One Sentence News / July 24, 2023
Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
China youth unemployment hits high as recovery falters
Summary: New numbers from China’s National Bureau of Statistics show that the jobless rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in urban centers across the country increased to 21.3% in June.
Context: That means more than a fifth of people living in cities who are in school and just graduating from school are without work at a moment in which the Chinese economy grew only 0.8% in the three months ending in June—an incredibly slow growth rate for a country that has typically averaged closer to 7-10% for decades; this is less than ideal news for a country that will see a fresh 11.58 million university graduates enter the job market this year, potentially worsening the problem.
—BBC News
India’s ban on rice exports raises fear of global food price rises
Summary: India’s government has announced a ban on the export of non-basmati white rice as part of a larger effort to curb inflation and protect its economy from the impact of Russia’s recent decision to halt its participation in a Ukrainian grain-export agreement.
Context: This ban is also related to flooding that reduced the size of rice crops in India this year, and follows a 20% duty that was applied to many rice exports last September, which was meant to reduce international demand, but didn’t seem to have that effect—the international sale of Indian rice has increased by 35% in 2023, so far; Russia’s decision to no longer allow Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea has increased the risk of famine, globally, especially in poorer nations, and governments in less food-secure countries are scrambling to ensure their locally produced food products aren’t being exported in high quantities, lest they accidentally cause shortages at home by selling all their food to buyers overseas.
—The Guardian
Stanford president resigns over manipulated research, will retract at least three papers
Summary: The President of Stanford University, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, will resign from his position, effective August 31, following a research data manipulation scandal that was uncovered and reported-upon by journalists at the school’s newspaper.
Context: That the President of a highly regarded school like Stanford was taken down by student journalists at the school he ran is a pretty compelling story unto itself, but the nature of Tessier-Lavigne’s alleged misdeeds is also newsworthy, as it includes allowing, possibly encouraging, and bare-minimum not catching and correcting the manipulation of data underpinning his neuroscientific research, which may have also polluted all subsequent research that built upon his work over the years; alongside his resignation, at least three of his papers will be retracted—it’s rare for even one paper to be retracted in this way—and more investigations into his body of work are reportedly being planned or in progress.
—The Stanford Daily
A new 15-year, $75 billion plan to revitalize and expand Amtrak passenger train services throughout the United States has captured the imagination of many travelers and commuters, offering improvements to 25 existing routes and adding 39 entirely new ones, alongside upgraded trains and other infrastructure, but the implementation of the plan is reliant on the go-ahead from politicians and other government entities that have hobbled such improvements in the past, so the degree to which this dream will be made a reality is still in question.
—Bloomberg
$1 trillion
Value of the assets managed by private equity firm Blackstone at the end of June, making it the first-ever PE firm to hit that milestone.
That’s a far cry from their start in 1985, when they were managing a mere $400,000 or so.
—The New York Times
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