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

India launches test flight ahead of sending crew into space

Summary: India’s space agency has successfully carried out the first of several tests leading up to a planned 2025 mission to carry Indian astronauts into space.

Context: If successful, this mission would make India only the fourth country reach space with manned spacecraft, following the Soviet Union, United States, and China, the latter of which managed the feat in late-2003; Indian astronauts have been going to space on other countries’ craft since 1984, but never on craft built and launched by their own program, and this would be just one more space-related accolade for the Indian space program, which has been piling up successes, of late, including a recent landing near the lunar south pole.

—BBC News

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Solar giant Qcells says Dalton factory expansion is complete

Summary: A solar panel manufacturing company called Qcells has announced that an expansion to its factory in Dalton, Georgia has been completed, making this factory the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, and increasing its output to more than 5.1 gigawatts of solar panels each year, which is about 30,000 panels a day.

Context: This plant, which is owned by a Korean conglomerate, announced the expansion shortly after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which among other things aimed to spark more of this type of US-based, renewable energy production investment, and it will dramatically increase the solar power hardware output of the the US, which trails China—the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels by a huge margin—while also creating more than 500 new jobs at this existing facility, and another 2,000 at a second factory they’re building a few dozen miles further south, which will handle everything from solar ingots and wafers to cells and finished solar panel products.

—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

House Republicans push unity ‘pledge’ to guarantee a speaker

Summary: In the wake of former Republican House Speaker McCarthy’s ouster by his own party, and the subsequent failure of Representatives Scalise and Jordan to secure enough votes to attain the position, House Republicans are reportedly lining up behind a sort of unity pledge meant to help them make a final determination for the role of Speaker before they bring the issue to a public vote, once more.

Context: This has, by all indications, been a fairly embarrassing several months for House Republicans, who struggled to elect McCarthy, and who since his removal by a far-right wing of the party have struggled to put someone else in charge, despite holding the majority; the theory of this unity pledge is that it’ll allow them to hold a secret-ballot vote behind the scenes, and then commit—in writing—to formally vote in favor of whomever wins that secret-ballot vote; this is meant to help avoid further embarrassment, but also to just move things forward and put someone in charge, as the House isn’t able to conduct its business without a Speaker, and that has meant Congress has been frozen at a moment in which there’s a lot happening, nationally and internationally, that requires its attention.

—Politico

The Wikimedia Foundation—the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia—only had $23,463 in annual expenses in 2004, but that figure ballooned to just shy of $146 million in 2022; the majority of those expenses are related to paying employees, and the nonprofit received nearly $160 million in cash contributions that same year from individual donations and endowments.

—Chartr

49.7 million

Approximate number of miles of transmission lines global governments and businesses will need to install or replace by 2040 in order to meet their climate and energy security goals, according to a new International Energy Agency report.

That’ll double the budget for handling such lines each year, but will allow the huge number of planned renewable energy projects to be added to the grid, replacing emitting sources of the same.

—CNBC

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

US government announces ‘largest ever’ investment in electric grid

Summary: A fresh $3.46 billion investment focused on upgrading the US’s aging electrical grid has been announced, and the money will be funneled to 58 projects across 44 states.

Context: This money comes from a larger pot of funds established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and it will help clean up, reinforce, and build-out the country’s energy grid, which has been struggling with a surge in renewable energy production across the US, but also with basic maintenance issues; these funds, which when added to private investments will tally something like $8 billion, will help more than 35 gigawatts of renewable energy come online across the country, alongside around 400 microgrids, which will add some much-needed resiliency and reduce outages in blackout-prone areas.

—The Verge

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A fertilizer shortage is spreading desperate hunger in Africa and Asia

Summary: Economic issues stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have left farmers across Africa and in parts of Asia without enough fertilizer, reducing crop-yields and adding to the food shortage already being experienced in these areas due to the reduction in wheat and other fundamental food exports from Ukraine and Russia.

Context: Other variables are also contributing to this food shortage, including climate-change-related heat waves, droughts, and floods, but the scarcity of fertilizer ingredients on the global market is the result of Russia’s invasion, as Russia is the primary source of these ingredients; ballooning shipping costs during the pandemic, followed by US dollar value increases (fertilizer components tend to be priced in USDs, globally), followed by export irregularities caused by the war in Ukraine, have had the cascading effect of more than doubling fertilizer prices and reducing the availability of these materials, which has messed with with agricultural supply chains around the world and perpetuated those existing food scarcity issues.

—The New York Times

COVID antiviral Paxlovid to see price increase following 400% vaccine hike

Summary: Following a four-fold price-increase on their COVID-19 vaccine, drug-maker Pfizer has announced that they’ll likely hike the price on their COVID antiviral treatment, Paxloxid, maybe up to around three- to five-times its current cost.

Context: A round of Paxlovid already costs $530, and financial analysts are saying the company could up that to as much as $2,500 per course; folks in the US who are prescribed Paxlovid for their COVID infections generally get payment assistance, their insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, or government assistance programs paying for most or all of it, but it’s expected that interest will drop with higher prices, and Paxlovid has already seen a diminishment in use—so this may mark a turning point at which the drug becomes simultaneously more expensive and less prescribed.

—Ars Technica

The EIA projects that the US will substantially expand its liquified natural gas exports for the next several years, serving the needs of countries like Germany, which have been struggling to replace gas imports from Russia, and other nations that are working to replace more-polluting and emitting coal and oil energy infrastructure with gas versions (which are less-emitting and polluting) of the same.

—US Energy Information Administration

300 million

Number of copies of Minecraft that have been sold since 2011.

That makes the 3D-pixelated game the second bestselling video game of all time, after only Tetris (which has been around a lot longer, and has been ported to pretty much every device with a screen) which claims sales of around 520 million copies.

—Gizmodo

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

Update: reporting on the Gaza hospital story has changed substantially in the past day or so—here’s a solid piece on what we seem to know, now (h/t Jodi Ettenbergfor the recommendation), and here’s one about how/why the story has changed.

More protests expected across Middle East after Gaza hospital blast

Summary: An explosion that reportedly killed hundreds of people at a hospital in the northern part of the Gaza Strip has sparked protests across the Arab world—Hamas blames Israel’s airstrikes for the deaths and Israel blames rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Context: This explosion—whatever the source, though most of the evidence currently points at Israel, regardless of whether the strike was intentional or not (see update above)—has massively complicated diplomatic efforts to keep the conflict in Gaza from expanding to encompass more of Israel and potentially the Middle East, more broadly; US President Biden was meant to visit with local leaders in Jordan while in the region, but that meeting was cancelled as security forces in the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, and Iran struggled to keep protests from becoming violent; more than 1,400 people were killed by Hamas sneak-attack strikes into Israel that began on October 7, around 200 people are still being held hostage by the group, and the UN estimates that more than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli counterattacks in Gaza, so far.

—The Guardian

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Extreme drought drives Amazon River port to lowest level on record

Summary: Major Amazon River tributaries are reporting record-low water levels, raising concerns that the world’s largest watershed may see further deterioration accelerated by human-caused deforestation and drought-amplified wildfires.

Context: More than 11,500 fires were tracked in the Amazon Rainforest the first half of October, and the air-quality in some parts of the region has hit “very unhealthy” levels several times in the past week; lower water levels in an area defined by its river systems threatens transportation, trade, dam-produced energy supplies, and access to drinkable water for populations throughout South America, alongside an abundance of local plants and animals.

—Axios

US tightens curbs on AI chip exports to China

Summary: The US government has announced new restrictions on selling advanced semiconductors to Chinese entities as part of a larger effort to keep China from surpassing the US in AI and other multi-use technologies.

Context: This comes about a year after initial restrictions on these sorts of sales to China were implemented, which made it a lot trickier for Chinese companies and agencies to acquire the highest-end computer chips produced by Western companies; for their part, NVIDIA and Intel don’t seem too concerned about these enhanced limitations, which are mostly focused on closing loopholes in those previous restrictions, as both companies are having trouble serving existing, non-Chinese demand for their AI-optimized hardware, through there’s a chance that once their supply chains are recalibrated to meet those newfound demands, these restrictions could negatively impact their bottom line.

—The Wall Street Journal

Location of the hospital mentioned in the story above; squarely within the area Israel’s government has been targeting, though also where a lot of Hamas (and other militant groups) are reportedly based.

—Bloomberg

6.1%

Drop in reported murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases in the US from 2021 numbers, according to the FBI.

Other sorts of violent crimes were also down during this period, though property crimes were up a bit, and motor thefts were up by a whopping 20%.

—Axios

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

Mexico revives century-old railway in $2.8 billion bid to rival Panama Canal

Summary: Mexico’s government is in the process of refurbishing and building-out an existing railway that connects the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to claim some of the custom that would typically use the Panama Canal to travel between these bodies of water, at a moment in which the Canal is suffering a significant slowdown.

Context: That slowdown is the consequence of a freshwater shortage in Panama, as the Canal requires freshwater to operate and frequent droughts have made that a tricky proposition; consequently, larger, heavier ships haven’t been able to use the Canal in recent months, and the pace of passage for smaller vessels has slowed to a crawl, dramatically reducing traffic-flow; the gambit here, then, is to provide an alternative means of traversing the American landmass, though some analysts have suggested it might not end up being cost-effective for anyone involved, as the extra time and expense required to unload freight, put it on trains, move it to another coastline, and then reload it on another ship, may not be worth the effort for many types of cargo.

—Financial Times

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US to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil for freer presidential election

Summary: The US and Venezuelan governments have announced a deal that would see the former easing sanctions on the latter’s oil industry in exchange for Venezuelan President Maduro allowing a truly democratic, internationally monitored presidential election in 2024.

Context: This is a pretty big move for both governments, as the Venezuelan government has been severely hobbled by US sanctions for years, and this represents a potential olive branch, but also an opportunity for Venezuela to formally reenter the global energy market at a moment when that market is in tumult—which is likely a big part of why the US government decided to make this deal; the last Venezuelan election in 2018 is generally considered to have been fraudulent, and this deal would require that Maduro lift bans on opposition candidates and cease intimidation efforts against folks who might seek to unseat him, and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether this will all go down as the deal delineates when that next election arrives, but it’s an interesting diplomatic and economic development, either way.

—The Washington Post

Trump has narrow gag order imposed on him by federal judge overseeing 2020 election subversion case

Summary: The judge in the federal case against former President Trump—the one in which he’s standing trial for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election—has issued a limited gag order on the former president.

Context: This gag order basically says he can criticize the US Justice Department and case as much as he wants, but he can’t launch a smear campaign or attempt to rile-up attacks against prosecutors or court employees, which is something he’s attempted to do already, leading to death threats and other attacks against opposing counsel and people who work in the courtroom; following the gag order, Trump alleged that his free speech was being violated, though much of what he claimed about the order was false; this is the second gag order that’s been imposed on Trump in the past month, the other a bit more stern, but basically in response to the same concerns—that one applying to a fraud trial he faces in New York.

—The Associated Press

Worker strikes continue to hobble (or threaten) businesses across a slew of US industries, with a recent three-day Kaiser Permanent strike weighing in with about 75,000 participants, and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike involving around 160,000 people.

—Axios

43%

Portion of the Gaza Strip’s total population that’s estimated to be displaced—forced to flee missile attacks and a threatened boots-on-the-ground invasion by Israeli forces in the northern part of the Strip.

That adds up to more than 1 million people (the total population is about 2.3 million), and there are concerns from human rights and medical organizations (including the UN refugee agency) that many deaths will stem from these displacements, as there’s not enough food, shelter, or medical supplies to go around.

—Al-Monitor

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

Polish opposition leader Tusk declares win after exit poll shows ruling conservatives lose majority

Summary: The incumbent Law and Justice Party has seemingly, once again, pulled in the highest overall number of votes in last weekend’s Polish parliamentary election, but the 200-or-so seats it won, even when paired with the far-right Confederation party’s 12-or-so seats, wouldn’t be enough to form a government, which is likely to allow the country’s opposition—led by Donald Tusk—to form a more centrist government.

Context: If these results stand, this would mark a huge turning point for Poland, which has seen a significant turn away from the democratic rule of law toward a more authoritarian setup, which has eroded checks-and-balances at a pace that has alarmed human rights organizations and fractured relationships with other European Union nations, resulting in a hold-up of billions of euros in funding from the EU; the Confederation party was also campaigning on ending support for Ukraine, so this outcome—the result of a vote that saw the largest participation-rate in the country’s history, with nearly 73% of voters casting a ballot—could mean more funding for Kyiv, and the potential release of those funds from the EU for the Polish government.

—The Associated Press

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New Zealand National Party's Luxon to lead new government

Summary: New Zealand’s center-right National Party will form a government with the further-right ACT Party, replacing the government of the Labour Party that no longer holds enough seats in parliament following last weekend’s general election.

Context: The Labour Party led New Zealand through the COVID-19 pandemic, with some widely celebrated successes that eventually segued into broad discontent with a long period of lockdowns and persistent economic issues; the new government’s majority—which seems to be locked-in, but final results won’t be reported until November 3—is slim, and they may need to include the populist First Party in their coalition if they want to actually govern.

—Reuters

Zimbabwe bans large gatherings as threat of cholera outbreak grows

Summary: Large gatherings of 50 or more people have been banned by the Zimbabwean government, and food can no longer be served at public events as a wave of cholera cases have caused at least 100 deaths, and there are currently nearly 5,000 suspected cases spread across more than 40 districts.

Context: These cases and deaths have raised concerns that the country could see an epidemic similar to one that killed about 4,000 people across the country in 2008; the government has also increased surveillance at ports of entry, and they’ve advised that folks shouldn’t shake hands, as the cholera bacteria is most commonly spread via contaminated food or water, but can also be transmitted through human contact.

—The Guardian

While northern, more urban US cities get the majority of the crime-related press, a preponderance of gun-deaths in the country occur in relatively more rural, southern cities and towns (which makes sense, as cities tend to have sterner gun-safety laws, while southern, rural areas tend to be more gun-friendly).

—Axios

1,269

Number of documented attempts made to censor 2,571 different books in the United States in 2022—the higher number ever recorded.

Texas topped the list of states, in terms of the number of book-ban efforts, with 93 attempts made to ban more than 2,300 books.

Efforts to ban books in the US have been especially popular with conservatives in Republican-led states, of late, especially targeting those that feature queer characters or anti-racism themes.

—The Guardian

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

UN estimates one million displaced in first week of Israel-Hamas war

Summary: Grim numbers continue to roll in from the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip, including a recent United Nations estimate that suggests around a million people were displaced in the first week of fighting, alone.

Context: In this context, “displaced” means people have been chased or evacuated from their homes, in some cases temporarily in other cases permanently—in either event, though, they’re now without a home, possibly without shelter of any kind, and thus have become part of a burgeoning humanitarian disaster that could spiral into more devastation and death, connected to but separate from actual fighting; a huge chunk of this figure is the consequence of Israel’s military telling Palestinians to leave the northern portion of Gaza, as they would soon be rolling into the area to kill or capture the leadership of Hamas, which launched a surprise-attack against Israel a little more than a week ago.

—France 24

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To rival Netflix, eight European broadcasters team-up

Summary: Last week, eight European public broadcasters from Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway announced that they would collaborate on a project called New8, which would produce eight TV scripted drama series each year in order to better compete with US-based online streaming companies like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Context: International broadcast entities have struggled to compete with well-funded and entrenched American streaming companies, and that’s led to less funding for local production studios and other entities, which has then reinforced the centrality of American entertainment companies, internationally; the idea here is to ensure more European works are funded and distributed online, and this collaboration will operate for at least three years, with the first greenlit series agreed-upon in 2023 and made available across participating territories in 2024.

—The Hollywood Reporter

US oil production hits all-time high, conflicting with efforts to cut heat-trapping pollution

Summary: Domestic oil production in the United States hit a new all-time high the first week of October, hitting 13.2 million barrels a day, bypassing the previous 2020 record by about 100,000 barrels.

Context: This is good news for oil companies and folks who believe US energy independence relies upon increased production, but it’s bad news for folks who are hoping to truncate fossil fuel extraction and use; it also might be bad news for the Biden administration, with voters who fall into that latter group, at least, which has been promoting its efforts to segue to renewable energy sources and set carbon-emissions reduction targets which could become unattainable if these oil production numbers are sustained.

—The Associated Press

Cycling took off in a big way during the pandemic, and while in some cities around the world it regressed back to something like previously normal levels as shutdowns eased, many cities have seen sustained uptake, including in the typically car-centric United States.

—Axios

78%

Portion of ocean microplastics that are synthetic tire rubber.

Said another way: of all the microplastics collected from the ocean, the vast majority of them are bits of modern tires, and those bits contain a substance called 6PPD-quinone, which is used to slow cracking and other sorts of tire degradation.

This is not ideal, as 6PPD-q has also been shown to be toxic; and tires contain more than 400 chemical compounds, many of which have also been shown to be toxic (we’re still testing the others), and all of which are shed as ultra-fine particles during the course of normal car (and other vehicle) operation.

This would seem to represent a long-term issue we’re only just now becoming mainstream aware of, which could help us come up with solutions to a slew of ecological- and health-related problems, but also represent a major undertaking, since tires are so fundamental to how the modern world operates.

—The Drive

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

Stockholm to ban petrol and diesel cars from city center from 2025

Summary: The government of Stockholm, Sweden has announced plans that would make them the first capital city to ban cars powered by gasoline and diesel fuels from its city center as part of a larger effort to reduce pollution and noise.

Context: Beginning in 2025, with a few exceptions and caveats, only electric vehicles will be allowed in the 20 blocks that make up Stockholm’s main downtown finance and shopping districts, and early that year the government will decide whether and when to expand the zone further; several cities around the world have announced similar efforts, in some cases banning just diesel vehicles, in some cases intending to ban all non-EV vehicles at some point in the future, and watered-down versions of the same—low-emission zones where non-EV or non-hybrid vehicles are charged a fee for driving—have proven successful and popular enough that it’s expected we’ll see more variations on this theme, globally, in the coming years.

—The Guardian

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World-first trial of gene therapy to cure form of deafness begins

Summary: Researchers in the UK are recruiting up to 18 children from the UK, Spain, and the US to participate in a clinical trial for a gene therapy treatment meant to cure auditory neuropathy—a condition that disrupts nerve impulses that bring auditory signals from the inner ear to the brain, causing hearing loss or deafness.

Context: Participants in the trial will be monitored for five years to keep tabs on possible side effects and to see if their hearing actually improves as intended, though initial results will be shared in February; the gene mutation that causes this condition is difficult to detect in newborns, and the treatment basically gives afflicted patients a copy of a faulty gene that theoretically should allow their bodies to ameliorate the impact of that mutation, helping them process sound without requiring a cochlear implant or other external support technology; this is just one of many gene-related issues researchers think they might be able to help with using some type of gene therapy.

—Financial Times

Israel forms unity government and bombs Gaza in the wake of Hamas attack

Summary: The Israeli government has announce the creation of a “war management cabinet,” which they’re calling a unity government, composed of the leaders of the country’s two leading political parties, for the purpose of making military decisions in the wake of a sneak-attack by Islamist militant group Hamas over the weekend.

Context: The numbers in this conflict are grim, with about 1,200 Israelis confirmed killed in the initial attack by Hamas, about 3,000 Israelis wounded, and around 150 people kidnapped and currently held hostage in Gaza; it’s believed that nearly as many people have been killed by Israel’s counterattacks, so far, alongside more than 5,300 injured, the majority of them non-combatants, which was also the case with Israel’s casualties and fatalities—it’s mostly civilians suffering from this conflict on both sides, so far; this has become an incredibly touchy political and ideological topic for folks around the world, as Israel has kept Palestinians in Gaza basically locked in an open-air prison for 16-years, blockading and severely limiting them, and that’s brought support to Palestine, if generally not Hamas, the unelected extremist group that technically governs Gaza, while the majority of the world has declared its support for Israel, which has suffered from what many consider to be an unprovoked attack on innocent civilians; there are concerns that other parties, like Hezbollah, might get involved, further complicating and expanding the conflict, and the Israeli government has called up 360,000 reservists, which is just a staggering number, for what’s expected to be a brutal and grinding occupation of Gaza while they hunt down members of Hamas.

—The New York Times

US diners are booking dinner reservations earlier than they used to according to new data by Resy, and additional data (from the Future fitness app) indicates folks are moving their workouts earlier in the day, as well, suggesting that an overhaul of the average American’s day may be influencing eating and workout behaviors—a post-pandemic prioritization of work-life balance that’s allowing people to get more sleep (note: I’m glad to see it’s not just me opting for the early-bird-special lifestyle).

—Axios

$28.9 billion

Sum of back-taxes the IRS is seeking from Microsoft, according to a filing the agency released Wednesday.

That’s for penalties and interest on profits the company made between 2004 and 2013, and the company is expected to appeal this demand as long as they possibly can, even going to court over it if they need to because, well, that’s a lot of money.

—Forbes

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

Google will now make passkeys the default for personal accounts

Summary: After introducing passkeys as an option for logging into their services last May, Google is now making them the default login option for its users, marking a significant pivot away from using passwords for authentication.

Context: Passkeys allow users to log into web services by using their device’s build-in authentication methods, like PIN codes and face- and fingerprint-scanners, and then creating keys that allow the online account to confirm that a user is who they say they are (or bare-minimum, that they were able to log into the device being used to access that account); passkeys are generally considered to be better and more secure than passwords, as they’re less prone to phishing and hacking, and because they don’t require the memorization of a bajillion passwords for a bajillion different accounts; other tech companies are also attempting to pivot toward passkeys, but this is the first big move from a tech giant in that direction.

—Ars Technica

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Finland investigates suspected sabotage of Baltic-connector gas pipeline

Summary: Finland’s government has announced that damage to an underwater natural gas pipeline between them and Estonia, and one of their underwater telecom cables, was probably caused by “external activity,” and that they are in the process of investigating what happened.

Context: The subtext here is that this damage, which forced the shutdown of the pipeline in question, may have been caused by Russia, which previously threatened such infrastructure—the idea being that they may have struck this pipe and this cable as retribution for Finland joining NATO back in April; they currently think an explosion caused the damage, and though it still hasn’t been confirmed that this wasn’t just some kind of accident, it’s generally assumed that attacks on underwater infrastructure like data cables and pipelines may surge, as both hot and cold conflicts around the world increase in intensity, and all sides attempt to avoid doing anything too overt, but still act to hobble their perceived opposition in deniable ways whenever they’re able.

—BBC News

World’s largest offshore windfarm project starts powering UK grid

Summary: The first of 277 wind turbines in what will become the world’s largest offshore windfarm has gone online, providing clean, renewable electricity for British homes and businesses.

Context: This windfarm, which is located about 70 nautical miles off the coast of Yorkshire in the North Sea, and will generate about 3.6 gigawatts of electricity, which is enough to power about 6 million homes, when it’s finished in 2026; these newer-model turbines are enormous, each blade measuring more than 350-feet long (which is about 107 meters), and each rotation providing enough energy to power an average British home for two days; the UK government wants to fully decarbonize their electrical grid by 2035, though the opposition Labour party says they’re keen to achieve the same by 2030.

—The Guardian

Activity is dropping across the US consumer-goods sector, and that’s led to a stark drop in shipping container costs in the Pacific as manufacturers struggle to fill them with sellable goods.

—The Wall Street Journal

2040

Year by which NASA is planning to have build structures on the Moon, possibly using 3D printing techniques that will allow them to use regolith (Moon dust) as a core ingredient.

The agency recently announced a new $60 million investment in a space-based construction system that will, in theory, allow it to build buildings, rocket landing pads, and just about anything else they might need to make, all using concrete concocted from local materials.

—The New York Times

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

Liberians head to polls as President Weah seeks second term

Summary: Liberian President Weah is running for reelection following six years in office defined, in part, by allegations of corruption and widespread economic issues; his primary competitor, amongst a crowd of 19 candidates, is the former vice president Joseph Boakai, who Weah defeated once before in 2017, and who has said that the country needs to be rescued from Weah’s mismanagement; votes were cast yesterday, and about 2.4 million people registered to vote.

Context: Liberia is Africa’s oldest independent republic, but the country was torn apart by a civil war that ended two decades ago, and the scars of that conflict still inform policy, as many citizens want to see the establishment of a war crimes court that hasn’t yet been seriously addressed by Weah’s government, which was the first to be elected after 70 years without democratic change; Liberia’s economy grew by 5% last year, but about 52% of the population lives in poverty; 60% of Liberia’s population is under the age of 25, and many of the people who voted in this election were voting for the first time.

—Reuters

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Team Trump readies attacks on RFK Jr. as spoiler anxiety grows

Summary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced, yesterday, that he would be ending his campaign to run for US President as a Democrat, and would instead be running as an independent, raising concerns from both sides of the aisle that he could serve as a spoiler, pulling votes from Democrat and Republican candidates, alike.

Context: RFK Jr. has been floating the possibility of running for a while, now, and his opinions about all sorts of things—including his support for widely debunked conspiracy theories about microchips in vaccines, antidepressants causing autism and school shootings, and that the COVID-19 pandemic was engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people—has enlivened some portion of the electorate, while worrying pretty much everyone else, including his own family, who have denounced his presidential bid as “dangerous,” though other politicians seem mostly concerned that he could swipe some portion of their voter-base, with Democrats initially concerned because of his family name and support for some party positions, though recent surveys have shown that he is more likely to take voters from candidate Trump, if Trump does indeed become the Republican candidate, so Republican strategists have been going on the offensive and are in the process of deploying anti-RFK messaging across their communication channels.

—Semafor

Auto workers begin strike at GM plants in Canada, as talks continue

Summary: Workers at three General Motors facilities in Canada walked off the job yesterday morning, following failed attempts to reach a new contract agreement with their employer.

Context: Union representatives have said that progress was made, but that there is still a wide gulf between what they want and what the company higher-ups are willing to offer, so the more than 4,200 workers they represent are going into strike-mode; this follows a recent successful contractual negotiation with Ford last month, and is part of a larger trend of union-organized strikes throughout the automotive and other industries around the world right now.

—The Associated Press

As anticipated (and worried), the Chinese property giant Country Garden has announced that it will be unable to make an international debt payment, which means they’ll likely default, which in turn means the country’s real estate sector (in which the majority of Chinese citizens have invested their money) will continue to contract; the company was able to just barely avoid defaulting on a dollar bond payment last month, but it would seem that they won’t be able to manage the same, this time.

—The Wall Street Journal

300,000

Number of military reservists the Israeli government has drafted following an historic sneak-attack by Hamas last weekend.

That’s a staggering number of soldiers (more than have ever been called up in Israel before) considering the population of Israel and relatively small size of the area (the Gaza Strip) that will be (by all indications) invaded and held by the Israeli military.

—Reuters

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

Scalise, a McCarthy rival, seeks to unite Republicans in taking his place

Summary: The second highest-ranking Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, is mounting a formal bid to ascend to the recently vacated position of US House Speaker, replacing the former Speaker and his key rival, Kevin McCarthy.

Context: Scalise is seen as a deeply conservative House Representative, which some speculate could help him unify the more centrist members of the party, who tended to support McCarthy, and the further-right members—a small group that was able to oust McCarthy from his position with the help of Democrats who also voted against him; Scalise is well-known for his successful fundraising efforts, and he was marginalized under McCarthy, so this effort represents an attempt to unify the Republican House, while also retaking some of the influence he lost under the previous leadership; the other main contender for the role, Jim Jordan, has been endorsed for the position by Trump, and it’s expected that many of the far-right members of the party will support him over Scalise when they vote on Wednesday.

—The New York Times

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Gaza under ‘total blockade’ by Israel, refugee camp hit

Summary: Following an unprecedented sneak attack by Hamas militants into Israel on Saturday, the Israeli government declared war on the group, blockaded the Gaza Strip, called up military reserves for a counterattack, and has reinforced its borders with Lebanon on fears of opportunistic incursions from the north.

Context: This story, which has dominated headlines for days, is expected to continue to grow in scope and horribleness, as Hamas and Israeli military forces continue to strike each other and a whole lot of civilians caught in between with missiles and artillery fire, as Israeli hostages continue to be held by Hamas, and as official death tolls continue to increase; analysts and diplomats worry that this conflict could spiral, pulling neighboring and interested regional parties into the mix, and that concern has escalated with reports—from Hamas and several news entities—that Iran helped plan the attack.

—Al Jazeera

Death toll from flash floods in Indian Himalayas climbs to 74, rescue gathers pace

Summary: Flooding triggered by the bursting of a dam in the Himalayan region of India has caused at least 74 deaths with 101 people still missing days after the event.

Context: Search and rescue efforts have been hindered by damaged roads and other infrastructure, and thousands of people are sheltering in dozens of camps established for survivors; the bursting of the dam was apparently caused by rainfall that brought double the usual amount of water to the region in the first five days of October.

—Reuters

The International Monetary Fund has lent $43 billion to Argentina over the past five years, and that money hasn’t helped the country out of an ever-worsening debt- and inflation-spiral (its economy currently suffers from 124% inflation and it’s in the midst of a deep recession); Argentina is still getting more IMF money, though, and that’s partially the consequence of Argentina’s centrality to the larger South American economy.

—Bloomberg

$7,500

Tax credit US electric vehicle buyers will soon receive immediately following their purchase of an applicable vehicle.

That credit is currently slow to arrive, having to work its way through the IRS and only deposited following the filing of taxes.

This credit is part of the larger Inflation Reduction Act collection of renewables-related incentives, and was meant to be an instant rebate on EVs from the get-go, but figuring out how to implement the rebate system at the government agency level has been a ponderous process—so beginning in January it’ll be an immediate thing, but until then it’ll remain a fairly sluggish payout system.

—NPR News

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