Day: September 7, 2023

The group CEO of Ryanair received a pair of pies to the head on Thursday.

Michael O’Leary took two pies to the head in succession from a pair of female climate protesters, getting one to the face and one to the back of his head, according to reports and video of the incident. He was near the European Union building in Brussels at the time.

Photos posted by Ryanair on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly Twitter, showed the Ireland-based airline executive holding a spiral-bound petition with cream on his cheek and the back of his head.

One of the women involved in the incident said to him, “Stop the pollution of the f—ing planes,” Sky News reported.

BOEING LANDS MASSIVE MAX 10-JET ORDER FROM RYANAIR

The petition he held pertained to airspace above France and the strikes that French air traffic controllers have launched this year. The company has asked the EU Commission to “protect EU passengers and overflights” when the strikes happen so that planes can pass through the airspace.

A social media post from Ryanair said the petition has garnered signatures from 1.5 million people. On the airline’s website, it pegged the number at 1.8 million.

O’Leary wanted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to receive the petition from him while in Brussels, according to reports. Ryanair has attributed more than 4,000 of its flight cancellations in 2023 to the strikes.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

The Irish Independent reported that O’Leary at one point said, “I love cream cakes, they’re my favorite” after the pie incident.

O’Leary has headed Ryanair as group CEO for more than four years, with his contract currently slated to run through July 2028. Prior to that role, he held the Ryanair CEO position for more than two decades, according to the airline’s website.

Ryanair planes carried more than 18.9 million travelers in August, with the two preceding months coming in at 18.7 million and 17.4 million passengers, respectively, the company reported.

THREE RYANAIR PASSENGERS REMOVED FROM FLIGHT AFTER BRAWL ERUPTS: VIDEO

Read More 

WWE legend Ric “The Nature Boy” Flair’s new Woooo! Energy Drink has become the exclusive energy drink of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. The brand announced the partnership Wednesday. 

Flair will be touching down in Ohio this week to promote Wooooo! Energy and the new partnership at Giant Eagle and Market District supermarkets, beginning Sept. 11 in Cleveland. 

Flair discussed the partnership and his upcoming tour to promote Wooooo! Energy, which has shaken up the energy drink market with a mushroom-based beverage that has given consumers clean energy without jitters. 

Flair reflected on how Cleveland has embraced him over the years, making it a perfect destination to pair with the Cavs. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXBUSINESS.COM

“Great wrestling town, really supportive,” Flair said. 

“The Flats in the ‘80s were unbelievable. All the boats pulled up. Great area. There was a place called Duke’s at the Marriott by the airport. Lot of great stories about Cleveland.”

“I’m from Cleveland, so you know it’s exciting for me,” Chad Bronstein, chairman and president of Carma HoldCo, added. “Wooooo! Energy has been starting to pick up like crazy. Ric met with Giant Eagle, and I’ve been going to Giant Eagle my whole life, going to the stores. We struck a partnership with them. We worked it out for several months. Then, they were grocery partners for the Cavs, so we chose to do a partnership with the Cavs, too.”

RIC FLAIR’S WOOOOO! ENERGY USING FUNCTIONAL MUSHROOMS TO CHANGE ENERGY DRINK GAME: ‘IT’S ME IN A CAN’

Bronstein said Flair’s involvement with the Cavaliers goes beyond the energy drink. 

“They love Ric,” he explained. “Ric’s going to be a part of pumping up the crowd. We have a Wooooo! Energy meter, a bunch of stuff throughout Quicken Loans Arena.”

Flair is a huge fan of LeBron James, and though James may no longer play for the Cavs, he’s a local kid from Akron who brought an NBA title to the city in 2016. Flair remembers when LeBron was attending wrestling events as a kid. 

“He was like 17 years old when he came to the matches, and he had just been on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Flair recalled. “I think he was a junior in high school. He had about 10 kids with him, and they all sat front row. He was a big wrestling fan.”

Flair’s signature “Wooooo!” cry has transcended wrestling; the entire sports world has used it to get crowds cheering. That’s why Flair and Bronstein continue to look for other opportunities to promote the energy drink that features seven different mushrooms — not psychedelic in any way — that can be found at your local grocery store. 

“Every group we call in the sports world and say, ‘Hey, we want to do Wooooo! Energy,’ their stadiums have chanted the “Wooooo!” Bronstein said. 

“For us, the Cavs make sense because it’s all throughout Ohio. There’s no other basketball team. If you’re in Columbus or Cincinnati, you’re probably rooting for the Cavs.”

Flair, 74, continues to bring his charisma wherever he goes, and he credits Wooooo! Energy with keeping him going each day. 

“It’s me in a can, brother. That’s how I define it,” he said. 

Read More 

The U.S. economy has a better chance than not of tumbling into a recession within the next year as inflation remains uncomfortably high, according to Deutsche Bank strategists. 

In a analyst note Wednesday, the strategists warned a recession remains the more likely outcome than a “soft landing” as a result of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hike campaign.

“Given that inflation peaked significantly above target, the Fed should err on the side of tightening too much, rather than too little,” they wrote. “A U.S. recession remains more likely than not.”

While a soft landing is still possible to achieve, the Fed needs to “depress demand below potential” to bring inflation down to its 2% target, Deutsche Bank said. 

CREDIT CARD DEBT RISING IN DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD FOR THE ECONOMY

Fed policymakers have raised interest rates sharply over the past year, approving 11 rate hikes in hopes of crushing inflation. In the span of just one year, interest rates surged from near zero to above 5%, the fastest pace of tightening since the 1980s. 

Officials have signaled that additional rate hikes are on the table this year until there is more substantial evidence that high inflation has retreated for good.

The strategists warned that data is likely to show the U.S. economy under greater pressure in early 2024 as the tighter monetary policy takes effect.

The note stands in contrast to growing optimism among economists that the U.S. may skirt a recession this year. 

Goldman Sachs economists this week lowered their probability of a recession starting in the next 12 months to 15% from an earlier 20% forecast, citing cooling inflation and a surprisingly resilient labor market.

MOODY’S DOWNGRADES US BANKS, WARNS OF POSSIBLE CUTS TO MAJOR LENDERS

“First, real disposable income looks set to reaccelerate in 2024 on the back of continued solid job growth and rising real wages,” said Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman. “Second, we still strongly disagree with the notion that a growing drag from the ‘long and variable lags’ of monetary policy will push the economy toward recession.”

On top of that, the Goldman economist believes the Federal Reserve is “done” raising interest rates as unemployment rises, wage growth slows and core inflation continues to moderate.

Goldman Sachs acknowledged its outlook is “substantially more optimistic” than many other forecasts, including a Bloomberg consensus of 60%.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

The notes come one month after the government reported that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods, including gasoline, groceries and rents, rose just 0.2% in July. Prices climbed 3.2% on an annual basis, marking the first acceleration in a year, underscoring the challenge of taming high inflation.

Other parts of the report also pointed to a slower retreat for inflation despite the Fed’s aggressive tightening campaign. Core prices, which exclude the more volatile measurements of food and energy, climbed 0.2%, or 4.7% annually, more than two times higher than the typical pre-pandemic level. 

Read More 

An executive’s “coffee cup test” for job candidates has sparked online debates as his secret evaluation method gains attention from social media users who stumble on his four-year-old interview.

Trent Innes, of Melbourne, Australian, revealed his covert personality test when he appeared on the popular business podcast, “The Venture Podcast with Lambros Photios,” in May 2019, while he was a managing director at Xero – an accounting software company.

In the 16-minute podcast episode entitled, “The Secret Job Interviewing Hack to Recruit the Right Staff,” Innes explained that he escorts job interview candidates to an office kitchen and offers them a cup of coffee or another beverage before he moves on to questions.

TIKTOK USER SAYS SHE GOT JOB REJECTION REVERSED TO AN INTERVIEW BY SENDING ‘Y THO’ MEME 

Candidates who don’t offer to take their empty cups back to the kitchen at the end of their interview are unlikely to get a job offer from Innes.

“You can develop skills, you can gain knowledge and experience, but it really does come down to attitude, and the attitude that we talk a lot about is the concept of ‘wash your coffee cup,’” he said during his podcast appearance.

Innes explained that he thinks the test weeds out job candidates who wouldn’t be a workplace culture fit. He also said most people tend to pass the post-interview test. 

FOX Business reached out to Innes for comment via LinkedIn.

Social media users who have discovered Innes’ podcast interview in the last year have debated whether the coffee cup test is a fair metric to evaluate a job candidate’s fit.

The online discussions have largely taken place on TikTok, Facebook and Reddit – and most people seem to think the coffee cup test isn’t a reliable vetting tool.

“I feel like it’s weird to wash your own cup at an interview when you’re a guest there,” one TikTok user wrote. “I’d prob just ask what they want me to do with the cup.”

FAKE REMOTE AND HYBRID JOBS ARE BEING SHARED ONLINE, TIKTOK USERS CLAIM: ‘WAY TO TRICK CANDIDATES’

“If [we’re] still in the kitchen yes but if we in a conference room and I leave I’m not walking around the office again. I don’t work there yet,” another user reasoned.

“I wouldn’t even take the cup in the first place honestly,” another user wrote.

“I understand the spirit behind it, given that I hate ppl not clearing up after themselves but it’s not a fair or accurate way of testing ppl,” another user shared.

‘’The people who are getting so upset by this are definitely the employees who leave dirty dishes by the communal sink,” a TikTok user questioned.

“Isn’t letting random people roam unsupervised risky,” another user questioned.

SHOULD YOU WRITE A COVER LETTER? EXPERTS WEIGH IN 

“What if you decline the coffee,” a Facebook user asked.

“I am not sure if I would pass this job interview test,” another user wrote. “Mostly because I think I would be nervous during the interview and forget to wash my coffee cup at the end of the job interview.”

“I have to ask, do I want to work for someone who is manipulative and poorly communicates their expectations,” another user questioned. “If this is what they are like during an interview what are they like as a boss?”

Other commenters reasoned that they think the coffee cup test could make social interactions between a job candidate and hiring manager awkward or stressful if it’s not done with finesse, and one party can tell that the other is waiting for them to make a move.

In March, Reddit users addressed the coffee cup test and some argued over the merits of the secret evaluation method.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

“If someone drank the coffee and just left the mug sitting on the bench, I’d probably judge them a bit for it too, especially if they saw me wash my mug and put it in the rack,” one Reddit user reasoned.

“Well, ‘boss,’ I was hoping the cup my lips just touched wasn’t gonna be hand washed in a dirty office sink and put out for the next candidate,” another user quipped.

“[My] spouse worked at place where they’d offer you water before the interview. You’d be rejected if you said no thanks,” another user wrote. “It had something to do with being assertive…I think it was something they read in a book and went with it. Thankfully, it only went on for a bit before being dropped.”

One Reddit user who claimed to be a hiring manager wrote that they’d have to come up with questions, scenarios and tests amid an interview for “a very low stakes job” to disqualify “people who had zero social skills” even though they had “technical skills.”

“Sometimes the bs stuff really did get people to show their true selves,” the Reddit user explained.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

Other Reddit users argued that hiring managers should be focused on outlining tasks for open positions, discussing compensation and how team members work together.

The coffee cup test has also been debated by recruiters on LinkedIn in the last four years.

Read More 

"But that doesn't stop me from reflecting on anything that's said, and I always try to think about how I can do better," he said....