Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Thailand passes landmark bill legalizing same-sex marriage
Summary: The Thai Senate has voted, 130 to 4, to allow any two people, whatever their gender, to get engaged or legally married, putting the country on track to become the first in Southeast Asia to allow same-sex marriages.
Context: This bill was approved by the country’s House of Representatives in March, and still has to be approved by the Thai King, but that final step is considered to be a formality, and the law will go into effect 120 days after that sign-off; same-sex couplings have been generally socially accepted in Thailand for a long time, with around 60% of the adult population supporting it, but the law hasn’t traditionally backed that social approval; three-dozen countries have thus far legalized same-sex marriage, and Taiwan was the first to do so in Asia, back in 2019.
—The Washington Post
Fisker is out of cash, not making cars, and filing for bankruptcy
Summary: Electric vehicle-maker Fisker, which was started by well-known BMW and Aston Martin car designer Henrik Fisker, has filed for bankruptcy following months of safety probes, cash shortages, and pauses in manufacturing.
Context: In 2023, Fisker—which at one point was considered to be EV-maker Tesla’s main US rival—reported $273 million in sales, but $1 billion in debt, and its stock was dropped by the New York Stock Exchange in March of that year; in some ways Fisker’s situation reflects the EV market in general, which has knocked out many previously high-flying, promising companies, because a lot of cash has to be burned in the run-up to profitability, very few companies making it through that initial gauntlet to relative stability on the other side; the global EV market is also being upended by inexpensive, high-quality offerings from China and Vietnam, which is making life difficult for Western competitors that took longer to spin-up their manufacturing capacity and R&D, and which typically haven’t benefitted from as much government backing.
—Ars Technica
Boeing hid questionable parts from regulators that may have been installed in 737 Max planes, new whistleblower alleges
Summary: An employee at Boeing has publicly alleged that the company attempted to conceal broken and out-of-specification plane parts from regulators, those parts possibly making their way into the company’s much-maligned 737 Max.
Context: The past several years have been difficult for Boeing, which seems to have refocused on upping its stock market valuation over investing in the quality of its products a few decades ago, which in turn led to the firing of many of its most knowledgable employees, and the subsequent, very public failure of several of its planes, and even more recently, helium leaks in its Starliner space vehicle, which seems to have stranded a pair of astronauts at the International Space Station; the company, which has close, military-manufacturing ties with the US government, in addition to making something like half the passenger aircraft in use, globally, has been targeted by a US Senate subcommittee investigation into why it seems to be fumbling so much and so badly, of late, and this new whistleblower revelation came out as part of that investigation; the company’s CEO was questioned about all these issues, and the corporate culture that seems to have caused them, by Congress on Tuesday.
—CNN
Chip-maker Nvidia became the most valuable publicly traded US company earlier this week, its market value surpassing previous holders-of-that-title, Microsoft and Apple on the strength of demand for its powerful AI-optimized chips.
—Axios
~2,000
Number of children who die each day, globally, from air pollution, according to a new study from the Health Effects Institute.
Air pollution has become the second biggest killer of people of all ages (surpassing tobacco use), following only high blood pressure as a risk factor for all-causes death amongst the general population, and it’s second only to malnutrition as the greatest mortality risk for children under 5.
—The Guardian
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