May 30 2024
Trump tax cuts; forever chemicals; Democratic freakout; culture clash in AZ; NATO
1 Republicans consider Trump tax cut extension
2 "Forever chemical" lawsuit tsunami
3 ELECTION 2024 Democrats in "freakout" over Biden
4 Culture clash at semiconductor project in AZ
5 NATO has just 5% of air defenses needed to protect it from Russia
SPORTS Charges dropped against Scottie Scheffler
5/30/1889 The brassiere is invented
BONUS New Chinese Hybrid Can Drive Non-Stop from NYC to Miami and costs less than $14k
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1 Republicans consider Trump tax cut extension
Republicans want to extend the Trump-era tax cuts that lapse after 2025. A big point of debate now: Should they cover any or all of the $4 trillion cost—and how? The question pits the party’s fervent belief in the economic power of tax cuts against many GOP lawmakers’ oft-repeated concerns about federal debt and budget deficits. Many Republicans argue that tax-cut extensions are so important for strong growth that they don’t need to be fully paid for. Some are exploring ways to trim the net cost of a tax-cut extension, such as repealing electric-vehicle tax breaks or reducing federal spending.
Article Source: WSJ
2 "Forever chemical" lawsuit tsunami
The defense lawyer minced no words as he addressed a room full of plastic-industry executives. Prepare for a wave of lawsuits with potentially “astronomical” costs . Speaking at a conference earlier this year, the lawyer, Brian Gross, said the coming litigation could “dwarf anything related to asbestos,” one of the most sprawling corporate-liability battles in United States history. Mr. Gross was referring to PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that have emerged as one of the major pollution issues of our time. Used for decades in countless everyday objects — cosmetics, takeout containers, frying pans — PFAS have been linked to serious health risks including cancer. Last month the federal government said several types of PFAS must be removed from the drinking water of hundreds of millions of Americans. “Do what you can, while you can, before you get sued,” Mr. Gross said at the February session, according to a recording of the event made by a participant and examined by The New York Times. “Review any marketing materials or other communications that you’ve had with your customers, with your suppliers, see whether there’s anything in those documents that’s problematic to your defense,” he said. “Weed out people and find the right witness to represent your company.”
Article Source: NYT
3 ELECTION 2024 Democrats in "freakout" over Biden
A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had previously expressed confidence about the coming battle with Donald Trump. All year, Democrats had been on a joyless and exhausting grind through the 2024 election. But now, nearly five months from the election, anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation, according to more than a dozen party leaders and operatives. And the gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they’ll text their friends, has only grown as worries have surged about Biden’s prospects.
Despite everything, Trump is running ahead of Biden in most battleground states. He raised far more money in April, and the landscape may only become worse for Democrats, with Trump’s hush-money trial concluding and another — this one involving the president’s son — set to begin in Delaware. The concern has metastasized in recent days as Trump jaunted to some of the country’s most liberal territories, including New Jersey and New York, to woo Hispanic and Black voters as he boasted, improbably, that he would win in those areas.
Article Source: Politico
4 Culture clash at semiconductor project in AZ
Bruce thought he’d landed his dream job. The young American engineer had been eager for a stable, high-paying job in the semiconductor industry. Then, in late 2020, he received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Bruce read up on TSMC — the leading global manufacturer of advanced chips — and got excited. The job sounded like he’d be “pushing the boundaries of human technology,” he recalled to Rest of World. TSMC was undergoing a transformation at just about the same time Bruce heard from the recruiter. The coronavirus pandemic was exposing deep faults in supply chains, and a global chip shortage had slowed production of cars, smartphones, and refrigerators around the world. Meanwhile, American policymakers were rallying around what would eventually become the CHIPS and Science Act, a sweeping piece of legislation designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. TSMC, which makes most of its chips in Taiwan, was under pressure to expand its global manufacturing capacities. Bruce would be working as a semiconductor engineer. The recruiter explained that he would first spend more than a year in Taiwan learning the ins and outs of the complex chipmaking process. Then, he’d return to Arizona. There, in a cactus-dotted suburb of Phoenix, TSMC was building a sprawling new factory to make the kind of chips that power iPhones and U.S. fighter jets. He’d be helping bring America’s newest chip factory online. Bruce was in. But over the next two years, Bruce came to realize that the reality of working at TSMC wasn’t exactly what he had envisioned. While working on nanometer-level processes to make state-of-the-art chips, he struggled with language barriers, long hours, and a strict hierarchy. Bruce soon began second-guessing what he had signed up for. The plant, which was originally set to begin operating in 2024, fell woefully behind schedule; production at the facility is now set to start in 2025. Bruce, who said he signed a confidentiality agreement with TSMC, requested anonymity for this story. He wasn’t the only one disappointed with TSMC’s progress in Arizona — other U.S. workers who spoke to Rest of World echoed Bruce’s concerns. In the past two years, the company has relocated hundreds of Taiwanese workers and their families to Arizona. Instead of a gleaming new facility, these workers found an active construction site, and a company struggling to bridge Taiwanese and American professional and cultural norms.
The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company; Taiwanese TSMC veterans described their American counterparts as lacking the kind of dedication and obedience they believe to be the foundation of their company’s world-leading success. Some 2,200 employees now work at TSMC’s Arizona plant, with about half of them deployed from Taiwan. While tension at the plant simmers, TSMC has been ramping up its investments, recently securing billions of dollars in grants and loans from the U.S. government. Whether or not the plant succeeds in making cutting-edge chips with the same speed, efficiency, and profitability as facilities in Asia remains to be seen, with many skeptical about a U.S. workforce under TSMC’s army-like command system. “[The company] tried to make Arizona Taiwanese,” G. Dan Hutcheson, a semiconductor industry analyst at the research firm TechInsights, told Rest of World. “And it’s just not going to work.”
Article Source: Rest of World
5 NATO has just 5% of air defenses needed to protect it from Russia
Europe has only a fraction of the air defence capabilities needed to protect its eastern flank, according to Nato’s own internal calculations, laying bare the scale of the continent’s vulnerabilities. Russia’s war against Ukraine has underscored the importance of air defence, as Kyiv begs the west for additional systems and rockets to protect its cities, troops and energy grid against daily bombing raids. But according to people familiar with confidential defence plans drawn up last year, Nato states are able to provide less than 5 per cent of air defence capacities deemed necessary to protect its members in central and eastern Europe against a full-scale attack.
Article Source: FT
SPORTS Charges dropped against Scottie Scheffler
Jefferson County prosecutors dropped charges against world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler on Wednesday, as county attorney Mike O’Connell said the office would not pursue criminal action following Scheffler’s arrest during a traffic jam outside the PGA Championship. O’Connell motioned to dismiss the case against Scheffler in open court, attesting that Scheffler’s assertion that it was all a misunderstanding “is corrobated by the evidence.” Jefferson District Court judge Anne Delahanty granted the dismissal of the charges.
Article Source: NYT
5/30/1889 The brassiere is invented
BONUS New Chinese Hybrid Can Drive Non-Stop from NYC to Miami and costs less than $14k
BYD Co. unveiled a new hybrid powertrain capable of traveling more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) without recharging or refueling, intensifying the EV transition competition with the likes of Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG. The upgraded tech, which aims to put more distance between BYD and its rivals, will be launched in two sedans immediately that cost under 100,000 yuan ($13,800), the automaker said at an event live-streamed Tuesday evening from China. The longer range means some of BYD’s dual-mode plug-in electric hybrid cars can cover the equivalent of Singapore to Bangkok, New York to Miami, or Munich to Madrid on each charge and full tank of gas. The milestone marks BYD’s latest achievement in slashing fuel consumption since introducing its first hybrids in 2008.
Article Source: Bloomberg
Sources
1. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/republicans-4-trillion-question-should-they-pay-for-extending-trump-tax-cuts-ebbe67f3
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/climate/pfas-forever-chemicals-industry-lawsuits.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
3. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/28/democrats-freakout-over-biden-00160047
4. https://restofworld.org/2024/tsmc-arizona-expansion/
5. https://on.ft.com/4bBlj3H
6. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5526909/2024/05/29/scottie-scheffler-charges-dropped-pga-championship/?source=user_shared_article
7. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-28/byd-shows-off-new-hybrid-powertrain-capable-of-ultra-long-drive
Thanks for reading!
