Category: Laptops

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the US last week to shore up support for Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy called McConnell one day before the visit, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
• Zelenskyy urged McConnell to support a measure that ultimately passed Congress, the outlet reported.

Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s historic visit to the US last week, Congress passed a provision to give Ukraine the assets that were seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

The approval of the measure may have had something to do with a secret phone call between Zelenskyy and Sen. Mitch McConnell, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The outlet reported Thursday that the Ukrainian president called the Senate minority leader one day before his White House visit and address to Congress.

Three unnamed sources told the Post-Gazette about the call, in which Zelenskyy attempted to persuade McConnell that proceeds from the oligarchs’ seized assets, including superyachts and mansions, should be used to help Ukraine rebuild from the devastation of the war.

The provision ultimately passed as an amendment to the $1.7 trillion bipartisan spending bill that passed the Senate in a 68-29 vote on December 22, and passed the House the following day. The bill also included $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law Thursday evening. 

During Zelenskyy’s visit the US also announced an additional $1.85 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.

The US has frozen or seized billions of dollars worth of assets belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs since the invasion was launched in February. The US was limited in how it could use those assets, though President Joe Biden as early as April floated a plan to sell those assets to help Ukraine.

Representatives for McConnell and Zelenskyy did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

• Federal prosecutors are looking into Rep-elect George Santos’ finances, per media reports.
• Santos has admitted to lying about parts of his work and education history.
• Santos’ most recent financial disclosure shows a $750,000 salary from a company he founded.

Republican Rep-elect George Santos has already admitted to lying about parts of his resume. Now, it’s his money that’s drawing federal scrutiny.

The US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York is looking into his finances, a source familiar with the matter told CNN and CBS. 

The probe is not a formal investigation at this time and is focused on the source of his wealth, per ABC News.

When Santos first ran for Congress in 2020, he listed a salary of $55,000 and no assets, public filings show, ABC News reported. Santos’ most recent financial disclosure, filed in September, shows a salary of $750,000 and various assets and dividends that amount to at least $2.6 million. The salary is drawn from Devolder Organization, a company he founded in 2021.

Santos also lent $705,000 to his campaign through Devolder, per a Federal Election Commission form filed on December 8. That move, as the Daily Beast reported, may not be legal.

The news of the probe comes on the heels of a New York Times investigation, released on January 19, that revealed Santos lied about several parts of his resume, including his higher education and work history.

Santos previously claimed he had worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. On Monday, he admitted that sections of his work history – including the stints at both Goldman and Citigroup — were made up.

“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” Santos, 34, told the New York Post on Monday.

Among the other controversies Santos has recently been caught in are false claims of a Jewish ancestry and falsely claiming to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010.

Santos has said he still intends to take his seat in the House in January.

Santos did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• Dogs who are fed home-cooked and human-grade meals poop less, scientists found.
• It’s a practical benefit but is also more costly and time-consuming than feeding them kibble. 
• It’s not clear whether human-grade food is better for dogs’ health, experts said. 

Using human-grade food makes your dog poop less. But it may not be better for their health.

A 2021 study followed the poop output of 12 dogs fed “fresh” dog food (from the FreshPet brand), classic dog food ( from Blue Buffalo), or “human-grade” beef or chicken dog food (JustFoodForDogs) for 28 days.

The study found that the dogs pooped around half as much when eating fresh and human-grade food — a drop of 50% to 70%. They also had to eat less food to maintain the same weight.

Though this has an obvious practical benefit — less poop to pick up — experts said it’s not clear how that affects the health of the dogs. 

“If you want a smaller poop when they go down the Manhattan sidewalk, feeding a home-prepared type of diet is definitely a better option for low stool volume,” Joseph Wakshlag, professor of clinical nutrition at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, told Insider. 

But outside of that, the effects are unclear, he said.

Wakshlag says the study was just one of a dozen looking at the effect of home-cooked meals on dog nutrition. None so far have definitively shown that kibble or canned food is worse for the dog’s health or lifespan, he said.

“The only thing we know is that digestibility is better. That just means I get more nutrition from what I’m putting in than what’s coming out,” he said.

“Is that better? Is your dog gonna live longer? Is your dog not gonna get a certain disease? We don’t know that,” he said.

The risk with feeding your pooch a home-cooked meal is also that you might not strike the right balance of protein and vitamins for your pet, which is different from the nutritional needs of humans, Wakshlag said.

Kibble, on the flip side, has been specially designed to concentrate all the protein and vitamins your pet needs in a small portion. 

It’s true that kibble and canned food have to be treated to extend their shelf life. In the process, molecules that could be bad for your dog’s health appear in the food.

But they are in very small quantities — comparable to the effect of barbecue-grilling a steak, which also adds unhealthy particles, Wakshlag said. 

Feeding your dog high-quality or home-cooked meals can also be expensive and time-consuming, Wakshlag noted. 

“Home cooking requires time commitments and the right balance. It can be done — it’s just, as I say to people: you don’t like spending $120 on a bag of dog food, a high-end therapeutic food, or whatever, so you’re gonna cook. It’s still gonna cost you $4 a day to feed your dog,” said Wakshlag. 

Kelly Swanson, professor of animal and nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois and lead author on the study, told Insider in an email that owners should also be wary of labels.  

“The ‘natural,’ ‘organic,’ and ‘human-grade’ terms all refer to the source of ingredients. While those ingredients may be of high quality (e.g., nutrient-dense; highly digestible), it does not guarantee that the diet will be,” he said.

“The formulation (how ingredients are used together to make a complete and balanced diet), nutrient concentrations (e.g., what protein, fat, and fiber levels), and amount and type of processing (e.g., extrusion; retorting/canning; pasteurization; baking) of the diet are also very important factors,” said Swanson. 

Ambani’s family lives in a 27-floor mansion replete with helicopter pads, a snow room, and a garage for 168 cars.

Ambani’s home, fleet of luxury vehicles, family events, and vacations have been the subject of vast public scrutiny.

He and his family live in Antilia, a 400,000-square-foot mansion with 27 floors, three helipads, a 168-car garage, nine elevators, and a snow room, per Architectural Digest.

According to The South China Morning Post, it takes around 600 staff to run Antilia and maintain its ballroom, temple, and 50-seat theater.

The outlet also reported that Antilia is outfitted with a snow room that pumps artificial snow on demand, as well as its own ice cream parlor.

Ambani made international headlines in 2018, when it was said that the wedding of his daughter, Isha Ambani, cost around $100 million. The 600 attendees of the high-profile event included Beyoncé, Hillary Clinton, Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan, and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington.

Ambani also owns more than 170 luxury cars, including a $2 million Rolls-Royce Cullinan with a $128,000 paint job, per Luxury Launches, an Indian lifestyle news website.

Recently, Ambani booked his family into suites at Switzerland’s luxurious Bürgenstock Resort at around $74,000 per night in July.

• A Boeing 747-8 that spent just 42 hours in the air is being dismantled, a report says.
• The $280 million jet was ordered for a Saudi prince, who died before it was delivered.
• Boeing repurchased the plane in April, but failed to find a new buyer and decided to scrap it. 

A Boeing Jumbo jet that spent just 42 hours in the air is being scrapped after the Saudi prince it was bought for died unexpectedly, a report said.

Germany’s aero TELEGRAPH reported that the Boeing 747-8 was being dismantled at Pinal Airpark in Arizona after no buyer was found for the plane despite the asking price being slashed to just $95 million.

The aircraft was ordered for Saudi crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at a cost of about $280 million, but he died unexpectedly in October 2011, a year before it was delivered.

Data from planespotters.net showed the plane was flown in 2012 from San Antonio to Basel, Switzerland, where Mail Online reported it was due to be fitted out with a luxury interior.

But when the crown prince died, no other member of the Saudi royal family expressed interest in taking on the jet. As a result it stood unused for a decade at a Swiss airport while a buyer was sought.

Boeing repurchased the plane for an undisclosed sum three days before its final flight to Arizona in April, fueling expectations that the jet could have been saved, the Mail reported.

—Joel Basler | Aviation Photographer (@jbjetss) April 17, 2022

The jet has flown for just 42 hours and its “hardly used” status could have been a selling point for potential buyers. A Boeing 747 usually has a lifespan of about 30 years.

However, no buyer emerged for the jet and it is now be scrapped at the Arizona “boneyard”.

The 747-8 continues to be used for cargo and for passenger jets by airlines including Lufthansa, although its four engines mean it is more expensive to operate than newer twin-engine planes such as the 787 Dreamliner or Airbus A350.

Earlier this month the last 747 to be made by Boeing rolled out of its factory in Washington state after half a century of production.

—Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) December 7, 2022

• Elon Musk’s brother said there’s a “lack of appreciation” for Twitter’s “awesome” mute button.
• Kimbal Musk spoke about his love of the feature in a Twitter Space on Friday with Lex Fridman.
• They discussed ways of improving Twitter and Kimbal Musk said the mute button was “underused.” 

Elon Musk’s brother said there’s a “lack of appreciation” for Twitter’s “awesome” mute button. 

Speaking in a Twitter Space organized by podcast host Lex Fridman on Friday, Kimbal Musk discussed “How to improve Twitter” and talked about some of the changes his brother implemented since taking over the company on October 27.

“There’s a lack of appreciation for the mute button on Twitter,” he said. “If you really want to clean up your feed, be one of those guys that don’t want to enjoy that particular piece of drama, muting is just awesome.

“That feature is just underused on Twitter and I think my brother has plans to incorporate it into just the algorithm as well.”

Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider.

Kimbal Musk, who’s a year younger than his 51-year-old brother, owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group that operates sites in Colorado, Chicago, and Indianapolis. The company’s LinkedIn page says dining at its restaurants is like “a celebration at a best friend’s house.”

During the Twitter Space, Kimbal Musk also said he loved the “entertaining side of Twitter,” and wished there was more of it. He added that debate on political topics, such as former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, “bores me to tears,” but when “it gets entertaining I’m in love with Twitter.”

Kimbal Musk concluded: “Man, how do we get more of that?”

• The January 6 House Select Committee released almost 50 witness testimony transcripts Friday.
• One transcript details the committee’s interview with Hope Hicks, a former Trump ally.
• “I just think that he felt like…blaming him for everything that transpired wasn’t fair,” she said.

In a spate of witness deposition transcripts released on Friday by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, a transcript reveals that former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks told the committee that former President Donald Trump felt like the blame he received for the riot on Capitol Hill was unfair.

Once one of Trump’s closest allies, 34-year-old Hicks sat voluntarily for witness testimony, a video of which aired during the committee’s final hearing on Monday. She was one of few people in Trump’s orbit that communicated to Trump that he lost the 2020 election, according to the transcript released Friday.

—Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) December 24, 2022

Hicks talked to Trump on January 11, 2021, days after the deadly insurrection. 

“He asked me if I thought it was really as bad as everyone was making it out to be. And my answer was, yes, I thought it was,” the transcript reads. 

She added: “I think he felt like t wasn’t fair — the response to it wasn’t fair.” 

Hicks, who resigned from the White House on January 12, 2021, said she communicated to Trump that he should change his approach and appear more “rational” to observers.

“And I was just telling him, I think, you know, the more rational you are and restrained you are, the more extreme everybody else will look, so things like banning you from social media I think will backfire, and that, you know, if you focus on the things people really care about and not the election, I think that things will get better quickly for you, in terms of politically,” Hicks told the committee.

She said Trump also asked her if she believed the election was stolen, to which she objected. 

“And then we just sort of exchanged some, you know, pleasantries, and that was it,” she added.

“I just think that he felt like, you know, blaming him for everything that transpired wasn’t fair,” Hicks continued. 

The committee released a thorough report on Thursday of its findings while investigating the Capitol riot and how Trump played a part in it. They also recommended to the Justice Department that Trump face criminal charges for his role in the insurrection.

Hicks was not immediately reachable for comment.

• The Crown Estate owns properties worth $17.6 billion, including farmland, seabeds, and retail parks.
• Stores on the sites include McDonald’s, Starbucks, Apple, KFC, Peloton, and Victoria’s Secret.
• The massive portfolio was passed to King Charles III upon the Queen’s death.

McDonald’s restaurants, Starbucks stores, and lingerie shops are among the unexpected properties now owned by King Charles III.

The Crown Estate, which generates profits for the UK Treasury, is owned by the reigning monarch and control was passed down from Queen Elizabeth II to King Charles III upon her death.

The Crown Estate’s properties are collectively worth £15.6 billion ($17.7 billion). As well as vast areas of farmland, seabed, and coastline, the Crown Estate also own large swathes of retail properties, meaning that the king owns things like McDonald’s restaurants and a handful of Starbucks sites.

The King is not involved in management decisions relating to the estate, unlike his own private assets, which include Balmoral and Sandringham, two royal residences.

The Crown Estate says that outside of London it has a £1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) regional retail portfolio with more than seven million square feet of space, made up of 17 retail parks and shopping malls located in or near cities including Leeds, Liverpool, and Oxford.

And within London, it has owns 10 million square feet of office, retail, dining, leisure, and residential space, which the Crown Estate says makes it one of the West End’s largest property owners. This property is worth around £7.7 billion ($8.8 billion), it says.

Across its retail parks and shopping malls outside of London, the Crown Estate rents out space to seven McDonald’s restaurants, four Starbucks stores, and five Subway stores. Other US fast-food giants with a presence include Pizza Hut, KFC, Five Guys, and Burger King.

The retailer with the biggest presence is clothing and homewares store Next, operating 13 locations across the 17 sites. 

The sites also include 10 stores operated by British retail giant Marks & Spencers and six operated by Irish fast-fashion company Primark. Lingerie and sex-toy shop Ann Summers also has a store at the Westgate shopping mall in Oxford, as does Victoria’s Secret.

Other stores include across the Crown Estate’s portfolio Pandora, Apple, TK Maxx, Urban Outfitters, Build-a-Bear, Peloton, and Vans. Across the sites there are also cinemas and bowling alleys.

The retail parks and shopping malls feature very different stores to those on London’s Regent Street, which is home to many high-end stores and is fully managed by the Crown Estate.

In a policy document, the Crown Estate says that all retailers on the street are expected to meet the Regent Street brand of “quality, heritage, style, and success” and to have their UK flagship store on that street.

The Crown Estate also has a comprehensive list of businesses which aren’t allowed to operate on the street, including night clubs, betting shops, casinos, sex shops, charity shops, travel agencies, discount stores, hair salons, tattoo parlors, grocery stores, and cafes.

• Caroline Ellison was the CEO of Alameda Research, a trading firm launched by Sam Bankman-Fried. 
• She oversaw many of the risky bets Alameda took with FTX customers’ crypto tokens. 
• Here is her background story. 

Over the past few weeks, a mushroom of secrets about the inner workings of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX, have come to light.

From that, the once shadowy figure of Caroline Ellison has emerged as an important character behind FTX’s seeming success and surprising downfall.

Ellison was the head of Alameda Research — the trading firm through which Bankman-Fried moved crypto tokens in tandem with running FTX. Amidst the revelation that FTX borrowed money from customer accounts to fund bets via Alameda, Ellison has become a subject of online speculation.

Ellison’s virtual presence, however, is dwindling by the day. Her LinkedIn, online photos, and contact information have largely disappeared over the past couple of weeks. That’s left journalists, investors, and voyeurs of all types scrambling to find information about her.

The curiosity has only heightened since CoinDesk reported via anonymous sources that she was in an on-and-off relationship with SBF.

Right now, the most reliable information about Ellison has been sourced from her Tumblr account, and the handful of media interviews she’s given over the years. The bones of her virtual self suggest that Ellison is extraordinarily bright and highly educated as well as a math whiz and a big reader. She speculates often about gender roles and shifts in culture and society on Tumblr.

Here’s what we know about Caroline Ellison.

December 22, 2022: This story has been updated to reflect the details of Ellison’s plea deal.