• David Beckham is partnering with AliExpress this summer.
• Beckham will be the face of the "Score More" campaign running alongside the UEFA Euro 2024.
• Alibaba's competitors have also made big investments in their global audiences this year.

AliExpress, the international e-commerce site owned by Alibaba, is bringing on soccer star David Beckham as a brand ambassador.

The Chinese giant is upping its efforts to appeal to a global audience as rivals like Temu and Shein continue to gain popularity abroad. In February, Temu garnered attention for multiple ads during Super Bowl LVIII that the company reportedly paid millions for.

Enter Beckham, who will be a global ambassador for AliExpress as the face of its "Score More with AliExpress" campaign, the company announced Monday. The campaign will run through July 14 in line with the final game of the tournament set for the same day in Berlin.

In conjunction with the partnership with Beckham, AliExpress said it's investing millions of euros to sponsor the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament — beginning June 1 — and drive user engagement to its app. From June 14 to July 14, users can log in to the AliExpress app to access time-limited prizes offered every time a goal is scored.

"AliExpress is helping fans get even closer to UEFA Euro 2024 this summer, by offering them great prizes as the action takes place on the pitch," the former English national team captain said in a statement.

Over the past three years, Alibaba has faced pressure from the Chinese government, its successful rivals in the e-commerce space, and a $2.8 billion antitrust fine.

Employees received a page-long motivational memo from cofounder Jack Ma in April.

"This year, amid the many doubts and pressures on the company internally and externally, I saw the birth of a strong and brave Alibaba team," Ma said in the memo viewed by Reuters.

And, it would seem brand partnerships are a part of the strategy for Alibaba to secure its future.

"Whether you're a football fan or not, I can think of no-one better to show how easy it is to win with AliExpress during UEFA Euro 2024," Gary Topp, European Commercial Director, AliExpress, said about partnering with Beckham.

• Hollywood saw weak box office sales over Memorial Day weekend, despite new releases.
• Memorial Day weekend box office revenue is down 40% year-over-year.
• Studios hope upcoming releases like "Deadpool & Wolverine" will boost summer sales.

Hollywood is betting on movies like "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" and "Garfield" to bring people to movie theaters this summer, but box office sales were weak during the critical Memorial Day weekend.

Warner Bros. claimed "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" brought in $25.6 million in ticket sales through Sunday. Meanwhile, Sony expects "Garfield" to make $31.9 million from total Memorial Day weekend sales through Monday. The film studios self-reported ticket sales, and each reported their movies as the No. 1 film of the weekend.

It's the worst Memorial Day opening weekend for Hollywood since 1995 when "Casper" earned $22.5 million, The Associated Press reported. The numbers do not include ticket sales for 2020, when movie theaters were closed during COVID.

Memorial Day weekend sales for theaters in the United States and Canada are expected to be down 40% year-over-year, equivalent to $125 million, according to Comscore. 

To compare, "Top Gun: Maverick" raked in $160 million during its opening weekend in the summer of 2022, while 2023's "The Little Mermaid" made $119 million.

Film studios hope that films premiering later this summer, like Disney's "Deadpool & Wolverine" and "Inside Out 2," will boost the box office numbers to offset the initial sluggish sales. The release date for "Deadpool & Wolverine" was pushed from May 4 to July 26 after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes delayed production.

Besides "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" and "Garfield," other top movies during Memorial Day weekend include Paramount's "If," which is expected to make $21 million through Monday, and 20th Century's "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," which is expected to make $17.1 million through Monday. Universal's "The Fall Guy" is expected to make $7.6 million through Monday.

• A review of remote jobs worldwide found data scientists earned $132,000 on average.
• Greenback Expat Tax Services reviewed 6,800 job listings and polled 1,000 Americans on remote work.
• Many Gen Z workers are interested in becoming digital nomads, seeking flexibility and travel.

If you're a data scientist working remotely, one thing you might enjoy analyzing is your paycheck.

A snapshot of remote gigs found that these workers, who know their way around a spreadsheet, earned about $132,000 on average. Next were business analysts, who brought in $100,000, and project managers, who earned $88,000.

The findings by Greenback Expat Tax Services, which provides tax services for expats, were based on a review of nearly 6,800 job listings posted on Indeed from around the world.

Greenback also surveyed about 1,000 Americans interested in becoming digital nomads. Among those polled, more than one-third said they weren't happy with cubicle life — or their commutes. Two in five were preparing to hit the road within the next year.

The curiosity about working remotely comes as some of these jobs are getting harder to land following return-to-office mandates. Indeed, some people are having a harder time finding lucrative desk jobs generally in the US, even as overall unemployment remains low.

Just over half of those surveyed were weighing leaving the US. Gen Z workers were most interested in heading abroad, with six in 10 saying they were considering becoming expats.

How much do you need to earn to make the switch to a remote job comfortable? About $72,000, according to the survey.

That's one reason staying stateside might make sense for some workers. In the US, the average pay for a remote data scientist role was $143,000. In fact, the US had the most remote work opportunities and the highest average pay for such roles at $100,000. France was next at $90,000, and Australia was at $79,000.

The review converted currencies to dollars.

Those Americans who want to get their passports stamped might consider Italy, Canada, and the UK. These were among the countries showing the most number of remote jobs, according to the study.

The primary jobs that Americans looking to ditch the office wanted to have were content creator and freelance writer. Close behind were virtual assistant and teacher.

The reasons survey respondents wanted to log on from somewhere else weren't surprising. Seven in 10 said their chief aim was the ability to work from anywhere. Nearly six in 10 pointed to greater flexibility.

Just over half said it was to travel or have adventures. And half said it was to achieve a better work-life balance. Yet, only about one in four said they intended to work remotely forever.

For some people, the flexibility of remote work is essential. Erik Braund, founder and CEO of Katmai, which uses video feeds to create virtual offices, told Business Insider in late 2023 that he'd worked side-by-side with a colleague since 2020. Yet Braund is based in the US, and his coworker is based in the Netherlands.

The ability to work virtually — while still being together — was the next best option to being alongside each other IRL, Braund said. The approach lets him better balance work with the rest of his life.

"I missed the first two years of my first kid's life. I didn't miss the first two years of my second kid's life," Braund said.

• Meta's AI chief Yann LeCun mocked Elon Musk on X over his xAI recruitment drive.
• The spat follows xAI announcing it had raised $6 billion in Series B funding.
• LeCun criticized Musk's AI predictions and claims of free speech absolutism.

Elon Musk is getting dragged by Meta's AI chief on his own platform.

Yann LeCun, Meta's leading AI scientist, poked fun at Musk on X on Monday over his attempt to recruit AI workers for his $24 billion firm xAI.

The pair have been embroiled in a fresh spat since Musk's xAI announced Sunday that it had raised $6 billion in a Series B funding round.

On Monday, Musk posted a call to tech workers to join his company: "Join xAI if you believe in our mission of understanding the universe, which requires maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth, without regard to popularity or political correctness."

LeCun, who has publicly feuded with Musk in the past, was quick to respond to Musk's post.

He wrote: "Join xAI if you can stand a boss who: – claims that what you are working on will be solved next year (no pressure). – claims that what you are working on will kill everyone and must be stopped or paused (yay, vacation for 6 months!). – claims to want a 'maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth' but spews crazy-ass conspiracy theories on his own social platform."

LeCun was referring to Musk's claim in April that artificial general intelligence will arrive by next year, a prediction that he doubled down on last week, as well as his estimate of there being a 10-20% chance that AI could destroy humanity.

The "godfather of AI" also took a jab at Musk's claims of being a free-speech absolutist and for sharing unverified claims on X.

The platform took down a post that Musk re-shared in March because it violated X's own rules.

The tech rivals have quarreled online since at least 2017 and often don't see eye-to-eye. LeCun snapped at Musk in March, and disputed his claim that AI "will probably be smarter than any single human next year."

xAI's sole product so far is a chatbot called Grok, which was trained using data from Twitter, now called X, including Musk's posts.

Elon Musk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Silverleaf Village in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the city's most exclusive and expensive community.
• The residential area boasts Scottsdale's most expensive home, a $54 million mega-mansion.
• I got a private tour of the village with 24-hour guards and a championship golf course.

In the canyons beneath a mountain range dotted with cacti is Silverleaf Village, the most exclusive and expensive residential community in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In a city with a rapidly growing millionaire population, Silverleaf had an average selling price of $5.5 million in 2023, according to a representative of the neighborhood. And it's home to the most expensive residence on the market in Scottsdale — a mega-mansion listed for $54 million.

The village is in the 4,400-acre residential community of DC Ranch. Last month, I got an exclusive tour of the entire neighborhood's four villages, and Silverleaf stood out as the most elite, with custom estates and an exclusive clubhouse.

Take a look around the luxury desert oasis that Scottsdale's richest locals call home.

Silverleaf Village is in North Scottdale.

Silverleaf is on the east side of DC Ranch in North Scottsdale. The village is nestled in the canyons of the McDowell Mountains.

The village has 16 gated neighborhoods.

According to the DC Ranch website, the neighborhoods are guarded 24 hours a day.

The homes are a mix of luxury villas and custom estates.

Silverleaf's street signs have a fancy look, with curled details on the posts and serif fonts. According to the neighborhood's website, the homes were built in Spanish and Mediterranean Revival-style architecture.

The elevated signage, paired with mansions reminiscent of Italian castles and Greek villas, made me feel like I was somewhere in Europe.

Within the village is a private club with a golf course, a spa, pools, and restaurants.

Since the clubhouse is so exclusive, I wasn't able to access it with my media tour guide. But according to the club's website, it's a 50,000-square-foot space with casual and fine dining, a world-class spa, and both resort-style and lap pools.

I did get a peek at the championship golf course. It sprawls 18 holes over 7,322 yards and is surrounded by hills and succulents.

The homes with the highest elevation appeared to be the most luxurious.

Driving up the mountain, I noticed the houses looked more like mega-mansions. They had long, walled driveways leading up to estates with multiple buildings.

The village is still developing.

Toward the top of Silverleaf Village, I spotted several empty sites ready for more custom estates to be built. According to the neighborhood's website, luxury condos are also in the works.

From the top of Silverleaf, residents have a view of Scottsdale.

The top of Silverleaf had the best views in DC Ranch. Past the mansions and cacti dotting the canyon, I spotted golfing greens and a runway at Scottsdale Airport, where the wealthy park private jets.

With massive estates, luxury amenities, and jaw-dropping views, it was easy to see why Silverleaf Village is the most expensive place to live in Scottsdale.

• Amazon Fresh is cutting prices on about 4,000 products through weekly sales.
• Shoppers will be able to get discounts online and at the retailer's stores.
• Walmart and Target have also cut prices as customers deal with the long-term effects of inflation.

Amazon is the latest major retailer to cut grocery prices.

The retail giant will drop prices on about 4,000 items — some by up to 30% — at its Amazon Fresh chain, the company told CNN. The discounts will vary by week and apply both at Fresh stores and on the grocer's website. The lower prices will also affect products from national brands as well as those under Amazon's store brands.

"Increasing our weekly deals across thousands of items and expanding the reach of Prime Savings at Amazon Fresh is just one way that we're continuing to invest in competitive pricing and savings for all of our customers – both in-store and online," Claire Peters, worldwide vice president with Amazon Fresh, told CNN.

Prime members continue to get a 10% discount on hundreds of items, Amazon said.

Amazon has built a network of 44 Fresh stores, according to its website. But along the way, Amazon has closed some Fresh stores and canceled some store openings.

Inflation has been pushing food prices higher over the past few years. And while the rate of price increases has stalled, there have been few signs of groceries actually getting cheaper until recently.

Some consumers have even turned to gardening or extreme couponing to save money on food.

Amazon is the latest retailer to cut prices in an effort to encourage shoppers to buy more.

Last week, Target announced it would cut prices on about 5,000 items after it reported its fourth consecutive quarter of same-store sales declines. The price cuts will apply to a range of groceries and personal care items, from frozen pizza to sunscreen.

Walmart also announced similar reductions earlier this month.

• US law firms are increasingly poaching top UK lawyers.
• Latham & Watkins has been particularly aggressive in its targeting of London-based talent.
• Latham's tactics point to a wider trend in the industry.

US law firms are pushing ahead with their bid to dominate the City of London's legal scene.

Latham & Watkins, the world's second-largest law firm by revenue, is just one such firm targeting the UK market.

Last year, Latham poached top capital markets lawyer Mark Austin from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a member of the "magic circle" — a term used to describe five elite UK law firms.

While he wasn't the first lawyer in the City to depart for a US company, the move for Austin, who had worked on the listings of companies like Deliveroo, was big.

"To get the guy who has the longest IPO list in the country and is now synonymous with the capital markets through his work with the government . . . was a big hire," one partner at a magic circle firm told the Financial Times.

Latham & Watkins now counts almost 500 lawyers in its London office, according to its website. It has lured at least 15 partners from rivals in the City over the last three years, the FT reported.

The firm has also been involved in a number of high-profile deals in the capital this year, including advising UK cybersecurity company Darktrace plc on its $5.3 billion acquisition by Thoma Bravo.

Latham's aggressive plays point to a wider trend in the industry that is seeing elite UK firms forced into submission by more profitable US counterparts.

"The problem for UK firms is that there is only so much truly premium local legal work around," Scott Gibson, a director at London legal recruiting firm Edwards Gibson, told Bloomberg Law.

"As long as US private equity continues to drive the market, the rest of the UK global elite will keep trying to break the US. They have no choice if they want to stay elite," he added.

And thanks to a weakened pound post-Brexit, it has been easier than ever for US firms to attract British legal talent.

Earlier this month, US firm Quinn Emanuel raised its starting salaries for junior lawyers in the UK to £180,000, or nearly $230,000, putting pressure on others to follow suit.

The move followed news that UK firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer had increased base pay for new lawyers to £150,000, which is around $192,000.

Another blow to the magic circle came in May 2023, when another elite UK firm, Allen & Overy, merged with New York-based Shearman & Sterling, creating a huge new firm with around 3,900 lawyers and 800 Partners across 49 offices.

It remains to be seen how the rest of the magic circle will try to keep pace with the US.

• Kyle Bass is investing in Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, he said in a recent interview with the Investor's Podcast Network.
• These states should benefit from migration to lower-cost states, a trend that's already happening.
• Bass has been buying rural land to capitalize on demand for environmental credits.

Billionaire investor Kyle Bass is scooping up land in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, touting the states' upside potential as both workers and companies shift to more affordable markets.

"When you think about the US, you look at the coastal region, the West Coast and the Northeast being very high cost, very high tax — one could say mismanaged — jurisdictions," he said in a recent interview with Investor's Podcast Network. "They're moving to pro-business, lower costs, lower, or no-tax jurisdictions." 

Bass' success in real estate is well established. His winning bet against the 2008 housing market was immortalized in the classic book "The Big Short." And his focus on property in lower-cost states is a strategy he's pursued for years now, offering a similar explanation in 2022. 

Between then and last year, Florida's population jumped over 365,000, while Texas grew by more than 473,000, census data shows. Tennessee's population climbed 77,513. 

Meanwhile, the exodus of large firms from states such as California and New York has weighed heavily on those markets, with $1 trillion worth of assets having moved away over the past three years, Bloomberg found.

"You have to move real companies where there's affordability, where there's expansive activity, where there are natural resources to accommodate that movement, so I want to buy real estate in front of that macro movement," the Hayman Capital founder said. 

But Bass' attention on land doesn't stop there. By expanding his holdings, he's also looking to capitalize on environmental mitigation, a market that sells credit to firms that want to offset the ecological impact of their operations.

To that end, Bass established Conservation Equity Management in 2021, a private equity firm that sells federal credits in exchange for services such as wetland repair on owned property.

"As more companies and people move to Texas and other pro-business, low-tax states, there will be devastating environmental consequences, forcing firms to consider their physical environmental impacts, carbon footprints and mitigation options," he said in 2022.

By September of that year, the firm had snapped up $90 million worth of properties in Texas alone, Bloomberg reported. By then, the price-per-acre of rural land had appreciated 123% over the decade, the outlet cited.

But price appreciation isn't Bass' only reason for buying so much land. He also touted property investments as a significant hedge against macroeconomic uncertainties. He previously noted a preference for land over gold as a safe haven.

"When I think about gold versus rural land again, I have the population demographic in my tailwind," he said in 2022. "I also have something that I can drive to."

As to forthcoming risks, Bass' main concern is China. He says economic turmoil in the country, as well as the threat of geopolitical fallout with the US, offers little room for market positivity.

This story was originally published in March 2024.

• Russia's economy can't afford to win or lose the war in Ukraine, one economist says.
• That's because Russia can't afford the cost of rebuilding and securing Ukraine.
• The cost of repairing its own nation is already "massive," Renaud Foucart says.

Russia's economy is completely dominated by its war in Ukraine, so much that Moscow cannot afford either to win or lose the war, according to one European economist.

Renaud Foucart, a senior economics lecturer at Lancaster University, pointed to the dire economic situation facing Russia as the war in Ukraine wraps up its second year. 

Russia's GDP grew 5.5% year-over-year over the third quarter of 2023, according to data from the Russian government. But most of that growth is being fueled by the nation's monster military spending, Foucart said, with plans for the Kremlin to spend a record 36.6 trillion rubles, or $386 billion on defense this year.

"Military pay, ammunition, tanks, planes, and compensation for dead and wounded soldiers, all contribute to the GDP figures. Put simply, the war against Ukraine is now the main driver of Russia's economic growth" Foucart said in an op-ed for The Conversation this week.

Other areas of Russia's economy are hurting as the war drags on. Moscow is slammed with a severe labor shortage, thanks to young professionals fleeing the country or being pulled into the conflict. The nation is now short around 5 million workers, according to one estimate, which is causing wages to soar.

Inflation is high at 7.4% — nearly double the 4% target of its central bank. Meanwhile, direct investment in the country has collapsed, falling around $8.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2023, per data from Russia's central bank.

That all puts the Kremlin in a tough position, no matter the outcome of the war in Ukraine. Even if Russia wins, the nation can't afford to rebuild and secure Ukraine, due to the financial costs as well as the impact of remaining isolated from the rest of the global market. 

Western nations have shunned trade with Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, which economists have said could severely crimp Russia's long-term economic growth.

As long as it remains isolated, Russia's "best hope" is to become "entirely dependent" on China, one of its few remaining strategic allies, Foucart said.

Meanwhile, the costs of rebuilding its own nation are already "massive," he added, pointing to problems like broken infrastructure and social unrest in Russia.

"A protracted stalemate might be the only solution for Russia to avoid total economic collapse," Foucart wrote. "The Russian regime has no incentive to end the war and deal with that kind of economic reality. So it cannot afford to win the war, nor can it afford to lose it. Its economy is now entirely geared towards continuing a long and ever deadlier conflict."

Other economists have warned of trouble coming for Russia amid the toll of its war in Ukraine. Russia's economy will see significantly more degradation ahead, one London-based think tank recently warned, despite talk of Russia's resilience in the face of Western sanctions.

This story was originally published in February 2024.

• The US economy could see a surge in growth as more people start to take GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
• Goldman Sachs predicted that US GDP could jump by 1% if 60 million Americans took a GLP-1 drug.
• Goldman Sachs also said that "poor health imposes significant economic costs."

The more people who take GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, the faster the US economy could grow, a Goldman Sachs analyst said in a note last month. 

The US GDP could grow by an extra 1% if 60 million Americans took GLP-1 drugs by 2028, Jan Hatzius, the chief economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote.

Hatzius said health-related problems keep people from participating in the labor force and inhibit economic growth. Obesity increases the risk of serious health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes.

"Combining current losses in hours worked and labor force participation from sickness and disability, early deaths, and informal caregiving, we estimate that GDP would potentially be over 10% higher if poor health outcomes did not limit labor supply in the US," Hatzius said.

So drugs that have shown promise in improving a range of patient health outcomes could have a sizable impact on the broader economy.

"The main reason we see meaningful upside from healthcare innovation is that poor health imposes significant economic costs. There are several channels through which poor health weighs on economic activity that could diminish if health outcomes improve," Hatzius said.

GLP-1 drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company are sold under the brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro to treat type 2 diabetes, and under the names Wegovy and Zepbound to treat obesity.

Sales of the drugs have exploded, with some users seeing drastic weight loss of up to 20%. A study released in August found that patients who took Wegovy for weight loss reduced their risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular death by 20%.

And with the US obesity rate hovering at around 40%, tens of millions of Americans could be prescribed GLP-1 drugs over the next few years, but just how many will depend on the outcome of clinical trials on these drugs and whether health insurers will cover them.

"If GLP-1 usage ultimately increases by this amount and results in lower obesity rates, we see scope for significant spillovers to the broader economy," Hatzius said.

One spillover effect could be an increase in productivity, Hatzius said, citing academic studies that found obese individuals are less likely to work and to be less productive at work

"These estimates therefore suggest that obesity-related health complications subtract over 3% from per-capita output, implying an over 1% hit to total output when combined with the over 40% incidence of obesity in the US population," Hatzius said. 

And if there are more productivity gains via improved health outcomes, the impact on GDP growth in excess of its current trend could be between 0.6% and 3.2%.

"Historically, health advancements have lowered the number of life years lost to disease and disability by 10% per decade in DM economies, and we estimate that a 10-year step forward in health progress in excess of current trends could raise the level of US GDP by 1%," Hatzius said.

This story was originally published in March 2024.