September 23 2024

FLASH Congressional Leaders Back Bipartisan Spending Deal to Avert Shutdown, Boost Secret Service Funding

1 Microsoft to Revive Three Mile Island for AI Energy Needs in 20-Year Deal

2 U.S. Turns to South Korea for Shipbuilding Revival to Compete with China’s Naval Dominance

3 $1.2T Government Infrastructure Bill Projects Falter: Zero Rural Internet Connections, Eight EV Stations Built

4 Over 100 Dead or Missing in Sinaloa Cartel Infighting, Violence Escalates in Mexico

5 Global Chaos Takes Center Stage as UN General Assembly Meets Amid Rising Conflict

Sports: Colorado stuns Baylor in overtime in miracle finish

9/23/1949 President Truman announces Soviets have exploded a nuclear device

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

FLASH Congressional Leaders Back Bipartisan Spending Deal to Avert Shutdown, Boost Secret Service Funding

Congressional leaders on Sunday backed a bipartisan spending deal that would avoid a government shutdown before the election while also giving the Secret Service an extra $231 million to help protect presidential candidates during the final hectic weeks of campaigning. The proposal, backed by top Republicans and Democrats, would extend government funding until Dec. 20, giving Congress more time to figure out how much money to allocate each federal agency for the next fiscal year.

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1 Microsoft to Revive Three Mile Island for AI Energy Needs in 20-Year Deal

A) Pennsylvania’s dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant would be brought back to life to feed the voracious energy needs of Microsoft under an unprecedented deal announced Friday in which the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years. The restart of Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, would mark a bold advance in the tech industry’s quest to find enough electric power to support its boom in artificial intelligence. The plant, which Pennsylvanians thought had closed for good in 2019 amid financial strain, would come back online by 2028 under the agreement, according to plant owner Constellation Energy.

B) Microsoft and BlackRock said Tuesday they are planning a $30 billion fund to develop data centers and power plants to power artificial intelligence. The fund would be one of the largest of its kind, though it isn’t clear how much Microsoft is contributing and shows how the company is enlisting another longtime real estate and data center investor, BlackRock, rather than go it alone as AI costs stack up. Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX will also invest in the fund, and Nvidia will consult on the design of data centers built by the fund or the companies it backs, Microsoft and BlackRock said. (MGX has also been in talks to participate in OpenAI’s capital raise of up to $7 billion.) The new fund, dubbed the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, will ultimately look to raise as much as $100 billion, including debt financing, and will “chiefly” invest in infrastructure located within the U.S., the companies said. The data centers will be “non-exclusive” and serve “a diverse range” of customers, the companies said. The fund is the latest sign of Microsoft’s interest in new data centers and power sources needed to train and run large-scale AI models, such as those developed by OpenAI. Microsoft has already projected that it will spend more than $50 billion this year on capital expenditures, primarily for building data centers, and has discussed building a supercomputing data-center server cluster for OpenAI that could cost more than $100 billion. Numerous large AI data centers are under way in the continental U.S., according to the AI Data Center Database.

A SOURCE

B SOURCE

2 U.S. Turns to South Korea for Shipbuilding Revival to Compete with China’s Naval Dominance

Having fallen far behind China in shipbuilding, the U.S. is turning to allies in South Korea and Japan for the turnaround strategy. Key to that effort is attracting companies such as Hyundai that go head-to-head with the Chinese and can do everything America lacks: making ships quickly at low costs with modern techniques. China’s naval battle-force ship fleet now outnumbers the U.S.’s, having ramped up production at state-subsidized shipyards that build all types of vessels. A majority of the world’s ship output last year came from China. Coming in at No. 2 was South Korea, with roughly a quarter of global deliveries. The U.S. barely registers on the global rankings. The few American shipyards left build American ships—and pretty much nothing else, since the labor costs are higher and the turnaround times longer.

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3 $1.2T Government Infrastructure Bill Projects Falter: Zero Rural Internet Connections, Eight EV Stations Built

The U.S. government is under scrutiny for the sluggish progress of two programs under Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill: a $42.5 billion initiative to bring high-speed internet to rural areas and a $7.5 billion plan to build 1,000 EV charging stations over 10 years. Despite the bill being passed over 1,000 days ago, reports show zero people have been connected to the internet, and only eight charging stations have been built. Meanwhile, Starlink’s $885 million contract to connect 640,000 rural homes was canceled by the FCC, opting instead for fiber lines—10 times more expensive and slower to implement. Critics like David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya argue that the inefficiency may be more than government waste, suggesting political retaliation against Elon Musk, citing the cancellation of Starlink’s contract and his exclusion from a major EV summit. The private sector, notably Starlink and private EV charging companies, appears to have already outpaced the government’s efforts.

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@theallinpod

4 Over 100 Dead or Missing in Sinaloa Cartel Infighting, Violence Escalates in Mexico

Some 53 people have been killed and 51 others are missing in Mexico's western Sinaloa state since rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel began clashing on Sept 9, local authorities said on Friday, with gruesome violence showing no signs of abating. The trigger for the conflict between the two most powerful factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, a drug gang, dates back to July, when legendary trafficker and leader of one of those groupings, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was arrested in the United States.

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Ed note: this Forever War is close to home

5 Global Chaos Takes Center Stage as UN General Assembly Meets Amid Rising Conflict

When the United Nations General Assembly convenes on Tuesday, attention will focus on the major wars raging in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, amid a reckoning that neither the global body nor world powers have been able to end the violence. By all accounts, the world has descended deeper into chaos and turmoil since last year’s annual gathering, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Sudan’s civil war cast shadows. Now, those have been eclipsed by the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and the war that followed in Gaza, with its catastrophic humanitarian toll on Palestinians.

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Ed note: I think the UN is defunct, read my column from May for my full argument

6 Sports: Colorado stuns Baylor in overtime in miracle finish

For the second year in a row under head coach Deion Sanders, the Colorado football team is off to a 3-1 start after getting another clutch performance from Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, this time in a wet and wild 38-31 overtime win at home against Baylor. The win came after the Buffaloes forced overtime on an incredible 43-yard touchdown pass as time expired , helping tie the game 31-31. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders rolled left on the play and lofted the ball toward the left corner of the end zone, where receiver LaJohntay Wester turned to catch the ball in the rain with his two hands and elbows extended in a cradle. It fell right into his basket, bringing the Buffs back from the brink even after Colorado receiver Will Sheppard dropped a possible touchdown pass near the end zone one play earlier. Shedeur Sanders, Deion's youngest son, then drove the Buffs 25 yards in seven plays on the first overtime drive, capped by a 1-yard scoring run by freshman running back Micah Welch.

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9/23/1949 President Truman announces Soviets have exploded a nuclear device