I am aged 85, single and retired, and need to provide for my only child, who is single and on a disability support pension. My assets include my home, valued at $1.7 million, shares worth $60,000 and superannuation of $10,000. I get the full single age pension of $987.60 a fortnight ($25,678 a year). This is insufficient for me, and I have been selling my shares. My options seem to be: 1. Downsize. This would cost about 2 per cent in sales commission, plus marketing costs. Then, to buy another property, I would pay stamp duty of 4.3 per cent on the purchase price, and most probably a strata levy, while I may also lose some or all of my age pension. 2. Access equity in my home under Centrelink’s Home Equity Access (HEA) scheme, or similar. What are your thoughts? G.W.
Regarding your two options, I would favor accessing your property’s equity under Centrelink’s HEA scheme.
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However, if providing for your child is an immediate priority, you could consider a land-lease community, whereby you sell your property and buy a smaller home in an estate, without paying stamp duty.
Prices can be less than $400,000, but always check their fees. Some have no exit or deferred-management fees, while others do not.
That could leave you with enough money left over to place up to $500,000 in a Special Disability Trust for your child, which is the maximum gifting concession allowed without affecting your age pension.
Your child could then claim an assets-test assessment exemption of up to $724,750 (indexed each July).
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You recently covered the question of capital gains tax after death when assets pass on to non-residents. Two of my three children previously lived overseas and, had I died at the time, CGT would have been payable by the estate on their inheritance, and my Australian-resident third child would have been disadvantaged. So, my solicitor added the following clause to my will: “Should the liability for such tax arise as a result of the transfer of any asset from my estate to a tax-exempt and/or non-resident beneficiary, such beneficiary shall pay to my trustee the assessed amount of such tax prior to any such asset transfer or agree to an equivalent reduction in his her or their entitlement to my estate of the assessed amount of such tax.” JH
Thank you for that, it may assist others in similar situations.
The Pixel 2 is an almost five-year-old phone, but it introduced a feature that I miss more and more with each passing year. It was called Active Edge, and it let you summon Google Assistant just by giving your phone a squeeze. In some ways, it’s an unusual idea. But it effectively gave you something sorely lacking on modern phones: a way to physically interact with the phone to just get something donate.
Looking at the sides of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, you won’t see anything to indicate that you’re holding anything special. Sure, there’s a power button and volume rocker, but otherwise, the sides are sparse. Give the phone’s bare edges a good squeeze, though, and a subtle vibration and animation will play, as Google Assistant pops up from the bottom of the screen, ready to start listening to you. You don’t have to wake the phone up, long-press on any physical or virtual buttons, or tap the screen. You squeeze and start talking.
Looking at the sides of the Pixel 2, you’d never guess it’s actually a button.Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
We’ll talk about how useful this is in a second, but I don’t want to gloss over just how cool it feels. Phones are rigid objects made of metal and plastic, and yet, the Pixel can tell when I’m applying more pressure than I do just holding it. According to an old iFixit teardown, this is made possible by a few strain gauges mounted to the inside of the phone that can detect the ever so slight bend in your phone’s case when you squeeze it. For the record, this is a change my human nervous system is incapable of picking up on; I can’t tell that the phone is bending at all.
Whether you found Active Edge useful probably came down to whether you liked using Google Assistant, as illustrated by this Reddit thread. Personally, the only time I ever really used a voice assistant on a daily basis was when I had the Pixel 2 because it was literally right at hand. The thing that made it SW convenient is that the squeeze basically always worked. Even if you were in an app that hid the navigation buttons or your phone’s screen was completely off, Active Edge still did its job.
While that made it extremely useful for looking up fun facts or doing quick calculations and conversions, I’d argue that Active Edge could’ve been so much more useful had you been able to remap it. I enjoyed having the assistant, but if I had been able to turn on my flashlight with a squeeze, I would’ve had instant access to the most important features of my phone no matter what.
This version of the feature actually existed. HTC’s U11, which came out a few months before the Pixel 2, had a similar but more customizable feature called Edge Sense. The two companies worked together on the Pixel and Pixel 2, which explains how it ended up on Google’s devices. That same year, Google bought HTC’s mobile division team.
Active Edge was not Google’s first attempt at providing an alternative to using the touchscreen or physical buttons to control your phone, either. A few years before the Pixel 2, Motorola was letting you open the camera by twisting your phone and turn on the flashlight with a karate chop — not unlike how you shuffled music on a 2008 iPod Nano. The camera shortcut came about during the relatively short amount of time that Google owned Motorola.
As time went on, though, phone manufacturers moved further away from being able to access a few essential features with a physical action. Take my daily driver, an iPhone 12 Mini, for instance. To launch Siri, I have to press and hold the power button, which has become burdened with responsibilities since Apple got rid of the home button. To turn on the flashlight, something I do multiple times a day, I have to wake up the screen and tap and hold the button in the left-hand corner. The camera is slightly more convenient, being accessible with a left swipe on the lock screen, but the screen still has to be on for that to work. And if I’m actually using the phone, the easiest way to access the flashlight or camera is through Control Center, which involves swiping down from the top-right corner and trying to pick out one specific icon from a grid.
In other words, if I look up from my phone and notice my cat doing something cute, he may very well have stopped by the time I actually get the camera open. It’s not that it’s difficult to launch the camera or turn on the flashlight — it’s just that it could be so much more convenient if there were a dedicated button or squeeze gesture. Apple even briefly acknowledged this when it made a battery case for the iPhone that had a button to launch the camera. A few seconds saved here or there add up over the lifetime of a phone.
Just to prove the point, here’s how fast launching the camera is on my iPhone versus the Samsung Galaxy S22, where you can double-click the power button to launch the camera:
There’s less thinking involved when you can just press a button to launch the camera.
Neither phone handles screen recording and previewing the camera very well, but the S22 gets its camera app open before I’ve even tapped the camera icon on the iPhone.
Unfortunately, even Google’s phones aren’t immune to the vanishing of physical buttons. Active Edge stopped showing up on Pixels with the 4A and 5 in 2020. Samsung has also done away with a button it once included to summon a virtual assistant (which, tragically, happened to be Bixby).
There have been attempts to add virtual buttons that you activate by interacting with the device. Apple, for example, has an accessibility feature that lets you tap on the back of your phone to launch actions or even your own mini programs in the form of Shortcuts, and Google added a similar feature to Pixels. But to be perfectly honest, I just haven’t found them reliable enough. A virtual button that barely ever works isn’t a great button. Active Edge worked pretty much every single time for me, despite the fact that I had a beefy OtterBox on my phone.
It’s not that physical controls on phones are completely gone. As I alluded to before, Apple lets you launch things like Apple Pay and Siri through a series of taps or presses on the power button, and there’s no shortage of Android phones that let you launch the camera or other apps by double-pressing the power button.
I’d argue, though, that one or two shortcuts assigned to a single button cannot give us easy access to everything we should have easy access to. To be clear, I’m not demanding that my phone be absolutely covered in buttons, but I think big manufacturers should take a cue from phones of the past (and, yes, from smaller phone makers — I see you Sony fans) and bring back at least one or two physical shortcuts. As Google showed, that doesn’t necessarily require adding an extra physical key that has to be waterproofed. Something as simple as a squeeze can be a button that lets users quickly access features that they — or in the Pixel’s case, Google — deem essential.
If you watch the Chinese film One Second on a streaming platform, you won’t see a credit for the author whose book inspired the movie.
That’s because Chinese authorities have successfully erased any mention of globally renowned Chinese-American writer Yan Geling, both in China and overseas.
The movie — directed by celebrated Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou — is available in Australia from platforms including Prime Video, Google Play and Apple TV.
“I can understand if you don’t want to put my name on it because censorship doesn’t allow it in China,” Yan told the ABC from her home in Berlin.
“However, practices like this are not acceptable overseas. The initial spirit and life of a work are given by the original author.”
Director Zhang Yimou directed the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and 2022.(Reuters: Christina Charisius)
Born in Shanghai into a family of artists, Yan – a prolific book author and screenwriter who has won more than 30 literary and film awards and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science – started her writing career in the 1980s.
She has published more than 40 books in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US, the UK and elsewhere.
But she is now considering giving up writing in Chinese and writing in English instead.
“If this is a price I need to pay, then I will pay it. There is no other way,” she said.
Yan Geling says she will write her next book in English instead of Chinese.(Reuters: Bobby Yip)
The 63-year-old wondered if she had already been subconsciously self-censoring her writing because of China’s strict censorship practices.
“I think being censored for a long time, one will develop a subconscious of self-censorship,” she said.
“And it will dominate you when you are making words and sentences.”
Prime Video, Google Play or Apple TV were all contacted for comment but have yet to respond.
Self-censorship widespread in China’s film industry
Yan Geling says the film One Second is inspired by her novel, The Criminal Lu Yanshi.(Weibo: @Dianying Yimiaozhong)
Censorship in China is back in the spotlight after the country’s National Radio and Television Administration this month decreed artists should produce more “high-quality works” that “adhere to the correct political direction” of China.
It came after President Xi Jinping ordered the arts industry to “tell China’s stories and spread Chinese voices to strengthen the country’s international communication capacity.”
Yan Geling’s name was banned on Chinese social media after she criticized the authorities for censoring information during the early phases of COVID-19 pandemic.
She later also criticized Mr Xi over women’s rights, after a video of a woman chained in a shed sparked debate about human trafficking in China.
After those public comments, Yan said her name was removed from the credits on One Second, the second movie to be inspired by her novel, The Criminal Lu Yanshi.
Chinese authorities censor any media content that could be considered “disturbing” to China’s stability or to “endanger” the nation’s unity and sovereignty.
Artists have said Beijing purposefully keeps those definitions vague to instill fear in writers.
In films, this can translate to censoring scenes with sexual content, violence or references to politically sensitive issues such as the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Apart from not crediting her in the One Second film, audiences have said the Chinese filmmakers also removed political references to the Cultural Revolution, essentially self-censoring the script.
It’s not the first-time an adaptation of Yan’s books has been changed.
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She said a 2009 television series based on her novel Little Aunt Crane was censored during production as well.
The ABC contacted China’s General Administration of Press and Publication and One Second’s production company, Huanxi Media Group, for comment but did not receive a response.
Timmy Chen — who specializes in Chinese-language cinema at Hong Kong Baptist University — said self-censorship in China’s film industry was widespread.
Dr Chen said that, if writers did not self-censor, their films might not make it to the screen.
“They self-censor for the sake of investment, audiences and their production team,” he said.
“It would kill a film if they don’t do that.
“It indeed has a big impact on artists.”
Censorship in China is a two-way street: Several Hollywood movies and television series have been changed in the past so the American content can access China’s screens.
China’s box office is the second-largest box office in the world.
Chinese censors tweaked the ending of Fight Club, and also changed clothing logos in Top Gun: Maverick, erasing Taiwanese and Japanese flags from a bomber jacket.
Chinese films need famous ‘dragon code’
In China, 10 censors must watch a film as part of the process to decide if it can be shown to the public.(AP: Mark Schiefelbein)
As Dr Chen explains, filmmakers in China go through a rigorous three-step screening process before a movie makes it to air.
“The first part is your script must pass a review before you can start shooting,” he said.
Once the script is approved by China’s National Radio and Television Administration, a state agency that issues broadcasting licences, then investors, cast members and production teams can get on board and make the film.
Before being released in China, all movies need to obtain this dragon code, or Film Public Screening Permit.(Source: YouTube)
After the film is shot, there are two post-production reviews by the China Film Administration, which approves a film’s distribution and screening in cinemas.
Dr Chen said that this second step enabled films to get a “dragon code”, an official stamp of approval (literally an animated dragon) that is played on screen before the actual film starts.
However, getting the famous dragon code doesn’t mean a film can be successfully screened in theaters.
The third step, called a “technical examination”, requires 10 censors to sit in an in-house theater, and decide if that film can be shown to the public.
Their approval is a collective decision and passing the examination means a film gains at least six votes to get the green light.
Dr Chen said filmmakers were aware that sensitive content could lead to film being scrapped or changed.
“If your film doesn’t reflect the positive energy of the nation, you will have to cut and amend it for another review,” he said.
Yan Geling said she had reached a point where the impacts of censorship on film, and the arts industry more broadly, were too far-reaching.
“If compromise is the price, I’d rather not [write] anything,” she said.
After her name was banned on social media, a fan club with 16,000 members disbanded.
“The hardest thing for me is having to leave my [Chinese] readers, who love me,” she said.
“I guess they don’t want me to compromise either.”
However, she plans to keep writing and is currently working on a book in English for her daughter, whom she adopted from China.
The book will be about China’s One-Child Policy and Yan’s family history.
“I still have some more books down the road that I think are all in my destiny,” she said.
Alex de Minaur battled back from a set down for his second consecutive match on Friday at the Atlanta Open to reach his second final at the ATP 250 event. The third seed dominated the final two sets in a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory against Ilya Ivashka, repeating the formula he used in his quarter-final win against Adrian Mannarino one day prior.
“I just found a way to get through,” De Minaur said. “It wasn’t an ideal start but these things happen. You adapt, you move on and try to do the best that you can.”
The Aussie let an 0-3 lead slip early in the match, with Ivashka surging to the opening set after a lengthy rain delay at 5-5. De Minaur then fought off two break points to open the second set as he began to reassert himself with his steady baseline game. He again erased a pair of break points to start the deciding set before his pressure told.
De Minaur broke serve on five of seven chances, doing his damage with a 62 per cent win rate on second-serve return points.
By improving to 8-1 in Atlanta, the Aussie is through to his first tour-level final of 2022 after three previous semi-final runs. He is seeking his sixth title and his first since winning Eastbourne last June.
The 2019 champion has enjoyed strong support all week in Atlanta, but is not expecting to be the crowd favorite in the final against American Jenson Brooksby, who raced past Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday evening.
“It’s going to be a fun match,” De Minaur said. “I feel like I might not have the crowd on my side tomorrow since I’m playing an American. But I’m looking forward to [the final].”
Brooksby took charge of the all-American semi-final by storming to a 3-0 lead as Tiafoe struggled to find the court in the opening set. The 21-year-old pressed home the advantage by claiming his third break chance in his opening return game of set two before his opponent began to settle in on the stadium court.
Tiafoe began to find space to attack late in the match and brought up his first break point as his countryman served out the match. But on his sixth match point in a five-deuce game, Brooksby outlasted Tiafoe in a marathon rally to advance to his third ATP Tour final and second of 2022 (Dallas).
“I thought I stared out really strong today. I came out really fired up,” he said post-match. “I think I kept it up in the second, then he started competing, started playing better… I was a little nervous there [at the end of] the second set.”
After improving to 8-2 against fellow Americans, Brooksby will seek his first tour-level title on Sunday in his first ATP Head2Head meeting with De Minaur.
“I think it will be a good, physical match tomorrow,” I previewed. “I’m excited. It’s the final, always really exciting for me.”
Amy Daniel grew up with constant questions about her heritage and culture, something she still faces to this day.
“A lot of people question me and say, ‘You’re too white to be Aboriginal. You’re too pretty to be Aboriginal. You don’t speak like one’,” she said.
She said initially it made her angry and left her questioning herself, but now she used it to educate others.
“I take that opportunity to teach people that no matter how much milk you put in a cup of tea, you’re still a bit black on the inside.”
The 23-year-old Nukunu woman first found out she was Indigenous while in high school.
She was born and raised in Queanbeyan but her descendants are from Nukunu country, near Port Augusta in South Australia.
Ms Daniel recently began connecting more deeply to her culture after moving to Wagga Wagga, in southern New South Wales.
“I grew up painting a lot so I found a bit of a connection there and loved learning more about my culture,” she said.
“Then I moved here [Wagga Wagga]. I met a few of our friends and they taught me more about the importance of being on country.
“They’re helping me find my way and helping me find my story.”
Amy Daniel is a Nukunu woman who grew up in Queanbeyan.(ABC Riverina: Romy Stephens)
a long journey
Ms Daniel always felt a sense of connection to her Indigenous roots.
“When I do things on country, when I paint, when I make jewelery and weave, I am so calm and peaceful,” she said.
“My mum always said when I was growing up [that] I was the most impatient person ever.
“But she was amazed that I’d sit down for six hours straight and do 1,000 dots on a piece of paper without moving.”
Amy Daniel grew up painting Indigenous artwork.(Supplied: Amy Daniel)
But Ms Daniel said connecting to her culture has come with its challenges, such as being questioned because of the color of her skin.
She said it had also been difficult to connect to culture, because she did not grow up on Nukunu country and was not exposed to it from a young age.
“Now I wish I would’ve seen more stories or read more about young ladies or men who are on the fairer skin side, and read about their journey into finding their culture,” she said.
“Maybe even doing it with someone and knowing that you’re not really alone.”
Amy Daniel began exploring her culture more when she moved to Wagga Wagga.(ABC Riverina: Romy Stephens)
Reconnecting to ‘vital’ culture
Ms Daniel is not alone in her journey to connect to culture.
The Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation has been helping descendants of Stolen Generations survivors reconnect to their culture.
It has managed a project, called Nurture Our Youth, to address intergenerational trauma caused by the forced removal and institutionalization of family members.
Wailwan and Gamilaroi woman Meagan Gerrard’s grandmother was in the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls, in southern NSW, for almost 15 years.
Meagan Gerrard’s grandmother spent 15 years at a training home for Aboriginal girls.(Supplied: Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation)
Ms Gerrard said practicing culture was forbidden in the home, which impacted generations to come.
“So much was taken from us — we lost language, we lost that connection to culture,” she said.
Descendants of Stolen Generations survivors are being supported as they reconnect to culture.(Supplied: Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation)
“That journey back to reconnecting to those vital things as Aboriginal people, it’s a hard journey.”
Ms Gerrard said the project would allow descendants to take part in cultural gatherings, which involved activities like weaving, eating bush tucker and yarning.
“To support them to reconnect to culture, to learn language, and to come together as a community,” she said.
“To embrace that would be such a powerful thing for them to experience.”
In late September 2016, the couple traveled from their Phoenix home to the southern African nation of Zambia, where Bianca Rudolph was determined to add a leopard to her collection of animal trophies. They carried two guns for the hunt: a Remington .375 rifle and a Browning 12-gauge shotgun.
After killing other animals during the two-week trip — but not a leopard — Bianca Rudolph never made it home. She suffered a fatal shotgun blast in their hunting cabin at dawn as she was packing to return to Phoenix, federal prosecutors allege in court documents.
Now Lawrence Rudolph, 67, is charged with foreign murder and mail fraud in the death of his wife of 30 years. He has pleaded not guilty, and took the stand in his own defense this week at his trial in Denver, CNN affiliate KMGH reported.
“I did not kill my wife. I could not murder my wife. I would not murder my wife,” he told jurors.
Rudolph told investigators he heard the shot while he was in the bathroom and believed the shotgun accidentally went off as she was putting it in its case, court documents say. He found her bleeding on the floor of their cabin at Kafue National Park, he says.
But federal prosecutors allege Rudolph killed his wife for insurance money and to be with his girlfriend.
CNN has reached out to Rudolph’s attorney, David Markus, but has not heard back.
In a motion Markus filed in January listing his client’s assets, he said Rudolph had no financial motive to kill his wife. In the court document, I have noted that Rudolph is worth millions, including a dental practice near Pittsburgh valued at $10 million.
Life insurance companies based in Colorado paid Rudolph over $4.8 million after his wife’s death, according to court documents.
The rush to cremate his wife sparked suspicion, investigators say
In court documents, investigators allege Rudolph quickly sought to cremate his wife’s body in Zambia after the shooting.
Rudolph scheduled a cremation three days after his death, according to court documents. After he reported her death de ella to the US Embassy in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, the consular chief “told the FBI he had a bad feeling about the situation, which he thought was moving too quickly,” FBI special agent Donald Peterson wrote in the criminal affidavit.
As a result, the consular chief and two other embassy officials went to the funeral home where the body was being held to take photographs and preserve any potential evidence. When Rudolph found out the embassy officials had taken photos of his wife’s body from him, he was “livid,” Peterson wrote.
Rudolph initially told the consular chief that his wife may have died by suicide, but an investigation by Zambian law enforcement ruled it an accidental discharge, Peterson wrote. Zambian investigators concluded that the firearm was loaded from the previous hunting activities and normal safety precautions were not taken, causing it to accidentally fire in the fatal incident, according to court documents.
Investigators for the insurers reached a similar conclusion and paid on the policies.
“Zambian authorities and five insurers determined that Bianca Rudolph died accidentally. Witnesses told the FBI that Dr. Rudolph did nothing to interfere in the investigation. No physical evidence supports the government’s murder theory,” Markus wrote in the January motion.
The suspect wanted to be with his girlfriend, prosecutors allege
But federal investigators say there’s more to the story.
Rudolph orchestrated his wife’s death as part of a scheme to defraud life insurance companies and to allow him to live openly with his girlfriend, the FBI alleges.
Federal authorities got involved after a friend of the victim reached out to the FBI and asked the agency to investigate the death because she suspected foul play. The friend said Rudolph had been involved in extramarital affairs in the past and had a girlfriend at the time of his wife’s death.
Rudolph’s then-girlfriend, who was not named in the court documents, worked as a manager at his dental practice near Pittsburgh, and told a former employee that she’d been dating him for 15 to 20 years, Peterson wrote. The former employee told the FBI that the girlfriend told her she gave Rudolph an ultimatum of one year to sell his dental offices to him and leave his wife, court documents allege.
Three months after Bianca Rudolph’s death, the girlfriend moved in with him, Peterson wrote in court documents. An executive director of their subdivision’s community association told investigators that Rudolph and his girlfriend tried to buy another home in the same subdivision for $3.5 million.
Her wounds didn’t reflect an accidental discharge, FBI says
Court documents also allege that evidence shows Bianca Rudolph’s wounds came from a shot fired from at least two feet away.
“An FBI special agent conducted testing to determine, by comparison to photographs from the scene of the death, the approximate position of the shotgun muzzle within the soft case at the time of discharge, as well as the resulting shot patterns created by firing the shotgun with the case over the barrel at various distances,” the criminal complaint states.
A forensic medical examiner determined the patterns matching the wound observed in photographs of the body were created by a shot from a distance of between two and three-and-a-half feet.
“At that distance, there is reason to believe that Bianca Rudolph was not killed by an accidental discharge as stated,” the complaint states.
Bianca and Lawrence Rudolph moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona about four years before her death. Rudolph’s dental practice remained in Pennsylvania, and he commuted back and forth from his Phoenix home.
Federal authorities allege his wife’s murder was premeditated so “he could falsely claim the death was the result of an accident.”
But Markus has accused federal officials of relying on “shaky evidence.” Rudolph’s two children are confident their father did not kill their mother, Markus said, and they’ve signed affidavits in his support of him.
If convicted of murder, Rudolph faces a maximum of life in prison or the death penalty.
There are only two public anecdotes about Xu Yangtian, also known as Chris Xu – the mysterious billionaire founder of Shein. One positive, one negative. They both – if true – hint at the determination and ruthlessness needed to build a global empire in the savagely competitive world of fast fashion.
In one, shared widely across Chinese media, an anonymous supply chain worker talks of visiting the company’s Guangdong headquarters.
“No matter when you go,” the worker says, “even if it is two or three o’clock in the morning, you can find Xu Yangtian and his team. Always in meetings, never lazy, and always trying to learn all the good things about you.”
The other anecdote is less flattering. According to two former business partners and colleagues, after having successfully built an e-commerce company together, one day they turned up and he was gone. Allegedly taking the company’s PayPal accounts with him, Xu ignored their calls and “kicked [them] out of the game”.
Alone, Xu went on the establish a company that would reach a $100bn valuation within a decade.
Blue DeTiger performs during Shein X Rock the Runway in Simi Valley, California. Photograph: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images
In a funding round earlier this year, Shein was valued at more than Zara’s owner Inditex and H&M combined. Last week it announced a new executive hire to spearhead its expansion to Europe, Jacobo Garcia Miña, whose CV includes senior roles at Inditex and Britain’s luxury Burberry label. He will oversee operations from Dublin, as Shein prepares to open pop-up stores in major European cities this summer.
Its brand recognition, particularly among young shoppers, is already enormous. Even if you have never visited its site or app, your browsers and social media platforms have more than likely fed you its ads.
Xu is among China’s richest men, but is far less well known than figures like Alibaba’s Jack Ma, or Tencent’s Pony Ma. He refuses interviews and rarely comments publicly outside the occasional press release quote.
Differing reports describe him as a Chinese-American who studied at George Washington University, or as born in Shandong in 1984, going on to study at Qingdao University of Science and Technology. Shein has told media that Xu is Chinese-born. Chinese media describes him as being an average student from a poor background, who had to work to support himself through college. He developed a skill with search engine optimization (SEO) which would underpin his future success.
Reports on Xu’s background and rise through the industry have painted a picture of a hardworking SEO whiz, with an alleged capacity for ruthless business decisions. In 2008 I formed a cross-border e-commerce business, Nanjing Dianwei Information Technology, with two partners: Wang Xiaohu had an equal share and Li Peng was a consultant with a 10% stake.
Li told Wired in May the trio rented a small office, trying to sell anything from teapots to phones, before moving towards clothing. They began honing the model for what would later become Shein – tiny direct-to-customer orders placed with small suppliers, turned around quickly in response to demand rather than predicted sales, and using Xu’s SEO skills for trend spotting and promotion. “We were going for low margins and large quantities,” Li told the outlet.
In 2011 Xu created SheInside, a Nanjing-based online wedding dress retailer and Shein’s predecessor. Multiple reports have detailed controversy around this move, with Li claiming Xu “kicked me and [Wang] out of the game”. According to Li, Xu disappeared from the office one day with control of the company’s PayPal accounts, ignoring all calls. Li directed the Guardian towards previous interviews where he had already made the claim, but also declined to elaborate further. Wang told the Guardian Li’s version was correct, but declined to comment further.
A satin dress by Shein. Photograph: Shein
Shein has rejected this characterization of events in previous reports, and Xu reportedly threatened to sue when the claims were first published. A spokesperson told the Guardian that Li only worked for Nanjing Dianwei from October 2008 to mid-2009, but confirmed neither Wang or Li became partners of SheInside nor had any business ties with SheInside. Xu could not be reached for comment.
Two years after starting SheInside, in one of his only known public social media posts, Xu wrote on Facebook: “The company has grown rapidly and has more than 50 employees!” In 2015, the company became Shein, moving its headquarters to Guangzhou, and opening an office in the US.
Under Xu, Shein began to develop its own supply chain, what the tech analyst and founder of Tech Buzz China Rui Ma terms the “dirty work” that other less successful competitors neglected. It hired technical college graduates to scour the internet for popular designs. It also formed an inhouse design team, and bought competitor Romwe – an e-commerce company founded by Li and his then girlfriend of him. Shein’s ads and products became ubiquitous, flooding the internet and becoming a major user of advertising driven by influencers, celebrities and social media – especially TikTok.
The company earned a rare reputation among its thousands of suppliers – primarily in the Nancun neighborhood of Guangzhou – for paying accounts on time, but also for stringent requirements that reportedly led to high attrition rates. Ma says the consistent monthly pay cycle is a contributing reason for why suppliers try to stick with Shein, despite tough commercial conditions.
“Basically, suppliers are either making no money, or often times, losing money on the initial order,” says Ma in a recent analysis. “They’re mostly hoping to make a viral item that can result in a large volume order for that item.”
Shein’s spokesperson said it was innovative practices that allowed it to cut costs and pass savings on to customers. “Our technology-driven, nimble supply chain model is able to reduce overproduction by utilizing current market demands to predict sales and control production,” they said.
The company has also been dogged by accusations and instances of plagiarism.
Industry insiders tell the Guardian there is widespread skepticism of Shein’s sustainability as a business model. That skepticism has only increased during the pandemic, as supply chain woes have slowed down or crushed the rest of the industry, but Shein has continued to grow, largely unaffected.
In recent years the focus has returned again to Xu, amid rumors and reports of expansions and international asset transfers demonstrating the CEO’s ambition that Shein grow even larger. Reports in May said Shein was angling to buy UK clothing giant Missguided before its recent collapse, after a failed attempt to buy Topshop in 2021. In December Xu reportedly visited Brazil to inspect factories and suppliers over a potential expansion.
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Shein has attracted high-profile investors, including Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital China, amid reports this week suggesting that a US stock market listing is planned for 2024.
In what may be a related move, Xu was reported by Reuters in February to have become a permanent resident of Singapore – a possible step towards citizenship. There are now numerous links between Shein and Singapore, with key assets including the headquarters of the legal operators of Shein’s website – Roadget Business, now shifted from China to the city-state. The shift could be helpful in bypassing China’s strict and often unpredictable regulation of offshore IPOs.
Chinese business records show Xu has been cutting some business ties with his homeland. He began dropping management and legal roles with Shein and related entities, including Guangzhou Xiyin International Import & Export, in late 2020, and his second in command, Molly Miao, took over as legal representative of Shein in China. Miao could not be reached for comment. Records show the main Chinese entity – Nanjing Lingtian Information Technology – was deregistered in 2021.
Shein did not respond to questions about changes to the business ownership and asset locations, or the plans in Singapore or New York.
While the business has continued to grow, some the shine has come off Shein’s performance. Sales grew 60% in 2021 to $16bn, Bloomberg reported, down from a 250% jump to $10bn the year before, and recent private sales of its shares are said to be at discounts from its April valuation of $100bn. Investors will be asking if Xu can maintain the momentum.
Additional reporting by Xiaoqian Zhu and Chi Hui Lin
Probably not the craft for those new to the rabbit hole of Star Citizen given it is a land-locked combat vehicle and the game spans primarily across the stars – but for those looking to factor in land combat in the early Star Citizen experience, Cloud Imperium Games has another unit up for pledge sale which may or may not be of interest to you. The Anvil Centurion, pitched as a “tactical solution for short-range anti-aircraft engagement” is now available to Star Citizen backers to pledge towards.
Defined as a ‘medium-sized’ anti-aircraft vehicle capable of going 35 m/s with 2x crew members (Driver & Gunner) – the tank will see you pew-pewing enemies with 1x S3 Laser Repeater and 4x S4 Laser Repeaters. Furthermore, you can customize your craft with four different paint jobs – from the classic ‘Base’ gray style to the sandy-brown ‘beach head style’. There are two standalone purchase options for the Anvil Centurion. Pricing here in Australia for the Warbond Edition including Lifetime Insurance in return for using all real cash will set you back $104.50 USD, while using any amount of store credit will jump the price to $121.00 USD.
Promoted features of the Anvil Centurion include:
ANTI-AIRCRAFT TURRET
The Centurion’s custom anti-aircraft rig is factory equipped with four Size 4 Klaus & Werner laser repeaters. Lock down combat zones by rendering close-range airborne attacks all but moot, and never worry about downtime due to jams or reloading
AUXILIARY TURRET
The Centurion tackles ground targets and keeps its crew safe in hot combat zones thanks to its formidable auxiliary turret, factory equipped with a Size 3 laser repeater from Hurston Dynamics.
NO-FLY ZONE
When deployed alongside its Atlas Platform relative, the potent long-range Ballista, you can lock down any battlefield location by creating a no-fly zone the enemy won’t dare breach.
If the Anvil Centurion catches your eye, you can learn more about it by clicking HERE.
In development by Cloud Imperium Games and their studios across North America and Europe, Star Citizen is being helmed by Wing Commander (1990s) creator Chris Roberts. The game has currently been in a long-term alpha phase with no confirmed release date. Despite this, the studio has raised more than $435 million USD through on-going crowdfunding. Please keep in mind should you decide to purchase towards Star Citizen, that this is an incomplete project and that you are pledging towards an extended crowdfunding campaign with no 100% guarantee of a finished product.
When Abbie Chatfield revealed she was in an open relationship with boyfriend Konrad Bień-Stephen, people had a lot to say.
Despite the onslaught of unsolicited criticism she received, the “outspoken influencer” has been candid about their romance, regularly explaining why being “non-monogamous” works for them.
Now the 27-year-old has detailed exactly what makes the couple click in an exclusive new interview with Stellar magazine.
“I’ve never been upset or threatened by someone (I’m in a relationship with) sleeping with someone else. It’s my kink. I just never really valued monogamy that much,” she told the publication.
“It sounds awful, but I don’t really see him all that much, maybe two days a week. I don’t know if it’s scarcity, but he’s very good at communicating, and so am I.”
The couple first spoke out about their open relationship in February, sparking a barrage of criticism online that Abbie labeled “embarrassing”.
“Some of you f**kers are so embarrassingly triggered because you’re so insecure, you’re like ‘but if you love someone’, not me, not him,” she said on an episode of her popular podcast It’s A Lot.
“It’s fine, if that’s how you feel, be monogamous, love that for you
“But why do you care if I f**k someone else or he f**ks someone else.”
In a separate Instagram Stories post, Abbie told everyone who had strong opinions about their romance to “get a grip.”
“Just because you want everyone to want monogamy as much as you do, doesn’t mean that someone not wanting monogamy is a bad thing,” she said.
“Why does it affect you which genitals touch each other? Get a grip.”
Since first going public, Abbie has also been open about the highs and lows of being non-monogamous, most recently revealing she’d “finally” had sex with someone else.
The new Masked Singer panelist proudly announced she’d got some action during a podcast episode talking about her night at the 2022 Logies on the Gold Coast.
“I finally rooted someone which is nice. Good for me,” she said.
As well as discussing the dynamics of her relationship, Abbie also told Stellar she had “no idea” she would become so successful off the back of her stint on TheBachelor in 2019.
“It’s been fast and overwhelming and I do feel like a fish out of water a little bit,” she told the publication.
“On The Masked Singer I sit there with my water bottle thinking, ‘What the f*ck? Why am I sitting next to a Spice Girl’ and ‘how did all this happen?’
“It’s been a lot very quickly and I’m very grateful. But it also makes me think that it can very easily be taken away.”
Read Abbie Chatfield’s full interview in Stellar, available now in The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Herald Sun and The Sunday Mail
Collingwood will find themselves at least one game clear inside the top four at the end of Round 20 after they picked up their 10th straight win with a six-point victory over Port Adelaide on Saturday.
With a win-loss record of 14-5, the Magpies may only have to win one more game from their last three to earn a double-chance and give themselves a genuine shot at contending for a premiership.
Having finished 17th last season, the rise has been a remarkable one under rookie coach Craig McRae, with a top-eight finish out of the question at the start of the season.
Now with a final spot locked up, the question has been asked of whether Collingwood could genuinely lift the cup on the last Saturday of September, something no one thought would even be a possibility with this group six months ago.
Tony Jones, Kane Cornes, Matthew Lloyd and Damian Barrett discussed how far the Magpies can go in 2022 on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
jones: “Can Collingwood win the premiership?”
Cornes: “I’m a skeptic, I’m more of a skeptic and I don’t think they’ll be there on Preliminary Final weekend.
“I think if they win a final that’s an extraordinary year, I’m looking forward to the test of the next three weeks.
“I’m concerned around their forward line and a lack of key targets there.
“I think their defense is a bit loose with (Jeremy) Howe and (Darcy) Moore.
jones: “But they’ve own 10 on the trot.”
Cornes: “You asked me the question, I’m answering it honestly, I don’t think they’ll be there on Prelim Final week, I could be wrong.”
Lloyd: “What if they beat Melbourne on Friday night?
“I’m with Kane at the moment and I’m expecting Melbourne to win but if they win that one then everything changes.”
Cornes: “I think you’re right on that so I’m looking forward to the test.
“Can they win the premiership?”
jones: “Yes, because they play without fear, and I don’t think they listen to this sort of stuff (doubters).”
One reason why Magpies fans are becoming bullish on their chances is the return of stars Jordan De Goey and Brodie Grundy from injury in the lead-in to finals.
Playing in his first game since Round 16, Lloyd was impressed with how the midfielder looked in a dynamic performance against the Power.
“We talked about De Goey earlier and how big he could be,” Lloyd said.
“Some players play at their best when they’re playing for a contract and he could make a few people nervous again.
“I’m one who was saying, ‘Move him on’, because you probably don’t get enough out of him across a season.
“But when you see games like this where he has 23 disposals, five clearances and kicks a couple of goals, he made a big impact.”
Barrett added that Collingwood has primed De Goey for a finals push with the star undergoing somewhat of a mini pre-season in recent weeks to build his fitness level.
“They did with him through necessity the program the Cats did with Patrick Dangerfield when he wasn’t playing,” Barrett explained.
“They got some fitness into him and he’s returned yesterday and was looking really fit.”
Collingwood will hope to make it 11 in a row when they face Melbourne at the MCG on Friday night.
“You asked me the question, I’m answering it honestly.” 👀
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