INFRASTRUCTURE

US Flunks Climate Prep 101

A week of wild weather is putting more pressure on US lawmakers to upgrade the country’s infrastructure so that our future commutes don’t require a canoe.

Hurricane Ida left 1 million Louisiana households and businesses without power earlier in the week, then on Wednesday dumped its leftovers on the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. At least 43 people were killed by Ida’s remnants, which brought record rainfall and flooding to the region. 

• To get a sense of how much water fell on NYC Wednesday night: In one hour, the city received nearly as much rain (3.15 inches) as Chicago typically gets in the entire month of September.
• Among the wild scenes: a swollen river in Philly, a baseball field underwater, and a guy smoking hookah while floating down an alley.

It’s a wake-up call

Climate change is causing once-infrequent extreme weather events to become more common, according to the IPCC’s major report from last month. But the US’ current infrastructure doesn’t appear to be up to the challenge.

• Massive amounts of water rushed into some NYC subway stations on Wednesday—the third time the city’s subways have flooded this summer alone. Service was suspended and was slowly resuming by yesterday afternoon. 
• Meanwhile, in Louisiana, the extensive power outages caused by Ida have sparked criticism of the state’s electric grid, most of which dates back to the ’50s and ’60s.  
• And we haven’t even mentioned the fires blazing out West, which are also exposing the weaknesses of California’s grid.

Isn’t there an infrastructure bill in the works? Yep, a bipartisan plan passed the Senate this summer. It contains $46 billion for building resilience against disasters, and advocates say the bill is crucial to beef up the US’ climate defenses.

• For evidence that government spending can meaningfully help avoid catastrophe, they point to the $14.5 billion hurricane defense system built around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The new levees successfully fended off the worst of Ida on Sunday. 

Looking ahead...the House plans to vote on the infrastructure bill by September 27, though both Republicans and progressive Democrats, for very different reasons, have objections to it that could slow the process down. – NF

ENTERTAINMENT

China Stonewalls Marvel

Marvel is introducing its first Asian superhero to its cinematic universe today. But while Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is debuting in US theaters, the movie that Marvel expects to resonate most with Chinese viewers...may not be released in China at all. 

What happened: All foreign movies face censorship when entering the Chinese market, and Marvel has edited previous movies to comply with the rules there. But Shang-Chi, which Chinese authorities have blocked from appearing in theaters thus far, is facing backlash in China over a character in the comic books called Dr. Fu Manchu, Shang-Chi's father and an embodiment of popular anti-Asian stereotypes.

• “Fu Manchu is not in this movie, is not Shang-Chi’s father, and again, is not even a Marvel character, and hasn’t been for decades,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige argued. Marvel replaced the character with Iron Man’s archenemy, the Mandarin. 

Feige is frustrated because lots of $$$ is being left on the table in China. China was the second-largest box office in the world before the pandemic, and Chinese moviegoers are big Marvel fans: 22% of ticket sales for 2019’s Avengers: Endgame came from China.

Bottom line: Shang-Chi isn’t the only upcoming Marvel film having trouble getting past the bouncer in China. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Eternals also don’t have Chinese release dates yet. – SQ

LABOR

Snacks Won't Cross Picket Lines

Thanks to a heated labor battle, the Triscuit supply could run drier than the actual cracker. Grocery stores are stocking up on Nabisco treats because of a production slowdown at bakeries and distribution facilities around the country.

Why is production slowing down? On August 10, about 200 employees at a Nabisco bakery in Oregon put down whatever makes Ritz crackers so buttery and went on strike. Since then, workers in four other states have joined them.

What do they want? Workers want their pensions back after the company switched to a 401(k) plan in 2018. They’re also angry about a July proposal from Mondelez International, Nabisco’s parent company, that would increase shift length but cut overtime pay. 

• Employees have also expressed concerns about the company’s outsourcing of work to Mexico after two recent factory closures in the US.
• Mondelez has denied those claims and said that, while it is moving some workers to 12-hour shifts to handle the recent spike in demand, employees are well compensated.

Zoom out: Workers have been gaining leverage in a labor market where qualified employees are hard to find. This Nabisco standoff will test the limits of that resurgent power. – MM

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GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: Sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the marketplace OpenSea hit $3 billion in August, up more than 10x the total of the previous month. The explosion indicates that, at least this summer, younger retail investors have left mainstream cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to the boomers. 

Quote: “I would prefer to stay out of politics.”

Elon Musk, a Texas resident with a number of business ventures in the state, wouldn’t weigh in on Texas’s new law that bans the vast majority of abortions. Musk isn’t always mum on political matters—he called California’s stay-at-home orders for Covid-19 “fascist” in Tesla’s Q1 2020 earnings call.

Read: The very best TV of fall 2021. (Vogue)

QUIZ

Quiz Is Out of Office

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to remembering there’s no work on Monday. 

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Walmart is bumping up hourly wages for 565,000+ employees by at least $1 to help retain its workforce ahead of the holiday season.
• Today in chip shortages: Ford’s US sales declined 33% in August, Tesla temporarily stopped production in China last month, and GM is idling more North American plants.
• WhatsApp was fined ~$270 million by the EU for privacy violations. It is the second-largest fine handed out under Europe’s GDPR privacy law.
• Virgin Galactic flights have been grounded by the FAA while the regulator investigates a deviation from the flight plan during the company’s July 11 mission.

BREW'S BETS

Bone up. With over a million knee replacements per year, the $19.6B joint replacement industry is due for an overhaul. Monogram’s groundbreaking tech is taking a personalized approach using AI, 3D printing, and a navigated robot arm.  Invest in this new, knee-fixing company here.*

It’s crypto’s world, we’re just living in it. Digital currencies are becoming more and more mainstream, from NBA merch payments to bitcoin credit cards. Teaming up with our friends at Bakkt, we’ve laid out some of the ways that crypto rules the world—and answered some questions you didn’t want to ask your friends. Read up here.*

Follow Friday: Little Big World on YouTube, the produce subreddit, and 80s news screens on Twitter.

Labor Day Weekend soundtrack: The new Drake album, Certified Lover Boy, is out today, plus...the first studio album from Abba in 40 years??? Finally, you can’t go wrong with the new Kacey Musgraves single.

FROM THE CREW

Make Them Go “oooo” at Your OOO

If you’re turning this long weekend into an even longer weekend, let us take something off your Friday to-do list and offer a few well-crafted OOO messages. This first one is from our colleague, Blake Solomon:

Hey friend,

I’m currently enjoying some well-earned PTO. I’ll be blissfully offline from [dates of PTO]. If something urgent comes up you can reach out to [emergency contact name/email]. But as for me, I am most likely enjoying an ice cream sundae while looking out the window (feel free to make this your own as well!). I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I’m well-rested and back online.

Thanks!

[Name]

If you’d like something a little...spicier, don’t worry, we’ve got even more OOO messages here. 

GAMES

Friday Puzzle

Name a car brand. Write it in all capital letters. Rotate one of the letters 90 degrees and another letter 180 degrees to make a woman's name. What is it?

ANSWER

MAZDA --> WANDA

Source: NPR