This week in the news | 7 Oct 23

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

Brian Rendell

Oct 07, 2023

👋 Hello Reader, I hope you had a great week. Below are the items that stood out to me in the news. Of note:

This morning, the ruling Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip carried out an attack on Israel (Middle East)
A few updates on the economy from my mid-week post on that topic (Economy)
There’s a neat video showing how it’s possible to sail from India to Alaska in a completely straight line without touching a single piece of land—a great follow-up to my geography post on great circle distances (World)
A fun recap of the U2 concert in the Vegas Sphere arena (Entertainment)
And a perplexing trivia question: when did the 20^th century start? (For Fun)

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THE QUICK SHOT 🚀

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

TECH & CYBER

LIFE

804,000 long-term borrowers are having their student loans forgiven before payments resume this fall (AP News)
Biden Cancels an Additional $9 Billion in Student Loan Debt (NYT🔒)
America’s university graduates live much longer than non-graduates (The Economist) 📊
You Gorged on Your European Vacation but Lost Weight. Why? (WSJ🔒)
McDonald's, Wendy's defeat lawsuit over size of burgers (Reuters)
DogTV Is TV for Dogs. Except When It’s for People. (NYT🔒)

FOR FUN

Why Right Now Is A Good Time To Renew Your Passport (Forbes🔒)
Netflix Plans to Raise Prices After Actors Strike Ends (WSJ🔒) 📊
U2 Takes to Playing in the Round (the Very, Very Round) at Las Vegas’ Sphere With Spectacular Results: Concert Review (Variety)
Simone Biles makes history with vault at World Artistic Gymnastics Championships (The Athletic)
Dick Butkus, fearsome Hall of Fame Chicago Bears linebacker, dies at 80 (AP News)
How Adidas Outran Nike With Its $500 ‘Super Shoe’ (WSJ🔒)
Elite pilots prepare for ‘camping out in the sky’ as they compete in prestigious ballooning race (AP News)
The Art of Wikiracing (Slate)
Get (on) my swamp! You can book Shrek's home on Airbnb this fall (USA Today)
Twentieth century does not begin on January 1, 1900 (Jeopardy History Fandom)

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THE SLOW BREW ☕

A more relaxed approach to news summaries.

World

Without touching a single piece of land, it's possible to sail from India to Alaska in a completely straight line (Twitter)

I thought this tied in nicely with my post about distances around the world and great circle paths.

How China-West tensions will shape global markets (Reuters)

Tensions between the West and China are rising, from tit-for-tat trade tariffs to tech rivalry and spying allegations. The ramifications for global markets are significant, with Washington and Beijing's determination to loosen dependence on each other fraying long-established supply chains. That could help keep inflation and interest rates elevated. Still, there are gains for emerging nations and tech giants on the right side of the power battle. Here's how Western-China tensions are shaping markets. 1. HELLO INFLATION, 2. FRIENDSHORING, 3. INDIA RUSH, 4. CHIPS TO COUTURE, 5. SELL CHINA?

Informative read, with lots of charts, and no paywall.

North America

Biden approves new section of border wall as Mexico crossings rise (BBC)

US President Joe Biden's administration is to build a section of border wall in southern Texas in an effort to stop rising levels of immigration. Around 20 miles (32km) will be built in Starr County along its border with Mexico, where officials report high numbers of crossings. Building a border wall was a signature policy of Donald Trump as president and fiercely opposed by Democrats. In 2020, Mr Biden promised he would not build another foot of wall if elected. His administration passed a proclamation soon after taking office that said building a wall across the southern border "is not a serious policy solution". In a statement to Associated News on Wednesday night, the US Customs and Border Protection defended the latest move, saying it was using funds already allocated for a border barrier. "Congress appropriated fiscal year 2019 funds for the construction of border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, and DHS is required to use those funds for their appropriated purpose," the statement said.

New York City Moves to Suspend Right-to-Shelter Mandate (NYT🔒)

Mayor Eric Adams is seeking to suspend New York City’s longstanding obligation to provide shelter to anyone who asks for it, as officials struggle to find housing for thousands of migrants arriving from the southern border. “With more than 122,700 asylum seekers having come through our intake system since the spring of 2022, and projected costs of over $12 billion for three years, it is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue,” Mr. Adams said in a statement.

Latin America

U.N. Agrees to Deploy Kenyan-Led Force to Bring Control to Haiti (WSJ🔒)

The United Nations Security Council approved the deployment of an armed multinational force led by Kenya to help Haiti’s beleaguered police wrest back control from criminal gangs that dominate much of the country. The U.N. resolution comes nearly a year after Prime Minister Ariel Henry asked for international assistance in taming the gangs that run roughshod, resulting in a wave of homicides and kidnappings in the hemisphere’s poorest country. The violence has also triggered hundreds of desperate Haitians to try to reach the U.S. on rickety boats. In the first nine months of the year, more than 3,000 Haitians have been killed in the country of 11.4 million, 1,500 have been kidnapped, and more than 200,000 have fled their homes, according to the U.N. The violence has worsened the country’s poverty, with about half of the population facing malnutrition, the U.N. says.

US quietly strikes deal to send military to Ecuador amid drug cartel explosion (Washington Examiner)

The Biden administration has quietly entered into agreements with Ecuador that will allow the United States to send in military forces, both on land and off the coast of the South American country, which has been heavily affected by drug cartels operating in the region. The State Department has not publicized the agreements in any of the more than 30 press releases issued since Wednesday, but a State spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Friday that it had signed status of forces agreements and maritime law enforcement agreements.

The IMF’s $43 Billion Argentina Problem Is About to Get Worse (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

Economics says it’s way past time for the International Monetary Fund to pull the plug on Argentina. Geopolitics helps explain why it hasn’t — yet. Over the past five years, the Fund has lent $43 billion in repeated bailouts for the Latin American nation — multiples more cash than anyone else has gotten — with dismal results. On the eve of a pivotal presidential vote, Argentina has 124% inflation and its economy is in deep recession again. The latest IMF program, like so many predecessors, has essentially collapsed. But the country is still getting IMF money — and the escalating cold war between the US and China, with Latin America a key arena of competition, is one reason why.

Europe

Russia Withdraws Black Sea Fleet Vessels From Crimea Base After Ukrainian Attacks (WSJ🔒)

Russia has withdrawn the bulk of its Black Sea Fleet from its main base in occupied Crimea, a potent acknowledgment of how Ukrainian missile and drone strikes are challenging Moscow’s hold on the peninsula. Russia has moved powerful vessels including three attack submarines and two frigates from Sevastopol to other ports in Russia and Crimea that offer better protection, according to Western officials and satellite images verified by naval experts.

How Ukraine Tricks Russia Into Wasting Ammunition (WSJ🔒)

At a workshop in central Ukraine, workers are busy making parts for howitzers, radar stations and mortars. They are all fakes. Metinvest churns out high-quality replicas that serve as decoys, seeking to lure Russian fire. Made from rigid plastic foam, plumbing and scrap equipment, the gear is produced based on the logic that every Russian missile, shell or drone used to strike them is one fewer targeting real equipment and troops. Deception has been an important tool of warfare throughout history, but the war in Ukraine has presented new challenges. Advances in thermal imaging can reveal targets that are invisible to the naked eye, or expose fakes as inert dummies. Inexpensive drones offer armies pervasive real-time surveillance, which complicates longstanding approaches to assembling or inflating replicas.

Sweden’s leader turns to the military for help as gang violence escalates (AP News)

Sweden’s prime minister on Thursday said that he’s summoned the head of the military to discuss how the armed forces can help police deal with an unprecedented crime wave that has shocked the country with almost daily shootings and bombings. Getting the military involved in crime-fighting would be a highly unusual step for Sweden, underscoring the severity of the gang violence that has claimed a dozen lives across the country this month, including teenagers and innocent bystanders. Sweden has grappled with gang violence for years, but the surge in shootings and bombings in September has been exceptional. Three people were killed overnight in separate attacks with suspected links to criminal gangs, which often recruit teenagers in socially disadvantaged immigrant neighborhoods to carry out hits.

Middle East

Netanyahu tells Israel ‘We are at war’ after Hamas launches an unprecedented attack on the country (AP News)

The ruling Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. Six hours after the invasion began, Hamas militants were still fighting gunbattles inside several Israeli communities in a surprising show of strength that shook the country. “We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass mobilization of the country’s army reserves. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”

F-16 Downs Turkish Drone Over Syria After It Comes Within Half Kilometer of US Troops (Air and Space Forces)

A U.S. Air Force F-16 shot down a Turkish government drone on Oct. 5 after it flew within half a kilometer of U.S. troops in Syria. The incident was an extremely rare military engagement between two NATO allies, who were already at odds over a range of security issues.

Scoop: Senior Biden advisers quietly visit Saudi Arabia to discuss mega-deal (Axios)

Senior Biden advisers quietly visited Saudi Arabia last week to continue talks on a potential mega-deal that could include a peace agreement between the kingdom and Israel, two sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Axios. Why it matters: Talks for the deal gained momentum last month following President Biden's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But it also became clear there are still many issues to work out, including a Palestinian component to any such agreement, and that the process will take time. The Biden administration is pushing to get a mega-deal with Saudi Arabia and Israel before the 2024 presidential campaign consumes Biden's agenda.

Funerals held in Syria for dozens of victims killed in deadliest attack in years (AP News)

Family members of victims of a deadly drone attack on a crowded military graduation ceremony gathered outside a military hospital in the central city of Homs on Friday to collect bodies of loved ones who died in one of Syria’s deadliest attacks in years. Thursday’s strike on the Homs Military Academy killed 89 people, including 31 women and five children, and wounded as many as 277, according to the health ministry. The death toll could rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition. Syria announced a three-day state of mourning starting Friday. The attack is likely to lead to a renewed wave of violence in the country’s opposition-held northwest, where front lines have been relatively calm since Russia and Turkey, who support rival sides in the country’s conflict, reached a cease-fire in March 2020, ending a three-month Russian-backed government offensive against insurgents. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack as Syria endures its 13th year of conflict that has killed half a million people.

Turkey strikes suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq after suicide attack in Ankara (AP News)

Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq on Sunday following a suicide attack on a government building in the Turkish capital, Turkey’s defense ministry announced. Some 20 targets of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were “destroyed” in the latest aerial operation, including caves, shelters and depots, the ministry said, adding that a large number of PKK operatives were “neutralized” in the strikes. Earlier on Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance of the Interior Ministry, wounding two police officers. A second assailant was killed in a shootout with police. Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border offensives against the PKK in northern Iraq. It has also launched incursions into northern Syria since 2016 to drive away the Islamic State group and a Kurdish militia group, known by the initials YPG, and controls swaths of territory in the area.

Iraq Asked for $1 Billion in Cash. This Time, Washington Said No. (WSJ🔒)

Iraq is seeking a special shipment of $1 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but U.S. officials have withheld approval, saying the request runs counter to their efforts to rein in Baghdad’s use of dollars and halt illicit cash flows to Iran.

Asia-Pacific

Putin says Russia has tested next-generation nuclear weapon (Reuters)

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had successfully tested a potent new strategic missile and declined to rule out the possibility it could carry out weapons tests involving nuclear explosions for the first time in more than three decades. Putin said for the first time that Moscow had successfully tested the Burevestnik, a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable cruise missile with a potential range of many thousands of miles.

Japan puts the brakes on lucrative used-car trade with Russia (Reuters)

Japan's move to bar most used-car sales to Russia slammed the brakes on a trade nearing $2 billion annually that had boomed in the shadow of sanctions over Ukraine elsewhere, according to trade data and market participants. In early August, Japan's government banned exports of all but subcompact cars to Russia, cutting off a lucrative backchannel in trade in used Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans for a network of brokers and smaller ports, especially Fushiki, an export hub on the Sea of Japan.

Japan’s Bullet Train Rail Pass Prices Soar 70% for Tourists (Bloomberg🔒)

Tourists in Japan will pay more for rail passes after the JR train network raised prices for the first time in four decades, by an average of 70%. But even with the big increase, demand is likely to stay strong thanks to a cheaper yen and flow of inbound visitors. From the start of this month, a rail pass offering 14 days of unlimited travel across Japan costs ¥80,000 ($534), up from ¥47,250. There are also options for one- and three-week passes, as well as first class. The price hikes vary from about 65% to 77%. The JR group of six train operators contends that previous fares were set when there were fewer bullet-train destinations and that higher prices are justified with services extending into the northern regions. The JR network covers more than 19,000 kilometers (11,800 miles) across the archipelago.

A certificate to own a car in Singapore now costs $106,000 (BBC News)

The cost of a certificate to own a large family car in Singapore has jumped to a fresh record high of S$146,002 ($106,619; £87,684). The city-state introduced the 10-year certificate of entitlement (COE) system in 1990 as an anti-congestion measure. Prospective car owners in Singapore must have a COE in order to be able to purchase a vehicle. They are sold in auctions every two weeks, with the government controlling the number of certificates for sale. With taxes and import duties, the system has made Singapore the most expensive country in the world to buy a car.

Space

Amazon Launches First Satellites in Bid to Challenge SpaceX’s Starlink (WSJ🔒)

Amazon.com’s first satellites blasted into orbit, moving the e-commerce company closer to a satellite-internet business that could compete with SpaceX and other rivals. A rocket carrying two Amazon prototype satellites lifted off Friday afternoon from a Florida launchpad, according to a livestream. The technology giant expects the mission to demonstrate how the satellites perform in space while testing other systems. Amazon in 2019 unveiled plans for a satellite network called Project Kuiper and has said it would invest $10 billion to build it up. The company has permission from U.S. regulators to deploy more than 3,200 satellites over time. Like other operators of low-Earth-orbit constellations, as such satellite fleets are called in the industry, Kuiper aims to sell high-speed, low-latency broadband to subscribers. Its chief rival is Starlink, as SpaceX calls its satellite-internet service. SpaceX has aggressively manufactured satellites for Starlink and blasted them off using the company’s partially reusable rockets, giving it around 4,800 satellites in orbit so far.

Government

Speaker Kevin McCarthy: US House of Representatives votes to oust Republican leader (BBC News)

Kevin McCarthy has been toppled in a right-wing revolt - the first time ever that a US House of Representatives Speaker has lost a no-confidence vote. The final tally was 216-210 to remove the congressman as leader of the Republican majority in the lower chamber of Congress. Hardliners in his party voted against him after he struck a deal with Senate Democrats to fund government agencies. There is no clear successor to oversee the House Republican majority. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally, filed a rarely used procedural tool known as a motion to vacate on Monday night to oust Mr McCarthy. He accused the Speaker of making a secret deal with the White House to continue funding for Ukraine, amid negotiations to avert a partial government shutdown at the weekend. Mr McCarthy denies it. He later took aim at his political nemesis, Mr Gaetz, accusing him of attention-seeking. "You know it was personal," Mr McCarthy told a news conference, "it had nothing to do with spending." Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise and Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer have been mentioned as potential replacements for Mr McCarthy.

Congress avoids government shutdown, drops Ukraine aid (Defense News)

Congress on Saturday passed a short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown mere hours before the deadline and after lawmakers dropped additional support for Ukraine from the bill. After trying and failing to pass a Republican measure that would slash non-defense spending and enact strict immigration policies, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reversed course on early Saturday morning and offered a stopgap funding bill similar to the bipartisan Senate version – minus $6 billion in Ukraine aid.

California governor names Laphonza Butler, former Kamala Harris adviser, to Feinstein Senate seat (AP News)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday selected Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. In choosing Butler, Newsom fulfilled his pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat became open. However, he had been facing pressure from some Black politicians and advocacy groups to select Rep. Barbara Lee, a prominent Black congresswoman who is already running for the seat. Butler will be the only Black woman serving in the U.S. Senate, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.

Defense

An Airman Is Chairman: Brown Succeeds Milley, Sworn in as Joint Chiefs Chair (Air and Space Forces)

Gen. Mark A. Milley handed over his responsibilities as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. on a gray Sept. 29 morning here, marking a milestone in a turbulent era of U.S. defense policy. Brown is the first Airman to serve as the nation’s top military officer since 2005.

Economy

Click here for my mid-week newsletter on the economy.

Surprisingly Strong Hiring Sends Bond Yields Higher (WSJ🔒) 📊

The U.S. added 336,000 jobs in September, shattering investors’ expectations, the Labor Department said on Friday. WSJ’s Gunjan Banerji breaks down the latest report. Surging U.S. job growth shattered investors’ expectations, the latest sign of accelerating economic momentum stoking a bond market selloff that is sending longer-term borrowing rates to new 16-year highs.Employers added 336,000 jobs in September, the strongest gain since January and up sharply from the prior month’s upwardly revised 227,000 gain, the Labor Department said Friday. Job growth was also stronger in July than previously estimated. For the Fed, the report keeps the door open to another rate increase this year but won’t easily settle the debate. The figures could make some officials less confident that inflation’s decline this summer will be sustained. But it also offered some signs of softening labor demand.

Rebound in Immigration Comes to Economy’s Aid (WSJ🔒) 📊

The U.S. economy’s prospects of a soft landing are getting a boost from an unexpected source: a historic rise in immigration. The inflow of foreign-born workers, which had slowed to a trickle in the years up to and including the pandemic, is now rising briskly as the U.S. catches up on a backlog of visa applications and the Biden administration accelerates work permits. This week, it said it would offer work permits to 470,000 Venezuelan migrants. The effect of that action won’t be immediate since it is taking an average of 12 months to issue the applicable work permit. Still, it is one of a series of executive actions that has had the effect of boosting the inflow of foreign-born workers. That is helping ease labor shortages and wage and price pressure. While that alone doesn’t remove the risk of recession, it makes it a bit easier for the Federal Reserve to bring inflation down without a significant rise in unemployment—a so-called soft landing.

Rising Interest Rates Mean Deficits Finally Matter (WSJ🔒) 📊

Now, the Treasury itself is a source of risk. No, the U.S. isn’t about to default or fail to sell enough bonds at its next auction. But the scale and upward trajectory of U.S. borrowing and absence of any political corrective now threaten markets and the economy in ways they haven’t for at least a generation. That’s the takeaway from the sudden sharp rise in Treasury yields in recent weeks. The usual suspects can’t explain it: The inflation picture has gotten marginally better, and the Federal Reserve has signaled it’s nearly done raising rates. Instead, most of the increase is due to the part of yields, called the term premium, which has nothing to do with inflation or short-term rates. Deficits have been wide for years. Why would they matter now? A better question might be: What took so long? That larger deficits push up long-term rates had long been economic orthodoxy. But for the past 20 years, interest-rate models that incorporated fiscal policy didn’t work, noted Riccardo Trezzi, a former Fed economist who now runs his own research firm, Underlying Inflation. That’s understandable. Central banks—worried about too-low inflation and stagnant growth—had kept interest rates around zero while buying up government bonds (“quantitative easing”). Private demand for credit was weak. This trumped any concern about deficits. “We had a blissful 25 years of not having to worry about this problem,” said Mark Wiedman, senior managing director at BlackRock. Today, though, central banks are worried about inflation being too high and have stopped buying and in some cases are shedding their bondholdings (“quantitative tightening”). Suddenly, fiscal policy matters again. To paraphrase Hemingway, deficits can affect interest rates gradually or suddenly. Investors, asked to buy more bonds, gradually make room in their portfolios by buying less of something else, such as equities. Eventually, the risk-adjusted returns of these assets equalize, which means higher bond yields and lower price/earnings ratios on stocks. That has been happening for the past month.

The Yield Curve Moves to a Fatal Dis-Inversion (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

For 15 months now, the yield curve has been inverted. In English, that means 10-year Treasury bonds have been yielding less than two-year bonds, even though investors normally require an extra yield for the extra risk for investing over long periods. As is now widely known, an inverted curve is one of the strongest recession indicators there is. An inversion so protracted implies serious problems afoot. The spike in bond yields over the last few weeks, however, has been accompanied by a swift dis-inversion. And this is a shame, because the yield curve tends to dis-invert when the recession is about to start. (The intuition behind why this might be is that when a downturn is clearly imminent, central banks begin to cut rates, bringing down shorter-dated bonds.) This sounds scary. But now we need to add another element. As discussed, curve dis-inversions often happen because shorter yields come down. This one is different. It’s a bear steepening, meaning that the move has been driven by a fall in the price of long-dated bonds. Further, this is a specific kind of bear steepening that starts with the curve inverted. That combination of conditions happens very rarely. When it does, the following chart from Capital Economics demonstrates that a recession generally soon follows. Bottom line: It would still be very surprising if we escaped from this economic hole without a recession. The speed with which the curve is now steepening suggests, all else equal, that the downturn is close. But nothing is certain.

This is a very long article with lots of good analysis and charts.

US Job Openings Top All Forecasts as White-Collar Positions Jump (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

US job openings unexpectedly increased in August, fueled by a surge in white-collar postings, highlighting the durability of labor demand. The number of available positions increased to 9.61 million from a revised 8.92 million in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed Tuesday. Hiring edged up, while layoffs remained low. The so-called quits rate, which measures voluntary job leavers as a share of total employment, held at 2.3%, matching the lowest since 2020. Fewer quits implies Americans are less confident in their ability to find another job in the current market.

Business

Kaiser Permanente Union Workers Strike, Mounting Largest U.S. Healthcare Walkout on Record (WSJ🔒)

More than 75,000 nurses, pharmacists and other employees of the Kaiser Permanente health system walked off the job Wednesday in the largest U.S. healthcare strike on record. The workers struck after contracts expired and their unions couldn’t reach an agreement with Kaiser on how much a new deal would increase wages and staffing. To minimize the impact on patients, Kaiser said it has brought on thousands of temporary workers to fill some vacancies, but would, if needed, postpone some appointments and expand its network to retail pharmacies and, for some people, non-Kaiser hospitals.

Weight-Loss Drugs Estimated to Save Airlines Millions (Bloomberg🔒)

Airlines and planemakers obsess about reducing jet-fuel consumption by constantly finding new ways to reduce aircraft weight. They may have new allies in Ozempic and other similar slimming medications. United Airlines Holdings Inc. would save $80 million a year if the average passenger weight falls by 10 pounds, Sheila Kahyaoglu, a Jefferies Financial analyst, estimated in a report Friday. Her work was part of a broader Jefferies analysis of public enthusiasm for the drug and potential beneficiaries of its use.

How Panda Express CEO Peggy Cherng Used Her Ph.D. To Get Rich In Fast Food (Forbes🔒) 📊

The sweltering heat of July in Los Angeles isn’t slowing Peggy Cherng down. The 75-year-old billionaire cofounder of Panda Express is strolling between the sleek research buildings and Japanese Zen gardens that frame the 100-acre City of Hope hospital campus, where she’s funding a $100 million program for blending Eastern and Western medicine practices. “It’s all about how we can bring the best we have as Asian-Americans to the West,” she says. Four decades later, what began as a single restaurant in a Southern California shopping mall has grown into a 2,400-store juggernaut, dishing out more than $5 billion worth of chow mein, Beijing beef and orange chicken every year in food courts, airport terminals and drive-thru windows across the nation. Most Americans grab their Chinese food from one of two places: the mom-and-pop joint around the corner—or Panda Express, which has eaten up 43% of the Asian takeout market and has ten times as many locations as its closest competitors, sit-down chain P.F. Chang’s and hibachi grill Sarku Japan. But Panda Express’ secret sauce isn’t the sweet-and-sour; it’s Cherng’s technical prowess and methodical mind. “A lot of people in the restaurant business aren’t educated as engineers,” she says. “I have an advantage.” Cherng thinks in structures and systems: how best to organize data, how to devise a menu that will scale, how to train a new hire most efficiently. It has proven invaluable. Not only did she customize the sales and analytics software that propelled Panda Express’ growth, but she has brought an engineer’s discipline to standardizing its far-reaching operations and implemented a rigorous management curriculum to train Panda’s 50,000 employees to think systematically, too.

Ocean Timeliness Indicator (Flexport) 📊 📣

lexport’s Ocean Timeliness Indicator measures the amount of time taken to ship freight from the point at which cargo is ready to leave the exporter to when it is collected from its destination port. The ocean shipping world tends to run along “trade lanes.” The two biggest trade lanes carry goods from Asia to North America and from Asia to Europe. The OTI captures timeliness on each of these. In the latest update, the time taken for complete voyages on the TPEB route were their lowest since October 2020.

Remember when things were stacking up at the ports and taking longer to transit the oceans? Things are definitely better now. If you’d like to see more info on what goes in and out, and how much of it, of the port in Los Angeles, you can see lots of great infographics here.

Auto

United Auto Workers strikes spread as 7,000 more workers at two plants join the picket line (AP News)

The United Auto Workers union expanded strikes against Detroit automakers Friday, ordering 7,000 more workers to walk off the job in Illinois and Michigan to put more pressure on the companies to improve their offers. It was the second time the union has widened the walkouts, which started two weeks ago at three assembly plants before the most recent addition of a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors factory near Lansing.

Ford, GM lay off about 500 more employees, citing expanded UAW strike (Axios)

Ford and General Motors laid off 500 more people after the United Auto Workers widened its historic strike last week, the automakers confirmed to Axios Tuesday. Why it matters: Roughly 3,000 workers have been impacted by layoffs since the UAW strike against the Detroit Three began last month. By the numbers: Ford has laid off 930 employees since the strike began. General Motors has laid off about 2,000.

GM Has at Least 20 Million Vehicles With Potentially Dangerous Air-Bag Parts (WSJ🔒)

General Motors has at least 20 million vehicles built with a potentially dangerous air-bag part that the government says should be recalled before more people are hurt or killed. The number of affected GM vehicles—a figure that hasn’t been disclosed publicly—makes the Detroit-based automaker among the most exposed in a push by U.S. auto-safety regulators to recall 52 million air-bag inflators designed by Tennessee-based auto supplier ARC Automotive, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tesla cuts US prices of Model 3, Y in push to meet delivery goal (Reuters)

Tesla (TSLA.O) has cut U.S. prices of its Model 3 compact sedan and the Model Y SUV, ratcheting up its price war just days after the third-quarter deliveries of the world's most valuable automaker missed market expectations. The latest cuts come as the company strives hard to deliver a record 476,000 vehicles in the last three months of 2023 to meet the annual target of handing over 1.8 million vehicles. The price cuts by Tesla - now by about 2.7% to 4.2% - started in January to support sales in an uncertain economy and fend off competition from U.S. automakers such as Ford and China's BYD.

How China’s BYD Became Tesla’s Biggest Threat (WSJ🔒) 📊

YD, short for Build Your Dreams, sold 431,603 fully electric cars in the third quarter, just shy of Tesla’s 435,059. It’s on track to sell around 1.8 million EVs by year-end. That would tie it with Tesla, which has set the same EV sales target for this year, up from 1.31 million it sold in 2022. BYD, though founded in 1995 as a battery maker, has rocketed up the ranks in just the past few years. The company, which also sells hybrid gasoline-electric cars, plans to sell 3.6 million total vehicles this year, likely putting it in the global top 10 automakers by unit sales. It has surpassed Volkswagen as the bestselling car brand in China, and is growing into an export powerhouse. More recently, BYD has moved aggressively into Europe and Southeast Asia, making inroads by exporting cost-competitive, China-made EVs. BYD aims to roughly double its export sales to 400,000 vehicles next year. Outside of China, it’s already a top EV seller in markets including Australia, Sweden, Thailand and Israel. In North America, BYD has become one of the largest electric bus and truck makers, seeing that segment as an easier entry point than passenger vehicles amid potential backlash from regulators and U.S. rivals. U.S.-China relations are so tense that BYD executives said the U.S. consumer car market is effectively off-limits for now.

Rivian’s Quest to Build the Ultimate Truck Burns Through Billions (WSJ🔒) 📊

Rivian Automotive set out to build the ultimate electric vehicle for American consumers—a pickup truck with sports-car handling and a dizzying array of features. Engineers gave the truck a beefy underlying metal frame for higher crash-test ratings and one of the most complicated suspension systems on the market for a smoother ride on- and off-road. It can go from zero to 60 miles an hour in 3 seconds. Rivian added pop-out flashlights stored away in the doors and a portable Bluetooth speaker. All that comes at a cost. Rivian vehicles sell for over $80,000 on average. Yet they’re so expensive to build that in the second quarter the company lost $33,000 on every one it sold. That’s roughly the starting price of a base model Ford F-150. Rivian’s share price is down around 70% from its IPO price of $78.

Energy

Russia lifts ban on most diesel exports (Reuters)

Russia's government said on Friday it had lifted a ban on pipeline diesel exports via ports, removing the bulk of restrictions installed on Sept. 21. The restrictions for gasoline exports are still in place. Diesel is Russia's biggest oil product export, at about 35 million tonnes last year, of which almost three-quarters were shipped via pipelines. Russia also exported 4.8 million tonnes of gasoline in 2022. The restrictions on fuel exports from Russia, the world's top seaborne exporter of the fuel just ahead of the U.S., have bolstered global prices and forced some buyers to scramble for alternative sources of gasoline and diesel. After the European Union banned Russian fuel imports over Moscow's actions in Ukraine, Russia diverted Europe-bound exports of diesel and other fuels to Brazil, Turkey, several North and West African countries, and Gulf states in the Middle East.

Real Estate

Severe Crash Is Coming for US Office Properties, Survey Says (Bloomberg🔒) 📊

Office prices in the US are due for a crash, and the commercial real estate market faces at least another nine months of declines, according to Bloomberg’s latest Markets Live Pulse survey. About two-thirds of the 919 respondents surveyed by Bloomberg believe that the US office market will only rebound after a severe collapse. An even greater majority says that US commercial real estate prices won’t hit bottom until the second half of 2024 or later. That’s bad news for the $1.5 trillion of commercial real estate debt that according to Morgan Stanley is due before the end of 2025. Refinancing it won’t be easy, particularly the roughly 25% of commercial property that is office buildings. Commercial property values are getting hit hard by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening campaign, which lifts a key cost of owning property — the expense of financing. But lenders looking to offload their exposure now are finding few palatable options, because there aren’t many buyers convinced the market is close to a bottom.

The Apartment Market Is Hitting a Construction Lull (WSJ🔒) 📊

Apartment building starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 334,000 units in August, marking a 41% decline from the pace seen the same month a year prior, according to the Census Bureau. An annual decline of this magnitude has happened only one other time since the subprime housing crisis, real-estate data firm Bright MLS said. “We expect to see about two years of greatly reduced building,” said Greg Willett, first vice president at Institutional Property Advisors, a real estate advisory company. Falling starts come on the heels of record apartment construction across the U.S. More rental buildings are expected to open this year and next than at any time since the 1980s, according to some forecasts. That crush of new rental supply is driving up apartment vacancies and causing rent growth to flatten or even turn negative in some places. Now, many apartment builders are hitting pause. They won’t keep laying bricks if expected profits can’t beat safer investments or if too many other buildings are already coming on line.

Mortgage Rates Continue to Surge (Freddie Mac) 📊

Mortgage rates maintained their upward trajectory as the 10-year Treasury yield, a key benchmark, climbed. Several factors, including shifts in inflation, the job market and uncertainty around the Federal Reserve’s next move, are contributing to the highest mortgage rates in a generation. Unsurprisingly, this is pulling back homebuyer demand.

Cyber

‘IDK what to do’: Thousands of teen boys are being extorted in sexting scams (WP🔒)

The number of sextortion cases targeting young people “has exploded in the past couple of years,” with teen boys being specific targets, said Lauren Coffren, executive director of the Exploited Children Division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC, which serves as a clearinghouse for records of abuse, received more than 10,000 tips of financial sextortion of minors, primarily boys, in 2022 from the public as well as from electronic service providers, such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, which are required by law to report cases. By the end of July 2023, NCMEC had already received more than 12,500 reports, which is routed to law enforcement, with more continuing to pour in.

Meta Plans to Charge $14 a Month for Ad-Free Instagram or Facebook (WSJ🔒)

Would people pay nearly $14 a month to use Instagram on their phones without ads? How about nearly $17 a month for Instagram plus Facebook—but on desktop? That is what Meta Platforms wants to charge Europeans for monthly subscriptions if they don’t agree to let the company use their digital activity to target ads, according to a proposal the social-media giant has made in recent weeks to regulators. The proposal is a gambit by Meta to navigate European Union rules that threaten to restrict its ability to show users personalized ads without first seeking user consent—jeopardizing its main source of revenue.

Fears about Amazon and Microsoft cloud computing dominance trigger UK probe (AP News)

Concerns from regulators about the dominance of Amazon and Microsoft in Britain’s cloud computing market have triggered a investigation into the competitiveness of the key industry. The U.K. communications regulator Ofcom said Thursday that its yearlong study of the cloud communications services market found features that could limit competition. British businesses face barriers when they try to switch or use multiple cloud suppliers, it said. Cloud computing uses data centers around the world to store photos and emails or run software. It has become a vital service for many businesses, which turn to cloud providers to avoid the cost of buying expensive equipment and real estate to run their own data centers. Ofcom said it was concerned about the position held by Amazon and Microsoft, which together account for 70% to 80% of the cloud market. Google trailed behind with 5% to 10% of the share, and smaller players make up the rest.

Education

804,000 long-term borrowers are having their student loans forgiven before payments resume this fall (AP News)

Karin Engstrom thought she’d be paying off her federal student loans for the rest of her life. The 82-year-old was shocked when she logged on to check her balance ahead of payments resuming in October and found that more than $175,000 in debt had been erased. She’s one of 804,000 borrowers who will have a total of $39 billion forgiven under a one-time adjustment granted by the Biden administration. It’s for people in income-driven repayment plans who have been paying back loans for 20 or 25 years but who never received credit for late or partial payments. It also credits borrowers for periods before the pandemic when they were allowed to pause or reduce payments due to financial hardships. To correct mistakes by loan servicers, the Department of Education is retroactively adjusting accounts, resulting in forgiveness. The department says 95% of those who qualify have now been informed of the cancellation.

Biden Cancels an Additional $9 Billion in Student Loan Debt (NYT🔒)

President Biden canceled an additional $9 billion in student debt on Wednesday as repayments started up again this month after a three-year pause. The move affects 125,000 people who qualify under existing programs, including for public-service workers such as teachers and firefighters and for people on permanent disability, according to a White House statement.

Health

America’s university graduates live much longer than non-graduates (The Economist) 📊

AMERICA’S ECONOMIC record over the past 20 years has been impressive, outperforming other rich countries. Less impressive is its measure of wellness, or how long people live. A study by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, two economists at Princeton University, is a case in point. Their latest research shows that in America there is a huge and growing gap between the life expectancy of people with degrees and those without. In 2021, at age 25, Americans who do not have a four-year college degree (about two-thirds of the adult population) were expected to live on average about ten years less than those who do. In 1992 the gap was a third of that (see chart 1).

Food & Drink

You Gorged on Your European Vacation but Lost Weight. Why? (WSJ🔒)

Americans who eat their way through European vacations sometimes come home surprised to see a lower number on the scale. Scientists who study nutrition and health say that people who lose weight on international travels are likely benefiting from two things: more daily steps while on vacation and, yes, food that is often healthier and less processed. Ultra-processed foods common in the U.S. include artificial additives and highly refined ingredients and are rich in starch, sugar and salt, says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University. He points to a study in the European Journal of Nutrition that found that among adults in the U.S., 57% of calories come from ultra-processed food, compared with 12% in Europe. The European Union more tightly regulates food additives, says Kathleen Holton, an associate professor in the Nutritional Neuroscience Lab at American University in Washington, D.C. About 300 to 400 additives are approved for use in food in the EU, compared with more than 3,000 in the U.S., she says.

McDonald's, Wendy's defeat lawsuit over size of burgers (Reuters)

McDonald's (MCD.N) and Wendy's (WEN.O) have defeated a lawsuit accusing them of deceiving hungry diners by exaggerating the size of their burgers. In a decision on Saturday, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez in Brooklyn found no proof that the fast-food chains delivered smaller burgers than advertised, or that the plaintiff Justin Chimienti had even seen ads for the McDonald's Big Mac and Wendy's Bourbon Bacon Cheeseburger he bought.

Nature

DogTV Is TV for Dogs. Except When It’s for People. (NYT🔒)

These are boom times for DogTV. During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic some 23 million households adopted pets, according to a 2021 survey by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — a huge new potential audience to target. Americans working from home were also watching a lot of TV — often, apparently, with their pets. In response, DogTV began offering a bunch of new human-targeted videos, notably featuring tips from experts on how to train all of these new pets. Subscriptions to its streaming app have grown by about 388,000 since mid-2020, the company said. (DogTV is also available through many cable and satellite providers.) Now DogTV is hoping to fill a new role, as more workers return to the office and their new dogs, many of whom have never known life without a human at home full-time, are dealing with intense separation anxiety. The network is producing content custom made for such anxiety — among dogs and, increasingly, their guilt-ridden humans.

Travel

Why Right Now Is A Good Time To Renew Your Passport (Forbes🔒)

Good news, travelers: Passport processing times have decreased by two weeks since summer. It now takes eight to 11 weeks for routine processing and five to seven weeks for expedited processing, according to an update this week from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. The passport renewal process takes much longer than it did before the pandemic, when six to eight weeks for routine service was the norm and, if you ponied up an extra $60 for expedited service, you might get your little blue book in as few as two weeks. Lengthier-than-normal passport wait times have been fueled by Americans’ growing wanderlust. Over the past decade, the U.S. State Department has often struggled to keep up with soaring demand for international travel.

Entertainment

Netflix Plans to Raise Prices After Actors Strike Ends (WSJ🔒)

Netflix plans to raise the price of its ad-free service a few months after the continuing Hollywood actors strike ends, the latest in a series of recent price increases by the country’s largest streaming platforms. The streaming service is discussing raising prices in several markets globally, but will likely begin with the U.S. and Canada, according to people familiar with the matter. It couldn’t be learned how much Netflix will raise prices by or when exactly the new prices will take effect. Netflix declined to comment.

U2 Takes to Playing in the Round (the Very, Very Round) at Las Vegas’ Sphere With Spectacular Results: Concert Review (Variety)

Spectacle is underrated. This is pretty much the antithesis of any accepted, traditional rock ‘n’ roll orthodoxy. It is also the natural human reaction to just about any or all of “U2:UV Live at Sphere Las Vegas,” the greatest-show-on-earth that opened Friday night in an enormous dome just off the Strip. The just-over-two-hour show marks the apotheosis of a bigger-is-better ethos that has regularly occurred throughout the band’s career, and which they are not about to give up now that they’re in their 60s for any back-to-basics false modesty.

Looks like an amazing venue!

Sports

Simone Biles makes history with vault at World Artistic Gymnastics Championships (The Athletic)

Gymnastics star Simone Biles made more history Sunday, becoming the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pike vault at an international competition, meaning the extremely difficult vault will be named after her.

See the vault here.

Dick Butkus, fearsome Hall of Fame Chicago Bears linebacker, dies at 80 (AP News)

Butkus, a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears whose speed and ferocity set the standards for the position in the modern era, died Thursday, the team announced. He was 80. According to a statement released by the team, Butkus’ family confirmed that he died in his sleep at his home in Malibu, California. Butkus was a first-team All-Pro five times and made the Pro Bowl in eight of his nine seasons before a knee injury forced him to retire at 31. He was the quintessential Monster of the Midway and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility. He is still considered one of the greatest defensive players in league history.

How Adidas Outran Nike With Its $500 ‘Super Shoe’ (WSJ🔒)

The new Adidas “super shoe” is designed to be worn only once—and to break world records. Weighing in at 138 grams, or less than a third of a pound, the shoe is so lightweight that elite runners initially doubted it could hold up over a long race. Adidas made 521 pairs of the Pro Evo 1 available for sale in mid-September at a retail price of $500. They sold out within a few hours, demonstrating demand for the ultimate shoe among dedicated runners who care deeply about improving their personal bests. The company plans to put more on sale in November, said Patrick Nava, the company’s vice president for running and credibility sports.

Elite pilots prepare for ‘camping out in the sky’ as they compete in prestigious ballooning race (AP News)

The pilots will be launching for this year’s Gordon Bennett competition during an international balloon fiesta that draws hundreds of thousands of spectators to the heart of New Mexico each fall. The race has been held in the United States only 13 times before, and this will be the fifth time the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has played host. There are no stops to refuel or to pick up extra supplies. They will be aloft for days, carrying everything they need to survive at high altitude as they search for the right combination of wind currents to push their tiny baskets as far as they can go. Prevailing winds are expected to carry the competitors through the Midwest toward the northeastern U.S. and potentially into Canada. A Belgium team holds the record for traveling just over 2,112.9 miles (3,400 kilometers) in 2005. A German team was added to the record books for staying aloft the longest — more than 92 hours — during the 1995 competition.

The Art of Wikiracing (Slate)

Wikiracing has long been viewed as a quirky, low-stakes pastime for friendly nerds—a world away from the high-pressure environment of competitive Scrabble or speedcubing. But while those other “geek sports” have already established their own versions of a Super Bowl, Wikiracing has traditionally remained confined to college dorm rooms and high school computer labs. Not anymore. Wikiracing was a featured event at this year’s Wikimania, the global conference for dedicated Wikipedia editors, which took place this past August in Singapore. “People took Wikimania 2023’s Wikiracing very seriously, and the level of competition was incredibly high,” said Zack McCune, director of brand at the Wikimedia Foundation. “We had F1 Grand Prix energy in the room.”

For Fun

Get (on) my swamp! You can book Shrek's home on Airbnb this fall (USA Today)

Shrek is getting into the vacation rental business. Travelers can book a stay at a real-life version of the ogre’s swamp home this fall on Airbnb. Guests can stay at the secluded, moss-covered property free of charge from Oct. 27-29, though the house is nestled in the Scottish Highlands rather than Duloc (the exact location will be provided after booking). Donkey, Shrek’s trusty sidekick from the beloved film franchise, is “swamp-sitting” while the ogre is away, according to the listing.

Twentieth century does not begin on January 1, 1900 (Jeopardy History Fandom)

On the second-ever Jeopardy show, all three contestants finished with $0. Each contestant lost that day's Final Jeopardy! and wagered their entire earnings. The Final Jeopardy! category is "The Calendar" and the clue was "Calendar date with which the 20th century began"; the correct response was "What is January 1, 1901?" All three contestants had an incorrect response of, "What is January 1, 1900?” That was actually the first day of the last year of the 19th century, as years begin with a 1 and not a 0. This would later lead to confusion during the Y2K era, when people confused 2000 as the first year of the 21st century, when in reality, 2001 would be the first year.

Here's a video of the Jeopardy show from that day.

Have a great weekend!

The Curator