December 16 2024

1. 20-Year Life Expectancy Gap Highlights Stark U.S. Health Inequities
2. Google’s Willow Chip Breakthrough in Quantum Computing
3. TikTok Ban Looms as Court Rejects Appeal
4. U.S. Industrial Decline Threatens National Security
5. China’s Economy Slows Amid Domestic Challenges, U.S. Tensions
December 16, 1773: The Boston Tea Party
NJ Drones

See the Ad Astra Podcast! Released on Apple and Spotify around 10a CST.

FLASH SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT IMPEACHED, THROWING KEY US ANTI-CHINA ALLY INTO TURMOIL

1. 20-Year Life Expectancy Gap Highlights Stark U.S. Health Inequities

Nearly two decades ago, a team of researchers published the landmark “Eight Americas” study, which examined drivers of U.S. health inequities between 1982 and 2001 by dividing the U.S. population into groups based on geography, race, income, and other factors.  A new research study, published this month by the University of Washington and the Council on Foreign Relations, revisits that landmark research project, adding two new “Americas” to account for Latino populations.  This new study finds that U.S. life expectancy disparities have grown over the last two decades between 2001 and 2021, with the differences between the best and worst of those “Americas” increasing from 12.6 years in 2000 to 20.4 years in 2021. COVID-19 exacerbated this divide, but gaps in longevity had already been growing before the pandemic hit.

Article Source: CFR

2. Google’s Willow Chip Breakthrough in Quantum Computing

Google unveiled a new quantum computer…that points to a future in which quantum computers could drive advances in areas like drug discovery and artificial intelligence. Google said its quantum computer, based on a computer chip called Willow, needed less than five minutes to perform a mathematical calculation that one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers could not complete in 10 septillion years, a length of time that exceeds the age of the known universe. Quantum computing — the result of decades of research into a type of physics called quantum mechanics — is still an experimental technology. But Google’s achievement shows that scientists are steadily improving techniques that could allow quantum computing to live up to the enormous expectations that have surrounded this big idea for decades.

Article Source: NYT

3. TikTok Ban Looms as Court Rejects Appeal

TikTok faces a US ban next month after an appeals court declined to pause the measure, which takes effect if the popular video-sharing app isn’t sold by its China-based parent ByteDance Ltd. The company’s request for the pause came after a federal appeals court panel in Washington upheld a law that bans the social media platform in the US unless ByteDance divests itself of the app by Jan. 19. TikTok asked for a delay while it appeals the decision and as it waits for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to weigh in. TikTok said that it now plans to take its case to the US Supreme Court. “The voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world will be silenced on January 19th, 2025 unless the TikTok ban is halted,” the company posted on X after the appeals court panel denied its request. In its earlier decision, the appeals panel said that the US government appeared justified in its national security concerns that China could use the platform to collect data on citizens or push propaganda. It rejected the company’s argument that the law infringed on constitutional free-speech protections.

Article Source: Bloomberg

4. U.S. Industrial Decline Threatens National Security

As China builds up its military might, the U.S. is already hard-pressed to keep supplying weapons to its partners in Ukraine and the Middle East. Orders for Taiwan are getting delayed. Though U.S. military output increased after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the growth lagged far behind the rapid expenditure of munitions and concentrated on particular products such as 155mm artillery shells. “We are in no way prepared, from an industrial standpoint, to compete effectively absent radical change,” said Robert Greenway, director of the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation and a former senior official in the Trump White House. “We have to look at industrial capacity and output as a function of national security, first and foremost.” In a report released in July, the congressionally mandated Commission on the National Defense Strategy found that China is outpacing the U.S. when it comes to military production and that America’s defense-industrial base is unable to meet the needs of the U.S. and allies. “The U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat,” the report warned.

Article Source: WSJ

5. China’s Economy Slows Amid Domestic Challenges, U.S. Tensions

A. A bundle of economic data from China suggest government efforts to boost the economy are struggling to gain traction, a sign that Beijing will need to do more next year to rev up growth as it confronts new trade tensions with President-elect Donald Trump. Economists say the world’s second-largest economy is probably on track to achieve the official growth target of around 5% this year but next year will be much tougher. President-elect Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to as high as 60%, which could potentially cripple the export engine that China is relying on to support growth this year given the weakness in spending at home.  

B. Faced with rising social frustrations and public unrest, China’s leaders are ramping up security measures and squelching discordant views on the country’s economic health. A spate of deadly attacks in China in recent weeks—including mass stabbings and car-ramming incidents—has unnerved officials and ordinary people alike, raising concerns that stagnating growth has played a role in fueling unrest and even outbursts of violence, amid an increase in public protests over economic grievances. Officials have fanned out to screen for people who have suffered financial or emotional setbacks and assess their risks of disrupting public order. Authorities also deployed paramilitary troops to help guard some schools in Beijing and elsewhere, after some recent attacks appeared to target students. Internet censors, meanwhile, have scrubbed viral commentaries about weaknesses in the world’s second-largest economy.  

Editors note: China's rise as a global power is the most important story of our times. China is reclaiming its place as a great civilization, a status it held for thousands of years before its decline in recent centuries. The country may be facing economic challenges at the moment, but these are to be expected. As China's economy expands into a massive behemoth, a slower rate of economic growth is inevitable—it’s simply a matter of mathematics. I once wrote about the possibility of China collapsing, but in hindsight, I was wrong. China is not on the brink of collapse and will remain a formidable rival to the United States for decades to come. 

Article Source: WSJ

December 16, 1773: The Boston Tea Party

NJ Drones

I don’t have anything substantial to add, it’s strange. Here is an alarming, possibly true, conspiracy theory from the CEO of a drone manufacturer 

Article Source: X

Sources

2. https://www.cfr.org/article/ten-americas-how-geography-race-and-income-shape-us-life-expectancy

3. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/technology/google-quantum-computing.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

4. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-14/court-denies-tiktok-s-bid-to-pause-us-ban-set-for-jan-19

5. https://www.wsj.com/world/has-world-war-iii-already-begun-16fb94c9?st=tAYD2Z&reflink=article_copyURL_share

6. A https://www.wsj.com/world/china/data-paint-mixed-picture-for-chinese-economy-f5b3aeb8?st=PXCQnr&reflink=article_copyURL_share
B https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-races-to-squelch-unrest-as-signs-of-economic-malaise-spread-a2b10065?st=YcBEDb&reflink=article_copyURL_share

8. https://x.com/koryyeshua/status/1868118969149976579?s=42