Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’re talking about Starbucks at the Supreme Court, foreign aid, what’s going on with Haiti, New Delhi’s trash fire, the Baltimore bridge collapse, noncompete clauses, and what we consider “old age.”
Here’s some good news: California has announced a new plan to transform more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release. Also, NASA announced it’s managed to get meaningful information back from the Voyager 1 probe after months of incoherent reports.
“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I’ll Have A Venti Mocha & A Ruling In My Favor
(Supreme Court by Mandel Ngan via Getty Images)
Whether it’s changing the design on its red cups, putting olive oil in its drinks, or somehow getting involved in the Israel discourse, Starbucks has a knack for staying in the headlines. This time, however, ol’ Starbies isn’t messing around – the coffee chain is taking on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a case that might change how the government is able to protect workers in unionization disputes.
This all started when seven employees at one Starbucks location attempted to unionize – the company responded by firing them, claiming they’d broken company rules. The workers say this was direct retaliation for their unionization effort, so, the NLRB stepped in. As part of the federal government, the agency doesn’t exactly move quickly, so it ordered Starbucks to rehire the workers in the interim. That order was approved by a district court, but Starbucks used its powers as a massive corporation with an army of lawyers at its disposal to appeal the move all the way to the Supreme Court.
In oral arguments at the Supreme Court yesterday, the right-leaning court seemed to show support for Starbucks. The special injunction used by the NLRB isn’t common, so a Supreme Court decision in Starbucks’ favor wouldn’t hurt unionization efforts all that much, but the NLRB is still fighting to keep its power in place for when it might be needed in the future.
Is War Footing Good Footing, Though?
Hopefully, you read yesterday’s story about global defense spending reaching an all-time high, because it looks like the U.K.’s government definitely did. On Tuesday, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that he would be putting the British defense (or “defence,” in this case) industry on a “war footing” by raising military spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade.
“In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent,” Sunak said in a statement. He described the new defense spending goal as the “biggest strengthening of our national defense for a generation.” The new target will cost the U.K. about 75 billion pounds ($93 billion) over the next six years. He also announced a 500 million pound ($620 million) aid package for Ukraine.
Across the pond, the U.S. is also spending big on war. Last night, the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a $95 billion military aid package, sending billions of dollars to American allies overseas. $61 billion of the aid will go to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel, and $8 billion will be sent to Taiwan.
There’s Something Toxic In The Air (And It’s Not Political)
Gazipur Landfill by Vipin Kumar via Getty Images
While India’s election discourse might be a little bit toxic, the people of New Delhi have more pressing (and literally, physically toxic) issues to deal with. This week, India’s capital was choked out by toxic fumes produced by a fire at the Ghazipur landfill. It’s currently unclear what started the fire, but experts say landfill fires can start when hot weather is mixed with the combustible gasses produced by mountains of disintegrating trash.
While the mother of all dumpster fires was mostly extinguished by Tuesday, nearby residents said that the fumes caused throat and eye irritation. Landfill fires can also release massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere – while you might know methane as the gas that cows fart out, it’s also a potent greenhouse gas that can aggravate lung diseases, cause asthma, and increase the risk of strokes.
Landfill fires are such a common problem across India that officials have proposed multiple different solutions to fight the blazes. New Delhi has introduced a program to conduct drone patrols around landfills to monitor their fire risk, and regulators are looking for ways to reduce the flow of trash to landfills by building recycling plants and composting facilities.
Haitian Healthcare Needs Some Help
As heavily armed gangs continue to cause chaos in Haiti’s capital city, the country’s healthcare system is struggling to keep pace. A 50% increase in violence-related injuries compared to last year combined with the closure of Haiti’s main international airport and delays at the country’s main seaport have caused shortages of crucial medical supplies. Multiple medical centers across Haiti have closed down, including the biggest public hospital in the nation, due to gang infiltration.
“We urgently need fuel because we operate using generators. Otherwise we run the risk of closing our doors,” said the director of Peace University Hospital, one of the last operating hospitals in Port-au-Prince. Doctors Without Borders is similarly scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of operational supplies – the group’s hospital has run out of supplies for treating many chronic diseases, including diabetes and high blood pressure medications as well as asthma inhalers.
According to a new court document filed Monday, the city of Baltimore has sued the owner and operator of the Dali container ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month, resulting in the deaths of six people and causing a major disruption to shipping at the port. The ship’s parent company and operator are both accused of being “criminally negligent.”
Baltimore officials allege that, before leaving port, “alarms showing an inconsistent power supply on the Dali had sounded” and the ship “left port anyway, despite its clearly unseaworthy condition.” The lawsuit also claims that the ship had “an incompetent crew” who “failed to comply with local navigation customs” and lacked proper skill and training.
In other Francis Scott Key news, yesterday, officials in Baltimore announced a plan to open a deeper channel for commercial ships to enter and leave the city’s port starting on Thursday. The new channel will be 35 feet deep, which means five of the seven cargo ships that have been stuck in Baltimore’s harbor will now be able to pass through.
Let’s Get Competitive
In a ruling issued yesterday afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) determined noncompete clauses are no longer legal. “Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism,” said FTC chair Lina M. Khan in a statement.
The FTC estimates nearly one in five Americans are subject to noncompete clauses. More importantly, in an attempt to keep workers at their own businesses for longer rather than seeking higher wages elsewhere, noncompetes have become more important in lower-wage or hourly work industries like fast food franchises, restaurants, and security firms.
People have been saying “50 is the new 20” (or “60 is the new 30” or “70 is the new 40” or…you get it) since birthday cards became a thing, but according to a new study, that might actually be true. The research, published in the journal Psychology and Aging, shows that our perception of when a person is “old” has moved upward over the years.
The info is part of an ongoing German aging survey which involves a cohort of people born between 1911 and 1974. “For those born in 1931, the perceived onset of old age is 74 when they are 65. For those born in 1944 it is about 75 years when they are 65 years old,” said one of the study’s co-authors. Models show that 65-year-olds born in 1911 would say that being “old” begins at 71. However, that conception of “oldness” leveled out in later generations – 65-year-olds born after 1935 all say that “old age” begins at 75.
Another interesting finding is that, as people get older, their perception of old age also goes up. “This could have to do with the fact that many people do not want to be old, so they postpone the onset of old age,” said the co-author. That mindset could be damaging, according to another expert on age, “if it holds us back from living as full and happy lives as we could and should in our later years, because of us self-limiting our activities and aspirations.”
