• China's economy faces immediate internal challenges, with weak demand dragging on production.
• Two recent gauges of China's manufacturing activity point to strong export demand amid weak domestic sentiment.
• China's property crisis and weak consumer confidence drag on manufacturing activity.

China's economy is under siege from tariff hikes by the US and the European Union, both of which are major trading partners — but this may not be its most immediate threat.

Instead, China's sluggish internal domestic demand appears to be a more pressing issue.

In June, China's official Purchasing Managers' Index — which represents larger companies and state-owned enterprises — contracted for the second straight month.

In contrast, an S&P Global PMI reading — which reflects activity at export-oriented small and medium private businesses — showed output growth hit a three-year high in June.

That means consumer demand within China is slowing, even as demand for made-in-China products grows externally.

The divergence is important because China — the world's factory floor — could face lower global demand for some of its exports after trade tariffs kick in.

In a recent report, economists at Nomura wrote that there are "concerns that China's economy will be unable to sustain a strong recovery through depending only on exports."

The market's conviction in China's recovery is eroding, the Nomura economists wrote, with China's benchmark CSI 300 index giving up some gains after hitting a May peak.

While exports may continue to support growth in the coming months, "it probably won't overcome weakness on the domestic side," Eric Zhu, an economist at Bloomberg Economics, said on Monday.

China's unwilling consumers are dragging on factory activity

China's PMI readings underscore the challenges in the country's economy.

China is currently trying to weather a painful economic transition, which is contributing to an uneven economic landscape.

It's also facing an epic real-estate crisis, stock-market volatility, geopolitical headwinds, and demographic challenges.

The economic uncertainty is contributing to weak consumer sentiment and risk hedging. People are spending their money on gold and experiences instead of discretionary goods.

Weak consumer demand is bad for China's economy, as it can contribute to a vicious cycle of deflationary pressure on the back of slowing wage growth and consumer spending.

"The divergence between expansionary production and contractionary new orders suggests activity data on the supply side may continue to outperform demand-side activity data, which is likely to exert continued downward pressure on goods prices," the Nomura economists wrote in a separate note on Monday.

The contraction in official manufacturing PMI and a pullback in industrial profits also validate concerns of "'too little, too late' policy stimulus," Vishnu Varathan, the chief economist of Asia excluding Japan at Mizuho Bank, wrote on Monday.

"Doubts that Beijing has a handle on economic revival are justifiably mounting," Varathan added.

Bailey McInnes first noticed the house during one of her lunch hours. She likes to walk on her midday breaks, admiring the charming, little craftsman homes that dot her Northern Virginia neighborhood. The homes she passes share a lot of similarities — brick and wood, a modest front porch, details that suggest someone put in a lot of time and care a century ago. On one of these walks last fall, she noticed something new: One of the homes was gone.

McInnes assumed the builder must have a captivating vision for the vacant plot. But the replacement, to her dismay, was a "monstrosity." The facade was an awkward mess of windows and cheap-looking wood panels. The previous home's gently sloping roof had been replaced with an imposing cliff. You can probably guess the color: blinding white with black trim, the signature look favored by investors and HGTV aficionados.

After the first home fell, this cycle of replacement kept happening again and again. McInnes, who is 25 years old and works in public health, is no architecture expert. But she often commiserates with others who share similar frustrations. "People who have little to no experience are able to look in their neighborhoods and be like, 'What is happening here?'" McInnes told me. Recently she posted a video on her YouTube channel in which she phrased the question more bluntly: "Why are homes so 'ugly' now?"

These days it seems like every freshly built house comes with a standard feature: a whole bunch of haters. In Reddit forums and Facebook groups, many Americans grumble about the stifling blandness of the cookie-cutter home, the shameless excess of the suburban McMansion, the clunkiness of the modern box. And that's just the view from the front lawn. Step inside, and you'll likely encounter a mix of white walls, gray countertops, and faux-hardwood floors, copied and pasted from an episode of "Property Brothers." Most people agree that America needs more houses, but nobody seems all that thrilled with the ones being built.

Some of the gripes with homebuilding can be chalked up to not-in-my-backyard sensibilities — construction is a nuisance, and it's easier to nitpick design choices than accept change. Maybe some of it is just renters' jealousy talking. In light of the nation's housing shortage, hand-wringing over aesthetics might even seem beside the point. We need to pump out millions more homes to meet demand. If people are buying them, who really cares what they look like?

But there's a reason for this nagging discontent with new homes. The distaste is, in part, an unconscious response to big problems with how these houses are built and even larger flaws in the American dream itself. The cute craftsman and midcentury homes on younger generations' mood boards are relics of a time when land was cheap and local builders accounted for the lion's share of new construction. Now development lots are almost prohibitively expensive, and the soaring cost of materials is forcing builders to cut back on bedrock design necessities and pleasing architectural flourishes. The new economics favor large-production builders focused on scale, while a mess of micromanage-y local rules is driving up costs and forcing homes into cookie-cutter territory.

The blame for America's architectural nightmare, however, doesn't stop at production builders, rising costs, or local codes. There's something deeper going on here. Homes look this way because they're not just places where we live — they're also supposed to help us get rich. That requires playing it safe. We're supposed to think of homeownership not as a means of putting a roof over our heads but as an investment that will one day provide a massive windfall. Homes are assets to be Airbnb'd, upgraded, flaunted on Zillow, and eventually sold for a huge profit. Everyone's a home flipper now.

When every part of the homebuilding process is executed with an eye toward the bottom line, this is the result: a mix of trend-chasing eyesores and sterile subdivisions. For a generation of hopeful homeowners, neither option sounds all that appealing.

"There's this trade-off that's increasingly happening," McInnes told me. "People are like, 'I'll just take whatever.'"

---

Stepping into a community of new homes can sometimes feel like an eerie nightmare. The streets are obscenely wide, the lawns mostly bare. The structures themselves are haphazard arrays of garage, door, windows, and driveway. They may have splashes of brick or stone, but only in small patches that echo a sturdier past. A few variations of floor plans add some texture to the neighborhood, but paint shades are the main differentiators. You may feel disenchanted or trapped. Taken to the extreme, the scenario makes for a decent horror movie. Sure, some builders are trying to break this mold. But for most developers, the forces conspiring to make homes expensive and aesthetically distasteful are too powerful to resist.

"Builders are struggling to produce something that reaches the moderate-income level, and that may be where you get some pushback as far as ugliness and scale-back," James Wentling, an architect and the author of "Designing a Place Called Home," a thick volume on the past, present, and future of homebuilding in America, told me. "That's probably where you may be getting cookie cutter, all that kind of thing — which they have to do. They can't add all the frills."

The primary driver for the move toward mediocrity is cost — land, materials, and permitting are all huge money sucks. Prices for building materials are up a staggering 38% since early 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with a 10% rise from 2016 to 2020. New homes are roughly five times as expensive to build compared with 1980, according to price indexes from the Census Bureau. In 2022, construction costs for the typical new home came in at $392,241, while land added another $114,622, a survey by the National Association of Home Builders found. This all trickles down into the final sale price, which came in at an average of $644,750, enough for a 10% profit for the builders when you factor in marketing expenses, general overhead, and the sales commissions paid to real-estate brokers.

There's this trade-off that's increasingly happening. People are like, 'I'll just take whatever.'

As they stare down these rising costs, builders and architects have almost no choice but to streamline or opt for cheaper design elements. Homes built 50 or 100 years ago were primarily brick or wood — high-quality stuff that offers a comforting, timeless appeal. Those materials are used more sparingly nowadays. Just 25% of new-home exteriors last year were made of wood or brick, compared with 70% of homes in 1980. Builders have turned to vinyl siding or fiber cement, more affordable options that may last longer and are often easier to maintain but can contribute to a cheaper feel. Inside the home, nice touches like ceramic tile, built-in shelving, and other quality finishes have pretty much disappeared from modest homes and can be found only in "upscale" products. Those kinds of "charming details," as Wentling calls them in his book, require craftsmanship-intensive labor that's pretty much impossible to rationalize when speed and volume are the name of the game. To hit their bottom-line targets, developers are even cutting back on basics like the number and size of windows and "making homes boxier," as noted in a 2024 trend report from the housing-research firm John Burns Research and Consulting.

"I think they are downscaling them a bit to keep the price down," Peter Dennehy, the senior vice president of consulting at John Burns, told me. "But that's against the backdrop of five buyers for every home."

Builders aren't just grappling with more costly materials, pricey land, and the headaches of finding enough workers. They're also up against a complex web of local zoning, land-use rules, and building codes that drag down projects and force them to make trade-offs that leave new homes looking bland. Regulations account for one-quarter of the costs of building a new home, the NAHB estimates. Local governments can dictate everything from the size of lots to the materials used, and builders have no choice but to bend to their demands. And every locale is different, requiring builders to spend time parsing local rules instead of focusing on all the other stuff that goes into getting a home off the ground.

Along the way, the homebuilding industry has shifted from a fragmented collection of local builders to one increasingly dominated by large "production builders." The 100 largest home builders in the US sold roughly half of all new single-family homes in 2022, up from a little more than one-third two decades prior. Most of those gains came from the growth of just two companies, D.R. Horton and Lennar, a paper from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found. Those two giants were responsible for almost two-thirds of that increase in market share. Because of all the local red tape that slows down homebuilding, the industry probably won't ever be as concentrated as, say, airlines, the authors of the Harvard paper wrote. But the growth of the big guys is yet another reason more homes are starting to look and feel the same.

---

OK, you might ask, but aren't speed and volume both good things, given the country's housing shortage? People are starting families and moving out of their parents' houses way faster than builders are churning out even the most-stripped-down houses. Homebuilders would need to break ground at triple the current pace to keep up with demand and close the gap of 7.2 million houses in four to five years, according to one estimate from Realtor.com. But there's something else holding us back. In a country obsessed with preserving property values, taste has taken a back seat.

We're all kind of temporarily embarrassed real-estate investors, in a way.

Kate Wagner, an architecture critic at The Nation and creator of the blog McMansion Hell, remembers a time before the Great Recession when the owners of suburban behemoths were obsessed with stockpiling amenities — a jacuzzi tub, a man cave, an in-home theater. The homes might be wacky and chaotic and destined to fall out of vogue, but at least they reflected some customization. In the past decade, though, she's noticed a shift toward another dispiriting trend. Homes now just feel "primed for resale" with their neutral tones, white kitchens, and the shiplap farmhouse look that everyone's into right now. With the aid of Zillow, everyone is constantly peering into their neighbors' homes. The house-flipper mentality — renovate cheaply and inoffensively — has gone mainstream.

"It's not necessarily about creating a house that is for somebody's particular taste but for it to be seamless as an asset," Wagner told me. "People become more and more self-conscious about the way that their houses are viewed. We're all kind of temporarily embarrassed real-estate investors, in a way."

This kind of thinking extends up and down the value chain. Builders need to finish homes quickly while targeting the broadest demographic possible. In an effort to keep up with demand, they're increasingly building on spec, which means they're pulling home plans off the shelf and constructing the final product without any input from the eventual buyer. Homeowners, meanwhile, want to emulate the looks they see on HGTV shows and inside the homes around their neighborhoods, which they can browse with ease online.

"The house is almost just like liquid capital," Wagner told me. "It can't be offensive; it can't break the mold. It has to be sellable at all times."

Taste is subjective, to be sure, and it can change with time. William Morgan, an architecture critic in Providence, Rhode Island, recalls an era when the word "Victorian" was enough to get a house torn down. "Now, of course, it's been resurrected, and people are doing little Queen Anne houses and adding little shingles and turrets and stuff," he told me. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are plenty of people who are happy with the cookie-cutter look as long as they can call it their own. And with so many would-be home sellers staying put with their 3% mortgage rates, the market for new homes may be the best option for some buyers right now.

The grumblings over the state of home design aren't just coming from haters looking for something to hate, though. They reflect both the tough economics of the building business and a homeownership mindset that's fixated on resale values. Like McInnes, the dismayed YouTuber in Northern Virginia, you may favor homes from a bygone era. But where you see boring and neutral, someone else sees dollar signs.

---

James Rodriguez is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Discourse team.

• My 20-year-old daughter is living at home while attending college.
• She's busy, but my wife and I see her more than if she wasn't at home with us, and she saves money.
• Though there are some downsides to the arrangement, they're minor compared to what we gain.

My daughter is 20 years old, and before my wife and I get a chance to speak with her each morning, she's gone, out the door, on her way to the rest of her life. We wave goodbye as the door shutting still rings in our ears.

This is not an exaggeration. It is our everyday existence. My daughter still lives with us in our basement in Chicago while she is going to school. We mostly see her in passing as she surfaces briefly to grab the car keys and whoosh out the back to go to class, see her friends, or rehearse for a theater gig.

Basically, she's doing all the things a young adult in a big city does, and she's not necessarily focused on her parents even when we shout, "So long!" as she scampers off.

Living with your parents is treated as a joke, but it shouldn't be

In popular culture and public discussions, the typical, proper thing for young adults to do is to leave home and go off to college. Living in your parent's basement is treated as a joke — a sign that you've failed to launch and are doomed to a sexless, friendless existence of dependency and stale pizza. My own parents insisted I could go to college anywhere except northeastern Pennsylvania, where I grew up. "We want you out of the house!" they said.

The truth, though, is that it's fairly common for young adults to live at home; more than half of people 18 to 24 live with their parents, according to 2023 census data. And this number has risen sharply in the last 20 years, likely in part because of rising housing and college costs.

There are plenty of positives, both financial and emotional

The incentives here are fairly obvious and ones with which we are very familiar. My daughter saves on rent since she's living with us (no, we don't charge her for her accommodations). We're also saving a lot of money because she's going to a state school nearby rather than a private college farther off. That means lower tuition, not much in the way of travel expenses, and (god willing) no college debt.

There are other upsides as well. My daughter already had contacts in the Chicago theater world, so it made sense for her to stay here to pursue her career. And for us…well, we like our daughter. She is funny and smart. She is cute when she snuggles the cat. She affirms me in my enthusiasm for the new Charli XCX album and death metal (and rolls her eyes when I try to play country or blues).

It's nice to see my daughter regularly, even if "regularly" for us means brief glimpses as she heads out to do her thing. She does have dinner with us a few nights a week, at which point we find out what she's auditioning for and what she's reading ("The Winter's Tale," last we checked — she's a big Shakespeare nerd). Sometimes, she even decides to hang out with us briefly if all her friends are busy and we make a decent offer (like, say, paying for a theater ticket).

There are also downsides to our cohabitation, but they're minor

Of course, not everything is roses and theater. When our daughter was in Europe for a week, spending the money she'd saved on rent, we were reminded how nice it is to be able to use the car whenever we want without having to worry about whether our daughter has taken it to a party, a show, or just out for a drive.

We also enjoyed briefly knowing that the food we put in the refrigerator would still be there the next time we checked, as 20-year-olds go through snack food like a devouring fire. Also, last week she knocked over a milkshake and then didn't sufficiently clean it up; the floor was slippery, and I fell on my butt, which hurt.

These are minor complaints, though. It's true that when your adult daughter is living at home, there's plenty of opportunity for friction and misery, if you long for it. We don't — and we mostly avoid it by treating said 20-year-old daughter like an adult. Yes, even when she spills a milkshake.

Sure, my wife and I nag her sometimes about cleaning up this or that or remembering appointments — but we nag each other about cleaning up this or that and remembering appointments, too. We don't police her comings and goings, demand she ask for permission before having friends over, check on her grades, or check on when she goes to bed or wakes up.

She's a grown-up; she's living her own life. That life just happens to be happening near us, and we'll be grateful while that lasts. She's our daughter. We like having her around.

• Salesforce shareholders rejected the company's proposed compensation plan for top executives.
• Major advisory firms recommended voting against the plan.
• But shareholders voted against a plan for an independent board chair.

Elon Musk's Tesla investors approved a mega-payday last month, leading the CEO to do a victory dance on stage. His 10-year pay package is estimated to be worth $55 billion, a record for a CEO.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is likely not dancing this week.

The company said in a regulatory filing on Monday that a slim majority — 53% — of shareholder votes were cast against the proposed compensation plan for Benioff and other top executives. The vote is not binding.

The plan would keep base pay for Benioff the same, at $1.55 million. But it would increase his equity, which brings his total compensation to $39.6 million, up from $29.9 million last year.

Major investor advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services had recommended shareholders vote against the compensation plan.

The annual vote wasn't a total show of no confidence in Benioff. Shareholders voted overwhelmingly against an independent board chair, leaving Benioff in the seat. The company said 77% of its 13-member board is independent.

Bloomberg values Benioff's net worth at nearly $10 billion.

Salesforce said in investor documents that Benioff's proposed pay package was "between the 50th and 75th percentiles of market" when compared against 17 peer companies like Microsoft and Workday.

Despite Benioff's big potential stock grant, the company said it reduced overall stock-based compensation as a percentage of revenue, from 10.5% in the 2023 fiscal year to 8% in the 2024 fiscal year, which ended January 31.

In materials ahead of Salesforce's annual meeting, the company said Benioff's initial $15 million stock grant for the 2024 fiscal year was lower than both the previous year and most peers, because Salesforce had a tough 2023 fiscal year. But after the company recovered, the compensation committee proposed increasing Benioff's equity payout with a second equity award, valued at $20 million.

Salesforce's shares are flat so far this year, but up 21% in the last 12 months.

Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Nadeshiko Zhang (25) lives with her parents in Baldwin Park, California to save money.
• She attends graduate school and her parents pay her bills to help her focus on her studies.
• Zhang plans to support her parents and help them retire early once she secures a well-paying job.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nadeshiko Zhang, a 25-year-old graduate student from Baldwin Park, California, about living at home with her parents who are helping to pay her bills. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I'm 25 years old and my parents still pay my bills and rent, which is a big help as I'm in grad school.

Last November, I moved back home to live with them and my younger brother in Baldwin Park, California, to save money because the housing and rental market is not ideal. I'm glad I made the decision; my mental health has improved vastly, and I'm less stressed.

My parents cover my bills because I'm still in school

I graduated from Chapman University with a bachelor of arts in psychology in 2023. I'm attending the Anaheim campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology for my master's in applied psychology. Once I'm done in July 2025, I'll pursue my doctorate in forensic psychology.

My parents still pay most of my bills because I'm a student. From their perspective, they don't want me to worry about money so I can focus on my education and get a good job.

Besides rent, they've also helped to pay for my car insurance, health insurance, and tuition.

My car insurance varies between $3,000 and $4,000 a year. As of this year, my parents no longer pay for my tuition and health insurance. My current income makes me eligible for free Medi-Cal, and my scholarships, grants, and loans cover my graduate school tuition.

I plan to return the favor when I land a good job

My father is a contractor and construction worker, and my mom runs a daycare center at home. Another goal is to help them pay off their mortgage so they have one less bill to worry about.

Once I get a good job, I plan on reciprocating by supporting my parents. I plan on helping my parents retire but I'm not sure when they'll be ready to do so as they enjoy keeping busy. My dad would probably retire in the next five to eight years.

My dad helped pay my tuition on a monthly payment plan. Because Chapman is a private school, my grants, scholarships, and financial aid didn't cover everything. I still had to pay between $10,000 to $15,000 out of pocket, including loans.

Living at home with my parents is great

While attending Chapman, I lived independently for three years, renting a room in a house. One of the main reasons I had to move out of my parent's house was that I didn't want to commute from Los Angeles to Orange County daily during undergrad.

Living alone was sometimes great, but I probably wouldn't want to live alone again. After a stressful day, I don't want to return to an empty house. It feels lonely.

Since moving back in with my parents, I look forward to going home after class versus dreading it when I live alone.

The one major con is that there's minimal privacy at my parents' home, which can affect busy study times and school work. But I'm saving over $2,000 a month by moving back home.

I still help out with monthly bills even though I don't have to

Currently, I private tutor kids on the side for extra cash for roughly 40 hours a month. Some of that money has been used to build up my savings and buy a new Tesla for my commute. My previous car was a 2021 Honda Civic Hatchback Sport, and I decided to go electric for the longer commute.

A lot of my friends think I've made a really smart choice, living at home, considering the rent prices.

Once I get my master's degree, I want to teach at a community college as a professor while working on my doctorate degree. Eventually, I plan on moving out with some friends and buying a house closer to my work, so it's an easier commute.

After I complete my degrees I want to focus on retiring my parents early

Ultimately, after my postdoctorate, I want to apply for the FBI Academy and get field training. I aim to become a forensic psychologist partnering with the FBI's Behavior Analysis Unit. Women, especially women of color, comprise a fraction of any federal agency. I want to be part of that change.

I'm confident I'll make enough money to take care of my parents. Forensic psychologists make six figures with a salary bump from degrees, certifications, and references. The starting salary for the position I want is around $150,000 a year.

I also can't wait to be able to help my parents retire early because they've worked so hard and long.

Since my brother is starting college soon, I agreed to pay for his tuition, and he'll be helping me support my parents after he starts his career.

If you have a unique living or money arrangement with your family, and want to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• Automotive journalist Jules Rogers test-drove the XSE model of the 2024 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid SUV.
• The SUV offers fuel efficiency and a smooth ride, and the XSE model has added premium features.
• While she would consider buying it, she thinks the price is a bit high and it's not worth buying new.

The 2024 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid SUV is fun to drive and has luxurious interior features. Highlights include its fuel efficiency, smooth ride, and quick acceleration, along with heated seats, a moonroof, and 18-inch sport alloy wheels.

The RAV4 Hybrid XSE all-wheel-drive SUV has extensive safety features, such as automatic high beams, lane tracing assist, and pedestrian detection, that come with the Toyota Safety Sense package.

As an automotive journalist, I test-drive new vehicles all the time. The standard RAV4 Hybrid model starts at $31,475, but I drove the XSE model, which comes with the special XSE technology package and costs $42,909.

I liked it, but the 2024 model isn't significantly better than the 2023 model, so it could be worth it for budget-friendly drivers to consider an older model.

The XSE model is for a driver who prioritizes premium features

The XSE technology package includes front and rear parking assist with automatic braking, a smart keys system, wireless smartphone charging, an eight-way power driver's seat with memory function, and a 12.3-inch color gauge cluster control system.

The XSE also has a sport-tuned suspension and bigger tech on the dash. The base model is just fine for those who want a hybrid at a reasonably modest price point.

You can also choose the XSE weather package, which features a heated leather-trimmed steering wheel and rain-sensing variable intermittent windshield wipers, including a de-icer function. This package is great for drivers who live in harsher climates.

The model I drove was equipped with all-weather floor liners, which allow drivers to keep the car spotless — especially if they're driving on dirt roads or mudding on their day off.

Both the interior and exterior are appealing

On the outside, this Toyota is very cute and compact. The one I drove was finished in cavalier blue with multi-spoke black rims.

Inside, the SUV has vegan leather with really nice stitching throughout. This trim specifically features blue embroidery thread on the seating, a high-end detail that makes the interior feel posh. I love the blue stitching. Toyota doesn't skimp on interior materials, so it feels like a modern, well-made SUV.

There are a lot of thoughtful details in the dash and inside the car, including the JBL infotainment system, which creates the perfect mood while driving. Heated front seats also make this hybrid SUV extra comfortable. Even the back seats feature air vents with the dual-zone system setup.

I loved the panoramic moonroof upgrade, which gave the interior a great ambiance for the driver and passengers. This vehicle has many different gadgets for the driver, including its audio multimedia infotainment system with six speakers, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto.

The safety features are very useful

The Toyota Safety Sense features ensure this SUV's safety. These include pre-collision and pedestrian detection, radar cruise control, steering and lane tracing assist, automatic high beams, an anti-theft system with an alarm, a backup camera, blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and more. This vehicle also has a five-star government safety rating.

During inclement weather, the bird's-eye view feature allowed me to toggle a switch on my rearview mirror, turning it into a screen showing a real-time rear-camera view. I would definitely use this during the rainy months, when vision may be limited by the weather. The rearview mirror also features auto-dimming, so the lights from the car behind you can't blind you.

There's no lack of power

The RAV4 Hybrid is comparable to its sister, the RAV4 Prime, and its competitor, the Kia Sportage Hybrid, which has a complete redesign for 2024 and is the winner of the 2023 US News Best Hybrid SUV for the Money.

This SUV has 219 total horsepower and runs on a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with electronic variable transmission and electronic on-demand all-wheel drive. This power is suitable for this size SUV.

The ECVT is the vehicle's hybrid mode, which, combined with the engine, gives a decent score of 41 mpg in the city and 38 mpg on the highway. On ECO mode, it gets super quiet and automatically turns off the engine when you come to a complete stop, kicking back on when you exceed a certain speed limit.

This vehicle feels nimble and responsive, and the torque feels instinctive. When you hit the gas the car immediately powers forward — there's no lag. You wouldn't know you're driving an SUV because of its responsiveness, quick horsepower, and four-wheel drive. It offers a smooth ride, nice acceleration and handling, and sport mode for off-roading enthusiasts.

I enjoyed how easy it is to drive

This Toyota SUV is a great vehicle for all types of driving, whether in the city or traveling.

Overall, I find it easy on the eyes and an exciting compact SUV that I enjoy driving. There's no uncomfortable seat in this vehicle, even in the back, so when you're ready for a long vacation with your family, this is the perfect hybrid SUV to do it in.

When I'm next in the market for a hybrid crossover SUV, I will definitely consider the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid XSE, but I wish it didn't cost as much as it does, especially considering how many other options are on the market for $40,000 or less.

• Armed with a credit card and a dream, Daniel Jailani set off to see the Eras Tour as many times as possible.
• Going to 10 shows across four countries cost him $4,280 in tickets, flights, hotels, and outfits. 
• He says it was an experience of a lifetime, one he would gladly repeat.

Daniel Jailani, a 24-year-old legal counsel from Singapore and a hardcore Taylor Swift fan, was laser-focused on catching as many of his idol's Eras Tour shows as possible.

Even if it meant using up almost all his paid time off, he traveled to Australia, France, and the United Kingdom to catch 10 of Swift's three-and-a-half-hour-long concerts.

Jailani said Swift is his favorite artist of all time. Growing up gay in a conservative Muslim family in Singapore, he said: "Her music transported me to a place where I was not stuck in my very difficult reality."

He added that he lived vicariously through Swift's music in his formative years.

"And at that point in time, her music was about high school and falling in love with boys, so that's how she allowed me to experience all that," he said.

In five months, Jailani has taken six flights, tailored eight concert outfits himself, and spent $4,279.76 to see the shows.

He said that the main motivation to see Swift across multiple nights was to catch her three surprise songs every night, which are not in her set list of 46 songs and are unique to each city.

He's not done yet and plans to attend one last show in London in August.

Here's what the whole experience cost him, according to receipts and invoices verified by Business Insider.

$2,242.22 for concert tickets

While some struggled with purchasing even a single ticket to see Swift, Jailani managed to snag 11 with the help of his friends, family, and strangers on TikTok.

He attended one night in Melbourne, all six nights in Singapore, two in Lyon, and one in London, with one more — Swift's August show at Wembley Stadium — left.

Jailani said securing the tickets was a team effort, with his family and friends helping him purchase additional tickets.

For example, one of his friends traded her extra Melbourne Eras Tour ticket for his spare Singapore Coldplay "Music of the Spheres" ticket.

$1,083.51 for flights

The fan chased Swift around the world, flying to three different countries from Singapore to see his idol. He purchased six flight tickets, return journeys from Singapore to Melbourne, Paris and London.

Jailani booked them all with deals on Singapore Airlines, the country's national carrier.

He has yet to book his last return flight to London for Swift's August show.

S$396.48 for hotels

Here's where Jailani saved big. Opting to bunk in with his friends and family in Lyon and London rather than in hotels or Airbnbs helped him save.

In Melbourne, however, he chose to stay in a serviced apartment just half a mile from the concert venue.

$230 on Eras Tour merch

He spent about $230 on official Eras Tour souvenirs, which included two t-shirts, one hoodie, and one crewneck sweater.

$328.55 for outfits

Jailani designed his own outfits for the concerts, inspired by eight of Swift's 11 albums, or eras.

From a rhinestone-studded black pantsuit inspired by the Midnights album to a sweeping green cape for the Folklore album, he pieced all his outfits together by hand.

The materials used cost him $328.55, he said.

Swifties are shelling out big time for the Eras Tour

Jailani is not the only one willing to spend big bucks for the Eras Tour. A report by research company QuestionPro found that Swifties were spending $1,300 on average to attend the Eras Tour.

An earlier Business Insider story featured eight Swifties who spent between $300 and $20,000 to see the concert.

He also hasn't broken the record for most shows attended. According to Rolling Stone, a 27-year-old fan visited the Eras Tour 20 times across North America.

The Eras Tour is the first-ever concert tour to gross over $1 billion, and the QuestionPro report found that it could result in $4.6 billion in consumer spending in the US.

Swift is expected to boost the economies of countries in Europe in a similar way as her tour makes its way through the continent.

Hotel prices in Milan, ahead of her show in July, spiked by 45% on the nights of her concerts, compared to the weeks before and after the show, Italian tourism company Tourist Italy told Business Insider.

Portugal, Spain, and Sweden's hotel prices in May increased several times from their 2021 to 2023 average, according to a June report from BMI, an analytics subsidiary of Fitch Solutions.

The one European country that didn't seem to have benefited from Swiftonomics, however, was France, where hotel prices dropped, per the BMI report.

Swift still has 34 shows left in Europe and Canada, with the tour slated to end in December.

• The US is trying to shut down the Darién Gap, a land route used by thousands to reach its borders.
• It's paying for migrants' repatriation out of Panama in exchange for the latter closing the corridor.
• Hundreds of thousands of migrants pass through Panama on their way to the US from South America.

The US has agreed to fund repatriation for people who entered Panama illegally in exchange for the latter shutting down a main corridor for migrants traveling by land to the US-Mexico border.

"This program will help the Panamanian government to remove foreign nationals who do not have a legal basis to remain in Panama," the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a statement on Monday.

The funding will involve the US paying for flights out of Panama and "supporting training and capacity building to strengthen and institutionalize safe, humane repatriation processes," the statement said.

The amount allocated to these flights, provided by the State Department, was not announced.

The Associated Press reported that the new deal will see the US paying for charter and commercial flights to return migrants to their home countries.

It cited two senior administration officials who were not named, who also said Panama would choose who is repatriated based on its laws.

This agreement, signed by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, comes as Panama inaugurates its new president, José Raúl Mulino.

It will see Panama closing off the Darién Gap, a treacherous stretch of rainforest that at least 520,000 migrants walked through in 2023 on their way north. Another 174,000 people were recorded using the route this year.

The corridor, regularly plied by cartels and paramilitary forces, starts in Colombia and ends in Panama. It typically takes about 5 days or more of arduous trekking to finish the 66-mile journey.

Several popular exit points from the Darién Gap are staffed by humanitarian agencies such as Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF, who provide medical aid and essentials to the migrants but are increasingly overwhelmed by a growing influx of trekkers.

The Panamanian government has typically not repatriated migrants who enter the country via the Darién Gap, but it's been managing some infrastructure to house them as they pass through.

Once in Panama, many migrants continue their journey through Central America, crossing at least five transnational borders to reach Mexico and eventually making their way to the US southern border.

US border patrol encounters with migrants in the southwest hit record highs in December, with over 301,000 incidents logged. Nearly 2.5 million migrant encounters were reported in the 2023 fiscal year, and this year's numbers are on track to hit a similar level.

Authorities already struggle to manage the Darién Gap

Yet closing the Darién Gap is no small feat. In April 2023, the US and Panama launched a 60-day campaign to curb illegal migration from the corridor.

In June of that year, Panama assigned 1,200 immigration agents, border police, and naval air service members to target criminal groups that guide and exploit migrants traveling through the Darién Gap.

Hundreds of thousands still used the crossing afterward.

Mulino, Panama's new president, has vowed to solve immigration issues in the country. He announced on his first day in office that the country would no longer be "a path open to thousands of people who enter our country illegally."

Illegal immigration has increasingly come under the spotlight in US politics, particularly for Republican leaders who have accused the Biden administration of allowing border security to grow lax.

On June 4, President Joe Biden signed a proclamation that temporarily restricts entry for non-US citizens who enter through the southwest border illegally. His campaign highlighted that border officials' seven-day encounter average dropped 40%.

But managing the immigration crisis is proving to be a delicate political and economic balancing act. Biden previously came under fire from progressives for referring to a Venezuelan migrant charged with murder as "an illegal."

Several analysts also say immigrants have helped relieve a labor shortage in the US and that overly aggressive deportation programs, such as the one suggested by presidential candidate Donald Trump, would risk stagnating the economy.

• The Biden campaign said it raised $33 million after the first presidential debate of the year. 
• The campaign said that half of the funds raised came from first time donors. 
• The spike in donations provides some relief for Biden who is facing growing calls to step aside. 

Supporters of President Joe Biden may have been unnerved by his bad performance at Thursday's presidential debate, but that didn't seem to hinder his campaign's fundraising efforts.

"$33 million raised since the debate, $26 million from grassroots donors," Biden deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in an X post on Sunday.

"Half! Of the donations made in this period are from first time donors. The Democrats grassroots is getting on board," he continued.

The spike in donations would certainly be a source of relief for the Biden camp. For comparison, former President Donald Trump's campaign said it raised $8 million the day after the debate.

"Thursday was our best grassroots fundraising day ever, while Friday was the second best," a Biden campaign official told CNN.

Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Biden saw a similar bump in donations after his first presidential debate with Trump in the 2020 election. His campaign said at the time that it had broken its fundraising records when it raised nearly $10 million from 215,000 donors on the day of the debate.

But while the surge in donations will provide Biden with a welcome boost, it certainly isn't the home run the campaign needs right now.

Calls for Biden to be replaced as the presumptive Democratic nominee have grown after his underwhelming performance at last week's debate.

And when it comes to fundraising, Biden's campaign could also be losing its momentum against his GOP rival.

Trump's campaign said it raised $141 million in May, higher than Biden's $85 million in the same month. And in April, Trump raised $76 million to Biden's $51 million.

On Saturday, Biden donor and investor Whitney Tilson said he's reconsidering his support for Biden after Thursday's debate.

"If the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden right now, then it would be a waste of my time and money to support him because he has almost no chance of beating Trump," Tilson said in an X post.