Brazil's socialist government announced a series of censorship measures to fight "electoral harassment" in the country's workplaces.

The post Lula Launches Massive Online Censorship Campaign Against ‘Electoral Harassment’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Novaya Gazeta will turn off its servers and leave its office on Moscow's Potapovsky Lane on 9 November, ending more than 30 years of work, the editorial staff said in a statement published on 30 October. The paper will publish one final issue.

The closure removes what The Economist called Russia's "last free newspaper." Novaya Gazeta had repeatedly exposed evidence of Russia's aggression against Ukraine: in 2015, it published a memo that, it said, apparently reached Putin's administration in February 2014 with a plan to annex Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and in 2017 it published a witness account backing the identification of a Russian colonel linked to the downing of MH17. Some 1,500 journalists have left Russia since the full-scale invasion, and over 100 independent media projects now work from exile, according to a CEPA report. Novaya Gazeta kept working in Moscow through the war, until pressure rose sharply this year and, the paper says, left it with no office and no money.

The eviction and the donations cut off together

The eviction became public on 29 October, when The Insider reported a letter to readers from editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov and journalist Irina Gordienko. The newsroom had worked in the Potapovsky Lane building for 29 years, according to The Insider, or 30, according to the paper. The letter said the paper had very little time to leave and had no new office. The reasons for the eviction and the position of the building's owner have not been made public.

According to the statement, the platform the paper used to collect reader donations was shut down at the same time as the eviction letter arrived. Banks cited internal corporate rules, but the editors called this a coordinated campaign and blamed the FSB, the Justice Ministry, and the Prosecutor's Office.

The museum of Anna Politkovskaya, set up in 2021 in her former office in the same building, will also close, according to The Insider. On 7 October, the 20th anniversary of her murder, the museum received the restored memorial plaque from the Moscow building where she was shot.

Murders, attacks, and a criminal case against an editor

The statement lists six colleagues killed for their work: Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, and Natalya Estemirova. It also recalls the attack on Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, who nearly lost his sight, and says no criminal case was opened. Columnist Elena Milashina was abducted and beaten in Chechnya in 2023.

Earlier this year, in April, security officers raided the newsroom for 13 hours, and Oleg Roldugin, whom the paper calls its managing editor, was detained in a criminal case over the alleged illegal use of personal data, The Insider reported. The paper says Roldugin was in effect taken hostage for working as a journalist and that his trial is coming. In mid-October, Sokolov's apartment was searched. In early September, the Justice Ministry added Novaya Gazeta to its "foreign agents" register, listing more than 100 journalists and contributors, according to the statement.

Nearly five years of shrinking room

Novaya Gazeta suspended publication in March 2022 after warnings from the media regulator Roskomnadzor. In September 2022, a Moscow court stripped the paper of its media license, Reuters reported. Then-editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov called the ruling "a political hit job, without the slightest legal basis."

Meanwhile, staff who left Russia launched Novaya Gazeta Europe in Riga, according to RFE/RL.

Euromaidan Press has drawn on Novaya Gazeta's reporting, including its interview with Oleg Sentsov, and marked Politkovskaya's legacy in 2019.

• Joel Greiff planned to live on Villa Vie's Odyssey for decades, but was aboard for less than a month.
• He packed his Florida life into six bags and boarded the Odyssey earlier this month.
• On Tuesday, however, residents were ordered off in Cambodia as Villa Vie suspended operations.

This as-told-to essay is based on several conversations with Joel Greiff, 57, a Villa Vie Odyssey passenger from Florida. It has been edited for length and clarity. Villa Vie Residences and its founders, Mikael Petterson and Kathy Villalba, did not immediately respond to a request from Business Insider.

I planned to live on the Odyssey for 10, 20, or even more years. I don't think that will be happening now.

Still, unlike others, I am celebrating the time I was able to enjoy on the Odyssey, which was 26 days before Villa Vie suspended operations on Tuesday and we had to disembark in Cambodia.

I thought I had found my new home

In April 2024, I read an article about the Odyssey. I called a sales agent at the company and asked a bunch of questions.

The following May, I stayed on the Odyssey for four days. Within five minutes of boarding, I concluded that this was my new home, these were my new neighbors, and this would be my future.

What drew me in was that it would be a place where I could come, live, and be part of a community. I was following residents on Facebook and reached out to a couple of them individually. I asked whether they were happy with their decisions, and they said yes.

In August this year, I left my home in Florida. I spent a couple of months driving around the US, visiting friends and family, and saying my goodbyes. Then, in September, I flew to Bangkok and moved onto the ship on October 1.

I introduced 'Fantastic Joel' — that's what I go by — to many people on a ship. Most enjoyed meeting me. I'm sure a few didn't. There was always something going on, and people were really nice to each other. There were arts-and-crafts, plays, karaoke, and Seder dinners for Jewish residents.

I tried to put myself out there, meet a lot of different people, and say hi. There was always a good community having a good time. I absolutely fell in love with the crew. They deserve all the accolades and respect.

It was clear that things had changed

Compared with my visit in May 2025, it was clear to me that services and amenities had deteriorated by the time I moved aboard in October. Laundry was being done less frequently. Before going to Angkor Wat, I had to do my own laundry. The itinerary kept changing, and we sometimes sat at sea for days. Personally, I was fine with it.

Circle, Villa Vie's communication platform, was how the CEO and residents communicated. It's also how we got internal notices about the itinerary changes, visa applications, and other ship business.

On Sunday, we were told on Circle that if the company didn't receive money by Tuesday, the ship would not continue sailing. On Monday, we were told again that without money, the voyage would stop.

On Tuesday morning, I was at the bus station, coming back from a trip to Angkor Wat, charging my phone and waiting to get the shuttle back to the ship. The message came through on Circle telling us to disembark. It was about 7 a.m., and we had to be out by 2 p.m.

Before I arrived in Asia, I had fit everything I owned into four checked suitcases and two carry-on bags. I was able to repack within an hour. For people who had lived on the Odyssey for two years and had a home's worth of belongings, it was much harder.

I went somewhere quiet, then returned to help

After we disembarked, I went to Kampot, a small town in Cambodia, because I wanted to be somewhere peaceful. People had said it was relaxing.

Sihanoukville, where the ship was, felt like the opposite: a big, noisy place full of casinos and high-rises. I saw staff still working and residents who were discombobulated. I thought, 'I've got to get out of this craziness.'

For now, I've rented an affordable two-bedroom apartment for a month, about three hours away from Sihanoukville, where the ship is. I've been going back to the ship to help my fellow residents with their luggage, finding places to stay, and getting their belongings off the ship.

The residents are all coming together and helping each other out. Somebody says, "Do you have a suitcase?" and somebody says, "Yes, I have one spare."

I may never get my money back

I paid a lot for a 26-day stay on the Odyssey. Most likely I will never see it again. To me, if I lose the money, I don't need it. I don't care.

After all, the most important things in life are great friends and family, traveling the world, creating adventures, learning new things and, most importantly, helping others.

If the ship somehow finds a way to become a viable business, I would get back on it. If not, I'll explore living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. That was already my Plan B when I left Florida.

Amanda Goh and Alexandra Karplus contributed reporting.

Have you spent any time on the Villa Vie Odyssey as a cabin owner, renter, or staff member? If you have a story to share, get in touch with this reporter: jzitser@businessinsider.com.

A little-known agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ended a myriad legal giveaways to 2.2 million migrants welcomed by President Joe Biden.

The post DHS Citizenship Agency Reverses Biden Giveaways to 2.2 Million Migrants appeared first on Breitbart.

The prime minister’s ambitions might be ambiguous, but unlike the Conservative leader, he is following voters and the facts

British politics is still polarised around Brexit, although 10 years on from the referendum, the terms of debate are very different. Or they should be. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has moved discussions of European solidarity from the realm of abstraction to a matter of urgent defence partnership. Donald Trump’s presidency in the US, marked by scorn for European democracies and indulgence of Vladimir Putin, has undermined confidence that Britain can rely on any “special relationship” with Washington.

Under these circumstances, it would be absurd to deny that a reappraisal of Brexit is in order. The prime minister acknowledged this in his speech at the Labour party conference last month, calling for a national conversation about the future relationship with every option, including rejoining, on the table. The Eurosceptic opposition are having none of it. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, accuses the government of stirring division by raising the European question. She told MPs this week that Labour should thank the Tories for the Brexit deal they negotiated.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

• The boss of Villa Vie Residences sent passengers an "urgent" appeal for financial help in August.
• Three months before the cruise halted in Cambodia, CEO Kathy Villalba warned of soaring fuel costs.
• "We have now reached a critical point," she wrote. Read the full message to residents below.

Almost three months before Villa Vie Residences suspended operations on Tuesday, leaving residents of the "never-ending" cruise stranded in Cambodia, the company had already warned the Odyssey's residents that it was running out of money for fuel.

In an August 1 memo to residents labeled "urgent," Villa Vie CEO and founding partner Kathy Villalba asked residents for financial contributions to buy fuel.

The memo, which Business Insider reviewed, said the company needed to make "immediate and creative operational decisions to preserve the voyage."

The company behind the 509-cabin ship had promised a permanent life at sea and a voyage around the world every three-and-a-half years for its residents. That came to an abrupt halt on Tuesday, when residents were told to disembark with only a few hours' notice.

In a Tuesday statement announcing it had halted operations, Villa Vie said it had taken "significant steps to reduce fuel consumption" after prices rocketed following the onset of the US-Israel war with Iran in February, but that these steps had not been enough.

Villa Vie founder Mikael Petterson told Business Insider in a phone call on Wednesday that the fuel price surge triggered a "cascading effect" that culminated in the suspension of operations.

Financial pressures became clear to residents in April, two months after the war in Iran began, when Villa Vie asked residents to loan the company money, offering interest rates of 12% to 24%, according to a separate letter viewed by Business Insider.

And by August, Villa Vie had reached a "critical point," according to Villalba's message, which you can read in full below.

Villalba, Petterson, and Villa Vie did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Business Insider.

URGENT OPERATIONAL UPDATE

Confidentiality Reminder: This communication contains confidential and proprietary information intended solely for current Residents and authorized participants of the Villa Vie community. It is being shared through Circle as part of our commitment to transparency and open communication. We respectfully ask that you do not repost, forward, or otherwise distribute this information outside of Circle without the prior written consent of Villa Vie Residences.

Dear Residents,

We want to provide you with a direct, straightforward update regarding Odyssey's current operational realities.

When the fuel contribution was requested several months ago, participation was not universal. The contributions received helped some, but they covered only part of the extraordinary increase in fuel costs. Since then, the company has exhausted its available reserves covering the remaining shortfall and keeping Odyssey moving.

We had hoped that improving conditions in the region would begin to stabilize fuel prices. Unfortunately, the continued conflict and renewed market disruption have caused prices to rise sharply again. This is not simply an itinerary issue. It is an immediate cash-flow challenge that directly affects our ability to purchase the fuel required to continue the voyage.

Odyssey currently needs approximately 650 metric tons of fuel. Under normal market conditions, that fuel would cost approximately $450,000. At today's prices, the cost is nearly double ($800,000).

We have now reached a critical point. The lack of full participation, combined with the unprecedented increase in fuel costs, means we must make immediate and creative operational decisions to preserve the voyage.

We are working toward receiving a partial fuel delivery as early as Monday. Our berth is available until Friday, August 7 at 4:00 p.m., subject to final confirmation from the port agent and Singapore Port Authority. The current recommendation is to remain alongside until August 7 and then sail at a slower, more economical speed to Nha Trang for our scheduled arrival on August 12.

We are asking every Resident who did not previously contribute to please do so now. We are also asking those who are able to provide additional support to consider helping with this immediate fuel requirement.

While every Resident has a contract with Villa Vie, this international crisis has created costs far beyond the circumstances contemplated when those agreements were made. The financial need is real, immediate, and necessary to keep Odyssey moving. This is a moment when preserving our home and continuing the voyage requires support beyond contractual minimums from those who are able to provide it.

To conserve fuel and reduce operating costs, we will cancel Brunei and proceed directly from Singapore to Nha Trang. This will help reduce the expense, but it does not eliminate the need to fund the required bunkering.

We will provide another update as soon as the fuel, berth, and departure arrangements are confirmed.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

— VVR Management."

• Villa Vie Residences' Odyssey ship was meant to be a 'never-ending' luxury cruise.
• But its voyage ended just over 2 years after it first set sail.
• From its luxurious suites to gym facilities, take a look inside the doomed cruise ship.

In the famous ancient Greek poem "The Odyssey," Odysseus' journey home took him 10 years. The voyage of the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship was much shorter.

The promise of Villa Vie Residences' Odyssey cruise ship was that passengers could purchase or rent one of the rooms, with the idea of spending the rest of their days aboard a luxurious cruise ship.

The company had retrofitted the 33-year-old ship and sold permanent cabins priced from $119,999 to $439,999.

However, the company suspended the cruise ship's operations on October 27, 2026, just over two years after it first set sail. Villa Vie Residences cited rising fuel costs as the reason.

"I think we would have been absolutely fine — and we would have seen this through — if there was no Iran war," Mikael Petterson, founder and executive chairman of Villa Vie, told Business Insider this week.

With photos from Villa Vie Residences' media kit for the Odyssey, and information from its official website, take a look inside the doomed Villa Vie Odyssey.

The Odyssey is 195 meters long and could house 650 residents.

Residents could either opt for full ownership of a room or rent one for a shorter-term stay.

It offered a culinary experience using local ingredients from every place it traveled.

The Thistle Restaurant offered a daily menu that rotated on a 14-day cycle, with an emphasis on healthy, locally sourced cuisine.

The buffet-style Palms Café also had a 14-day rotating menu.

Lunchtimes also included an American grill for those missing a taste of home.

The Coral Club was the spot for late-night entertainment.

It offered activities such as live music, dancing, and karaoke.

Another socializing space is The Morning Light Pub.

It offered a café menu in the mornings and turned into a bar in the evenings.

The Observatory also offered a similar day-to-night vibe.

On Deck 8, The Observatory was a café that turned into a sunset-watching spot in the evening.

Villa Vie describes the Neptune Lounge as the place for "top-tier entertainment."

It offered local entertainment from each destination, such as live music and shows.

The Business Center offered a place to work for residents.

Connected to Starlink, the Business Center was open to all residents at no extra charge, with private offices available as well.

The Fitness Center features cardio and strength-training equipment, along with ocean views.

It also offered classes, such as yoga and wellness sessions.

On Deck 3, there is a spa equipped with a sauna and steam room.

There was an on-site hairdresser in the spa.

As well as a nail salon.

There is also a medical center on-site Deck 3.

On Deck 8, there is a pool deck.

It's also equipped with jacuzzis.

The deck also has a pickleball court.

One of the room types available for rent was the porthole villa.

During meal times, all residents were given access to complimentary wine and beer.

The balcony suites have a separate living area.

The superior suite had a private balcony, a separate living area, and an additional living space.

Brussels is considering unprecedented restrictions on the rights of future EU members, including the possible suspension of voting rights for serious breaches of European values. France and the Netherlands favour stronger safeguards, while Italy and Austria warn that excessive conditions could undermine enlargement.

European Union governments have begun negotiations over proposals that would allow Brussels to impose additional restrictions on future member states, exposing divisions over how to prevent democratic backsliding without discouraging countries seeking accession.

The discussions, held among EU ambassadors on 28 October, concern draft safeguards proposed by the European Commission for inclusion in future accession treaties.

Montenegro, currently the most advanced candidate in the Western Balkans, is expected to become the first country subject to the proposed arrangements.

The measures would potentially allow the EU to suspend certain membership rights, including voting rights, during a transitional period lasting up to 15 years after accession.

However, the negotiations have revealed disagreement not only over the duration of the safeguards but also over the powers that should be granted to the Commission and the legal thresholds for intervention.

The controversy raises a broader question about the nature of EU membership: whether countries that have completed accession negotiations should immediately enjoy the same institutional rights as existing members.

France and the Netherlands seek stronger guarantees

According to Euronews’ reporting on the ambassadors’ discussions, France and the Netherlands have pressed for stronger guarantees that newly admitted states will continue respecting the rule of law and other EU obligations.

Their position reflects concern that the Union’s existing procedures have proved difficult to enforce against governments accused of undermining judicial independence or democratic institutions.

Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union already provides for sanctions, including suspension of certain membership rights, where a serious breach of European values is established.

However, the procedure involves demanding political and voting requirements.

The Commission’s proposed safeguards are intended to provide an additional instrument specifically applicable to newly admitted members.

They would operate during a defined period after accession and could be activated in response to serious breaches of EU values or the principle of sincere cooperation.

For governments supporting the proposal, the objective is to ensure that reforms undertaken during accession negotiations remain effective after membership has been secured.

Italy and Austria warn against excessive restrictions

Not all member states share this approach.

Italy and Austria, among countries supporting faster integration of the Western Balkans, have warned against imposing conditions that could make EU membership appear provisional or unequal.

Their concern is that candidate countries may face an increasingly complicated accession process even after meeting the formal requirements.

The credibility of EU enlargement depends partly on the proposition that successful reforms will eventually lead to full membership.

If new members are subjected to extensive additional restrictions, political leaders in candidate countries could find it more difficult to justify the domestic compromises required by accession negotiations.

The debate is particularly sensitive in the Western Balkans, where prolonged delays have already generated frustration over the pace of integration.

The challenge for Brussels is to strengthen safeguards without creating a permanent distinction between established and newly admitted members.

A proposed 15-year period

The Commission’s draft institutional safeguard would remain available for 15 years following accession.

This period is intended to permit intervention if a new member reverses reforms after joining the Union.

Yet ambassadors have questioned whether such an extended period can reasonably be described as temporary.

The proposed decision-making mechanism has also attracted criticism.

Under the draft, the Commission could propose restrictive measures that would take effect unless a qualified majority of member states rejected or amended them within two weeks.

This would reverse the usual political dynamic by requiring governments to assemble a blocking majority rather than actively secure support for sanctions.

The proposal could therefore make intervention easier than under the existing Article 7 mechanism.

Critics are concerned that the arrangement would give the Commission excessive influence over the institutional rights of newly admitted countries.

Supporters argue that a more effective enforcement mechanism is necessary precisely because existing procedures have proved difficult to use.

Monitoring could begin before accession

The proposed safeguards are not confined to the period following membership.

The Commission also wants stronger monitoring between the signing of an accession treaty and the date on which a country formally joins.

This period can last several years, during which a candidate government may change and reform commitments may weaken.

Under the draft arrangements, monitoring could include regular assessments, reviews involving existing member states and formal warnings.

As a last resort, accession could be postponed if there were clear evidence that a candidate would not meet the required conditions.

The voting procedure for such a postponement remains unresolved.

These provisions would add another stage of oversight to an accession process that already requires extensive negotiations and the implementation of EU legislation.

Montenegro faces a new uncertainty

Montenegro began accession negotiations in June 2012.

According to the European Commission’s enlargement records, all 33 screened negotiating chapters have been opened and 16 provisionally closed.

Its progress has made the country a leading candidate for the next round of enlargement.

However, its accession treaty may now become the vehicle through which the EU establishes a new framework for future entrants.

The implications extend beyond Montenegro.

Albania, Moldova and Ukraine are also pursuing accession, although they are at different stages of the process.

Any safeguards introduced for Montenegro could influence the terms eventually offered to those countries.

Enlargement becomes a test of EU governance

The Commission’s proposals reflect a wider debate over whether the EU’s institutions can function effectively with substantially more members.

New entrants would participate in decisions concerning the budget, sanctions, foreign policy and the internal market.

Their admission could also affect areas where unanimity remains necessary, potentially increasing the risk of institutional deadlock.

The European Parliament’s research service has identified the proposed safeguards as part of a broader programme addressing decision-making and governance ahead of enlargement.

Negotiations over the draft clauses will continue at the technical level, with ambassadors expected to revisit the matter in November.

The central disagreement remains unresolved.

The EU wants future members to maintain democratic and legal standards, but it must also decide whether those guarantees can be enforced without creating a separate class of membership.

Montenegro’s accession negotiations will provide the first practical test of that approach.

• Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke converted his underused wine cellar into an AI server room.
• Lütke's AI assistant researches topics and pulls together his Fitbit and calendar data.
• Lütke used heart rate data to identify his most stressful meetings and told the people involved.

The Shopify CEO didn't have enough wine to fill his cellar, but he had plenty of uses for an AI system.

Speaking with Alex Heath on an episode of the Sources podcast released on Wednesday, Tobi Lütke said he consulted his “inner 16-year-old” before converting the underused room into a home for computing hardware.

"So now I have a rack cellar, and it has like one of those GB300s from Dell in it," Lütke said. "So it is actually fully training models."

The GB300 refers to Nvidia's Grace Blackwell Ultra computing platform, which Dell has built into powerful computers designed to develop and run AI models.

Lütke said the setup allows him to run AI locally, working with sensitive information he can't send to an outside lab. The agent researches topics, prepares briefings, and gathers data about his daily life, he said.

“I think it's probably the most compelling product I've ever encountered in my life," Lütke said. "It runs a script that sort of makes a collection of all sorts of things, including my Fitbit data, and, you know, obviously has my calendar."

"It has a little app. It knows my geolocation," Lütke added. "For my hobby, I do a lot of health-style analysis, but then given that I have all this data, like I have heart rate data for, you know, for this, and I figured out who my most stressful meetings are with."

Tech bosses are finding increasingly personal uses for AI. Business Insider previously reported that Google CEO Sundar Pichai uses agents to follow internal discussions and computing usage. Apple CEO Tim Cook uses AI to summarize emails, while OpenAI's Sam Altman has turned to ChatGPT for parenting questions.

Lütke has also pushed employees to put AI to work. In a memo made public in April 2025, he said that all Shopify teams must demonstrate why they can't achieve their goals with AI before hiring new employees.

Asked by Heath whether he told the people he discovered were stressing him out, Lütke said: “Yeah. Totally.”

"It's like: here's the funniest thing I just find out — guess what?" Lütke said. "And then they didn't think it's nearly as funny."

• Passengers on an abruptly halted round-the-world cruise say they were given just hours to disembark.
• "We are heartbroken," said one couple who lived aboard the Villa Vie Odyssey for two years.
• A fresh cash infusion fell apart last week, the company's executive chairman said. "I feel awful."

Passengers on a live-aboard round-the-world cruise say they were abruptly asked to leave the ship and given only hours to disembark.

Villa Vie Residences, which operates the residential cruise ship Villa Vie Odyssey, said on Tuesday it had halted operations due to surging fuel costs.

The ship was docked at the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia when the announcement was made, with passengers saying they were given only eight hours to disembark.

"On October 27, 2026, we received notice from the CEO at around 6 a.m. that all residents had to disembark by 2 p.m. that day," passengers Lanette Canen and Johan Bodin told Business Insider by email.

Canen and Bodin have been on the Odyssey since it first set sail in September 2024 and run a YouTube channel called Living Life on a Cruise about their experiences on board.

"We knew leaving was a possibility, but the eight-hour notice still surprised us," they said.

The couple shared a video on their YouTube channel that appears to show the moment a staff member announced that passengers must leave the ship.

"Unfortunately, they were unable to secure the fuel necessary to continue operations," a male voice says in the video.

A notice on the Villa Vie Residences website says the company is working with residents to arrange temporary living arrangements and that it is evaluating restructuring options over the next 60 days.

Mikael Petterson, executive chairman of Villa Vie Residences, told Business Insider he understood residents' feelings of shock and sadness.

"I get it. I get it. I feel awful," he said in a phone interview. "They're counting on me to make the decisions here and there's nothing else I'm focused on. I'm the villain in the story, but I'm doing everything I can to support the residents on a solution forward."

Petterson said that until last week, he was in talks with a potential investor and was expecting a new infusion of cash. When the deal fell apart, he said, the company was out of options.

Villa Vie Residences Chief Executive Kathy Villalba didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Soaring fuel costs

Villa Vie Residences said in a statement Tuesday that the surging cost of fuel since the beginning of the Iran war had made operating the cruise liner increasingly difficult.

The company said its monthly fuel expenses per cabin, which had previously averaged about $1,800, had risen as much as 344% in parts of Asia, to an estimated $6,000 to $8,000.

"Since the conflict began in late February, we have taken significant steps to reduce fuel consumption, including slowing the itinerary and spending more time in port," Villa Vie Residences said.

"Those measures have not been enough to offset the extraordinary increase in fuel costs, and we have been unable to continue carrying the resulting operating losses."

On August 1, Villalba, the CEO, sent residents a message titled "Urgent operational update" on an internal messaging platform. In the message, she referenced a "fuel contribution" that had been previously requested of residents. Business Insider has viewed a screenshot of the message.

"When the fuel contribution was requested several months ago, participation was not universal," she wrote in the message. "The contributions received helped some, but they covered only part of the extraordinary increase in fuel costs."

Villalba wrote that the "cash-flow" challenge had continued, and the Odyssey needed 650 metric tons of fuel, adding that fuel prices had almost doubled.

"We have now reached a critical point. The lack of full participation, combined with the unprecedented increase in fuel costs, means we must make immediate and creative operational decisions to preserve the voyage," her message said.

It continued, "We are asking every Resident who did not previously contribute to please do so now. We are also asking those who are able to provide additional support to consider helping with this immediate fuel requirement."

Villalba described the financial need as "real, immediate, and necessary to keep Odyssey moving." It went on, "This is a moment when preserving our home and continuing the voyage requires support beyond contractual minimums from those who are able to provide it."

Residents scrambled to leave their cabins

Among the passengers asked to disembark on Tuesday with only a few hours' notice was Barbara Fiegel, 62, who has lived with her partner aboard the ship since December 2024.

"Everybody's just shocked, everybody's just saddened by this whole issue," she said. "We're still processing, trying to debate what we're going to do."

Fiegel said she and her partner booked a hotel room in Cambodia, then returned to the ship Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon to empty their safe and pack their belongings. "Today, as we approached, as we went back on the shuttle back to the ship, I couldn't stop crying," she said.

They plan to return on Thursday to collect their remaining items. Fiegel described the atmosphere on the Odyssey as a “ghost town.”

Joel Greiff, 57, moved aboard the ship at the start of the month and planned to live on the ship for 10 or 20 years or more. “I don’t think that will be happening,” he said.

When residents were told to disembark, Greiff emptied his cabin. “I personally grabbed everything,” he said.

He said he would like to return if Villa Vie Residences resumes operations. If not, he is planning to move to Thailand. In the meantime, he has rented an apartment in Cambodia for a month.

Greiff said he plans to return to the Odyssey on Thursday to assist other residents and “help with their luggage, help them find a place, and just start getting them and all their stuff off the ship.”

Jacob Shamsian contributed to this story.

Have you spent any time on the Villa Vie Odyssey as a cabin owner, renter, or staff member? If you have a story to share, get in touch with this reporter: jzitser@businessinsider.com.

Correction: October 28, 2026 — An earlier version of this story misspelled Johan Bodin's name.

Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon is facing bipartisan blowback by touching the third rail of southern Florida politics by saying something that could alienate the region’s substantial Cuban American population.

The post WATCH: Angie Nixon Draws Bipartisan Heat for Her Qualified Answer About Cuban Dictatorship appeared first on Breitbart.

• Microsoft is offering buyouts to around 60,000 employees.
• Chris Williams, former Microsoft VP of HR, said waiting for a better offer may or may not backfire.
• He shared what employees who are offered a buyout should consider and what they may not realize.

Microsoft is offering buyout packages to some 60,000 employees, or more than 25% of the workforce. That's a huge number in any terms, and it sent a signal and shock wave through the industry this week.

I'm the former VP of HR for Microsoft, and although I've been away from the company for some time and have no insider information, having been on the inside at Microsoft and in the industry for 50 years, here is what Microsoft employees should be considering — and what they may not realize about taking a buyout offer.

Your buyout offer may or may not be the best offer you get

During a buyout, position, tenure, level, and other factors are taken into account for each bespoke offer. The offer is likely to include compensation, benefit continuation, and possibly some acceleration or continuation of equity vesting.

That said, Microsoft might not offer more generous buyouts than severance packages, but companies usually offer better terms to people who take a voluntary separation than people who get laid off. That is not only to induce employees to go voluntarily, but also because the costs to the company are less if these workers voluntarily leave. There is less legal risk, time, and expense. It's also simply easier for the company to manage.

If you're offered a buyout, I usually find it could be the best offer you'll get. If it's not, you could be settling for the same offer as someone in a layoff and miss out on collecting unemployment.

A buyout can force some very hard career choices

If you get a buyout offer, looking at your budget should be your next step. Does the offer provide you with enough to retire? Enough to support an extended job search? The buyout can be a good forcing function for some very hard career choices.

Spend time looking at your cash flows, and pay particular attention to benefits. For many, healthcare costs are a substantial part of their budget. Weighing the buyout offer against continued coverage is often a tipping point in the decision.

Also consider any equity vesting dates you may have. Compare when you might vest with and without the offer, as those dates can mean a significant change in your investments. Whether you should take the buyout is highly dependent on both the offer and your situation. If you had retirement anywhere in sight, this offer might be just the trigger you need to move on. Perhaps the best offer you'll ever see.

However, if you need to continue working, there's a great deal more to consider.

Taking a buyout can give you a head start in a tough job market

The tech industry job market has been rough for the last year or so, and shows all the signs of getting worse. If the buyout doesn't afford you the ability to retire, you should plan on an extended period of job searching, maybe six months or more. It's tough out there. Be prepared.

One thing to consider if you need to continue working is that taking the buyout might give you a short head start in the job market. Assuming Microsoft and others follow this up with more layoffs like they did the last time, the technical job market will be flooded with quality people. Of course, you can search for a job while you have one, but taking the buyout gives you time for a full-time job search.

In any case, if a job search is in your future, don't delay. This market shows no sign of getting better.

Finally, if you're offered a buyout, don't ignore it. It's a sign. I'd read it as a clear signal from the company about your value, at least from their perspective. You can bet on the odds, but if follow-up layoffs happen, I'd bet that those who declined the buyout are somewhere on that list.

Buyout or not, some things to do

This buyout is the latest signal of a broad realignment of the job market, at least in the tech sector. Even if you aren't offered it or don't think you're at risk of later layoffs, you'd be wise to keep all your options open.

Get your résumé up to date. Spend time honing it, emphasizing the clearest set of skills you can. When a market is contracting, the safest bet is having a particular skill someone is looking for. When times are tight, the generalist is often the first person let go.

Work with and expand your network. Have coffee or a Zoom chat with everyone you know. Peers in other companies, even other industries, are invaluable when things get tough. Especially when the world is changing, and predicting the next hot spot is so hard, having as many warm connections across industries is a huge asset.

Don't go asking for jobs as much as keep those connections alive. You never know when someone's manager will say, "We need someone like that." And your friend can say, "I know just the person."

Whether you are offered a buyout, or whether you decide to take it or not, having a network of people to connect with is your single biggest career asset.

What to do if you get a buyout offer

Budget first, and outreach next.

Carefully decide your near- and long-term financial future, and make the decision from hard facts. Then connect with people you know across industries, far and wide. Those connections will be excellent sounding boards and could well provide the path to your next role, or the friends you need in retirement.

When contacted about this story, a Microsoft spokesperson pointed Business Insider to its statement on the official Microsoft Blog, which read in part, "Today, we're introducing a new Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) to eligible employees within participating organizations." They added that "the VEO is similar to a standard severance offer, which varies by market. The offer includes payment based on completed service and base pay, as well as career transition services, which includes career coaching and job search assistance."

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McDonald's is exiting the playing field.

The fast-food giant's surprise decision to end its 32-year run as a FIFA World Cup sponsor shows how major global brands are reassessing the cost, clutter, and commercial return of sports' biggest properties.

McDonald's ran its largest-ever World Cup marketing push during this summer's tournament, and McDonald's CFO Ian Borden said on an August earnings call that the effort "underperformed versus our expectations."

The company said last week that it had decided not to renew its current deal, which is due to end this year. It also indicated to FIFA that it isn't looking to invest in next year's Women's World Cup, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Sports sponsorship is seen as a way for brands to tap into huge, live global audiences and associate themselves with the feel-good factor of athletes' achievements. Management consultancy Kearney estimated the global market for sports sponsorship and in-venue advertising at $52 billion in 2025 and expects it to grow by 8% to 9% annually through 2030, reaching about $80 billion.

While many marketers continue to spend heavily on sports, they often find it hard to measure the commercial uplift from their sponsorship outlays. Research from Forrester, published in 2025, found that 76% of US business-to-consumer marketing executives who invested in sponsorships the prior year reported struggling to calculate the return on investment, or ROI, of their sports sponsorships.

"They are gaining a lot of traction around brand awareness, but can't necessarily calculate the hard and fast ROI numbers to prove to their CFOs that the money and long-term commitment for these kinds of sponsorships are necessary," Mike Proulx, a Forrester VP, told me.

For McDonald's, the figures evidently didn't justify a renewal. The deal was valued at $40 million annually, per the research firm GlobalData Sport.

For a globally recognized brand such as McDonald's, the scope for the World Cup to deliver another spike in brand awareness and associated sales may have reached its ceiling. Heineken appeared to make a similar recalculation last year when it said it would end its 30-year UEFA Champions League partnership in 2027. The brewer said it was shifting its sponsorship focus to platforms "where spend is proportionate to value creation," while retaining Formula 1 and adding Premier Padel.

McDonald's CMO Morgan Flatley said in a statement last week that sports remains important to its marketing strategy. At the company's September investor day, Flatley said she was focusing her campaigns "on McDonald's collection of iconic IP, not someone else's." The company continues to sponsor dozens of sports properties, including France's Ligue 1 top-flight soccer league and the All-American Games.

The 2026 World Cup reached nearly 6 billion people worldwide across different platforms, according to FIFA, which helps explain why brands continue to spend heavily to be associated with it. While FIFA has not disclosed a final sponsorship total for the 2026 World Cup, its latest budget forecasts $2.8 billion in marketing-rights revenue across all commercial partnerships in the 2023 to 2026 cycle. That would be about 59% more than it generated across the 2019 to 2022 Qatar cycle. For the 2026 tournament, FIFA also introduced a program that allowed host cities to sell local supporter packages, making the sponsorship market increasingly crowded compared to previous years.

Rory Natkiel, founder of sponsorship effectiveness consultancy Box Count, said the additional host-city partners risked shrinking McDonald's "share of property" — the portion of the event's commercial attention it could realistically command.

That dynamic could make smaller or newer sports properties more attractive to mature global brands. While they might not offer the global scale of long-standing events like the World Cup, they can provide greater flexibility to tailor marketing to specific audiences and channels than the tightly controlled multiyear packages from major rights holders allow. For a company like McDonald's, that could open up an opportunity to offer consumers an experience they remember rather than a sponsorship they simply expect.

"If they start going into new sports and trying to attract a different audience to the global football audience — padel for a slightly more premium audience, or whatever it might be — it does create a new compelling angle and a new avenue for creativity," said Rory Stewart-Richardson, a longtime sports sponsorship executive.

Stewart-Richardson said he wouldn't be surprised if other legacy brands start recalibrating their sponsorship deals, focusing more on local markets and digital activations, with an emphasis on "building from the consumer out rather than trying to buy into temporary cultural relevance."