Today's Must-Reads - 13 March 2024

A selection of the latest news, studies, reports and articles

I spend a lot of time each day gathering together new information and fascinating articles. I then pick one or two of the most interesting topics and write about them. However, that leaves a lot of missed out information that I’m not sharing.

Below is a summary of all the latest articles and information that I’ve found. This is a slimmed down version for all readers but is usually for paid subscribers only.

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Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

• Sturgeon’s decision on masks in schools was totally political, Sir Patrick Vallance wrote in Covid diary. Sir Patrick, who was the UK Government’s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, noted in August 2020 that “Scotland breaks ranks on face coverings and schools”. In extracts published by the UK Covid Inquiry, he said this was despite the four chief medical officers (CMOs) from the home nations issuing a “very good statement” the previous day on the risks to children that made no mention of the need for masks. The statement concluded: “Very few, if any, children or teenagers will come to long-term harm from Covid-19 due solely to attending school. This has to be set against a certainty of long-term harm to many children and young people from not attending school.”

Economy/Energy/Finance

• Homebuyers need to earn 80% more than in 2020 to afford a house in this market. It’s not just due to high mortgage rates. Factors beyond high mortgage rates are affecting housing affordability for many Americans, according to experts. Almost four years ago, a household earning $59,000 annually could afford a new mortgage without spending more than 30% of their monthly income and with a 10% down payment, according to a recent report by Zillow Group. That is no longer the case today. While the typical household in 2024 makes about $81,000 a year, up from $66,000 in 2020, wages have not kept up with housing costs. Nowadays, potential homebuyers need to make about $106,500 a year in order to afford the typical home today, an 80% increase from January 2020, according to Zillow.

• Bitcoin has 6 months until ETF ‘liquidity crisis’ — New analysis. Bitcoin faces a “sell-side liquidity crisis” by September if institutional inflows continue, an industry analyst says. In a thread on X on March 12, Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, predicted a BTC supply watershed “within six months.” When the tipping point from ETF demand comes, Ki forecasts the BTC price impact may be beyond market expectations. “Once a sell-side liquidity crisis happens, its next cyclical top may exceed our expectations due to limited sell-side liquidity and thin orderbook,” he concluded.

• United CEO Tells Boeing to Stop Making Its Long-Delayed Max 10s. United Airlines Holdings Inc. has told Boeing Co. to stop building 737 Max 10 jets for the carrier, opting to switch to a smaller variant and the rival Airbus SE A321 until the U.S. planemaker can pull the stretched single-aisle plane through its long-delayed certification. “We’ve asked Boeing to stop building Max 10s, which they’ve done, for us, and start building Max 9s,” United chief executive officer Scott Kirby said March 12 at a JPMorgan investor conference. “It’s impossible to say when the Max 10 is going to get certified.”

• US CPI Won’t Inspire Fed to Cut Rates, Bloomberg Economics Says. The core consumer price index, excluding food and energy, probably rose 0.3% in February, Bloomberg economists Anna Wong and Stuart Paul wrote Monday in a preview of the report. “Ultimately, we don’t expect the February CPI report to provide clear enough evidence of disinflation to boost the Fed’s confidence to cut rates,” Wong and Paul said. “However, they could have enough confidence as soon as May — our base case for the first rate cut — as both inflation and the labor market cool further.”

Health

• US -Death Trends for Neoplasms ICD codes: C00-D48, Ages 15-44. The results indicate that from 2021 a novel phenomenon leading to increased neoplasm deaths appears to be present in individuals aged 15 to 44 in the US. The greater rise in deaths due to neoplasms in multiple causes compared to underlying cause indicates that some deaths from neoplasms are being brought forward by other causes. The rise in cancer-death rates as underlying cause might be the result of an unexpected rise in the incidence of rapidly growing fatal cancers and/or a reduction in survival in existing cancer cases.

• Broccoli's Anti-Cancer Compound Could Have a Whole Other Health Benefit. A chemical found naturally in broccoli could one day prevent and treat the blood clots that can lead to strokes – currently the second leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers, led by a team from the University of Sydney in Australia, conducted a series of lab tests on 23 compounds commonly found in plants to determine their fondness for bonding with our blood's platelets. "Not only is the broccoli compound effective in improving the performance of clot-busting medication after a stroke, it could be used as a preventative agent for patients who are at a high risk of stroke," says biomedical scientist Xuyu Liu from the University of Sydney.

Politics

• Boeing whistleblower’s lawyers question whether he committed suicide, call for thorough probe: ‘No one can believe it’. “We need more information about what happened to John,” attorneys Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, who represent former Boeing manager John Barnett, said in a statement Tuesday. “The Charleston police need to investigate this fully and accurately and tell the public. “We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life,” they added. “No one can believe it.” “No detail can be left unturned.” Barnett, 62, was due in court for further testimony in a bombshell lawsuit against the company when he was found dead, with the Charleston County coroner ruling the cause as a “self-inflicted” wound.

• F.A.A. Audit of Boeing’s 737 Max Production Found Dozens of Issues. A six-week audit by the Federal Aviation Administration of Boeing’s production of the 737 Max jet found dozens of problems throughout the manufacturing process at the plane maker and one of its key suppliers, according to a slide presentation reviewed by The New York Times. For the portion of the examination focused on Boeing, the F.A.A. conducted 89 product audits, a type of review that looks at aspects of the production process. The plane maker passed 56 of the audits and failed 33 of them, with a total of 97 instances of alleged noncompliance, according to the presentation.

• Julian Assange: It's not just Olaf Scholz who is speaking out against his extradition. Olaf Scholz surprises with words against the extradition of Julian Assange to the USA. In the European Parliament, politicians are calling for an end to the perfidious persecution of the journalist. And Nils Melzer's successor at the UN becomes clear.

Science

• Reading aloud boosts memory, but not understanding. This interest in reading aloud as a study strategy dates back to early 20th-century research, which suggested that vocalization could aid in memorizing material, a phenomenon later termed the “production effect.” Yet, while the production effect’s influence on memory has been well-documented, its impact on deeper comprehension remains less clear, highlighting a gap in our understanding of how vocalization influences learning beyond mere recall. Despite the clear benefits for memory recall, reading aloud did not confer any significant advantage for comprehension. The comprehension-focused questions yielded similar accuracy rates regardless of whether the passages were read aloud or silently.

Technology

• Newly declassified footage reveals Britain's deadly DragonFire LASER weapon that can blow up drones and hypersonic nuclear missiles at the speed of light - and for just £10 a shot. In these secret trials at the Military of Defence's Hebrides Range, the weapon proved so accurate it could hit a £1 coin half a mile away. Its full range remains classified, but the invisible 50kW beam can cut through targets using it 'pin-point accuracy' and does not require any ammunition. The weapons platform, which military chiefs say will revolutionise the battlefield of the future, could one day be used to annihilate fighter jets, warships and hypersonic missiles.

• Apple will allow iPhone app downloads from websites in Europe. IPhone users in the European Union will be able to download apps from websites, instead of through the App Store or a competing app store app, Apple said, in the the latest change forced by the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act. It’s a major reversal for Apple. The company has for years fought against web downloads of iPhone software — often called sideloading — citing security issues and Apple’s right to dictate its user experience. Tuesday’s announcement is the latest example of the Digital Markets Act forcing Apple to make long-resisted changes to its App Store business processes. The DMA is designed to compel “gatekeepers” — big tech companies including Apple — to open their platforms to smaller rivals.

Ukraine

• War in Ukraine: from caution to panic… What Macron’s shift hides. First observation: a Ukrainian military victory now seems impossible. For months, European chancelleries wanted to believe that Kiev's counter-offensive in spring 2023, supported by Western equipment, would send the Russian army back to Moscow. Written this fall, the “retex” (feedback) from the operation is overwhelming. “It gradually got bogged down in mud and blood and resulted in no strategic gain,” writes a confidential defense report on “the failure of the Ukrainian offensive”. “The Russian army is today the “tactical and technical” reference for thinking about and implementing the defensive mode,” writes the report.

• Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine. Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN. The US military set a goal to produce 100,000 rounds of artillery a month by the end of 2025 — less than half of the Russian monthly output — and even that number is now out of reach with $60 billion in Ukraine funding stalled in Congress, a senior Army official told reporters last week.