Author: openjargon

• Cairo is overcrowded, so Egypt's government is building a new capital about 30 miles away.
• The city, which already holds Africa's tallest building, is expected to cost $58 billion to build.
• Some political analysts are worried about the eye-watering cost of the project.

Like Indonesia, Egypt is building a new capital — although in this case, it's responding to the challenge of overcrowding.

The existing capital, Cairo, is home to about 22 million people, making it one of the world's most densely populated metropolitan areas. Policymakers believe that constructing new city could help to reduce congestion there.

It has yet to be given an official name but is often to referred to as the New Administrative Capital.

The city is being built in the desert 30 miles away from Cairo and already hosts an imposing skyscraper in the city's central business district.

Egypt's government has forecast that the new administrative capital will cost $58 billion to build.

More than 1,500 families have already moved there, CNN reported, citing Khaled Abbas, chairman of the Administrative Capital for Urban Development, which oversees the project.

The plan is for it to eventually have 6.5 million residents. Take a closer look at the details.

Egypt announced its plan for a new capital in March 2015

Egypt's government unveiled its plan to build the capital over nine years ago, estimating at the time that the project would cost $45 billion. The new city is one of several mega projects announced under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's leadership. He's also mulling further whether the Suez Canal can be further expanded.

The government is trying to ease overcrowding in Cairo

When the project was announced, then-housing minister Mostafa Madbouly said it was part of a plan to reduce congestion in Cairo over four decades. Greater Cairo's population was on track to double to about 36 million within that timeframe, he added.

Officials picked a site in the desert, 30 miles east of Cairo

The new city is located between Cairo and the seaport city of Suez. It's connected to the old capital by an electrified light railway system that opened in July 2022.

Here's what the area looked like before construction started

The Atlantic used past satellite imagery from Google Earth to take a snapshot of what the Egyptian government's chosen site looked like 10 years ago before construction started.

This is how it’s changed since then

The site now has government, business, and residential districts, and is home to many civil servants and their families. Fourteen government ministries and entities have relocated to the new capital as of this month.

At the center of the city is the Iconic Tower, Africa's tallest building

The skyscraper, which was completed last year, stands at around 396 meters. It has 77 floors for a mixture of residential, office, and hotel uses.

The new capital is also home to one of Africa's largest mosques …

The Grand Mosque can hold 107,000 worshippers, the BBC reported. As of last year, it was home to the world's heaviest chandelier, which weighed more than 50,000 pounds.

… and a massive stadium

The venue, known as the New Administrative Capital Stadium, can hold nearly 94,000 people. It's part of the "Olympic City" complex, which the government hopes will help it win the right to host major sporting events like the FIFA World Cup.

But some are concerned about the project's huge cost

Egypt has said the project will be funded by state-owned enterprises and money it can rake in from selling land — but some critics believe the country shouldn't be spending so much money on a new capital.

Political analyst Maged Mandour previously told The New York Times that the government was "borrowing money from abroad to build a massive city for the rich," reflecting the fact it's taken out billion-dollar loans from the IMF.

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• Job seekers often look for ways to slip past the software many companies use to collect résumés.
• Yet it's often recruiters, not bots, that reject applicants for a role.
• A recruitment firm found that applications lead to "meaningful conversations" only 3% of the time.

Melissa Weaver was recruiting for a tech consulting company when she spotted something promising on a man's résumé: He'd worked at a pizza shop all four years of college.

"He had started as a dishwasher and, by the end, he was a manager," she told Business Insider.

Although the recent grad didn't have tech experience, to Weaver, he'd shown longevity with a company and a desire to take on more responsibility.

"That's definitely worth a conversation," Weaver said. The man eventually got the job and has since been promoted multiple times, she said.

It's the kind of feel-good story that seems impossible to repeat in a job market that can unfold like an obstacle course — one where the obstacles are the technologies that many companies use to filter and reject résumés.

Yet, for all the fear of so-called applicant-tracking systems, often, it's not a bot that's doing the booting — it's still people.

'The ATS doesn't care'

Mark Jensen, a recruiter with Upswing Talent Acquisition, told BI that job seekers often focus too much on sneaking past an ATS to get seen.

"They all think that the applicant-tracking system is some magical technology that screens people out on its own," he said. "The ATS doesn't care. It's just a repository."

Instead, recruiters often filter with keywords and other variables to reduce stacks of résumés, Jensen said. So, it's a good idea to tailor yours and your cover letter to ensure they're a good fit for a job description.

That's because, like many others who feel overworked, recruiters often are, too, he said.

"They don't have time to really parse through a résumé and think if someone may or may not be a fit. They need that résumé to jump off the page," Jensen said.

Weaver agreed. She recommends people list specific achievements and skills and not just focus on key words contained in a job description.

"Put any specific stats that show, 'I know what I'm talking about,'" she said. "That's really important in terms of catching the human eye."

Weaver said taking these steps makes it less likely that a résumé will be set aside when a recruiter sorts for certain attributes.

Don't fear the ether

It's understandable why people would stress over whether an ATS would block their résumé. Nearly all Fortune 500 companies, for example, deploy systems for ingesting résumés.

And the only thing worse than having a recruiter spend only six or seven seconds scanning your résumé is having no one read it. Online, people debate strategies for getting past an ATS. People and companies have even made businesses of creating ATS-friendly résumés.

Weaver sees value in using tech to filter candidates but worries about those who could get overlooked — like the pizza guy — because they don't have the experience that's in direct alignment with a job posting.

"Do they have relevant experience? Not in a way that an applicant-tracking system would tell you that they do. But their experience that may not be related to your field can still apply," she said.

Fear of getting ghosted by an ATS is why some people resort to what recruiters call "spray and pray." It's essentially applying to as many jobs as possible to break through somewhere. Artificial intelligence tools can now also help make you a serial applier.

A 3% ROI

Yet even though it's easier than ever to apply for jobs, that doesn't mean you should go wild. Applying to more than 1,000 roles, for example, doesn't guarantee success.

Aaron Cleavinger, a managing partner at Murdoch Mason Executive Search Group, told BI that his firm's research shows that when applicants apply for positions, that effort turns into "meaningful conversations" only about 3% of the time. He said that doesn't mean people shouldn't go for jobs, but they likely need to limit how often they focus on clicking that submit button.

"If it's 3% value, perhaps you should only spend 3% of your time doing it," he said.

So, what else should job seekers do? Cleavinger said it's about constantly challenging yourself to appear different from other candidates who are equally or more qualified than you.

"How do you stand out so that when there's a big pile of résumés or a giant list of LinkedIn profiles to look through that you'd be the one to come on top?" he said.

Jensen, the recruiter with Upswing Talent Acquisition, said the power also rests with those doing the hiring to make wise decisions about how to use an ATS.

"It's the recruiter and how they choose to filter to make hopefully the most relevant candidates bubble up to the top, so they don't have to review all 400 or 1,000 résumés," he said.

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• Inclusionary zoning policies can backfire, leading to fewer homes and higher housing costs.
• A new study suggests ways to optimize inclusionary zoning for affordable housing.
• But direct housing subsidies, like vouchers, can be more effective and flexible.

A key policy designed to create affordable housing for low-income people has long been scrutinized for being generally ineffective.

Inclusionary zoning, which originated in the 1970s, is designed to boost the production of affordable housing by requiring or incentivizing developers to set aside a certain share of below-market-rate units when building new apartments or homes.

The idea is to leverage land-use regulations to have the private sector offer some homes for lower-income people. The term is a response to "exclusionary zoning" — laws like single-family zoning that make it illegal to build cheaper units in multi-family buildings — which still dominates American cities and cements racial and socioeconomic segregation.

But critics have long pointed out that inclusionary zoning policies often backfire by raising costs so much for developers that they cancel or significantly scale back new housing projects. At a certain point, more inclusionary zoning requirements mean less affordable and market-rate housing is constructed than otherwise would be.

Some advocates of land-use policies like inclusionary zoning argue that any additional affordable housing is a net benefit, even if it means less housing overall or higher rents. But lots of research has found that restricting the supply of housing — including market-rate homes — means higher rents and home prices. So a policy designed to create more affordable housing can actually result in fewer homes and higher housing costs.

A new study by UCLA housing researcher Shane Phillips found that while inclusionary zoning is deeply flawed, there are ways to design the policy to maximize its benefits. Phillips used a simulator developed by UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation to predict how much both market-rate and low-income housing inclusionary zoning would produce. He looked specifically at Los Angeles' Transit Oriented Communities program, which incentivizes developers on a voluntary basis to build housing around bus and train stations.

Phillips wanted to determine whether there's an optimal inclusionary zoning policy and if not, what the policy's tradeoffs look like. This involves finding a balance between creating more deed-restricted affordable housing and boosting the overall supply of housing.

He concluded that the value of the government subsidy for building affordable housing needs to outweigh its costs. If taxes are too high on new construction, the new housing just won't go up. And because it's hard to strike that balance correctly in every case, Phillips also found the policy should be voluntary, rather than mandated. That way, "if you calibrate wrong, if you require too much and offer too little, you're not going to kill projects because they have no choice but to go down that pathway," Phillips said.

While it's possible to improve inclusionary zoning, Phillips found the costs of the policy "are very likely greater than the benefits." But he recognizes that it can be politically impossible for policymakers to abandon the policy.

"That's not to say that we should just get rid of these programs," Phillips said. "Partly for political reasons, I think it's just a necessity in many cases, and maybe at least a bridge to something better."

Studying the impacts of inclusionary zoning is increasingly important because a growing number of states and localities are looking to boost all kinds of infill construction in existing neighborhoods, including so-called "missing middle housing" — everything between a detached single-family home and an apartment building. While larger apartment buildings are generally better able to absorb the costs of inclusionary zoning, it often doesn't pencil out to build below-market units in smaller developments.

"It's a lot easier to make inclusionary zoning work when most of your projects in your city are 50 units, 100 units," Phillips said. To encourage the construction of missing middle housing, "you really need a simple process and minimal requirements," he added.

Many policy experts, including Phillips, would rather see governments provide much more in direct housing subsidies, both for low-income people and homebuilders.

Direct subsidies, like housing vouchers, give low-income residents more flexibility: they can choose where they want to live. And every dollar spent on direct housing support, like housing vouchers, tends to go farther than a dollar used to subsidize the construction of an affordable unit, Phillips said.

"We really, over time, need to move away from trying to have land use reforms serve multiple purposes, let them do what they're good for, which is producing more housing of different types," Phillips said. "And we really need to find resources and commit resources to subsidizing housing for people who can't afford it on their own, whether through vouchers or subsidies for construction, really both."

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• Gen Z's 'decisive decade' of 14 to 24 years can significantly impact their socioeconomic future.
• Educational attainment and mental health can shape young adults' fortunes.
• Gen Zers outcomes also depend on factors like family income level, gender, and race.

Gen Zers are in their teenage and young adult years and it'll shape their fortunes for decades to come.

The generation — who are between the ages of 12 and 27 according to the Pew Research Center's definition — grew up alongside evolving technology, major elections, and the pandemic. Now, they are getting driver's licenses, attending graduation ceremonies, decorating first apartments, and starting new jobs.

The ages of 14 to 24, specifically, are what researchers are calling the "decisive decade." According to an April report from the Brookings Institution, Gen Zers' life circumstances during those years can have significant impacts on their socioeconomic future.

America is already seeing a split among Gen Zers — those who are getting degrees and beginning careers, and "disconnected youth" who are not enrolled in school or working, a cohort that includes about 14% of 18-to-24-year-olds.

Many young people are feeling anxious about adulthood. And there are three key reasons Gen Zers' decisive decade will shape their ongoing mental and financial health.

Education has a major impact on future employment

Educational attainment will inform Gen Zers' future income levels, the Brookings report found, because college graduates tend to land higher-paying jobs.

Based on data from the Census Bureau's Annual Social and Economic Supplement, the report looked at Americans' education and employment milestones between ages 14 and 24.

Just 31% of young people had a bachelor's degree or higher by age 24, while 58% worked full time between 2015 and 2019, even before the pandemic disrupted work and school patterns for millions of Americans. The researchers also noted that about there were about 2.5 million fewer high school graduates enrolled in college in 2022 compared to 2010.

This growing disconnection with education and the workforce correlates to future income. Urban Institute, a research firm, found that a 10% increase in the share of time a young adult spends disconnected is associated with a $7,000 – $9,000 decrease in family income by the time they turn 30.

"If we empower more young people who have within their own lives, they're quite capable of making strong decisions within this period that can have lifelong benefit," Ian Rowe, a senior fellow at the nonprofit policy research firm American Enterprise Institute, said at an April 29 Brookings event.

Continued education has other benefits too, researchers found: lower rates of teen pregnancy, substance abuse, homelessness, and criminal justice involvement, as well as improved mental health levels.

Unhappiness can shape long-term mental health

Gen Zer's mental health outcomes are shaped by their involvement in school and work, Brookings researchers said. And, the generation is increasingly feeling the weight of isolation and financial stress.

At work, many Gen Zers are struggling with anxiety, work-life balance, and burnout — more so than millennials, Gen X, and boomers. Unhappiness and social isolation are especially affecting Gen Zers who reached adolescence during the pandemic. And it's hurting their happiness levels.

In the 2024 World Happiness Report, young adults in the US reported some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction in years, ranking 62nd out of 143 countries for people under 30.

"Happiness, well-being and greater mental health is predictive of a whole bunch of positive outcomes," Lara Aknin, an editor at the World Happiness Report, said at the Brookings event. "Graduating from high school is a meaningful milestone, but it's also satisfaction with your relationship and earnings later on."

Additionally, Brookings found that more young people are living with their parents than previous generations. This trend tends to alleviate some mental health risks and reduce adult poverty levels.

Gen Zers' choice to live in multigenerational households is also a strategy to alleviate financial stress, especially as many young people face staggering student loan costs, rising home prices, and growing inflation levels. 40% of young adults living with their parents cite financial reasons, per 2022 Pew Research Center data.

Not all Gen Zers start on equal footing

To be sure, Gen Zers' education, work, and financial outcomes are also dependent on their life circumstances in childhood. Brookings researchers reported that family income level, gender, and race can also determine young people's futures.

Students who come from low-income backgrounds are less likely to enroll in college, the report found: 89% of students who grew up in the top income quintile enroll in higher education, compared with 51% of those from lowest income quintile.

21-year-olds from top-quintile families are also twice as likely to have met major milestones like graduating from high school and being enrolled in college than those from bottom-quintile families.

These trends also vary depending on a young adult's gender and race, researchers said. Women who are disconnected during their "decisive" ages of 16 to 24 are four times more likely to become young mothers than those who are working or enrolled in school.

Black and Hispanic young adults are also more likely to be disconnected. About a fifth of Black and Hispanic 24-year-olds aren't working or employed, compared to 14% of white and Asian 24-year-olds, the report found.

Are you a Gen Zer who isn't employed or enrolled in school? Are you a parent of disconnected youths? Reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@insider.com.

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• Ian Baylon moved to Montana in April 2022 after watching "Yellowstone" and visiting the state.
• The 34-year-old said you get more bang for your buck renting in Montana than in the Bay Area.
• Baylon said not all Montana transplants are remote workers buying property and driving up prices.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with 34-year-old Ian Baylon, a tradesman who moved from California to Montana in April 2022. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I was born and raised in the Bay Area, San Francisco. Later as an adult I lived in Crockett, which is a beautiful little coastal Bay Area town. Even in Crockett the housing was expensive.

When my girlfriend, now wife, and I moved in together, the cheapest thing we could find for ourselves was in Vallejo, which is super busy, super violent. But that's what we could afford, even though I was a manager at a granite shop and my wife was working as an esthetician.

During COVID, we got sucked into "Yellowstone," watched the whole series, and decided to book a trip to Montana in February 2022 just to see how it is.

We stayed in West Yellowstone and had a blast here. One of the days, I decided to look for a job, just to see who was hiring and what they were willing to pay. I googled a couple of granite spots and a company was hiring in Bozeman. I went in for an interview. They asked me, "What will it take for you to move up here?"

They were willing to pay me my $89,000 a year salary plus moving costs, plus a deposit on the place we rented.

From March to April, within a month, I got the job, we rented the house, and we packed up and moved here.

The culture shock has mostly been good

Moving up here was a little bit of a culture shock, but more in a good way.

People are a lot nicer up here. I'm Mexican American, my wife is white, and no one says anything racist or out of pocket to us. I was super worried about that. A gentleman the other day opened the door for me at the gas station. He was wearing a MAGA hat.

Montana is not what people think. There's a huge diversity. I equate Bozeman to Berkeley.

I tell people I'm from California and they say "boo" at first, but it's more of a tit-for-tat. They make fun of me, I make fun of them, and we still get along.

One not good culture shock has been the younger generation. It's a college town, and they're not as friendly as my generation is or the generation before me.

Here in the Gallatin Valley where we live now, which includes Bozeman, the housing market is ridiculous. There's a huge shortage of housing and everything is really expensive.

We thought we were going to be able to come in here and buy property. Or buy a ranch with some land and have animals. Nope. There's a reason why they call it Boz Angeles. But renting you do get more bang for your buck up here.

Here in Montana there's a huge shortage of labor too.

While it was very competitive in California, there's a lot of demand for the trades up here, but nobody up here really wants to learn the trades. The young kids coming into the trades don't know jack diddly and they expect everything to be handed to them and not work hard.

Not all Montana transplants are the same

One thing that native Montanans don't like is that a lot of people that live here in the Gallatin Valley are from out of state, not only from California, but from Washington, New York, Texas, you name any state, they're here.

I've seen both types of transplants. The ones that got out of California because they couldn't afford it, and the ones that have that expendable money.

That's where the problem lies. The people that move in and buy up the properties, drive up the cost for the locals, and who don't really need to work or contribute to the economy here. A lot work in tech or finance, and there's no need for them to work locally. They can work from home remotely.

But a lot of people moving up here from California are not your techies or your white collar people. It's people like me, who work in the trades.

We're just regular people, just like you guys. We got priced out of our own native place.

You do have your trust fund babies from back east and your techies from the West Coast, but the bulk of us are escaping that chokehold. Just to still chase the American dream.

I think we are more happy here than we would've been in California, even though we miss it. We do miss our friends, the diversity, and everything that California has to offer.

But living there 24/7 kind of overwhelmed us. The lifestyle was always hurry up and go. Here we work, but there's so much natural beauty around you. We're in the valley surrounded by mountains.

On my way home after an 11-hour day, looking at the beautiful mountains and the meadows and the streams and the rivers and the snow-capped Bridgers, how can you be angry? It's just so soothing.

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• A £1.2 million ($1.5 million) house for sale in the UK comes with its own graveyard.
• The new owner would need to allow family members to visit graves on the site.
• Homes close to graveyards could be a good option for prospective buyers on a budget.

A £1.2 million ($1.5 million) house on sale in the UK comes with its own graveyard.

The property, which is in Northamptonshire, England, is a former parish church that dates back in parts to the 14th century.

The Grade II* listed building became disused in the 1950s, but the local community in the small village of Clay Coton — with backing from Buckingham Palace — rallied together to save the building, Jonathan Lloyd-Ham from the real-estate firm Fine & Country told Business Insider.

While some may be put off by the slightly eerie sight of a graveyard outside their front window, some studies have suggested that living near such a feature could mean more affordable house prices.

According to research by Realtor.com, the median price of homes in neighborhoods with a cemetery is roughly 12% lower than that of similar properties in areas without a graveyard.

Family members may need to visit the graves

"St Andrews Church" was converted into a four-bedroom home around 2000 and includes many period features, such as vaulted ceilings and stone windows.

"The church retains many interesting original features with mullioned stone windows," Lloyd-Ham told BI. "But I think my favorite has to be the stunning rose window in the main bedroom."

The house also offers stables, a triple garage, and around 1.9 acres of land — including the adjoining graveyard.

The new owner would need to allow family members to visit graves on the site, but Lloyd-Ham said this happens very rarely.

He added that the graveyard has a "lovely peaceful feel."

While it may be one of the country's more unusual properties, it's not the only home on the UK real-estate market offering such a view.

A showpiece glass house on the edge of London's Highgate Cemetery is up for sale for more than £6 million ($7.5 million).

"The Grey House" is a four-bedroom "modern masterpiece" designed by architect firm Eldridge Smerin.

It offers views across the cemetery, where famous figures such as German philosopher Karl Marx and British singer George Michael are buried.

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• Russia is believed to have lost more than 450,000 soldiers during the war in Ukraine.
• Some Ukrainian strikes have killed scores of Russian troops with a single blow.
• Russia and Ukraine are both secretive about death tolls and their estimates usually widely differ.

More than two years on, the war in Ukraine has been brutal and costly for both sides, particularly for invading Russian forces.

The UK Defense Ministry said on April 27, 2024, that it estimated 450,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the start of the conflict.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine have ever confirmed the numbers of their losses.

Reports claimed Russia was hemorrhaging men and weapons in its attempts to capture Avdiivka, a strategic town in eastern Ukraine and a gateway to Russia-occupied Ukraine. The town fell to Russian occupation in February.

Now fighting wages on in the surrounding areas such as Chasiv Yar. Russia continues to have the upper hand, but Ukraine is holding out hope that newly approved US aid will reach its front lines sooner rather than later.

Despite high Russian losses, the country's population is about three times the size of Ukraine's — a large pool from which Russia could keep replenishing its ranks. In April, Zelenskyy claimed Russia was preparing to mobilize a further 300,000 troops by June, though the Kremlin denied this.

Russians typically outnumber Ukrainians on the battlefield by a ratio of almost three to one, The New York Times reported, but Ukraine has used weapons such as the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and Western cruise missiles to inflict high casualties on Russian troops.

These are believed to be some of the deadliest single moments for Russia in the conflict so far.

Ukraine wiped out 100 Russian troops at once with US ATACMS

Ukrainian forces launched an ATACMS long-range missile strike on a Russian military training area some 50 miles behind the front line in occupied Luhansk.

The attack killed more than 100 Russian soldiers in one fell swoop, according to OSINT and military analysts.

According to a post on May 1, 2024, by Osinttechnical, associated with the US-based Centre for Naval Analyses, Ukraine appeared to strike the training area with three US-supplied M39 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles.

Aerial geolocated videos indicated that one of the missiles struck a gathering of more than 100 Russian soldiers, with hundreds of M74 APAM bomblets falling on them, Osinttechnical wrote.

GeoConfirmed, a project specializing in open-source geolocation, reported that four ATACMS missiles were employed in the attack, though the first was a "dud." The strike targeted the village of Rohove in Luhansk. Footage shared by one of its volunteers suggested that the strikes occurred within a minute.

Ukraine hit a company of Russian troops with HIMARS while they waited around for a visiting general

In February 2024, a Ukrainian HIMARS strike wiped out at least 60 Russian troops who were gathered en masse in an open field this week as they flouted a key wartime rule that Russia has repeatedly ignored throughout the war, according to reports and video footage.

The Russian battalion congregated at a training area near the village of Trudovske in occupied eastern Ukraine when the two missiles struck, The BBC reported.

Sources familiar with the incident told the outlet that the soldiers were gathered to await the arrival of a senior commander.

Ukraine was criticized in November following a similar scenario in which 19 soldiers were killed by Russian missiles at an open-air awards ceremony near the frontline. 

A strike on Kherson 14 miles behind the front line

Ukrainian forces likely took out more than 70 Russian soldiers in a strike on the village of Hladkivka in the Kherson oblast on November 10, 2023, the UK Ministry of Defence said.

The attack, which targeted a convoy of trucks, likely took place 14 miles behind the front lines, highlighting Ukraine's long-range precision-strike capabilities.

Russia's warship Novocherkassk — part of its Black Sea Fleet — was hit in a Ukrainian attack

On December 26, 2023, images of a massive explosion went viral on social media of the Russian navy's stricken landing ship Novocherkassk.

A Telegram channel, the independent Russian media outlet Astra, reported there were 77 sailors aboard the Novocherkassk at the time of the Ukrainian strike on a dock in Feodosia in annexed Crimea, and 33 were reported missing and 19 injured.

Reporters and open-source intelligence channels posted photos showing the burning wreckage of the docked ship, supporting Ukraine's claim that long-range missiles — probably the highly-rated British Storm Shadow cruise missiles — attacked the ship.

Some reports said the vessel may have been loaded with Iranian-made Shahed attack drones when it was hit.

Russians killed while training on Dzharylhach island

Ukraine released a video that claimed to show Russian soldiers being struck by HIMARS as they trained at Dzharylhach island, a 26-mile-long sandbank in the Black Sea that's part of the Russian-occupied Kherson oblast.

Ukraine said that the attack caused 200 casualties. The number could not be independently verified.

The drone footage from August 2023 shows soldiers appearing to stretch and exercise on the Ukrainian island's sandy shores before being hit from above.

Strike during a commander’s speech in Kreminna

Ukraine's HIMARS reportedly struck a large gathering of Russian soldiers in the city of Kreminna as they stood for two hours to watch a commander's speech in July 2023.

Some reports put the number of dead as high as 100 and total casualties as high as 200. The numbers could not be independently verified.

An unnamed Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Post that it was a "funny situation" because the Russian soldiers had made themselves sitting ducks.

The claim, which a Russian milbogger initially reported, led to Russian nationalists calling for military leaders to be punished.

New Year’s strike on Makiivka

While Russian officials have largely not acknowledged losses, Russia's defense ministry made a rare announcement confirming the deaths of 89 troops in a strike in Makiivka, a small city in Ukraine's Donetsk oblast.

Ukrainian officials claimed that the casualties were much higher, with around 400 soldiers killed and 300 injured. The figures could not be independently verified.

Ukraine said it used HIMARS for the attack, and the Russian ministry said Ukraine fired six rockets, four of which struck their troops, the ISW reported.

The attack sparked widespread criticism of Russian military leadership, ISW reported. A senior Russian military official, Sergei Sevryukov, blamed the high number of casualties on soldiers' use of cell phones without providing evidence, The Guardian reported.

A Russian battalion’s failed crossing of the Siverskyi Donets River

Ukrainian forces decimated a Russian battalion as it tried to cross the Siverskyi Donets River in northeastern Ukraine in May 2022.

Ukrainian artillery destroyed several Russian pontoon bridges, and estimates put the toll of dead or wounded Russians at around 485, according to the Institute for the Study of War, or ISW, based on analyses of publicly available imagery.

They estimated that over 80 pieces of equipment could have been destroyed.

Media reports said that Ukraine used M777 howitzers to strike the battalion.

Russian milbloggers responded to the incident with shock and began commenting on the incompetence of the Russian military, the ISW reported.

The sinking of the missile cruiser Moskva

Just two months into Russia's unprovoked invasion, Ukraine scored an early success by sinking the Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet.

On April 14, 2022, Ukrainian officials said their forces had struck the ship with at least one Neptune missile, which the Pentagon confirmed.

Ukraine claimed that almost all 500 sailors on board had perished, while Russia said that nearly all had evacuated before the ship sank.

Later, Russia admitted under pressure that one sailor had died and that 27 were missing, but said the rest had been evacuated.

But several family members of Moskva sailors told the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that at least 40 on board had died.

The true death toll is still unknown.

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• Starbucks' drink menu has changed a lot, which is fine! Great, even! Enjoy!
• But I feel like I have no idea what most of these drinks even are anymore. Iced Lavender Oatmilk Matcha?
• I feel like an old person, baffled and befuddled and unsure how to even place an order.

Let me first give a disclaimer: I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. I don't want to disparage people's beverage tastes. I embrace change! I am by no means a coffee snob, and I love trying a fun new treat or flavor.

But.

Whatever is happening on the Starbucks menu right now is making me feel like I'm a senior citizen.

Currently, some of the "spring favorites" on the Starbucks app include a Lavender Oatmilk Chill, an Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha, Spicy Dragonfruit, and an Iced Hazelnut Oatmilk Shaken Espresso.

And these are just the standard menu offerings. Over on TikTok, Starbucks employees go viral by showing off an endless amount of customizations.

In a recent video, a handsome young barista shows how to make "pink sauce" (to order: venti vanilla bean Frappucino with two scoops of dragonfruit and whipped on top and bottom). Another one of his creations is a "Milky Way Frappucino" (venti caramel crunch Frappucino with extra caramel and mocha drizzle, extra crunch and cookie crumbles, substitute sweet cream).

It's not just 'mocha-choca-venti-chino-lattes' anymore

It's a hacky outdated joke to scoff at people ordering a "mocha-choca-venti-chino latte" as some jab at blue-haired elitists or whatever. (This has always been a somewhat misguided target: I think, generally, the Frappucino stuff is for suburban teenagers; coastal liberal elite coffee snob orders are probably more likely pour-over served black. But I digress.)

But when I see the sheer amount of dairy products and sugar going into these drinks, I feel like a '90s standup comedian. What the heck is going on with these drinks these days?!?!

I'm no coffee purist, I like mine with half-and-half and Sweet 'N Low. I often drink day-old coffee over ice at home. I enjoy gas station coffee.

I recently was in a Starbucks — which reported slower-than-expected sales this past week — and found myself stammering in confusion at the menu like a boomer, unsure if I was supposed to order with milk and sugar or if those were still self-serve. (The self-serve stations at Starbucks are a pandemic casualty, and probably for the better). After ordering a coffee with milk and Sweet 'N Low, I was informed they no longer carry "the pink packet" and, in fact, haven't in several years (I did actually know this but had forgotten).

In that humiliating moment, I imagined this must've been what it would be like to be a 43-year-old in 1999, learning to order a size "venti" for the first time.

I know very well the hesitant, mildly annoyed speech of those befuddled middle-aged people struggling to place their orders because I worked in a Starbucks as a teenager in 1999, a time when the chain was still new enough that the size names befuddled many.

The rise of complicated, multi-ingredient sweet drinks has coincided with the rise in popularity of the Starbucks app, accelerated by the start of the pandemic in 2020 when many locations couldn't take walk-in orders. Not only are there more options for a customer to add in extra pumps of syrup, drizzle, or whipped cream, but the app also makes it easier for the barista to actually make the drink — they have all the ingredients printed out on a sticker label, exactly how the customer wants it.

Back in my day, we would use a wax pencil to mark a cup with a form of shorthand to signal what the order was, and then the employee who was working the drink station would have to make it. I can tell you that we got a lot of people's drinks wrong!

I tried the newer Starbucks drinks myself

I acknowledge I'm a bit of a crank when I say: The Starbucks menu is out of control. But I don't want to be an uninformed crank. So I went out on a fact-finding mission Friday to my local Starbucks. I ordered the Oleato Golden Foam Iced Shaken Espresso with Toffeenut for myself, a Cinnamon Caramel Cream Nitro Cold brew for my husband — who asked me to get him "anything with real coffee in it" — and a Frozen Mango Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher for my 7-year-old.

The adult drinks were sweet and creamy, like coffee ice cream. (I should note here that my grande iced drink was 360 calories, which does seem like a dessert treat rather than a morning coffee. It was tasty for a few sips, but my husband and I couldn't finish ours.)

Meanwhile, my son slurped down his fruit slushy and loved it, which sort of confirmed what I had been suspecting: These sweet new additions are for kids, teens, and non-coffee drinkers looking for a little afternoon treat. And hey, that's great — a caramel milkshake is a better teen trend than vaping. But it also reinforced what I already knew: Starbucks makes me feel 1,000 years old.

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• Eric Schmidt, Google's ex-CEO, is selling his Atherton mansion for $24.5 million.
• The property, located in the most expensive US zip code, includes a main home and a guest house.
• Schmidt, who served as Google and Alphabet chairman, has a net worth of around $23.9 billion.

Google's former CEO, Eric Schmidt, and his wife, Wendy, are selling their Atherton mansion for $24.5 million.

The 5,265 square-foot listing includes a main home and a guest house in the most expensive zip code in the US. Schmidt's current net worth is estimated at around $23.9 billion, according to Forbes' ranking.

Schmidt, 69, served as CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011. He later served as chairman for Google and its parent company, Alphabet, until 2018.

Since leaving his role as CEO, Schmidt turned his focus to tech investments and philanthropy.

The five-bedroom home at the top of a cul-de-sac in Atherton has been Schmidt's primary residence for the last several decades.

The former CEO purchased the Atherton home for around $2 million in 1990, according to estimates by Zillow. The home was built in 1969, according to the listing.

Atherton, a small town in San Mateo County, is known to be a hotspot for tech moguls, like former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, and former HP CEO Meg Whitman.

Schmidt is one of several tech executives that have called Atherton home.

Tech investors Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, as well as early Tesla investor Alan Salzman, have also bought properties in Atherton.

The prestigious town is about a 45-minute drive to San Francisco and less than 20 minutes from the headquarters of Google, Meta, and Tesla. The average household income in Atherton is over $450,000.

It isn't the only home Schmidt bought in California. He bought Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi's 7,000-square-foot Montecito mansion in 2007.

He bought the home for $20 million and used to rent it out for weddings. However, he reportedly struggled to keep renting it after Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries used the home as their wedding venue and divorced soon after.

The billionaire also bought a Southern California "French chateau" in Los Angeles in 2014, about five minutes from the Playboy Mansion.

He also bought homes on the East Coast. In 2013, he purchased a $15 million penthouse in New York City and reportedly spent millions soundproofing it.

Schmidt and his wife purchased a home in Nantucket in 1999, where she reportedly spent most of her time.

The billionaire also reportedly paid $67.6 million for a 267-foot superyacht in 2023.

The exterior of the guest house has an outdoor fireplace, an amphitheater on one side, and a cascading water feature on the other.

Both the guest house and main home were designed by Schwanke Architecture.

The home has multiple terraces and access to the outdoors in almost every room.

The home has ample access to natural light with large open doors and windows throughout the home.

The estate has five bedrooms, eight total bathrooms, and a fireplace in the living room and family room.

The two-story home also has a wet bar, according to the online listing by The reSolve Group.

Schmidt's mansion includes three acres of park-like grounds and an outdoor pool.

The property has a 3.36 acre lot and 5,265 square foot living area, according to the listing.

Like many Atherton homes, landscaping surrounding the house creates a secluded feel to the property.

Both the front and back of the house are shaded by large trees and greenery. The back of the house also has a fenced area to create privacy.

The estate includes a diverse selection of mature plants and specimen trees from Amdega Conservatory imported from the UK.

The greenhouse is equipped with wooden shelves, a sink, and black and white floor tiles.

The home also has several areas for growing plants or produce.

In addition to the greenhouse, the outdoor area has several planting plots.

The home embraces the California landscape of while incorporating European design.

Dark wooden furniture and flooring contrast against bright green outdoor openings in the estate.

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• The Indian economy has grown strongly under Narendra Modi, whose party is set to win another term.
• India's success has caught the eye of figures including Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, and Tim Cook.
• Youth unemployment, income inequality, regional disparities, and Russian oil remain big problems.

India's powerful economic growth and blossoming middle class under Narendra Modi have caught the eye of corporate titans like Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, and Tim Cook.

Modi is pretty much a shoo-in for a third term as prime minister after the national election now underway ends on June 1. But the work starts there, as he'll have to navigate thorny issues such as youth unemployment, income inequality, and reliance on sanctioned Russian oil.

Fueling growth and shaking hands

India's economy has more than doubled in size during Modi's decade in charge to more than $3.7 trillion last year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently upgraded its growth forecast for real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to a robust 7.8% this year, 6.8% in 2025, and 6.5% in 2026.

India has already overtaken Britain to become the world's fifth-largest economy. It's on track to leapfrog Japan and Germany into third spot behind the US and China by 2027.

The country's flagship stock index has also tripled in value since Modi took office in May 2014, thanks to wealth gains and growing investment appetites.

Moreover, one estimate puts the percentage of the Indian population living on less than $2.15 a day at below 5%, down from 12% in 2011. However, the World Bank pegged that figure at nearly 13% in 2021.

India's middle class has also ballooned with 60 million people now earning the rupee equivalent of more $10,000 a year — about $37,200 once adjusted for purchasing power. Goldman Sachs expects the ranks of the relatively affluent to swell to 100 million by 2027.

"Modi has done an unbelievable job in India," JPMorgan's Dimon told the Economic Club of New York last month. "I know the liberal press here, they beat the hell out of him. He's taken 400 million people out of poverty."

Musk has posted on X that he's looking forward to visiting India and meeting Modi this year. He delayed his trip last month, blaming "very heavy Tesla obligations." The pair are expected to discuss Tesla building a multibillion-dollar factory in the country.

As for Apple's Cook, he hailed India on a November earnings call as an "incredibly exciting market" and a "major focus of ours" given the explosive growth in potential customers as locals get richer.

Modi has also met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai. He's likely to be seeking to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in India — and to capitalize on bosses' desire to hedge their bets on China given its strained relationship with the US, economic woes, and how disruptive its strict pandemic lockdowns were to global supply chains.

"India's population and economic growth numbers are causing a lot of global executives to revisit their India presence and consider scaling up," Richard Rossow, a senior advisor and chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, told Business Insider.

"Paired with increased concerns about supply chain resilience and security concerns about China, it's a very good time for a hard push to win investments."

The United Nations said that India and China both had a population of 1.426 billion in April last year, meaning India is probably now the most populous given its rising birth rate.

Change for the better — mostly

Modi has instigated a raft of major economic reforms since taking office, intended to make India more business-friendly, and boost government revenues by taxing more of the country's vast informal economy.

He rolled out a tax on goods and services, simplified bankruptcy laws, lifted FDI restrictions, cut corporate income tax, and ended retrospective taxation.

However, not all of Modi's moves spurred growth.

"Demonetisation was a key economic policy which had negative effects on the economy," Kunal Sen, a director of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics, told BI.

Sen is the author of several books about India's economy and a professor of development economics at the University of Manchester.

He was referring to Modi's sudden declaration in November 2016 that all 500 and 1,000-rupee bills — 86% of Indian currency in circulation — would no longer be accepted as legal tender.

The government's goals were to capture undeclared income, get rid of counterfeit currency, broaden the tax base, and bring more activities into the formal economy.

"The other key economic policy was JAM — the trinity of bank accounts for the poor, mobile numbers and a biometric card. This last economic policy has been revolutionary," Sen said.

He was hailing a broader digitization drive under Modi that has transformed how Indians bank, invest, pay their taxes, and conduct business.

Prosperity for all

Modi's efforts have helped to usher in a more prosperous era for some Indians, but many have been left behind.

Young people are India's beating heart, with about half its population under 25 and almost two-thirds under 35. Matching those hundreds of millions of people with jobs has proven a challenge, with youth unemployment almost tripling from below 6% in 2000 to about 18% in 2019. It still stands at a hefty 10% in 2023, per the International Labor Organization.

The report found that nearly 30% of India's graduates were unemployed in 2022, and only about 10% of the working-age population was formally employed.

"Unemployment is a big issue," Rossow said, emphasizing this isn't just a problem with recent graduates but a "much, much larger bubble: the underemployed farm laborers."

Rising agricultural productivity is likely to help farm workers make a faster transition to city life in the years ahead, but they'll struggle to secure modern jobs in the services industry "without significant reskilling and education," Rossow said.

As a result, lower-skilled manufacturing and assembly jobs and lower-end services jobs will be needed, he added.

Another major challenge will be tackling a widening wealth divide. The richest 10% of the population hold more than 72% of the nation's wealth, per an Oxfam report published last year.

Business tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani both rank among the world's 15 richest people, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Luxury-goods sales are booming with long waitlists for flashy purchases like the Mercedes "G Wagon."

The lavish pre-wedding party thrown by the Ambani family earlier this year was singled out by some as an affront to the huge number of Indians living in poverty.

Almost 1.3 billion people live on less than $3,500 a year by one estimate, and India ranks 111th on the Global Hunger Index, below even North Korea.

Rising equality is partly explained by a "capital-intensive mode of economic growth along with increasing power of business conglomerates," Sen told BI, referring to how huge companies like the Adani Group secure huge government contracts to build ports, bridges, highways, and other infrastructure.

A third challenge is regional inequality, as some states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh haven't experienced the same growth and modernization of their economies as others, Rossow said.

The Russia riddle

One striking aspect of Modi's economic boom has been its reliance on Russia since it invaded Ukraine in early 2022.

India went from getting 2% of its crude oil from Russia before the war, to 35% last year. During that period, the US and Europe slapped sanctions on Russian oil to defund Putin's military machine and punish Moscow for attacking a sovereign nation.

Despite that, India purchased an estimated $37 billion of Moscow's oil in 2023 — 13 times the amount it bought annually prior to the conflict. Its buying helped Russia rake in a record $320 billion of federal revenue last year.

Indian demand for Russian oil has cooled in recent months as new sanctions have made it more expensive, but the buying remains controversial.

Officials in India have defended the purchases, saying that if they'd bought Middle Eastern oil instead, global crude prices would have shot up.

India is also one of the world's largest oil refiners and has helped Western nations to maintain access to refined petroleum products even as they're refraining from buying Russian crude directly.

Yet the country imports 85% of its oil, so its overriding interest is securing the cheapest oil possible to support its development, said Neelima Jain, a senior fellow and chair in US India Policy Studies at CSIS.

"India will continue to buy Russian oil if the price remains favorable and allows for firm volume guarantees, as the country prioritizes energy affordability and accessibility during its rapid rural-to-urban transition, which has led to a 6% year-on-year growth in energy demand," she told BI.

"In an inflationary environment, economics [rather] than geopolitics will drive India's energy choices."

India the IT hub

Under Modi, India has made big strides in modernizing its economy, combating bureaucracy, and appealing to foreign investors.

Big Tech stalwarts like Microsoft have a long history of outsourcing to India, but recent efforts to cut red tape and slash corporate taxes appear to have fueled fresh interest.

Sweeping layoffs at Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Salesforce and other US tech titans in the past few years could presage a large exodus of jobs to India.

Sanjay Shetty of Randstad India told The Economic Times last summer that he expected 30% to 40% of the tech jobs eliminated globally to move to India by 2025.

"India is going to be the biggest gainer in the medium to long term, as almost every company that we speak to is looking at expanding its India base," Shetty said.

Even if that pans out, it won't be a panacea for a country facing not just unemployment and underemployment, but also stark income inequality, regional disparities, and the risk of alienating Western allies by continuing to buy Russian oil.

Yet overall, India appears to be headed in the right direction.

"The growth is real, if focused on a few key states," Rossow said. "India's dynamic technology services sector is to IT services what China is to manufacturing. So there is much to cheer, even as the reform agenda seems to never end."

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