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Your Daily BriefSeptember 1st, 2022 |
Good morning, and welcome to your Thursday! Did you know that there is a part of Chile’s Atacama desert that has never recorded any rainfall, yet is still home to hundreds of species of plants? Talk about persevering through harsh conditions! Anyway, as you get a jump on the first day of September, here’s what we have for you:
In Today’s Brief
- Catalonia: Hailstones up to 10cm in diameter found during storms
- FDA: Grants emergency use authorization for updated coronavirus booster shots
- PGA Tour: Tabling plans to stage global series of events
- Stocks: Major indexes see four consecutive days of losses
- Steph Curry: Graduates from Davidson College 13 years after leaving for NBA
- Top Tips: U.S. life expectancy falls to its lowest level in 26 years; Russian-owned energy company Gazprom cuts gas flows to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline again; Bed, Bath & Beyond announces turnaround efforts that includes closing 150 stores
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Life expectancy in the United States falls to lowest level since 1996
Life expectancy for Americans fell for the second year in a row in 2021, reaching its lowest level since 1996, according to a federal government report released yesterday.
A child born in 2021 is expected to live until 76.1 years old on average, per the data, down about one year from 2020, when life expectancy was 77 years. In 2019–prior to the coronavirus pandemic–life expectancy in the United States sat at 77.8 years. While expected lifespan for all races fell over the past two years, Native Americans experienced the steepest reduction, with average life expectancy shortening by four years in 2020 alone.
According to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics, this drop in life expectancy levels since 2019 reflects the biggest two-year decline since 1921-1923, a time period not long after the end of World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic.
Russia halts natural gas flows through the Nord Stream pipeline to Europe again
Russian-owned energy company Gazprom halted gas flows to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline, citing maintenance works on its only remaining compressor.
Gazprom said yesterday that it had stopped flows through the pipeline–which runs from Russia to Germany–as “scheduled preventive work begins” at the Portovaya station in Russia. This disruption marks the second occurrence that Russia has halted gas flows to Europe for after shutting down the Nord Stream pipeline to perform maintenance for 10 days in July. The pipeline is due to come back online on Saturday, according to Gazprom, which said that flows would resume at 20% of capacity (the same level it has provided since late July).
As the country faces inflation levels at a 50-year high partly due to an energy supply crunch, the president of Germany’s network regulator said that it would be able to cope with the outage as long as flows resumed on Saturday.
Bed Bath & Beyond to close 150 stores & cut jobs in a turnaround effort
Bed Bath & Beyond said that it would close 150 stores, cut roughly 20% of its corporate workforce, and overhaul its merchandising strategy in an attempt to revitalize its business.
On top of shuttering stores and cutting jobs, the company–which has about 32,000 employees worldwide–announced that it had secured over $500M in new financing, that it would eliminate its Chief Operating Officer and Chief Stores Officer roles, and that it planned to sell an undisclosed number of shares of common stock “from time to time,” according to an SEC filing. The announcements came days after activist investor Ryan Cohen sold nearly his entire position in the company and reports surfaced that some suppliers halted shipments due to unpaid bills.
Following the news, shares closed down over 21% at the end of trading yesterday; the stock (NASDAQ: BBBY) is now down more than 37% since the start of the year.
Around the Globe
- Hailstones up to 10cm in diameter fell in Catalonia during storms in the northeastern region of Spain, injuring dozens of people and claiming the life of a 20-month-old girl
- A Palestinian man who has been held without charge or trial by Israel will end his nearly six-month hunger strike after receiving a “written agreement” that he will be released in October, according to Palestinian officials
- South African ex-Paralympian Oscar Pistorius is seeking an early release from prison, arguing that he has already served enough time to be eligible for parole; Pistorius is currently serving a 13-year sentence for killing his girlfriend in 2013
On the Homefront
- The FDA announced yesterday that it has granted emergency use authorization for updated coronavirus booster shots that the agency claims target the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5
- North Carolina’s chapter of the NAACP has lost its federal tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns for three years, according to the Internal Revenue Service
- Mary Peltola is set to become the first Alaska Native in Congress after winning a special election that included candidates Nick Begich and former Governor Sarah Palin
Glitz & Games
- The PGA Tour is tabling its plans to stage an international series of events that would have included its top players competing for purses worth as much as $25M, according to sources familiar with the matter
- Richard Roat, known for appearances in shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, Dallas, and others, passed away earlier this month in Orange County at age 89, according to his wife
- Francis Ford Coppola has cast Shia LaBeouf in the upcoming film Megalopolis, which has a budget of almost $100M
Business & Markets
- Stocks opened higher before closing down to mark four days of consecutive losses in the major indexes (Dow -0.88%, Nasdaq -0.56%, S&P 500 -0.78%)
- Shares of Snap Inc (NYSE: SNAP) rose by as much as 15% during yesterday’s trading session after the company confirmed reports that it will lay off 20% of its workforce and scrap several projects as part of a strategic restructuring
- Bosch is investing over $200M into its South Carolina factory to build fuel cell stacks that will power hydrogen-powered electric commercial trucks; the investment is part of Bosch’s plan to commit more than $1B globally to develop fuel cell technologies by 2024
Tip & Tricks
- Bump This: Everyone’s favorite sad pop band LANY is back with their new single “Congrats” - listen on Apple Music and Spotify
- Chow Down: Browse these six easy high-protein snacks that will fill you up and keep you energized for less than 150 calories each (it may be the first day of September, but it’s never too late to get your summer body)
- Nerd Out: Read about a new theory that describes how ancient Egyptian workers might have built the pyramids of Giza by harnessing floods from the Nile River through a complex series of canals
- Go Deep: Check out this new 8K video of the Titanic that reveals never-before-seen details of the shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean
- Say What: “I'm more open to being a husband than I am a father right now. I like the idea that there's no pressure, or a thought about having to have a child with Lou. So it just makes it easy for us,” real estate entrepreneur and reality TV personality Jason Oppenheim said when talking about his relationship with current girlfriend Marie-Lou Nurk
- Hot Goss: Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry graduated from Davidson College in a one-man commencement ceremony that also included his Davidson Hall of Fame induction and jersey retirement
- Life Hack: Planting a few ice cubes on your carpet can help get rid of indentations left by chairs, tables, couches, or anything else
Looking Back…
On September 1st: Life magazine publishes Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, his last major work of fiction (1952); Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky to become the first native-born American to hold the title of world chess champion (1972); the wreck of the Titanic is found on the ocean floor at a depth of roughly 13,000 feet (1985); athlete Rocky Marciano is born (1923).
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