Unions, AI, Coups, & Interplanetary Travel
January 10, 2025
Hello, readers – happy Friday! Today, we’ll be talking about labor strikes, AI, the Middle East, another attempted coup, hot housing markets, Big Tech showing love to Trump, and Mercury’s North Pole.
“Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
New Year, New Deals

We don’t want to jinx things, but it’s looking like 2025 might be the year of the labor union? Over the past few days, labor unions on both coasts claimed victory in separate disputes across two very different industries.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has been threatening to strike across East and Gulf Coast ports as the union tried to come to a deal with the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents port operators. While the terms of the new deal have not been released yet, the two parties said the new six-year contract “protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coasts ports.”
In Colorado, a new agreement between the Park City Ski Professional Ski Patrol Association workers and Vail Resorts (which owns Park City Mountain Resort) earned 200 ski patrollers a base $2/hour raise plus pay bumps for senior patrollers. The patrollers began their strike on Dec. 27 – peak ski season – which shut down large parts of Park City during a period that saw two feet of fresh snowfall at the resort.
The Lame Duck Locks Up AI
As the lights go out in the White House, the Biden administration is eager to enact wide-ranging AI controls. Washington is reportedly considering regulations that regulate where U.S.-made AI chips are sold, with the new rules being enacted as early as today.
Essentially, Biden (or his team) want American AI chips to only be sold to U.S. allies – the new regulations would allow Japan, most E.U. nations, and South Korea to buy up unlimited amounts of American chips, while about two dozen other countries (including – you guessed it – Russia and China) would be fully blocked from purchasing them. About 100 other countries will also be limited to purchasing set amounts of chips.
The ambitious new rules basically allow America to determine where AI data facilities are built (you need chips to build data centers), concentrating the important new infrastructure in the hands of a select few nations. Nvidia, which controls about 90% of the AI chip market, has already spoken out against the idea, saying that the regulations would push other nations to strengthen their own AI chipmakers, harming U.S. dominance in the industry.
The ICC Isn’t Real For Israel

- In case you haven’t got the memo yet, the International Criminal Court (ICC) can only prosecute international criminals when the U.S. approves of its decisions. Yesterday, the House passed a bill approving sanctions on ICC officials involved in prosecuting American nationals or citizens of U.S.-allied countries that aren’t member states of the ICC.
- We’ll spell it out for you here – with Ukraine becoming a member state on Jan. 1, the only U.S. ally that’s not a member of the ICC is Israel. House Republicans pushed a version of this bill soon after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prosecuted for crimes against humanity and war crimes late last year, but this time more Democrats voted in favor of the legislation. Now, the bill will head to the Republican-held Senate for approval. How do we think that will go?
- Speaking of the ICC warrant against Netanyahu, the Polish government also voted to disregard the decision yesterday. The country adopted a resolution to allow Netanyahu to travel freely into its borders without fear of arrest, letting him visit an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp later this month. While all this was going on, the death toll in Gaza passed 46,000, with 46,006 Palestinians killed and 109,378 more injured. More than half of the dead are women and children.
A Cautionary Tale
- Yesterday, the government of Chad announced that it had foiled a coup attempt on Wednesday night. Apparently, a group of would-be rebels wanted to overthrow the government while armed with only knives, attacking the Chadian presidential palace located in the capital city of N’Djamena.
- “Nineteen people died and six were injured, including 18 assailants and one soldier,” said Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah in an official statement yesterday. The group consisted of 24 knife-wielding people who were not in their right minds, literally – “We found that they had a lot of alcohol, small bottles of water filled with alcohol. It looks like whiskey or something like that. Also some drugs, they were completely drugged, at least the survivors,” added Koulamallah.
More Mixed Nuts
- Imprisoned Belarus activist resurfaces after being incommunicado for over 700 days (NPR)
- France charges founder of website used by Dominque Pelicot (Guardian)
- Six dead in Indian temple stampede as free passes draw crowd of thousands (NBC)
- UK foreign policy chief says Trump is right to urge higher military spending from NATO (AP)
- Zelenskyy and Austin say military aid to Ukraine must continue under Trump (AP)
- China: Beijing bets on rice cookers and microwaves to boost economy (BBC)
Where Not To Buy A House In 2025
- Zillow released its annual ranking of the hottest housing markets in the country. They rank the areas that are “starved for housing inventory,” which are typically places that are relatively affordable with strong job and wage growth. Buffalo, New York, took the top spot this year, its second year in a row at the top.
- Hartford, Connecticut, and Richmond, Virginia, are seeing their houses selling at record speeds. Meanwhile, San Francisco, California, and Memphis, Tennessee have lost a bit of their heat over the last year as homes are on the market for longer and selling for lower prices.
Big Tech Continues To Write Big Checks
- Over the weekend, Ann Telnaes, a cartoonist from the Washington Post, resigned after the publication blocked her cartoon depicting media and tech leaders bowing down to President-elect Trump. In totally unrelated news, Google and Microsoft have joined Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, and Uber in donating to Trump’s inaugural fund.
- Google will also livestream the inauguration. José Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, told the outlet that the company has donated to previous inauguration funds and previously hosted livestreams of inauguration ceremonies, and Microsoft also noted that it has contributed to past inaugurations as well.
More Nuts In America
- Biden nixes trip to meet the pope because of LA fires (Politico)
- Video shows Mayor Karen Bass refuse to answer L.A. fires questions as she returns from trip abroad (NBC)
- Fire hydrants ran dry in Southern California just when they were needed most (AP)
- Alito spoke with Trump hours before court filing on hush-money sentencing (Axios)
- Mexico’s president claps back at Trump, suggests new name for U.S. — America Mexicana (NBC)
- Trump talks with Barack Obama, shakes hands with Mike Pence during Carter funeral (ABC)
Bringing BepiColombo Home
- Sometimes (very rarely), group projects actually end in success! Here’s one example: yesterday, the BepiColombo spacecraft – a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) – made its final flyby of Mercury, giving humanity its clearest photos of the Swift Planet.
- BepiColombo, named after Italian mathematician Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo, was launched in 2018. Its mission is to perform a deep study of Mercury, including photographs, mappings of its magnetic and gravitational fields, and analysis of its interior and surface structures.
- Now, the craft is ready to enter the next stage of its mission: sitting in Mercury’s orbit. It’s expected to lock in its position in orbit by November of next year, and will carry out its analysis of the planet’s structure from that vantage point. Its flybys were all made with the goal of locking into orbit, and the cool photos (you can view more here) were just a happy byproduct of that trip.
More Loose Nuts
- Don’t eat your Christmas trees, Belgium’s food agency warns (Politico)
- Royal treasures hidden since World War II recovered from cathedral (CNN)
- Million year-old bubbles could solve ice age mystery (BBC)
- Bitcoin miner’s claim to recover £600m in Newport tip thrown out (BBC)
- Belcastro, Calabria: Italian town bans residents from falling ill (CNN)
- Colorful blocks from Queen Hatshepsut’s temple uncovered in Egypt (Yahoo)