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MetLife Investment Management LLC Sells 92 Shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA)

Hundreds of tea workers and union leaders staged a protest outside Sylhet Cricket Stadium yesterday, demanding immediate payment of their long-overdue wages and measures to safeguard the ailing tea estates. At the rally, organised by the Bangladesh Tea Workers Federation, speakers talked about the plights of workers from estates like Lakkatura, Kewachara, and Daldali, all under the umbrella of the National Tea Company (NTC). For the past three months, these workers have endured the harsh reality of unpaid wages, plunging their families into dire financial straits. The crisis, which erupted following the political transition on August 5th, has been met with indifference and inaction. Despite repeated protests and formal appeals to the district administration, the workers have been met with empty promises and broken assurances. Union representatives said tea workers in Bangladesh face systemic neglect and are marginalised. "The change in government had kindled hope for a better future, but our struggles have only intensified," a union leader said at the rally. The protesters accused the authorities of failing to fulfill their duty to protect workers' rights and ensure the sustainability of the tea estates. They said if their demands are not met promptly, the movement would escalate to encompass all 22 tea estates in Sylhet.

Fighting Poverty Is Harder Than Fighting Gravity; Nelson’s 1977 Observation Still Resonates TodayHe’s one of the most famous corporate leaders in the world, delivering products embraced by billions. But it’s the haters that companies like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta worry about. In an era when online anger and social tensions are increasingly directed at the businesses consumers count on, Meta last year spent $24.4 million on guards, alarms and other measures to keep Zuckerberg and the company’s former chief operating officer safe. Some high-profile CEOs surround themselves with security. But the fatal shooting this week of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson while he walked alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take in protecting their leaders against threats. Thompson had no personal security and appeared unaware of the shooter lurking before he was gunned down. And today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say. “We are better today at collecting signals. I’m not sure we’re any better at making sense of the signals we collect,” says Fred Burton of Ontic, a provider of threat management software for companies. After Thompson’s shooting, Burton said, “I’ve been on the phone all day with some organizations asking for consultation, saying, ’Am I doing enough?” Since the killing, some health insurers have taken steps to safeguard their executives and rank-and-file workers. Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm, said Friday it is temporarily closing its six offices for security reasons and will have its employees work from home. “Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution,” the company said in a statement. A Medica spokesman said the company had also removed biographical information about its executives from its website as a precaution. UnitedHealth Group, parent of the insurer Thompson led, removed photos of its top executives from its website hours after the shooting, later removing their names and biographies. But well before the attack, some of the biggest U.S. companies, particularly those in the tech sector, were spending heavily on personal and residential security for their top executives. Meta, whose businesses include Facebook and Instagram, reported the highest spending on personal security for top executives last year, filings culled by research firm Equilar show. Zuckerberg “is synonymous with Meta and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,” the Menlo Park, California, company explained earlier this year in an annual shareholder disclosure. At Apple, the world’s largest tech company by stock valuation, CEO Tim Cook was tormented by a stalker who sent him sexually provocative emails and even showed up outside his Silicon Valley home at one point before the company’s security team successfully took legal action against her in 2022. Cook is regularly accompanied by security personnel when he appears in public. Still, the company’s $820,000 allotted last year to protect top executives is a fraction of what other tech giants spent for CEO security. Just over a quarter of the companies in the Fortune 500 reported spending money to protect their CEOs and other top executives. Of those that did, the median payment for personal security doubled over the last three years to about $98,000. In many companies, investor meetings like the one UnitedHealthcare’s Thompson was walking to when he was shot are viewed as very risky because details on the location and who will be speaking are highly publicized. “It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” said Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, which is based in the greater Seattle area. Some firms respond by beefing up security. For example, tech companies routinely require everyone attending a major event, such as Apple’s annual unveiling of the next iPhone or a shareholder meeting, to go through airport-style security checkpoints before entering. Others forgo in-person meetings with shareholders. Government health insurance provider Centene Corp. joined that group Thursday, citing the UnitedHealthcare executive’s death in announcing that its upcoming Investor Day will be held online, rather than in-person as originally planned. “But there are also company cultures that really frown on that and want their leaders to be accessible to people, accessible to shareholders, employees,” Komendat said. Depending on the company, such an approach may make sense. Many top executives are little known to the public, operating in industries and locations that make them far less prone to public exposure and to threats. “Determining the need for and appropriate level of an executive-level protection program is specific to each organization,” says David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations at the National Retail Federation. “These safeguards should also include the constant monitoring of potential threats and the ability to adapt to maintain the appropriate level of security and safety.” Some organizations have a protective intelligence group that uses digital tools such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to comb through online comments to detect threats not only on social media platforms such as X but also on the dark web, says Komendat. They look for what’s being said about the company, its employees and its leadership to uncover risks. “There are always threats directed towards senior leaders at companies. Many of them are not credible,” Komendat said. “The question always is trying to determine what is a real threat versus what is someone just venting with no intent to take any additional action.” Burton, a former special agent with the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, points out that despite the current climate, there is little in the way of organized groups that target companies. Today, one of the primary worries are loners whose rantings online are fed by others who are like-minded. It’s up to corporate security analysts to zero in on such dialogue and decide whether or not it represents a real threat. And CEOs aren’t the only targets of disgruntled customers. In the U.S., there were 525 workplace fatalities due to assault in 2022, according to the National Safety Council. Industries including healthcare, education and service providers are more prone to violence than others, and taxi drivers are more than 20 times more likely to be murdered on the job than other workers, the group said. But the ambush of UnitedHealthcare’s Thompson this week is bound to get some CEOs second-guessing. “What invariably happen at moments like this in time is you will get additional ears listening” to security professionals seeking money to beef up executive protection, Burton says. “Because I can guarantee you there’s not a CEO in America who’s not aware of this incident.” ___ Associated Press writers Anne D’Innocenzio and Haleluya Hadero in New York and Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed. He’s one of the most famous corporate leaders in the Chipotle is raising its U.S. prices to offset inflation and The U.S. government on Friday ordered testing of the nation's A 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook a large area of NorthernSince 2021, I’ve been to 123 museums in New York City in an attempt to see every one. (If you’re a Gothamist regular, you may recall my article from last year .) Now, wrapping up my fourth year of this project, I’m starting to wonder if this will ever end. Museums and “museum experiences” keep opening. When I began, I estimated there were about 150 museums in the city. Since then, smaller ones have come to my attention and new ones have opened, bringing the total close to 190. This has me wondering: What, exactly, is a museum? Does it have to have “museum” in the title? Does it have to be in a traditional gallery space? Could it be in someone’s home? Does it have to be permanent? What about for-profit museums? While I have not yet landed on a rigid definition of “museum,” I’ve learned I’m drawn to ones that promote or serve their communities. I’ve had the privilege of visiting museums started by everyday people. The Woodside Heights Art Museum (WHAM!), for example, was created by a curator-artist couple as a way to celebrate the history of their neighborhood. It's located in the front window and side yard of their home in Woodside, and presents exhibitions by local artists and hosts events. So while it's not as big as the Met or MoMA, in a way, it may have a more tangible impact for those it serves. If you’re looking to expand your museum savvy in the city, here are nine of my favorite museums I visited in 2024. The Salvator Mundi Museum of Art asks, “What if the 'Salvator Mundi' [an iconic painting by Leonardo Da Vinci] was a brand?” With that comes "Salvator Mundi" pasta sauce, "Salvator Mundi" coffee and a "Salvator Mundi" museum located in an apartment vestibule. The entire project is a remarkable piece of conceptual art and study of what makes a museum a museum. It has all the components you’d find at a “typical” museum: rotating exhibits (earlier this year it had one about Barbie’s ties to "Salvator Mundi"), a little gift shop and now a museum café (the restaurant next door). The museum is open daily. It also offers private tours and host events. More details can be found on its website . In the center of Staten Island, you’ll find Historic Richmond Town, one of the most unique spaces in the city. It’s a collection of more than 30 historic buildings, many of which were relocated from other parts of the island. Walking through Historic Richmond Town, I learned more about the American experience from the Colonial period to the present. They host so many different tours and events that change throughout the seasons as well as the annual county fair. This place feels like a village of its own, with a visitor center located in a former courthouse at the center of the town. Its existence has me a bit jealous of the Staten Island residents who get to visit often. It seems like the most exciting time to visit is in the warmer months because of their Open Village immersive experience, which includes costumed interpreters and demonstrations in houses across the campus. But my visit in March was quite spectacular. I took the Two Centuries tour, visiting four of the historical buildings on campus. You can learn more about Historic Richmond Town here . The only 24-hour museum I’ve gone to so far, WHAM!, is a charming museum. The main exhibition is in the front window of a Queens house. There are sculptures and art in the side yard. While learning the history of their neighborhood, the founders realized that few, if any, museums in the city were sharing Woodside stories and decided to do it themselves. You can view the museum any time of day or visit exhibition openings (usually Memorial Day and Labor Day), which feature free seltzer, a popcorn bar and the world’s first Dollar Store Museum Gift Shop, which sells little pieces of art and tchotchkes — everything costs $1. This is a charming hidden gem and you can learn more here . I have a fondness for museums that exist in active spaces, like the New York Sign Museum, which is located in Noble Signs’ studio in Brooklyn. Some highlights include the neon sign from Brooklyn’s Queen Italian Restaurant, the main sign from Broadway’s beloved Star Lite Deli and another from the Lower East Side restaurant Bongos, all which have closed. When Noble's crew isn’t making new signs for businesses around the city, they are rescuing old ones to preserve for the collection. The museum doesn't have public hours, and appointments to view the collection are available on a limited basis by emailing [email protected] . You can learn more about the museum’s work on its website . One of the gifts of this project is the opportunity to learn incredible stories I wouldn’t have sought out on my own, like the life story of inventor Lewis H. Latimer, the namesake of the recently remodeled Lewis H. Latimer House Museum. Lewis Howard Latimer, who lived in the house, was the son of self-emancipated enslaved people, as well as an inventor, a self-taught draftsman, a U.S. Navy landsman and a father. He contributed to the invention of the lightbulb and the telephone, arguably some of the most important inventions ever. Through photographs, mementos and interactive installations, the museum tells the stories of his remarkable life and honors him by presenting STEAM programming to visitors of all ages. It is a wonderful intersection of Black history, Queens pride and innovation. Learn more here Like many millennials, I watched hours of TV every day after school, so I think my life changed when I went to the Paley Center for Media for the first time because so much American TV and radio history was suddenly at my fingertips. Formerly the Museum of Television & Radio and the Museum of Broadcasting, the center is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history of TV, radio and emerging media. It has new exhibitions every month or so, screenings every day, a full gaming center and the goldmine that is the Paley Archive, where the center has digitized thousands of TV and radio programs that you can easily watch with your museum admission. I immediately returned here after my first visit so I could spend hours in their archive. It contains some rare treasures, such as an unaired pilot of “The Muppet Show” and an unaired documentary about the making of “West Side Story.” To learn more, visit the website . Every day I see another video about a new New York City pop-up, typically a big brand trying to get you to buy things. It’s exciting when there is a pop-up that separates itself from capitalism, like the Climate Museum. It has been operating through pop-up exhibitions as it searches for a permanent space, and is the first museum in the country dedicated to climate education. This year, the museum showcased “The End of Fossil Fuel” at a storefront in SoHo, which educated visitors about the dangers of the fossil fuel industry and taught them how they can start making changes. While the museum doesn't have an exhibition open right now, you can learn more about its work here . Two very exciting things I must share about this museum are that this is the oldest building in New York City AND they let me feed chickens here. The Wyckoff House Museum tells the story of the Wyckoff family that lived here over generations, but it’s also a fully operating farm and community space. As such, the museum provides agricultural education and resources to the neighborhoods of East Flatbush and Canarsie. It hosts Free Family Days every month, a farm stand and many events and workshops. Check out all of the great work happening at the Wyckoff House here . This museum had been on and off my list a few times because I did not think it was real. And even after I called the curator to make an appointment, Venmo-ed him a deposit and received an email with the address of an apartment building, I had no clue what to expect. A visit to the Museum of Interesting Things is kind of a show. Founder Denny Daniel takes you on a tour of more than a century of invention and innovation that led us to the technologies we have today. You get to hold and interact with the museum’s unique collection, which includes a camera obscura, a mutoscope and other fun inventions. And to wrap up the visit, I got to unbox a new museum acquisition. What other museum includes a mystery item reveal? Mine was 16mm film reels and glass slides of Central Park. A visit here is so joyous and makes you feel like a kid again. To book a tour, call 212-274-8757 or email [email protected] . The museum also hosts a Secret Speakeasy event every Sunday where it screens 16mm films. Learn more at the website .