• Nike's CEO Elliott Hill said that there are three things he wants to fix at Nike.
• One mistake was being "too promotional" and offering too many discounts.
• The company will also focus on five areas: running, basketball, training, football, and sportswear.

Nike's new CEO said that two months into the job, he's working hard to fix three key mistakes that the sneaker maker has made in recent years.

Hill rejoined the company in October as chief executive after retiring from his post as president of marketplace and consumer in 2020. He's a true insider, having worked his way up from an apparel sales representative intern in 1988.

His post came at a crucial time for Nike, which has been struggling with lackluster sales and dealing with the backlash of trying to sell directly to consumers instead of through marketplace retailers. The company's stock is down more than 36% in the last year.

On Thursday, the company reported revenue of $12.4 billion, down 8% from the year before, for the three months ending November 30.

On Thursday's earnings call — Hill's first in the new job — he highlighted three mistakes he's trying to amend:

1. Becoming "far too promotional"

Hill said that the retailer has been offering too many discounts and becoming "far too promotional."

"Entering the year, our digital platforms were delivering roughly a 50/50 split of full price to promotional sales," he said. "The level of markdowns not only impacts our brand but it also disrupts the overall marketplace and the profitability of our partners."

To counter this, Hill said that Nike would rein in the number of sales.

"Being premium also means full price," he said. "We'll focus promotions during traditional retail moments, not at the consistent levels we are today, and we will leverage NIKE Value Stores to profitably move through any excess inventory."

2. Losing its "obsession with sport"

Hill also highlighted a big-picture reorientation.

"We lost our obsession with sport," Hill said on the call.

"Moving forward, we will lead with sport and put the athlete at the center of every decision," he said, adding, "We will get back to leveraging deep athlete insights to accelerate innovation, design, product creation, and storytelling."

Hill said Nike is focusing on five categories: running, basketball, training, football, and sportswear. Training refers to performance wear for sports training-related activities, while sportswear refers to more casual athleisure apparel.

Analysts have previously slammed Nike's innovation stagnation.

Jim Duffy, a Nike analyst for Stifel Institutional, told BI's Lloyd Lee in September that the company had fallen behind, relying too much on its retro line.

"From a product standpoint, there's been kind of an air pocket of innovation," Duffy said. "The brand, the revenue base, and the profit pool became overly dependent on a short list of retro styles. As they will do, consumer preferences have changed."

3. Souring relationships with marketplace retailers

The third mistake that Nike has made, Hill said, was to sour its relationships with marketplace retailers.

Pre-pandemic, the company started pushing direct-to-consumer sales and cut ties with small sporting goods stores and sneaker boutiques. And it reduced product allocations for sneaker giants like Foot Locker and Dick's Sporting Goods.

"The final action we prioritize is building back and earning the trust of our key wholesale partners. Some partners and channels feel we've turned our back on them and we stopped engaging consistently," Hill said.

He added that he personally connected with the top executives of retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods, Foot Locker, and JD Sports, and named them on the call.

Duffy, the Nike analyst, previously told BI that Nike had "de-emphasized some of the wholesale distribution," which had "created oxygen for some competitors to gain shelf space and recognition."

Wholesale revenue was down 3% in the last quarter, to $6.9 billion, from a year ago. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal wrote that out of the last quarter's results, "better-than-expected wholesale and apparel revenue were the standouts, with each besting consensus by a wide margin."

Hill's comments come shortly after Nike and Foot Locker announced that they would deepen their partnership by expanding Foot Locker's interactive Home Court basketball section.

• Starbucks' largest workers' union announced that it would begin an escalating strike on Friday.
• The union first announced a work stoppage in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago before expanding.
• The union said it was protesting Starbucks' labor practices and wages.

Starbucks' largest workers union announced that it would go on strike in cities nationwide, including Seattle, where it is headquartered, just days before Christmas.

Baristas from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle were the first to announce their strike. On Saturday, a union representative confirmed to Business Insider that additional workers from Columbus, Denver, and Pittsburgh had joined the labor stoppage.

"We've been in contract negotiations with Starbucks for several months now, and things have been going smoothly up until this point — when they have now refused to offer us a viable economic package," Shay Mannik, a barista in Denver who is on strike after working at Starbucks for two years, told Business Insider. "They just have not been offering us anywhere close to a living wage."

In a statement made on the union's X account, Starbucks Workers United said the strike would "escalate each day through Christmas Eve... unless Starbucks honors our commitment to work towards a foundational framework."

On Wednesday, the union told BI that it would strike to protest what it described as the company's failure to negotiate a sufficiently comprehensive pay package and hundreds of unresolved cases related to labor disputes.

"Starbucks baristas are going on five days of escalating ULP strikes in response to the company backtracking on our promised path forward, starting tomorrow in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle," Starbucks Workers United said in Thursday statements.

It added that the strikes would soon be "coast-to-coast."

The union said the strikes could reach hundreds of stores unless the company works to achieve collective bargaining agreements.

The company has 11,161 self-operated stores and 7,263 licensed stores in North America. As of October, about 500 — or about 4.5% — of all stores were unionized.

"It's been really reassuring seeing a lot of our community members and the customers coming to support us," Diego Franco, a barista in the Chicago area who has worked at the coffee giant for over five years, told BI. "We've had a lot of our regulars come by, drop off supplies, drop off food, and stuff to help keep us warm."

In a Thursday post on Instagram, the union said, "Since February, Starbucks has repeatedly pledged publicly that they intended to reach contracts by the end of the year - but they've yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal."

Starbucks said in a public statement that the union delegates "prematurely ended" the bargaining session this week and that it was "disappointing they didn't return to the table given the progress we've made to date."

"We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements," the company wrote. "We need the union to return to the table."

A spokesperson for Starbucks told BI in a statement that the company "offers a competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits."

The spokesperson said Starbucks also offers competitive benefits, including "health care, free college tuition, paid family leave, and company stock grants."

"No other retailer offers this kind of comprehensive pay and benefits package," the spokesperson added. "Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, and by 77% over the life of a three-year contract. This is not sustainable."

The union, which represents more than 10,000 baristas, said on Tuesday that 98% of its member baristas had voted to authorize the strike.

News of the strike came just days after CEO Brian Niccol announced a change in the company's parental leave policy for US store employees.

Starting in March, Starbucks will offer up to 18 weeks of paid leave for birth parents and up to 12 weeks for nonbirth parents. The company currently offers US store employees six weeks of paid parental leave and up to 12 weeks unpaid. The increased benefit will apply to employees averaging at least 20 weekly work hours.

• Starbucks' biggest workers union on Tuesday went forward to authorize a nationwide strike.
• It said that the coffee chain had not settled hundreds of unfair labor practice cases.
• Starbucks said that the union considering a strike was "disappointing."

Starbucks Workers United, the coffee chain's largest union, said workers have authorized a nationwide strike.

The union, which represents more than 10,000 baristas, said in statements on Tuesday that 98% of its member baristas had voted to strike. The group was set to meet with Starbucks later that day for a final round of bargaining.

The union told CNBC in a statement that the strike was prompted by hundreds of unfair labor practice cases that Starbucks had not settled. It also said that the company had not brought a sufficiently comprehensive pay package to the bargaining table.

Starbucks, in a statement to CNBC, said that it was "disappointing" that the union was considering a strike "rather than focusing on what have been extremely productive negotiations."

"Since April we've scheduled and attended more than eight multi-day bargaining sessions where we've reached thirty meaningful agreements on dozens of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues," the company told CNBC.

Starbucks has 11,161 company-operated stores and 7,263 licensed stores in North America. As of October, 500 — or about 4.5% — of all stores were unionized.

More than 150 unionized stores went on strike in June 2023 to protest what the union called the company's "hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers." A Starbucks spokesperson told BI at the time that the union was spreading "false information" about its benefits, policies, and negotiation efforts.

News of the possible union strike comes just a day after CEO Brian Niccol announced a change in the company's parental leave policy for US store employees.

Starting in March, Starbucks will offer up to 18 weeks of paid leave for birth parents and up to 12 weeks for nonbirth parents. The company currently offers US store employees six weeks of paid parental leave and up to 12 weeks unpaid.

The increased benefit will apply to employees averaging at least 20 hours of work a week.

"Our benefit was already the best in retail, but after hearing from some partners who shared the leave as new parents wasn't adequate, we reviewed the program and have decided we're making a change," Niccol wrote in his announcement Monday.

Starbucks had a lackluster fourth quarter. On October 29, it posted a 7% decline in comparable sales from last year, including a 6% drop at its US stores. Sales in China declined 14% in the same period.

Its net revenue was down 3% from last year, to $9.1 billion.

The company's stock is down about 1.7% since the start of the year.

Representatives of Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United did not respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Russia's head of chemical weapons was killed on Tuesday when a scooter bomb exploded in Moscow.
• Ukraine was behind the attack, a Ukrainian Security Service source told BI.
• Igor Kirillov is the most prominent military official to be killed since Russia invaded Ukraine.

A high-ranking Russian general responsible for Russia's chemical weapons was killed on Tuesday by a bomb placed in a scooter on a Moscow street.

A source inside Ukraine's Security Service with knowledge of the attack told Business Insider the agency was behind the death of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov.

The Wall Street Journal also reported Ukrainian officials as saying the killing was a special operation by the Security Service of Ukraine.

Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter parked on a street in Moscow, Russia's investigative committee said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday.

"According to the investigation, on the morning of December 17, an explosive device was detonated in a scooter parked next to the entrance of a residential building on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow," the statement said.

"As a result of the incident, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Igor Kirillov and his assistant were killed," it added.

The committee said it had opened a criminal case and that investigators and forensic experts were working at the scene.

The Russian investigations committee didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

According to the Ukrainian source, the bomb on the scooter was detonated when Kirillov and his assistant were entering a nearby house on Ryazansky Prospekt. BI couldn't independently verify the claim.

"Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target," they said, accusing Kirillov of giving orders to use banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces.

"Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable," they added.

Kirillov is the most prominent military official to be killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to the Financial Times.

He was sanctioned by the UK in October for the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, including the choking agent chloropicrin.

Kirillov's death follows a string of similar attacks, some of which sources said were the work of Ukraine's Security Service or other agencies.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia's Security Council and a former Russian president, described Kirillov's killing as a terrorist attack, and offered his condolences to Kirillov's family, per the TASS news agency.

He also said that Ukraine would pay for its actions.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

• TikTok CEO Shou Chew met Trump at Mar-a-Lago Monday.
• TikTok is trying to avoid an impending ban on the app.
• Trump has said he is opposed to the TikTok ban and that he has a "warm spot" for the app.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, a person familiar with the meeting told Business Insider. The meeting comes as the popular video-sharing app fights to avoid an impending ban in the US.

Earlier on Monday, TikTok asked the US Supreme Court to block the law that requires the app to be sold by January 19 or be shut down. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, argued the ban violates the First Amendment rights of the millions of Americans who use the app. The request came after a panel of federal judges earlier this month upheld the ban.

Representatives for TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Details of the meeting were unclear. Trump has spoken out against the TikTok ban, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year.

"We'll take a look at TikTok," Trump said at a press conference earlier on Monday. "You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok."

Trump also said at the press conference that company executives have been more open to meeting with him ahead of his second term and that during his first term they were "hostile."

"Everybody was fighting me," he said. "This term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don't know. My personality changed or something."

Trump positioned himself as the TikTok-friendly candidate in the election

The meeting between Shou and Trump is the latest in TikTok's legal fight to remain available in the US.

The ban stems from lawmakers criticizing TikTok's data-collection practices and being concerned that the Chinese government is using the app to influence American politics.

In his first term, Trump tried to get the app banned in the US. But he has since flipped-flopped on his stance.

During this presidential run, Trump positioned himself as the TikTok-friendly candidate.

In June, he launched a TikTok account to rally younger voters. It now has 14.7 million followers.

Some of his closest advisors — some of whom he has tapped for cabinet roles — support the app's banning.

His pick for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, called the potential ban a "win for America" in March. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr is also a vocal critic of the app, having called it an "unacceptable threat to U.S. national security."

Other cabinet picks, such as tech executive Jacob Helberg, the former US director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, are all outspoken critics of the app.

• Chipotle's CEO Scott Boatwright said he values the human touch in the chain's assembly lines.
• He said automation will likely be contained "in the digital system only."
• The chain has been criticized for delivering inconsistent portions to customers.

Chipotle's CEO wants to make sure your burrito is made by hand for as long as possible.

In a podcast interview with Yahoo Finance's "Opening Bid," released on Friday, host Brian Sozzi and CEO Scott Boatwright discussed topics including automation and modernization at Chipotle.

Boatwright, who became the fast food chain's interim CEO in November after his predecessor Brian Niccol left to lead Starbucks, said Chipotle intends to "leverage that automation in the digital system only."

"We still believe the best way to Chipotle is down the line with a team member, highly customized, great variety, big beautiful burritos and bowls down the line," he added.

Boatwright said human interaction is "a core equity of the Chipotle brand."

The brand has dipped a toe into automation: Last July, it announced that it had tapped a robot called "Autocado" to cut, core, and peel avocados, reducing the amount of time needed for the task by half.

It also announced a partnership with Hyphen, a San Jose-based food technology startup. In 2023, the startup told BI that its robotics could crank out up to 180 bowls per hour, six times more than human workers' capabilities.

Criticism over portion sizes

The chain was criticized this year after analysts accused it of skimping on portion sizes.

In June, Fortune reported that Wells Fargo analysts had ordered 75 burrito bowls from eight different locations in New York City and weighed them to check for consistency.

The analysts wrote that among the bowls ordered in-store, the heaviest bowl weighed 47% more than the lightest.

Danilo Gargiulo, a senior analyst of restaurants at AllianceBernstein, told BI in July that using robots in the assembly line would not be a good solution for portion control, as the in-store experience was "part of the secret sauce of Chipotle."

"It's part of the experience of consumers to go there, check out what they have, and ask a person, 'Hey, can I have a little bit more, please?' Or mix up the ingredients as you wish," Gargiulo said.

In the last fiscal quarter, Chipotle reported that its commitment to ensuring consistent portions had taken a toll on its profitability.

"The benefit of last year's menu price increase was more than offset by inflation across several items, most notably avocados and dairy, as well as higher usage as we focused on ensuring consistent and generous portions," CFO Adam Rymer said on the earnings call on October 29.

Boatwright's comments come as restaurants and fast food chains, including Sweetgreen and White Castle, increasingly use robots to handle human tasks. Amid the robotization of the industry, though, some leaders have expressed hesitation about rolling out the red carpet for robots.

When asked by Yahoo Finance about whether he wants to increase automation in Shake Shack, the chain's CEO Danny Meyer said: "Personally, I don't."

"I think when it comes to making the product, there's something about the human touch, smashing that burger, seasoning the burger, flipping the burger, knowing exactly when it is time to come off, where not any two burgers at Shake Shack taste exactly the same," Meyer added in an "Opening Bid" episode on December 4.

Chipotle's shares were trading at $64.60 on Monday. Its stock is up about 41% from the start of the year.

Chipotle representatives didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Costco said it's seeing a boost in meat and produce sales.
• Costco's finance chief said in the Q1 2025 earnings call that there was a shift toward "food at home."
• The retailer posted strong growth this quarter, with sales increasing 7.5% from the year before.

Americans are swapping dinners out for nights in, Costco said in its 2025 first-quarter results.

"I would say that we are seeing what we think is a little bit of a shift from food away from home to food at home," Costco's finance chief, Gary Millerchip, said in the company's Q1 2025 earnings call on Thursday.

He said the trend was "certainly reflected in strong meat and produce sales."

Customers showed a "gravitation towards those lower price per pound items across categories like poultry cuts of beef and pork as well," he said.

He added that international food items, such as "Synear pork soup dumplings, Sona Masoori Rice, and Hot Pot Beef Sliced Rolls," were also seeing "strong momentum."

The wholesale chain, which operates on a membership model, reported a strong quarter. It reported $60.99 billion in sales, an increase of 7.5% from the previous year.

Membership numbers increased by 7.2% compared to last year, with Costco ending the quarter with almost 139 million membership cardholders.

The company's stock is up nearly 50% since the start of the year.

Costco's comments on Americans' dining habits echo those made by other fast food chains and grocery retailers this year. They come as inflation and high food prices leave Americans looking for ways to save on costs.

"Consumers are choosing to stay at home or look for cheaper alternatives than more expensive sit-down restaurants," Jefferies analysts wrote in a July note.

The CFO of McDonald's told analysts at the UBS Global Consumer and Retail Conference in March that lower-income consumers "are just choosing to eat at home more often."

In June, the fast food chain launched a $5 value meal to try to win back some customers. Its rivals, Taco Bell and Burger King, quickly followed suit.

And the country's largest grocer, Walmart, told CNBC in May that the rising price of eating out has pushed more people into its stores to buy groceries.

"It's roughly 4.3 times more expensive to eat out than it is to eat at home," Walmart's finance chief, John David Rainey, told CNBC. "And that's benefiting our business."

Costco didn't respond to a request for comment.

• Jeffrey Katzenberg, the cofounder of DreamWorks, said Hollywood bigshots are embracing AI.
• He said the top showrunners and creators find AI an "amazing resource."
• During the monthslong WGA strike last year, writers opposed the adoption of AI.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the cofounder of DreamWorks, said Hollywood is warming up to the use of artificial intelligence.

Speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, he said top Hollywood showrunners and creators are embracing AI.

"I would say almost across the board they have all talked about how the AI tools today have been helpful to them," Katzenberg said.

"They have seen them as a resource and an asset that have made them more productive," he said about AI tools, adding that with the use of AI, creators have been "able to widen the diversity of their work, the quality of their work."

"They find these tools an amazing resource for them — and it's not constraining them, it's inspiring them," he added.

DreamWorks Animation is the force behind animated classics like "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda," and "How to Train Your Dragon."

Katzenberg's comments come after Hollywood writers spent months on strike last year, partially in reaction to the use of AI in their industry.

More than 11,000 film and TV screenwriters went on strike from May to September 2023 after the Writers Guild of America, or WGA, could not agree on a labor contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP.

The strike was aimed at securing better wages and fairer work practices, and at prompting more regulation of the use of AI in film writing and production.

The strike led to key wins: The WGA agreement with AMPTP said the AMPTP members can use AI-generated material but can't write or rewrite literary material with AI.

Under the agreement, AI-generated material won't be considered source material, a rule that will protect writers from having their credit undermined by AI. Writers also can't be required to use AI software.

Katzenberg previously said AI could reduce the cost of animated films by 90%.

"I think AI as a creative tool, think of that as a new form, a new paintbrush or new camera, has so much opportunity around it," he said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore in November 2023.

"Well, the good old days when, you know, I made an animated movie, it took 500 artists five years to make a world-class animated movie," he said.

"I don't think it will take 10% of that three years out from now," he added.

Representatives for DreamWorks didn't respond to a request for comment from BI, sent outside regular business hours.

• UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4.
• Police arrested Luigi Mangione, who now faces a murder charge for the killing.
• Mangione has hired prominent New York lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him.

Luigi Mangione, the man police say murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has hired high-profile attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

Friedman Agnifilo is married to Marc Agnifilo, lead lawyer defending Sean "Diddy" Combs against federal sex-trafficking charges.

The Combs and Mangione cases will be handled by the same Manhattan law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, and can be expected to dominate legal news headlines in the coming year.

In getting retained, Friedman Agnifilo bested some half-dozen other prominent attorneys who had been interviewed by the Mangione family last week, according to multiple sources who asked not to be named due to their connection with the case.

Friedman Agnifilo last week left her previous law firm, Perry Law, to join her husband's firm as counsel, representatives for both firms told Business Insider.

Friedman Agnifilo had been a CNN commentator as recently as Wednesday, when she suggested that an insanity defense would be Mangione's best bet.

She told journalist Kaitlan Collins, "It looks like to me there might be a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense that they're going to be thinking about because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did."

On Friday night, Collins broke the news that Friedman Agnifilo had been hired by the Mangione family.

Friedman Agnifilo worked as the chief assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for seven years before pivoting to private practice in 2021.

Mangione faces a second-degree murder charge in New York for the fatal December 4 shooting of Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota. That charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

(A charge of first-degree murder is reserved for those accused of killing a law enforcement official or witness of a crime, or for when a murder is committed during the commission of another high-level crime, including robbery, rape, or kidnapping.)

Mangione is fighting extradition to New York City. The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate appeared for a hearing on December 10 at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse, where a lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told the judge that Mangione was contesting his extradition. Police arrested Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9 on local charges and later arraigned. Mangione made a bail request, which the judge denied during the hearing.

The suspect will remain at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon State Correctional Institution during the extradition proceedings. Dickey told reporters on December 10 that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges in Pennsylvania.

In an interview with CNN that evening, Dickey also said that he anticipates Mangione would plead not guilty to the murder charge in New York and that he hadn't seen any evidence that officials in New York "have the right guy."

Mangione also faces four other charges related to the killing of the insurance CEO: two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second-degree, one count of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree.

A gun found on Mangione matched the three shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a December 11 press conference.

Tisch added that the suspect's fingerprints also matched those found on a water bottle and snack bar wrapper discarded near the crime scene.

During Mangione's arrest, officers found a three-page handwritten document "that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," Tisch said at a separate press conference on December 9.

An internal NYPD report obtained by The New York Times gave the clearest view of the potential motive yet. Based on the so-called manifesto discovered, Mangione "likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices," the NYPD report said, as reported by the Times.

Mangione "appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and 'power games,' asserting in his note he is the 'first to face it with such brutal honesty,'" according to the NYPD report by the department's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, the Times reported.

In a statement to Business Insider, representatives for Nino Mangione — a Maryland state legislator and a cousin of Mangione's — declined to comment on the news of Mangione's arrest.

"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione," the statement read. "We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest."

Recognized at a McDonald's

Mangione was eating in an Altoona McDonald's when an employee recognized him from the several surveillance images that authorities released in the aftermath of Thompson's killing and called the police, New York police said at the December 9 press conference.

Altoona police found Mangione in the McDonald's with multiple fake IDs and a US passport, as well as a firearm and a suppressor "both consistent with the weapon used" in the shooting of Thompson in the heart of Manhattan, Tisch, the NYPD commissioner, said.

The gun appeared to be a "ghost gun" that may have been made on a 3-D printer. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the press conference that such a gun could fire a 9-millimeter round.

A Pennsylvania criminal complaint filed against Mangione said officers found a black 3-D-printed pistol and 3-D-printed silencer inside the suspect's backpack.

When Altoona officers asked Mangione if he had been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake," the criminal complaint said.

Clothing, including a mask, was also recovered "consistent with those worn" by the suspect wanted for Thompson's killing, along with a fake New Jersey ID matching the ID that the murder suspect used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the attack, Tisch said.

Based on the handwritten document that police found on Mangione, according to Kenny, "it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America."

During a December 10 interview on NBC's "Today" show, Tisch said the "manifesto" revealed "anti-corporatist sentiment" and "a lot of issues with the healthcare industry."

"But as to like particular, specific motive that'll come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and month," the NYPD commissioner said.

NBC News and The New York Times, each citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official, reported that the handwritten document read in part: "These parasites had it coming."

"I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," it added, according to the reports.

Police believe that Mangione acted alone.

NYPD investigators traveled to Altoona last week to interview Mangione after Altoona officers took him into custody.

Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said at Mangione's Pennsylvania arraignment that Mangione was carrying $10,000 in cash, including foreign currency, according to the Associated Press.

Mangione disputed the amount in court.

Mangione was active on social media

Mangione posted and amplified posts about technological advances like artificial intelligence on X. He also posted about fitness and healthy living.

He frequently retweeted posts by the writer Tim Urban and commentator Jonathan Haidt about the promise and perils of technology. He also appeared to be a fan of Michael Pollan, known for his writing about food and ethics.

Other deleted social media posts showed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and expressed skepticism toward both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.

At the top of his profile was a header image with three images: a photo of himself, smiling, shirtless on a mountain ridge, a Pokemon, and an x-ray with four pins or screws visible in the lower back.

Mangione founded a company called AppRoar Studios in 2015 while still in high school. AppRoar released an iPhone game called Pivot Plane that is no longer available.

The two other cofounders of AppRoar could not be reached for comment.

Mangione's X account has been deactivated. A spokesperson for YouTube said his three accounts on the platform were also terminated, but that they had not been active for about seven months.

A manhunt

Mangione's arrest followed a nearly week-long manhunt.

According to police, Manigone was born and raised in Maryland, and has ties to San Francisco, California. His last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The New York Post, citing law-enforcement sources, reported that Mangione's mother reported him missing in mid-November.

Law-enforcement sources told ABC News that FBI agents and members of the NYPD spoke to the mother a day before Mangione's arrest, following a tip, and that in the conversation she indicated that the person in the surveillance photos could be her son.

Kenny, the NYPD's chief of detectives, said that Manigone has no prior arrest history in New York and no known arrests in the US.

A Luigi Mangione with a matching birthday and address received a citation for simple trespass for entering a forbidden area of a state park in Hawaii in November 2023. He pleaded no contest and paid a $100 fine.

"For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips, and processed every bit of forensic evidence — DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses and so much to tighten the net," Tisch said at Monday's press conference announcing the arrest of Manigone.

Thompson was shot multiple times on a Midtown sidewalk as he was walking toward the Hilton hotel. He was steps away from a side entrance to the hotel — where he was set to speak at UnitedHealth Group's investor conference — when a hooded gunman opened fire on him from behind.

The chief executive of the nation's largest health insurer was struck at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf, police said.

Surveillance footage showed the gunman firing his weapon as Thompson, wearing a blue suit jacket, walked several feet in front of him.

The gunman fled the scene, first on foot and then on an electric bike, which he rode into Central Park before ultimately escaping from New York City, police said.

Shell casings and bullets found at the scene had the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" written on them, according to multiple reports citing unnamed sources. BI couldn't independently confirm these details.

In the aftermath of the attack, the NYPD offered a $10,000 reward for tips leading to the gunman's arrest, with the FBI offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

A spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, reacted to news of Manigone's arrest in a statement to BI, saying: "Our hope is that today's apprehension brings some relief to Brian's family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy. We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family's privacy as they mourn."

• Shake Shack's founder, Danny Meyer, said that always saying "yes" to the customer is risky.
• Too much customization, he said, may not work in favor of the business or the customer.
• Meyer referenced Starbucks, saying it offers too many "permutations" of lattes.

Shake Shack's founder, Danny Meyer, believes too much customization might spoil the broth.

In a podcast interview with Yahoo Finance's "Opening Bid," released on Wednesday, Meyer told host Brian Sozzi about how saying "yes" to customers excessively may put companies at a disadvantage and be a disservice to the average customer.

Sozzi asked Meyer what he thinks about companies like Starbucks that offer customers tons of product customization.

He said that Starbucks' newly instated CEO, Brian Niccol, "is about to make some changes to the menu, pull back some of the clutter, and get things off the menu that didn't make sense."

To this, Meyer responded that in the name of hospitality, "good restaurants figure out how to find a 'yes.'"

"And Starbucks certainly figured out for years how to say the 'yes,'" Meyer said. "You want your latte, how? I can't even go through all the permutations, there's so many."

But he said that if taken too far, a company's strength in saying "yes" to the customer could become a weakness.

"That doesn't work to the benefit of the average customer," Meyer said. "And the average customer may have a declining good experience because of all the hospitality we're giving, saying 'yes.'"

He added that all the alternatives "gum up the works for the average person who just wants a tall coffee."

Meyer said he had to restrain himself to keep Shake Shack's menu simple. The chain used to have more milkshakes than it now does, and it used to have daily frozen custard flavors, which it has scaled back on.

Meyer, who founded Shake Shack in 2001, said that one piece of advice he follows is, "Can we make it so that the bigger we get, the smaller we act?"

"And there's magic in trying to figure that out," he said to Sozzi.

The fast-food chain, which started as a hot dog stand in New York City's Madison Square Park, now has over 510 locations worldwide, including over 180 international locations. Its stock price is up 85% this year.

In addition to being the head of Shake Shack, Meyer is also the chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group, which owns a portfolio of popular New York restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern and The Modern.

Starbucks' new chief, Niccol, has announced that he will simplify the chain's offerings.

Visiting a Starbucks store in the US "can feel transactional," and the "menus can feel overwhelming," Niccol wrote in an open letter in September.

He aims to make Starbucks more warm and inviting, deliver coffee faster to customers, and simplify online ordering to reduce the burden on baristas.

Representatives for Shake Shack did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.

• A bright spot on Lululemon's horizon was its robust growth in international markets.
• Its international sales increased 33% in Q3 of 2024, compared to 2% in the Americas.
• China, in particular, was a strong market for the brand this quarter.

Lululemon's robust growth in its international markets — particularly China — made up for its lackluster performance in the Americas.

The Vancouver-based activewear brand, known for selling $100 yoga pants, reported strong third-quarter sales in its stores abroad, with its international sales increasing 33% from a year ago.

CEO Calvin McDonald said on the Thursday earnings call that internationally, "momentum remains strong in all of our markets as we continue to see great acceptance of the Lululemon brand across the globe."

In mainland China, the company's net revenue increased 39% year-over-year, and comparable sales increased by 27%. China's net revenue was $318.3 million, compared to $228.6 million a year ago.

In its international markets outside China, Lululemon's net revenue increased 27% to $307.9 million, with comparable sales increasing 23% compared to the year before.

Lululemon now has 749 company-operated stores globally, compared to 686 the year before. This quarter, it opened six new stores in mainland China.

International growth has been a boon for Lululemon this year.

In August, the company reported second-quarter China net revenue of $314.2 million — up 34% from Q2 in 2023.

In this latest quarter, Lululemon said that its brand aligned with "Healthy China 2030," the Chinese government's plan for health and development.

Closer to home, its sales in the Americas fell flat, continuing last quarter's little annual growth. Its Americas net revenue increased by 2% to $1.8 billion. Comparable sales decreased by 2%.

The company expects to open 40 new stores in 2024, some of which will be in mainland China.

"And then, on the success of some of the markets with our franchise model, we'll be opening Denmark, Belgium, Turkey, and Czech Republic through our franchise model and partnerships," McDonald said on Thursday.

Representatives of Lululemon did not respond to BI's query, sent outside regular business hours, asking how many new outlets will be opened in China in 2024.

Martin Roll, a global business strategist and senior advisor at consulting giant McKinsey, told BI earlier this week that Lululemon's success in China could be attributed to the trend of consumers focusing on health and wellness in tough economic times.

"China is kind of waking up in terms of health," Roll said to BI, adding that consumers are catching up with health habits like yoga, gym, and physical welfare that North American consumers have followed for the last two decades.

Lululemon's stock price rose 9% in after-hours trading after it released its Q3 earnings. The company is down more than 30% this year.

• As the CEO of the fashion company Tapestry, Joanne Crevoiserat helms Coach and Kate Spade's ships.
• The chief shared some leadership and career advice in a "Leadership Next" interview.
• Her North Star is an "insatiable curiosity about the consumer."

As the CEO of the fashion company Tapestry, Joanne Crevoiserat steers popular brands like Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman.

In an interview with Fortune's "Leadership Next," which was released on Wednesday, Crevoiserat gave host Diane Brady her leadership, business, and career advice.

Here are three nuggets of wisdom from the chief.

1. Have 'insatiable curiosity' about the customer

Crevoiserat's first top was to have "insatiable curiosity about the consumer."

She said that understanding the customer goes beyond survey data and involves "going a step deeper into the consumer's closet, into their home, and talking to them about what matters to them."

Doing this ensures that the brand can build more relevant products and experiences for their consumers, she told Fortune.

2. Don't be afraid to take side steps in your career

Her second piece of advice was to enjoy the career journey.

"Relationship building, understanding the end-to-end business is not always the intended outcome of a specific job," Crevoiserat said to Fortune. "It's not on your job responsibility list, but it helps you build your career."

She also careers aren't always going to be linear.

Crevoiserat has held top jobs in several retail companies, including Walmart, Kohl's, and Abercrombie & Fitch. She became Tapestry's CEO in 2020 after working as the company's finance chief for a year.

"I've taken a few side steps in my career and people have said, 'Trust me on this,' and you have to have a little trust. But it has worked out," Crevoiserat said.

She added, "And I do see the benefit of taking those side steps and being able to have a bigger picture and better perspective on business overall.

3. Inspiration strikes outside the office walls

Crevoiserat said that being "outdoors and moving" is essential.

"I get a lot of inspiration from being in the natural world, whether it be a walk along the Hudson or a hike in the mountains," the leader said.

She said that staying inside a building all day makes it "hard to be inspired if all you're seeing are the same four walls over and over again."

She draws inspiration and energy from walking, running, hiking, and visiting museums in New York City, she added.

In the interview, Crevoiserat and Brady also discussed the potential impact of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on foreign imports and Tapestry's recently halted merger with fashion brand Capri.

Tapestry announced in August 2023 that it would buy Capri for $8.5 billion. Under the proposed merger, six high-end fashion brands would operate under one umbrella: Capri's Versace, Jimmy Choo, and Michael Kors, along with Tapestry's Coach, Stuart Weitzman, and Kate Spade.

But in October, a New York federal judge blocked the merger, saying it would "substantially lessen competition in the market for accessible-luxury handbags."

Tapestry's stock price is up 73% this year.

Representatives for Tapestry didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Walmart's chief, Doug McMillon, got his wine sent to him by drone.
• He lives in one of the areas in the US in which Walmart offers drone deliveries.
• He said Walmart's future looked like "urgent deliveries happening in a really fast time."

Walmart's CEO Doug McMillon gets his groceries in style.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference in New York on Tuesday, the head of the country's largest supermarket chain said he got wine delivered by drone right to his front door.

He said he ordered the drone delivery when his wife Shelley realized she didn't have a key ingredient in the kitchen.

"A few weeks ago, Shelley's making Chicken Marsala, and she said out loud, 'I forgot the cooking wine,' which meant I was supposed to get up off the couch and stop watching football and go get Marsala cooking wine," McMillon said.

"But what we had was a drone delivery in less than 15 minutes that dropped it right at my front door, and that was pretty cool," said McMillon, who lives in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered.

"I think our future looks like big baskets moving slowly at a value and urgent deliveries happening in a really fast time in a variety of ways," McMillon said.

Walmart launched drone deliveries in six states in 2022 but was forced to scale back in recent years.

In August, DroneUp, Walmart's drone delivery partner, told Axios that drone deliveries were not economically sustainable for smaller, low-cost packages. They closed 18 Walmart delivery hubs in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Tampa. The retailer currently offers drone deliveries in three locations in the US — Bentonville, Dallas, and Virginia Beach.

Walmart aims to have the largest drone delivery footprint of any retailer in the country. In January, it expanded its drone delivery radius to serve 1.8 million additional households in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

Drone deliveries cost $12.99 per trip for Walmart+ members and $19.99 per delivery for non-members.

McMillon's comments come as Walmart reported strong third-quarter earnings in November, beating analyst expectations.

It saw comparable US sales growth of 5.3% year over year and reported an operating income growth of 8.2%.

Walmart representatives didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Being born in the year of the dragon is auspicious, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
• Dragon babies are regarded as smart, successful, and natural leaders.
• Experts say that being born in this year can make life harder at work and in school.

Jackson Koh was born in Singapore in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Growing up, he says he was his aunts' and uncles' favorite — and he knows why.

"When I was young, every Chinese New Year, my relatives would ask, 'What zodiac is your child?' And my parents would say, 'Oh, he's a dragon,'" said Koh, a 23-year-old student at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

"And then all the relatives were, like, 'Wow! He's going to grow up to be very rich and very successful,'" he added.

"Obviously, listening to all this every year, it'll build up your ego. You just think, 'Oh, I'm a dragon, I'm special,'" Koh said.

Why the Dragon Year is special

There are 12 Chinese zodiac animals, arranged in the following order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The cycle repeats every 12 years.

Under the lunar calendar, 2024 is the year of the dragon.

The dragon is the only mythical creature among the dozen animals. It's considered the most auspicious zodiac by the Chinese — and people in Asia make it a point to procreate, with hopes of birthing a child in those 12 calendar months.

According to Singapore's Department of Statistics, births went from 36,178 in 2011 to 38,641 in 2012, the most recent dragon year. The number of births in the following year, 2013, dipped back down to 35,681.

A similar trend of dragon-year birth spikes was observed in 1988 and 2000.

People born in the dragon year are said to be natural leaders, intelligent, and charismatic.

"Dragon babies are, for the most part, intensely desired and prized by their parents. Culturally, dragons are held in the highest esteem — they were symbols of the emperor," Ee Cheng Ong, an associate professor of economics at the National University of Singapore (NUS), told Business Insider.

Special attention, but more competition

Several dragon babies in Singapore told Business Insider they were a source of pride for their family elders, who showered them with more attention because of their birth year.

Melissa Anne Lim, a self-employed 23-year-old, said that, like Jackson Koh, she was doted on growing up.

"My grandma loves that I'm a dragon," said Lim. "Being a dragon baby kind of gave me a little more special attention, from the aunties especially."

Dragon babies are also likely to face more competition in school and in the workplace from their direct peers.

"Because schools have limited resources, including numbers of classrooms, facilities, and teachers, it is indeed correct that people born in such years may face disadvantages in terms of having larger class sizes and more competition in accessing 'top schools,'" said Kelvin Seah, a senior economics lecturer at NUS.

And it's not just schools. Seah said dragon babies will also have a tougher time looking for jobs after graduation.

"There are only so many jobs available in the economy. The larger cohort size means more competition for the limited number of jobs after graduation," Seah said.

In 2017, researchers from NUS published a study on the life outcomes of dragon babies in Singapore.

The study — which had a sample size of 4,608 and is based on local birth, employment, and university admissions data from 1960 to 2015 in Singapore — found that Chinese dragon babies earned 6.3% less than other Chinese birth cohorts upon entering the workforce.

The study also found that Chinese dragon babies were 2.3% less likely to gain admission to local universities in Singapore.

A numbers game

In other places where the lunar year is observed — and accorded cultural significance — people born in the year of the dragon also face a unique set of challenges.

In China, for instance, dragon babies taking the gaokao, the country's marathon university entrance exams, may face more intense competition with a larger cohort, said Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science and public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

China also sees birth rate spikes in dragon years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in 2012, China's birth rate reached 14.57 births per 1,000 people. That was an increase from 13.27 births per 1,000 people in 2011. Births dipped the following year, to 13.03 births per 1,000 people in 2013.

But the latest crop of dragon babies may have it easier, with competition evening out as birth rates drop.

And cultural expectations may be changing, Gietel-Basten added. Dragon babies might have once been subject to great pressure to exceed expectations, but Gietel-Basten says he'd be "surprised" if that same level of pressure would be applied to 2024's dragon babies as they grow older.

"You could even say that if you're a dragon baby, you become more confident," Gietel-Basten said. "And so you could prosper not out of the pressure that's been put on you, but because of that confidence."

Dragon baby spikes aside, birth rates remain low

Whether it's hard to be a dragon baby or not, one thing is clear: Asian countries — including Singapore and China, both of which follow the lunar year — are facing a birth rate problem.

In 2023, China's population fell for the second year in a row due to record-low birth rates. Singapore recorded a total fertility rate of 0.97 in 2023, the first time it had ever fallen below 1.0.

Policymakers across Asia are resorting to a wide range of measures to try to convince people to have more children.

In 2016, China dropped its controversial one-child policy and allowed couples to have two kids. The government changed its rules again in 2021 to let couples have up to three children.

Tokyo's government said in June that it was investing $1.3 million to launch its own dating app for residents. Japan's total population has declined for the 15th straight year in 2023.

Seoul is offering up to $730 in incentives to people looking to reverse their vasectomies and tubal ligations. South Korea in 2023 recorded the world's lowest fertility rate, at 0.72 births per woman.

Some leaders are using the allure of the dragon baby in their messaging to encourage more children.

In February, then-Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his annual Chinese New Year message that it is a good time for families to "add a 'little dragon.'"

"I hope my encouragement prompts more couples to try for a baby, although I know that the decision is a very personal one," Lee said.

But higher than ordinary birth rates in a given year can also stress social systems.

"If there's still a bunching of baby deliveries in dragon years, that will create tension within schools and public educational resources," said Qian Wenlan, a finance and real estate professor at the National University of Singapore. Qian co-authored the 2017 study about life outcomes for dragon babies in Singapore.

"In some years, you just have to employ more teaching staff — such as adjunct teachers, for example — to accommodate and to educate more students," Qian added.

Still, even if the road is paved with challenges, sometimes being born a dragon is little more than a happy accident.

"At the end of the day, there are many other factors to take into consideration when we family plan," Lim, the 23-year-old dragon baby, said. "I have a niece and nephew who were both born in the year of the dragon. Did their parents plan for them to be dragons? Not exactly — but it was a pleasant surprise."

• Nic Lim, a New Zealand author, uprooted his life in New Zealand to become a school teacher in Japan.
• During his four years there, he weathered a pandemic and dealt with cultural and language barriers.
• There are three things people interested in moving to Japan should be aware of, he said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nic Lim, an author from New Zealand who moved to Japan for four years to work as an English teacher. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his employment history.

In 2019, fresh out of university, I left home in the thick of winter. After a long plane ride, I found myself sweating in the heat of a blazing Japanese summer, en route to what would be my home for the next years.

Before I left home in New Zealand, I'd lived in the same house, in the same city, for my entire life.

I won't sugarcoat it: I wanted more opportunities, and to go out into the world and see what it had to offer.

I've always loved manga, anime, and other aspects of Japanese culture. And having graduated with a media degree, I felt Japan was the place for me.

So, when I was 21 and fresh out of college, I decided to move. I applied for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, which brings foreign graduates to Japan to work as assistant English teachers.

I was accepted to the program and moved to Koshigaya, a town in the central Saitama Prefecture.

There, I was suddenly exposed to a new culture, a new city, and a new language.

Here are three big lessons I learned from my four years living and working in Japan.

You're going to have to adjust to your new life, and fast

When I got to Japan, I noticed how limited the use of technology was in the classroom.

For example, our morning meeting notes were always printed on paper. Some of my fellow teachers didn't know how to use email, and that was one of the things that prevented us from switching up the system from printed meeting notes to digital documents.

On top of that, we were using ancient computers that were still running Windows 7. Some of the data was still stored on floppy disks.

Also, the scenes you see in manga where kids draw on blackboards are accurate. In the school where I taught, blackboards were the norm. I developed a hatred of having chalk on my fingers because it'd end up staining my suit with white smears.

The way people work at school was also a cultural gap I had to bridge.

Teachers in Japan also behave very differently from how I did, having grown up and gone to school in New Zealand. More traditional teachers conduct themselves strictly, and go by the book.

Meanwhile, I liked chatting in the hallways with the students, and my style of building rapport with the kids caused a bit of friction with some other staff members.

But I'm proud to say that my students began to trust me, and think of me as a friendly face they could approach. I think it's because people are more willing to mess up in front of their friends than they are in front of their teachers — and, by extension, more willing to learn.

Being proficient in Japanese before you leave for Japan is a major plus

Before I went to Japan, I did not know a lot of Japanese. I had a basic grasp of hiragana and the numbers, and in my part-time job at a sushi shop, I would count the pieces of sushi in Japanese to try to practice.

But that was about the extent of my proficiency.

Obviously, one of the advantages of being in Japan is that you're surrounded by Japanese people. It's a great opportunity to immerse yourself in the language — and I tried my best to learn as much of it as possible when I got there.

But my first language struggle hit pretty early on when there was a typhoon. While the government did a good job of offering information in English, at certain points, my phone would light up, an emergency alert would pop up, and it would all be in Japanese.

I'd look at it and think: "Do I need to run?"

It was daunting, being bombarded with emergency alerts that I just could not understand at all.

I also happen to have an extensive list of dietary restrictions. I'm allergic to wheat, gluten, eggs, nuts, and fish.

If you know anything about Japanese cuisine, eggs, wheat, and fish are core culinary components. When I first got to Japan, I couldn't read the food labels in shops.

So that was rough — because I had no idea if food would potentially kill me without looking it up on a translator.

You may think you know Japan from the touristy photos people post on Instagram. You don't.

I think the image that a lot of people have of Japan is what you see in the media — the glitzy streets and neon lights of Tokyo and the shrines and red torii gates of Kyoto.

Beyond Japan's most romanticized elements, there are regular towns where people just go about their lives in their suburban neighborhoods.

I've also traveled to places off the beaten track. I've hiked to the source of an onsen on Mount Adatara in Fukushima, and seen some of the more rural parts of the country that tourists don't often think to visit.

Some days, I would take my bike, pick a direction, and ride until I couldn't go any further. It was intensely freeing — and I encourage people to leave their comfort zone, and go on adventures like this at least once.

Living in Japan inspired me to write a book, "Gate at the End of Summer." I wanted to capture the feeling of the best days of one's high school life. It's rooted in the idea of enjoying one's youth, as best as one can — and not wanting summer to end.

I'd go back in a heartbeat

Of course, life in Japan wasn't perfect — no country is perfect — but I take the good with the bad. But what's stuck with me since I left in 2023 were the great experiences I had there.

I spent a lot of energy trying to make sure that my students could make the most of their time at school, and leave with happy memories. But I came out of it with beautiful memories of life in high school, too.

My teaching contract has ended, but I'd love to go back — if I ever get the opportunity to do so.

• I stayed in Doulos Phos The Ship Hotel, a short ferry ride from Singapore.
• The 110-year-old ship was brought to its resting place in Indonesia and renovated into a hotel.
• It was a unique respite from the hustle and bustle of Singapore.

Life in Singapore, a small island state in Southeast Asia that's just slightly smaller than New York City, can get claustrophobic.

Weekend getaways to nearby islands are popular escapes for weary residents. Bintan, an Indonesian island just an hourlong, 107 Singapore dollars ($80) round-trip ferry from Singapore, is a top choice.

As my ferry turned into Bintan's harbor, I caught the first glimpse of what would be my home for the next 36 hours: a 110-year-old mammoth ship that's been converted into a hotel.

About Doulos Phos The Ship Hotel

The ship, retrofitted to become a hotel in 2019, was built in 1914, just two years after the Titanic sank.

Built in Texas, it was a cargo ship carrying onions from 1914 to 1948. Until 1953, it was a passenger ship that ferried pilgrims to Rome.

In 1953, it was acquired by a cruise company and served as a passenger ship before it was sold to a Christian missionary in 1977. There, it spent 33 years as a floating library sailing around the world.

When it was decommissioned in 2009 at 95 years old, the ship received a Guinness World Record as the oldest active passenger ocean-going ship.

Singaporean businessman Eric Saw bought the vessel in 2010 and spent nine years finding its final resting spot.

From the get-go, I was blown away by the vastness

As my taxi turned the corner from the ferry terminal, I took in the sheer size of the 430-foot-long ship hotel.

Dry-berthed on an anchor-shaped piece of reclaimed land, the hotel has 105 ship-cabin-inspired rooms, three operating eateries, an infinity swimming pool overlooking the sea, a gym, and a spa center.

The lobby was bright, polished, and spacious. While I checked in, I was given a refreshing glass of chilled orange juice, a welcome respite from the nearly 90-degree heat of the island.

Its history as an ocean-going vessel was apparent: The staff were all dressed in sailor-inspired uniforms with nautical patterns, its rooms were called cabins, and its floors were referred to as decks.

The room was stunning

My room, which was an executive suite, was spacious and way too big for one person. It had a sofa area, a work desk, a king-sized bed, and a mini-fridge. The windows looked out to a beautiful view of Bintan's coastline.

The bathroom, too, was huge — much larger than some hotel rooms I've stayed in.

The room cost about $87 a night, which I thought was a good deal for the size and amenities. Business Insider paid for my stay in full.

There wasn't that much to do on the property — but the tour was fascinating

I thought the activities "on board" the ship hotel could have been more extensive. The highlight was a ship tour, which takes place twice daily, at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m..

The tour started from the upper decks, with the staff taking me through the various suites of the ship. It then wound its way to the engine room on the lowest deck.

The engine room looked like it was the most untouched part of the ship. A wall with maps of dozens of countries documented its 95 years of sails, and the preserved pipes and machinery gave me an idea of what the ship must have looked like while in operation.

Outside the ship, on the edge of the anchor-shaped reclaimed island, sat the hotel's infinity pool. The water was cool and refreshing, and given that it faced west, the view of the sunset was to die for.

There was a small spa facility and benches and grass patches to sit around in.

The gym on-site had a traditional wooden roof and was equipped with weights, a treadmill, exercise balls, and other basic equipment. It was small but had a beautiful view of the sea.

Apart from that, there was not that much to do. But living and working in Singapore's noisy concrete jungle, I found myself gazing at the sea for a good part of my trip.

There was an odd lack of visitors

One thing that shocked me about the place was the unsettling lack of visitors. Most of the visitors during my stay were the missionaries who owned the ship before it was decommissioned and were on a group retreat at the hotel.

Throughout my weekday stay, I only saw one visitor who was not a part of the missionary retreats. The visitor, Truphena Omolo from Kenya, was a teacher working in Singapore who was on a short getaway to Bintan.

She said she had found the hotel on Booking.com and booked it for five days and four nights, paying about $400 for her trip.

The food needed some work

I am a huge fan of Indonesian cuisine and had high hopes for the food. But it fell short, with the chicken being a bit too dry for my liking.

Omolo, the visitor from Kenya, said she thought the only area the hotel could improve on was its food.

"I think if there were a variety of maybe choices in terms of meals for people who are vegetarian, then I would appreciate that," she said, adding that the choices for her were "slim."

I returned home refreshed

Overall, I returned from the short trip rejuvenated. It was a perfect place for a quick and inexpensive escape from city life.

However, other hotels and resorts in Bintan with water sports and golf courses might be a safer bet for more activity-seeking vacationers.

• Trump's second term may not bode well for Chinese fast-fashion brands in the US.
• The president-elect has floated the idea of tariffs of 60% or more on imports from China.
• Gen Z-favorite brands like Shein and Temu will likely be hit hard by such tariffs.

Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election could spell trouble for Chinese fast-fashion brands, particularly Gen Z-favorite budget brands like Shein and Temu.

On Monday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he intends to slap China with an additional 10% import tariff — on top of any tariffs he already plans to impose. He said these tariffs were a punishment for China sending "massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl," to the US.

In his first term, from 2016 to 2020, Trump imposed protectionist policies, including 25% tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, leading to a trade war with China.

While campaigning this year, Trump said he would impose tariffs of 60% or higher taxes on Chinese products.

In response to Trump's Monday statements, Chinese Embassy Spokesperson Liu Pengyu said that "no one will win a trade war or a tariff war."

A report published by the National Retail Federation on November 4 calculated that American consumers could lose between $46 billion and $78 billion in spending power yearly.

If Trump imposes a 10% universal tariff on all imports and an additional 60% to 100% tariff on goods from China, apparel prices would increase between 12.5% and 20.6%, the NRF wrote in the report.

Consumers would cut back spending on apparel by up to 33%, the NRF report projects.

The stakes are high for cheap Chinese e-commerce businesses: Temu parent company PDD has for months warned of slowing profits. The company's stock is down 31% this year. Meanwhile, Shein is gearing up for a hotly-anticipated initial public offering, likely next year.

David Jacks, an economics professor from Singapore's Yale-NUS College, told BI that it's "hard to think of any scenario" where the fast-fashion industry "completely escapes revived US protectionism."

He said that because their supply chains originate from China, Shein and Temu are "likely to receive even greater scrutiny and suffer higher tariffs" compared to other businesses that manufacture in Bangladesh and Morocco, for example.

"Consumers will almost certainly pay higher prices, and producers will almost certainly earn lower profits," Jacks added.

The companies have not publicly addressed possible US tariffs, including on PDD's earnings call last week. Lei Chen, PDD's co-CEO, said on the call that "intensifying competition in the global market" and a "complex external environment" will bring "ups and downs."

Neither Shein nor Temu responded to Business Insider's requests for comment.

Shein and Temu won't escape the consequences of tariffs

Jeffrey Towson, the founder of US and China-based retail consultancy TechMoat Consulting, said that Shein and Temu are popular in the US precisely because of their cheap products.

"Shein and Temu excel at very low prices. That's why American consumers love them. But there is nothing left to squeeze out of their China supply chains," Towson told BI.

He said that consumers are likely to face price increases unless "the supply chains are redirected," which he said was "very likely."

Emily Pfeiffer, a principal analyst at market research firm Forrester, said that she expects struggles for the businesses in the future, especially after Amazon launched its own low-price site called Amazon Haul.

"Shein and Temu only became popular in the US relatively recently, over the past four years or so. They haven't been subjected to changes that would have a sudden, significant, negative impact on their competitiveness as low-price marketplaces," Pfeiffer said.

But Jacob Cooke, CEO of e-commerce consulting firm WPIC Marketing + Technologies, offered an alternative view. He said that even if the tariffs are imposed on Temu's imports, the brand "will still be price competitive due to thinner merchant margins and access to cheap Chinese sourcing."

Shein and Temu have made bank in the US

Shein is known for its massive garment production. Analysts have called Shein's business model "real-time retail" because new designs can take as little as three days to produce, Vox reported in 2021.

The company is planning to go public in the UK, eyeing a $65 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported in October.

However, its reputation has been marred by exploitative labor practices and investigations that showed that its products contained toxic substances.

And while Shein has become synonymous with fast fashion produced in China, it's facing rising competition from Temu.

Temu sells low-cost products ranging from home goods to motorcycle accessories. In February, it spent millions of dollars on Super Bowl advertisements in an effort to win over the US market.

Both brands have been under regulatory scrutiny. In September, the Biden administration announced that it would take steps to reduce the "abuse" of a trade law that has allowed firms like Shein and Temu to avoid taxes and tariffs when they enter the US.

The trade provision, called "de minimis," allows importers to avoid paying import fees on shipments of less than $800 if they go straight to consumers.

• Zoom Video Communications Inc. is dropping video from its name in an AI-first rebranding effort.
• The company, best known for its videoconferencing, will now be known as "Zoom Communications Inc."
• Zoom isn't the only company revisiting its trajectory in the AI boom.

Zoom — the company best known for bringing the world the videoconferencing software that got corporate workers through the coronavirus pandemic — wants to be known for its status as an AI-first company, CEO Eric Yuan wrote in a company blog post published Monday announcing a major rebrand.

From this day forward, the company formerly called "Zoom Video Communications Inc." will be known simply as "Zoom Communications Inc." the post reads, as the company focuses on an AI-first approach to corporate communications.

For the company, an AI-first approach means "taking a federated approach to building AI-centric tools and products that enable you to work happier, smarter, and faster," the blog post said.

"Woven throughout Zoom Workplace, AI Companion frees us up to focus on more important work and minimizes time wasted on less meaningful tasks," the company announced. "By summarizing meeting tasks, drafting email responses, and preparing you for meetings, AI Companion is your digital assistant that reduces your over."

It added that the new capabilities aim to " free up a whole day's worth of work and allowing you to work just four days per week."

Big bucks in the AI business

Zoom isn't the only company revisiting its business trajectory and marketing strategy in the wake of the industry-wide AI boom.

Major Big Tech firms, from Amazon to Google and Meta, are spending big on AI.

Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are expected to invest about $300 billion in AI-linked capital expenditures next year, and 2026 is slated to be even bigger, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley.

On October 30, Microsoft disclosed a $13 billion equity investment in OpenAI for the first time, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. It had previously described its relationship with OpenAI as a partnership instead of an equity investment.

"We have a long-term partnership with OpenAI, a leading AI research and deployment company," Microsoft wrote in its annual SEC filing in late July. "We deploy OpenAI's models across our consumer and enterprise products."

Over at the Google office, CEO Sundar Pichai said that more than a quarter of new code created at Google is generated by AI.

Pichai said in October, during the company's Q3 earnings call, that using AI for coding was "boosting productivity and efficiency" within Google. After the code is generated, it's checked and reviewed by employees, he added.

In a recent episode of The Wall Street Journal's "Future of Everything" podcast, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff discussed why he considered renaming his customer service software company to more readily reflect its focus on AI.

But not every company's AI strategy has been smooth sailing.

Microsoft's flagship AI product, Copilot, had a stumbling start when it was introduced last September. In October, when the management consultancy Gartner published a survey of 123 IT leaders, only four said Copilot provided significant value to their companies.

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

• President-elect Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China.
• He said he planned to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico.
• He also said he intended to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods.

President-elect Donald Trump's announcement of a slate of tariffs sparked a rally in the US dollar on Monday.

The US Dollar Index surged by over 1% following the announcement, while the Mexican peso and Canadian dollar weakened sharply amid tariff concerns.

In a pair of Truth Social posts on Monday, Trump said he planned to kick off his term on January 20 with executive orders "to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders."

"This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The threat of tariffs since Trump was elected has led to a rally in the US currency on the expectation that the Federal Reserve will have to keep rates higher to counter the inflationary effect of the tax on imports. Higher US rates, in turn, lead to a stronger greenback as foreign investors buy up dollars to invest in higher-yielding assets like Treasurys and other debt securities.

The dollar rally briefly reversed course on Monday as markets reacted to the nomination of Scott Bessent to lead the US Treasury Department, with the former hedge fund manager seen as a possible counter to some of Trump's more inflationary proposals. However, the US currency rallied again with the news of the President-elect's latest plans.

Rob Carnell, the Asia-Pacific head of research for ING bank, wrote on Tuesday that Trump's comments were likely to add volatility to the markets.

Trump's latest tariff threats signal how he'd approach relationships with various trade partners, rekindling memories of his first time in office.

"And so it starts," Catherine McKenna, Canada's former environment minister, posted on her BlueSky social-media account. She said the "amount of time and energy" the Canadian government spent on Trump's first administration was "bonkers."

A 25% tariff on Canadian imports to the US would be "devastating to workers and jobs in both Canada and the U.S.," Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, wrote on X. "We need a Team Canada approach and response—and we need it now."

Trump added that he believed both countries had the "absolute right and power" to find ways to stop migrants from crossing into the US.

"We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!" Trump wrote.

Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager who supported Trump, said the president-elect would use tariffs "as a weapon to achieve economic and political outcomes which are in the best interest of America."

"The 25% tariffs will not be implemented, or if implemented will be removed, once Mexico and Canada stop the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl," he wrote on X.

The federal government earned $74 billion from import duties in 2020, the last full year of Trump's first term, double the $37 billion collected in 2015, per congressional research.

More tariffs on China

In another Truth Social post on Monday, Trump also said he intended to slap China with an additional 10% import tariff — on top of any tariffs he was already planning to impose.

These tariffs, Trump said, are because China is to blame for "the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States."

Asian markets fell, with the Nikkei 225 down 1.2% at 11:05 a.m. local time.

The US has long scrutinized China's role in the fentanyl supply chain and the ongoing opioid crisis. A 2020 Drug Enforcement Administration report, for one, identified China as a "primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances," which the DEA said came through the mail and commercial cargo.

In April, a congressional committee accused China of fueling the fentanyl crisis by helping to manufacture materials used in making the drug. Then, in August, the Chinese government said it was imposing new regulations on the manufacturing of these "precursor" chemicals.

Trump previously said he planned to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods. If Trump goes through with his earlier proposal, this additional 10% tariff would bring that percentage up to 70%.

It's unclear what China's response to this new era of Trump tariffs will be. But the last time Trump was president, his "America First" policies triggered a trade war with China. Now, economists say new rounds of tariffs could drive inflation, job losses — including in the US — and other economic issues.

Investors and companies alike are bracing for a raft of tariffs that Trump already has planned — and prices of goods are likely to go up.

Representatives for Trump and the foreign ministries of Canada, China, and Mexico didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tariffs on both China and Mexico would hurt the US, an economist says

Canada, an energy giant, is the largest supplier of crude oil to the US.

In the past 12 months, Canada exported 173.6 billion Canadian dollars, or $123 billion, worth of energy products to the US, per Bloomberg calculations based on official data.

Energy, motor vehicles, and consumer goods to the US account for nearly 60% of all Canadian exports to the US, per Bloomberg.

Trump has cited different reasons to impose tariffs on China and Mexico, but the US could be hurt if both countries are targeted, an economist said on Monday.

Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank, wrote that Mexico had already overtaken China as the top exporter to the US.

While there have been concerns that some Chinese firms are using Mexico to skirt US tariffs, "large-scale transshipment is a risk Mexico's unlikely to take" because it's incompatible with the spirit of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and would raise the chances of Trump renegotiating the deal, Scissors wrote.

On Trump's beef with Mexico, Scissors wrote that there were two serious risks to retaliation against illegal migration with US tariffs: job losses in Mexico that would lead to even more migration and a reduction in the ability of US-based firms to replace goods from China.

He wrote that targeting Mexico and China together would "greatly increase" the inflation risks of Trump's previously promised tariffs.

• Koyaana Redstar, a vintage luxury handbag expert, swears by resale handbags.
• She said she bought a Chanel Boy bag for $2,050 in 2015 and sold it for $2,000 in 2024.
• Taking good care of a bag is essential in making sure it retains its value, she said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Koyaana Redstar, the head of luxury buying at Luxe Du Jour, an online luxury boutique for vintage designer handbags. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I've worked for Rebag, The RealReal, and other vintage consignment stores, and I have 20 years of experience in the resale industry.

I swear by resale, just because your return on investment is always going to be higher if you buy resale and sell resale, versus buying at retail price and then selling it off.

Here's a fun bit of girl math. In 2015, I bought a new medium, studded Chanel Boy bag.

In the years I owned it, I wore it at least six times a month — and that's a conservative estimate. I paid $2,050 for it in 2015 at Rebag, a luxury resale company.

I loved that bag and took good care of it, but I sold it this year for $2,000 to supplement the funds I needed for my wedding.

All in, you could say I basically paid $50 to own it for eight years.

To me, buying this bag was a hundred percent worth it — and a great deal.

How to take care of luxury bags

Preserving a bag's condition and caring for it is what helps it retain its value.

My biggest tip is to always store the handbag in climate-controlled environments that are not too cold and have moderate humidity.

Always remember that most pieces are made of leather, which is really just skin. Heat and humidity make it wither. You also don't want the bag to be too wet because mold could grow.

Just make sure you clean the piece with a leather moisturizer or just a fabric cleaner.

But don't buy designer handbags just to resell them

My advice, however, is not to buy bags just to sell them. I give that same advice to consigners who come to me after shopping at Hermès or Chanel and want to sell their bags.

When we quote them prices below retail, they say that they want to make what they paid for it.

The truth is, reselling bags also takes into consideration the demand for an item. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to help customers make a profit.

So, I always tell people, "Buy something you like, for you. Don't do it to resell it."

At the end of the day, investing in a bag you don't like is a gamble. You want to build up a collection because you like the pieces because they speak to you, and because they complement your personal style.