Trump vs. Harris, Australia vs. Social Media, & Bats vs. Cheetos
September 11, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’ll be talking about the debate, the Middle East, social media laws in Australia, diplomacy with China, Melania’s thoughts on the assassination attempt on Trump, Bank of America’s wages, and bats fighting the insurgence of…Cheetos.
Here’s some good news: On Sunday, Pope Francis ventured deep into the jungle of the Southwestern Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea to deliver medical supplies to the people living there. Also, almost two-thirds of big wind and solar plants under construction globally are in China. Beijing is on track to meet its own 2030 goal to install 1,200 GW of wind and solar by this month (six years early).
If you’re interested in learning some fun animal facts, check out ZeFrank’s YouTube channel. His latest video on snakes is one of our favorites!
“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” – Bruce Feirstein
Debate Day Takeaways
Last night was the second presidential debate of 2024 (the first between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump). The debate was Harris’ first appearance as her party’s nominee, while it marked Trump’s seventh appearance on a general election debate stage.
Harris’ policy goals include enshrining federal abortion protections, expanding the child tax credit, and cutting taxes for the middle class while raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations. Trump, meanwhile, highlighted his plan to raise tariffs on imports, clamp down on the border, cut U.S. spending on foreign conflicts, and increase support for fossil fuels. Two areas where Trump struggled were abortion and January 6: he declined to say if he would block a federal abortion ban if Congress passed one, and dodged multiple questions about his involvement in the January 6 uprising.
Now on to the fun part: the jabs. Trump attacked Harris’ shifting political positions. “In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat,” he said at one point, which made his opponent laugh out loud. He also tried to frame her as a “Marxist” multiple times and questioned why she hadn’t accomplished any of her policy goals while acting as Biden’s second in command. Harris also came out swinging, saying her time as vice president was spent “cleaning up Donald Trump’s mess,” and that other political leaders see Trump as a “disgrace.” Her biggest hit seemed to be when she took a swing at Trump’s campaign rallies, saying, “people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.” Trump apparently felt the need to deny that. “She can’t talk about that. People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” he said.
In maybe the biggest presidential news from last night, Taylor Swift said she would be voting for Kamala Harris soon after the debate.
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Aussies Against iPad Kids
- Looking for a way to get your kid off that iPad? Maybe it’s time to move to the land down under. Australia is planning to implement a minimum age limit for social media use, barring children and teenagers from accessing social media platforms due to concerns about mental and physical health. Kids would be blocked from (legally) accessing social media sites until they’re in their mid-teens, though the government hasn’t fully decided on a cutoff age as of yet.
- “I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts,” said center-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm.” Digital rights advocates and government agencies are worried about the move – Australia’s internet regulatory agency said that “restriction-based approaches may limit young people’s access to critical support” and force them to interact via “less regulated non-mainstream services.”
China’s Tryna Link Up
- For the first time in years, the U.S. military’s top commander in the Indo-Pacific region got on a phone call with his counterpart from China. Adm. Samuel Paparo, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, met with Gen. Wu Yanan, the commander of China’s Southern Theater, on Monday. According to the Chinese Ministry of Defense, the two “exchanged in-depth views on issues of common interest,” with the White House adding that Paparo emphasized the need to “reduce the risk of misperception or miscalculation” between the two superpowers.
- A day later, China linked up with one of its closer friends, hosting naval and air drills with Russia across the globe. The drills are part of the Ocean-24 exercise, which will continue until next Monday. The exercises are being held in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Mediterranean, Caspian, and Baltic Seas, and will involve 400 warships, submarines, and other vessels, over 120 planes and helicopters, and about 90,000 troops.
More Mixed Nuts
- More than 127 dead in Vietnam super typhoon (BBC)
- Ex-partner accused of fatally burning Olympian dies from injuries sustained in attack (NBC)
- Tony Blair urges leaders to ignore ‘waves of populist opinion’ (NPR)
- Swiss city councilor apologizes for firing gun at a Mary and Jesus poster (AP)
- Apple must pay $14 billion tax bill to Ireland, EU court rules (Axios)
Be Best (& Question The Secret Service)
- After being mostly unseen on the campaign trail, former First Lady Melania Trump has taken to social media to question the official accounts of the assassination attempt on her husband, former President Trump. She said, “I can’t help but wonder why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech? There is definitely more to this story. And we need to uncover the truth.”
- Melania had released a written statement in the wake of the shooting thanking those who helped to protect her husband and calling on the country to unite – “America, the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one,” she wrote at the time. Her recent statement is likely to feed into conspiracy theories that have surrounded the attempt since it took place.
Waging A Wage War
- Bank of America announced yesterday that it will begin paying at least $24 an hour, up from $23 an hour, to tellers and other hourly workers starting next month. Bank of America’s wages have gone up significantly since the before times – in 2019, the starting hourly pay was $15.
- They’re the latest in a series of big banks that have instituted wage hikes in an attempt to attract employees. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that banks will need to fill some 27,000 teller positions every year for the next decade. Meanwhile, BofA’s CEO Brian Moynihan’s most recent compensation package was valued at $29 million.
More Nuts In America
- Speaker Johnson pushes ahead on funding bill with proof of citizenship mandate despite dim prospects (AP)
- Wildfires ravage California and Nevada amid heatwave, prompt evacuations and power outages (NBC)
- JD Vance spreads debunked claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets (NPR)
- Harris Ad Features Obama’s Oblique Joke About Trump and Crowd Sizes (NYT, $)
- RFK Jr. must be removed from North Carolina ballots, state Supreme Court rules (NBC)
Taking “Dangerously Cheesy” To A New Level
- Who would win: a cave system full of bats or an open bag of cheese-flavored corn snacks? Apparently, it’s the Cheetos. According to a post by New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park last week, a cave ecosystem in the park was thrown off balance by a bag of Cheetos left behind by a park visitor.
- “At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world changing,” said the park in a very maudlin Facebook post. “The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi,” park officials wrote. “Cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organize into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Molds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues.”
- Apparently, bringing anything into the caves other than plain water can attract outside animals into the usually isolated caverns, introducing diseases that can prove deadly for the hundreds of thousands of bat species that call the caves home. Park rangers spent 20 minutes cleaning up the dangerous mess.
More Loose Nuts
- SpaceX launches a billionaire to conduct the first private spacewalk (AP)
- Japanese eels can escape predators’ stomach through their gills, finds study (Guardian)
- Pope Francis’ Mass in one of world’s most Catholic nations gathers almost half its population (CNN)
- Pathogenic microbes blown vast distances by winds, scientists discover (Guardian)
- If you can walk fast, you’ll probably run fast: The science of running faster (BBC)
