FLASH Stock market on track to end 2023 at all-time highs
1 Number of older workers double 35 years ago
2 Shifting American diet stresses groundwater
3 US strikes militias in Iraq
4 NYU student builds $6m Texas cryptocurrency mine
5 OPINION Former employee eviscerates New York Times
1991 Soviet Union formally dissolved
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FLASH Stock market on track to end 2023 at all-time highs
1 Number of older workers (65+) double 35 years ago
Roughly one-in-five Americans ages 65 and older (19%) were employed in 2023 – nearly double the share of those who were working 35 years ago. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projections show that the role of older workers will continue to grow over the next decade. Adults ages 65 and older are projected to be 8.6% of the labor force (those working and looking for work) in 2032, up from 6.6% in 2022. Older adults are projected to account for 57% of labor force growth over this period. (Pew)
2 Shifting American diet stresses groundwater
America’s striking dietary shift in recent decades, toward far more chicken and cheese, has not only contributed to concerns about American health but has taken a major, undocumented toll on underground water supplies.
crops have expanded into areas that don’t have enough water to sustain them, affecting some important aquifers across the country by contributing to groundwater overuse. Aquifer depletion for animal feed is occurring in places including Texas, the Central Valley of California, the High Plains in Kansas, Arizona and other areas that lack enough water from rivers and streams to irrigate the crops. Irrigated acreage for corn, about half of which goes toward animal feed, jumped sixfold between 1964 and 2017, federal numbers show. Irrigated acres for soybean, mostly used for animals, has jumped eightfold. Aquifers supply 90% of water systems. (NYT)
3 US strikes Iran-backed forces in Iraq after American soldiers wounded
U.S. military forces on Monday carried out precision strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq, including Kataib Hezbollah, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. The strikes followed a drone attack by the groups on Irbil air base earlier in the day that injured three service members. One is in critical condition, he said. (Washington Post)
4 NYU student builds $6m Texas cryptocurrency mine funded by Chinese dark money
Jerry Yu has the trappings of what the Chinese call second-generation rich. He boasts a Connecticut prep-school education. He lives in a Manhattan condominium bought for $8 million from Jeffrey R. Immelt, the former General Electric chief executive. And he is the majority owner of a Bitcoin mine in Texas, acquired last year for more than $6 million. Mr. Yu, a 23-year-old student at New York University, has also become — quite unintentionally — a case study in how Chinese nationals can move money from China to the United States without drawing the attention of authorities in either country. The Texas facility, a large computing center, was not purchased with dollars. Instead, it was bought with cryptocurrency, which offers anonymity, with the transaction routed through an offshore exchange, preventing anyone from knowing the origin of the financing. (NYT)
5 OPINION Former New York Times journalist publishes lengthy attack on former institution
For now, to assert that the Times plays by the same rules it always has is to commit a hypocrisy that is transparent to conservatives, dangerous to liberals and bad for the country as a whole. It makes the Times too easy for conservatives to dismiss and too easy for progressives to believe. The reality is that the Times is becoming the publication through which America’s progressive elite talks to itself about an America that does not really exist. (Economist 1843 Magazine)
Today in history
1991 Soviet Union formally dissolved