One Sentence News

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Dengue rates plunged after release of lab-altered mosquitoes

Summary: Three cities in Colombia’s Aburra Valley saw a 97% decrease in dengue infections from the previous decade’s numbers following the intentional release of mosquitoes infected with a bacteria that impedes their ability to spread disease.

Context: Researchers are still working to definitively tie the release of bacteria-infected mosquitoes—which by April of 2022 made up about 80% of the total mosquito population in the relevant region because of cross-breeding between those released and local populations—and this substantial drop in infections, but they’ve seen similar, quicker results in other areas, like Medellín, where infection numbers dropped by 47% in neighborhoods where bacteria-infected mosquitoes were released, but not in adjacent neighborhoods; similar results have been seen in Indonesia and Brazil, as well, and though this is being heralded as a possible solution to the surge in dengue and other mosquito-borne illnesses we’ve seen globally as the climate has shifted and mosquitoes have moved into newly hospitable territory, it’s also a bit expensive to implement, and there are worries that dengue may evolve around the bacteria’s hindering effects at some point, which would make this an effective but temporary solution.

—Deutsche Welle

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Argentina drivers hunt for fuel 'like water in the desert' amid shortage

Summary: Alongside an economic crisis and inflation spiral, Argentinians are also experiencing an acute shortage of fuel that’s left many petrol stations without gas and many people struggling to get where they need to go.

Context: This shortage is primarily the consequence of a dearth of US dollars to pay for fuel imports, and that’s meant local refineries haven’t been able to bring in enough crude oil to refine and then sell to the local market—and 80% of the country’s oil comes from these domestic refineries; last week’s fuel crunch showed signs of easing a bit over the weekend, but there’s a chance this fuel supply tightening could influence the presidential runoff election on November 19, as the well-entrenched incumbent faces off with a fairly economically and ideologically extreme opposition candidate.

—Reuters

Maersk to cut 10,000 jobs as cargo boom ends

Summary: Shipping giant Maersk has announced that it will lay-off more than 10,000 people as a drop in pandemic-era shipping demand has led to lower prices and an abundance of cargo vessels with nowhere to go.

Context: Maersk and other shipping and logistics companies have seen record profits over the past few years, but freight rates dropped by 58% from 2022 numbers in the third quarter of this year, and they’re down 90% from their pandemic peak, which has led to a 56% drop in revenue for Maersk—that drop primarily the consequence of an over-optimistic number of new ship orders during that recent peak; after these firings, the company will still employ around 100,000 people, but as with many other industries right now, shipping companies are beginning to pull up their drawbridges, shifting from a growth stance into something more moderated as inflation remains sticky, interest rates look likely to remain high for a while, and global economic conditions remain unpredictable and tumultuous.

—The Wall Street Journal

The US is a longtime supporter of Israel’s economy and military, and a recent request for at least $14.3 billion in additional assistance for Israel by the Biden administration would put 2023’s support-level in near-record territory (excluding missile defense spending).

—Axios

32%

Average increase in childcare costs for the average US household from September 2019 to September 2023, according to a new report from the Bank of America Institute.

That means the average US household (with kids) is spending more than $700 each month on child care, alone, which has pushed some parents out of the workforce (or into more precarious working conditions) so they can stay at home and watch their kids.

—CBS News

Trust Click

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Venezuela says Guyana seeks to halt vote on disputed territory

Summary: Venezuelan officials have said that their neighbor, Guyana, is appealing a referendum that Venezuela has scheduled for December 3 with the International Court of Justice, intending to derail the voting process, that referendum focused on the issue of a territory on the two countries’ border that both governments claim.

Context: This territory has been a contentious issue between the two countries since colonial times, and that tension was increased when Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966, but for decades the region has been governed by Guyana while Venezuela has continued to claim it as its own, and tensions over this issue have increased as fossil fuel resources have been discovered in the area and Exxon Mobil and other oil giants have started seeking licenses to drill; the government of Guyana has said that it’s on heightened guard right now, as the Venezuelan military has reportedly been building up resources near their shared border.

—Bloomberg

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Senate Republicans confront Tuberville over military holds

Summary: Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville was seriously confronted by Senators from his own party over his nine-month blockade of new US military confirmations and promotions in protest the military’s abortion policy, for the first time, during a recent session.

Context: Senators from both parties have criticized Tuberville for this blockade in the past, as it has resulted in a shortage of US military officers, but the issue has become more pointed since the conflict between Israel and Hamas took off a few weeks ago, as US military resources have been moved to the area and lack necessary upper-brass service-people; Tuberville has said he won’t drop his blockade until Democrats allow a vote on the Pentagon’s policy of allowing all troops access to reproductive healthcare—something that is no longer guaranteed across the United States, and is instead decided on a state-by-state basis—and this has led to nearly 400 military officers not receiving their promotions or confirmations, so far.

—The Guardian

President Joe Biden calls for 'pause' in Israel-Gaza conflict

Summary: US President Biden has called for a pause in the fighting in Gaza to allow humanitarian resources into the area, and to allow hostages free-passage out of the region.

Context: This represents a shift in policy by Biden, who has repeatedly said that the US government will fully back Israel, no matter what, while also encouraging the Israeli military to be careful about harming civilians as they pursue Hamas’ leaders and infrastructure; Israeli leadership has countered that a pause would only allow Hamas the opportunity to re-arm and rebuild, but a recent series of attacks on refugee camps in Gaza by the Israelis have sparked pushback from some of their staunchest allies, leading to more calls for humanitarian pauses, and more publicly voiced concerns about what constitutes a war crime in this kind of situation.

—BBC News

India’s winter rice output could decrease by as much as 8% this year, truncating the country’s overall production and increasing the likelihood that an ongoing rice export ban will be extended in order to shore-up in-country availability (which would not be ideal for the global rice market, as India’s crop is fundamental to it).

—Reuters

$8.61 billion

Minimum price Disney will pay Comcast for its 33% share of Hulu (the rest is already owned by Disney).

This will put the streaming service completely under Disney’s control, at a moment in which streaming services across the board (except for Netflix) are having trouble earning a profit from their offerings.

Hulu will be assessed to determine its fair market value, and Disney will pay more than that minimum price-floor if Comcast’s share is deemed to be worth more than the previous assessment indicated.

—The Verge

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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Home countries of major rainforests agree to work together to save them

Summary: Representatives from countries that house the world’s three major rainforests—the Amazon, the Congo basin, and the forests of Southeast Asia—have agreed to safeguard biodiversity in these areas, and to reduce or eliminate deforestation.

Context: These countries were not able to agree on a concrete alliance for these efforts, but they did come up with a seven-point plan of action, which experts have said is desperately needed as these basins are home to about two-thirds of the planet’s biodiversity and they serve as vital climate sinks—they pull in and store a huge amount of CO2—but deforestation in these areas increased by 4% in 2022, despite prior pledges to halt and reverse such losses by 2030; one of the primary challenges faced by these countries is a lack of sufficient funding to help with environmental efforts, and to make up for the money their economies could have made by cutting down these rainforests and replacing them with money-making efforts, which is something global governments expect to address at the COP28 climate talks next month.

—Reuters

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Ørsted halts New Jersey wind power projects in blow for Biden's energy plans

Summary: The world’s largest wind energy developer, Ørsted, has announced that it will cease work on two major US offshore wind projects located off the New Jersey Coast due to changes in macroeconomic conditions.

Context: Among those changes are high inflation rates, rising and sustained interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks that are making it difficult for this and similar projects, globally, to proceed along their expected timelines; wind power projects, especially offshore wind power projects, have experienced numerous setbacks of this kind in recent months, which contrasts substantially with solar power projects, some of which have been deployed so fast and so inexpensively that solar developers are considering raising their prices, as some of their developments are churning out more energy than can be used, leading to wastage.

—Axios

Real estate industry takes fresh hit with verdict on commissions

Summary: Shares of real estate company Zillow and similar platforms have dropped on the news that a Missouri court has found that the National Association of Realtors colluded to keep brokerage commissions artificially high; the court divvied out not quite $1.8 billion in damages.

Context: This is just the most recent case related to how real estate agents in the US make money, and the Justice Department is now looking into the commission-sharing system that results in sales agents and buyer’s representatives netting an additional 5-6% of the sale price on homes, alongside other fees; this is being seen as one more piece of bad news for an industry that’s already essentially frozen due to high mortgage rates that are approaching 8%, with sales of existing homes plummeting as a consequence.

—Bloomberg

A recent survey of Americans has shown that a significant chunk of the population does not own a single book (9% don’t own any physical books and 45% don’t own an ebook), with ownership primarily stratified based on formal education attainment and age.

—YouGov

$150

Price, per barrel, that the World Bank has warned oil could reach if the conflict between Israel and Hamas expands to encompass other groups and nations.

This warning is based on a scenario similar to the oil crisis in the 1970s, which was sparked by a cut in exports by Arab nations to those that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

This remains purely speculative at the moment, but the goal was to remind decision-makers that the global economy could be significantly damaged if this currently ultra-regional battle grows even a little bit beyond its current confines.

—BBC News

Trust Click

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Scientists return rescued corals to sea after deadly Florida heat wave

Summary: Marine scientists in Florida have started returning about 5,000 coral rescued from rapidly heating coastal waters back to reef areas, capping an extreme conservation effort meant to help local reefs maintain their genetic diversity.

Context: Reefs in this area are vital to oceanic ecosystems, providing shelter for something like 25% of all ocean animals, and a recent wave of die-off events sparked concerns that these creatures—which can only survive in a narrow temperature range—might be killed, en masse, by warm water fluctuations, and that could in turn lead to a die-off throughout these ecosystems; moving coral to safety on land is not considered to be a long-term solution to these sorts of warming events, but it may have to be repeated in the short-term, as it’s thought that this effort may have prevented the extinction of at least some of the species that are now being returned to their natural habitat.

—Axios

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Biden issues executive order to create AI safeguards

Summary: The US government has issued a significant new executive order requiring that companies developing AI systems report to the government any risks associated with their work, including those that might empower belligerent foreign governments or terrorist organizations, and those related to deep fakes and other misinformation-amplifying tools and techniques.

Context: The US is generally considered to be the leader in AI tech right now, and this new collection of regulations are part of a larger effort to maintain that lead, while also putting guardrails on the development of software that could lead to novel sorts of security threats, allowing the government more visibility into what’s happening at the bleeding edge of this space while also providing companies working in the AI industry more clarity on what’s required of them; other G7 governments have also agreed to a code of conduct for developing advanced AI, and while most of these rules are voluntary at the moment, it’s expected that these initial AI-oriented regulations will inform future, more hardcore and pointed versions of the same.

—The New York Times

A record 6.9 million people are internally displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Summary: On Monday, the United Nations International Organization for Migration said that the conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government and M23 rebels has internally displaced about 6.9 million people—the highest-ever recorded number.

Context: Most of these internally displaced people—which means they’re homeless within their own nation’s borders—are homeless because they’re fleeing the violence, including kidnappings, torture, sexual violence, and murders, associated with this conflict between the government and a group that originally formed about a decade ago, but which launched a more earnest offensive in 2022; more than two-thirds of these internally displaced people are living with host families, and that aforementioned UN agency has said that it’s only received $37 million of the $100 million it requested for its operations in the DRC, which has made meeting the basic needs of these displaced people difficult, and further damaged the UN’s reputation in a country where it has already been accused of failing to curb escalating violence and has been asked, by the government, to leave.

—France 24

Following a drop in food-insecure people across the United States during the pandemic (largely because of generous government programs that served as an additional safety net during that period), food insecurity levels are increasing once more, rising to 12.8% of households in 2023 from 10.2% in 2022.

—Axios

.02 inches

Length of the main acceleration tube on the world’s smallest particle accelerator (that’s about .5 millimeters), which was successfully used for the first time earlier this month.

That makes the tube about 54 million times shorter than the ring of the Large Hadron Collider, though it accomplishes essentially the same thing, just at a far smaller scale, and rather than being used to seek out new, exotic particles, this tiny accelerator (called a nanophotonic electron accelerator) is meant to be used for targeted medical treatments that may be able to replace damaging forms of cancer-killing radiotherapy.

—Space.com

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Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

GM reaches tentative agreement with UAW, ending six-week strike

Summary: Less than a week after US automaker Ford signed a deal with the United Auto Workers union, General Motors has reportedly reached a tentative agreement with them, as well, potentially ending a period in which the industry was roiled by strikes and uncertainty.

Context: This is still just a tentative deal, but it would seem that a 25% hourly pay increase plus cost-of-living allowances may be included in an updated four-year contract, similar to what was agreed with Ford; GM was the last holdout of the three major automakers in the country, and it’s been estimated that the company has already lost about $800 million to the strikes, and could rack up another $200 million in losses per week if strike actions continue.

—Bloomberg

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UN peacekeepers leave Mali in a hurry and under fire

Summary: UN peacekeepers, who were in the region to help local governments deal with militant extremist groups, were ordered in June to fully withdraw from Mali by the end of the year, triggering a frantic effort to destroy equipment that might otherwise fall into militant hands and to get everyone out safely.

Context: That safety component was made more difficult by the enemies this group has made amongst local militant groups over the ten years or so they’ve been operating in the region, and by the sheer number of people—around 15,000 soldiers—that require extraction; nearly 6,000 peacekeepers have reportedly been safely withdrawn, so far, thought the extractions have been made more difficult and precarious by the withholding of flight and travel permits by local officials; the Malian government was overthrown by its military in 2021 and is one of several governments in West Africa currently run by military juntas.

—Barron’s

Republicans delay more than $1 billion in HIV program funding

Summary: A government program called PEPFAR, short for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has been held up by Congressional Republicans due to unbacked allegations that some of the resources being divvied out by the program are funding abortions overseas.

Context: Pretty much everyone involved with this program has assured lawmakers that the resources PEPFAR provides to healthcare entities is only used to make medicines, testing, and prevention services related to AIDS more widely available, and the program—which was created by then-President George W. Bush in 2003—has been credited with saving more than 25 million lives, costs not quite $7 billion a year, and has typically enjoyed bipartisan support, heralded as one of the most successful medical programs of its kind; PEPFAR can continue to operate without Congress’ go-ahead, but details related to its operation—including how terms like “human rights” are used in the document that outlines the program—are being held up by Congressional Republicans, stymying efforts to keep things going.

—The Washington Post

If current trends continue, by the 2040s, countries in Africa will account for two out of every five children born on Earth—a stark contrast to the aging populations (and ever-lessening fertility rates) seen in on-average wealthier countries around the world.

—The New York Times

~4,000

Approximate number of electric vehicle chargers around the US (DOE estimates say nearly 4,000, other estimates have been closer to 4,700) that were offline as of early October.

That’s an outage rate of more than 6%, and it’s the consequence of a shortage of technicians certified to work on these sorts of chargers.

A lack of functional and reliable charging points is considered to be a significant barrier in consumer adoption of EVs in the US.

—Automotive News

Trust Click

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Israel ‘expanding’ ground attack in Gaza as Biden urges protection of civilians

Summary: Phone and internet connections were cut across the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israel’s military kicked-off what it has called the “second stage” of its attack on the occupied region, with the purported aim of destroying Hamas—the militant organization that governs the Strip—for good.

Context: A lot has been happening in this part of the world since Hamas hit Israel with a sneak-attack a few weeks ago, killing and kidnapping many people and triggering this counterattack against Gaza—and to a lesser degree other targets in the region, as well; the big-picture outline of what’s happening, though, is that Israel’s government is seemingly bringing soldiers and military hardware into Gaza, following a period in which they were mostly firing missiles and launching air strikes, its allies are generally supporting their efforts, though are also suggesting they avoid civilian casualties and other potential war-crimes, and while we don’t have terribly accurate numbers on this right now, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that more than 8,000 people have been killed by Israel’s attacks since October 7.

—The New York Times

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Maine shooter's body was found near a scene that had been searched by police

Summary: The body of the suspect in a mass shooting in Maine last Wednesday has been found by police, not far from where he attacked a bowling alley and bar with an assault rifle, killing 18 people and injuring 13 more.

Context: The suspect’s death is currently being considered a suicide by investigators, and before these attacks, he was reportedly on the radar of local law enforcement for having been acting erratically as an Army Reservist, which led to his being taken to a hospital for medical evaluation; there have been 580 mass shootings in the US in 2023, so far, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

—NPR News

Kazakhstan mine fire death roll rises to 42

Summary: A fire that broke out at the Kostenko mine in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda region over the weekend has killed at least 42 people of the 252 who were working at the mine at the time.

Context: Another fire broke out at this same mine back in August, killing four people, and five were killed following a methane leak at another mine run by the same company—ArcelorMittal—in November of last year; in the days following this most recent fire, the Kazakhstan government announced that it would be nationalizing ArcelorMittal, a move that was already rumored, as the government was reportedly unhappy with the company’s widespread safety violations at assets it holds across the country.

—The Associated Press

US citizens have been spending progressively more each year on Halloween celebration-related goods over the past several decades, and 2023 looks like it may set a new record, reaching about $12.2 billion in Halloween expenditures (decorations, candy, costumes, etc).

—Chartr

40 million

Increase in estimated age of the Moon according to new analysis of lunar crystals brought back to Earth by Apollo astronaut.

That makes the Moon at least 4.46 billion years old.

—Popular Science

Trust Click

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

At least 27 killed by Hurricane Otis as Mexico counts cost

Summary: The Mexican government is still tallying the human and infrastructural toll of Hurricane Otis, which made landfall in Acapulco early on Wednesday, and they’ve got 8,400 military service-people deployed to assist with cleanup efforts, and about 1,300 power utility employees were working to restore power to the area as of yesterday.

Context: At least 27 people have been confirmed killed by the storm, so far, with several more still missing, and the storm is notable for being one of the most powerful to have ever hit Mexico, and for scaling-up in potency incredibly quickly, defying projections and catching people off-guard—that scaling-up likely the consequence of warmer than usual coastal oceanic waters.

—Reuters

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Johnson elected Speaker of the House, ending weeks of chaos

Summary: After three weeks of internal conflict, US House Republicans have elected Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the new House Speaker, allowing Congress to start functioning again.

Context: Johnson is a lesser-known Representative, and much analytical ink has been spilled on the theory that he may have won the position because he hasn’t been around long enough to acquire any enemies; that said, he’s notable for being quite far to the right, ideologically and religiously, and is best-known, so far, for having played a major role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election; his first point of office after taking the gavel was to bring a resolution in support of Israel.

—The New York Times

Anchor of Chinese container vessel caused damage to Balticconnector gas pipeline, Finnish police say

Summary: Investigators in Finland have said that they believe the anchor of a Chinese container ship is responsible for damage caused to the undersea Balticconnector gas pipeline that spans the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia, earlier this month.

Context: Investigators say they’ve recovered a 6-ton anchor and found it alongside a dragging trail on the seabed that lines up with the damaged portion of the pipeline—the anchor also showing evidence of having been in contact with the pipeline; all of which would seem to paint a pretty clear picture that the container ship—which is Hong Kong-flagged, called the Newnew Polar Bear, and which was recently shown to be missing an anchor—is almost certainly the culprit, rather than a Russian ship that was also a suspect earlier in the investigation; the captain of the Newnew Polar Bear is reportedly cooperating with Chinese officials on the investigation, and repairs on the pipeline are expected to take until at least late-April of 2024.

—The Associated Press

It’s been a tumultuous year for X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) following its acquisition by Elon Musk, who paid about $44 billion for the company (substantially more than the maybe $25 billion it was reportedly worth at the time) and who has struggled to keep the platform afloat, despite reducing operating costs by firing nearly everyone who worked at the company shortly after taking the reins.

—The Wall Street Journal

$267,230

Price of an RV (a 40-foot luxury motor coach) purchased by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas using money money from a private loan he acquired from a friend in 1999.

The terms of the loan were generous—no money down, only interest due for five years, after which the principle come due—and they became even more so when, nine years later, Thomas having failed to repay much (or possibly any) of the principle, the debt was forgiven.

Because of Thomas’s position on the court and the sorts of people who might (in essence) surreptitiously give a quarter-million dollars to a justice in order to curry favor, this is being seen as an even bigger ethical breach than other breaches Thomas has been accused of over the past few years.

—The New York Times

Trust Click

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Meta accused by states of using features to lure children to Instagram and Facebook

Summary: Meta, the parent-company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been sued by 33 US states for its alleged use of manipulative features to pull-in and hook young people on its services, despite knowing how addictive and harmful these services can be to that audience.

Context: This lawsuit has been compared to the lawsuits that hit Big Tobacco in the 1990s, in scale and ambition, and the general idea is that Meta—which has funded research into how its offerings impact young people, and thus knows how psychologically harmful and addictive those offerings can be to that demographic—has been intentionally amplifying the addictiveness of its products for profit, and should thus be legally forced to make changes to how it does things, and be fined; investigations that led to this lawsuit began several years ago, and some of the states involved have issued similar lawsuits against rival app TikTok; in a statement responding to the lawsuit, Meta expressed its disappointment.

—The New York Times

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China imposes export curbs on graphite

Summary: The Chinese government has announced new export controls on three grades of graphite, a material that’s used for all sorts of things, including the production of electric vehicle batteries.

Context: This is being seen as a counter-move against the US, which recently increased the scale and intensity of its technology-focused export-controls on China, and this is just the most recent control imposed by the Chinese government on relatively scarce minerals that are fundamental to the renewable energy transition, and which it controls the lion’s share of, globally; in July, China announced similar restrictions on gallium and germanium, and like the US’s restrictions on shipping some goods to China, these counter-restrictions allow Chinese companies to seek permission to sell such materials overseas—so they’re generally perceived to be means of demonstrating market leverage, rather than as an outright ban on all export activity.

—Financial Times

Blinken warned lawmakers Azerbaijan may invade Armenia in coming weeks

Summary: The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that there’s a chance Azerbaijan will invade neighboring Armenia sometime in the next few weeks, possibly aiming to carve out a corridor along Armenia’s southern border to connect the bulk of Azerbaijan with an enclave it controls on the other side of Armenia’s territory.

Context: The Azerbaijani military recently invaded the Nagorno-Karabakh region—a chunk of land within Azerbaijan’s borders that was predominantly Armenian and which had broken away and claimed independence, but which was forcibly reclaimed in September—and that success is being seen as a potential precursor to a more thorough invasion of Armenia, as the Azerbaijani government has been signaling they might be preparing for a larger military action, and Armenia’s traditional support from Russia has weakened in recent years.

—Politico

The US government’s borrowing costs have increased as the yield on US treasury bonds have increased (that yield is basically the amount of interest the government is committing to pay bondholders in exchange for lending the government money), and that’s led to a huge increase in interest payments, worrying even politicians who are typically ho-hum about the (increasing under both major parties’ leadership) federal deficit.

—Chartr

1,180

Number of qubits boasted by a quantum computer built by startup Atom Computing, up from 100 in their previous system..

This new computer is currently being tested by the company, which hopes to make it available to customers next year, and though the error rate for qubits is high, it’s hoped that this setup will allow users to run multiple instances of algorithms in parallel, making it more likely the computer will provide a correct answer.

Quantum computers work differently from traditional computers, making them slower at many typical computing tasks, but a lot faster at things that are borderline impossible on traditional computers, like complex math and codebreaking.

—Ars Technica

Trust Click

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Biggest cervical cancer drug advance in 20 years hailed

Summary: Findings from a medical trial in the UK have shown that a new approach to treating cervical cancer that uses existing, inexpensive drugs, reduces the risk of dying from the disease and the cancer returning after treatment by about 35%.

Context: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, globally, and tallies more than 600,000 new cases and causes more than a third of a million deaths each year; this cancer is typically treated with chemoradation, but this trial showed that patients who received that plus a cocktail of cheap, available drugs had substantially better outcomes, both in terms of surviving the cancer, and in terms of keeping it from returning or spreading after treatment; all of which is being lauded as pretty wonderful, but the fact that this add-on therapy is based on existing, easily purchased drugs is extra-great, as the majority of new cases and deaths—about 90% of them—occur in low- and middle-income countries, where patients are less likely to have the resources to pay for expensive treatments.

—BBC News

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Turkey's Erdogan submits Sweden's NATO bid to parliament for ratification

Summary: President Erdogan of Turkey has submitted a bill to parliament that approves Sweden’s NATO membership bid, fulfilling a promise he made at a NATO summit in July, after previously having held up the bid due to Sweden’s legal protection of people the Turkish government consider to be terrorists.

Context: There was some question, even after Erdogan made that promise in July, about whether the Turkish parliament would ratify this bill, as Turkish officials have recently indicated that they don’t think Sweden has does enough to hobble the efforts of people living in Sweden who belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party, a militia that’s banned in Turkey; that said, it would seem the bill is now moving forward, and if it successfully makes its way through parliament, Sweden could join the alliance as soon as the end of November, when NATO hosts its next foreign ministers’ meeting—though Hungary still has to ratify its own bill on the matter, and while the Hungarian government has said it doesn’t want to be the last NATO member nation to approve this bid, there’s a chance their legal process could hold things up beyond that upcoming meeting.

—Reuters

Pakistan’s self-exiled former Prime Minister returns home ahead of a parliamentary vote

Summary: Former three-time Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has arrived back in Pakistan after four years of self-imposed exile in London, following his conviction in several graft cases and being sentenced to ten years in prison for corruption.

Context: Sharif was the Prime Minister of Pakistan before the previous Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who was booted from the position in April of 2022 and imprisoned, also for graft and corruption; Sharif has indicated he plans to run for Prime Minister in the country’s upcoming election, and because the military runs pretty much everything in the country, it’s suspected that he was allowed to return in the weeks leading up to the election—which was originally scheduled for November, but which has been delayed—with court-granted protection from imprisonment, because the military really doesn’t like Khan and worries about how much support he still has, even from prison, and is hoping to bring Sharif back into their fold now that some of the resentments between him and military higher-ups have cooled a bit.

—The Associated Press

Single-use plastics continue to plague economies and ecologies, globally, and even in places where recycling efforts have been relatively ambitious (like the US), the volume of such plastics produced (which are tricky to recycle for a variety of reasons) continues to massively outweigh the volume of plastics recycled, leading to gobs of waste that will (for most practical timescales) never biodegrade.

—Chartr

$250 billion

Approximate revenue a tax of 2% on fewer than 3,000 billionaires, globally, could raise for governments, according to a new report from the EU Tax Observatory.

The idea is to close all loopholes on taxes for the ultra-wealthy (on their second billion dollars, not their first), so that rather than having an effective tax-rate (after loopholes) of somewhere between 0% and 0.5% on average, they would have a global minimum tax rate of 2%.

—The Wall Street Journal

Trust Click

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Argentina's Peronists soar in election to seal run-off with radical Milei

Summary: The incumbent Peronist coalition received 36.6% of the vote in Argentina’s general election last weekend, which is enough to put them in first-place, but not enough for them to win outright, which means they’ll face the controversial and colorful Javier Milei in a runoff election on November 19.

Context: Milei shocked many pollsters in the country’s August primaries by winning the vote on a platform based on fairly extreme, far-right positions and an authoritarian approach to governing, including the dissolution of the country’s central bank and the adoption of the US dollar as the country’s official currency; he wasn’t able to repeat that feat in the general election, taking second place with about 29.9% of the votes, but that’s enough to worry the Peronist coalition, which has overseen a devastated economy and inflation rates that have hit 124%, amplifying a cost-of-living crisis and causing many people to consider any possible alternative, even a radical one, to the current status quo.

—Reuters

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Philippines and China trade blame over collisions in disputed South China Sea

Summary: The Philippine and Chinese governments have each accused the other of causing a pair of ship collisions in the South China Sea.

Context: This is a hotly contested area that both countries claim as their own, and both are in the process of building-out local military infrastructure to reinforce those claims, with China having done a lot more of that, so far, than the Philippine government; both sides accuse the other of acting aggressively and unreasonably in this and other recent, near-miss cases, and though no significant damage was reported in either collision, accidents caused by misunderstandings and bravado on the part of military leaders and captains wanting to make a point are watched closely, as there’s some concern that they could spiral into military conflict if not handled carefully, especially in hot-spots like this one.

—France 24

Chevron buys Hess for $53 billion

Summary: Fossil fuel giant Chevron has announced that it will be buying oil and gas exploration company Hess for about $53 billion.

Context: That’s a big investment, though still smaller than the $60 billion-or-so purchase-price of Pioneer Natural Resources that Exxon Mobil announced a few weeks ago; while Pioneer will mostly allow Exxon to expand its shale oil efforts in Texas, Hess will give Chevron shale properties in North Dakota, and perhaps more importantly, a major oil field in Guyana—a country that’s expected to become the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer within the next decade; both purchases set these multinational companies up to keep producing fossil fuels well into the future, striking a bullish stance at a moment in which many governments and companies are investing heavily in renewable energy infrastructure.

—The Associated Press

Older-model aircraft are seeing a price-increase as newer models flail, suffering from all sorts of hardware and software issues that have kept them grounded, in some cases, and mired in bad news cycles, in others.

—The Wall Street Journal

4.8 hours

Amount of time the average US teen spends on social media each day.

Older teen girls tend to spend more time on social media each day, and 51% of US teens spend at least 4 hours per day on a combination of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and WhatsApp, with YouTube and TikTok being by far the most popular social apps for people in this age group.

—Gallup

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