• US presidential candidates Biden and Trump both vow to get tough on China.
• EIU predicts worsening US-China economic and diplomatic ties over the 2020s.
• EIU doesn't expect US trade policies to significantly reduce China's role in global production networks.

The US presidential election is less than six months away, and Democratic and Republican presidential nominee frontrunners Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both vowed to get tough on China.

Despite this, China will likely extend its reach in the global supply chain, the Economist Intelligence Unit, or EIU, wrote in a note on Tuesday.

The EIU, which is expecting Biden to retain the US presidency, expects "a sustained worsening" in economic and diplomatic ties between China and the US over this decade — regardless of who wins the election.

"Either president will pursue policies aimed at exerting further pressure on China's technology sector, while also justifying future trade and investment restrictions based on national security concerns," wrote the EIU analysts.

In April, President Biden called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum imports, echoing former President Donald Trump's levies on a range of goods from China.

Trump said in February he would slap tariffs of over 60% on Chinese goods if he's elected.

Should Biden win the presidency, he is expected to continue to continue working with like-minded governments.

"The primacy of US security and economic goals in Mr Biden's diplomatic agenda will still ensure a degree of collateral damage to economies that have deep trade and investment linkages with China," wrote the EIU analysts.

They added that if Trump wins the presidency, he is likely to take a "much more antagonistic approach" to the US-China relationship, which risks collateral damage to third-party economies.

"This would return bilateral diplomatic and trade relations to the state of volatility that characterized his first term," the EIU analysts wrote.

However, the EIU said it doesn't expect either Biden's or Trump's trade policies to reduce China's role in global production networks significantly.

It is instead expecting the extension of China-linked supply chains via "capital-hungry markets" in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

"These same dynamics will ultimately make many of these emerging markets vulnerable to an escalation of trade hostilities with the US," EIU's analysts added.

As it is, Chinese manufacturers may already be skirting sanctions by using Mexico as a backdoor to get exports into the US.

Even Chinese manufacturers are shifting their production out of China to other low-cost manufacturing hubs in Asia, including Vietnam and Bangladesh, to avoid geopolitical risks.

• Automotive journalist Jules Rogers test-drove the 2024 Ford F-150 Raptor priced at $83,665 and loved it.
• The truck provides a comfortable and luxurious ride with black leather interior and high-end features.
• She says the Raptor is perfect for drivers seeking an off-roading experience and is worth its price.

In a group of similar trucks, the 2024 Ford F-150 Raptor immediately stands out from the crowd. With its 37-inch tires and 17-inch alloy wheels, the beefy truck lives up to its raptor moniker.

Raptors are more widely available now, which is pretty new considering how hard they've been for Ford loyalists to get their hands on over the last few years. Especially if you're driving in the sand, off-roading on dunes or camping at Burning Man, this truck has all the features to show up in style.

I'm not a truck owner myself — my daily ride is my Audi Q6 compact SUV or A3 hatchback. As an automotive journalist, I get to test drive new vehicles all the time.

I got behind the wheel of a 2024 F-150 Raptor finished in deep midnight, antimatter blue metallic with a pearlescent finish at the Oregon International Auto Show. It felt large since the seating was so high up, but it was actually quite nimble.

The 2024 F-150 Raptor starts at $77,980, and the model I tested was listed at $83,665 with its optional upgrades. I enjoyed it a lot, even for city driving — although it would be even better for people who live near wider roads, farms, and work zones.

Interior and aesthetics

The Raptor offers a comfortable ride for such a large vehicle. The exterior features cast-aluminum running boards that make it easy for a short person like me to jump in.

From the outside, the front facia grill has an aggressive look embedded with LED fog lights and a cold air intake on the hood featuring the Raptor logo. The sporty dual exhaust makes a mean rumble at the optional automatic power tailgate, which features an after-market look with a gun-metal finish on the exhaust tips. The Raptor nameplate and block-letter Ford logo finish the classic, upscale look.

The Raptor is more heady, sturdy, and robust than the F-150's more standard (and affordable) work truck models. For full-size off-roading trucks, the Ram 1500 or Chevy Silverado 1500 are comparable, when you spring for the similar high-end price range.

The spacious interior with luxurious black leather made me feel small. The bucket seats are very comfortable and super plush for a Ford.

The interior feels roomy enough to comfortably fit a family of five traveling cross-country or just to the store. There's plenty of room for groceries and other items you wouldn't want exposed in the truck's bed.

The Ford Sync 4 infotainment system is on a 12-inch screen, which is wonderfully easy to use. I really enjoyed the luxe leather-wrapped steering wheel and the Bang & Olufsen sound system.

There are a lot of different auxiliary switches in the ceiling of the cabin's interior. I enjoyed the optional moonroof, which nearly spanned the entire width of the vehicle.

This truck has so many features that it's hard to think of more options to add. It would take some time to familiarize myself with the tech loaded in there.

Driving experience

Like with all F-150s, the driver decides on the aftermarket parts. Rear parking assist provides added comfort so you don't back into anything.

It's easy to maneuver with its 10-speed transmission and 3.5-liter eco-boost engine and offers lots of power immediately when you hit the gas, but it's not scary to drive. Even though it's a very big piece of machinery, you still feel in control and not overwhelmed by the size of the truck.

You can barely feel the transitions from one gear to the next. The Raptor felt like it could smoothly transition from the off-road experience to paved driving. It's easy to turn and maneuver, even in the city.

The acceleration is very responsive, but you can tell it's making moves — and taking up space. A lot of the heavy torque really kicks in during the higher gears. Visibility was great while driving.

For off-roading, this truck features upgraded suspension and rockers. I only drove on city streets this time, though.

I really enjoyed that the Raptor has a 36-gallon fuel tank so I can definitely get where I need to go. It earns about 9-10 gallons per mile.

The Ford F-150 Raptor is a great ride

The truck is perfect for a driver who's looking for a serious vehicle that offers the ultimate off-roading experience. With all the standard features on the truck's base model, owners can feel good about the value they're getting from the Raptor.

I think the upgraded model is worth its price, especially for drivers who need a full-size truck and often go off-road.

Driving the Raptor makes you feel cool. It's very imposing and makes other vehicles look small. Although it might be a bit big for the city, it's easy and comfortable to drive.

Even non-truck lovers will love hopping into this truck — I was delighted to get behind the wheel and enjoyed every moment of it.

• Startup Havelar built Portugal's first 3D printed home using COBOD's popular printing system.
• The walls of the two-bedroom, 861-square-foot home were printed in 18 hours.
• The Portugal-based startup says it can build faster and cheaper than conventional construction.

If companies like Portugal-based Havelar have their way, the future of affordable housing will look like perfectly stacked strands of spaghetti (as in, they'd be 3D printed).

Printing-construction startup Havelar says it can build a new home in less than two months while pricing it significantly below market, all with the help of a robotic construction printer.

It may sound like an impossible claim, but its latest project — and Portugal's first 3D printed home — has made its case.

Havelar completed an 861-square-foot, two-bedroom home in Porto, Portugal, in late April.

Following the success of its project, the startup is now touting its ability to build houses for 1,500 euros per square meter, or about $150 per square foot.

That prices its new dwelling at about $130,000 — half the median cost of similarly sized homes in Porto, according to data from Spanish real estate company Idealista.

Like Havelar, proponents of printer-built homes have been making lofty promises about the futuristic tech.

Giant automated printers are increasingly being lauded as a way to build high-quality natural disaster-resistant homes faster and cheaper while reducing waste and labor.

However, like any nascent tech, the construction 3D printing industry has been facing growing pains, such as the high cost of printing materials and an underdeveloped workforce.

Printers have limitations, too: Most can only build walls, while the rest of the home has to be completed conventionally.

But printing can significantly slash build time — so much so that the walls of Havelar's home were printed in 18 hours, according to COBOD, the 3D printer's manufacturer.

Despite how it sounds, a printer-built home doesn’t have to look unrecognizably futuristic.

Save for the layered-looking walls, a signature of 3D printers, Havelar's build looks like any new two-bedroom house.

It wouldn’t be a modern home without an open-concept kitchen and dining room.

Like Texas-based Icon's first luxury printed home, the contrasting colors and textures of the wood finishes and the printer's cement mix create a contemporary and trendy feel.

But don’t start pulling out money for the downpayment.

Plans to sell the home are "currently unclear," a spokesperson for COBOD told Business Insider. Havelar did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

If you want to move into an affordable printed home, it might be best to wait for Havelar’s next projects.

Otherwise, be prepared to pay more in the US.

Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, cofounder of Havelar, said in COBOD's news release that its construction methods would allow first-time homebuyers to acquire their dream home in a good neighborhood for €150,000, about $162,000.

That's a steep price difference from Lennar and Icon's upcoming community of 100 3D printed homes near Austin, where the first six units were priced between $476,000 and $566,000.

Even steeper, homes at Icon's development in Marfa, Texas, a seven-hour drive east, start "in the upper $900,000s," according to its website.

• Russia said on Monday that it would treat F-16s in Ukraine as an escalation because they're nuclear-capable.
• The Foreign Ministry said it would consider the delivery of the jets as a "purposeful provocation."
• Meanwhile, the warplanes already used by Ukraine can technically be fitted to deploy nukes too.

Russia warned on Monday against the expected arrival of F-16s in Ukraine, saying the US warplanes would be treated as an escalation given their potential as nuclear weapons platforms.

"No matter what modification of the aircraft will be supplied, we will treat them as nuclear-capable and we will consider this step of the United States and NATO as a purposeful provocation," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, per state media Sputnik.

The ministry blamed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for pushing the war in Ukraine closer to "the point where it will attain 'critical mass' and explode."

Ukraine is expected to receive its first promised F-16s from NATO members soon. Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands have pledged several dozen F-16s to Kyiv, and Ukrainian pilots have been training to use the jets.

Meanwhile, Russia has for months said the delivery of the F-16s is a provocation from NATO because they can be fitted to carry nuclear weapons.

"If they do not understand this, then they are worthless as military strategists and planners," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in June.

But it's unclear how the F-16s alone would make a significant difference in any nuclear strike against Russia, since some Soviet warplanes used by Ukraine, such as the Su-24 and MiG-29, can already be modified to carry nuclear weapons.

The Su-24's capability in this regard was even cited by Russian ally Belarus, which said in August 2022 that its military had tweaked its Su-24s to carry tactical nukes. Minsk said it was ready to deploy the weapons in response to Western threats.

While Soviet planes like the Su-24 are not designed to carry a theoretically Western-supplied nuclear payload, Kyiv and its NATO allies were previously able to modify warplanes for Western arms.

Ukraine's Su-24 can now launch the British Storm Shadow missile, though it's not immediately clear if this success can be repeated with nuclear weapons.

In any case, Ukraine does not possess any nuclear weapons in its arsenal, having surrendered them in 1994 when it gained independence. It is subject to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Russia, on its part, has regularly threatened to use tactical nukes if it feels certain red lines have been crossed by the West, though it's been accused of saying this as a bluff.

The F-16 is hailed as a significant upgrade to Kyiv's old Soviet-era fleet, with a longer range, better weapons capabilities, and other improvements like maneuverability. They're also better aligned with much of the US equipment that Ukraine has been receiving, such as high-speed anti-radiation missiles, meant for ground targets.

Yet in a war where neither Kyiv nor Moscow has been able to achieve air superiority, observers are unsure how significantly the F-16 will change the landscape of the conflict.

Russia has deployed advanced air defense systems like the S-400, some of which are more sophisticated and effective than the threats faced by F-16s in previous war zones, Business Insider's Jake Epstein reported.

"There is a gazillion ways to detect these F-16s," Brynn Tannehill, a defense analyst and former US Navy aviator, told Epstein.

• Russia has a manpower crunch because of its war with Ukraine.
• Russia's military is paying more in sign-on bonuses and salaries than the oil and gas sector.
• Russia's oil and gas revenues have been keeping its war chest filled.

Russia is facing a labor crisis as its war with Ukraine siphons manpower away from the country's economy.

The manpower crunch has gotten so bad that the Russian military is now offering sign-on bonuses and salaries that are so competitive that even the country's lucrative oil and gas industry isn't keeping up, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Russia's oil and gas sector has been paying wages that are at least two-thirds higher than the national average wage since 2017, per Bloomberg calculations based on official data.

That's no longer the case.

In January and February, workers in Russia's oil and gas sector took home about 125,200 rubles, or $1,370, in monthly nominal salary, per the media outlet.

But the Russian army is now offering incentives to contract soldiers, including a nationwide sign-on bonus of 195,000 rubles, according to a Russian government portal. Each region in the country also offers an additional one-time payment of up to 1 million rubles, per Bloomberg.

The salary of a contract soldier starts at 210,000 rubles per month.

That means people who enlist in the war receive sign-on bonuses and monthly wages greater than a month's oil or gas sector salary.

The competition Russia's military poses to its oil and gas sector is important because the country is a major energy producer, and the industry's robust revenues have kept Moscow's war chest filled. It also illustrates how Moscow's war in Ukraine — now into its third year — is siphoning resources from the rest of the Russian economy.

Moscow-based Kasatkin Consulting, formerly Deloitte's research center, estimates that Russia's oil and gas industry faces a shortfall of 40,000 workers this year, according to Bloomberg.

"Staff shortages have affected even the wealthy industries," Alexei Zakharov, the president of Superjob.ru, an online recruiter, told the media outlet. "The oil and gas sector can afford to attract employees with higher salaries, but the state competes by offering military contracts."

Putin is urging Russians to have more babies

Russia's manpower crunch isn't solely due to wartime mobilization.

There was a massive brain drain after the war started — which has somewhat reversed — and a demographic crisis in the making before the conflict started.

Furthermore, the UK estimated last month that about 450,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded since the war started in February 2022. This excludes those who have been killed while serving in private military companies.

Russia's demographic crisis is so dire that Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken to encouraging women to have more babies for ethnic survival.

"If we want to survive as an ethnic group — well, or as ethnic groups inhabiting Russia — there must be at least two children," Putin said at a tank factory in February.

• Silvio Berlusconi went on a hunting trip with Vladimir Putin in 2013, per Italian media.
• During the trip, Putin shot and carved out a deer's heart, which he offered to the late Berlusconi.
• The sight of the raw meat was just too much for Berlusconi, who went behind a tree to vomit. 

Russian leader Vladimir Putin once presented the late Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi with a deer's heart that he carved out himself, a former Italian senator said on Sunday.

Fabrizio Cicchitto, who was once a member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Berlusconi recounted the experience to him after visiting Russia in 2013.

Berlusconi, Cicchitto said, was accompanying Putin on a hunting trip in the Russian countryside when Putin spotted a pair of deer. After shooting the deers, Putin told Berlusconi he would prepare an extraordinary meal with it, per Cicchitto's recount.

According to Cicchitto, Putin proceeded to cut open one of the deer's body with a hunting knife. Putin then pulled out the deer's heart himself and offered it to Berlusconi.

The sight of the raw organ, however, was just too much for Berlusconi, who according to Cicchitto, retreated to behind a tree to vomit.

Berlusconi might have balked at Putin's culinary offering, but the former Italian prime minister shared a close relationship with Putin.

Months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Berlusconi defended Putin and said the latter was just trying to "replace Zelenskyy's government with a government of decent people."

And when Berlusconi passed away in June 2023, Putin was quick to offer his condolences.

"For me, Silvio was a dear person, a true friend," Putin said of the Berlusconi. "His death is an irreparable loss and great sorrow."

While Cicchitto's recount may seem bizarre, it does seem to be in line with Putin's penchant for cultivating a macho strongman image. Stories of Putin's machismo also likely come in handy at a time where the Russian leader needs to show strength — in the middle of a years-long war that has drained Russian resources, in which the US has now committed an additional $61 billion to help Ukraine keep the fight going.

The Russian leader has been involved in multiple over-the-top photo ops over the years, where he's been seen flexing his judo moves and riding a horse while shirtless.

In fact, eating a deer's heart is probably not that strange once you consider what else Putin has done with animals, per prior accounts.

In April 2022, Russian investigative news outlet Proekt reported that Putin took baths using blood extracted from severed deer antlers as a form of alternative medicine.

Representatives for the Russian foreign ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Palantir's first quarter revenue jumped 21% from last year, mostly from US customers.
• International earnings dropped due to "headwinds in Europe," the chief financial officer said.
• CEO Alex Karp maintained his support for Israel and again slammed campus protests.

Palantir raked in more money than ever last quarter — and much of it came from customers in its backyard, according to the company's earnings released Monday.

Denver, Colorado-based Palantir, which develops software for private and military purposes, posted revenue of $634 million in the quarter ending March 31, a 21% increase from the same time last year. The revenue largely comes from growth in both private and military segments in the US, as it faces headwinds in the international market.

"I think it is fair to say we crushed Q1 in the US. We are on fire," said Palantir CEO Alex Karp on Monday's earnings call.

Palantir's best-known business is supplying technology to the US government, which grew 12% year-over-year, to $257 million. Its private-sector business is seeing even faster growth. US commercial revenue, which comes from selling software to 262 firms like Cleveland Clinic and General Mills, rose 40% year-over-year to $150 million, per Monday's earnings.

Palantir is doubling down on the US, including defense and AI, Karp said on Monday's call.

While the company reported strong US numbers, its international performance dipped compared to the previous quarter because of an accounting move and "continued headwinds in Europe," chief financial officer Dave Glazer said on Monday's call.

International commercial revenue for the first quarter was $149 million — down 3% from the prior quarter, but up 16% year-on-year. And international government revenue was down 9% from the prior quarter, to $79 million — though up 33% year-on-year.

About 16% of Palantir's total business comes from Europe.

"Europe is gliding toward 0% GDP growth over the next couple of years. That is a problem for us. There is no easy remedy for that," Glazer said.

The software maker's stock fell over 8% in after-hours trading, but it is up 52% this year as it rides the artificial intelligence wave.

Because of its government work, Palantir has long been a lightning rod for domestic and international political debates.

The company supplies AI models to militaries allied with the US, including Israel and Ukraine. In March, Karp said that employees left the company because of its stance on Israel.

"If you have a position that does not cost you ever to lose an employee, it's not a position," he said in March.

Karp addressed the matter in the call as well, saying Palantir is the first call for Western allies in global conflicts.

"The central risk to Palantir and America and the world is a regressive way of thinking that is corrupting and corroding our institutions that calls itself progressive," he said. "But is actually a form of a thin pagan religion."

The CEO lashed out at the wave of pro-Palestine student protests occurring at US universities in a conversation with Palantir's senior policy advisor during a tech conference in Washington, DC last week. He brought the matter up again on the earnings call.

"The greatest institutions of our time disappear and turn into discriminatory dysfunction," he said on the call.

For the second quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue between $649 and $653 million, close to a $20 million increase from first-quarter revenue.

• Dmitry Medvedev is at it again, threatening Western leaders with nuclear attacks if they cross a line.
• Medvedev says no leaders in Washington, Paris, and London won't "be able to hide" if they send troops to Ukraine.
• The former Russian president regularly makes bombastic threats against the West.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday threatened nuclear strikes on Western leaders who want to send their troops to Ukraine, doubling down on his increasingly hostile rhetoric toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"The choir of irresponsible bastards from among Western elites calling for sending their troops to the nonexistent country is expanding," Medvedev wrote in a message on social media.

He pointed to leaders and politicians in the US, UK, France, the Baltics, and Poland who floated the idea of supplying Kyiv with troops.

Medvedev said any deployment of NATO troops would essentially be a direct engagement in war, and that Russia would have to respond "not within Ukraine's borders."

"In that case, none of them will be able to hide either on Capitol Hill, or in the Elysee Palace, or in Downing Street, 10. It will be a global catastrophe," Medvedev added.

The former president, who held the office from 2008 to 2012, cited retaliation as a reason Russia recently started running drills for "the use of nonstrategic nuclear weapons."

Russia on Monday announced drills with tactical nukes near Ukraine, which it said are being held in response to recent "threats" from the West.

Strategic nuclear weapons are those typically launched via intercontinental ballistic missiles. The type referred to by Medvedev typically provides smaller yields — though they can still be devastating — and can be delivered through a variety of means such as shorter-range missiles or even trucks.

Russia has been using threats of nuclear war to posture against countries supporting Ukraine, with repeated references to nonstrategic nukes potentially being used if certain red lines set by Moscow are crossed.

Western nations "must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory," Russian leader Vladimir Putin said in March.

But such threats have also been categorized as bluffs by Western leaders, who say the Kremlin hopes to scare Ukraine's allies off.

Meanwhile, NATO has continued to supply Ukraine with about $168 billion in weapons, arms, and other forms of aid. Last month, the US approved a package worth $61 billion to Kyiv, which Ukraine says is vital to maintaining its defensive positions against Russia's advance.

As for Medvedev, the former president has been loudly pro-war since Russia invaded Ukraine. He regularly takes to social media to call for extreme measures in response to perceived Western grievances, such as a hypersonic missile strike on the Hague after it issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

In April, he said each NATO soldier sent to Ukraine should have a "maximum reward" bounty placed on their heads.

NATO has said that it's not deploying its own troops in Ukraine and isn't seriously planning to do so, though some allied leaders say they might be open to such a possibility.

French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, has repeatedly said he wouldn't rule out sending troops to aid Kyiv. Medvedev often responds to Macron directly, insulting him on social media in English, Russian, and French.

Experts in Russian politics previously told Business Insider's Sinead Baker that Medvedev's hostile rhetoric might be an attempt to impress Putin.

"Medvedev is like one of the weaker guys in Tony Soprano's circles, who just has to go and do horrible things to appease the boss," Edward Lucas, senior advisor at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said.

Medvedev now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council.