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UPS Reaches Tentative Contract, Potentially Dodging Calamitous Strike (Maria)
The author writes, “UPS has reached a tentative contract with its 340,000-person union, potentially averting a strike that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide.The agreement was announced Tuesday, the first day that UPS and the Teamsters returned to the table after contentious negotiations broke down earlier this month. Negotiators had already reached tentative agreements on several issues but continued to clash over pay for part-time workers. … The Teamsters hailed the agreement as ‘historic.’”
The Case for a Third-Party Campaign in 2024 Is Actuarial, Not Ideological (Reader Jim)
From The Economist: “Nothing in American politics is more quixotic than a third-party presidential campaign. Thus, to political insiders, nothing is also more pathetic or else more cynical: in the best case, the campaign is detached from reality, and in the worst (and, to insiders, the more probable case, since this is politics for God’s sake) it is serving some hidden motive, some interest in the shadows.”
Border Patrol Is Caging Migrants Outdoors During Deadly Arizona Heatwave (Laura)
From The Intercept: “The U.S. border patrol is holding migrants in an outdoor pen in a deadly stretch of the Arizona desert amid a record-setting heatwave, photos taken by The Intercept reveal. [Last] Thursday afternoon, The Intercept observed roughly 50 migrants confined in a chain-link pen at the Ajo Border Patrol station, a highly remote outpost two hours west of Tucson. From a ridge overlooking the Border Patrol’s facility, the migrants could be seen gathered under a carport-like structure, crowding themselves into a single, narrow strip of shade to escape the desert sun. The only furniture available was a short stack of metal bleachers baking in the extreme heat.”
Inside the Controversy Over Amsterdam’s Plan to Move Sex Workers to a Suburban ‘Erotic Center’ (Al)
From Time: “Faced with ever-increasing numbers of tourists and unruly behavior in the Red Light District, Mayor Femke Halsema has embarked on new measures to reduce the number of visitors. But a plan to relocate many of the area’s sex workers to a purpose-built ‘Erotic Center’ on the outskirts of Amsterdam has caused a backlash, underscoring fraught questions of whose voices are heard when cities grapple with mass tourism and gentrification.”
Inflammation Discovery Could Slow Aging, Prevent Age-Related Diseases (Mili)
The author writes, “University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have discovered a key driver of chronic inflammation that accelerates aging. That finding could let us slow the clock to live longer, healthier lives, and may allow us to prevent age-related conditions such as deadly heart disease and devastating brain disorders that rob us of our faculties.”
Bears Are Coming to a Campground Near You (Reader Jim & Russ)
From Wired: “Extreme heat and other weather events are driving bears closer to humans’ campgrounds and hiking trails — and that’s no good for either species.”
Australian DishBrain Team Wins $600,000 Grant to Merge AI With Human Brain Cells (Sean)
The author writes, “Research into merging human brain cells with artificial intelligence has received a $600,000 grant from defense and the Office of National Intelligence (ONI). The research team, led by Monash University and Cortical Labs, is the one that created DishBrain — brain cells capable of playing the vintage video game Pong. Associate prof Adeel Razi, from the university’s Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, said their work ‘merges the fields of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology to create programmable biological computing platforms.’”
