The Sunday Fix: November 26th

Hostages, Chauvin, Home Sales, PETA and More

Nov 27, 2023

Happy Sunday, folks! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break and ate their fair share of carbs. I need a vegetable.

Lots of good stuff for you - if you like what you read, share the Fix!

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The Sunday Six

Getting you well-read headed into the week

1) Hostages

Hamas handed over more hostages over the weekend as part of a truce deal struck with Israel. 17 individuals were released, including 14 Israelis and 4-year-old Avigail Idan, a dual Israeli-American citizen, whose parents were fatally shot at the Kfar Aza kibbutz in the October attack. After the release, Idan’s family members said “We are blessed to give her lots of love and care and to help her build her life again.”

As part of the deal, Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners, primarily youths accused of public disorder. Hamas also released the footage below of the handoffs.

Monday marks the end of the cease-fire between the two sides, although one more exchange is expected. The US is pushing for an extension to the agreement as ten Americans are among the hostages remaining. Israeli PM Netanyahu told Biden that Israel would accept an extension of the truce in exchange for the release of 10 hostages every day as the agreement says, according to the WSJ.

In more US-related events, Vermont police are investigating the shooting of three Palestinian men over the weekend. According to the NY Times:

The police in Burlington, Vt., on Sunday were investigating the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent as a possible hate crime, the city’s mayor said.
The three victims, all men in their 20s and students of American universities, were walking near the University of Vermont on Saturday when they were shot and wounded by a white man with a handgun, the police said in a statement on Sunday. Two of them were wearing a Palestinian kaffiyeh.

2) Chauvin Shanked

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd, was stabbed in an Arizona federal prison over the weekend. The incident occurred at the Tucson Federal Correctional Institution and is not expected to be life-threatening.

It’s not yet clear who stabbed Chauvin or what the motive was (although it’s more than likely tied to the murder of Floyd). Incidents like these have raised questions about the safety of high-profile inmates. Earlier this year, Larry Nassar, the doctor convicted of sexually abusing female gymnasts, was stabbed multiple times in the chest, back and neck.

3) Black Friday

Americans were swiping those credit cards Friday.

Black Friday shoppers spent a record $9.8B in online sales this year, up ~8% YoY, according to CNBC. This is being attributed to the slowing inflation - gas and food prices have begun to come down, freeing up consumers’ pocketbooks.

Couple of interesting tidbits from the reports:

Mobile: Impulse purchases may have played a role in the Black Friday growth as $5.3 billion of the online sales came from mobile shopping
Pay Later: $79 million of the sales came from consumers who opted for the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ payment method, up 47% from last year.

But, oh were the days of the Black Friday stampede..

4) Iranian Hack

First your google password, now your tap water!

A cyber attack, linked to an Iranian-backed cyber guerilla group, targeted the municipal water system in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. The hackers, part of a group known as "Cyber Av3ngers," gained partial control of the system, shutting down a pump that supplied drinking water from the Aliquippa Municipal Water Authority to Raccoon and Potter townships (I have other thoughts about the names of these towns).

The attack was part of the group's broader strategy targeting infrastructure hardware made by Israeli-owned companies, with Unitronics, an Israeli company, manufacturing the compromised system's controller.

Despite the breach, the Aliquippa municipal workers quickly disabled the affected equipment and switched to backup methods to maintain water pressure.

I don’t feel like we hear enough about the threat of cyber attacks on US infrastructure. I am confident that there are smart people doing good work to protect our assets, but it does feel like a natural place to target. Interesting chart on ‘22 attacks. Unsurprisingly, healthcare was targeted the most.

5) Home Sales

US home sales fell to a 13-year low in October, driven by high interest rates and rising home prices. Existing home sales declined 4.1% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.79 million, the lowest since August 2010. This decrease is a 14.6% fall from the previous year.

Despite reduced demand, the inventory of homes for sale remains low, as high rates deter current homeowners from selling and giving up their existing low-interest rates. We’re basically at a point where current homeowners are unwilling to sell unless there is a life event driving the decision. That definitely shows in home prices - the national median existing-home price in October rose 3.4% from a year earlier to $391,800, marking the highest price for any October since 1999.

Me and all my millennial buds looking at the housing market:

Cartoon gif. This is Fine dog in a bowler hat sits at a table with a mug as flames blaze all around him and smoke drifts above his head. In the next frame, a closeup of the dog shows his dazed eyes as he looks in the coffee cup and says, "This is fine."

6) Outbreaks

A salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes has killed two people in Minnesota. The outbreak has been associated with certain whole cantaloupes that may have stickers labeled "Malichita" or "Rudy." The CDC reports that Minnesota has the highest number of reported cases in the United States, totaling 13, but that the outbreak has also affected Canada.

On the other side of the globe, China is seeing a surge in respiratory illnesses. Never a good headline. However, it sounds like this is being driven by the flu and not a novel virus. It does sound serious, though - the outbreak has “swamped some hospitals in N China, including Beijing”, according to Politico.

Bad news: watch out for the cantaloupes. Good news: doesn’t sound like there’s COVID 2.0 at the moment.

It’s quite the experience to watch the initial news reports on COVID. Linking one below.

The Fix’s Picks

Summarizing and linking to some of my favorite reads, podcasts, photos, and clips from the weekend.

Prison Essay Contest

I stumbled across Pen America awhile back - they are a non-profit focused on protecting the right to write and stopping the banning of books. They have a cool essay contest they run each year for currently incarcerated individuals.

I came across Nick Browning’s 2020 Prison Writing Contest entry. Browning is serving two life sentences for murdering his family. Really, really bad stuff. In his essay, Little Gardens, he talks about what life looks like now that he has faced his new realities. I found the essay thoughtful, well-written, and applicable to all of us.

A short excerpt from the essay:

Nevertheless, I intend to continue to find and create whatever meaning I can in my days, to tend to my little carceral garden. It is not particularly fulfilling, nor is it easy to live with the knowledge of my crime. But, each of us in here, juvenile lifer or otherwise, has a choice: to stagnate or grow – however fitfully, and in spite of the circumstances. Society has correctly given us a sabbatical from life. We must decide what to make of it.
Full essay here

The Neighbors’ Window

“While one couple was missing their youth, the other was dreaming of their future”

AI Companies

Two cool startups that I came across that I thought were neat.

BioPhy was founded by Wharton grads and has two artificial intelligence-powered products to determine the success of new drugs and clinical trials, as well as help bring drugs to market more quickly.
Cradlewise developed a smart crib that uses AI and a built-in monitor to help your baby stay snoozing for as long as possible. The Cradlewise crib learns your child’s sleep patterns and senses when they start to shift and wake. When that happens, it automatically begins to bounce gently to ease the child back to sleep before they start to fuss or cry. Once your babe falls back to sleep, the crib will stop moving
- Great writeup by Turner Novak about Cradlewise: New parents spend roughly 1977 hours a year (or roughly 82 days) just trying to get their baby to sleep. If you do the math, that’s 22% of the entire year. Cradlewise tries to give you some time back