• Neither my husband or myself wear wedding rings and people are often surprised to find out.
• We've been together for 13 years, have two kids and a puppy together.
• I do have an engagement ring but don't wear often because I'm not a fan of wearing jewelry.

When I meet people, they're usually surprised to find out I'm married. That's because I don't wear a wedding ring. Don't fault me, though — neither does my husband.

Contrary to popular belief, we do this not because we are looking for free drinks or scandalous trysts. We just don't feel like wearing them. For us, it has worked — for 13 years, with two kids and a new puppy.

People don't always understand

Some may find this difficult to understand, as rings that symbolize marital commitment are deeply rooted in many cultures.

When I mention my husband, most people just look at my left index finger. I catch a familiar look for a split second.

"Why don't you wear a ring if you're married?" I've been asked so many times.

I live in the suburbs of Boston, where people generally follow and stick to tradition. But I'm originally from Colorado, and people there are more relaxed about such things. I know several couples from home who choose not to wear wedding rings. This may be because they do extreme sports regularly, or it's just not the same thing as it feels here on the East Coast, where everyone loves to sport their multi-carat rocks.

Back in Colorado, people have never noticed, like they do here in Boston.

I've been at work and colleagues have asked with genuine curiosity and perplexion why I don't wear a ring. Does my husband wear one? Am I not enraged that he doesn't? They seem especially confused when I answer that I don't care he doesn't want to wear one.

My husband did propose with a ring

I do have an engagement ring, and I am glad he got me one. I love it even though it isn't what I pictured it would be when I was young. If I had an endless supply of money, I still wouldn't change it. It's a symbol of what we've gone through.

My husband proposed on a sunny afternoon in May. We had spent the day at Cheesman Park in Denver and walked to a wine bar nearby. I was not expecting it, but he pulled out a diamond ring and asked if I would marry him.

When we got married, we signed the paperwork and said we'd have a reception later. But he got a job in another city so our energy suddenly went to relocating. So, I suppose that not wearing a wedding ring is partly that the ritual of getting married got interrupted. After the move, our lives started anew, and we never quite got back to planning and organizing what would have been the initial traditions of our life together.

I don't love rings in general

Ultimately, I don't find wearing rings or other jewelry comfortable for long periods. As a writer, I'm on the computer for hours a day and rings and other jewelry get in the way of typing.

Also, I've become more casual as I've gotten older. Like jewelry, I probably wear makeup three or four times a year. I never want to invest the time on it.

Perhaps it's a combination of having two kids and going through the pandemic. There aren't as many events or outings I go to post-pandemic that require getting dressed up, which is when I'd typically wear jewelry. And if I am going to spend time on my appearance, nine times out of 10, it's going to be at the gym because that's where I get the benefits of health and fitness.

• Demand and production of Western weaponry has gone way up.
• This includes gear that has been around for decades, and even some where production had stopped.
• Nations want to aid Ukraine and grow their own arsenals, but experts say too little is being made.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a surge in demand, orders, and manufacturing of Western weaponry, including decades-old equipment and even gear that had gone out of production.

The invasion has sparked concern across the West that its militaries do not have enough ammunition and equipment if a major power like Russia decides to attack them.

And also that some particularly key types of weaponry are in worryingly short supply.

Manufacturing has increased, but experts warn it's not enough for Western countries' needs — both for themselves and for what they want to give to Ukraine.

Jan Kallberg, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and a fellow at the Army Cyber Institute at West Point, describes weapons orders as having been relatively low.

"And suddenly they see a surge in sales, a need, a demand that I would say hasn't been seen since the forties or at least the fifties when the Cold War really took off," he told BI.

More orders and manufacturing

Western defense budgets are surging, while countries in the Middle East are also increasing their spending amid conflicts in the region.

The result is more orders and manufacturing, even of Western equipment where production had stopped.

In January, the US Army signed a $50 million contract to restart production of M777 howitzer parts — the first new order in five years — to be sent to Ukraine.

Norway plans to invest to improve the delivery times of its National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), with demand up in Europe.

The US Army also placed a new $1.9 billion order for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which have been used successfully in Ukraine.

Its maker, Lockheed Martin, is increasing production as well as its production of the antitank missile system.

German arms maker Diehl is planning to increase production of the IRIS-T air defense system, while France has ordered companies involved in making Aster air defense missiles to prioritize those contracts.

Demand for the Patriot surface-to-air missile system, first used in the 1990s but upgraded since, has also dramatically increased. This includes a coalition of European countries jointly ordering up to 1,000 missiles earlier this year.

Lockheed Martin said production of Patriot missiles has increased from 350 a year in 2018 to 500 last year and 550 this year.

Timothy Wright, a missile technology expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the size of the production increase compared to actual demand shows industries and governments have not responded enough.

"I don't think we are learning the whole entire lesson just yet," he said.

The US seems aware of the backlog, with the Financial Times reporting last month that the US is halting open orders for Patriot interceptor missiles until Ukraine is better supplied.

Mark Cancian, a defense strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said many new orders are for air defense systems.

The West had stopped investing in them after the Cold War when it ceased to see Russia as the primary threat, he said, but now, seeing Russia's missile and drone salvos, demand is back.

Ready for Russia

Western militaries have not spent the last decades building their arsenals with a major adversary like Russia in mind, experts warn.

Russia has one of the world's biggest militaries and its war in Ukraine shows it is willing to commit to a grinding, brutal fight where it incurs a lot of losses.

Russia has also ramped up its wartime production, which could aid it in the future and not just against Ukraine.

Some European countries have warned that Russia could soon attack another European nation if it is victorious in Ukraine.

That would likely drag the US into a wider war, due to NATO's collective defense clause.

Slow progress

Ukraine has used lots of different weaponry in its fightback against Russia, and has seen notable successes despite not getting the West's most advanced or modern gear.

Mattias Eken, a missile defense expert at the RAND Corporation, said the West will be "reassured" by how its equipment is "working and sometimes pulling off quite amazing things."

But, he warned, "the problem is mass."

Ukraine's allies want enough equipment both to give more to Ukraine and to boost their own arsenals.

That dual need has been a problem for Ukraine. Some European countries have cited the need to keep their own arsenals full when saying they could not give more to Ukraine.

Talking about air defenses, Cancian said: "Everyone agrees that there aren't enough. They sped up production to a degree, but there's a limit to what you can do."

Giorgio Di Mizio, an air warfare expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the problem is demand compared to capacity, not countries' unwillingness to spend.

Making new equipment takes time, and there are long backlogs.

Industry production will need to ramp up more significantly to address the issues.

But Kallberg said the industry needs guarantees. "If you were an executive in the defense industry, you would ask yourself: 'If I ramp up all my production now, what type of commitment can I get from governments that they will keep buying?'"

One solution would have been countries ramping up their orders and production earlier in the war, Di Mizio said.

"Maybe governments thought of this war as a short-term issue," he said. But he said it was easy to criticize now, with hindsight.

He also said the defense industry had a way of working that was more suited to peacetime than war, "and we haven't made changes."

• Jill Biden whispered a donor's name in Joe Biden's ear and reminded him to thank them, per a report.
• New York Magazine's Intelligencer reported that Biden repeated the words his wife fed him.
• Biden has lost support among top Democratic donors, with some urging him to step aside.

Jill Biden quietly fed lines into President Joe Biden's ears, reminding him of a megadonor's name and telling him to thank them, New York Magazine's Intelligencer reported, citing an unnamed witness to the exchange.

According to the report, Biden stared blankly and nodded his head while greeting one Democratic megadonor and a family friend at the White House recently, when the First Lady stepped in.

The outlet didn't specify the donor's name or when the supposed exchange took place.

According to the witness, he then uttered the exact same words his wife had told him, according to the outlet.

"It hasn't been good for a long time, but it's gotten so, so much worse," the person told Intelligencer.

Since his disastrous debate performance last week, Biden has tried to reassure Democratic governors, House Democrats, staffers, voters, and donors that he is fit for reelection.

He and his campaign have blamed a cold, bad prep, and jet lag for his poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27.

That performance featured a hoarse voice, meandering thoughts, verbal flubs, and vacant expressions.

During a huddle with key Democratic governors on Wednesday, the 81-year-old president said he just needs to get more sleep and stop holding events after 8 p.m., according to CNN and The New York Times.

But Biden is losing support among some Democratic donors, some of whom have publicly called on him to step aside.

Millionaire heiress Abigail Disney told CNBC on Thursday that she will stop donating to the Democratic Party "until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket."

"If Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose. Of that, I am absolutely certain," she said, adding that the consequences of a loss will be "genuinely dire."

Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings, one of the largest Democratic donors, has also urged Biden to pull out of the race to give another candidate a shot at beating Trump, per The New York Times.

"Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous," Hastings said in an email to the Times.

In an X post over the weekend, investor Whitney Tilson, a longtime donor to Biden, said he is reconsidering his support after Biden's stumbling performance last week.

Despite mounting pressure to exit the race, Biden told staffers he was "not leaving" during a Wednesday call with his campaign and Democratic National Convention staff, Politico reported, citing anonymous staffers on the call.

ABC News also announced it would now air Biden's first television interview since last week's debate "in its entirety as a primetime special" on Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

• California put up its minimum wage for workers at quick-service restaurant chains to $20 in April.
• The California Business and Industrial Alliance warned that it was costing jobs.
• But employment in the industry is seasonal and usually rises and falls throughout the year.

Since Gov. Gavin Newsom first announced plans to raise wages for fast-food workers in California, both restaurant chain executives and franchisees have warned about the impacts it could have on their businesses.

As well as having to raise menu prices, some critics of the legislation warned that the higher wages could lead to restaurants laying off some of their workers, or even closing down.

Despite intensive lobbying from the fast-food industry, the new wage of $20 an hour for quick-service chains with at least 60 locations nationwide went into force on April 1.

The California Business and Industrial Alliance certainly isn't happy with the legislation. It took out a full-page ad in USA Today in early June featuring mock obituaries for brands it says were "victims" of the new minimum wage.

The CABIA claimed in the ad that nearly 10,000 jobs had been cut between September, when Newsom signed the law, and January.

"Governor Newsom's bad policy remains indefensible, and workers and businesses are suffering for it," Tom Manzo, founder of the CABIA, told Business Insider over email. "It is obvious what is happening to the Fast Food industry no matter how Team Newsom spins the numbers."

The CABIA ad cited data from the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank and unit of Stanford University that aims to "limit government intrusion into the lives of individuals."

It's unclear where the Hoover Institution got its 9,500 figure from, though it did link a report by The Wall Street Journal, which said it used state figures.

Business Insider could not independently verify these figures, as data from both the California Employment Development Department and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a drop of about 11,600 jobs when not seasonally adjusted.

The CABIA's argument was based on a drop in employment between September and January. But BLS data shows that employment in California's limited-service restaurant industry dips in the winter. In every year for at least the last decade, employment has been lower in January than in the preceding September.

It's typically at its lowest in January and its highest in August.

The BLS data includes employment at all limited-service restaurants, including those exempt from the new minimum wage.

Restaurants typically hire more workers during the summer months as tourism fuels spending and people spend more time outside their homes.

Seasonally-adjusted BLS figures, which take yearly fluctuations into account, show that employment in California's limited-service restaurant industry actually rose by about 6,000 people between September and January.

Newsom has clapped back at criticism of the new minimum wage

"California's fast food industry has added jobs every month this year, including roughly 10,600 new jobs in the two months since Governor Gavin Newsom signed the fast food minimum wage bill into law," his office said in a recent press release.

The following graph, made using BLS data, shows that employment in limited-service restaurants in California has been higher than 2023 levels for every month so far this year when not seasonally adjusted.

However, Newsom's remarks have to be taken with a pinch of salt, too. The year-over-year growth in limited-service restaurant employment is a continuation of a trend seen before the pandemic, too, with total employment in the industry growing every year.

And the month-on-month growth in employment so far this year is nothing new. Employment typically grows in the buildup to the summer.

It is clear some fast-food chains have laid off workers in California, including in some cases by closing restaurants, partly in response to the new legislation. Seasonally-adjusted BLS data suggests that there has been a small dip in workers in California's limited-service restaurant industry — about 2,500 — since January.

However, the BLS statistics suggest that the situation is not as dire as the CABIA paints it to be.

The $20 minimum wage was introduced to support workers in a state with a notoriously high cost of living. The fast-food industry is generally known for low pay, with some workers having to pick up a second job to make ends meet.

Analysts previously told BI that the legislation is also expected to boost wages in other industries, as employers will face more competition for workers.

Have you been affected by California's new $20 minimum wage? Email this reporter at gdean@insider.com.

• Russia is using waves of troops in head-on "meat assault" attacks, the BBC said. 
• Russia's using them to identify Ukrainian firepower positions, an officer told the outlet.
• Around 1,000 Russian troops a day are being killed or injured, reports say. 

Russia is using head-on attacks by waves of troops to identify Ukrainian firepower positions, a Ukrainian officer told BBC News.

In a report on Russia's brutal front-line tactics near Kharkiv in Ukraine, troops described the waves of Russian attacks on their positions, describing them as "meat assaults."

"The Russians use these units in most cases purely to see where our firing equipment is located, and to constantly exhaust our units," Lt Col Anton Bayev of the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard told the BBC.

"Our guys stand in positions and fight, and when four or five waves of the enemy come at you in a day, which you have to destroy without end, it is very difficult – not only physically, but also psychologically."

Russia has suffered huge casualties in its invasion of Ukraine and reportedly began using "meat assault" tactics in its attacks on the cities of Bakhmut last year.

As a much bigger country, Russia has a manpower advantage over Ukraine, and analysts say it uses the attacks in a bid to overwhelm Ukrainian positions.

However, the tactics recently appear to have won Russia only incremental successes.

Even members of the ultra-nationalist Russian milblogger community, who've supported the invasion, have been critical of the indifference to the lives of troops shown by Russian commanders.

The Russians leave their dead and wounded on the battlefield, Lt Col Bayev told the BBC. "Their main task is simply meat assaults and our total exhaustion," he said.

UK military intelligence said that Russian injuries and deaths had spiked to their highest point in the war in May, with Russia losing around 1,200 troops a day.

The increase came as Russia intensified its attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city, to take advantage of delays in Western aid getting to Ukraine's front lines.

Despite suffering large casualties, Russia has been able to replenish troop numbers by offering relatively lucrative military contracts, drafting prisoners, and using foreign mercenaries.

• I'm a long-time Swiftie and bought tickets to see her in Dublin during the Eras Tour. 
• However, weeks before I was supposed to go, I was in an accident and badly injured.
• I was determined to see her, and doctors gave me the all clear. I had an amazing time.

I've been a Swiftie since 2007, so you can imagine my absolute euphoria at getting my hands on tickets to the Eras Tour. When I envisioned things that could go wrong — ticket issues, missed flights, dehydration — none of my imagined scenarios included an ambulance and surgery mere weeks before the show.

Taylor's previous tours never came to South Africa, where I live, and the Eras Tour was no exception, with Africa left off the roster completely. However, for the first time, I could afford the splurge of making my way to Europe to join the tour there. My best friend and I decided to get the best tickets we could. We got VIP pitch-standing tickets for her June 30 show in Dublin, and we couldn't wait.

Weeks before the concert, I was thrown off a horse

At the time of booking, the concert was almost a year away. Plenty could happen — and plenty did. I left teaching to go full-time with writing. My friend got pregnant and had her first baby. And then, with just weeks to go, I was thrown off a galloping horse on what was meant to be a scenic walking ride. I was left with a broken collarbone, broken ribs, and a massive hematoma in my right hip and thigh.

One of my first lucid thoughts in the ambulance, strapped into a neck brace as the medics initially feared a fractured C-spine, was that there was no way this tortured poet was going to make it to the concert. The reality of what those injuries might mean for the rest of my life hadn't even set in yet.

Luckily, the angels are Swifties, too, and my spine was miraculously spared. Within 24 hours, I was transferred to Johannesburg, where I was operated on and left with a hefty piece of titanium securing my collarbone, which had shattered into three pieces. The hematoma was so painful I couldn't put weight on my right leg. My broken ribs hurt when I breathed deeply or laughed. I had no clue how I would 'shake it off' and get to Dublin when I could barely get up the stairs in my home.

I did everything I could to recover and was given the all clear

Despite the pain in those initial weeks, my surgeons remained optimistic that I'd recover faster than I thought. With every rehabilitation and physiotherapy session, I made tiny gains. As the days passed, my mobility improved. And I was fanatical about doing everything I could to (safely) speed up recovery. I had a concert to go to.

Mere days before my flight was scheduled, I was given the tentative all clear. I could travel — with caution. To celebrate, I had an outfit made at the last minute. I hadn't been keen on the frivolous cost of a custom concert look beforehand, but there's something about narrowly avoiding a broken neck that makes you want to seize the day. And this day demanded tassels and sequins, with a little extra fabric to bedazzle my sling.

I was in pain during the concert, but I'd do it again

The concert was tough — we were lined up for six hours outside the venue, right after a three-hour train trip from Cork to Dublin. Then, we watched Paramore for an hour before the three-and-a-half-hour Eras Tour. Painkillers didn't do much to dull my body screaming at me, but it was all worth it.

The rainbow of confetti, the heat from the fire, the eye contact with a woman whose music has narrated my life since I was 14 — I'll never forget any of it. During the acoustic set, we didn't even need the zoom on our phones; she was that close.

And in those moments, I felt invincible.

The Swifties around us were delightful. Throughout the concert, a stranger let me balance a hand on her shoulder while I stood on tiptoe to see Taylor. While it was a tight squeeze, no one shoved me in the hopes of edging closer for a better view.

There were times before the concert when I thought I was out of my mind to go. Now that it's over, I'd do it all again. Taylor can do it with a broken heart — and I did it with broken bones.

• Popeyes has expanded its chicken lineup by adding boneless wings — which are actually made from breast meat.
• There's "a lot of online chatter around 'what the heck is a boneless wing?,'" Popeyes' US boss said.
• Customers who order boneless wings skew slightly younger and are more likely to be female, he said.

Popeyes tried out a number of different names for its boneless wings — including "bites" — over worries that people may struggle to understand what they were.

Jeff Klein, president of Popeyes US and Canada, told Business Insider in an interview that there was "a lot of online chatter around 'what the heck is a boneless wing?'"

"They're not de-boned wings," he said.

Boneless wings are actually made from breaded breast meat but cause confusion among diners who are stumped by the name.

"We've definitely tested a variety of different names," including "bites," Klein said.

Klein noted that calling them wings means that Popeyes can promote its overall wings platform — both bone-in and boneless — in ads and said that the fried-chicken company had been selling more bone-in wings since it started advertising boneless ones "because it's just generating that demand for wings in general."

Popeyes added bone-in wings to its permanent lineup in November.

"Boneless wings were always part of the plan," Klein said, noting that they make up just under 40% of the total wings market.

Boneless wings appeal to a slightly different demographic to bone-in wings, too, he said.

"Boneless wings tend to skew a little bit younger than bone-in," Klein said. "They tend to skew a little bit female relative to bone-in, not drastically, but just a little bit."

Wings customers, in general, tend to be bigger groups of people, often placing orders digitally, he said.

"There's a little bit of seasonality to wings, but not as much as people would think," he added, referring to their popularity as a match-day snack.

Boneless wings are an attractive choice for restaurants because breast meat is more abundant and therefore generally cheaper to buy in than wings.

But Popeyes' launch of boneless wings "wasn't supply chain-motivated at all," Klein said. "There can be volatility in the bone-in wings pricing at times, but not a current concern for us. It was more around variety."

Because they're cheaper to buy, wing shops sometimes sell boneless wings for less. Wingstop's prices vary by location, but some of its restaurants charge more for "classic" wings than boneless, while others charge the same for both types.

Popeyes sells its boneless and bone-in wings at the same price point, Klein said. At the locations BI looked at, the wings were priced at either $5.99 or $6.99 for a six-piece portion.

Popeyes sells its boneless wings in the same flavors as bone-in ones, apart bone-in wings also come in a ghost pepper flavor and boneless wings have the option of classic. The bone-in wings have a spicier base, Klein said.

Chicken is rising in popularity as a protein choice. At McDonald's, it's now more popular than beef, generating $25 billion in annual sales for the burger giant.

Young people love chicken, pushing US restaurant chains to launch more chicken products.

"They overwhelmingly order chicken," Laura Dickey, CEO of Dickey's Barbecue Pit, previously told BI.

• Rents for new studio apartments dropped 20.9% over the year in Q1 2024 due to a supply surge.
• New US apartment construction hit a near-record high, with over 90,000 units in Q4 2023.
• Despite lower rents for newly-built studios and one-bedrooms, larger units remain scarce and costly.

If you were thinking of moving, right now could be a great time to sign a lease on a newly-built studio apartment.

Developers have built a lot of new small apartments over the last few years, and the boost in supply has driven rents down. The median asking rent for newly-built studio apartments — those for which construction was completed in the previous quarter — was down 20.9% in the first quarter of this year as compared to last year, according to a new report from Redfin, a real estate services company.

Rents for newly finished one-bedroom apartments are also falling — the median rent fell 11.9% year over year in the first quarter of 2024, the report found. Redfin noted the number of new one-bedrooms was up 22.2% over the year in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The number of new apartments that recently hit the market is near a record high. More than 90,000 new apartments came online in the fourth quarter of 2023, finishing a big year of apartment construction, Redfin noted.

That additional supply may be outpacing demand, as the portion of new apartments that were rented out within three months of completion fell from 60% at the start of last year to 47% this year. The Redfin report is based on US Census data on "unfurnished, unsubsidized, privately financed rental apartments in buildings with five or more units."

"If you're looking for a rental and you've noticed a lot of new apartments popping up in your neighborhood, it may mean you have room to negotiate on price or ask for concessions like discounted parking or a free month's rent," Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in a statement.

But new housing isn't evenly distributed across the country. And the pace of new construction of both single-family and multi-family homes is starting to slow, in part because of persistently high interest rates.

Studios and one-bedrooms tend to be more profitable for developers to build than larger apartments, and developers aren't building enough apartments suitable for big families. The number of newly-built three-plus-bedroom apartments fell 0.9% in the last quarter of 2023, while the median asking rent rose 9.1% year over year in the first quarter of 2024, Redfin found. This is part of a longer-term shortage of larger apartments in urban areas.

In general, good news is rare in the rental market. Overall rents are still way up — 26% higher than they were in early 2020, a recent Harvard report found. Three in five housing markets across the country are seeing rents rise. And growing numbers of Americans can't afford their housing costs.

Half of all tenant households were cost-burdened as of 2022, meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on rent, the Harvard report found. That was the highest share since the US Census first started collecting this data, the report noted. The number who are severely cost-burdened — meaning they spend more than 50% of their income on rent — also hit a record high in 2022.

Renters are also increasingly locked out of buying a home. Home prices and mortgage interest rates have surged in recent years, putting homeownership out of reach for even more renters. The US home price index is 47% higher than it was in early 2020, and the median home price is about five times the median household income, Harvard's report noted.

• An elite soccer player has funded a universal basic income program in his hometown for years.
• Sadio Mané said he gives roughly $76 a month to all residents of a "very poor region of Senegal."
• The ex-Liverpool star has financed a school, a hospital, and other infrastructure in Bambali.

YouTube star Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson recently donated $200,000 toward a universal basic income program in the Ugandan village of Karamoja. A top soccer player who grew up desperately poor has funded a similar initiative in his African hometown for years.

Sadio Mané, who played for top clubs like Liverpool and Bayern Munich before transferring to Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr last year, revealed in a 2019 interview that he gives 70 euros ($76) a month to every resident of a "very poor region of Senegal."

He likely meant the village he grew up in, Bambali, which has about 2,000 residents. The exact details of Mané's giving aren't public, but if he hands the equivalent of $76 a month to 2,000 people, that would cost him about $152,000 a month, or $1.8 million a year.

The monthly stipend is roughly in line with Senegal's monthly minimum wage of $88, per Statista. Mané reportedly earns more than $40 million a year tax-free at his Saudi club.

UBI usually refers to recurring cash payments made to all individuals in a population regardless of their wealth, with no restrictions on how the money is spent.

The idea has gained momentum as a poverty-reduction tool in recent years, and the likes of Elon Musk and Sam Altman have touted it as a useful response to the mass job losses they expect artificial intelligence to cause.

Here's what Mané told Canal+ Sport Afrique in 2019, as reported by Ghanaian news site Nsemwoha: "Why would I want 10 Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes?" the multimillionaire said before describing his childhood.

"I was hungry, and I had to work in the field. I survived hard times, played football barefooted. I did not have an education and many other things. But today with what I win thanks to football, I can help my people," Mané said.

"We built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips, and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me," he added.

Mané, whose father died when he was seven, donated almost $350,000 to build a school in Bambali in 2019, then another $500,000 or so in 2021 for a hospital.

He's also financed the construction of a post office, gas station, rolled out 4G cell coverage, launched programs providing free laptops and sportswear for children, and offered cash grants for top students.

Between the infrastructure projects and his UBI program, Mané appears to have plowed several million dollars into his hometown over the years.

Al Nassr didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Elon Musk has weighed in on Mark Zuckerberg's latest viral stunt.
• The Meta CEO posted a video of himself hydrofoiling while wearing a tuxedo. Musk wasn't impressed.
• "May he continue to have fun on his yachts. I prefer to work," Musk said of the video.

Mark Zuckerberg may have wowed his fans with a badass video of himself hydrofoiling on Independence Day, but Elon Musk certainly doesn't seem impressed.

"May he continue to have fun on his yachts. I prefer to work," Musk wrote in an X post in response to the video.

Zuckerberg went viral on Thursday after he posted a video of himself surfing on a hydrofoil to Facebook and Instagram. In the clip, the Meta CEO can be seen waving an American flag and taking sips from a can of beer, all while dressed to the nines in a tuxedo.

"Happy birthday, America!" Zuckerberg captioned his post.

Representatives for Musk and Zuckerberg didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

This, of course, isn't the first time Musk has thrown shade at his tech world nemesis.

In June 2023, Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match following reports that said Meta was building an X rival.

Zuckerberg initially agreed to the request but brushed aside the proposal after months of back and forth. Musk, however, hasn't forgotten about the fight.

"If only Zuckerberg were as tough (sigh). I've offered to fight him any place, any time, any rules, but all I hear is crickets," Musk said in an X post on May 15, a day after Zuckerberg celebrated his 40th birthday.

Zuckerberg isn't the only yacht-owning billionaire that Musk has accused of being a slouch.

In 2021, Musk made a similar remark about his fellow space baron, Jeff Bezos. The SpaceX CEO told the Financial Times in an interview then that Bezos should spend more time on his rocket company, Blue Origin.

"As a friend of mine says, he should spend more time at Blue Origin and less time in the hot tub," Musk told the outlet.

Bezos, it seems, paid no mind to Musk's zinger and has gone on to enjoy some hot yacht summers.

To be sure, Musk is no stranger to yachts.

In July 2022, he was seen lounging on a yacht in Mykonos, Greece, with Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel and his fashion designer wife, Sarah Staudinger.

"Haha damn, maybe I should take off my shirt more often … free the nip!! (already back in the factory btw)," Musk wrote in an X post on July 18, 2022.

That getaway was a rare moment for Musk, who's famously said that he hates taking vacations.

Musk once came close to dying in 2000 when he contracted malaria while vacationing in South Africa.

According to Musk, the trip, which took place after Peter Thiel ousted him as PayPal CEO, was the first real vacation he took. It's also worth mentioning that Musk got booted from PayPal while on his honeymoon with his first wife, Justine Musk.

"In the last 12 years, I only tried to take a week off twice," he said in 2015. "The first time I took a week off, the Orbital Sciences rocket exploded, and Richard Branson's rocket exploded in that same week."

"The second time I took a week off, my rocket exploded," Musk said.

"The lesson here is, don't take a week off," he added.