US Air National Guard/Staff Sgt. Joseph Pagan

• US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones deployed to Greece during the final weeks of 2022.
• Operating from Larissa air base, the drones will keep an eye NATO’s borders in southeastern Europe.
• The deployment comes as NATO grapples with the war in Ukraine and with tensions between Turkey and Greece.

Late last year, the US deployed MQ-9 Reaper drones to Greece’s Larissa Air Base.

The deployment came amid Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine, which has raised tensions throughout Europe, but the drones also arrived in Greece as that country and Turkey, both of which are NATO allies, wage a war of words over their longstanding territorial and political rivalries.

Their dispute has raised a new challenge for the US and for its NATO allies, as their leaders try to maintain the alliance’s support for Ukraine and manage a new period of conflict with Russia.

Predator in the skies

US Air Force airmen do pre-flight checks on an MQ-9 at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam in May.

US Air Force/Airman 1st class Christa Anderson

For security reasons, the US Air Force did not disclosed how many Reapers were deployed to the base, but local media has reported eight drones are now operating there.

The Reaper, which can be piloted remotely or fly autonomously, has a maximum endurance of 27 hours and can reach altitudes of 50,000 feet. The drone has “a unique capability” to perform strike missions, gather information, and track “high value” targets, the US Air Force says, and it played a prominent role in the war in Afghanistan.

Larissa Air Base, located in central Greece near the Aegean Sea, “is a strategic location” and the base, which was recently upgraded to accommodate the Reapers, will allow the drones “to easily support both the eastern and southern flanks of NATO,” a spokesman for US Air Forces in Europe told Defense News. (Flight trackers have also reported a US-made RQ-4B Global Hawk landing at Larissa, suggesting the base can support even larger drones.)

The deployment was not in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the spokesman added, but their placement there “does support deterring and avoiding conflict with Russia.”

A US Air Force F-15C at Larissa Air Base in May 2021.

US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Alex Fox Echols III

NATO has in recent years paid more attention to its southeastern frontier, where it borders conflicts in the Middle East and increasingly contentious activity in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Since Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, the alliance has also heightened its attention on its eastern flank.

Both trends have raised Greece’s profile, especially for the US.

Supplies meant for Ukraine are often unloaded at the Greek port of Alexandroupolis and sent via rail through Bulgaria and Romania. The same network supports US deployments to the Black Sea region.

The US presence in the region has also increased considerably, with numerous US-Greek exercises, more shipments of US troops and equipment through Greece, and the deployment of more US assets to Greek bases.

The Reaper deployment and increased US-Greek military cooperation are made possible by an updated comprehensive defense agreement signed in October 2021, which also includes a mutual defense clause.

A complicated alliance

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Istanbul in March 2022.

Xinhua via Getty Images

The US’s enhanced presence in Greece comes at a time of heightened tensions between Greece and Turkey, which have roiled the alliance and frustrated the US in particular.

Greece and Turkey clash over a number of issues, including the ethnically divided island of Cyprus, maritime delineation zones, and energy exploitation rights in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

They have come close to war numerous times in recent decades, and current tensions have increased after Turkey called into question Greece’s sovereignty over islands in the Eastern Aegean. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has even threatened to attack Greece. The verbal sparring has raised concerns about the first open conflict between members of NATO.

Turkey, whose relationship with the US has deteriorated over a number of issues, has also been critical of the US-Greece relationship, particularly of their expanding military exchanges.

“The American military bases in Greece are so many that they cannot be counted,” Erdogan said a month after the US and Greece signed their updated cooperation agreement, adding that, “Greece has practically become an outpost of America.”

A US Army M1A2 tank is unloaded in Alexandroupolis in July 2021.

US Army/Andre Cameron

Turkish public opinion toward the US is also affected by American deployments to Greece, Ioannis Grigoriadis, an associate professor at Turkey’s Bilkent University, told Insider.

“Amidst discussions about a ‘truly independent’ Turkish foreign and security policy, such developments can further reinforce an anti-American sentiment that has struck roots in Turkish public opinion in the last 20 years,” Grigoriadis said.

Greece and Turkey will both hold national elections in the spring, leading some to see their statements as electoral posturing. Efforts to defuse the situation are underway, according to Greek reports.

The US had tried to remain neutral in Greece and Turkey’s disputes and intervened on occasion to prevent a full-scale conflict, but now Washington faces a very difficult situation in trying to support Athens and manage tensions with Ankara, according to Ryan Gingeras, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

“For Washington, maintaining peace may come down to two unfavorable choices,” Gingeras wrote this month. The US could pressure Greece to “cede aspects of its sovereignty” and even abandon their mutual defense cooperation agreement, or the US could act as the “de facto guarantor” of Greece’s sovereignty, which could entail planning for a conflict with Turkey — and raise questions about the integrity of NATO.

Constantine Atlamazoglou works on transatlantic and European security. He holds a master’s degree in security studies and European affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. You can contact him on LinkedIn.

Pekic/Getty Images

• If you’re job hunting in this shaky economy, your résumé needs to sparkle.
• Your résumé should highlight your experience and showcase the skills that employers seek.
• It should also be tailored to the job posting so that the employer can see what you offer.

When you’re job hunting in a softening economy, having a terrific résumé becomes all the more important.

Your résumé needs to tell your prospective employer who you are, what you’ve done, and what you can do in the future. Especially as data suggests there might be increased competition for jobs.

Roughly two-thirds of American workers are considering changing roles this year, according a  LinkedIn survey of more than 2,000 US employees conducted in December. And while the job market  looks strong for now— as of November, there were 1.7 job openings per unemployed person — the overall economic picture remains hazy. Most CEOs are bracing for a downturn amid layoffs in some industries, while other economic data, like job growth, suggests the US could avoid a recession in 2023. 

Rebecca Pay has built a business — Pay for Precision — helping people write their résumés. She said résumés today should have a touch of personality and tell a clear story about how your experience qualifies you for the position.

“Writing CVs can be tough. That’s why I’ve got a business,” Pay told Insider. “Writing about yourself is the hardest thing.”

Some advice may be intuitive, like brainstorming with colleagues and using concise language when describing your work, Pay said. Other advice is different from what it was five years ago: Pay said most people should keep their résumé formatting simple unless they’re in graphic design or art.

It’s also become more normal to have a break in your résumé — a LinkedIn survey from last March found that nearly half of 7,000 employers considered candidates with career breaks to be an untapped talent pool. 

Insider spoke with career experts about their advice for résumé writing in this uncertain climate. 

1. Try some writing exercises 

Eli Joseph, a faculty member at Columbia University and New York University, takes an unusual approach to résumé writing. In his book, “The Perfect Rejection Résumé,” he helps people document how they failed and what they learned. While you shouldn’t give this to a hiring manager, it’s an exercise in thinking about your experience in a different light. 

Then, switch it up. Write a résumé where you completely praise yourself, jotting down all the personal, professional, and technical things you’re proud of each week. After looking at your experience and skills from these opposite perspectives, you can incorporate lessons from both into the final product.

2. Focus on a summary section

Both Joseph and Pay said the summary section is one of the most critical parts of your résumé. This section, which typically sits at the top of your CV, should be between 100 and 150 words and written in the first person. 

Pay said this was a place to add your voice, instead of being overly formal. This is where you tell a story about how your qualifications equip you for the position you want.

“Work out what you uniquely offer,” Pay said. “Why would they pick you for the job as opposed to someone else?”

3. Update your skills

The types of skills employers look for have changed in recent years. According to a survey last year of 205 recruiters and hiring managers by Zety, an online résumé builder app and career website, soft skills are increasingly important to hiring managers. Teamwork, communication, and time management were among the most in-demand soft skills.

Be specific about how you’ve used your skills in the past, said Joseph. For instance, perhaps you’ve showcased and honed your communication skills with speaking gigs and presentations. 

Technical skills are also important to employers. And artistic skills like writing or design can be worth highlighting to show that you’re well rounded, he said.

“It brightens up your résumé and it lets employers know that you’re productive in an organization,” Joseph said.

4. Tailor your résumé to each posting 

Pay and Joseph agreed that you should change your résumé for each job application. These are often small tweaks in the skills section and the summary, that speak to how your experience would lend itself to the job.

“No application should be the same because no opportunity is the same,” Joseph said. “We need to add some flavor, and the best way to do that is to come up with as many ideas as possible so that you can make changes on the résumé for opportunities in the future.” 

This story originally published on August 9, 2022.

NurPhoto/Contributor/Getty Images

• Artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has seen massive popularity since its public release in November.
• Executives at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, told Fortune they’re shocked by its popularity and that taking it to the public was kind of a last resort after earlier hiccups.
• “I’ll admit that I was on the side of, like, I don’t know if this is going to work,” OpenAI president Greg Brockman told Fortune.

If you’re surprised how quickly ChatGPT has taken off, you’re not alone. Even executives at OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot, are shocked by its popularity.

In a Fortune article published Wednesday, executives at the company said they weren’t sure what to expect when they released it in November. 

“I’ll admit that I was on the side of, like, I don’t know if this is going to work,” OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman told Fortune.

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, added to Fortune, “This was definitely surprising.” 

Brockman told the magazine that the idea to release ChatGPT for public use a few months ago was a bit of a last resort after OpenAI ran into some initial hurdles with the AI chatbot. For one thing, beta testers didn’t know what to ask ChatGPT about in the first place, Brockman told Fortune, and an effort to create chatbots that were experts in certain areas flopped.

In the end, ChatGPT amassed more than 1 million users in the first five days since its release, according to Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.

Altman has cautioned, however, that for all of its possible benefits, artificial intelligence can be susceptible to dangerous misuses.

“The bad case — and I think this is important to say — is like lights out for all of us,” Altman said in a recent interview with StrictlyVC’s Connie Loizos. “I’m more worried about an accidental misuse case in the short term…So I think it’s like impossible to overstate the importance of AI safety and alignment work. I would like to see much, much more happening.”

(NewsNation) — As federal regulators look for ways to secure our country’s power substations from physical attacks, legislators in North Carolina are taking matters into their own hands.

“This is a nationwide issue. It’s not going away,” said State Rep. Ben Moss, R-N.C. “And as you see in North Carolina, it is becoming more and more frequent.”

NewsNation obtained a draft bill proposed by Moss — whose district includes Moore County.

In early December, vandals shot two Duke Energy substations, causing a widespread blackout that left more than 40,000 customers in the dark, some for days.

Just last week, someone hit another substation with gunfire, this time in Randolph County, North Carolina.

“Just picture yourself for days without energy. You don’t have food, you can’t go buy gas, you can’t live your normal life,” Moss said.

His bill would require around-the-clock security at substations in the state.

North Carolina isn’t the only state to deal with attacks on the power grid. In recent months, power facilities in Oregon, Florida and Washington have also become targets.

In Morton, Washington, police said someone with a pickup truck used a crowbar and chain to cause a blackout in parts of the county that lasted for several hours.

Moss said legislators need to come up with something that’s feasible and cost-effective to make sure the grid is safe.

“As we wait for the federal government to maybe hand down some different suggestions or regulations, I think North Carolina needs to get ready to lead the front and say, Hey, we want to make sure our grid is secure,” Moss said.

In a statement, the FBI told NewsNation “at this time, we have not determined that a single individual or group is responsible or that incidents in different cities are linked. The FBI remains vigilant and works closely with our law enforcement partners on a daily basis to detect, disrupt and dismantle any threats that may emerge.”

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) on Wednesday said it would triple its share buyback program to $75 billion, the oil industry’s most ambitious shareholder payouts to date, as high oil and gas prices pad profits.

The oil industry has been facing calls from investors and the White House to put last year’s record quarterly earnings from sky high energy prices into more drilling, acquisitions, or to reduce prices for consumers.

Chevron and Exxon Mobil are preparing to report record annual profits for 2022, nearly $100 billion combined. Those unprecedented earnings led analysts at Citi on Wednesday to ask whether Chevron and Exxon could use the proceeds to buy rivals such as Europeans BP, Shell or TotalEnergies.

Chevron’s disclosure signaled it will allocate a big chunk of those profits to reward shareholders. The industry last year was one of the top sectors in the S&P 500 index after trailing the broader market for years.

The White House last year criticized oil producers for distributing cash to shareholders instead in investing in production to reduce energy prices for consumers. It also pressed oil producers to raise investments in renewable energy.

The U.S. oil producer also raised its quarterly dividend by 6% to $1.51 per share. The $75 billion buyback program has no expiration deadline. It replaces the board’s previous repurchase authorization of $25 billion from January 2019 until March 31 this year.

Spanish authorities said they were investigating what they called a possible “terrorist” incident after a machete-wielding man attacked several people at two churches in the southern port city of Algeciras, killing at least one person.

The man attacked clergymen at two different churches – San Isidro and Nuestra Senora de La Palma, around 300 metres (1,000 feet) apart – just after 8pm on Wednesday evening in downtown Algeciras, a spokesperson for the city said. A source at Madrid’s High Court said the incident was being investigated as terrorism.

Police said the attacker had been arrested, and a police source shared footage showing two officers escorting a man in a hooded sports top in handcuffs through a police station. Police have not released details of his name or nationality. Local media, including El Pais newspaper, said he was a 25-year-old Moroccan.

The man who was killed was Diego Valencia, a sacristan at the Nuestra Senora de La Palma church, while the titular priest of the parish church of San Isidro, Antonio Rodriguez, was among the injured and is in serious condition, the Algeciras city spokesperson said.

An unknown number of others were also injured. El Mundo newspaper reported that four people were hurt in the attack.

Police said the suspect first entered the San Isidro church and attacked Rodriguez. A statement by the Algeciras Salesians said Rodriguez, 74, had been celebrating Eucharist when he was attacked.

The assailant then went into the Nuestra Senora de La Palma church where he damaged property before attacking Valencia, who fled the church but was chased by the suspect, who inflicted further, fatal injuries on him outside, police said in a statement.

The parish priest at Nuestra Senora de La Palma, Juan Jose Marina, told broadcaster SER the suspect went straight for Valencia after the mass had finished, suggesting he might have believed Valencia was the priest.

“Possibly, this death was meant for me and it found him instead,” said a tearful Marina.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences to the victims of the “terrible attack” on his Twitter account, while the secretary general of Spain’s Episcopal Conference, Francisco Garcia, spoke of his “great pain” on hearing the news.

“These are sad times of suffering, we are united by the pain of the victims’ families and for the Cadiz Diocese,” he said on Twitter.

Jose Ignacio Landaluce, the mayor of Algeciras, has declared a day of mourning in the city for Thursday and a rally outside Nuestra Senora de La Palma church at midday.

Earlier on Wednesday, two people were killed and several others injured when a 33-year-old stateless Palestinian man attacked them with a knife on a regional train travelling between Kiel and Hamburg in northern Germany, authorities said.

Related Galleries:

An immigrant farm worker accused of shooting seven people to death near San Francisco, some of them his co-workers, made his first court appearance on Wednesday after he was charged with murder in California’s second deadly gun rampage in recent days.

Chunli Zhao, 66, the lone suspect in Monday’s massacre at two mushroom farms in the seaside town of Half Moon Bay, was formally presented with seven counts of premeditated murder and a single count of attempted murder lodged in a criminal complaint filed by local prosecutors.

Zhao, handcuffed and garbed in a red jumpsuit, was ordered held without bond during a brief hearing before a judge in San Mateo County Superior Court in nearby Redwood City, California. He was assigned two private defense lawyers, but no plea was entered.

The next court proceeding in the case was set for Feb. 16.

A Mandarin-language translator was provided for the defendant, who according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe is a Chinese citizen who has resided in the United States for at least 10 years.

After the hearing, Wagstaffe told reporters outside the courthouse that prosecutors have not yet determined Zhao’s precise immigration status, or whether he entered the country legally.

The prosecutor said authorities do have an idea about the suspect’s motives but declined to share that with reporters.

The district attorney also said Zhao was “cooperative with sheriff’s detectives” who initially interviewed him through a Mandarin interpreter following his arrest and gave “a complete statement.”

Still, the expectation is that he will enter a not-guilty plea as the proceeding progress, “and we want to make sure this man gets a fair trial,” Wagstaffe said.

In addition to the eight felony counts it contains, the 10-page criminal complaint alleges “special circumstances” accusing Zhao of “personally and intentionally” shooting to kill.

California law declares that defendants convicted of murder with “special circumstances” can be eligible for the death penalty, but Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. The state has not executed a condemned inmate since 2006.

Otherwise, the maximum sentence carried by the charges is life in prison without the possibility of parole, Wagstaffe said.

Later on Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native, planned to travel to the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, site of the first of the recent deadly rampages. She was expected to meet with some families of the 11 people who were fatally shot in a dance hall on Saturday night by a gunman who later took his own life.

Coming in quick succession, the two shootings left California reeling from one of the bloodiest spates of mass gun violence in decades in a state with some of the strictest firearm laws in the country.

Authorities said that each of the two killing sprees represented the single greatest loss of life from a single act of violence in Los Angeles and San Mateo counties, respectively.

Asked if investigators believed the Half Moon Bay killings were a “copy-cat” crime, inspired by the shooting rampage in Monterey Park two days earlier, Wagstaffe said flatly, “No.”

Zhao was taken into custody on Monday evening outside a sheriff’s station, where police said he had driven shortly after the attack on farm workers.

The precise motive for the shooting remained unclear. Zhao had been employed by one of the growers, Mountain Mushroom Farm, and had resided at the property along with some other employees, according to a spokesperson for California Terra Gardens, which owns the farm. Authorities said early evidence indicated the bloodshed stemmed from a workplace grievance. The second crime scene, Concord Farms, is about a mile away.

Related Galleries:

The debt ceiling will be the first real test of Kevin McCarthy’s “leadership” skills. It will be interesting to see if he can bring his chaotic House in order. For now, senate Republicans are saying: “It’s all you, Kevin.” As Politico reported, the Republican senators who helped to raise the debt ceiling twice are now leaving it up to Kevin McCarthy to do his job. It didn’t help that Kevin McCarthy was one of the loudest critics of the passage of the latest bipartisan spending plan, and they have no desire to help McCarthy. It’s a shame that these people want to play games with our lives, but it is also understandable that they’re sitting back and watching whether McCarthy will be able to “man up.”

Most MAGA Republicans are nothing but blowhards. They talk a big game, but when the time comes to do the work, they’re nowhere to be found. It’s easy to sit back and criticize others when you have no right to do so, but actually getting involved in the work it takes to run the country is over their heads. Politico reported that four of the Republican senators who helped raise the last two debt ceilings said they “have no intention of stepping in.” Thom Tillis (R-NC), who often works across the aisle, told Politico: “What matters is really what the House can create. They have the gavels. We have to see what sort of strategy they think works to a successful outcome.” In other words, they want to see what McCarthy is made of, though most of us already know the answer to that question.

Joe Manchin appeared on “State of the Union,” and he discussed how House Republicans are trying to hold the debt ceiling hostage to get what they want. He said that in his state, 60% of retirees live on social security and Medicare, and they’re scared to death that Republicans want to tap into those programs as a compromise for raising the debt ceiling. Manchin said: “That’s not going to happen. Take that off the board right now and look at ways that we have wasteful spending that we can be held accountable and responsible for.” He is correct. Neither social security nor Medicare should ever be used in any sentence with the word “spending.” No one is spending anything on either program; we paid into them from our paychecks. It’s not “spending;” it’s giving back what people have put in, as the program was intended to do. They are not “entitlements,” nor are they “charity” in any form. Money was taken out of people’s paychecks for forced retirements. Those people’s employers also had to pay. The government did nothing but collected the funds, and the government is not entitled to anything having to do with those funds.

The proverbial ball is in McCarthy’s court. He can sit down with President Biden and work this out or he can be the bad guy who allowed our country to default on its loans. The next move is his; let’s see what he does with it.

The post It’s your move Kevin appeared first on Palmer Report.

Last week, several influencers known for uploading makeup and lifestyle content began posting that they were heading to Dubai with Tarte Cosmetics for the launch of a new foundation product. They included TikTokers like Meredith Duxbury, a makeup influencer with over 16 million followers; Alix Earle, a relatively new influencer who recently gained popularity for her “get ready with me” content and has over 4 million followers; and Monet McMichael, a beauty and lifestyle blogger with over 2 million followers. As the creators started posting their travel vlogs on their way to Dubai, people began noticing they were sitting in business class. Once they got to their destination, they showed off their own personal villas at The Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah and a wealth of beauty products, clothes, and gifts that awaited them.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

@monetmcmichael

it’s been TOOO REAL 🫶🏾💕 last day in the life #trippinwithtarte

♬ original sound – monet mcmichael 🤍

Shortly into their trip, questions began to arise online. One of the first videos to call the trip into question was from a creator named Jack McGuire, which he uploaded last Thursday. In two separate videos, McGuire, who works for Barstool, attempted to poke holes in the trip’s feasibility. These videos and many others began circulating on the platform, gaining hundreds of thousands of views. Some followers on TikTok wondered how much money the extravagant trip cost the brand and whether Tarte paid the influencers in addition to travel, room, and board (its CEO later confirmed that they did not). Some took it upon themselves to “investigate” exactly how much money Tarte spent on the trip. Others shared their opinions about how the trip was “tone-deaf” as the United States is on the verge of a recession. All of the conversations, commentary, and questions surrounding this trip did exactly what the company set out to do: get people talking about their brand. The hashtag #TrippinWithTarte has over 140 million views, and #TarteDubaiTrip has over 20 million views.

Brand trips are not typically this widely discussed, especially back in the early days of YouTube. In fact, they were staples among the beauty and lifestyle vloggers who were invited by brands like Benefit to different destinations where they could create content while using the brand’s products. Even Tarte has done many similar brand trips in the past. But to social media users who were not deeply aware of the height of beauty and lifestyle YouTubers in the 2010s, these extravagant trips can feel off-putting and seemingly wasteful. For the brand, however, even the bad press may be paying off.

The trip inspires strong reactions, followed by explanations

Brands have understood, long before the influencer age, that traditional advertising is not the only way to promote their products; now, it’s hard to find a major brand that hasn’t partnered with an influencer or celebrity whose social media following can translate into dollars when they hawk their wares.

In the case of the Tarte trip, the makeup brand invited a group of 50 influencers and their plus ones from eight different countries around the world to join them in Dubai for the launch of their foundation. But rather than sheer excitement, one of the predominant reactions to the resulting content inspired was shock at the overwhelming extravagance of the trip. Fueling these reactions were, naturally, a lot of unchecked assumptions.

Some creators jumped in to dispel those assumptions. One TikTok creator who says she used to manage influencer trips, @jill_justine, uploaded a video in which she explains that in her experience, “these types of trips are a lot more affordable than you think.” In the video, she says that trips she organized included destinations like the Bahamas, Grand Cayman Islands, and Jamaica, where guests would stay in places like the Ritz-Carlton and go on various local excursions. “Most of the time, all of those things were free because we were partnering with the hotels, with the event, with the experience, because all of them are getting exposure as well,” the creator says.

@jill_justine

TO BE CLEAR I do not do this anymore, but what a wild job it was!! #tarte #tartedubai #dubai #tarteinfluencer #influencertrips #alixearle #shapetape #greenscreen

♬ original sound – Jill Justine

The brand also got exposure from the creators without having to pay them per post. Someone like Earle, who is estimated to charge anywhere between $40,000 to $70,000 per brand-sponsored post, uploaded 15 posts from her trip. Maureen Kelly, the founder and CEO of Tarte, spoke exclusively with Glossy and confirmed the brand did not pay the content creators in addition to the trip, nor did they have any requirements for posting. Some noted that the creators who went were not creating content solely with Tarte products, which has been customary for other brand trips in the past.

Kelly also spoke about the perceived controversy surrounding the trip and countered many of the rumors that loomed over the trip. She first explained that Tarte has long “prioritized their marketing budget into building relationships with influencers.” Although she declined to share the total amount spent on the trip, she confirmed the brand partnered with Sephora Middle East. Glossy writes that the rooms are “filled with gifts from other like-minded brands, many of which Tarte has now partnered with for years.” As for the flight, whose expense had become a focal point after McGuire estimated that it would cost upwards of $22,000 per ticket for each influencer and their plus one, she argued that these influencers were putting their lives on pause to get on a 14-hour flight, so they wanted to “make this as seamless and pleasant [an] experience for everyone.”

The evolving optics of the extravagant influencer trip

A common feeling among influencers’ critics is that they make too much money or are afforded opportunities by doing little to no work, deeming them unworthy of the perks they receive. On the surface, it seems like an easy job to be an influencer. But while it’s certainly not hard labor, there’s still plenty of work that goes into creating content—coming up with original ideas, filming, editing, brand deals, travel, and more. This Tarte trip to Dubai is yet another example of that feeling manifesting online.

There was also the question of the optics of the ostentatious trip. Kelly did not address criticism over tone-deafness during the interview. But the Tarte trip is hardly doing anything unique here when it comes to lavishness—beauty and lifestyle YouTubers like Emma Chamberlain have gone on brand trips with cosmetic or beauty brands in the past. Now, though, in the age of TikTok, and following an uptick in the app’s popularity during the pandemic, the concept is new to many users who did grow up watching these influencers. For years, it was expected that influencers would live a certain lifestyle and receive certain once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to make content out of them. But as that style of content creation has spilled over to TikTok, it’s facing more criticism with a more politically and socially aware Gen Z audience, prompting conversations and controversy.

In the end, though, even if the optics of trips like Tarte’s Dubai experience are becoming strained, the attention this trip received suggests that we’re not quite finished with them yet. Both the brand and the influencers got exactly what they wanted—for people to talk about them.