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Here’s what you need to know
Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter. After a six-month legal faceoff, Musk said he’ll purchase the social media platform at the originally agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share.
The EU voted to standardize chargers across the bloc by 2024. The rule will force Apple to change its charging ports for iPhones and tablets in the near future, and laptops by 2026.
North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan. The US, Japan, and South Korea carried out military drills in response to the provocation.
Bangladesh faced mass blackouts. A national grid failure led to power outages across 75-80% of the country. About 140 million people are without electricity.
Egypt is planning to sell $6 billion in state assets by mid-2023. It’s seeking to draw in more foreign direct investment amid an ongoing economic crisis and new IMF loan negotiations.
South Korea’s Naver will buy US e-commerce site Poshmark. The internet giant said the $1.2 billion purchase will establish its “foothold” in North America’s retail market.
Canon will build a $345 million chip plant in Japan. It is slated to open in spring 2025. Meanwhile, Samsung announced it will triple its capacity for advanced chipmaking by 2027.
The 2022 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded. France’s Alain Aspect, the US’s John F. Clauser, and Austria’s Anton Zeilinger were awarded for pioneering quantum information science.
What to watch for
In October 2021, a wave of workers around the globe, from Kellogg employees to South African metalworkers, went on strike in what’s been referred to as “Striketober.” That nickname looks apt for this October too, as rail workers in the UK, pilots in Germany, and Sysco drivers and Amazon workers in the US plan walkouts.
Last year, Striketober arrived at a time when employees were working in overdrive, putting themselves at risk at the height of a public health crisis to meet pent-up demand. Since then, a tight labor market has helped fuel labor action, especially in the US, while a cost-of-living crisis across Europe has driven workers to seek higher pay.
But labor power could soon see a shift, at least in the world’s largest economy. In the US, employers took more than a million job openings off the market in August. Whether workers can maintain momentum amid a softening labor market remains to be seen.
Ryan Reynolds’ “Ted-Lasso”-like investment is already paying off
Marvel’s Deadpool 3 trailer has dropped, and leading man Ryan Reynolds couldn’t miss on the opportunity to plug his recent investment in a struggling Welsh soccer team, Wrexham AFC. In one scene of the video, posted on his personal YouTube channel and already watched more than 13.4 million times, Reynolds is seen wearing the team’s hat.
In 2020, Reynolds and his co-investor, fellow actor Rob McElhenney, injected $2.5 million into the team. They also brought priceless Hollywood star power and filmed the documentary Welcome to Wrexham, which follows their efforts in bringing the soccer team back to its former glory.
The team hardly needs any more promotion at this point—its merchandise is already selling like hot cakes. Sales have spiked from roughly $67,000 last year to $405,000—not quite the level of Premier League clubs, but not bad for a team whose hometown only counts 136,000 residents.
Would taxes solve rising fuel costs?
“One way or another, there needs to be government intervention. A government intervention that somehow results in protecting the poorest, that probably may then mean that governments need to tax people in this room to pay for it.”
—Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, at the Energy Intelligence Forum in London yesterday, quoted by Bloomberg, on how to deal with the soaring cost of fuel (without price caps, of course)
While Shell later clarified that van Beurden was referring to companies and not wealthy individuals in that statement, his ethos rings clear: authorities should take from the rich to help the poor. His words fall in line with the UN’s stance on taxing oil and gas companies to drive down high prices, but does the policy go far enough?
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Surprising discoveries
Ancient coins were found inside a wall in the Golan Heights. They may have been stashed there in the 7th century.
Paris Métro is bidding adieu to paper tickets. After 120 years, they will join the poinçonneurs in the history books.
A water startup proved there’s a thirst for edgy packaging. Liquid Death is now valued at $700 million.
A particular strain of the flu has not been detected since April 2020. Its disappearance may be explained by the uptick in social distancing and masking that’s been used to stop the spread of covid.
The Onion filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court. Their very serious argument in defense of parody is also seriously funny.
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