Heat Waves, Asbestos, Bankruptcy, & Grok Goes Public
March 19, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’ll be talking about the Middle East, Trump’s funding problem, North Korea’s missiles, a heat wave in South Sudan, asbestos, a craft retailer, and Grok.
Here’s some good news: the FBI returned a pair of the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz to Michael Shaw, the shoes’ original owner. The shoes were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in 2005 after Shaw loaned them to be displayed. Also, France became the first country in the world to place limits on fast fashion, including a ban on advertising for the cheapest textiles and an environmental charge on low-cost items. The penalties will help small businesses in France compete, and limit the waste making its way to landfills.
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” – Groucho Marx
A Grim Reality In Gaza
According to the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), run by the U.N. and other international charities, food shortages in the Gaza Strip have surpassed famine levels. The analysis shows that mass death due to food shortages is imminent, though the situation might be salvageable with a ceasefire and more aid.
The IPC found that 70% of people in parts of northern Gaza are facing the most extreme shortages. If Israel maintains the status quo in Gaza, the program projects these conditions to hit about half of Gaza’s population, or 1.1 million people. For comparison. Sudan, Somalia, and Afghanistan are also facing emergency levels of food insecurity, but nobody is facing the most extreme level of food shortages.
The Israeli military confirmed on Monday that it had carried out a raid on the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza. In a statement, Israel confirmed that the raid had killed “20 terrorists,” including Hamas’ head of internal security, Fa’aq Mabhouh. Al Jazeera has claimed that IDF forces had arrested and beaten one of its reporters on the scene. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that the IDF requested that patients be moved out of the hospital ahead of the raid.
This Billionaire Can’t Pay This Fee
Donald Trump’s lawyers are having a rough start to their week. The team disclosed yesterday that the presidential hopeful had failed to secure a roughly half-billion dollar bond for his New York civil fraud case after approaching 30 companies that provide appeal bonds. His lawyers called the task a “practical impossibility” despite “diligent efforts.” If he’s not able to pay by March 25, the court will move to seize his assets.
Trump needs to pay that $454 million fee in order to appeal the civil fraud case. The state will then hold the money until a judgment on his appeal is passed down, and then the cash will go back to Trump. The problem here is that the real estate mogul is not a cash mogul – most of his billions are invested in properties, which most bond companies will not accept as collateral. To offer Trump a bond of this magnitude, most companies would require him to offer over $550 million in cash, stocks, and bonds. The Don, unfortunately, has just $350 million in cash, according to analysis by the New York Times – he was recently cleaned out by a $91.6 million bond in his case against the writer E. Jean Carroll.
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More Prodding From Pyongyang
- On Monday, North Korea fired off a series of ballistic missiles into the water off its eastern coast in retaliation to recent South Korea-U.S. military drills that Pyongyang sees as a threat. Japan said the missiles landed outside of its economic exclusion zone in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the missile tests as a threat to the peace and safety of his country.
- According to analysis by both Japan and South Korea, Pyongyang’s short-range ballistic missiles travel roughly 300-350 kilometers (about 185-220 miles) horizontally, reaching a maximum height of roughly 50 kilometers (about 30 miles). Experts say that the missiles’ range means they’re likely to be used against major military facilities in South Korea, including the country’s centrally-located military headquarters, if a full-on conflict were to break out between the Koreas.
Too Hot For School
- Sure, you’ve heard of snow days, but have you heard of heat days? Thanks to global warming we might need to get better acquainted with the new phenomenon, as indicated by the current situation in South Sudan. A heat wave in the east African country has gotten so bad that schools have been forced to temporarily close down as temperatures are expected to hit 45C (113F).
- The monster heatwave is expected to last for two weeks, with the country’s health and education ministries telling parents to keep their kids inside during the sweltering conditions. The government has warned that any school found open during the heatwave will have its registration revoked. Some of the country’s schools aren’t connected to the power grid so fans and air conditioners aren’t an option, but the country has seen heat-related power outages in the past, so home might not even be much better.
More Mixed Nuts
- How Russia’s grab of Crimea 10 years ago led to war with Ukraine and rising tensions with the West (AP)
- China’s military, state media slam U.S. after Reuters report on SpaceX spy satellites (Reuters)
- Dozens of US citizens evacuate Haiti on first State Department charter flight (CNN)
- World’s largest solar manufacturer to cut one-third of workforce (Guardian)
- Gambia may become first nation to reverse female genital mutilation ban (CBS)
The EPA Got There, Eventually
- Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will ban chrysotile asbestos, the only ongoing use of asbestos in the United States. “With today’s ban, EPA is finally slamming the door on a chemical so dangerous that it has been banned in over 50 countries,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
- Chrysotile asbestos is used in brake linings, chlorine bleach, and caustic soda that’s sometimes used for water purification. Exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers – the new ban is also ideal for President Biden and his Cancer Moonshot initiative heading into election season.
Joann Is Jo-Out Of Money
- On Monday, fabric and crafts store Joann announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it expects to emerge from bankruptcy at the end of next month, and then become privately-owned.
- All of the stores and the company’s website will continue to operate normally during the transition. While the company is going to bounce back (hopefully), it’s yet another example of how spending habits from the pandemic are starting to change amid sky-high inflation in the country – crafty hobbies just aren’t at the top of the priority list anymore.
More Nuts In America
- Biden campaign cuts a digital ad using Trump’s ‘bloodbath’ remarks (Politico)
- Trump calls for Liz Cheney to be jailed for investigating him over Capitol attack (Guardian)
- Supreme Court rejects appeal by former New Mexico county commissioner banned for Jan. 6 insurrection (ABC)
- An outmaneuvered Lauren Boebert will face more obstacles in 2024 elections (Guardian)
- Father of Laken Riley addresses slain daughter’s legacy amid heated immigration debate (NBC)
Walk The Walk & Grok The Grok
- xAI has open-sourced Grok! If that sentence means literally nothing to you, congrats. For those of you who want to stare deeper into the abyss, xAI is an AI company owned by Elon Musk, and Grok is its large language model AI, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. The bot is also integrated with X (Twitter). Making Grok open source, then, means the company has released the AI’s “base model weights and network architecture” to the public, allowing researchers and developers to fiddle around and build out their own projects using Grok as the basis.
- While there are plenty of open-source AI models floating around the internet, Grok is the first open-source model from a major tech company – OpenAI and Google haven’t made ChatGPT or Gemini’s inner workings open to the public. Importantly, Grok’s open source data does not include the data used to train the AI or connections to X for real-time inputs, and xAI has noted that the model has received more training since the snapshot that this release is based on, a pre-training phase which was last updated in October 2023. Grok went live on Twitter in November 2023 after receiving more training.
More Loose Nuts
- Women pinned cougar during ‘hand-to-hand combat’ to save friend trapped in its jaws (NBC)
- Five injured in second bear attack in Slovakia in three days (Guardian)
- Family found centuries-old Japanese art stolen during WWII in their attic (NPR)
- The Amazon’s ancient complex of ‘lost cities’ flourished for a thousand years (NBC)
- Banksy confirms north London tree mural is his work (Guardian)
- RBG’s son fights decision to give Musk and Murdoch mother’s namesake award (Guardian)