A China Trip, College Athletes, & Very Specific Tempos
April 9, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’ll be talking about Janet Yellen’s trip to China, ceasefire talks, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the Vatican wading into LGBTQ+ rights, a grant for chips, a ban on trans athletes, and Chechnya’s very particular music rules.
Here’s some good news: Russ Cook became the first person to run the entire length of Africa. The journey took him over 352 days. Also, President Biden announced his new plan to eliminate student loan debt. He promised “up to $20,000 in interest relief to over 20 million borrowers” and “full forgiveness for millions more.”
“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” – John Steinbeck
She’s Yellen, But Are They Listenin’?
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is wrapping up a trip to China this week, her second in the past nine months. Over four days, she visited with business and political leaders in Guangzhou and Beijing, handled some tough policy points, and wowed locals with her appreciation for Chinese cuisine and chopstick skills.
Yellen made sure to emphasize the issues with Beijing overproducing important goods like electric vehicles and solar panels, effectively flooding the market with a surplus of the products. “China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity,” Yellen said on Monday. “Actions taken by the PRC today can shift world prices. And when the global market is flooded by artificially cheap Chinese products, the viability of American and other foreign firms is put into question.”
The Treasury Secretary also stressed that Chinese firms might face “significant consequences” if they send support to Moscow. On her last day in China, Yellen pushed for a continued dialogue between the U.S. and China, noting that the two countries are on “stronger footing today than this time last year.” While posturing from both Beijing and Washington indicates they are preparing for a conflict in the near future, hopefully this renewed commitment to diplomacy will keep things cool.
A Tough Conversation In Cairo
While diplomacy has somewhat worked to cool U.S.-China tensions over the past year, things aren’t working so well between Israel and Hamas. The two parties are deadlocked in peace talks being held in Cairo as Israel continues to prepare for its invasion of Rafah, where millions of Gazans have been pushed by the IDF’s ground invasion.
On Monday, a senior Hamas official said that his group had rejected an Israeli ceasefire proposal because the deal didn’t include an end to Israel’s military occupation of Gaza. U.S. officials are pushing to see 40 Israeli hostages held by Hamas released to Israel in exchange for a six-week ceasefire. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing to beat the drums of war, saying, “This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” The U.S. and international aid groups say that such an invasion would be a disaster for the city’s current population of over one million people.
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Please Do Not Attack The Nuclear Power Plant
- On Sunday, multiple drones attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the drones detonated at three locations around the plant, but only caused “superficial scorching,” not structural damage. Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for carrying out the strikes, but it’s unclear who actually attacked the plant.
- “Attempts by the Ukrainian armed forces to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant continue,” said the Russian forces currently in control of the plant. “A kamikaze drone was shot down over the plant. It fell on the roof of unit 6.” On the other hand, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military said that Russia had conducted a false-flag attack on the facility “with drones, pretending that the threat to the plant and nuclear safety is incoming from Ukraine.” Either way, the IAEA says the shenanigans need to stop. “Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately,” said the director general of the agency.
The Holy See Sows Division
- Well, you know what they say – “when in Rome, get in the middle of a political debate.” The Vatican has decided to dive into controversy head-first this week, publishing a missive “on human dignity.” In the document, the Catholic Church discusses surrogacy, gender theory, and abortion – and deems them all “grave threats” to the human condition, according to the word of the Gospel.
- Entitled “Infinite Dignity,” the document says that God “has imprinted the indelible features of his image on every person.” The text describes gender theory as “cultural colonization” against people trying to live in more traditionalist manners; it also claims that “the practice of surrogacy violates the dignity of the child,” who “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”
More Mixed Nuts
- Rwandan leader blames the world’s inaction as it commemorates the 1994 genocide with lingering scars (NBC)
- Israel kills Hezbollah field commander in Lebanon, UN urges halt to fighting (Reuters)
- At least 94 dead in Mozambique after unlicensed ferry boat capsizes, official says (CNN)
- Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted Western ships (NBC)
- Elon Musk faces Brazil inquiry after defying X court order (Guardian)
Middle East Mixed Nuts
- Palestinians returning to Khan Younis after Israeli withdrawal find an unrecognizable city (AP)
- Nicaragua urges top UN court to halt German military aid to Israel because of its assault in Gaza (AP)
The Chips Must Flow (Into America)
- Student loan debt forgiveness wasn’t the only major investment Biden announced this week. The White House announced a $6.6 billion grant yesterday for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to construct a third chip factory in addition to two already underway in Phoenix, Arizona. TSMC will produce its 3nm chips, the industry’s most advanced semiconductor technology right now, at the facility.
- Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, “These are the chips that underpin all artificial intelligence, and they are the chips that are necessary components for the technologies that we need to underpin our economy, but frankly a 21st-century military and national security apparatus.” The Commerce Department said TSMC’s new, third plant will start production by 2030, with the other two expected in 2028.
Thanks, NAIA, Nobody Asked
- Yesterday, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics approved a policy that says only students who were assigned female at birth could compete in women’s sports. The vote was 20-0. NAIA President Jim Carr said that they “believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA.” “You’re allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete,” he explained.
- The NAIA is the national athletic governing body for 249 mostly small colleges (about 80% private schools) and is not part of the NCAA’s three divisions of competition. “Each NAIA sport includes some combination of strength, speed and stamina, providing competitive advantages for male student-athletes. As a result, the NAIA policy for transgender student-athletes applies to all sports except for competitive cheer and competitive dance, which are open to all students,” the group said in a statement.
Editor’s note: South Carolina lost to Iowa in last year’s semifinals, not LSU.
More Nuts In America
- Trump legal team appeals gag order and venue one week before hush money trial is set to begin (CNN)
- Engine cover of Southwest Airlines plane comes off during takeoff (NBC)
- Missouri death row inmate’s attorneys ask supreme court to block execution (Guardian)
- Speaker Johnson faces Ukraine aid dilemma and a threat to his job as Congress returns (NBC)
- Trump says abortion is up to the states, declines to endorse national limit (Politico)
Heritage Is When You Don’t Listen To House Music
- Chechnya has essentially pulled a “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” with their music laws. Last Friday, the Russian republic announced that all musical, vocal, and choreographic compositions in the region must have a tempo between 80 and 116 beats per minute moving forward – not too fast, not too slow, it’s juuuust right. This means that most pop and techno will be banned in the region.
- “(I) have announced the final decision, agreed with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, that from now on all musical, vocal and choreographic works must correspond to a tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute,” said Minister of Culture Musa Dadayev in a statement on Friday. Under the new rule, he said, music in the region will now align with the“Chechen mentality and musical rhythm,” aiming to bring “to the people and to the future of our children the cultural heritage of the Chechen people.”
More Loose Nuts
- Maps show where trillions of cicadas will emerge in the U.S. this spring (CBS)
- A frozen lake and several Lamborghinis provide lessons on traction control (Ars Technica)
- Many cancer drugs remain unproven 5 years after accelerated approval, study finds (NBC)
- Tesla heads to court after Apple engineer’s family says Autopilot caused his fatal crash (CNN)
- Vince McMahon to Sell $311M in TKO Stock to the Company and Endeavor (Hollywood Reporter)