This week in the news | 23 Mar 24
News from the past week, and a few other things.
👋 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.”
North America
Governments Across the U.S. Are Handing Residents Cash—No Strings Attached (WSJ🔒)
Baltimore Wants to Sell Hundreds of Vacant Homes for $1 Each (Bloomberg🔒)
Two major newspaper chains dropped the AP. What will it mean for readers? (WP🔒)
Biden Presides Over Record-Breaking 11 Embassy Evacuations (Daily Signal)
The bar exam will no longer be required to become a licensed attorney in Washington (Washington Examiner)
Border Enforcement in Disarray as Courts Debate Texas’ Power to Arrest, Deport Immigrants (WSJ🔒)
Illinois judge rules illegal migrants can carry guns (NY Post)
Latin America
Europe
Ireland’s Prime Minister Resigns in Surprise Announcement (NYT🔒)
EU leaders ink €7.4B economic aid, migration deal with Egypt (Politico)
Middle East
Israel Gaza: US reports death of senior Hamas military leader Marwan Issa (BBC)
Iran defends post as chair of UN disarmament conference (Reuters)
Africa
US Military Operations Across Sahel at Risk After Niger Ends Cooperation (VOA)
Gambia Moves Toward Overturning Landmark Ban on Female Genital Cutting (NYT🔒)
Move to overturn FGM ban in the Gambia postponed (The Guardian)📊
Asia-Pacific
U.S. Warned Russia Before Moscow Attack That Killed at Least 60 (WSJ)
Putin claims landslide in Russian election and scorns US democracy (BBC)
Hong Kong’s New Security Bill Triggers Warnings From Overseas (Bloomberg🔒📊)
China on Track to Be Ready to Invade Taiwan by 2027, US Says (Bloomberg🔒)
How a Tiny Island Became One of the Most Militarized Countries in the World (WSJ🔒)
Japan Raises Interest Rates for First Time in 17 Years (NYT🔒📊)📊
Vietnam names acting president after legislature votes to remove Thuong (Reuters)
Space
Government
Economy
Business
Reddit prices IPO at top of indicated range to raise $748 million (Reuters)
Shein to Market Its Unique Supply-Chain Technology to Global Brands (WSJ🔒)
Amazon’s New Focus: Fending Off Rivals Temu and Shein (WSJ🔒📊)
Real Estate
Personal Finance
Cyber
TikTok’s Business, in Charts (WSJ🔒📊)
US Warns of Cyberattacks Against Water Systems Throughout Nation (Bloomberg🔒)
Artificial Intelligence
In Latest A.I. War Escalation, Elon Musk Releases Chatbot Code (NYT🔒)
They Praised AI at SXSW—and the Audience Started Booing (Honest Broker)
Life
U.S. drops in new global happiness ranking. One age group bucks the trend (NPR)
Facing rejection (Adulting Professor)
Religion
The Prophet Of Shroom (Forbes🔒)
Education
Food & Drink
Entertainment
MrBeast Game Show From Amazon Promises $5 Million Jackpot—Largest Ever On TV (Forbes🔒)
Tired of Streaming? Free Blockbuster Libraries Offer an Alternative. (NYT🔒)
THE SLOW BREW ☕
A more relaxed approach to the summaries.
North America
Governments Across the U.S. Are Handing Residents Cash—No Strings Attached (WSJ🔒)
Houston is joining dozens of American cities and counties—most led by Democrats—that are experimenting with guaranteed-income programs amid growing wealth inequality in the U.S. The programs are part of a trend at the local and national level toward providing direct, largely unconditional payments to Americans for everything from pandemic relief to child assistance. They reflect a growing sentiment among economists, tech industry leaders and Democrats that distributing money without strings is one of the most effective and least bureaucratic ways to help struggling Americans. Other cities that have experimented with guaranteed-income programs include Stockton, Calif., Birmingham, Ala., Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn. The efforts are facing resistance from Republicans, who have called for tighter restrictions on who gets the money and how it can be used, with some expressing philosophical opposition to what they see as an unchecked handout.
Baltimore Wants to Sell Hundreds of Vacant Homes for $1 Each (Bloomberg🔒)
Baltimore plans to sell boarded-up houses for $1 each in an attempt to revive neighborhoods that have been plagued by crime and disrepair. The program backed by Mayor Brandon Scott will offer more than 200 city-owned vacant properties to residents who commit to repairing and living in them. A city board approved the measure on Wednesday. Vacant homes are a decades-long problem in the Maryland city, which has one of the highest crime rates in the US concentrated within a few high-poverty neighborhoods. The measure evokes Baltimore’s “dollar house” program from the 1970s, which offered properties for a buck to homesteaders if they fixed them up. A similar effort has also been attempted in Newark, New Jersey. The Baltimore program is meant to prioritize individual buyers over developers, who will have to pay $3,000 per home. Home repair grants of $50,000 are available to help with renovations, but recipients have to be pre-approved for a construction loan, according to Governing.com. Some non-profits urged the city to put up guardrails against having most of the homes go to developers, which could drive up prices and push out poor residents.
Biden Presides Over Record-Breaking 11 Embassy Evacuations (Daily Signal)
Since Biden took office in January 2021, his State Department has partially or fully evacuated 11 U.S. embassies via what are known as authorized or ordered departure directives.
NOTE: The 11 countries: Burma, Chad, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Nigeria, Sudan, Niger, Haiti.
The bar exam will no longer be required to become a licensed attorney in Washington (Washington Examiner)
The Washington Supreme Court approved multiple new avenues to become a licensed attorney in the state Friday, none of which require taking the bar exam. Washington joins Oregon, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire as the fourth state that no longer requires the bar exam to become a licensed attorney. Supreme courts in California, Minnesota, and Utah are considering similar moves.
Border Enforcement in Disarray as Courts Debate Texas’ Power to Arrest, Deport Immigrants (WSJ)
The immigration rules governing the southern U.S. border seesawed dramatically Tuesday when the Supreme Court allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting noncitizens on its own—only for another court to step in hours later and block any such state efforts for now. The rapidly shifting landscape comes thanks to a legal showdown between Texas and the Biden administration, which argues that states can’t interfere with federal authority over the border. In the afternoon, the Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law known as SB 4, which makes illegal border crossing a state crime and allows state officials to conduct arrests and deportations. The measure had been on hold as the high court weighed the federal government’s request to halt implementation during ongoing litigation. A federal district judge had enjoined the law after it was challenged by the Biden administration and immigrant-rights groups, but the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New Orleans, issued a temporary order that allowed SB 4 to go into effect.
Illinois judge rules illegal migrants can carry guns (NY Post)
A federal judge in Illinois appointed by President Barack Obama ruled that the Constitution protects the rights of noncitizens who enter the US illegally after a Mexican immigrant living in Chicago was found in possession of a handgun. US District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled earlier this month that a federal ban on undocumented immigrants owning firearms is unconstitutional, and dismissed charges against Heriberto Carbajal-Flores, who was arrested in 2020 after violating a federal law that prohibits noncitizens from possessing guns. Coleman ruled that since Carbajal-Flores has no criminal record and the circumstances behind his arrest were not violent, he should not be deprived of his Second Amendment right to bear arms in self-defense, Fox News Digital reported.
Two major newspaper chains dropped the AP. What will it mean for readers? (WP🔒)
With more than 200 bureaus around the globe, the AP remains the biggest brand name among what came to be known as the wire services, transmitting its articles and images to news outlets for a licensing fee. Some smaller papers came to rely so heavily on its content that “AP” was their single most frequent byline. But now, two major American newspaper chains have said they will no longer use the AP for news. Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and more than 200 local newspapers, and McClatchy, which publishes the Miami Herald and Kansas City Star among more than two dozen other newspapers, said this week that they were ending their content relationship with the AP. In memos to staff and public statements, executives with both companies described it as a cost-saving move — in the “millions” of dollars, according to McClatchy brass — and said they will have no trouble filling the news gap.
Latin America
How Cuba Recruits Spies to Penetrate Inner Circles of the U.S. Government (WSJ🔒)
The Rocha affair, just one in a string of cases in which Americans accused of spying for Havana have penetrated virtually every segment of the U.S. national security structure, points to a larger problem, former U.S. and Cuban intelligence officers say. Cuba and its intelligence service, the Dirección de Inteligencia, are in the world’s top ranks when it comes to recruiting spies, while the American teams responsible for stopping them are understaffed and outmatched, according to former U.S. counterintelligence officials. Cuba has “the best damn intelligence service in the world” for cultivating agents, said Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst who led the agency’s Latin America division. And the implications of that espionage extend beyond Cuba. Former U.S. officials say Washington has repeatedly underestimated the danger from Havana, which often distributes the fruits of its spying to more potent adversaries such as Russia and China.
Europe
Catherine, Princess of Wales, Has Cancer (NYT)
Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been diagnosed with cancer and has begun chemotherapy, she announced in a video message on Friday, in which she described the past two months as “incredibly tough for our entire family.” Her diagnosis follows that of King Charles III, who announced his own cancer diagnosis and treatment in early February. It comes after a period of intense uncertainty about the health of Catherine, who underwent abdominal surgery in January and largely disappeared from public view as she tried to recuperate. Like the king, Catherine, 42, did not specify what kind of cancer she has, but asked the public and news media to respect her desire for privacy.
Ireland’s Prime Minister Resigns in Surprise Announcement (NYT🔒)
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s barrier-breaking leader, said on Wednesday that he would resign, days after a double referendum in which voters rejected constitutional changes his government had championed, and after years of waning public support for his political party, Fine Gael.
EU leaders ink €7.4B economic aid, migration deal with Egypt (Politico)
The EU on Sunday signed a major aid deal with Egypt geared at curbing irregular migration to Europe’s shores and boosting the North African country’s economy. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, flanked by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi as well as five EU national leaders, said the deal worth €7.4 billion would be doled out over four years and is aimed in part at boosting border controls. The agreement with Egypt fits into a series of similar deals that Brussels has signed with countries on its periphery as European leaders aim to curb irregular migration to the bloc ahead of the pan-EU election coming up in June. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has been a driving force behind such deals, hailed the EU-Egypt accord as a chance to give “residents of Africa” a chance "not to emigrate" to Europe.
Middle East
Israel Gaza: US reports death of senior Hamas military leader Marwan Issa (BBC)
Hamas leader Marwan Issa died in an Israeli air strike, White House official Jake Sullivan has said. As deputy military commander, Mr Issa would be Hamas's most senior leader to die since the war began on 7 October.
Iran defends post as chair of UN disarmament conference (Reuters)
Iran on Tuesday defended its election as the rotating chair of the world's sole multilateral disarmament forum after the United States announced that its ambassador to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament would boycott any meeting led by Tehran. The U.N. Conference on Disarmament has been deadlocked for about 15 years. While the chairmanship of the Geneva-based body is largely ceremonial, it is a high-profile position. Two years ago North Korea, which withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and has tested three atomic devices since, chaired the conference and sparked Western criticism.
Africa
US Military Operations Across Sahel at Risk After Niger Ends Cooperation (VOA)
The United States scrambled on Sunday to assess the future of its counterterrorism operations in the Sahel after Niger's junta said it was ending its yearslong military cooperation with Washington following a visit by top U.S. officials. The U.S. military has hundreds of troops stationed at a major airbase in northern Niger that deploys flights over the vast Sahel region — south of the Sahara Desert — where jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate. Top U.S. envoy Molly Phee returned to the capital, Niamey, this week to meet with senior government officials, accompanied by Marine Gen. Michael Langley, head of the U.S. military's African Command. She had previously visited in December, while acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland traveled to the country in August. The State Department said Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that talks were frank and that it was in touch with the junta. It wasn't clear whether the U.S. has any leeway left to negotiate a deal to stay in the country.
Move to overturn FGM ban in the Gambia postponed (The Guardian)📊
A decision on whether to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Gambia has been postponed for three months after MPs called for more consultation. FGM was outlawed in the country eight years ago and is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment.
NOTE: More info on female genital mutilation (FGM): https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation
Asia-Pacific
U.S. Warned Russia Before Moscow Attack That Killed at Least 60 (WSJ)
The U.S. passed a secret warning to Russia earlier this month of a plot to target large crowds ahead of an attack that killed at least 60 people and injured over 145 at a concert hall outside of Moscow, according to U.S. officials. Explosions rocked the site and gunmen opened fire on concertgoers Friday evening, Russian authorities said, less than a week after Vladimir Putin was elected for a sixth term as the country’s president. U.S. officials said they believed Islamic State was responsible for the attack. The group claimed responsibility in a statement issued by the Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq on Telegram, without providing evidence. On March 7, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a cryptic warning to American citizens to avoid concert venues. The U.S. had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow potentially targeting large gatherings—including concerts—which prompted the State Department to issue a public advisory, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement Friday night. “The U.S. government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy,” Watson added.
Putin claims landslide in Russian election and scorns US democracy (BBC)
Vladimir Putin was always going to claim his fifth term as president with a landslide, faced with three other candidates all rubber-stamped by the Kremlin. But when election officials said results gave him more than 87% of the vote, he said Russia's democracy was more transparent than many in the West. In truth no credible opposition candidate was allowed to stand. Supporters of dead Putin critic Alexei Navalny did stage symbolic protests. Western countries lined up to condemn the vote as neither free nor fair. Germany called it a "pseudo-election" under an authoritarian ruler reliant on censorship, repression and violence. President Putin was more subdued as he took questions from reporters, but he did hail Russia's presidential campaign as far more advanced than the US, citing Russia's use of online voting, which officials said brought in eight million voters.
Hong Kong’s New Security Bill Triggers Warnings From Overseas (Bloomberg🔒📊)
Hong Kong has fast-tracked into law domestic security legislation, prompting fresh warnings from the US, European Union and UK that the move could muzzle open discussion in the global finance hub. The measure was approved unanimously Tuesday evening by the city’s “patriots-only” legislature, in a snap meeting called one day before its regular weekly session. Lawmakers’ approval of the legislation within an 11-day window marks the fastest passing of a bill since the city returned to Chinese control in 1997. The new law’s broadly defined state secrets offenses bring Hong Kong in line with China’s vague espionage legislation, which has spooked foreign investors over the past year. New crimes such as treason and insurrection carry life sentences, expanding authorities’ toolkit to crush political opposition — a drive that’s hurt the city’s ties with some Western democracies.
China on Track to Be Ready to Invade Taiwan by 2027, US Says (Bloomberg🔒)
China is building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not seen since World War II and all signs suggest it’s sticking to ambitions to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, a top US admiral testified. Despite Beijing’s economic challenges, its official defense budget has increased by 16% over recent years to more than $223 billion, Admiral John Aquilino, the leader of the Indo-Pacific Command, told the US House Armed Services Committee in prepared testimony on Wednesday. In the three years since he took command, he said the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, has added more than 400 fighter aircraft, along with more than 20 major warships. It’s also doubled its inventory of ballistic and cruise missiles since 2020, he said.
How a Tiny Island Became One of the Most Militarized Countries in the World (WSJ🔒)
It's the same size as New York City and at peace with its neighbors, but Singapore spends more on its military than any other country in Southeast Asia. WSJ’s Jon Emont takes a closer look at why this tiny nation is pouring billions into its armed forces.
Japan Raises Interest Rates for First Time in 17 Years (NYT🔒📊)
Japan’s central bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2007 on Tuesday, pushing them above zero to close a chapter in its aggressive effort to stimulate an economy that has long struggled to grow. In 2016, the Bank of Japan took the unorthodox step of bringing borrowing costs below zero, a bid to kick-start borrowing and lending and spur the country’s stagnating economy. Negative interest rates — which central banks in some European economies have also applied — mean depositors pay to leave their money with a bank and borrowers can take out loans very cheaply, an incentive for them to spend. But Japan’s economy has recently begun to show signs of stronger growth: Inflation, after being low for years, has sped up, cemented by larger-than-usual increases in wages. Both are clues that the economy may be on a course for more sustained growth, allowing the central bank to tighten its interest rate policy years after other major central banks raised rates rapidly in response to a jump in inflation.
Vietnam names acting president after legislature votes to remove Thuong (Reuters)
Vietnam's legislature on Thursday appointed Vice-President Vo Thi Anh Xuan as acting head of state, after President Vo Van Thuong became the latest top official to fall amid an intensified corruption crackdown by the ruling Communist Party. Thuong, 53, was removed from the powerful Politburo for unspecified violations of party rules, becoming the second president to exit in just over a year in Vietnam, where leadership changes have recently all been linked to a wide-ranging "blazing furnace" anti-bribery campaign.
Space
More stuff was launched into space last year than ever (Chartr)
We are launching more stuff into space than ever before. Indeed, us Earth-dwellers launched a record-breaking 2,664 objects into space last year… with the US — be that American companies or government agencies — responsible for 81% of them. That’s per recent numbers from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), via Our World in Data, which revealed that the number of objects launched into space (everything from satellites to crewed spacecrafts) rose by almost 200 in 2023.
Government
Race and Politics (NYT🔒📊)
After Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, many political scientists and pundits came forth with a simple explanation. Trump had won, they said, because of white Americans’ racial resentment. These analysts looked at surveys and argued that the voters who had allowed Trump to win were distinguished not by social class, economic worries or any other factor but by their racial fears. “Another study shows Trump won because of racial anxieties — not economic distress,” as a typical headline, in The Intercept, put it. I never found this argument to be persuasive. Yes, race played a meaningful role in Trump’s victory, given his long history of remarks demeaning people of color. But politics is rarely monocausal. And there were good reasons — including Barack Obama’s earlier success with Trump voters — to believe that the 2016 election was complex, too. Eight years later, the “it’s all racial resentment” argument doesn’t look merely questionable. It looks wrong. Since Trump’s victory, a defining feature of American politics has been the rightward shift of voters of color. Asian, Black and Hispanic voters have all become less likely to support Democratic candidates and more likely to support Republicans, including Trump. In each group, the trend is pronounced among working-class voters, defined as those without a four-year college degree. (The Democrats’ performance among nonwhite voters with a college degree has held fairly stable.)
Perspective: What people get wrong about political polarization (Deseret)
I worry deeply about polarization in the United States, especially the possibility of polarization leading to violence. I work to try to reduce that possibility every day. (I previously co-founded OpenMind with Jonathan Haidt and Caroline Mehl, where we created online educational materials to teach people how to have more constructive disagreements.) In my work, I’ve noticed five common misconceptions that are becoming widely accepted, from the state of polarization to how to solve it.
NOTE: Written in 2022, but still a great read.
Economy
Fed sees three rate cuts in 2024 but a more shallow easing path (Reuters📊)
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday recent high inflation readings had not changed the underlying "story" of slowly easing price pressures in the U.S. as the central bank stayed on track for three interest rate cuts this year and affirmed that solid economic growth will continue. The Fed also left interest rates unchanged and released new quarterly economic projections that showed officials now expect the economy to grow 2.1% this year, above what's considered the U.S. economy's long-run potential and a substantial upgrade from the 1.4% growth seen as of December. At the same time, the unemployment rate is only expected to hit 4% by the end of 2024, barely changed from the current 3.9% level, while a key measure of inflation is projected to keep falling, though at a somewhat slower pace, to end the year at 2.6%.
Business
Reddit prices IPO at top of indicated range to raise $748 million (Reuters)
Social media platform Reddit, priced its initial public offering at the top of its targeted range of $31 to $34 per share on Wednesday, raising $748 million and giving the ailing technology IPO market a much-needed boost. Reddit and its existing shareholders sold 22 million shares at $34 a share, giving Reddit a valuation of about $6.4 billion.
Shein to Market Its Unique Supply-Chain Technology to Global Brands (WSJ🔒)
China-founded Shein has built a bargain fashion empire with a pioneering small-batch manufacturing model. Now it is planning to open that up to global brands and designers. The move represents a shift in business strategy as Shein faces challenges in the U.S., its biggest market. Shein’s executive chairman, Donald Tang, announced the plan in a letter to investors viewed by The Wall Street Journal, calling the new initiative “supply chain as a service.” Under the plan, Shein would make its supply-chain infrastructure and technology available to outside brands and designers, allowing them to leverage Shein’s system for testing out new fashion items in small batches and track how popular they are with consumers. Shein’s popularity in the U.S. has drawn the attention of lawmakers and attorneys general, who have pressed Shein to address whether it sources cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, where the U.S. has accused Chinese authorities of committing genocide and of using forced labor in its repression of mostly Muslim Uyghurs, allegations Beijing denies. Some lawmakers have urged the SEC to halt Shein’s IPO until the company shows sufficient transparency about its supply chain.
Amazon’s New Focus: Fending Off Rivals Temu and Shein (WSJ🔒📊)
Amazon.com is training its attention on emerging e-commerce players Temu and Shein, viewing the newer platforms as significant threats to its online shopping dominance. Temu and Shein have, for now, supplanted Walmart and Target as focal points in internal Amazon meetings related to retail, people familiar with the matter said. The companies with Chinese roots are expanding in the U.S. and targeting Amazon customers. Temu has gone on an advertising blitz, spending billions of dollars and becoming the top advertiser by revenue on Meta Platforms in 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported this month. Amazon executives are concentrating in part on two aspects of their business they believe will continue to give them a competitive advantage: customer trust and fast delivery. Employees are working to increase the selection of items available for same-day delivery in categories such as electronics, and the company is exploring promotional campaigns that would emphasize reliability and delivery speeds, the people said.
Real Estate
U.S. Home Sales Jumped 9.5% in February (WSJ🔒📊)
Home sales rose in February from the month prior, marking the first time in more than two years that sales increased for two consecutive months. Sales of existing homes, the majority of purchases, surged 9.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.38 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had estimated sales of previously owned homes to fall 1.3% in February. The momentum in sales over the last two months comes just ahead of the spring selling season and follows one of the most sluggish periods for the housing market in recent history.
Real Estate Pain Is Showing Up in an Obscure Investment Product (Bloomberg🔒📊)
An obscure investment product used to finance risky real estate projects is facing unprecedented stress as borrowers struggle to repay loans tied to commercial property ventures. Known as commercial real estate collateralized loan obligations, or CRE CLOs, they bundle debt that would usually be seen as too speculative for conventional mortgage-backed securities into bonds of varying risk and return. In just the last seven months the share of troubled assets held by these niche products has surged four-fold, by one measure, to more than 7.4%. For the hardest hit, delinquency rates are in the double digits. That’s left major players in the $80 billion market rushing to rework loans, while short sellers
are ramping up attacks on publicly-traded issuers they say may be so beset by missed payments that they have little to no equity value.
Personal Finance
American Debt Stings Like Never Before in New Era for Households (Bloomberg🔒📊)
After years of managing household budgets through the stress of the worst inflation in a generation, US families are increasingly pressured by a different kind of financial squeeze: The cost of carrying debt. Two years after the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates to tame prices, delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans are the highest in more than a decade. For the first time on record, interest payments on those and other non-mortgage debts are as big a financial burden for US households as mortgage interest payments.
Cyber
TikTok’s Business, in Charts (WSJ🔒📊)
A U.S. ban of TikTok could cost Americans a favorite app, creators a popular outlet, and advertisers an emerging platform. Though far from certain, its removal would also open the door for competitors eager to compete for attention and ad dollars. The Chinese-owned service known for its short-form videos has been downloaded more than other major social-media apps in the U.S. each quarter since 2020, according to Apptopia.
US Warns of Cyberattacks Against Water Systems Throughout Nation (Bloomberg🔒)
The Biden administration is warning states to be on guard for cyberattacks against water systems, citing ongoing threats from hackers linked to the governments of Iran and China.
Artificial Intelligence
In Latest A.I. War Escalation, Elon Musk Releases Chatbot Code (NYT🔒)
Elon Musk released the raw computer code behind his version of an artificial intelligence chatbot on Sunday, an escalation by one of the world’s richest men in a battle to control the future of A.I. Grok, which is designed to give snarky replies styled after the science-fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” is a product from xAI, the company Mr. Musk founded last year. While xAI is an independent entity from X, its technology has been integrated into the social media platform and is trained on users’ posts. Users who subscribe to X’s premium features can ask Grok questions and receive responses. By opening the code up for everyone to view and use — known as open sourcing — Mr. Musk waded further into a heated debate in the A.I. world over whether doing so could help make the technology safer, or simply open it up to misuse.
They Praised AI at SXSW—and the Audience Started Booing (Honest Broker)
Tech leaders gathered in Austin for the South-by-Southwest conference a few days ago. There they showed a video boasting about the wonders of new AI technology. And the audience started booing.
Life
U.S. drops in new global happiness ranking. One age group bucks the trend (NPR)
How happy are you? The Gallup World Poll has a simple way to gauge well-being around the globe. Imagine a ladder, and think about your current life. The top rung, 10, represents the best possible life and the bottom rung, 0, represents the worst. Pick your number. Researchers use the responses to rank happiness in countries around the globe, and the 2024 results have just been released. This year, Finland is at the top of the list. Researchers point to factors including high levels of social support and healthy life expectancy, to explain the top perch of several Scandinavian countries. North America does not fare as well overall. As a nation, the United States dropped in the global ranking from 15th to 24th. But researchers point to striking generational divides. People aged 60 and older in the U.S. reported high levels of well-being compared to younger people. In fact, the United States ranks in the top 10 countries for happiness in this age group. Conversely, there's a decline in happiness among younger adolescents and young adults in the U.S.
Facing rejection (Adulting Prof)
What we tell ourselves about rejection, and the truths about rejection.
Religion
The Prophet Of Shroom (Forbes🔒)
David Hodges founded San Francisco’s Church of Ambrosia on the belief that psychedelic mushrooms are a sacrament that can reveal life’s true purpose. Like other religious leaders, Hodges has been persecuted by the government—police raided the church’s Oakland location in 2020 and seized $200,000 worth of cannabis, mushrooms and cash, but did not arrest him. Yet unlike most other church founders, his members can obtain cannabis, hallucinogenic mushrooms and another psychedelic called DMT (the active ingredient in ayahuasca)— in exchange for a monetary contribution. In other words, his church possesses enough illegal drugs to put Hodges in prison for many years. His ministry is also sitting on a small fortune. The Church of Ambrosia is the largest known megachurch in the United States: with 105,000 members, it has more congregants than Oklahoma’s Life Church, which has 85,000 members, and more than double Texas’ Lakewood Church, run by televangelist Joel Osteen. New members pay $10 to join the Church of Ambrosia while existing members give $5 to its coffers to enter if their month-long membership has expired. Between membership fees and regular contributions for drugs, Hodges’ church rakes in more than $5 million a year, Forbes estimates. He refused to discuss finances, other than saying the money goes back to the church and that it pays $3 million a year in legal fees, rent and security.
Education
What the Data Says About Pandemic School Closures, Four Years Later (NYT🔒📊)
The more time students spent in remote instruction, the further they fell behind. And, experts say, extended closures did little to stop the spread of Covid.
Food & Drink
Cocoa Prices Double From Start of 2024 as Easter Approaches (Bloomberg🔒📊)
Cocoa futures have doubled in less than three months as their landmark surge intensifies, putting the focus back on expensive chocolate costs ahead of Easter. The most-active contract in New York rose as much as 5.9% to $8,493 a metric ton, the highest on record, before paring some gains later in the day. While manufacturers buy beans months ahead of time, the rally is beginning to bite, boosting costs for consumers and sending chocolate makers scouring for supply. Some bars are getting more expensive, smaller or filled with other flavors to blunt the impact. Cocoa costs are expected to stay higher for longer as crops in West Africa — the heavyweight growing region — have been battered by diseases and a series of weather extremes, putting the world on track for a third straight supply deficit.
Entertainment
MrBeast Game Show From Amazon Promises $5 Million Jackpot—Largest Ever On TV (Forbes🔒)
Amazon Prime Video has committed to turning a popular YouTube series from influencer MrBeast into a bonafide game show called “Beast Games” that will air in 240 countries and offer its winner $5 million in cash—the largest single prize of any television show in history.
Tired of Streaming? Free Blockbuster Libraries Offer an Alternative. (NYT🔒)
Streaming services have transformed the way we view film and television, leaving us isolated on our couches, subject to the suggestions of an algorithm. But a small group of film buffs with a fondness for physical media are hoping to lure people back into the real world — one abandoned newspaper box at a time. The Free Blockbuster project began in 2019, when Brian Morrison, a film and television producer in Los Angeles, and a former Blockbuster employee, painted the company’s blue-and-yellow logo onto an old box and filled it with DVDs. For many, the brand evokes memories of the trip to the video store with friends or family to browse the shelves and to pick up a film and a bag of popcorn. The Free Blockbuster movement slowly gained traction and eventually, more than 200 other community boxes had opened from Louisiana to Canada and even Britain — though it is unclear how many remain operational.
Have a great weekend!
The Curator
Email Curator@CuratedCompositions.com to be added to the weekly email send-out of this newsletter. Back issues, without graphs/images, located at CuratedCompositions.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.