Category: Business

• Stephanie Quinn was forced to move out of her Farley, Iowa, apartment this spring.
• Quinn's Section 8 voucher and her children's schooling hinge on finding new housing by July 11.
• Iowa law allows landlords to refuse vouchers, complicating Quinn's search for a new home.

Stephanie Quinn was at work when her kids, 10 and 12, received a paper notice from their landlord informing them that the family wouldn't be offered a new lease on their three-bedroom apartment in Farley, Iowa.

A 43-year-old mother of two, Quinn had 30 days to move out of the place she and her kids had called home for five years. The family has spent the last nearly two months staying with Quinn's boyfriend in his one-bedroom apartment, so that the kids can finish out their school year. But the living arrangement isn't sustainable, and Quinn has a looming deadline to find a new home.

That deadline — July 11 — is imposed by the state housing authority and applies to Quinn's Section 8 housing choice voucher, which she's had for about 12 years. Quinn suffers from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which affects her motor and sensory nerves, compromising her mobility in her arms and legs. Though she receives about $1,000 per month in social security disability insurance, she also works at a local Subway sandwich shop to make ends meet.

If Quinn doesn't find a new apartment with a landlord who will accept her voucher before July 11, she'll lose the crucial housing benefit, according to paperwork she received from the housing authority, which Business Insider reviewed. With the voucher, Quinn paid up to about $250 of her $875 rent each month, as the program requires tenants to spend no more than 40% of their income on rent. If she loses her voucher, it would likely take years to get another.

"I'd have to go back on waiting lists, and I'm actually on a whole bunch of other waiting lists for income-based places, too, and they're about five years away," Quinn told Business Insider.

Iowa lets landlords refuse voucher holders

Quinn says she's contacted close to 30 landlords since March. Many have simply told her they don't accept housing vouchers. In 17 states and Washington, DC, turning an applicant down solely because they have a voucher is illegal — the practice is known as "source-of-income discrimination."

But in Iowa, the practice is allowed. In 2021, the state passed a law barring cities and counties from protecting voucher holders from overt discrimination by landlords.

Quinn received a list of apartment options from the local housing authority, but the listings are mostly outdated. So she's turned to looking for rental listings on Zillow, Trulia, and even Facebook and Craigslist. But when she's inquired with these landlords and informed them that she has a voucher, they've largely rejected her outright.

"It was a complete 'no' right away and 'no we don't do that, no we don't accept it,'" she said. "If it wasn't on the housing list, I pretty much got a no."

Quinn has found a few property owners who say they'll take her voucher, but they're almost an hour away from Farley and Quinn needs to stay in the area to keep her kids enrolled in their school.

Once school lets out for summer break, Quinn's kids will move in with a close friend in Dubuque until Quinn can find a new apartment. If she doesn't find a new home in the area before July, she's worried she'll have to temporarily put her kids in foster care so they can continue attending their school.

Quinn is also concerned she won't live close enough to her 83-year-old grandmother, who she's the sole caretaker for. And she fears having to give up her job. The managers at her Subway shop have been very accommodating of her needs, purchasing special knives she can use and exempting her from finding replacements to take her shift when she's out sick.

"I'm so upset that if I can't find something nearby, I have to leave this job," she said.

A crucial but flawed benefit

The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program is the biggest — and most effective — American housing assistance program. It aids about 5 million people in 2.3 million households who make less than 50% of their area median income to find rental housing on the private market. But a declining number of landlords across the US are accepting the vouchers, and a growing number of recipients are failing to secure housing through the program, Business Insider recently reported.

At the same time, the program is severely underfunded. Quinn is among the one in four eligible Americans who actually receive a voucher. And the average wait time for recipients is two and a half years. About 10 million additional low-income households are going without the help they qualify for.

Like Quinn, many voucher holders struggle to find a home that meets the program's requirements and a landlord willing to accept the applicant within the limited time — as short as 60 days — allotted to find a unit. Nationwide, only about 60% of voucher recipients are successful in finding a home with the subsidy.

Housing experts have found that the home inspection process is a major pain point in the program. Before a voucher recipient can sign a lease on a home, it must be inspected by the local housing authority to make sure it meets a slew of health and safety standards. But that process can create lengthy delays, cause landlords to keep a unit empty and miss out on rent payments, and ultimately result in the voucher holder losing out on the home.

But before a voucher recipient can even get to the inspection process, they need to find a suitable home that will take a voucher. Many landlords reject voucher holders even in places where source-of-income discrimination is illegal.

The deck is even more stacked against low-income people in a state like Iowa.

Quinn hopes her story will help others in even worse situations. "I've got a good family support system, and I know a lot of people don't have that," she said.

Are you a housing voucher recipient or a landlord who's struggled with the housing voucher program? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@businessinsider.com.

• A US millennial made over $100,000 last year secretly working multiple remote jobs. 
• But hiring slowdowns and return-to-office mandates have made it harder for him to find new roles. 
• He said he'll do whatever he can to avoid commuting to an office for work. 

Charles is willing to go above and beyond to make extra money — except go into an office.

Back in 2019, the tri-state area-based consumer product professional had a friend who needed some help with some freelance work, he told Business Insider.

Charles took on the side gig, figuring he could use the extra income to save up for a Tesla. Since his main job was remote, he said pulling off the side gig wasn't difficult.

After doing this for about two years, the work ended, but Charles had grown used to the extra income — so he decided to look for other remote opportunities. It was fortunate timing for Charles, as the pandemic had forced many companies to pivot to remote work. He said he had little trouble finding work-from-home positions.

"There were times when I was just sitting around with nothing to do at my main job for weeks," said Charles, whose identity is known to BI, but he asked to use a pseudonym due to his fear of professional repercussions. "So I'm either going to stay productive by finding other remote work or just wasting time and leaving money on the table. Why wouldn't I take on more responsibilities if I can manage them?"

Charles, who is in his 30s, is among the Americans secretly working multiple jobs to boost their incomes. Over the past year, Business Insider has interviewed roughly 20 job jugglers, many of whom are in the IT and tech industries, who've used the extra money to pay off debt, save for retirement, and afford weight-loss drugs. While some employers may be okay with their workers having a second job, doing so without employer approval could have repercussions.

Over the last few years, Charles has worked a mix of remote full-time and contract jobs simultaneously while keeping his overemployment a secret from his employers. Job juggling helped him earn over $300,000 in 2021, over $200,000 in 2022, and over $100,000 in 2023, according to documents viewed by Business Insider. Charles said this money made it possible for him to pay off debts, make home improvements, buy a rental property, invest in a personal business venture, and purchase a new car.

But over the past year, he said the job market for the types of roles he's interested in has "dried up." That's because some companies in his industry have scaled back hiring, while others are mainly recruiting for in-person or hybrid roles. It's left him clinging to his two remaining remote jobs, which have allowed him to not only bring in extra income — but avoid the dreaded work commute.

"Why would I leave the good job that I have where I'm 100% remote still and I don't have to go into the city?" he said. "I'd be getting up at 6:00 a.m. in the morning and not getting home until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. if I'm lucky. No thanks."

Charles added that commuting to work could cost him several hundred dollars a month.

While juggling multiple full-time jobs can be very lucrative, fierce competition for remote gigs has made this unattainable for many workers. For example, the share of US fully remote job postings on LinkedIn fell from over 20% in April 2022 to about 10% in December 2023. Hiring slowdowns in industries like tech — where remote work and overemployment are more common — and shifts to hybrid working arrangements have both played a role in this decline.

But despite this dropoff, job seekers' demand for remote roles remains strong — LinkedIn said fully remote jobs accounted for nearly half of all applications in December.

Charles said he understands why some companies have shifted to a hybrid model — he presumes it's to keep closer tabs on workers — but he said he'll do everything he can to avoid a commute.

To prevent his employers from suspecting his job juggling, Charles said he uses separate laptops, phones, and calendars for each job. He said he's typically able to complete his tasks for both jobs without having to put in extra hours.

"If I am in a meeting with one job that doesn't require me to speak up, I will be doing work on the other laptop for the other job," he said.

If an employer were to discover his overemployment, he said he wouldn't simply give it up.

"I do my work from home, and people are happy with what I do," he said. "If a company wants to come after me for extra earned income because of some anti-overemployment policy, I'll fight it."

Are you working multiple remote jobs at the same time and willing to provide details about your pay and schedule? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.

• Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev explained the app's name choice in a recent podcast interview.
• When first presented, half of the company feared it would push wealthier customers away.
• Tenev says the name is effective at capturing attention, even if it sparks debate. 

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev knows that the company's name is somewhat controversial — but that's part of the point.

Tenev said in an episode of "The Logan Bartlett Show" posted on Friday that he wanted the name to be disruptive and go against the traditional norm of other financial companies.

"We wanted it to be brave and bold and courageous," Tenev said.

The CEO said the origin of the name comes from when the company was just starting and he was dating his now-wife. At the time, when she introduced him to her friends and said he worked in finance, there would be "a little bit of a groan," Tenev said.

"They thought I was some kind of investment banker or venture capitalist," Tenev said.

Tenev's wife would counter the reaction by saying he was the "Robinhood of finance" and "trying to help the little guy."

Tenev said that he liked the sound of that.

"Our thoughts were that if the name elicited strong reactions, even if they weren't all positive, at least it would be memorable and that would be better than kind of a name that everyone was okay with," he said.

While Tenev and fellow cofounder Baiju Bhatt both loved the concept, the company had about 10 employees at the time and reactions were split, Tenev said. Half of the company loved the name and the other half hated it.

With many financial services companies serving a base of wealthier people, there was a fear that the name would scare off those customers, Tenev said.

Ultimately, they decided to go with Robinhood, and it's become a big part of the brand and its messaging, Tenev said. But years later, he wonders if the company would have received less criticism if it had gone with a different name.

"If we named the company Omaha, would Warren Buffett be criticizing it as aggressively?" Tenev said, referring to the billionaire's birthplace. "Because he, you know, he can't criticize Omaha. I think we could've avoided that."

Billionaire Warren Buffet and his longtime business partner Charlie Munger, who died last year, both vocally criticized the company, accusing it of treating the stock market like a casino and encouraging short-term trading.

Tenev also said that there's also been some backlash of the brand's message, like with the meme stock situation a few years ago.

The meme stock trading frenzy in 2021 involved a wave of new and inexperienced investors to the investment platform, interested in specific stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Following the surge, Robinhood faced criticism for restricting trading on certain meme stocks during the peak of that period.

But overall, Tenev said it's tried to be consistent from the beginning about its messaging and separating itself from other financial companies — and if they chose a name that was more positive, maybe it wouldn't have been as memorable.

• My wife and I have lived in Hong Kong for 35 years.
• Now that I'm 66 and retiring, we want to move to the US for that. 
• We don't have credit scores or credit cards, and debate whether to rent instead of buying. 

After 35 years of living and working in Hong Kong, my wife, Wendy, and I are returning home to the US. There are so many things to consider as we make plans for retirement.

Setting aside concerns of whether we are jumping from a frying pan into a fire (ongoing crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong versus political ruptures in the US), we have many other issues to grapple with.

We don't have credit scores or credit cards

Take, for example, our credit score: we don't have one. In Hong Kong we have always paid our bills on time and are conscientious consumers. But that means nothing to credit agencies in America, where we don't even have a credit card, let alone a car or home payment.

My wife and I are third-generation Californians, but who retires in LA unless they have a hit record or a reality TV show? Perhaps we would be better off in any number of other states that offer low taxes and affordable housing. This is a decision that many retirees face.

For us, it's also a question of where we will send the big shipping container that will soon be steaming across the Pacific. Wendy and I must decide whether it is worth the extra money to return to the great weather and laid-back lifestyle of our past if it means we will have less money to spend in the future. We've decided that we want to buy a house because we'd like to leave it for our children. But perhaps that's not realistic.

Also, it might be better not to buy a home and rent one instead. Wendy and I are both 66, so we hopefully have another two decades before the inevitable move into an assisted living facility. Like many other retirees, we are calculating how much cash we will need to pay the bills and take a few vacations before that day arrives.

One source of income that most other Americans our age rely on is Social Security. For us, that won't be a significant amount since most of my prime employment years were spent overseas working for Hong Kong companies. I wasn't putting money into Social Security, so I won't get much out. I never had one of those lucrative expatriate packages that paid for an apartment, a car, and the kid's school fees. I loved the work I did, both as a journalist and in the nonprofit sector, but those were never high-paying jobs, and I was always a "local hire."

I'm looking forward to moving back

I have no complaints about the past 35 years and only a feeling of eager anticipation about returning to my homeland.

Being away for so long with only an annual return to visit family has always given me a sense of how special the United States is and how open and helpful Americans are. I hope that's the case when I visit the Department of Motor Vehicles in my new home state and they realize I haven't had a valid driver's license since 1988. I don't expect benevolence when I apply for car insurance, however. No accidents for the last 35 years? Where, you say? I am preparing myself for large premiums.

I share many of the same concerns as Americans my age who have remained in the US. But a few other questions might be peculiar to my situation, like whatever happened to cable TV.

• Elon Musk's OpenAI rival, xAI, says it just raised $6 billion in funding from investors.
• The AI startup is backed by VCs like Sequoia Capital and Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding.
• Musk said xAI's pre-money valuation was $18 billion.

Elon Musk's xAI just took a critical step in building up its war chest to take on Sam Altman's OpenAI.

The AI startup said in a blog post on Sunday that it had raised $6 billion for their Series B funding round.

The company, which is barely a year old, counts among its investors prominent VCs like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital as well as Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding.

"There will be more to announce in the coming weeks," Musk said in an X post on Monday morning.

The mercurial billionaire said in a subsequent X post that xAI's pre-money valuation was $18 billion. The financial term refers to the value of a company before any equity investment is made.

Sunday's announcement marks the first time xAI has talked about its fundraising efforts. Musk had repeatedly denied earlier reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times about xAI's outreach to investors.

The influx of funding will be essential for Musk, who has envisioned xAI as an alternative to OpenAI, a company he'd cofounded with Altman. Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018.

The ChatGPT maker was valued at $80 billion or more following a deal that allows staff to cash out their shares, The New York Times reported in February, citing people familiar with the deal.

Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in February, where he accused the company of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft.

A year ago, Musk expressed disappointment in what OpenAI had become, saying that it was "not what I intended at all."

"OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it 'Open' AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft," Musk wrote on X.

• Thai Union CEO Thiraphong Chansiri doesn't want to have anything to do with lobsters anymore.
• His company assumed a majority stake in Red Lobster in 2020, which filed for bankruptcy in May.
• "Other people stop eating beef. I'm going to stop eating lobster," Chansiri said in February.

Thai Union CEO Thiraphong Chansiri, 58, might have once been a big believer in the Red Lobster seafood chain.

But owning Red Lobster left such a "big scar" on Chansiri that he told investors in February that he was swearing off lobsters forever.

"Other people stop eating beef. I'm going to stop eating lobster," Chansiri said in an earnings call — a possible reference to how some followers of Buddhism prefer not to consume beef and other meat products.

On May 19, Red Lobster said in a statement that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it sustained major operating losses in 2023. Red Lobster said its restaurants will "remain open and operating as usual during the Chapter 11 process."

Chansiri, a Thai business executive, might have studied business administration in the US, but an ancient Chinese practice known as feng shui appeared to have a huge influence on how he ran Red Lobster as well.

Feng shui, which means "wind" and "water" in Chinese, focuses on achieving harmony between an environment and its inhabitants.

Former Red Lobster executives told CNN in a story published Saturday that Chansiri consulted a feng shui consultant named Angel when he visited their headquarters in 2022.

Chansiri decided to leave Red Lobster's executive offices empty after Angel said the rooms had bad feng shui, CNN reported, citing a former Red Lobster executive.

Thai Union didn't respond to questions raised by CNN about the allegations raised in their story. Representatives for Thai Union didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Much speculation has swirled around why Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy. For one, the seafood chain's ill-fated decision to make its "Endless Shrimp" deal a daily promotion backfired, leaving it with operating losses of $11 million and $12.5 million in the third and fourth quarters of 2023 respectively.

But Red Lobster's fall also cast a spotlight on the damage private equity firms can inflict on portfolio companies.

In 2014, longtime Red Lobster owner Darden Restaurants sold the company to Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion. The investment firm financed the purchase by selling off Red Lobster's real-estate holdings. Red Lobster's operation costs went up as it now had to lease its restaurants instead.

Then, in 2020, Thai Union assumed majority ownership of Red Lobster after Golden Gate Capital sold its remaining equity stake to them.

But the change in ownership brought little relief to Red Lobster. The company has seen frequent turnover in its executive ranks.

In fact, the company just onboarded its latest CEO. Turnaround expert Jonathan Tibus was named CEO in March, making him Red Lobster's third CEO since 2021.

Last week, Tibus questioned the "outsized influence" that Thai Union had on Red Lobster's shrimp purchasing. Besides owning them, Thai Union is also Red Lobster's key seafood supplier.

Tibus accused Red Lobster's then-interim CEO Paul Kenny of straining Red Lobster's supply chain when he axed two shrimp suppliers "in apparent coordination with Thai Union."

A Thai union spokesperson previously told BI's Meghan Morris that Tibus' allegations are "meritless."

"Thai Union has a been a supplier to Red Lobster for more than 30 years, and we intend for that relationship to continue," the company said.

• Western nations criticize China's cheap exports, citing global economic threats.
• The US, Germany, and France lead the accusations against China's export practices.
• China has defended its production, while industrial profits rise, likely intensifying trade tensions.

Western countries are lining up to call out China for its barrage of cheap exports that are flooding the world's markets.

The US has been leading the criticism in recent months, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen broaching the issue last month during her trip to China. A week later, Europe's top economy echoed the same concerns when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China.

Over the weekend, France — the European Union's second-largest economy — also hit out at China.

"We have an issue with the economic model in which China is producing more and more cheaper industrial devices because it could be a threat not only for the EU, not only for the US, but for the global world economy," finance minister Bruno Le Maire said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "We need to address that issue."

Le Maire's complaint came after finance chiefs from the Group of Seven, or G7, stepped up their game with a sharp rebuke to China following a meeting in the resort town of Stresa in Italy.

"While reaffirming our interest in a balanced and reciprocal collaboration, we express concerns about China's comprehensive use of non-market policies and practices that undermines our workers, industries, and economic resilience," wrote the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors in a statement on Saturday. "We will continue to monitor the potential negative impacts of overcapacity and will consider taking steps to ensure a level playing field, in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) principles."

China pushes back on criticism, industrial profits rose in April

Beijing has consistently resisted the West's criticism that it is dumping cheap goods on the world market. Chinese authorities say the West's accusations are protectionist and aimed at containing China's economic growth.

"It cannot be labeled 'overcapacity' simply because a country's production capacity exceeds its domestic demand," said He Yadong, a spokesperson for China's Commerce Ministry earlier this month.

He added that many developed nations have been exporting a massive amount of goods for a long time and should not criticize China for exporting too many new energy products — which the West is taking aim at.

China is producing a lot of new energy products as the country navigates a painful economic transition, from one reliant on real estate and low-cost manufacturing to the hot "new three" sectors of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar panels. The West is also eyeing those fast-rising industries.

In April, profits at China's industrial companies rose 4% from a year ago, reversing a drop in March, according to official statistics released on Monday.

Industrial profits also rose about 4% in the first four months of the year from a year ago, thanks to a 76% surge in the earnings of computer, communication, and other electric equipment, according to the statement. In comparison, profits at general equipment manufacturers rose just 6% from January to April.

While profits at industrial enterprises recovered steadily from January to April, "domestic demand remains insufficient, and the external demand environment remains complex and severe," Yu Weining, a government statistician, said in a statement.

The new data from China is likely to add even more tensions to the trade tiff between Beijing and the West.

Avoiding 'China shock' 2.0

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden unveiled sharply higher tariffs on a range of imports from China, including electric vehicle batteries and semiconductor chips.

Meanwhile, the European Commission launched an ongoing probe into whether EV imports from China benefited from illegal subsidization that, in turn, threatens to damage the EU's EV manufacturers. If this is found to be true, the EU could impose tariffs on these imports.

The West's hawkish moves toward China now follow the East Asian giant's breakneck industrialization to its position as the factory of the world over the past four decades. That quick ascendance wiped out jobs and decimated communities elsewhere — a phenomenon three researchers termed "China shock."

Now, the West wants to get ahead of the curve, particularly in the hot green and new energy sectors.

"Fundamentally, Biden administration officials are trying to avoid repeating the mistakes of past decades when, they believe, the United States (and its allies) did not do enough to counter China's unfair trade practices until it was too late and Chinese products flooded markets and cost jobs," wrote Josh Lipsky, the senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center on May 14.

"It's not that China hasn't been creating overcapacity for decades; it's that the sectors China is now doing it in are considered critical for national security. That is what is driving so much of this reaction," said Lipsky, who is also a former adviser to the International Monetary Fund.

• MPs for the Baltic States have been warning German officials that they might send troops to Ukraine.
• Their condition would be if Russia achieves a breakthrough in Ukraine, Der Spiegel reported.
• They issued the warning as part of an argument for Germany to support Ukraine more aggressively, per the outlet.

Members of parliament for the Baltic States warned German officials last week that their governments are poised to send troops to Ukraine if Russia achieves considerable gains, Der Spiegel reported.

The German outlet reported on Sunday that the Baltic officials issued the warning while speaking with representatives for Berlin at the Lennart Meri Conference in Tallinn.

Der Spiegel neither named any of the officials nor identified which countries they represented, but reported that they raised concerns about Chancellor Olaf Scholz's current policy toward the war.

Scholz has been denying Ukraine permission to use German-supplied weapons in strikes on Russian soil, in line with Washington's stance of not allowing Kyiv to use donated weaponry for attacks beyond Ukraine's own borders.

According to Der Spiegel, the Baltic officials were concerned that such policies created a half-hearted attempt to help Kyiv and might allow Russia to gain the upper hand in Ukraine.

They said that if Moscow does gain significant ground in eastern Ukraine, their governments and Poland could move troops into the conflict zone even before Russia deploys its soldiers on their borders.

The argument from the officials, according to Der Spiegel, was that treating Moscow with restraint could backfire and instead create an escalation.

Like Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — were previously part of the Soviet Union.

They've been some of NATO's most vocal members in pushing the rest of the alliance to intensify support for Kyiv, fearing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin may seek to continue his conquest in the region if he seizes Ukraine.

Together with France's President Emmanuel Macron, they've repeatedly hinted that they aren't ruling out sending NATO troops to Ukraine.

Officials in Estonia, in particular, recently signaled the possibility of deploying its troops to fill non-combat roles and free up Ukrainians to fight on the front lines. There are concerns that such actions could escalate the conflict quickly into a direct war between NATO and Russia.

Press services for the defense ministries of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Why Russia's western neighbors are getting skittish

The concerns reported by Der Spiegel come as Russia launched a renewed assault in northeastern Ukraine, striking the city of Kharkiv and capturing several settlements in the surrounding region.

Military observers say the Kremlin can't take Kharkiv with the resources it's deployed there so far, but Russia has been shelling the city and inflicting civilian casualties.

On the main front in the east, Ukraine has been struggling for months to hold back a grinding Russian advance after its supplies from the US began to dwindle.

The aid has resumed after months of stalling in Congress, but Kyiv says Western equipment often arrives too late to turn the tide of the war because conditions keep changing.

Meanwhile, Russia stoked alarm among its neighbors last week with a new defense ministry draft proposing changing its maritime borders with Finland and Lithuania in January 2025.

The draft was uploaded to Russia's Registry of Laws website on Tuesday but was later removed.

On Thursday, Tallinn officials said Moscow had removed 24 of 50 buoys marking Russia's borders with Estonia on the Narva River. The officials said Russia has been contesting the buoys' locations.

On Sunday, six NATO nations — Norway, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — said they would construct a unified "drone wall" with unmanned aerial vehicles and more advanced technologies to strengthen their borders.

Their concerns aren't just centered on a full-scale Russian invasion. Finland, for example, said Russia has been trying to overwhelm Finnish border officials with waves of migrants trying to enter its borders.

Norway, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia share land borders with mainland Russia, while Poland and Lithuania share land borders with Belarus, a close ally of the Kremlin.

• China released a simulation video on Friday of how it could strike Taiwan with waves of missiles.
• The clips are a hype montage of CGI and live footage from mock strikes carried out last weekend.
• They showed off the ground-based launchers, jet fighters, and naval ships that China could fire from.

China's Eastern Theater Command on Friday released a simulation video of its missile forces carrying out a mass attack on Taiwan, boasting its land, sea, and air launch capabilities.

The 70-second hype video used a mix of computer-generated animation and live footage to depict warships, land-based rocket launchers, and jet fighters launching waves of missiles at the island.

"Destroy the pillar of Taiwanese independence! Strike the base camp of Taiwanese independence! Cut off the blood flow of Taiwanese independence!" the People's Liberation Army branch wrote in the video.

Animated missiles — dubbed "independence killing weapons" in the video — descend upon a 3D map of Taipei, Hualien, and Kaohsiung, disappearing in GIFs of fireballs.

The video is one of China's most pointed public messages yet on its missile capabilities in a Taiwan scenario.

Beijing's missile forces have developed rapidly in recent years, alarming US officials who are now scrutinizing its arsenals and assets. A chief concern for the Pentagon has been the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force and its ability to strike targets deep in the Indo-Pacific.

The PLARF wouldn't need long-range missiles to hit Taiwan, which is separated from mainland China by a 110-mile strait. But at least several PLARF brigades work with or under the Eastern Theater Command and are armed mostly with short-range and intermediate-range missiles. They're also believed to possess the Dongfeng-21, a hypersonic missile dubbed the "carrier killer."

Taiwan, recognizing the Chinese missile threat, has been stocking up on US-manufactured Patriot missiles.

Friday's missile video was released in tandem with China's series of joint live-fire drills around Taiwan beginning Thursday, its largest such exercise in over a year near the self-governed island.

The "Joint Sword" exercise lasted two days, according to Chinese authorities, who said it was a coordinated effort by its land, sea, air, and missile forces as "punishment" for "separatist" acts in Taiwan.

Taiwan's defense ministry said Beijing deployed 33 aircraft, 16 Coast Guard vessels, and 15 Navy ships.

The drills came three days after Lai Ching-te of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party was sworn in as the island's president. Lai and his party, which governed Taiwan under previous leader Tsai Ing-wen, have focused on resisting Beijing, angering Chinese officials who say Taipei is teetering toward their red line of declaring independence.

Tensions between Taipei and Beijing have continually escalated since Lai was elected in January.

Two months later, China announced that it would increase defense spending by 7.2% to $230 billion this year, while declaring it would deter Taiwan from "separatist activities."

• China's gold buying is sending prices to record highs amid economic uncertainties.
• China's consumers are hedging risks, avoiding luxury brands like Starbucks and Gucci.
• Instead of premium imported brands, they are pivoting to buying cheaper domestic brands for discretionary products.

China's buying up a lot of gold, sending prices of the precious metal to record highs.

The consumption trend reflects risk hedging and a lack of confidence in the flagging economy that has been struggling to regain momentum since lifting on-off pandemic lockdowns.

It also reflects that there's money in the system — but Chinese consumers are just really not that keen on dropping their hard-earned cash at Starbucks or Gucci.

China's economy is facing multiple risks and uncertainties, including an epic real-estate crisis, stock market volatility, geopolitical headwinds, and demographic challenges.

"With China's population facing rapidly aging demographics, Chinese households are trying to boost their retirement savings at a time when real estate and equity markets have been weak," Rajiv Biswas, an international economist and the author of "Asian Megatrends," told Business Insider.

Last year, China's demand for gold jewelry rose 10% from 2022, to 630 tons acquired, making the country the world's largest buyer of the commodity, according to the World Gold Council. China's demand for gold jewelry softened in the first quarter of this year due to the surge in gold prices but was still holding up well, according to the council.

Gen Z Chinese consumers ditch luxury for gold

Unlike the rush into gold assets, Chinese consumers are not running out to buy even more stuff, particularly foreign imports.

This is a problem, particularly for luxury retailers, as China's demand for high-end products fueled supercharged growth in the industry for years.

This is no longer the case.

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury group, reported in April that Asia's revenues outside Japan fell 6% in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago.

Kering, the luxury retailer that owns brands including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, issued a profit warning due to the challenging market in China.

In a reflection of how many shoppers fell out of luxury buying, Chinese shoppers were responsible for about 23% of luxury goods spending at the start of the year — down from 33% pre-pandemic, a Bloomberg analyst said recently.

China's consumers are buying cheaper domestic products

Even imports are taking a hit, with coffee chain Starbucks signaling a slower-than-expected recovery in China will lead to lower annual growth this year, the company reported in April.

Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan said in a first-quarter earnings call that many customers are being "more exacting about where and how they choose to spend their money."

Nomura analysts highlighted in an April report that younger Chinese consumers have become "much less enamored with foreign premium products, and now seem to prefer low-cost domestic substitutes."

In the case of Starbucks, Luckin Coffee — China's biggest coffee chain — is aggressively putting out beverage deals at attractive prices to beat the American company.

Patriotism is also playing into the trend. That's true even for some products that are around the same price as imported ones, such as a recent surge in Huawei phone deliveries amid plunging iPhone sales, and a similar trend with Tesla versus BYD electric vehicles, the Nomura analysts added.

China's painful economic transition, which is causing a bumpy economic outlook for its people, is contributing to this trend.

"As income growth slows, coupled with heightened unemployment risks, the high premium paid for foreign brands has become increasingly hard to justify," wrote the Nomura analysts.

China's per capita GDP is still expected to rise

Despite the gloom, there are green shoots in China's economy.

April data out of China showed consumers in the country are buying fewer things — such as clothing, cosmetics, and jewelry — but they are spending on experiences.

Consumption in the "eat, drink, and play" categories of catering, tobacco and liquor, and sports and recreation outpaced headline consumption growth. This signal shows that "consumers have been forgoing big-ticket purchases in favor of spending in these categories in 2024," wrote Lynn Song, the chief economist for the Greater China region at the Dutch bank ING.

This preference for experience spending also spills over to the consumer sector. LVMH CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony said in April that more Chinese are spending money outside their country as they resume traveling.

Even so, Chinese consumers are still expected to retain their appetite for gold.

GDP by capita in the world's second-largest economy is also still expected to rise from $12,700 in 2023 to $18,000 by 2030 — which is likely to boost gold demand in the future, said Biswas, the economist.

The weak Chinese yuan is leading consumers to buy gold with their savings to hedge against currency risks.

China's savings rate was around 32% last year — compared to around 4% in the US, according to a McKinsey analysis of official data.

"As consumer sentiment continues its slump, consumers prefer to sock their cash away in the bank rather than spend it, pushing the savings rate higher," McKinsey wrote in April.

The spot gold price is around $2,335 per ounce, off the record high above $2,400 hit on May 21.

There may be more upside for the yellow metal.

"Chinese households are increasingly confronted by the weak long-term Chinese growth outlook and the slumping prices in China's residential real estate market," said Biswas.

The economist said those woes will continue to drive investors, especially those looking to boost their retirement savings, to gold.