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Chinas Fragile Social Compact - Foreign Policy (No paywall)
 Shopping malls have been the rage in China for decades, never falling out of fashion as some would say they did long ago in the country that invented them, the United States. Although a definitive count is hard to come by, in Shanghai alone, China’s largest city and one of its richest, there are said to be hundreds of malls, and I’ve been visiting them frequently since the early 2000s, when I lived in the city.
This might make malls an unlikely backdrop for an insight into ongoing social currents in the country, but that’s exactly what my dinner experience delivered to me on this night. First of all was the location. When I received the invitation, I immediately recognized the address, Middle Huaihai Road, in the city’s elegant former French Concession. And as I approached the place in a car hailed using an Uber-like app, I remembered the neighborhood as having once been home to one of the city’s biggest and most famous fake-goods markets. For decades, this was where airline crews and foreign visitors flocked to purchase knockoffs of Western luxury brands at rock-bottom prices, as well as pirated copies of DVDs of the latest Hollywood releases, among other goods.
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WorkAlabama High School Football Player Dies After Sustaining Head InjuryThe National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research reported 16 deaths of football players in 2023 across college, high school, middle school and youth leagues, three of which were traumatic brain injuries, including two in high school football and one in a youth league. All three of those deaths happened during games. The others were attributed to other medical conditions including heat stroke, cardiac arrest or a pulmonary embolism. Work
WorkWorkCows obstruct Nigeria's capital as climate change and development leave herders with nowhere to goABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At an intersection seven miles from the presidential villa, frustrated drivers honk as a herd of cattle feeds on the grass beautifying the median strip and slowly marches across the road, their hooves clattering against the asphalt. For the teenage herder guiding them, Ismail Abubakar, it is just another day, and for most drivers stuck in the traffic, it’s a familiar scene unfolding in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
WorkThe world's tiniest batteries could power robots the size of cellsA zinc–air microbattery, with a volume of just two picolitres (2×10-12l), can store an average of 7.7 microjoules of energy and deliver up to 2.7 nanowatts of power to electrical components, such as memristors, clock circuits and actuators. These high energy density batteries are simple to produce and the researchers say they could be made on a massive scale to power colloidal robots – microrobots that can move through liquids, such as blood, by themselves. WorkIceland police say 1 tourist dead, 2 missing in ice cave collapseReykjavik, Iceland — One person has died and two others were still missing a day after an ice cave collapsed in southeast Iceland while a tour group was visiting the area, police said Monday. A group of 25 people of "several nationalities" were on an organized tour of the glacier Breidamerkurjokull together with a guide, when the cave collapsed, police said in a statement.
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WorkHow Ukraine Beat Russia in the Black Sea “Here she comes,” said the drone operator. “Get ready to grab it.” From the shore we could see the vessel coming, its nose bobbing in the waves as it approached the naval base. A few soldiers stood beside me on the beach, squinting and sweating in the midday sun. One of them, a technician from Ukraine’s military intelligence service, waded into the water with a pair of rubber boots and let the machine float into his arms. Then he stroked it gently, like a doting father, and looked back to gauge my reaction. WorkJavier Milei is splurging on the army - The Economist (No paywall)Self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalists ought to be sceptical of large standing armies. President Javier Milei of Argentina seems to relish them. Even as he tightens the government purse, he has committed to raising defence spending from 0.5% of GDP to 2% over the next eight years. He vows to “restore the prestige” of the army and transform it into a hi-tech force.
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WorkRobert F. Kennedy, Jr., Steps Aside for Donald Trump - The New Yorker (No paywall)In early August, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., then an Independent candidate for President, posted a video of himself, on X, telling a story to Roseanne Barr about the time he picked up a dead bear on the road about ten years ago. Planning on skinning it and putting it in the refrigerator, he said, he placed it in the trunk of his car and kept it there during a dinner at Peter Luger Steak House, in Brooklyn. Afterward, he had to go to the airport, so he decided to take a detour to Manhattan’s Central Park to deposit the carcass alongside an old bicycle. The video only made sense as an attempt by Kennedy to get ahead of my Profile of him, which was scheduled to run the following day, and which included an admittedly less detailed version of Kennedy’s ursine antics. Work WorkWorkRudy Franchi, Who Put Movies at the Center of a Technicolor Life, Dies at 85Mr. Franchi was not a gadfly, per se, but he was the sort of person whose name was familiar in the letters-to-the-editor departments of newspapers, especially The New York Times. It published six of the many missives he sent in on topics like the foreign exchange rates of American Express traveler’s checks, a critique of Playbill magazine and a brief history of neon signs. WorkWorkOpinion | Inflation Is Fading, Statistically and PoliticallyNot necessarily. Surveys suggest that the political salience of inflation and the economy in general have been fading. It’s probably too late to convince voters that Democrats have done a good job managing the economy, even though that’s objectively the case — overall, America has outperformed other wealthy nations, achieving exceptionally high growth without exceptionally high inflation. But the economy is looking less and less like the, um, trump card Republicans were counting on. WorkApple to replace CFO Luca Maestri on Jan. 1Apple is not the only Silicon Valley giant experiencing a shake-up in finance. At Alphabet, Ruth Porat announced in July 2023 that she was leaving the CFO role to become president and chief investment officer. In June, the company finally announced a replacement, bringing in Anat Ashkenazi, who had been leading finance at Eli Lilly. A year before Porat\'s move was made public, Meta named Susan Li as CFO, replacing David Wehner, who was becoming chief strategy officer. WorkApple announces iPhone event for Sept. 9This year\'s version is called iOS 18, and will eventually include Apple Intelligence, a collection of artificial intelligence features for daily usage such as summarizing messages and generating cute images. However, Apple\'s recent developer preview signaled that Apple Intelligence features will likely launch shortly after Apple\'s hardware launch. WorkRescue effort at ice cave in Iceland ends after police say no one is missingThe crystal-blue ice cave of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier tongue has long been an attraction for tourists from around the world. It flows from Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest glacier. Historical accounts suggest the glacier tongue advanced towards the Atlantic Ocean until around the turn of the 19th century. According to the US Geological Survey, it has been in full retreat since about 1930. WorkTens of thousands fill streets on final day of Notting Hill carnivalA freedom of information request published by the Met police details the number of stabbings, both fatal and non-fatal, between 2017 and 2023. There were 10 stabbings last year, none of which was fatal. The peak was seen in 2019 when there were 18 stabbings. The lowest number of incidents, seven, was recorded in 2018 and 2022. WorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkTrump and Harris Embody a Stark Partisan Divide on Fighting PovertyMr. Trump says little about his role in pandemic-era poverty programs, which many Republicans view as having been excessive and fraud-ridden. Instead, he touts his 2017 tax cuts, which he credits for boosting the economy and reducing poverty to a prepandemic low, and he has vowed to extend them when they expire next year. Most of the direct benefit from those cuts went to corporations and the wealthy. WorkWorkWorkCheck out this week's auction block roundupOriginally published in 1910, this account of Theodore Roosevelt’s travels in Africa was signed by the late president. The two-volume book is worth an estimated $2,000 and will be available at a Doyle auction from August 27 through September 12. WorkRed Lobster's new owners found the next CEO at P.F. Chang'sRed Lobster, meanwhile, has struggled to stay afloat as food prices increased and interest in the chain dried up. It was hoping its all-you-can-eat shrimp deal would attract back its shrinking customer base, but the deal led to millions in losses as people took the “all-you-can-eat” edict more seriously than the chain hoped. WorkWorkThe WHO says it needs $135 million to fight MpoxBavarian Nordic and Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) are the makers of the only two vaccines that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends for Mpox. Their stocks have surged since the WHO declared an international public health emergency. WorkNvidia earnings are coming this week. Here's what to expectThe chipmaker beat Wall Street’s expectations in its first-quarter earnings, reporting revenue of $26 billion — a 262% increase from the previous year. Huang announced that Nvidia already has another chip coming after Blackwell, and added that it is “on a one-year rhythm,” for developing new chips. WorkThis week's most fabulous real estate listingsThis sprawling seven bedroom, seven bathroom Atlanta mansion is located in a luxurious gated community that offers a playground, a pool and a park. The 6,300 square foot property was first built in 2013 and includes a library, a sunroom and a top-of-the-line kitchen. Listed at $2,375,000, there will be an open house at 591 Park Drive NE, Atlanta on August 31. WorkSouthwest Airlines changes are too little too late, activist investor Elliott says“I know from personal experience that investors, when collaborative with leadership, can play a useful role in driving positive change,” he writes. “But realizing enduring change with long-term benefits is hard to achieve in this industry—and chasing a short-term bump in share price can trigger long-term negative implications for the brand, business, and culture. WorkTelegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in FranceAnother cryptocurrency, Notcoin, which operates on the TON blockchain and is recognized for its integration with Telegram’s crypto features, also faced a significant drop following Pavel Durov’s arrest. Notcoin is currently trading at approximately $0.009079, a 25% decrease since the arrest. WorkWorkWorkWorkIntel wants to stay ahead of activist investors as it struggles against NvidiaBut it’s looking to mount a turnaround. Earlier this month, Intel announced that it would embark on a plan to save $10 billion in 2025. That includes reducing its headcount by roughly 15,000 roles, or 15% of its workforce, as well as suspending its stock dividend and reducing capital expenditures by more than 20%. WorkWorkAmazon is telling its salespeople to trash talk Google, Microsoft, and OpenAIAmazon is reportedly working on an AI chatbot, internally called “Metis,” to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to Business Insider. The chatbot will be accessible through a web browser and will be powered by one of the company’s internal AI models, Olympus, Business Insider reports, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter and an internal document. Olympus is reportedly more powerful than Amazon’s publicly available AI model, Titan. WorkIn Russia, questions swirl over Telegram CEO's arrestMs Moskalkova made no mention of the Signal messaging app, to which the Russian authorities blocked access earlier this month, or YouTube, access to which has been severely limited now in Russia. Facebook and Instagram have already been blocked here. |
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