The author collapsed at work because of anxiety and burnout.
Courtesy of Shannon Laliberte
When I was a VP at my company, I was too afraid to speak up or tell my boss "no."
I reached burnout and collapsed during a meeting, forcing me to leave the office on a stretcher.
Once I explored my childhood trauma in therapy, I was able to set boundaries at work.
"Teresa, you can plan the office party, right?"
My stomach tightened, and I felt lightheaded at the question. I went through a mental checklist of everything I was asked to lead. I tried to repeat the boundary script I read in a Forbes article the previous day.
Instead, these words come out of my mouth: "My workload is already full, is there any chance you can maybe find someone else to cover? If not, I will try my best to make a plan."
My boss stared blankly at me before telling me I should just plan the party.
I had recently been promoted to VP of Human Resources. I was already stretched thin with developing new training programs, improving our hiring pipeline, and onboarding new hires. I was nearing burnout — and fast.
I was too anxious in the office to set boundaries
I knew what boundaries were, intellectually. Yet, on the few attempts that I tried to "set a boundary," my body took over. I froze in terror, and my throat closed up.
After being promoted to the executive suite, I became the only woman in the room. My heart raced whenever I contributed to a meeting. When I left the room, I obsessed over everything I said, questioning whether I sounded stupid or not. Soon, I lost my appetite, stopped sleeping through the night, and drastically lost weight.
It all came to a head one day in a meeting. I remember my heart rate quickening. I felt my heart skip a beat. I tried to excuse myself, but after just two steps, my body swayed, and if it weren't for a nearby chair, I would have fallen.
"Teresa, should we call the ambulance?"
I blinked, and — in blurry, distortedness — I saw the faces of the CEO and CMO of my company staring at me. Soon, I was lying on a stretcher and being wheeled out to the lobby. The elevator doors opened and closed. The whole office was staring at me — jaws agape. I felt so small and mortified.
I thought it was a heart problem, but at the hospital, they did a lot of tests that came out clear. The doctor diagnosed me with burnout and anxiety.
I found the solution to my troubles when I started trauma therapy
Before all of this, I met one of my best friends for coffee at Starbucks. She was talking about her dad. At the end of the conversation, she said something that stuck with me: "I'm just curious, T. You never talk about your mom and dad. Why is that?"
I evaded the topic of my childhood around friends and in the therapy room. Perhaps part of me hoped that journaling and the mindfulness work I was doing would be enough.
But my friend's question kept playing over in my brain.
That's when my psychologist guided me through Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, a practice where I embodied myself at different ages. I remember — during a session — embodying 9-year-old Teresa. My dad was screaming at me because my running shoes were not organized in a straight line at the door. As I described the scene to my therapist, he responded, "None of this was your fault."Tears fell down my cheek. It felt like my therapist was talking directly to 9-year-old Teresa — not to 45-year-old Teresa.
Even though both childhood trauma and burnout symptoms often overlap, the solution differs. Most traditional burnout recovery approaches overfocus on external solutions — like physical exercise or an adequate rest and sleep schedule. While these are healthy and self-care-promoting, for someone who has experienced childhood trauma, true relief comes from addressing your deeper needs, I learned.
I implemented what I learned into my work life
I realized that I was responding to male authority figures like I was a child, and that's why I couldn't tell my bosses "no," and that led to my burnout.
Having the awareness that this was happening changed everything. If I feel triggered at work, I quietly tell myself that freezing or complying helped younger Teresa survive scary events. And then I tell myself that things are different for older Teresa. I am not in physical danger, and the responses that served me when I was younger no longer serve me. Doing this means that I allow the fear or anxiety to pass through me. From here, I can assert my boundaries from a regulated state.
This isn't a one-and-done solution. I look at boundary work and trauma-based work as a lifelong practice. It's a constant journey of understanding the patterns.
Every time I manage to successfully navigate a difficult conversation that would have triggered me in the past, it reaffirms that I am, in fact, capable of asserting myself and setting boundaries — especially in the workplace.
Welcome back to our Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories. Fed up with the cost of life in the US? An increasing number of Americans are turning to "geoarbitrage."
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This week's dispatch
Netflix's Wall Street worry
Netflix announced last week that it had added 9.33 million subscribers in the first three months of the year, far surpassing Wall Street expectations.
It now has almost 270 million subscribers, which is comparable to the populations of Russia and Mexico combined.
However, those kinds of comparisons will be harder to make in the future, as Netflix also announced that starting next year, it will stop releasing subscriber numbers and will instead announce milestones as it passes them.
Wall Street did not react well to the news, sending the stock lower.
Netflix's password-sharing crackdown has been a great success. That's good news for other streaming platforms like Disney that are looking to launch their own crackdown. But the boost will likely fade over time, and some on Wall Street worry the new level of secrecy on subscriber numbers is a sign that growth is decelerating.
Plus, Netflix's stock had increased 50% in the six months before earnings. It's possible some investors saw an opportunity to book some of their profits.
If you've noticed more Reddit posts popping up in your Google Search results, you're not alone. Posts from sites like Reddit and Quora are overrunning the search engine.
In part, Google's shift to promoting more human, helpful sites has helped bring on a surge in Reddit traffic. And already, spammers are using the new trend to their benefit.
Across the country, the rise of remote work has led to a decline in commercial real-estate prices and falling property-tax revenue. Cities from San Francisco to Boston are weighing whether to slash budgets.
At the root of these cities' woes is the struggle to figure out what the new normal budget is and how to deliver the services and investments citizens depend on without breaking the bank.
Abrice Cofrini/AFP via Getty Images; iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI
Leaving McKinsey
When this employee started at McKinsey in 2021, they knew they were there "for a bad time, not a long time."
The employee said they worked from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and received no mentorship or guidance. They ultimately took a mental health break after a year, and left soon thereafter.
A leaked presentation revealed that Microsoft significantly expanded its data-center capacity recently, and plans to ramp up growth to astounding levels going forward.
In the first half of Microsoft's 2025 fiscal year, the company aims to "achieve 3x growth" in new data-center capacity.
The Insider Today team: Matt Turner, deputy editor-in-chief, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.
The second victim likely died as a result of self-strangulation
Science Advances
Ancient remains found in France reveal two women were likely tortured and killed Mafia-style.
The women experienced "self-strangulation" using a ligature that bound their ankles to their necks.
Twenty similar ritualistic burials have been discovered at sites across Europe.
An archaeological discovery in France has revealed the Stone Age remains of two women thought to have been tortured and sacrificed in a form of murder associated with the Italian Mafia.
Though the remains were discovered in 1985, a study published last week in the journal Science Advances reveals the "atypical" positioning of the bodies.
The paper's authors believe the women could have died by "self-strangulation" using a ligature that bound their ankles to their necks. The torture is known as "incaprettamento," a homicide ritual of the Italian Mafia, sometimes used to punish people thought to be traitors.
A third woman was found in a normal burial position nearby.
"Killing people with homicidal ligature strangulation has been interpreted as a form of symbolic suicide, as it is the individual who, by strangling themselves, causes their death," said the study's authors.
The skeletons, found in "pit 69" at a site in the town of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in France's Rhône Valley, are believed to have been buried sometime between 4,000 and 3,500 BC in an arrangement consistent with summer and winter solstice rituals in early farming societies.
The killings could have been part of ritual beliefs that a human sacrifice could ensure a good harvest and food security, said the archaeologists, noting similar practices existed in the Inca civilization of South America.
"There is always this idea that somebody is dying and that the crops will grow," Éric Crubézy, one of the paper's lead authors and a biological anthropologist at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, told CNN.
Other interpretations, reported Science Advances, believe it is a form of retainer sacrifice, "where officiants killed enslaved people, servants, relatives, wives, concubines, or others to accompany their masters, social superiors, or relatives into the afterlife."
How the first victim was likely buried in the pit
Science Advances
One of the women had her "lower limbs bent and a fragment of grindstone positioned on her skull," the study states. The grindstone is a symbol of agriculture and harvest, it said.
Another was in a prone position, her knees bent, "with her neck resting on the thorax" of the first woman. This second woman had "two pieces of grindstone placed horizontally on her back."
It is thought that the violent deaths would have left the first woman struggling to breathe with the weight of the second woman on her neck, while the second woman would have also struggled to breathe, possibly leading to cardiac arrest.
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and the area surrounding pits 69 and 70.
Science Advances
Throughout the Neolithic, or late Stone Age, era, the study states that "homicidal ligature strangulation" may well have become a common practice associated with ceremonies and ritual sites.
The study reviewed skeletons discovered at other archaeological digs across Europe spanning 2,000 years. Researchers found that there were 20 other likely instances of similar ritualistic murders at 14 different sites. Self-strangulation was the probable cause of death.
The study said the number of such rituals was likely higher, but there was insufficient information about skeletons at other archaeological sites to draw solid conclusions.
At the other sites, men and children have also been found, the study said.
The earliest example of this method of killing was at a Mesolithic site dating back to somewhere 5,400-4,800 BC.
Airlines have jumped on this growing trend with built-in "stopover" programs, which can come with free or discounted hotels, excursions, transportation, and food at the layover destination.
It's basically a vacation within a vacation.
Although it sounds too good to be true, stopovers benefit everyone involved. Travelers get more choices and don't have to be confined to an airport, airlines gain customers who may have otherwise chosen a nonstop option on a competitor, and the carrier's home country sees a boost in tourism.
Plus, the cheap or complimentary accommodations typically come at a small cost to airlines, thanks to partnerships with local hotels or tour companies.
Not all stopover programs are structured with an emphasis on tourism, though, as some were created simply to offer conveniences during long layovers. Still, they are a way to secure a free hotel and explore an extra city.
Here are 22 global airline stopover programs, each lasting anywhere from hours to months.
Many carriers allow stopovers to be added to a regular cash booking, but some are only available via award tickets. This means the flight was paid for using points/miles or a combination of points/miles and cash.
Air Canada
An Air Canada Boeing 777.
Robert Smith/Getty Images
Air Canada has a stopover option built into its Aeroplan loyalty program. It allows customers booking award flights to add a stop on international journeys and explore practically any city the airline flies to outside the US and Canada.
The add-on costs 5,000 Aeroplan points each way and can only be booked if the stop is at least 24 hours, capping out at 45 days.
Air France/KLM
Air France/KLM.
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock
Air France and Dutch carrier KLM's Flying Blue loyalty program offers a stopover of 24 hours or more in a connecting city on either carrier or their airline partners.
The option is free to add to award tickets, and passengers can stay up to a year in the stopover city.
China Southern Airlines
A China Southern Airlines Airbus A350.
Liang Xu/Xinhua via Getty Images
China Southern Airlines offers a free one-night hotel stay for transfer passengers with connection times lasting between six and 30 hours, though there are some time and route restrictions.
Breakfast and transportation are included for eligible travelers.
Copa Airlines
AP
Copa Airlines' Panama stopover program allows customers to spend anywhere from 24 hours to seven days in the nation's capital, Panama City, on their outbound or return trip.
The option is free for the first stopover, but a second stopover can cost up to $250 plus taxes. Copa offers discounted hotels and tours that can be booked via its stopover website.
Emirates
An Emirates Airbus A380.
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Emirates allows a stopover in Dubai with the option to add discounted tours or hotel bookings to the itinerary via its website.
The UAE carrier also has a "Dubai Connect" program that gives passengers with layovers between 6 and 26 hours, depending on the cabin, a complimentary hotel, transfers, meals, and any needed visa.
Dubai Connect only triggers if the customer takes the next available flight. Essentially, you can't intentionally book a longer layover to quality for the free stopover hotel.
Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines.
Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Ethiopian Airlines' transit program gives customers flying via Addis Ababa a free hotel, transit visa, and transfers during layovers lasting between eight and 24 hours.
The hotel on the airline's website is the Ethiopian Skylight In-Terminal Hotel, located inside the airport.
Etihad Airways
An Etihad Airways Airbus A380.
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock.com
Etihad Airways offers a stopover in its Abu Dhabi hub, which comes with an undisclosed discount at select three-star hotels for up to two nights.
Two and four-night stays can be booked at more luxurious four and five-star hotels at a 40% discount. The minimum stay is 24 hours.
Although Etihad's website says it is temporarily unavailable, the airline used to allow eligible travelers to use a so-called Transit Connect Package that provided a free hotel near the airport for layovers lasting 10 to 24 hours. It is unclear when or if the program is returning.
Fiji Airways
Fiji Airways.
Suparat Chairatprasert/Shutterstock
Fiji Airways offers a stopover program in Fiji for those traveling to and from Australia, New Zealand, and other South Pacific nations.
Hotels and activities like ziplining and beach resorts can be booked through the airline as part of the stopover package.
Finnair
Finnair.
Markus Mainka/Shutterstock
Finnair allows passengers to book 6, 12, or 24-hour layovers in Helsinki at no additional fare charge and outlines itinerary ideas and information on its website, like transportation, free walking tours, and restaurants.
Customers can book a hotel through the airline and earn Finnair Plus points.
Iberia
Airbus
Iberia customers can plan a stopover in Madrid to or from an international destination for one to six nights at no extra cost.
Discounts on hotels, excursions, and transfers in the Spanish capital are available through Iberia.
Icelandair
Icelandair.
StudioPortoSabbia/Shutterstock
Icelandair offers a stopover option for one to seven days in its capital city of Reykjavik on transatlantic itineraries for no additional charge.
The airline offers itinerary help and assistance in booking excursions and tours. Hotels need to be booked separately.
Japan Airlines
A Japan Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
Marcio Rodrigo Machado/S3studioGetty Images
Japan Airlines considers itself one of the "most stopover-friendly" carriers in the world.
The stopovers, which trigger at 24 hours, are not limited to JAL's hubs in Tokyo but can be enjoyed in places like Osaka and Kyoto using the airline's multi-city booking tool.
Latam Airlines
A Latam Airlines Boeing 787.
AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Latam Airlines offers stopovers for between one and three days on flights that connect in São Paulo, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Recife, Manaus, Curitiba, and Belem. Only international itineraries that connect in São Paulo.
Hotels and amenities can be booked via Latam, but the stopover booking is free.
Oman Air offers customizable stopover packages to give travelers time to explore the country's capital, Muscat, and beyond. An additional fare charge may be applicable, though the airline does not fly to the US.
Packages and a-la-carte options include discounted hotels for up to three nights, as well as organized tours, meals, and transfers.
Qantas
A Qantas 787 Dreamliner.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Australian flag carrier Qantas offers its stopovers in a similar manner to JAL in that multi-city bookings can be manipulated to add extra days between flights in layover cities, like Bangkok, Osaka, or San Francisco.
This comes at no extra cost on eligible Qantas fares and can be used on its Oneworld partner airlines.
Qatar Airways
A Qatar Airways Boeing 787.
Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Qatar Airways' stopover program allows passengers with a minimum layover of 12 hours and up to 24 hours to choose from a list of deeply discounted four and five-star hotels. Certain flight itineraries allow for up to four nights.
Nightly hotel rates start at $14 per person for 1 night at four-star standard hotels, with premium five-star beach hotels starting at $30 per person for one night.
Royal Jordanian Airlines
Royal Jordanian Airlines Boeing 787.
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Royal Jordanian Airlines' transit program gives economy and business-class travelers with at least eight and six-hour layovers, respectively, a free hotel room, meals, and transit, assuming certain fare conditions are met.
However, the connecting flight must be the earliest possible — meaning, similar to Emirates, passengers can't intentionally book a longer layover to be eligible for the complimentary perks.
Swiss International Air Lines
A Swiss International Air Lines Airbus A330.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
Swiss International Air Lines, or SWISS, has a multi-city stopover booking tool on its website that allows passengers to find itineraries with extra days in Switzerland.
The cost of hotels and other perks is on the customer, though.
Singapore Airlines
An Airbus A350 Singapore Airlines in 2021.
Massimo Insabato/Archivio Massimo Insabato/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
Singapore Airlines' stopover program is available via the multi-city tool, similar to other carriers, where travelers can add hotels, transfers, and activities. The stopover can last one to seven days.
Singapore also offers free transit tours to passengers with layover times between five and a half and 24 hours at Singapore's Changi Airport. It's first-come, first-serve and includes sightseeing around Singapore.
TAP Air Portugal
A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A330-900neo.
Matheus Obst/Shutterstock.com
TAP Air Portugal allows customers to add a stopover in Lisbon or Porto between one and 10 days, offering discounts on hotels, food, and activities.
It also offers 25% off a domestic flight to a second Portuguese destination, like the Azores or Madeira islands, to take during the stopover.
Turkish Airlines
A Turkish Airlines Airbus A350.
Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Turkish Airlines' stopover program gives economy travelers a one-night free hotel stay and business flyers a two-night free stay if the period between their connecting flights in Istanbul exceeds 20 hours.
Those traveling from the US in economy class can stay up to two nights in a four-star hotel, while those traveling in business can stay up to three nights in a five-star hotel.
Some Nvidia employees are considered to be millionaires.
SOPA Images
An Nvidia engineer spoke to BI about salaries at the chipmaker.
The West Coast-based worker has a $250,000 base and gets half that amount again in stock annually.
He said the reality was "not as rosy" as it seems, given high taxes and the cost of living.
An Nvidia engineer who makes $250,000 a year said the amount employees make at the chip giant was "not as rosy" as some might think.
He told Business Insider that while some Nvidians may be lucky enough to be millionaires, "a million doesn't go too far."
The software engineer didn't want to be identified as he's not authorized to speak to the media. BI has verified his employment and earnings.
The West Coast-based engineer, who joined the company several years ago, gets nearly half of his base salary amount worth of restricted stock units (RSUs) a year.
"If you're looking from a far distance and you say Nvidians are millionaires, yes absolutely, but that million doesn't go too far," he said.
"But because the stock has gone sky-high, there's an expectation that everybody has made a lot of money," he said. "In reality, the RSUs you get is where the bulk of your exponential growth in wealth will be and not everybody will get a lot."
Even if some employees get a lot of RSUs given to them, he said that they might not all have held onto them.
"You will end up cashing your stocks to meet your annual obligations in terms of personal taxes, property taxes, and any other expenses you will have," he said.
Nvidia, which has about 26,000 employees, has greatly benefited from the generative AI boom as its GPUs are key components for applications like ChatGPT.
Its stock has soared in the past 12 months, making it the most valuable company after Microsoft and Apple. However, Nvidia shares fell 10% on Friday and are now almost $200 below their March peak, leaving the company worth $1.9 trillion.
Misconception
Nvidia engineers are called "individual contributors" (IC) and are ranked from tier 1 to tier 8.
The engineer BI spoke to is an IC level four.
He said that he's often asked in social settings how much he's making. However, the worker argues it's a misconception that all Nvidia staff are cash-rich, as much of their wealth is tied up in stock, with taxes also taking a big chunk out of their earnings.
"It would be incorrect to consider a job at Nvidia as a way to turn a quick million," he said.
His base salary places him in one of the second-highest federal income tax brackets, with a rate of 35%.
On top of that, he pays property taxes, Social Security, and Medicare levies.
'Life happens'
He argued that a million was "not a big number" in California, where Nvidia has four offices, as house prices and the cost of living are typically high.
He added that "life happens," meaning there are always unexpected bills or costs.
The biggest purchase he has made since cashing out some of his Nvidia stock was a $250,000 down payment on his three-bedroom house, which cost almost $1.4 million in 2018.
There's also a cap on how many stock units workers can get. Even the most exemplary employees are capped at receiving 50% of their base salary in stock a year.
That means that a Nvidia employee earning $1 million a year may not be considered rich in a place like San Francisco. According to the 2023 Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey, you need a net worth of $4.7 million to be "wealthy."
There's also big pay disparities between Nvidians in the US and other countries. A software engineer in India, who is an IC level 3, earns a base salary of about $19,000.
"I'm still happy with where I am and I'm glad I've made it, but it's not as rosy as it looks from the outside," the engineer said. "I'm really happy with the price Nvidia stock is trading at."
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images
The stock surge helped make CEO Jensen Huang one of the richest people in the world. He's in 21th spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, worth about $67 billion.
Nvidia didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
A member of a police unit of FPV pilots looks at a smartphone in Zaporizhzhia region, southeastern Ukraine.
Dmytro Smolienko / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
A US Army officer said military trainers had warned soldiers of the dangers of cellphone use.
"The cellphone is the new cigarette in the foxhole," he told Foreign Policy.
Ukraine has used Russian soldiers' cellular data to locate and target their positions.
Cellphones have revolutionized the ways war is documented, providing snapshots of life on the front lines, glimpses of the latest military equipment, and harrowing images of death and destruction.
But they are also potentially lethal for the soldiers carrying them, a US Army officer has said.
Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor told Jack Detsch, a reporter at Foreign Policy, that Army trainers had been warning soldiers about the dangers of taking cellphones on operations.
"We've shown soldiers, 'Hey, your cellphone can get you killed,'" Taylor, the commanding general of the National Training Center and Fort Irwin, said.
He pointed to one training incident when he said he and his team were able to locate an otherwise undetectable Apache stealth helicopter as it made its way through their air defenses because the pilot's phone was moving at 120 miles per hour.
Taylor compared the dangers posed by cellphones to that of cigarette smoking during World War II, when the spark of a match or the glow of a cigarette could help snipers pick out enemy targets.
"The cellphone is the new cigarette in the foxhole," Taylor said.
Ukraine has targeted Russian cellular data
A Ukrainian soldier on his mobile phone on the front line in southern Ukraine, October 2022.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
The Russia-Ukraine war has been marked by the use of cellular data to target enemy positions.
A January report by the cybersecurity company Enea highlighted the Ukrainian strike on a Russian barracks in the city of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine on New Year's Eve 2022.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said the strike occurred after Russian reservists turned on their cellphones, allowing Ukrainian intelligence operatives to identify their location.
The area was then targeted by an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). Russian sources claim 89 soldiers were killed in the strikes, while Ukraine put the number at around 400.
In a statement following the incident, the Russian Ministry of Defense said: "It is already obvious that the main reason for what happened was the switching on and massive use — contrary to the prohibition — by personnel of mobile phones in a reach zone of enemy weapons."
"This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of the servicemen to launch a missile strike," it added.
Russia is likely using similar tactics to its advantage, however.
It is known to be using the Leer-3 electronic warfare system, which is capable of identifying 2,000 phones within a 3.7-mile range, potentially exposing Ukrainian locations, Sky News previously reported.
Electronic warfare uses the electromagnetic spectrum, including signals like radio, infrared, or radar, to disrupt and degrade an enemy's ability to use those signals, according to defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
It has played a crucial role in the conflict so far due to its potential for identifying targets and combating drone attacks.
While the dangers of using a cellphone on the battlefield appear plentiful, the Enea report said: "A mobile device — despite its risks — has utility as a backup communication system; a means to document enemy movements, create after-action reports or other intelligence; and as a propaganda/content generation system."
Flooding in Zhuozhou city in China's Hebei province, August 9, 2023.
JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images
Almost half of China's major cities are sinking, a new study has found.
Around 45% of China's urban land is sinking faster than 3 mm per year.
Water extraction is likely the main reason behind it, Robert Nicholls, a climate adaptation professor, said.
Almost half of China's major cities are sinking, putting millions of locals at risk of flooding, according to a new study published in the journal Science this week.
The study found that 45% of China's urban land was sinking faster than 3 mm a year, while 16% was sinking at a rate of more than 10 mm a year.
The study authors looked at 82 Chinese cities with populations of more than 2 million and used radar pulses from satellites to identify any changes in the distance between the satellite and the ground.
They then measured how the cities' elevations had changed between 2015 and 2022.
They found that China's largest city, Shanghai, was continuing to subside despite already sinking around 3 m over the past 100 years.
Cities such as Beijing and Tianjin were also particularly affected.
Causes
There are a number of factors leading to the subsidence, but Robert Nicholls, a professor of climate adaptation at the University of East Anglia, who was not involved in the research, told the BBC that he believed that water extraction was "probably the dominant reason."
Flooding in Zhuozhou city
JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images
"In China there are lots of people living in areas that have been fairly recently sedimented, geologically speaking. So when you take out groundwater or you drain the soils, they tend to subside," he said.
The paper also suggested that the resolution to the issue "could lie in the long-term, sustained control of groundwater extraction."
In a comment article also published in Science, Nicholls warned that "subsidence jeopardises the structural integrity of buildings and critical infrastructure and exacerbates the impacts of climate change in terms of flooding, particularly in coastal cities where it reinforces sea-level rise."
Subsidence already costs China over 7.5 billion yuan, which is around $1.05 billion, a year, Reuters reported.
The problem is not confined to China, however.
Another paper published in February said that around 6.3 million square km, or around 2.4 million square miles, of land around the world was at risk of subsidence, with Indonesia one of the worst affected countries.
Parts of the US have also suffered from the problem, with more than 17,000 square miles of land across 45 states directly affected, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
According to the USGS, more than 80% of the identified cases of subsidence in the US occurred due to the exploitation of underground water.
"The increasing development of land and water resources threatens to exacerbate existing land-subsidence problems and initiate new ones," it adds.
Joel Lambdin, 49, got $250,000 in student loans forgiven.
Joel Lambdin
Joel Lambdin, 49, received $250,000 in student-loan forgiveness in January.
It's a result of the Education Department's one-time account adjustments.
Lambdin said the relief will allow him to save for retirement while considering longer term dreams.
Joel Lambdin finished graduate school in 1998 — but as a professional musician,he was hardly making enough money to pay off his student loans and his other bills.
So Lambdin, now 49, said his only option to make ends meet was to puthis student loans on forbearance — in which he was not making payments, but interest was still accumulating.
"It was just so that I could subsist, so that I could survive," Lambdin told Business Insider. "With the hope that at some point, I would be making enough money that I would be able to take them out of forbearance and start paying them down."
But he grew to realize that the only way he could make a significant dent in his student loans was by switching careers. Since he didn't want to do that because he loved working in music, he decided to keep his larger student loan in forbearance and begin paying off his smaller loan with a lower monthly payment.
He continued making those payments until the pandemic student-loan payment pause, at which point he and his wife started making a plan of action to tackle the larger debt once the pause ended. That led them to discover the Education Department's one-time account adjustment initiative, which allowed the department to evaluate borrowers' accounts and update payment progress toward forgiveness on income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, including any payments made during a forbearance period.
That account adjustment led to a letter Lambdin received, reviewed by BI, from his student-loan servicer Aidvantage on January 31 stating: "Congratulations! The Biden-Harris Administration has forgiven your federal student loan(s) listed below with Aidvantage in full."
For Lambdin, that letter meant his $249,255 outstanding student-loan balance was effectively wiped out.
"It had started to feel like my fate was being decided for me by the cold hand of finance," Lambdin said,"and that was a weight that I didn't realize was there until it wasn't there."
"The feeling was much more like putting down a backpack that was really full of books that you got used to. And then you put it down, and you're like, 'Oh, man, that feels so much better.' It's more like that, rather than sort of a jump-for-joy kind of situation," he said.
While Lambdin is still working to determine what exactly the relief will mean for him and his wife, he said that discussing retirement is "a much more present conversation now" because contributing to savings is viable after the relief. He can also begin to look into buying a home.
The Education Department continues to cancel student-debt through its one-time account adjustments, a process it plans to complete this summer. Most recently, the department wiped out $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers, some of whom benefited from the adjustments.
Beyond financial goals, Lambdin said the relief is also allowing him the freedom to pursue some of his long-term dreams, including taking a sabbatical to study with his meditation teacher in India.
"It's something that I wouldn't have been able to even consider doing if we had to pay off student loans, but without them, it's something that I can really seriously consider doing," he said. "And so those are the kinds of things that I think get really lost in the monetary side of the conversation about debt relief."
'I've been really lucky'
While Lambdin said he feels as though he earned the relief given his decades of payments, he also recognized that it's not that easy for many other borrowers.
For example, as BI has previously reported, some borrowers who might qualify for relief through different repayment programs may not have gotten it yet due to paperwork backlogs and administrative errors. On top of that, funding for federal student-loan servicers is strained — meaning many borrowers face hourslong hold times and cannot get clear answers regarding their payment progress from customer service.
"There are some real horror stories out there, and I've been really lucky in that I haven't experienced the kinds of shenanigans that other people have experienced," Lambdin said. "So I actually feel very lucky that things have transpired the way they have."
Some of those horror stories include inaccurate payment projections and delayed billing statements. When it comes to student-loan forgiveness, some borrowers told BI that their servicer made a mistake with the forgiveness, reinstating their payments months later.
The Education Department has said it's aware of the challenges borrowers face and has established an accountability framework to punish servicers when they fail to fulfill their contractual obligations.
As for Lambdin, he's still figuring out how to approach life without student debt hanging over his head. But now he can consider a range of options, and he can thank the loan forgiveness for that freedom.
"There's a certain amount of waiting for the other shoe to drop because it's not that I don't trust that it's happening, but just that the debt has been with me for so long, and then it's not there," Lambdin said. "And it's something that I think really takes some getting used to."
David Smith dropped his career as a delivery driver and factory worker to become a Henry VIII impersonator.
He earns a living by giving talks and performances as Henry VIII at schools and heritage sites.
After leaving behind a more traditional job, he wouldn't consider ever going back.
This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with 24-year-old UK resident David Smith about his career as a Henry VIII impersonator. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has confirmed his previous and current employment. Smith declined to share his earnings.
I was eight years old when I saw a portrait of Henry VIII in all his regalia. I was mesmerized by it.
My passion grew from there: I spent my childhood reading my mom's encyclopedias, buying Tudor books, and watching documentaries about Henry VIII and his six wives.
I studied the Tudors at elementary school and wanted to become a history teacher but my local high school didn't teach Tudor history.
I ended up dropping out of school when I turned 17, and went to work in a factory and then as a delivery driver.During that time, my love of history still lingered in the back of my mind.
Everything changed when I found a Henry VIII outfit on Facebook Marketplace for £20 ($25) in 2021. I'd always wanted to own one, whether I'd wear it or not.
I decided to post a photo of myself wearing it on Facebook. Immediately messages flooded in telling me I bore a resemblance to the young King. A historical costumier saw the post and directed me to a reenactment group looking for a young Henry.
I debuted my impersonation with the group on a voluntary basis. During the week, I'd be in the factory, and then on the weekend, I'd self-finance my trips around the country to different palaces. The other reenactors and I would travel to heritage sites like Penshurst Place (a site once used as Henry VIII's hunting lodge), where we would perform and walk around the grounds in character, educating people on the Tudors.
After a year, the high travel costs and exhaustion got to me, but I didn't want to give up on being Henry. I decided to start doing it as paid work: I set up a business email address and a Facebook page and started getting in touch with palaces and historic workshops myself.
'You have to believe that you are the king'
My current job is a long way from my career as a delivery driver, which I ended just last year.
I now work five days a week visiting schools, palaces, and other heritage sites. I adapt to what the venue wants: I do historical talks, live reenactments of historical events, and even Tudor dancing.
My job could be described as being half teacher, half method actor. Nearly every time I go into a school, a kid asks me, "If you're Henry VIII, how are you still alive?" I usually reply, "Well, God wills it to be so," and in some ways, I have to believe it myself.
To do the job well, you have to believe that you are the most important person — that you are the king. You have to believe that you were chosen by God. All that definitely gives you confidence that stays with you.
Smith with an Anne Boleyn impersonator at Hatfield House.
David Smith
Recently, I took part in a three-course banquet at the Old Palace in Hatfield House, an estate previously owned by Henry VIII and now owned by the Marquess of Salisbury.Visitors could dine with me and Anne Boleyn for around £80 ($100)per person.
The whole experience was as historically accurate as possible. My hands were washed for me, my food was cut for me, my goblet was refilled whenever I needed it, and everyone had to bow and curtsey to me.
Out of all the events I've attended, that was the one that made me feel most like Henry VIII. I felt how he must've felt being there and being served.
Becoming Henry
Smith with a Tudor reenactment group.
David Smith
Some people wrongly see Henry as just an obese, tyrannical despot of a King. While that's reflective of the last years of his life, when he ordered the execution of thousands of people, that wasn't always how he was. He was also a scholar and a well-mannered leader.
It's incredible to see the excitement you see on kids' faces when you go into schools, and they get to see this historic character brought to life.
While I'm not a traditional teacher, I still think of myself as one. I get all the good bits — meeting new pupils and sharing my passion for history — without the stress that teachers deal with.
After my visit, one school sent me letters to my home address: 30 letters from children expressing how much they loved my visit and shared all the facts they remembered. That was a particularly touching moment.
Life outside Henry
Unlike my old job, I have to take my role home with me.
My beard is cut in the same way Henry had his and although I'm naturally blond, I dye my hair and beard ginger to improve the resemblance.
It's definitely taxing on my time. Every two weeks, I travel around 70 miles to practice traditional Tudor dancing with a group. And even when I come home from a long day at work, all I want to do is get straight back to learning more about the Tudors.
A lot of my earnings go back into the business. Each of my outfits is custom-made by historical costumiers to my exact measurements. Prices start at £2,000 ($2,500) — and that's without all the extras that go with it: the rings, the chain of office, the medallions. I currently own two of these outfits.
Getting the money together takes me a while, but I pride myself on accuracy. I live and breathe it.
Most of my small circle of friends work in reenactment too, and they understand that this lifestyle is a defining part of who I am. My name is saved as Henry in most of their phones.
While my career may seem a long way off from other people's jobs, I still have the same concerns and ambitions.
Trying to "make it" in any industry requires a level of sacrifice, be that on your time or your relationships. Perhaps the hardest thing is the fear of running out of bookings, like with any freelance job.
But all that matters to me is that I have enough to live on and keep investing in this passion. I don't really care for buying a fancy house or fancy cars, I just want to earn enough to buy Tudor books and add to my collection of Tudor portraits.
I could never go back to a 'normal' job, I'll keep doing this, even if one day it means having to take a pay cut.
The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.
The author's wife and two teenage daughters at an Austin FC game.
Cork Gaines/Business Insider
Inflation is prompting families to rethink their household budgets.
We developed an allowance plan that teaches our two teenagers about budgeting and family finances.
For instance, allowance is given weekly but not tied to chores.
Inflation over the last couple of years has a lot of people rethinking how they manage their household budgets. This is no different in our family of four, which includes two teenagers.
As our daughters, aged 13 and 14, grew older and neared high school, my spouse and I knew that their financial demands would grow as well. For instance, we could see their fashion needs were getting more expensive, and their entertainment requirementshad outgrown Chuck E. Cheese. This presents a particular challenge when we are also trying to tighten the budget to deal with rising prices.
To fit the needs and wants of two teenagers into our family budget, we first came up with a new plan for their allowance in 2022that encouraged good habits. The next step was to get them involved in the family finances to teach them about budgeting and the importance of being smart about money.
Since we adjusted the family finances, we have seenpatience grow in terms of saving money and waiting to see if a purchase is truly necessary. We have also seen them become more interested in budgeting and smarter with money.
Here are several ways that we budget around two teenagers and teach them about money at the same time.
Allowance is given weekly and not tied to chores
Chores are encouraged, not required. The author's family is not pictured.
Imgorthand/Getty Images
When my spouse and I came up with a financial plan for our daughters as they got older and a bit more independent, we first understood that they would need regular spending money. However, we did not want the allowance to be performance-based. That is, we decided not to require the completion of chores or other tasks, like homework, for them to receive their allowance.
Every week, they each receive $25, which we think of as a guaranteed basic income program. It also creates a fixed monthly expense in our family budget.
The allowance is a guaranteed amount they can count on each month, and the money does not come with any strings attached.
There is an old saying that once you pay somebody to do something, they will never do it for free again. Our goal is to have our daughters be responsible, not paid workers. We also try our best to reward good behavior and effort instead of punishing them for not helping around the house.
We also budget monthly bonuses for our daughters
Extra effort is rewarded with occasional bonuses. The author's family is not pictured.
Eva-Katalin/Getty Images
Instead of giving the girls $35 every week and taking some away when they don't meet a list of demands, we started at a minimum of $25 each week and give them occasional bonuses.
Bonuses are tied to good patterns of completing chores, being kind, being helpful, trying hard in school, and getting exercise. For example, we might give one daughter a $5 or $10 bonus one week for helping their grandmother without being asked and something similar to the other for working hard on a school assignment.
We then tell them why they received the bonus to reinforce the positive behavior.
There is no set pattern of how often or how much the bonuses are because we don't want them to become an expectation. These are a little more challenging to budget for, but after a while, we settled into a pattern where the bonuses are fairly consistent each month.
We profit-share with our daughters to discourage excessive spending
We encourage our children to be involved in the family finances. The author's family is not pictured.
NickyLloyd/Getty Images
We have another bonus system for the girls based on how well the family sticks to the monthly budget.
In our family, the budget is not a secret. We encourage our children to be involved in the family finances to expose them to budgeting early on.
At the end of each month, we all review how the month went, where we did well, and what we could have done better. And if we came in under our budget, we give the girls a profit-sharing bonus.
There is no set amount or rate for the budget bonus. We discuss it as a family and assign the bonuses to each daughter. We will also designate a third "bonus" to our vacation fund, which might ultimately mean an extra day at Disney or a little extra spending cash for the girls in New York City.
We use an allowance app to encourage good money habits
Greenlight offers debit cards for kids. The author's family is not pictured.
Greenlight Financial
There are many ways to budget with teenagers in mind, including good, old-fashioned pen and paper. However, we prefer apps that speed up and automate many steps.
The first is YNAB, which stands for "you need a budget," where the entire family's budget is kept. We also use Greenlight, which is specifically designed for children.
In addition to giving the girls debit cards, Greenlight automates allowance payments and even has games to teach them about money.
The other key feature is that the girls cannot see each other's finances. In a previous app, everything was out in the open for the entire family, often leading to conflicts when one daughter wanted to know why the other had more money or got a little extra one week.
Our girls are very different, and they have different needs. So the money they earn is just between them and us. We don't tell one sister what the other gets, but we try to be balanced and fair.
We distinguish between needs and wants
It can be challenging to balance what is truly needed and what is a desire. The author's family is not pictured.
Klaus Tiedge/Getty Images
The girls have a basic monthly income, but we don't want them spending that on basic needs. Therefore, every potential purchase in our budget is defined as "household needs" or "household wants."
In general, if something is a "need," such as hair conditioner or clothes for school, the money comes from the family budget. If it is just something they "want," like tickets to see Olivia Rodrigo in concert, they have to use their own money.
Of course, everything can feel like a need to a teenager, and distinguishing between needs and wants can be tricky.
One daughter might need new shoes, but she doesn't "need" a new pair of Nike Dunk Low Pandas for $115. In these cases, we might give an amount that we think fits the budget, and if they still want that specific item, they can pay the difference.
Of course, we don't always win those battles. Teenagers can be quite convincing and relentless at times. Besides, it is nice to give them a few "wins" occasionally if they put in the effort, and it seems that important.
We also encourage delayed gratification
Amazon makes delayed gratification challenging.
Gabe Ginsberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
If you have ever known a teenager, one of the toughest things to instill in them is a sense that some things can wait.
Amazon is a great convenience, but delaying gratification can be a challenge when it is so easy to place an order and have it delivered as early as that day.
We deal with this by having an Amazon list called "do we really want this?" If something is not an immediate need, such as a new Lego set, it goes on this list. Every Saturday, we meet as a family, review the list, and see what we still want.
We often find that the desire for the item has waned, or we have thought of something we would rather have instead. It also can be quite jarring to see all the items simultaneously, and everybody realizes how much it would cost to order everything. The wait encourages everybody to be selective about what is most important.
When we started doing this, our "household wants" line in the budget was almost instantly slashed in half by several hundred dollars. Even for teens, when they sleep on something for a few days, a potential purchase can stop feeling like life or death.
The lessons our daughters have learned about money are worth the extra effort
Our girls have learned to save their money for bigger-ticket items on their wishlists.
Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
We have used this plan with our family for about 18 months, and both daughters have become excellent savers.
When they want something special like a limited edition signed vinyl from Conan Gray or a new hoodie from Lululemon, instead of asking us and then my wife and I going through the push and pull of "can we" or "should we," they save up their money.
The excitement on their faces when they reach the magic numbers is priceless.
The next step is to find out how to encourage long-term savings. We are working on that. They are still teenagers, after all.
Have you adjusted your family finances or come up with any tips or tricks for budgeting with children? Reach out to this reporter at cgaines@businessinsider.com.