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Ford paused the construction of a $3.5 billion battery plant… The carmaker is hitting the brakes, putting 2,500 jobs in limbo, amid the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike.
…and president Joe Biden is joining the UAW picket line in Michigan. It may be the first time in history that a sitting US president is participating in an active strike.
Spotify won’t ban music made with AI. CEO Daniel Ek clarified in a rare interview that some of the uses of AI are sound, but impersonating people without consent crosses the line.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s rocket company, is onboarding a new CEO. Amazon executive and veteran Dave Limp takes the helm on Dec. 4.
One big number: 153 days
The Writers Guild of America West, which struck a tentative agreement yesterday with Hollywood studios after 146 days on the picket line, is now poised to break the record for the longest strike in its history. The current record of 153 days was set during the 1960 writers’ strike. Surpassing that marker is likely, as ratifying the new contract will take time. Both WGA boards, east and west, need to approve the deal, after which the 11,500 members of WGAW will need to vote on the contract.
How a poor Egyptian’s meat purchase ends up in the pocket of a US senator
New Jersey senator Bob Menendez allegedly ran interference in Washington on behalf of members of the Egyptian government and intelligence services, notably relating to weapons sales to the semi-autocratic regime led by president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. But one of the uglier charges is an influence scandal involving Menendez’s wife, Nadine, an Egyptian immigrant named Wael Hana, and meat. A lot of meat.
Egypt is a majority Muslim country that requires meat to be certified halal, that is, processed in accordance with specific Islamic dietary rules. Thanks to Menendez, one US-based company run by Hana achieved a monopoly for its certification services, and then promptly raised its prices sky-high.
$500 ↗️ $5,000: Price hike for certifying one container (27 metric tons) of beef in the US, even as US beef prices dropped
$23,000: Amount of Nadine’s mortgage shortfall covered by IS EG Halal
$30,000: Amount paid to Nadine’s front company by IS EG Halal
$3,600: Annual per capita income in Egypt
$0.73 per kilo ($0.33 per lb): Price increase of beef in Egypt, thanks to the monopoly
Tim Fernholz’s latest piece illustrates how influence-peddling in the US can abet the suffering of an already poor population struggling with food instability caused by the war in Ukraine.
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A supercontinent expected to form in 250 million years could lead to mass extinction. Extreme heat would be the primary problem, as more volcanic activity would lead to more carbon dioxide in the air.
Queen’s Brian May helped out on the mission that got a sample from the asteroid Bennu. “We Will Rock You” just got very meta.
New York City is testing out subway robocops. The Knightscope K5 Autonomous Security Robot is almost as tall as mayor Eric Adams, but has a way more complicated name.
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