Real-Life “Succession,” TikTok, A Submersible, & Big Tech’s Emissions

September 17, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’ll be talking about Germany’s immigration, the Murdoch succession struggle, Russia’s military, an E.U. resignation, two big courtroom moments, and Big Tech’s emissions. 

Here’s some good news: the World Health Organization has granted its first authorization for use of a vaccine against mpox in adults. Also, over the weekend, the U.S. Navy commissioned its first coed submarine.

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw

Berlin Builds Up Its Walls

Germany has enacted new controls on its land borders to (hopefully) convince voters that it’s taking the issue of immigration seriously. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has faced increased pressure to shut down immigration (especially from majority-Muslim countries), and a recent stabbing attack has proved to be a tipping point for the country.

The new border restrictions will give German officials the power to stop any person from entering the country via its border crossings to supposedly help Berlin clamp down on Islamic terrorism and cross-border crime. Unfortunately for Scholz’s government, its new plan has already garnered criticism from Germany’s European neighbors – the border controls will restrict movement through the border-free Schengen Zone, and are expected to push migrants into other E.U. member nations.

Poland has promised to push back on the border clampdown, and Greece and Austria have already warned that they won’t be taking in those rejected by German border guards. Germany’s Council for Migration said, “The current policy goal of turning back (migrants) seeking protection at Germany’s borders represents a dangerous form of populism in the migration policy debate.” 

Fox Family Airs Out Its Drama

The Fox family is falling apart! 93-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his heirs are headed to court to determine the fate of the Murdoch empire. Murdoch, who owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, the Australian, and the New York Post, wants to amend his trust to give his entire media portfolio to Lachlan Murdoch (the eldest boy!), while his other children are fighting against any changes to the document that would split control among four siblings.

Lachlan is as right-wing as his father (so, very). That’s why he’s been selected as chairman of News Corp. (the Murdoch empire’s print arm) and the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox (which owns the 20th Century Fox film studio and the Fox television network). There are other siblings who will get a financial slice of the pie once their father passes away, but only four children are set to gain voting rights in the Murdoch trust. If the three decide to vote against Lachlan’s interest, his control of the empire would disappear, a development that his father is clearly against. It’s currently unclear how exactly this courtroom/family drama will play out, as Lachlan isn’t rich enough to buy out all his siblings and they clearly have no intentions of giving up their voting rights.

The Opposite Of Mindless Scrolling

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• Brilliant puts next-level concepts at your level, from math and data analysis to programming, AI, and beyond. The challenges are so fun, you’ll feel like you’re playing your favorite mobile game. 
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Putin More People At Risk

• Last week, we wrote about a series of events that pointed to Russia’s willingness to escalate its military campaign against Ukraine. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that willingness by ordering his military to expand its ranks by 180,000 troops. The new infusion of personnel is expected to take effect by December, and will see Russia’s ranks balloon to over 1.5 million troops.
• Two years into the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Moscow has called for just two mobilization drives – the first in August 2022 saw the Kremlin expand its military by 137,000 men up to 1.15 million troops; the second, in December 2023, grew the military’s ranks by 170,000 to 1.32 million. This begs the question of how many men Russia has lost during the conflict: while Moscow hasn’t published casualty numbers since September 2022, Germany and the U.K. estimate that the Kremlin has suffered over 610,000 casualties.

That’s One Way To Quit Your Job

• A top member of the European Union’s executive branch turned in his resignation letter on Monday. Thierry Breton, the now-former Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union, said that his resignation was due to chronic mismanagement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the fact that the president had tried to backstab him by secretly looking for a new French official to fill his position. Breton then decided it was a good idea to post his resignation letter to X, a move we wouldn’t recommend to any of our readers. 
• In his post, Breton said von der Leyen’s attempt to replace him was “further testimony to questionable governance — I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College.” “A few days ago, in the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name — for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me — and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College,” he added. I guess he won’t be listing von der Leyen as a reference for his next job application.

More Mixed Nuts

• Strongest typhoon since 1949 hits Shanghai and knocks out power to some homes (AP)
• A Sao Paulo mayoral candidate is treated in hospital after a rival attacks him with a chair (ABC)
• Tanker ablaze for weeks after Yemen rebel attack is successfully towed to a safe area without any oil spill, EU says (ABC)
• US imposes sanctions, visa bans on Georgians over protest crackdowns (Reuters)
• More than 200 inmates escape Nigerian prison in aftermath of flooding (Guardian)
• Man who wore ‘seditious’ T-shirt is first to be convicted under new Hong Kong national security law (NBC)

Middle East Mixed Nuts

• Top Biden Aide Visits Israel Amid Fears of Escalation With Hezbollah (NYT, $)
• Israeli airstrikes kill 16 in Gaza, including 4 children, Palestinians say (AP) 
• Columnists resign from the Jewish Chronicle over allegations Gaza articles were fabricated (AP)

Fighting For The For You Page

• There were two pretty significant courtroom moments yesterday in the U.S., so let’s take a look at them both. For starters, TikTok tried to defend itself against attempts to ban it in the country. Representatives for the app argued that only some of the code that powers it is written in China, while most of it is written in the U.S. 
• This case isn’t just about TikTok (though with 170 million users, that’s no small issue either). It could give the government newfound power over all foreign-owned platforms that it determines to be a national security risk. If TikTok loses, the company will be required to find a new owner by mid-January.

Terse Titan Testimonials

• Also yesterday, the lead engineer for the Titan submersible, which imploded on its way to the ocean’s depths to look at the wreckage of the Titanic, testified that he felt pressured to finish the vessel even when it was clearly not ready. He also said that he told Stockton Rush, co-founder of the OceanGate company that owned the Titan submersible, “I’m not getting in it.”
• A lawsuit by the family of one of the victims argued that the Titan’s message “dropped two wts” was an indication the crew might have known something was wrong and were trying to abort the mission. However, the Marine Board of Investigation revealed yesterday that another message, “all good here,” was sent six seconds before contact with the vessel was lost. 

More Nuts In America

• 2 retired FDNY chiefs arrested for alleged corruption (ABC)
• FBI examining threats targeting Haitians at Springfield, Ohio, college (Axios)
• Elon Musk deletes post questioning the Trump assassination attempt (CNN)
• A state’s experience with grocery chain mergers spurs a fight to stop Albertsons’ deal with Kroger (ABC)
• Will 988 call the police? Data suggests 1% of mental health crisis calls get “involuntary” rescues (CBS)

Big Data, Big Emission Deflation

• According to a recent analysis by Guardian, greenhouse gas emissions from data centers owned by Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple are likely to be 662% higher than the official numbers reported by the tech giants. By analyzing the power consumed by each company’s data centers, the outlet was able to figure out the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced from 2020 to 2022. The numbers are 7.62 times higher than official numbers thanks to some… questionable climate accounting processes which are, for some reason, perfectly legal (for now). 
• While all of the companies listed above have claimed to be carbon-neutral, the Guardian’s numbers show that they’re anything but. The biggest reason for this discrepancy between real-world emissions and official numbers is a little concept called renewable energy certificates, or RECs. RECs work like this: Google, as it uses up one megawatt-hour of coal-powered electricity at a data center in Ohio, could buy up one megawatt-hour of solar-powered electricity produced at a plant in Texas. The REC it receives for that exchange shows that the megawatt-hour of electricity used in Ohio was “net-zero” because Google had paid for a “clean” equivalent somewhere else. The problem with this is that the emissions from the coal plant in Ohio aren’t actually canceled out by the transaction – the pollution is still hovering above Akron.
• Without RECs, Apple’s real-world emissions were 2.2 times the company’s officially reported numbers, Microsoft and Google’s were 1.4 times the official amount, and Meta’s were 1.9 times higher. However, the biggest tech company in terms of emissions was Amazon, which has much higher emissions than its peers due to its delivery and cloud computing services. The Seattle-based e-commerce company was responsible for over twice the amount of carbon emissions created by Apple, the second-biggest polluter on the list.

More Loose Nuts

• Tito Jackson dead at 70, ‘heartbroken’ children confirm (ABC)
• This Brain Implant Lets People Control Amazon Alexa With Their Minds (Wired, $)
• The return-to-office wars have diminished workplace well-being—especially for these groups (Yahoo)
• The 163-year-old company that built the Titanic says it is insolvent (CNN)
• Scientists Crack a 50-Year Mystery to Discover a New Set of Blood Groups (Wired, $)

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Team Thoughts

Kayli – I’m very conflicted about the TikTok ban…on the one hand, I know it’s probably risky, but on the other hand, it’s so fun.

Marcus – If you haven’t noticed, the centrist leaders of both France and Germany have both made some significant concessions to their respective right-wing rivals over the past few weeks. No judgment here, just an observation.