• As a frequent solo traveler, I've been lucky enough to visit all 50 US states.
• Though I've loved aspects of every state, there are some places I'm not in a rush to return to.
• Indiana, North Dakota, and Kansas are some of the states I don't plan to return to anytime soon.

A 2016 survey by the market-research company Ipsos found that the average American had been to only 12.5 states. But as a frequent solo traveler, I've been lucky enough to visit all 50 US states.

The journey has been filled with beauty, excitement, unique destinations, and a sense of accomplishment I never could have imagined.

Though I've found beauty in all 50 states and would honestly return to them all, there are some that I'm in less of a rush to visit again.

Whether the landscapes just weren't for me or the distance to travel was too great, here are the five states I'm not in a hurry to return to.

I enjoyed traveling to Indiana but would prefer to visit other states in the Midwest.

Though I haven't visited every corner of Indiana and enjoyed my previous visits, I don't see myself returning anytime soon.

I prefer visiting many of the states around Indiana and am constantly working to get back to them. For example, Michigan and Wisconsin are two of my favorite places to visit

Though Indiana has a major national park, Indiana Dunes, I'd rather visit the sand dunes in Michigan or simply head to Chicago, which is less than an hour from the park.

North Dakota is beautiful but more difficult to navigate.

North Dakota is one of the country's most otherworldly and beautiful states. Though I consider it worth a visit for anyone who appreciates plains, prairies, badlands, and wildlife, it is — to me — the sort of place that's a once-in-a-lifetime visit.

The state's remoteness and lack of larger cities (only Fargo has more than 100,000 residents) make it a place that isn't necessarily as easy to visit on a quick weekend trip.

Since things are more spread out, this trip requires more planning than others. So, while I'd love to go back eventually, I probably won't find myself there again soon.

I found Kansas to be a bit monotonous.

Kansas has more to offer than the traditional plains many people think of, but I still find the landscape to be somewhat monotonous.

I did love exploring hidden gems like Monument Rocks' giant chalk formations, which rise dramatically from the plains.

But while the state's mostly rural and agricultural nature is charming, I'd rather be in nearby Colorado or Missouri for more diverse landscapes.

I'd rather visit South Dakota or Wyoming than Nebraska.

Because of its proximity to my home in Colorado, I find myself traveling through Nebraska quite often. I've visited the state dozens of times and have traveled to many outdoor recreation opportunities, parks, and unique destinations throughout the state.

Though I've had a blast exploring Omaha's vibrant art scene, and Scotts Bluff National Monument is simply stunning, the landscape is still not one I would choose over the surrounding areas in South Dakota or Wyoming.

I don't love the remoteness of some of Nevada's highways.

This one is tough because Nevada's state parks are some of the most amazing in the country. I even have fun on an occasional trip to Las Vegas. The only problem I have with Nevada is the remoteness of some of the highways.

The state is home to what Life magazine dubbed the "Loneliest Road in America" in 1986. The stretch of US Route 50 that crosses the state is remote, isolated, and vast.

I've enjoyed driving the road and other areas of the state more than once. But lately, I've felt more comfortable knowing that others are nearby when I'm traveling solo.

Correction: June 18, 2024 — An earlier version of this story mistakenly included Illinois rather than Kansas in the summary bullets as one of the states the author wouldn't return to.

Correction: June 20, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated that the author has family in Nebraska.

• Law enforcement worldwide teamed up recently to fight cybercrime. 
• "Operation Endgame" led to four arrests and the dismantling of 100 malicious servers globally.
• Cybersecurity experts called the sting an important step, but said its just a start. 

In what's been billed as a first-of-its-kind operation, law enforcement agencies around the world recently banded together to take down major cyber criminal infrastructure that officials said targeted multitudes of victims and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages globally.

Over a couple of days in late May, "Operation Endgame" led to the arrests of four people in Ukraine and Armenia, the dismantling of more than 100 malicious computer servers worldwide, and the seizure of over 2,000 domains, according law enforcement in the US and Europe.

One of the main suspects raked in at least $70 million in cryptocurrency by "renting out criminal infrastructure sites to deploy ransomware" according to Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union that conducted the operation along with other agencies, including the FBI.

Cybersecurity experts told Business Insider that the takedown is a pivotal step forward in the ongoing war against cybercrime. However, they said, the fight can't end here, as cybercrime is one of the biggest threats facing humanity.

"It's not like this is going to solve the problem, but it's a great step in addressing it," said Adam Wandt, a cybercrime investigations expert and a public policy professor at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

'Largest ever operation against botnets'

Europol called the sting the "largest ever operation against botnets, which play a major role in the deployment of ransomware."

"This worldwide operation, involving law enforcement authorities from 13 countries, led to a significant disruption of criminal activities," Europol spokesperson Ina Mihaylova told Business Insider, noting the effort was also supported by the private industry.

Mihaylova called the scale of the operation "unprecedented in the cyber domain."

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the agency "used joint and sequenced actions to run a first-of-its-kind international operation and debilitate the criminal infrastructure of multiple malware services."

As part of the operation, the law enforcement agencies shut down at least four malware groups or "droppers" known as "IcedID," "Smokeloader," "Pikabot," and "Bumblebee."

According to the FBI, these droppers, designed to install malware onto computer systems, "infected millions of computers and claimed countless victims around the world and throughout the United States, including a hospital network, which not only cost millions of dollars but alarmingly put people's lives at risk due to the compromised critical care online system."

"This is taking down computer servers, which are affecting all of us," said Wandt, who explained that the hackers behind the botnets are "going for money, and they don't care who they go for or how they get it."

"This could be my grandmother sitting at home, this could be a large bank. It doesn't matter," he said.

Wandt and other experts said the takedown of 100 malicious servers is a small number when compared to the vast number of servers that run botnets around the globe but that it's nonetheless important.

"That doesn't mean that it was a small number in the amount of fraud that it was committing," said Wandt.

Ransomware 'wreaking havoc around the world'

Tracy Beth Mitrano, a cybersecurity policy expert and a visiting professor of information science at Cornell University, called "Operation Endgame" a "significant step," but said "it's not significant in terms of the total scope of the problem."

"Ransomware has just been wreaking havoc around the world," Mitrano said. "It's been ripping through the United States."

Mitrano emphasized the importance of the US working with other countries around the world to combat cybercrime and called for international law, treaties, and agreements "to establish rules of the road in cyberspace."

"The war will not be won until there are international laws and standards that bring countries together," said Mitrano.

Mitrano said "Operation Endgame," is a "very important first step, but we have to keep going."

"Cyber insecurity is one of the biggest threats we face on the globe today," she said.

Thomas Holt, a cybersecurity expert and professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, said the coordinated effort of countries around the globe working to fight cybercrime as was done in "Operation Endgame" is "absolutely necessary."

"Cybercrime is such a distributed problem," he said, noting that cybercriminals can target "anyone anywhere with relative ease, and the likelihood of detection is really, really low."

So any attempt at cracking down on cybercrime is a positive, Holt said.

"It's a net gain in terms of complicating networks or forcing short-term behavioral change on the market and the actors," said Holt. "It may not create these long-term sustained drop-offs, but it at least provides a short-term benefit."

Holt said he does not believe cybercrime will ever be stopped, "But what I think we can do is produce complexities for the offender, making it harder for them to actually engage in an offense like running a botnet."

The "biggest problem" in the malware world, according to Holt, is that there is always a different iteration of malware on the horizon.

"Over the last decade, it has been ransomware primarily, but there's going to be an eventual pivot away from ransomware to something else," he said. "We don't know exactly what that something else is yet."

And artificial intelligence "will certainly simplify the process" for cyberattackers, said Holt.

Cybercriminals "don't have the same degree of difficulty or barriers to entry that we had in the 80s, the 90s, and even the early 2000s," Holt said.

"Now it's flattened to a point where as long as you have money, you can buy personal data, you buy credit card numbers, rent out denial of service attacks on demand or botnets," he said. "So you don't even need to know what you're doing. You just need to have a cursory understanding and dollars in your pocket."

Last month, Wray, the FBI director, pledged the agency's ongoing commitment to combatting cybercrime.

"The fight against borderless cybercrime does not end here, and the FBI is committed to tackling this ever-evolving threat," he said.

• Market research firm YouGov recently surveyed US travelers about acceptable behaviors on a flight.
• I was surprised by the amount of people who said ignoring safety presentations was acceptable. 
• I was also surprised by the number of people who take their shoes off and unbuckle their seatbelt.

Market research firm YouGov recently surveyed US travelers about what they consider appropriate behavior on a plane.

Some results were as expected: more than 80% disapproved of kids playing in the aisle, leaving their seats during turbulence, and getting drunk during a flight.

Since those behaviors range from irritating to downright dangerous, I'm heartened that they are met with overwhelming condemnation, even in a society as fractured as ours.

However, I found some of the YouGov survey's findings surprising and, in some instances, highly disconcerting.

Pay attention to safety demonstrations

20% of respondents said it's acceptable to ignore the safety demonstration at the beginning of flights.

It's a position that's more likely to be taken by frequent fliers (32%) versus just 16% of those who never fly.

I agree that the pre-flight safety demonstration can feel mundane and superfluous, but it still serves as a crucial overview of the aircraft's emergency exits and safety devices.

That's all information that could come in handy during a potentially chaotic and disorientating emergency evacuation.

Even the seemingly useless seatbelt demo can be useful. After all, passengers have been known to forget how to unbuckle their belts during emergency situations.

This just creates more work for flight attendants, whose primary job is to work as a team to get passengers off the plane quickly and safely in an emergency.

While I'm buoyed by the fact that 66% disapproved of the behavior, I remain concerned that at least 1/5 of the plane likely has no idea how to react in a life-threatening situation.

Keep your seatbelt on

Speaking of unbuckling seat belts, 47% of respondents said it is acceptable to do so when the seatbelt light is switched off.

I think there's a fundamental disconnect between what switching off the seatbelt light means to the flying public and what it actually means.

Switching off the light means passengers may now safely get up to use the lavatory or retrieve something from the overhead compartment. However, passengers should remain bucked once they return to their seats.

Flight crews sometimes will even make announcements instructing passengers to stay buckled when seated.

Given the recent examples of severe turbulence that have resulted in injuries and even a fatality, it's probably wise to heed those warnings.

Keep your shoes on

According to the survey, 30% of American adults said taking your shoes off on a plane is acceptable.

Soaring through the skies in a winged pressurized metal vessel is truly a marvel of modern engineering. I think I speak for most fliers when I say I don't want to enjoy this marvel while wafting the scent of someone's feet.

Beyond the assault on our olfactory senses, walking around the cabin of an airliner in your socks just isn't terribly sanitary.

Even though aircraft are vacuumed in fairly frequent intervals, their carpets see a lot of passengers between more thorough cleanings.

All kinds of detritus find their way onto these carpets, from food and drink to mud and dirt. In the most extreme cases, there may even be biohazards—soaked in blood, like on board an Air France flight to Toronto last July, or liquid feces, like Delta's diarrhea flight last September.

Even though airlines usually remove the biohazard-contaminated carpets, as was the case after the Delta flight, they serve as stomach-turning reminders to keep your shoes on.

• This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.
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Happy first day of summer! With the changing of the seasons, it's worth reassessing your wardrobe. These are the summer accessories you should ditch. (No more cargo shorts!)

In today's big story, we're looking at why the rise of "quiet vacationing" shows the depressing state of America's work culture.

What's on deck:

• Markets: Private equity's push into investing in law firms is a disaster, according to one attorney.
• Tech: It seems like not even the streamers can save pay TV.
• Business: Top MBA grads are vying for a spot in this private-equity firm's CEO-In-Training program.

But first, I might be a bit slow to respond.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Down-low vacation

Are you working today, or are you "working" today?

If you're unfamiliar with the distinction, let me introduce you to a new workplace phrase: quiet vacationing.

The idea is to take some time off without officially informing your employer. The result is a quasi-vacation where you might shoot off emails and respond to Slack messages between drinks at the swim-up bar.

Naturally, it's a concept championed by those loveable workaholics, millennials.

Depending on your position on the workplace spectrum, that might sound like an ideal setup or the sign of a lazy worker.

But Business Insider's Emily Stewart argues workers feeling too stressed to fully take time off is a sad example of America's work culture.

It's not an unfounded fear, either. One piece of research found men at a consulting firm were rewarded for giving the impression they were workaholics despite actually pulling back on work.

Either way, it's a trend that's unlikely to die down in the near term.

As I previously wrote, the rise of WFH Fridays is the perfect complement to quiet vacations. And summer presents plenty of opportunities for on-the-sly trips.

Look no further than July 5, the Friday after Independence Day, which is sure to have plenty of people "working."

Personally, I blame the hesitancy to fully unplug on one man: Wally Pipp.

Pipp was the New York Yankees' first baseman, twice leading the American League in home runs and helping the Yankees win a World Series in 1923.

But, as legend goes, on June 2, 1925, Pipp asked out of the lineup due to a headache. His replacement was Lou Gehrig, who went on to play in more than 2,100 consecutive games en route to a legendary career.

Now, Pipp's name is synonymous with the risk of taking your foot off the gas. Long before "FOMO" there was fear of getting "Wally Pipped." It also makes for great fodder for LinkedIn influencers who tout the importance of #hustleharder.

And with the threat of layoffs ongoing, it's no wonder people might not want to be seen taking it easy.

The irony is that quiet vacationing could arguably put you in a worse position for your job these days. As companies continue their efficiency push, taking longer to do your work because you're secretly out of town might be a bigger sin than just taking time off.

Better to put in 100% effort 80% of the time than 80% effort 100% of the time, one could argue.

3 things in markets

1. How dreams of upending the legal industry with private equity became a nightmare. Arizona permitting non-lawyers to invest in law firms created what trial lawyer Steve German initially saw as a "revolutionary" opportunity "to do good." But his partnership with Miami investment firm 777 Partners quickly soured, and now German is a vocal critic of Arizona's hands-off approach.
2. The cost of delaying rates could be fatal for the economy. Famed economist Mohamed El-Erian warned the Federal Reserve's higher-for-longer approach to interest rates is creating and deepening vulnerabilities in the economy. As it stands, he sees the recession risk at 35%.
3. Russia's largest private bank is expanding to China. Alfa Bank PJSC is applying to build new offices in Beijing and Shanghai after being hit by US sanctions. The move is a nod to Russia and China's increasingly intertwined, "no-limits" partnership.

3 things in tech

1. Pay TV is falling fast. Pay-TV subscriptions have been declining for years, but the start of the year ushered in the worst quarter in pay-TV's history. Even digital pay-TV subscriptions like YouTube TV, which were once promising, are starting to falter.
2. Some Amazon employees were fuming over a private Foo Fighters concert for senior leaders. Internal Slack messages viewed by BI show Amazon employees slamming the company for the concert, which was just for director- and vice president-level employees. "Meanwhile, there's no budget for a monthly happy hour on our team," one employee wrote.
3. Businesses' embrace of generative AI is about to get messy. A vast majority of US companies are adopting generative AI tools — and at an unusually fast pace, according to a survey from Bain & Company. Now, they actually have to make money from these big investments.

3 things in business

1. How to grow a CEO. One private-equity firm has a training program that promises to pipeline MBA grads into CEO roles at their portfolio companies. Described by one alum as "turbocharged entrepreneurship," it's harder to get into than Harvard.
2. For TV companies, the cost of sports might be Hollywood. Media companies are shelling out billions to vie for sports broadcasting rights, which have never been more important for viewership. They've also never been more expensive. That high price tag could spell disaster for Hollywood as media execs pull funding from entertainment budgets to cover costs.
3. Dell workers are rejecting RTO. Almost half of the company's full-time US workforce have rejected its return-to-office push, data seen by BI shows — and those workers are ineligible for promotion if they stay remote. BI spoke with 11 Dell employees on why they made that choice.

In other news

• The egg-freezing industry's shady sales pitch.
• Nvidia is throwing its weight around — and even Amazon is bowing down.
• Digital advertisers want "premium content" — but are in a battle over how to define it.
• Apple exec explains why you wouldn't want to run Apple Intelligence on your older iPhone.
• There's a pipeline of former Tesla staffers to Elon Musk's shiny new startup xAI.
• Fewer Microsoft employees think they're getting a 'good deal,' internal survey shows.
• The Caitlin Clark culture war sums up our garbage treatment of female athletes.
• The curious case of Reddit's surging traffic.
• Here are the highest-paid CEOs in the US, some of whom have 9-figure compensation packages.

What's happening today

• The summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the official start of summer, is today. Enjoy the extra sunlight!
• SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission launches.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. George Glover, reporter, in London. Annie Smith, associate producer, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.

• The Philippines released video showing Chinese coast guard during a skirmish in the South China Sea.
• It called Monday's incident, in which the Chinese brandished weapons, "a brazen act of aggression."
• It's the latest in a series of Chinese provocations in the South China Sea.

The Philippine army has shared video that it says shows China Coast Guard personnel wielding an ax and other weapons at them during a tense encounter in the South China Sea on Monday.

Chinese coast guard also flung rocks, slashed boats with "bladed and pointed weapons," and blared sirens and strobe lights during the encounter, which damaged the boats, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said.

The footage, shared to X on Wednesday, shows several boats crowded together with people on either side yelling at each other.

One figure — identified by the Armed Forces of the Philippines as a member of the China Coast Guard — can be seen brandishing an ax.

It also shared aerial footage of what it said was a Filipino boat "crammed in the middle" of two Chinese vessels.

Business Insider was not able to independently verify the footage.

The posts called the situation "a brutal assault" on China's part.

General Romeo Brawner, the Philippines' top military commander, criticized China for what he described as "reckless and aggressive" behavior. He accused the Chinese vessels of ramming Philippine boats, and said one Filipino soldier lost a thumb when his vessel was hit.

But China's foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian described the actions as "professional, restrained, justified and lawful."

The Filipino armed forces said its troops had been engaged in a humanitarian resupply mission at the Ayungin Shoal, a contested atoll in the South China Sea some 120 miles from the Filipino Palawan Island.

China claims sovereignty over much of the South China Sea — including the resource-rich waters in which Monday's skirmish took place — despite a 2016 ruling by the Hague not recognizing those claims.

The clash took place a few days after China enacted a new law allowing its Coast Guard to seize foreign ships suspected of trespassing, CNN reported.

Beijing takes particular exception to the object of the Filipino mission, which was to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre, a ship that the Philippines deliberately grounded in 1999 in order to cement its claims over the waters.

The Philippines and its allies condemned Monday's incident, which is the latest in a series of Chinese provocations in the South China Sea.

The Philippines' Fisheries Bureau in February accused China of trying to destroy Scarborough Shoal, a fish-rich atoll off the Manila coast, by pumping cyanide into the waters.

In April, Chinese Coast Guard ships battered a Filipino vessel, this time off Manila's coast, with water cannon, in a move that Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela called "harassment."

The incidents have taken place against the backdrop of strengthening US-Filipino relations, which has seen an uptick in military cooperation between Manila and Washington in recent months.

• The first known instance of GPS jamming impacting transatlantic flights has been recorded. 
• According to air traffic control data, a flight was forced to operate in a "degraded mode."
• Russia is suspected of being behind GPS jamming in the Baltic region.  

The first known instance of GPS jamming impacting a flight on transatlantic routes has been reported.

According to air traffic control data cited on June 19 by an open-source intelligence analyst on X and the Resilient Timing and Navigation Foundation (RNTF), a flight from Madrid to Toronto was unable to ascend because a flight at a higher altitude had been affected by GPS jamming.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank that monitors global conflicts, reported the incident.

Satellite navigation systems, or GPS, are used by aircraft to navigate to their destinations. Interference with GPS isn't an immediate danger to planes because they have backup navigation systems, but they do pose a wider safety risk, say experts.

In the air traffic control data communications log, a dispatcher said that an aircraft at a higher altitude was operating in a "degraded mode," and another replied that it was the first known instance of GPS jamming on a transatlantic route.

The reports said it's not known for certain what caused the GPS interference, but they note that in the Baltic region, thousands of flights and ships have been affected by GPS interference believed to be linked to Russia.

The Norwegian Communication Authority told Business Insider in February that flights were experiencing GPS jamming on an almost daily basis, and in March, a plane carrying UK defense secretary Grant Shapps was impacted while flying near Russia's Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic.

Russia has a powerful electronic warfare capability, that it uses on the battlefield in Ukraine to disable missiles and drones.

According to reports, a Russian electronic warfare unit is based in Kaliningrad.

The RNTF said that the plane on the transatlantic route had likely been impacted by GPS interference while traveling from the Baltic region or the Middle East, and its GPS receivers hadn't recovered by the time it reached the transatlantic phase of the trip.

It noted that if similar incidents happen more frequently, it could have a major impact on transatlantic flights, likely resulting in delays and cancellations.

• Apple is betting its future on Apple Intelligence.
• The new suite of AI features are expected to breathe fresh life into iPhones.
• Apple may have a problem offering these services in China, its second-biggest iPhone market.

If there's one place Tim Cook could do with Apple Intelligence being a real hit, it's China.

Apple's spin on generative AI, revealed at WWDC this month, is set to bring Silicon Valley's most-hyped technology to its devices at a time when they could do with a killer new feature to entice Chinese consumers.

That's because Apple has been in urgent need of a plan to rejuvenate interest in iPhones in China — its most important international market — where sales were down by almost a fifth in the first three months of the year, according to one estimate.

Apple's decline in China has been triggered by a number of factors.

For one, Chinese consumers have had a conveyor belt of enticing alternatives — such as the Mate 60 Pro and Pura 70 Ultra — showcased to them by domestic players such as Huawei in recent months. They're likely to have grown tired of iterative iPhone upgrades in recent years, too.

Luckily for the iPhone maker, interest in Apple Intelligence has been strong. A combination of its own AI and a new partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI has offered investors enough assurance to drive an $200 billion-plus rally in Apple stock.

There's just one problem: Apple doesn't have a clear way of getting all these new AI features everyone's excited about up and running in China.

Getting Apple Intelligence to China

Keeping a strong foothold in China is vital for Apple. In its last fiscal year, the company generated $72.6 billion in net sales from the Greater China region.

However, with signs of that sliding, Apple has reason to get Apple Intelligence into the country.

CEO Tim Cook has put the new suite of AI features front and center in Apple's future, promising they "will transform what users can do with our products — and what our products can do for our users."

The problem is that a key part of Apple Intelligence — ChatGPT —isn't actually allowed in China right now. Chinese citizens must use a VPN to gain access to the OpenAI chatbot.

ChatGPT has not made its way into the country because companies seeking to offer large language model-led AI chatbots must first get approval from Beijing. Such approval has only been offered to Chinese developers of AI chatbots thus far.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this has led Apple to conversations with leading local companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Beijing startup Baichuan AI about striking an agreement to mirror its OpenAI deal.

It's worth noting that ChatGPT does not play a central role in Apple's AI rollout.

Laggard risk

OpenAI's chatbot will be available on upgrades coming to Apple's iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems later this year. Users will be able to opt into having it appear as a virtual assistant on their devices and power Siri. The rest of it is driven by Apple's own AI.

Still, the OpenAI partnership is an important one for Apple as its rivals in China have already introduced smartphones with AI features.

With no means of introducing Chinese users of its devices to ChatGPT, Apple risks being seen as a laggard on the most-talked about technology of the moment.

Apple will want to find a partner in China as fast as it can.

• Elon Musk moved The Boring Company to Texas in 2021, per the Times of London.
• A resident told the outlet it has turned Texas' "incredible vistas" into "gravel mines."
• She said she fears what will become of the area if steps are not taken to hold industries in check.

Elon Musk's construction company, The Boring Company, has turned Texas' "incredible vistas" into "gravel mines," a longtime resident told The Times of London.

"I could start crying just talking about it," Erin Flynn, a 62-year-old sixth-generation Texan who lives in Bastrop, told the outlet.

"It is beyond heartbreaking," she added.

According to The Times, Musk moved his tunnel-building venture to Bastrop, a rural town of about 12,000 people located 30 miles east of Austin, in 2021.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2023 that Musk plans to build his own town on thousands of acres of land in Central Texas, envisioning a "Texas utopia" along the Colorado River in Bastrop County. It cited deeds, land records, and people familiar with the project.

The project is bringing billions of dollars in investment and thousands of well-paying jobs to the region, the Times of London reported.

But it is also threatening the generations-old rural way of life, with trucks operating nonstop, earth mounds scattered across the horizon, rock-sorting machines towering over the trees, and cranes moving to and from construction sites, according to the outlet.

Flynn and her husband said their corner of Texas is being wrecked not only by Musk's firms — The Boring Company and SpaceX both have operations in Bastrop — but also by gravel and sand mines that were gradually erected to support the industry's operations there, per the outlet.

Flynn said she fears what will become of the area if steps are not taken to hold industries in check, per the outlet.

"There's a lot of freedom — people come to Texas for the freedom — but you have to respect your neighbor," she said, adding: "There is a fundamental lack of respect and a lack of communication. You're just being bullied."

The Boring Company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Last year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said it had opened investigations into The Boring Company after receiving three complaints regarding the Bastrop site's handling of wastewater and concrete production.

In February, Tesla, another company owned by Musk, which has a 2,500-acre property on the outskirts of Austin, applied for an exemption from the city's "extraterritorial jurisdiction," which allows it to regulate developments outside city limits.

The city's planning department approved it in March, meaning Tesla's massive gigafactory would no longer have to follow local environmental regulations.

• Millennials and Gen Zers are embracing "quiet quitting" to end friendships gradually.
• The term originated on TikTok in 2022 to describe minimal effort at work.
• Experts warn that this approach can cause confusion and recommend open communication instead.

Some millennials and Gen Zers are embracing "quiet quitting" as a means of ending friendships.

The term originally gained popularity on TikTok in 2022 as a way to describe employees doing the bare minimum without actually quitting or getting fired.

But the trend has taken a turn, and some people are now using the same strategy to end a friendship: slowly phasing out communication without directly saying that they no longer want to be friends with someone.

Melissa Ann Marie, a TikToker in her 30s, spoke about her experience using this strategy in a TikTok video posted on June 1.

"It's not like a romantic relationship where it has to end because you're seeing other people, but it kind of just has to slowly fade because you're not prioritizing each other anymore," Marie said in the video, which has 2.3 million views and 168,7000 likes at the time of writing.

In a follow-up video posted on June 3, Marie said the reasons for ending her past friendships varied, from noticing that one friend gossiped too much while another failed to put in the effort.

Out with the old

Daniel Glazer, a clinical psychologist, told Business Insider that he has noticed "an instinctual impulse among millennials and Gen Zers to start molting connections" that are "hindering who they're becoming."

"While losing enduring connections can lead to feelings of isolation or missing out, quiet quitting may also be a healthy way for millennials and Gen Zers to prune their social lives, allowing new, richer relationships to grow," he added.

Azul Cibils Blaquier, a 23-year-old journalist from Argentina, agrees with Glazer's assessment. Speaking to BI over email, Blaquier said she quiet quit her group of childhood friends earlier this year.

Blaquier said things started to fizzle out when she temporarily relocated to the US two years ago, and her friends stopped making an effort to stay in touch.

"I tried talking to them about it individually, but eventually, I grew tired of being the first one to phone and, ultimately, of no one doing anything about my pain," she said.

Though she moved back to Buenos Aires in December, Blaquier said she could tell that things wouldn't return to normal with her old friend group.

"Quiet quitting on these friendships has opened me up emotionally to making new, stronger ones," she said.

Quiet quitting can lead to regret, experts say

Mark Vahrmeyer, a psychotherapist and cofounder of Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy, told BI that the consequences of quiet quitting depend on the circumstances.

For example, he said if you notice that you are outgrowing a friend, or if the friendship has naturally run its course, then the line of communication may fade organically.

However, he said it should be avoided if it is being used as a strategy to avoid confrontation over a real issue that has upset you.

"Generally where there is conflict, rather than a simple diverging of paths, this should be addressed in a friendship either to attempt to resolve it, or conversely, if repair is not possible, to bring an end to the relationship," he said.

Sophie Mort, a clinical psychologist and mental health expert at Headspace, told BI that quiet quitting to avoid conflict will lead to feelings of regret, as unresolved feelings remain permanently unaddressed.

"The act of distancing without any explanation can understandably leave lingering discomfort and unanswered questions," she said.

"For the person initiating the distancing, there may be feelings of regret or remorse, especially if their reasons for doing so were due to avoiding confrontation, which can later leave a sense of a missed opportunity to resolve things."

Margaret Bankole, a friendship and relationships counselor, told BI that quiet quitting can be harmful for both sides, as it will ruin the opportunity to gain closure.

"It is given less weight than ghosting, but it can have the same effects, if not worse, as the person on the other end is left feeling confused," she said.

"Honesty is always the best policy — tell someone why you want to end a friendship in order to bring closure. It will give them a chance to explain, as it could be a simple misunderstanding, or you can both walk away in peace."

• The SEC has filed charges against a Texas man over his offer to invest $200 million in Virgin Orbit.
• The SEC says Matthew Brown claimed to have $182 million but had less than $1 in his bank account.
• Virgin Orbit, which aimed to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX, went bankrupt in 2023.  

In March 2023, beleaguered rocket company Virgin Orbit thought it had found a lifeline.

A Texas-based investor named Matthew Brown reportedly offered to invest $200 million in the rocket firm, which was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

But in a complaint filed on Monday, the SEC alleged that the offer was a sham and that Brown had a negative net worth at the time.

The regulator has filed charges that accuse Brown — who it says resides in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas — of engaging in a "fraudulent scheme" to submit and publicly tout a "bogus" $200 million bailout offer for Virgin Orbit, which went bankrupt in April 2023.

Backed by British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit had raised millions of dollars to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX in the private space industry, which the World Economic Forum estimates will be worth $1.8 trillion by 2035.

But the company was left scrambling for funding after a failed rocket launch in January 2023.

In its complaint, the SEC said Brown misrepresented his personal wealth in conversations with Virgin Orbit, including sending a fabricated screenshot of his company's bank account with a balance of over $182 million, when the actual balance was less than $1.

Brown also appeared on CNBC shortly after entering into discussions with Virgin Orbit despite signing an NDA.

He told the channel he planned to close the deal "in the next 24 hours," and he would "basically be the owner" of Virgin Orbit as a result of the investment, according to the complaint.

The SEC says that Brown also told Virgin Orbit that he had graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a law degree. "Brown had never graduated from college, let alone attended law school," the SEC wrote.

When Brown's offer leaked to the media, shares in Virgin Orbit went up by over 33%.

The SEC said that the deal collapsed after Brown attempted to request the inclusion of a "break up fee" if the transaction did not close and refused to respond to Virgin Orbit's due diligence inquiries.

The company, once valued at $3.7 billion, filed for bankruptcy less than a month later.

The SEC seeks a civil fine for Brown and a permanent ban on purchasing or selling securities.

A representative for Brown and his business, Matthew Brown Companies, told Business Insider in a statement after this story's publication: "We are steadfast in our commitment to thoroughly contest these issues, if they arise, through the trial process. Our stance in this civil lawsuit is firm: We will not settle until we are vindicated by the rule of law."

The representative alleged that the SEC complaint contained errors and fabrications and that there were conflicts of interest involving SEC investigators.

The SEC did not respond to BI's request for comment, made outside normal working hours, about the representative's allegations.

June 20, 2024: This story was updated to include a statement from a representative for Brown and his companies.