This week in the news | 2 Mar 24

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

Mar 02, 2024

👋 Hello Reader, I hope you had a great week.

Below you’ll find the “quick shot”—a supercharged summary of summaries, followed by the “slow brew”—longer summaries with select graphics, and comments from me.

THE QUICK SHOT 🚀

A supercharged summary of summaries

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

World

North America

Latin America

Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the U.S. (Council on Foreign Relations)
The ‘Luxury Route’ to the U.S. for African Migrants (NYT🔒)
Darién Gap Migration Is Halted After Colombia Arrests Boat Captains (NYT🔒) 📊
Brazil’s Wildly Popular Instant-Payment System Is Going Global (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

Europe

Thousands Defy Kremlin to Attend Alexei Navalny’s Funeral in Moscow (WSJ)
Zelensky Says 31,000 Ukrainian Troops Killed in Two Years of War (WSJ🔒)
How many Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine? (Economist🔒) 📊
How Much Aid Has the U.S. Sent Ukraine? Here Are Six Charts. (CFR) 📊
Putin threatens NATO with nuclear strike if it sends troops to Ukraine (Politico)
How Ukraine Overcame Russia’s Grain Blockade (CFR) 📊
A breakaway region in Europe is asking Russia for protection. Here’s what to know (CNN) 📊
Denmark ends probe into 'deliberate' Nord Stream pipeline blasts (Reuters)
Sweden Clears Final Hurdle to Join NATO With Hungary Vote (Bloomberg🔒)
‘They are among us’: Russia’s terrifyingly effective poisoning operation (FT🔒)

Middle East

Africa

Hunger, Terrorism and the Threat of War: Somalia’s Year of Crises (NYT🔒) 📊
Northern Ethiopia is again sliding into starvation (Economist🔒) 📊
More than a billion people obese worldwide, research suggests (BBC) 📊

Asia-Pacific

Japan isn't quite "back", but it has a fighting chance (Noahpinion)
Japan's new births fall to record low in 2023 as demographic woes deepen (Reuters) 📊
Russia bans gasoline exports for 6 months from March 1 (Reuters)
How Russia Dodged Sanctions, in Seven Charts (WSJ🔒) 📊
While the World Was Looking Elsewhere, North Korea Became a Bigger Threat (WSJ🔒)
U.S. and South Korea fly warplanes in interception drills after North Korea’s missile test (NBC News)
South Korean Doctors Remain Off Job in Defiance of Deadline (Bloomberg🔒)
China Expands Scope of ‘State Secrets’ Law in Security Push (NYT🔒)
Living outside China has become more like living inside China (Economist🔒)
Exclusive: Satellite images reveal floating barrier at mouth of disputed atoll in South China Sea (Reuters)

Oceana

US cautions after Hawaii neighbor Kiribati gets Chinese police (Reuters) 📊

Space

Government

Defense

Army Reorganizes Force for Future Fight (AUSA)
Here are the winners and losers in US Army’s force structure change (Defense News)

Economy

The $100 Bill Is America’s Most Common Currency, and Its Most Annoying (WSJ🔒) 📊

Business

FTC Sues to Block $25 Billion Kroger-Albertsons Merger (WSJ🔒)
How Panera Bread Ducked California’s New $20 Minimum Wage Law (Bloomberg🔒)

Crypto

Bitcoin Tops $60,000—First Time Since 2021 (Forbes🔒)

Energy

Texas just got an enormous 1.1-million-panel solar farm (Electrek)

Auto

Apple cancels decade-long electric car project, source says (Reuters)
Auto Credit Availability Worsened Again in January (Cox Automotive) 📊

Real Estate

Existing Home Sales up 3.1% in January to 4.0 million (RDC Economics)
Dimon Says Commercial Real Estate Problems to Stay Contained If No Recession (Bloomberg🔒)

Personal Finance

Buffett’s Annual Letter Should Be Required Reading for CEOs (Bloomberg🔒)
When High-Yield Savings Accounts Come With an Asterisk (WSJ🔒)
4 Ways to Lock In Yields Above 5% (WSJ🔒)

Technology

India gives green light to chip plants worth $15.2 bln (Reuters)
This DVD-sized disk can store a massive 125,000 gigabytes of data (Popular Science)

Cyber

Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the Era of BadGPTs (WSJ🔒) 📊

Life

Alabama lawmakers pass legislation to protect IVF treatment (WP🔒)
Why Children Need Risk, Fear, and Excitement in Play (After Babel)

Education

$1 Billion Donation Will Provide Free Tuition at a Bronx Medical School (NYT🔒)

Health

New Zealand set to scrap world-first tobacco ban (Reuters)

Food & Drink

Wendy’s Surge Pricing Is Off the Menu After Internet Beef (Gizmodo)

Nature

Travel

Hotel Staff Shortages Threaten to Push Travel Costs Even Higher (WSJ🔒)

Entertainment

Sports

The NFL salary cap will hit a new high this season (Chartr) 📊
‘A major moment for tennis’: ATP agrees partnership with Saudi Arabia’s PIF (The Guardian)
‘Iron Man’ pilots race in jet suits against a backdrop of Dubai skyscrapers (AP)
In on the Joke at the First-Ever Florida Man Games (NYT🔒)

For Fun

THE SLOW BREW ☕

A more relaxed approach to the summaries.

World

Why do we leap day? We remind you (so you can forget for another 4 years) (NPR)

Nearly every four years, the Gregorian calendar — which is used in the majority of countries around the world — gets an extra day: February 29. For some people, leap day means frog jokes and extravagant birthday parties. For many, it may conjure memories of the 2010 rom-com Leap Year, which harkens back to the Irish tradition by which women can propose to men on that one day. And others likely see it merely as a funny quirk in the calendar, or just another Thursday. Leap day means several different things to Alexander Boxer, a data scientist and the author of A Scheme of Heaven: The History of Astrology and the Search for Our Destiny in Data. Literally speaking, he says, it's an "awkward calendar hack" aimed at making up for the fact that a year isn't a flat number of days, but more like 365 and a quarter. But there's more to it than that. "I think the significance of the leap year is that it's a great reminder that the universe is really good at defying our attempts to devise nice and pretty and aesthetically pleasing systems to fit it in," he told NPR's Morning Edition. Boxer says it's also a great reminder that the calendar most people rely on every day is actually the product of multiple civilizations, building off each other as they share in what he calls "this great undertaking of trying to understand time."

But let’s not forget the 13 month calendar!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-11/the-death-and-life-of-the-13-month-calendar
I came across the 13 month calendar last year, and absolutely love the idea—think about it—every month has 4 four weeks and exactly 28 days. Every 5th of the month (or 6th, or 7th, or any number) would always be the same day of the week. Ah the simplicity of the idea (though not simple in changing over)!

New technologies, new totalitarians (Noahpinion)

Thanks to smartphones, social media, and globalization, liberalism faces a new and terrifying kind of opponent.

NOTE: Remember from my earlier post: “liberalism” has different meanings depending on the context. However, here, the author uses the word liberalism to refer to the government upholding individual liberty while also limiting government overreach.

Democracy’s appeal is slipping as nations across much of the world hold elections, a poll finds (AP)

Representative democracy remains a favorite system of governance around the globe, but its appeal is slipping on the eve of elections in much of the world, according to a survey of 24 democratic countries by the Pew Research Center released Wednesday. While a median of 77% across the 24 surveyed countries said representative democracy was a “good” system of government, higher than any other alternative, a median of 59% told pollsters they were dissatisfied with how democracy was working in their own country. In the 22 countries where data was available from 2017, the last time Pew asked about democracy, the share describing democracy as a “very good” system was down in half of them. “People do like representative democracy. But you see here in lots of different ways people are really frustrated with how it’s performing,” said Richard Wike, managing director of Pew’s Global Attitudes research. “There’s a real disconnect between people and their representatives.” Support for more authoritarian leadership tended to be strongest among those with lower levels of education and income, as well as those on the ideological right. Poorer countries registered higher support for autocratic systems, including military rule.

People of Middle Eastern and North African descent are usually counted as “white” by the U.S. government, though most do not identify that way (NYT🔒)

Egyptian, Iranian, Lebanese, Amazigh, Arab, American. These are just a handful of ways that thousands of people who responded to a New York Times callout described themselves. The answers were as diverse as the group of individuals behind them. People with roots in the Middle East and North Africa, often abbreviated as MENA, represent a multitude of cultures, religions and languages. And they all have different viewpoints about how they fit into the American mosaic. Accounting for MENA identity in the United States has become particularly relevant this year. The 2024 presidential election could hinge on a handful of swing states like Michigan, where Arab American voters turned out decisively for President Biden in 2020. But Mr. Biden has faced mounting frustration from Arab Americans and others within his party for his support for Israel in the war in Gaza. While people of MENA heritage are by no means monolithic, they do share one common experience in the United States. On official forms, most don’t see themselves represented among the check boxes for race or ethnicity. With few good options, many end up being counted as “white.”

NOTE: Go here and here for further information on the history of US demography categories.

Eclipse 2024: The Planet’s Most Spectacular Natural Event Is Coming To America (Forbes🔒)

Just five months from today—on Monday, April 8, 2024—a total solar eclipse will see a new moon block the sun across North America for the first time since 2017 and the last time until 2044. If you want to see this celestial masterpiece, you need to do your research quickly and book a hotel room as soon as you can. Or make a plan to drive to where the weather is clear, sleep in the car, stand in the moon’s shadow, wait a few hours for the traffic to quieten, then go home. That’s what an army of well-informed eclipse-chasers will be doing.

More info on the eclipse:
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/ - website contains helpful info on time/location.

North America

In Dual Border Visits, Biden and Trump Try to Score Points at a Political Hot Spot (NYT🔒)

President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump made dueling visits to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, with Mr. Biden challenging his predecessor to “join me” in securing the country’s southern frontier and Mr. Trump blaming the president for lawlessness at the border. The remarks came at a moment of political peril for Mr. Biden, who has faced criticism from both parties as the number of people crossing into the United States has reached record levels, with migrant encounters more than double than in the Trump years. In appearances some 300 miles apart in Texas, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump tried to leverage what is likely to become the most volatile policy dispute of the 2024 campaign.

U.S. Pushes Canada to Impose Visas on Mexican Visitors to Ease Flow From North (WSJ🔒) 📊

The U.S. is pushing Canada to impose visa requirements on Mexican visitors, aiming to stem a surge in illegal crossings at the northern border as immigration shapes up as an election-defining issue across North America. Officials in the U.S. say that Mexican migrants are using the Canadian border as a back door into the U.S., avoiding the busy and more closely guarded southwestern border and gaining the attention of some presidential candidates. Nikki Haley, who is vying for the Republican nomination against Donald Trump, in December called for more attention on the northern crossing during a visit to New Hampshire, and the number of migrants intercepted at the northern border is quickly growing. Now Washington is increasing the pressure on Canada to require Mexican visitors to obtain visas, according to a U.S. official familiar with the discussions and government officials in Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during a visit to Ottawa last year that the U.S. had been speaking to Canada about the matter.

U.S. Air Force Member Dies After Setting Himself on Fire Outside Israeli Embassy (WSJ🔒)

An active-duty U.S. Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday has died, officials said. The man repeatedly said “Free Palestine” and appeared to livestream the protest Sunday afternoon on the platform Twitch, which has since removed the video. The Metropolitan Police Department identified him as Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old from San Antonio. Bushnell died in a hospital on Sunday night, the police and the Air Force said.

A massive Texas wildfire is now the largest on record in the state (WP)📊

As snow showers moved across the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, easing conditions for firefighters, a wildfire grew into the state’s largest on record, with fears it could again spread rapidly when hot and windy weather returns this weekend. The Smokehouse Creek Fire had burned 1,050,000 acres in Texas by early Thursday morning, and it had also spread across 25,000 acres into Oklahoma, the Texas A&M Forest Service said. Another fire, the 687 Reamer Fire, had also spread into the footprint of the Smokehouse Creek Fire.

Track wildfires across the US here:
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/fire-tracker-maps.html
- https://www.fireweatheravalanche.org/fire/
- https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=df8bcc10430f48878b01c96e907a1fc3#!

Latin America

Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the U.S. (CFR)

Hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, and elsewhere risk their lives each year to cross the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama. Images from along the journey show the dangers they face.

NOTE: Fascinating read/pictures/videos.

The ‘Luxury Route’ to the U.S. for African Migrants (NYT🔒)

As record numbers of people cross into the United States, the southern border is not the only place where the migration crisis is playing out. Nearly three thousand miles to the south, inside Colombia’s main international airport, hundreds of African migrants have been pouring in every day, paying traffickers roughly $10,000 for flight packages they hope will help them reach the United States. The surge of African migrants in the Bogotá airport, which began last year, is a vivid example of the impact of one of the largest global movements of people in decades and how it is shifting migration patterns. With some African countries confronting economic crisis and political upheaval, and Europe cracking down on immigration, many more Africans are making the far longer journey to the U.S. The migrants in Bogotá come mainly from West African countries such as Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, though some are from as far east as Somalia. They are bound for Nicaragua, the only country in Central America where citizens from many African nations — and from Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela — can enter without a visa. Experts say the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, loosened visa requirements in recent years to compel the United States to lift sanctions on his authoritarian government. The trip, which has been called by airline employees “the luxury route,’’ bypasses the dangerous jungle pass linking South and North America called the Darién Gap.

Darién Gap Migration Is Halted After Colombia Arrests Boat Captains (NYT🔒) 📊

Migration toward the United States through the dangerous jungle passage known as the Darién Gap has been halted, at least temporarily, following the arrest of two boat captains working for companies that play an essential role in ferrying migrants to the jungle. Boat companies suspended migrant crossings from two northern Colombia towns, Necoclí and Turbo, to the entrance of the Darién forest, according to the mayor of Necoclí, leaving roughly 3,000 migrants stranded in those communities. The Colombian law enforcement action in the region is sure to be watched closely by U.S. officials: The Biden administration has been pressuring Colombia for months to try harder to stop people from using the Darién as a path to the United States. The boat route is the main way into the Darién Gap, a strip of land linking South and North America that was once rarely traversed but has emerged in recent years as one of the hemisphere’s most important and busiest migration routes. Nearly a million people have crossed the Darién since 2021, according to the authorities at the end of the route in Panama, helping to fuel an immigration crisis in the United States.

Brazil’s Wildly Popular Instant-Payment System Is Going Global (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

Brazil’s instant-payment system has quickly become a hit at home, with more than 160 million users since it was launched by the central bank in late 2020. Now the plan is to take it global. The platform allows customers to transfer money instantly to a bank account or digital wallet, around the clock and without fees. The app became ubiquitous in the country within months, with its rapid take-up surprising even its own creators.

Europe

Thousands Defy Kremlin to Attend Alexei Navalny’s Funeral in Moscow (WSJ)

Thousands of people defied the threat of arrest by attending the funeral of Alexei Navalny in Moscow, embracing one of the last remaining avenues to register their anger at President Vladimir Putin as well as mourning one of the few politicians capable of standing up to the Russian leader. The Kremlin had warned Russians against attending what it called spontaneous memorials for the opposition leader, who died in an Arctic prison camp last month. But security forces largely took a hands-off approach to the procession of mourners that made its way from the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God to the cemetery where Navalny was laid to rest. His parents looked on as people placed dirt on his coffin.

Zelensky Says 31,000 Ukrainian Troops Killed in Two Years of War (WSJ🔒)

Around 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia launched its invasion two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, highlighting the scale of Ukraine’s sacrifice ahead of a decisive vote in the U.S. Congress on military aid to Ukraine.

How many Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine? (Economist🔒) 📊

ESTIMATES FOR how many Russian soldiers have been sent to their deaths in Ukraine are hard to come by. One of the most comprehensive—by Mediazona and Meduza, two independent Russian media outlets—uses public obituaries and official inheritance records to create an estimated death toll. The last time The Economist reported on their study, in July 2023, the figure was between 40,000 and 55,000. It has kept climbing sharply. Our five charts below illustrate the latest findings, released on February 24th.

How Much Aid Has the U.S. Sent Ukraine? Here Are Six Charts. (CFR) 📊

Every year, the United States sends billions of dollars in aid—and much more than any other country—to beneficiaries around the world in pursuit of its security, economic, and humanitarian interests. Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has become far and away the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid. This marks the first time that a European country has held the top spot since the Harry S. Truman administration directed vast sums into rebuilding the continent through the Marshall Plan after World War II.

Putin threatens NATO with nuclear strike if it sends troops to Ukraine (Politico)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned NATO against sending its troops to help Ukraine, in an explicit nuclear threat. "There has been talk of sending NATO contingents to Ukraine. But we remember the fate of those who sent contingents [in the past]. Now the consequences for the interventionists will be much more tragic," Putin said in a speech to Russia's parliament. "We too have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. This really threatens a conflict with nuclear weapons, and thus the destruction of civilization," he added. French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday floated the idea of sending Western troops to assist Ukraine in fighting off Putin's full-scale invasion, which met a furious response from the Kremlin and was also shot down by other NATO allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

How Ukraine Overcame Russia’s Grain Blockade (CFR)

Russia’s sealing off of Ukraine’s vital Black Sea ports and its attacks on Ukrainian grain storage centers at one point raised worldwide alarm about possible food shortages. But by early this year, grain exports were nearly back to prewar levels.

A breakaway region in Europe is asking Russia for protection. Here’s what to know (CNN) 📊

Pro-Russian rebels in a separatist sliver of Moldova have asked President Vladimir Putin to protect their region from what they claim are threats from Moldova’s government. Transnistria, which illegally split from Moldova as the Soviet Union crumbled, has remained firmly within the Kremlin’s orbit while Moldova, which borders Ukraine, is bidding to join the European Union. In a special congress on Wednesday, politicians in Transnistria asked Moscow to guard it from “increasing pressure from Moldova,” and the Kremlin later said protecting its “compatriots” was a priority, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported. While the congress initially sparked fears that Moscow could press ahead with its longstanding plan to destabilize Moldova’s increasingly pro-Western government, Moldova dismissed it as “propaganda.”

Denmark ends probe into 'deliberate' Nord Stream pipeline blasts (Reuters)

Denmark has dropped its investigation into the explosions in 2022 on the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Germany, police said on Monday, becoming the second nation to do so after Sweden closed its own inquiry. The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in the Swedish and Danish economic zones in September 2022, releasing vast amounts of methane into the air.

Sweden Clears Final Hurdle to Join NATO With Hungary Vote (Bloomberg🔒)

Sweden cleared the final obstacle to gaining NATO membership in a move that will solidify the alliance’s grip over Northern Europe and the Baltic region. The approval by Hungary’s parliament on Monday came 21 months after the Nordic country submitted its membership bid jointly with Finland in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

‘They are among us’: Russia’s terrifyingly effective poisoning operation (FT🔒)

There are many ways to incapacitate an enemy. But, historically, few have proved so attractive to the Soviet and Russian security services as poisoning. Ever since Vladimir Lenin set up his poison factory, known as the “Special Room”, over a century ago, poisonings have become one of the Kremlin’s preferred ways to eliminate, cripple or terrorise enemies and critics. Over the decades, it has built up unrivalled expertise in the field.

Middle East

As Hungry Gazans Crowd an Aid Convoy, a Crush of Bodies, Israeli Gunshots and a Deadly Toll (NYT🔒)

Israeli forces opened fire on Thursday as a crowd gathered near a convoy of aid trucks in Gaza City in a chaotic scene in which scores were killed and injured, according to Gazan officials and the Israeli military, which attributed most of the deaths to a stampede. Although officials from both sides offered differing accounts, the deaths of so many people who were surrounding a convoy carrying food in a part of Gaza where starvation is rampant reflected the desperation and spiraling lawlessness in the territory following Israel’s ground invasion and threatened to derail ongoing cease-fire talks.

U.S. to Deliver Aid to Gaza Through Military Airdrops (WSJ)

The U.S. is set to begin airdropping humanitarian aid to Gaza in the coming days to help bring relief to Palestinians caught in the crossfire of the conflict with Israel, President Biden said Friday. The plan to drop relief supplies into Gaza signals a U.S. recognition that the current efforts to address the humanitarian crisis haven’t been sufficient, U.S. officials said. The announcement came one day after a series of events involving a convoy of aid trucks led to the deaths of Palestinian civilians, in what U.S. officials said pointed to the growing desperation inside Gaza.

Netanyahu unveils plan for Gaza’s future post-Hamas (CNN)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a plan for Gaza’s future post-Hamas, which includes the “complete demilitarization” of the enclave, closing off the territory’s southern border with Egypt, as well as the overhaul of Gaza’s civil administration and education systems.

Palestinian PM resigns as pressure grows over post-war Gaza plans (Reuters)

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced his resignation on Monday, as the Palestinian Authority looks to build support for an expanded role following Israel's war against the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza. The move comes amid growing U.S. pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas to shake up the Authority as international efforts intensify to stop the fighting in Gaza and begin work on a political structure to govern the enclave after the war.

Israel’s air force strikes deep inside Lebanon, killing 2 people, after Hezbollah downs a drone (AP) 📊

The Israeli military said its air force on Monday struck targets of the militant Hezbollah group “deep inside Lebanon,” as Lebanese officials said targets were hit near the northeastern city of Baalbek. At least two Hezbollah members were killed in the strikes, an official for the Lebanese militant group said. The strikes are among the deepest into Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began more than four months ago. They come a day after Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to step up attacks on Hezbollah even if a cease-fire is reached with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

US, UK strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen answer Red Sea attacks (Military Times)

The U.S. and Britain struck 18 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday, answering a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including a missile strike this past week that set fire to a cargo vessel. According to U.S. officials, American and British fighter jets hit sites in eight locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and air defense systems.

Iran Reduces Near-Weapons-Grade Stockpile, Defying Expectations (WSJ🔒)

Iran reduced its stockpile of near-weapons-grade nuclear material even as it continued expanding its overall nuclear program, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog said Monday, marking a surprise step that could ease tensions with Washington. The move comes at a moment when Iran and the U.S. have sought to avoid direct confrontation in the regional conflict that grew out of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s aggressive response. However, Iran-backed militias have attacked U.S. forces in the region and the U.S. and U.K. are conducting strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, a pro-Iran group that has been attacking international vessels in the Red Sea. Iran’s decision to reduce its stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium over the last 3½ months, by deliberately diluting the material by mixing it with low-grade 2% material, is the first time the International Atomic Energy Agency has reported a quarterly drop in Tehran’s highly enriched stockpile since Iran started producing 60% material in 2021. Iran carried out the dilutions twice since the start of the year. Last summer, it also diluted a small amount of 60% material.

Iran election: ruler Khamenei seeks big turnout amid discontent (Reuters)

Iranians voted for a new parliament on Friday in an election seen as a test of the clerical establishment's legitimacy at a time of growing frustration over economic woes and restrictions on political and social freedoms. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has called voting a religious duty, was the first to cast his vote in Iran. he election is the first formal measure of public opinion since anti-government protests in 2022-23 spiralled into some of the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran's rulers need a high turnout to repair their legitimacy, badly damaged by the unrest. But official surveys suggest only about 41% of eligible Iranians will vote. Turnout hit a record low of 42.5% in the 2020 parliamentary election, while about 62% of voters participated in 2016.

Africa

Hunger, Terrorism and the Threat of War: Somalia’s Year of Crises (NYT🔒) 📊

A 10-year defense and economic deal with Turkey to protect its seacoast and bolster its naval force. An agreement with the United States to construct five military bases for over $100 million. An enhanced defense cooperation accord with Uganda to boost the fight against the terrorist group Al Shabab. The three security pacts signed by Somalia in recent days underscore the increasing perils the Horn of Africa nation faces both internally and externally. Internally, the nation confronts the persistent threat of Al Shabab, the Qaeda affiliate that has remained resilient even as the departure date for African Union peacekeeping forces — whose offensives helped put the group on the back foot — looms in December. Equally worrisome, tensions are growing between Somalia and its western neighbor, Ethiopia, over Somalia’s coastline — the longest in mainland Africa — threatening to set off a new conflict in a vital global shipping route in an increasingly volatile region. Somalia faces “a pivotal year,” said Omar S. Mahmood, the senior Eastern Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group. “A number of critical timelines linked to both domestic politics and security are coinciding, and the way these are handled will determine the country’s trajectory.” The latest challenges for Somalia and how they are resolved will likely shape the presidency — and legacy — of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Northern Ethiopia is again sliding into starvation (Economist🔒) 📊

From 2020 until 2022 war raged across northern Ethiopia, pitting Tigrayan forces against the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies and regional militias. A land pillaged by soldiers is now parched by drought. Some farmers have harvested enough to last for a few months; others nothing at all. The next main harvest is still eight months away. Viewed from the crumbling hillsides, the barren terrain has the same sepia tint as an old photograph. On the maps drawn by aid workers, it is coloured in shades of red. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which is funded by the American government, predicts that most of Tigray will experience “emergency” levels of hunger in the coming months, one notch below famine. The recent harvest was barely a third as big as expected. The situation is just as bad in parts of the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, which also saw fighting, and in southern grazing areas. Nearly 16m Ethiopians are short of food.

NOTE: This story came out a month ago, but I missed it. Things sound very terrible there right now, with expectation that it will get worse in coming months. Meanwhile, take a look at the article below (and graphics).

More than a billion people obese worldwide, research suggests (BBC) 📊

Prof Ezzati, who has been looking at global data for years, says he is surprised at the speed the picture has changed, with many more countries now facing an obesity crisis, while the number of places where people being underweight is regarded as the biggest concern, has decreased. The report, spanning 1990 and 2022, found the rate of obesity quadrupled among children and adolescents. Meanwhile for adults, the rate more than doubled in women and nearly tripled in men. At the same time, the proportion of adults classed as underweight has fallen by 50%, but researchers emphasise it still remains a pressing problem, particularly among the poorest communities.

Asia-Pacific

Japan isn't quite "back", but it has a fighting chance (Noahpinion)

Here are some ideas for what it can do to be truly "back".

Japan's new births fall to record low in 2023 as demographic woes deepen (Reuters) 📊

The number of births fell 5.1% from a year earlier to 758,631, while the number of marriages slid 5.9% to 489,281 -- the first time in 90 years the number fell below 500,000 -- foreboding a further decline in the population as out-of-wedlock births are rare in Japan. Asked about the latest data, Japan's top government spokesperson said the government will take "unprecedented steps" to cope with the declining birthrate, such as expanding childcare and promoting wage hikes for younger workers.

Russia bans gasoline exports for 6 months from March 1 (Reuters)

Russia on Tuesday ordered a six-month ban on gasoline exports from March 1 to keep prices stable amid rising demand from consumers and farmers and to allow for maintenance of refineries in the world's second largest oil exporter. The Kremlin has been working with Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, to keep prices high as part of the broader OPEC+ grouping which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and key allies. Exports of oil, oil products and gas are by far Russia's biggest export, a major source of foreign currency revenue for Russia's $1.9 trillion economy, and ensure that Moscow has a place at the top table of global energy politics. Russia is already voluntarily cutting its oil and fuel exports by 500,000 barrels per day in the first quarter as part of OPEC+ efforts to support prices.

How Russia Dodged Sanctions, in Seven Charts (WSJ🔒) 📊

The West tried to cut off Russia’s economy in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Two years later, Russia has engineered a wholesale rearrangement of its trade relationship with the world. Faced with punishing sanctions, it severed decadeslong connections with the West and deepened Moscow’s dependence on China and other sympathetic nations. The switch kept Russia’s military industry and civilian economy alive in the process. Here’s how: After Russia’s trade with Europe cratered, China became Russia’s economic lifeline. Trade turnover between the two countries hit a record $240 billion last year. Moscow sold China its oil that used to go to Germany and France. It massively stepped up purchases of Chinese goods for consumers and parts that go into weaponry.

NOTE: This chart makes sense. Having traveled to UAE a couple of times last year, I was surprised by the number of people that I overheard speaking Russian.

While the World Was Looking Elsewhere, North Korea Became a Bigger Threat (WSJ🔒)

[North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] has developed new weapons in the past five years designed for regional warfare and seen Russian soldiers recently use some of them in fighting with Ukraine. In January, he abandoned hopes of reunification with South Korea and embraced more combative goals. He has given up on talks with the U.S. after President Biden took office, and his ongoing courtship of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to visit Pyongyang soon, elevated North Korea on the global agenda higher than it had been in years. The dictator has exploited a fractured global order to harden North Korea into a menacing nuclear state—a potent new complication for a world already enmeshed in wars in Europe and the Middle East. Kim is playing a longer, more strategic game with a nuclear arsenal that has quickly grown since talks broke down at the February 2019 summit with former President Donald Trump in Hanoi. That has made predicting his next steps murkier and more worrisome. Particularly troubling, security experts say, is how sure-footed Kim looks, despite widespread food shortages, a more confrontational South Korean administration and a U.S. that is rotating nuclear assets into the region more often.

U.S. and South Korea fly warplanes in interception drills after North Korea’s missile test (NBC News)

South Korea and the United States flew advanced stealth fighters in a joint missile-interception drill Friday over the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s air force said, an apparent response to a spate of weapons tests this year by rival North Korea. North Korea has conducted six rounds of missile tests so far this year, most of them reportedly involving cruise missiles that typically fly at a low altitude to overcome opponents’ missile defenses. Analysts say that in the event of a conflict, North Korea aims to use cruise missiles to strike U.S. aircraft carriers as well as U.S. military bases in Japan.

South Korean Doctors Remain Off Job in Defiance of Deadline (Bloomberg🔒)

Thousands of South Korean trainee doctors defied a government deadline to end their walkout in protest of a plan to increase medical school seats, risking punishment that includes arrest and a suspension of their licenses. Most of the some 9,000 trainee doctors who walked off the job did not return Friday after a government deadline expired, Yonhap News Agency reported. The government gave them until the end of February to end the nearly two-week walkout that it says has led to people being turned away from understaffed emergency rooms and the cancellations of about half of surgeries.

China Expands Scope of ‘State Secrets’ Law in Security Push (NYT🔒)

China passed revisions to an already stringent state secrets law, broadening the scope of the type of information that would be considered a national security risk in the world’s second-largest economy. The changes elevate the risks for foreign businesses operating in the country. Over the last year, China has targeted consultants and business executives in espionage cases as part of a push to limit the spread of information sought by investors and foreign companies. The amendments to the state secrets law, which were passed by China’s top legislative body on Tuesday and go into effect in May, include a new legal concept called “work secrets.” It is defined as information that is not an official state secret, but “will cause certain adverse effects if leaked,” according to the law’s text. “The law is vague and the definition of state secret so broad that it could include anything that the party-state decides it should,” said Diana Choyleva, chief economist at Enodo Economics, a London-based research firm focused on China. “It will also further complicate life for foreign firms and their employees based in China.”

Living outside China has become more like living inside China (Economist🔒)

The number of Chinese abroad has doubled since 1990. It has risen particularly fast since 2000. The pandemic heightened the desire of many members of the elite to leave, as their resentment grew of covid-related controls and the party’s ever-tightening restrictions on freedom of expression. China ended its battle against covid late in 2022, but its faltering economy and high youth unemployment are fuelling people’s anxieties. Many young Chinese now use the term runxue, “the art of running”, to convey their desire to flee. There are about 10.5m people living outside mainland China who were born on the mainland. Only the Indian, Russian and Mexican diasporas are larger. Some of these Chinese are among the country’s richest people. In many countries, they have long dominated wealth-related visa schemes. More than 70% of the 81,000 investor visas issued by the American government to dollar-millionaires between 2010 and 2019 were given to Chinese citizens. Since 2012 some 85% of people who have received Australia’s “golden visas” for investing over A$5m ($3.3m) in the country have been from China. All but 41 of the 1,300 people who applied for the equivalent Irish scheme in 2022 were Chinese. A quarter of the Chinese diaspora live in America, another quarter live in Hong Kong, followed by Japan and Canada. Overall nearly half of Chinese citizens abroad live in the West. But leaving China does not necessarily offer freedom from the regime’s strictures. Since China does not accept dual citizenship, many émigrés are now solely citizens of another country. Yet the party has the ability to influence even those who no longer have a Chinese passport. These days most people within China are free to make money and lead comfortable lives. The party leaves them alone so long as they express no political discontent. Increasingly, many people outside China face similar restraints. The scope of sensitive or taboo topics has widened since Xi Jinping became China’s leader in 2012, overseas as well as at home. Living outside China has become more like living inside it.

Exclusive: Satellite images reveal floating barrier at mouth of disputed atoll in South China Sea (Reuters)

Satellite images of the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea show a new floating barrier across its entrance, near where Philippine ships and China coast guard vessels have had frequent run-ins. One of the images taken by Maxar Technologies on Feb. 22 and viewed by Reuters showed the barrier blocking the mouth of the shoal, where the Chinese coast guard last week claimed to have driven off a Philippine vessel "illegally intruding" into Beijing's waters.

Oceana

US cautions after Hawaii neighbor Kiribati gets Chinese police (Reuters) 📊

The United States on Monday cautioned Pacific Islands nations against assistance from Chinese security forces after Reuters reported that Chinese police are working in the remote atoll nation of Kiribati, a neighbor of Hawaii.

Space

Toppled moon lander sends back more images, with only hours left until it dies (AP)

A moon lander that ended up on its side managed to beam back more pictures, with only hours remaining before it dies. Intuitive Machines posted new photos of the moon’s unexplored south polar region Tuesday. The company’s lander, Odysseus, captured the shots last Thursday shortly before making the first U.S. touchdown on the moon in more than 50 years. Odysseus landed on its side, hampering communication and power generation.

Russian rocket successfully puts Iranian satellite into orbit (AP)

A Russian rocket on Thursday successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit, a launch that underlined increasingly close cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. Russia’s state-run Roscosmos corporation said that a Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny launch facility in the country’s far east to carry the Iranian satellite and 18 Russian satellites into orbit. The Iranian state TV said the 110-kilogram (242-pound) satellite has three cameras to take images for environmental, agricultural and other purposes. Iran’s state TV said the satellite will be put into orbit around the North and South Poles, synchronized to be in the same fixed position relative to the Sun, and will be fully functional after a calibration of its systems.

Government

Trump and Biden won Michigan. But ‘uncommitted’ votes demanded attention (AP)

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won the Michigan primaries on Tuesday, further solidifying the all-but-certain rematch between the two men — yet early results from the state were highlighting some of their biggest political vulnerabilities ahead of the November general election. A vigorous “uncommitted” campaign organized by activists disillusioned with Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza was making headway. It had already far surpassed the 10,000-vote margin by which Trump won Michigan in 2016, a goal set by organizers of this year’s protest effort. As for Trump, he has now swept the first five states on the Republican primary calendar. But there were early signs that Trump was continuing to struggle with some influential voter blocs who have favored former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in previous contests. Haley’s strongest performance Tuesday night came in areas with college towns like Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, and suburbs around Detroit and Grand Rapids. For Biden, the notable percentage of “uncommitted” voters could signal weakness with parts of the Democratic base in a state he can hardly afford to lose in November. Trump, meanwhile, has underperformed with suburban voters and people with college degrees, and faces a faction within his own party that believes he broke the law in one or more of the criminal cases against him.

Mitch McConnell stepping down as GOP Senate leader (Semafor)

Sen. Mitch McConnell will step down as the U.S. Senate’s Republican leader in November, he announced Wednesday. He did not give a specific reason for stepping down, and said he will continue in his role until a new leader is elected in November and takes the helm in January. McConnell, 82, said he still plans to serve out his term in the Senate, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.”

Congress passes fourth stopgap funding bill as 1% sequester looms (Defense News)

Congress on Thursday passed its fourth consecutive short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. The temporary spending measure extends Defense Department funding at fiscal 2023 levels through March 22. Five months into the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, lawmakers have yet to pass a full FY24 budget. The uncertainty has raised concerns in the Pentagon that Congress may put the department on a one-year continuing resolution with a 1% sequester. The House voted 320-99 to pass its fourth temporary spending measure, and the Senate followed suit shortly thereafter in a 77-13 vote. Under the latest stopgap spending bill, funds appropriated for Veterans Affairs and military construction will expire on March 8, two weeks before Defense Department funding runs out. Last year’s debt ceiling deal caps FY24 defense spending at $886 billion. If Congress does not pass a full FY24 federal budget by April 30, the debt ceiling agreement puts government funding on a one-year continuing resolution that would cut spending at the Pentagon and all other federal agencies by 1%.

Judge won’t delay Trump financial penalty but lets sons remain atop company for now (WP)

A New York judge on Wednesday rejected a request from Donald Trump to delay enforcement of a judgment totaling at least $450 million while he appeals that order, but allowed the former president’s adult sons to remain in leadership positions at the Trump Organization for the time being.

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Trump’s Immunity Claim, Setting Arguments for April (NYT🔒)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide whether former President Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The justices scheduled arguments for the week of April 22 and said proceedings in the trial court would remain frozen while they considered the matter.

Trump Tightens Hold on GOP, Crowding Out Even Popular Rivals (WSJ🔒)

Donald Trump’s 20-point victory over Nikki Haley in South Carolina’s Republican primary not only shows the powerful hold that Trump commands over his party’s voters, but also the inability of any GOP leader to rally support against him as he moves to the brink of securing the presidential nomination. The primary results have shown resistance to the former president among voters he likely would need in November, particularly among professional-class, suburban voters. But Trump has now won the first five nominating contests in convincing fashion, a performance that has all but wiped out opposition within the GOP’s leadership ranks.

Defense

Army Reorganizes Force for Future Fight (AUSA)

The Army is moving forward with a significant force reorganization to shrink “hollow” formations and make room for the capabilities it needs to fight technologically advanced adversaries, senior leaders said. The moves include reducing the force by about 24,000 authorizations as the Army contends with a continuing recruiting crisis and moves away from two decades of counterinsurgency operations to prepare for large-scale combat operations. In a paper published Feb. 27 on the Army website that explains the changes, the force structure transformation will enable the Army to bring in new capabilities required under the National Defense Strategy. It also will help narrow the gap between a force structure designed for 494,000 soldiers and the current active duty troop strength, which is set by law at 445,000. “We are transforming our weapons systems through our modernization programs, and what we’ve done through the force structure changes is make room for some new formations” such as the multidomain task forces and directed energy capabilities, for which more than 7,500 new spaces are needed, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told defense reporters Feb. 27 at a meeting hosted by George Washington University’s Project for Media and National Security.

Here are the winners and losers in US Army’s force structure change (Defense News)

Economy

The $100 Bill Is America’s Most Common Currency, and Its Most Annoying (WSJ🔒) 📊

The $100 bill is far and away the most common U.S. paper currency, dwarfing even the $1 bill. The number of bills bearing Benjamin Franklin’s mug more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, faster growth than any other denomination, according to the most recent Federal Reserve data. For all its prevalence, the $100 bill is more effective for storing money than spending it. Even when cashiers do accept the bills, they hold up checkout lines to verify they aren’t counterfeits. (Or, at minimum, give an eye-roll along with your change.) Economists have called for slowing down the printing press, due to their use in illicit activity.

Business

FTC Sues to Block $25 Billion Kroger-Albertsons Merger (WSJ🔒)

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued to block Kroger’s $25 billion bid for rival Albertsons, throwing into uncertainty the fate of the largest supermarket deal in history. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Oregon, the FTC said the deal would lead to higher food prices and harm union workers’ bargaining power, and asked a court to block the companies from closing their deal on antitrust grounds. The companies’ plan to address the government’s concerns by selling hundreds of stores in Washington, Colorado and other states won’t solve the problem, the FTC said.

How Panera Bread Ducked California’s New $20 Minimum Wage Law (Bloomberg🔒)

Billionaire Greg Flynn, who made his fortune running one of the world’s largest restaurant franchise operations, is getting a new boost from sourdough loaves and brioche buns. That's because a California law that’s about to raise the state minimum wage at fast-food spots to $20 an hour from $16 offers an unusual exemption for chains that bake bread and sell it as a standalone item. Governor Gavin Newsom pushed for that break, according to people familiar with the matter. Among the main beneficiaries is Flynn, a longtime Newsom donor whose California holdings include two dozen Panera Bread locations. While Panera locations and a handful of other eateries get a break on wages, competitors are bracing for higher costs when the law takes effect in April. McDonald’s Corp. franchisees have estimated the wage law will cost each California location $250,000 a year, characterizing it as a “devastating financial blow,” according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has said it’s considering a price increase to offset the extra expense.

Crypto

Bitcoin Tops $60,000—First Time Since 2021 (Forbes🔒)

Bitcoin surged Wednesday to above $60,000 for the first time in more than two years, a significant milestone as the world’s largest cryptocurrency stages a massive recovery. Bitcoin prices are now up more than 30% since U.S. regulators approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), allowing investors easier direct exposure to bitcoin, far outpacing major stock indexes. The recent rally coincides with significant inflows into the bitcoin ETFs. Crypto-heavy stocks like exchange Coinbase, bitcoin holder MicroStrategy and bitcoin miner Marathon Digital each rose more than 4% in morning trading, hitting multiyear highs.

Energy

Texas just got an enormous 1.1-million-panel solar farm (Electrek)

Renewable developer Clearway Energy Group has completed a 452-megawatt (MW) solar farm in West Texas – and it’s huge. The $660 million Texas Solar Nova solar farm, completed in two phases, is in Kent County, Texas. It’s built on around 5,000 acres of land and features over 1.1 million solar panels. It will generate an estimated $5.4 million in property taxes and wages to be paid in the first year. Texas Solar Nova will generate enough electricity to power over 190,000 homes annually.

Auto

Apple cancels decade-long electric car project, source says (Reuters)

Apple, opens new tab has canceled work on its electric car, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, a decade after the iPhone maker kicked off the project.

The move draws the curtain on a plan that would have helped Apple break out into a new industry and potentially replicate the success of the iPhone. The project had seen uneven progress throughout its life and its end comes as global automakers cut back their investments in electric vehicles, whose demand has dropped significantly.

Auto Credit Availability Worsened Again in January (Cox Automotive) 📊

Access to auto credit declined in January as credit tightened across all channels and across most lender types compared to December, according to the Dealertrack Credit Availability Index. The All-Loans Index declined to 93.0 in January, down 3% year over year. The Dealertrack Auto Credit Total Loan Index had shown some improvements during the summer and fall of last year, but those gains have been wiped out by the declines seen over the past three months. In fact, the index dropped by 1% in January, marking the lowest level since August 2020. Credit access was tighter than a year ago in all channels and all lender types. Compared to February 2020, credit access was tighter in all channels except for used sales through independent dealers and loans from auto finance companies.

Real Estate

Existing Home Sales up 3.1% in January to 4.0 million (RDC Economics)

Existing home sales ticked up in January. Sales rose 3.1% from December to a pace of 4.0 million–their highest since August 2023. Sales still lagged the year ago pace by 1.7%. Mortgage rates tumbled from late October through mid-January, propelling sales as shoppers capitalized on lower costs. Pending home sales, which are based on contract signings, an earlier stage in the sales process that tend to lead existing home sales by a month or two, saw a big pop in December and grew over the prior year for the first time since May 2021. Despite the pickup, both pending and existing home sales remain historically low, coming off the heels of 2023, which saw the lowest total home sales tally in nearly 30 years as high costs stemming from high prices and mortgage rates continue to remain a challenge for many shoppers.

Dimon Says Commercial Real Estate Problems to Stay Contained If No Recession (Bloomberg🔒)

Jamie Dimon said problems in commercial real estate will be contained to “pockets” of the sector as long as the US avoids a recession. Many property owners can handle the current level of stress, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer said on CNBC Monday. Lower valuations tied to higher interest rates is “not a crisis, it’s kind of a known thing,” he said in an interview at his firm’s annual high-yield and leveraged-finance conference in Miami.

Personal Finance

Buffett’s Annual Letter Should Be Required Reading for CEOs (Bloomberg🔒)

There’s a reason they call him the Oracle of Omaha. For decades now investors have pored over Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders, hoping to soak up whatever wisdom they can from the business icon. Every year Buffett uses the letter to muse on economic cycles, as well as the perennial investing principles that have powered Berkshire Hathaway Inc. into an enterprise valued at almost $1 trillion. But corporate boards and C-suites should also heed Buffett’s advice. His letter is full of lessons on how to run a company and manage your investors. Here are the big takeaways from this year: 1. Talk to your shareholders like they’re Bertie [his 90-year-old kid sister]. 2. There’s a lot of money to be made in doing nothing. 3. Big rewards don’t always have to come with big risks. 4. When you know your successor, publicly name the person. 5. It pays to bet on the US. 6. Avoid rascals.

When High-Yield Savings Accounts Come With an Asterisk (WSJ🔒)

Online-centric banks such as UFB, Capital One Financial

and CIT Bank attract deposits by paying rates far higher than typical bricks-and-mortar banks. Rates on these high-yield accounts generally rise alongside U.S. interest rates without depositors needing to take any action. But some customers say these lenders deceived them by advertising competitive rates while paying longtime customers lower ones. In some cases, only customers who were monitoring their bank’s every move could notice and respond to the changes. UFB is taking these tactics to another level. When Kuperstein opened his UFB account, the bank simply called the product Savings. A few weeks later, the lender advertised Rewards Savings as its main offering, paying 2.21%. It left the rate on the older account called Savings at 1.81%, Kuperstein said. The bank did this eight more times. Best Savings, Preferred Savings, and Priority Savings were among the names that followed. The current offering, Secure Savings, pays 5.25%.

4 Ways to Lock In Yields Above 5% (WSJ🔒)

With some money-market mutual funds and high-yield savings accounts still sporting 5% yields, it is easy to be complacent and let cash sit. But with the Federal Reserve likely to begin cutting interest rates later this year—recent hot inflation readings notwithstanding—such high yields are likely to come down quickly. To get ahead of Fed rate cuts whenever they may come, investment managers are looking to lock in yields for anywhere from one to five years to preserve today’s higher income. “If you park in money-market funds, and the Fed at some point begins to lower policy rates, your yield is just going to erode quickly,” says Thomas Urano, co-chief investment officer at Sage Advisory Services in Austin, Texas. Bank certificate of deposits still may entice savers, but their rates are falling fast. Looking at Bankrate.com, banks that are offering CD rates of 5%-plus are only offering those deals for maturities of a year and one-half or less. CDs with terms of two years or more are sub-5%. Depending on a person’s risk tolerance, time horizon and financial plan, investors have several paths they can take. Here are four relatively low-risk ways to take advantage of higher yields. 1) Multiyear guaranteed annuities. 2) Defined-maturity ETFs. 3) Preferred stocks. 4) Exchange-traded debt

Technology

India gives green light to chip plants worth $15.2 bln (Reuters)

India gave the go-ahead to construction of three semiconductor plants worth 1.26 trillion rupees ($15.2 billion) by firms including Tata Group and CG Power on Thursday, as the country pursues its goal of becoming an electronics powerhouse. India, which is seeking to rival countries such as Taiwan in chipmaking, expects its semiconductor market to be worth $63 billion by 2026, but does not yet have a chipmaking facility.

This DVD-sized disk can store a massive 125,000 gigabytes of data (Popular Science)

Even in a digital-first world, optical disks like DVDs and Blu-rays still have their many uses. But despite being cheap, sturdy, and small, they can’t keep up with today’s storage needs. This is because, spatially speaking, optical disks almost always offer just a single, 2D layer–that reflective, silver underside–for data encoding. If you could boost a disk’s number of available, encodable layers, however, you could hypothetically gain a massive amount of extra space. Researchers at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology recently set out to do just that, and published the results earlier this week in the journal, Nature. Using a 54-nanometer laser, the team managed to record a 100 layers of data onto an optical disk, with each tier separated by just 1 micrometer. The final result is an optical disk with a three-dimensional stack of data layers capable of holding a whopping 1 petabit (Pb) of information—that’s equivalent to 125,000 gigabytes of data. This is a bonkers amount of data compared to what can currently reside on even the most high-end flash or hybrid hard drives (HHDs). As Gizmodo offers for reference, that same petabit of information would require roughly a six-and-a-half foot tall stack of HHD drives—if you tried to encode the same amount of data onto Blu-rays, you’d need around 10,000 blank ones to complete your (extremely inefficient) challenge.

Cyber

Change Healthcare Blames ‘Blackcat’ Group For Cyber Attack That Disrupted Pharmacies And Health Systems (Forbes🔒)

UnitedHealth-owned Change Healthcare has confirmed the ransomware group “ALPHV/Blackcat” is behind its recent cyber attack, after initially suspecting a “nation-state associated cyber security threat actor,” as disruptions to pharmacies continue nearly a week after the attack was reported. The company also says it’s working with law enforcement and cybersecurity companies Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks to address the cyber attack, which is ongoing. While UnitedHealth initially blamed a “nation-state” in a filing last week, cybersecurity experts say Blackcat has no known affiliations with any government—cybersecurity analyst Brett Callow told Reuters “as far as I am aware, they are financially motivated cybercriminals and nothing more.” The group reportedly posted about the attack on the dark web, claiming it had accessed “more than 6 TB of highly selective data,” including medical and dental records, payment information and patients’ private information from a variety of Change Healthcare partners, though some reports say the post has since been deleted.

Biden issues executive order to better shield Americans’ sensitive data from foreign foes (AP)

President Joe Biden on Wednesday is signing an executive order aimed at better protecting Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geolocation from foreign adversaries like China and Russia. The attorney general and other federal agencies are to prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to what the White House calls “countries of concern,” while erecting safeguards around other activities that can give those countries access to people’s sensitive data. The goal is to do so without limiting legitimate commerce around data, senior Biden administration officials said on a call with reporters. Biden’s move targets commercial data brokers, the sometimes shadowy companies that traffic in personal data and that officials say may sell information to foreign adversaries or U.S. entities controlled by those countries.

Number of agencies have concerns about 'sideloading' on iPhone, Apple says (Reuters)

A number of government agencies in the European Union and elsewhere have voiced concerns about security risks as Apple, opens new tab opens up its iPhones and iPads to rival app stores to comply with EU tech rules, Apple said on Friday. Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), from March 7 Apple will be required to offer alternative app stores on iPhones and allow developers to opt out of using its in-app payment system, which charges fees of up to 30%. The U.S. tech giant, which on Jan. 24 detailed the changes to bring its App Store in line with the EU rules, said "sideloading" - installation of applications on a mobile device without using its dedicated app store - has sparked concerns from both EU and non-EU government agencies and users.

AT&T Offers $5 Credit to Customers Affected by Service Outage (NYT🔒)

AT&T will offer a $5 credit to customers affected by a widespread outage on Thursday that was caused by technical issues the company encountered while trying to expand its network, its chief executive said on Sunday. The outage, which started around 3:30 a.m. Eastern time, temporarily cut off connections for users across the United States. Some of the affected cities included Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York, according to Downdetector.com, which tracks user reports of telecommunication and internet disruptions. At its peak, the site had received about 70,000 reports of disrupted service for AT&T. Service was fully restored after about seven hours. “No matter the timing, one thing is clear — we let down many of our customers, including many of you and your families,” the chief executive of AT&T, John T. Stankey, wrote in a letter dated Sunday. “For that, we apologize.”

AT&T And T-Mobile Are Giving Cops Geofenced Location Data, Even Though It’s Inaccurate (Forbes🔒)

The Department of Justice has been forcing telecoms providers like AT&T and T-Mobile to provide phone information on all customers who were in the vicinity of a crime, a Forbes review of search warrants has found. That’s despite federal agents’ admissions that cell providers’ location data is often inaccurate, leading privacy advocates to claim that the warrants are “certain” to sweep up innocent people in major crime investigations. Previously, law enforcement had sent thousands of similar “geofence” orders to Google, asking it to share account information for any phones within a certain geographic area at a certain time. These warrants have been used to identify suspects in various crimes, from the January 6 Capitol Hill riots to wallet theft. But in December, Google changed how it stored and encrypted location data, meaning it technically could no longer respond to such warrants — a move that was widely celebrated by privacy advocates.

This $4 Billion Car Surveillance Startup Says It Cuts Crime. But It Likely Broke The Law. (Forbes🔒)

Flock became a law enforcement juggernaut by pledging to eradicate crime with AI-powered license plate readers. But local officials in multiple states told Forbes that Flock had violated state laws designed to guarantee driver safety in the process.

Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the Era of BadGPTs (WSJ🔒) 📊

A new crop of nefarious chatbots with names like “BadGPT” and “FraudGPT” are springing up on the darkest corners of the web, as cybercriminals look to tap the same artificial intelligence behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Just as some office workers use ChatGPT to write better emails, hackers are using manipulated versions of AI chatbots to turbocharge their phishing emails. They can use chatbots—some also freely-available on the open internet—to create fake websites, write malware and tailor messages to better impersonate executives and other trusted entities.

Life

Alabama lawmakers pass legislation to protect IVF treatment (WP🔒)

The Alabama legislature voted Thursday to protect providers and patients doing in vitro fertilization from criminal or civil liability if embryos they create are subsequently damaged or destroyed. The fast action by both the House and Senate on bills to shield IVF came less than two weeks after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are people and that individuals could be liable for destroying them. The unprecedented decision, which gave fertilized eggs the same protection as babies under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, threw IVF treatment in Alabama into turmoil.

Why Children Need Risk, Fear, and Excitement in Play (After Babel)

We parents are caught in a paradox. We desperately want to keep our children safe and ensure their success. We are also often terrified that they will get hurt and that they will fail—so we do everything we can to prevent that from happening. Yet many of those very efforts to manage our fears have paradoxically reduced our children’s safety and their odds of success. For over two decades, I have researched children’s development, injury prevention, and outdoor risky play. I have learned that when we prioritize children’s play (especially the kind of play that involves some risk and lack of supervision) and the freedom to play how they choose, we help create environments where children and youth thrive. When we don’t, the consequences can be dire.

Education

$1 Billion Donation Will Provide Free Tuition at a Bronx Medical School (NYT🔒)

The 93-year-old widow of a Wall Street financier has donated $1 billion to a Bronx medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, with instructions that the gift be used to cover tuition for all students going forward. The donor, Ruth Gottesman, is a former professor at Einstein, where she studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test and ran literacy programs. It is one of the largest charitable donations to an educational institution in the United States and most likely the largest to a medical school.

Health

New Zealand set to scrap world-first tobacco ban (Reuters)

New Zealand will repeal on Tuesday a world-first law banning tobacco sales for future generations, the government said, even while researchers and campaigners warned of the risk that people could die as a result Set to take effect from July, the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the world would have banned sales to those born after Jan. 1, 2009, cut nicotine content in smoked tobacco products and reduced the number of tobacco retailers by more than 90% The new coalition government elected in October confirmed the repeal will happen on Tuesday as a matter of urgency, enabling it to scrap the law without seeking public comment, in line with previously announced plans.

Food & Drink

Wendy’s Surge Pricing Is Off the Menu After Internet Beef (Gizmodo)

The internet had its own never-frozen beef with Wendy’s when it discovered the fast food chain was planning surge pricing for 2025. Wendy’s clarified in an updated statement on Tuesday night that it has “no plans” for surge pricing. “We said these menu boards would give us more flexibility to change the display of featured items. This was misconstrued in some media reports as an intent to raise prices when demand is highest at our restaurants,” said Wendy’s in an updated official statement. “We have no plans to do that and would not raise prices when our customers are visiting us most.”

Nature

Africa’s Donkeys Are Coveted by China. Can the Continent Protect Them? (NYT🔒)

For years, Chinese companies and their contractors have been slaughtering millions of donkeys across Africa, coveting gelatin from the animals’ hides that is processed into traditional medicines, popular sweets and beauty products in China. But a growing demand for the gelatin has decimated donkey populations at such alarming rates in African countries that governments are now moving to put a brake on the mostly unregulated trade. China’s ejiao industry now consumes between four million and six million donkey hides every year — about 10 percent of the world’s donkey population, according to Chinese news reports and estimates by the Donkey Sanctuary. China used to source ejiao from donkeys in China. But its own herd has plummeted from more than nine million in 2000 to just over 1.7 million in 2022.

Proposed megafacility to breed monkeys in U.S. dismays activists and neighbors but excites scientists (Science)

Bainbridge, a rural town in southwestern Georgia with a population of 14,000, could soon become home to 30,000 additional residents: cynomolgus macaques. A new company called Safer Human Medicine (SHM) has announced plans to build an 80-hectare facility that would sell monkeys to universities, contract research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies that perform research on the animals. The breeding facility would dwarf others in the United States and could ease a serious shortage of monkeys for research. But it faces pushback from the local community and concerns from animal welfare groups about the company’s leadership and its goals. SHM, which was founded in 2023 by former executives from major research animal suppliers, first announced its plans at a Bainbridge community meeting in December 2023. The company hopes to break ground this summer and acquire its first animals by the end of the year, although it will be many years before the facility could reach its full capacity. The need is real. A 2023 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) found that U.S. researchers had been forced to change or abandon projects because of difficulty obtaining monkeys. China, which supplied more than half of the 70,000 research monkeys used annually in the U.S., stopped exporting them in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. China hasn’t resumed exports; instead it is breeding monkeys for its own researchers and competing with the U.S. to buy monkeys from other countries, according to the report. Since then, “The price of monkeys has gone through the roof,” says JoAnne Flynn, a microbiologist at the University of Pittsburgh who uses macaques to study tuberculosis. She says she budgeted $7000 per animal in her National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants a few years ago, but they now cost about $20,000.

NOTE: Wow, 70,000 monkeys used in the US annually!

Travel

Hotel Staff Shortages Threaten to Push Travel Costs Even Higher (WSJ🔒)

Hotel owners have been on an epic hiring spree. Yet even after clawing back hundreds of thousands of jobs during the past two years, the industry is still light on staff and often struggling to adapt. Daily housekeeping for all guests, room service and other amenities that were reduced or eliminated during the pandemic are still lacking at many properties. At the same time, hotels across the U.S. have held their daily room rates near all-time highs this winter, in part to offset the increase in wages to lure workers back. Hotels will collectively pay $123 billion in compensation this year, up more than 20% from 2019, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Some hotel owners now fret that a guest backlash could be building as smaller staffs can compromise the level of service and higher wages threaten to push the cost of travel even higher.

Entertainment

Hulu and Disney+ are losing subscribers as the streaming industry struggles to turn a profit (Quartz)

Only three U.S. video subscription services have managed to turn a profit in the 17 years since Netflix launched the streaming revolution: Netflix, Hulu, and most recently Warner Bros. Discovery. One reason is that video streaming services have done a terrible job at keeping subscribers. In the last four years, the weighted average churn rate for U.S. streamers has almost tripled to 5.5%, according to a new report from the streaming analytics firm Antenna. In 2023, that meant that, although streamers gained 164.7 million gross subscriptions, they also recorded 140 million cancellations, leaving them with a net of 24.2 million new subscriptions.

Everyone Knows That: can you identify the lost 80s hit baffling the internet? (The Guardian)

It’s only 17 seconds long, and sounds a bit like 80s-era Genesis playing at the bottom of a swimming pool. But this snippet of bouncy yet sonically degraded pop has become one of the biggest and most enduring musical mysteries on the internet. The clip was uploaded in 2021 by someone called Carl92, who wanted to know if anyone could identify it. “I don’t remember its origin,” he wrote on a site called WatZatSong, saying he found it “between a bunch of very old files in a DVD backup … it sounds somewhat familiar to me.” But even after the 17-second sample was posted on Reddit, where the mighty pop-culture hive mind rarely fails, not a single person managed to identify the song or the artist.

Sports

The NFL salary cap will hit a new high this season (Chartr) 📊

The NFL is allowing teams to boost their already bumper wage bills next season, raising the salary cap by more than $30 million to take it north of $255 million, the league announced on Friday. That 13.6% leap is the largest on record since the NFL first introduced the salary cap 30 years ago, when the most each team could pay out in wages was “just” $34.6 million. In the '24 season, franchises can also dish out a further $74 million on player benefits (think performance bonuses or retirement packages for former stars), taking the total top spend to $329 million per team, or a whopping $10.5 billion across the whole league.

‘A major moment for tennis’: ATP agrees partnership with Saudi Arabia’s PIF (The Guardian)

Saudi Arabia’s influence has stretched deeper into men’s tennis after the ATP Tour agreed a “multiyear strategic partnership” with the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund. As a result of the deal the ATP rankings, plus the year-end world No 1 award, will be named after the PIF. The PIF will also have on‑court branding at major ATP 1000 events at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing, as well as the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin. However, while the deal expands the Saudis’ voice in professional tennis, it does not represent a direct challenge to the existing order. This is not the LIV Golf playbook reloaded, but rather a sign that the PIF wants to work with the sport’s existing governing bodies. Notably, it also does not have a 1000 tournament of its own yet – something it has made clear it would like to stage.

‘Iron Man’ pilots race in jet suits against a backdrop of Dubai skyscrapers (AP)

Pilots lined up on a runway in Dubai on Wednesday and fired up their seven jet engines with an ear-splitting roar. But they weren’t preparing to fly an airplane — they were the aircraft. This city-state in the United Arab Emirates, known for being home to the world’s tallest building and other wonders, hosted what it called its first-ever jet suit race. Racers zipped along a route with the skyscrapers of Dubai Marina looming behind them, controlling the jet engines on their hands and their backs.

In on the Joke at the First-Ever Florida Man Games (NYT🔒)

The idea came to Pete Melfi, a radio personality turned podcaster in St. Augustine, Fla., last year after he organized “the laziest race in the history of races,” a .5-kilometer beer run, and the participants had a grand old time. Wouldn’t it be fun, Mr. Melfi thought, to hold another race, this time with a big after-party? And what if the theme was none other than the meme that launched many thousands of headlines about his home state: Florida Man? His wild idea morphed into an all-day competition with a series of zany events: A mullet contest. A “mud duel” with pool noodles. An “evading arrest” obstacle course, with real sheriff’s deputies pursuing the contestants. (But, to be clear, there were no actual arrests in the race. The handcuffs came from a sex toy shop.) “We understand that Florida is weird,” Mr. Melfi said. “We embrace it.” If the rest of the country — hell, the rest of the world — is going to make Florida the punchline, then those who call it home might as well be in on the joke. Don’t overthink it.

For Fun

Police called to Willy Wonka event after refunds demanded (BBC) 📊

The 19-year-old attended the event at Box Hub Warehouse in Whiteinch with a group of friends after getting hold of discounted tickets. "It was basically advertised as this big massive Willy Wonka experience with optical illusions and big chocolate fountains and sweets," she said. "But when we got there, it was practically an abandoned, empty warehouse, with hardly anything in it."

NOTE: Hmm…definitely not overwhelming.

Merriam-Webster says you can end a sentence with a preposition. The internet goes off (NPR)

An authority on the English language has set us free from the tethers of what many have long regarded as a grammatical no-no. Or has it? The answer depends on how you side with a declaration from Merriam-Webster: "It is permissible in English for a preposition to be what you end a sentence with," the dictionary publisher said in a post shared on Instagram last week. "The idea that it should be avoided came from writers who were trying to align the language with Latin, but there is no reason to suggest ending a sentence with a preposition is wrong." Merriam-Webster had touched on a stubborn taboo — the practice of ending sentences with prepositions such as to, with, about, upon, for or of — that was drilled into many of us in grade school. The post ignited an emphatic debate in the comment section.

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.

Curated Compositions

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