Latest news with #Post-it
Business Insider
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Diddy's courtroom energy has been off the charts as the defense case nears its start
He greets his multimillion-dollar defense team each morning with a round of three-second hugs and a volley of fist-bumps. Lately, he throws in a small yoga studio's worth of short, namaste-like bows, hands together as if in prayer. And his smile — as he turns from his lawyers and scans the courtroom — nearly stretches ear to ear. As his Manhattan sex-trafficking trial nears a conclusion, Sean "Diddy" Combs has been walking into court and taking his seat at the defense table with a show of high energy and still-higher spirits. "He's at peak Diddy," observed courtroom sketch artist Christine Cornell, who has drawn the trial since it began in mid-May. "It's like he sees what he thinks is the light at the end of the tunnel," she told Business Insider. Federal prosecutors are on track to rest their direct case after calling their final witnesses Friday and Monday. The defense case will begin as early as Monday, starting with testimony by a pair of executives from Combs Global, the hip-hop entrepreneur's music and lifestyle empire. The defense also has a forensic psychiatrist on tap to testify as an expert witness. They have not said if they will call Combs, 55, to the stand. Combs, who is fighting sex-trafficking and racketeering charges carrying a potential life sentence, has often appeared animated throughout nearly six weeks of testimony by 32 prosecution witnesses. US District Judge Arun Subramanian has at least twice warned Combs to rein himself in when the jury is present, including a specific directive against "nodding vigorously" when he hears testimony he apparently likes. But as the prosecution case wraps, and his own case nears its start, Combs appears extra amped. During testimony this week, he has jotted his ideas on a flurry of Post-it notes, handing them out among the eight attorneys seated near him, a team led by Manhattan attorney Marc Agnifilo. Often, he'll lean in for whispered exchanges with the attorneys sitting to his side. "Lately he's been tapping his leg a lot, and he takes copious notes — I've never seen a defendant take so many notes," said Cornell, who's been sketching trials for 50 years. Combs continues to push the boundaries of how animated he can be in front of jurors. On Tuesday, attorney Teny Geragos cross-examined one of three US Attorney's Office witnesses who will testify for the government. As Geragos returned to her seat to his right, Combs half stood in his chair. He showily pulled out Geragos's chair, pushing it back toward the table for her as she took her seat. They were soon deep in whispered conversation. "He's done that a couple of times," Cornell said of the chair-pull. "But this week he leapt out of his own chair, really going out of his way." Combs is especially lively when the jurors are not in the courtroom. "Waiving, your honor!" he answered on Friday, smiling as he waved his right hand over his head. The cheerful display came in response to the judge asking Combs if he was waiving his right to challenge a juror who'd given inconsistent answers about whether he lived in the Bronx, as he said pretrial, or in New Jersey, as he said later. The juror was excused from the jury on Monday, over the objections of defense lawyers, who argued against booting a Black juror and replacing him with a White alternate juror. One of the few instances when Combs appeared aggrieved in court came minutes after losing that battle. After the jury departed for the day, Combs shook his head "No" and seemed to say, "It's bad" to his mother, Janice Combs, who sits three rows behind him. Otherwise, at any chance he gets when the judge is not on the bench Combs turns to his mother, mouthing, "I love you," blowing her kisses and making heart shapes with his hands. "Go eat!" Cornell has heard him tell her. Prosecutors have worked since May 12 to convince the eight-man, four-woman jury that between 2009 and last year, Combs sex trafficked two girlfriends, R&B singer Cassie Ventura and a woman who testified as "Jane," for Jane Doe. Both described being beaten by Combs. The indictment alleges Combs forced Ventura and Jane to cross state lines to have sex with male escorts as he watched, masturbated, and made recordings. These dayslong, drug-fueled sexual performances took place almost weekly at luxury hotels in Los Angeles, New York, and Miami, and were called "freak offs," hotel nights, and king nights, according to the indictment. "Be strong," Combs mouthed to his sons behind him, pounding his chest with his fist, during a break in Jane's testimony, according to Cornell. Combs is also charged with racketeering. That charge alleges he ran his business empire as a criminal enterprise, using its staff and cash in furtherance of additional crimes — not only sex trafficking, but also bribery, obstruction of justice, kidnapping, forced labor, narcotics distribution, and arson. Combs has pleaded not guilty and is putting on an energetic defense. His lawyers' cross-examinations of Ventura and Jane focused on their long text and email histories with Combs, in which they at times showed enthusiasm for freak offs and resentment over his public affairs with rival girlfriends. Testimony continues Friday with prosecutors expected to call their fifth former Combs personal assistant to the stand.
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Fintech Ramp's valuation hits $16 billion in deal led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund
Ramp, which offers a financial operations platforms to corporate clients, has raised its valuation to $16 billion in a new fundraising led by long-time investor Founders Fund, Peter Thiel's venture firm. The $200 million round is the fifth that Founders' has led for Ramp and raised its valuation by $3 billion. It last raised money at a $13 billion valuation in March. Founded in 2019, Ramp offers services that cover corporate cards, procurement, bookkeeping, travel booking, and vendor management, and says it handles tens of billions in purchases annually across 40,000 companies. Ramp ranked No. 6 on the 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 list. Its list of clients includes CBRE, Shopify and two fellow 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 companies, Anduril and Notion (Founders Fund is also an investor in Anduril). Ramp has been increasing its offerings for enterprise companies. In January, it launched Ramp Treasury, which allows companies to earn 2.5% on idle operating cash. It also acquired Venue, an AI-powered procurement software startup, and used it to roll out new vendor payment tools. Last June, it debuted Ramp Travel, partnering with Priceline for booking and managing expenses for corporate travel, moving into the market of fellow Disruptor Navan. The company says it has shipped 270 features this year, with a focus on increased automation of financial operations and use of AI, and still serves only 1.5% of the addressable U.S. market. Ramp co-founder and CEO Eric Glyman wrote in a blog post about the fundraising that he is guided by his favorite companies' missions: "Increase the GDP of the internet (ten-time Disruptor Stripe); Make humanity a multiplanetary species (SpaceX); Be Earth's most customer-obsessed company (Amazon)." "Ours can fit on a Post-it too," he wrote. "Save your company time and money (without you noticing)." "Let the robots chase receipts and close your books, so you can use your brain and build things," he added. Additional investors in the round included Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners, General Catalyst, GIC, ICONIQ Growth, Khosla Ventures, Sands Capital, 8VC, Lux Capital, Stripes, 137 Ventures, Avenir Growth, and Definition Capital.
Evening Standard
11-06-2025
- General
- Evening Standard
Best cookbook storage ideas to organise your kitchen
Otherwise referred to as 'Type A' and 'Type B' personalities, the former cook tends to follow the recipe by the letter. When embarking on even the most complicated of culinary tasks, ingredients are kept separate, are chopped immaculately, and surfaces are cleared as they move. Their favourite cookbooks remain spotless, and rather than being dog-eared, they are marked with book-safe Post-it notes.
AsiaOne
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- AsiaOne
'Modern kampung spirit': Neighbours leave heartfelt notes on newly-weds' apology notice for wedding 'gatecrash' noise, Singapore News
Worried that their early-morning wedding celebrations on Saturday (June 7) might annoy their neighbours, a couple left a note in the lift asking for a little understanding. Their "sorry in advance" got plenty of kind messages back from residents at Block 77 Marine Drive — a true show of modern-day kampung spirit. Bernard Kuah, 32, told AsiaOne that he and his wife, Chermaine Wong, had sought permission from the town council to post the note in both lifts. The couple were concerned that the wedding "gatecrash", a traditional Chinese ritual where the groom and his entourage pick up the bride after overcoming a series of funny — and slightly embarrassing — challenges, would disrupt their neighbours' sleep. It was scheduled from 4am to 7am that day, Kuah, an HR manager, said. The couple put up the notice three days before the wedding — giving neighbours ample time to see it, rather than finding out at the last minute, he said. "Just a day later, we went to run some wedding errands and was taking the lift back home and saw Post-it notes on our posters," he added. "As each day passed, more notes started to appear." Ariel Ee, 22, was among those who left a note the night before the wedding. The student told AsiaOne that she and her mother felt it was a thoughtful gesture for the couple to put up an apology notice and decided it would be nice to return the kindness with well wishes. In a TikTok video, Ee could be seen sticking a Post-it note on the poster which read: "Congrats! Wishing you love, happiness and wish wishes on your union. All the best!" She called the couple's gesture, along with the neighbours' warm responses, a modern-day display of the kampung spirit. @ariyakult Kampung spirit in a modern way i guess! #sg #sgtiktok #singapore #sgfyp ♬ original sound - 🤍 The couple said that they received nine Post-it notes in total and have since taken down the notice. "We found it really sweet of our neighbours to drop these well wishes for us," said Kuah. "Not just my wife and I… our family and friends were really touched by the messages." Will they be framing the notice in their new home as keepsake? 'We have not thought of it yet as we are still busy unpacking and preparing for our honeymoon,' Kuah said. 'But that it is really good idea and I will let my wife know.' Additional reporting by Tan Yuan Ru. [[nid:692953]] chingshijie@
Elle
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
'And Just Like That...' Season 3, Episode 2 Recap: Did Carrie Just Meet Her Next Man?
Spoilers below. Carrie is narrating again. So much so, that she's using it not only to express her inner thoughts and writing, but also her texts. Yes, friends, Carrie is a speak-to-text enthusiast. As she and Aidan continue their long-distance relationship (after last week's phone sex debacle), she is actively dictating her correspondences to her on-off-lover as he looks after his family in Virginia. She drops phrases like, 'Hi love, period,' or 'exclamation point!' as if she is reading a telegram. She does this multiple times throughout the latest episode, 'Rate Race,' to an almost comical degree, as if to prove that this is how a 50-something woman uses a smartphone, even though we've never seen Carrie do this before. FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE Anyway, she first broaches the topic of phone usage in the beginning of the episode when she meets her old neighbor Lisette, who now lives in her apartment. While Lisette, a jewelry designer, gifts Carrie a necklace bearing her old address, she also vents about her dating life. After a bad outing with a psychiatrist, Lisette realizes that the actual relationship she has is with her phone. She believes Carrie is so lucky she didn't have to deal with these kind of shenanigans 'back then'; dating must have been easier before texting and apps, right? (I don't know, Carrie still went through the wringer with a senator who loved golden showers, a Post-it breakup, and more.) Lisette ends up getting a guy to buy her (and Carrie) a drink at the bar, and Carrie later shows us that even though she was dating in the '90s and '00s, she's in a relationship with her phone now too. But first she takes us even further into the past—to 1846, the year the nameless protagonist of her latest writing project (otherwise known as 'the woman') is living in. Carrie said she often dreams of who used to live in her historical home, but before she can get too far into her draft, a swarm of rats dash out from the bushes in her garden, sending her running and screaming back into the house. She dictates her text to Aidan about the experience: 'Many, many rats, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point!' While Miranda is at work getting hooked on a queer reality dating show called Bi Bingo, Carrie has promptly hired people to de-pest her garden. To her surprise, Aidan shows up unannounced, partially because he 'felt weird' about how their last phone call went, and also because he misses her. Carrie shares her frustrations about being long distance. She doesn't want to keep Aidan away from his kids, but her new apartment is for the both of them; she wants to be able to share it—and her life—with him. Aidan bends the rules of their 'break,' allowing for Carrie to call and text him whenever she needs. But when Carrie gets in touch about a table she wants to get for their home, he responds with a simple thumbs down emoji. She vents about this at lunch with Seema and Miranda, but the latter seems more interested in discussing the events of Bi Bingo with their waitress. She jokes about the joy of hate-watching—is And Just Like That… being meta here? Is the show that self-aware? Seema, on the other hand, quips that she's currently in the habit of hate-dating, as in, she hates most of the recent dates she's been on and the men she's gone on them with. Her concerned coworker sets her up with Sydney, a matchmaker played by an amazing Cheri Oteri. Seema is rightfully skeptical, but once she realizes Sydney has studied her well enough to perfect her lunch order, she gives in. The issue, though, is that Sydney advises Seema to change almost everything about herself, from the way she dresses to the way she talks. For one date with a handsome man named Jake, Seema dresses in homely church clothes and holds her tongue for most of dinner, but when she comes clean about who she really is, Jake runs 'to the bathroom' (a.k.a. home). It's all too much for Seema. Yes, she's seeking a man, but she's not that desperate. After getting ditched, Seema dumps Sydney too. Meanwhile, Charlotte and Lisa arrive at their children's school to find fellow parents have broken code and hired an off-campus college consultant named Lois Fingerhood to get their kids into Ivy League universities. Feeling late to the game, Charlotte and Lisa make it their mission to get in touch with Lois by any means necessary—for their kids Lily and Herbert Jr.'s sake, of course. Thanks to some Instagram stalking from Charlotte's assistant, they find Lois at her son's T-ball game and corner her on the bleachers. Lily is too busy getting it on with her ballerina crush, Diego, to pick up her mother's calls, but she and Herbert Jr. eventually land a joint meeting with Ms. Fingerhood. It doesn't go well. When the meeting is over, the teens are in a panic. Lily was told she's too well-rounded and shouldn't mention 'that I'm Asian or adopted,' and Herbert Jr. was told to not to mention lacrosse and to have 'more relatable African-American experiences.' It's funny because that is what colleges want—kids to lean into stereotypes and exploit their trauma in their applications. At least Anthony is doing well. He just landed a brick-and-mortar spot for his dream Hotfellas Bakery, complete with baguette-shaped door handles and 'crotch-level' countertops. Miranda's new reality fixation might just get her a date. (Do you guys think she's watching the new season of Love Island too?) She and the waitress making her and Carrie's guacamole can't stop gabbing about the drama on their favorite show. But when Miranda asks the waitress out on a date, she reveals that she's straight and married… with two children. Miranda is confused. Didn't they have a spark? Why is this woman so engaged with queer television? The waitress shrugs and says it's just TV. 'I watch The Walking Dead, and I don't like zombies,' she says in an unnecessarily rude tone. Okay, first of all, that's different. Are we comparing bi people to zombies? During Pride month??? Poor Miranda, first a one-night stand with a virgin nun and now a heartless rejection from a waitress serving guacamole. Not all hope is lost though; Miranda is interested in Joy, a classy British colleague at work, but she's worried about starting an office romance. Carrie, of course, eggs her on. So many people have met their partners at work, Miranda! Carrie, however, might have just met her next partner at the stoop of her new apartment. When her cat slips out the door, a scruffy, muscly gardener picks her up before she can escape onto the street. And what are the odds? This charming landscaper named Adam (Logan Marshall-Dean), who's wearing a rugged band tee, is here to consult Carrie on her backyard renovation. Adam asks her about her ultimate vision for the space, but she's unsure. Not knowing is a good thing, Adam says, 'Because that means what's meant to be will show up.' Whether he's conscious of it or not, he's also referring to himself. Carrie might've been complacent with her arrangement with Aidan, but now that things are changing, she might just be open to something new. Maybe something with Adam. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Erica Gonzales is the Deputy Editor, Culture at where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
