This week in the news | 14 May 24
News from the past week, and a few other things.
👋 Hello Reader, I hope you are having a great week. Been a busy one for me, so I’m a little late in getting this out (for last week).
Below you’ll find the “quick shot”—a supercharged summary of summaries, followed by the “slow brew”—longer summaries with select graphics, and comments from me.
THE QUICK SHOT 🚀
A supercharged summary of summaries
A lock icon (🔒) indicates articles behind a paywall, and a chart icon (📊) indicates an informative chart/graphic in “Slow Brew.”
World
Beware, global jihadists are back on the march (Economist🔒) 📊
North America
Activist Groups Trained Students for Months Before Campus Protests (WSJ🔒)
Exclusive poll: Most college students shrug at nationwide protests (Axios) 📊
California Beaches Are a New Gateway for Illegal Immigration (WSJ🔒) 📊
Biden blocks Chinese-backed crypto mining firm from land ownership near Wyoming missile base (AP)
Latin America
Europe
Macron Adds a Personal Touch to His Diplomacy With China (NYT🔒)
Catalan separatists lose majority as Spain's Socialists win regional elections (NPR)
Switzerland Wins Eurovision, as Protests Give Way to Spectacle (NYT🔒)
Middle East
Al Jazeera office raided as Israel takes channel off air (BBC)
US withholds weapons as Israel launches operation in Rafah (VOA)
In Rafah, Israel Reaches for a Knockout Punch That’s Proved Elusive (WSJ🔒) 📊
Netanyahu vows to defeat Hamas in Rafah despite US arms threat (BBC)
World’s Biggest Construction Project Gets a Reality Check (WSJ🔒) 📊
Asia-Pacific
Putin begins his fifth term as president, more in control of Russia than ever (VOA)
Vladimir Putin removes Sergei Shoigu from Russian defence ministry (BBC)
China’s Billions Help Xi Make Useful Friends in Eastern Europe (Bloomberg🔒)
A Ragtag Resistance Sees the Tide Turning in a Forgotten War (NYT🔒) 📊
Space
Government
Economy
Stubbornly High Rents Prevent Fed From Finishing Inflation Fight (WSJ🔒) 📊
US Manufacturing Constuction Spending (Twitter) 📊
America’s War Machine Runs on Rare-Earth Magnets. China Owns That Market. (WSJ🔒)
Business
Energy
Auto
Real Estate
Personal Finance
Social Security Funds Are Running Dry. Don’t Panic. (WSJ🔒) 📊
Pandemic Savings Are Gone: What’s Next for U.S. Consumers? (SF Fed) 📊
This Company Wants You To Rent Your Credit History (Forbes🔒) 📊
Technology
Life
Suddenly There Aren’t Enough Babies. The Whole World Is Alarmed. (WSJ🔒) 📊
The Secret to Lasting Romance? Doing New Things Together (WSJ🔒)
Boy Scouts of America to officially change name to Scouting America in 2025 (VOA)
Miss USA Resigned Citing Mental Health. Days Later, Miss Teen USA Stepped Down, Too. (WSJ🔒)
How Motherhood Liberated Me (The Free Press)
Education
MIT becomes first elite university to ban diversity statements (UnHerd)
Resident Physicians’ Exam Scores Tied to Patient Survival (Harvard Medical School)
Schools in One Virginia County to Reinstate Confederate Names (NYT🔒)
They Entered College in Isolation and Leave Among Protests: The Class That Missed Out on Fun (WSJ🔒)
Health
Hilary Cass Says U.S. Doctors Are ‘Out of Date’ on Youth Gender Medicine (NYT🔒)
Canada Re-Criminalizes Public Drug Use in British Columbia (NYT🔒)
The Quest for Treatments to Keep Weight Off After Ozempic (WSJ🔒)
Ozempic: Magic Pill or Devil’s Bargain? (The Free Press)
Patient Dies Weeks After Kidney Transplant From Genetically Modified Pig (NYT🔒)
Food & Drink
Nature
Entertainment
'The Office' spinoff announced: Details on plot and cast revealed (ABC News)
Nintendo to announce Switch successor in this fiscal year as profits rise (AP)
Disney, Hulu and Max Streaming Bundle Will Soon Become Available (NYT🔒)
Sports
For Fun
As D&D booms, ‘Critical Role’ makes its own kind of nerd celebrity (WP🔒)
The school from ‘Footloose’ lobbied Kevin Bacon to visit. He delivered. (WP🔒) 📊
Swiss Army Knife Now Available Without the Knife (Bloomberg🔒)
THE SLOW BREW ☕
A more relaxed approach to the summaries.
World
Beware, global jihadists are back on the march (Economist🔒) 📊
The jihadist movement is dispersed and fluid. Some factions focus on fighting the “near enemy”, ie, local governments, and seizing control of territories. Others are again turning towards the “far enemy”, the West. Western intelligence agencies thus have a daunting task, tracking a mosaic of jihadists abroad while trying to spot self-starting ones at home. They must also watch far-right terrorists, usually self-radicalised, who both hate Muslims and often learn from jihadist manuals. And they must monitor an older threat: terrorism sponsored by radical states such as Iran. Ultimately jihadism reflects the profound problems of the greater Middle East. The West lacks the power to fix them, and has often made them worse. Part of the answer lies in close intelligence co-operation. America warned Russia of the looming attack in Moscow, a sign of its central role in global counter-terrorism. The strike on Zawahiri, moreover, showed America’s ability to hit terrorists “over the horizon”. But funds and personnel have been shifted to other priorities, such as confronting the threats from Russia and China. The West may have hoped to end the war on terrorism. But the terrorists are still fighting.
North America
Activist Groups Trained Students for Months Before Campus Protests (WSJ🔒)
The recent wave of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses came on suddenly and shocked people across the nation. But the political tactics underlying some of the demonstrations were the result of months of training, planning and encouragement by longtime activists and left-wing groups. At Columbia University, in the weeks and months before police took down encampments at the New York City campus and removed demonstrators occupying an academic building, student organizers began consulting with groups such as the National Students for Justice in Palestine, veterans of campus protests and former Black Panthers. They researched past protests over Columbia’s expansion into Harlem, went to a community meeting on gentrification and development and studied parallels with the fight over land between Palestinians and Israelis. They attended a “teach-in” put on by several former Black Panthers, who told them about the importance of handling internal disputes within their movement. “We took notes from our elders, engaged in dialogue with them and analyzed how the university responded to previous protests,” said Sueda Polat, a graduate student and organizer in the pro-Palestinian encampment.
Exclusive poll: Most college students shrug at nationwide protests (Axios) 📊
College protests against Israel's war in Gaza are dominating headlines. But only a sliver of students are participating or view it as a top issue, according to a new Generation Lab survey shared exclusively with Axios.
California Beaches Are a New Gateway for Illegal Immigration (WSJ🔒) 📊
The number of times migrants illegally entered or attempted to enter California by boat has more than doubled from 308 in the federal fiscal year that ended in September of 2020 to 736 in the same period last year, according to Customs and Border Protection. While most arrive around San Diego, they have ventured as far as Santa Barbara County, north of Los Angeles. The migrant boat landings are adding to an already chaotic situation around San Diego, which has recently become the most active stretch along the border for illegal migration. Federal agents there have made more than 220,000 arrests since Oct. 1, putting this fiscal year on track to be the busiest in decades. The crush of arriving migrants, mostly asylum seekers, has far exceeded capacity at Border Patrol stations, prompting authorities to release more than 100,000 people since October. Most are dropped off at public transit stations in the city with orders to report back to immigration court at a later date.
Biden blocks Chinese-backed crypto mining firm from land ownership near Wyoming missile base (AP)
President Joe Biden on Monday issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base, calling its proximity to the base a “national security risk.” The order forces the divestment of property operated as a crypto mining facility near the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. MineOne Partners Ltd., a firm partly backed by Chinese nationals, and its affiliates are also required to remove certain equipment on the site. This comes as the U.S. is slated on Tuesday to issue major new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plan. And with election season in full swing, both Biden and his presumptive Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, have told voters that they’ll be tough on China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States and an emerging geopolitical rival.
Latin America
How 360,000 Haitians Wound Up Living in Empty Lots and Crowded Schools (NYT🔒)
At least 360,000 people — more than half of them in the capital or surrounding neighborhoods — have fled their homes in Haiti over the past year, and that number of internally displaced people is expected in the coming months to surpass 400,000, according to the U.N.’s International Office for Migration. Hundreds are unaccompanied children, including orphans and others separated from their parents in the chaos. As hurricane season nears, humanitarian groups and Haiti’s disaster response office are racing to figure out how to address the swelling crowds living in improvised shelters in a capital overrun by gangs with a barely functioning national government. About 90,000 people are living in those sites, and roughly the same number deserted Port-au-Prince in March, according to the United Nations and aid groups, many for other parts of Haiti, an exodus straining safer cities ill-prepared for an increased demand on water, food and schools.
Europe
Macron Adds a Personal Touch to His Diplomacy With China (NYT🔒)
Over two days of talks, Mr. Xi has smiled a lot but offered little, particularly on European requests that he help end the war in Ukraine. With a succession of leaders, including Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Donald J. Trump, the former American president, Mr. Macron has demonstrated his belief in his powers of seduction, only to be rebuffed or ignored. French officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with diplomatic practice, said Mr. Macron had forged a unique, close relationship with Mr. Xi since they first met as presidents six years ago, offering him a conduit into the intimate thinking of the Chinese leader that no other Western power has. They pointed to a joint Sino-French statement on the Middle East, issued Monday, condemning all forms of terrorism, including the Hamas attack on Israel of Oct. 7, as evidence of the importance of this bond at a time of great global instability.
Catalan separatists lose majority as Spain's Socialists win regional elections (NPR)
Six years after plunging Spain into its worst political crisis in decades, Catalonia's separatist parties are in danger of losing their hold on power in the northeastern region after the pro-union Socialist Party scored a historic result in Sunday's election. The four pro-independence parties, led by the Together party of former regional president Carles Puigdemont, were set to get a total of 61 seats, according to a near-complete count of the ballots. That is short of the key figure of 68 seats needed for a majority in the chamber. The Socialists led by former health minister Salvador Illa savored their best result in a Catalan election, claiming 42 seats, up from 33 in 2021, when they also barely won the most votes but were unable to form a government. This was the first time the Socialists led a Catalan election in both votes and seats won.
Switzerland Wins Eurovision, as Protests Give Way to Spectacle (NYT🔒)
The run-up to this Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest final in Malmo, Sweden, was unusually tense and anguished, with months of protests over Israel’s involvement in the competition, a contestant suspended just hours before the show began and confrontations between the police and pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the arena on the night. But when the final began, the uproar swiftly disappeared. Instead of protests and outrage, there was the usual high-camp spectacle, featuring singers emoting about lost loves, near-naked dancers and, at one point, a performer climbing out of a giant egg.
Middle East
Al Jazeera office raided as Israel takes channel off air (BBC)
Israel's government has moved to shut down the operations of the Al Jazeera television network in the country, branding it a mouthpiece for Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cabinet agreed to the closure while the war in Gaza is ongoing. Police raided the Qatari broadcaster's office at the Ambassador hotel in Jerusalem on Sunday. Al Jazeera called claims it was a threat to Israeli security a "dangerous and ridiculous lie". The channel said it reserved the right to "pursue every legal step".
US withholds weapons as Israel launches operation in Rafah (VOA)
For the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Biden administration has paused the shipment of weapons to Israel amid mounting concern over its plan to expand a military operation in Rafah that the United States does not support. The decision follows discussions with Israel on how it will “operate differently against Hamas there than they have elsewhere in Gaza,” a senior administration official said in a statement sent to VOA. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. A ground assault on Rafah, in the southern part of Gaza, would endanger the lives of 1.3 million civilians who evacuated from the north and central parts of the territory to seek safety from Israel’s military response to Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel. Administration officials have repeatedly said the U.S. will not support a Rafah invasion unless Israel provides a credible plan on how it would protect civilians.
In Rafah, Israel Reaches for a Knockout Punch That’s Proved Elusive (WSJ🔒) 📊
Israeli troops pressed further into Rafah on Sunday but also engaged in fierce fighting in previously cleared areas around Gaza City, showing the difficulty of winning a decisive victory over Hamas as a guerrilla force. More than 300,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah as the Israeli military expanded what it calls a targeted operation in the Gaza Strip’s border city with Egypt. The worsening humanitarian crisis there heightens Israel’s dilemma: The U.S. has warned against a full-scale assault on Rafah, packed with over a million civilians, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas’s last fighting formations there must be defeated to “achieve total victory.”
Netanyahu vows to defeat Hamas in Rafah despite US arms threat (BBC)
Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Israel can "stand alone", after the US warned arms shipments could be stopped if he orders a full-scale invasion of Rafah in Gaza. Thousands of people have already fled the southern city after the Israeli military began what it called a "limited" operation on Monday. US President Joe Biden has repeatedly warned against the operation, saying that it would cross a "red line". But Mr Netanyahu dismissed the US warning, saying Israel would fight on. "If we need to ... we will stand alone. I have said that if necessary we will fight with our fingernails," the prime minister said.
World’s Biggest Construction Project Gets a Reality Check (WSJ🔒) 📊
Defying skeptics, Saudi Arabia is barreling ahead with hundreds of billions of dollars in projects at Neom, a built-from-scratch region the size of Massachusetts, typified by sci-fi architecture, an arid ski resort and a laundry list of flashy projects meant to attract a population larger than New York City’s. None is more brazen than a multitrillion-dollar pair of skyscrapers taller than the Empire State Building designed to run 105 miles long and house nine million people, the flagship development dubbed “The Line.” Its champion, Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, has likened the project to Egypt’s Great Pyramids. The kingdom in recent months downsized the Line’s first phase, facing the reality of costs at a time the country is spending far more than it is taking in. Now organizers plan to initially build around 1.5 miles of the structure by 2030, rather than the roughly 10-mile first chunk that had previously been envisioned, multiple people briefed on the plans said. Still, even that truncated section would be by far the world’s largest building, the equivalent of more than 60 Empire State Buildings of square footage. Even for one of the world’s largest exporters of crude oil, Neom might just be too expensive. Its official cost estimate is $500 billion, 50% more than the country’s entire federal budget for the year and more than half the value of its sovereign-wealth fund.
Asia-Pacific
US Army sergeant arrested in Russia accused of theft (BBC)
A US Army soldier stationed in South Korea has been detained in Russia, the US military says. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the charges were not related to "politics or espionage" but to a "purely domestic crime". Staff Sgt Gordon Black is accused of stealing from a woman, reports the BBC's US partner CBS. He was not on official travel when he was held on 2 May in the city of Vladivostok, in Russia's Far East. According to Russian media, Sgt Black was visiting a woman with whom he had a romantic relationship. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the US is "aware of this case and other matters related to Russia". At the White House briefing on Monday, Mr Kirby said he could not provide more details.
Putin begins his fifth term as president, more in control of Russia than ever (VOA)
Vladimir Putin began his fifth term Tuesday as Russian leader at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, setting out on another six years in office after destroying his political opponents, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and concentrating all power in his hands. Already in office for nearly a quarter-century and the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin, Putin’s new term doesn’t expire until 2030, when he will be constitutionally eligible to run again. At the ceremony inside the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin placed his hand on the Russian Constitution and vowed to defend it as a crowd of hand-picked dignitaries looked on. Since succeeding President Boris Yeltsin in the waning hours of 1999, Putin has transformed Russia from a country emerging from economic collapse to a pariah state that threatens global security. At the start of a new term, the Russian government is routinely dissolved so that Putin can name a new prime minister and Cabinet. One key area to watch is the Defense Ministry.
Vladimir Putin removes Sergei Shoigu from Russian defence ministry (BBC)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has removed his long-standing ally Sergei Shoigu as defence minister, the Kremlin has announced. The 68-year-old has been in the role since 2012 and is to be appointed secretary of Russia's Security Council. Papers published by the upper chamber of the Russian parliament said Mr Shoigu will be replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov. The Kremlin said the defence ministry needed to stay "innovative". Russian government papers show Mr Putin wants Mr Shoigu to take over from Nikolai Patrushev on the powerful security council. It is not yet clear what Mr Patrushev's new post will be.
China’s Billions Help Xi Make Useful Friends in Eastern Europe (Bloomberg🔒)
The Belgrade-Budapest rail link will unite the capitals of two countries that have tightened their embrace of China and provided it with a backdoor to a continent that’s torn over its dealings with the world’s second-largest economy. From car battery plants in Hungary to copper mining in Serbia, direct Chinese investment in the two countries exceeds $15 billion with more coming. The new high-speed railway will be highlighted by President Xi Jinping during a trip to Europe this week, where he will stop in Belgrade and Budapest after Paris. The relationship is based on money — loans, investment, trade — politics, and even health. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says he wants to take his nation into the European Union, though has maintained his country’s east-west balancing act with China and Russia. Both countries back Belgrade’s stance to not recognize Kosovo’s independence. Dropping opposition to Kosovo’s statehood is a condition of EU membership for Serbia.
A Ragtag Resistance Sees the Tide Turning in a Forgotten War (NYT🔒) 📊
Since the junta in Myanmar staged its coup in February 2021, ending a brief period of democratic reform and training its guns once again on peaceful protesters, much of the country has turned against the military. A new generation, which came of age during the civilian administration of the Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has taken to arms, joining rebels who have opposed military dictatorship for decades. The world’s gaze has remained focused on other conflicts on other continents — to the consternation of many in Myanmar who wonder why the chaos and death here brings little global outcry. Now, after three years of desperate resistance, the battle lines are changing fast. The rebels have overrun scores of military bases and taken over dozens of towns. The tempo of victory has quickened in recent days, and anti-junta forces now claim to control more than half of Myanmar’s territory, from lowland jungles to the foothills of the Himalayas.
NOTE: Fascinating read.
Space
Launch for Boeing Starliner's first crewed ride into space has been scrubbed (NPR)
After a series of troubled test flights and ongoing problems with its commercial aviation wing, Boeing will have to wait a little longer before it can fly people for the first time on its Starliner capsule. Monday's launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., was called off ahead of its planned 10:34 p.m. EST launch because of a faulty oxygen relief valve, according to NASA. Boeing says its next opportunity to launch its "Crew Flight Test" mission is on Tuesday at 10:11 p.m. EST. The latest test flight comes roughly a decade after NASA awarded Boeing a more than $4 billion contract as part of the agency's effort to pay private companies to help ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. Boeing's Starliner program has been plagued with delays and design problems for several years. The Starliner failed to reach the I.S.S. during its first mission in 2019 after its onboard clock, which was set incorrectly, caused a computer to fire the capsule's engines too early. The spacecraft successfully docked with the I.S.S. during its second test flight in 2022, despite the failure of some thrusters during the launch.
Government
Marjorie Taylor Greene fails to remove House Speaker (BBC)
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has failed in her effort to remove Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House of Representatives. She had demanded Mr Johnson be kicked out due to his support for a $61bn aid package for Ukraine. However, Democrats joined Republicans in a 359-43 vote to kill her motion. Ms Greene's speech on the House floor was met by loud boos from other members of the chamber. Shortly after the vote on her motion, Mr Johnson said he hoped this would end "the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress". "I'm glad that this distraction is not going to inhibit that important work and all the other things that are on the table and on the agenda for us right now," he said.
Barron Trump Is Picked to Be Delegate at the Republican Convention (NYT🔒)
After years in which his privacy has been fiercely guarded and he has been kept out of the political arena, former President Donald J. Trump’s youngest son, Barron, was chosen to be one of Florida’s delegates to the Republican National Convention. Barron, who turned 18 earlier this year and will graduate high school this month, will be one of 41 at-large delegates at the party’s national meeting in July, when the G.O.P. is expected to officially nominate his father as the Republican presidential candidate. His selection was reported earlier by NBC News. The youngest Trump will be joined in the delegation by his two more politically active brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom have appeared on the campaign trail or done interviews to support their father’s candidacy. Mr. Trump’s younger daughter, Tiffany, will also be a Florida delegate. Ivanka Trump, his eldest child, was not on the list.
Economy
Stubbornly High Rents Prevent Fed From Finishing Inflation Fight (WSJ🔒) 📊
Stalled inflation this year hasn’t derailed the Federal Reserve’s plans to eventually cut interest rates. That’s because it expects a slowdown in housing costs to eventually drag inflation close to its 2% target. The problem: It has been waiting for that slowdown for 1½ years now, and it still hasn’t arrived. The slowdown might simply be delayed. But some analysts worry it’s not going to happen because of changing dynamics in the housing market. If so, that would significantly weaken the case for lower rates. Housing has played a large role in the inflation of recent years because its cost rose so much and carries such large weight. It is one-third of the consumer-price index and around one-sixth of the price index of personal-consumption expenditures, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure. It is also, in theory, predictable. Government statisticians don’t use home prices to calculate inflation because a home is partly an investment. Instead, they use monthly rents to capture what tenants pay to rent a house or apartment, and what a homeowner would in theory pay to rent her own home.
US Manufacturing Constuction Spending (Twitter) 📊
American manufacturing construction inched up to another record high in March, driven mostly by continued growth in spending on new semiconductor fabricators in the wake of the CHIPS Act
America’s War Machine Runs on Rare-Earth Magnets. China Owns That Market. (WSJ🔒)
The American war machine depends on tiny bits of metal, some as small as dimes. Rare-earth magnets are needed for F-35 jet fighters, missile-guidance systems, Predator drones and nuclear submarines. The problem: China makes most of the world’s rare-earth magnets, with 92% of the global market share. Now, Washington is doling out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and tax credits to revive magnet-making in America. Defense manufacturers are on a clock. A U.S. law in 2018 restricted the use of made-in-China magnets in American military equipment, shriveling the list of potential suppliers to a small number in Japan and the West. By 2027, the curbs will extend to magnets made anywhere that contain materials mined or processed in China, covering nearly all of the current global supply.
Business
How Online Shopping Is Saving the Bricks-and-Mortar Store (WSJ🔒)
Store owners once viewed e-commerce as a mounting threat to their survival. Now, more bricks-and-mortar stores are thriving after integrating their properties with the online shopping experience. Shoppers browse in person to see, touch or try on items before ordering them online. They are picking up or returning purchases in stores. And retailers are increasingly relying on their shops as fulfillment hubs, shipping items ordered online from store stockrooms in addition to warehouses. Overall, nearly 42% of e-commerce orders last year involved stores, up from about 27% in 2015, according to research firm GlobalData.
Energy
Chinese companies win bids to explore Iraq for oil, gas (VOA)
Chinese companies won four bids to explore Iraqi oil and gas fields, Iraq's oil minister said Sunday as the Middle Eastern country's hydrocarbon exploration licensing round continued into its second day. The oil and gas licenses for 29 projects are mainly aimed at ramping up output for domestic use, with more than 20 companies pre-qualifying, including European, Chinese, Arab and Iraqi groups. Chinese companies have been the only foreign players to win bids, taking nine oil and gas fields since Saturday, while Iraqi Kurdish company KAR Group took two. There were notably no U.S. oil majors involved, even after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia met representatives of U.S. companies on an official visit to the United States last month.
Auto
Biden to Quadruple Tariffs on Chinese EVs (WSJ🔒)
The Biden administration is preparing to raise tariffs on clean-energy goods from China in the coming days, with the levy on Chinese electric vehicles set to roughly quadruple, according to people familiar with the matter. Higher tariffs, which Biden administration officials are preparing to announce on Tuesday, will also hit critical minerals, solar goods and batteries sourced from China, according to the people.
Real Estate
As Insurers Around the U.S. Bleed Cash From Climate Shocks, Homeowners Lose (NYT🔒) 📊
In 2023, insurers lost money on homeowners coverage in 18 states, more than a third of the country, according to a New York Times analysis of newly available financial data. That’s up from 12 states five years ago, and eight states in 2013. The result is that insurance companies are raising premiums by as much as 50 percent or more, cutting back on coverage or leaving entire states altogether. Nationally, over the last decade, insurers paid out more in claims than they received in premiums, according to the ratings firm Moody’s, and those losses are increasing. Insurers are still turning a profit from other lines of business, like commercial and life insurance policies. But many are dropping homeowners coverage because of losses.
Personal Finance
Social Security Funds Are Running Dry. Don’t Panic. (WSJ🔒) 📊
Social Security’s finances are in dire straits. An aging population is pushing up the cost of the program as a smaller share of Americans directly pay into it. That imbalance means that Social Security could become unable to provide full retirement and disability benefits to Americans in 2035, the program’s trustees warned on Monday. At that point, without congressional action, elderly and disabled Americans who rely on Social Security could see their payments cut by 17%. Congress could avoid the crisis by raising payroll taxes, trimming benefits or some combination of the two. Those options carry extreme political risks, though, and policymakers have put off embracing an overhaul of the program. But they may not have to. The U.S. government will still likely be able to afford to pay full benefits to retired and disabled Americans in 2035. Whether it does so will in some ways be an accounting decision for lawmakers who control how money is classified within the government—and whether they want to tackle tough questions about federal spending or sidestep the politically radioactive debate.
Pandemic Savings Are Gone: What’s Next for U.S. Consumers? (SF Fed) 📊
The latest estimates of overall pandemic excess savings remaining in the U.S. economy have turned negative, suggesting that American households fully spent their pandemic-era savings as of March 2024. However, consumer spending has remained strong in recent months, which raises an important question: What’s next? Excess savings were built up over a period of 18 months, from the onset of the pandemic recession in March 2020 until August 2021. The rapid accumulation was largely due to pandemic-related financial support to U.S. households and a steep decline in consumer spending as a result of health-related social distancing and business closures.
This Company Wants You To Rent Your Credit History (Forbes🔒) 📊
When a woman who once bore the title “Financial Applications Product Owner II” at an insurance company, starts a TikTok with “this is the sketchiest thing I’m doing to make extra money,” you might think she’s playing it up for drama. But Amber Smith, a 27-year-old from Des Moines, Iowa with an MBA, is dead serious. She’s swapped insurance for the influencer business (focusing her content on reselling clothes), and she’s been picking up $40 here and there with a scheme that sounds pretty shady. “I’ve started selling tradelines on my credit cards,” Smith says in the video that has since garnered millions of views across the social mediasphere. “Essentially what this is, is if a person has bad credit, but they know that they need to get a mortgage or a car loan or something, they pay money to this website,” she says, referring to Tradeline Supply Company, a San Diego based broker. “This website matches them up with me based on what they’re looking for and I add them as an authorized user to my credit card.” A tradeline, for the uninitiated, is what the credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) call each credit card account listed on an individual’s credit history report. Algorithms turn the information in credit reports into a credit score–most often a FICO score ranging from 300 to 850. Incredibly, individuals like Smith with strong credit histories, can make money by adding total strangers as authorized users on their credit cards. These buyers don’t actually gain access to the card; instead, they get a tradeline, paying for the benefit of the card’s favorable characteristics—its long account history, high credit limits and impeccable on-time payment record—to appear on their own credit reports. The richer the card’s history and the larger its credit line, the higher the fee it commands. After a few months, the seller removes the buyer from the card and opens up the spot for the next customer to piggyback off their sterling credit profile.
Technology
America’s Biggest Mall Owner Is Sharing AI Surveillance Feeds Directly With Cops (Forbes🔒)
Malls are heavily surveilled places, with visitors watched by CCTV cameras and security guards on the look out for shoplifters. Simon Property, America's biggest mall owner and a $50 billion retail giant, has chosen to take that surveillance a step further: it's using AI-powered cameras to send footage of visitors' cars directly to local police, according to emails Forbes obtained via public records requests. The emails reveal a previously undisclosed agreement between Simon Property and Flock Safety, a $4 billion car surveillance company backed by Andreessen Horowitz that works with police departments in over 4,000 cities across the country. Simon is a “customer nationwide” and had “recently made the decision to limit access to their individual properties and instead share directly with law enforcement,” according to a July 2023 email between a Flock employee and one of its customers, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. In other words, it appears that Simon is cutting back on providing access to malls’ internal security staff in favor of handing over its video feeds to local cops. The company owns more than 150 shopping centers across 37 states, along with stakes in major retail brands like Forever 21 and J.C. Penney's.
Life
Suddenly There Aren’t Enough Babies. The Whole World Is Alarmed. (WSJ🔒) 📊
The world is at a startling demographic milestone. Sometime soon, the global fertility rate will drop below the point needed to keep population constant. It may have already happened. Fertility is falling almost everywhere, for women across all levels of income, education and labor-force participation. The falling birthrates come with huge implications for the way people live, how economies grow and the standings of the world’s superpowers.
The Secret to Lasting Romance? Doing New Things Together (WSJ🔒)
In the U.S., 13% of all first marriages end within five years and around 30% end within 20 years, according to census data. It’s one thing to fall in love but quite another to maintain it. Is there a secret to contented monogamy? According to a growing body of research, the answer isn’t to buy flowers or make a restaurant reservation (though these things never hurt). Instead, we need to make sure that our relationships are still encouraging us to learn, grow and become better versions of ourselves. Essentially, our strongest bonds broaden our sense of what is possible—a phenomenon psychologists call “self-expansion.”
Boy Scouts of America to officially change name to Scouting America in 2025 (VOA)
The Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday it will change its name to Scouting America as it struggles to recover from a sexual abuse scandal involving its adult scout leaders. The organization said the change will take effect on Feb. 8, 2025, the 115th anniversary of its founding. The BSA describes itself as "the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training," with its mission “to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes.” The name change is the latest effort by the BSA to brand itself as a more inclusive organization after years of declining membership. The group began allowing girls to join the Cub Scouts, its program for children ages 7 to 10 years old, in 2018. The next year it opened its flagship Boy Scout program to older girls and changed its name to Scouts BSA.
Miss USA Resigned Citing Mental Health. Days Later, Miss Teen USA Stepped Down, Too. (WSJ🔒)
The reigning Miss USA and Miss Teen USA resigned from the embattled pageant organization days apart from each other, citing mental health reasons and differences in personal values. Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava said on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, that they renounced their crowns. Miss USA’s social-media director, Claudia Michelle, resigned last week, saying she disavowed workplace toxicity and bullying. She also said Voigt and Srivastava weren’t allowed to share certain posts on social media. Michelle said on Instagram that Voigt and Srivastava’s mental health and happiness took a toll under the Miss USA organization, which has had a rocky few years. Its parent company filed for bankruptcy last year.
How Motherhood Liberated Me (The Free Press)
‘My daughter doesn’t care if I’m exceptional. She just cares that I am hers.’ My daughter was born as birth rates in this country hit a record low. And I sometimes worry that some of my peers who are delaying, or forgoing, motherhood do so because they can’t reject the demands of the market, of our meritocracy. I couldn’t either, until my baby smiled at me. In the weeks after her birth, as I pumped and nursed at all hours of the night, I rewatched Lena Dunham’s Girls, which is currently experiencing a streaming revival among my peers. “I think I might be the voice of my generation,” Hannah Horvath declares to her parents in the first episode. Desperate to be an extraordinary writer, she spends her twenties chasing exciting experiences as fodder for her writing. But when the series concludes, we see Hannah living in a small house in the Hudson Valley, wanting nothing more than to nurse her infant son successfully. Hannah Horvath does, actually, represent our generation—though perhaps not in the way she would have liked. Her story is typical. When we are young, we believe ourselves to be outstanding. But very few of us actually are; the rest of us are mostly delusional. Motherhood isn’t the only path to accepting this, but for me, it was my daughter’s love that freed me from my delusions of grandeur. It liberated me from the tyranny of trying to prove myself. Since her birth, I feel calmer and more secure. I have a sense of security I haven’t felt since I was a young child, living with parents who unconditionally loved me. Now, I care less about what other people think of me, and my ambitions are healthier. Whatever I was chasing before—and it really varied from moment to moment based on my social settings—seems to have evaporated. I don’t need to be chosen anymore, because I belong.
Education
MIT becomes first elite university to ban diversity statements (UnHerd)
In what’s likely to be a watershed moment, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has ended the use of diversity statements for faculty hiring, making it the first elite private university to backtrack on the practice that has been roundly criticised as a political litmus test. On Saturday, an MIT spokesperson confirmed in an email to me that “requests for a statement on diversity will no longer be part of applications for any faculty positions at MIT”, adding that the decision was made by embattled MIT President Sally Kornbluth “with the support of the Provost, Chancellor, and all six academic deans”. The decision marks an inflection point in the battle over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education. Since at least the late 2010s, diversity statements have been ubiquitous in faculty hiring, sometimes carrying serious weight in the selection process.
Resident Physicians’ Exam Scores Tied to Patient Survival (Harvard Medical School)
A new study, published May 6 in JAMA, found that internal medicine patients of newly trained physicians with top scores on the board certification exam — a comprehensive test usually taken after a physician completes residency training — had lower risk of dying within seven days of hospital admission or of being readmitted to the hospital. The analysis was led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the body that developed and regularly updates the exam that qualifies a physician as an internal medicine specialist. Some of the study authors, including lead author Bradley Gray, are employed by ABIM. The findings, the team said, provide reassurance that the board exams in internal medicine are reflective of future physician performance on critical indicators of patient care and outcomes.
Schools in One Virginia County to Reinstate Confederate Names (NYT🔒)
After a meeting that lasted for hours, the Shenandoah County school board voted early Friday morning to restore the names of three Confederate officers to schools in the district. With the vote, the district appears to be the first in the country to return Confederate names to schools that had removed them after the summer of 2020, according to researchers at the Montgomery, Ala.-based Equal Justice Initiative. The vote rolled back a decision made four years ago, when the killing of George Floyd prompted nationwide demands for a racial reckoning. At a virtual meeting in July 2020, the summer of pandemic and protests, the board voted 5-1 to drop the names of two schools — Ashby-Lee Elementary and Stonewall Jackson High — that it deemed incompatible with a recently passed resolution condemning racism. The schools were renamed the next year as Honey Run and Mountain View.
They Entered College in Isolation and Leave Among Protests: The Class That Missed Out on Fun (WSJ🔒)
Columbia’s class of 2024 missed high school graduations and university orientation. Their freshman year passed in a haze of masks, Zoom classes and isolation. Four years later, not much has changed. Thanks to the Gaza protests, crowds are again being dispersed, classes have gone remote and students are wearing masks—this time to hide their identities at demonstrations. Graduation ceremonies might be canceled. “We’ve never had a calm time when we can just focus on being kids,” said Tejasri Vijayakumar, a senior and student body president of Columbia College at Columbia University. “You talk to people in generations above us about college and they said you could just gather in spaces and do whatever you want and no one would stop you, that’s not really true anymore.” The political polarization on college campuses across the country this spring bookends a four-year span defined by anxiety.
Jerry Seinfeld | Duke's 2024 Commencement Address (YouTube)
Jerry Seinfeld, award-winning comedian, actor, producer and author, delivered the commencement address during Duke's 2024 university-wide commencement ceremony in Wallace Wade Stadium on May 12, 2024. Seinfeld urged graduates to remember to laugh and navigate life with humor. "All of you here, without question, are the best of the best. Just don't lose your humor. It’s not an accessory. It's your Stanley Cup water bottle on the brutal, long hike of life," said Seinfeld.
NOTE: Spot on!
Health
Hilary Cass Says U.S. Doctors Are ‘Out of Date’ on Youth Gender Medicine (NYT🔒)
After 30 years as one of England’s top pediatricians, Dr. Hilary Cass was hoping to begin her retirement by learning to play the saxophone. Instead, she took on a project that would throw her into an international fire: reviewing England’s treatment guidelines for the rapidly rising number of children with gender distress, known as dysphoria. Dr. Cass commissioned systematic reviews of scientific studies on youth gender treatments and international guidelines of care. She also met with young patients and their families, transgender adults, people who had detransitioned, advocacy groups and clinicians. Her final report, published last month, concluded that the evidence supporting the use of puberty-blocking drugs and other hormonal medications in adolescents was “remarkably weak.” On her recommendation, the N.H.S. will no longer prescribe puberty blockers outside of clinical trials. Dr. Cass also recommended that testosterone and estrogen, which allow young people to develop the physical characteristics of the opposite sex, be prescribed with “extreme caution.” Dr. Cass’s findings are in line with several European countries that have limited the treatments after scientific reviews. But in America, where nearly two dozen states have banned the care outright, medical groups have endorsed the treatments as evidence-based and necessary.
Canada Re-Criminalizes Public Drug Use in British Columbia (NYT🔒)
The government of Canada on Tuesday walked back part of a program allowing people in British Columbia to possess small amounts of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, without fear of criminal charges. At the request of the province and after a public backlash, people in British Columbia are no longer permitted to use drugs in public places. Under the changes, which went into effect immediately, adults will still be allowed to possess small amounts of drugs. But they will now have to use them in legal residences, at safe injection sites and at other harm-reduction centers established by the health authorities.
The Quest for Treatments to Keep Weight Off After Ozempic (WSJ🔒)
Researchers including the team at Columbia and drugmakers are trying to solve the biggest problem in the weight-loss industry today: how to keep weight off once you lose it. Hundreds of thousands of people have shed tons of weight on blockbuster drugs including Ozempic and Wegovy. But many put the pounds back on when they stop taking the medications. Drugs or procedures to keep weight off could fuel an even bigger bonanza than Ozempic and its immensely profitable cousins. Losing weight is temporary, but maintaining it is lifelong. Maintaining weight is also a different challenge from losing it. Makers of the weight-loss juggernauts have a big problem to overcome: Many people stop taking so-called GLP-1 drugs. Their insurers won’t pay for the drugs, they can’t tolerate side effects, or they don’t want to take medication long term. Only 14% of people surveyed in 2023 by KFF, the health-policy research organization, were interested in taking a weight-loss drug once they were told they might gain weight back if they stopped.
Ozempic: Magic Pill or Devil’s Bargain? (The Free Press)
Just a few years ago no one had even heard the word Ozempic. Almost overnight, the drug previously used to treat type 2 diabetes became a household name. By the end of the decade, 30 million people are predicted to be on it. For comparison, that means that Ozempic is on track to do as well as birth control pills and Prozac—a blockbuster medication. A little over a year ago we had a fiery debate on Honestly about these revolutionary weight-loss drugs and our cultural understanding of obesity. On one side of the debate, people saw Ozempic as the golden answer we’ve been searching for. After all, obesity is the second biggest cause of cancer. On the other hand was another argument: Why are we putting millions of people on a powerful new drug when we don’t know the risks? Plus, doesn’t this solution ignore why we gained so much weight in the first place? A year later, all of those questions are still up for debate. Our latest guest on Honestly, journalist Johann Hari, has spent the last year trying to find answers, traveling the world investigating weight-loss drugs and. . . taking them himself.
Are We Talking Too Much About Mental Health? (NYT🔒)
In recent years, mental health has become a central subject in childhood and adolescence. Teenagers narrate their psychiatric diagnosis and treatment on TikTok and Instagram. School systems, alarmed by rising levels of distress and self-harm, are introducing preventive coursework in emotional self-regulation and mindfulness. Now, some researchers warn that we are in danger of overdoing it. Mental health awareness campaigns, they argue, help some young people identify disorders that badly need treatment — but they have a negative effect on others, leading them to over-interpret their symptoms and see themselves as more troubled than they are. The researchers point to unexpected results in trials of school-based mental health interventions in the United Kingdom and Australia: Students who underwent training in the basics of mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy did not emerge healthier than peers who did not participate, and some were worse off, at least for a while. And new research from the United States shows that among young people, “self-labeling” as having depression or anxiety is associated with poor coping skills, like avoidance or rumination.
Patient Dies Weeks After Kidney Transplant From Genetically Modified Pig (NYT🔒)
Richard “Rick” Slayman, who made history at age 62 as the first person to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig, has died about two months after the procedure. Massachusetts General Hospital, where Mr. Slayman had the operation, said in a statement on Saturday that its transplant team was “deeply saddened” at his death. The hospital said it had “no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant.”
Food & Drink
California Fast-Food Chains Are Now Serving Sticker Shock (WSJ🔒)
Restaurants for months have said menu prices in California would rise as the state raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers. Now they are following through. Consumers picking up burgers, burritos and chicken sandwiches at chains in the Golden State are grappling with prices that for months have been rising at a faster clip than in other states, according to market-research firm Datassential. Since September, when California moved to require large fast-food chains to bump up their minimum hourly pay to $20 in April, fast-food and fast-casual restaurants in California have increased prices by 10% overall, outpacing all other states, the firm found in an analysis of thousands of restaurants across 70 large chains.
A frank look at hot dog prices at MLB ballparks (WP🔒) 📊
According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, roughly 20 million hot dogs are consumed at MLB stadiums every season, which averages out to roughly 8,000 hot dogs per game. Last year, USA Today gathered hot dog prices from 28 of MLB’s 30 teams. Building on that important research, and inspired by readers’ reactions to the price of concessions at Nationals Park after the team’s annual ballpark tour for media members ahead of Opening Day, I sought to compile a list of the cheapest hot dogs available at every ballpark, regardless of size. The following summary is based on hot dog prices obtained from hospitality vendors, teams and, in a few cases, the MLB Ballpark app.
Panera Will Discontinue Charged Lemonade Drinks (NYT🔒)
Panera Bread will stop selling its highly caffeinated fruit-flavored drinks, which were the subject of lawsuits by people who said the drinks had caused health problems, including two deaths. The drinks, known as Charged Lemonade and Charged Sips, will be removed from the menu, a source familiar with the decision said on Tuesday. A regular size of the Charged drinks, which come in three flavors, has at least 155 milligrams of caffeine, while the large sizes have at least 233 milligrams, according to Panera’s website. According to the Food and Drug Administration, most “healthy adults” can safely consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day, or about four or five cups of regular coffee, depending on the brand and roast.
Nature
Most extreme solar storm in 20 years brings beautiful northern lights (WP🔒) 📊
This is the moment aurora chasers have been waiting for. For the first time since 2003, an extreme geomagnetic storm — the most severe of its kind — hit Earth on Friday evening. Beautiful green, purple and red dancing aurora displays, also known as the northern lights, were spotted across Europe and very low latitudes in the United States, as far south as Alabama and Florida.
Entertainment
'The Office' spinoff announced: Details on plot and cast revealed (ABC News)
"Star Wars" actor Domhnall Gleeson and "The White Lotus" actress Sabrina Impacciatore are the show's leads and will front a to-be-announced ensemble cast. The series description reads: "The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch is in search of a new subject when they discover a dying historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters."
Nintendo to announce Switch successor in this fiscal year as profits rise (AP)
Japanese video-game maker Nintendo said Tuesday that it will make an announcement about a successor to its Switch home console sometime before March 2025. In reporting its financial results, Nintendo gave no details about the announcement, including about whether it would launch that successor product during this fiscal year, or just announce its plans for it. “We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015,” the company’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, said in a statement. Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported a 13% rise in profit for the fiscal year that ended in March, boosted by solid demand for Switch software like “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.” Nintendo’s net profit for the fiscal year through March 2024 totaled 490.6 billion yen ($3 billion), up from 432.7 billion yen in the previous fiscal year.
Disney and Warner to bundle streaming services (BBC)
Walt Disney and Warner Bros Discovery say they will start to offer a bundle of the Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming services to customers in the US this summer. The new package will be available to customers on all three streaming platforms. The media giants said they will offer plans with and without adverts but did not reveal how much they will charge customers. The move comes as Disney and Warner Bros face competition from rivals, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. “This new offering... will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger retention,” Warner Bros Discovery executive JB Perrette said in a statement. The two media companies said they will reveal more details about the plans in the coming weeks.
Disney, Hulu and Max Streaming Bundle Will Soon Become Available (NYT🔒)
In a rare moment of solidarity, two entertainment giants are teaming up to try to get consumers to stop canceling their streaming services so frequently. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Wednesday that they would start offering a bundle of their Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming services this summer, a sign of how rivals have become more willing to join forces in order to confront an ever-changing media landscape.
Sports
Mystik Dan Wins the Kentucky Derby by a Nose (WSJ🔒)
Trainer Ken McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. had one of the biggest wins of their careers on Friday when filly Thorpedo Anna won the Kentucky Oaks. On Saturday, they did it again, teaming up to lead Mystik Dan to victory in the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. In doing so, they pulled off a stunning Oaks-Derby double. Mystik Dan found a clear path along the rail in the home stretch and held off the late-charging Sierra Leone and Forever Young to win the Run for the Roses by a nose.
NOTE: Definitely the definition of “by a nose”!
The Hottest Free Agent in F1 Is a 65-Year-Old Nerd (WSJ🔒)
The most sought after man in Formula One paced the grid of the Miami Grand Prix this weekend, sizing up rivals that he’d already crushed. Adrian Newey, a graying, 65-year-old Englishman who is universally regarded as the greatest F1 designer of his generation, couldn’t help himself. As he paused in front of the Ferraris, Mercedes, and McLarens, he carefully surveyed every nook and cranny—anything that could affect how those machines sliced through the air. Each minute detail was filed away in his pencil-scribbled notebook. All of them would inform future sketches. The question on everyone’s lips this weekend, though, was which team would reap the benefits of those sketches. Newey, an architect of Red Bull’s F1 dynasty, announced ahead of Sunday’s race that after 19 years and six constructors’ world championships, he would be leaving the team at the end of the season. The decision instantly made this senior citizen with an aerodynamics degree and a habit of crashing cars and motorbikes the single most coveted free agent in Formula One. More than any hotshot driver or visionary team principal, Newey might just be the safest bet in the sport.
For Fun
As D&D booms, ‘Critical Role’ makes its own kind of nerd celebrity (WP🔒)
It may not sound like must-see TV: eight friends sitting around a table playing Dungeons & Dragons while cracking jokes and moving each other to tears. But for a legion of fans, “Critical Role” — the popular D&D “actual play” series in which a group of nerdy voice actors stream their unscripted adventures — is an immersive world that combines plot-twisting narratives with the parasocial coziness of a fireside hangout. In nine years, the show, hosted on Twitch and YouTube, has become the team’s full-time job, spawning a transmedia kingdom of novels, comic books, animated series and original games, as well as a new membership program for fans launched Thursday, called Beacon. And its cast are now ambassadors for a subculture rapidly going mainstream.
Farewell, Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic Band (NYT🔒)
By the end of 2024, the animatronic performances — endearing and nostalgia-inducing, if perhaps slightly creepy to their audiences — will be phased out at all but two of the chain’s more than 400 locations in the United States: one in Los Angeles and another in Nanuet, N.Y. The departure of the band comes as Chuck E. Cheese undergoes what its chief executive, David McKillips, recently described as its largest and “most aggressive transformation.” The coronavirus pandemic forced many Chuck E. Cheese locations to temporarily shutter, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the summer of 2020. Since then, its leaders have tried to adapt Chuck E. Cheese to a modern era — and children who might be more excited by screens than an old animatronic band with limited movement and shifty eyes. Chuck E. Cheese was started by Nolan Bushnell, a co-founder of the pioneering video game company Atari. In an interview with the Smithsonian Institution in 2017, Mr. Bushnell said his background in arcade games, which sold for about $1,500 to $2,000 per machine, sparked his desire to open a pizza joint with the games, each of which would collect up to $50,000 in coins in their lifetime.
NOTE: Enjoy the below video.
Is This the Most Boring Man in the World? (WSJ🔒)
Late last year Randy Smith got a text from a complete stranger. She thanked him for putting her to sleep. Smith was shocked to discover that he was a YouTube star. The Ormond Beach, Fla., retiree was even more surprised about why: A tutorial he recorded and sold as a VHS tape in 1989 on how to use Microsoft Word had resurfaced as “THE MOST BORING VIDEO EVER MADE” with 3.1 million views and close to 11,000 comments so far. “I can’t remember the number of times that this Video has helped me sleep,” one gushes. “I want this played at my funeral, so people don’t forget how interesting I was,” says another.
NOTE: The video:
The school from ‘Footloose’ lobbied Kevin Bacon to visit. He delivered. (WP🔒) 📊
In his mid-20s, Kevin Bacon walked through the halls of Payson High School in the 1984 film “Footloose.” Last month, Bacon, now 65, traversed those halls for the first time in 40 years and revisited his locker used in the film. “I think it was unexpectedly profound in a weird kind of way,” Bacon said in a phone interview. Bacon’s return to Payson High, in Payson, Utah, was the culmination of a campaign to bring him back to the school before it is torn down next year. Much of the film, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in February, was shot at the school. Residents and students take pride in the film, and Bacon still has fond memories of the movie.
Swiss Army Knife Now Available Without the Knife (Bloomberg🔒)
The Swiss Army Knife, the iconic, more than century-old fold-up tool used by whittlers, soldiers and even astronauts, will soon be available without a blade. Victorinox, the company behind the quintessentially Swiss product, is responding to tighter regulations around weapons around the world, Chief Executive Officer Carl Elsener told the Blick newspaper on Monday. Instead, it plans to add tools for cyclists and other functions to a gadget that usually also features scissors and a corkscrew. “We are concerned about the increasing regulation of knives due to the violence in the world,” Elsener said, citing laws in the UK and in Asian countries that permit knife-carrying only for work or outdoor activities. “In some markets, the blade creates an image of a weapon.”
Have a great week!
The Curator
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.