of comments about his country.

"People are fed up," he added.

• Alexander Simonpour, who has worked at Tesla for several years, has popped up at NASA.
• He's scheduled to attend a meeting next week with other DOGE people on NASA's layoff plans.
• At least four people with Tesla connections have joined the Elon Musk-linked initiative.

A longtime Tesla engineering manager is on the DOGE team at NASA, according to agency records and two people familiar with the matter.

Alexander Simonpour, an employee of the General Services Administration with a NASA email address, is among those expected to attend a meeting between NASA officials and staff from the White House's Department of Government Efficiency initiative next week where "reductions-in-force" may be discussed, according to the people and records reviewed by Business Insider. He lists several roles at Tesla going back to 2015 on his LinkedIn profile.

His name and work with DOGE have not previously been reported.

Other attendees at the meeting include Riley Sennott, a DOGE staffer whose connections to the initiative were revealed because his Google Calendar was public, and Scott Coulter, who has been named in court documents as being involved with the Trump administration's efforts at the Social Security Administration. Coulter has been listed as a "program specialist" at NASA for weeks, according to agency employees.

Simonpour is at least the fourth person with Tesla connections pitching in on DOGE, the Elon Musk-linked White House initiative to shrink the government workforce and quickly slash spending. Sennott appeared to have interviewed at Tesla, BI previously reported, and a Tesla employee, Thomas Shedd, leads GSA's Technology Transformation Services division.

Antonio Gracias, a longtime member of Tesla's board of directors who is close with Musk, has a Social Security Administration email address, according to people familiar with the matter. His presence at the SSA was previously reported by Bloomberg. Jon Koval, who listed himself on LinkedIn as an employee of Gracias's investment firm, Valor Equity Partners, is also involved with DOGE's work at SSA, according to a record seen by Business Insider.

Tesla, NASA, Simonpour, Gracias, Koval, and Coulter didn't respond to emails seeking comment.

Have a tip? Contact these reporters via Signal at alicetecotzky.05, jnewsham.77, and julianakaplan.33 or email at [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

After astronomic levels of hype, the fifth generation of mobile networks has been a letdown for many consumers — and hasn't even made phone carriers much money.

How'd we end up here? What technological choices have held 5G back? And who really benefits from those choices?

Business Insider producer Elizabeth McCauley sifts through the noise of industry reports and marketing and talks to experts to discover the truth.

If you want to check out the sources that informed this video, check out this reading list.

• Employees are waiting to hear how JPMorgan Chase will enforce its return-to-office mandate.
• They're searching for clues, in one instance sharing a leaked document in a group chat.
• Employees also shared info about location and productivity tracking tools.

In a private group chat formed after JPMorgan's January announcement that all employees would be called back to the office full-time, a few hundred people have turned to the forum to air their concerns, vent about the changes, and share tidbits of intel from their respective corners of the bank in a bid to understand the bank's plans.

The "extremely active" chat gets upward of 100 messages a day, according to one member, a JPMorgan employee of 8 years, who talked to Business Insider. It is one of many Signal chats and Reddit threads that JPMorgan employees are turning to as unofficial "support groups" for employees.

"There's a depressingly small amount of official information within JPMC," they said, expressing their concern about the lack of emails about what's happening. "We have to go find the information, it is not being broadcast."

Last week, a document with JPMorgan branding was shared with the group and caused an instant hubbub, a different member of the chat told BI, which viewed the contents. It appeared to be an outline of steps of escalation for employees who don't meet RTO mandates, including a lower number of non-attendance warnings before possible termination for some.

BI was unable to verify the authenticity of the document or determine who dropped it in the encrypted chat. It is also unclear if it represents current or future bank policy. What is clear based on chat members' reactions to the 6-page outline is that JPMorgan Chase employees are hungry for any clues to how the bank will enforce its 5-days-in-office policy, which began rolling out March 3.

A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment on the specifics of the document but said, "If employees are not meeting the expectations, there will be ramifications — just like any other performance issue."

Employees are also eager to understand how their attendance is monitored. Some worry that company tracking methods might not correctly record their hours or productivity — putting them at risk of potential enforcement. Others feel the RTO mandates and attendance recording measures are overkill. The employees were granted anonymity by BI to discuss internal company information without professional repercussions.

One JPMorgan tech VP told BI, sarcastically, that they thought the "babysitting was ending."

People in the aforementioned group chat have been sharing intel about tools for surveilling employee location and productivity. An employee who BI did not speak with shared that their manager had shown them a new tool with a heat map that shows how productive employees are based on the items worked on per hour. A technologist who has direct knowledge confirmed to BI the existence of a tool that tracked productivity per hour. It is unclear how widely it had been rolled out.

"It's impossible to put a number on productivity on a minute-by-minute basis," a software engineer in the group chat told BI. "So much of what we do is about communication, learning, planning, and investing. The only quantifiable measures take weeks to materialize."

JPMorgan said it has "no firmwide heat map that tracks individual production volumes."

"For several years now, we have had a transparent attendance tool that is available for all employees and managers to view and record their time, including vacation days, sick days, work from home, and travel," the bank spokesperson said.

The software engineer and the technologist both described color-coded calendars on manager dashboards that show employees' attendance, highlighting patterns such as requesting to work from home every Friday or calling in sick every Thursday. The chat-group document mentioned such patterns as grounds for managers to open HR cases against workers.

JPMorgan also has a long-standing tracking tool, Workplace Activity Data Utility, also known internally as WADU. While these types of surveilling mechanisms aren't new at JPMorgan, as BI has previously reported, they add tension to an already fraught situation around the return to office.

JPMorgan's RTO roll-out has been met with praise, disdain, and confusion. Bank employees said some offices didn't have enough desks, parking, or conference rooms, and that the messaging felt rushed and unplanned. In its memo announcing the mandate, the bank acknowledged that capacity restraints would mean that some offices aren't yet ready, and are maintaining their hybrid in-office policies, working one or two days from home until further notice.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in a February interview with CNBC that he's aware this strict policy could result in employees leaving the company and that he's fine with that attrition.

But not everyone who's unhappy about the 5-day RTO is considering leaving the company. Some employees are exploring the possibility of a union and are working with Communications Workers of America, an organization that led the effort of around two dozen Wells Fargo branches unionizing, as BI previously reported.

Have a tip? Contact Bianca Chan via email at [email protected] or Signal at 646-376-6038. Contact Emmalyse Brownstein via email at [email protected] or Signal at 305-857-5516. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• America's overall Tesla favorability hit a low as liberals' and moderates' scores tanked, a survey found.
• But the brand's sentiment among conservative Americans has risen, YouGov found.
• Tesla's stock price and sales in several countries have fallen in recent months.

The American public's favorability of Tesla has fallen to a nine-year low, a recent survey found.

In addition to Tesla struggling with declining sales in multiple markets and a falling stock price, sentiment among liberals and moderates in the US has fallen off a cliff, recent YouGov surveys found, which were first reported by Sherwood News.

Overall, Americans' impression of Tesla dropped to a score of minus 12.7 on Wednesday, YouGov found — the lowest it's been since 2016, when the firm began measuring US sentiment toward Tesla through daily surveys.

Tesla scored the lowest among liberals, at minus 34.9, with moderates at minus 9.1. By comparison, the average impression score for all automakers was 17.2.

But Tesla's favorability among conservative Americans is up significantly.

Tesla scored 7.6 among conservative Americans on Wednesday, significantly higher than under six months ago, when it scored in the negatives.

It's also significantly higher than where it was trending in 2022, when conservative sentiment toward Tesla dipped as low as minus 6. That same year, liberals scored Tesla as high as 8.7, and moderates as high as 14.

YouGov, a global public opinion and data company, also conducts daily polling for thousands of other major brands. It told Business Insider that its brand perception metrics were impression, value, reputation, satisfaction, quality, and people's likelihood to recommend the brand.

The impression findings come as anti-Elon Musk protests and anti-Tesla boycott efforts have been taking place across several US cities in response to Musk's political involvement with the Trump administration. The automaker has also been the target of a series of vandalism incidents, which have led police to make several arrests in recent weeks.

Musk, whose image is closely tied to the Tesla brand, has also seen his favorability fall in the US, recent polling found.

In a CNN survey of American adults conducted by SSRS on President Donald Trump's handling of the economy, 53% of respondents reported a negative view of the Tesla CEO, while 35% rated him positively. Just over 60% of respondents said Musk didn't have the right experience or judgment to change the government's operations.

Despite Tesla's worsening impression scores among liberal and moderate Americans, YouGov said that overall buying consideration — or the measure of whether a consumer would consider Tesla the next time they're in the market for a vehicle — had remained relatively stable over time across US political groups.

On Wednesday, 8.1% of liberals, 9% of moderates, and 8.4% of conservatives in the US said they would consider buying a Tesla, compared with an average of 10% for all automakers, YouGov found. On the same date in 2022, 11.6% of American liberals, 9% of moderates, and 6% of conservatives said they would consider buying a Tesla vehicle. The year after, 6.8% of liberals, 8% of moderates, and 5.5% of conservatives in the US said they would consider buying a Tesla.

The results align with what some Wall Street analysts have previously predicted: Even if some consumers don't approve of Musk's actions, it may not necessarily stop them from buying the car they want.

But there are signs that Tesla's sales have been affected in some markets, as Tesla sales have declined in recent months in several countries.

In February, Tesla deliveries were down over 70% in Australia and Germany and over 40% in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, transportation agencies in the countries reported. In the US, Tesla sales declined 11% in January, according to data from S&P Global Mobility, though the electric vehicle giant still maintained its leading market share in the country.

• Netflix's new sci-fi movie "The Electric State" reportedly had a budget of $300 to $320 million.
• Critics are panning the film, which has a 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes as of publication.
• It's reportedly Netflix's most expensive movie ever. One critic called it "a monumental disaster."

Netflix reportedly shelled out hundreds of millions for their new film, "The Electric State," but its return on investment isn't looking very promising.

"The Electric State," released on Friday, is a retro-futuristic movie set in the '90s. It stars Millie Bobby Brown as Michelle, an orphaned teen who goes on a journey in search of her long-lost brother, Christopher, after a robot rebellion. She's joined on the journey by a smuggler named Keats (Chris Pratt) and his sidekick, a robot named Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie).

The sci-fi movie is directed by sibling filmmaking duo Joe and Anthony Russo, who got their start as directors and producers on the TV shows "Arrested Development" and "Community" before graduating to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

With two well-known stars as the faces of the movie, a thriving duo directing, and a bunch of celebrity cameos, "The Electric State" seemed ripe for success — on paper, at least.

As of publication, the film has a critics score of 17% from 69 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting Netflix might have miscalculated its latest big swing.

'The Electric State' reportedly had a budget of $300 million to $320 million

In May 2024, Puck News reported that the movie's budget at a "traditional studio" would probably have been less than $200 million. But at Netflix, it reportedly could have ended up around $300 million.

More recently, Deadline and Total Film reported "The Electric State" budget as even higher — $320 million, which, if true, would make it one of the most expensive movies ever made. To further put it into context, the reported budgets for the 10 most recent Oscar winners for best picture collectively amount to under $230 million, which is still much less than "The Electric State."

It's not unheard of for a Russo brothers movie to have a big budget, though. The duo directed Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," which was a critical and commercial success, earning $714 million globally on a reported $170 million budget. They've since directed three more ensemble Marvel films: "Captain America: Civil War," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame."

"Infinity War" and "Endgame" are two of the highest-grossing films of all time, with both crossing $2 billion at the global box office.

However, the duo has found success outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), particularly on streaming services, more difficult to achieve.

Their 2022 action movie "The Gray Man," starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, received middling reviews and a 45% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. It reportedly cost $200 million to make.

The Russo brothers' spy series "Citadel," starring Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden, reportedly cost $300 million to make and scored an early renewal before the first season debuted on Prime Video. Two spin-offs have since premiered, but the "Citadel" universe hasn't prompted much buzz.

Reviews of 'The Electric State' are overwhelmingly negative, calling it a waste of money

The movie is inspired by Simon Stålenhag's 2018 illustrated novel of the same name. To call it based on the novel would be a stretch, though, as the movie completely revamps elements of the book.

Instead, critics have called it "derivative" and "soulless," with "mind-numbingly repetitive" action scenes. Brown and Pratt, who have delivered impressive performances in "Stranger Things" and the MCU, respectively, fail to bring a spark to "The Electric State."

Dylan Roth of The Observer deemed it "a dumb, unfunny action movie for children," and the latest victim in the trend of "unfathomably expensive streaming titles that feel like they were designed by an algorithm and assembled in a factory."

It's hard to know how exactly Netflix quantifies success. Is topping the weekly top 10 during the premiere week considered a win, even if the movie doesn't have longtail viewership? Or does it need to become one of the streamer's most popular films to be considered a bona fide slam dunk? And how much does social media chatter matter?

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Friday, Joe Russo said that "logically, it probably doesn't make a ton of sense" for streamers to spend astronomical amounts of money on projects, "but I think they might — because people still believe in ambition. Executives still believe in ambition."

"'The Electric State' is certainly a big test case for this whole thing," Anthony Russo said, adding that the filmmakers and the streamer have tried to hype up the film in the way that big theatrical releases generate attention.

"So we'll see how this plays, we'll see what this does for Netflix and we'll see where it all goes," he said.

Reps for Netflix and the Russo brothers didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Sen. Mark Kelly sold his Tesla, saying he could no longer stand the association with Elon Musk.
• The ex-astronaut has chosen a Chevy Tahoe as his new ride.
• Kelly and Musk once had a friendly relationship, but it has collapsed recently.

Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona on Friday became one of the highest profile figures yet to ditch his Tesla in favor of a new ride, channeling the growing backlash against billionaire Elon Musk.

"Elon Musk kind of turned out to be an asshole," Kelly, a Democrat, said in a video posted on X, explaining why he sold his car. "And I don't want to be driving a car built and designed by an asshole."

Kelly pulled up to Senate votes on Friday in front of the US Capitol in a 2025 Chevy Tahoe Z71, a spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider. Unlike his former Tesla, it is an all-gas vehicle. It gets an estimated 15 miles per gallon city, 20 mpg highway, and 17 mpg combined.

Chevy Tahoes are manufactured in Texas.

Tesla is increasingly bearing the brunt of Musk's rapidly declining popularity. Tesla shares are down more than 50% from their highs, and protests are hitting showrooms across the country. It's unmistakable that the company is paying the price for Musk's ties to the White House DOGE office.

Musk serves as the de facto leader of DOGE, which has targeted government offices for layoffs. Musk previously claimed credit for dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), saying he fed it into "the woodchipper."

Trump made a show of buying a Tesla earlier this week, showcasing a variety of the automaker's vehicles at the White House.

Kelly once got along with Musk. The former NASA astronaut has repeatedly praised the private space sector, which Musk's SpaceX remains a dominant force in. The pair's relationship has soured in recent weeks. Musk recently called Kelly, a Navy veteran, a "traitor" for visiting Ukraine.

"The only oath I can think of that maybe Elon has sworn is an oath to his own checking account, to his pocketbook, an oath, maybe, to ruining the lives of veterans," Kelly later said during an interview on MSNBC.

According to YouGov, views of Tesla have plummeted since Musk entered the Trump administration. Public sentiment of the automaker is the worst it has been since the polling firm began tracking it in 2016, per data obtained by Sherwood.

• Vanessa Trump was married to Donald Trump Jr. from 2005 to 2018.
• The two have five children together, including Kai Trump.
• She has recently been linked to golf star Tiger Woods.

Vanessa Trump was married to Donald Trump Jr. from 2005 until 2018, when she filed for a no-contest divorce.

She is now reportedly dating Tiger Woods — the two have been "quietly dating" for several months, People reported.

Growing up in Manhattan, Vanessa Trump was a model in her teens and early 20s. Now-President Donald Trump introduced her to his son at a fashion show in 2003 and they were engaged two years later.

The couple had five children, including the president's eldest granddaughter, Kai Trump.

Here's everything you need to know about Vanessa Trump.

Born in 1977, Vanessa Kay Pergolizzi grew up in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Her mother, Bonnie Kay Haydon, ran the modeling agency Kay Models, and her stepfather, Charles Haydon, worked as a lawyer.

Vanessa attended The Dwight School, a private preparatory school in Manhattan, where she was a tennis star, The New York Times reported. She then studied psychology at Marymount College in Manhattan.

Schoolmates and fellow members of the Manhattan scene described her as a "hard-rock in leather and baggy jeans" and "total gangster" in a 1998 New York Magazine story.

While at school, she became involved with Valentin Rivera, a gang member who later served 16 months in prison for assault, as reported by Page Six. They went to her senior prom together, per Page Six.

She was voted Most Likely to Wind Up on Ricki Lake in her high school yearbook.

As Vanessa Haydon, she modeled in her teens and early 20s.

Haydon started modeling in the 1990s before signing with modeling agency Wilhelmina. She later worked with Next Model Management.

She also had a small role in the 2003 film "Something's Gotta Give," according to IMDb.

In the 1990s, Vanessa was linked to Leonardo DiCaprio and dated a Saudi prince.

New York Magazine reported the model "was seen nuzzling" DiCaprio at a premiere party for James Toback's "Two Girls and a Guy" in May 1998.

Then, from 1998 to 2001, she dated Saudi prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, the son of then-Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, People reported.

Donald Trump introduced the model to his son Donald Trump Jr. at a fashion show in 2003.

Vanessa was introduced to Donald Trump Jr. by his father in 2003. In fact, the real-estate magnate introduced the couple twice in the span of five minutes, Vanessa recalled for The New York Times.

Six weeks later, they were introduced again by a mutual friend at a birthday party.

"We talked for an hour," she told the Times. Eventually they realized they'd met weeks earlier.

Vanessa and her sister, Veronika, also opened a nightclub in the early 2000s.

Born 11 months apart, the model sisters grew up on Manhattan's club scene, and the siblings became club owners themselves with the opening of Sessa, Women's Wear Daily reported in January 2003.

The Polynesian-themed club aimed to be a place where people could "hang out without having to shout over the music," WWD wrote.

In January 2004, the club was forced to close, The New York Times reported.

In 2004, the model and Trump Jr. got engaged.

In November 2004, Trump Jr. proposed to the model with a complimentary $100,000 ring from a New Jersey jeweler in exchange for popping the question in front of the jeweler's mall storefront with paparazzi present.

The couple married a year later on November 12, 2005, at Trump's Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago.

During their marriage, the couple had five children.

The couple had five children together: Kai, Donald John III, Tristan, Spencer, and Chloe.

Their eldest daughter, Kai Trump, 17, is an avid golfer and, in 2024, committed to playing for the University of Miami. She spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2024 and appeared at her grandfather's inauguration in January 2025 alongside other family members.

Vanessa Trump briefly had a handbag collection.

From 2010 to 2013, the model released a line of handbags called La Poshett, although she eventually settled into the stay-at-home mom lifestyle, homeschooling her children over the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2018, Donald Jr. and Vanessa divorced.

After 12 years of marriage, Vanessa filed for a no-contest divorce in 2018.

The couple separated nine months before filing for a divorce, and Trump Jr. began dating Fox News anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle in 2018.

Donald Jr. and Vanessa have maintained an amicable relationship, spending time together at Mar-a-Lago and various official events.

Most recently, Vanessa Trump has been linked to golf star Tiger Woods.

The golfer, 47, and the former model, 49, both live in Palm Beach, Florida, where Vanessa is raising her and Trump Jr.'s children.

Last month, Woods was pictured arriving at the Genesis Invitational tournament with the president's granddaughter Kai. The two then played a round of golf together.

Earlier this month, Vanessa and Kai attended the TGL event in Palm Beach with Charlie Woods, the golfer's son.

People reported that the two have been "quietly dating" for several months, and an insider said the president's son is "cool" with their relationship.

• Former Meta employee Sarah Wynn-Williams published a book this week with damning claims about Meta.
• Meta won a ruling in arbitration that blocks Wynn-Williams' promotion of her book, "Careless People."
• But that just made more headlines — and probably made people more eager to read it.

In an appearance on a podcast last year, Mark Zuckerberg basically said he was done explaining the past. Faced with a new book full of damning allegations, Meta is now doing just that — going all out to push back against a former employee's book.

It's possible that this strident defense is backfiring — creating a "Streisand Effect" that's publicizing the book even more.

Here's the quick version of the drama so far:

Sarah Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook from 2011 to 2017 — and her book, "Careless People," details what she said were a bunch of bad things the company did. It also contains allegations that Joel Kaplan — who is now Meta's chief global affairs officer — sexually harassed her. (Meta said this week that Kaplan had been cleared of the harassment allegations in 2017 after it investigated Wynn-Williams' complaint.)

The book was released with hardly any pre-publishing fanfare: It was announced by its publisher, Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan, only a few days before it came out Tuesday. That's an unusually short timeline.

Meta's reaction has been emphatic and multi-pronged. The company created a page on its website that detailed a series of the claims in the book. It said some of these — like claims about its ambitions in China or its alleged failure to act in Myanmar— have already been reported in the news media as far back as 2017 and have been acknowledged by the company publicly. The company lists seven "new" claims from the book and then offers links to past coverage and company responses — calling the claims "old news."

Meta's strongest move was on Wednesday when it won a ruling in arbitration that said Wynn-Williams could no longer promote the book because of a non-disparagement clause in a contract she signed as an employee. The ruling was granted on an emergency basis and is temporary pending the completion of the full arbitration process, The Washington Post reported.

The ruling created a new set of headlines — and some people on social media were saying news of the arbitration was the first they were hearing about the book. They now wanted to read it.

(The book's publisher said the arbitration ruling had no impact on Macmillan itself and the book is still for sale online. In a statement, the publisher it was "appalled" by what it said were Meta's tactics to "silence our author.")

Business Insider's Pranav Dixit interviewed Wynn-Williams the day before the arbitration ruling. She told Dixit that Meta is "trying to smear me and convince people not to read the book. People should read the book. The truth is in the book. They can make up their own minds. I stand by everything in the book."

A spokesperson for Meta gave this statement: "This book is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives. Eight years ago, Sarah Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and toxic behavior, and an investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment. Since then, she has been paid by anti-Facebook activists and this is simply a continuation of that work. Whistleblower status protects communications to the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books."

As for me, someone who closely follows Meta news? Sure, some of the things in "Careless People" were familiar. (I have even written about some of them.) Some of the things I had nearly forgotten or didn't know much detail about, like Meta's negotiations with China (of course, in the end, Meta didn't end up operating there).

But the point of a book like this isn't scoops, necessarily. It's about reading the point of view of an insider who can provide context and create a narrative story — take it or leave it. As a reader, you get to be the judge. And that's interesting! That's, you know, "books!"

People who are interested in Meta, and its people, probably will be interested in this for the same reason a Mötley Crüe fan — after reading "The Dirt," a history of the group, will also want to read the individual autobiographies of Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, and Nikki Sixx.

You might also continue to enjoy the oral history "Nöthin' But A Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion," the memoir of video vixen Bobbie Brown, or the memoir of the guitarist of Hanoi Rocks, whose bandmate died in a car crash with Vince Neil. Heck, you might even watch the movie version of "The Dirt" (it's not very good, unfortunately) — or better yet get some context of the rock scene of the time from the documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years."

The point is: I can promise you that if there is a topic that interests you, whether it's '80s hair metal or the inner workings of one of the most powerful companies on earth, you will still get something out of a book on the topic, even if it's "old news" — be that Facebook's attempts to crack the lucrative China market or stories about Ozzy Osbourne snorting ants.

Apart from the headline-grabbing claims, "Careless People" bills itself as an insider's perspective on a series of tiny moments from a specific period. It paints a picture of a company whose leadership was possibly somewhat ill-prepared to operate on the global stage and hasn't fully reckoned with its power.

It's a company whose business goals sometimes conflicted with doing the right thing for humanity, where there were often internal debates about what even was the right thing for humanity.

I don't think even Meta's strongest supporters would disagree with that assessment.

• "Freakier Friday," the sequel to the hit 2003 film "Freaky Friday," is coming to theaters in August.
• Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Chad Michael Murray, and Mark Harmon are all reprising their roles.
• The sequel also includes new characters played by Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and more.

Disney's much-anticipated "Freaky Friday" sequel is finally coming to theaters this year — more than two decades after the first movie became a box-office smash, grossing $160 million against a $20 million budget.

The trailer for "Freakier Friday," directed by Nisha Ganatra, was unveiled on — what else? — Friday.

It shows Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reprising their roles as Tess and Anna Coleman, a mother-daughter duo who frequently butt heads. In 2003's "Freaky Friday" (a remake of the 1976 classic), they learn to communicate when a magical body swap forces them to literally walk in each other's shoes.

Twenty-two years later, Anna has a daughter of her own, as well as a fiancé and soon-to-be stepdaughter. According to the film's synopsis, the two heroines are learning to "navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge."

Naturally, this means another out-of-body experience — but this time, the supernatural switch also affects Anna's children.

Here's everything we know about "Freakier Friday," so far.

The 'Freakier Friday' cast includes many familiar faces

The "Freakier Friday" trailer teases Chad Michael Murray's return as Jake, Anna's teenage love interest who's now a motorcycle-riding heartthrob.

Disney has also confirmed Mark Harmon will reprise his role as Ryan, Tess' husband and Anna's stepfather.

Curtis joked about her onscreen marriage to the "Sexiest Man Alive" back in 2022, when she was still openly campaigning for Disney to greenlight a "Freaky Friday" sequel.

"Let me be the old grandma who switches places," Curtis said on "The View." "So then Lindsay gets to be the sexy grandma who is still happy with Mark Harmon in all the ways you would be happy with Mark Harmon."

Pink Slip fans will be thrilled to know that Christina Vidal Mitchell and Haley Hudson, who played Anna's hard-rocking bandmates Maddie and Peg, will also be back for the sequel. Lohan even confirmed their fictional band will be performing new music.

Lucille Soong, Rosalind Chao, and Stephen Tobolowsky — who played Pei-Pei, Pei-Pei's mysterious mother, and Mr. Bates, respectively — are also listed among the returning cast members.

The sequel's plot includes a two-decade-time jump and plenty of new characters

Anna's daughter will be played by Julia Butters, while Sophia Hammons has been cast as Anna's future stepdaughter.

In an interview with Girls' Life, Hammons said it was surreal to work with Curtis and Lohan, but said they've "become like family, and they feel like home now."

When asked about her character in the movie, Hammons replied, "Without giving away too much, I would say that I am much more easygoing than she is!"

The sequel will feature Anna switching bodies with her daughter while Tess finds herself in the body of her future stepgranddaughter (and vice versa). "My face looks like a Birkin bag that's been left out in the sun to rot!" Curtis, post-body-swap, shrieks in the trailer.

The two young actors will also be joined by newcomers Manny Jacinto ("The Good Place," "The Acolyte") and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan ("Never Have I Ever").

"Freakier Friday" will premiere on August 8. It's one of 12 movies on Disney's 2025 release schedule.

• Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards held a town hall in Asheville, North Carolina.
• Constituents raged at the congressman about DOGE, hardly letting him get a word in.
• "I almost think he enjoys this s—," one attendee told BI.

North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards surely knew this was going to happen.

"I feel like this is not productive with everybody yelling at me," the congressman told the combustible crowd of constituents on Thursday night, 34 minutes into his first town hall of the year.

A bespectacled, mild-mannered backbench Republican with a prominent combover and a thick goatee, Edwards struggled to speak over the noise. Every few minutes, he was drowned out by a cacophony of booing, jeering, and heckling.

The crowd, it seemed, only wanted to talk about one thing: DOGE.

"Like him or not, Elon Musk has brought a lot of really smart people in," Edwards said. He was drowned out by boos.

DOGE has become the dominant storyline of Donald Trump's second presidency. As thousands of federal jobs disappear, billions of dollars in funding remain frozen, and Elon Musk's influence continues to rise, Americans' anger has bubbled over in town hall after town hall.

Edwards' Thursday night debacle was the latest example. Around 300 people, many of whom looked to be in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, packed into the modest community college auditorium in Asheville, a city of roughly 95,000 in a western pocket of the state. Another 1,000 people were milling around outside, holding Ukrainian flags and signs denouncing Elon Musk and his job-slashing, budget-shrinking initiative. "Drug test Musk," read one.

Over the course of 89 minutes — with dozens of reporters and at least 10 news cameras on hand — Edwards' chaotic town hall plodded along. A self-described veteran was dragged out by police after screaming that Edwards didn't "give a s—" about him or other veterans. Audience members shushed one another, unable to collectively decide whether they wanted to actually hear from the congressman or just scream in his face. A man yelled about why a "non-elected person" — apparently referring to Musk — was "running our government."

One thing was clear: The firestorm over DOGE isn't dying down anytime soon.

'I almost think he enjoys this s—'

Edwards is no bomb-thrower. He was elected to Congress in 2022 after defeating Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who once accused his colleagues of taking part in debaucherous, cocaine-fueled orgies. Edwards' campaign, by contrast, promised to skip the grandstanding.

In other words, he didn't exactly match his constituents' energy on Thursday night. Nor did he seem to be able to read the room.

The congressman was asked to list "five things you've done this week to protect democracy," a winking reference to a DOGE email asking federal employees to list their accomplishments.

"Coming up with five things is not real difficult," the congressman said, after naming just three: attending a classified briefing; voting to pass a government funding bill; and informing the media that he would be holding Thursday's town hall.

Asked if he would follow DOGE's lead and cut 25% of his staff, Edwards walked back toward the podium. He had some notes to read from. "Looking for what Trump told you to say?" an audience member jeered. Edwards began rattling off a list of grants and contracts that DOGE claimed it had canceled.

"We found a $10 million grant in a small country in Africa for voluntary medical male circumcision," Edwards said. The crowd only grew angrier.

"I almost think he enjoys this s—," Martin Downie, one of the 300 attendees, told me later that night. "I think he's a little bit sadistic."

Downie, 57, is one of thousands of federal workers who have been caught in DOGE's crosshairs. After 30 years of Army service that he said took him to Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Belgium, and the Pentagon, he moved with his wife to nearby Waynesville in 2020. Last year, he started a public affairs job at the US Department of Agriculture.

"I was a remote worker," he said. "That was my first sin."

Then came the email that thousands of other probationary employees received in February: Downie was being terminated for "poor performance," despite previously receiving "exemplary" reports. "That's it. The end. F— you. Thank you for your service," Downie said, recalling the email.

Even as those firings are being challenged, Downie said he has no desire to return. "Am I gonna work for people who think and act like that?"

I asked him what he planned to do next. "Well, I'm gonna start, probably, crystal meth," he said. His wife made clear that he was joking. Maybe he'd start a small business, he said. "What the hell, you know? There's no jobs locally," Downie said. "The job market is now flooded with recently fired people."

DOGE's trickle-down effects

Some of the crowd's DOGE-related concerns were broad: Job cuts at the Education Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs; the access "Musk and his minions" have to the Treasury Department's databases.

Others raised concerns specific to Asheville and Western North Carolina, suggesting that DOGE's federal bushwhacking is already being felt downstream: potential cuts at the Charles George Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center; the future of the Veach-Baley Federal Building in downtown Asheville; the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The crowd's biggest enduring worry was Hurricane Helene. Nearly six months after the storm devastated the city, Asheville is still visibly reeling from the damage. Gutted commercial buildings dot the city's streets, and broken, mangled trees still line the highways leading in and out of town.

That debris could supercharge future wildfires. One attendee asked Edwards whether recently fired US Forest Service employees would be rehired. "The easy answer to that is, uh, yes," Edwards replied, referencing recent court rulings requiring the reinstatement of probationary employees. Roughly 7,700 federal workers live in Edwards' district, according to the Congressional Research Service.

"To be clear, I deeply value the contributions that federal employees make every day to keep America running and to deliver important services," Edwards said. "For example, folks at the National Weather Service office—"

"Were fired!" one woman interjected.

'Threatened by my own government'

If top Republicans had their way, Edwards' town hall — footage of which spread rapidly on social media — never would have happened.

Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that "paid protestors" were swamping town halls, warning his members not to "play into" liberal efforts to generate soundbites. Instead, Johnson suggested, lawmakers should stick to telephone town halls or smaller, more choreographed engagements.

Edwards is one of a few Republicans who decided to ignore that advice. "I can make up my own mind," he told me at the Capitol a week before the town hall. "One of my favorite activities, serving in Congress, is to be among the people that I represent and hearing their voices, even if they might disagree."

There's little question that events like these are attracting left-leaning attendees, though there's no evidence they're getting paid to be there. But the fact that they're showing up in droves could be indicative of electoral consequences down the road.

Cheryl Orengo, a 72-year-old retired healthcare professional affiliated with the progressive group MoveOn, told me in a phone call on Wednesday that she and other activists were "helping to bring as many people as possible" to the town hall.

"I think it's the shock and awe. People are just in total disbelief that they are basically tearing apart our democracy," Orengo said.

But others, like Downie, aren't necessarily on the left end of the political spectrum. He's a registered independent who served under presidents of both parties during his time in the Army.

"I've never, ever been political. My whole life, I've been completely independent," Downie told me. "But this is just beyond the pale. I've never seen anything like it. All my life, I've never felt threatened by my own government, and deliberately targeted."

Now, he's finding himself screaming at his own congressman.

Edwards was unfazed. Thursday night's chaos, he told reporters after it was all over, "doesn't change my plans at all" to hold more town halls in the future.

Correction: March 14, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misnamed a healthcare professional. She is Cheryl Orengo, not Cynthia.

• ByteDance uses eight category ratings to evaluate TikTok employees in performance reviews.
• If an employee receives a low rating, they can be put on a performance improvement plan.
• The company last year told managers it wanted to dole out more low scores in reviews.

It's performance review season at TikTok, and some staffers are getting hit with PIP-or-severance offers.

Business Insider viewed a rubric for how the company scores employees in reviews, which happen twice a year. Scroll to see the criteria.

The company grades employees using eight category ratings, ranging from "outstanding" to "failed." Four current and recent former TikTok employees in the Asia and US offices verified the scoring structure, though one US staffer said the wording, such as adjectives or word order, varied slightly from a different format they'd seen around the ratings. The meaning was the same, they said.

The rubric measures employees on three main criteria: Output, Leadership Principles, and ByteStyles — a set of workplace values it uses to define company culture. Those cultural principles include being candid and clear, courageous, and treating every day like it's "day 1."

Below is a rating scale available to employees in Asia at TikTok and ByteDance. The global employees BI spoke with said these ratings are combined into an overall performance score for each staffer. The staffers asked to remain anonymous to protect their jobs and career prospects; their identities are known to BI.

TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

For ByteStyle and leadership principles, employees are only scored between "I" for "improvement needed" and "E" for "exceed expectations."

How low scores impact employees

Performance reviews have been a stress point at the company, particularly after managers were told last year to give out more low reviews to better differentiate performance. A score of "M-" for "meet expectations," or "I", which is defined as "improvement needed," may lead to a performance-improvement plan or a severance offer. PIPs are common in the corporate world. Companies may offer them as a path to recover from a bad review, though many people say it's hard to survive them.

Four current TikTok staffers told BI that they felt that PIPs were essentially impossible to accomplish at the company.

"I have never met somebody who's passed a PIP," one of the staffers said.

One former staffer said the rating scale can be misleading. For example, an M-, which is listed in the rubric as "meet expectations," is internally considered a poor grade.

Current and former TikTok employees previously told BI that the pressure to meet performance goals has increased in the US in the past year, amid reorgs and other changes at the company. Several of those staff said their goals had shifted, making it difficult to meet expectations. The combination of internal pressure along with outside political threats due to a divest-or-ban law have contributed to burnout and mental health leave requests among some staff, BI earlier reported.

Have a tip? If you are in the US, contact Dan Whateley via email at [email protected] or Signal at @danwhateley.94. In Asia, contact Shubhangi Goel via email at [email protected] or Signal at @shuby.85. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Over the past decade, I've traveled solo to all 63 major US national parks.
• I always love returning to places such as Acadia National Park in Maine.
• There are some parks I don't plan on returning to because they're more difficult to get to.

I've spent the past decade traveling solo to all 63 major US national parks. Though I've found incredible beauty in each park, there are some I continue to go back to, and others I'm happy to have seen once.

The parks I keep returning to are varied and more generally accessible, meaning I can visit more often with less expense and a shorter planning period.

On the other hand, the parks I'm glad to have seen only once are probably some of the most impressive of all — but they're more challenging to get to logistically and financially.

Here are the three parks I love returning to and the three I'm glad I've checked off my list.

There's so much to love about Acadia National Park in Maine.

Acadia National Park is known for its fall foliage and great hiking trails. It's also the first location to see the sunrise in the continental United States from October 7 to March 6.

Though all of these things play a part in why I continually go back to Acadia, what I love the most is the park's rugged coastline and proximity to Bar Harbor.

Drive, walk, bus, or bike just 1.3 miles from the quaint town of Bar Harbor, and you're in one of the country's most scenic national parks.

The park's modest size is also a blessing in disguise. You can either quickly see the highlights or spend a longer time at each stop without feeling rushed or overwhelmed, which, for me, has created a stronger connection to the park.

There's always something new to discover at Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming was one of the first I visited solo. From the second the Teton Range came into view through my windshield, I knew it would be the place I would return to more than any other.

With challenging hikes, unique, jutting mountain peaks, and crystal-blue alpine lakes, this park always has something new to discover.

Grand Teton is close to Jackson, Wyoming, and is the only national park with a commercial airport entirely within its boundaries. I love that the park feels remote but is relatively easy to visit.

There's so much to do in West Virginia's New River Gorge National Park.

West Virginia's New River Gorge was named the 63rd US national park in 2021. Though its status changed only a few years ago, I've already visited several times and plan to return.

This park is easily accessible and has activities and beauty to impress even the most well-traveled park visitor.

I recommend spending the day hiking, driving, or even white water rafting in this stunning and unique part of the country.

However, I probably won't return to Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska.

Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park is an incredible sight to see. Encompassing more than 8.4 million acres of land entirely north of the Arctic Circle, the second-largest US national park is also the least visited — with just 11,045 visitors making the trek in 2023.

Getting there is part of the adventure, as there are no roads or established trails to enter the park. Because of this, though, I had to book a series of three flights to get there — the last of which cost $1,750 roundtrip.

Though it was definitely worth seeing the incredible landscapes of the Brooks Range, because of the logistics and cost, I probably won't be visiting more than once.

I loved my time in Alaska's Katmai National Park, but there are a few reasons I probably won't return.

One of the last parks I visited was also one I was most excited about: Katmai National Park in Alaska.

Though I loved my time hiking and observing the large population of brown bears, I most likely won't return because of costs and logistics.

Similar to other parks in Alaska, no roads connect it to other parts of the state, so visitors must fly or boat in. I flew to King Salmon, Alaska, on a charter plane and then to Brooks Falls on a seaplane for a total of $1,350.

Another reason I'm glad I visited just once is because it truly is a wilderness park, with much of it being backcountry and less than 6 miles of maintained trails. At the end of the day, I'm not comfortable exploring bear country alone as a solo traveler.

Visiting the National Park of American Samoa was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The National Park of American Samoa is extraordinary and unique, not just as a national park but also simply as a destination.

The park, which is the only National Park Service site south of the equator, will forever be one of my favorite unique national-park trips. Though I'd love to return, it's unlikely I will because of logistics. After all, the park is one of the most remote in the US.

Only two flights make the nearly six-hour journey from Honolulu to Pago Pago, American Samoa, each week — and each roundtrip flight costs at least $1,000.

Planning is also a little complex from there, as there's little tourism infrastructure. But there's something very special to me about having what can accurately be described as a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

• Japan's cruise industry is booming as the country continues to see an influx of tourists.
• Most of the country's cruise passengers are international.
• Cruise lines are expanding their Japanese itineraries, debuting new ships, or launching US sales.

Japan's vacation-at-sea industry is making a rapid comeback as it accommodates a swell of visitors to the country.

In 2024, Japan welcomed a record of about 37 million tourists — a 47% boost from 2023 and 15% boost from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. As your social media feed might suggest, Americans have played a small but notable part in this boom, accounting for more than 2.7 million visitors last year — up 33% from 2023 and 58% from 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

The surge isn't over — the country's tourism board expects to see even more US travelers in 2025.

And when there are American tourists, there are cruises.

In the US, floating resorts have experienced surging demand since pandemic-related restrictions were lifted in 2021. Meanwhile, Japan only began welcoming its first foreign cruise ships in 2023.

As such, the local industry has yet to recover fully, although that could soon change.

International travelers account for most of Japan's cruise passengers, its tourism board told Business Insider in an email. In 2024, the country saw an estimated 1.44 million international cruisers — a cool 121% increase from 2023 but still down 40% from 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism.

It similarly expects to have accommodated 1,923 international ships in 2024, only nine fewer than in 2019.

Expect this growth to continue — the ministry hopes to welcome 2.5 million international cruisers and more than 2,000 visiting ships in 2025, which would surpass 2019 levels.

Cruise lines want a slice of the castella cake

Tokyo is set to reopen a cruise terminal in June to accommodate the influx of floating resorts, according to trade publication Cruise Industry News.

Good timing — Norwegian Cruise Line has more than doubled its voyages out of the country from 10 in 2024 to 26 in 2025, a spokesperson told BI, citing increasing demand for Asia sailings. Its springtime Japan itineraries have been especially popular, with this year's cherry blossom sailings now sold out.

Like Norwegian, Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess is set to expand its Japan season next year, from March 2025 through August 2025 to February 2026 through November 2026. (If the ship sounds familiar, you might remember its marred history as an early COVID-19 superspreader off of the country's coast.)

If any company is banking on the industry's long-term success, it's Disney. The entertainment giant — in partnership with Oriental Land Company, the operator of Tokyo Disney Resort — plans to launch a Japan-based sister ship to its largest Disney Wish in 2029.

US-beloved brands aside, local companies are also hungry to capitalize on their backyard cruise boom.

For NYK Cruises, this means launching a new vessel, Asuka III, in July — the first Japanese-flagged floating resort to be built in about 30 years, according to shipyard Meyer Werft.

Or, do as Mitsui Ocean Cruises has done and go straight to the heart of cruising: North America.

The growing, 1½ -year-old cruise line recently purchased two ships from Seabourn.

In February, it also opened sales in North America in hopes of wooing the many cruise-loving Americans and Canadians with its "true Japanese experiences that only a Japanese company can provide, sailing with Japanese guests and crew," Anthony Kaufman, the company's head of commercial strategies, said in a media release.

So, forget the Caribbeans — maybe your next summer vacation at sea includes sipping sake instead of piña coladas, and petting Nara Park deer instead of dolphins.

• Shopify has acquired Vantage Discovery, a startup building AI search for retailers.
• Vantage Discovery was founded by two former Pinterest engineering leaders.
• Shopify has been acquiring startups in an effort to bring on more AI talent.

Shopify has acquired Vantage Discovery, a startup that builds AI-powered search functions for retailers.

Cofounders Lance Riedel and Nigel Daley both previously worked in engineering at Pinterest. Riedel built out Pinterest Shopping, while Daley worked in engineering infrastructure.

They started Vantage Discovery in early 2023 to bring a "Pinterest-like capability to any retailer" using generative AI, Daley said in an interview with Business Insider in February.

Vantage Discovery uses LLMs to enhance retailers' search functions, allowing shoppers to see more personalized, relevant results when searching through a store's product catalog.

"In the past, machine learning and AI had been held by some of the much bigger companies," he said. "Now with Gen AI and technology like Vantage Discovery, we can bring that same power to any retailer, from the smallest mom-and-pop shop to massive enterprises."

Riedel said in a LinkedIn post that Vantage Discovery would integrate its "revolutionary technology with Shopify's commerce platform." Daley confirmed the news in an email but declined to comment further on the deal.

"Vantage Discovery's search platform and mission-aligned team will play a key role in supercharging our work for both merchants and buyers," a Shopify spokesperson said to BI.

Shopify has been on an acquisition spree. It acquihired six startups in 2024 with the goal of bringing on AI talent.

"These have been very tactical, thoughtful AI hires and we want to continually be thoughtful, proactive, and judicious on thinking about the cash," CFO Jeff Hoffmeister said during the company's earnings call in February.

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• Tesla has said it will unveil a new more affordable model by mid-2025.
• The car, reportedly inspired by the Model Y, may be mass-produced in China in 2026.
• Elon Musk emphasized self-driving as essential for a cheaper Tesla model, dismissing alternatives.

Tesla's plans for its upcoming more affordable electric vehicle seem to be getting clearer.

The automaker has promised that the model will be unveiled in the first half of 2025, which means it could debut by the end of June if Tesla meets the deadline.

The other morsel of company info so far has come from CEO Elon Musk. On January's earnings call, he said it would be "pointless" to make a cheaper model without self-driving abilities, in response to a question about a "$25,000 non-robotaxi regular car model."

"It would be silly. It would be completely at odds with what we believe," Musk said.

Outside of its deadline and Musk's comments, Tesla has kept the details of this project hush-hush. However, 36Kr, a Chinese media outlet, reported on March 13 that the car will take after the Model Y, which currently starts at over $50,000 on Tesla's official website.

The Model Y is a popular option for Tesla buyers, and a newer version of the vehicle with a longer range and Cybertruck-style light bar was released in January.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on March 14 that the potential lower-cost vehicle will be produced in Shanghai, the US, and Europe, with mass production in China expected in 2026.

The slate of anticipated launches and announcements in 2025 follows a year of losses for Tesla. The company missed estimates in Q4, and sales declined 13% in Europe in 2024.

Tesla analysts have previously told BI that an affordable model launch could be what it needs to regain its footing as Chinese rivals emerge with their own low-cost EVs. As of Friday, Tesla's cheapest existing vehicle is the Model 3, which starts at over $30,000.

• California Pizza Kitchen has four original pizzas that have been on the menu for decades.
• Barbecue chicken and California club were both delicious, but wild mushroom was a favorite.
• However, the California veggie pizza disappointed us, and I wouldn't order it again.

I'm a huge fan of California Pizza Kitchen. I lived in Los Angeles for nearly a dozen years and frequented several locations of the chain during that time.

Luckily, the chain also has a location near my house in New York.

My family and I recently ordered the four original pizzas at CPK — California club, California veggie, barbecue chicken, and wild mushroom — to see which one is best.

We opted to make one of them half plain cheese so my youngest child would have a safer fallback option for dinner. However, it turns out we didn't need it because there were several family favorites.

Here's how the original pies stacked up.

The California club is a true classic.

Per the CPK website, the California club pizza features avocado, applewood smoked bacon, mayo, fresh lettuce, and tomatoes. We could also add oven-roasted turkey or grilled chicken.

My wife and daughter are vegetarians, so we opted for bacon on just half of the pizza and skipped the added meat.

Although consuming this is a messy affair that almost necessitates eating with utensils (or alone in the dark), the California club is just a delight of a pizza.

The crunch of the lettuce (ours also had arugula), the thick chunks of avocado, and the pizza all complement one another wonderfully in taste and texture.

I appreciated that it had sizable chunks of bacon, the appropriate amount of mayo, and fresh-tasting tomatoes.

I still love the original barbecue-chicken pizza from CPK.

One of my go-to orders at CPK over the years has always been the original barbecue chicken, which is topped with barbecue sauce, chicken, smoked Gouda, red onions, and cilantro.

Tangy and almost spicy (but with no real kick), this pizza works so well because the relatively few toppings each stand out while also working together.

The onion is potent but not overpowering, the cilantro adds a flash of herbal flavor, the chicken is heaped on generously, and the barbecue sauce ties everything together.

To be fair, my son didn't much care for this pizza, so I can already attest to it not being a universal winner. But he did eat every bite of one piece … and I happily ate the rest of the pizza myself.

The wild-mushroom pizza was a family favorite.

I loathe mushrooms, so I was glad to have some folks along with me willing to do the hard work of taste-testing. My wife and son both said CPK's wild-mushroom pizza was the best of the night.

And indeed, I'll allow that it looked like one good pizza. It's topped with shaved Cremini mushrooms, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, slivered scallions, Romano and mozzarella, cheese, and cracked black pepper.

The mushrooms were layered on evenly without being piled up, which helped some of them crisp up.

I'm told the pie's flavor was mildly earthy and vaguely meaty (even though the pizza is vegetarian) and that the blend of cheeses was excellent.

We won't be ordering the California veggie again.

Granted, there's a chance that we ended up with a uniquely bad showing of this pizza, but all the other pies seemed normal, so I doubt it. I think everyone in my family just thoroughly dislikes CPK's California veggie pizza.

The pizza comes topped with Broccolini, grilled zucchini, shaved Cremini mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, corn, red onions, and mozzarella. (I picked the mushrooms off, but my wife and son tucked in as-is.)

Usually, a plethora of toppings is welcome on a pie, but in this case, there was too much piled on the crust.

The veggies seemed overcooked and soggy, which negatively affected the texture of the pizza. The pie had hardly any sauce to speak of.

Also, in my opinion, Broccolini has no business being on pizza in the first place. I'm even on the fence about zucchini, but it's a moot point, as this pizza will never be on my table again.

Overall, the CPK original pies were mostly winners.

The barbecue-chicken pizza was always my go-to, and it still holds up.

Because of the variety of ingredients, the California club is like a salad and entrée in one tasty package — I highly recommend it.

Although I can't vouch for it personally, my family loved the mild, earthy flavors of the wild-mushroom pizza.

The one pie we all agreed to skip in the future was the California veggie. The texture didn't win us over, and it seemed like proof some toppings don't belong on a pizza.