Tag Archives: Food and drink

Business

China’s big consumer market isn’t rebounding to pre-pandemic levels just yet

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Tourists visit ice sculptures in Harbin, Heilongjiang province on New Year’s Day 2023.

China News Service | VCG | Getty Images

BEIJING — It’s going to take time for Chinese consumers to really start spending again, despite China’s abrupt shift toward reopening.

About a month after Guangzhou city resumed in-store dining, local coffee shop owner Timothy Chong said revenue was recovering — to 50% of normal levels.

“In late December, customer flow gradually normalized, with a slight upward trend, but [a recovery in] business volume still needs to wait,” he said in Chinese, translated by CNBC.

He expects it will take at least three or four months before revenue can return to normal. For the past six months, revenue had dropped to 30% of typical levels, Chong said. He said Bem Bom Coffee’s first store opened in late 2019, followed by a second store and a coffee academy in August 2021.

China’s retail sales were down slightly for 2022 as of November, official data showed. Consumption has lagged overall economic growth since the pandemic began nearly three years ago.

For the year ahead, Bain partner Derek Deng kept a lid on expectations. “The hope is we at least get back to the first quarter of 2022 level,” he said, noting that was just before the Shanghai lockdown.

Retail sales for the first three months of 2022 were up by about 3.3% from a year ago, but had slowed to a decline of 0.7% for the first half of the year, according to Wind Information.

A return to 2021 — when retail sales rebounded by 12.5%— would be an optimistic scenario, Deng said. “I don’t think people are seeing that as sort of the base case, mostly because the macro factors are actually less favorable compared to 2021.”

The bulk of Chinese household wealth is tied up in real estate, a one-time hot market that’s slumped in the last year. Mainland Chinese stock markets dropped in 2022 for the first time in four years. Exports, a driver of China’s growth, have started to decline in the last few months as global demand wanes.

Deng also noted fears of a second Covid wave, the highly contagious XBB omicron subvariant coming in from overseas and geopolitical uncertainties.

“I think that has also impact on people’s perceptions on their disposable income, or whether they need to save to weather all those uncertainties,” he said.

Chinese consumers’ penchant to save reached record highs last year, according to People’s Bank of China surveys.

Hopes for a travel rebound

Analysts are closely watching the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday for indications on consumer sentiment. The travel season for China’s big holiday runs this year from around Jan. 7 to Feb. 15. — with about 2.1 billion trips expected, according to official estimates.

That’s twice what it was last year, and 70% of 2019 levels, China’s Ministry of Transport said Friday. It noted most of the trips will likely be for visiting family, while just 10% will be for leisure or business travel.

This year, many more Chinese will finally be able to travel overseas. The country is restoring the ability of Chinese citizens to go abroad for leisure, after tightly controlling the mainland borders for almost three years. On Sunday, China also formally removed quarantine requirements for inbound travelers.

However, Chinese travel overseas is unlikely to pick up until around the next public holiday in early April, said Chen Xin, head of China leisure and transport research at UBS Securities.

By that time, people will have been able to process their passport applications, while the number of international flights may have recovered to 50% or 60% of 2019 levels, Chen said. He added that measures such as pre-flight virus testing requirements to visit certain countries could be relaxed in a few months.

Within China, Chen expects travel will get another boost after February when business trips pick up, bringing hotel business back to 2019 levels by the end of the year. That’s based on an industry metric that measures revenue per available room.

Not everyone is going out

China’s big city streets are getting busier as the first wave of infections passes.

But it’s mostly younger and middle-aged people who are out and about again, UBS’s Chen said, noting that older people might be more cautious about venturing out.

After a gradual rollback in Covid controls, Chinese authorities last month suddenly did away with the bulk of the country’s virus testing and contact tracing measures. However, vaccination rates for China’s elderly have been relatively low. Only domestically made vaccines are generally available in China.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

Bain’s Deng is also watching whether consumers will start to go out more. During the first three quarters of 2022, about 56% of consumer spending was at home — the reverse of the pre-pandemic trend, he said.

If the share of out-of-home spending can go up by even a few percentage points, that will affect how malls and restaurants consider their business strategy, especially for delivery services, Deng said.

In the last 18 months, Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com shortened the delivery window for many products from next-day to just one hour. That’s through its partnership with Dada, now majority owned by JD.

Figures from the company showed that for the Dec. 16 to Jan. 1 period, the one-hour delivery platform saw sales for vegetables, beef and mutton roughly double from a year ago. Sales of refrigerators soared by 700%, while flat-screen TV sales jumped tenfold from a year ago, according to the data.

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Health

Don’t Waste Your Time With These Terrible Diet Tips

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Photo: Viacheslav Nikolaenko (Shutterstock)

It’s the new year and everybody’s on a diet—I mean, a wellness journey. Whether you want to lose weight or not is none of my business, but I do beg you to please, please let all the following silly weight loss “hacks” die. Many of them verge on disordered eating behaviors, while others are just ways to make yourself miserable for no reason.

(By the way, if you feel like your relationship with food is out of control, the National Eating Disorders Association has a screening tool, helpline, and more resources here.)

Smaller plates don’t make us eat less

This one is a classic: Serving yourself on a smaller plate is supposed to make a small amount of food look bigger. Therefore, you’ll eat less food overall, and eventually lose weight.

But our brains and bodies are too smart to actually be tricked by that. The idea that smaller plates promote smaller portions came from a lab that was later found to be engaging in sketchy research practices. Other labs ran their own plate size experiments and found that people usually don’t eat less when given smaller plates. What’s more, we get better at estimating portion sizes when we’re hungry. The small plate hack wasn’t fooling us after all.

Drinking a glass of water isn’t going to satisfy your hunger

There’s a common healthy eating tip that says if you’re hungry, you should have a big glass of water, because sometimes our bodies can’t tell hunger and thirst cues apart.

But there’s no evidence that this is true, or that drinking a glass of water will help. One of the oft-cited papers on hunger, thirst, eating, and drinking found that we actually get a little hungrier after drinking—so even if it were true that our bodies mix up the signals, the proposed solution isn’t likely to help.

Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with drinking a glass of water if you think you might like one, whether you’re hungry or not. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that hunger pangs are your body telling you that you’re thirsty. Your body knows the difference between food and water, okay? That’s why you haven’t starved or dehydrated to death yet.

It’s not necessarily a good idea to eat like a bodybuilder

There’s a stereotype about bodybuilders eating nothing but chicken breast, brown rice, and broccoli out of little plastic containers. They eat with discipline and end up shredded, so this must be a healthy meal choice, right?

While it can be a fine meal if you enjoy it, this combination is not the best or only way to meal prep—especially if you aren’t a fan of the individual components. Chicken breast and rice are both notoriously unforgiving when it comes to meal prep, anyway. They tend to dry out, especially if you prepare them without marinades or sauces.

So ditch your idea of what healthy food looks like, and make a plan that involves foods you actually enjoy. Upgrade to chicken thighs, learn to use a good marinade, throw that dry rice in a waffle maker, or just make an entirely different recipe. It’s okay for food to taste good.

Oh, and while we’re discussing bodybuilder habits: no, eating many small meals does not “boost” your metabolism.

It’s a diet, not a lifestyle change

This last one isn’t so much a hack as an oft-repeated platitude: “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change.” If you’re trying to lose weight, please do not make this a lifelong process. Dieting is the act of deliberately undernourishing yourself. If you want or need to do it for a short time, then own that choice, and do it in the healthiest manner you’re able. But once you’ve lost some weight, get back to fully nourishing your body again.

After all, it would not be healthy or smart to lose weight forever. Since the way we lose weight is by eating fewer calories than we burn, the exact meals and habits that help us lose weight are not going to be the ones that help us maintain our ideal weight once we get there. At the very least, you’ll have to increase your portions.

So if you feel like your current diet or habits need to change, make sure to separate out what should change in general (example: cook at home more often) and what should change temporarily (example: smaller portions). Healthy eating and undereating are not at all the same thing.

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Health

Mediterranean diet named best diet for 2023

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CNN
 — 

The gold medals are piling up. For the sixth year in a row, the Mediterranean style of eating earned the title of best overall diet, according to 2023 ratings announced Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. Meals from the sunny Mediterranean also ranked first in the categories of diet best diet for healthy eating and best plant-based diet, the report said.

In two new categories added for 2023, the Mediterranean tied with the cholesterol-lowering TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) and flexitarian diets as best family-friendly diet, and with DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) for best bone and joint health diet.

“We’re always looking for more health conditions that we can address. But often there’s not enough scientific data examining diet X and condition X,” said Gretel Schueller, managing editor of health for U.S. News & World Report, who oversees the annual diet ranking.

“However, bone and joint health is an area where there’s a fair amount of scientific literature,” Schueller said. “We also recognize our population is aging so focusing on diets that can increase the quality of life among older individuals is an important element.”

Also new this year: Reviewers only ranked 24 diets instead of the 40 or so diets analyzed in past years. Five diets from the original list — vegetarian, vegan, Nordic, the traditional Asian and the glycemic index — were integrated by judges into the Mediterranean and other diets due to their underlying plant-based principles.

“The take-home message here is the recognition that the Mediterranean diet is really not just about the foods around the Mediterranean,” Schueller said. “You can take the the lessons and the approach of the Mediterranean eating pattern and apply it to any cuisine in any country.”

That approach is reflected within two new diets — Keyto and Pritikin — that were added to the review for 2023, Schueller said. (Yes. that’s Keyto with a Y.)

“We recognize that more and more people are eating sort of a plant-forward or plant-based diet or at least trying to,” she said. “The keto with a Y diet is supposed to be a flexible, low-carb Mediterranean plan.

“The Pritikin diet focuses on low-fat, high-fiber eating of whole foods, and is fairly flexible,” she added. “We are seeing a push towards eating more whole, unprocessed foods, which I think is a great thing.”

Numerous studies have found the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, memory loss, depression and breast cancer. The diet, which is more of an eating style than a restricted diet, has also been linked to stronger bones, a healthier heart and longer life.

The diet features simple, plant-based cooking, with the majority of each meal focused on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and seeds, with a few nuts and a heavy emphasis on extra-virgin olive oil. Fats other than olive oil, such as butter, are consumed rarely, if at all, and sugar and refined foods are reserved for special occasions.

Red meat is used sparingly, usually only to flavor a dish. Eating healthy, oily fish, which are packed with omega-3 fatty acids, is encouraged, while eggs, dairy and poultry are eaten in much smaller portions than in the traditional Western diet.

Social interactions during meals and exercise are basic cornerstones of the Mediterranean style of eating. Lifestyle changes that are part of the diet include eating with friends and family, socializing over meals, mindfully eating favorite foods, as well as mindful movement and exercise.

Just as they did in 2022, the DASH and the flexitarian diet tied for second place in best overall diet. Similar to the Mediterranean style of eating, these diets reduce or eliminate processed foods and stress packing your plate with fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

The DASH diet emphasizes limiting salt intake in its goal to reduce blood pressure, while the flexitarian diet, true to its name, allows an occasional indulgence of meat or poultry.

A panel of 33 experts examined top diets and ranked them in several categories: Did the diet include all food groups; was it evidence based; are needed foods available at any supermarket; how easy is the diet to prepare, and did it use additional vitamins or supplements.

“We focused on quality over quantity,” Schueller said. “Our reviewers felt there are some diets out there that are so wacky they’re not worth giving time to, such as the Dukan diet, which we no longer rank.”

The worst diet award went to the raw foods diet this year, at least in part due to the lack of nutritional completeness, which has raised safety concerns among the reviewers. Because followers can only eat unprocessed foods that haven’t been cooked, microwaved, irradiated, genetically engineered or exposed to pesticides or herbicides, reviews consider the diet almost impossible to follow.

The popular keto diet, along with the modified keto, was ranked 20 out of the 24 diets, followed by Atkins, SlimFast and Optavia. These diets emphasize eating high-protein or high-fat foods with minimal carbohydrates and receive low rankings because they are extremely restrictive, hard to follow and eliminate entire food groups.

Despite keto’s low overall rating, reviewers gave the keto diet first place for best short-term weight loss diet, Schueller said, quickly adding that these diets are not considered healthy as a lifestyle.

“These are the diets for someone who’s got a wedding or an event they want to go to in the next few months,” she said. “Will you lose weight in the short term? Absolutely. Will you keep it off for the next two years? Probably not.”

In the category of best (long-term) weight-loss diet, WW (formely called Weight Watchers) came in first, with DASH and TLC tied for second. WW also got top honors in the best (commercial) diet program, followed by NOOM and Jenny Craig.

Flexitarian and TLC shared the gold in the category of easiest diet to follow, while the Mediterranean and DASH diets tied for third.

The DASH diet took top honors as best diet for heart health and for people with diabetes, followed by the Mediterranean, flexitarian and Ornish diets. The Ornish diet was created in 1977 by Dr. Dean Ornish, founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California.

The Ornish diet is combined with stress-management techniques, exercise, social support and smoking cessation, and according to Ornish is the only scientifically proven program to reverse heart disease without drugs or surgery

Want to make the Mediterranean style of eating one of your goals this year? Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style newsletter, an eight-part series that guides you in a delicious expert-backed eating lifestyle that’s good for your health.

Read original article here

Health

Mediterranean diet named best diet for 2023

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CNN
 — 

The gold medals are piling up. For the sixth year in a row, the Mediterranean style of eating earned the title of best overall diet, according to 2023 ratings announced Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. Meals from the sunny Mediterranean also ranked first in the categories of diet best diet for healthy eating and best plant-based diet, the report said.

In two new categories added for 2023, the Mediterranean tied with the cholesterol-lowering TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) and flexitarian diets as best family-friendly diet, and with DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) for best bone and joint health diet.

“We’re always looking for more health conditions that we can address. But often there’s not enough scientific data examining diet X and condition X,” said Gretel Schueller, managing editor of health for U.S. News & World Report, who oversees the annual diet ranking.

“However, bone and joint health is an area where there’s a fair amount of scientific literature,” Schueller said. “We also recognize our population is aging so focusing on diets that can increase the quality of life among older individuals is an important element.”

Also new this year: Reviewers only ranked 24 diets instead of the 40 or so diets analyzed in past years. Five diets from the original list — vegetarian, vegan, Nordic, the traditional Asian and the glycemic index — were integrated by judges into the Mediterranean and other diets due to their underlying plant-based principles.

“The take-home message here is the recognition that the Mediterranean diet is really not just about the foods around the Mediterranean,” Schueller said. “You can take the the lessons and the approach of the Mediterranean eating pattern and apply it to any cuisine in any country.”

That approach is reflected within two new diets — Keyto and Pritikin — that were added to the review for 2023, Schueller said. (Yes. that’s Keyto with a Y.)

“We recognize that more and more people are eating sort of a plant-forward or plant-based diet or at least trying to,” she said. “The keto with a Y diet is supposed to be a flexible, low-carb Mediterranean plan.

“The Pritikin diet focuses on low-fat, high-fiber eating of whole foods, and is fairly flexible,” she added. “We are seeing a push towards eating more whole, unprocessed foods, which I think is a great thing.”

Numerous studies have found the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, memory loss, depression and breast cancer. The diet, which is more of an eating style than a restricted diet, has also been linked to stronger bones, a healthier heart and longer life.

The diet features simple, plant-based cooking, with the majority of each meal focused on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and seeds, with a few nuts and a heavy emphasis on extra-virgin olive oil. Fats other than olive oil, such as butter, are consumed rarely, if at all, and sugar and refined foods are reserved for special occasions.

Red meat is used sparingly, usually only to flavor a dish. Eating healthy, oily fish, which are packed with omega-3 fatty acids, is encouraged, while eggs, dairy and poultry are eaten in much smaller portions than in the traditional Western diet.

Social interactions during meals and exercise are basic cornerstones of the Mediterranean style of eating. Lifestyle changes that are part of the diet include eating with friends and family, socializing over meals, mindfully eating favorite foods, as well as mindful movement and exercise.

Just as they did in 2022, the DASH and the flexitarian diet tied for second place in best overall diet. Similar to the Mediterranean style of eating, these diets reduce or eliminate processed foods and stress packing your plate with fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

The DASH diet emphasizes limiting salt intake in its goal to reduce blood pressure, while the flexitarian diet, true to its name, allows an occasional indulgence of meat or poultry.

A panel of 33 experts examined top diets and ranked them in several categories: Did the diet include all food groups; was it evidence based; are needed foods available at any supermarket; how easy is the diet to prepare, and did it use additional vitamins or supplements.

“We focused on quality over quantity,” Schueller said. “Our reviewers felt there are some diets out there that are so wacky they’re not worth giving time to, such as the Dukan diet, which we no longer rank.”

The worst diet award went to the raw foods diet this year, at least in part due to the lack of nutritional completeness, which has raised safety concerns among the reviewers. Because followers can only eat unprocessed foods that haven’t been cooked, microwaved, irradiated, genetically engineered or exposed to pesticides or herbicides, reviews consider the diet almost impossible to follow.

The popular keto diet, along with the modified keto, was ranked 20 out of the 24 diets, followed by Atkins, SlimFast and Optavia. These diets emphasize eating high-protein or high-fat foods with minimal carbohydrates and receive low rankings because they are extremely restrictive, hard to follow and eliminate entire food groups.

Despite keto’s low overall rating, reviewers gave the keto diet first place for best short-term weight loss diet, Schueller said, quickly adding that these diets are not considered healthy as a lifestyle.

“These are the diets for someone who’s got a wedding or an event they want to go to in the next few months,” she said. “Will you lose weight in the short term? Absolutely. Will you keep it off for the next two years? Probably not.”

In the category of best (long-term) weight-loss diet, WW (formely called Weight Watchers) came in first, with DASH and TLC tied for second. WW also got top honors in the best (commercial) diet program, followed by NOOM and Jenny Craig.

Flexitarian and TLC shared the gold in the category of easiest diet to follow, while the Mediterranean and DASH diets tied for third.

The DASH diet took top honors as best diet for heart health and for people with diabetes, followed by the Mediterranean, flexitarian and Ornish diets. The Ornish diet was created in 1977 by Dr. Dean Ornish, founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California.

The Ornish diet is combined with stress-management techniques, exercise, social support and smoking cessation, and according to Ornish is the only scientifically proven program to reverse heart disease without drugs or surgery

Want to make the Mediterranean style of eating one of your goals this year? Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style newsletter, an eight-part series that guides you in a delicious expert-backed eating lifestyle that’s good for your health.

Read original article here

World

Pack these snacks, says nutritionist

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Travelers have a host of pathogens to dodge this winter, including the “tripledemic” of infections caused by Covid-19, flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).

But there are steps people can take to reduce their chances of getting sick, say health specialists at Spain’s SHA Wellness Clinic.

The key is to develop “a resilient immune system that can defend itself from attack by viruses and bacteria,” said Dr. Vicente Mera, SHA’s head of genomic medicine.

What to eat

“The most important thing is nutrition,” Mera said.

But drastic dieting isn’t necessary, he added. Rather, travelers can simply eat whole, plant-based foods, which can help decrease inflammation, he said.

Fiber in plant-based foods also helps the gut microbiome “fight pathogens that enter or are activated through the digestive tract,” he said.

Dr. Vicente Mera, Melanie Waxman and Philippa Harvey of SHA Wellness Clinic in Alicante, Spain.

Source: SHA Wellness Clinic

Eating a nutrient-dense diet is the top recommendation from Melanie Waxman, an integrative nutrition specialist and eating coach at SHA Wellness Clinic.

That means eating “lots of vegetables, whole grains, fresh herbs, beans, sea vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and fermented foods,” she said.

What to pack on a plane

Waxman said travelers should snack on alkaline foods to combat acidity that is commonly caused by air travel. She recommended these easy-to-pack foods:

  • Toasted nori snacks: “Great for travelling as they are light and easy to carry in small packs. Nori is alkaline and provides a good source of vitamin C, as well as omega-3 fatty acids, protein and minerals.”
  • Instant miso soup: “Contains all the essential amino acids … and restores beneficial probiotics to the intestines … great for flights and in hotel rooms as you only need to add boiling water to the sachet.”
  • Spirulina powder: “Packed with calcium and protein. It has a high chlorophyll content … is especially beneficial after spending hours in airplane cabins. The flavor can be strong so add it to a refreshing vegetable juice … [or take] as a capsule.”  
  • Plum balls: “A wonderful travel companion, as they are extremely alkaline, full of minerals that help increase energy, aid digestion, boost immunity and improve liver functions … the balls come in a container and are easy to pack in a cabin bag.”

A fermented plum, called umeboshi in Japanese, can be added to a cup of tea on a flight. It is a “very sour plum that has been fermented for at least three years,” said SHA Wellness Clinic’s Melanie Waxman.

Tomophotography | Moment | Getty Images

Breakfast

Waxman recommends drinking one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar mixed with a glass of water before breakfast. The vinegar is “a powerful immune booster … full of probiotics,” she said.

For breakfast, a “wonderful” choice is oatmeal topped with berries, chia seeds and flax seeds, she said.

“Oats actually help the body produce melatonin more naturally,” she said. “Oats contain amino acids, potassium, B vitamins, magnesium and complex carbs … berries pack a punch of vitamin C, and the seeds provide extra omega-3 and protein.”

Jet lag

To combat jet lag, Waxman recommends taking more vitamin C.

She recommends eating sauerkraut, both before and after flying. “Fermenting cabbage causes the vitamin C and antioxidant levels to skyrocket,” she said.

Fresh vegetable juice is also great for immunity and jet lag recovery, she said.

Getting enough sleep

Sleep and immunity are closely linked, Mera said.  

“Restful sleep strengthens nature immunity,” he said, adding that poor quality, or quantity, of sleep increases the chances of falling sick.

People who average less than six hours of sleep a night, or 40 hours per week, have “a serious risk of illness,” he said.

Exercise — but don’t overdo it

Moderate exercise strengthens the immune system, Mera said.

But “30 minutes a day is more than enough,” he said. “Prolonged intense exercise can suppress the immune system.”

To avoid suppressing the immune system, travelers shouldn’t exercise to the point of exhaustion, said Dr. Vicente Mera, head of genomic medicine at SHA Wellness Clinic.

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images

Examples of beneficial exercise include running, walking, swimming and cycling, he said.

Supplements, for some

Studies indicate that certain supplements — such as vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, garlic, echinacea and green tea — may strengthen the body’s immune response, Mera said.

But, he said, they’re not necessary for everyone.

“It only compensates for nutrient deficiencies, which usually occur when nutrition is inadequate, or the immune system is very depressed,” he said.

Other recommendations

To strengthen the immune system, Waxman also suggests Epsom salt baths (“magnesium is easily absorbed through the skin”), using essential oils (“especially lavender, eucalyptus or tree tree oil”), drinking plenty of water and cutting back on alcohol, caffeine and sugar.

Mera added that relieving stress and anxiety is critical to immune health. He recommends meditation, yoga, tai chi and mindfulness to better manage emotions.

Philippa Harvey, head of SHA’s traditional Chinese medicine department, said travelers should start taking steps to strengthen their immune systems about a week before traveling.

“In TCM when someone is healthy and happy we say they have good qi, pronounced ‘chee'” she said.

She recommends eating foods that are in season, especially garlic and ginger in the autumn and winter.

She also recommends exercise and acupressure to stay healthy.

“Before we travel, a nice brisk walk in fresh air is the simplest solution,” she said.

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Business

‘Out of control’: No one knows how much to tip

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New York
CNN
 — 

A new checkout trend is sweeping across America, making for an increasingly awkward experience: digital tip jars.

You order a coffee, an ice cream, a salad or a slice of pizza and pay with your credit card or phone. Then, an employee standing behind the counter spins around a touch screen and slides it in front of you. The screen has a few suggested tip amounts – usually 10%, 15% or 20%. There’s also often an option to leave a custom tip or no tip at all.

The worker is directly across from you. Other customers are standing behind, waiting impatiently and looking over your shoulder to see how much you tip. And you must make a decision in seconds. Oh lord, the stress.

Customers and workers today are confronted with a radically different tipping culture compared to just a few years ago — without any clear norms. Although consumers are accustomed to tipping waiters, bartenders and other service workers, tipping a barista or cashier may be a new phenomenon for many shoppers. It’s being driven in large part by changes in technology that have enabled business owners to more easily shift the costs of compensating workers directly to customers.

“I don’t know how much you’re supposed to tip and I study this,” said Michael Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell University and one of the leading researchers on US tipping habits.

Adding to the changing dynamics, customers were encouraged to tip generously during the pandemic to help keep restaurants and stores afloat, raising expectations. Total tips for full-service restaurants were up 25% during the latest quarter compared to a year ago, while tips at quick-service restaurants were up 17%, according to data from Square.

The shift to digital payments also accelerated during the pandemic, leading stores to replace old-fashioned cash tip jars with tablet touch screens. But these screens and the procedures for digital tipping have proven more intrusive than a low-pressure cash tip jar with a few bucks in it.

Customers are overwhelmed by the number of places where they now have the option to tip and feel pressure about whether to add a gratuity and for how much. Some people deliberately walk away from the screen without doing anything to avoid making a decision, say etiquette experts who study tipping culture and consumer behavior.

Tipping can be an emotionally charged decision. Attitudes towards tipping in these new settings vary widely.

Some customers tip no matter what. Others feel guilty if they don’t tip or embarrassed if their tip is stingy. And others eschew tipping for a $5 iced coffee, saying the price is already high enough.

“The American public feels like tipping is out of control because they’re experiencing it in places they’re not used to,” said Lizzie Post, co-president of the Emily Post Institute and its namesake’s great-great-granddaughter. “Moments where tipping isn’t expected makes people less generous and uncomfortable.”

Starbucks has rolled out tipping this year as an option for customers paying with credit and debit cards. Some Starbucks baristas told CNN that the tips are adding extra money to their paychecks, but customers shouldn’t feel obligated to tip every time.

One barista in Washington State said that he understands if a customer doesn’t tip for a drip coffee order. But if he makes a customized drink after spending time talking to the customer about exactly how it should be made, “it does make me a little bit disappointed if I don’t receive a tip.”

“If someone can afford Starbucks every day, they can afford to tip on at least a few of those trips,” added the employee, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

The option to tip is seemingly everywhere today, but the practice has a troubled history in the United States.

Tipping spread after the Civil War as an exploitative measure to keep down wages of newly-freed slaves in service occupations. Pullman was the most notable for its tipping policies. The railroad company hired thousands of Black porters, but paid them low wages and forced them to rely on tips to make a living.

Critics of tipping argued that it created an imbalance between customers and workers, and several states passed laws in the early 1900s to ban the practice.

In “The Itching Palm,” a 1916 diatribe on tipping in America, writer William Scott said that tipping was “un-American” and argued that “the relation of a man giving a tip and a man accepting it is as undemocratic as the relation of master and slave.”

But tipping service workers was essentially built into law by the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which created the federal minimum wage that excluded restaurant and hospitality workers. This allowed the tipping system to proliferate in these industries.

In 1966, Congress created a “subminimum” wage for tipped workers. The federal minimum wage for tipped employees has stood at $2.13 per hour — lower than the $7.25 federal minimum — since 1991, although many states require higher base wages for tipped employees. If a server’s tips don’t add up to the federal minimum, the law says that the employer must make up the difference. But this doesn’t always happen. Wage theft and other wage violations are common in the service industry.

The Department of Labor considers any employee working in a job that “customarily and regularly” receives more than $30 a month in tips as eligible to be classified a tipped worker. Experts estimate there are more than five million tipped workers in the United States.

Just how much to tip is entirely subjective and varies across industries, and the link between the quality of service and the tip amount is surprisingly weak, Lynn from Cornell said.

He theorized that a 15% to 20% tip at restaurants became standard because of a cycle of competition among customers. Many people tip to gain social approval or with the expectation of better service. As tip levels increase, other customers start tipping more to avoid any losses in status or risk poorer service.

The gig economy has also changed tipping norms. An MIT study released in 2019 found that customers are less likely to tip when workers have autonomy over whether and when to work. Nearly 60% of Uber customers never tip, while only about 1% always tip, a 2019 University of Chicago study found.

What makes it confusing, Lynn said, is that “there’s no central authority that establishes tipping norms. They come from the bottom up. Ultimately, it’s what people do that helps establish what other people should do.”

You should almost always tip workers earning the subminimum wage such as restaurant servers and bartenders, say advocates and tipping experts.

When given the option to tip in places where workers make an hourly wage, such as Starbucks baristas, customers should use their discretion and remove any guilt from their decision, etiquette experts say. Tips help these workers supplement their income and are always encouraged, but it’s okay to say no.

Etiquette experts recommend that customers approach the touch screen option the same way they would a tip jar. If they would leave change or a small cash tip in the jar, do so when prompted on the screen.

“A 10% tip for takeaway food is a really common amount. We also see change or a single dollar per order,” said Lizzie Post. If you aren’t sure what to do, ask the worker if the store has a suggested tip amount.

Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, which advocates to end subminimum wage policies, encourages customers to tip. But tips should never count against service workers’ wages, and customers must demand that businesses pay workers a full wage, she said.

“We’ve got to tip, but it’s got to be combined with telling employers that tips have to be on top, not instead of, a full minimum wage,” she said.

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Business

California’s Residential Solar Rules Overhauled After Highly Charged Debate – Pasadena Now

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Boxes of petitions against proposed reforms that solar energy advocates claim would handicap the rooftop solar market are displayed before being taken to the governor’s office during a rally at the Capitol in Sacramento on Dec. 8, 2021. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo

The California Public Utilities Commission today overhauled the state’s rooftop solar regulations, reducing payments to homeowners for excess power but providing nearly a billion dollars in incentives to encourage more solar projects for low-income homes.

Commissioners called the new rules — adopted unanimously after hours of highly charged public comments that were almost entirely opposed — a much-needed course-correction to California’s 27-year-old residential solar rules.

Both the power companies and the solar industry criticized the new rules that outline details of the financial  incentives to encourage people to build rooftop solar. Utilities did not get all the concessions they hoped for to lower bills for non-solar customers. And solar developers say the rules will discourage people from installing solar panels.

A victory for the solar industry came earlier this year, when the commission dropped an unpopular plan to charge homeowners an 8% per kilowatt-hour tax for new solar systems.

In remarks before the vote, commissioners acknowledged how divisive the matter has been. Commissioner John Reynolds said the decision was a “heavy one,” saying “nothing in energy policy is black and white, and nothing in this decision has been.”

Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen said the agency faced “competing and challenging priorities.” He called it a “responsible and forward-looking decision.”

The new regulations will:

  • For new customers, reduce the amount utilities pay them for excess power by at least 75% compared to current rates, starting in April. The change would not apply to residents with existing solar systems.
  • Fund $900 million in new incentive payments to residents to help them purchase rooftop solar systems. Two thirds of the funds, $630 million, will be set aside for low-income households. The remainder provides funding for paired solar-battery storage systems.
  • Set rates that aim to shift all consumers’ use of power to the times of day that improve grid reliability.

California’s original rules, called Net Metering, were implemented in 1995. They established a framework for utilities to buy excess solar energy from homeowners and supplement power to the grid.

The overhaul comes as California needs to lean more heavily on renewable energy to meet state targets to produce zero-carbon electricity by 2045 and end use of fossil fuels.

About 1.5 million rooftop solar systems are installed on California’s houses, schools and small businesses. About 14% of California’s total electricity comes from large-scale solar projects; another 10% of the state’s power comes from rooftop residential solar.

Solar companies and environmental groups say the policy could undermine the state’s booming solar industry by raising the costs of operating panels on homes and small businesses. They say that in states where similar rate shifts have been adopted, solar system installation has plummeted.

Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association, called the decision a backward step.

“The CPUC’s final proposal is a loser for California on many levels,” she said in a statement. “For the solar industry, it will result in business closures and the loss of green jobs. For middle class and working class neighborhoods where solar is growing fastest, it puts clean energy further out of reach.”

Woody Hastings, The Climate Center’s energy program manager, said “California needs more solar power — not less.”

“Just as more middle and lower-income Californians are putting solar panels on their rooftops, the new rules adopted by the CPUC today threaten to slow the growth of clean energy across the state,” he said.

The years-long fight was played out across social media and opinion pages. The complex process of revising the rules elicited tens of thousands of public comments and was, at one point, arbitrated by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Today’s meeting began with three hours of lively public comment. Callers to the virtual meeting gave the five commissioners an earful, with the vast majority asking the panel to vote no.

Some callers made the point that the provision to nudge consumers to install solar systems with batteries will have the unintended consequence of quashing new solar systems because the cost of storage systems is beyond the financial reach of many homeowners. Only about 15% of current rooftop systems currently have storage, the commission said.

Many of the arguments on either side focus on fairness. Utility companies say demand for rooftop solar is strong enough in California that the industry doesn’t need more help. They say the retail rate they pay to solar customers for their excess power is too high and doesn’t reflect the value of their power, which is produced during daytime hours.

Because residents and businesses with solar panels generally have smaller energy bills, they contribute less to a utility company’s fixed costs, such as transmission and distribution networks, which are passed on to ratepayers. As a result, non-solar residents, including low-income residents and renters, carry more of the cost burden.

“This final decision was a missed opportunity that will prolong the harm to low-income Californians and renters for decades to come,” said Kathy Fairbanks, spokesperson for Affordable Clean Energy for All, a coalition that includes the state’s three largest utility companies.

Reverend Frank Jackson, chief executive officer of Village Solutions Foundation, a community development corporation, said “the CPUC got this vote very wrong.”

“Low-income families are struggling to buy gas, put food on their table, and pay for everything, including utilities. Continuing to pay hundreds more a year to subsidize mostly wealthy Californians is unfair,” he said.

The solar rules increased bills for customers who do not have rooftop solar by $3.37 billion in 2021, growing to $4.5 billion so far this year, according to the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office.

Solar “customers should pay their fair share of grid, wildfire, and other related costs,” the public advocates office said in an analysis. “Customers with rooftop solar depend on the … grid to use electricity when their rooftop solar systems are not generating electricity. The compensation that (solar) customers receive is greater than the value of the energy.”

Matt Baker, director of the office, said San Diego Gas & Electric customers without rooftop solar pay about 20% of their bill to cover those fixed costs; for Pacific Gas & Electric customers it’s 12% and about 11% for Southern California Edison ratepayers.

Solar advocates dispute the commission’s cost shift equations, challenging the details and pointing out that such calculations fail to consider the benefits of rooftop solar, including the need to construct costly infrastructure such as power plants.

Advocates say the widespread adoption of rooftop systems provides a valuable service to both the grid and the battle against climate change. They call the commission’s new policy a “solar cliff.”

Rather than viewing the new policy as punishing the solar industry, Baker said the new direction highlights the success of solar adoption in California.

“They have succeeded, we won, it’s amazing,” Baker said in an interview. “We have outgrown the subsidies for a solar-only system and now it’s time to pivot to solar plus storage.”

The commission said the rules would save residents with solar-plus-battery systems about $130 on their monthly bills.

The CPUC is required under state law to update its net metering rules, which triggered a prolonged, complex and politically thorny process. The commission’s proposal earlier this year was attacked by both the solar industry and utilities as unfair and inadequate.

The changes take into account evolving consumer habits: Heavy power use has shifted to evenings, when people return home and plug in a myriad of electronic devices.

This demand shift is reflected in the price of power and the availability of solar energy. Solar power is abundant during the day and the cost of electricity is about 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. In the evening, when the sun goes down and demand soars, the price for power can increase more than 20-fold, officials say.

The commission’s decision to reduce the amount utilities pay for excess power is driven by a revised cost calculator. The lower rates paid to rooftop solar owners take into account the real value of the power, the commission said, which is produced during the day when electricity is cheaper.

The program had the right intentions when it was established in 1995, Baker said, encouraging adoption of rooftop solar and compensating those residents with a retail rate for power they provided during the day, when the grid carried its heaviest load.

“At the time that was being done it was fair and equitable,” Baker said, but in ensuing years costs to install solar have dropped dramatically.

Solar and other sources of renewable energy are gradually supplanting power derived from coal and gas, which are fossil fuels that the state aims to banish from the grid by 2045.

While drought, wildfires, heatwaves and utility blackouts have prolonged the life of some natural gas-fired power plants, the state is inching toward that goal: On May 8, 100% of  California’s power grid was running on renewable energy for a few hours, a record.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

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World

Why people in China are panic buying canned yellow peaches as Covid surges

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Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

An unprecedented wave of Covid cases in China has sparked panic buying of fever medicines, pain killers, and even home remedies such as canned peaches, leading to shortages online and in stores.

Authorities said Wednesday they had detected 2,249 symptomatic Covid-19 cases nationally through nucleic acid testing, 20% of which were detected in the capital Beijing. CNN reporting from the city indicates the case count in the Chinese capital could be much higher than recorded.

Demand for fever and cold medicines, such as Tylenol and Advil, is surging nationally as people rush to stockpile drugs amid fears they may contract the virus.

Canned yellow peaches, considered a particularly nutritious delicacy in many parts of China, have been snapped up by people looking for ways to fight Covid. The product is currently sold out on many online shops.

Its sudden surge in popularity prompted Dalian Leasun Food, one of the country’s largest canned food manufacturers, to clarify in a Weibo post that canned yellow peaches don’t have any medicinal effect.

“Canned yellow peaches ≠ medicines!” the company said in the post published Friday. “There is enough supply, so there is no need to panic. There is no rush to buy.”

The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, also tried to set the record straight. It published a long Weibo post on Sunday urging the public not to stockpile the peaches, calling them “useless in alleviating symptoms of illness.”

Authorities also pleaded with the public not to stockpile medical supplies. On Monday, the Beijing city government warned residents that it was facing “great pressure” to meet demand for drug and medical services because of panic buying and an influx of patients at clinics.

It urged the public not to hoard drugs or call emergency services if they have no symptoms.

The rising demand and shortage of supply of Covid remedies have fueled bets on drugmakers.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Xinhua Pharmaceutical, China’s largest manufacturer of ibuprofen, have gained 60% in the past five days. The stock has so far jumped by 147% in the first two weeks of this month.

“Our company’s production lines are operating at full capacity, and we are working overtime to produce urgently needed medicines, such as ibuprofen tablets,” Xinhua Pharmaceutical said Monday.

Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat pain and fever. It is also known as Advil, Brufen, or Fenbid.

The drug shortage has spread from mainland China to Hong Kong, a special administrative region which has a separate system of local government. On Sunday, the city’s health chief urged the public to refrain from panic buying cold medicines they do not need and urged residents “not to overact.”

In some Hong Kong drugstores, fever drugs such as Panadol, the local brand name for Tylenol, have sold out. Most of the buyers were sending the medicines to their families and friends in the mainland, sales representatives told CNN.

Shares of Shenzhen-listed Guizhou Bailing Group Pharmaceuticals, known for making cough syrup, have gained 21% this week and risen 51% so far this month. Yiling Pharmaceutical, the sole producer of Lianhua Qingwen, a traditional Chinese medicine recommended by the government for treating Covid, has also jumped more than 30% in the past month.

Even providers of funeral services and burial plots have gotten a huge boost. Shares in Hong Kong-traded Fu Shou Yuan International, China’s largest burial service company, have soared more than 50% since last month.

There is “strong pent-up demand for burial plots” in 2023, analysts from Citi Group said in a recent research report, adding that they’ve noticed increasing investor interest in the sector.

They cited the existence of hundreds of thousands of cremated remains, which are being temporarily stored in government facilities awaiting burial. Lockdowns across much of the country have halted funeral services, they said.

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US

Brittney Griner: After meager rations in a Russian penal colony, the basketball star is welcomed back to the US with a Christmas tree and barbecue

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CNN
 — 

Freed from a Russian penal colony and back on American soil, WNBA star Brittney Griner got her first taste of a return to normal life over the weekend at a Texas military facility.

The Olympic gold medalist arrived Friday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and is now staying with her wife, Cherelle Griner, in a residential environment on the base – one her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, decorated with a Christmas tree.

Griner, 32, is “upbeat, thankful and hopeful,” Colas told CNN, after returning to the states from what US officials deemed wrongful detention in Russia.

For Griner – who spent nearly 10 months in Russian custody – “normal” has meant indulging in her favorites, including a Dr Pepper soda, the first drink she had in the airplane hangar after landing.

Griner’s relatives also have visited her off and on for hours, bringing San Antonio barbecue for her to enjoy.

The athlete has been eating far more nutritious food and supplements compared with her time in detention, Colas said. “Her energy level was really high,” she added.

Griner also got a haircut to clean up her “Russian fade,” as her friends and family jokingly call it, Colas said. Griner’s long, signature dreadlocks were cut while in captivity as she continuously battled the flu because her wet hair kept freezing, Colas said.

At the Texas military base, Griner hit the basketball court for the first time since she was imprisoned: Her first move was a dunk. Months ago, in pre-trial detention in Russia, Griner was offered a basketball and a hoop, but she declined to play, Colas said.

“I think it’s fair to say that her picking up a ball voluntarily and the first thing being a dunk … it was really encouraging,” Colas said. “She was really excited.”

Griner seems to be in good physical health, but whether she returns to the WNBA in the spring season will be up to her, according to Colas.

“Is she going to be ready? We’ll see,” Colas said.

Griner arrived at the San Antonio medical facility for a routine evaluation after her release Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia for notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Concerns had grown that Griner was being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine after she was arrested on drug charges in February at an airport in Russia, where she plays basketball in the WNBA off-season, then later sentenced to nine years in prison.

Now, Griner’s focus will be on recuperating, including getting physical and psychological support from the government to help with her reintegration.

“She’s had a lot of psychological support,” Colas said. “The resources are very robust. It’s very supportive and very BG-centered. It’s about her developing agency.”

That care is heavily focused on helping formerly captive people regain a sense of control over their lives after lengthy detentions. Griner opted into the Department of Defense’s post-isolation program, which other wrongfully detained Americans, including Trevor Reed, have participated in, Colas said; Reed is former Marine released in April after three years of wrongful detention in Russia.

It’s not clear how long Griner and her wife will stay in San Antonio, but the decision is hers, Colas said.

But what’s become clear is that “normal” will always look different after the ordeal Griner went through. For security reasons, for instance, the Griners have already begun the process of finding a new home, Colas said.

Though it remains unknown if fans will see Griner back on the basketball court in May, one thing is certain, Colas said: Griner is eager to use her power and influence to help others – especially Paul Whelan, another American still imprisoned in Russia.

“It was one of the first things she asked me about,” Colas said. “She’s very, very concerned about that. And will be sending a message to Paul.”

Whelan already sent a message through US representatives who spoke with him in recent days: “Please tell Brittney that Paul said he’s happy she’s home,” he told her, according to Colas.

“She is absolutely thinking about the future,” Colas said. “She’s already talking about the position that she’s now in to help other people come home.”

Whelan – a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen – is imprisoned in a Russian penal colony after he was arrested in December 2018 on espionage charges, which he has denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He, like Griner, has been declared wrongfully detained by US officials.

The US tried to persuade Russia to swap both Griner and Whelan for arms dealer Bout, but Russian officials would not budge on the matter, with Russia saying both of the Americans’ cases were handled differently based on the charges each of them faced.

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US

Brittney Griner is back in the US and dunking again after almost 10 months detained in Russia

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CNN
 — 

Fresh off her elated return to the US after months in Russian custody, two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is back on a basketball court.

But her reintegration into American life is far from over, as is the fight by WNBA players for equity as US professional athletes. The issue was highlighted by the 10-month detention of Griner, who’d gone to Russia to play basketball in the WNBA offseason.

Griner’s first move on a Texas basketball court Sunday was a dunk, her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, told CNN on Monday.

Confirming news first reported by ESPN, Colas said Griner wore a pair of black Chuck Taylor shoes, Phoenix Suns shorts and a T-shirt touting Title IX as she played. Months ago, in pre-trial detention in Russia, Griner was offered a basketball and a hoop, but she declined to play, Colas said.

“I think it’s fair to say that her picking up a ball voluntarily and the first thing being a dunk … it was really encouraging,” Colas said. “She was really excited.”

The 32-year-old had arrived two days earlier at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for routine evaluation after her release Thursday from what US officials deemed wrongful detention. She was freed amid Russia’s war in Ukraine in a prisoner swap for notorious convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

It’s not clear how long Griner will stay at the medical center, Colas said.

“She’s had a lot of psychological support,” Colas said. “The resources are very robust. It’s very supportive and very BG centered. It’s about her developing agency.”

Griner’s agent believes she will try to “utilize her fame for good” but did not detail what that would look like. Colas said Griner opted into the Department of Defense’s Post Isolation Support Activities, or PISA, program that has served other wrongfully detained Americans.

It’s also unclear whether the Phoenix Mercury center will return to the WNBA. The 2023 regular season begins May 19, with training camps typically opening a month before.

“If she wants to play, it will be for her to share,” Colas told ESPN’s T.J. Quinn. “She has the holidays to rest and decide what’s next without any pressure. She’s doing really, really well. She seems to have endured this in pretty incredible ways.”

But the fact that Griner typically plays basketball in Russia during her WNBA offseasons highlights the inequities faced by professional female athletes in the US, fellow WNBA players said.

For many years, WNBA players have spent their offseasons playing in international leagues, where they often can earn more money.

“We’ve been talking about the pay disparity for a long time, and players have been going overseas for a long time,” Elizabeth Williams, a Washington Mystics player and secretary for the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, told CNN on Monday.

“I think this is when people are realizing … the dangers and perils of people going overseas and the impact of what those pay equity issues are.”

Griner was arrested on drug charges at a Russian airport in February and sentenced to nine years in prison. As concerns grew that Griner was being used as a political pawn, efforts to negotiate her release took months.

Now back on US soil, it’s not clear how long Griner will stay in Texas for medical evaluation.

“I’m understanding that it’s going to be a few more days before she gets out,” former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told CNN on Sunday.

Richardson and his center privately work on behalf of families of hostages and detainees. He previously traveled to Russia to discuss Griner’s release, as well as Paul Whelan, a US Marine veteran who was wrongfully detained and remains in custody.

Richardson said it’s important to give former detainees like Griner ample time to get settled.

“We’ve got to give them a little space, a little time to readjust because they’ve had a horrendous experience in these Russian prisons,” said Richardson, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration.

While held in a Russian penal colony, Griner was unable to perform the work done by many female prisoners due to her size, Griner’s Russian lawyer Maria Blagovolina told ESPN and confirmed to CNN.

Most of the women in the penal colony worked sewing uniforms, but the 6-foot-9 Griner was too tall to sit at a work table, and her hands were too big to manage the sewing. So instead, she carried fabric all day, her attorney said.

On the day of her release, Griner had a feeling she would be going home, said Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who led the prisoner exchange mission in the United Arab Emirates.

But it didn’t feel real until he boarded the plane and told her: “On behalf of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Tony Blinken, I’m here to take you home,” Carstens recalled to CNN.

He described Griner as an intelligent, compassionate, humble and patriotic person who immediately wanted to thank all the crew members who helped her.

“When she finally got onto the US plane, I said, ‘Brittney, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months. Here’s your seat. Please feel free to decompress. We’ll give you your space,’” Carstens recalled.

“And she said, ‘Oh no. I’ve been in prison for 10 months now listening to Russian, I want to talk. But first of all, who are these guys?’ And she moved right past me and went to every member on that crew, looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and asked about them and got their names, making a personal connection with them. It was really amazing,” Carstens said.

Griner spent 12 hours of an 18-hour flight talking with Carstens “about everything under the sun,” he said.

When the government plane landed at Kelly Field, the person who emerged from the plane looked very different. Her long, signature deadlocks had been cut while in captivity. Griner continuously battled the flu while detained because her hair kept freezing and she was unable to dry them, Colas said.

The new do was not a surprise to her family, though, as she sent word home weeks earlier about her decision to cut her hair, Colas said.

In San Antonio this weekend, she received a real hair cut to clean up her “Russian fade” as her friends and family jokingly call it. After that, she hit the basketball court.

Griner’s life has been forever altered, and adjusting to everyday life could be difficult.

Jorge Toledo – one of the “Citgo 6” – was released in October as part of a prisoner swap after being detained during a 2017 business trip to Venezuela with other oil and gas executives from the Citgo Petroleum Corporation.

After returning home, Toledo told CNN, he’s had trouble sleeping and felt anxiety during normally mundane tasks such as driving.

But Toledo said he was part of a program in San Antonio that involved six days with a group of psychologists. He said the program was “extremely important” for his reintegration and hopes Griner can take advantage of similar resources.

While many celebrate Griner’s return, the fate of another American held in Russia remains uncertain.

Whelan – a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen – is imprisoned in a Russian penal colony after he was arrested in December 2018 on espionage charges, which he has denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

With Griner back in the US, Richardson said he’s optimistic about Whelan’s release – noting Russia previously offer a trade for Whelan.

The US tried to persuade Russia to swap both Griner and Whelan for Bout, but Russian officials would not budge on the matter. Russia said the Americans’ cases were handled differently based on the charges each of them faced.

“This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” Biden said last week. “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

Whelan said he was happy Griner was released, but told CNN, “I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up.”

Griner is eager to use power and influence to help others, her agent said, especially Whelan.

“It was one of the first things she asked me about,” Colas said. “She’s very, very concerned about that. And will be sending a message to Paul.”

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