Issue 26
FLASH Republican Presidential candidate Chris Christie drops out
FLASH SEC approves Bitcoin ETF
1 Ecuador descends into chaos
2 State budget surpluses end after pandemic-era boom
3 Iran develops new “suicide drone” for Russia
4 Mayo Clinic partners with Silicon Valley
1964 US Surgeon General announces link between smoking and cancer
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1 Ecuador descends into chaos
Gunmen wearing masks stormed a television station in Ecuador’s largest city on Tuesday, taking anchors and staff hostage and exchanging gunfire with the police as cameras rolled before the intruders were subdued and arrested. The televised violence, captured live, erupted in the city of Guayaquil as the South American country has descended into chaos this week, with a powerful gang leader disappearing from prison, uprisings breaking out in several prisons and inmates kidnapping and threatening guards.
Mr. Macías, who is the head of Los Choneros gang and is better known as “Fito,” disappeared on Sunday from an overcrowded prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil, from which he has long overseen his group’s operations.
Some security experts believe that as many as one-fourth of the country’s 36 prisons are controlled by gangs.
NYT
11/2/23
Latin America’s murder map is being redrawn. The region’s homicide rate has been falling since 2017, although countries such as Mexico and Brazil are still home to some of the cities with the highest murder rates on Earth. But in previously safe countries murder rates are hitting record levels, including Ecuador, Costa Rica and Chile. Call it the new narco network: a cocktail of drugs, guns and migration is fuelling gang violence across the region.
Cocaine is the primary cause of Ecuador’s problems. For decades the country was mostly ignored by international drug-traffickers. That changed in the late 2000s, when gangs realised they could get even juicier mark-ups by shipping blow farther afield, to Europe and Australia. Partly as a result, gangs then changed their shipping methods: rather than pack it onto planes or boats to the United States, coke was squirrelled away inside container ships among legitimate goods. After Colombian ports tightened their security, criminals looked for alternative shipping routes. Ecuador’s poorly-monitored ports became even more attractive after 2009, when Rafael Correa, a left-winger, then the president, undermined the country’s defences by closing an American naval base and, as such, ending co-operation with the us Drug Enforcement Administration.
Economist
https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2023/11/02/gang-violence-is-spreading-across-latin-america
2 State budget surpluses end after pandemic-era boom
The pandemic boom times are over for state lawmakers — and so is their ability to shower big buckets of cash on top priorities like K-12 education while also slashing taxes and socking away reserves. State budgets swelled by roughly 30 percent over a three-year span as the country grappled with fallout from the public health crisis and Congress handed out federal funds to governments across the country. Now, states from Massachusetts to Indiana to California are facing falling revenues or lower-than-projected tax receipts for the first time since the economy screeched to a halt in 2020. In some cases, they’re also seeing record surpluses vanish — and transform into looming deficits. It means state lawmakers and governors of both parties will face increasing political peril as they navigate rougher financial conditions.
Politico
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/09/state-budgets-2024-pandemic-spending-00134549
3 Iran develops new “suicide drone” for Russia
Iran has developed a new attack drone, the Shahed-107, for Russia in its war against Ukraine and is close to providing Moscow with surface-to-surface missiles, Sky News reported on Wednesday, citing an informed security source. The Shahed-107 is an “explosive and reconnaissance” UAV with the technology to seek out high-value battlefield targets, such as British and American multiple-launch rocket systems used by Ukrainian forces.
Tehran has been accused by Ukraine and its allies of supplying Russia with one-way attack drones, including the Shahed-131 and Shahed-136, referred to as “suicide drones” because they fly into targets and explode on impact.
Russia is now able to assemble the Iranian Shahed-126 system on its own at a facility 500 miles east of Moscow, the source said, adding: “The manufacturing capacity by September 2025 should be around 4,000 pieces per year.”
Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/international/internationalrussia-ukraine-war/article-781535?utm_source=jpost.app.apple&utm_medium=share
4 Mayo Clinic partners with Silicon Valley firm to develop AI tools for health
Mayo Clinic has signed Silicon Valley tech startup Cerebras as its first generative AI partner, the health system announced Monday. The health system — known for its cutting-edge research and willingness to partner with tech companies — will give Cerebras millions of dollars to help build technology tools based on Mayo’s trove of de-identified patient data, leaders announced at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Mayo and Cerebras did not disclose the dollar amount, but Cerebras said it was a multimillion, multi-year contract.
STAT News
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/08/jpm-deal-mayo-clinic-signs-cerebras-ai-technology-partner/
This day in history
1964 U.S. Surgeon General announces definitive link between smoking and cancer
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