Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Chilean voters reject conservative constitution, after defeating leftist charter last year
Summary: Over the weekend, Chilean voters rejected a new, incredibly far-right constitution proposal 55.8% to 44.2%, not long after also voting against an incredibly left-leaning variation in 2022.
Context: Chileans have been trying to replace or update the current constitution, which is considered to be flawed in many ways and which was written while the country’s former dictator Pinochet was still in power, for a long time, but efforts to swap-in new, dramatically different versions have thus far been for naught; the existing constitution has been tweaked in small ways in recent years, and the country’s government has said—in the wake of this most recent failed vote—that they’ll be keeping the current constitution for the foreseeable future, though probably with minor adjustments here and there.
—The Associated Press
Euro zone likely in recession, PMI surveys show
Summary: Last quarter’s economic data suggest that the euro zone economy shrunk by 0.1%, and this month’s Purchasing Managers’ Index indicates that activity across the zone has declined every month in the final quarter of 2023—which means it has seen two consecutive quarters of contraction, meeting the region’s official definition of an economic recession.
Context: This persistent downturn is likely the consequence of a deterioration of production levels in Germany, a drop in demand in France, and economic instability across the bloc, resulting from macro-scale influences (like inflation and the war in Ukraine) combined with localized issues, including those related to government spending on the transition to renewables; major economies, globally, have been suffering from the same effects, though numbers out of the UK suggest it might barely avoid its own recession, while data from the US hint that it may achieve a long-teased, but often-doubted “soft-landing” back into steadier financial straits after a period of post-pandemic economic wobbliness.
—Reuters
US Steel agrees to be acquired by Japan's Nippon Steel for $15 billion
Summary: Following a period of will they, won’t they buyout offers from American companies, US Steel has agreed to be acquired by Japanese giant Nippon Steel for about $14.9 billion.
Context: That represents a purchase price of about 40% higher than the company was valued at on the last trading day before the buyout was announced, and it’s quite a lot more than those American companies were offering back in August; this is notable in part because US Steel is both a super-iconic American company, which will now be owned by a Japanese company—if regulatory bodies approve the sale—but also because it’s a fairly vital strategic entity, the US economy and military both relying on it for some component of their materials-related wellbeing.
—Axios
Smoke-related pollution from Canadian wildfires in the US was way worse than usual in 2023, doubling the previous record for the standard wildfire season; such fires are estimated to cost the US $144 billion a year in lost labor.
—Axios
$140 million
Fine Southwest Airlines has been ordered to pay by the US Department of Transportation following its cancellation of nearly 17,000 flights last winter (those cancellations leaving more than 2 million passengers stranded during the holidays).
That’s a huge sum—30-times larger than any previous fine of this kind—and its scale is meant to incentivize other airlines to avoid similar missteps this year.
—Axios
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