This week in the news | 18 May 24
News from the past week, and a few other things.
👋 Hello Reader, I hope you had a great week. This week I changed the format of The Quick Shot to make it more narrative. Let me know what you think, and if you like it over the format I’ve been using. The Slow Brew remains the same.
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
Britain’s GCHQ chief has raised alarms about Putin plotting ‘physical attacks’ on the West, emphasizing the growing threat from Russia and China (The Telegraph). Meanwhile, things went wrong for the New York-Dublin ‘Portal’, an art installation aimed at fostering connectivity between the two cities, which had to be shut down due to inappropriate and offensive content (NYT🔒).
North America
Detailed maps from the NYT reveal how gun violence has changed across various communities over the past few years (NYT🔒) 📊. Amidst rising climate concerns, the Biden administration has made a case for new China tariffs aimed at supporting U.S. climate tech industries, potentially inviting economic backlash from China (Semafor) 📊. In a controversial move, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pardoned a man convicted of killing a Black Lives Matter protester, stirring debates over justice and political influence (WSJ🔒).
Europe
Ukraine and the U.S. have condemned the attempted assassination of Slovakia's Russia-friendly prime minister, highlighting the region's ongoing instability (Semafor). Concurrently, Russian forces are making a sudden push across Ukrainian lines, causing significant disruptions and civilian displacements (NYT🔒) 📊. In France, a dramatic manhunt is underway after a prisoner escaped during a violent ambush that resulted in the deaths of two prison guards (NYT🔒).
Middle East
The Middle East sees a glimmer of hope as the US confirms that the first aid trucks have arrived via a temporary pier in Gaza, marking a significant step in humanitarian efforts amidst ongoing conflict (BBC).
Asia-Pacific
In the Asia-Pacific region, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have pledged to deepen strategic ties during talks in Beijing, emphasizing their countries' strong alliance (VOA News). As Taiwan prepares for a new president, questions loom over how the new leadership will handle relations with China amid rising tensions (Foreign Affairs🔒).
Oceania
France is rushing reinforcements to New Caledonia following days of violent riots, aiming to restore order and address the underlying political and social issues in this crucial Indo-Pacific territory (WSJ🔒) 📊.
Space
Space exploration is heating up again, with nations and private entities eyeing the moon for future missions. The reasons behind why everyone is heading back to the moon highlight the strategic importance of lunar exploration (Bloomberg🔒) 📊. Meanwhile, U.S. officials reveal that Russia launched a research spacecraft for an antisatellite nuclear weapon two years ago, raising concerns over space militarization (WSJ🔒). To maintain its lead, the U.S. aims to build an enduring advantage in the third space age through sustained innovation and strategic planning (AEI) 📊.
Government
In a significant political development, Biden and Trump have agreed to debates in their first TV face-offs since 2020, setting the stage for high-stakes confrontations ahead of the 2024 election (Bloomberg🔒).
Economy
The U.S. economy shows mixed signals as inflation eases, with core prices posting the smallest increase since 2021, offering some relief to investors and the Federal Reserve (WSJ🔒) 📊. However, surging hospital prices are keeping inflation high, adding to the economic challenges (WSJ🔒) 📊. A detailed analysis over the past 50 years reveals trends in worker pay, highlighting significant growth for women (AEI) 📊. In what shouldn’t surprise you, interest costs have surpassed spending on defense and Medicare, underscoring the growing financial burden of national debt (CRFB) 📊.
Crypto
In the crypto world, two MIT brothers have been arrested over a rapid-fire $25 million crypto heist, marking a significant case of fraud and money laundering in the digital currency space (Bloomberg🔒).
Energy
Europe's energy supply faces critical dependency as Norway's Equinor emerges as a key player, now supplying 30% of the bloc’s gas and replacing Russia’s Gazprom in prominence (Bloomberg🔒) 📊.
Auto
In a setback for labor unions, workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories in Alabama have rejected union representation (NYT🔒).
Real Estate
The real estate market continues to be in flux, with U.S. home prices surging 47% since 2020 (Fox Business). High housing costs have propelled the construction of rental homes at an unprecedented rate (WSJ🔒) 📊, while Florida and Texas show signs of home prices falling due to increased inventory (WSJ🔒). A detailed analysis allows buyers to see how home prices have changed in their area (WP🔒) 📊.
Personal Finance
More Americans are falling behind on credit card bills as rising prices and high interest rates strain household finances, highlighting the growing financial challenges for many consumers (NPR) 📊.
Science
A flood of fake science is forcing the closure of multiple journals, with top publishers retracting thousands of compromised papers, raising concerns about the integrity of scientific research (WSJ🔒) 📊.
Cyber
Parents are suing video game makers accusing them of intentionally addicting their kids, a legal battle that could have significant implications for the gaming industry (Bloomberg🔒).
Artificial Intelligence
AI is set to revolutionize mathematics by uncovering new relationships and solving complex problems, transforming fields where human creativity was once deemed essential (Nature). However, there are calls to press pause on the Silicon Valley hype machine, questioning some of AI's purported achievements and urging a more critical evaluation (NYT🔒).
Health
In a rare positive trend, U.S. overdose deaths have declined for the first time since 2018, offering a glimmer of hope in the ongoing battle against the fentanyl crisis (WSJ🔒) 📊. Meanwhile, a study reveals that military rank affects quality of medical care, providing insights into societal power dynamics and their impact on healthcare outcomes (MSN).
Food & Drink
A modest Mexican taco restaurant has won a Michelin star, showcasing how love and effort can lead to culinary excellence and international recognition (France24).
Entertainment
YouTube is becoming a dominant force in TV viewership, with Americans spending nearly 10% of their TV time on the platform, indicating a major shift in how content is consumed (WSJ🔒) 📊. The Mirage casino, an iconic landmark on the Las Vegas Strip, is closing, marking the end of an era for the property credited with transforming Sin City into a luxury resort destination (AP).
Sports
Baseball catchers are increasingly getting whacked by hitters, with the frequency of catcher interference calls skyrocketing, prompting MLB to consider rule changes to address the issue (WSJ🔒).
THE SLOW BREW ☕
A more relaxed approach to the summaries.
World
Putin is plotting ‘physical attacks’ on the West, says GCHQ chief (The Telegraph)
Vladimir Putin’s Russia is preparing “physical attacks” against the West, the head of GCHQ has warned, as British and American intelligence officials laid bare the dual threat posed by Moscow and Beijing. Anne Keast-Butler, who was appointed to lead Britain’s signals intelligence operations last May, used her first major speech to highlight the immediate threat posed by the Kremlin and the “epoch-defining” risk posed by China to the UK and its allies. The GCHQ director told a gathering of cybersecurity experts in Birmingham that her agency believed Moscow was looking to go further than attacks simply in cyberspace. The signals agency is “increasingly concerned about growing links between the Russian intelligence services and proxy groups to conduct cyber-attacks – as well as suspected physical surveillance and sabotage operations.”
How Things Went Wrong for the New York-Dublin ‘Portal’ (NYT🔒)
The Portal, a large, round art installation designed to livestream video between the Flatiron district in Manhattan and a similar sculpture in the center of Dublin, would “redefine the boundaries of artistic expression and connectivity,” its promoters said when they unveiled it last week. How it redefined those boundaries became a problem after videos on social media showed an OnlyFans model lifting her shirt in New York and people in Dublin displaying swastikas and images of the World Trade Center burning on Sept. 11, 2001. The video feed between the two cities was shut down on Tuesday — temporarily, officials in New York and Dublin said.
North America
How Has Gun Violence Changed in Your Neighborhood? (NYT🔒) 📊
A surge of shootings during the pandemic took thousands of lives and reshaped American neighborhoods. These maps show that the footprint of violence expanded nationwide from 2020 through 2023, and they reveal shifting patterns of violence in communities across the country. The maps are based on a New York Times analysis of data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks shootings in the United States. They allow you to compare data on fatal shootings block by block, to see the change from the prepandemic period, and to explore the racial demographics of neighborhoods where fatal shootings occurred.
NOTE: Great interactive map for the entire US.
Yikes, Philly…so much for brotherly love! “There were at least 1,757 fatal shootings in Philadelphia from 2020-23. This map shows how many shootings were within a quarter mile of each block. About 75 percent of people lived near a shooting.”
The climate case for Biden’s new China tariffs (Semafor) 📊
The Biden administration expanded tariffs on imported solar panels on Thursday, capping a busy week of escalating trade barriers for climate tech that risks inviting a backlash from China in exchange for cementing the political coalition behind climate policy ahead of a high-stakes presidential election. The new solar tariffs apply to dual-sided panels that are popular with utility-scale solar farms and constitute the majority of US solar imports, and which had previously been exempted from import duties. In raising the cost to import panels, the administration is delivering a win to the nascent US solar manufacturing industry and its political allies, who have been pushing for more protection from low-cost Chinese competitors — even as solar installers warned doing so could raise costs for consumers. The tariffs follow a suite of other new trade measures unveiled this week on clean tech imported from China, including a 100% tariff on EVs that will hit next year.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Pardons Man Who Killed BLM Protester (WSJ🔒)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a full pardon Thursday to a man convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in the state’s capital city in 2020. Daniel Perry, a former Army sergeant, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year for killing Garrett Foster, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran. The killing followed weeks of Perry sending messages to friends discussing shooting protesters and sharing racist sentiments, according to court evidence, in the wake of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd and the nationwide protests that followed. Perry told police that he believed Foster, who was legally carrying an AK-47-style rifle, had aimed the gun in his direction. The shooting occurred on July 25, 2020, as demonstrators marched down Austin’s most iconic street, Congress Avenue, blocks from the state capitol. Perry, who was working as an Uber driver, drove up to the group of protesters and opened fire after a confrontation with Foster, a well-known local social-justice activist who was pushing his disabled partner in a wheelchair. During Perry’s trial, witnesses supporting him called him a good man overall who struggled socially because of a speech impediment when he was young and an autism-spectrum disorder. A forensic psychologist said Perry had post-traumatic stress disorder that made him highly reactive and cognitive peculiarities that made him see the world in a black-or-white way. Prosecutors presented social media and text messages showing Perry had suggested violence against protesters before the shooting, including writing “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment” and “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.”
Europe
Ukraine, US condemn attempted assassination of Russia-friendly Slovak prime minister (Semafor)
Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico has “life-threatening” injuries after he was shot in the head and chest following a government meeting at a community center in Handlová, central Slovakia on Wednesday. Witnesses at the scene reported hearing three to four gunshots before realizing that Fico had been struck. His security team whisked him away and he was airlifted to a hospital. His government and other leaders have described the attack as an “assassination attempt.” The alleged assailant was reportedly detained by police at the scene, Reuters reported. After initial interviews with the suspect, the government believes the attack was politically motivated, said Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok. Details of the interrogation have not yet been released.
Mapping Russia’s Sudden Push Across Ukrainian Lines (NYT🔒) 📊
All of a sudden, Russian forces are making progress in many directions at once. In recent days, Russian troops have surged across the border from the north and opened a new line of attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, capturing settlements and villages and forcing thousands of civilians to flee.
Manhunt Underway in France After Prisoner Escapes in Ambush (NYT🔒)
The black Peugeot 5008 rammed the police van carrying a prisoner as it emerged from a tollbooth on a major highway about 85 miles northwest of Paris. Hooded men with automatic weapons leaped from the car, encircling the van and firing on it with unhurried precision for more than two minutes. When they were through, two prison guards were dead — the first to be killed in the line of duty in 32 years — three more were wounded, and the still-handcuffed prisoner the van was transporting, Mohamed Amra, had escaped, setting off a manhunt involving several hundred officers. “The attack this morning, which took the lives of prison guards, is a shock to us all,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said on X after the attack, which occurred around 11 a.m. on Tuesday and stunned the country with its brazenness and violence. “We will be uncompromising,” he added, promising to track down the perpetrators.
Middle East
US confirms first aid trucks arrive via Gaza pier (BBC)
The US military has confirmed that the first aid shipment via a temporary pier off Gaza has gone ashore. US Central Command confirmed in a post on X that the aid trucks began moving ashore at about 0900 local time (0700 BST). "This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature," the post read, adding that no US troops went ashore. However, the UN has warned that the maritime corridor is not a replacement for land routes, which are seen as the quickest and most effective way of delivering aid. In the coming days around 500 tonnes of aid is expected to enter Gaza, according to US Central Command.
Asia-Pacific
Xi, Putin pledge to deepen strategic ties at Beijing talks (VOA News)
Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the relationship between China and Russia and pledged to deepen their partnership as he hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks in Beijing. Putin, who is on a two-day visit to China, called the relationship a stabilizing factor in the world, and said Russia-China ties are "not directed against anyone," according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Putin expressed gratitude toward China for what he called Chinese efforts to resolve the situation in Ukraine and said he would inform Xi about the latest developments. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Putin saying Wednesday that Russia "has never refused to negotiate" a resolution to the conflict, and that Russia seeks a "comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of this conflict through peaceful means." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed a peace plan, and Switzerland is set to host peace talks next month, but Russia was not invited to the meetings. Ukraine is seeking a full withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, including from areas Russia claimed to annex in a move that was rejected by the international community. China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict. But it has economically, politically and rhetorically backed Russia and refuses to condemn Moscow’s offensive.
How Will Taiwan’s New President Handle China? (Foreign Affairs🔒)
On May 20, in a ceremony in Taipei, Lai Ching-te is scheduled to be inaugurated as the next leader of Taiwan. Currently vice president, Lai is taking over from President Tsai Ing-wen at a delicate moment in Taiwan’s relations with Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards the self-ruling island of 23 million people as a renegade province to be unified with the mainland by force, if necessary. And although Taiwan has managed to maintain significant trade and interpersonal ties to mainland China while postponing discussions over its sovereignty, this ambiguous status quo has recently frayed amid political headwinds from both Beijing and Taipei. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has explicitly made taking Taiwan part of his plans to “rejuvenate” China. But Taiwan’s people are less interested than ever in unifying with the mainland.
Oceania
France Rushes Reinforcements to Riot-Stricken New Caledonia (WSJ🔒) 📊
France is rushing security reinforcements to its overseas territory of New Caledonia, a crucial foothold for Paris in the Indo-Pacific, after days of violent riots that have led to the deaths of at least five people and raised difficult questions over the archipelago’s future and France’s broader role in the region. French authorities said Thursday that 1,000 police officers were on their way to the territory, while the army was being deployed to secure ports and the main airport. Around 1,700 police officers are already present in New Caledonia, where rioters have burned buildings, looted shops and set up road barricades, they added. It began earlier this week over a bill proposed by Paris that would extend voting rights in local elections to all citizens who have been residents of New Caledonia for 10 years—something opponents say would risk diluting the influence of the indigenous Kanak, who make up about 40% of the territory’s population of nearly 300,000. About a quarter are of European descent, and the islands have been under French control since they were annexed in 1853. The move to widen the vote followed several years of failed negotiations between Paris and anti- and pro-independence groups. Under current law, only people who have been living in New Caledonia since at least 1998 and their children ages 18 and older, can vote in local elections.
Space
Why Everyone Is Heading Back to the Moon (Bloomberg🔒) 📊
More than 50 years after the last human set foot on the moon, the US and China are competing to repeat the achievement. A handful of other countries have their own lunar programs, as does the European Union. Through 2030, governments and private entities have planned more than 100 missions to fly past or circle the moon or to land crewed or uncrewed spacecraft there, according to a count by the European Space Agency. Unlike the last moon race, between the US and what was then the Soviet Union, the objective goes beyond leaving so-called flags and footprints on the lunar surface. The aim this time is to stick around for a while, using the moon as a proving ground and staging base for a much more ambitious project: travel to Mars, which is 200 times farther away.
Russia Launched Research Spacecraft for Antisatellite Nuclear Weapon Two Years Ago, U.S. Officials Say (WSJ🔒)
Russia launched a satellite into space in February 2022 that is designed to test components for a potential antisatellite weapon that would carry a nuclear device, U.S. officials said. The satellite that was launched doesn’t carry a nuclear weapon. But U.S. officials say it is linked to a continuing Russian nuclear antisatellite program that has been a growing worry for the Biden administration, Congress and experts outside the government in recent months. The weapon, if deployed, would give Moscow the ability to destroy hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit with a nuclear blast. The satellite in question, known as Cosmos-2553, was launched on Feb. 5, 2022, and is still traveling around the Earth in an unusual orbit. It has been secretly operating as a research and development platform for nonnuclear components of the new weapon system, which Russia has yet to deploy, other officials said.
Building an Enduring Advantage in the Third Space Age (AEI) 📊
The United States is leading the world into a new era of space activity and enjoys a substantial economic and military advantage in space, despite adversary advances in counterspace weapons that hold these advantages at risk. The US advantage in space rests largely on America’s lead in space technology—an accumulated advantage that may ultimately prove fleeting without sustained effort and attention. To turn this temporary lead into an enduring advantage, the United States must build on sources of national power that run deeper than technology: the combination of free markets, an open society, and access to capital, which enable the engine of innovation behind this technology.
NOTE: Overall great report—contains many charts and lots of informative data, from satellite launches, to space debris (more than 14,000 pieces larger than a tennis ball).
Government
Biden, Trump Agree to Debates in First TV Face-Offs Since 2020 (Bloomberg🔒)
President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump said they would debate each other in June and then again in September, setting the stage for their first televised face-off of the 2024 campaign earlier than expected.
Economy
Inflation Eases as Core Prices Post Smallest Increase Since 2021 (WSJ🔒) 📊
U.S. inflation eased slightly in April, offering relief to investors and the Federal Reserve after a run of economic data at the start of the year revealed simmering price pressures. The consumer-price index, a gauge for goods and service costs across the U.S. economy, rose 3.4% in April from a year ago, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Core prices that exclude volatile food and energy items climbed 3.6% annually, the lowest increase since April 2021. Investors cheered the report, which was in line with expectations. It followed three months in which inflation was firmer than anticipated.
Surging Hospital Prices Are Helping Keep Inflation High (WSJ🔒) 📊
One reason U.S. inflation is still high: Increases in prices for procedures to prop open clogged arteries, provide intensive care for newborns and biopsy breasts. Hospitals didn’t raise prices as early in the pandemic as supermarkets, retailers and restaurants. But they have been making up ground since then. Their increases have contributed to stubbornly high inflation readings from the consumer-price index, which in April increased 3.4% from a year ago. Hospital prices specifically jumped 7.7% last month from a year ago, the highest increase in any month since October 2010, the Labor Department said Wednesday.
Understanding Trends in Worker Pay over the Past 50 Years (AEI) 📊
Despite numerous claims to the contrary, the pay of American workers has tracked productivity trends—for at least 95 years. The pay of the median worker, however, after rising with economy-wide productivity, has risen much more slowly since the early 1970s. This divergence reflects rising inequality in worker productivity and a deceleration in male pay—the latter caused by a shift to a service economy and the dissipation of “breadwinner rents” that went to sole male breadwinners in an era when women’s economic opportunities were constrained.
Interest Costs Just Surpassed Defense and Medicare (CRFB) 📊
In the first seven months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, spending on net interest has reached $514 billion, surpassing spending on both national defense ($498 billion) and Medicare ($465 billion). Overall spending has totaled $3.9 trillion thus far. Spending on interest is also more than all the money spent this year on veterans, education, and transportation combined. Interest on the debt is currently the fastest growing part of the budget, nearly doubling from $345 billion (1.6 percent of GDP) in FY 2020 to $659 billion (2.4 percent of GDP) in 2023, and net interest is on track to reach $870 billion (3.1 percent of GDP) by the end of FY 2024. Spending on interest is now the second largest line item in the budget and is expected to remain so for the rest of the fiscal year. By 2051, interest will be the largest line item in the budget. Rising debt will continue to put upward pressure on interest rates. Without reforms to reduce the debt and interest, interest costs will keep rising, crowd out spending on other priorities, and burden future generations.
Business
MIT Brothers Arrested Over Rapid-Fire $25 Million Crypto Heist (Bloomberg🔒)
Two brothers who studied at MIT were charged with exploiting a weakness in the Ethereum blockchain and stealing $25 million in 12 seconds, in what prosecutors called a first-of-its-kind caper. Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28, were charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with fraud and money laundering offenses. They are accused of carrying out the lightning-fast heist, plotted over the course of months, from their keyboards last year. “The brothers, who studied computer science and math at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, allegedly used their specialized skills and education to tamper with and manipulate the protocols relied upon by millions of Ethereum users across the globe,” Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
Europe’s Gas Supply Once Again Hinges on One Company (Bloomberg🔒) 📊
In the more than two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, sending energy prices soaring, the Norwegian oil and gas giant has quietly picked up the crown that once belonged to Russia’s Gazprom PJSC. Norway now supplies 30% of the bloc’s gas; Gazprom provided about 35% of all Europe’s gas before the war. And of the more than 109 billion cubic meters of natural gas Norway exported to Europe last year — enough to power Germany until 2026 — roughly two-thirds was marketed and sold by Equinor. So long as the bloc continues to depend heavily on fossil fuels, Norwegian hydrocarbons will be essential to keeping the lights on in Europe.
Mercedes Workers in Alabama Reject Union (NYT🔒)
Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Ala., voted on Friday against allowing the United Automobile Workers to represent them, a stunning blow to the union’s campaign to gain ground in the South, where it has traditionally been weak.
US home prices have surged 47% since the start of 2020 (Fox Business)
Home prices have surged 47.1% since the start of 2020, easily outstripping the gains seen in recent decades. That's according to a recent analysis by ResiClub of the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which showed that house prices in the 1990s and 2010s grew a respective 30.1% and 44.7%. On top of that, home price growth so far this decade is on the verge of surpassing all the growth seen in the 2000s. During that time period, housing prices skyrocketed 47.3%, including an 80% spike before the 2007 housing market crash. There are a number of driving forces behind the spike in prices. Years of underbuilding fueled a shortage of homes in the country, a problem that was later exacerbated by the rapid rise in mortgage rates and expensive construction materials. Available home supply remains down a stunning 34.3% from the typical amount before the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, according to a separate report published by Realtor.com. Higher mortgage rates over the past three years have also created a "golden handcuff" effect in the housing market. Sellers who locked in a record-low mortgage rate of 3% or less during the pandemic began have been reluctant to sell, limiting supply further and leaving few options for eager would-be buyers. Economists predict that mortgage rates will remain elevated in 2024 and that they will only begin to fall once the Federal Reserve starts cutting rates. Even then, rates are unlikely to return to the lows seen during the pandemic.
Sky-High Housing Costs Propel Construction of Rental Homes (WSJ🔒) 📊
Developers are building new houses for rent at an unprecedented rate, aiming to capitalize on the steep home prices and higher mortgage rates that are forcing many Americans to keep renting. In 2023, 93,000 new single-family homes for rent were completed, according to estimates from housing consulting firm John Burns Research and Consulting. That was 39% more rental homes than in 2022, and the most in any year ever. The breakneck pace is poised to continue this year before easing by 2025.
Florida and Texas Show Signs of Home Prices Falling (WSJ🔒)
In most of the U.S., the limited number of homes for sale is pushing prices back toward record highs. Sale prices for single-family existing homes rose in 93% of U.S. metro areas during the first quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median single-family existing-home price grew 5% from a year ago to $389,400. Yet the market is cooling and prices have started falling in some cities in Florida and Texas, where robust home-building activity in recent years has helped boost the number of homes for sale. The two states accounted for more than a quarter of all single-family residential building permits every year from 2019 to 2023, according to Census Bureau data. In 10 Texas and Florida metro areas, the inventory of homes for sale in April exceeded typical prepandemic levels for this time of year, according to Realtor.com. In eight of those markets, pending sales in April fell from a year earlier. Only five of the 50 biggest markets posted year-over-year price declines in March, according to data provider Intercontinental Exchange, and four of them were in Texas or Florida: Austin, Texas; North Port, Fla.; Cape Coral, Fla.; and San Antonio.
Are home prices still rising? See how prices have changed in your area (WP🔒) 📊
Home prices grew faster in many small cities and rural areas compared to large cities in the last year, as buyers continue to move to the outskirts of major metropolitan areas where prices are often more affordable — a trend that’s persisted since the start of the pandemic. Several of the biggest drops in home values were in and around Austin, which is in the midst of a years-long housing boom, as tech companies expanded in the region and workers moved from coastal cities to take advantage of the relative affordability. Prices in Austin’s Travis County fell 2 percent, a leveling off that economic experts say was expected in the heated market. Prices in nearby counties including Hays, Bastrop and Williamson also fell. Overall, four of the ten counties with the biggest price drops were in the Austin metro area.
The 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress (HUD) 📊
On a single night in 2023, roughly 653,100 people – or about 20 of every 10,000 people in the United States – were experiencing homelessness. Six in ten people were experiencing sheltered homelessness—that is, in an emergency shelter (ES), transitional housing (TH), or safe haven (SH) program—while the remaining four in ten were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in places not meant for human habitation. Experiences of homelessness increased nationwide across all household types. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 12 percent, or roughly 70,650 more people. Seven in ten people experiencing homelessness (72%) did so in households without children present.
NOTE: The report came out in December 2023, but I just ran across it. Contains lots of data and charts.
Personal Finance
More Americans are falling behind on credit card bills (NPR) 📊
More Americans are falling behind on their credit card bills. About 8.9% of credit card balances fell into delinquency over the last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — a sign that a growing number of borrowers are feeling the strain of rising prices and high interest rates. "Everything is more expensive. Debt is more expensive. Rent is more expensive. Food, gas, everything," says Charlie Wise, senior vice president at TransUnion, the credit reporting firm. "Even with relatively healthy wage gains we've seen over last several years, many consumers just aren't keeping up with the price pressures."
Science
Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures (WSJ🔒)
Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals, leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue. The biggest hit has come to Wiley, a 217-year-old publisher based in Hoboken, N.J., which Tuesday will announce that it is closing 19 journals, some of which were infected by large-scale research fraud. In the past two years, Wiley has retracted more than 11,300 papers that appeared compromised, according to a spokesperson, and closed four journals. It isn’t alone: At least two other publishers have retracted hundreds of suspect papers each. Several others have pulled smaller clusters of bad papers. Although this large-scale fraud represents a small percentage of submissions to journals, it threatens the legitimacy of the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry and the credibility of science as a whole. The sources of the fake science are “paper mills”—businesses or individuals that, for a price, will list a scientist as an author of a wholly or partially fabricated paper. The mill then submits the work, generally avoiding the most prestigious journals in favor of publications such as one-off special editions that might not undergo as thorough a review and where they have a better chance of getting bogus work published. World-over, scientists are under pressure to publish in peer-reviewed journals—sometimes to win grants, other times as conditions for promotions. Researchers say this motivates people to cheat the system. Many journals charge a fee to authors to publish in them.
Cyber
Kids Hooked on Video Games Prompt a Flurry of Lawsuits (Bloomberg🔒)
Parents’ attorneys are attempting to have more than a dozen video game addiction lawsuits filed so far grouped together before a single federal judge at a hearing set for May 30 in Salt Lake City. While victory for the parents is far from assured, the risk for the game publishers is real. If the litigation follows the explosive path of the social media lawsuits, the industry could theoretically face hundreds of millions of dollars in damages—even if not on the scale of the $206 billion Big Tobacco settlement of a quarter century ago. Just as significant, getting pummeled in court could force publishers to make their games less compulsive, potentially lowering users’ screen time and thus raising the likelihood they’ll spend less on downloadable game products and lucrative in-game payments.
Artificial Intelligence
Why mathematics is set to be revolutionized by AI (Nature)
How has AI made a difference in areas of mathematics in which human creativity was thought to be essential? First, there are no coincidences in maths. In real-world experiments, false negatives and false positives abound. But in maths, a single counterexample leaves a conjecture dead in the water. For example, the Pólya conjecture states that most integers below any given integer have an odd number of prime factors. But in 1960, it was found that the conjecture does not hold for the number 906,180,359. In one fell swoop, the conjecture was falsified. Second, mathematical data — on which AI can be trained — are cheap. Primes, knots and many other types of mathematical object are abundant. The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) contains almost 375,000 sequences — from the familiar Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ...) to the formidable Busy Beaver sequence (0, 1, 4, 6, 13, …), which grows faster than any computable function. Scientists are already using machine-learning tools to search the OEIS database to find unanticipated relationships.
OPINION | Press Pause on the Silicon Valley Hype Machine (NYT🔒)
But some of A.I.’s greatest accomplishments seem inflated. Some of you may remember that the A.I. model ChatGPT-4 aced the uniform bar exam a year ago. Turns out that it scored in the 48th percentile, not the 90th, as claimed by OpenAI, according to a re-examination by the M.I.T. researcher Eric Martínez. Or what about Google’s claim that it used A.I. to discover more than two million new chemical compounds? A re-examination by experimental materials chemists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found “scant evidence for compounds that fulfill the trifecta of novelty, credibility and utility.” Meanwhile, researchers in many fields have found that A.I. often struggles to answer even simple questions, whether about the law, medicine or voter information. Researchers have even found that A.I. does not always improve the quality of computer programming, the task it is supposed to excel at.
NOTE: a compelling counter-narrative to the hype around AI. Time will tell how we are best able to use AI (or how it uses us…)
Health
U.S. Overdose Deaths Decline for First Time Since 2018 (WSJ🔒) 📊
The U.S. saw a slight decline in the number of new overdose deaths last year, marking a rare improvement in a still-raging national fentanyl crisis, preliminary federal data show. There were about 107,500 overdose deaths in 2023, down 3% from the year before and the first decline in five years, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One factor was fewer deaths pegged to opioids including the nation’s deadliest drug, the potent synthetic fentanyl, the CDC’s preliminary numbers show.
Military rank affects medical care, offering societal insights: study (MSN)
Human relationships are inherently shaped by power dynamics, yet quantifying their impact has remained a scientific challenge. Now, a large new study published Thursday in the journal Science reveals that military doctors give more attention to higher-ranked patients, providing concrete evidence about the privileges that come with elevated status, frequently at the expense of the less powerful. For their research, Singh and co-author Stephen Schwab of the University of Texas at San Antonio examined 1.5 million doctor-patient encounters in the US military health service's records. Rather than exploring how doctors might respond differently to, say, generals versus privates, they chose a more nuanced approach: comparing how soldiers of equal rank, for example two majors, were treated in emergency departments (EDs) by physicians who either outranked them or were outranked by them. The "high-power" patients who outranked their doctors received 3.6 percent more effort and resources, as measured by tests, diagnosis and treatment codes, time spent with the physician, and opioids prescribed. High-power patients also had better outcomes, with a 15 percent lower likelihood of hospital admission in the following 30 days.
Food & Drink
'No secret': modest Mexican taco restaurant wins Michelin star (France 24)
A hole-in-the-wall taqueria is among the first restaurants in Mexico to be awarded a star by the prestigious Michelin Guide -- an accomplishment its owner credits to "love and effort." El Califa de Leon is one of 18 restaurants given either one or two stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide Mexico unveiled Tuesday. The longstanding family business specializes in just four types of tacos and has room for only a few customers at a time in the San Rafael district of Mexico City.
Entertainment
What’s on TV? For Many Americans, It’s Now YouTube (WSJ🔒)
In the competition for U.S. TV time, YouTube is ascendant. Nearly 10% of the time Americans spent in front of TV screens last month was on YouTube’s flagship smart-TV app, Nielsen data show, a sign of continued transformation of the platform. Once a repository of amateur videos, the service owned by Alphabet’s Google has grown into a streaming behemoth with full-length films, highly produced series, sports highlights and live events. Disney—the parent of TV networks such as ABC and ESPN and streaming services including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+—garnered 11.5% of total TV-viewing time in the U.S. last month, retaining its top position. The data, which Nielsen released Tuesday, for the first time captures the full audience that entertainment companies reach across cable, broadcast and streaming on people’s TV sets.
The Mirage casino, which ushered in an era of Las Vegas Strip megaresorts in the ‘90s, is closing (AP)
The iconic Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip will shut its doors this summer, the end of an era for a property credited with helping transform Sin City into an ultra-luxury resort destination. The July 17 closure will clear the way for major renovations and construction on the 80-acre (32-hectare) property, which is to reopen in 2027 as the Hard Rock Las Vegas, featuring a hotel tower in the shape of a guitar soaring nearly 700 feet (about 210 meters) above the heart of the Strip. “We’d like to thank the Las Vegas community and team members for warmly welcoming Hard Rock after enjoying 34 years at The Mirage,” Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International, said Wednesday in a statement announcing the closure. It will be the second time this year that a Strip casino shutters. The Tropicana Las Vegas closed in April after 67 years to make room for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium planned as the future home of the relocating Oakland A’s. Developed by former casino mogul Steve Wynn, the Mirage opened with a Polynesian theme as the Strip’s first megaresort in 1989, spurring a building boom on the famous boulevard through the 1990s.
Sports
Baseball Catchers Keep Getting Whacked by Hitters. It’s No Accident (WSJ🔒)
In a sport where teams will look anywhere for a competitive advantage, baseball’s latest search for an edge has led to the catcher position, which is in the midst of a full-blown revolution. Unfortunately, it’s one that comes with potentially painful consequences—and it’s forcing umpires to dig deep into the rulebook at an alarming rate. When a catcher impedes a hitter’s swing in most cases, he is charged with an error and the batter is awarded first base. Historically, these calls have been exceedingly rare, typically occurring no more than a couple dozen times all season. But the frequency of catcher interference has skyrocketed over the past decade, jumping to 41 instances in 2016, to 61 in 2019, and to 96 in 2023. This season is almost certainly going to blow past that mark, with 35 catcher interference calls already in the books through last weekend—or 12 more than in the entire 2014 campaign. The catcher interference epidemic has spread so rapidly that MLB addressed the topic with managers at the winter meetings and then again with teams during spring training, a person familiar with the matter said. The message to catchers was clear: Move back. If the situation doesn’t resolve on its own, MLB could explore enacting rules to address the issue, the person said.
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.
