The Middle East, Rice, Childcare, & Motorized Pants

August 1, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Thursday! Today, we’ll be talking about how VP Harris is doing, the Middle East, violence in the U.K., rice, childcare, interest rates, and motorized pants.

Here’s some good news: Illinois passed a law this week that prohibits employers from holding mandatory meetings to discuss company views on religion or politics, and specifically unions. Also, the city of South Pasadena announced plans to replace all its gasoline-powered police cruisers with electric cars.

“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” – Laozi

A Peek At The Polls

(Kamala Harris by Win McNamee via Getty Images

The Kamala campaign is in full swing as we approach the Democratic National Convention in mid-August. Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is expected to reveal her vice presidential running mate at a campaign rally in Philadelphia next Tuesday. Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania is speculated to be her first choice, but Tim Walz of Minnesota, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are all apparently on Harris’ shortlist.

Harris is currently slightly ahead of Trump in national polls, leading the former president by just one percentage point. Harris is also gathering some momentum on the funding front. On Wednesday, a group of over 100 venture capitalists voiced their voting and financial support for Harris. Their solidarity is a clear response to the big names from the normally left-leaning area announcing their support for Trump recently.

Trump, for his part, has made some … interesting statements in the press. In a Fox News interview, he said that Harris, if elected, would “be like a play toy” to other world leaders. “They look at her and they say we can’t believe we got so lucky. They’re gonna walk all over her. I don’t want to say as to why, but a lot of people understand it.” During an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference yesterday, Trump claimed that Harris used to identify as Indian, and then, “all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she became a Black person.”

Not Hallelujah, It’s Raining Missile Strikes

Yesterday, we wrote about the escalating situation in Israel. Somehow, tensions managed to ratchet up even further overnight. In a pre-dawn missile strike on Wednesday, Israel’s military killed Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in the Iranian capital of Tehran.

Iran’s supreme leader has already vowed revenge for the strike. Haniyeh had just attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president earlier on Tuesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country “will exact a very heavy price from any aggression against us on any front,” without specifically mentioning Iran’s revenge threat.

The violence didn’t stop there. On Tuesday, after another Israeli strike killed a top commander of Hezbollah, a U.S. “defensive airstrike” hit targets in Iraq, with U.S. officials claiming that the missiles hit “combatants attempting to launch one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems” which “posed a threat to U.S. and Coalition Forces.” Yesterday, an Israeli missile hit a car with two Al Jazeera journalists inside it, killing both. This means 113 media workers have been killed since the conflict’s beginning.

A Misinformed Mob

(Protest aftermath by Owen Humphreys via Getty Images)

On Monday, a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop held in the British town of Southport was the site of a mass stabbing incident. Three children were killed in the incident, and 10 others were injured. Following the stabbing, rumors swirled that the perpetrator was an illegal immigrant who had come to the U.K. via a boat. Authorities quickly responded that they’d arrested a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales in relation to the incident – the BBC claims that his parents were originally from Rwanda.
While the suspect might be a natural-born British citizen, that hasn’t stopped right-wing anti-migrant sentiment from bubbling over. Riots sprung up in Southport on Tuesday, with the crowd shouting “we want our country back” and breaking windows at a local mosque. After setting fire to a few more things and looting a nearby shop, they clashed with police. At least fifty-three officers were injured in the riots, which ended with just five people put behind bars. Two of those arrestees were not from the Southport area.

Rice Is Not On The Rise

If you’ve paid attention to our writing about global temperatures, you would know that it’s been a hot couple of years across the globe. Unfortunately, heat isn’t so good for growing rice, and Japan’s private sector rice stockpiles have declined by 20% compared to last summer. In June, the country recorded just 1.56 million tons of rice in private stores, marking the lowest rice stocks since 1999, when Japan first started collecting rice data.
“The chief reasons behind the record-low inventory is a decline in production last year due to high temperatures combined with water shortages, and the relative cheapness of rice prices compared to prices of other crops such as wheat,” said Japan’s farm ministry official Hiroshi Itakura. “The increase in demand by foreign tourists has also contributed,” he added, noting that “we are not in a situation of facing shortages of rice.”

More Mixed Nuts

No Child Left Uncared For

Bipartisan legislation was revealed in the Senate yesterday that would make childcare more accessible for low- and middle-income families. Part of the bill, introduced by Dem. Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Sen. Katie Britt, would increase the size of the child and dependent care tax credit to $2,500 for families with one child and $4,000 for families with multiple children. It would also make the credit refundable, giving more money to low-income families.
On the other end of the issue, the package would try to entice childcare workers to stay in their jobs. The median annual pay for childcare workers in the U.S. in 2023 was $30,370, according to the Bureau of Labor, but the legislation would introduce a new grant program to help supplement that salary. Between 1990 and April 2024, the cost of daycare and preschool rose 263%, according to tax firm KPMG.

The Rate Remains

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged at a 23-year high of 5.3%, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that, if inflation continues to fall, “a reduction in our policy rate could be on the table” at the September meeting.
The Fed hasn’t done a rate cut in four years, but lower rates should reduce borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including mortgage and auto-loan rates. They’d also be great for Vice President Harris’ campaign.

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A Couple Racks For Robot Legs

Nancy Sinatra’s boots might have been made for walking, but Arc’teryx’s new motor-powered pants were specially made for hiking. The “high performance” outdoor apparel company has opened up purchases for its MO/GO pants, which feature lightweight electric motors at each knee. The motors, which attach to the wearer’s legs via carbon-fiber braces hidden under the pants, are supposed to help hikers push their way uphill with less effort, and will also absorb impacts as they walk downhill.
The MO/GO pants are a collaborative effort between Arc’teryx and Skip, a mobility company spun off from Google’s “moonshot” research and development arm. According to Skip, the pants will make hikers feel about 30 pounds lighter than they actually are, and can adjust to each user’s gait and leg movements. Unsurprisingly, buying a pair of robot-powered specialty hiking pants won’t be cheap. A single pair will cost you $5,000 when they’re released in late 2025, though you can snag an “Early Bird Discount” when you preorder the cyborg pants for $99 – that commitment will bring the price down to just $4,500. What a steal!

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