A Long March 5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 mission lunar probe, at the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan Province on May 3, 2024.
HECTOR RETAMAL/Getty Images
China launched the Chang'e-6 probe to collect samples from the far side of the moon.
The probe lifted off from China's Wenchang Space Launch Center at 5.37 a.m. ET.
The mission forms part of China's plans to put humans on the moon by 2030.
China on Friday launched a probe to collect samples from the far side of the moon, as it stepped up its space race against the US.
The Chang'e-6 probe successfully lifted off from China's Wenchang Space Launch Center at 5.37 a.m. ET.
The mission, named Chang'e-6 (pronounced Changa) after the Chinese moon goddess, is expected to last 53 days. It will collect around two kilograms of lunar samples from the far side of the moon for analysis.
China is hoping Chang'e-6 can retrieve samples from the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side. According to NASA, this is one of the largest and oldest impact features in the solar system.
If successful, it would be a major demonstration of the nation's spacefaring prowess, as no other country has brought samples back from the far side of the moon.
As Business Insider previously reported, the US and China have aggressive programs to return to the moon. The lunar surface is a strategic target for many nations vying to expand their people's reach beyond Earth.
China aims to bring humans to the moon by the end of 2030. NASA recently announced it was delaying its own mission to put boots back on the moon, but still aims to get there before China with a predicted launch date in 2026.
The highest-paid CEOs in the US aren't necessarily household names, but they're enjoying some pretty sweet pay packages — more than enough to avoid worries about higher prices for that morning coffee.
Take Hock Tan, head of chipmaker Broadcom. The value of his pay package was $161.8 million in 2023. Tan topped a list of the 100 highest-paid chiefs from Equilar, which analyzes data on executive compensation.
But though many compensation numbers are big, it's not all cash. Amit Batish, senior director of content and communications at Equilar, told Business Insider that much of the top dogs' hauls come through stock awards.
"That's kind of the bread and butter of executive compensation these days," he said.
To get the payouts, CEOs often have to achieve targets such as stock price thresholds.
About halfway through this year's proxy season, the median compensation package for CEOs on Equilar's list — comprised of companies with revenue of $1 billion or more — was valued at a cool $23.7 million in 2023, a jump of 11.4% from the prior year. The data were based on proxy statements filed through March 31.
The jump in compensation was stronger than the 7.7% increase CEOs overall saw at this point last year, according to Equilar data.
There are still some high-wattage chiefs a bit farther down the list, like Apple's Tim Cook, who comes in at No. 6 with compensation valued at $63.2 million, or Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO, at No. 9 with total comp valued at $48.5 million. But they haven't yet made it to the very top yet, according to Equilar.
Here are some of the highest-paid — and highest-profile — CEOs.
1: Hock Tan, Broadcom
Broadcom's Tan.
Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The value of Tan's total compensation jumped to $161.8 million in 2023, a 167% increase over the prior year, according to Equilar. The pay ratio — how much more he takes home than the average employee of the chip and software maker — was 510 to 1.
The company had $35.8 billion in revenue in fiscal 2023.
2: Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks
Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks.
Reuters Staff
The value of Arora's total compensation as CEO of the cybersecurity company came to $151.4 million, a surge of 1,355%, according to Equilar. The CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 735 to 1.
Revenue reached $6.89 billion in fiscal 2023.
3: Sue Nabi, Coty
Sue Nabi, CEO of Coty.
David M. Benett/Getty Images
Nabi runs the beauty company Coty. The value of her compensation package was $149.4 million, an increase of 4,100%, according to Equilar. The CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 3,769 to 1.
Revenue came to $5.55 billion in fiscal 2023.
4: Christopher Winfrey, Charter Communications
Christopher Winfrey, CEO of Charter Communications.
Courtesy Charter Communications
Winfrey, who took the top spot at the cable company in December 2022, landed total compensation valued at $89.1 million. The boss-to-worker pay ratio was 1,635 to 1, according to Equilar.
In fiscal 2023, revenue came to $54.6 billion.
5: Will Lansing, FICO
Will Lansing, CEO of FICO.
Courtesy FICO
Lansing runs Fair Isaac Corp., which developed FICO, the most broadly used model for scoring credit. The value of his total compensation came to $66.3 million, an increase of 251%, according to Equilar. The CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 653 to 1.
The company's revenue totaled $1.5 billion in fiscal 2023.
A FICO spokesperson, through a statement to BI, said, in part: "Under Mr. Lansing's leadership the past 10 years, FICO has delivered total shareholder return that is in the top 1% of the S&P 500. Meanwhile, his base salary for 2023 was $750,000, well below industry peers and in the bottom quartile of S&P 500 CEOs."
6: Tim Cook, Apple
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.
Michael M Santiago/Getty Images
Cook's total compensation for running the tech giant was valued at $63.2 million, a drop of 36%, according to Equilar. The pay ratio was 672 to 1.
The company's revenue totaled $383.3 billion in fiscal 2023.
7: Jay Chaudhry, Zscaler
Jay Chaudhry, CEO of Zscaler.
Zscaler
The value of Chaudhry's compensation package for running the cybersecurity company rose 39% to $57.8 million, according to Equilar. And the CEO-to-worker pay ratio stood at 319 to 1.
The company's top reached $1.6 billion in fiscal 2023.
8: Hamid Moghadam, Prologis
Hamid Moghadam, CEO of Prologis.
Prologis
Moghadam's compensation package at the logistics real estate company was valued at $50.9 million, an increase of 6%. And the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 400 to 1.
The company's revenue in fiscal 2023 came to $8 billion.
9: Satya Nadella, Microsoft
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.
Axel Springer
Nadella's total comp was valued at $48.5 million, a drop of 12%. The chief-to-worker ratio was 250 to 1.
The software giant's revenue was $211.9 billion in fiscal 2023.
10: Shantanu Narayen, Adobe
Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Narayen's compensation package was valued at $44.9 million, an increase of 42%. The CEO-to-worker package for the software company was 229 to 1.
The company's fiscal 2023 revenue totaled $19.4 billion.
Gucci — recently one of the world's hottest brands — has faced headwinds, with falling sales and a diminishing reputation.
Gucci; Kyodo News via Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
In 2015, as part of creative director Alessandro Michele's first line for the fashion house, Gucci's famous loafers got a makeover. While they still had the classic horse-bit buckle, the backs were shaved down to make them mules, and tufts of kangaroo fur were added to the heel.
They were everything but quiet luxury. Fur! Brand recognition! Impractical!
And customers loved them. Soon, they were on the pedicured feet of Gigi Hadid and Sienna Miller. You could buy dupes from fast-fashion brands like Steve Madden and ASOS for a fraction of the cost. (You can also now buy a reedition made with lambswool for $1,090.)
"It's just such a brilliant bourgeois signature — and these are both arch and fluffy," Vogue Creative Digital Director Sally Singer said at the time.
It marked the beginning of the Michele era, with logos everywhere and over-the-top designs. It also became known as a turning point for the company. Between 2015 and 2022, revenue at Gucci more than doubled, eventually surpassing $10 billion, and margins grew by about 10 percentage points.
"We got used to hearing about double-digit growth at Gucci," Fflur Roberts, the head of luxury goods at Euromonitor, told Business Insider.
The styles of Alessandro Michele were embraced by the likes of Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Jared Leto (L-R).
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
But the brand's fortunes have reversed. Over the past couple of months, Gucci has instead made headlines for its tumbling sales, its prevalence on discount racks, and its lack of design direction under its new creative chief, Sabato De Sarno.
"I think of what a fashion editor is wearing — it's not Gucci," Lindsey Solomon, a fashion publicist, told BI.
Last week, its parent company, Kering, reported that Gucci's sales declined 18% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year and warned that companywide recurring operating income for the first half of 2024 would be down as much as 45%.
The new collection from De Sarno, who was appointed in January 2023 after Gucci abruptly split with Michele, has failed to make waves. After taking the top spot on the Lyst Index of fashion's hottest brands in 2022, Gucci dropped to number 11 last quarter.
To put it as bluntly as Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault did during February's earnings call: "Gucci has not kept pace with its peers."
"It was slow to evolve its brand aesthetic in the wake of the pandemic," he continued. "The necessary balance between fashion and exclusivity, which supports the house ability to attract a broad range of consumers, was a little bit diluted." The company did not respond to a request for comment for BI for this article.
Gucci's pace of growth was unsustainable, even without current macroeconomic headwinds, and the strategy behind the brand — embracing a singular trend across all product verticals, appealing to aspirational customers, and relying heavily on China — was never going to have lasting success, fashion pros say.
"It did too well," Jelena Sokolova, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, told Business Insider. "It was too good to be true."
From logomania to logo fatigue.
An Alessandro Michele design is easy to pick out of a lineup: They tend to be ornate and flowery, and feature the brand's classic double Gs.
"Logomania," publicist Solomon said. "It was the most influential brand in fashion in terms of maximalism."
When Michele's first collection hit, it flew off the shelves, igniting the brand's massive growth. As BI declared at the time, Gucci was cool again.
Alessandro Michele, pictured, spawned a renaissance at Gucci.
Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images
It soon touched every aspect of the nearly century-old fashion house. Unlike at some other fashion houses, Michele was responsible for bags, shoes, clothing, store design, and marketing.
"The creative vision of Michele — that kind of impacted everything," Sokolova said. "It permeated all collections. It was in handbags, it was in clothes, it was in shoes."
But by 2020, the winds of the fashion world moved away from the loud, in-your-face style for which Michele was known. People locked at home during the pandemic did not want to shell out for such obviously trend-driven pieces that could be out of fashion by the time the world opened up.
Luxury buyers turned to designers focused on lasting quality, like Brunello Cuccinelli and Hermès. It's reflected in their stock prices, up about 244% and 200% since the start of 2020. The share price of Kering, which is heavily reflected by Gucci, is down almost 40% over that time.
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But Gucci "seemed to be trapped by a sudden market change at the start of the pandemic when consumers embraced a more classic and understated 'quiet luxury' aesthetic," Thomas Chauvet, head of luxury goods equity research at Citi, told BI.
Still, Michele stayed true to his approach.
"The designs plateaued a little bit at a certain point," Solomon said. "You have to represent new ideas pretty regularly. A new collection, new concept, new materials, sustainability — something to push the conversation forward."
The embrace of a singular aesthetic, which was great for creating a unified, strong brand, proved less ideal when it was out of style. It all started to seem a little gimmicky, and without any diversification, there were few products for customers to gravitate toward.
It's something that some predicted.
"We still believe the Gucci brand's current growth rate, which is 10 times higher than that of the industry, represents a risk going forward," Morningstar's Sokolova wrote in a 2017 note. "We prefer to take a prudent stance and acknowledge market saturation risk, given the very distinct aesthetics of the current collections (which can produce both tremendous demand uptick and fatigue)."
The great gamble of Michele's Gucci, which had paid off for years, was starting to turn.
How luxe can a brand be in the metaverse?
But Gucci's fate wasn't all tied up in its designs. Macroeconomic conditions had just as big of an effect on its sales as its aesthetics did.
During its height, the brand not only embraced maximalism in its designs but also in its partnerships: The North Face, Disney, the metaverse.
Gucci's collections with Disney and North Face may have been a hit at the time, but they diminished the brand's value.
Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images
Between these mass-market partnerships and the trend-driven nature of Michele's looks, Gucci gained a wide following, particularly among younger and more aspirational — or less wealthy — customers.
It's a different approach than at Hermès, which embraces high cost and scarcity to fuel growth. And, at the time, it was seen as a plus, as it exposed the brand to a new audience that didn't traditionally buy luxury.
But Gucci developed a "high dependence" on those consumers, Chauvet said, and as economic uncertainty and inflation grew — and they blew through their pandemic savings — those customers became the first to go.
"Apart from the ultra-ultrawealthy, we are all feeling the cost-of-living crisis," Roberts said.
At the time of writing, 200 double-G logo Gucci belts were available on luxury consignment shop The RealReal for as little as $208. Online, the most simple version of the belt — which became a staple of Michele's Gucci — cost $520.
And younger customers who can still afford to splurge may simply not want to spend on such flashy items or have moved on to different brands.
"Those consumers that were buying Gucci at its height, they are getting older," Roberts said. "They may not want to be walking around with big logos."
A Chinese boom turned bust.
If Gucci was a chart-topper with aspirational consumers in traditional luxury markets, it went multiplatinum in China. The Asia-Pacific region, fueled by China, grew from representing 35% of the label's sales in 2015 to 44% in 2021. Revenue in the region tripled in that period, outpacing total growth.
Gucci relied heavily on China for its growth, but stores — perhaps including this one in China's Hainan Province — have struggled recently.
China News Service via Getty Images
It was great while Chinese shoppers were spending money, but as they reined that in, Gucci slumped. Just as Gucci relied too heavily on one designer and on aspirational consumers, it relied too heavily on China.
After the pandemic, luxury sales never rebounded as expected, and the country's economic growth slowed and consumers remained cautious. China's luxury market tripled between 2017 and 2021, but despite growth last year, it has slowed since 2021, according to research from Bain.
With foreign travel still down among Chinese people, they are not spending abroad, either.
"On both sides of the scale, brands are missing out," Roberts said of the Chinese consumer.
Plus, the label's target demo within the country was still aspirational — meaning a double blow. Like in other markets, the ultrawealthy in China who still are spending are favoring brands like Hermès and Chanel.
Last month, the company announced Gucci's first-quarter sales in the Asia Pacific region, which is fueled by China, fell 28% compared to the same period the year prior. In 2023, the brand's sales in the region grew just 5% — a far cry from the double-digit expansion it had been experiencing in its heyday.
"The context right now is not supportive because it is more polarized," Armelle Poulou, Kering's chief financial officer, said about China during an earnings call last month. "Gucci at the moment is not in the sweet spot in terms of positioning."
It's not all over for the House of Gucci.
While it looks like Gucci and its new creative director, De Sarno, have their work cut out, that doesn't mean it's the end of the label. In fact, it probably wouldn't have been such a big deal if Gucci hadn't had such a legacy of success.
"It will never leave the conversation," Solomon said. But, "they will have to come back with a really strong collection."
Some business changes likely should happen. Brands that have resisted cyclicality tend to appeal to the ultrarich and affluent, who are less affected by economic downturns. Analysts suggest the brand should continue to close outlets and offer fewer discounted goods to achieve the scarcity that makes uber-luxury brands so appealing.
The label could also stand not to repeat history — and diversify.
"They're a much bigger brand, and they cannot just rely on one creative vision," Sokolova said.
Part of that could mean embracing certain signatures that eschew trends, like Hermès' Birkin bag, for example, or Louis Vuitton's Neverfull. These looks hold their value — making them good investment pieces no matter the designer.
To be sure, De Sarno wasn't given much of a shot to do all this before the negative press started to hit the stands.
"In the luxury industry, enthusiasm for dramatic headline news can often be overdone,' Chauvet said.
As Pinault is quick to hammer home, it takes time to build a following, and Kering is ramping up its marketing for the label after recently hiring a Louis Vuitton veteran as deputy CEO. So far, there simply have not been enough De Sarno styles physically available to assess how the public is receiving them.
Trends also shift more quickly than ever in the age of social media, and De Sarno may create a design that breaks the internet in a collection or two.
"It's always difficult when there is a transition period," Euromonitor's Roberts said. "That's not to say that De Sarno won't have the same effect — only time will tell."
Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Academy Awards in March.
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty images
Apple CEO Tim Cook's base salary has been $3 million a year since 2016.
His total compensation was $63.2 million in 2023, down from $99.4 million the previous year.
Here's a breakdown of his stock awards, performance-based bonuses, and other compensation.
Apple chief Tim Cook has been paid an annual salary of just $3 million since 2016.
However, the CEO of the second-most valuable US company also gets stock awards and a performance-based bonus, which boosts his overall earnings.
Cook's total compensation amounted to $63.2 million last year, down from $99.4 million in 2022, according to the company's proxy statement filed with the SEC in January.
His pay packet was made up of $46.9 million in stock awards and $10.7 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation. On top of that, he received $2.5 million in other compensation, which includes his security expenses and business and personal travel on a private jet.
The near-40% reduction was requested by Cook in the wake of Apple investors being urged to vote against his 2022 pay package by a shareholder advisory firm.
Cook's compensation is 672 times the median figure for Apple employees of $94,118, per the proxy filing. That figure will be skewed lower by the thousands of staff who work in Apple stores, however.
According to Forbes, Cook is worth about $2.1 billion — and he's not rich enough to make the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which requires a net worth north of $6 billion.
iPhone sales fell 10% compared with the same period last year, and its wearables revenue was down by the same amount. Sales in China came to $16.3 billion for the quarter, down from $17.8 billion a year ago.
Shares jump
The company also announced its biggest share buyback of $110 billion and raised its quarterly dividend by 4%.
Apple shares rose almost 6% in premarket trading on Friday, which would almost erase this year's losses if it holds up at the opening bell.
Apple hosts its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June, where Cook is expected to reveal details about its generative AI plans.
It's also scheduled a virtual event on May 7, and a new iPad Pro reveal could be on the cards. Bloomberg reported in March Apple planned to launch new iPads in early May.
Apple didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Buying weighty hauls for so little reward may seem irrational, but many Gen Zers can't stop. As a result, Zoomers are racking up credit card debt and falling behind on payments faster than any other generation.
Some on TikTok say it's less about what they buy, and more about the frenzy of "blackout shopping" — the rush of spending and the feeling of anticipation before the stuff arrives.
A 2022 report by ThredUp, an online thrift store, surveyed some 2,000 college students and found that 72% reported shopping at a fast-fashion retailer in the previous year. A third described themselves as "addicted."
Things may be speeding up. A survey of 1,000 people from January by the digital analytics platform Quantum Metric found that 64% of Gen Z respondents were buying more than they did last year.
The advent of the in-app TikTok Shop plugging cheap clothes makes the drumbeat near-constant.
(Neither Shein nor TikTok responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.)
The clothes are often polyester, nylon, and acrylic, which can take decades to break down. And they can feel easy to just throw out, unlike higher-quality, more expensive pieces.
Melanie Parncutt, a Zoomer who works as a publicist at Otter Public Relations, told BI Gen Zers probably realize that their hauls are not helping.
But, she said, ads on social media make it hard to resist the "traps of compulsive buying."
"As a result of the constant bombardment of targeted advertising and the offering of online deals, young consumers like myself tend to buy on impulse more than ever before," Parncutt said. "It can be hard to break out of the cycle."
Gaby Mendes, a Zoomer and founder of Talk Twenties, a media and events company for Gen Z, told BI she tries to avoid fast fashion but has her lapses.
"I get sucked in easily and have to remind myself that something is often cheap because it's either poor quality or someone has been exploited in the process of it being made," she said.
"When the products don't last, fit properly, or break, I'm reminded why I shouldn't give in to the high."
A worker makes clothes at a garment factory that supplies SHEIN.
JADE GAO/Getty Images
Breaking the cycle
Siena Barry-Taylor, a Zoomer and senior marketing executive at the secondhand clothes marketplace Thrift+, told BI that disposable clothes aren't the whole story of Gen Z fashion.
They are also propelling the secondhand market, she said. There's been a Gen Z surge in buying and selling on digital thrift shops.
Teens have been turning their side hustles on social shopping apps like Depop or Vinted into full time jobs over the past few years. Gen Z was dubbed the "Depop generation" by Vogue Business, and makes up 90% of the app's user base.
Barry-Taylor said she now asks herself if she would wear something at least 40 times before buying a new item — or at least be able to sell it on.
"It's becoming harder to justify shopping new," she said. "Both for the planet or our wallets."
Calli Nguyen planned to quit but was fired from her director role within three days of starting the job.
Jordan Hefler
Calli Nguyen, 24, was fired from her job as a director of digital marketing after less than a week.
Nguyen highlights the importance of mental health and employee respect in the workplace.
She emphasizes Gen Z's unwillingness to settle for toxic work environments.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Calli Nguyen, a 24-year-old social media marketer from Baton Rouge, LA, about getting fired after less than one week of work. It's been edited for length and clarity.
Before I started as the director of digital marketing for a medical spa, I gave my boss the benefit of the doubt because I just wanted a job. What could go wrong?
Turns out, everything.
While I've worked many jobs, this director role was my first time working in digital marketing. I rationalized that maybe I was going through a learning curve; or that I just had the jitters. But on the third day of work, when I left my desk for a quick mental health break, I was fired on the spot. To be fair, I saw the red flags but ignored them.
I read the negative Glassdoor and Google reviews left by former clients and employees. One review said that five employees quit within two weeks. The review underscored that employers should not mistreat their employees regardless of their age. Also, before I even started the job, I agreed to change my role from client care coordinator to director of digital marketing without changing my hourly pay of $16. Yet, immediately after I was fired, I felt like a failure.
I now feel that getting fired after less than a week of employment was a blessing in disguise. The experience taught me that not every opportunity is a good opportunity. But more importantly, protecting my mental health and having employers see the value in me is more important than earning money.
My boss refused to take my advice
I didn't think it was a big deal that my former boss wanted me to switch gears to social media marketing after I applied on Indeed for an office coordinator role. Afterall, I did list my social media marketing skills on my résumé.
After I accepted the new role over the phone with her general manager, I looked forward to honing in on my creative skills while helping a small, independent business grow and gain more customers. But how can I help someone who refuses to listen to my advice?
My boss wanted her social media marketing to look a certain way: showcasing stock photos of attractive women with outdated fonts.
I showed her the analytics on the low-performing social media posts and that I knew how to update her online presence to gain more customers, but she refused to absorb anything I had to say. So I followed her creative lead — until I became overwhelmed by her demands.
I was shocked to find out that my boss wanted more from me than what I produced
On my third day, I started a project to build posts for the company's social media accounts and research her competitors' special offers. I presented everything she asked for. While she seemed happy with my social posts and the offers that I found, she needed more from me.
Without warning, she asked which products the other medical spas used. I spiraled into a tailspin.
I didn't know anything about specific products in the medical spa industry. I didn't even know what she wanted me to research. She never brought up my level of product knowledge in our initial interview, nor did anyone ask me to find out about the competitors' products when explaining the project to me.
She said I should've known to research the different products used by our competitors. Then, she launched into a list of other deliverables that I should've done. After a few minutes of her feedback, I felt overwhelmed.
Mental health and respect at work are mandatory
I stood up and told her I needed to take a break. So, I walked toward the front door.
She tried stopping me. I didn't give in. I already vowed to never let anyone disrespect me at work. I said, "Ma'am, respectfully, I need to step outside and take a breather. I'll be back in a few minutes."
She fired me, saying that I wasn't going to work out for her. I thought to myself, "Oh, awesome," as I tried to keep my demeanor professional. I was so pissed off.
To be fair, I wanted to quit, so she got me before I got her. As I approached the front desk, I looked at the general manager and trainer and told them that I was fired. The general manager offered me a recommendation letter despite all the drama.
I said goodbye to my coworkers after 2.5 days
I felt like a failure after two days and about six hours of work on day three. I said goodbye to my coworkers and told them that I was fired as I walked out the door for the last time. But I really felt depressed too.
I texted "9-1-1" to my mom while she was at work and started sobbing on the phone with her in the parking lot. I kept apologizing to her for being a failure, even though I knew I worked in a toxic environment.
Afterward, I spent a month in bed while working remotely for another company.
I've been in the workforce since I was about 16 or 17 years old and have worked with various age groups. That said, some Gen Z workers are lazy and unreliable, and I've seen the TikToks that say that Gen Z is rude, too. At the same time, we want what everyone else wants: for our employers to value us, to enjoy our jobs and work environment, and to receive proper training so that we'll thrive.
Gen Z knows that there's somewhere better for us
While the older generations might have put up with toxic work environments, we're speaking up for ourselves and not settling.
I'm more than happy to receive constructive criticism, as long as the feedback does not cross the line into degradation and disrespect. The workforce continuously changes, and employers must be open to flexibility, growth, and change.
Gen Z knows that there's somewhere better for us if we don't get what we want out of a job — that's why I'm working at a reputable advertising agency that respects me, advocates for mental health, and cultivates a fun and enjoyable work environment.
As an employee, it's not on me if a boss doesn't want to learn or be flexible. I can't help a boss to grow, and I can't grow in a toxic environment, right?
If you're a Gen Z worker and want to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.
Jessica Kirshner is an interior designer who moved from Portland to Chicago in August 2023.
She loves the affordability, walkability, and cultural vibrancy, despite a higher cost of living.
Kirshner intends to stay in Chicago for a few years before planning a move to Europe.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jessica Kirshner, a 26-year-old interior designer in Chicago. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I'm originally from the Bay Area, and I moved to Eugene, Oregon, in 2015 to study interior architecture. When I graduated, I moved to Portland for a job at a large firm.
After three years in Portland, I moved to Chicago in August 2023. I wanted to live in a bigger but still affordable city, and I'm familiar with the area because I have family here. I live 10 minutes from downtown, and I love it.
Affordability and job market
The Chicago skyline.
Jessica Kirshner
Chicago is affordable compared to other big cities like LA, San Diego, the Bay Area, or New York.
The biggest difference I noticed from Oregon to Illinois was the income tax because Oregon's is high. The pay is definitely better in Chicago, but the cost of living is higher here, too, so it evens out.
When I first moved, I kept my Oregon-based job and worked remotely for seven months. Once I started looking, it took me about two months to find a new job in Chicago.
For my interior design profession, there were many options in Chicago. It was also good timing for me because Portland had very few options. I tried to use LinkedIn but ultimately found my job through a friend.
I now work as an interior designer at a large international firm. I wanted to work somewhere with offices worldwide because I eventually want to move to Europe.
Quality of life
My dad is from Chicago, so I came here often while growing up.
After living in Oregon for eight years, I missed my family, but I didn't want to move back to the Bay Area just because it's so expensive. I also wanted a bigger Jewish community, and Chicago is a good option for that.
I love how lively Chicago is during the summer, with everyone out and about. I went to an air and water show last summer, and everyone was out on the lake all day long. It was so fun to people-watch.
I love the architecture, too. It's great to walk around all the different neighborhoods and see the diversity in the buildings.
Culture and walkability
Kirshner's apartment.
Jessica Kirshner
I'm never really bored here. When I first moved, I joined a kickball league to meet people. I'm taking a sewing class because I want to make my own clothes. I plan to apply for German citizenship soon, so I'm going to enroll in German classes.
I didn't know anyone except my family, but making friends has been easy. I've mainly met people through work, organizations like IIDA, and reconnecting with college and high school friends who I knew lived here.
I chose an apartment that's within walking distance from grocery stores. I found it online and didn't see it before signing the lease, but I watched a 3D walkthrough. The cost of a one-bedroom apartment here is similar to a two-bedroom in Portland.
There's a mall, many shops, and outdoor areas within a five-minute walk from me. I'm near bars, clubs, restaurants, and whatever I want to do. I didn't want to have to rely on a car anymore, and as a pedestrian, it's very easy to get around.
I plan to stay for a while
My worst experience was my first time seeing a rat. You don't see rats on the street in Portland. I clearly haven't had any really bad experiences if that's the worst that's happened to me so far.
One downside is the biking culture is kind of nonexistent. There are bikes you can rent through an app, but there are no bike lanes and it feels almost dangerous to bike here, which was quite shocking to me coming from Portland.
I feel like I can do anything I want here.I moved halfway across the country, so I will probably stay here for a few years before moving to Europe when the time is right.
I love Chicago. I'm 100% sure I made the right decision, and I'm happier than I was in Oregon.
Mohammad Alnobani co-founded a tech startup in the West Bank in 2022.
Six months into the Israeli-Hamas war in nearby Gaza, Alnobani and his cofounder are relocating to escape the conflict.
Alnobani said he did not regret founding his company in his homeland and hopes to return someday.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Mohammad Alnobani, 34, who cofounded "The Middle Frame," a tech startup based in Ramallah, a city in the Palestinian Territories. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
At around 1 a.m. on October 7, I arrived in Amman, Jordan, on the way back to my home in Jerusalem from a trip to Belfast, where I attended the One Young World Summit.
I met my CTO at the airport; they were traveling to Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. We'd decided to travel together to the borders, which opened at 8 a.m.
We got into a bus that was supposed to move between Jordan and Israel at around 8.30 a.m. Then, we were told they were closing the borders. We started checking the news. I read that Hamas got through a fence surrounding Gaza.
I was nervous as hell — whether you're pro-Palestine or pro-Israel, once you hear a major event is happening in the region, you know what's coming next is not going to be good.
We got off the bus and went back to Amman. We didn't know what to do.
I founded a tech startup in Ramallah in 2022
I was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up in Jordan. My mom is from Nablus, a city in the West Bank, and my dad grew up in Jerusalem. I moved to Jerusalem at 16 and went to university in Ramallah. After living in Qatar and London, I moved back to Jerusalem in 2019 and set up an advertising agency with my brother in 2020, which I was a part of until January 2022.
In February 2022, I set up "The Middle Frame," a stock image platform, with my business partner Raya, a photographer I met in Boston during an entrepreneurship fellowship in 2021.
Raya told me she wanted to build a platform for authentic stock images from the Middle East and North Africa.
I knew where Raya was coming from.Back when I worked in advertising, creatives always struggled to find images that accurately represented local cultures from Arab regions on international platforms like Shutterstock and Getty Images.
Over 1,800 contributors are signed up on our platform. Photographers upload their own images, which we moderate.
The Palestinian startup scene
Our business is based in Ramallah, where Raya lives. We're both familiar with the city; it's where I went to university, and half of my family lives there. It made sense cost-wise for us to work locally and set up our business there.
The Palestinian startup community is very small. I think a lot of people around the world don't know it exists. It's very easy to get into and it felt like a good environment to find our feet.
I knew there was almost no political and economic stability in the area, but as it was my home country, I felt like I had to try and do my part. If starting a company in Ramallah could benefit the community by creating jobs and further building on the small startup scene there, we wanted to try.
We wanted to onboard Palestinian team members to give them experience in a tech startup, but we had been struggling to recruit people due to the ongoing conflict.
Myself and Raya are the only two working full-time for "The Middle Frame," but we have a part-time CTO and web developer who are both Palestinian, as well as six part-timers in Egypt.
As a stock image platform, we wanted to provide local photographers with passive income from sharing their images.
We're targeting advertising agencies and media outlets that can download our images, but since the Palestinian population and market are small, we felt there was a limitation on our growth and scalability. Only a handful of companies and publications would be using the images.
Since the startup community is also small, there aren't as many opportunities to collaborate with other startups or gain knowledge from them. There's only one VC, and there aren't any mature startup accelerators.
We planned to expand into a bigger market eventually.
We were determined to keep working despite the uncertainties caused by the conflict
During the first week after the events of October 7, I was checking the news every day. Waking up was a struggle. People living in Europe and the US invited me to healing circles, but I wasn't ready to talk about the situation yet.
On October 9, I got on a call with Raya, who was with her family in Ramallah, and our CTO, who was with me in Jordan, to discuss the next steps. We had been running small testing advertising campaigns for "The Middle Frame" and were supposed to start larger campaigns in October, but we decided that, ethically speaking, it didn't feel right. We stopped our advertising efforts until February.
We took a screenshot of the call as a statement that we will keep working even in the toughest times. When "The Middle Frame" goes through a hard time in the future, we can look back at that screenshot.
Raya and I talked about the possibility of her moving to Jordan, but she said it wouldn't be easy — her kids and husband have their lives in Ramallah — and the conversation didn't go anywhere at the time.
We're thinking about the people dying and the struggles that our people are facing. Being in the media industry, we're documenting life in the region. It's not easy for us to ignore what's happening.
We know other startup cofounders from Gaza whose office buildings were bombed and who have officially stopped working. A cofounder who I met in Jordan just last year was killed — it was the toughest news I'd ever received in my life.
We're now planning to relocate to the UAE
During Israel's war on Gaza that followed the October 7 attack, the whole Palestinian economy faced the consequences. Middle Frame sales had halted completely in the area.
Due to the situation, I've been on the road travelling. Since October, I've been in Egypt, Dubai, Jerusalem and Ramallah. I was in Jordan until the end of January, and we initially decided to focus our efforts on the Jordanian market. I met with potential clients, like advertising and news agencies, and pitched to potential investors.
We don't know what the future holds. We took a risk by operating in Ramallah for nearly two years, but we knew we should acknowledge that there was no more room for growth and no longer risk our investors' money in a market filled with uncertainty.
Recently, Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank have been very frequent. In mid-April, I was returning from a wedding and got stuck in a village for hours because the settlers were blocking the road. That was the same night Iran fired on Israel; it really hit me that we can't stay here.
We've been discussing whether we're willing to relocate. We know that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are bigger markets, and we think the UAE — where I believe there's a very diverse business market — would be the best place for us to go.
We're waiting on news from a local investor, but Raya, our CTO, and I hope to relocate at the end of this year. Luckily, Raya's husband is understanding and open to moving.
We hope to return in the future
If I had started "The Middle Frame" anywhere else, we might have been able to grow faster and raise more investments, but I don't regret what we did.
In the future, when our business is stable in a different market, we could maybe have a smaller operation in the Palestinian market.
The Palestinian startup ecosystem needs more examples of successful startups in the wider region to support the startups in Palestine and more investment bodies to support the early-stage startups.
Because the Palestinian startup community is so small, we've had to get on calls with investors and startup founders from other countries to get support and advice; it's pushed us to make connections internationally and it's made us more resilient.
However, taking a minute to zoom out and look at the big picture is important. Some days, you wake up to a news story that is painful to see and hear, making your day 10 times harder to work through.
An air defense squadron conducts a live-fire drill in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, China, April 28, 2024.
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
A new report says China's $229 billion military budget in 2022 was actually equivalent to $711 billion.
A similar figure was touted by lawmakers last year when they cited US intelligence estimates.
The report, by think tank AEI, breaks down that figure to show where China's money is likely going to.
In June 2023, Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska warned Congress that China's military was catching up to America's faster than previously imagined.
The US intelligence community, the Republican senator said, estimated that Beijing spent an equivalent of $700 billion on its defense budget in 2022 — more than triple its reported topline of $229 billion.
Sullivan's legislative push to dig further into the matter came amid renewed interest in China's true military budget, with think tanks and observers running their own analyses of Beijing's coffers.
A new report published Monday by the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute seeks to break down how the US might have internally reached that $700 billion estimation for 2022.
The report's author, Mackenzie Eaglen, writes that the Chinese budget is worth about $711 billion when weighed against America's, slightly higher than the one quoted in June by Sullivan.
That makes Beijing's spending in 2022 "nearly equal" to the US defense budget of about $740 billion that year, wrote Eaglen, a senior fellow at AEI.
"Considering that the Pentagon has labeled China the 'pacing challenge,' this revelation should cause concern," Eaglen wrote.
She mostly pieced together the new figure by comparing older Chinese budget reports and spending breakdowns, extrapolating them onto the $229 billion Beijing announced.
That's because Chinese spending reports are kept tightly under wraps. Most US observers haven't been able to pin the $700 billion on hard evidence.
Understanding $711 billion
Notably, the $711 billion estimate listed by Eaglen doesn't mean that China is spending that exact amount of money on defense. Rather, it describes the purchasing power of its military budget compared to America's, especially considering lower wage and material costs in China.
Based on a 2020 Chinese report to the United Nations, Eaglen wrote that China's 2022 military spending was likely divided into three major categories: equipment, training and maintenance, and personnel.
With purchasing power parity factored in, China likely spent the US equivalent of $135 billion instead of $85 billion on equipment and $121 billion instead of $76 billion on training and maintenance, the report said.
But the biggest jump comes from Eaglen's estimation of Chinese military wages, which typically aren't publicly recorded.
"Labor costs are demonstrably cheaper in China, where soldiers are paid just one-sixteenth the wage of a US Army infantryman," Eaglen wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill.
In her report, she compared the average wages of US and Chinese government workers and found that the former are paid 4.31 times as much as their counterparts in China.
Using that factor, Eaglen wrote that it's highly likely China's spending on personnel that year was worth $293 billion of US military spending.
Then there's research and development, which the US said China doesn't account for in its military budget announcements. Eaglen estimated that China spent about $45 billion on R&D, based on the country saying it spent that amount on research in "nondisclosed agencies."
The rest of the total budget comes from significant expenses listed by China as non-military, but ones that Eaglen argued should be considered defense spending.
She wrote that one such expense was $45 billion for maintaining the People's Armed Police, a paramilitary organization focused on internal security but tasked with bolstering the People's Liberation Army's ranks in times of crisis.
A serviceman uses a deminer to detect a "minefield" during an explosive disposal training of People's Armed Police in Nanning, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region, May 16, 2023.
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Another $45 billion was spent on retirement, military pensions, and demobilization, $2 billion on China's Coast Guard, and $21 billion on space forces — which Eaglen calculated for growth based on an official 2013 Chinese budget of $10.8 billion for space.
"Equal defense spending between the United States and China plays to Beijing's benefit," Eaglen wrote, noting that the US defense budget is spread across various theaters worldwide while China focuses on only one region.
The researcher called on the US to provide transparency on its findings about China's military spending power, citing concerns that the "American public is too often at ease in believing the US military remains ahead of all its competitors."
US military spending is also often cited as higher than the actual defense budget. Some estimates for 2023 are as high as $1.4 trillion when factoring in costs like veterans affairs spending, homeland security, security for international affairs, and interest accrued from debt.
Meanwhile, the US in March passed a bill allocating $825 billion to the American defense budget in 2024, the smallest proportion of its GDP since World War II. In the same month, China announced a military budget of $231 billion for the year.
Trump has been regularly appearing in a Manhattan court since the trial kicked off on April 15. He is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a sexual affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels.
But the reports of him snoozing, Trump says, aren't true at all.
"Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don't fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.'s Witch Hunt, especially not today," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday. "I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!"
Trump's remarks come just a day after The Times' Maggie Haberman told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that it is "100 percent true" that he was sleeping at some points during his trial.
Haberman, however, did acknowledge that there were times where Trump really was just closing his eyes.
"That is how he tries to just basically stay calm and deal with it. And whether that then leads to sleep or whatever, who knows?" Haberman said. "But he is sitting there with his eyes closed for long periods of time. It's not always sleeping."
Maggie Haberman Says Trump Pals Admit To Her Trump Has Been Sleeping In Court — But Points Out 'It's Not ALWAYS Sleeping'
This isn't the first time the Trump campaign has refuted reports of him catching some shut-eye while in court. A representative for his campaign said in a statement to The Independent last month that the reports are "100% Fake News."
But that hasn't deterred people from cracking jokes at Trump's expense.
"Imagine committing so many crimes, you get bored at your own trial," Jon Stewart, the host of "The Daily Show," said of Trump during an episode that aired on April 15.