Author: openjargon

• Justin Timberlake is facing DWI charges, Business Insider has confirmed.
• Timberlake was arrested in the Hamptons on Monday night and will reportedly appear in court Tuesday.
• The 10-time Grammy winner has upcoming concerts scheduled in Chicago and New York as part of his tour.

Justin Timberlake was arrested Monday night in the Hamptons on charges of driving while intoxicated, Business Insider has confirmed.

Timberlake, 43, was arrested in Sag Harbor, New York. He will appear in court on Tuesday, according to several outlets.

The 10-time Grammy winner has two concerts scheduled in Chicago this weekend and two shows in New York City next week as part of "The Forget Tomorrow World Tour." The tour is in support of his sixth studio album, "Everything I Thought It Was."

Business Insider contacted Timberlake's reps for comment but did not get a response.

This story is developing. Please check back for additional details.

• Only 1 in 20 Gen Z workers have "green" skills, according to a LinkedIn analysis.
• Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z workers said the main barrier is a lack of job opportunities.
• The skills gap could make it harder for governments and companies to meet their climate goals.

Gen Z is considered the most climate-conscious generation, with nearly two-thirds saying they want a "green" job within the next five years.

That's according to a LinkedIn analysis, which found only 1 in 20 Gen Z workers have "green" skills like measuring carbon emissions, building solar, wind, and electric vehicle projects, reducing waste, or protecting water quality.

LinkedIn classified several hundred skills as "green" and analyzed data from more than one billion people and 65 million companies using the networking platform between January 2016 and March 2024. In May, LinkedIn also conducted an online survey of more than 7,000 global workers in the US, Europe, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates to capture a snapshot of Gen Z's perception of green jobs.

The green skills gap could make it harder for governments and companies to meet their climate goals, LinkedIn warned, especially with Gen Z on track to account for 30% of the global workforce by 2030. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, buildings, the power grid, and the food system could create hundreds of millions of jobs around the world. And while the skills shortage is most acute among Gen Z, it is part of a broader trend across the labor market.

Some 63% of Gen Z workers said the top barrier was a lack of available opportunities. That may be because employers are looking to hire people with prior experience or a certain technical skill, said Efrem Bycer, senior lead manager of public policy and economic graph at LinkedIn. But he also hears a lot of employers say they want workers who are hungry to learn and solve problems.

"The data tells us that Gen Z has that in spades," Bycer said, noting that two-thirds of Gen Z said they were interested in training programs.

Bycer added that employers need to align their climate goals with a hiring plan and identify green skills they can teach people on the job. There are also job titles that might not sound "green" but do help a company reduce its environmental impact. Employers could explain the connection in job descriptions.

"If you think the universe of climate jobs have sustainability in the title or are at a climate tech company, that's a limited view," Bycer said. " There's a lot more jobs that contribute to climate action. So the problem is partly skills, partly signaling."

President Joe Biden is trying to address the green skills gap with the American Climate Corps, which is modeled after a New Deal-era program that hired millions of men to conserve public lands, forests, and parks.

The administration said they expect thousands of young people to fill American Climate Corps jobs this summer that train them to reduce wildfire risks in national forests, respond to natural disasters, install solar panels, and provide environmental education.

Do you work a job that's helping solve the climate crisis? Reach out to this reporter at cboudreau@insider.com.

• OceanGate's Titan submersible imploded a year ago, killing all five on board.
• The investigation into the implosion is dragging on and will miss the 12-month deadline.
• There's currently no projected completion date for the investigation, the US Coast Guard told BI.

On June 18, 2023, OceanGate's Titan submersible imploded while heading to the wreckage of the Titanic. All five on board died.

A year later, investigators say that finding answers to what happened is "complex" and will take longer than anticipated.

In a statement on Friday, the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigations, or MBI, said it was continuing to actively investigate the factors that led to the implosion.

However, the statement acknowledged that the original 12-month timeline for the investigation had not been met.

In an email to BI, a Coast Guard spokesperson said the investigation is still in the fact-finding phase, where the agency is "gathering all relevant evidence and information."

The MBI said that the reasons for the delay included the need to contract two salvage missions to secure evidence and the extensive forensic testing being carried out.

"The investigation into the implosion of the Titan submersible is a complex and ongoing effort," said the MBI's chair, Jason Neubauer, in the statement.

Neubauer added: "We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident."

The US Coast Guard convened the MBI into the submersible's loss last year to determine the cause and whether any misconduct was involved.

It was also set up to investigate whether evidence indicated any criminal acts and to decide if new laws or regulations were needed.

"The MBI is committed to ensuring that we fully understand the factors that led to this tragedy in order to prevent similar occurrences in the future," Neubauer said.

On June 22, 2023, the Coast Guard concluded that the missing submersible had likely imploded, attributing it to a "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber" on the seafloor.

Investigators found major pieces of debris, and months later, the Coast Guard said it recovered "presumed human remains."

Among the dead was Stockton Rush, CEO of the now-defunct OceanGate.

A June 2023 memorandum convening the MBI stipulated that if the 12-month deadline for the investigative report could not be met, a written explanation for the delay and a new expected completion date should be provided.

However, the Coast Guard spokesperson told BI that there is currently no projected completion date.

They added that the latter part of the fact-finding phase would include a public hearing, for which the MBI would provide at least 60 days' notice.

The Titan implosion raised concerns about deep-sea exploration in general.

Despite this, billionaire Larry Connor told The Wall Street Journal in May that he and Patrick Lahey, the CEO of Titan Submarines, plan to travel down to the Titanic wreck site to prove it can be done safely.

• Russian naval ships left Cuba on Monday after a five-day official visit.
• Among them, the submarine Kazan — with visible damage including panels falling off.
• Though a shabby look, it won't affect the sub's performance, experts told BI.

One of Russia's most advanced new submarines, which just left Cuba, is "falling apart" with damage on its hull, according to an OSINT analyst.

Marijn Markus, a managing consultant at the Capgemini IT firm, shared four photos of the nuclear-powered Kazan in a LinkedIn post on Monday.

Markus pointed to soundproofing panels "falling off" the front part of the submarine's hull. That would ruin its stealth capabilities, he said, making it "very" loud underwater and causing it to light up on sonar.

He also pointed to what he described as a "gaping" hole at the sub's midsection.

"While docked, Russian divers were seen around the sub, presumably trying to repair the tin tub," he said.

Markus didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

However, military experts told BI that the damage seen in the photos is common and won't affect the sub's operational capabilities.

Richard Kouyoumdjian Inglis, an officer in Chile's naval reserve, told BI that tiles are made of rubber and can get loose and fall off.

Losing lots of the tiles would make the sub easier to find, Inglis said. But the photos showed only a few missing, not enough to make a difference, he said.

"Russian naval vessels are not state-of-the-art and sometimes are not well maintained, but that does not mean something catastrophic will happen," he said.

John Hardie, the deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told BI that such tiles falling off is a "quite common" problem for all navies, including the US.

Meanwhile, Mark C, a former UK Royal Navy submariner who declined to provide his last name, citing work-related cross-overs, said the vessel did seem to suffer operational wear-and-tear but remained capable of performing its role.

"So it's very possible it will continue its exercises," he told BI.

The Kazan, along with three Russian surface ships, left Havana's port in Cuba on Monday after a five-day official visit that included planned military drills in the Atlantic, per the Associated Press.

Its next destination is unclear, though US officials said a few days ago it could stop in Venezuela, according to the AP.

The US and its Western allies have been concerned about the relatively new Kazan class of submarines for years.

They cite its ability to strike targets both on land and at sea with little notice, and its stealth.

An unnamed US official said Russia sending warships to Cuba was an attempt to show its navy is still a global power despite its heavy losses in the sea around Ukraine, the AP reported earlier this month.

• I tracked all the ads I saw in a day and counted over 130.
• Some ad settings can be adjusted, but control over frequency remains limited across many platforms.
• I didn't mind most ads because they either catered to my interests or were easy to tune out.

Ads have become so embedded in everyday activities and media consumption that you may not even notice how often you run into them.

When my editor asked me to track all the ads I saw in a day, I wasn't sure how it would go. Prior to this experiment, I hadn't paid close attention to how often an ad or sponsored content floated before my eyes.

While the words "sponsored" may show up on a video or image you scroll past on social media, the font is often small and if the content is successfully targeting you, you may not even notice.

I missed a few ads during this process, especially on sites where I was focused on getting the answer I was searching for. But based on what I did catch, I spotted over 130 ads in a single day.

Let's dive in.

Your settings can (sometimes) make a difference

The type of ads you receive may be adjustable in your settings. But for most platforms, you won't be able to control how many you see.

To personalize Google ads, for example, you can go to "My Ad Center" and opt to turn personalized ads on or off in the top-right corner. If you turn them on, Google will use the information it collects about you to give you more personalized ads. That means your activity on Google sites and apps will be saved in your Google Account and information from your account, like your age, will also be used.

I decided to keep personalized ads off for Google because that's how I usually have it. This resulted in me sometimes missing ads on my screen. I'm so used to seeing random photos and brand names in the corners and sides of my screen that my eyes glazed over some of them. It drew a sharp contrast to my experience with social media ads, which are fully personalized to my activity on and off-site and often pull my attention.

When it comes to social media, you don't have as much of a choice — although some do let you pay to remove or decrease ads. Facebook now offers a paid version in the EU for people who prefer an ad-free experience, YouTube lets you pay for Premium to remove them, and Elon Musk's X says paying for X Premium+ means no ads in your For You or Following feeds.

But TikTok, for example, says on its website that "you will always see ads based on what you do on TikTok." But you can provide feedback on an ad if you're not interested in it. Other social media sites have similar ad policies.

With TikTok, Instagram, and most apps that you download on your phone, you can turn off ad-tracking across companies and websites in your privacy settings.

My social media feeds were filled with ads

I spent about two and a half hours on Instagram on the day of this experiment — and I saw about 75 ads.

I probably never went through more than four posts at a time without being interrupted by an ad. But most of the ads were similar to content I regularly engage with in my explore feed or online.

I find ads with multiple products and links particularly effective because it's easy to engage with them and find out pricing or other details. I also loved seeing sponsored food content because it gave me ideas of where to go out to eat.

None of the ads resulted in me purchasing any items, but if I continue to see interesting ads in my price range for weeks at a time, it may eventually influence my buying patterns.

For TikTok, the ads were even less noticeable because the app is so casual. For example, I would start watching a woman wipe down her counters and then see Mr. Clean at the end of the video before noticing the "sponsored" label at the bottom. I also found some of the TikTok ads interesting or helpful.

I didn't engage at all with internet ads

I tracked about 40 ads online, but since they weren't personalized to my interests I sometimes didn't notice them. I saw a range of ads from USPS to T-Mobile, to random shows on streaming services that I had no interest in.

Sometimes, they were images, and other times, they were full videos. I also saw a couple of ads on YouTube videos but usually skipped after a few seconds, so I didn't fully engage with those either.

Miscellaneous ads

I use the language-learning app Duolingo every day and those are the only ads I truly dread. The ads are animated with sound and I sometimes put my phone down and walk away because of how painful it feels to watch.

I also saw about 10 ads in real life on the subway on my way to and from work. By the end of the day, I noticed these less, but in general, they tend to stick out more than non-targeted ads on the internet.

I also receive several push notifications and ads over text every day. I counted about seven on the day of this experiment, including a push notification from Urban Outfitters about a flash sale, a text from CorePower Yoga for discounted class packs, and a push notification from Amazon about trending sunscreen.

Most of the ads don't bother me

My biggest takeaway from this experiment was that I really didn't mind the ads. In fact, sometimes I liked them.

I love online shopping and browsing — and I like that apps like Instagram curate content to my interests. I've discovered new brands on Instagram that I ended up ordering from because of ads. Even if it doesn't lead to a purchase, I enjoy seeing items that fall in my line of interest and inspire me to look at similar products.

The push notifications and the texts were probably the most annoying of all the ads I received, and I find myself deleting them on a daily basis.

I also don't follow too many influencers, but I immediately scrolled past content if I saw it labeled with "creator earns commission" or if it included a discount code in the caption because I'm not interested in paid content from someone I follow for enjoyment.

As far as Duolingo's ads go, yes, I find them annoying — but I also wouldn't pay $12.99 per month to get rid of them.

It's clear that we're seeing more and more ads on our phones and TV screens — Netflix and Amazon recently introduced ads to their streaming services, although both offer ad-free options for an extra cost.

Luckily, I'm on my roommate's plan for Netflix, and my family has an Amazon and Spotify subscription, so I don't have to deal with these. I sometimes watch Hulu shows and the ads are annoying, but I usually walk away if an ad comes on.

For me, watching or listening to an ad is the most frustrating, and I would definitely be bothered if I was constantly interrupted by them. When I was growing up, I found radio commercials unbearable, and I might have paid for an ad-free option if I still had to go through those several-minute interruptions.

But the honest answer is I'm used to ads by now, and even find some genuinely interesting. We're living in an advertising world — and if I have to deal with sponsored content for clothing brands I like while scrolling on social media — then so be it.

• Business Insider is taking Juneteenth off on Wednesday, June 19.
• I wrote an out-of-office message to educate people and let them know I won't be checking email.
• Juneteenth recognizes the end of slavery in the US on June 19, 1865.

Business Insider is taking Juneteenth off. To prepare, I crafted an out-of-office message to let my contacts know I won't be checking email on Wednesday and educate them on the historic event.

Juneteenth recognizes the end of slavery in the US when the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas (then the most remote Confederate state) on June 19, 1865.

I took my usual OOO template and added a link that explains what Juneteenth is. Here's what I wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for your email! Business Insider has closed today to observe Juneteenth.

I encourage you to read the linked article on the holiday if you want to know why this decision was made and why it's so important to the company and its staff.

I'll be sure to respond to your message when I'm back in the office on Thursday, 6/20.

Big-name companies like Twitter and Nike declared Juneteenth a company holiday in 2020. Other organizations like Microsoft have designated it a "day of listening, learning, and engagement" and canceled meetings.

On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

• Business Insider asked interior designers about decorating trends they don't like. 
• Experts said all-white interiors and open shelving are impractical for most people. 
• Shiplap, palm prints, and accent walls can look overly trendy and easily become dated.

All-white interiors are impractical and hard to maintain.

Architect and interior designer Kobi Karp of Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design told Business Insider that the all-white, minimalist trend isn't practical for most homes.  

"White fabrics, especially white leather, stain easily. This style is popular in magazines, so designers are frequently asked to do it, but people are often left with potentially exorbitant cleaning and maintenance costs," he said. 

Instead of going all white, try a rich blue or sage green that imparts a cool and clean vibe without the laborious upkeep.

Open shelving is overly trendy and hard to pull off.

Jennifer Weisberg, interior designer and owner of JLW Interiors, told BI that the open-shelving kitchen trend usually looks a lot better on Instagram than it does in real life. 

"Open shelving is so overdone at this point," she said. "It's also quite impractical, as very few people want to take the time to make sure their dishes and glassware are always perfectly organized." 

If you want the airy feel of open shelving but don't want to spend hours curating your kitchen items, consider opting for light-colored wood or frosted-glass cupboards.

Vessel sinks can be unsanitary and aren't user-friendly.

A vessel sink is one where water runs from a faucet into a raised basin or bowl that is attached to a flat countertop.  

Interior designer Leslie Markman-Stern of Leslie M. Stern Design told BI that these sinks are difficult to keep clean and can be hard to use. 

"It can be hard to clean around vessel sinks and they're not user-friendly for most, especially short people, seniors, or those who have disabilities," she said. 

To make matters worse, it's often tough to find handles and faucets that work with an existing vessel if the sink needs to be repaired.

Midcentury modern furniture may be overused.

Midcentury modern refers to a style of furniture and decor that was popular from roughly the late 1940s to the early 1960s. 

Although its streamlined look has recently experienced a revival, designers feel that its ubiquity has made it feel commonplace. 

"Mid-century modern furniture has been used too much. It's a shame because there are other vintage styles that have interesting qualities and may actually be better made," Markman-Stern told BI. 

Since midcentury modern furniture is so simple, the designer said, many manufacturers have been churning out poorly made replicas of it for years. If you're shopping for vintage pieces, it's wise to buy from a reputable antique dealer.

Faux-distressed decor can look tacky.

Interior designer Sally Soricelli of Nestorations told BI that the trend of decorating with heavily distressed furniture has definitely run its course. 

"Everyone has been distressing and chalk-painting furniture for years now," she said. "Unfortunately, most of these mass-produced distressed pieces look cheaply made."

If you're looking to add texture and dimension to your interior, try investing in an authentic antique piece or upholstering an existing furniture item with an interesting fabric.

Dining benches look good but can be hard to actually use.

Dining benches can complement rustic decor while keeping a low profile, meaning they can be easily stowed away under tables. 

But Karp pointed out that this seating trend can be downright uncomfortable.

"Dining benches are great until the person sitting in the middle has to get up, because that means everyone has to get up," he told BI. "They are also extremely uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time."

Some designers wish accent walls would go away.

Painting or wallpapering an accent wall is still a popular way to decorate a room, but some designers are over the trend. 

"The trend of painting one wall of a room a different color is definitely outdated and I never recommend it to clients," said Soricelli. "If you love the color enough, paint the whole room."

You can also use accessories, pillows, or fabrics to add complementary colors to a space.

Barn doors don't block light, sound, or smells.

Swapping traditional, hinged interior doors for large, sliding barn doors is a mainstay of farmhouse-chic decorating. 

Sadly, these doors often function as little more than wooden curtains.  

"Aesthetics aside, sliding barn doors are terrible at being doors," Karp told BI. "They don't create any kind of seal between the wall and the door so they do almost nothing to block out sound, and light and odors seep in through the sides."

Shiplap is a tired interior trend.

Shiplap is a type of wooden paneling that was originally used to create a water-tight seal for the hulls of boats.

Following its liberal use on renovation shows like HGTV's "Fixer Upper," shiplap sailed into homes everywhere as interior siding. But some designers think the nautical material should catch the next wave out. 

"Shiplap is way too overdone — literally everything seems to be covered in shiplap these days. There are so many other woodwork choices that I'd love people to embrace in their homes," Soricelli told BI. 

Palm prints are everywhere, and not in a good way.

Alessandra Wood, an interior designer with online design service Modsy, told BI that bold, tropical palm prints should be replaced with something more current. 

"I love a good palm print. But knock-off prints seem to be everywhere, and the oversaturated use of palm print has made it lose a bit of its appeal," she said.

Terrazzo-covered everything has some designers rolling their eyes.

The terrazzo-print trend is still in full swing, but designers were unanimous in their dislike for the colorful material

"The use of the terrazzo pattern on everything but actual terrazzo flooring has made it feel a little overplayed," Wood said. 

Weisberg added that installing terrazzo material in bright colors can make the pattern overwhelming. 

"Terrazzo tends to look very busy, especially in bold color combinations. I find clients tire of this pattern quickly," she told BI. 

Matching furniture sets can be pricey and boring.

Colin Haentjens, architect and interior designer, told BI that splurging on a trendy matching furniture set is usually a financial and design mistake. 

"A living room filled with furniture that has matching legs, colors, and materials is boring," he said. "Manufacturers profit from this trend for matching sets, but you can save money and find more unique pieces by shopping around."

Bold "pops" of color can actually look dated.

You might think that throwing a bright-red armchair into your all-white living room will add interest and originality. But Haentjens argued that bold pops of color can actually look unsophisticated. 

"The trend of adding 'pops of color' with furniture and upholstery has actually been around for over a decade. This strategy can give a space a childish feel, especially if the color is primary or too saturated," he told BI.

Instead, the designer recommended simply painting neutral-colored walls a more interesting color.

Lights with paper shades are affordable but ubiquitous.

Lights with paper shades are cheap and practical, but Haentjens cautioned that they can look dull and uninspired. 

"A certain affordable Swedish furniture company makes paper-shade light fixtures that can be found in every apartment," he told BI. "Steer clear of these to avoid having the same light as all of your friends."

"Living walls" are a nightmare to maintain.

So-called "living" or "green" walls are vertical racks of potted plants arranged to give the illusion of a wall made of living greenery. Unfortunately, designers aren't in love with this plant trend. 

"Living walls are hard to maintain, given their vertical placement. They also create the potential for mold, allergens, and unwelcome insects inside the home," Weisberg said. 

Karp also decried the practice of using plastic plants to create living walls. 

"Artificial green walls don't offer the air-cleaning benefits of a real living wall and actually harm the environment due to their use of plastic," he told BI. "This is one trend I'd love to see disappear."

Gray interiors can feel gloomy and dull.

Popular colors come and go, but gray has been having a major moment in interior design for the past few years. 

"Gray has been everywhere. Gray walls, gray floors, gray furniture, gray everything," said Soricelli. "But the cool tones of gray can sometimes feel depressing and sterile, especially if it's all over the room." 

If you're into the idea of a neutral color palette, consider incorporating some warmer beige or even blush tones to balance out the severity of gray.

The look of a tile countertop isn't worth the upkeep.

Covering your bathroom or kitchen counter with tile might add texture and visual interest, but Karp outlined several reasons this trend is a bad idea for most homes.  

"In a high-humidity environment such as a bathroom or kitchen, bacteria can breed alarmingly fast on the porous surface of tiles," he told BI. They're also extremely prone to staining, and it's very hard to clean the grouting," 

Karp also noted that, in addition to their hygiene concerns, tile countertops don't provide a smooth surface for resting objects and they're prone to cracking and chipping.

This story was originally published in July 2020 and most recently updated on June 18, 2024. 

Read More:

• Popular interior design trends to stop following, and what to do instead
• Experts reveal 7 surprising ways you're ruining your furniture
• Interior designers reveal the 12 things in your home you should get rid of
• Interior designers reveal 12 ways to make your home look better without buying anything

• Rachel Pohl and her husband left San Francisco and traveled around the US for around a year.
• They ended up looking for a place to settle down when Pohl was pregnant.
• While they thought Durham, North Carolina, would be the answer, Chattanooga, Tennessee, ended up being their home.

San Francisco is the home of the Golden Gate Bridge, the setting for "That's So Raven" and "Full House," and host to a robust professional and business services workforce.

It's also an expensive city and has seen more people moving out than in for somewhere else in the US.

Rachel Pohl, 34, who lived in San Francisco for several years, and her husband, Jesse Rosenthal, are just two of the people who left. After traveling around the US for around a year, they're happy having settled in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Pohl said while she was also happy in San Francisco and enjoyed living there, she's "grateful to call Chattanooga home" in her current phase of life. She and her husband moved to the city of more than 180,000 people in late 2021.

They had been considering moving away from California for quite some time before leaving San Francisco in the fall of 2020.

"It's very expensive, of course, difficult to buy a house, raise a family," she said. Pohl said they also wanted to live closer to family and wanted to be somewhere with a "slower pace of life" than the more fast-paced, large city of San Francisco, home to over 800,000 people.

"I think just the overall situation, livability there because of the cost of living is more difficult than smaller to mid-size cities," Pohl said.

The California wildfires in August 2020 were another reason the two decided to leave. "Around that time, we were thinking, let's get out of California. It's time," Pohl said.

'A grand nomadic tour of the US'

Amid remote work flexibility during the pandemic, the two ventured out of San Francisco and decided to explore the country to see the sights and decide where to settle down. "We did a grand nomadic tour of the US," Pohl said.

They packed up their things and put some stuff in storage. Pohl said goodbye to the city she had called home for years and where she met her husband. The two of them headed to Airbnb locations throughout the US.

Montana was one state they visited. Chattanooga was another place they got to see on their trip, and she found it was "very beautiful and lovely."

"It was springtime, and the flowers were blooming, and I thought, 'this is a nice place,'" she added. While she and her husband continued on, they eventually ended up moving there after roughly a year of travel because they wanted somewhere steady after finding out Pohl was pregnant. Pohl said she and her husband liked the size and Chattanooga's energy.

"It felt like there was enough and a lot going on for the size of the city, but not so overwhelming," she said.

They did end up in Durham, North Carolina, in the summer of 2021 before Chattanooga, partly because of its potential work opportunities. However, Pohl said they simply weren't feeling that location.

"We thought if we could pick to go anywhere, basically, in the US, we want to love it, and we want to feel great about our decision," Pohl said. "So we decided at that time to come back to Chattanooga. We hadn't been back since the spring."

The family-friendly location and other pros of being in Chattanooga

Pohl likes the access to nature in Chattanooga.

"We love to go on hikes and go by the river and go paddle boarding," she said. "We love to go to playgrounds and parks with our son. All of that is very accessible."

Pohl said people are also friendly in Chattanooga, and she thinks it's a family-friendly location. She has also found the people are more diversified in terms of jobs, as opposed to the dominance of tech in the San Francisco area.

"I was meeting entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry and people doing all kinds of things," Pohl said about Chattanooga. "It felt approachable and accessible here to do that."

Chattanooga is also much more affordable for homebuyers than San Francisco. Realtor.com noted both San Francisco and Chattanooga as buyer's markets at the moment, where the "supply of homes is greater than the demand for homes." While that may be the case, Realtor.com also shows the median sold home price in Chattanooga is far below that across the country in San Francisco — $347,500 and around $1.1 million respectively.

"It is just much more accessible to buy a lovely larger-sized home in Tennessee and Chattanooga," she said. "Your dollar goes much further here. We had looked at potentially buying a house in California and just in the end thought this makes no sense because of the cost, because of the distance to family, and just kind of the whole situation we felt like, let's go yonder."

While Pohl is happy living in Tennessee, she misses the cuisine in San Franciso and access to some national parks nearby. Pohl noted to BI she had visited San Francisco since moving away, mainly for work. And while she does love the energy in Chattanooga, there's just something about the energy in California, too.

"It's such a beautiful state," Pohl said about California. "Sometimes I miss a little bit of the energy, but again, I feel like that was an active part of my choice to leave being in a big city, but there's so much innovation happening there around technology and AI. So sometimes, from a work perspective, I miss that."

Have you moved out of San Francisco or somewhere else in the US? Reach out to this reporter to share your moving experience at mhoff@businessinsider.com.

Andrew Bustamante spent seven years working covertly as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA recruited him while he was applying to join the Peace Corps after leaving the US Air Force. Bustamante possesses an intimate knowledge of the intelligence community's inner workings. He says that he orchestrated several drone strikes during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and that he mastered the art of deception. After meeting his wife — also a CIA officer — and having children, he learned the CIA was no place for families. But leaving a life that was to most people a lie wasn't easy. Today, he runs his own company, Everyday Spy, training people in the techniques he learned as a spy. But he believes the US isn't safe enough to raise his family.

For more, visit:

Learn your spy superpower: https://everydayspy.com/spyquiz

Follow @EverydaySpy on social media: https://www.instagram.com/everydayspy/

Join the "EverydaySpy Podcast": https://www.youtube.com/@EverydaySpyPodcast

• Xi Jinping said the US was trying to trick China into invading Taiwan, the Financial Times reported.
• The Chinese leader made the claim to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, per the FT.
• Experts told BI the accusation was meant to drive a wedge between the US and its European allies.

Xi Jinping's claim that the US is trying to trick China into invading Taiwan is aimed at driving a wedge between the US and its European allies, experts told Business Insider.

The Chinese leader made the accusation in April last year during a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Financial Times reported over the weekend, citing people familiar with the matter.

One person who spoke to the FT said Xi had issued the same warning to officials in his own country.

According to Andrew Scobell, a distinguished fellow with the China program at the US Institute of Peace, in speaking out in this way, Xi was trying to "sow division" between the US and its allies and "drive a wedge" into transatlantic policy toward China.

He told BI that Xi likely believed what he said and probably reached the conclusion from the "almost incessant alarmist" narrative in the US that Beijing is planning to attack Taiwan in the next few years.

But in addressing the issue with the EU leader, Xi was trying to counter the US narrative and undermine transatlantic relations, Scobell said.

Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, went further.

"By framing the US as provocateurs, Xi aims to rally domestic support and caution America's Western allies against escalating their support for Taiwan," he told BI.

Singleton, who spent more than a decade serving in the US government in a series of national security roles, said Xi's claim effectively portrays China as a "rational" actor in a "complex" geopolitical environment.

Part of Xi's strategy is also to "deflect parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan," he added, with China aware that such comparisons "resonate deeply with European nations who might feel compelled to intervene to protect Taiwan's democracy."

Meanwhile, Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at RAND, said Xi made the accusation to von der Leyen knowing the message would "certainly" be passed to the US.

"Also, China knows that the EU is generally ambivalent about backing the United States in a war with China over Taiwan," he added.

For decades, the US has adopted a policy of "strategic ambiguity" toward Taiwan, positioning itself as the country's most steadfast ally, while declining to explicitly say whether it would come to Taiwan's aid if China attacked.

However, over the last few years, the mood in Washington, DC, has shifted toward greater hawkishness, Graeme Thompson, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, told Business Insider in November.

Former officials, including Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, have even called for Taiwan's recognition as an independent state.

This would be a red line for the EU. Under its One China policy, the EU recognizes the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China.

And while the US approved an $8 billion defense package for Taiwan in April, the EU has sent none.

The US has also discussed ways it could help defend Taiwan, including deploying thousands of drones if China invaded, with the "unmanned hellscape" buying time for the US military to come to Taiwan's aid, the top US admiral in the Pacific said.

The EU, meanwhile, rejects the use or threat of force, favoring the status quo and peaceful resolution of differences across the Taiwan Strait.

Despite their differences, the US and its European allies share the consensus that China represents a challenge, even a threat, and agree that de-risking, preserving the status quo in the Indo-Pacific, and opposing China's actions globally is imperative, according to a February policy paper by the UK-based Royal Services Institute.