The Wall Street Journal: What's News.

"U.S. stocks end August higher after head-spinning swings."

Views expressed in this U.S., World, and Geopolitical News update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 31 August 2024, 0043 UTC.

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Russ Roberts (http://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).

 The Wall Street Journal. 

What's News

Good afternoon. Here’s what you should know today, Aug. 30:

Why Russia had an outsize reaction to the arrest of Telegram’s founder

Nvidia’s new, larger AI chips are causing manufacturing problems

The popularity of plane-side camping, a.k.a. flamping, is soaring

By Zlati Meyer

Thanks for reading What’s News! Look for the 🔐 to enjoy a free article on us—and share the link with a friend (or forward the whole newsletter!).

 

What to Watch

1. Major U.S. stock indexes closed out a rocky August with monthly gains.

From the end of July, the S&P 500 rose 2.3% (🔐 read for free), the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 0.6%. August’s whiplash included a disappointing July jobs report and an unwinding of popular trades as well as a cooling consumer-price index and increased retail sales. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has strongly signaled that the central bank plans to cut interest rates at its Sept. 17-18 meeting, but other officials have sent conflicting messages about how rapidly they want to lower rates beyond that. Meanwhile, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge held steady, rising 2.5% in July from a year earlier.

Goldman Sachs to Lay Off Over 1,300 Workers (Read)

When Interest Rates Go Down, the Hucksters Spring Up, Writes WSJ’s Jason Zweig (Read)

Eurozone Inflation Closes in on ECB Target (Read)

2. Russia is afraid that its military secrets could be exposed in the wake of Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest.

The social media app has become a critical communications tool for its forces during the war in Ukraine. Several Russian lawmakers publicly called to exchange Durov for Westerners in Moscow’s custody, and the media there reported widespread government instructions to delete Telegram chat histories, which the Kremlin denied. French authorities brought preliminary charges against Durov for crimes including refusing to cooperate with investigations into illegal activity on Telegram. After leaving his native Russia in 2014, Durov acquired citizenship from France, St. Kitts and Nevis and the United Arab Emirates.

Biden Administration Rejects Plan to Send Americans to Ukraine to Maintain F-16s (Read)

Ukraine’s President Fires Air Force Commander After F-16 Crash (Read)

A Key Western Ally Is Buckling Under Russian Pressure (Read)

3. Donald Trump pledged to provide federal funding for IVF or force insurers to cover the costly procedure.

Antiabortion groups that oppose IVF are concerned, while advocates who’ve spent years working for such care are skeptical. How the former president would execute his IVF proposal isn’t clear; his campaign didn’t respond to a request for more details. Republicans are grappling with polls showing that abortion restrictions are unpopular after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Forcing insurance companies to pay for fertility care would be a marked shift for the GOP. Trump also sent mixed signals about Florida’s abortion referendum. He suggested yesterday that he’d support rolling back a six-week ban in his adopted home state, but his campaign walked back the comments.

Kamala Harris Defends Policy Shifts in CNN Interview (Read)

What Reagan’s Ranch Did for His Presidency (Read)

4. An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinians who took charge of an aid convoy.

U.S. aid group Anera said that the people were killed at a holding point after taking over the convoy’s lead vehicle from private contractors. The organization didn’t specify if they were armed and said that the Israeli military gave no warning or prior communication before attacking. The Israeli military said it hit a car carrying armed individuals to prevent them from seizing humanitarian supplies. No Anera staffers were hurt, and the convoy delivered the aid to a Gaza hospital, according to both sides. Humanitarian groups are struggling to navigate attacks and lawlessness in the enclave.

Israel’s ‘War Between the Wars’ Heats Up in Syria (Read)

Columbia Failed to Stop Hate and Violence Against Jews on Campus, New Report Says (Read)

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MEMBER MESSAGE: BUY SIDE FROM WSJ

The Best Labor Day Deals

Labor Day is upon us, and so are exceptional end-of-summer savings. Our editors have handpicked the best sales just for you. Discover where and how to shop smart this Labor Day with the Buy Side from WSJ.

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‏‏‎1,000 Words

Nvidia’s future depends on chips that push technology’s limits.

The digital brains of the company’s newest AI chips are about twice as big as and house 2.6 times more transistors than the ones that have powered Nvidia’s soaring business since early last year. Bigger is also turning out to be more difficult. The Blackwell chip’s manufacturing issues were largely responsible for narrower profit margins and a $908 million provision Nvidia booked in the most recent quarter, the company said. Any significant defect in the microscopic circuitry can render the $40,000 chip useless.

Read More

 

‏‏‎Quoted

“It’s hard to adult between the two jobs. It leaves very little time to get things done.”

—Chanda Corkrean, who works fulltime for a medical-supply distributor and evenings at Pizza Hut. The divorced mother of one is among the 5.3% of U.S. adults who had more than one job, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent data. That’s up from a pandemic low of 4% in April 2020. Higher living costs and the emergence of the gig economy help fuel the trend, economists say.

“You go to Fidelity or Vanguard to buy index funds or stocks. You know by going to them that those are trustworthy places to exchange your money for an asset…You’re not on the street with someone random. It all feels very protected and pre-vetted. That’s the same exact thing as with an auction house.”

—Financial-advice content creator Haley Sacks who collects handbags and sees advantages to buying them from major auction houses. With prices for new bags rising and fakes harder to detect, auctions are a good place to buy preowned luxury accessories at fair prices, purse pundits say.

 

Catch Up

Maryland Supreme Court Backs Reinstatement of Adnan Syed’s Murder Conviction (Read)

Why the FAA Turned to Philly to Ease Newark Flight Delays (Read)

The Far-Reaching Ripple Effects of a Discredited Cancer Study (Read)

Essay: I Am Childless, but Not by Choice (Read)

Baseball’s Most Miserable Record May Be About to Fall (Read)

College Football Is in Chaos. Fans Can’t Get Enough. (Read)

 

Live Better

ILLUSTRATION: PARKER ESHELMAN/WSJ, ISTOCK (3)

Don’t wait for the next big data breach to freeze your credit.

Protecting your identity this way means thieves can’t open credit cards and loans in your name—which could wreck your credit and take months to resolve—and it’s free and relatively easy. Go online with a government ID, like a driver’s license, pay stubs and utility bills to request a freeze at the major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Reversing this process requires going through each one again. A freeze prevents lenders from accessing your credit report, so unfreeze your credit files when applying for new credit cards or loans.

Read More

 

Reporter's Journal

Editor Name

Teachers are dropping out of school. Student behavior challenges, middling salaries and AI-fueled cheating are among the reasons that they’re burning out. That schools are still recovering from pandemic-era shifts doesn’t help. The share of teachers who say the stress and disappointment of the job are “worth it” fell to 42%, which is 21 points lower than other college-educated workers, according to nonprofit think tank Rand. WSJ reporter Matt Barnum covers K-12 education in the U.S. We talked to him about how teacher burnout impacts those higher up the educational food chain, what schools are doing to retain classroom staff and the pre-journalism years he spent teaching middle school. Email him at matt.barnum@wsj.com.

Q:

 How is teacher burnout affecting students in the short-, medium- and long-term?

A:

 More teachers are leaving the profession, which research has linked to lower rates of student learning. Burned out teachers who stay in the classroom are probably less effective in their work, too. It’s possible that things will get better in coming years, especially as pandemic-era disruptions fade from memory. But the challenge could compound, too: Burned out teachers are bad advertisements for the profession; they could deter people from wanting to become teachers. Administrator burnout is also a problem in its own right. Plus, it could have a ripple effect if more teachers leave their classrooms to fill newly vacant administrator positions.

Q:

 How are schools trying to help?

A:

 Our education system is very decentralized so there’s not one big thing happening everywhere. That said, a lot of places are trying to raise teacher pay. Others have added more non-teaching staff, such as counselors or social workers, to support students, which could allow teachers to focus more on teaching. Some places have made various efforts to help teachers manage student behavior; especially popular are new restrictions on cell phones in school.

Q:

 Some of your recent articles deal with the problems of students in special education, grade inflation and the glut of schools in urban areas. Anything positive happening in education these days?

A:

 Glad you asked—yes, there is! There is some tentative indication that students have partially recovered from learning loss and that the large infusion of federal money helped them do so. Also, in most schools, you’ll see plenty of good things happening. You’ll hear a lot of laughter, you’ll see teachers working hard, and you’ll hear from parents who love their kids’ schools and teachers.

Q:

 You were a middle-school language-arts teacher for two years. Did you burn out?

A:

 I did, at least to a degree. Like a lot of novice teachers, I struggled to manage student behavior, especially my first year. I was also stunned by the day-to-day toll that teaching took on me physically and mentally in a way that was fundamentally different from any other job I’ve had. And I also wasn’t thrilled about how much I was paid.

 

Take a Break

Fly in and camp out. So-called flampers are pitching their tents under their aircraft wings for some nontraditional outdoor fun.

Read More

 

Beyond the Newsroom

Buy Side from WSJ: These Are the Deals Buy Side Staffers Have in Our Carts for Labor Day

 

Today's newsletter was curated by Zlati Meyer in collaboration with Leigh Kamping-Carder in New York. Follow Zlati on X at @Zlatimeyer and Leigh at @Leigh_KC.

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