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

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

But.

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

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

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

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

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

It's a hacky outdated joke to scoff at people ordering a "mocha-choca-venti-chino latte" as some jab at blue-haired elitists or whatever.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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I tried the newer Starbucks drinks myself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fueling growth and shaking hands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Change for the better — mostly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prosperity for all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Russia riddle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

India the IT hub

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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• Drone warfare is changing fast and demands battalions of specialists to fully exploit its potential.
• The group would fly support drones to increase the effectiveness of its attack and spy drones.
• The air war in Ukraine has become a cat-and-mouse game where drones must constantly evolve.

Experience in Ukraine suggests that armies should concentrate drones in special battalions that have the skills pilots to fly them and the programmers to rapidly adapt to constant jamming, according to British defense experts.

Ukrainian data shows "the efficiency of [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] operations when conducted by a dedicated formation has risen from 10 percent up to 70 percent for some mission sets," according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. The report did not provide any more specifics on the data, other than a footnote that said it was based on Ukrainian General Staff "datasets of mission performance between different formations" that RUSI accessed in Ukraine in February 2024.

The RUSI report advocates the creation of "mass precision strike complex" units that launch integrated swarms of drones comprised of different types of reconnaissance and combat UAVs. The concept seems similar to "strike packages" of manned combat jets, which combine attack, escort and electronic warfare planes on a mission. To be clear, the report isn't calling for infantry platoons to be stripped of their backpack-carried drones, which have proven indispensable in Ukraine and the Middle East. But it does argue that for some tasks, such as long-range surveillance and strike, it's more efficient and economical to achieve this through dedicated units.

"UAVs may be distributed to provide units with situational awareness, but mass precision strike should be managed by a specialist formation," the report concluded. In addition to better mission planning by personnel trained and experienced in drone operations, "experience from contemporary theatres shows that almost all UAV capabilities are highly susceptible to hard counters as the adversary learns how the UAV functions; capabilities must therefore be continuously adapted and their supporting mission data files updated. This requires scarce skills such as UAV design and programming and the accumulation of data centrally."

RUSI envisions each drone battalion being equipped with everything needed to conduct a variety of UAV operations. The units would comprise "airframes and their payloads, and the launch crews, command links, planning tools, intelligence support and design teams required to field the capability," wrote RUSI researchers Jack Watling and Justin Bronk.

Drone battalions would have five types of UAVs whose capabilities range from spying enemy advances to blasting critical rear sites with explosives. This would include "situational awareness UAVs optimized for tactical reconnaissance; tactical strike UAVs; ISR [reconnaissance] UAVs able to penetrate into operational depth; operational strike UAVs; and platform-launched effects designed specifically to synchronize with and enable other weapons systems."

The idea is to have self-contained formations that can identify and destroy targets across the battlefield and beyond. To support friendly ground troops in contact with the enemy, flocks of expendable reconnaissance drones would operate up to 5 miles beyond the enemy front line. They would locate targets, such as armored vehicles and infantry trenches, that could be quickly hit by the battalion's cheap attack drones.

Meanwhile, longer-range reconnaissance drones would stalk up to 60 miles into the enemy's rear, searching for artillery pieces, air defense batteries and command posts that could be hit by missiles and other guided weapons. The drone battalion would also launch long-range strike weapons — with a range out to 300 miles — that could destroy fixed sites, such as supply depots, bridges and ammunition dumps. "By offering a persistent threat of precision strike against logistical infrastructure and command and control elements, these capabilities would add significant friction to the enemy's ability to resupply and coordinate forces, and therefore to achieve concentration," the report said. "These capabilities also represent a concern for air and naval forces insofar as they threaten infrastructure and basing."

To maximize the effectiveness of reconnaissance and strike drones — and to keep them from being knocked down by enemy air defenses — the battalion would also have a variety of support UAVs. This would include long-endurance airborne communications drones to relay datalinks between the combat UAVs and ground operations, electronic warfare drones to jam radars and communications systems, and decoy drones to confuse enemy air defenses.

The Ukraine conflict demonstrates how warfare has become a cat-and-mouse game where drones must constantly evolve to survive enemy jamming of their control links. "As of mid-2023, the average period of peak effectiveness for a newly deployed UAV navigation and/ or control system on the battlefield was around two weeks, with degrading effectiveness over four more weeks," the report noted. "Between six and 12 weeks, the adversary would have gathered sufficient data on the waveforms and techniques being used to start effectively jamming and/or spoofing the system across the front."

Non-drone units lack the capability to identify and develop the software and communications challenges to respond to enemy countermeasures. "It therefore makes sense to concentrate UAV operation if UAVs are parts of a mass precision strike complex," the report concluded.

The issue of whether to concentrate or disperse assets is an old one. Until World War II, tanks were dispersed in small packets among infantry divisions, while aircraft were assigned to the ground forces. But experience proved that tanks were most effective when massed in tank divisions, and aircraft were best assigned to an independent air force that specialized in aerial operations (some still question the wisdom of the latter).

Drone operations may very well be more efficient in the hands of specialized battalions. But regular units will inevitably want their own drones that are available when needed, rather than having to request support from others. The issue is unlikely to be settled quickly or easily.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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American warships and bases in the Pacific are within reach of an increasingly worrying threat, a missile force unlike anything the US has faced in combat.

China's ever-expanding Rocket Force is armed with thousands of missiles with ominous nicknames such as "carrier killers" and the "Guam Express."

US military leaders and officials say these weapons could make a war in the Indo-Pacific devastating for American forces. And that's exactly the message they say Beijing wants to send, that messing with China would be catastrophic.

The dangers are startling. An American air base such as Andersen on Guam that routinely hosts US bombers or a carrier strike group sailing in the South China Sea could face dozens, even hundreds, of ballistic missiles in salvos intended to overwhelm their defenses, shatter critical capabilities, and send US warships sinking into the depths. China's missiles haven't been tested in combat, but the threat is real.

In interviews with Business Insider, current and former military officials and defense analysts described the meteoric rise of China's People's Liberation Army Rocket Force as a chief concern. One senior defense official said it's changing America's appetite for war in the region, "creating a conventional deterrence capability that threatens our posture, our presence, and our activities in ways that would potentially cause decision-makers in Washington to consider the risks to be too high."

From 2021 to 2022, the Chinese military effectively doubled its stock of some missiles, including the medium-range ballistic missiles it might use to target American military bases in Japan and intermediate-range missiles that are able to reach Guam, the Pentagon said in its most recent report on the military threat from China.

The "dramatic expansion" of the Chinese missile arsenal, especially MRBMs and IRBMs, is designed to threaten US forces and allies across the Indo-Pacific region, Thomas Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a retired US Navy submarine officer, said.

What these key developments show "is that the PLA leadership has decided that the long-range missiles are a winning capability for them," Bryan Clark, a retired US Navy officer and defense expert at the Hudson Institute, said.

The current commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. John Aquilino, said in his final public interview before he retired that during his tenure as commander, "the security environment has changed drastically and not in a good way," calling China "the most concerning security threat that exists."

China's growing, far-reaching arsenal

China's military doctrine focuses heavily on maintaining the ability to deter threats and, failing that, striking fast and hard. It also encourages maintaining an element of surprise before dealing significant damage to its foes. The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force gives it such an option.

It "is designed as a mechanism to deliver an anti-access, area-denial (A2AD) strategy to push the US and allies and partners from the region," retired Adm. Harry Harris, a former commander of Pacific Command and former ambassador to South Korea, told BI.

He said that the force's "objective is to be able to enforce the illegal and illegitimate claim of everything inside the nine-dash line as sovereign Chinese sea and airspace, as well as forcibly bring Taiwan under Beijing's control."

The nine-dash line refers to China's vast claims in the South China Sea, including its human-made islands and others it has disputes with neighbors over.

Harris said China's advancing missile capabilities concerned him more than any other Chinese military developments during his time as the 24th commander of what was then Pacific Command.

The Taiwan Strait is one area where the Pentagon has said China is strategically expanding its Rocket Force with "new missile brigades, potentially indicating an increasing number of deployed missiles."

Experts said this was part of a larger strategy to prevent the US and its allies from gaining unrestricted access to the Pacific region — whether in a war or in a scenario where US forces attempt to come to Taiwan's aid during a Chinese blockade or invasion.

With these missiles, China is signaling that it could attack US bases and ships in the region with little to no warning, Clark said. One such missile, the DF-26, has been commonly referred to as the "Guam Express" or the "Guam Killer" because it can reach US forces on the island, which is roughly 3,000 miles from Beijing.

The weapon, capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional payloads, also has an anti-ship role and another nickname: "carrier killer." The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force's DF-21D is another such missile that China could use to target US ships.

There's a lot more to the Chinese Rocket Force than these weapons, though. Other elements of the PLARF arsenal are its DF-17 hypersonic missile, short-range ballistic missiles such as the DF-15 that give it the ability to strike Taiwan with relative ease, and intercontinental ballistic missiles like the DF-5s, DF-31s, and newer DF-41s.

Newer developments, the Pentagon said last fall, "will significantly improve its nuclear-capable missile forces and will require increased nuclear-warhead production." The US Defense Department estimates China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads, the third most in the world, and that number is expected to increase.

While some are based in silos, many of China's missiles are road-mobile assets or hidden in caves and mountains, making them harder to kill. And outside the Rocket Force, Chinese submarines carry long-range missiles. Its H-6 bombers can do the same. Any confrontation with China must account for the likelihood that many of its nuclear forces would survive direct strikes.

In regard to the Chinese "carrier killer" missiles, satellite-imagery analysts have for years been finding mock-ups of US aircraft carriers and other warships out in Chinese deserts. The suspected targets suggest that China may be relying on these mock-ups to improve its missiles or to practice locking on to and hitting American warships. China has also conducted tests at sea, at least one against a moving target.

After the Pentagon's latest report on China's military power came out, Shugart suggested the sheer number of DF-26s and launchers could turn the missile into a generic "ship killer," available for strikes on not just high-value carriers but also destroyers, cruisers, amphibious assault ships, fleet oilers, and more.

And China doesn't have to sink a ship to score a combat kill. Damaged vessels would have to limp back home, where US repair and maintenance woes could mean a slow recovery.

That changes considerations for US Navy vessels when operating in the Indo-Pacific and raises questions about the role of aircraft carriers in a conflict with China, as they may not be able to get within the strike range for F/A-18s or F-35s.

At a certain range, Clark said, "you're going to have to expend so much effort trying to conceal your presence and prevent targeting by Chinese forces, it's going to constrain your ability to do air operations" from a carrier. And the jets might not even be able to reach their targets.

China's missiles could also influence how the Navy arms its warships, forcing them to carry more air-defense missiles at the expense of other weapons that may be useful in land-attack missions or a confrontation with China's larger navy.

Better defenses, but more work to do

In the vast Indo-Pacific region, the Rocket Force is one of the US military's top concerns "because of its unique capabilities to execute long-range precision fires while not exposing large numbers of personnel to danger," a senior defense official told BI, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence observations of threats in the Indo-Pacific.

Facing this threat and others from China, the US has expanded its training exercises and strengthened connections with its Pacific allies and partners to counter not only PLARF but also the broader Chinese military, the official added.

Experts and analysts have long called for the US to respond to the challenges from China in a way that recognizes the scale of the threats at hand, which goes far beyond the Rocket Force, as frequent risky and unsafe intercepts of US and allied aircraft by China have shown.

Harris said one of the best ways to counter PLARF would be to make "robust" air and missile defenses a reality this decade in the region, with the US positioning land-based, medium-range ballistic-missile systems there, working closer with allies, and not letting China determine US foreign policy in the area, especially with Taiwan.

The US has beefed up its air defenses in the region, employing Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries in South Korea and working with Japan's navy on ballistic-missile interceptors such as the SM-3 Block IIA as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. And in Guam, the Army has fast-tracked a new project and office for the island's defenses. But experts argue that more is needed.

Robert Peters, a research fellow on nuclear deterrence and missile defense for the Heritage Foundation, wrote in January that the US should station Aegis Afloat cruisers near Guam that are equipped to defeat ballistic missiles. Peters said the US couldn't afford to lose Guam, and the land-based Aegis defense option is likely years from deployment.

"Should a war with China break out, conventional thinking is that China would launch a large salvo of cruise and ballistic missiles at Guam to destroy military bases there that are key to US military operations throughout the Pacific," he wrote, adding that an attack would be a "modern Pearl Harbor" that could hinder power projection and logistics.

Beyond strengthening air defenses, the US can also harden bases in the Pacific so that infrastructure, such as critical runways, could survive a barrage and still launch aircraft. But the disaggregation and dispersal of forces is also important. Fixed bases are targets that can only brace for an attack, not avoid them. 

The US Air Force turned to a new doctrine in August 2022 that assessed: "New weapons systems now place bases at risk that were previously considered sanctuaries." That shift led to the creation of Agile Combat Employment, which looks to atypical approaches to keep key assets from being destroyed.

Agile Combat Employment considers highways, fields, beaches, and more as nontraditional runways to create "a network of smaller, dispersed locations that can complicate adversary planning and provide more options for joint-force commanders." China can target runways at air bases, but it can't hit every piece of concrete in the Pacific.

US ground forces in the region are also keeping an eye on the Chinese Rocket Force, but they're less concerned than the other service branches that China more clearly has in its crosshairs.

The US Army Pacific commander, Gen. Charles Flynn, told BI that while the growth of the Chinese Rocket Force had been "meteoric," PLARF's missiles were "primarily designed to defeat naval and air power."

"I'm always worried about rockets," Flynn said, but they're "not there primarily to defeat distributed, dispersed, mobile, some fixed and some unfixed, reloadable, and meshed land-forces network," which his command and its allies in the Pacific have been developing and prioritizing.

That said, he added, there are many ways for ground forces to create a "dilemma" for Chinese missile forces, such as masking signatures, hiding in different environments, and undermining PLARF's ability to find, locate, and target them.

Beyond defensive measures, the US has various offensive options for combating the Rocket Force.

Difficult-to-detect American submarines can, for instance, fire cruise and ballistic missiles. Stealth bombers, like the B-2 Spirit, can also avoid being spotted while on missions to knock out China's weapons. The US doesn't have the missiles to counter China in this theater of operations, though these systems are in development.

Weak points in the missile game

PLARF may be, as Shugart has said, the "crown jewel" of the Chinese military, but it's not without its limitations. Recent high-profile cases of corruption across the army, in particular in PLARF, have raised questions about how widespread graft may be — and whether that's affecting readiness in the short term.

US intelligence has documented several cases of supposed corruption, including missiles filled with water rather than rocket fuel and problematic silos. Military leadership shake-ups, too, have sparked concerns, as many senior officers and bigwig defense leaders were replaced with little to no explanation.

That said, the US and its allies can't afford to assume the Rocket Force won't be ready should conflict come.

"They now have the world's largest navy, the largest air force in the region," Clark said, "but they invest substantially in these long-range missiles because it's clear that they see that as a more reliable capability."

But clarity on the threat gives the US options. Knowing that China could lean on its missiles in a Pacific showdown allows American forces to train and adapt to work around such a threat.

"Deterrence is a combination of a country's capability and willingness to use that capability," Harris said, "and an adversary's perception of both." In other words, how the US prepares itself and adapts to the Chinese Rocket Force gives it the best shot at avoiding a fight altogether. But there's no guarantee deterrence holds.

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• Jack Dorsey seems to support Kendrick Lamar's latest disses on Canadian rapper Drake.
• The former Twitter CEO liked a post on X calling "Euphoria" a "top-10 diss track."
• Dorsey's support for Lamar goes back years — he even appeared in one of Lamar's music videos.

The beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has been filled with unexpected characters, including pop sensation Taylor Swift and long-dead legend Tupac Shakur.

Now, Twitter and Block cofounder Jack Dorsey is weighing in — and it appears that he's got "PRIDE" for Kung Fu Kenny.

After a back-and-forth of three diss tracks between Lamar and Drake, Lamar released two songs this week. "Euphoria" dropped on Tuesday, and "6:16 in LA" dropped on Friday.

Both of Lamar's tracks received approval from super-fan Dorsey, who has recently liked both new and old posts on X and praised the Compton rapper.

"I will give people a couple weeks to realize Kendrick dropped a top-10 diss track of all time," one post Dorsey liked from Wednesday said.

The former CEO also replied Friday with a heart emoji to an old 2011 Lamar post advertising a Toronto concert on June 16. Toronto is Drake's home city, and some fans have speculated that the "6:16" in Lamar's latest diss references this post.

Dorsey didn't become a fan overnight. The former Twitter CEO has been a consistent supporter of Lamar's art. In 2015, Dorsey posted a video at a Lamar concert calling the rapper "the greatest."

He's also praised many of Lamar's records, including the Pulitzer-prize-winning "Damn" and his pandemic record "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers."

"this is an opera. @kendricklamar is a poet and a teacher. I learn something new each listen…and I can't listen to anything else. constant spin," Dorsey said of the 2022 album.

At one point, Dorsey even toyed with the idea of Lamar becoming a potential Twitter board member in 2016, Vox reported.

Lamar reciprocated the love by bringing Dorsey on for 2022 music video for the song "Count Me Out." Dorsey makes a quick cameo by sharing a toast with Lamar and venture capitalist Aviv Nevo.

Lamar also worked with Dorsey's fintech company Block and Ticketmaster to offer fans early access tickets for his 2022 Big Steppers tour, Quartz reported.

Dorsey isn't the only unlikely character outside the music world to chime in on Drake and Lamar's ongoing saga.

Actor Uma Thurman nodded to Drake in April through an Instagram post featuring an image of her costume in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Volume 1." In the film, Thurman played the katana-wielding, revenge-seeking "Bride."

"Need this? @champagnepapi," Thurman wrote as a caption in her story.

On Lamar's side, iconic soul singer Al Green approved of his latest track, which uses a sample of Green's "What A Wonderful Thing Love Is."

It's an embarrassing development for Drake, who was roasted and promptly asked to remove one of his diss tracks against Lamar last week after Shakur's estate took issue with Drake's use of AI to recreate Pac's voice.

On Friday night, Drake released his latest response to Lamar: "Family Matters." In the 7-minute track, Drake mentions Lamar's longtime fiancée, Whitney Alford, and goes after Rick Ross, J. Cole, and The Weeknd.

Dorsey and spokespeople for Drake and Lamar did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• The US Air Force is testing AI-powered F-16 jets in combat training scenarios.
• Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall conducted a historic test flight on Thursday.
• In some combat scenarios, the AI-powered jets outperform human pilots, AP reported.

The US Air Force conducted a historic test flight on Thursday of its AI-powered X-62A VISTA autonomous warplane.

The flight over Edwards Air Force Base, for which Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall sat in the cockpit, ran through several combat exercises and aerial battle scenarios, per The Associated Press. The outlet reported that the AI-powered aircraft, which has flown roughly two dozen flights since testing began in September, has begun to outperform human pilots in some scenarios.

The AP reported that in the Thursday flight, the X-62A VISTA plane went "nearly nose to nose" with a human-piloted F-16 as they maneuvered within 1,000 feet of each other at speeds of more than 550 miles per hour.

While humanitarian groups have expressed deep concern about putting life-and-death decisions in the hands of an AI-powered craft, Kendall stressed that AI is already restructuring global warfare strategies whether we like it or not.

"It's a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it," Kendall told AP after he landed.

AP reported that the US Air Force is betting big on AI, investing in a fleet of 1,000 unmanned drones to perform riskier maneuvers than are possible with manned craft, with the first operating in 2028.

While AP reported that pilots at the Edwards Air Force Base know that AI-powered craft may soon replace them, the outlet noted that the airmen are loathe to face off against an adversary with AI capabilities if the US doesn't have its own autonomous fleet.

"We have to keep running. And we have to run fast," Kendall told AP after his Thursday flight.

The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• As graduation season approaches, a new wave of hopeful college grads look toward the future.
• Two college seniors share their feelings about graduating and the gifts on their wishlist.
• From gift cards to new laptops, these are the items college seniors want to help them transition into their next chapter.

When Leor H. started university in 2020 during COVID-19, his parents weren't allowed to step foot in his dorm because of safety restrictions. They drove him all the way from Boston to his university in New Brunswick, Canada, dropped him off, and went home. 

"Basically, we said goodbye, and he went into his dorm, and I didn't see his dorm for quite some time," his mom Danya H. said. 

Now, as Leor and his other 2024 classmates get ready to graduate, they eagerly anticipate the in-person experiences they may have missed during their early years of college, like on-site jobs, family time, and travel. Relatives, friends, and colleagues can support these seniors by being there to help them navigate their next steps and by giving gifts that can help them achieve their goals. 

Planning for post-grad life 

Leor, a psychology student preparing to become a behavioral therapist for children with autism, plans to take a gap year to enjoy time with his family and travel solo through Asia before pursuing a master's degree. Useful gifts like a travel backpack, new set of AirPods, or Apple Gift Card for flexible purchases would be great for his upcoming adventures.

Leor is looking forward to celebrating graduation with his parents, siblings, and grandmother who are driving up from Boston to join in on the occasion. While he's excited about the future, he admits he also feels nervous about leaving college. 

"There is some anxiety there, really not knowing what that next stage is going to look like," he said. "But at the end of the day, it's very bittersweet where I'm both excited about what's next but also sad about where I'm leaving."

Feelings of confusion or sadness about graduation are not uncommon, but his mom assures him that it's okay to embrace the unknown. Her advice to her son and other college students is that you don't need an exact plan when you graduate.

"I think most [young adults] have so much wisdom and knowledge, and they don't need to also figure everything out in their early twenties," she said. "I don't think Leor needs all of the answers. I just love that he comes to us with good questions."

Entering the professional world 

Emma Z., a senior at a university in New York City, also has mixed emotions about graduation. She's hoping to take a short break after college before starting a job in the city as a marketing and partnerships coordinator in the fashion industry. Long term, she sees herself becoming a marketing executive or starting her own firm.

Throughout her college years, Emma balanced her studies with marketing and social media internships, gaining experience with fashion and jewelry brands. Working as a freelance stylist, she also created visuals for editorial campaigns.

"I'll definitely miss the flexibility of being a student and having a day-to-day student schedule, but I'm excited to go into a career," Emma said. 

As Emma transitions to professional life, she values the guidance from mentors and colleagues at her current jobs. She said a new purse for the office or an updated MacBook would smooth the switch from student life to the workforce. Apple Gift Card could go toward a new MacBook or give her the freedom to fund whatever she chooses — ranging from stylish accessories to crucial apps to iCloud+ storage — setting her up to start her next life chapter on the right foot.

Shop Apple Gift Card here. Give the gift of everything Apple.

This post was created by Insider Studios with Apple Gift Card. 

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• For the first time, scientists observed a wild animal treating its own wound with a medicinal plant.
• A Sumatran orangutan, chewed up liana leaves and applied them to his wound. It healed in five days.
• This never-before-seen behavior goes to show just how similar we are to our primate cousins.

Rakus the orangutan seems to have a surprisingly decent grasp on first-aid.

He lives in Gunung Leuser National Park in South Aceh, Indonesia, where scientists from the Institute of Animal Behavior meticulously observe animals like Rakus, documenting their activities every two minutes.

A team of researchers led by evolutionary biologist Caroline Schuppli and cognitive biologist Isabelle Laumer were observing Rakus when they noticed he had a deep facial wound.

They believe it was caused by a neighboring male in what's known as a "long call battle," Laumer told Business Insider. Adult male orangutans like Rakus shout out "long calls" to attract females and let rival males know that this is their territory. However, sometimes, those verbal warnings attract males too, which can escalate to physical violence.

The research team heard a series of long calls before spotting Rakus' wound, leading them to believe he was involved in a fight with another male, Laumer told Business Insider.

But what they saw him do over the next several days was remarkable. They published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Nature this week.

Three days after he was hurt, Rakus began feeding on a species of liana called Akar Kuning, a potent medicinal plant that isn't a part of an orangutan's regular diet. The researchers observed him chewing the leaves and then applying them to his wound with his finger.

"This was, to our knowledge, the first time that a wild animal applied a potent healing plant to his own wounds," Laumer said.

Self-medication: a rare animal behavior

Scientists have seen animals self-medicate before. For example, a group of chimpanzees in Gabon has been observed applying insects to their wounds.

But scientists aren't sure whether these insects actually have medicinal properties, "so we don't know if this behavior is in any way efficient or functional," Laumer said. In other words, it's unclear if the chimp's behavior is intentional.

What Rakus did was different for a few reasons.

For starters, he selected a plant that his species rarely eats. Then he applied the mashed-up leaves precisely onto his wound. During this time, he also spent more than half the day sleeping, a behavior that can help wounds heal.

And, most importantly, his treatment actually worked.

"The wound healing was quite rapid, Laumer said. "Within four days, the wound was closed, and there are no signs of any infection."

All of this evidence suggests that this was an intentional self-medicating behavior.

Seeing something like this in the wild is incredibly rare, Laumer said, because they only occur in ancient, highly evolved species, and researchers need to be in the right place at the right time.

Happy accident, or learned behavior?

If Rakus was intentionally applying medication to his wound, as the evidence suggests, how did he know to do it? We can only guess, Laumer said, but there are a few possible explanations.

It could have been a case of individual innovation, when an animal invents a new behavior for the very first time. If that's the case, it may have been a total accident.

Rakus may have unintentionally touched his leaf-mush-covered finger to his face, and instantly felt the pain-relieving properties of the plant, Laumer explained. That would have encouraged him to repeat the behavior over and over again.

Or, it could be a learned behavior. Orangutans are known to be capable of social learning. They're often observed "peering" at their group members, which is the act of getting very close and watching what another orangutan is doing.

It's common for juvenile orangutans to exhibit this behavior with their mothers, for example, watching their every move to learn how to survive. So, it's possible that Rakus may have learned this behavior from another orangutan.

But, because this is the first time this behavior has ever been observed in orangutans, scientists can't say for sure why or how Rakus did it.

More alike than we are different

Rakus's behavior reminds us a lot of our own behavior with medicinal plants, which could help us understand where our knack for medicinal treatment first evolved.

Our earliest shared ancestor with orangutans dates back over 10 million years, so this behavior may originate from many millions of years ago.

"It also shows how similar we are, more similar than we are different," Laumer said. "It points to how amazing and incredibly smart these animals are, and how important it is to protect them."

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Over 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested at campuses throughout the US. Students are calling on universities to boycott companies that are working with Israel or are in support of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

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