Issue 36
January 25, 2024
FLASH Ukraine ‘may have some involvement’ in shooting down Russian military jet yesterday killing 74, mostly Ukrainian POWs
1 Record number of office to apartment conversions planned
2 Yemen intervention risks becoming another forever war
3 OPINION Haley has no path to GOP nomination, should drop out
4 Farmers’ anger in mounting across Europe
5 Electricity demand at data centers set to double in 3 years on AI, Crypto
1/25/61 JFK holds first live TV news conference
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1 Record number of office to apartment conversions planned
Developers are set to repurpose aging office buildings into apartments a record level this year, as the remote work trend has pushed up vacancy rates for commercial space across American cities. This year, more than 55,300 housing units are being transformed from office buildings, a more than fourfold increase since 2021, according to a study out Monday from apartment listing service RentCafe. While demand for residential space continues to drive the surge, the 22% year-over-year growth is modest compared to the prior two years.
Bloomberg
2 Yemen intervention risks becoming another forever war
The Biden administration is crafting plans for a sustained military campaign targeting the Houthis in Yemen after 10 days of strikes failed to halt the group’s attacks on maritime commerce, stoking concern among some officials that an open-ended operation could derail the war-ravaged country’s fragile peace and pull Washington into another unpredictable Middle Eastern conflict.
The Houthis, one powerful faction in Yemen’s long-running civil war, have framed their campaign, which has included more than 30 missile and drone attacks on commercial and naval vessels since November, as a means of pressuring Israel, bolstering their standing amid widespread regional opposition to the Jewish state. The quickly expanding U.S. response likewise risks pulling Biden into another volatile campaign in a region that has repeatedly mired down the American military, potentially undermining his attempt to refocus U.S. foreign policy on Russia and China.
Officials say they don’t expect that the operation will stretch on for years like previous U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria. At the same time they acknowledge they can identify no end date or provide an estimate for when the Yemenis’ military capability will be adequately diminished. As part of the effort, U.S. naval forces also are working to intercept weapons shipments from Iran.
WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/20/us-military-yemen-houthis/
3 OPINION Haley has no path to GOP nomination, should drop out
Haley lost—and by enough that the Associated Press called the race ten minutes after the last polls in the state closed at 8 p.m. ET. She can now look forward to voting in South Carolina, where she trails Trump by 30, and then to … a bunch of other states where Trump leads by more than that.
Haley gave a defiant speech Tuesday night, while her campaign manager said in a memo she thinks Haley still can be competitive in “Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Vermont” on March 5, a.k.a. Super Tuesday. Those states feature relatively educated electorates—Haley does better with voters who have college degrees—and/or allow Democrats and independents to cross over into the GOP primary, so it’s not the worst argument, but …. no. Exit polling in New Hampshire found that Trump won registered Republicans on Tuesday by fifty points. Strange things have happened in American politics recently, but the Republican Party awarding its nomination to someone who is losing its voters by 50 is not going to be one of them. (Who’s in the best position to get nominated in the event of an incapacitating Trump health event or felony conviction? That would probably be Meatball Ronald, thanks to his decision to get out of the race before he was considered an active nuisance to the party.)
Slate
https://news.yahoo.com/nikki-haley-says-she-only-024536048.html
4 Farmers’ anger in mounting across Europe
From the Netherlands to Romania, Poland, Germany and France, farmers have stepped up their actions against the European Green Deal and hikes in diesel taxes, all against a backdrop of inflation and competition from Ukrainian imports.
Le Monde
5 Electricity demand at data centers set to double in 3 years on AI, Crypto
Global electricity demand from data centers, cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence could more than double over the next three years, adding the equivalent of Germany’s entire power needs, the International Energy Agency forecasts in its latest report.
Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-24/cryptocurrency-ai-electricity-demand-seen-doubling-in-three-years1/25/61 JFK holds first live TV news conference
1/25/61 JFK holds first live TV news conference
Thanks for reading!
Sports
Fresh off NCAA national championship at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh leaves to coach NFLs LA Chargers
