One Sentence News / July 27, 2023
Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
UPS reaches tentative deal with Teamsters to head off strike
Summary: UPS, which handles about a quarter of the packages that are shipped across the US each day, has struck a tentative deal with the Teamsters union, which represents more than 325,000 of the company’s workers, heading off a strike that was set to begin as early as next week.
Context: Union representatives and members still need to vote and formalize the agreement, but the Teamsters president is claiming they got a very good deal, bringing $30 billion-worth of new money to the negotiating table, which will result in raises for employees this year and over the next five years, and will increase the minimum pay for part-timers, see the creation of thousands of new full-time union jobs, limit compulsory overtime, and will see air-conditioning installed in all new trucks, alongside fans and vents in all existing trucks; it’s been estimated that a 10-day strike by UPS workers could have cost the US economy about $7 billion, and the business itself would have suffered greatly, as well, so pretty much everyone seems to be happy these negotiations didn’t lead to a strike.
—The New York Times
Federal Reserve raises interest rates to 22-year high
Summary: As expected, the US Federal Reserve has announced an increase to their key interest rate target, raising the benchmark federal-funds rate to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%—the highest it’s been in 22 years.
Context: Higher interest rates tend to reduce inflation rates, and though the inflation rate in the US has dropped significantly since its peak of 9.1% in June of 2022, hitting 3% in June of this year, that’s still higher than the 2% target rate, and the Fed seems intent on maintaining pressure on the economy, even to the point of increasing the interest rate further in the future if price-rises remain stubborn, the job market fails to soften, and inflation either plateaus or increases yet again, which could potentially lead to an inflation spiral—something they’re very much hoping to avoid.
—The Wall Street Journal
Crew jump off ship ablaze with cargo of 3,000 cars
Summary: A cargo ship carrying just shy of 3,000 cars traveling through the North Sea has caught on fire, the blaze seemingly caused by one of the 25 electric vehicles being transported; one sailor was killed and 22 others were wounded by the fire, which forced some of the ship’s crew to jump 100 feet, which is about 30 meters, into the ocean to escape.
Context: A huge salvage operation is underway and the ship has been pulled beyond major shipping routes, but the fire could burn for days; this is similar in some ways to another fire aboard a cargo ship carrying luxury cars off the Azores last year, which was sparked by the lithium-ion battery in one of the cars, such batteries sometimes combusting into fires that burn hot and are devilishly difficult to put out; this raises questions about additional anti-fire safety measures that may be warranted when transporting EVs, and possibly when driving them, too.
—BBC News
New research suggests that the system of currents that moderates temperatures globally (while also serving a variety of other important roles for ocean life) may be slowing, and could even stop altogether later this century—something that would be devastating, climactically, and which was always expected to happen next century or later (other research contends that it probably will still happen much later, so there’s still controversy on this issue).
—NASA
6,360
Number of daily active users boasted by Lemon8, an Instagram/Pinterest-clone created by TikTok-maker ByteDance.
That’s…not an impressive number. It’s actually somewhat embarrassing, especially following the app’s initial buzz, which launched it into the top 10 most-downloaded apps in the US earlier this year.
The main complaints about the app seem to revolve around content, which many users say is too well-crafted and curated, to the point that it’s all pretty bland and pointless-seeming.
—Rest of World
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