This week in the news | 14 Oct 23
News from the past week, and a few other things.
👋 Hello Reader, I hope you had a great week. Below are the items that stood out to me in the news.
First off, there’s an eclipse today across the western part of the US, so be sure to check it out—you can see the map and associated times in the Space section. (P.S. don’t look directly into the sun without the proper device…)
Second, you can read my previously posted Israel-Hamas War newsletter here to get the latest news (at that time), review of the attack by Hamas, and some background on the history and geography.
And, in today’s newsletter you’ll also find quite a few articles on real estate in Texas, the economy, and some disappointing news about education in the U.S.
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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.”
WORLD
An app shows how ancient Greek sites looked thousands of years ago. It’s a glimpse of future tech (AP)
Thousands Flee Northern Gaza as Israeli Evacuation Order Stirs Panic (NYT🔒)
Israel Latest: Israeli Army Strikes Hezbollah Posts in Lebanon (Bloomberg🔒)
Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's Visit to Israel (U.S. Department of Defense)
Where will the next coup be in Africa? (The Economist🔒) 📊
Rescuers search for survivors days after deadly quakes hit northwest Afghanistan (Reuters)
Russia Says It Will Step Back From Nuclear-Test Treaty (WSJ🔒)
Russia mounts major attack on key city in eastern Ukraine (WP🔒) 📊
Births in China slide 10% to hit their lowest on record (Reuters)
China’s Country Garden Succumbs to Debt Crisis After Sales Plunge (WSJ🔒)
Stunning ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse to pass over the U.S. Saturday (WP🔒) 📊
NASA shows off its first asteroid samples delivered by a spacecraft (AP)
Prada is designing Nasa spacesuits. Will luxury customers wear them next? (Vogue Business)
GOVERNMENT & DEFENSE
Jim Jordan Wins GOP Nod for Speaker, but Hurdles Remain (WSJ🔒)
USPS says mail theft is getting worse, but its plans are so far incomplete and yielding few results (GovExec)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Americans Have Saved Hundreds of Billions More Than Previously Thought (Bloomberg🔒)
America may soon be spending more on debt service than defence (The Economist🔒)
Fed pivot hopes whipsaw Treasury market as investors hunt for rate peak (Reuters) 📊
The U.S. Economy’s Secret Weapon: Seniors With Money to Spend (WSJ🔒) 📊
US Consumer Prices Rise at Brisk Pace for Second Straight Month (Bloomberg🔒) 📊
You’ve Never Had It So Good. That’s Why You’re Stuck. (WSJ🔒)
IMF Warns of Stubborn Inflation and Weaker Global Growth in 2024 (Bloomberg🔒) 📊
Interest Payments are an Increasingly Large Part of the US Budget Deficit (Chartr) 📊
This Country Won the Global Tax Game, and Is Swimming in Money (WSJ🔒)
Social Security Benefits Will Rise 3.2% In 2024, While Top Tax Jumps 5.2% (Forbes🔒)
Amazon Strategy Could Unlock $100 Billion in Revenue (Bloomberg🔒)
Microsoft clears last hurdle to buying Call of Duty maker Activision in $69 billion deal (AP)
Kaiser Permanente, Unions Reach Deal on New Contracts (WSJ🔒)
Crypto (NYT🔒)
Autoworkers escalate strike as 8,700 workers walk out at a Ford Kentucky plant (NPR)
Why Being an Auto Worker Isn’t as Lucrative as It Used to Be, in Charts (WSJ🔒) 📊
Electric Vehicle Buyers Can Soon Get Rebates At The Dealer (Forbes🔒)
A flying car that anyone can use will soon go on sale (The Economist🔒)
U.S. Foreclosure Activity Shows Continued Rise In Third Quarter, Approaching Levels Seen Before Pandemic (Attom Data) 📊
September 2023 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report (Realtor.com) 📊
Texas Cities Are Booming, but Their Offices Are the Most Vacant (WSJ🔒) 📊
TECH & CYBER
Sony’s Access controller for the PlayStation aims to make gaming easier for people with disabilities (AP)
Internet companies report biggest-ever denial of service operation (Reuters)
Inside the deadly instant loan app scam that blackmails with nudes (BBC)
How Ads on Your Phone Can Aid Government Surveillance (WSJ🔒)
In A New Era Of Deepfakes, AI Makes Real News Anchors Report Fake Stories (Forbes🔒)
LIFE
Schools’ pandemic spending boosted tech companies. Did it help US students? (AP)
ACT test scores for US students drop to new 30-year low (AP) 📊
Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department. (NYT🔒) 📊
Want To Get Into A Top College? Better Crush The Essay (Forbes🔒) 📊
Decline in Humanities (Chartr) 📊
People Are Drinking Less Craft Beer. Here’s Why, Says Brewers Association (Forbes🔒)
California becomes the first state to ban 4 food additives linked to disease (NPR)
Nearly 1,000 Birds Die After Striking Chicago Building (NYT🔒)
FOR FUN
Kelvin Kiptum destroys world marathon record in Chicago: Is he the new GOAT? (The Athletic)
Simone Biles Is Officially the Most Decorated Gymnast in History (WSJ🔒)
Disney Agonized About Sports Betting. Now It’s Going All In. (WSJ🔒)
IOC suspends Russian Olympic Committee and cuts off its funding (WP🔒)
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta brings colorful displays to the New Mexico sky (AP News)
THE SLOW BREW ☕
A more relaxed approach to news summaries.
Europe
An app shows how ancient Greek sites looked thousands of years ago. It’s a glimpse of future tech (AP)
Tourists at the Acropolis this holiday season can witness the resolution of one of the world’s most heated debates on cultural heritage. All they need is a smartphone. Visitors can now pinch and zoom their way around the ancient Greek site, with a digital overlay showing how it once looked. For now, an app supported by Greece’s Culture Ministry allows visitors to point their phones at the Parthenon temple, and the sculptures housed in London appear back on the monument as archaeologists believe they looked 2,500 years ago.
Middle East
You can read my previously posted Israel-Hamas War newsletter here to get the latest news (at that time), review of the attack by Hamas, and some background on the history and geography.
Thousands Flee Northern Gaza as Israeli Evacuation Order Stirs Panic (NYT🔒)
Panic and chaos gripped the northern Gaza Strip Friday as thousands of people fled south in vehicles piled high with blankets and mattresses along two main roads after the Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of half of the besieged coastal strip. But rather than finding safety from a feared ground invasion, at least 70 people were killed along the way when Israeli airstrikes hit some of the vehicles fleeing south, according to the Gazan authorities.
Israel Latest: Israeli Army Strikes Hezbollah Posts in Lebanon (Bloomberg🔒)
The Israel Defense forces said they had struck outposts in Lebanon controlled by the militant group Hezbollah after “unidentified” objects had entered Israeli airspace hours earlier. Saudi Arabia has paused diplomacy to normalize ties with Israel after the flareup in violence between Israeli forces and Hamas, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government is prepared to use “unprecedented” force against the group, which killed 1,300 in last weekend’s assault. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza in retaliatory airstrikes. Palestinians in northern Gaza flooded streets in cars and on foot, heading south after Israel gave residents 24 hours to evacuate amid continued bombing and fears of a looming ground invasion against Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group by the US and the European Union. The United Nations warned of a disaster and said it would be impossible to move the million or so inhabitants of north Gaza to the south, as demanded by Israeli authorities.
Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's Visit to Israel (U.S. Department of Defense)
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following readout: Today, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and the Israeli War Cabinet. During his visit, the Secretary reiterated the United States’ ironclad support for Israel in the wake of Hamas’ abhorrent terrorist attack, and reaffirmed President Biden’s message of U.S. commitment to deterring actors that may seek to escalate this conflict. Secretary Austin highlighted how the United States is expediting security assistance to Israel, including precision guided munitions and air defense ammunition. Secretary Austin highlighted that the USS Gerald R. Ford Strike Group is now operating in the eastern Mediterranean, and that U.S. Air Force fighter squadrons have been bolstered in the region. The Secretary committed to deploying additional assets as needed, and to remaining in close contact with Minister Gallant in the days and weeks ahead.
Africa
Where will the next coup be in Africa? (The Economist🔒)
Confused reports of shooting in the capital, sudden troop movements in the streets, men in fatigues looming on television: such is the rhythm of coups. That beat was less frequently heard in Africa in the early 2010s as the clamour of nascent democracy drowned it out. Now armies are marching to the old drums again. In the past three years coup-mongers have struck successfully nine times on the continent. The consequences of this are grim. In Sudan a putsch soon precipitated civil war between the army and a paramilitary group. That has in turn triggered a return to genocide in Darfur. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger the putschists claimed they would restore security, but the countries’ war with jihadists has steadily worsened. There were 4,820 deaths from conflict in the region in 2019, before the coups. After the overthrow of governments in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Burkina Faso in both early and late 2022, and in Niger in 2023, deaths this year will surge past 10,000. To add to the woe, in Mali separatists have once again started fighting the army. The coups have also left much Western, and especially French, policy in Africa in disarray. French soldiers have been forced to leave three countries.
Asia-Pacific
Rescuers search for survivors days after deadly quakes hit northwest Afghanistan (Reuters)
Rescue workers on Monday scrambled to pull out survivors, and the dead, from beneath the rubble two days after the northwestern city of Herat and its surroundings were struck by the deadliest earthquakes to rattle Afghanistan in years. The Taliban administration said at least 2,400 people were killed and many more injured in the quakes, which were among the world's deadliest this year after tremors in Turkey and Syria, in which an estimated 50,000 people were killed.
Russia Says It Will Step Back From Nuclear-Test Treaty (WSJ🔒)
Russia said it would revoke its ratification of a major international nuclear-test-ban pact, a move that threatens to exacerbate global instability brought on by the war in Ukraine. The step comes at a time when no arms talks between the U.S. and Russia are under way, Moscow has suspended its participation in the New START strategic-arms treaty, and ties between Washington and Moscow have reached lows not seen since the Cold War.
Russia mounts major attack on key city in eastern Ukraine (WP🔒)
Intense fighting raged around the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for a third day, local officials said Thursday, after Russian forces launched a major attack on the city, mobilizing thousands of troops and columns of armored vehicles. Avdiivka, which sits in a geographically strategic pocket close to the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, has been a target of Moscow’s military aggression since 2014 — but so far the Kremlin’s forces have failed in repeated attempts to capture it.
Births in China slide 10% to hit their lowest on record (Reuters)
The number of births in China tumbled 10% last year to hit their lowest level on record - a drop that comes despite a slew of government efforts to support parents and amid increasing alarm that the country become demographically imbalanced. China had just 9.56 million births in 2022, according to a report published by the National Health Commission. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1949.
China’s Country Garden Succumbs to Debt Crisis After Sales Plunge (WSJ🔒)
Chinese property giant Country Garden failed to make an international debt payment after its apartment sales plunged in September, succumbing to a liquidity crisis that worsened over the past few months. The 31-year-old developer said it wasn’t able to repay a $60 million loan denominated in Hong Kong dollars that was due. Country Garden said it also doesn’t expect to meet all its U.S. dollar bond and other offshore debt obligations when they come due, or within grace periods—effectively saying that it expects to default.
Space
Stunning ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse to pass over the U.S. Saturday (WP🔒)
On Saturday, the moon will pass in front of the sun, obscuring much of it but leaving behind a brilliant ring, or annulus, of unfiltered sunlight in parts of the western United States. This is known as an “annular” or “ring of fire” solar eclipse. Only a narrow swath from Oregon to Texas as well as parts of Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Brazil will be able to see the full ring of fire, but the entire Lower 48 states will witness at least a partial solar eclipse.
NASA shows off its first asteroid samples delivered by a spacecraft (AP)
NASA on Wednesday showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by a spacecraft — a jumble of black dust and rubble that’s the most ever returned to Earth.
Prada is designing Nasa spacesuits. Will luxury customers wear them next? (Vogue Business)
Prada is partnering with commercial space company Axiom Space to design the spacesuits for Nasa’s 2025 Artemis III mission, which will be the first crewed lunar landing since 1972 — and the first time a woman has landed on the moon, with Christina Hammock Koch part of the crew. Prada’s engineers will work with the Axiom Space systems team throughout the design process, including developing materials and design features that are fit for a mission space and in the lunar environment.
Government
USPS says mail theft is getting worse, but its plans are so far incomplete and yielding few results (GovExec)
As the U.S. Postal Service acknowledges that incidents of mail theft are on the rise across the country, a watchdog is faulting the agency for taking incomplete steps and making insufficient plans to address the issue. USPS, in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, has launched Project Safe Delivery to address the increasing crime rates. The initiative is riddled with a lack of milestones and timelines for new efforts, according to the USPS inspector general, and has so far led to few concrete results. Two-week surges of personnel in areas with high rates of mail theft—Chicago and Oakland—led to just three arrests and 277 recovered mail pieces, the IG found. Additionally, USPS has not finalized an overall plan to address mail theft and only plans to do so next fall.
Jim Jordan Wins GOP Nod for Speaker, but Hurdles Remain (WSJ🔒)
House Republicans chose Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) as their nominee for speaker, but it remained uncertain whether the fiery ally of former President Donald Trump could avoid the fate of Steve Scalise (R., La.), who also won an internal ballot but then failed to win enough broad party support to claim the gavel. The speaker post has been vacant—and the House paralyzed—since a small group of party rebels last week engineered the historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.). The GOP turmoil comes as Congress faces a mid-November deadline to fund the government.
Economy
Americans Have Saved Hundreds of Billions More Than Previously Thought (Bloomberg🔒)
Reports of the demise of excess US household savings were greatly exaggerated. Revised government data indicate that Americans have hundreds of billions of dollars more in extra cash stashed away than previously believed. Economists’ estimates of excess savings hinge on their assessment of the underlying trend in the savings rate. The lower the perceived trend prior to the pandemic, the bigger the bundle of extra savings built up during the virus crisis. In its comprehensive update of national economic data at the end of last month, the Bureau of Economic Analysis revised down calculations for household savings to reflect a change in how it accounts for income from mutual funds and real estate investment trusts. The bulk of those revisions occurred prior to the pandemic. As a result, the household savings rate was lowered to an annual average of 6.5% from 2017 through 2019, from 7.9% previously, tilting economists’ estimates of the trend downward. Savings then surged to 15.4% of disposable income in 2020 and 11.4% in 2021 after the onset of the pandemic. It slumped to an average of 3.3% last year and stood at 3.9% in August. The BEA’s revisions prompted JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists Michael Hanson and Murat Tasci to ramp up their estimate of the savings buffer to $1.2 trillion, from $400 billion. “Excess saving may not be exhausted until sometime next year,” they wrote in an Oct. 6 report. In a widely noted paper released on Aug. 16, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco researchers Hamza Abdelrahman and Luiz Oliveira argued that excess savings was all but exhausted. While they haven’t updated their numbers, other economists such as Sockin have replicated their methodology using the new government data. Those calculations indicate that households still have more than $500 billion in extra cash squirreled away. Much of the excess cash is held by upper-income households. Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi reckons that more than half of the $1.8 trillion in excess savings he calculates remains is held by households in the top 10% of the income bracket.
I am so very confused by this…so the Federal government revised an estimate that resulted in Americans actually having 3x (from $400B to $1.2T) more savings than originally thought???
The Federal Deficit Is Even Bigger Than It Looks (WSJ🔒)
The gap between spending and revenue for fiscal year 2023, which ended on Sept. 30, was $1.7 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office projected ahead of the official Treasury Department figures. That would be a roughly $300 billion widening in the shortfall from fiscal year 2022. But the gap was actually much larger. That is because of the odd way President Biden’s attempt to broadly cancel student debt shows up in budget figures. When the Biden administration announced its plan to forgive federal student debt held by 40 million Americans in September 2022, it logged the long-term cost of the program, $379 billion, on the budget all at once, even though effectively no money was spent on it that year. Treasury last year put fiscal 2022’s deficit at $1.4 trillion. But in June 2023, the Supreme Court tossed the debt-cancellation program, meaning most of that money wouldn’t actually be spent. Rather than update last year’s deficit numbers, though, the Treasury recorded the changes as a $333 billion spending cut in August 2023. Without the student-debt-cancellation proposal muddling the numbers, the deficit for fiscal year 2022 would have been smaller than originally reported, around $1 trillion. And the gap for fiscal 2023 would be bigger, about $2 trillion. Either way, the deficit is growing again after retreating from its highs after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. That is inflaming longstanding debates in Washington about the federal budget, which is already under pressure from higher interest rates.
America may soon be spending more on debt service than defence (The Economist🔒)
THE BOND market is sending a hopeful message about the strength of the American economy—and, perhaps, raising alarm about America’s unsustainable finances. The news is coming via surging rates on long-term bonds. When the Federal Reserve started raising its benchmark federal-funds rate in March 2022, long-term interest rates rose with it. This continued fairly steadily until the end of last year, when rates flattened out. Then in May, to the surprise of many investors, long-term rates began climbing once more. They show no sign of slowing. On October 11th the yield on ten-year Treasury bonds hit 4.7%, near a 16-year high. Because bond prices and yields are inversely related, this is bad for bond investors, who are suffering “the greatest bond bear market of all time”, according to Bank of America. But it is also bad for Uncle Sam. When bond yields rise, the cost of financing America’s debt—now $26trn and growing—also goes up. In the fiscal year ending on September 30th 2023, interest payments on America’s debt totalled some $660bn, up from $475bn the previous year. As recently as May 2022 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan number-cruncher, had forecast such costs would be $442bn, or 33% lower. This would not be such a problem if America were putting its fiscal house in order. But estimates released on October 10th by the CBO show that the federal deficit ballooned to $2trn (7.6% of GDP) in the year to September 30th, up from $900bn (3.5%) the previous year. If interest rates and deficits do not come down, fiscal hawks warn, the cost of servicing America’s debt could rocket, crowding out other spending. The CBO estimates that, even assuming a drop in rates, interest costs by 2028 will reach $1trn, or 3.1% of projected GDP—more than will be spent on defence.
Fed pivot hopes whipsaw Treasury market as investors hunt for rate peak (Reuters)
Shifting views on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy trajectory are roiling the U.S. Treasury market, as investors gauge how close the central bank is to pulling back from its aggressive monetary policy tightening. Benchmark 10-year yields tumbled at the start of the week as investors reacted to the widening conflict in the Middle East and dovish comments from Fed officials, who leaned into the possibility that interest rates may not need to go higher. But yields, which move inversely to bond prices, rebounded on Thursday, following a stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation report and sparse demand at the Treasury’s 30-year government bond auction. The 10-year yield on Thursday afternoon stood at about 4.7%, some 18 basis points from the 16-year highs touched last week. The volatility in Treasuries - which has rippled out into equities and other risk assets - is likely to continue until the market gets a definitive signal that the Fed is preparing to downshift, investors said.
The U.S. Economy’s Secret Weapon: Seniors With Money to Spend (WSJ🔒)
Why has consumer spending proven so resilient as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates? An important and little-appreciated reason: Consumers are getting older. In August, 17.7% of the population was 65 or older, according to the Census Bureau, the highest on record going back to 1920 and up sharply from 13% in 2010. The elderly aren’t just more numerous: Their finances are relatively healthy and they have less need to borrow, such as to buy a house, and are less at risk of layoffs than other consumers. This has made the elderly a spending force to be reckoned with. Americans age 65 and up accounted for 22% of spending last year, the highest share since records began in 1972 and up from 15% in 2010, according to the Labor Department’s survey of consumer expenditures released in September.
US Consumer Prices Rise at Brisk Pace for Second Straight Month (Bloomberg🔒)
US consumer prices advanced at a brisk pace for a second month, reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s intent to keep interest rates high and bring down inflation. The so-called core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy costs, increased 0.3% in September, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Thursday. Economists favor the core gauge as a better indicator of underlying inflation than the overall CPI. That measure climbed 0.4%, boosted by energy costs. Recent inflation data underscore how a strong labor market is underpinning consumer demand, which risks keeping price pressures above the Fed’s target. At their meeting last month, a majority of officials saw a need for one more interest rate hike this year, and they may maintain that bias — despite a recent surge in bond yields — if inflation doesn’t cool further.
You’ve Never Had It So Good. That’s Why You’re Stuck. (WSJ🔒)
Low interest rates, high salaries and membership discounts scored before and during the pandemic often can’t be matched today, binding people in golden handcuffs. Many feel comfortable, but stuck. Some who job-hopped when the labor market was at its tightest negotiated hefty raises or work-from-home arrangements that other employers might not match today. Homeowners eager to reach for another rung on the property ladder are staying put because they aren’t willing to let go of sub-3% mortgages that are unlikely to be available again soon, if ever. Today’s higher rates effectively limit their budgets, putting more expensive homes further out of reach. While economists say the constant pursuit of new and better opportunities is a sign of a strong economy, it can also fuel inflation. Businesses paid premiums for talent in recent years, and flush workers helped drive up prices of homes, cars and other goods. As the Federal Reserve tries to stamp out inflation by raising interest rates, many consumers have less buying power and are holding on to what they have.
IMF Warns of Stubborn Inflation and Weaker Global Growth in 2024 (Bloomberg🔒)
The International Monetary Fund lifted its global inflation forecast for next year and called for central banks to keep policy tight until there’s a durable easing in price pressures. The IMF boosted its projection for the pace of consumer price increases across the world to 5.8% for next year in its World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, up from 5.2% seen three months ago.
Interest Payments are an Increasingly Large Part of the US Budget Deficit (Chartr)
Social Security Benefits Will Rise 3.2% In 2024, While Top Tax Jumps 5.2% (Forbes🔒)
Social Security benefits will increase 3.2% in 2024 for the nation’s 71 million recipients, raising the average monthly check for a single retired worker to $1,907, up $59 from $1,827 this year, and for a retired couple both receiving benefits to $3,033, up $94 from $2,939 this year, the Social Security Administration said today. That’s a small boost compared to the 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2023 (the largest since 1981, as shown in the chart below) and reflects the damper that’s been put on inflation. By law, the 2024 COLA is based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W) between the third quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2023—meaning it looks backwards at inflation and was set this morning when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported September’s inflation rate. Current beneficiaries should get notices in the mail in early December with their new individual 2024 benefits amounts, but can get that information sooner by setting up an individual online account and signing up for a text or email alert. Automatic Social Security COLAs have been in place since 1975, when Congress decided to take itself—and the political pressures of the day—out of an annual adjustment affecting so many voters.
This Country Won the Global Tax Game, and Is Swimming in Money (WSJ🔒)
Countries like Saudi Arabia, Norway and Chile have long used sovereign-wealth funds to sock away windfall profits from periods of high prices for commodity exports like oil and metals for future years when their own production winds down or international prices plunge. Ireland on Tuesday created its own rainy-day fund thanks to outsize profits from an unusual and controversial source of income: U.S. technology and pharmaceutical giants seeking to lower their tax bills. In the past eight years, the country of five million has watched its corporate tax income triple to the tune of 22.6 billion euros last year, equivalent to almost $24 billion—giving it a budget surplus last year of a comfortable €8 billion euros when many governments are suffering from a postpandemic debt hangover. Ireland’s government, unable to predict how much income it will make from corporate taxes year to year or how long the surge will continue for, said a new Future Ireland Fund could amass €100 billion by the middle of the next decade. The new fund will help cover increased healthcare bills as its population ages, with the nation facing one of the fastest rates of demographic change in Europe in the coming decades.
Business
Amazon Strategy Could Unlock $100 Billion in Revenue (Bloomberg🔒)
Amazon.com Inc.’s next big thing might be lurking in the expensive supply chain apparatus that’s helped transform its e-commerce business into a juggernaut. The Seattle-based company’s expansion into so-called logistics services — shipping and distribution — could eventually be worth more than $100 billion in revenue, according to Truist Securities analyst Youssef Squali. Supply Chain by Amazon is the latest part of its drive to become a leading logistics company, overseeing the flow of products from factories to customers’ doorsteps globally. The company aims to replace a variety of businesses handling tasks like ocean freight, customs, ground transport and inventory storage, with one seamless service.
Microsoft clears last hurdle to buying Call of Duty maker Activision in $69 billion deal (AP)
Microsoft’s purchase of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard won final approval Friday from Britain’s competition watchdog, reversing its earlier decision to block the $69 billion gaming deal and removing the final obstacle for one of the largest tech transactions in history.
Kaiser Permanente, Unions Reach Deal on New Contracts (WSJ🔒)
Health system Kaiser Permanente reached a tentative agreement with unions that would raise wages and increase investment in staffing. The deal, which the sides announced Friday, would increase wages by 21% over four years, the unions and employer said. Now, it must be ratified by the workers before terms take effect. If the workers go along, the agreement would end a dispute that led to the largest healthcare labor action on record, and prevent a second work stoppage at one of the biggest health systems in the U.S.
Crypto
Across U.S., Chinese Bitcoin Mines Draw National Security Scrutiny (NYT🔒)
When a company with Chinese origins broke ground last year on a crypto-mining operation in Cheyenne, Wyo., a team at Microsoft that assesses national security threats sounded the alarm. Not only was the site next door to a Microsoft data center that supported the Pentagon — it was about a mile away from an Air Force base that controlled nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles. The location could allow the Chinese to “pursue full-spectrum intelligence collection operations,” the Microsoft team wrote in an August 2022 report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal body that monitors threats posed by overseas investors. Microsoft’s warning did not go unheeded. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, U.S. government officials told The New York Times last week that they had been tracking the Wyoming operation for months. One official said that measures had been taken to mitigate potential intelligence collection but declined to elaborate. In addition, the mining company said it responded to queries from the federal investment committee.
Auto
U.A.W. Workers at Mack Truck Go on Strike (NYT🔒)
Nearly 4,000 members of the United Automobile Workers union went on strike against Mack Trucks on Monday after rejecting a tentative contract that union’s leaders had worked out with the company.
Autoworkers escalate strike as 8,700 workers walk out at a Ford Kentucky plant (NPR)
The United Auto Workers union significantly escalated its strikes against Detroit Three automakers Wednesday when 8,700 workers walked off their jobs at Ford's Kentucky truck plant. The surprise move about 6:30 p.m. took down the largest and most profitable Ford plant in the world. The sprawling factory makes pricey heavy-duty F-Series pickup trucks and large Ford and Lincoln SUVs. UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement that the union has waited long enough "but Ford hasn't gotten the message" to bargain for a fair contract. "If they can't understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it," Fain said.
Why Being an Auto Worker Isn’t as Lucrative as It Used to Be, in Charts (WSJ🔒)
Auto factory jobs used to pay a big premium over a lot of other blue-collar work. Not so much anymore. In the mid-1990s, workers in auto manufacturing made almost twice as much as the average private-sector worker, not including benefits. Labor unions ensured regular raises and benefits, making employment in an auto plant relatively attractive compared with other occupations for workers without advanced degrees. Today wages for auto workers—both union and nonunion—are closer to the private-sector average. The trend started in the mid-2000s as auto jobs migrated South, and accelerated after the 2007-09 recession, when the United Auto Workers union agreed to concessions to rescue struggling automakers. Here’s a look at auto worker employment and pay trends as the weekslong UAW strike continues.
NOTE: Lots of other great charts besides the ones below
Electric Vehicle Buyers Can Soon Get Rebates At The Dealer (Forbes🔒)
Starting in January, eligible electric vehicle buyers can receive a federal tax credit as an upfront discount at the dealership, making savings more immediate, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday. Prior to the new guidance, buyers – including those who bought electric vehicles this year – have had to claim EV credits after the fact, on their federal income tax returns filed after the end of the year.
A flying car that anyone can use will soon go on sale (The Economist🔒)
Electrically powered vertical-take-off-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft—flying cars, to the layman—are an idea whose time has not quite yet come, but is fast approaching. Many firms are jostling with each other, offering designs that range from scaled-up multirotor drones, via things which resemble rigid spiders’ webs, to fixed-wing/helicopter hybrids. None of these, however, will be Jetson-like family saloons with dad (or even mum) at the controls. Those flying them will require a pilot’s licence. Most will probably be used initially as sky-going taxis. One company has, by contrast, stuck to its guns and carried through its original project to create something which people can purchase and pilot themselves. Helix is a single-seat vehicle, so “flying motorbike” might be a more accurate appellation. It has, however, been carefully crafted by its maker, Pivotal, based in Silicon Valley, to be within America’s rules for microlight aircraft. That means anyone, pilot’s licence or not, can fly it over non-built-up areas. As a result, from next year those with $190,000 stuffed down the back of the sofa will be able to order one for personal use—though they will not be able to take delivery until June.
The Helix aircraft: https://pivotal.aero/helix
Video here: https://pivotal.aero/early-access-program
Real Estate
U.S. Foreclosure Activity Shows Continued Rise In Third Quarter, Approaching Levels Seen Before Pandemic (Attom Data)
ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, released its Q3 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 124,539 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — up 28 percent from the previous quarter and 34 percent from a year ago. Nationwide one in every 1,121 properties had a foreclosure filing in Q3 2023. States with the highest foreclosure rates in Q3 2023 were New Jersey (one in every 595 housing units with a foreclosure filing); South Carolina (one in every 730); Delaware (one in every 739); Nevada (one in every 763); and Maryland (one in every 780). Among 223 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report, those with the highest foreclosure rates in Q3 2023 were Houston, Texas (one in every 371 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Atlantic City, New Jersey (one in every 453); Cleveland, Ohio (one in every 459); Bakersfield, California (one in every 465); and Columbia, South Carolina (one in every 503).
The Californization of the Texas Housing Market (WSJ🔒)
California to Texas was the most popular interstate relocation route in the country in 2021, according to an analysis by storage-space search site StorageCafe using Census Bureau data. During that year, about 111,000 people—about 300 a day—moved from California to Texas. Soaring prices have left many longtime residents grumbling about the Californization of Texas. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently analyzed data on housing affordability in Texan cities, defined as the percentage of the housing stock affordable to families earning the median income in those places. At the beginning of 2014, nearly two-thirds of homes in San Antonio were affordable for a median-income family. By the end of 2022, fewer than one-third were. Affordability, defined as what a family spending 28% of its gross income on housing could buy, also declined in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin, before ticking up slightly early this year. Texas gained 9,085,073 residents between 2000 and 2022, more than any other state, making it the fourth fastest-growing state in the U.S. Even before the pandemic hit, people were moving to San Antonio from other Texas cities and other states, according to tax data analyzed by the AEI Housing Center. The latest data, for 2019 and 2020, shows the largest source of net migration to Bexar County, where San Antonio is located, was Southern California, followed by other Texas counties primarily along the border, and Hawaii, Illinois and Washington.
September 2023 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report (Realtor.com)
The number of homes actively for sale decreased by 4.0% compared to last year. The total number of unsold homes, including homes that are under contract, decreased by 7.2% compared to last year. Home sellers were less active this September, with 9.1% fewer newly listed homes compared to last year. The median price of homes for sale increased by 0.4% annually. Homes spent 48 days on the market, which is only one day longer than last year and two weeks shorter than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Texas Cities Are Booming, but Their Offices Are the Most Vacant (WSJ🔒)
America’s highest office vacancies aren’t in the East and West Coast cities that have been shedding population and workers. They are in Texas, a thriving Sunbelt state that has been luring companies away from the big coastal cities. Houston, Dallas and Austin top the list of major U.S. cities with the highest office-vacancy rates, according to Moody’s Analytics. About 25% of their office space wasn’t leased as of the third quarter. That was more than double New York’s vacancy rate of 12% and well above San Francisco’s vacancy rate of 17%.
Technology
Sony’s Access controller for the PlayStation aims to make gaming easier for people with disabilities (AP)
Playing video games has long been a challenge for people with disabilities, chiefly because the standard controllers for the PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo can be difficult, or even impossible, to maneuver for people with limited mobility. And losing the ability to play the games doesn’t just mean the loss of a favorite pastime, it can also exacerbate social isolation in a community already experiencing it at a far higher rate than the general population. As part of the gaming industry’s efforts to address the problem, Sony has developed the Access controller for the PlayStation, working with input from Lane and other accessibility consultants. Its the latest addition to the accessible-controller market, whose contributors range from Microsoft to startups and even hobbyists with 3D printers.
Cyber
Internet companies report biggest-ever denial of service operation (Reuters)
Internet companies Google, Amazon and Cloudflare say they have weathered the internet's largest-known denial of service attack and are sounding the alarm over a new technique they warn could easily cause widespread disruption. Alphabet Inc-owned Google (GOOGL.O)said in a blog post published Tuesday that its cloud services had parried an avalanche of rogue traffic more than seven times the size of the previous record-breaking attack thwarted last year. Denial of service is among the web's most basic form of attack and it works by simply overwhelming targeted servers with a firehose of bogus requests for data, making it impossible for legitimate web traffic to get through.
Inside the deadly instant loan app scam that blackmails with nudes (BBC)
A blackmail scam is using instant loan apps to entrap and humiliate people across India and other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At least 60 Indians have killed themselves after being abused and threatened. A BBC undercover investigation has exposed those profiting from this deadly scam in India and China. There are many apps that promise hassle-free loans in minutes. Not all of them are predatory. But many - once downloaded - harvest your contacts, photos and ID cards, and use that information later to extort you. When customers don't repay on time - and sometimes even when they do - they share this information with a call centre where young agents of the gig economy, armed with laptops and phones are trained to harass and humiliate people into repayment.
How Ads on Your Phone Can Aid Government Surveillance (WSJ🔒)
Technology embedded in our phones and computers to serve up ads can also end up serving government surveillance. Information from mobile-phone apps and advertising networks paints a richly detailed portrait of the online activities of billions of devices. The logs and technical information generate valuable cybersecurity data that governments around the world are eager to obtain. When combined with classified data in government hands, it can yield an even more detailed picture of an individual’s behaviors both online and in the real world. A recent U.S. intelligence-community report said the data collected by consumer technologies expose sensitive information on everyone “in a way that far fewer Americans seem to understand, and even fewer of them can avoid.” The Wall Street Journal identified a network of brokers and advertising exchanges whose data was flowing from apps to Defense Department and intelligence agencies through a company called Near Intelligence. This graphic puts those specific examples in the context of how such commercially available information—bought, sold or captured by dozens of entities—can end up in the hands of intermediaries with ties to governments.
Artificial Intelligence
In A New Era Of Deepfakes, AI Makes Real News Anchors Report Fake Stories (Forbes🔒)
Deepfake news segments that appear to be delivered by top journalists and TV networks are going viral across the internet. It’s an inflection point for manipulated media that experts see as troubling just a year out from an historic election.
Education
Schools’ pandemic spending boosted tech companies. Did it help US students? (AP)
An Associated Press analysis of public records found many of the largest school systems spent tens of millions of dollars in pandemic money on software and services from tech companies, including licenses for apps, games and tutoring websites. Schools, however, have little or no evidence the programs helped students. Some of the new software was rarely used. The full scope of spending is unknown because the aid came with few reporting requirements. Congress gave schools a record $190 billion but didn’t require them to publicly report individual purchases. The AP asked the nation’s 30 largest school districts for contracts funded by federal pandemic aid. About half provided records illuminating an array of software and technology, collectively called “edtech.” Others didn’t respond or demanded fees for producing the records totaling thousands of dollars.
ACT test scores for US students drop to new 30-year low (AP)
High school students’ scores on the ACT college admissions test have dropped to their lowest in more than three decades, showing a lack of student preparedness for college-level coursework, according to the nonprofit organization that administers the test. Scores have been falling for six consecutive years, but the trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in the class of 2023 whose scores were reported Wednesday were in their first year of high school when the virus reached the U.S. “The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, chief executive officer for the nonprofit ACT. Many universities have made standardized admissions tests optional amid criticism that they favor the wealthy and put low-income students at a disadvantage. Some including the University of California system do not consider ACT or SAT scores even if submitted.
Evidence of Grade Inflation Since 2010 in High School English, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science Courses (ACT.Org)
This study revealed evidence of grade inflation in English, mathematics, social studies, and science. Grade inflation did not, however, increase at the same rate for all subjects. The rate of grade inflation tended to be higher for math, followed by science, then English, and finally social studies. In all subjects, Black students saw the greatest grade inflation when compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Differences in the rate of grade inflation were also observed when taking into account the number of students at a school eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and when considering a school’s percentage of students from traditionally underserved racial/ethnic groups.
Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department. (NYT🔒)
With about 66,000 students — more than the public school enrollment in Boston or Seattle — the Pentagon’s schools for children of military members and civilian employees quietly achieve results most educators can only dream of. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal exam that is considered the gold standard for comparing states and large districts, the Defense Department’s schools outscored every jurisdiction in math and reading last year and managed to avoid widespread pandemic losses.
Want To Get Into A Top College? Better Crush The Essay (Forbes🔒)
With affirmative action outlawed, and use of SATs in decline, selective colleges are paying ever more attention to essays. ChatGPT poses a challenge. It’s worth noting that there are plenty of schools that don’t give essays much weight and some that don’t even require them. According to recent NACAC data, 19% of schools assign “considerable” importance to essays, 37% consider them of “moderate” importance, 27% consider them of “limited” importance and 17% don’t consider essays at all. By comparison, in the same survey, 74% consider high school grades of considerable importance and another 19% assign moderate weight to those grades. Yet significantly more schools now consider essays important than give high weight to SAT or ACT scores, which since the start of the Covid pandemic have become optional at a majority of schools. NACAC reports just 5% of schools give scores considerable weight, with another 24% giving them moderate importance.
Decline in Humanities (Chartr)
Food & Drink
People Are Drinking Less Craft Beer. Here’s Why, Says Brewers Association (Forbes🔒)
After a decade-plus of unprecedented growth, the craft beer industry is starting to experience some growing pains that are, well, sobering. As a Forbes contributor previously reported, over the first half of 2023 craft beer sales numbers declined by 2% according to the Brewers Association—the first time the industry saw a decline other than in 2020 since these stats have been tracked. In one way, the reasons for craft beer’s diminishing sales are complex and range from still-lingering pandemic disruptions to an intense growth rate in recent years that was never sustainable, and from general inflation to lifestyle trends around healthier living. But in another sense, the reason for the rough patch craft beer has encountered is simple. “The number one reason why people say they're drinking less craft [beer] isn't because they're watching their waistline or watching their wallet, it's because they are drinking more of some other type of beverage alcohol,” said Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association, during a webinar discussing the results of the Brewers Association’s mid-year survey. Other reasons respondents said they were drinking less beer included opting for a healthier lifestyle overall, cutting back on overall calorie consumption, drinking more non-alcoholic beverages, the economy and more. But these other concerns were at most half as common as drinking other types of alcohol, according to the survey.
California becomes the first state to ban 4 food additives linked to disease (NPR)
California has become the first U.S. state to outlaw the use of four potentially harmful food and drink additives that have been linked to an array of diseases, including cancer, and are already banned in dozens of countries. The California Food Safety Act prohibits the manufacturing, distribution and sale of food and beverages that contain brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and red dye 3 — which can be found in candy, fruit juices, cookies and more. Backers of the law say it doesn't mean popular products will suddenly disappear from store shelves, but rather that companies will have to tweak their recipes to be able to offer the same food and drink items with healthier ingredients.
Nature
Nearly 1,000 Birds Die After Striking Chicago Building (NYT🔒)
At least 961 birds died in one night in Chicago after crashing into the windows of the McCormick Place Lakeside Center during the height of the fall migration.
Entertainment
Hollywood Writers Ratify New Contract With Studios (NYT🔒)
Hollywood film and TV writers voted overwhelmingly to approve a new three-year contract with the major entertainment studios, the Writers Guild of America said on Monday, formally bringing to a close a bitter five-month labor dispute. During the one-week voting period, more than 8,500 writers submitted ballots, and the contract was ratified with 99 percent of the vote, according to the Writers Guild, which represents more than 11,000 screenwriters.
Sports
Kelvin Kiptum destroys world marathon record in Chicago: Is he the new GOAT? (The Athletic)
Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum demolished the world marathon record Sunday in Chicago, becoming the first person to ever run under 2:01 in a record-eligible marathon. Kiptum finished in 2:00:35. Eliud Kipchoge — who held the previous world record of 2:01:09 set in Berlin last year — ran 1:59:40 in a controlled race environment in 2019.
Simone Biles Is Officially the Most Decorated Gymnast in History (WSJ🔒)
Biles didn’t need to rub anyone’s face in her achievements. Her gymnastics said everything about her comeback. It also officially made the 26-year-old American the most decorated athlete in the history of the sport, a title that had long been assumed to be hers, but actually belonged to a male gymnast of the 1990s named Vitaly Scherbo. It finally became accurate when Biles secured a 34th medal from world and Olympic competition by winning the all-around title here on Friday night. Over the weekend she added to her lead, amassing three more medals: gold with a stellar performance on balance beam, and then another gold on the floor exercise all of two hours later, as well as silver on vault, even with a fallout of her landing.
The $300-a-Day Lift Ticket That Every Skier Hates (WSJ🔒)
You can subscribe to ski or pay the price. Top ski resorts want even the most infrequent snow bunnies to pay for their passes long before the first flakes fall. It is part of a big push by resorts to nudge skiers into prepaying for passes for multiple days or full seasons. This dynamic has long existed at ski mountains, but prices are soaring for passes bought the day you ski. A single ticket at A-list resorts Park City, Vail and Beaver Creek will set you back $299 a person on a peak day this season. A $949 season pass offers unlimited access to those resorts and dozens of others all winter. The prices for the two most popular mega-passes, Epic and Ikon, are set to climb this week. The passes are cheapest in the spring before the prior season ends and rise until they go off the market in late autumn. There are now dozens of pass options, which range from under $100 to over $1,200. Some passes have a range of blackout dates and locations that are ineligible for use, but tempt skiers by providing a better value over multiple uses than the day-of lift tickets.Vail Resorts, the nation’s largest ski-resort operator, created this model when it introduced the Epic pass in 2008. It now gives skiers unlimited access to over 40 resorts for one set price instead of purchasing individual lift tickets or passes to several mountains. The Ikon pass, from Alterra Mountain Co., lets skiers choose from 58 resorts around the world.
Disney Agonized About Sports Betting. Now It’s Going All In. (WSJ🔒)
In August, the company struck a 10-year deal with sports-betting company Penn Entertainment to bring gambling to Disney’s ESPN sports network. Sports fans will be able to wager on games on their phones through a new app called ESPN Bet that accepts bets through Penn’s sportsbook. The idea of gambling under the same roof as Disney has roiled some company executives and employees who feel it will damage the brand that is synonymous with princesses and talking cartoon ducks. In the last year, at least one large investor warned Disney that it might have to sell some of its Disney stake if the company embraced betting. But for ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro and Iger, who saw his two adult sons glued to gambling apps on their smartphones, the chance to engage a younger male audience, and the money, were eventually too good to pass up. Penn will pay Disney $1.5 billion in cash while ESPN will receive warrants worth about $500 million to purchase shares in the gambling company. Penn will operate the app and Disney will help market it.
IOC suspends Russian Olympic Committee and cuts off its funding (WP🔒)
The International Olympic Committee took the unusual step of suspending the Russian Olympic Committee on Thursday as punishment for Russia’s recent attempt to claim athletes from regions in Ukraine as their own. The announcement, which came after the IOC’s executive board meeting in Mumbai, means the ROC will stop receiving funding from the IOC while under suspension. The IOC is often a large source of funding for each country’s Olympic committee. Thursday’s decision does not impact the current IOC policy that bans athletes from Russia and Belarus from next summer’s Paris Olympics but allows each sport to decide allow those athletes to participate as independents provided they do not publicly support the war or are part of the Russian military.
For Fun
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta brings colorful displays to the New Mexico sky (AP News)
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has brought colorful displays to the New Mexico sky in an international event that attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators every year. The event started Saturday with a drone light show before sunrise followed by a mass ascension of hot air balloons. Over nine days, local residents and visitors will be treated to a cavalcade of colorful and special-shaped balloons. The annual gathering has become a major economic driver for the state’s biggest city. The Rio Grande and nearby mountains provide spectacular backdrops to the fiesta that began with a few pilots launching 13 balloons from an open lot near a shopping center on what was the edge of Albuquerque in 1972. The fiesta has morphed into one of the most photographed events in the world, now based at Balloon Fiesta Park. Balloon designs have featured cartoon animals, Star Wars characters and even the polar bear found on Klondike bars.
Have a great weekend!
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.