The past few weeks in the news | 27 Jan 24

News from the past week, and a few other things.

Jan 27, 2024

👋 Hello Reader, I’m back!

I apologize for the longer-than-expected break, but I was doing some traveling and spending time with family, then got a little sick (all better now), and since some of my time was “off grid,” I had hundreds of emails to read through and catch up on once I plugged in to the globally interconnected information machine (i.e. internet). All that to say, it took a little longer than expected to jump back in.

Given that, this isn’t so much “this week in the news” as it is a recap of the major news items I narrowed down from the past few weeks. Lots of infographics in this edition!

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THE QUICK SHOT 🚀

A lock icon (🔒) indicates articles behind a paywall, and a chart icon (📊) indicates an informative chart/graphic in “Slow Brew.”

Government

Economy

Fed Posts Largest-Ever Annual Operating Loss (WSJ🔒) 📊
Rubin Says US In a ‘Terrible Place’ on Deficit, Urges Tax Hikes (Bloomberg🔒) 📊
US national debt hits record $34 trillion as Congress gears up for funding fight (AP) 📊
2024 Will Mark the End of the Post-Pandemic Economy (Bloomberg🔒)
In the Market: Repo market may throw a fit, spur Fed to action (Reuters)
Inflation Edged Up in December After Rapid Cooling Most of 2023 (WSJ🔒) 📊
Americans Are Suddenly a Lot More Upbeat About the Economy (WSJ🔒) 📊

Business

Why Manufacturing Is in a Slump, Despite Signs of a Renaissance (WSJ🔒) 📊
Apple Plans New Fees and Restrictions for Downloads Outside App Store (WSJ🔒)
Developers Blast Apple’s 27% Fee On External Payments: ‘Bad Faith Compliance’ (Forbes🔒)
Remote Workers Are Losing Out on Promotions, New Data Shows (WSJ🔒) 📊
Remote Workers Bear the Brunt When Layoffs Hit (WSJ🔒)
A Muni Giant Exits the Field. What It Means for the $4 Trillion Market. (WSJ🔒)
Why Is TikTok Parent ByteDance Moving Into Biology, Chemistry And Drug Discovery? (Forbes🔒)
Insurers Rake In Profits as Customers Pay Soaring Premiums (WSJ🔒)
Why Did Car Insurance Get So Expensive? (Bloomberg🔒) 📊
Microsoft Cuts 1,900 Jobs in Gaming, Including at Activision (Bloomberg🔒)

Crypto

SEC Approves Spot Bitcoin ETFs—First Crypto Funds Of Kind (Forbes🔒)

Energy

India will ‘commission a nuclear power reactor every year’: NPCIL chief (The Hindu)
China Added More Solar Panels in 2023 Than US Did In Its Entire History (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

Real Estate

Home Sales Were the Lowest in Almost 30 Years in 2023 (WSJ🔒) 📊
Home Selling Profits Drop in 2023 for First Time in Over a Decade Amid Modest Price Gains (ATTOM) 📊
Mortgage Rates Inch Up but Remain in the Mid-Six Percent Range (Freddie Mac) 📊
U.S. Foreclosure Activity Increases From 2022 But Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels (ATTOM) 📊

Technology

Chinese-developed Nuclear Battery Has a 50-Year Lifespan (Tom's Hardware)
Aviation Sector Seeks Urgent Solutions for GPS Interference (Reuters)
This 'Self-Eating' Rocket Consumes Its Own Body for Fuel (Gizmodo)

Science

Scientists Destroy Illusion That Coin Toss Flips Are 50–50 (Scientific American)

Cyber

TikTok Launches Auto Scrolling. Will It Replace Doomscrolling? (Forbes🔒)
Amazon’s Ring to Stop Letting Police Request Doorbell Video From Users (Bloomberg🔒)
Microsoft Says Russia-Linked Group Hacked Employee Emails (Bloomberg🔒)
China Says It Cracked Apple AirDrop to Identify Message Sources (Bloomberg🔒)
Google Is Finally Killing Cookies. Advertisers Still Aren’t Ready. (WSJ🔒)

Life

The Introverts Have Taken Over the US Economy (Bloomberg🔒) 📊
The Number of Executions in America since 1980 (Chartr) 📊

Religion

More Americans Are Nonreligious. Who Are They and What Do They Believe? (WP🔒)

Education

Biden Cancels $5 Billion in Student Debt in Latest Relief Step (Bloomberg🔒)
Chronic Absenteeism: 2017–2023 (Return to Learn Tracker) 📊

Health

Here’s What You’re Really Swallowing When You Drink Bottled Water (WP🔒)
More Teens Who Use Marijuana Are Suffering From Psychosis (WSJ🔒) 📊
Cancer Is Striking More Young People, and Doctors Are Alarmed and Baffled (WSJ🔒) 📊
The Cancer That Doctors Don’t Want to Call Cancer (WSJ🔒) 📊
Diabetes Is Fueling an Amputation Crisis for Men in San Antonio (NYT🔒)
Florida Is First State Allowed to Import Drugs From Canada in Bid to Reduce Costs (WSJ🔒) 📊
What The Red Cross’s Historically Low Blood Donations Could Mean For U.S. Healthcare (Forbes🔒)
Ozempic Mania’s Billions in Bills Are Coming for Taxpayers (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

Food & Drink

Israeli Company Gets Green Light to Make World's First Cultivated Beef Steaks (Phys.org)

Travel

Bus Stations Across America Are Closing (WSJ🔒) 📊

Entertainment

Billy Joel to Release First Pop Single in Years (Billboard)
Netflix is spending a lot less on content (Chartr) 📊
Everything You Need to Know About Mickey Mouse's Public Domain Debut Today [1 Jan 2024] (Gizmodo)
These Classic Characters Are Losing Copyright Protection. They May Never Be the Same. (NYT🔒)
The Need for Speed: Why China and India Are Fast-Tracking Their Own Top Gun Remakes (The Guardian)

Sports

For Fun

Need a Home for 80,000 Puzzles? Try an Italian Castle (NYT🔒)
How an Aerial Photographer Snapped the B-2 Flying Over the Rose Bowl (Air & Space Forces)

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THE SLOW BREW ☕

A more relaxed approach to news summaries.

WORLD

This Year’s Biggest News Stories, From AI to Ukraine as Told by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ🔒)

A lot happened in 2023. Here’s a timeline of some of the most important news stories.

The Most Popular Times Articles of 2023 (NYT🔒)

Stories about the Titan submersible, Matthew Perry and the House Speaker vote were among the most-read of the year.

Winners of the 2023 International Landscape Photographer of the Year (The Atlantic)

More than 4,000 entries were received from professional and amateur photographers around the world in this year’s landscape-photography competition. Judges of the 10th International Landscape Photographer of the Year contest narrowed the field down to a “Top 101” and then further, to award several category prizes and the International Landscape Photographer of the Year award, which went to Tony Hewitt.

Visualizing 2024: Trends to Watch (CFR)

Looking ahead to 2024, five CFR fellows highlight in charts, graphs, and maps some of the most important trends to track, including power dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region, digital threats to elections, and the changing mix of migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border.

Conflicts to Watch in 2024 (CFR)

For CFR’s annual Preventive Priorities Survey, U.S. foreign policy experts assessed the likelihood and impact of thirty potential conflicts that could emerge or escalate in 2024.

The World Is On the Move (WSJ)

Across the globe, record numbers of migrants are seeking safety and economic opportunity—and prompting political backlash

Note: Many great infographics.

These Are the World’s Most Powerful Passports in 2024 (Bloomberg🔒)

There’s been a shake-up in the passport world. For the past five years Singapore and Japan have boasted the world’s most powerful travel documents, granting their citizens access to more countries without a prior visa than anyone else. This year, however, things have changed. Four European countries have moved up to share the top spot on the Henley Passport Index 2024 with those Asian nations. Residents of France, Germany, Italy and Spain now have visa-free access to 194 of 227 destinations, three more than last year.

The Henley Passport Index: https://www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index/ranking

2024 Is The Biggest Election Year In History—Here Are The Countries Going To The Polls This Year (Forbes🔒)

More than 50 countries around the world with a combined population of around 4.2 billion will hold national and regional elections in 2024, in what is set to be the biggest election year in history featuring seven of the ten most populous nations in the world.

Turkey approves Sweden’s NATO bid, leaving Orbán as final holdout (Politico)

The Turkish parliament on Tuesday ratified Sweden’s bid to join NATO, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan now expected to sign the accession. Turkey’s move, which follows 20 months of diplomatic bargaining with Stockholm and Washington, leaves Hungary as the final NATO country still to proceed with Sweden’s bid to join the 31-member military alliance.

North America

Divided SCOTUS grants Biden administration request to cut Texas’ razor wire (Axios)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted the Biden administration's request to vacate an injunction in the Texas razor wire saga. Why it matters: The high court sided with the Department of Homeland Security for now after state officials had constructed a wire barrier to prevent migrant crossings.

America’s border crisis in ten charts (Economist🔒)

THE CRISIS along America’s southern border is a political liability for Joe Biden. Polling suggests that just 27% of Americans approve of the president’s handling of immigration; more than twice as many say they trust Donald Trump, his likely challenger in November’s election. Increased migration is not all down to policymaking in Washington, DC. But our ten charts below show how the problem has worsened over recent administrations.

NOTE: Article contains many other great infographics.

China Is Buying Up US Farmland, But How Much Isn’t Clear (Bloomberg🔒)

America is seeing more and more of its most fertile land snapped up by China and other foreign buyers, yet problems with how the US tracks such data means it’s difficult to know just how much, according to a report. Foreign ownership and investment in property such as farmland, pastures and forests jumped to about 40 million acres in 2021, up 40% from 2016, according to the US Department of Agriculture data. But an analysis conducted by the US Government Accountability Office — a non-partisan watchdog that reports to Congress — found mistakes in the data, including the largest land holding linked with China being counted twice. Other issues include the challenge of enforcing a US law that requires foreigners to self-report such purchases, the report said, citing USDA.

US Claims Huge Chunk of Seabed Amid Strategic Push for Resources (Bloomberg🔒)

The US extended its claims on the ocean floor by an area twice the size of California, securing rights to potentially resource-rich seabeds at a time when Washington is ramping up efforts to safeguard supplies of minerals key to future technologies. The so-called Extended Continental Shelf covers about 1 million square kilometers (386,100 square miles), predominantly in the Arctic and Bering Sea, an area of increasing strategic importance where Canada and Russia also have claims. The US has also declared the shelf’s boundaries in the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.

Latin America

In ‘War on Guns,’ Caribbean Allies Ask Which Side the US Is On (Bloomberg🔒)

While it’s impossible to count precisely how many weapons are successfully smuggled, US investigators concede that the number of guns illegally pouring into the Caribbean has increased in recent years. So has violent crime. Of the 10 countries with the world’s highest homicide rates in 2022, five were in the Caribbean. (This tally doesn’t count Haiti, which doesn’t compile reliable statistics.) Even islands that had been relatively untouched have seen homicide rates soar — in the case of the British territory of Turks & Caicos, by 150% since 2021, according to Insight Crime, a Washington-based research organization that studies organized crime in the Americas. Today, regional officials say about 90% of the Caribbean’s murder weapons are purchased legally by so-called straw buyers in the US and then smuggled overseas. Only a small fraction of guns found at crime scenes are traced to their source; of the 9,000 Caribbean crime guns that were recovered and traced from 2017 to 2021, only 724 had been legally exported from the US, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The rest were trafficked.

Record half-million migrants crossed Latin America's dangerous Darien Gap in 2023 (Reuters)

A record 520,000 migrants crossed the treacherous jungle between Colombia and Panama known as the Darien Gap in 2023, more than double the number reported the year before, according to government figures seen by Reuters on [2 Jan 2024]. The migrants who made the journey that marks the start of the dangerous trek north from South America to the United States last year were mostly from Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti and China, according to the numbers from Panama's migration agency.

Remnants of Sprawling Ancient Cities Are Found in the Amazon (NYT🔒)

Archaeologists, relying on laser technology and decades of research, mapped a cluster of ancient cities in eastern Ecuador. Their findings add to evidence of dense settlements in Amazonia.

Panama Canal traffic cut by more than a third because of drought (AP)

A severe drought that began last year has forced authorities to slash ship crossings by 36% in the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most important trade routes. The new cuts announced Wednesday by authorities in Panama are set to deal an even greater economic blow than previously expected. Panama Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez now estimates that dipping water levels could cost them between $500 million and $700 million in 2024, compared to previous estimates of $200 million. One of the most severe droughts to ever hit the Central American nation has stirred chaos in the 50-mile (80-kilometer) maritime route, causing a traffic jam of vessels, casting doubts on the canal’s reliability for international shipping and raising concerns about its affect on global trade.

Saving the Panama Canal Will Take Years and Cost Billions, If It’s Even Possible (Bloomberg)

With water levels languishing at six feet (1.8 meters) below normal, the canal authority capped the number of vessels that can cross. The limits imposed late last year were the strictest since 1989, when the conduit was shut as the US invaded Panama to extract its de facto ruler, Manuel Noriega. Some shippers are paying millions of dollars to jump the growing queue, while others are taking longer, costlier routes around Africa or South America.

Europe

Here’s How the Russian and Ukrainian War Efforts Compare, in 10 Charts (WSJ🔒)

Almost two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the conflict has reached a pivot point. Western financial help and ammunition supplies for Ukraine are running low, while public support is showing some cracks. Russia, with its larger population, has so far withstood the worst of Western sanctions and ramped up its war economy for a prolonged fight. Russian President Vladimir Putin is now betting he can outlast the West’s support for Ukraine and make a decisive breakthrough if Russia’s economy can keep ticking over. Here’s a snapshot of the state of the war.

In Norway, young people compete to serve in the military (Defense One)

Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway has just begun a year of military service after qualifying for one of the country’s sought-after conscription slots. That’s right: even though military service is mandatory in Norway, the fact that it’s also highly selective has made it a prestigious assignment for Norwegian 18- and 19-year-olds. Countries considering reintroduction of military service would do well to adopt the Norwegian model—and to expand it to all parts of society that are critical to the nation’s security.

MIDDLE EAST

A Guide to the Middle East’s Growing Conflicts, in Six Maps (WSJ🔒)

Violence from Lebanon to Iraq to the Red Sea all but amounts to an undeclared regional war, with Iran-backed militants fighting Israel and the U.S.

NOTE: Article contains many other great infographics.

For Fleeing Palestinians, Gaza Has Shrunk—by Two-Thirds (WSJ🔒)

Palestinians are fleeing into an ever-shrinking section of the Gaza Strip as Israel’s offensive enters its fourth month and its military asks the enclave’s residents to leave more areas it says are unsafe. The Israeli warnings are pushing people to concentrate into just one-third of the strip, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says. In effect, the ground available to its 2.2 million people has shrunk to an area slightly larger than the Bronx.

U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts (CFR)

The United States was the first country to recognize the provisional government of the state of Israel upon its founding in 1948, and it has for many decades been a strong and steady supporter of the Jewish state. Israel has received hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid in the post–World War II era, a level of support that reflects many factors, including a U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and the countries’ shared foreign policy interests in a volatile and strategically important part of the world.

NOTE: Article contains many other great infographics.

How Yemen’s Houthi Attacks Are Hurting the Global Supply Chain (Bloomberg🔒)

Two months of missile, drone and hijacking attacks against civilian ships in the Red Sea have caused the biggest diversion of international trade in decades, pushing up costs for shippers as far away as Asia and North America. The disruption is spreading, fueling fears of broader economic fallout. Repeated rounds of retaliatory strikes by the US and its allies, as well as a multinational naval operation to patrol the waters, haven’t stopped the assaults by the Houthi militants that followed the start of the Israel-Hamas war. With sailors demanding double pay and insurance rates skyrocketing, shipping lines are steering clear of a waterway that normally carries 12% of the world’s seaborne trade.

World’s Most Ambitious Trade Route Stalls in Mideast Turmoil (Bloomberg🔒)

A far-reaching plan to channel Europe-Asia trade through the Middle East is at risk of stalling before it even gets started. The Israel-Hamas war has halted progress on what’s known as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor — a project touted last year by Washington and key allies that envisages building new rail links across the Arabian peninsula. As Houthi attacks disrupt Red Sea shipping and turmoil spreads across the region, IMEC is effectively on ice. That’s a setback for US strategy, because the plan served multiple purposes – to counter China’s Belt and Road infrastructure program, build influence in the so-called “Global South,” and speed up the hoped-for rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

U.S. Secretly Alerted Iran Ahead of Islamic State Terrorist Attack (WSJ🔒)

The U.S. secretly warned Iran that Islamic State was preparing to carry out the terrorist attack early this month that killed more than 80 Iranians in a pair of coordinated suicide bombings, U.S. officials said. The confidential alert came after the U.S. acquired intelligence that Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, ISIS-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, was plotting to attack Iran, they said. American officials said the information passed to Iran was specific enough about the location and sufficiently timely that it might have proved useful to Tehran in thwarting the attack on Jan. 3 or at least mitigating the casualty toll. Iran, however, failed to prevent the suicide bombings in the southeastern town of Kerman, which targeted a crowd that was commemorating the anniversary of the death of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds force. Soleimani was killed in a January 2020 drone attack near the Baghdad airport ordered by then-President Donald Trump.

Saudi Arabia to get first alcohol shop in more than 70 years (BBC)

Saudi Arabia has said it will open a shop in Riyadh selling alcohol to a select band of non-Muslim expats, the first to open in more than 70 years. The clientele will be limited to diplomatic staff, who have for years imported booze in sealed official packages known as diplomatic pouches. Saudi officials said the shop would counter "the illicit trade of alcohol". Prohibition has been law since 1952, after one of King Abdulaziz's sons drunkenly shot dead a British diplomat. The new store will be located in Riyadh's Diplomatic Quarter west of the city centre, according to a document seen by the AFP and Reuters news agencies.

AFRICA

How the U.S. Is Derailing China’s Influence in Africa (WSJ🔒)

In 2012, a Chinese state company finished building the train station in this central Angolan town and installed an illuminated computer-controlled board to show departure times and ticket prices. Then the contractors decamped for China and, according to Angolan railway employees, neglected to tell anyone the computer password. So for more than a decade, the departure board has stubbornly displayed 2012 train times and 2012 ticket prices. China’s missteps along the vital rail corridor have helped create a surprise opening for the U.S., which finds itself suddenly challenging Beijing’s commercial dominance in the unlikeliest of places: Angola, a southern African country once solidly embedded in the Communist bloc and the continent’s largest recipient of Chinese infrastructure loans. In 2022, Angola rejected a Chinese bid to re-rehabilitate and operate freight service along the Lobito Corridor line. Instead it granted a 30-year concession to a U.S.-backed European consortium that promises to carry millions of tons of green-energy minerals such as copper, manganese and cobalt from Congo to Angola’s Atlantic coast. The U.S. government is planning to lend $250 million and its prestige to make sure the $1.7 billion Lobito Corridor project succeeds.

Russia’s Growing Footprint in Africa (CFR)

While Moscow’s involvement in Africa lags behind other powers, it is increasingly tapping into anti-Western sentiment to bolster its influence on the continent amid geopolitical competition between Russia and the West. Critics of growing involvement by Russia’s Wagner Group, a private military company, say Moscow is bolstering authoritarianism, driving conflict over resources, and threatening human rights. The fallout from the war in Ukraine has revealed diplomatic fault lines. Analysts say the West needs to pursue more equal partnerships with African countries.

ASIA-PACIFIC

Taiwan begins extended one-year conscription in response to China threat (Reuters)

The first batch of new recruits began serving their one-year compulsory military service in Taiwan on Thursday after the conscription period was extended from four months due to government concerns about China's rising military threat. President Tsai Ing-wen announced the extension in late 2022. China has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan to assert its sovereignty claims, including almost daily Chinese air force missions near the island over the past four years.

Why China Would Struggle to Invade Taiwan (CFR)

Although China continues to state a preference for unifying with Taiwan through peaceful methods, it has never renounced using force. Indeed, for the past two decades its military modernization has focused on developing capabilities that would enable it to forcefully conquer Taiwan, ranging from ballistic missiles to advanced fighter jets and the world’s largest navy. China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, has increased the scale and sophistication of its military drills around Taiwan in recent years, honing its combat capabilities. As the prospect of gaining control of Taiwan peacefully becomes more remote, with Taiwanese identity rising and Taiwanese interest in unifying with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) declining, China could conclude that using force is the only way to achieve its political objectives.

NOTE: Article contains many other great infographics.

China’s $6 Trillion Stock Wipeout Exposes Deeper Problems for Xi (Bloomberg🔒)

China’s $6 trillion stock market rout reveals a painful truth for President Xi Jinping’s government: People are hopelessly gloomy about the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy, and their pessimism is becoming increasingly hard to ignore.

Bruised by stock market, Chinese rush into banned bitcoin (Reuters)

Dylan Run, a Shanghai-based finance sector executive, started moving a bit of his money into cryptocurrencies in early 2023, when he realized that the Chinese economy and its stock markets were going downhill. Crypto trading and mining has been banned in China since 2021. Run used bank cards issued by small rural commercial banks to buy cryptocurrencies through grey-market dealers, and capped each transaction at 50,000 yuan ($6,978) to escape scrutiny. "Bitcoin is a safe haven, like gold," says Run. He now owns roughly 1 million yuan worth of cryptocurrencies, accounting for half of his investment portfolio, compared with just 40% in Chinese equities. His crypto investments are up 45%. China's stock market, meanwhile, has been sinking for 3 years. Like Run, more and more Chinese investors are using creative ways to own bitcoin and other crypto assets that they believe are safer than investing in crumbling stock and property markets at home.

China Moves to Boost Bank Lending in Broad Effort to Prop Up Growth (WSJ🔒)

China’s central bank announced new steps to boost bank lending to households and businesses, an early move in what is expected to be a broad but restrained campaign by authorities to prop up growth this year after a lackluster 2023. It comes on the heels of signs of gathering government support for China’s swooning stock market, with investors detecting a rash of share buying by pension funds, insurers and other state-linked firms.

Taiwan loses diplomatic ally to China days after presidential election (CNN)

Taiwan has lost another diplomatic ally to China just days after its presidential election in what Taipei said was both sudden and designed by Beijing to suppress the island’s “democratic achievements.” The Pacific Island nation of Nauru on Monday announced it had severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established ties with China, a decision confirmed by Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry.

China’s population falls for a 2nd straight year as births drop even after end of one-child policy (AP)

China’s population fell by 2 million people in 2023 in its second straight annual decrease, as births dropped for the seventh straight year and deaths jumped following the end of COVID-19 restrictions, the government said Wednesday. The number of deaths rose by 690,000 to 11.1 million, more than double the previous year’s increase. Demographers said the rise was driven by the aging of the population and the widespread COVID-19 outbreaks that started in December 2022 and continued into February of last year.

China Is Pressing Women to Have More Babies. Many Are Saying No. (WSJ🔒)

Chinese women have had it. Their response to Beijing’s demands for more children? No. Fed up with government harassment and wary of the sacrifices of child-rearing, many young women are putting themselves ahead of what Beijing and their families want. Their refusal has set off a crisis for the Communist Party, which desperately needs more babies to rejuvenate China’s aging population. With the number of babies in free fall—fewer than 10 million were born in 2022, compared with around 16 million in 2012—China is headed toward a demographic collapse. China’s population, now around 1.4 billion, is likely to drop to just around half a billion by 2100, according to some projections. Women are taking the blame.

As China’s Markets Stumble, Japan Rises Toward Record (NYT🔒)

Japan’s stock market, overlooked by investors for decades, is making a furious comeback. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index is edging closer to the record it set on Dec. 29, 1989, which effectively marked the peak of Japan’s economic ascendancy before a collapse that led to decades of low growth. China, long an impossible-to-ignore market, has been spiraling downward. Stocks in China recently touched lows not seen since a rout in 2015, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was the worst-performing major market in the world last year. Stocks stemmed their slide only when Beijing recently signaled its intention to intervene but remain far below previous highs. This year was set to be a tumultuous one for global markets, with unpredictable swings as economic fortunes diverge and voters in more than 50 countries go to the polls. But there’s one unforeseen reversal already underway: a change in perception among investors about China and Japan. Seizing on this shift, Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, addressed more than 3,000 global financiers gathered in Hong Kong this week for a conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs. It was the first time a Japanese prime minister had given a keynote address at the event.

Space

Japan Lands on the Moon, Becoming Fifth Country to Reach Lunar Surface (WSJ🔒)

Japan landed a spacecraft on the moon Friday, becoming only the fifth country to do so, but a problem with its solar panel could limit the data the country can collect.

Photo shows Japan’s spacecraft is lying on its side on the moon (WP🔒)

The Japanese robotic spacecraft that touched down on the moon’s surface on Friday did so despite an engine malfunction, but it still was able to land at its intended site, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced Thursday. While still intact, the spacecraft, which had no one on board, came to a rest on its side, it appeared from an image released by the country’s space agency, which said the spacecraft ended up “in a different attitude than planned.”

North Korea Ends Policy of Reunification with South Korea (VOA)

North Korea is abandoning its policy of seeking reunification with South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for the constitution to be revised to say that the South is the country’s “primary foe and invariable principle enemy” during a speech Monday before the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s rubber-stamp parliament, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency. Kim said the constitution should also include plans for “occupying, subjugating and reclaiming” the South if another war breaks out between the two bitter rivals.

Elon Musk’s Starlink Launches First-Ever Cell Service Satellites (Forbes🔒)

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched its first set of Starlink satellites to provide cell phone service anywhere in the world, the company announced Wednesday, a milestone the billionaire warned can’t compete with terrestrial networks but will help plug cellular dead zones and boost global mobile connectivity.

Ingenuity, the NASA Helicopter Flying Over Mars, Ends Its Mission (NYT🔒)

Ingenuity, the little Mars helicopter that could, can’t anymore. At least one rotor broke during the robotic flying machine’s most recent flight last week, NASA officials announced on Thursday. Ingenuity remains in contact with its companion, the Perseverance rover, which has been exploring a dried-up riverbed for signs of extinct Martian life. Ingenuity will now be left behind. On Jan. 18, during its 72nd flight, Ingenuity fell out of touch with Perseverance while descending. Communications were re-established the next day, but then a shadow in a photo sent back a few days later revealed that about one-quarter of one of the rotor blades had broken off.

Government

Biden's Third-Year Job Approval Average of 39.8% Second Worst (Gallup)

During President Joe Biden’s third full year in office, spanning Jan. 20, 2023, to Jan. 19, 2024, an average of 39.8% of Americans approved of his job performance. Among prior presidents in the Gallup polling era who were elected to their first term, only Jimmy Carter fared worse in his third year. Carter averaged 37.4% approval in a year in which gas prices soared, inflation reached double digits and Iranian militants took U.S. citizens hostage. Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon also had sub-50% third-year averages. Dwight Eisenhower’s 72.1% is the highest for a third-year president.

Trump’s live appearances pose a riddle that news executives still haven’t solved (AP)

Even as Donald Trump seeks his third straight Republican presidential nomination, his live appearances still present an unsolved riddle for many news outlets: How do you cover him?

Argentina’s Milei Gives the Davos Crowd a Spine Transplant (WSJ🔒)

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Argentine President Javier Milei’s Wednesday speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Economy

Fed Posts Largest-Ever Annual Operating Loss (WSJ🔒)

The Federal Reserve ran an operating loss of $114.3 billion last year, its largest ever, a consequence of its campaign to aggressively support the economy in 2020 and 2021, then jacking up interest rates to combat high inflation. The Fed has almost always turned a profit and is required by law to send its earnings, minus operating expenses, to the Treasury. Those gains turned to losses in 2022, meaning the federal deficit has been a bit larger than it would otherwise have been.

Rubin Says US In a ‘Terrible Place’ on Deficit, Urges Tax Hikes (Bloomberg🔒)

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said the US is in a “terrible place” with regard to its federal deficits, and called for tax increases to address the deterioration. “The risks are enormous and some of them are materializing already, like higher interest rates,” Rubin said Wednesday on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. The roughly 3-percentage-point surge in longer-term Treasury yields in recent years is due in part to the fiscal outlook and its impact on inflation, he said. Risks are even greater today than in the early 1990s, when incoming President Bill Clinton crafted a budget-tightening package to shrink the deficit, Rubin said. The danger is that when markets are “out of sync with reality,” they can then “correct savagely” — as happened when Greek bond premiums over German ones soared during the euro crisis, he said.

US national debt hits record $34 trillion as Congress gears up for funding fight (AP)

The federal government’s gross national debt has surpassed $34 trillion, a record high that foreshadows the coming political and economic challenges to improve America’s balance sheet in the coming years.

2024 Will Mark the End of the Post-Pandemic Economy (Bloomberg🔒)

Now, as we head into 2024, it’s increasingly clear that America has spent its post-pandemic dividend. Households in the bottom half of the income distribution don’t have so much extra savings, and some are even going into debt. Debt-dependent firms and investors are approaching their maturity wall and will have to refinance at a higher rate soon. Even the unshakable labor market may be weaker than it appears. There is a chance that, like a lot of my fellow economists, I am wrong. Perhaps the Fed will be able to reduce rates without much damage to the economy or the labor market; immaculate disinflation, so tantalizingly close, may actually happen. Whatever happens, however, the end of the pandemic dividend will make it harder for central bankers. For the first time in recent memory, the people who try to manage the US economy — not to mention the considerably larger group of us who participate in it — will have to navigate some difficult trade-offs.

In the Market: Repo market may throw a fit, spur Fed to action (Reuters)

Some Wall Street executives feel a tantrum coming in U.S. short-term financing markets, perhaps as soon as March. It could put pressure on the Federal Reserve to ease policy. A series of events are expected between March and May, some of which will reduce the amount of cash in the financial system, while others increase the demand for liquidity, according to interviews with four banking executives.

Inflation Edged Up in December After Rapid Cooling Most of 2023 (WSJ🔒)

Prices ticked up in December, a reminder of the pressures still facing consumers after a year when inflation fell by nearly half and paychecks grew, delivering real wage gains in 2023 for the first time in three years. Inflation’s cool down from historic highs keeps the Federal Reserve on track to hold rates steady later this month and contemplate cutting them later this year. But Americans aren’t in the clear yet. The consumer-price index increased 3.4% from a year earlier in December, the Labor Department said Thursday. The acceleration from November’s 3.1% advance shows inflation isn’t fully beaten. The December reading is well down from a 6.5% rise at the end of 2022, and inflation-adjusted wages rose 0.8% last year, a reversal after two full-year declines and a better gain than the year before the pandemic began.

Americans Are Suddenly a Lot More Upbeat About the Economy (WSJ🔒)

Americans are rapidly becoming much more upbeat about the economy. Consumer sentiment surged 29% since November, the biggest two-month increase since 1991, the University of Michigan said Friday, adding to gauges showing improving moods. It’s a sharp turn after persistently high inflation, the lingering shock from the pandemic’s destruction and fears that a recession was around the corner had put a damper on feelings about the economy in recent years, despite solid growth and consistent hiring.

Business

Why Manufacturing Is in a Slump, Despite Signs of a Renaissance (WSJ🔒)

U.S. manufacturing is entering a golden age, with government subsidies sparking a boom in factory construction. Yet the industry is also mired in the longest slump in more than two decades. Activity has weakened for 13 straight months, the longest stretch since 2002, according to surveys of purchasing managers by the Institute for Supply Management. Behind that split-screen image: U.S. manufacturing is large and varied. Investment in factories has occurred in the most high-tech sliver of the sector while other industries struggle with a pandemic-induced inventory overhang and higher interest rates. “Normally you would see capacity get added when things are booming,” said Chris Snyder, director of industrials equity research for UBS. “This is not necessarily that.” This divergence won’t last forever, economists say. They expect factory output to pick up as the Federal Reserve cuts rates and the lagged effects from the inventory buildup of 2022 and early 2023 fade. Bringing the new factories online would further support the sector’s growth.

Apple Plans New Fees and Restrictions for Downloads Outside App Store (WSJ🔒)

Apple is planning to add new fees and restrictions when it begins allowing people to download apps outside of the iPhone’s closed ecosystem. The plan, a response to a new European law intended to crack Apple’s current grip on apps, will allow users to download software onto the iPhone for the first time without using the App Store. The new policies, which will apply only in Europe, set up a major test of the legislation and how it will be enforced as Apple faces challenges from courts, regulators and software-makers globally about its tight control of third-party software.

Developers Blast Apple’s 27% Fee On External Payments: ‘Bad Faith Compliance’ (Forbes🔒)

Apple’s decision to charge a 27% fee on all in-app purchases made through external payment platforms faced pushback from developers, including Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney, on Tuesday, hours after the iPhone maker was effectively forced to update its App Store policies after the Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal from the company.

Remote Workers Are Losing Out on Promotions, New Data Shows (WSJ🔒)

For a while, remote workers seemed to have it all: elastic waistbands, no commute, better concentration and the ability to pop in laundry loads between calls. New data, though, shows fully remote workers are falling behind in one of the most-prized and important aspects of a career: getting promoted. Over the past year, remote workers were promoted 31% less frequently than people who worked in an office, either full-time or on a hybrid basis, according to an analysis of two million white-collar workers by employment-data provider Live Data Technologies. Remote workers also get less mentorship, a gap that’s especially pronounced for women, research shows.

Remote Workers Bear the Brunt When Layoffs Hit (WSJ🔒)

Laying off employees is complicated. New data suggests that managers tend to have an easier time showing remote workers the door. Workers logging on from home five days a week were 35% more likely to be laid off in 2023 than their peers who put in office time, according to an analysis of two million white-collar workers conducted by employment data provider Live Data Technologies. The analysis showed 10% of fully remote workers were laid off last year, compared with 7% of those working in an office full time or on a hybrid basis.

A Muni Giant Exits the Field. What It Means for the $4 Trillion Market. (WSJ🔒)

When bankrupt Jefferson County, Ala., needed to find buyers for a new bond sale, Citigroup was there. When Detroit tiptoed back to market after haircutting bondholders, Citi was there. When the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s debt restructuring wanted advice, Citi was there. Now municipalities will need to look elsewhere in good times and bad. Citi is exiting the $4 trillion market early this year after a quarter-century as a top trader of U.S. state and local government debt. Citi is amid an overhaul, and munis are one of the businesses on the chopping block. Other changes include eliminating 20,000 jobs, curtailing overseas consumer business and exiting the market for distressed debt. The bank is trying to put its money to work in places where it has an edge and can get the best returns, said Howard Mason, an analyst with Renaissance Macro Research. “It wasn’t as if they were picking on the muni market.”

Why Is TikTok Parent ByteDance Moving Into Biology, Chemistry And Drug Discovery? (Forbes🔒)

TikTok’s Chinese parent is beginning to recruit across the U.S. for experts in science and healthcare disciplines far afield from social media. Its motives are unclear.

Insurers Rake In Profits as Customers Pay Soaring Premiums (WSJ🔒)

The pain for home- and auto-insurance customers is quickly becoming investors’ gain. Insurance giants’ shares and profits are hitting records, thanks in part to steep rate hikes. After suffering some of the worst years in their history, insurers say they now see a path to profitability for home and auto policies. Big rate increases are driving up revenue, while the inflationary pressures that pushed up repair and replacement costs appear to be easing. Losses from extreme weather tied to climate change remain a wild card, but the short-term outlook for insurers appears more favorable. Despite their rosier finances, insurance companies are still pushing for price increases. Home insurers in North Carolina this month asked regulators to greenlight a 42% increase in premiums, including a near doubling in rates for flood-prone coastal counties. That would take a typical homeowner’s annual premium on the coast to $6,833 from $3,427, according to the industry’s filing. Nationally, rates are set to keep climbing. Travelers executives this week said the insurer’s premiums are likely to increase in “low double digits” percentages for home-insurance renewals this year, and in the midteens for drivers renewing policies through June. The industrywide push to raise prices follows a long run of underwriting losses after the pandemic. Applications to states for rate increases can take months—or even years—to be approved, so premiums have tended to lag behind the rising costs of claims, according to analysts.

Why Did Car Insurance Get So Expensive? (Bloomberg🔒)

The average repair bill for a traditional vehicle today runs $4,437, according to auto insurance processing company CCC Intelligent Solutions. For an electric vehicle, the average fix is 49% higher, or $6,618, thanks to their added tech gadgetry and the special handling required to work with their electric powertrains. Insurers—who watched the average collision insurance claim soar 64% from 2018 to 2022, to $5,992, according to the Insurance Information Institute—have moved to offset the higher repair costs by aggressively hiking drivers’ premiums. The cost of auto insurance in the US rose more than 20% in 2023, the biggest annual jump since 1976, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Rates are up 37% since January 2020, adding to an affordability crisis caused in part by the price of cars surging about 30% in that same time frame, to almost $49,000 on average, according to research group Cox Automotive Inc. Americans aren’t the only ones facing higher bills. In the UK, auto insurance premiums jumped 58% on average last year and 84% for 18-year-old drivers, according to data from comparison site Confused.com and insurance broker WTW Plc.

Microsoft Cuts 1,900 Jobs in Gaming, Including at Activision (Bloomberg🔒)

Microsoft Corp. will lay off 1,900 people across its video-game divisions including at Activision Blizzard, which it purchased for $69 billion in an acquisition that closed late last year. In an email to staff reviewed by Bloomberg, Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer wrote that the cuts represented about 8% of Microsoft’s 22,000 gaming workers. The Verge first reported the news. Other video-game companies, including Riot Games, have also enacted mass layoffs.

Crypto

SEC Approves Spot Bitcoin ETFs—First Crypto Funds Of Kind (Forbes🔒)

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday it greenlit the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the U.S., a historic move for investors looking for exposure to the world’s largest digital asset.

Energy

India will ‘commission a nuclear power reactor every year’: NPCIL chief (The Hindu)

An interview with B.C. Pathak on India’s nuclear power plans and strategy. Mr. Pathak is a Distinguished Scientist of the Department of Atomic Energy and has more than 30 years of experience implementing the NPCIL’s nuclear power projects, including 220-MWe, 540-MWe, 700-MWe and 1,000-MWe reactors of both PHWR and pressurised water reactor (PWR) technologies. He assumed his current charge in NPCIL in February 2022. On December 13, 2023, he spoke to The Hindu on India’s nuclear power plans and strategy. Excerpts from the interview follow.

China Added More Solar Panels in 2023 Than US Did In Its Entire History (Bloomberg🔒)

China installed more solar panels in 2023 than any other nation has built in total, adding to a massive renewable energy fleet that’s already leading the world by a wide margin. The country added 216.9 gigawatts of solar last year, blowing away its previous record of 87.4 gigawatts from 2022, the National Energy Administration said in a statement. That’s more than the entire fleet of 175.2 gigawatts in the US, the world’s second-biggest solar market, according to BloombergNEF estimates.

Real Estate

Home Sales Were the Lowest in Almost 30 Years in 2023 (WSJ🔒)

Home sales last year dropped to the lowest level in nearly three decades, after elevated mortgage rates and a lack of homes for sale shut out buyers. Existing-home sales slid 19% in 2023 from the prior year to 4.09 million, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. That total was lower than during the subprime crisis and the lowest full-year level since 1995. But the housing market is showing some signs of life as mortgage rates ease, and it’s possible that last year represented a bottom for sales activity. After two years of soaring home sales that started during the pandemic as people sought more space and new locations, the housing market skidded to a halt in mid-2022.

Home Selling Profits Drop in 2023 for First Time in Over a Decade Amid Modest Price Gains (ATTOM)

ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property and real estate data, today released its Year-End 2023 U.S. Home Sales Report, which shows that home sellers made a $121,000 profit on the typical sale in 2023, generating a 56.5 percent return on investment.

Mortgage Rates Inch Up but Remain in the Mid-Six Percent Range (Freddie Mac)

The 30-year fixed-rate has remained within a very narrow range over the last month, settling in at 6.69% this week. Given this stabilization in rates, potential homebuyers with affordability concerns have jumped off the fence back into the market. Despite persistent inventory challenges, we anticipate a busier spring homebuying season than 2023, with home prices continuing to increase at a steady pace.

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Increases From 2022 But Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels (ATTOM)

ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its Year-End 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings— default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 357,062 U.S. properties in 2023, up 10 percent from 2022 and up 136 percent from 2021 but down 28 percent from 2019, before the pandemic shook up the market. Foreclosure filings in 2023 were also down 88 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in 2010.

Mortgage Rates Inch Up but Remain in the Mid-Six Percent Range (Freddie Mac)

TECHNOLOGY

Chinese-developed Nuclear Battery Has a 50-Year Lifespan (Tom's Hardware)

Chinese company Betavolt has announced an atomic energy battery for consumers with a touted 50-year lifespan. The Betavolt BV100 will be the first product to launch using the firm’s new atomic battery technology, constructed using a nickel-63 isotope and diamond semiconductor material. Betavolt says its nuclear battery will target aerospace, AI devices, medical, MEMS systems, intelligent sensors, small drones, and robots – and may eventually mean manufacturers can sell smartphones that never need charging. Buying an electronics product that can go without charging for 50 years would be amazing. But the BV100, which is in the pilot stage ahead of mass production, doesn’t offer a lot of power.

Aviation Sector Seeks Urgent Solutions for GPS Interference (Reuters)

The aviation industry will press regulators this week for urgent action to help tackle GPS "spoofing" amid a surge in such activity, which can send commercial airliners off-course, due to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

This 'Self-Eating' Rocket Consumes Its Own Body for Fuel (Gizmodo)

A new rocket is designed for its own destruction, eating itself as it makes its way through Earth’s atmosphere to power its journey. A group of researchers from the University of Glasgow has built the first unsupported autophage rocket engine, which uses waste heat from combustion to melt its plastic fuselage and use it as fuel. The design was presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech Forum in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, and is based on an idea that was patented in 1938.

SCIENCE

Scientists Destroy Illusion That Coin Toss Flips Are 50–50 (Scientific American🔒)

The phrase “coin toss” is a classic synonym for randomness. But since at least the 18th century, mathematicians have suspected that even fair coins tend to land on one side slightly more often than the other. Proving this tiny bias, however, would require hundreds of thousands of meticulously recorded coin flips, making laboratory tests a logistical nightmare. František Bartoš, currently a Ph.D. candidate studying the research methods of psychology at the University of Amsterdam, became intrigued by this challenge four years ago. He couldn't round up enough volunteers to investigate it at first. “Nobody was stupid enough to spend a couple of weekends flipping coins,” he says. But after he began his Ph.D. studies, he tried again, recruiting 47 volunteers (many of them friends and fellow students) from six countries. Multiple weekends of coin flipping later, including one 12-hour marathon session, the team had performed 350,757 tosses, shattering the previous record of 40,000. The flipped coins, according to findings in a preprint study posted on arXiv.org, landed with the same side facing upward as before the toss 50.8 percent of the time. The large number of throws allows statisticians to conclude that the nearly 1 percent bias isn't a fluke. “We can be quite sure there is a bias in coin flips after this data set,” Bartoš says.

CYBER

TikTok Launches Auto Scrolling. Will It Replace Doomscrolling? (Forbes🔒)

Now, TikTok is about to kill doomscrolling. The company announced the feature last year but now it’s available for select users and rolling out to everyone eventually. Using auto scroll means you don’t have to flip through videos.

Amazon’s Ring to Stop Letting Police Request Doorbell Video From Users (Bloomberg🔒)

Amazon.com Inc.’s Ring home doorbell unit says it will stop letting police departments request footage from users’ video doorbells and surveillance cameras, retreating from a practice that was criticized by civil liberties groups and some elected officials.

Microsoft Says Russia-Linked Group Hacked Employee Emails (Bloomberg🔒)

Microsoft Corp. said a Russian-linked hacking group attacked its corporate systems, getting into a “small number” of email accounts, including those of senior leadership and employees who work in cybersecurity and legal. The company said it’s acting immediately to fix older systems, which will probably cause some disruption.

China Says It Cracked Apple AirDrop to Identify Message Sources (Bloomberg🔒)

A Chinese state-backed institution has devised a way to identify users who send messages via Apple Inc.’s popular AirDrop feature, Beijing’s government claims, as part of broader efforts to root out undesirable content. The Beijing institute developed the technique to crack an iPhone’s encrypted device log to identify the numbers and emails of senders who share AirDrop content, the city’s judicial bureau said in an online post. Police have identified multiple suspects via that method, the agency said, without disclosing if anyone was arrested.

Google Is Finally Killing Cookies. Advertisers Still Aren’t Ready. (WSJ🔒)

Google is going forward with sweeping changes to how companies track users online—moves that have been years in the making. Advertisers still aren’t ready. The changes, among the biggest in the history of the $600 billion-a-year online-ad industry, center on the use of cookies, technology that logs the activity of internet users across websites so that advertisers can target them with relevant ads. Starting [4 Jan 24], Google will start a limited test that will restrict cookies for 1% of the people who use its Chrome browser, which is by far the world’s most popular. By year’s end, Google plans to eliminate cookies for all Chrome users. Marketers, advertising-technology companies and web publishers are working to ensure their businesses can weather the transition. They said Google, which has introduced software tools designed to help replace cookies, hasn’t done enough to prepare the market.

LIFE

The Introverts Have Taken Over the US Economy (Bloomberg🔒)

While many things are getting back to normal, the pandemic profoundly changed American life — sometimes just by speeding up prevailing trends. The technology already existed to allow many Americans to work from home, for example, but the pandemic normalized it. Americans also shop online far more than they did before Covid. One other way the pandemic altered America: It has created what might be called the Introvert Economy. The time at home made Americans less fun. 2023 was a year for daytime office holiday parties, after all, and in general Americans are going out less.1 And odds are it will stick: It is the youngest adults who are going out less, and when they do go out, it is earlier. There was a bit of a bump in socializing in 2022, probably in response to years of pandemic isolation. Yet the long-term trend is clear: more time watching TV or playing video games.

RELIGION

More Americans Are Nonreligious. Who Are They and What Do They Believe? (WP🔒)

Over the past half-century, as the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has gone from 5 percent to nearly 30 percent, the emphasis has often been on what they were leaving. A report released Wednesday on the “nones” finds that they are diverse, young, left-leaning and may offer clues to the future of making meaning in a secularizing country. The report, from the Pew Research Center, is one of the biggest yet on the nones, and it adds detail to this constituency that has been growing across a wide variety of demographic categories, including age, race, political leaning and education level. As the nation’s fastest-growing segment of religion (or nonreligion) in recent decades, the nones may reflect the front line of future spirituality. Fifty-six percent say they believe in “some higher power” aside from the God of the Bible; 67 percent say they believe that humans have a soul or spirit, and majorities say they believe that nonhuman animals and parts of nature can have spiritual energies.

EDUCATION

Biden Cancels $5 Billion in Student Debt in Latest Relief Step (Bloomberg🔒)

President Joe Biden is forgiving nearly $5 billion in additional student debt as the administration seeks to deliver on one of his signature initiatives with high stakes for his 2024 reelection campaign. Almost 74,000 student loan borrowers will see debt canceled as a result of administrative changes by the US Education Department in the latest round of relief. Those affected include borrowers enrolled in the government’s income-driven repayment and public-service loan forgiveness programs.

Chronic Absenteeism: 2017–2023 (Return to Learn Tracker)

Consistent attendance is key to student success, but post-pandemic attendance has been far from consistent. Nationwide, chronic absenteeism—the percentage of students missing at least 10% of a school year—surged from 15% in 2018 to 29% in 2022, and remained high in 2023. Surging chronic absenteeism clearly stemmed from the pandemic, but limited data has obscured where, and for whom, the change is greatest. Return to Learn’s (R2L) chronic absenteeism data span districts in 50 states from 2016–17 to 2022–23, where available, for the most current and comprehensive chronic absenteeism data available anywhere. Click for more on R2L’s methods, and scroll down to see how chronic absenteeism changed from 2017 to 2023.

HEALTH

Here’s What You’re Really Swallowing When You Drink Bottled Water (WP🔒)

People are swallowing hundreds of thousands of microscopic pieces of plastic each time they drink a liter of bottled water, scientists have shown — a revelation that could have profound implications for human health. A new paper released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found about 240,000 particles in the average liter of bottled water, most of which were “nanoplastics” — particles measuring less than one micrometer (less than one-seventieth the width of a human hair).

More Teens Who Use Marijuana Are Suffering From Psychosis (WSJ🔒)

Legalization efforts have made cannabis more readily available in much of the country. More frequent use of marijuana that is many times as potent as strains common three decades ago is leading to more psychotic episodes, according to doctors and recent research. “This isn’t the cannabis of 20, 30 years ago,” said Dr. Deepali Gershan, an addiction psychiatrist at Compass Health Center in Northbrook, Ill. Up to 20% of her caseload is patients for whom she suspects cannabis use triggered a psychotic episode. Rates of diagnoses for cannabis-induced disorders were more than 50% higher at the end of November than in 2019, healthcare-analytics company Truveta said this week. The trend is contributing to the broader burden of caring for people who developed mental health and addiction problems during the pandemic.

Cancer Is Striking More Young People, and Doctors Are Alarmed and Baffled (WSJ🔒)

Cancer is hitting more young people in the U.S. and around the globe, baffling doctors. Diagnosis rates in the U.S. rose in 2019 to 107.8 cases per 100,000 people under 50, up 12.8% from 95.6 in 2000, federal data show. A study in BMJ Oncology last year reported a sharp global rise in cancers in people under 50, with the highest rates in North America, Australia and Western Europe. Doctors are racing to figure out what is making them sick, and how to identify young people who are at high risk. They suspect that changes in the way we live—less physical activity, more ultra-processed foods, new toxins—have raised the risk for younger generations.

The Cancer That Doctors Don’t Want to Call Cancer (WSJ🔒)

When is cancer not cancer? It’s an unexpected question that has stirred the world of cancer treatment in recent years, most notably now with prostate cancer. A growing number of doctors are advocating what might seem like an unusual position: That low-grade prostate cancers that grow very slowly or not at all shouldn’t be called cancer or carcinoma. The reason, they say, is that those words scare men, their families and sometimes even their doctors into seeking more aggressive treatment than patients need—leaving men with debilitating side effects—rather than pursuing a carefully monitored wait-and-see approach. A name change wouldn’t be unprecedented. Certain other forms of thyroid, cervical and bladder cancers have been reclassified, sometimes partly to avoid scaring people about cancers that are unlikely to spread. “The word ‘cancer’ engenders so much anxiety and fear,” says Dr. Laura Esserman, a professor of surgery and radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and director of its Breast Care Center, who is advocating for a type of lower-risk breast cancer to be renamed. “Patients think if I don’t do something tomorrow, this is going to kill me. In fact, that’s not true.”

Diabetes Is Fueling an Amputation Crisis for Men in San Antonio (NYT🔒)

Diabetes has been on the rise around the world, and Latino communities in the United States have been especially hard hit. A lethal combination of genetics, poor access to health care, diets high in processed foods and sedentary lifestyles has created a crisis in places like San Antonio, a majority Mexican American city in Southern Texas, that is costing a growing number of men their feet and legs — and eventually, for some, their lives. Texas has one of the highest rates in the nation for people undergoing diabetes-related amputations, at about 52 per 100,000 hospital admissions. The problem in San Antonio is even worse than in the rest of Texas, especially for men, who are roughly three times more likely to lose a foot or leg to diabetes than women — possibly because of cultural stigmas that prevent many Latino men from looking closely after their health.

Florida Is First State Allowed to Import Drugs From Canada in Bid to Reduce Costs (WSJ🔒)

The Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow the first U.S. state to import drugs from Canada, a milestone in efforts to reduce the cost of medicines that could change the way Americans fill prescriptions. The agency said Friday it would allow Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada. Several other states have filed similar requests with the agency. The approval opens the door to a new, lower-cost source of prescription drugs, beyond the retail and mail-order pharmacies—and the U.S. supply chain they are part of—that Americans have relied on for decades to fill prescriptions.

What The Red Cross’s Historically Low Blood Donations Could Mean For U.S. Healthcare (Forbes🔒)

The American Red Cross is experiencing its lowest blood donations in 20 years due to a spike in respiratory illnesses, winter weather events and an increase in work from home jobs keeping people in the house—and not donating blood—but experts warn the shortage could mean patients may go without lifesaving procedures.

Ozempic Mania’s Billions in Bills Are Coming for Taxpayers (Bloomberg🔒)

State and local governments across the US are grappling with a growing problem: Expensive drugs to treat diabetes and obesity are threatening to drain their health-care budgets. State health plans and Medicaid offices are seeing eye-popping bills for Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic, its sister drug Wegovy and similar medications known as GLP-1s. They’re a breakthrough for treating two of the most complex chronic health conditions. But with list prices stretching above $1,000 a month, the costs threaten to empty government coffers.

Food & Drink

Israeli Company Gets Green Light to Make World's First Cultivated Beef Steaks (Phys.org)

An Israeli company has received a preliminary green light from health officials to sell the world's first steaks made from cultivated beef cells, not the entire animal, officials said. The move follows approval of lab-grown chicken in the U.S. last year.

Travel

Bus Stations Across America Are Closing (WSJ🔒)

Intercity bus stations are closing throughout the country. At least eight cities have lost their stations so far, including Philadelphia, Ohio’s Columbus and Tampa, Fla. Passengers have had to wait on street corners and parking lots, causing tensions with local officials. Years of declining ridership and company missteps have dragged down the fortunes of Greyhound, a century-old icon of the American road. Its former owner sold its stations to raise cash. Many, in desirable downtown locations, are worth more as something else, such as apartments or entertainment centers.

Entertainment

Billy Joel to Release First Pop Single in Years (Billboard)

More than 30 years since Billy Joel released his last pop album, 1993’s River of Dreams, he’s putting out a new pop single, “Turn the Lights Back On.” Columbia Records, Joel’s longtime label home, will release the song on Feb. 1 to all digital service providers and on limited edition 7” vinyl. It will be accompanied by a lyric video on Joel’s YouTube channel.

Netflix is spending a lot less on content (Chartr)

Everything You Need to Know About Mickey Mouse's Public Domain Debut Today [1 Jan 2024] (Gizmodo)

Mickey Mouse is finally in the hands of the public, to do whatever they want with him. Well, in part. After Disney infamously helped delay the moment, today is the day Steamboat Willie, the first Disney animated short to star Mickey and Minnie Mouse, become public domain. But what does that mean? Simultaneously a lot and not much.

These Classic Characters Are Losing Copyright Protection. They May Never Be the Same. (NYT🔒)

In 2024, thousands of copyrighted works published in 1928 are entering the public domain, after their 95-year term expires. This means that those characters and stories can be remade — on the page, stage or screen — without permission. (Finally, I can make that Peter Pan musical where a middle-aged Peter laments unexplained back pains at the end of Act I.) The crème de la crème of this year’s public domain class are Mickey Mouse and, of course, Minnie, or at least black-and-white versions of our favorite squeaky rodents that appeared in “Steamboat Willie.” Disney is famously litigious, and this copyright covers only the original versions of the character. Tigger will also be liberated on Jan. 1 and could soon be reunited with Winnie the Pooh in the reborn character’s next slasher film. Yes, you read that right. In a preview of what could be awaiting other 95-year-old icons, the silly old bear became a sledgehammer-wielding monster in “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” The sequel is slated for February.

Full list here: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2024/

The Need for Speed: Why China and India Are Fast-Tracking Their Own Top Gun Remakes (The Guardian)

State of the art tech, exciting action sequences, swaggering young heroes … it’s no surprise that the world’s new superpowers have fallen for blockbuster air force films. But can they be anything more than military propaganda?

Sports

The Slippery Truth About Staying Warm on a Frigid NFL Field (WP🔒)

As an 11-year NFL veteran with 16 career postseason appearances, all but two of which took place in outdoor stadiums, San Francisco 49ers safety Logan Ryan has seen teammates try plenty of inventive methods to stay warm in wintertime games. For instance, Ryan, who won two Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots, recalled seeing Tom Brady don a “tight surfer’s suit that was waterproof and kept all the sweat in” underneath his No. 12 jersey. Ryan has also encountered numerous players who swear by wearing latex gloves under their football gloves so their hands stay extra toasty. “You’ve got to find ways to block heat from coming out while also staying lightweight,” Ryan added. But even proper clothing alone often fails to cut it under the chilliest, most blustery elements Mother Nature can muster. “That’s when the Vaseline comes in,” Ryan noted. “It’s really big for closing the pores and blocking the wind from cutting through you.” Though virtually synonymous with petroleum jelly as a brand, Vaseline doesn’t have a monopoly on preferred skin care methods in professional football. Among its biggest competition is Warm Skin, a Minneapolis-based outfit with two full-time employees that this season alone has shipped boxes of three-ounce tubes of its skin barrier creams — at a wholesale discount of $156.25 per box, or $6.25 per tube — to more than 10 NFL teams, vice president of sales Aaron Dworsky said. Contrary to what its name suggests, Warm Skin doesn’t work in the same way as pain relief balms such as Bengay or Icy Hot. Rather, the cream is comparable to a less greasy petroleum jelly, forming what Dworsky called an “invisible blanket” that limits passive water loss through the skin to help prevent irritation, wind burn or, worse, frostbite. “We tell all customers to apply generously to the feet, neck, hands, face — anything that’s exposed,” Dworsky said.

These Business Strategies Are Blowing Up The Indoor Pickleball Club Market (Forbes🔒)

We’re deep into the pickleball craze in the United States, with participation numbers continuing to swell and demand rising for courts nationwide. At the same time, we’re seeing opportunistic operators take over abandoned shopping malls and move into spaces once occupied by big-box stores that are falling on hard times. One of the biggest names in the pickleball-goes-to-the-mall trend is none other than the Major League Pickleball founder Steve Kuhn, with his appropriately named “Pickle mall” concept; he’s already making nationwide plans for construction. But Kuhn is by no means the only player in the market, and we’ve already seen dozens of indoor facilities open around the country. As more indoor facilities stake their claim, the industry is seeing a wide variety of approaches to the construction, configuration, and operations of these facilities. I spoke to a number of indoor facility operators around the country and found a wide variety of approaches, with each business bringing unique characteristics to the table.

For Fun

Need a Home for 80,000 Puzzles? Try an Italian Castle (NYT🔒)

Meet the Millers, George and Roxanne, proprietors of the world’s largest collection of mechanical puzzles: physical objects that a puzzler holds and manipulates while seeking a solution. In total, the Miller collection — an accumulation of collections, and collections of collections — amounts to more than 80,000 puzzles. It comprises some five thousand Rubik’s Cubes, including a 2-by-2-by-2 rendering of Darth Vader’s head. And there are more than 7,000 wooden burr puzzles, such as the interlocking, polyhedral creations by Stewart Coffin, a Massachusetts puzzle maker; they evoke a hybrid of a pine cone and a snowflake and are Mr. Miller’s favorites. Mrs. Miller is fond of their 140 brass, bronze and gold puzzle sculptures by the Spanish artist Miguel Berrocal; Goliath, a male torso in 79 pieces, is “a puzzle that all puzzlers lust after,” she said. Until recently, the Miller collection resided at Puzzle Palace in Boca Raton, Fla., filling their mansion and a museum (a smaller house) next door. Puzzles occupied even the bathrooms. Then last year, on a whim, the Millers bought a 15th-century, 52-room castle in Panicale, a hamlet in central Italy. They packed their puzzle collection into five 40-foot shipping containers and, for their own transit, booked a cruise from Miami to Rome.

How an Aerial Photographer Snapped the B-2 Flying Over the Rose Bowl (Air & Space Forces)

Besides the dramatic, 27-20 win for the University of Michigan football team, the 2024 Rose Bowl will be remembered forever for a stunning shot of an Air Force B-2 stealth bomber flying over 96,000 fans in Pasadena, Calif., during the pregame rendition of the ”Star-Spangled Banner” on New Year’s Day. But while the picture lasts forever, aerial photographer Mark Holtzman had just a few heartbeats to capture the bomber and the stadium at the perfect angle in one frame, all while flying at 100 miles per hour in one direction at about 4,500 feet as the B-2 flew about 200 miles per hour in the other at about 3,000 feet.

Have a great weekend!

The Curator

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Two resources to help you be a more discerning reader:

AllSides - https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news

Media Bias Chart - https://www.adfontesmedia.com/

Caveat: Even these resources/charts are biased. Who says that the system they use to describe news sources is accurate? Still, hopefully you find them useful as a basic guide or for comparison.