Curated Compositions--15 Jul 23
Brian Rendell
Leadership | Education | Business | Logistics | Talent Acquisition & Development
Hello Reader,
This week in the news:
…among many other news items.
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EUROPE
NATO Agrees to Pull Ukraine Closer, but Offers No Membership Timeline
NATO leaders declined Tuesday to offer Ukraine a clear timeline or path to join the alliance while affirming plans to extend a future invitation, a level of ambiguity that President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted as “unprecedented and absurd” as his country battles Russia. ?More than 15 years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization first offered Ukraine a promise of membership, members resisted pressure from Zelensky and his boosters in the alliance to say when and how the country would join. NATO instead offered a package of financial and political support that alliance officials said would boost Kyiv’s membership bid. The U.S., Germany and some other NATO members have balked at giving Kyiv a timeline or checklist for joining. President Biden has said that Ukraine isn’t ready for membership and voiced concern that offering specifics on a pathway risked elevating conflict with Russia, potentially even sparking a new world war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called NATO an aggressor and blamed it for causing the war. Ukrainians hail NATO membership as crucial to stopping future Russian attacks after the current hostilities end.
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Why the Ukraine Counteroffensive Is Such Slow Going
In this phase of the war, Ukraine’s lack of resources is proving as much of a challenge as the dug-in Russian defenses. Despite the delivery of new Western weapons in recent months—and a promise by the U.S. Friday to send deadly cluster munitions in the future—Kyiv’s effort to push south through Russian-held territory toward the Sea of Azov has stalled. Though Ukrainian officials say they are making progress, and have reclaimed a handful of villages in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions over the past month, they also acknowledge the herculean nature of their task.
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Russia says Wagner has returned tanks, missile systems, weapons, ammo
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the Wagner Group has handed over thousands of tons of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to the Russian army, in the latest sign that Moscow is still working to break up the mercenaries’ influence following their dramatic and short-lived mutiny last month.
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Russian general’s dismissal reveals new crack in military leadership
A Russian general in charge of forces fighting in southern Ukraine has been relieved of his duties after speaking out about problems faced by his troops, a move that reflected new fissures in the military command following a brief rebellion by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, the commander of the 58th army in the Zaporizhzhia region, which is a focal point in Ukraine’s counteroffensive, said in an audio statement to his troops released Wednesday night that he was dismissed after a meeting with the military brass in what he described as a “treacherous” stab in the back to Russian forces in Ukraine.
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How many Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine?
VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russia’s president, is yet to give a realistic figure for the number of his compatriots killed during his faltering war in Ukraine. But soldiers who die tend to leave two valuable things behind: memories and money. An investigation published on July 10th by Meduza and Mediazona, two independent Russian media outlets, has used these to provide a fresh estimate of how many Russian soldiers have been killed. It scoured obituaries, in local and social media, and analysed official inheritance records. These records go some way to revealing the number of deaths. But not every soldier who dies in Ukraine will own property or valuable possessions, or have someone to leave them to. The estimate, therefore, is calculated by cross-referencing these cases with some 27,000 obituaries verified by Mediazona and the BBC Russian service. Meduza and Mediazona could thus estimate how many dead Russian soldiers there are for each one who leaves an official record of their inheritance. They then calculated how many excess inheritance cases there had been among men since February 2022, compared with historical trends. A combination of these proxies gives a final estimate for the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine: between 40,000 and 55,000, by May 27th.
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Kosovo to partially withdraw special police officers from northern Serb-majority municipalities
Kosovo’s government on Wednesday will reduce the number of special police officers stationed outside four municipal buildings in ethnic Serb-majority areas and hold new mayoral elections in each of the towns, in a bid to defuse tensions with neighboring Serbia that flared anew in May. Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that one-fourth of the special police forces would be moved away from the sites “taking into consideration that the situation at the municipal buildings has been comparatively much quieter in the last two weeks.” He added that more officers would be withdrawn based on the continuous evaluation of the situation. It wasn’t immediately clear when the reductions would take place, and where the officers would be reassigned to.
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Why do Kosovo-Serbia tensions persist?
Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew this week after Kosovo’s police raided Serb-dominated areas in the region’s north and seized local municipality buildings. There have been violent clashes between Kosovo’s police and NATO-led peacekeepers on one side and local Serbs on the other, leaving dozens of people injured on both sides. Serbia raised the combat readiness of its troops stationed near the border and warned it wouldn’t stand by if Serbs in Kosovo were attacked again. The situation has again fueled fears of a renewal of the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives and left more than 1 million homeless.
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Europe’s Drought May Be Continent’s Worst in at Least 500 Years
Europe is currently in the throes of a drought that appears to be the worst in at least 500 years, according to a preliminary analysis by experts from the European Union’s Joint Research Center. Some 64% of the EU is under a drought warning or alert, according to a new report from the European Drought Observatory. The bloc’s experts said they expect the warm and dry conditions, which are fueling wildfires and reducing crop outputs, to continue in parts of the region until November.
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MIDDLE EAST
US Drones Evade Russian Fighter Jets, then Kill ISIS Leader In Successful Strike
After three straight days of harassment by Russian fighters, U.S. MQ-9s conducted an airstrike in Syria that killed an ISIS leader in Syria on July 7, U.S. Central Command and Air Forces Central said. Usamah al-Muhajir, a leader of the militant group, was killed in the strike, CENTCOM said in a statement. No civilians were killed and the command said it is assessing whether any were injured. The same three MQ-9s overcame harassment by Russian fighters earlier in the day, U.S. officials said. The Russians confronted and harassed the drones over a period of about two hours. It was the third straight day of similar encounters.
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Kuwait’s $700 Billion Wealth Fund Is Being Eclipsed by Ambitious Neighbors
As Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds emerge as the go-to investors for some of the biggest deals, the world’s oldest and one of its largest is being eclipsed by its more ambitious, flashier neighbors.
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AFRICA
Sudan: At least 87 buried in mass grave in Darfur as Rapid Support Forces deny victims decent burials
The bodies of at least 87 ethnic Masalit and others allegedly killed last month by Rapid Support Forces and their allied militia in West Darfur have been buried in a mass grave outside the region’s capital El-Geneina on the orders of the Rapid Support Forces, according to credible information obtained by the UN Human Rights Office. Local people were forced to dispose of the bodies in a mass grave, denying those killed a decent burial in one of the city’s cemeteries. At least 37 bodies were buried on 20 June in the approximately one-metre-deep mass grave in an open area called Al-Turab Al Ahmar (Red Soil), in the Ranga area, about two to four kilometres northwest of the headquarters of the Central Reserve Police in western El-Geneina, sources said. Another 50 bodies were buried at the same site on 21 June. The bodies of seven women and seven children were among those buried.
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Nigeria Declares a State of Emergency as Food Prices Surge
Nigeria declared a state of emergency that will allow the government to take exceptional steps to improve food security and supply, as surging prices cause widespread hardship. The move will trigger a range of measures, including clearing forests for farmland to increase agricultural output and ease food inflation, Dele Alake, a spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, told reporters late Thursday. It follows the president’s removal of fuel subsidies and exchange-rate reform, which has seen the naira fall by 40% after its peg to the dollar was removed last month.
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Fame-crazed Nigerians sing and cook their way to the record book
A Nigerian man has completed more than 200 hours singing, another managed a 100-hour live video on Instagram, while a masseuse's bid to massage people for 75 hours ended in exhaustion. The three are among more than a dozen Nigerians aiming to set Guinness World Records in the latest craze to hit Africa's most populous nation.
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ASIA
North Korea fires ICBM as South Korea, Japan leaders meet at NATO
North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) off its east coast on Wednesday, prompting condemnation from the U.S. as well as the leaders of South Korea and Japan who met on the sidelines of a NATO summit. The missile flew for 74 minutes to an altitude of 6,000 km (3,728 miles) and a range of 1,000 km, Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said, in what would be the longest ever flight time for a North Korean missile.
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China's deflation pressure builds as consumer prices falter
China's producer prices fell at their fastest pace in over seven years in June, while consumer prices teetered on the edge of deflation, adding to the case for policymakers to use more stimulus to revive sluggish demand. The worsening factory-gate price deflation and the move by consumer prices towards deflation for the first time since February 2021 bode ill for China's economic growth.
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China's exports fall most in three years as global economy falters
China's exports fell last month at their fastest pace since the onset three years ago of the COVID-19 pandemic, as an ailing global economy puts mounting pressure on Chinese policymakers for fresh stimulus measures. Momentum in China's post-COVID recovery has slowed after a brisk pickup in the first quarter, with analysts now downgrading their projections for the economy for the rest of the year. Outbound shipments from the world's second-largest economy slumped a worse-than-expected 12.4% year-on-year in June, data from China's Customs Bureau showed on Thursday, following a drop of 7.5% in May. Imports contracted 6.8%, steeper than an expected 4.0% decline and the previous month's 4.5% fall.
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Exclusive: China invites global investors for rare meeting as economy sputters
China's financial regulators have invited some of the world's biggest investors to a rare symposium next week, three sources said, seeking to encourage foreigners to keep investing in the world's second-largest economy despite its recent weakness and rising geopolitical tensions. The meeting in Beijing next Friday will focus on the current conditions of U.S. dollar-denominated investment firms in China and the main challenges facing them, according to the sources who have direct knowledge of the matter and invitation documents reviewed by Reuters. The gathering comes at a time when global investors and banks are warning that confidence is waning in China's economic outlook. The country's post-pandemic recovery is quickly losing steam and Sino-U.S. relations are at a low over national security issues -- including Taiwan, U.S. export bans on advanced technologies and China's state-led industrial policies.
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Why China should be friendlier to its neighbours
No country has more neighbours than China, with 14 land borders. And its neighbourhood is not just crowded, but also tumultuous. There is a rogue state, North Korea; war-torn ones, such as Myanmar; ones with which it has festering territorial disputes, such as India; others with which it has overlapping maritime claims, such as Japan; and one—Taiwan—which it is constantly threatening to invade. It is a difficult group to get along with under any circumstances, but China’s flawed diplomacy is making the task even harder.
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Explainer: What's next for Ant after its nearly $1 billion fine?
The announcement of a nearly $1 billion fine by Chinese regulators on Ant Group has drawn a line under the fintech giant's woes and given hope to investors that a regulatory crackdown on China's broader technology sector is over. Ant's story so far has been one of a dramatic reversal in fortunes: while its shelved $37 billion IPO in 2020 had valued the company at $315 billion, a share buyback announced on Saturday valued it 75% less at $78.5 billion. Here are some of the key things to look out for with respect to Ant:
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Why China’s Young People Are Not Getting Married
It has been a brutal three years for China’s young adults. Their unemployment rate is soaring amid a wave of corporate layoffs. Draconian coronavirus restrictions are over, but not the sense of uncertainty about the future they created. For many people, the recent turmoil is another reason to postpone major life decisions — contributing to a record-low marriage rate and complicating the government’s efforts to stave off a demographic crisis.
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Solomon Islands signs policing pact with China
The Solomon Islands has signed an agreement to boost cooperation with China on "law enforcement and security matters," in a move likely to raise concerns among the South Pacific island's traditional partners including Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Located 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Australia, Solomon Islands has been China's biggest success in a campaign to expand its presence in the South Pacific. Sogavare's government switched official recognition in 2019 to Beijing from Taiwan, the self-governed island democracy China claims as part of its territory.
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India Considers Banning Most Rice Exports on Inflation Fears
India, the world’s biggest rice shipper, is considering banning exports of most varieties, a move that may send already lofty global prices higher as the disruptive El Ni?o weather pattern returns. The government is discussing a plan to ban exports of all non-Basmati rice, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s because of rising domestic prices and authorities want to avoid the risk of more inflation, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is not public. If implemented, a ban would affect about 80% of India’s rice exports. Such a move may lower domestic prices, but it risks sending global costs even higher. Rice is a staple for about half of the world’s population, with Asia consuming about 90% of global supply. Benchmark prices have already soared to a two-year high on fears that the return of El Ni?o will damage crops.
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At least 100 dead in northern India after extreme monsoon flooding
A relentless monsoon has brought states across northern India under extreme and severe flood alerts, as rivers have swept into towns, washing away vehicles, bridges and roads. Over the past two weeks, the weather-related havoc has led to at least 100 deaths, according to the Associated Press.
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Visualising India’s record-breaking rainfall
FOR CENTURIES the arrival of the monsoon in India has been a time for rejoicing. The annual rains, which make landfall in the southern state of Kerala in June before spreading across the subcontinent, bring respite from a scorching summer and provide nourishment to parched farmlands. In recent years, though, delight has been replaced by dread as the monsoons have brought death and destruction. This year record-breaking rains have battered swathes of northern India (see chart). Floods and landslides have washed away houses, roads and acres of farmland. At least 100 people have died so far, but hundreds more are in peril—many of them stranded in Himalayan tourist spots. There have also been 86 deaths reported in neighbouring Pakistan, though the flooding there is less severe—and far less serious than the monsoon floods of last year which led to emergency conditions in a third of the country.
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NORTH AMERICA
America's fastest-growing demographic groups
The country's Pacific Islander, Asian and Hispanic populations saw the biggest percentage increases between 2000 and 2022, per a new Axios analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
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Excessive heat is baking US Southwest and expected to get worse
A prolonged heat wave blanketed a swath of the U.S. stretching from California to South Florida on Wednesday, with forecasters expecting temperatures that could shatter records in parts of the Southwest in the coming days. The National Weather Service issued excessive heat advisories, watches and warnings for areas where about 100 million Americans live. The sweltering conditions are expected to worsen over the weekend and continue into next week. While stifling temperatures gripped many parts of the country, Vermont and other Northeastern states barely had time to recover from historic flooding in recent days when the National Weather Service forecast more heavy rainfall across parts of New England, where rivers and streams are already running high.
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Texas power use breaks record for second day in heat wave
Demand for power in Texas hit a record high for a second day in a row on Thursday as homes and business kept air conditioners cranked up during a lingering heat wave. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state's power load, has said it has enough resources available to meet soaring demand. Texas residents have worried about extreme weather since a deadly storm in February 2021 left millions without power, water and heat for days as ERCOT scrambled to prevent a grid collapse after the closure of an unusually large amount of generation. After setting 11 peak demand records last summer, ERCOT said usage hit a preliminary 81,406 megawatts (MW) on Thursday, topping the record hit one day earlier, of 81,351 MW.
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With a new shipping service, USPS says it could handle extra demand sparked by UPS strike
The U.S. Postal Service is launching new package shipping offerings that officials say will be simpler to use and more reliable than existing services, as well as put the mailing agency in a good position to handle the influx of customers that a potential labor strike at one of its largest competitors could bring.??USPS on Monday officially launched Ground Advantage, a new way for customers to ship packages that is replacing three existing postal offerings. The new product will make shipping easier and more reliable for mailers, postal officials said, and will make the agency more competitive with private sector logistics companies. The Postal Service will aim to ship all packages in the continental United States within two-to-five days under Ground Advantage, which officials said was only possible due to reforms to its delivery network made under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s modernization and financial stabilization plan. ?The launch coincided with a potential walk out at one of the Postal Service's primary competitors in the shipping space, which could lead to an onslaught of new work for the mailing agency. UPS’ collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters union that represents 340,000 of its workers is set to expire at the end of July and the labor group said a strike is “imminent” after a recent breakdown in talks.
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The ?? emoji counts as a contract agreement, Canadian court rules
For the staggering 92 percent of the world that uses emojis, it might be time to think harder before plopping one into a text. The thumbs up (??) is one of the most commonly used emojis in the world, and according to a recent court case in Canada, the tiny yellow hand holds significant legal implications. ?In the case South West Terminal Ltd. v Achter Land, defendant Chris Achter, a Canadian farmer in Saskatchewan, sent a thumbs-up emoji to a customer in 2021, after the customer sent him a photograph of a signed flax-buying contract. Reuters reports that months later, the delivery of 87 metric tons of flax never took place. Achter argued that the thumbs up only meant that he had received the image of the contact, not that he signed it. The grain buyer Kent Mickleborough, one of Achter’s regulars, considered a thumbs up the equivalent of other quick texting but still contract-confirming responses that Achter had sent him previously, such as “yup” or “ok.”
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SOUTH AMERICA
The Country With the Highest Murder Rate Now Has the Highest Incarceration Rate
El Salvador, long whipsawed by gang violence that made it one of the world’s most dangerous countries, turned things around by jailing huge swaths of its population. The country once known for having the world’s highest murder rate now has the world’s highest incarceration rate—about double that of the U.S. Since March 2022, President Nayib Bukele’s government has implemented a campaign to arrest en masse suspected members of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs that have long terrorized the impoverished Central American nation, blocking economic growth and stoking U.S.-bound migration. The strategy has helped lower homicides by 92% compared with 2015, giving Bukele the support of nine of every 10 Salvadorans, polls show. The number of Salvadorans illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped by 44%. It also has put some 68,000 people in this Massachusetts-size country of 6.3 million behind bars. That’s more than 1% of the population, according to World Prison Brief, an online database on correctional systems. Rights groups said the campaign has swept up innocent people, especially among the country’s poor and indigenous communities, who are held for long periods in harsh conditions without trial. Responding to allegations of prisoner mistreatment, Bukele during a cabinet meeting in October said, “Yes, they’ll have human rights. But the human rights of honest people are more important.”
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SPACE
India launches a lander and rover to explore the moon's south pole
An Indian spacecraft blazed its way to the far side of the moon Friday in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface, the country's space agency said.
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Webb Space Telescope reveals moment of stellar birth, dramatic close-up of 50 baby stars
The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet: the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth. NASA unveiled the latest snapshot Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers). The region is relatively small and quiet yet full of illuminated gases, jets of hydrogen and even dense cocoons of dust with the delicate beginnings of even more stars. All of the young stars appear to be no bigger than our sun. Scientists said the breathtaking shot provides the best clarity yet of this brief phase of a star’s life.
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GOVERNMENT
Iowa Republicans will hold 2024 caucuses on January 15
Iowa Republicans voted Saturday to hold their first-in-the-nation caucuses on January 15 next year, setting up the earliest start of the presidential nominating process since 2012, when caucusgoers gathered on January 3.
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Some Information on Political Parties
NOTE: As we begin ramping up to the US presidential elections in 2024, I started doing some research into political parties, their ideologies, and their histories.?After doing so, I felt compelled to share some things with you as part of my never-ending quest to encourage critical thinking.?Don’t worry, this will not be where I tell you how to vote in the upcoming election…it’s just where I provide some resources to help you be better informed on the words that are used to describe economic, social, and political ideologies.?Look for this in an upcoming post from me.
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DEFENSE
Sergeant major of the Marine Corps chosen as Pentagon’s next top enlisted service member
Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Troy Black, the top enlisted Marine, will become the Pentagon’s highest ranking enlisted service member, the Defense Department announced Friday. Black, a 35-year Marine who has served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, will become the fifth senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or SEAC, according to the Pentagon. Black was selected by Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, for the position, which provides advice and insights on the enlisted force to the top U.S. general and the Pentagon’s top civilian leaders.
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U.S. destroys last of its declared chemical weapons, closing a deadly chapter dating to World War I
The last of the United States’ declared chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed at a sprawling military installation in eastern Kentucky, the White House announced Friday, a milestone that closes a chapter of warfare dating back to World War I. Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky destroyed rockets filled with GB nerve agent, completing a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons.
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Investors Bought Nearly $1 Billion in Land Near a California Air Force Base. Officials Want to Know Who Exactly They Are.
Government officials are investigating large land acquisitions near a major air force base northeast of San Francisco, concerned that foreign interests could be behind the investment group that purchased the land. At the center of the probes is Flannery Associates, which has spent nearly $1 billion in the last five years to become the largest landowner in California’s Solano County, according to county officials and public records. ?An attorney representing Flannery said it is controlled by U.S. citizens and that 97% of its invested capital comes from U.S. investors, with the remaining 3% from British and Irish investors. Flannery previously told Solano County the entity “is owned by a group of families looking to diversify their portfolio from equities into real assets, including agricultural land in the western United States.”
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CYBER
Chinese Hackers Targeted Commerce Secretary and Other U.S. Officials
Chinese hackers penetrated the email accounts of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other State and Commerce Department officials in the weeks before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Beijing in June, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. The investigation of the efforts by the Chinese hackers, who likely are affiliated with China’s military or spy services, is ongoing, American officials said. But U.S. officials have downplayed the idea that the hackers stole sensitive information, insisting that no classified email or cloud systems were penetrated. The State Department’s cybersecurity team first discovered the intrusion.
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Microsoft says Chinese hackers breached email, including U.S. government agencies
Tech giant Microsoft disclosed on Tuesday evening that it discovered a group of Chinese hackers had broken into some of its customers' email systems to gather intelligence. The company began investigating unusual activity within a few weeks of the initial attack, though the culprits were able to repeatedly manipulate credentials to access accounts. According to the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, one federal government agency first detected unusual activity on its Microsoft 365 email cloud environment last month, and immediately reported the activity to Microsoft and CISA.
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Selling Your Cellphone Location Data Might Soon Be Banned in U.S. for First Time
Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing a near total ban on buying and selling of location data drawn from consumers’ mobile devices in the state, in what would be a first-in-the-nation effort to rein in a billion-dollar industry. The legislature held a hearing last month on a bill called the Location Shield Act, a sweeping proposal that would sharply curtail the practice of collecting and selling location data drawn from mobile phones in Massachusetts. The proposal would also institute a warrant requirement for law-enforcement access to location data, banning data brokers from providing location information about state residents without court authorization in most circumstances.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ChatGPT Comes Under Investigation by Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether OpenAI’s ChatGPT has harmed people by publishing false information about them, posing a potential legal threat to the popular app that can generate eerily humanlike content using artificial intelligence. In a civil subpoena to the company made public Thursday, the FTC says its investigation of ChatGPT focuses on whether OpenAI has “engaged in unfair or deceptive practices relating to risks of harm to consumers, including reputational harm.” ?One question asks the company to “describe in detail the extent to which you have taken steps to address or mitigate risks that your large language model products could generate statements about real individuals that are false, misleading or disparaging.” ?The new FTC investigation under Chair Lina Khan marks a significant escalation of the federal government’s role in policing the emerging technology.
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Google's AI chatbot, Bard, expands to Europe, Brazil, to take on ChatGPT
Alphabet (GOOGL.O) said it is rolling out its artificial- intelligence chatbot, Bard, in Europe and Brazil on Thursday, the product's biggest expansion since its February launch and pitting it against Microsoft (MSFT.O)-backed rival ChatGPT. Bard and ChatGPT are human-sounding programs that use generative artificial intelligence to hold conversations with users and answer myriad prompts. The products have touched off global excitement tempered with caution.
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Elon Musk Launches xAI, His New Artificial-Intelligence Company
Elon Musk has launched his new artificial-intelligence business, xAI, as the tech industry races to develop new AI initiatives. ?“Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality,” Musk said Wednesday on Twitter, the social-media platform he owns. Musk had incorporated the AI company in Nevada in March. Musk has been recruiting researchers to try to create a rival to OpenAI, the AI company that launched the viral chatbot ChatGPT in November, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Musk has complained ChatGPT is politically correct and warned it could lead AI to become too powerful for humans to control.?Musk co-founded OpenAI but left after a power struggle.
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ECONOMY
Inflation Eased to 3% in June, Slowest Pace in More Than Two Years
Inflation cooled last month to its slowest pace in more than two years, giving Americans relief from a painful period of rising prices and boosting the chances that the Federal Reserve will stop raising interest rates after an expected increase this month. The consumer-price index climbed 3% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, sharply lower than the recent peak inflation rate of 9.1% in June 2022, when gasoline prices hit a U.S. record average of $5 a gallon. ?The June rate declined from 4% in May. Inflation was last close to 3% in March 2021.
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Tumbling US dollar a boon to risk assets across the globe
Cooling U.S. inflation is accelerating a decline in the dollar, and risk assets around the world stand to benefit. The dollar is down nearly 13% against a basket of currencies from last year’s two-decade high and stands at its lowest level in 15 months. Its decline quickened after the U.S. reported softer-than-expected inflation data on Wednesday, supporting views that the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its interest rate-hiking cycle. Because the dollar is a linchpin of the global financial system, a wide range of assets stand to benefit if it continues falling. Weakness in the dollar can be a boon to some U.S. companies, as a weaker currency makes exports more competitive abroad and makes it cheaper for multinationals to convert foreign profits back into dollars.
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Back-to-school spending set for first decline in nine years because of inflation, report says
Back-to-school spending is expected to fall for the first time in nine years as shoppers across all income levels pull back on non-essential purchases and prioritize necessities amid sticky inflation, according to a Deloitte report on Wednesday. Consumers are expected to spend 10% less this year, with average spend per child falling to $597, while the overall back-to-school market is projected to shrink to $31.2 billion, compared with $34.4 billion in 2022, the report said.
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BUSINESS
Bank of America Fined $150 Million Over ‘Junk Fees’ and Fake Accounts
Bank of America withheld promised perks from some of its credit card customers, double-charged overdraft fees and secretly opened card accounts in customers’ names without their knowledge or consent, federal regulators said on Tuesday. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which oversee the banking industry, levied $150 million in fines against the country’s second-largest bank over what they called “junk fees” that it was charging customers, as well as its mishandling of customer accounts. Some customers paid $35 in overdraft fees multiple times on a single transaction they requested from an account that had insufficient funds. As part of the consumer bureau’s action, the bank will repay more than $80 million to customers who were improperly charged fees or denied sign-on bonuses, and will compensate customers who had cards opened in their names without their knowledge.
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领英推荐
Foxconn: Apple supplier drops out of $20bn India factory plan
Apple supplier Foxconn has pulled out of a $19.5bn (￡15.2bn) deal with Indian mining giant Vedanta to build a chip making plant in the country. The move comes less than a year after the companies announced plans to set up the facility in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. Some analysts say it marks a setback to the nation's technology industry goals. However, a government minister says it will have no impact on the country's chip making ambitions.
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Tata Group Closes In on Deal to Become First Indian IPhone Maker
Tata Group, India’s largest conglomerate, is close to an agreement to acquire an Apple Inc. supplier’s factory as soon as August, marking the first time a local company would move into the assembly of iPhones, according to people familiar with the matter. A takeover of the Wistron Corp. factory in southern Karnataka state, potentially valued at more than $600 million, would cap about a year of negotiations, said the people, asking not to be named as the matter is private. The facility employs more than 10,000 workers, who assemble the latest iPhone 14 model. Wistron has committed to ship iPhones worth at least $1.8 billion from the factory in the fiscal year through March 2024 to win state-backed financial incentives, the people said. It also planned to triple the plant’s workforce by next year. Tata is set to honor those commitments as Wistron exits the iPhone business in India.
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Microsoft Can Close Its $75 Billion Buy of Activision Blizzard, Judge Rules
Microsoft can close its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, delivering a major setback to the Biden administration’s attempt to rein in big mergers. The deal would combine Microsoft’s Xbox videogaming business with the publisher of popular franchises such as “Call of Duty,” “World of Warcraft” and “Candy Crush.” The ruling means there is no current U.S. obstacle to the two companies merging. The companies are still seeking U.K. merger approval and it wasn’t immediately clear whether the holdup there would delay closing. The bid, however, got a boost Tuesday when Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said it was prepared to consider new proposals from Microsoft for addressing its competition concerns.
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The New Trick to Getting Work Done: Have a Stranger Watch You
Consultant Micha Goebig scrolled through her phone to find receipts and bill clients while on her home computer on Friday afternoon. Nine strangers quietly watched her on a video link while also doing their own solo work. The small group was gathered online by Flow Club, a subscription service that says it can help home-based workers stay on task and be productive by quietly working in tandem. The online session was built around body doubling, a productivity strategy gaining traction among remote and hybrid employees who say they get more done if others are looking on. Body doubling, initially adopted by and coined by ADHD therapists, is one of several ways that workers are trying to regain focus and accountability when they aren’t working under the watchful eyes of bosses and colleagues in the office. A number of companies have sprung up to offer what they say is positive peer pressure that can boost productivity.?
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REAL ESTATE
Hybrid-work trend may wipe out $800 billion from office property values by 2030, McKinsey study says
A shift to remote working is likely to wipe off $800 billion from the value of office buildings in major global cities by 2030, according to a study published by consulting firm McKinsey on Thursday. The survey on nine "superstar" cities — Beijing, Houston, London, New York City, Paris, Munich, San Francisco, Shanghai and Tokyo — showed that demand for office space would be 13% lower in 2030 than it was in pre-pandemic 2019. "Superstar" cities are locations with a disproportionate share of the world's urban gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP growth.
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The Money-Saving Mortgage That Isn’t Working Right Now
An adjustable-rate mortgage will save home buyers little, if any, money right now. When 30-year fixed-mortgage rates go up like they are now, borrowers tend to flock to ARMs because they can help them pay less in the early days of homeownership or potentially make a larger offer on a house. ARMs start with low rates and then adjust higher years down the road. But right now, the average rate on ARMs—6.5% to 7.21%, depending on the loan—is nearly equivalent to the average 30-year fixed rate of 6.95% as of July 5, according to Bankrate, a consumer financial-services company. This means most buyers won’t save on monthly payments in the early years of the loan—and they will still shoulder the risk that the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates high later on. The dimmed appeal of ARMs is another blow to the countless buyers getting priced out of the market by high mortgage rates and a lack of affordable homes. People who want a home but can’t afford one now have even fewer tools.
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Mortgage Rates Jump, Inching Toward Seven Percent
Mortgage rates increased to their highest level since November 2022, the last time rates broke seven percent. Incoming data suggest that inflation is softening, falling to its lowest annual rate in more than two years. However, increases in housing costs, which account for a large share of inflation, remain stubbornly high, mainly due to low inventory relative to demand.
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Foreclosure Activity In First Half Of 2023 Ticks Upwards Toward Pre-Covid Levels
ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its Midyear 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 185,580 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — in the first six months of 2023. That figure is up 13 percent from the same time period a year ago and up 185 percent from the same time period two years ago. Properties foreclosed in Q2 2023 had been in the foreclosure process an average of 1,212 days, the highest number of average days to foreclose since Q1 2018. That figure was up 28 percent from the previous quarter and up 28 percent from Q2 2022.
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South Korea’s Archaic Rental System Is Costing People Their Life Savings
Under a system that’s unique to South Korea, landlords collect a deposit called jeonse that’s equal to anywhere from 50% to 90% of a property’s value at the start of the lease period, which typically runs for two years. Tenants usually pay no rent for the duration while the property owner profits by investing the funds, often to buy or build more apartments. Landlords are contractually obligated to refund the deposit at the end of the lease term. What’s essentially a government-sanctioned pyramid scheme—in which landlords pay back the deposits of tenants whose leases are expiring with funds obtained from new renters—worked relatively smoothly when property prices in the country’s major cities were climbing. But that decades-long trend was thrown into reverse when the Bank of Korea began aggressively raising interest rates in 2021 to tame inflation. Since reaching a peak last year, prices in Seoul—home to about one-fifth of the country’s population—have dropped 9% in the year through March, the biggest decrease among Asian cities in that period, according to a Knight Frank report. Some neighborhoods saw drops as big as 30%. The upshot: Landlords are collecting smaller deposits from new tenants, which is making it harder for some to pay back renters whose leases are expiring.
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The Super Rich Are Snapping Up Tokyo’s New Ultra-Luxury Homes
The lack of uber-luxury apartments in Tokyo, a city otherwise full of indulgent shopping choices, has long baffled foreign investors. But that’s starting to change as new developments with sweeping views, swimming pools and 24-hour valets are snapped up by local and overseas buyers taking advantage of a weaker yen and low interest rates.
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After half a century, Israel moves to evict squatter from his cave home on the beach
Over half a century, Nissim Kahlon has transformed a tiny cave on a Mediterranean beach into an elaborate underground labyrinth filled with chiseled tunnels, detailed mosaic floors and a network of staircases and chambers. He lives in the one-of-a-kind artistic creation, which is a popular destination for local curiosity seekers, and Kahlon, 77, is quick to welcome visitors into his subterranean home. Now, Israel’s government wants him out. Fifty years after Kahlon moved into the home, Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry has served him an eviction notice, saying the structure is illegal and threatens Israel’s coastline.
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PERSONAL FINANCE
What banks do with your money
Follow a $100 bill’s journey from your wallet, through the U.S. financial system, and back
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TECHNOLOGY
Chip wars: How ‘chiplets’ are emerging as a core part of China’s tech strategy
The sale of struggling Silicon Valley startup zGlue’s patents in 2021 was unremarkable except for one detail: The technology it owned, designed to cut the time and cost for making chips, showed up 13 months later in the patent portfolio of Chipuller, a startup in China’s southern tech hub Shenzhen. Chipuller purchased what is referred to as chiplet technology, a cost efficient way to package groups of small semiconductors to form one powerful brain capable of powering everything from data centers to gadgets at home. The previously unreported technology transfer coincides with a push for chiplet technology in China that started about two years ago, according to a Reuters analysis of hundreds of patents in the U.S. and China and dozens of Chinese government procurement documents, research papers and grants, local and central government policy documents and interviews with Chinese chip executives. Industry experts say chiplet technology has become even more important to China since the U.S. barred it from accessing advanced machines and materials needed to make today’s most cutting edge chips, and now largely underpins the country’s plans for self-reliance in semiconductor manufacturing.
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To Help Cool a Hot Planet, the Whitest of White Coats
Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, didn’t set out to make it into the Guinness World Records when he began trying to make a new type of paint. He had a loftier goal: to cool down buildings without torching the Earth. In 2020, Dr. Ruan and his team unveiled their creation: a type of white paint that can act as a reflector, bouncing 95 percent of the sun’s rays away from the Earth’s surface, up through the atmosphere and into deep space. A few months later, they announced an even more potent formulation that increased sunlight reflection to 98 percent. The paint’s properties are almost superheroic. It can make surfaces as much as eight degrees Fahrenheit cooler than ambient air temperatures at midday, and up to 19 degrees cooler at night, reducing temperatures inside buildings and decreasing air-conditioning needs by as much as 40 percent. It is cool to the touch, even under a blazing sun, Dr. Ruan said. Unlike air-conditioners, the paint doesn’t need any energy to work, and it doesn’t warm the outside air.
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ENGINEERING
Drones Reach Stratospheric Heights in Race to Fly Higher, Longer
This month a drone took off from a missile range in New Mexico and climbed into the stratosphere, joining a race to deliver unmanned aerial vehicles that can fly higher and longer than ever before. Drones have already shaken up warfare, recently playing a prominent role in the war in Ukraine. But militaries have long sought craft that can provide intelligence at a height beyond the reach of most radar and missile-defense systems, and for extended periods. For commercial users, high-altitude drones can be a way to beam internet services into areas with low connectivity. A handful of military drones have for years operated at some 60,000 feet, far higher than jumbo jets. Now companies are developing craft that can go even higher and stay there for months, offering a cheaper and more flexible alternative to satellites.
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ENERGY
Saudi Arabia to Lose Top Spot in OPEC+
Saudi Arabia is set to fall below Russia and lose its spot as the largest oil producer in the OPEC+ alliance as its production cuts begin to bite, tightening the oil market just as prices appear to be turning higher, the International Energy Agency said. The Gulf kingdom, the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has in recent months slashed its oil output, sacrificing its market share within the oil producers’ group in an attempt to buoy low oil prices that have crimped its revenue. The cuts, which have largely not included other members of the oil cartel or its allies in a wider group known as OPEC+, have so far been undermined by stronger output from non-OPEC+ producers such as the U.S. But those rival supply increases look set to come to an end, just as a unilateral production cut by the Saudis is set to begin this month while Russian output also appears to be declining, though at a slower pace, the IEA said in its monthly market report.
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An ESG Loophole Helps Drive Billions into Gulf Fossil Fuel Giants
Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has become an unlikely beneficiary of funds earmarked for sustainable investments thanks to a complex web of financial structures it used to raise money from its pipelines. ?Aramco doesn’t appear to have set out to tap cash originally intended for environmental, social and good governance goals when it started a process to raise $28 billion in 2021.
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The Gulf Goes Green
In the last few years, the global energy outlook has been transformed. The rise of populist politics and a growing sense of urgency about climate change have roiled debates about energy policy in wealthy countries, generating a dizzying mix of new industrial policies. The COVID-19 pandemic made it far harder to predict fuel prices and consumption patterns and forced many countries to confront their connections to fragile multistate supply chains and legacy petrostates. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine shattered any remaining fantasies of self-reliance, pushing Europe to reconsider its dependence on Russian resources and forcing the United States to acknowledge the Gulf’s persisting leverage in energy markets. Throughout this tumult, however, the role of Gulf states, rich with oil and gas, seemed to change little. Many analysts assumed these relatively inflexible autocracies would experience a slow decline as the growth in renewable energy rendered them dinosaurs dependent on declining hydrocarbon revenues and unable to diversify or reform their economies without risking popular unrest. But that position, too, is softening. Gulf states are now presenting themselves as drivers of a global clean energy transition. At home, they are modeling a new, statist framework for a shift toward cleaner energy, challenging 50 years of conventional wisdom that aggressive government intervention in an energy sector doesn’t work. Abroad, they are seeking new energy partnerships with environmentally conscious developed countries and investing in clean energy in emerging economies in the Middle East and beyond.
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AUTO
Used-Car Prices Fall by the Most Since the Start of the Pandemic
Used-car prices in the US fell 4.2% in June, their biggest monthly drop since the early days of the pandemic, as a key measure of inflation eases. Rising interest rates and bigger discounts on new cars are sapping demand for used vehicles, which is lowering the prices they fetch at auctions dealers use to buy and sell previously owned vehicles. Pricing also is taking a hit because dealers have almost fully replenished inventory on used-car lots that were depleted by shutdowns and supply shortages during the pandemic.
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What the Duck? Rubber Birds Left On Jeeps Baffle the Nation
Few drivers are as tribal as Jeep drivers. When they pass each other on the road, Jeep code requires them to wave. It is called…the Jeep wave. Lately, some Jeep people have taken to leaving rubber ducks on the door handles of other Jeeps. Hashtags on social media such as #duckduckjeep or #jeepducking have more than 30 million views, and a ducking Facebook group boasts more than 75,000 members. At the Detroit Auto Show in September, Jeep dealers erected a 60-foot-tall rubber duck near the exhibit hall.
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EDUCATION
Biden Administration to Wipe Out $39 Billion in Student Loans for 800,000 Borrowers
More than 800,000 older borrowers will see their federal student debt disappear. Student loan borrowers on income-driven repayment plans who have made 20 or 25 years of payments will get their remaining balances wiped out in coming weeks, the Education Department said.
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Who has student loan debt in America?
Millions of Americans rely on the federal government to cover the cost of college. Education loans have existed for generations, but borrowing only really took off in the past two decades. For the past three years federal student loan payments have been on pause after a moratorium was instituted in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. But payments will be due again starting in October.?The Biden administration recently announced a plan to forgive $39 billion in federal student loans across more than 800,000 borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. This comes weeks after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s more wide-ranging plan that cancelled up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for many borrowers, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.?Soaring college costs, higher enrollment, changes to the federal lending system, labor market demand for credentials and paltry wage growth have all contributed to the $1.6 trillion in outstanding federal student debt. This does not include debt originated in the private market. The federal lending system, which originates the vast majority of student loans, is complex. There are many moving parts and many people whose lives it has touched.?Here’s how student loan debt shakes out.
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HEALTH
FDA Approves First Over-the-Counter Birth-Control Pill
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter birth-control pill, Opill, significantly expanding access to contraception among women across the U.S. The FDA on Thursday followed the advice of expert advisers who recommended in May that the agency grant nonprescription approval to the pill despite questions over some data on its proper use. Medical societies and advocacy groups have called for years for birth control to be available over the counter as it is in countries including South Korea and Greece. The push intensified last year after the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, leaving decisions on abortion’s legality to the states.
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UK Dentistry in Crisis as People Pull Out Own Teeth With Pliers
Dentistry in the UK needs urgent reform following cases of people using pliers to pull out their own teeth, a parliamentary report has said. The Health and Social Care Committee, a group of British Members of Parliament, described the pain and distress caused to patients through a lack of access to dentistry as “totally unacceptable in the 21st century.” The National Health Service is supposed to provide dentistry but the committee said 90% of practices were not accepting new adult patients, citing research from last year by the BBC and the British Dental Association.
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Britain’s doctors are on strike, again
On July 13th junior doctors in England began a five-day walk-out from hospitals, including emergency departments. More than 46,000 junior doctors in England are members of the bma; most were expected to strike. Consultants, doctors who have completed specialist training, will provide cover, before striking themselves for two days from July 20th. General practitioners are also threatening industrial action. Strikes by doctors are rare because they raise ethical dilemmas for a profession which swears to do no harm to its patients—until 2023 there had only been two previous bouts in the 75-year history of the National Health Service (nhs). That so many are now walking out is indicative of an extraordinary moment in British industrial relations. It is also a sign of the bma’s renewed power.
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FOOD & DRINK
The Supermarket Aisle Where Prices Are Still Soaring
If you’re planning a cookout this summer, the chicken breasts and pork chops are finally a little cheaper. It’s the ketchup, potato chips and crackers that will cost you. ?The laws of supply and demand have tamed prices for goods such as meat, eggs, produce and gas. The Federal Reserve’s 10 rate hikes in the past 15 months have also helped bring some prices closer to normal levels.??Prices, though, are stubbornly rising for what retail and food executives refer to as “the center store.” ?The middle of the store stocks items that can sit on shelves without going bad quickly, from cereal to cookies, paper towels to dish soap—all essentials that consumers can’t really put off buying. Prices for potato chips rose an average 17% to $3.05 per package for the 52 weeks ended May 27, compared with the previous year, according to NielsenIQ, a market-research firm. Mayonnaise increased 23% to $4.93 per container. Applesauce jumped 22%.
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There’s So Much Milk That US Farmers Are Dumping It in the Sewer
There’s more milk than ever in the US but nowhere left to process it, forcing farmers across the Upper Midwest to pour the excess dairy down the drain. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s wastewater treatment system has been handling increased volumes of milk, a spokesperson confirmed, though he couldn’t verify how much. Since-deleted videos on social media earlier this summer showed farmers pumping thousands of gallons of excess milk directly onto their fields. Pete Hardin, editor of Wisconsin-based dairy publication The Milkweed, told local media the state’s milk supply with no home could fill as many as 50 trailers a day, each carrying 6,000 to 7,000 gallons.
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Cottage Cheese Makes a Comeback
Some devour it plain, spooned straight from the tub. Others smear it over toast like burrata; blend it with sweet ingredients to make healthier versions of ice cream or cookie dough; or use it as a dip (paired with mustard) for raw veggies, fruits, sausages and more. In July, Google searches for “cottage cheese” rose to the highest levels recorded since 2004. “It’s definitely really trendy right now,” said Leah Goebel, a registered dietitian at Northwestern Medicine, adding that cottage cheese contains plenty of nutrients. “I think it makes sense that it’s having a moment,” she said.
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The Brief, Dry Life of Burger King's All-Cheese ‘Burger’
Social media’s latest fast food fascination has a simple formula: one sesame burger bun plus 20 slices of American cheese. This invention from Burger King Thailand has no sauce, pickle or vegetable adornments. Nor does it have a patty. By many accounts, the cheese is often not even grilled or melted. The so-called Real Cheeseburger prompts disbelief, but Burger King Thailand sought to put doubts to rest in a Facebook post announcing it on Sunday: “Not for fun, this is for real!”
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Domino’s Pizza Is Soon Coming to Uber Apps for the First Time
Domino’s Pizza, hungry to claw back pizza sales now rung up on mobile apps, is reversing its long-held stance against working with food-delivery companies in the U.S. The world’s largest pizza company by sales and stores signed a deal with Uber Technologies to list its menus on the ride-share company’s Eats and Postmates food-delivery apps across 28 of the pizza chain’s markets, including the U.S., U.K. and Canada, the companies said Wednesday.
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Anchor Brewing, the Oldest Craft Brewer in the U.S., Will Close After 127 Years
It survived San Francisco’s devastating 1906 earthquake, Prohibition and both world wars. But recent economic pressures proved too much for the company said to be the oldest craft brewer in the country: After 127 years, Anchor Brewing Company is shutting down.
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NATURE
Meteorologists say Earth sizzled to a global heat record in June and July has been getting hotter
An already warming Earth steamed to its hottest June on record, smashing the old global mark by nearly a quarter of a degree (0.13 degrees Celsius), with global oceans setting temperature records for the third straight month, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. June’s 61.79 degrees (16.55 degrees Celsius) global average was 1.89 degrees (1.05 degrees Celsius) above the 20th Century average, the first time globally a summer month was more than a degree Celsius hotter than normal, according to NOAA. Other weather monitoring systems, such as NASA, Berkeley Earth and Europe’s Copernicus, had already called last month the hottest June on record, but NOAA is the gold standard for record-keeping with data going back 174 years to 1850.
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South Korean zoo welcomes giant panda twins
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/south-korean-zoo-welcomes-giant-panda-twins-2023-07-11/
A South Korean zoo said on Tuesday it had recently welcomed the first giant panda twins to be born in the country. The twins, both female, were born at the Everland theme park near the capital Seoul on Friday, the zoo announced in a video on its YouTube channel. "This feels like a great opportunity to call for better protection and preservation of pandas, which have become a symbol for endangered species," Donghee Chung, the head of the zoo, said. The first twin weighed 180 grams (6.35 oz) and the second, which arrived nearly two hours later, weighed 140 grams. Between 40% to 50% of panda births result in twins, Chung said.
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The Secrets to Snagging Coveted Camping Spots After They’ve Sold Out
The most popular national park campgrounds sell out months in advance. That doesn’t mean all hope is lost for your bucket-list camping trip. Not every person who snags a reservation at a national or state park ends up using it, whether they go through the process of canceling or not. You can snatch up these empty spots with a little help. More than half a dozen services now comb websites for canceled reservations. They charge anywhere from $10 per search to $80 a year with the promise that they will alert campers about canceled campsite reservations. Campers also have free options, including Facebook groups and, time permitting, simply refreshing their web browser repeatedly in the hopes that something pops up.
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TRAVEL
Canceled trips and no refunds: Passport delays are derailing travelers
Across the country, long-awaited reunions and hard-earned vacations are being upended by what the State Department described as an "unprecedented demand for passports." In March, the department said standard processing time for a new or renewed passport could take up to 13 weeks. But many passport seekers are finding that the wait is well beyond that — leaving trips abroad compromised and travelers scrambling for refunds on airfare and lodging. As of July, the State Department receives about 400,000 applications each week, which is only slightly lower than the record-setting volume of 500,000 applications received per week between January and May. Last year, the U.S. issued 22 million passports, a historic high — and is expected to once again surpass the record this year.
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Disney World Hasn’t Felt This Empty in Years
Visitors to Disney theme parks this summer are encountering something they haven’t seen in a while: elbow room. Travel analysts and advisers say traffic to Disney’s U.S. parks, and some rival parks, has slowed this summer. Data from a travel company that tracks line-waiting time at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., shows that the Independence Day weekend was one of the slowest in nearly a decade.
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You’re Already Too Late If You Want to Book a Room for the 2024 Eclipse
Full solar eclipses happen somewhere on Earth every 18 months, on average, says Angela Speck, astronomy professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio. In the U.S., though, viewing opportunities don’t come nearly that often. The last one viewable in the Lower 48 states happened in 2017. There won’t be another until 2044. That is why a Hilton Garden Inn in Texarkana, Texas, is charging $743 for a room with two queen beds. And a Comfort Inn & Suites in Plattsburgh, N.Y., is charging $559.
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The Vacation Picture That’s Sparked a Multimillion-Dollar Global Industry
For the last few years, Flying Dress Photo’s photographers on the Greek island of Santorini have spent their summers capturing the same image over and over: tourists posing against a backdrop of whitewashed houses and blue domes while donning luxurious satin gowns with ultra-long trains. At an average of eight flying-dress photo shoots a day, each priced upwards of €550 ($605) per hour per person, this one small business—whose entire model is based on delivering a single type of highly Instagrammable vacation photo—can bring in almost a half-million dollars in sales in just four months. That’s a conservative estimate: Customers tend to pile on additional services, which include transportation to and from the shoot’s location (€90), makeup and hair styling (€300), and a personal assistant to help toss the dress’s train in the air (€50). The one-size-fits-all dresses, at least, are provided to customers—though if you want to use more than one, it’ll cost an additional €120. For a single client that books the full package, the shoot costs €1,500 in all.
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ART & MUSIC
His art fits in eye of a needle. Now he’s made 3 Van Goghs in a watch.
Late at night while most everyone in the coastal English town of Bournemouth is sleeping, David A. Lindon sits in front of a microscope making the tiniest of artworks. His creations are so minuscule and precise, he steadies his hands by only moving them between his own heartbeats.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Striking actors will begin picketing alongside writers in fight over the future of Hollywood
Striking screen actors will begin picketing alongside writers in New York and Los Angeles on Friday in what has become the biggest Hollywood labor fight in decades. The double-barreled strike will shut down the small number of productions that continued shooting in the two months since screenwriters stopped working.
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‘Barbenheimer’ is coming: AMC says it has already sold 20,000 same-day tickets for the ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ double feature
Move over Taylor Swift, summer’s hottest ticket is a “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” double feature. AMC Theaters this week announced that more than 20,000 members of its AMC Stubs loyalty program have purchased tickets to watch the unlikely cinematic pairing on the same day. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” have been slated for a July 21 release for the past year. The juxtaposition between the bright and bubbly “Barbie” and the dour, nuclear bomb drama has led internet users to declare “Barbenheimer” a must-see double feature.
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SPORTS
Damar Hamlin emotional as he presents Pat Tillman Award to Bills training staff
Damar Hamlin presents the Pat Tillman Award For Service to the Bills training staff for saving his life on the field.
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Bitter rivals. Beloved friends. Survivors.
There is an audible rhythm to a Grand Slam tennis tournament, a thwock-tock, tock-thwock of strokes, like beats per minute, that steadily grows fainter as the field diminishes. At first the locker room is a hive of 128 competitors, milling and chattering, but each day their numbers ebb, until just two people are left in that confrontational hush known as the final. For so many years, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were almost invariably the last two, left alone in a room so empty yet intimate that they could practically hear what was inside the other’s chest. Thwock-tock. They have known each other for 50 years now, outlasting most marriages. Aside from blood kin, Navratilova points out, “I’ve known Chris longer than anybody else in my life, and so it is for her.” Lately, they have never been closer — a fact they refuse to cheapen with sentimentality. “It’s been up and down, the friendship,” Evert says. At the ages of 68 and 66, respectively, Evert and Navratilova have found themselves more intertwined than ever, by an unwelcome factor. You want to meet an opponent who draws you nearer in mutual understanding? Try having cancer at the same time.
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Cricket-Loving Billionaires Are Bringing Their Childhood Game to the US Major Leagues
Anurag Jain has loved cricket his entire life, but after learning how much players made he ditched his dream of making a career of it and ultimately went into business. These days he’s the managing partner of Perot Jain, a venture capital firm he co-founded with Texas billionaire Ross Perot Jr. If things go to plan, Jain could have a far greater impact on the game than he ever could with a bat and ball. Jain is part-owner with Perot of the Texas Super Kings, a team created this year based in Dallas. On Thursday evening, Jain’s team, which is also backed by India’s Chennai Super Kings, will host the Los Angeles Knight Riders in Major League Cricket’s first game in the US.
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Have a great weekend!
The Curator
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Email [email protected] to be added to the weekly email send-out of this newsletter. Back issues, without graphs/images, located at CuratedCompositions.com .
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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.
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