Author: openjargon

• Satellite images show Russia has stopped using the Kerch Bridge for military freight, analysts say.
• The bridge has been a key military artery into occupied Crimea and southwest Ukraine.
• But following Ukrainian attacks, Russia appears to be relying on other routes to supply its army.

Russia has all but stopped transporting military equipment via a strategic Crimean bridge, Ukrainian analysts say, based on satellite imagery.

In an examination of Maxar satellite images by open-source intelligence agency Molfar, analysts said that between February and mid-April, they saw no Russian freight trains carrying military equipment on the Kerch Bridge.

"This may indicate a reluctance on Russia's part to transport military cargo via the bridge after previous attacks and the use of alternative routes," Molfar said in a report.

It also said it saw no trains carrying military equipment on the bridge between May and September 2023.

Business Insider was not able to independently verify the findings.

But they appear to echo Ukraine's Security Service chief Vasyl Malyuk, who said in March that rail traffic had been reduced to a handful of passenger trains since Ukraine attacked the bridge.

The Kerch Bridge connects Russia to occupied Crimea by road and rail, allowing a direct path into the strategically crucial peninsula, as well as an alternative route into occupied southwestern Ukraine.

Built in 2018 following President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea, the bridge is considered an illegal construction by Ukraine.

In the course of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has significantly damaged it twice. The first explosion, in October 2022, saw the bridge's road section collapse, and a subsequent attack in July 2023 using sea drones appears to have targeted its support struts.

Molfar's analysis suggests that the military usefulness of the bridge has been all but halted and that Russia is instead relying on land routes.

A brand new 450-mile rail line linking Russia's Rostov-on-Don to occupied cities like Melitopol is almost complete and "could pose a serious problem," Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said last month, according to The Telegraph.

Molfar CEO Artem Starosiek suggested to BI that rail targets like this may now be more urgent to strike than the Kerch Bridge for Ukraine.

A potent symbol

Despite this, Starosiek said that "if I had the possibility to push the button and hit the bridge, I will do it right now."

That's because of the significance of the bridge, and not its current military usefulness to Russia, he said.

The Kerch Bridge has considerable emotional value — both to Putin, who sees it as one of his key achievements — and to Ukraine, which sees it as a hated symbol of Russian occupation.

Ukrainian officials have long talked about destroying it entirely.

In February, Ukrainian naval commander Oleksii Neizhpapa said that the bridge's "days are over."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously pointed to the bridge's military use as a basis for designating it a legitimate target.

On Tuesday, in a post on X, Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun said that claims the bridge "wasn't being used for war & therefore not a legitimate target" emanated from a "powerful" Russian disinformation campaign "to prevent the destruction of the Crimean bridge."

It's unclear if Sovsun was reacting to Molfar's report. She did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.

Responding to Sovsun's post, Molfar CEO Artem told BI it is clear Molfar is "not on the Russian side" and highlighted the data behind the work.

"As a regular Ukrainian citizen, I really want to hit this bridge because it's in my heart," he said. "But I think sometimes it's better to do something with more influence right now, and we always have time to destroy the bridge."

• A recession by early next year could send stocks down 30%, says BCA strategist Roukaya Ibrahim.
• Continued unemployment and headwinds from China's limping economy will be drivers of a downturn. 
• Wall Street veteran Gary Shilling holds a similar forecast, he told BI this week. 

There are two factors signaling a recession by year-end or early 2025, and a downturn could spark a 30% correction in stocks, according to BCA strategist Roukaya Ibrahim.

The strategist said on Monday that the US stock market is highly valued, and growth the PE estimates will sink back to levels more in line with the five years before the pandemic.

"I think that raises the likelihood that they're more vulnerable to the downside. And our expectation if we do get this recession, late 2024, early 2025, the S&P 500 is most likely going to fall to around 3600," Ibrahim told Bloomberg TV on Monday.

According to Ibrahim, Friday's so-so jobs report for April, which showed employers added 175,000 jobs and boosted confidence in the soft landing narrative, actually contained worrying signs of a weakening economy. A closer examination of the report shows lower job openings, hires, and quit rates, signaling a shift in the narrative toward a recession.

"I think that there's still a runway for the soft landing narrative to continue over the coming months," she said. "But eventually, the unemployment rate is going to take higher and that's going to lead to concerns about a recession."

Another major headwind will blow in from China, where the government is unlikely to inject a large stimulus into the struggling economy, she said. 

"[Chinese policymakers] haven't really signaled that there's going to be enough stimulus to really revive the Chinese economy. And so any sort of recovery that we see in the near term in terms of the global manufacturing cycle, that's going to be short-lived," she said. 

Meanwhile, Ibrahim noted that China's impact on the US economy pales in comparison to its effect on Europe, but hurdles in European countries are going to prevent any durable recovery in global manufacturing.

"The euro area will not be able to escape a recession if the US falls into it, so this is a global phenomenon that we're expecting," she said. 

Ibrahim isn't alone in calling a recession and a steep plunge in the stock market.

Wall Street veteran Gary Shilling, known for predicting the mid-2000s mortgage bubble, is also forecasting a 30% stock market crash by the end of this year, with a recession likely to crush speculative bets that have piled up in recent years. 

• Israel said on Tuesday that it had sent tanks into Rafah in defiance of US warnings. 
• The Biden administration says its concerned about the lives of hostages and civilians. 
• The attack signals a widening rift between the US and Israel over actions in Gaza.

Early on Tuesday, Israeli tanks seized control of the vital Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

It came after the Israeli military launched a series of overnight strikes on the city as international mediators attempted to hash out a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The attacks took place just hours after President Joe Biden had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to invade Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the war elsewhere in Gaza had made temporary homes.

But throughout its eight-month war, Israel has shown that it is willing to reject and ignore the advice of its most important international ally, the US.

That is despite Israel being the world's biggest recipient of US military aid. According to the reports, Washington gives it around $3.8 billion worth of weapons and defense systems each year.

"We're having this conversation about how horrible it would be for US credibility and US leadership if we fail to support Ukraine," Matt Duss, the executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, told Time in March.

"The same applies here. Our inability to exert any meaningful influence on Israel—a state that is hugely reliant on US support—is also enormously damaging."

A snub to Biden

The Israeli escalation came after hopes were raised of a cease-fire when Hamas said it accepted a deal to halt the conflict proposed by Qatar and Egypt.

John Kirby, the White House spokesman, said on Sunday that Biden told Netanyahu the US would "not support ground operations in Rafah" unless it shows how it plans to protect the lives of civilians.

Israel on Monday warned civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate, indicating that an attack may be imminent. At the moment, its strikes on the Rafah appear more limited than the ground invasion Biden warned against Sunday.

However, they show that US pressure hasn't been enough to completely deter a Rafah offensive. Ahead of the assault, the US held back a shipment of ammunition to Israel, according to reports. But that didn't appear to be enough.

A growing rift between the US and Israel

Biden initially offered Israel the US' full support in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, which killed around 1,200 people and seized hundreds of mostly civilian hostages.

But as the war has progressed, the rift between Biden and Netanyahu on how to conduct the campaign to destroy Hamas has become more pronounced.

Biden is trying to restrain Israel and get it to wind down the campaign. Israel's attacks on Gaza have killed tens of thousands of civilians, according to Gazan health authorities, provoked a wave of protests on US campuses, and corroded support for Israel internationally.

Fear that the conflict could spiral into a wider regional war remains intense.

But Netanyahu sees things differently from Biden, and Israel has claimed that it remains determined to destroy the six Hamas battalions that it says are holed up in Rafah.

He's outright rejected calls for the creation of a Palestinian state after the war, a measure backed by the US and another key US regional ally, Saudi Arabia, which has held out the prospect of a deal to normalize relations if Israel agrees.

The US says that negotiating a cease-fire with Hamas remains the best way of securing the lives of the 128 Israeli hostages that remain in Gaza.

But Netanyahu appears to be prioritizing the political demands of his cabinet over the advice he's getting from Biden, say some analysts. His coalition is fragile, and he relies on the support of far-right lawmakers who are demanding an attack on Rafah.

"Netanyahu's calculation is much more focused on maintaining his coalition than he is on keeping Joe Biden happy," Aaron David Miller, a former US peace negotiator who is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Wall Street Journal.

At the same time, Netanyahu is under pressure to secure the lives of the 128 Israeli hostages that remain in Gaza.

There remains the possibility that Israel, by attacking Rafah, is pushing for the upper hand in a cease-fire agreement, not positioning itself for a wider invasion.

The New York Times, citing Biden administration officials, said that the rapidly changing prospects for a cease-fire over the weekend are likely part of a bid  to "gain leverage at the negotiating table with a clear resolution not yet in sight."

But if Netanyahu pushes ahead with his threats to invade Rafah, the consequences for the US could be grave, some warn.

The Gaza war has repeatedly threatened to spill into a wider regional conflict, and scenes of new civilian suffering in Rafah could intensify that threat. Meanwhile, Biden could see his global influence eroded if Netanyahu continues to ignore his warnings.

Dave Harden, a former mission director at the US Agency for International Development in the West Bank and Gaza, recently told the BBC that Netanyahu "almost treats Biden as some kind of inconsequential second secretary of a low-ranked European power."

The limits to his influence over Netanyahu's actions could soon become even more apparent.

• Google is co-funding a $2.8 million guaranteed income pilot in California's Bay Area.
• The program will give $12,000 over a year to 225 families to help them secure long-term housing.
• Universal basic income programs have surged in popularity as a poverty-fighting tool.

Alphabet-owned Google is co-funding a pilot program that will give $2.8 million to 450 California families on the verge of homelessness to test whether the cash helps them secure long-term housing.

Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm, will help provide 225 families with $1,000 a month in guaranteed basic income for 12 months, on a rolling basis over five years. Another 225 families will serve as a control group and receive $50 a month over the same period.

Google's funding partner is J-PAL North America, a regional office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, a global research center based at MIT.

The "It All Adds Up" program will hand the no-strings-attached cash to families that have recently taken part in housing programs provided by non-profits, and are one to three months away from losing their housing subsidies.

The program's website says that more than 70% of the families enrolled in the pilot are headed by single mothers of color with children under five.

NYU's Housing Solutions Lab will analyze the pilot's results to gauge how effective the payments are in helping families remain in long-term housing. The university's researchers will also assess the impact on participants' health and financial outcomes.

Google's financing role is part of its $1 billion pledge to fight the housing crisis in San Francisco and surrounding areas. Basic income projects have surged in popularity in recent years, in part because data shows they're an effective tool in combating poverty, and participants overwhelmingly spend the money on essentials such as food, housing, and transportation.

Google is known for the generous perks it provides employees, including free food, transportation, and a discounted on-campus hotel.

While it has cut back on perks in recent years, there's a stark contrast between the immense wealth of California's biggest tech companies and their well-remunerated employees, and the many locals struggling to afford basic living expenses.

Alphabet's stock price has jumped 20% this year as investors bet it will be a massive winner from the AI revolution. Revenues surged 15% to $80.5 billion last quarter, driving net income up 57% to about $23.7 billion.

• Israel says it has taken control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing after a military operation.
• Leaflets were dropped in the eastern part of the city, urging citizens to evacuate.
• The US put pressure on Israel not to carry out the assault — or at least reduce civilian casualties.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday it had established operational control of the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing, after conducting what it called "targeted" strikes against Hamas in the eastern part of the city.

A spokesperson for the Gaza border authority also confirmed the presence of Israeli tanks at the Rafah crossing, according to The Guardian.

The US had earlier said an Israeli invasion of Rafah — a city in southern Gaza where scores of Palestinian refugees have fled — could be a "disaster."

On Monday, the Israeli military told civilians in the eastern part of the city to evacuate ahead of what it called "extreme force," which it said it would use against "terrorist organizations" in the area.

The Israel Defense Forces wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that it ordered civilians to "temporarily move to the humanitarian area," which is slightly northwest, using a combination of flyers, text messages, phone calls, and Arabic media broadcasts.

Leaflets began to fall on the eastern part of the city at about 9 a.m. local time, according to media reports.

Images from Reuters and Getty Images show Palestinian civilians leaving the area.

The IDF's evacuation order came a day after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, that any military operation in Rafah must include a "credible plan" to evacuate Palestinians and maintain the flow of humanitarian aid, according to a Pentagon readout of their call.

More than 1 million Palestinians are estimated to have fled to the city since Israel began its assault on Gaza following the Hamas terror attacks on October 7.

The militant group killed over 1,100 people in the attacks, and hundreds were captured by Hamas fighters.

The Israeli government has responded with crushing force, launching airstrikes into Gaza that have killed more than 35,000 people, according to Hamas-run Gazan health authorities.

International pressure has been building on Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Israel is facing mounting pressure over its handling of the war — including from the US, its ally.

President Joe Biden has previously urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce civilian casualties. Past Israeli assaults and strikes have killed aid workers, including seven people with the World Central Kitchen, whose convoy was hit by a drone strike.

In March, John Kirby, a White House national security spokesperson, said a military operation in Rafah could become a "disaster."

Biden was pressed last month in an MSNBC interview to declare a "red line" for Israel's leadership; he agreed that a Rafah invasion was one.

The White House, however, later walked back Biden's statement, The New York Times reported.

In a speech at a Holocaust-memorial event on Sunday, Netanyahu seemingly dismissed criticism of his handling of the war, vowing that Israel would "stand alone" if it was forced to.

"I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself," Netanyahu said, according to The Associated Press.

The war in Gaza has become a divisive issue in the US, where protests have ignited on college campuses. Demonstrators have demanded that the schools divest from Israel; hundreds of protesters have been arrested.

Meanwhile, Biden is facing pressure from his left flank over his support for sending munitions and military aid to Israel. A group of pro-Palestinian voters has been racking up votes against him in the Democratic primaries, hinting that his fragile coalition to defeat former President Donald Trump, his GOP challenger, could be in danger.

• A retirement community in Georgia fired a 78-year-old receptionist because of her age, the EEOC said.
• Just a month beforehand, the company had recognized her as one of its employees of the year.
• As life expectancy rises, more people are working into older age.

A retirement community in Columbus, Georgia, fired a 78-year-old receptionist because of her age shortly after she was taken to hospital with high blood pressure, a federal agency says.

Covenant Woods Retirement Community and its owner, BrightSpace Senior Living, agreed in late April to pay $78,000 to settle an age and disability discrimination lawsuit filed in February 2024 by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The worker, who had been a receptionist since 2007, was fired in February 2022, the EEOC said in the lawsuit.

She was previously given good feedback in her annual reviews, including being recognized in January 2022 as one of Covenant Woods' Employees of the Year for 2021, it wrote.

However, some members of the retirement community's management team had suggested she retire. When the receptionist took medical leave in 2017, aged 74, the office manager asked her multiple times why she didn't retire, per the lawsuit.

On February 10, 2022, the receptionist experienced an incident of high blood pressure while at work and was taken to the hospital. She was released two days later, the EEOC said, and doctors later told her it was the result of dehydration.

When she returned to work later that month, she met with the office manager and general manager, who asked her how long she planned to continue working and whether she needed to do so, per the EEOC.

They also suggested that she should travel and visit relatives. The receptionist, who was 78 at the time, said that she planned to keep working for another two or three years.

But the general manager responded that the company had lost confidence in her ability to perform her duties, citing the blood pressure incident earlier that month as an example, the EEOC said.

The general manager told the receptionist she could either work one day a week, be transferred to an unspecified role in another department, or volunteer without pay, per the lawsuit. The receptionist turned down these options.

She then received a letter from the general manager saying that her employment had ended in a "business decision" because the company had lost confidence in her ability to carry out her tasks, the EEOC said. This was later confirmed in a letter from BrightSpace's HR director.

In the lawsuit, the EEOC said that the employee was fired "because of her age and her disability or perceived disability" in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The companies have agreed to pay $50,000 in compensatory damages and $28,000 in wages to settle the charges.

"We at Covenant Woods and BrightSpace Senior Living resolved this case due to the cost of litigating it," BrightSpace CFO Brian Hendricks told CBS News in a statement. "We do not admit wrongdoing or discriminatory conduct as part of this resolution."

As life expectancy rises, the US workforce is getting older.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 11 million people employed in 2023 were aged 65 or older, making up 6.8% of workers aged 16 or older. This is up from 3.3% of workers 20 years before.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act forbids age discrimination against people aged 40 or older, including in hiring and termination decisions.

Earlier this year, a manufacturing and distribution company in Louisiana agreed to pay $105,000 to a former employee for firing her when she refused to retire at 65 in another EEOC settlement.

• A US soldier was detained in Russia on theft charges last week, a US Army spokesperson told NBC News.
• Gordon Black was visiting a woman he was romantically involved with, US officials said.
• He didn't get permission to travel to Russia from his superiors, officials told AP.

A US soldier detained in Russia on theft charges was visiting a woman he was romantically involved with, NBC News reported, citing four US officials.

Staff Sergeant Gordon Black stopped off in Vladivostok, Russia, on his way back to the US after finishing a deployment in South Korea, the officials told the outlet.

Black had traveled to Russia without prior approval from his superiors and is now in pretrial custody in Russia for allegedly stealing from a woman, the officials said, per the outlet.

The officials failed to identify the woman, or to specify whether she was the same one he was romantically linked with.

The US Army didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comments.

In a statement to NBC News, US Army spokesperson Cynthia O. Smith said Black was arrested on charges of criminal misconduct last Thursday, that the Army had notified his family, and that the State Department was providing appropriate consular support.

Smith declined to make further comments due to the "sensitivity" of the matter.

Several US officials told the Associated Press that Black was preparing to go home to Fort Cavazos in Texas from South Korea, but instead traveled to Russia to visit his "longtime" girlfriend.

The Russian woman, who previously lived in South Korea, got into an argument or fight with Black last fall and left the country, the officials told AP.

It's not clear if she was compelled to leave and how involved the Korean authorities were, if at all, per AP.

Black did not inform his unit of his plans to go to Russia, the officials told the news agency.

The 34-year-old will be detained on charges of theft until July 2, according to Russian state-run news outlet RIA Novosti, which cited an official at a regional court.

The State Department has issued a level 4 travel advisory for Russia, with Americans warned not to travel to the country due to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, the potential for harassment, and the singling out of US citizens for detention by Russian security officials.

Black is not the only current or former US soldier to be detained in Russia.

Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, was convicted on espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.

US Marine veteran Trevor Reed was arrested in Moscow in 2019 after being convicted of drunkenly attacking Russian police officers during a visit to the country.

• Neom planners are worried The Line will kill a large number of birds, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• The futuristic mirrored structure is on a migration route used by billions of birds. 
• The Line comprises twin 1,640-foot-high towers 656 feet apart.

Neom planners seem worried that the megaproject's mirrored "horizontal skyscraper" will kill a "significant number of birds."

According to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the concerns relate to the location of The Line, which is on a migration route used by billions of birds.

In planning documents, designers wrote that it was "inevitable that a significant number of birds will perish," illustrating their concerns with a drawing of a dead northern flicker, per the report.

In a February promotional video for Neom, chief development officer for The Line, Denis Hickey, said he saw the project as an "opportunity to create a better model for a city to interact with the landscape and nature and the environment."

He said developers believed "The Line is going to be an example to the rest of the world."

Plans for The Line are already architecturally challenging.

The structure is designed as twin 1,640-foot-high mirrored towers set 656 feet apart. According to Neom's website, it will also have no roads, vehicles, or emissions and run on 100% renewable energy.

Plans for the glossy city have reportedly been scaled back in recent months.

The Line was originally planned to accommodate nine million people by 2030. However, a recent report from Bloomberg siad this estimate has been lowered to fewer than 300,000 people by that date.

Saudi officials have been insisting the project is on track despite reports to the contrary.

Faisal Al Ibrahim, the Saudi economy minister, told CNBC there was "no change in scale."

Representatives for Neom did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

• The clock is ticking for ByteDance to sell its US TikTok operations.
• Clapper, a similar video platform, has been tested by creators as a potential alternative to TikTok.
• Despite an increasing user base, it doesn't seem like somewhere Zoomers will flock to just yet.

The clock is ticking on ByteDance after President Joe Biden signed a bill last month that declared the company has to sell its US TikTok operations or face the app being banned in the US.

If TikTok does suddenly become unavailable, creators are wondering where they might go next.

Some have been trying out Clapper — a video platform that looks a lot like a TikTok dupe, which was set up mainly for millennials and Gen X users.

The app's founder, Edison Chen, described it as "a space for the older generations to feel more comfortable" in an interview with D Magazine last year and somewhere "the parents of TikTok users can express themselves."

In a blog post from 2022, Chen also said Clapper is not about videos becoming viral but about building a community and making friendships.

Some of its features highlight this focus. For example, the "Nearby" feature allows creators to see content made by people close to their location to find friends and connect with like–minded people.

The app also encourages users to use hashtags to connect them to creators with similar audiences.

Otherwise, if you can use TikTok, you can probably use Clapper. It's set up almost exactly the same way, with a "Following" tab and a "For You" tab and buttons for liking, commenting on, and sharing a video in the same place.

I'm not a parent, but I am a millennial. Like many in my age bracket, I'm also an avid TikTok user. Data from the Pew Research Center suggests that 40% of people on TikTok are in their 30s and 40s.

The dominant demographic on TikTok, though, remains Gen Zers, with various surveys estimating that somewhere between 50% and 76% of this age group use it.

Could Clapper be the next big thing among Zoomers if TikTok disappears? I'm not so sure.

Mixed reviews

A Clapper spokesperson told Business Insider the app has doubled its user base every year for the past three years, and daily active users have grown 400% since 2020.

The spokesperson said that since the House voted on a TikTok ban, Clapper has seen 30,000 new users. There are more than two million monthly active users currently, according to the latest estimates.

While the app heavily leans on Gen X and Y, the spokesperson said Clapper is adjusting its strategy "to appeal to younger audiences."

But reviews (posted to TikTok) have been mixed so far.

One creator, Shannon Lee, described the app as "kind of laggy." Another creator, named Allie, said: "It's pretty much like a clone of TikTok, but it does not compare in the slightest."

Others like it, though. Rebecca Starkey, a creator with over 500,000 followers on TikTok, said she enjoyed that it is ad-free, that users had to be at least 17 years old, and that every video that shows up on the For You page has the same opportunity to go viral.

Other positives include an absence of filters and the fact that creators can start earning money immediately — unlike TikTok, where you have to have 10,000 followers before you can join its Creator Rewards Program.

A bit old-school

I attempted to train my Clapper algorithm to feed me the content I wanted to see.

It's not totally fair to compare it to TikTok, which has known me and my tastes for years. Overall, though, I found the content on there a bit outdated.

My feed is full of cringe skits and pranks, as well as clips of people misjudging stunts and injuring themselves, reminiscent of "getting owned" compilations of the earlier internet.

Some recent videos served to me include a woman pretending to collapse in front of her partner and a gym-goer shrieking for help with her too-heavy weights. There are also some questionable comedy sketches on there that verge on sexism and give an overall air of lawlessness.

BI reached out to Clapper for comment on its policies, though its terms of service prohibit nudity and violence, impersonation, and posting content that isn't your own.

It would remind me a bit of early Vine, but a lot of content I'm being served seems to be reposted old clips scraped from YouTube and other platforms.

Back in 2021, a wave of conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers made their way to Clapper, seeing it as a "free speech" alternative to TikTok, where they had been banned.

I didn't come across any of this in my week on Clapper, but I did see plenty of other Facebook-generation content.

There are loads of videos about inspirational sportspeople and animal rescues, tailored to the people who are still enjoying the feel-good nature of Facebook's algorithm.

There are significantly fewer ads. Some creators are promoting products, but you're nowhere near as inundated with things to buy as you are on TikTok.

The main thing that's missing for me right now on Clapper is what the app claims to stand for — community. On Clapper, I'm watching without really thinking. It's rage bait without substance. It's consumption culture without an edge. I mean, what even is this?

Clapper is in its early stages, and that's fine. It takes a long time to build a social media circle, and it may just be I haven't found my people on there yet.

I don't think Clapper will see a huge uptick in Gen Z users unless there's a mass exodus there that can help it form more consistency and depth. This has happened before with Viners flocking to YouTube in 2016, so never say never.

Clapper is definitely providing something. But right now, I don't think it's quite what Zoomers are after.

• Eric Schmidt backed out of buying the Alfa Nero megayacht last year.
• He instead purchased the Kismet, formerly owned by Shahid Khan, and renamed her Whisper.
• The ship — one of the biggest yachts owned by a tech billionaire —was listed for about $161 million.

Last year, Eric Schmidt made waves in the yachting community when news came out that he was the soon-to-be owner of the Alfa Nero, an 81-meter megayacht that belonged to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

The former Google CEO, who is worth $32.1 billion, per Bloomberg, was to pay $67.6 million for the yacht, which was being auctioned off by the government of Antigua and Barbuda, where the ship had been moored since February 2022, the month Russia invaded Ukraine. The small Caribbean nation had been spending $28,000 a week simply to maintain the mammoth boat.

But as the sale proceedings went on, legal challenges piled up as people laid claim to Alfa Nero, and Schmidt backed out of the deal.

It didn't take long for him to rebound, though. In September 2023, just three months after he won the Alfa Nero auction, the billionaire purchased Kismet, renaming her Whisper, Business Insider has learned.

A spokesperson for Schmidt declined to comment to Business Insider.

The 95-meter-long yacht, built by the renowned German shipyard Lürssen and delivered in 2014, was formerly owned by the Jacksonville Jaguar's billionaire owner, Shahid Khan — hence images of the cat featured on her figurehead and throughout her decor.

Whisper, which can fit at least a dozen guests and a crew of 28 features a master deck with a private jacuzzi, as well as a full-service spa, lap pool, hammam, and outdoor fireplace. Made for entertaining, the megayacht has a cinema, a grand piano, and two helipads — one of which doubles as a basketball court and the other than transforms into a disco.

Her interior was designed to "create a feeling of relaxed opulence, based on a 'Champagne & Caviar' theme," according to the brokerage that sold the ship.

While the yacht's final sale price was not public, she was listed for 149 million euros (about $161 million at current exchange rates).

At a charity auction in January, one week aboard the ship went for $2.4 million, according to industry outlet Yacht Charter Fleet — a steal, considering she typically goes for $3 million a week.