This week in the news | 30 June 24
News from the past week, and a few other things.
👋 Hello Reader, I hope you had a great week (and a good first half of the year)!
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 an article behind a paywall, and a chart icon (📊) indicates an informative chart/graphic in “Slow Brew.”
World
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Espionage Act, securing his freedom under a plea deal after years of legal battles across several countries Assange's two-decade journey from an Australian hacker to a polarizing media figure led to a controversial legacy of publishing government secrets, which sparked both praise for radical transparency and criticism for endangering lives (NYT 🔒). The United Nations' top official in Afghanistan defended the exclusion of Afghan women from an upcoming meeting with the Taliban, assuring that women's rights issues would be raised, despite criticisms from human rights organizations (AP) .
North America
The Supreme Court ruled that the Justice Department overreached in charging some Jan. 6 rioters, a decision impacting numerous cases and potentially aiding former President Trump (WSJ 🔒). An analysis of U.S. immigration records revealed a significant shift in the origins of migrants over the past decade, with more individuals arriving from countries beyond Mexico and Central America (WP🔒) 📊. The Hispanic population continues to grow, contributing to the overall U.S. population increase, with migration being a significant factor (WSJ 🔒) 📊. In Texas, the Asian American population has seen the fastest growth, driven by both domestic and international migration, reflecting broader demographic trends (Texas Tribune) 📊. Law enforcement has been monitoring American mail for years, sharing data with federal agents without court orders (WP🔒). Legislation to criminalize mask-wearing is being revived in some states, raising concerns among those who use masks for health reasons or protests (WP🔒).
Latin America
In Bolivia, a failed coup attempt led by a general resulted in a brief military takeover of the government palace, followed by the arrest of the general and a crisis in the country's political and economic landscape (AP).
Europe
Ukraine's use of naval drones has significantly impacted the Russian fleet, disrupting supply routes and enhancing Ukraine's defensive capabilities, which has attracted the attention of other nations, including the U.S. (WSJ🔒) 📊.
Middle East
Israel's Supreme Court ordered the military to draft ultra-Orthodox men, a ruling that could destabilize Netanyahu's government amid ongoing conflicts (AP). In Iran, the mandatory hijab law has become a contentious issue in the presidential election, with candidates distancing themselves from strict enforcement methods (NYT 🔒). Six candidates, including Iran’s parliament speaker and a reformist heart surgeon, are competing in the election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi (AP).
Africa
Deadly protests in Kenya over a finance bill with tax hikes prompted President William Ruto to withdraw his support, following violent clashes and significant casualties (CBS).
Space
China's Chang’e 6 probe returned to Earth with samples from the far side of the moon, potentially offering new geological insights (AP). NASA astronauts are experiencing delays returning from the International Space Station due to equipment issues with Boeing’s capsule (AP). NASA awarded SpaceX a contract to deorbit the International Space Station in the coming years (AP).
Government
Democrats are panicking over President Biden's debate performance, questioning his future viability as a candidate after a lackluster showing (WP🔒). Professional clippers have transformed political campaign strategies, quickly turning candidates' gaffes into viral content that significantly influences public perception (NYT 🔒). The IRS struggles with customer service, with most callers unable to reach a representative (WSJ 🔒).
Defense
President Biden pardoned veterans convicted of having gay sex; the proclamation grants clemency to around 2,000 people charged between 1951 and 2013 under a military code that outlawed the behavior. (NYT 🔒).
Business
Increased wages for delivery drivers have led to higher fees and fewer orders in cities like New York and Seattle, prompting some to reconsider the wage hikes (WSJ 🔒). The Hermès Birkin handbag market highlights the complex economics of luxury goods, with demand far outstripping supply and significant markups in the resale market (WSJ 🔒)📊. Walgreens plans major U.S. store closures in response to financial struggles and strategic shifts (WSJ 🔒). Apple faces charges from the EU for not complying with a new digital-competition law, marking the first enforcement under the Digital Markets Act (WSJ 🔒).
Energy
A new industrial plant demonstrates how water can be used to produce green hydrogen, potentially revolutionizing fuel production for various modes of transportation (WP) 📊.
Real Estate
High interest rates have caused U.S. home prices to rise, driven by the "lock-in" effect of low mortgage rates, which is impacting renters, realtors, and recruiters (WSJ 🔒)📊. Monaco remains the world's most expensive place to rent, with international residents willing to pay millions annually to live in the tax haven (WSJ 🔒)📊.
Personal Finance
Dropshipping courses promise wealth, but the reality often involves high costs and competition that eat into profits, making the business less lucrative than advertised (FP).
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI delayed the launch of its voice assistant feature for ChatGPT to address safety concerns (Bloomberg 🔒). Major record companies sued AI music generators Suno and Udio for using copyrighted songs to train their tools, adding to the legal challenges facing the AI industry (WP).
Religion
Oklahoma public schools are now required to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments, a move mandated by the state’s top education official (WSJ 🔒).
Education
Male kindergarten teachers are shown to significantly benefit boys' educational outcomes, yet only a small percentage of these teachers are men (NYT 🔒). Two federal courts ruled against President Biden's new student loan forgiveness plan, casting doubt on its future legality (Reason).
Health
The Supreme Court will decide on the legality of state bans on transgender medical treatments for minors (WSJ 🔒). White noise machines, commonly used to help children sleep, may pose risks if too loud, though they can be beneficial at lower volumes (WP). Mail-order drug services, intended to reduce costs, are instead driving up prices for employers due to high markups (WSJ 🔒)📊.
Food & Drink
Aquaculture now produces the majority of the world’s seafood, a significant shift from traditional wild fishing, driven by growing global demand for seafood (Sherwood News) 📊.
Nature
During India's pandemic lockdown, reduced pollution led to clearer skies but also higher temperatures, highlighting the complex relationship between aerosols and the climate (FP). A new horned dinosaur, revealed by an international group of paleontologists, sported the most ornate headgear found so far in the fossil record, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the helmet worn by the Norse trickster god Loki (WSJ 🔒)📊.
Sports
The Florida Panthers claimed their first Stanley Cup after narrowly avoiding a series collapse (WSJ 🔒). Tennessee won the 2024 Men's College World Series, securing their first national title with a dramatic final game against Texas A&M (NCAA). High-pressure youth sports have transformed from fun activities into high-stakes competitions, causing significant stress and costs for young athletes and their families (Slow Boring). The U.S. Olympic team, along with several others, will bring their own air conditioners to the Paris Games, undermining the organizers' sustainability efforts (AP). A federal jury ruled against the NFL in a class-action antitrust lawsuit over its "Sunday Ticket" telecast package, awarding $4.7 billion in damages to consumers, with potential damages tripling under antitrust law (WSJ 🔒).
THE SLOW BREW ☕
A more relaxed approach to the summaries.
World
Julian Assange pleads guilty to espionage, securing his freedom (NYT🔒)
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a felony charge of violating the U.S. Espionage Act, securing his freedom under a plea deal that saw its final act play out in a remote U.S. courtroom in Saipan in the Western Pacific. He appeared in court wearing a black suit with his lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, and Kevin Rudd, the Australian ambassador to the United States. He stood briefly and offered his plea more than a decade after he obtained and published classified secret military and diplomatic documents in 2010, moving a convoluted case involving several countries and U.S. presidents closer to its conclusion.
UN envoy defends failure to include Afghan women in upcoming meeting with the Taliban in Qatar (AP)
The United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan defended the failure to include Afghan women in the upcoming first meeting between the Taliban and envoys from 22 countries, insisting that demands for women’s rights are certain to be raised. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Tirana Hassan said that, in the face of the Taliban’s tightening repression of women and girls, the U.N. plans to hold a meeting “without women’s rights on the agenda or Afghan women in the room are shocking.” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said, “The credibility of this meeting will be in tatters if it doesn’t adequately address the human rights crisis in Afghanistan and fails to involve women human rights defenders and other relevant stakeholders from Afghan civil society.”
North America
Supreme Court rules prosecutors overreached in Jan. 6 cases (WSJ🔒)
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Justice Department improperly charged some of the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a decision that could affect hundreds of cases—and potentially help former President Donald Trump. Prosecutors have charged more than 1,400 Trump supporters who attacked the building while Congress met to certify President Biden’s win, and turned to an Enron-era obstruction of justice statute to elevate some of those cases. The Justice Department may have gone too far in doing so, the Supreme Court said, by taking a law prosecutors have mostly used against people they thought were tampering with evidence in criminal investigations and applying it to the riot. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing a 6-3 decision that didn’t fall neatly along ideological lines, said Congress likely didn’t intend for the obstruction provision to serve as a catchall to address conduct beyond the type of wrongdoing that prompted the legislation—the corruption or destruction of documents in an official proceeding. To convict under the statute, prosecutors must prove that the defendant interfered with “records, documents, objects” or “other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so,” Roberts wrote. The Supreme Court’s decision will have immediate ripple effects, prompting some Jan. 6 defendants to seek resentencing. The ruling’s impact will be most pronounced for a subset of the rioters charged: the roughly 50 people who have been convicted and sentenced on that charge and no other felony. Of those, 27 people are currently incarcerated.
4.1 million migrants: where they’re from, where they live in the U.S. (WP🔒) 📊
The polarized immigration debate in the United States generally revolves around illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, but those numbers don’t indicate what happens to these and other migrants who stay in the country. A Washington Post analysis of more than 4.1 million U.S. immigration court records from the past decade reveals a population that was once overwhelmingly Mexican and Central American but has in recent years spanned the globe. Far fewer migrants have gotten into the country than have been apprehended at the border, the data shows. And those who cleared that first hurdle — and are still facing possible deportation in the courts — have fanned out into every U.S. state. Adults from Mexico and Central America accounted for most border crossers until the pattern changed starting in 2014, according to U.S. Border Patrol apprehension data. More families and children began arriving, often following the same dangerous pathways. Many were fleeing gang violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. During the past three years, border agents have seen a more global shift. Illegal border crossings by Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans also soared in recent years, driven by deteriorating conditions in those nations and constraints on U.S. deportation flights to those countries. The number of illegal entries from these nations fell starting in 2023 after Biden created a way for them to enter legally through a U.S. sponsor. From 2014 to 2020, migrants from outside Mexico and Central America — known as “extra-continentals” — accounted for 19 percent of immigration court cases. In the last four years, those “extra-continentals” have risen to 53 percent of all court cases, arriving from countries such as India, China, Colombia and Mauritania.
NOTE: Article ontains many other informative graphics.
Expanding Hispanic community propels U.S. population growth (WSJ🔒)
The Hispanic population in the U.S. continues to climb, according to the latest census estimates, propelling a slight increase in the overall population while also buttressing metro areas where growth would have otherwise stalled. At the same time, the U.S. continues to grow older as the baby-boomer population ages and the number of children declines, according to the Census Bureau. About one-third of the Hispanic gain—more than 437,000 people—was due to migrants entering the U.S., the Census Bureau estimated. The rest came from Hispanic births outnumbering deaths. Among other groups, the Black population grew by about 265,400 in the recent year and the Asian population by about 466,200. The white population shrank by about 461,600. White people made up about 58% of the U.S. population by mid-2023, down roughly a percentage point from three years earlier.
Fastest growing group in Texas: Asian Americans (Texas Tribune) 📊
The Asian American population in Texas is growing fast. Asian Texans made big gains from 2022 to 2023, growing faster than any other racial group in the state, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. Their numbers increased by 5.5%, or 91,921, over the previous year's count. This was faster than the overall population growth of the state, which grew by 1.6%. The increase reflects several decades of steady growth in the group’s population and diversity in the state. And within that growth, the figures reflect another trend seen across the state: the increase in seniors. As Texas gets older, research groups raise questions about the resources available for older adults. The rise in Asian Americans in Texas can be attributed to an increase in migration, both domestic and international. While the state has seen the most migration from Latin American countries, there has been an increase in migration from Asian countries in the last ten years.
Law enforcement is spying on thousands of Americans’ mail, records show (WP🔒)
The U.S. Postal Service has shared information from thousands of Americans’ letters and packages with law enforcement every year for the past decade, conveying the names, addresses and other details from the outside of boxes and envelopes without requiring a court order. Postal inspectors say they fulfill such requests only when mail monitoring can help find a fugitive or investigate a crime. But a decade’s worth of records, provided exclusively to The Washington Post in response to a congressional probe, show Postal Service officials have received more than 60,000 requests from federal agents and police officers since 2015, and that they rarely say no.
Masks are going from mandated to criminalized in some states (WP🔒)
State legislators and law enforcement are reinstating dormant laws that criminalize mask-wearing to penalize pro-Palestinian protesters who conceal their faces, raising concerns among covid-cautious Americans. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are poised to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s recent veto of legislation to criminalize masking. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said this month she supports legislative efforts to ban masks on the subway, citing an incident in which masked protesters on a train shouted: “Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.” Student protesters in Ohio, Texas and Florida have been threatened with arrest for covering their faces. Decades-old laws against masking — often crafted in response to the hooded terror of the Ku Klux Klan — are on the books in at least 18 states and D.C., according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. Lawmakers in some areas passed legislation to create health exemptions during the coronavirus pandemic while other authorities vowed not to enforce the statutes.
Latin America
Bolivian general arrested after apparent failed coup attempt as government faces new crisis (AP)
Led by a top general vowing to “restore democracy,” armored vehicles rammed the doors of Bolivia’s government palace Wednesday in what the president called a coup attempt, then quickly retreated — the latest crisis in the South American country facing a political battle and an economic crisis. Within hours, the nation of 12 million people saw a rapidly moving scenario in which the troops seemed to take control of the government of President Luis Arce. He vowed to stand firm and named a new army commander, who immediately ordered the troops to stand down. Soon the soldiers pulled back, along with a line of military vehicles, ending the rebellion after just three hours. Hundreds of Arce’s supporters then rushed the square outside the palace, waving Bolivian flags, singing the national anthem and cheering. The soldiers’ retreat was followed by the arrest of army chief Gen. Juan José Zúñiga, after the attorney general opened an investigation.
Europe
How Ukraine’s naval drones turned the tide in the battle of the Black Sea (WSJ🔒) 📊
Ukraine has sunk or damaged around two dozen Russian ships of all sizes using explosive drones or mines delivered by low-slung craft about the size of a small fishing boat. Sea drones caused severe damage to a bridge from Russia to occupied Crimea that Russia used to supply its forces in Ukraine. Ukraine has also targeted Russian ships and port facilities with missiles provided by the West. As a result, Russia has dispersed the bulk of its Black Sea Fleet far from Sevastopol. Ukraine has been able to restart exports worth billions from its main port of Odesa. Missiles launched from Russian ships take longer to reach Ukraine, giving air-defense crews critical extra time to intercept them. Russia has relocated reconnaissance planes, jet fighters, helicopters, aerial drones and electronic-jamming systems from the front lines to counter Ukraine’s sea drones, easing the pressure on Ukraine’s embattled ground forces. The drones are revolutionizing warfare on the seas much as uncrewed aerial craft have in the skies. They are relatively cheap and hard to detect and defend against. Their use shows how smaller, poorer nations can level the naval playing field against larger, more-powerful navies. The U.S., which for years has focused on defending against drones or using them for surveillance, is taking note. The Pentagon in August announced an initiative to deploy hundreds of small, cheap air and sea drones to counter China’s growing military mass.
Middle East
Israel’s high court orders the army to draft ultra-Orthodox men, rattling Netanyahu’s government (AP)
Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for compulsory service, a landmark decision that could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel continues to wage war in Gaza. The historic ruling effectively puts an end to a decades-old system that granted ultra-Orthodox men broad exemptions from military service while maintaining mandatory enlistment for the country’s secular Jewish majority. The arrangement, deemed discriminatory by critics, has created a deep chasm in Israel’s Jewish majority over who should shoulder the burden of protecting the country.
Iran’s onerous hijab law for women is now a campaign issue (NYT🔒)
Iranian officials insisted for decades that the law requiring women to cover their hair and dress modestly was sacrosanct and not even worth discussion. They dismissed the struggle by women who challenged the law as a symptom of Western meddling. Now, as Iran holds a presidential election this week, the issue of mandatory hijab, as the hair covering is known, has become a hot campaign topic. And all six of the men running, five of them conservative, have sought to distance themselves from the methods of enforcing the law, which include violence, arrests and monetary fines.
Parliament speaker. the Tehran mayor. a heart surgeon. the race is on for Iran’s next president (AP)
Six candidates have been approved by Iran’s theocracy to run in Friday’s presidential election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash with several other officials in May. Among them, Iran’s parliament speaker stands out as the most recognizable figure. A little-known politician and heart surgeon is also on the ballot. He is the only reformist while the others are more skewed toward hard-liners who back Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei without question and challenge the West. And if previous elections are a guide to Iranian politics, several candidates could drop out in the final days before the vote to coalesce around a unity candidate.
NOTE: Article contains a summary of each candidate.
Africa
Deadly protests over Kenya finance bill prompt President William Ruto to drop support for tax hikes (CBS News)
Human rights groups say at least 22 protesters were killed and scores more wounded on the streets of Kenya Tuesday as they clashed with police in chaotic demonstrations over a contentious finance bill laden with tax hikes that was passed by the country's parliament. With the deaths and injuries still being counted, the protesters' message appeared to have convinced Kenya's president to back down, and he said Wednesday that he would not sign the bill into law. Protesters in the capital city of Nairobi broke into the parliament building and set part of it on fire Tuesday just after lawmakers voted to pass the controversial finance bill. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said at least 22 people were killed in the clashes, and other organizations cited similar death tolls.
Space
A Chinese lunar probe returns to Earth with the world’s first samples from the far side of the moon (AP)
China’s Chang’e 6 probe returned on Earth with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first. The probe landed in the Inner Mongolian region in northern China on Tuesday afternoon. Chinese scientists anticipate the returned samples will include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rock and other material that scientists hope will answer questions about geographic differences on the moon’s two sides. The near side is what is seen from Earth, and the far side faces outer space. The far side is also known to have mountains and impact craters, contrasting with the relatively flat expanses visible on the near side. The probe had landed in the moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater created more than 4 billion years ago. The samples scientists are expecting will likely come from different layers of the basin, which will bear traces of the different geological events across its long chronology, such as when the moon was younger and had an active inside that could produce volcanic rock.
Why NASA astronauts are delayed at the space station after Boeing Starliner launch (AP)
When two veteran NASA astronauts blasted off on a test drive of Boeing’s new capsule, they expected to head home from the International Space Station in a week or so. It’s now three weeks and counting for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams as NASA and Boeing troubleshoot equipment problems that popped up on the way there. Three potential landing dates were called off and their flight home is now on hold. NASA wants more time to analyze problems in the spacecraft’s propulsion system, which is used to maneuver in flight. The propulsion system is attached to the capsule, but it doesn’t come back to Earth for inspection. It is ditched during reentry and burns up. “We’re just taking a little more extra time to review all the data and also learn as much as we can while we have this service module in orbit,” Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said at a news conference last week before the latest postponement.
NASA taps Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring International Space Station out of orbit in a few more years (AP)
NASA has awarded SpaceX an $843 million contract to build the vehicle that will bring the International Space Station out of its longtime orbit of Earth when its operating lifespan ends in a few more years.
Government
Democrats panic over Biden’s debate performance, doubt his future (WP🔒)
One thing was clear by the end of the first 2024 presidential faceoff: Democrats were in a panic following Biden’s halting debate night performance. Their consternation encompassed the halls of Congress, the moneyed coastal cities of donors, the party strongholds across the country and the bars and living rooms where Democratic stalwarts gathered to cheer on their guy. Because Biden, 81, failed to deliver. The president — who desperately needed to use Thursday night’s debate to reassure skeptical voters that he has the physical and mental stamina to lead the nation — instead offered a shaky performance, especially in the early minutes, when more voters were likely to be watching.
NOTE: Keep in mind that this article is from WaPo. The NYT article was less flattering: “A Fumbling Performance, and a Panicking Party.” When two major left-leaning newspapers publish articles like these, I would expect to see some changes in the future for the Democratic party. I can’t help but think (hope?) that there was (or is now) some master plan for a chess-like discovered check in the Presidential election. What if both Trump and Biden are red herrings, and days before the election they both step aside and we get the real candidates?! As a side note, I thought CNN did a good job with the debate—probably the most “civil” one I’ve seen in a long time.
Clippers cut a wide swath making political campaign videos go viral (NYT🔒)
Clipping political gaffes was once more of a pastime for amateur political obsessives. Now, professionals have stepped in and supercharged the political discourse, flooding platforms like X and TikTok with cuttingly captioned video snippets, often publishing edited clips within minutes or even seconds. Despite concerns that the most-watched clips often omit crucial context, sometimes by design, clippers have amassed tens of millions of views, forcing candidates to pay attention — and to watch their words. More so than ever before, clipping has been embraced by both official Democratic and Republican campaign committees that have exploited the reach of real-time clips and even outdone their independent predecessors. Gone is the heyday of the tracker, a political operative who would tail candidates at stump events big and small, camcorder in hand, hoping to catch gaffes on tape. Today, the ubiquity of livestreaming and video recording has transformed any rallygoer with a smartphone into a wellspring of videos clippers can turn into potential viral sensations. With so much of a campaign being captured on video and then quickly spotlighted in microscopic, mocking detail, the smallest personality foible, momentary lapse or passing awkwardness can spell a public-relations nightmare for a candidate.
Millions of taxpayers call the IRS for help. two-thirds don’t reach anyone. (WSJ🔒)
Anyone who has called the Internal Revenue Service knows it can be frustrating to get help. Taxpayers successfully reached a human about 31% of the time this tax season, according to the agency’s own taxpayer advocate. Despite this, the IRS rated its service a score of 88%, up from a dismal 4% during the lows of the pandemic, when getting help at the agency was like winning the lottery. Erin Collins, head of the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate Service, said Wednesday that while the improvement is notable, these high marks are nothing to brag about. The IRS rating covers just 35 of its 102 customer-service numbers and doesn’t count the many callers who hang up in frustration or get sent to recorded messages, said Collins in her midyear report to Congress. For the 2.1 million people who called the agency’s collections phone line, for instance, less than one-fifth reached a representative, with an average hold time of about 10 minutes, according to Collins’s report. There is also no information on what happens after the representative answers the phone or how often taxpayers’ issues are resolved.
Defense
Biden pardons veterans convicted of having gay sex (NYT🔒)
President Biden on Wednesday pardoned American veterans who were convicted of engaging in gay sex under a military code that outlawed the behavior for more than 60 years. Mr. Biden’s proclamation grants clemency to some 2,000 people who were charged between 1951 and 2013, addressing a “historic wrong,” the president said in a statement. The proclamation addresses charges brought under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a federal law that made it a crime to engage in “unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex,” even with mutual consent. In 2013, Congress voted to repeal the portion of the code that outlawed consensual sodomy.
Business
Delivery drivers got higher wages. now they’re getting fewer orders. (WSJ🔒)
Food-delivery apps have responded to cities’ new wage-increase requirements for gig workers by ratcheting up fees. Now, they are contending with frustrated consumers, plunging restaurant orders and an exodus of delivery drivers. Lawmakers in New York City, one of the cities where pay increases for delivery drivers recently were adopted, say that their changes have worked well for workers. Seattle, which implemented similar rules this year, is planning to roll them back because of “outcry from drivers and restaurants over its devastating” impact, Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson said. The delivery companies—whose businesses are built on gig workers they don’t employ full- time—say they can only afford to pay so many workers under the two cities’ latest pay standards. The cities want the companies to pay couriers a minimum hourly wage based on the time they spend delivering orders and reward the most efficient workers. New York City now requires that the companies pay couriers at least $19.56 per hour before tips, up from an average of $5.39 per hour before its rules went into effect in December. Uber Eats’ orders in Seattle fell 45% last quarter from the same period a year earlier after the company imposed a $4.99 fee on each order to cover the city’s new pay requirements. Demand also cooled in New York City, Uber and DoorDash said.
NOTE: Dear government officials across our nation, might I recommend you read this: What Is a Market Economy and How Does It Work?.
The crazy economics of the world’s most coveted handbag (WSJ🔒)
You could double your money in five minutes by buying a Birkin handbag at your local Hermès boutique and then flipping it. But getting your hands on the world’s most sought after purse is a lot more complicated than it sounds. A basic black leather Birkin 25 costs $11,400 before tax at the Hermès store. Buyers can walk out and immediately give it to a handbag reseller like Privé Porter in exchange for $23,000 in cash. Privé Porter will then sell the Birkin on Instagram or at its Las Vegas pop-up store, possibly on the same day—box fresh, with receipt—for up to $32,000. All this for a bag that analysts estimate costs Hermès around $1,000 to make. The unusual economics of the Birkin have upended the normal balance of power between shopper and store worker. At the Hermès boutique, it is the buyer who kowtows. Some of the wealthiest women in the world have brought homemade cookies to the store to cozy up to their sales assistant. They have offered tickets for Beyoncé concerts, trips to the Cannes Film Festival in a private jet and even envelopes stuffed with cash—all to get their hands on a Birkin.
Walgreens plans major U.S. store closures; shares tumble (WSJ🔒)
Walgreens Boots Alliance Chief Executive Tim Wentworth is taking the struggling chain in a new direction, planning to close a substantial number of poorly performing stores and pulling back on the company’s plunge into the primary-care business. Shares of the pharmacy chain plummeted 22.16% to $12.19 Thursday, after The Wall Street Journal reported Wentworth’s plans and the company failed to meet Wall Street’s expectations for quarterly earnings and lowered its guidance for the full year. It was the stock’s largest percent decline on record. Walgreens will close a significant share of its roughly 8,600 stores in the U.S., Wentworth said in an interview with the Journal. The company hasn’t settled on a final number of locations to close, he said, but it is reviewing about a quarter of its stores that aren’t profitable and could shutter a “meaningful percent” of those over the next few years.
Apple hit by first charges under new European tech law (WSJ🔒)
The European Union has charged Apple with failing to comply with a new digital-competition law, alleging that the iPhone maker’s App Store isn’t allowing developers to freely direct customers to alternative ways to make purchases. The charges unveiled Monday are the first to be issued under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which took effect earlier this year and sets out a long list of rules aimed at boosting competition in digital advertising, online search and app ecosystems. Apple could be fined as much as 10% of its worldwide revenue if EU regulators ultimately determine that the company broke the DMA’s rules.
Energy
How water could be the future of fuel (WP🔒) 📊
The tangle of pipes at this industrial plant doesn’t stand out in this city built around the carbon-heavy business of pumping oil and refining it into fuel for planes, ships, trucks and cars. But this plant produces fuel from a different source, one that doesn’t belch greenhouse pollution: hydrogen. Specifically, hydrogen made from water using renewable electricity, also known as green hydrogen. This process could represent the biggest change in how fuel for planes, ships, trains and trucks is made since the first internal combustion engine fired up in the 19th century. In his 1874 science fiction novel “The Mysterious Island,” Jules Verne predicted that “water will be the coal of the future.” This plant, one of the first in the world to transform water into fuel, shows what that looks like on the ground today. It’s not an entirely new idea: Scientists discovered how to do this in the 18th century. By 1900, there were 400 industrial machines turning water into hydrogen to make fertilizer – but companies abandoned almost all of them when they discovered how to cheaply extract the gas from fossil fuels. It’s now about three times cheaper to make hydrogen from fossil fuels than water. This is a simplified representation of the way most hydrogen is produced now: You take natural gas and heat it up to separate it into carbon and hydrogen. Those leftover carbon atoms combine with oxygen to create carbon dioxide, which vents into the atmosphere. But to make green hydrogen, you take hydrogen from water and all you have left is pure oxygen.
Real Estate
America’s frozen housing market is warping the economy (WSJ🔒)
If you locked in a dirt-cheap mortgage when interest rates were low, congratulations for being one of the winners in America’s skewed housing market. Renters, realtors and recruiters are among those getting the raw end of the deal. High interest rates have had an unexpected impact on U.S. housing. Instead of triggering a fall in home prices, as happened with commercial real estate, costlier mortgages have pushed residential values higher. The value of the median existing home rose to a record $419,300 in May, according to the National Association of Realtors. Before the pandemic, it was $270,000. Blame the “lock-in” effect of ultracheap mortgages secured when interest rates were low, which are trapping owners in their homes. It is an unforeseen consequence of years of easy money. Two-thirds of outstanding U.S. mortgages have a rate below 4%, according to Morgan Stanley’s housing strategist Jim Egan. Were these homeowners to move, they would have to pay close to 7% for a new 30-year mortgage. The gap hasn’t been as wide since at least the late 1980s. Compounding the lock-in effect, most people have fixed-rate mortgages today. More than 90% of newly issued home loans in recent years were 30-year fixed-rate loans, compared with two-thirds in the run-up to the 2008 housing crash.
$30,000 a month for 1,200 square feet? why Monaco is the world’s most expensive place to rent (WSJ🔒) 📊
Hugging a steep stretch of Mediterranean coast between the French city of Nice and the France-Italy border, the principality of Monaco is among the world’s smallest sovereign states. With a footprint of just under 1 square mile, it is smaller than New York’s Central Park. But as one of the most appealing tax havens, it has created a rental market like no other, with international residents willing to pay millions of dollars in annual rent for the chance to live in style while benefiting from the lack of personal-income and capital-gains taxes.
Personal Finance
Dropshippers get rich by making you feel poor (The FP)
Maddy Glynn wants me to feel poor. “If you’re in your 20s or 30s and you’re not making at least ten thousand dollars a month,” she starts one TikTok, “Watch this.” Maddy, who has nearly 250,000 followers on the platform, is tan, blonde, telegenic, and 24 years old, is standing in a house with bare off-white walls and a few immaculately placed houseplants, but no furniture in sight. It’s the sort of house that looks empty in an expensive way—in a way that mine does not, presumably because I have not yet taken her course in dropshipping. I also have not taken Andrew Tate’s course in dropshipping, or Kevin David’s, or Wholesale Ted’s, or any of the hundreds of other courses in dropshipping that are bought and sold daily on the internet, marketed by flashy lifestyles, easy-listening inspirational music, ever-changing backstories, and screengrabs of charts showing hockey stick growth. None of this is to say you can’t make money from dropshipping. Globally, it’s a $287 billion enterprise, and one that’s forecasted to grow over the coming decade. But there are all sorts of things that can eat away at dropshippers’ profits. For example, Shopify, one of the most commonly used dropshipping platforms, charges sellers a flat fee of $15 to $299 per month depending on the plan selected. Plus, you’re often competing with other people selling the exact same product from the same supplier—sometimes for a marginally lower price. And unless you’re a social media influencer with a huge following, you can end up paying for advertising. That’s why all the most successful dropshippers are the ones who sell courses in dropshipping: selling the fantasy that hawking cheap crap from China can make you uber-wealthy is more profitable than actually selling cheap crap from China.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI delays launch of voice assistant to address safety issues (Bloomberg)
OpenAI is delaying the release of a much-anticipated voice assistant feature for ChatGPT in order to ensure it can safely and effectively process requests from millions of users. The artificial intelligence startup unveiled the voice option at a product launch event in May for GPT-4o, an updated version of its GPT-4 model that is better at handling text, audio and images in real time. In a statement, OpenAI said it had originally intended to roll out the voice feature to a small group of paid ChatGPT Plus subscribers in late June, but decided it needs another month to “reach our bar to launch.”
Record companies sue AI music generators Suno, Udio (WP🔒)
The biggest players in the music recording industry sued two fast-growing artificial intelligence music start-ups Monday, alleging that they used copyrighted songs to train their tools, adding to the pile of lawsuits the AI industry is already facing. A group of record companies, including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records, brought two suits, one against Suno and the other against Uncharted Labs, the developer of Udio. Both companies let people generate songs with simple text prompts. Suno and Udio allow users to generate full songs by typing in a description that might include the desired genre, lyrics and the kinds of instruments being used. Suno blocks requests asking it to generate a song mimicking a specific artist. Asking it to create a song “in the style of Dolly Parton” leads to an error message saying it’s not possible to generate something with a prompt that mentions an artist’s name, according to tests done by The Washington Post. But the policy doesn’t seem to always apply. To support the lawsuit, the plaintiffs showed multiple examples of the AI tools creating songs that were nearly identical to real, human-produced songs. A song generated on Suno with lyrics from Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire” and the artist’s name resulted in an AI song with a chorus that has the same rhythm and lyrics as the original 1961 hit. The Post was able to re-create the same AI song in a test.
Life
Boys are struggling. Male kindergarten teachers are here to help. (NYT🔒)
Boys are falling behind in school. They are less likely than girls to be ready for kindergarten. They read at lower levels. They graduate from high school at lower rates. This gender gap in education has significantly widened just in the last generation. One group is uniquely positioned to help put boys on the right track in their first year of formal schooling: men who teach kindergarten. Yet only around 3 percent of kindergarten teachers are men. Many studies show that older boys benefit from having male teachers. There hasn’t been as much research on the youngest students and their teachers — in large part because there are so few male teachers in early education to begin with. Still, it stands to reason that men who teach kindergarten can make a difference for boys, said Thomas S. Dee, a Stanford professor who has for decades researched the effect of teacher demographics on students. We interviewed a dozen men with the job about being a rarity in their field. The teachers spoke about drawing on their own experiences as boys in school to address the challenges boys face today.
Religion
Oklahoma state superintendent orders Bible be taught in schools (WSJ🔒)
Public schools in Oklahoma are now required to teach students about the Bible and the Ten Commandments, the state’s top education official said Thursday. The Bible and Ten Commandments are cornerstones of Western civilization, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, said in a memorandum. He said the decision was effective immediately.
Education
Two federal courts rule against Biden's new student loan forgiveness plan on the same day (Reason)
President Biden's new large-scale student loan forgiveness plan had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. That's because two separate federal district courts ruled against its legality, in lawsuits brought by different coalitions of GOP-led states. Moreover, both of the judges who issued the rulings were Democratic Barack Obama appointees. That makes it hard to argue the decisions were a result of ideological or partisan bias, and is a very bad sign for the Administration's chances of prevailing on appeal. The new loan forgiveness plan—known as the SAVE Plan—which would discharge at least $156 billion in federally backed student loan debt, is a successor to the one the Supreme Court invalidated Biden v. Nebraska, last year, on the grounds that the Administration's actions were not authorized by Congress (that plan would have discharged some $430 billion in student debt).
Health
Supreme Court to weigh bans on transgender medical treatments (WSJ🔒)
The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether states can restrict medical treatments for transgender minors, a case that puts the justices in the middle of a charged national debate over gender identity. In a brief order on Monday, the court said it would hear the Biden administration’s challenge to a Tennessee law that bans gender-transition care, such as medications that can delay the onset of puberty and hormones that can cause physical changes such as the development of facial hair or breasts. Roughly two dozen states have banned or restricted such treatments for minors, triggering legal battles around the country, with judges reaching conflicting conclusions on the validity of the measures. The Tennessee case will be the first time the high court weighs in directly on the laws’ constitutionality. The eventual ruling, expected in the spring of 2025, could be a landmark precedent on the scope of the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which guarantees people equal treatment under the law. The decision also could have downstream effects on a host of other trans issues that have been flashpoints in the culture wars, from which bathrooms transgender individuals can use to what sports teams they can play on.
Are white noise machines bad? here’s what the latest science says. (WP🔒)
Many American households turn to white noise machines to help their children get to and stay asleep. White noise is made up of different frequencies, creating a background sound that can muffle potential disturbances. The devices are easy to use, often in the form of a stand-alone machine or a smartphone app. The positives of this seemingly low-risk intervention are obvious: better sleep. But just how low risk is it? To find out, we conducted a review of the available literature on white noise machines for young children. The results, recently published in the journal Sleep Medicine, showed that all tested devices generated alarmingly loud sounds. White noise within reasonable limits may help children — and parents — sleep without causing harm. We found studies showing that white noise applied at 60 decibels or less — about the volume of a quiet conversation — showed a decrease in nighttime arousals, increased sleep time and increase sleep efficiency (time spent asleep while in bed).
Mail-order drugs were supposed to keep costs down. it’s doing the opposite. (WSJ🔒)
A key tool that businesses have counted on to keep a lid on employees’ drug spending—filling workers’ prescriptions by mail—is now driving up their costs. Unity Care NW, a nonprofit health clinic in Washington state, forecasts the cost of medical and drug benefits for its 365 employees and their family members will increase this year by 25% to more than $3 million. A big reason: Drugs delivered by mail are costing multiples more than those picked up at a store counter. Markups were as much as 35 times higher than what other pharmacies charged, according to a recent analysis of millions of prescriptions in Washington state. At the urging of firms that manage their drug benefits, employers have turned to mail-order pharmacies to save money on prescriptions. The pharmacies promised to sell medicines to employees at lower prices than their bricks-and-mortar rivals by buying larger quantities from drugmakers and providing 90-day supplies. Instead, the opposite is happening. Drugs ordered through the mail-order pharmacies are costing more, raising employers’ spending. That is partly because of price markups on prescriptions filled by mail-order pharmacies—especially those owned by the pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, themselves—according to employers and consultants who have reviewed businesses’ drug spending.
Food & Drink
Aquaculture is making history (Sherwood News)
At the latest count, the average American was eating ~5 lbs more seafood per year than they had been in the 1990s, and globally the consumption of seafood has been outpacing population growth since the 1960s. But where exactly is all of that shrimp, tuna, and salmon coming from? When we think of fishing, it’s easy to romanticize weather-beaten boats helmed by wizened sea captains. But, on a global scale, much of modern fishing looks very different. In fact, increasingly, the contents of a seafood tower or “catch of the day” is more likely to have been farmed rather than caught in the wild. That’s the latest conclusion from The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, an annual report published earlier this month by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which revealed that — for the first time in history — the majority of the world’s seafood came from fish farming rather than wild catching in 2022.
Nature
Can pollution save the planet? (The FP)
During the first months of the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, India’s government imposed one of the most draconian lockdowns anywhere in the democratic world. I happened to be in Mumbai at that time, where you couldn’t go more than half a mile from your home except for essential purposes. Unpleasant as this was, there was one positive side effect: the notoriously polluted skies of Mumbai—like those of other big Indian cities, from Delhi to Bangalore—suddenly became much clearer. With far fewer cars on the road, factories shut, and flights grounded, the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere fell to their lowest rate in 20 years. Then came the negative side effect. That summer, India experienced some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded. Globally, the year 2020 was one of the warmest on record; the average temperature in India that year was 0.29 Celsius degrees hotter (roughly 0.52 degrees Fahrenheit) than during 1981–2010. This is no coincidence. It is well known that aerosols make clouds bigger, brighter, and more reflective; when they decrease, more sunlight reaches the earth, which leads to higher temperatures. And a 2023 study showed how, during the pandemic, clearer skies across South Asia increased climate warming.
NOTE: I’m all for keeping the earth around for many more years, yet I’m also for human advancement. And, I understand the latter sometimes comes at a cost to the former—to what degree, I don’t really know. So, the climate warming/changing topic is confusing to me. I hear arguments on both sides as to the level that humanity is negatively affecting the earth and increasing temperatures (or decreasing them?) in places around the planet. Then I hear that volcano eruptions also have significant impact on climate. It seems to me that pollution is bad, for humans and the earth. I mean, I don’t really want to be in places with smog or see plastic bottles lying around my community, nor do I want it to get any hotter (it’s already hot enough in Texas in the summer). This article further confuses me on the topic—apparently things we’ve done to reduce pollution have actually contributed to global warming.
Yet, despite this, I also understand that multiple things can be true at the same time. I also understand that the earth, and its environment are complex, and that in a complex system the confluence of multiple factors can be very difficult to predict. The article concludes, “The general consensus in the scientific community is that if we focus on reducing aerosols without also reducing greenhouse gases, global warming will only accelerate, so we need to channel our resources into eliminating both simultaneously. But when it comes to environmental concerns, aerosols may be a lesser evil—one that might even buy us time until we work out how to get other emissions under control.”
New dinosaur species rocked Loki-esque horns (WSJ🔒)
It roamed the Earth, but it invoked a god. A new horned dinosaur, revealed by an international group of paleontologists, sported the most ornate headgear found so far in the fossil record. The group named the plant-eater Lokiceratops rangiformis for its blade-like horns, which bear an uncanny resemblance to the helmet worn by the Norse trickster god Loki. Lokiceratops lived about 78 million years ago in the swamps of what is now Montana. Its skeleton, discovered in 2019, was later purchased by the Museum of Evolution in Denmark, where the skull has recently been displayed and available for study.
Sports
The Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup (WSJ🔒)
After racing out to a 3-0 series lead, the Panthers dropped three straight to leave them on the brink of a historic collapse. But they put it all together in Game 7 to claim the franchise’s first NHL title.
Tennessee wins the 2024 Men's College World Series (NCAA)
The Tennessee Volunteers beat Texas A&M in Game 3 of the 2024 Men's College World Series finals, 6-5. With their 60th win of the season, the Vols won the first national title in program history. Texas A&M beat the Vols, 9-5, in Game 1 of the MCWS finals, then Tennessee completed the come-from-behind feat for the title, using late offense to top the Aggies in Game 2, 4-1, and maintaining an early lead in Game 3. With an RBI and a home run in Game 3, Dylan Dreiling won Most Outstanding Player of the 2024 MCWS. Dreiling also made history as the first player to hit a home run in all three of the MCWS finals games. The Vols went up 6-1, highlighted by Hunter Ensley's acrobatic slide to avoid Jackson Appel's tag, before the Aggies scored four straight runs in the final two innings to cut the deficit to one. Tennessee closer Aaron Combs finished the job, striking out Ted Burton for the Tennessee victory.
Opinion | High-pressure youth sports is bad for America (Slow Boring)
Big-time competitive sports reaches its apex with twenty-somethings playing in professional leagues and winning medals at the Olympics. Below that are the teams at Division I colleges, where being good enough to make the roster tends to come with concrete financial benefits and an edge in admissions. And below that is the much larger group of kids playing on varsity high school teams. A particularly talented or motivated child of eight or nine could be playing sports to try to climb that difficult ladder that ends in glory and remuneration. Obviously, though, the vast majority of kids who take up soccer or basketball or baseball are never going to make money or win a scholarship doing it. They play because sports is fun. And adults have traditionally encouraged kids to play sports because not only is it fun, it’s healthy to engage in regular physical activity, to say nothing of the useful social and emotional learning associated with the combination of cooperation and competition in sports. Sports helps kids learn discipline and self-control. It’s a way of cultivating an internal sense of agency and motivation — you practice swinging the bat or shooting the ball, even when it’s a little tedious, not because mom or dad is forcing you, but because you want to get better and win games because winning is fun. Lots of kids don’t like sports, and that’s fine. But most kids do find sports to be enjoyable, and joining a team is a good way to make friends and spend time with other children. And for plenty of people it’s a lifelong hobby they continue to enjoy through club sports in college and rec leagues as adults. My 70-year-old father has never been a competitive tennis player, but he’s played tennis for fun consistently for decades and is currently hoping to rehab from an injury and get back out on the court. My sense is that traditionally, these paths diverged in high school. You had the varsity squad and the JV team, and you had to work hard and be good to make it off JV and onto varsity. What’s changed is that the conventional wisdom (and perhaps the reality) became that in order to be in a position to make the high school squad, you have to be on a special competitive team in elementary or junior high. That lands you in the situation Jessica Grose described in February: “The typical grouse goes something like this: My kid loves soccer, and I want her to have an opportunity to play through high school. For that to happen, I have to start her in travel soccer in third grade, because all the other kids trying out for the high school team will have started travel soccer in third grade. But travel soccer costs thousands of dollars a year, my child is exhausted and traveling to games almost every weekend is putting strain on my other kids. Don’t even get me started about schlepping to practices all week long.” This can be expensive, exhausting, and annoying. It’s also almost certainly not inherently true that to play high school soccer, you need to begin intensive training when you’re eight. But it becomes a collective action problem and a collective action trap.
NOTE: Totally agree here. Youth sports has gotten out of control and adds to the problems facing our youth.
US Olympic and other teams will bring their own AC units to Paris, undercutting environmental plan (AP)
The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions. U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France. Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
Stephen A. Smith is the face of ESPN. how much is that worth? (WSJ🔒)
As one of ESPN’s biggest stars, Smith knows a thing or two about marketing and self-promotion. His uncanny ability to dominate the conversation—whether by weighing in on controversies or starting them himself—has helped him become a ratings juggernaut for a network that needs one. To his critics, Smith is a loudmouth provocateur; to others, he is a genius who understands what it takes to grab viewers’ attention in a noisy media environment. In an era when hot takes win, Smith takes pride in having the hottest, whether it is speculating about an unlikely NBA trade, ranting about a player or airing his grievances about a former colleague on his independent show. Smith, whose contract expires next year, has been offered $18 million a year to stay with ESPN, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Puck News earlier reported the amount of ESPN’s initial offer). That would mark a 50% pay bump from his current deal of about $12 million a year, another person said—which might make him ESPN’s highest-paid employee.
NFL ordered to pay $4.7 billion in Sunday Ticket case (WSJ🔒)
A federal jury in California dealt a sweeping blow to the media rights model of America’s richest sport on Thursday, siding with plaintiffs in a class-action antitrust lawsuit against the NFL over its out-of-market broadcasts and awarding $4.7 billion of damages to consumers of the league’s “Sunday Ticket” telecast package. The league said it was disappointed with the verdict and plans to appeal. After a trial that included testimony from the likes of commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the jury awarded damages of about $4.6 billion to residential subscribers and just under $100 million to commercial users, sums that will be tripled to more than $14 billion under antitrust law if the judgment is upheld. The number represents nearly two-thirds of what the NFL pulls in annually, and is a significant antitrust award in any market, with potentially major implications for sports and entertainment going forward.
Have a great weekend!
The Curator
Two resources to help you be a more discerning reader:
AllSides - https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
Media Bias Chart - https://www.adfontesmedia.com/
Caveat: Even these resources/charts are biased. Who says that the system they use to describe news sources is accurate? Still, hopefully you find them useful as a basic guide or for comparison.