Tag: News

• I'm an American who lived in Japan for about six years until I started to feel lonely and lost.
• I sold my house in Tokyo and traveled around Europe until I fell in love with the Netherlands.
• I used a special treaty to get citizenship in Europe and I'm happy living here. 

One day in January 2022, it hit me: I had outgrown my life in Japan.

I was an American living in Tokyo and still felt like a fish out of water after six years, despite my many attempts at mastering Japanese, perfecting my bow, and learning how to (politely) push my way through the crowded rush-hour trains.

My first few years in Japan were exciting and dreamy, what many would expect when they imagine living in Japan.

I visited stunning shrines and temples, sipped oolong-hai cocktails with friends in izakayas, spent hours exploring the streets of Shibuya — back then, Japan felt like my playground.

My experience in Japan changed with time

Eventually, some of the drawbacks of living in the Land of the Rising Sun started to wear on me.

No matter how quiet and inconspicuous I tried to be, I received stares (and occasionally glares) in my suburban neighborhood because of how much I stood out as someone who is not Japanese.

After all, only 2.5% of the country's population is non-Japanese. Although Japanese culture is fascinating, I started to miss diversity and multiculturalism.

Living in Japan also felt increasingly lonely with each year I stayed. For one, Japanese society is known for being reserved, and striking up a conversation with a stranger in big cities like Tokyo is often viewed as a transgression against the order and harmony woven into most interactions.

On top of that, Japan is literally isolated, surrounded by water on all sides. This can make it challenging to get out and visit other countries.

I was eager to explore new places and make more connections — and Japan no longer seemed to align with these values.

I didn't know where to move to next but going back to the US didn't feel right

After my revelation in early 2022, my husband — a Japanese national I met within my first year in the East Asian country — and I assumed the only other option was to live in the US, where I'm from. But we struggled to settle on an American city that fit our ideal lifestyle and goals.

To stall our decision, we sold our home in Tokyo and traveled around Europe as digital nomads for a few months.

Our adventure began in 2023 and included a stop in the Netherlands, which we were surprised to discover felt like home.

In Amsterdam, we tallied up the perks that Japan lacked: multiculturalism, locals who made small talk with us about our little dog, and convenient travel to other countries, among others.

And without the stares and unwanted attention I'd once received, I noticed a refreshing sense of freedom.

During our trip, I also learned about the Dutch American Friendship Treaty, an agreement that allows American entrepreneurs to obtain residence in the Netherlands with little hassle.

Staying in Europe long-term never seemed realistic, but with this program, I saw it could be a feasible option.

The Netherlands offers what I had missed in Japan

Less than a year after our trip to the Netherlands, we returned to the country as residents rather than tourists.

I've felt welcomed by my neighbors, already made friends from numerous countries and backgrounds, and even found it easier to visit my family in the US compared to when I was living in Japan.

The Netherlands is often ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, and although many Dutch locals would scoff at their position on the list (complaining seems to be a national pastime here), I've found evidence to support it.

Aside from the open, friendly people and ease of travel, I'm routinely delighted by the little things here, like my neighborhood's "used goods" box where residents pass down their belongings to a new owner, the people leisurely reading in the park on a weekday afternoon, and the bike lanes that make it so easy to live a car-free life. These charming observations would have been rare in Tokyo.

Of course, I'm still new to the Netherlands, and I know my feelings may change with time — as they did in Japan. People and places can both evolve, and though a country might feel like home during one phase of life, it might not feel that way forever.

I've learned to embrace that feeling while it lasts, whether it's for two years or seven or the rest of my life. For now, I've decided that living in the Netherlands is what my dream life looks like.

• The schedule didn't start before 11 a.m. and included an afternoon lie-down, sources told the NYT.
• Debate prep was cut short by 2 days, as the president was tired after a hectic travel week.
• The White House insists that Biden is healthy, despite reports of more frequent mental lapses.

For President Biden, debate prep was not a strict 9-to-5 job. In the six days leading up to Thursday's damaging performance, Biden never began his preparations before 11 a.m. and always had time for an afternoon nap, sources told the New York Times.

The report is based on interviews with current and former aides, donors, political advisors, and administrators who spent time with the president over the past few weeks. Though the White House insists that Biden is in good physical and cognitive shape, many of the sources noted that he has seemed increasingly confused in recent months.

During the debate, Biden was incoherent at times, trailing off mid-sentence and haphazardly stringing together facts. Biden's team cut debate preparations by two days, citing the president's exhaustion after jam-packed trips to Europe. He spent those days resting at his home in Delaware.

Still, aides said that his preparations at Camp David were robust.

Of the reported late-morning start time, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told The Times that "the president was working well before then, after exercising." Bates said that, as of Tuesday, the White House physician saw no reason to reevaluate Biden for Parkinson's disease.

The White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for further comment.

By comparison, a different New York Times article from 2012 detailed how Barack Obama prepared for his second debate after an abysmal initial showdown against Mitt Romney. According to the article, he followed a rigorous schedule and only left the camp once, briefly.

Sources close to Biden have largely seen him oscillate between mental agility and disorientation — in some moments he is sharp on questions of national security and in others mixes up basic facts, like the countries of France and Italy.

While in Europe, Biden visited Normandy for a D-Day event. There, members of his own generation were divided on his capacity to serve.

"He did not appear any different to me in person than he does on television — and that is as a person who is fragile and not really in charge," Bill Casassa, a 98-year-old honoree who supports Trump, told the Times.

Yet Marvin E. Gilmore Jr., who is just shy of his 100th birthday, attested to the opposite: "There was nothing I saw in him that said he was an old man."

Donald Trump has a lighter schedule than the president and does not exercise regularly, but does seemingly partake in the occasional nap himself, namely at his own criminal trial.

• The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in US history, when unemployment reached 25%.
• When the pandemic hit in 2020, Americans hadn't felt that level of economic tragedy in a century.
• These photos reveal what life looked like in the bleak 1930s after the stock market crashed.

During the Great Depression, the most tragic economic collapse in US history, more than 15 million Americans were left jobless and desperate for an income.

By 1932, nearly one in four Americans was out of a job, and by 1933, unemployment levels reached an estimated 25%.

For comparison, during the coronavirus pandemic, the US unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% in April 2020.

These photos reveal how desolate the country looked during the Great Depression, when food and job lines stretched for blocks.

This story was originally published in May 2020 and was updated in July 2024.

The Great Depression was the worst economic tragedy in American history.

The crisis resulted in skyrocketing rates of unemployment, hunger, and desperation.

Following a period of booming prosperity in the 1920s, the Great Depression began when the US stock market crashed in 1929.

Known as Black Thursday, the 1929 crash was attributed in part to a vast imbalance of wealth between the rich and poor, a fervent production of goods, little to no wage gains, an increase in personal debt, and government mismanagement.

Over the course of the decade, more than 15 million Americans lost their jobs.

The effects of the Great Depression could be felt into the early 1940s.

The unemployment rate jumped at a shocking speed.

From 1929 to 1930, unemployment rose from fewer than 3 million to 4 million, according to figures cited by the University of Houston's Digital History archive. In 1931, it doubled to 8 million, and by 1932, unemployment levels reached a staggering 12.5 million.

By that year, one out of every four US workers was unemployed.

Thousands of Americans lost their homes, and hundreds of thousands attempted to travel through the country on foot or by boxcar to find work, according to the Library of Congress.

Those who were fortunate enough to remain working often suffered large pay cuts and decreased hours.

By 1932, 75% of all remaining workers were on a part-time schedule, according to the University of Houston's Digital History archive.

Families who were unable to pay rent were frequently evicted from their homes.

Vagrants looking for work on public trains were kicked to the curb.

The struggle for money became so desperate that families across the country often lived in crowded shacks.

Some families inhabited caves or sewer pipes out of desperation.

During the winters of 1932 and 1933, an estimated 1.2 million Americans were homeless.

The population of the US at that time was about 125 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

In an effort to save money, families planted their own gardens, canned foods, bought old bread, sought out soup kitchens, and stopped buying common items like milk.

Many also sacrificed medical and dental care because they couldn't afford it.

Food banks became commonplace.

Lines for food ration programs and free meals exploded across the country.

At the beginning of the Depression, President Herbert Hoover largely dismissed the stock market crash as a "passing incident in our national lives."

Hoover did not believe in offering federal aid to the impoverished or using the power of the federal government to manage prices or currency, according to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Americans grew angry, and Hoover became widely blamed for the economic turmoil.

Impoverished people living in shantytowns across the country started referring to them as "Hoovervilles," and empty pockets turned inside out were known as "Hoover flags."

Desperate Americans threatened with hunger and starvation began organizing marches and labor riots.

In 1932, 20,000 veterans of World War I marched to the Capitol to demand the payment of bonuses that they were scheduled to receive in 1945, according to the Library of Congress. The bill to do so did not pass in Congress.

The following year, 10,000 unemployed people joined a "hunger march" in Los Angeles.

The Depression also had a negative impact on family life as many couples delayed their marriages or postponed having children.

Throughout the decade, separation rates grew. By 1940, there were 1.5 million American women living apart from their husbands, according to the University of Houston's Digital History archive.

Children were adversely affected, as well.

An estimated 200,000 vagrant children wandered the streets of America due to the break-up and collapse of their families, according to Virginia Commonwealth University's Social Welfare History Project.

Black and Mexican communities experienced higher rates of unemployment and discrimination during the Depression.

Half of Black workers were unemployed by 1932 compared to the general unemployment rate of 25%, according to the Library of Congress. In Southern states, the percentage of unemployed Black workers was even higher.

Over the course of the Depression, authorities deported an estimated 400,000 Mexican Americans over fears of workplace competition, according to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Many of those people were American citizens.

The Depression had a significant impact on the psychology of unemployed men.

As men struggled to provide for their families as cultural breadwinners, some turned to alcohol to cope, while others became abusive or gave up hope altogether.

Suicide rates increased during the Great Depression.

Suicide rates peaked when unemployment reached high points in 1932 and 1938, according to the US National Library of Medicine.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1933 and shepherded the New Deal through Congress.

The set of emergency relief programs, work programs, and large-scale government reforms implemented by Roosevelt helped boost the economy. The US's entrance into World War II in 1941 jumpstarted American manufacturing.

The Great Depression had lasting effects on the US.

Its aftermath fundamentally changed the relationship between Americans and their government and led to the development of more government programs, responsibility, and involvement.

• James Jannard listed a Beverly Hills compound for $68 million shortly after his record Malibu sale.
• The Oakley founder recently set a record with a $210 million Malibu mansion sale, surpassing Jay-Z.
• Jannard's net worth is an estimated $1.3 billion, per Forbes.

Just days after making a record-breaking Malibu mansion sale for $210 million, Oakley founder James Jannard is back with another mammoth listing.

The sunglasses mogul just put his Beverly Hills cement compound up for sale at $68 million, as first reported by Realtor.com.

Jannard, who recently surpassed Jay-Z and Beyoncé to claim the title of California's most expensive home real estate sale ever, has an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion, according to Forbes.

After starting Oakley in 1975, Jannard eventually sold the company 32 years later for $2.1 billion to Italian company Luxottica. He later founded the digital cinema camera company Red Digital Cinema before retiring in 2019.

Scroll down to check out inside the mansion.

The futuristic fortress, which spans 18,000 square feet, features five bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and an intimidatingly giant oval courtyard.

The property, which Jannard purchased in 2009 for $19,900,000, was originally built in 2016, according to the listing. It's located in Trousdale Estates, which sits in the foothills of the Santa Monica mountains.

Trousdale Estates has housed several stars since the 1950s, including Elvis, Elton John, and Jane Fonda.

Resting on one of Beverly Hills's highest points, the luxurious neighborhood offers a sweeping view of Los Angeles and easy access to Sunset Boulevard. Its average home value is around $7 million, according to Zillow.

The mansion, which took five years to finish, boasts a brutalist design with bare cement walls, aluminum ceilings and accessories, and all-metal fixtures.

Inspired by Stonehedge, according to Wallpaper*, the cavernous manor includes floor-to-ceiling windows and oversized columns. Jeff Vance, owner of the architecture firm iDGroup, designed acoustic panels to remove echo and create a cozier living experience despite its cold appearance.

Jannard reportedly also owns property in Newport Beach, California, two islands in Fuji, and a third in the Pacific Northwest.

The former Oakley CEO shelled out $7 million for a Newport Beach house back in 1999, The Los Angeles Times reported. Jannard reportedly also bought an acre of land north of the area and Corona del Mar for an additional $8 million.

The kitchen is fully chrome, and nearly all the house's furniture is custom-made.

There is both a gourmet kitchen and a full chef's kitchen, as well as a bar, according to the listing.

Some rooms are softened by wooden floors and expansive windows and skylights for the sun to brighten.

The property is just under two acres, according to the listing, and is priced at roughly $3,700 per square foot.

Curved walls lead to the guest bedroom and a separate guest apartment.

The guest and master rooms flank one side of the living area, while service rooms reside on the other side for a symmetrical layout.

The central lounge area overlooks a massive infinity pool.

The living room has a full glass wall that can completely retract into the ground for an unobstructed view of the entire Los Angeles basin.

The light fixtures are made with tumbled aluminum, along with nearly all the seating and hardware.

Some rooms have wood accents to cut through the overwhelming industrial design furniture.

The master bathroom includes a metal tub inscribed with a sentence written in J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish language.

Red, Jannards second company, manufactured the digital cameras that were used to film "The Hobbit" franchise.

The concrete fort also includes a movie theatre, gym, wine cellar, and an elevator.

The home theatre stays on the sci-fi theme with gray lounge seats and cement blocks adorning even grayer walls.

• Russia squandered a major opportunity to make battlefield gains, says strategist Mick Ryan.
• Despite recent momentum, Russia's made little forward progress, and its gains have come at a high cost.
• Ukraine's improving military posture and strategic prospects challenge Russia's attrition tactics.

Russia missed out on an opportunity to steamroll Ukraine and secure notable battlefield gains, former Australian major general Mick Ryan said on Tuesday.

"Russia has built strategic momentum with its assaults on Ukraine in the past six months. However, they have largely failed to exploit their opportunities," Ryan, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote on X. "Russia appears to have blown what might have been its last chance to strike a decisive blow against Ukraine in this war," he said.

The former general said Russia missed an opportunity to make gains that emerged in late 2023 when Ukraine wrapped up its unsuccessful counteroffensive, running short on munitions and manpower.

Ryan argued that "the Russians over the last six months have generally failed to capitalise on this convergence of opportunities."

This situation, he said, "was probably Russia's best opportunity to make significant gains on the battlefield which it could then turn into significantly increased political and diplomatic pressure on Ukraine for peace negotiations."

He pointed to Russia's limited progress, noting that the Russians have paid in hundreds of lives for each kilometer of territory captured. That's a "poor return on investment – in any war," Ryan said. And casualties have been on the rise.

Russia has been largely using its troops in small, costly actions, a war of attrition strategy President Vladimir Putin openly discussed last month. Ryan said this tactic is counterproductive and prevents the Russians from actually building a bigger, better quality force, a "large force that might be able to undertake larger scale offensive operations."

After visiting Ukraine earlier this year, Ryan predicted that Russia's efforts to influence Ukraine's supporters could be an issue, as it had already led some Americans to minimize Ukraine's critical situation and turn away from supporting US aid efforts.

In his latest argument, he said that Russia's campaign has notably been unconvincing to Ukraine's most prominent backers.

While Russia may have time to ramp up its offensive attacks, Ukraine is trying to improve its own military posture at a steady pace.

"The question now is whether Ukraine, which seeks to liberate more of its territory occupied by Russia, can build all the different physical, moral and intellectual elements of offensive combat power to do better than Russia has either later this year or in 2025," Ryan concluded.

• Greece is shifting to a six-day workweek in some industries to boost productivity.
• The new 48-hour workweek counters global trends toward shorter ones for better productivity.
• Critics argue longer hours may lead to burnout, despite higher pay for additional workdays.

So long, siga siga.

The Greek phrase meaning "slowly, slowly" refers to the relaxed pace of life in the country famous for its culture, history, and clear Mediterranean waters.

It could be harder for some workers to embrace that philosophy as the country prepares to shift to a six-day workweek for some industries.

The Greek government says the move to a 48-hour workweek, which is set to start Monday, could boost productivity amid a declining population and a dearth of skilled workers. The shift is notable because it runs counter to the companies and countries that are experimenting with a four-day workweek.

Working longer hours can help people further refine their skills, but it can also lead to decreased productivity because of fatigue and burnout, research shows.

The extra hours will come with a 40% jump in pay for Greek workers who add two hours to their day or take on an extra eight-hour workday. The change, which won approval in September, applies to workers in industries like agriculture, retail, and various service industries, as BI previously reported. It also applies to private businesses that operate 24 hours a day.

Even with the bump in pay for the extra time, some union officials are decrying the shift.

"It makes no sense whatsoever," Akis Sotiropoulos, from the civil servants' union Adedy, told The Guardian. "When almost every other civilized country is enacting a four-day week, Greece decides to go the other way."

Doing more with less

Experiments with the four-day workweek have often shown being on the job for less time makes workers more productive because they're better rested, more focused, and have more time to attend to needs that arise in their personal lives outside work.

One study that examined manufacturing in the US found that when overtime increased by 10%, productivity dropped by 2% to 4%.

Another review examined the output of more than 10,000 skilled workers at a large tech company in India working from home. When time on the clock went up — including a jump of 18% outside normal work hours — output slipped, and productivity dropped between 8% and 19%. The biggest culprit: more time spent communicating and coordinating and less time engaging in uninterrupted work.

Research shows workers often benefit when they have time away from their jobs to recover.

Having more free time can also boost gratitude among employees. Zachary Toth runs a small manufacturing company in Toronto. He previously told BI that he and his management colleagues began looking into a four-day workweek after seeing successful pilots in Japan and other countries.

Toth didn't expect the extra time away from the factory would encourage workers to show up without being asked.

"They just came in because they knew there was a project that had to be finished, and they didn't want productivity to fall. They wanted to make sure we keep doing the four-day workweek," he said.

Toth, the owner and president of Metex Corporation, said productivity has increased "in every single way."

Basis Technologies, an advertising software company, shifted its workweek to four and a half days after years of experiments with a four-day workweek and other approaches. For 2024, it settled on making Fridays a half day.

Emily Barron, the company's executive vice president of talent and development, previously told BI that the company had been looking for ways to give workers more time to decompress while still meeting the business's needs. For now, the half-day approach is best, she said.

"It really is intended for people to take a mental break, to get caught up, to, you know, go to that workout class that they couldn't get to at 7:30 in the morning," Barron said.

The end of the 5-day week

In Greece, the longer workweek is designed to address changing demographics, which the country's prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has called a "ticking timebomb," according to the Guardian. Some 500,000 largely young and educated Greek citizens have left the country following a debt crisis that began more than a decade ago, the newspaper reported.

The new rule is voluntary, but some critics say it will effectively mark the end of a five-day workweek.

Aris Kazakos, an emeritus labor law professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, recently told Germany's DW news outlet that bosses can require workers to work a sixth day, and workers can't say no.

The move to six days "will kill off the five-day workweek for good," he said.

• Two Russian submarines engaged in a torpedo duel during a Baltic Sea training exercise last week.
• The crews of the Novorossiysk and Dmitrov also trained to track enemies and evade enemy attacks.
• The Baltic Sea has been described as a "NATO lake" since Sweden and Finland joined the alliance.

Two Russian submarines recently fought a torpedo duel, conducting training that involved detecting enemies, evading attacks, and working combat maneuvers.

The exercises took place in the Baltic Sea, waters sometimes referred to as a "NATO lake" due to its waters being surrounded by NATO allies since Sweden and Finland ascended into the alliance.

The Kilo-class, diesel-electric submarines Novorossiysk and Dmitrov held a training duel involving torpedo fire, according to Russian state-run media TASS. The media outlet reported the training exercise on June 25, citing the Russian navy.

In the Baltic Sea following the completion of anti-submarine warfare maneuvers, the submarine Novorossiysk engaged the Dmitrov with a training torpedo without a warhead, the navy said, per TASS.

The submarine crews also conducted several other exercises focused on detecting and tracking adversary submarines, evasion, and combat training.

The subs Novorossiysk and Dmitrov are representative of two of several variants of Russian Kilo-class submarines. The Novorossiysk, for instance, is a project 636.3 sub and can launch Kalibr cruise missiles. 636.3s are the most current Kilo-class subs being built. The Dmitrov, on the other hand, is a project 877 sub, one of the original variants built.

Both subs are known for being relatively quiet, but the Novorossiysk and other project 636.3 subs are considered to be highly advanced and stealthy vessels. After wrapping up the torpedo training, the two Russian submarines went on to conduct other combat exercises in the Baltic Sea, Russian media said.

The Baltic Sea area has seen geopolitical shifts since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago and neighboring Finland and Sweden joined NATO.

It has sometimes been referred to as a "NATO lake" considering that eight of the nine countries bordering it are now members of the alliance. Russia is the only exception. That's a stark difference from 1990, when only two Baltic Sea countries, Denmark and Germany, were NATO members.

The "NATO lake" term has been debated and criticized as presumptuous, with some experts calling it a "fatal" mistake as the Baltic Sea can be traversed by any seafaring nation and remains an important strategic front for Russia.

The Baltic Sea has become increasingly important for NATO's military presence, but Russia also sees the body of water as vital to its commercial shipping, oil exports, and trade from ports like St. Petersburg and Primorsk.

The region is also home to increasing Russian anti-access/area denial capabilities, particularly in the Kaliningrad area. These capabilities include cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and nuclear weapons, making the sea strategically important for both Moscow and NATO.

• President Biden wanted to use the debate to change the dynamics of the 2024 race.
• But his poor performance sent Democrats reeling and has opened him up to intraparty criticism.
• In the latest USA Today/Suffolk University poll, Trump boasted a 41%-38% advantage over Biden.

Weeks before the June presidential debate, the Biden campaign had sought to shake up the dynamics of the race, agreeing for the president to take the stage with former President Donald Trump.

Biden's team wanted the debate to crystallize what they've long argued: that the president was well-equipped to serve in a second term and would be the more effective leader on the world stage.

But the president's visible debate stumbles set his campaign back enormously in the eyes of top donors and even among some Democratic lawmakers, which in turn has so far deprived him a potential polling bounce that could have broken the deadlocked race.

Instead, two major national surveys released after the election showed Biden lagging behind Trump.

In a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll, Trump boasted a 41% to 38% lead over Biden among registered voters, still within the margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points.

However, a USA Today/Suffolk poll released in May showed both candidates tied, 37% to 37%.

In the latest survey, Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received the support of 8% of registered voters.

While the race remains close overall, Biden is still far behind Trump when it comes to enthusiasm, per the new USA Today/Suffolk survey.

Among Biden voters, 29% of respondents said they were "very excited" to vote for him, while 31% said they were "somewhat excited" to back him. A quarter (25%) of Biden voters said they were "not very excited" to support him.

When it came to Trump voters, 59% of respondents said they were "very excited" to support him, while an additional 23% said they were "somewhat excited" to back his candidacy. Only 11% of Trump voters said they were "not very excited" about his 2024 campaign.

The latest CNN poll, conducted across three days after the debate, showed Trump with a 49% to 43% lead over Biden.

Despite Democratic frustration over Biden's performance, the results reflected no change from CNN's April survey.

But there were some key nuggets in the latest CNN poll:

• Vice President Kamala Harris runs more competitively with Trump than Biden in a potential matchup should the president exit the race. Trump has a narrow two-point lead (47% to 45%) over Harris among registered voters in such a scenario.
• In a potential Harris-Trump matchup, the vice president wins 50% of female voters, compared to Biden's current 43% share against the former president.
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who have all been floated as potential Biden replacements — all trail Trump by single-digit margins in hypothetical matchups.

Hurricane Beryl is tearing through the Caribbean after making history as the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic hurricane season.

• Does Aemond Targaryen have mommy issues? Maybe. 
• Ewan Mitchell says that Aemond found a "surrogate" in his very old, powerful dragon Vhagar.
• Vhagar's power influences the way that Aemond acts, Mitchell said. 

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for "House of the Dragon" season two, episode three.

"House of the Dragon" star Ewan Mitchell thinks that Aemond Targaryen probably just needs a little more affection from his mother.

Aemond is the second son of Alicent Hightower and Viserys Targaryen, and the younger brother of ruling King Aegon II. Unlike his brother, who quite literally ran away from the throne and has spent much of his time as king threatening to fly out on the battlefield himself, Aemond is cool and calculating.

In episodes two and three of "House of the Dragon" season two, Aemond seeks solace from a woman — the first he ever had sex with — in a brothel, chastely curling up with her and spilling out his worries. Though Aemond is fully naked, it's a raw, non-sexual kind of intimacy — one that suggests a kind of maternal love he's not getting elsewhere.

Those scenes have made people online question whether Aemond has "mommy issues." And there's certainly no lost love between Alicent and Aemond: In the season two premiere, he says that his mother still blames him for starting the war by killing Lucerys, the son of his half-sister Rhaenyra.

Business Insider spoke with Mitchell at the season two New York City premiere about Aemond's relationship with Alicent — and his dragon, Vhagar.

"I don't know so much if he had mommy issues, or rather, he just wanted to be loved by his mom a little bit more," Mitchell told BI.

"He felt despair, so he found a surrogate in Vhagar, so to speak an older lady, and kind of filled that void," he continued. "But is a dragon enough, or is there something else that could maybe help him? He needs help, he's a broken boy."

Despite his own emotional turmoil, Aemond is still one of the most powerful war assets on the show. That's mostly because Vhaghar is very old, very big, and very powerful. Aemond claimed her after Laena Velaryon's death, instantly turning himself from a trod-upon, dragonless child into an immense, credible threat.

Vhagar and Aemond's "power couple" status — Mitchell's words — affords the Targaryen prince a bit of freedom, according to the actor.

"Aemond, he doesn't need to be evil. If he's hostile in a scene, it's not because he needs to be," Mitchell said. "It's because he wants to be, because he has that large dragon whose shadow looms so large. It changes the dynamic of the character, and the choices that you make as a performer."

"House of the Dragon" season two airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and is streaming on Max.