This week in the news | 24 Feb 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
Texas to build 80-acre border base for National Guard troops (ArmyTimes)
A Family Ranch, Swallowed Up in the Madness of the Border (NYT🔒)
Why New York City Can’t Fix Its Ugly Scaffolding Problem (WSJ🔒)📊
Latin America
In Latin America, Guards Don’t Control Prisons, Gangs Do (NYT🔒)
The United States’ Missed Opportunity in Latin America (Foreign Affairs🔒)
Europe
War in Ukraine Is Turning in Putin’s Favor After Months of Stalemate (Bloomberg🔒)📊
City’s Fall Leaves Ukraine With an Even Tougher Fight Ahead (NYT🔒)
What the Pentagon has learned from two years of war in Ukraine (WP🔒)
Farmers from 10 EU countries join forces - and tractors - to protest agricultural policies (AP)
Middle East
Israel Orders New Evacuations in Northern Gaza as U.N. Suspends Food Deliveries (NYT🔒)
Rafah attack: How Israel plans to hit Hamas and scale back war (Reuters)
US Vetoes UN Security Council Resolution Urging Gaza Cease-Fire (Bloomberg🔒)
White House, Arab States Pursue Talks to Free Gaza Hostages as Israel Signals Progress (WSJ🔒)
US drone goes down off Yemen; underwater Houthi drone taken out (Military Times)
Iran, wary of wider war, urges its proxies to avoid provoking U.S. (WP🔒)
Africa
Asia-Pacific
China slashes mortgage reference rates to revive property market (Reuters)📊
Explainer: Why are South Korean trainee doctors on strike over medical school quotas? (Reuters)
Exclusive: Iran sends Russia hundreds of ballistic missiles (Reuters)
US warns Iran against providing ballistic missiles to Russia (Reuters)
US targets Russia with hundreds of sanctions over Ukraine war, Navalny death (Reuters)
Arrested for Leaving Flowers, Navalny Mourners Fear Worse to Come (NYT🔒)
Who are other Russian dissidents besides the late Alexei Navalny? (AP)
Space
Moon landing: US clinches first touchdown in 50 years (Reuters)
NASA is looking for volunteers to live in its Mars simulation for a year (Engadget)
Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution (The Guardian)
The sun just launched three huge solar flares in 24 hours. What it means. (WP🔒)📊
Government
Defense
Economy
Business
U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports (WSJ🔒)
Meta’s $197 Billion Surge Is Biggest in Stock-Market History (Bloomberg🔒)
Nvidia Rises Most in About Nine Months as AI Drives Sales (Bloomberg🔒)📊
Walmart’s Proposed $2.3 Billion Purchase Of Vizio: Here’s What We Know (Forbes🔒)
Boeing 737 Max Official Is Out as Questions Linger on Mishap (NYT🔒)
Rise of fast-fashion Shein, Temu roils global air cargo industry (Reuters)
Capital One will buy Discover for $35 billion in deal that combines major US credit card companies (AP)
Why Are There Suddenly So Many Car Washes? (Bloomberg🔒)
Nintendo Shares Tank Nearly 6% After Reports Say New Console Is Delayed (Forbes🔒)📊
Real Estate
Mortgage Rates Continue to Rise, Nearing Seven Percent (Freddie Mac)📊
U.S. Commercial Foreclosures Increase in January 2024 (ATTOM)📊
Personal Finance
OPINION | Your 401(k) Will Be Gone Within a Decade (Bloomberg🔒)
Technology
AT&T Outage Triggered by Company Work on Network Expansion (Bloomberg🔒)
What is Chaos Monkey? (TechTarget)
Neuralink's first human patient able to control mouse through thinking, Musk says (Reuters)
Apple Officially Warns Users to Stop Putting Wet iPhones in Rice (Gizmodo)
Lab-grown diamonds put natural gems under pressure (Phys.org)
Cyber
A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men (NYT🔒)
U.S. and U.K. Disrupt LockBit Ransomware Variant (Department of Justice)
Purported Leaks Show Global Reach of China-Sponsored Hacking (Bloomberg🔒)
Cyberattack slows prescription processing at military pharmacies (Military Times)
The State of the Culture, 2024 (Honest Broker)📊
Artificial Intelligence
Google apologizes for ‘missing the mark’ after Gemini generated racially diverse Nazis (The Verge)
Exclusive: Reddit in AI content licensing deal with Google (Reuters)
Life
The Coddling of the American Mind (Substack)
Can You Solve Loneliness? These Startups Are Betting On It. (WSJ🔒) 📊
[Suicide] Attempters’ Longterm Survival (Harvard School of Public Health)
Alabama’s Embryo Ruling Challenges IVF Practices Nationwide (WSJ🔒)
Education
Biden administration to cancel another $1.2 billion of student loans (Reuters)
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Diversity Efforts at Top High School (WSJ🔒)
Yale will again require standardized test scores for admission (WP🔒)
As U. of Arizona Confronts Budget Cuts, Workers and Students Brace for the Worst (NYT🔒)
Health
Largest Covid Vaccine Study Yet Finds Links to Health Conditions (Bloomberg🔒)
Exercise even better than anti-depressants at treating depression, study finds (Sky News)
Universal antivenom for lethal snake toxins developed by researchers (Phys.org)
Home
Food & Drink
Beyond Meat is trying everything to get sales growth back in the green (Chartr) 📊
I printed chocolate on a 3D printer and ate it (The Verge)
Nature
A Colorado man died after a Gila monster bite. Opinions and laws on keeping the lizard as a pet vary (AP)
Travel
The Five Most Exciting Innovations Coming to an Airport Near You (Bloomberg🔒)
Airlines Make Whopping $33 Billion On Bags, See Where They Fly Free (Forbes🔒) 📊
Art
Museum Selfie-Takers Are Causing Damage by Backing Into Artworks (Hyperallergic)
Entertainment
Sports
Sports betting industry posts record $11B in 2023 revenue (ESPN)
College Football Playoff board approves move to 5+7 model for start of 12-team format (The Athletic)
For Fun
Pennsylvania thrift store finds rare 14-karat gold LEGO mask, expected to rake in thousands at auction (Fox Business) 📊
THE SLOW BREW ☕
A more relaxed approach to the summaries.
North America
Texas to build 80-acre border base for National Guard troops (ArmyTimes)
Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday announced that the state is building an 80-acre base camp in Eagle Pass for Texas National Guard soldiers who are deployed for Operation Lone Star, the $10 billion state effort to deter people from immigrating into Texas illegally. Abbott said the new facility will house between 1,800 soldiers to 2,300 soldiers — the base would reach the higher figure if the state deploys more troops to the border — and each will have individual rooms. Texas Major Gen. Thomas Suelzer said that by mid-April the base will be able to hold 300 soldiers and will add 300 more beds roughly every 30 days until the base is complete.
A Family Ranch, Swallowed Up in the Madness of the Border (NYT🔒)
The Chiltons had spent the past several years trying to unravel the mysteries of their own backyard and grasping at partial truths as the situation worsened on their ranch. They discovered drugs and at least 150 smuggling trails on their grazing land, so they put up security cameras and offered to arm all five of their working cowboys. Those cowboys started to see groups of migrants stranded near the border, so the Chiltons installed water fountains in the desert to help keep people alive. Their security cameras recorded hundreds of men walking by each month in camouflage, so they testified before Congress and campaigned alongside Donald Trump for a wall, hoping it might slow the procession of people onto their ranch. But now more undocumented immigrants were crossing the southern border than ever before, including a record 302,000 in the month of December alone. Each night, the crisis brought more danger and desperation onto their ranch, and Jim and Sue were still trying to get their minds around the whole elephant: It was a humanitarian disaster. It was a drug crisis. It was a national security emergency. It was a cartel war and an American political battle all playing out during a presidential election year within the remote confines of their ranch.
NOTE: A fascinating read.
Why New York City Can’t Fix Its Ugly Scaffolding Problem (WSJ🔒)
The buildup is the result of a cocktail of issues, including insufficient oversight by regulators; supply bottlenecks, particularly for specialty items needed by landmark buildings; and financial struggles at low-income buildings. Perhaps the biggest factor, say many officials—including Mayor Eric Adams—is the set of arcane local rules requiring sidewalk sheds for pedestrian protection during construction and demolition, facade work, and other exterior maintenance. The laws stem from the death of a Barnard College student killed by a falling piece of masonry in 1979. The rules, particularly those governing facade inspections and repairs, encourage property owners to leave sheds up instead of completing critical and often costly work, the Adams administration said.
Latin America
In Latin America, Guards Don’t Control Prisons, Gangs Do (NYT🔒)
Ecuador’s military was sent in to seize control of the country’s prisons last month after two major gang leaders escaped and criminal groups quickly set off a nationwide revolt that paralyzed the country. In Brazil last week, two inmates with connections to a major gang became the first to escape from one of the nation’s five maximum-security federal prisons, officials said. Officials in Colombia have declared an emergency in its prisons after two guards were killed and several more targeted in what the government said was retaliation for its crackdown on major criminal groups. Inside prisons across Latin America, criminal groups exercise unchallenged authority over prisoners, extracting money from them to buy protection or basic necessities, like food. The prisons also act as a safe haven of sorts for incarcerated criminal leaders to remotely run their criminal enterprises on the outside, ordering killings, orchestrating the smuggling of drugs to the United States and Europe and directing kidnappings and extortion of local businesses.
NOTE: Another fascinating read.
The United States’ Missed Opportunity in Latin America (Foreign Affairs)
U.S. leaders consistently overrate the worth of securing alliances next door to China and overestimate Europe’s commercial prospects. Neither Europe nor Asia can provide substantial or sustainable solutions to the threats to U.S. supply chains. The United States and Europe can certainly benefit from unifying the way they set technology standards, screen their foreign investments, and move toward more environmentally friendly and labor-friendly sourcing of all kinds of goods. But Europe will never become a strong source of critical minerals or an affordable supplier of inputs to semiconductors or electric vehicles. Other than Australia, few U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific have significant critical mineral reserves. And it will be enormously hard to pry Asian electric vehicle, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical supply chains free of Chinese influence. In terms of geographical proximity, Latin America, by contrast, is a Goldilocks option for U.S. manufacturers. It is not so close to the United States that moving production there would dangerously concentrate risk from natural or manmade disasters, but it is not so far that it creates complicated long-distance logistics problems. The United States has a great deal to gain broadly from helping Latin American countries strengthen their economies. Most of those countries are democracies, and economic growth and democratic consolidation in the region would create new investment opportunities and middle-class consumers for U.S. companies. And Latin America is the one region in the world with which the United States has an existing trade and market advantage, having already inked free trade agreements with 11 countries there. Yet the United States is failing to engage Latin America’s nations commercially or strategically, missing an opportunity to shore up national security and wasting built-in geopolitical advantages.
Europe
War in Ukraine Is Turning in Putin’s Favor After Months of Stalemate (Bloomberg🔒)
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters a third year, President Vladimir Putin’s forces have shifted to the offensive and captured the eastern city of Avdiivka after months of fighting. In a conflict where momentum has ebbed and flowed, the mood is now noticeably darker in Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy changed his military leadership amid disputes over conscription of new soldiers and battlefield strategy. His troops are running low on ammunition and weapons, with political infighting in Western capitals holding up deliveries and aid. Millions of Ukrainians are still displaced from their homes. The death toll has been the highest in any European conflict since World War II, but Russia and Ukraine are treating their losses as state secrets. Here’s a timeline of key events.
City’s Fall Leaves Ukraine With an Even Tougher Fight Ahead (NYT🔒)
With the Russian military’s capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka on Saturday, the front line has shifted substantially, setting the stage for the war’s next grueling chapter as Ukrainian forces retrench and Russian troops reform for future assaults. Ukraine’s defeat in the embattled city, under attack since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists fought government forces for control of the country’s east, comes at an especially perilous time. As Russia’s full-scale invasion enters its third year, Ukrainian forces are low on ammunition and facing an increasing shortage of troops. In the retreat from Avdiivka, these problems are exacerbated by the flat and unforgiving terrain outside the city. Without dominant hills, larger rivers or extensive fortifications of the kind it built around Avdiivka over the better part of a decade, Ukraine will probably have to cede more ground to hold back Russian units.
What the Pentagon has learned from two years of war in Ukraine (WP🔒)
The U.S. military is undertaking an expansive revision of its approach to war fighting, having largely abandoned the counterinsurgency playbook that was a hallmark of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan to focus instead on preparing for an even larger conflict with more sophisticated adversaries such as Russia or China. What’s transpired in Ukraine, where this week the war enters its third year with hundreds of thousands dead or wounded on both sides and still no end in sight, has made clear to the Pentagon that battlefield calculations have fundamentally changed in the years since it last deployed forces in large numbers. Precision weapons, fleets of drones and digital surveillance can reach far beyond the front lines, posing grave risk to personnel wherever they are. The war remains an active and bountiful research opportunity for American military planners as they look to the future, officials say. A classified year-long study on the lessons learned from both sides of the bloody campaign will help inform the next National Defense Strategy, a sweeping document that aligns the Pentagon’s myriad priorities. The 20 officers who led the project examined five areas: ground maneuver, air power, information warfare, sustaining and growing forces and long range fire capability.
Farmers from 10 EU countries join forces - and tractors - to protest agricultural policies (AP)
Czech farmers were driving their tractors and other vehicles to several border crossings on Thursday to meet their colleagues from neighboring countries and join forces in their protests against European Union agriculture policies, bureaucracy and overall conditions for their business. Farmers complain that the 27-nation EU’s environmental policies, such as the Green Deal, which calls for limits on the use of chemicals and on greenhouse gas emissions, limit their business and make their products more expensive than non-EU imports. The farmers also complain about low prices for their products and say grain and other agriculture products coming from Ukraine and Latin America negatively affect the market.
Middle East
Israel Orders New Evacuations in Northern Gaza as U.N. Suspends Food Deliveries (NYT🔒)
Israel’s military ordered two neighborhoods of Gaza City to evacuate on Tuesday amid signs of hunger and mounting desperation in the northern part of the enclave at a time when the focus of Israel’s offensive has shifted south. The evacuations came as the World Food Program halted deliveries in the north on Tuesday, describing scenes of chaos as its teams faced looting, hungry crowds and gunfire in recent days. The fiercest fighting and most intense bombing has in recent weeks shifted south to areas around Khan Younis and Rafah. But the evacuation order from Israel’s military on Tuesday for the Zaytoun and Turkoman neighborhoods of Gaza City raised the possibility of further military moves in the north.
Rafah attack: How Israel plans to hit Hamas and scale back war (Reuters)
Israel expects to continue full-scale military operations in Gaza for another six to eight weeks as it prepares to mount a ground invasion of the enclave's southernmost city of Rafah, four officials familiar with the strategy said. Military chiefs believe they can significantly damage Hamas' remaining capabilities in that time, paving the way for a shift to a lower-intensity phase of targeted airstrikes and special forces operations, according to the two Israeli and two regional officials who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely.
US Vetoes UN Security Council Resolution Urging Gaza Cease-Fire (Bloomberg🔒)
The US blocked a United Nations Security Council resolution backing a cease-fire in Gaza as it pushes forward its own efforts to stop an Israeli assault on Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge. Thirteen of 15 Security Council members voted in favor of the text proposed by Algeria, the only Arab nation currently sitting on the council. The US, which wields veto power, blocked the resolution, and the UK abstained. The draft demanded an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, warned about the forced displacement of Palestinians and called for the release of all hostages. The US blocked the resolution after arguing it would interfere with efforts by President Joe Biden and his Qatari and Egyptian counterparts to broker a deal that would lead to the release of hostages held by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, and boost aid delivery into Gaza. Qatar said over the weekend that those negotiations have stalled.
White House, Arab States Pursue Talks to Free Gaza Hostages as Israel Signals Progress (WSJ🔒)
The White House and Arab states are ramping up efforts to broker a deal that would pause the fighting in Gaza and free hostages held by Hamas, with members of Israel’s war cabinet indicating signs of progress after weeks of a stalemate. White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk met with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said the country’s negotiators would get a broader mandate in hostage talks amid the military’s intense ground operations.
US drone goes down off Yemen; underwater Houthi drone taken out (Military Times)
U.S. forces recently struck an unmanned underwater drone amid a busy few days in the Middle East, marking the first observed employment of an underwater drone by the Houthi militants since they began their attacks in October, according to U.S. Central Command. The Department of Defense also acknowledged that an American MQ-9 Reaper drone went down on Monday in the Red Sea off the coast of Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
Iran, wary of wider war, urges its proxies to avoid provoking U.S. (WP🔒)
Iran, eager to disrupt U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East but wary of provoking a direct confrontation, is privately urging Hezbollah and other armed groups to exercise restraint against U.S. forces, according to officials in the region. Israel’s brutal war on Hamas in Gaza has stoked conflict between the United States and Iran’s proxy forces on multiple fronts. With no cease-fire in sight, Iran could face the most significant test yet of its ability to exert influence over these allied militias. When U.S. forces launched strikes this month on Iranian-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Tehran publicly warned that its military was ready to respond to any threat. But in private, senior leaders are urging caution, according to Lebanese and Iraqi officials who were briefed on the talks. They spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive conversations.
Megaprojects in the Desert Sap Saudi Arabia’s Cash (WSJ🔒)
Saudi Arabia has been a conveyor belt of flashy spending plans over the past year: a $48 billion property development anchored by a quarter-mile-tall cube; a global airline to rival aviation giants; a merger with the PGA Tour; a $100 billion investment in chips and electronics. It is all getting rather expensive. The country’s sovereign-wealth fund, which is tasked with these initiatives, last month said its cash levels as of September had fallen by roughly three-quarters to about $15 billion, the lowest since December 2020, when the fund began reporting the data. To keep the spending taps open, the kingdom has turned to a tool it has shunned in recent decades: borrowing. It also plans another gargantuan sale of stock in the country’s crown jewel, oil behemoth Saudi Aramco, according to people familiar with the sale. The supersize spending and borrowing underscore Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s expansive ambitions for the country and show how they could face fiscal strains in a world of elevated interest rates and moderate oil prices.
Africa
UN Security Council sanctions rebels in DR Congo as violence escalates (Al Jazeera)
The United Nations Security Council has sanctioned the leaders of six armed groups fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid escalating violence in the country’s restive northeastern region. “We are pleased that as of today, six additional armed group leaders will be designated by the UN DRC Sanctions Committee,” said Robert Wood, the United States deputy permanent representative to the UN, in a statement on Tuesday. The committee imposed an arms embargo, travel ban, and asset freeze on two leaders of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one leader from the Twirwaneho armed group, and one from the National Coalition of the People for the Sovereignty of Congo (CNPSC) rebels. Also added to the UN list were the military spokesperson for the M23 Tutsi-led rebels and a leader with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), founded by Hutus who fled Rwanda after taking part in the 1994 genocide of more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Asia-Pacific
Nikkei parties like it's 1989; hits record high (Reuters)
Japanese stocks raced to a record peak on Thursday, breaking levels last seen in 1989 during the halcyon days of the bubble economy, as cheap valuations and corporate reforms lure foreign money looking for alternatives to battered Chinese markets.
China slashes mortgage reference rates to revive property market (Reuters)
China announced its biggest ever reduction in the benchmark mortgage rate on Tuesday, as authorities sought to prop up the struggling property market and broader economy. The 25-basis point cut to the five-year loan prime rate (LPR) was the largest since the reference rate was introduced in 2019 and far more than analysts had expected.
Explainer: Why are South Korean trainee doctors on strike over medical school quotas? (Reuters)
Almost 8,000 trainee doctors have walked off the job in South Korea to protest a government plan to admit more students to medical schools, and more are expected to join them. Trainee doctors say the government needs to address pay and working conditions first before boosting the number of physicians, while authorities say more staff are needed to increase healthcare services in remote areas and meet the growing demands of one of the world's most rapidly ageing societies.
Exclusive: Iran sends Russia hundreds of ballistic missiles (Reuters)
Iran has provided Russia with a large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, six sources told Reuters, deepening the military cooperation between the two U.S.-sanctioned countries. Iran's provision of around 400 missiles includes many from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, such as the Zolfaghar, three Iranian sources said. This road-mobile missile is capable of striking targets at a distance of between 300 and 700 km (186 and 435 miles), experts say.
US warns Iran against providing ballistic missiles to Russia (Reuters)
The Biden administration on Thursday warned Iran of a "swift and severe" response from the international community if Tehran provided ballistic missiles to Russia, after Reuters reported earlier this week that the Islamic Republic shipped the powerful weapons to Moscow. Speaking at a virtual briefing with reporters, White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said Washington has yet to see confirmation that missiles have moved from Iran to Russia.
US targets Russia with hundreds of sanctions over Ukraine war, Navalny death (Reuters)
The United States on Friday imposed extensive sanctions against Russia, targeting more than 500 people and entities to mark the second anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and retaliate for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. President Joe Biden said the measures aim to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin "pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home."
Exclusive: Navalny’s Letters from the Gulag (The FP)
From his punishing cell, the Russian political prisoner wrote to the former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky. Here is their historic correspondence.
Arrested for Leaving Flowers, Navalny Mourners Fear Worse to Come (NYT🔒)
As thousands of Russians across the country tried to give voice to their grief for Mr. Navalny, who died in a remote Arctic penal colony on Friday, Russian police officers cracked down, temporarily detaining hundreds and placing more than two dozen in jail. Until Mr. Navalny’s death at the age of 47, many observers had believed that the Kremlin would limit repression until after presidential elections in mid-March, when President Vladimir V. Putin is all but assured a fifth term. But many now fear that the arrests portend a broader crackdown. At least 366 people have been detained in 39 cities across Russia since Mr. Navalny was pronounced dead, with 31 of them ordered to spend up to 15 days in jail, according to OVD-Info, a Russian-based human rights group that tracks arrests. The rest were released after being held for a few hours. About half of those detained were in St. Petersburg, said Dmitri Anisimov, the group’s press secretary.
Who are other Russian dissidents besides the late Alexei Navalny? (AP)
The sudden death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable antagonist has left an open wound in Russia’s political opposition. Alexei Navalny, 47, was the Kremlin’s best-known critic at home and abroad. Before he died in a penal colony Friday, the anti-corruption crusader, protest organizer and politician with an arch sense of humor became the subject of an award-winning documentary. His channels on YouTube had millions of subscribers. Navalny also was the first opposition leader in Russia to receive a lengthy prison sentence in recent years. There would be others, heralding a crackdown on dissent that became more punishing with the invasion of Ukraine. In the three years since Navalny lost his freedom, multiple prominent dissidents were imprisoned, while others fled Russia under pressure. Many of them nevertheless persisted in challenging Putin — organizing abroad, pushing for sanctions on Russia, supporting like-minded Russians in exile or continuing to speak out from behind bars.
Space
Moon landing: US clinches first touchdown in 50 years (Reuters)
A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the moon's south pole on Thursday, the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved by the private sector. NASA, with several research instruments aboard the vehicle, hailed the landing as a major achievement in its goal of sending a squad of commercially flown spacecraft on scientific scouting missions to the moon ahead of a planned return of astronauts there later this decade.
NASA is looking for volunteers to live in its Mars simulation for a year (Engadget)
If extreme challenges are your cup of tea, NASA has the perfect opportunity for you. The space agency put out a call on Friday for volunteers to participate in its second yearlong simulated Mars mission, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA 2). For the duration of the mission, which will start in spring 2025, the four selected crew members will be housed in a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat in Houston. NASA is accepting applications on the CHAPEA website from now through April 2. It’s a paid gig, but NASA hasn’t publicly said how much participants will be compensated.
Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution (The Guardian)
Japanese scientists have created one of the world’s most unusual spacecraft – a tiny satellite that is made of timber. The LignoSat probe has been built of magnolia wood, which, in experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. Now plans are being finalised for it to be launched on a US rocket this summer.
The sun just launched three huge solar flares in 24 hours. What it means. (WP🔒)
Three top-tier X-class solar flares launched off the sun between Wednesday and Thursday. The first two occurred seven hours apart, coming in at X1.9 and X1.6 magnitude respectively. The third, the most powerful of the current 11-year “solar cycle,” ranked an impressive X6.3. Solar flares, or bursts of radiation, are ranked on a scale that goes from A, B and C to M and X, in increasing order of intensity. They usually originate from sunspots, or bruiselike discolorations on the surface of the sun. Sunspots are most common near the height of the 11-year solar cycle. The current cycle, number 25, is expected to reach its peak this year. The more sunspots, the more opportunities for solar flares. Solar flares and accompanying coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, can influence “space weather” across the solar system, and even here on Earth. CMEs are slower shock waves of magnetic energy from the sun. Flares can reach Earth in minutes, but CMEs usually take at least a day. All three of the X-class solar flares disrupted shortwave radio communications on Earth. But the first two flares did not release a CME. And, after careful review, scientists confirmed that the third also did not produce one. Therefore, no additional impact on Earth is expected. There was rampant speculation that Thursday morning’s pervasive AT&T blackout was tied to Wednesday’s solar flares. The Space Weather Prediction Center, however, released a statement noting that “it is unlikely that these flares contributed to the widely reported cellular network outage.”
Government
As USPS institutes network reforms, mail delivery hits a 3-year low (GovExec)
The U.S. Postal Service has continued to see slower mail delivery across the country, with delays picking up as the agency is in the throes of transforming its entire network. Postal management has repeatedly pointed to isolated incidents causing temporary disruptions—rather than any systemic issues—to explain the declining performance, though the trend has now persisted for nearly six months and is causing stakeholders and advocates to question the true root of the problem. USPS is now delivering just 83% of First-Class mail on time during the current fiscal quarter, its worst rate in three years. That is down from 86% in the first quarter and 91% in both the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 and the same period last year.
Defense
The US Military Already Has a Decades-Old Countermeasure for Russian Space Nukes (Military.com)
The national security of the United States is currently imperiled by a new threat from Russia, according to the White House: a "troubling" emerging, anti-satellite weapon that, while ostensibly incapable of "physical destruction" on the ground, could severely disrupt U.S. military and civilian operations in outer space. Some U.S. government officials suspect the system may be nuclear, a prospect that raises concerns that the Russian government could not only disable strategic satellites in orbit, but, in turn, deal a major blow to the U.S. economy by degrading both government and civilian space-based operations. The threat is apparently so dire that lawmakers in Congress are sounding alarm bells to the public. Luckily, the U.S. military has a relatively simple countermeasure in place to deal with space-based weapons: just send up a fighter jet to blow the damn thing out of the sky. After all, the Air Force had done it before -- once.
Economy
It’s Been 30 Years Since Food Ate Up This Much of Your Income (WSJ🔒)
The last time Americans spent this much of their money on food, George H.W. Bush was in office, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” was in theaters and C+C Music Factory was rocking the Billboard charts. Eating continues to cost more, even as overall inflation has eased from the blistering pace consumers endured throughout much of 2022 and 2023. Prices at restaurants and other eateries were up 5.1% last month compared with January 2023, while grocery costs increased 1.2% during the same period, Labor Department data show.
INFO: If you want to see an interesting thread on graph scale as it relates to the above, check out this X feed…as always, the comments (on both sides of the issue) are the most entertaining.
Consumer Sentiment Climbs To 2.5-Year High (Forbes🔒)
Consumer sentiment ticked up to its highest level since July 2021 this month, according to the University of Michigan’s widely tracked survey released Friday morning, bolstering the largely good vibes pervading the U.S. economy in recent months leading up to the presidential election. The university’s consumer sentiment index’s preliminary reading of 79.6 for February was just above last month’s 79, but came short of consensus economist estimates of 80. The index, which tracks Americans’ views on the country’s economic outlook such as inflation and interest rates via a phone survey, registered its best reading since December 2020 for five-year expectations for business conditions, evidence of Americans’ “confidence that the slowdown in inflation and strength in labor markets would continue,” according to survey director Joanne Hsu.
Business
U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports (WSJ🔒)
The Biden administration plans to invest billions in the domestic manufacturing of cargo cranes, seeking to counter fears that the prevalent use of China-built cranes with advanced software at many U.S. ports poses a potential national-security risk. The move is part of a set of actions taken by the administration Wednesday that is intended to improve maritime cybersecurity. They include a U.S. Coast Guard directive to mandate certain digital-security requirements for deployed foreign-built cranes at strategic seaports, as well as an executive order by President Biden setting baseline cybersecurity standards for computer networks that operate U.S. ports.
Meta’s $197 Billion Surge Is Biggest in Stock-Market History (Bloomberg🔒)
Meta Platforms Inc. just became Wall Street’s top comeback kid. It was only a couple of years back the Facebook owner suffered the single biggest market value destruction in stock-market history. But the company has come a long way since then, on Thursday it dazzled shareholders with yet another impressive quarterly earnings report as the social media giant focuses on cutting back costs and shoring up billions in profits. The stock rose 20% Friday to close at an all-time high of $474.99 per share. The gain added $197 billion to its market capitalization, the biggest single-session market value addition, eclipsing the $190 billion gains made by Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. in 2022.
Nvidia Rises Most in About Nine Months as AI Drives Sales (Bloomberg🔒)
Nvidia Corp. rose the most in about nine months after the chipmaker delivered another eye-popping sales forecast, adding fresh momentum to a stock rally that already made it the world’s most valuable chipmaker. Revenue in the current period will be about $24 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Analysts had predicted $21.9 billion on average. Results in the fourth quarter also sailed past Wall Street estimates.
Walmart’s Proposed $2.3 Billion Purchase Of Vizio: Here’s What We Know (Forbes🔒)
Walmart announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy consumer electronics company Vizio for $2.3 billion in a move that is expected to “further accelerate” Walmart Connect, the retail giant’s media and advertising business, as it continues to challenge Amazon in the advertising space.
Boeing 737 Max Official Is Out as Questions Linger on Mishap (NYT🔒)
Boeing said on Wednesday that it was shaking up the leadership in its commercial airplanes unit after a harrowing incident last month during which a piece fell off a 737 Max 9 jet in flight. Ed Clark, the head of Boeing’s 737 Max program, which includes the Max 9, is leaving immediately, Stan Deal, the chief executive of the commercial airplanes unit, said in a memo to employees. Boeing, which also announced other leadership changes, has been under pressure from regulators, airlines and members of Congress to prove that it is committed to making safe planes.
Rise of fast-fashion Shein, Temu roils global air cargo industry (Reuters)
The rapid rise of fast-fashion e-commerce retailers such as Shein and Temu is upending the global air cargo industry, as they increasingly vie for limited air-cargo space to woo consumers with rapid transit times, more than ten industry sources said. Shein, PDD Group's, opens new tab Temu and ByteDance's TikTok Shop, which recently began online shopping in the U.S., ship the majority of their products directly from factories in China to shoppers by air in individually addressed packages. And their growing popularity - Shein and Temu together send almost 600,000 packages to the United States every day, according to a June 2023 report by the U.S. Congress - is boosting air-freight costs from Asian hubs like Guangzhou and Hong Kong, making off-peak seasons almost disappear and causing capacity shortages, the sources said.
Capital One will buy Discover for $35 billion in deal that combines major US credit card companies (AP)
Capital One Financial said it will buy Discover Financial Services for $35 billion, in a deal that would bring together two of the nation’s credit card companies as well as potentially shake up the payments industry, which is largely dominated by Visa and Mastercard.
Why Are There Suddenly So Many Car Washes? (Bloomberg🔒)
In a country with roughly 280 million private cars and trucks, can there be such a thing as too many car washes? A growing number of city leaders seem to think so. Unlike stores, restaurants or other businesses, most self-service car washes don’t pay sales taxes to their host communities. And they don’t bring much else to the table in terms of local benefits, critics argue; like drive-through-only fast-food outlets (which have also been the target of local bans), the latest generation of automated facilities provide few jobs even as they pump out noise, traffic congestion and vehicle emissions. But where neighbors might see a too-crowded market, investors see the beginning of a boom. From the Snow Belt to the Sunbelt, companies are scrambling to add locations and grab a piece of a $14 billion-plus industry. With 60,000 locations across the US, the sector has been expanding at roughly 5% annually, with some forecasts predicting the market to double by 2030. More car washes were built in the last decade than all the preceding years combined.
Nintendo Shares Tank Nearly 6% After Reports Say New Console Is Delayed (Forbes🔒)
Nintendo’s stock price slumped nearly 6% on Monday following reports last weekend that the launch of its next games console has been delayed to 2025. Monday’s drop follows reports over the weekend from gaming media and Bloomberg that the launch of the highly anticipated successor to the Nintendo Switch has been delayed to early next year.
Real Estate
Mortgage Rates Continue to Rise, Nearing Seven Percent (Freddie Mac)
Strong incoming economic and inflation data has caused the market to re-evaluate the path of monetary policy, leading to higher mortgage rates. Historically, the combination of a vibrant economy and modestly higher rates did not meaningfully impact the housing market. The current cycle is different than historical norms, as housing affordability is so low that good economic news equates to bad news for homebuyers, who are sensitive to even minor shifts in affordability.
U.S. Commercial Foreclosures Increase in January 2024 (ATTOM)
ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released a special report on U.S. Commercial Foreclosures. The report reveals a significant climb in commercial foreclosures over the years, from a low of 141 in May 2020 to the current figure of 635 in January 2024. This represents a steady increase throughout the period.
Personal Finance
OPINION | Your 401(k) Will Be Gone Within a Decade (Bloomberg🔒)
If you are among the 56% of US workers with a retirement plan, I have some bad news for you: Your 401(k) will be gone in 10 years, tops. Not the money, thank goodness — Americans have trillions of dollars in these accounts, and there is an entire industry built around them — but the plans themselves. There has been a brewing intellectual movement to get rid of the 401(k) for several years, with scholars on both the right and left questioning its value. And as the federal government gets increasingly desperate for new sources of revenue, the tax treatment of 401(k)s is a likely target. There are good policy reasons to end it, but the question remains: Will Americans still save for retirement?
NOTE: Interesting read. I didn’t realize there were rumblings about doing away with 401(k) tax advantages.
Technology
AT&T Outage Triggered by Company Work on Network Expansion (Bloomberg🔒)
AT&T Inc. said a widespread outage that took hours to resolve Thursday was caused by “an incorrect process” while expanding the wireless network. The software issue interrupted wireless service for hundreds of thousands of subscribers and prompted the FBI and US Department of Homeland Security to investigate the outage. “Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” an AT&T spokesman said in a statement. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.” AT&T said all wireless service was restored Thursday afternoon, capping a day of frustration that began in the early hours of the morning New York time. AT&T customers filed more than 1.5 million outage reports on service-tracking website Downdetector.
What is Chaos Monkey? (TechTarget)
Chaos Monkey is a software tool Netflix engineers developed to test the resiliency and recoverability of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. In software engineering, building resilient systems that can withstand unexpected errors and recover quickly is essential. Chaos Monkey was designed to intentionally introduce disruptions to a system, simulating real-world failures and testing the system's resilience. By introducing disruptions through Chaos Monkey, engineering teams can identify vulnerabilities and address them proactively before they impact users or customers. Chaos engineering is the practice of intentionally creating disruptions in systems to identify and address vulnerabilities proactively. Chaos Monkey serves as a critical tool in enhancing chaos engineering; it enables engineering teams to simulate failures across multiple configurations and monitor the system's behavior in real time. Another way to refer to this is purposeful disruption. Unlike traditional testing tools that rely on predefined scripts and expected outcomes, Chaos Monkey is designed to introduce purposeful disruptions into a system by shutting down virtual machines that are running services, simulating real-world failures.
NOTE: AT&T should’ve read this.
Neuralink's first human patient able to control mouse through thinking, Musk says (Reuters)
he first human patient implanted with a brain-chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts, the startup's founder Elon Musk said late on Monday. "Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of. Patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking," Musk said in a Spaces event on social media platform X. Musk said Neuralink was now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.
Apple Officially Warns Users to Stop Putting Wet iPhones in Rice (Gizmodo)
Saving a wet iPhone by putting it in a bowl or bag of uncooked rice has been a popular go-to rescue method for years, with the logic being that the rice absorbs the excess water from the phone. However, the God of iPhones has recently warned poor mortals against resorting to rice in these situations, saying it could make things worse. In a recent support document, Apple states that putting wet devices in a bag of rice could “allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,” although it doesn’t go into further detail. The company also recommended against using other well-known hacks, such as using an external heat source to dry the phone or sticking a cotton swab into the connector. Apple’s recent advice was spotted by Macworld.
Lab-grown diamonds put natural gems under pressure (Phys.org)
The glittering diamonds sparkle the same but there are key differences: mined natural gems are more than a billion years old, while laboratory-made rocks are new and cost less than half the price. Man-made gems are reshaping the $89 billion global diamond jewelry market, especially in the west Indian city of Surat where 90 percent of the world's diamonds are cut and polished. In Smit Patel's gleaming lab, technicians drop crystal diamond "seed" slices into reactors mimicking the extreme pressure far underground. "Once the customer sees it for herself, they are sold. I believe this is the future," said Patel, director of Greenlab Diamonds and the third generation of his family to deal in diamonds. From seed to ring-ready jewels, his team takes less than eight weeks to produce a diamond virtually indistinguishable from a mined gem. "It's the same product, it's the same chemical, the same optical properties," Patel said.
Cyber
A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men (NYT🔒)
Seeking social media stardom for their underage daughters, mothers post images of them on Instagram. The accounts draw men sexually attracted to children, and they sometimes pay to see more.
NOTE: Very disturbing.
U.S. and U.K. Disrupt LockBit Ransomware Variant (Department of Justice)
U.S. Indictment Charges Two Russian Nationals with Attacks Against Multiple U.S. and International Victims; FBI Seizes Infrastructure; and Department of Treasury Takes Additional Action Against LockBit. The Department of Justice joined the United Kingdom and international law enforcement partners in London today to announce the disruption of the LockBit ransomware group, one of the most active ransomware groups in the world that has targeted over 2,000 victims, received more than $120 million in ransom payments, and made ransom demands totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
Purported Leaks Show Global Reach of China-Sponsored Hacking (Bloomberg🔒)
A huge trove of documents on GitHub appeared to outline in extraordinary detail the scope of China’s state-sponsored cyberattacks on foreign governments, transfixing the global security community. Hundreds of internal files attributed to the Shanghai-based cybersecurity vendor I-Soon, which works with Chinese government clients, were posted to the developers’ community owned by Microsoft Corp. this week. The documents, which industry experts believe to be authentic, appeared to reveal successful attacks on a series of high-value government targets in 2021 and 2022 from the UK foreign office to the Royal Thai Army and even NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, according to a review by Bloomberg News. Offices for the alleged targets didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cyberattack slows prescription processing at military pharmacies (Military Times)
Military clinics and hospitals worldwide have been affected by a cyberattack on the United State’s largest commercial prescription processor, Change Healthcare, according to officials with the Defense Health Agency. It also has affected some retail pharmacies across the country. For the time being, officials ask for patience, “while pharmacies take longer than usual to safely fill prescription needs.” Until the issue is resolved, military pharmacies will use a manual procedure to fill outpatient prescriptions, health officials said in a Thursday statement to Military Times. Priority goes to urgent prescriptions, followed by routine prescriptions.
Instagram’s Uneasy Rise as a News Site (NYT🔒)
In this year’s presidential election, more people are turning to Instagram for news, even as the platform tries de-emphasizing “political content.”
The State of the Culture, 2024 (Honest Broker)
The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity. The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated. It’s a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok—an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock. TikTok made a fortune with fast-paced scrolling video. And now Facebook—once a place to connect with family and friends—is imitating it. So long, Granny, hello Reels. Twitter has done the same. And, of course, Instagram, YouTube, and everybody else trying to get rich on social media.
NOTE: A good read.
Artificial Intelligence
Google apologizes for ‘missing the mark’ after Gemini generated racially diverse Nazis (The Verge)
Google has apologized for what it describes as “inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions” with its Gemini AI tool, saying its attempts at creating a “wide range” of results missed the mark. The statement follows criticism that it depicted specific white figures (like the US Founding Fathers) or groups like Nazi-era German soldiers as people of color, possibly as an overcorrection to long-standing racial bias problems in AI.
Exclusive: Reddit in AI content licensing deal with Google (Reuters)
Social media platform Reddit has struck a deal with Google, opens new tab to make its content available for training the search engine giant's artificial intelligence models, three people familiar with the matter said. The contract with Alphabet-owned Google is worth about $60 million per year, according to one of the sources. The deal underscores how Reddit, which is preparing for a high-profile stock market launch, is seeking to generate new revenue amid fierce competition for advertising dollars from the likes of TikTok and Meta Platform's, opens new tab Facebook.
Life
The Coddling of the American Mind (Substack)
On February 22, a documentary version of my and Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Coddling of the American Mind” will be released exclusively on Substack. I am so excited for you all to see it. It’s directed by Ted Balaker and follows the stories of five twenty-somethings who entered college with high hopes but instead faced a serious mental health crisis sparked by the anxiety- and depression-inducing climate that Jonathan and I outlined in our book. While we cover a great deal of ground in the book, the documentary zeros in on the topic I learned about the hard way: depression. More specifically, it shows through the testimony of students from all over the country — and in fact all over the globe — how we are teaching a generation of young people the mental habits of anxious and depressed people, and so we should not be surprised that we have a mental health calamity on our hands.
Can You Solve Loneliness? These Startups Are Betting On It. (WSJ🔒) 📊
Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness an epidemic, ringing the alarm that social isolation was causing mental and physical harm. Teenagers were reporting record levels of sadness. Suicide rates were at a record high. While Covid kept people from their friends, families and peers, there were other factors at play, which Dr. Murthy described in his May 2023 report—namely the advent of smartphone technology and the rise of social media. Once heralded as innovations, these creations of private industry were suddenly the problem.
[Suicide] Attempters’ Longterm Survival (Harvard School of Public Health)
Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date. This has been well-established in the suicidology literature. A literature review (Owens 2002) summarized 90 studies that have followed over time people who have made suicide attempts that resulted in medical care. Approximately 7% (range: 5-11%) of attempters eventually died by suicide, approximately 23% reattempted non-fatally, and 70% had no further attempts. Even studies that focused on medically serious attempts–such as people who jumped in front of a train (O’Donnell 1994)–and studies that followed attempters for many decades found similarly low suicide completion rates. At least one study, published after the 90-study review, found a slightly higher completion rate. This was a 37-year follow-up of self-poisoners in Finland that found an eventual completion rate of 13% (Suominen 2004). This relatively good long-term survival rate is consistent with the observation that suicidal crises are often short-lived, even if there may be underlying, more chronic risk factors present that give rise to these crises.
Alabama’s Embryo Ruling Challenges IVF Practices Nationwide (WSJ🔒)
The Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos are children exacerbates a national dilemma: What to do with the more than one million embryos in storage across the U.S. Some fertility clinics in Alabama have said they would pause in vitro fertilization because they feared they could be vulnerable to lawsuits following the court’s ruling. Medical professionals elsewhere have said they worry similar restrictions could be imposed in their states. The quandary of frozen embryos’ fate is a byproduct of increasing demand for reproductive technology as more people delay childbearing to older ages, or have children on their own or with partners of the same gender. IVF, introduced in clinics more than 40 years ago, is now a mainstay of family-building that accounts for some 2% of U.S. births.
Education
Biden administration to cancel another $1.2 billion of student loans (Reuters)
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday his administration is cancelling $1.2 billion worth of student loans for nearly 153,000 people who are eligible under a program used to make good on his promises to increase loan forgiveness. The administration has now canceled some $138 billion in student debt for nearly 3.9 million people through executive actions, the White House said. The latest announcement applies to people enrolled in a repayment program known as Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) and covers those who borrowed $12,000 or less who have been repaying the money for at least 10 years.
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Diversity Efforts at Top High School (WSJ🔒)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a case seeking to block selective public schools from using race-neutral admissions policies that conservative activists argue are illegally designed to increase Black and Hispanic enrollment. The case, involving Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., was seen as a follow-on to the court’s decision in June ending affirmative action in university admissions. It more directly involved a 2007 ruling that barred school boards from promoting integration by using race as a factor in pupil assignments but that suggested officials could consider the racial impact of broader policies such as where to build new campuses. Tuesday’s order, which, as is typical, was unsigned and provided no explanation, leaves school authorities free to pursue measures that may promote integration without classifying individual students by race. Two conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, dissented from the decision not to hear the case.
Yale will again require standardized test scores for admission (WP🔒)
Yale University will again require students to submit standardized test scores when they apply for admission, school officials said Thursday. The change comes after officials found that the scores were the single best predictor of students’ academic performance and that not considering them could be a disadvantage for those who have already faced daunting challenges. The decision — which includes greater flexibility for applicants by allowing more types of tests — is likely to be closely watched not only by students aspiring to highly selective colleges and agonizing over test scores and other metrics, but also by other universities evaluating their own policies. The change will go into effect for first-year and transfer applicants for fall 2025 admission. The switch comes after another Ivy League institution, Dartmouth College, announced earlier this month that it would require SAT and ACT scores again.
As U. of Arizona Confronts Budget Cuts, Workers and Students Brace for the Worst (NYT🔒)
The public university, the largest employer in the Tucson area, says it’s facing a $177 million shortfall. Critics worry that lower-tier workers and Arizona students will be hit hardest by efforts to cut back.
Opinion | Why not pay teachers $100,000 a year? (WP🔒) 📊
If we’re serious about hanging on to capable educators, and attracting new ones, we should start treating them like true professionals. And one place to begin is compensation. Why not pay America’s teachers a minimum salary of $100,000 a year? The average annual salary for public school teachers during 2021-2022 was $66,397, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a nearly 8 percent pay cut, in inflation-adjusted terms, from a decade ago. Salary isn’t the only reason educators exit the profession. But whether they work in suburban New York or rural Mississippi, teachers earn significantly less than they could in other fields.
Health
Largest Covid Vaccine Study Yet Finds Links to Health Conditions (Bloomberg🔒)
Vaccines that protect against severe illness, death and lingering long Covid symptoms from a coronavirus infection were linked to small increases in neurological, blood, and heart-related conditions in the largest global vaccine safety study to date. The rare events — identified early in the pandemic — included a higher risk of heart-related inflammation from mRNA shots made by Pfizer Inc., BioNTech SE, and Moderna Inc., and an increased risk of a type of blood clot in the brain after immunization with viral-vector vaccines such as the one developed by the University of Oxford and made by AstraZeneca Plc. The viral-vector jabs were also tied to an increased risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the peripheral nervous system. The Yale research aims to understand the condition to relieve the suffering of those affected and improve the safety of vaccines, said Harlan Krumholz, a principal investigator of the study, and director of the Yale New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. “Both things can be true,” Krumholz said in an interview. “They can save millions of lives, and there can be a small number of people who’ve been adversely affected.”
There’s No Easy Way to Stop Taking Ozempic (WSJ🔒)
What happens if you have to go off weight-loss drugs? It’s a growing concern for the millions of Americans taking medications including Wegovy, Zepbound or Ozempic. Employer-health plans are tightening requirements or dropping coverage. And manufacturers’ discount coupons for initial supplies of medication expire, leaving people having to cough up roughly $1,000 a month without insurance. For patients, this presents a conundrum. They have to stay indefinitely on the drugs, known as GLP-1s, or risk gaining back the weight, according to many doctors. But for lots of people, taking the medication forever isn’t a realistic option. Faced with this predicament, some are trying to switch to a different GLP-1 to see if their insurance will cover it. Others are looking into older anti-obesity treatments or finding cheaper versions at compounding pharmacies. No option is perfect. Older drugs don’t work as well, and doctors worry about safety and quality with cheaper compound versions.
Exercise even better than anti-depressants at treating depression, study finds (Sky News)
Some forms of exercise are just as good as therapy and even better than anti-depressants at treating depression, according to a new study. Walking, jogging, yoga and strength training appeared to be more effective than other types of exercise, according to a major new analysis prompting academics to say they should be a "core treatment" for the condition. The more vigorous the exercise, the better, according to a research team led by academics in Australia, but even low intensity exercises such as walking and yoga had meaningful benefits.
The Slow and Low Exercise Elite Athletes Swear By (WSJ🔒) 📊
If you think every workout has to be a sweat-fest that leaves you gasping for air, think again. You should perform most of your cardiovascular exercise at a level that lets you carry on a slightly strained conversation. It broadly means exercising at a relatively low effort for a long time. This type of training helps us produce energy more efficiently by stimulating our cells’ powerhouses, the mitochondria. Over time, this translates to better health and athletic performance. Elite athletes spend much of their time training at this intensity. It is the secret to helping them go faster for longer, says Dr. Benjamin Levine, a sports cardiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. One of the easiest ways to determine the zone you are exercising in is to use what is known as a talk test: Zone 2: A relaxed jog or easy bike ride where you can still talk, but every few words are interrupted by an audible breath. Zone 2 is just one part of the larger fitness puzzle, Levine says. It builds our endurance base, but our workouts should be diverse and include strength training and high-intensity training (Zone 4). San Millán recommends 80% of training fall into Zone 2 and 20% in Zone 4.
Universal antivenom for lethal snake toxins developed by researchers (Phys.org)
Scripps Research scientists have developed an antibody that can block the effects of lethal toxins in the venoms of a wide variety of snakes found throughout Africa, Asia and Australia. The antibody, which protected mice from the normally deadly venom of snakes including black mambas and king cobras, is described in Science Translational Medicine. The new research used forms of the toxins produced in the laboratory to screen billions of different human antibodies and identify one that can block the toxins' activity. It represents a large step toward a universal antivenom that would be effective against the venom of all snakes.
Home
The Lifespan of Large Appliances Is Shrinking (WSJ🔒)
Our refrigerators, washing machines and ovens can do more than ever, from producing symmetrical ice cubes to remotely preheating on your commute home. The downside to all these snazzy features is that the appliances are more prone to breaking. Appliance technicians and others in the industry say there has been an increase in items in need of repair. Yelp users, for example, requested 58% more quotes from thousands of appliance repair businesses last month than they did in January 2022. Those in the industry blame a push toward computerization, an increase in the quantity of individual components and flimsier materials for undercutting reliability. They say even higher-end items aren’t as durable. American households spent 43% more on home appliances in 2023 than they did in 2013, rising from an inflation-adjusted average of $390 to $558, according to Euromonitor International. Prices for the category declined 12% from the beginning of 2013 through the end of 2023, according to the Labor Department. One reason for the discrepancy between spending and prices is a higher rate of replacement, say consumers, repair technicians and others. That’s left some people wishing they had held on to their clunky ’90s-era appliances and others bargaining with repair workers over intractable ice makers and dryers that run cold.
Food & Drink
Beyond Meat is trying everything to get sales growth back in the green (Chartr) 📊
Beyond Meat just announced that it will be debuting a new burger as part of its Beyond IV product line in the US this spring, adapting its plant-based patties to follow a healthier recipe in the face of lean-looking sales. A press release touted the new Beyond Burger and Beyond Beef products, which are made with avocado oil and contain less sodium and sat-fats, as the “juiciest” and “meatiest” yet — the company’s recent sales, however, couldn’t be described in the same way. Indeed, year-on-year revenue has slipped in 7 of the last 8 quarters, as appetite for Beyond’s alt offerings (mostly) dries up.
I printed chocolate on a 3D printer and ate it (The Verge)
I hate to be the bearer of bad-for-the-waistline news, but yes — you can now buy a 3D printer that prints chocolate. The Cocoa Press has been in development for an entire decade. Now, it’s finally here, and I’m pretty sure it’s singlehandedly responsible for one of the pounds I put on over Christmas. At least it’s not cheap or easy enough to tempt most people yet.
Nature
A Colorado man died after a Gila monster bite. Opinions and laws on keeping the lizard as a pet vary (AP)
A Colorado man who died after getting bitten by a Gila monster was hardly alone in having the gnarly looking lizard for a pet. They’re legal to own in most states, easily found through breeders and at reptile shows, and widely regarded for their striking color patterns and typically easygoing personality. But while 34-year-old Christopher Ward’s death Friday may have been the first from a Gila monster in the U.S. in almost a century, the creature’s bite is well-known to be excruciating — and venomous. For that reason, some question the wisdom of keeping the species as pets.
Travel
The Five Most Exciting Innovations Coming to an Airport Near You (Bloomberg🔒)
Imagine it’s the year 2030 and you’re heading to the airport to catch a flight. At the curb, you hop onto a Segway-like scooter that will serve as your personal airport vehicle. It scans data from your phone to determine your gate number and glides in and out of massive elevator banks—no escalators—to move between check-in and security floors. Along the way, a machine scans your face to verify your identity and directs you to an individual security tunnel where you self-screen your luggage. None of this is science fiction. Within six years, architecture firm Gensler says it will install such a prototype at a major North American airport, including all of the above features.
Airlines Make Whopping $33 Billion On Bags, See Where They Fly Free (Forbes🔒) 📊
A recent study by ancillary revenue specialists IdeaWorks reveals airlines earned $117.9 billion from extras, including onboard sales, baggage charges, seat selections, and loyalty programs last year. Airline revenue from baggage fees surged to $33 billion. This is a significant 15% increase over the $29 billion airlines earned from bags in 2022 and exceeds the $32.9 billion in baggage fee revenue airlines made in 2019, pre-COVID. Baggage fees, which includes money charged for checked luggage, overweight bags, and in some cases, for larger carry-on items, have long been a significant ancillary income category helping airlines offset the rising costs of fuel.
Art
Museum Selfie-Takers Are Causing Damage by Backing Into Artworks (Hyperallergic)
One of the fastest-growing threats to museum collections may not be, as some members of the public think, climate protesters wielding canned goods, but a scourge of selfie-takers backing into paintings and other objects. As many visitors are increasingly more interested in stunting for the ’gram than having an ecstatic art experience, art insurers hope to promote more rigorous protections.
Entertainment
‘Shawshank’ in China, as You’ve Never Seen It Before (NYT🔒)
When a stage production of “The Shawshank Redemption” opened recently in China, it was cast entirely with Western actors speaking fluent Mandarin Chinese. But that may have been the least surprising part of the show. That the show — an adaptation of the Stephen King novella that became one of the most beloved movies of all time — was staged at all seemingly flew in the face of several trends in China’s cultural sphere. Chinese audiences’ interest in Hollywood films is fading, with moviegoers turning to homegrown productions. China’s authoritarian government has stoked nationalism and cast Western influence as a political pollutant. Censorship of the arts has tightened. Yet the production reflects how some artists are trying to navigate the changing landscape of both what is permissible and what is marketable in China. And its success shows the appetite that many Chinese still have for cultural exchange.
Welcome to the ‘Hotel California’ case: The trial over handwritten lyrics to an Eagles classic (AP)
In the mid-1970s, the Eagles were working on a spooky, cryptic new song. On a lined yellow pad, Don Henley, with input from band co-founder Glenn Frey, jotted thoughts about “a dark desert highway” and “a lovely place” with a luxurious surface and ominous undertones. And something on ice, perhaps caviar or Taittinger — or pink Champagne? The song, “Hotel California,” became one of rock’s most indelible singles. And nearly a half-century later, those handwritten pages of lyrics-in-the-making have become the center of an unusual criminal trial set to open Wednesday. Rare-book dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski are charged with conspiring to own and try to sell manuscripts of “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits without the right to do so.
Sports
Sports betting industry posts record $11B in 2023 revenue (ESPN)
As the American sports betting industry continues to expand, it has reached a high water mark, posting a record $10.92 billion in revenue for 2023, according to the American Gaming Association's annual report. The huge year for the industry represented a 44.5% year-over-year increase from 2022, which previously held the record. A handle of $119.84 billion (a 27.8% year-over-year increase) combined with an increased year-over-year sportsbook win percentage of 9.1% (up from 8.1% in 2022) contributed to the record.
College Football Playoff board approves move to 5+7 model for start of 12-team format (The Athletic)
The College Football Playoff Board of Managers on Tuesday voted unanimously to revise the format of the 12-team event to include the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids, finalizing an adjustment from the original “6+6” model (six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large bids).
For Fun
Pennsylvania thrift store finds rare 14-karat gold LEGO mask, expected to rake in thousands at auction (Fox Business) 📊
Employees at a Dubois, Pennsylvania, Goodwill Industries warehouse came across a rare 14-karat gold LEGO mask, which has since been put up for auction and could fetch thousands. Goodwill Industries of North Central Pennsylvania posted on its Facebook page that the 14-karat gold LEGO Bionicle Hau mask’s story had gone viral with some groups, adding that the item is listed on its website. "The last time this item was listed the bidding got up to $33,000, but the final bid was from a fake account, so we thought the fairest thing to do was relist it," the charity’s post read. "While we don’t expect it to get that high again, it is still a very rare item."
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.