| |
| Happy Monday, Insiders! Today's newsletter covers: - 💦 Spain and other Mediterranean countries' growing reliance on desalinated drinking water
- 🎥 "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig is set to become the first female director of a movie with +$1B in sales
- ⚽ A disappointing ending for the U.S. Women's National Soccer team's hopes for a World Cup three-peat
And much more! Your faithful IDB writer, Daniel
p/Dan-Smith | |
| 1 | | Severe drought has forced Spanish authorities to use processed seawater as tap water. The use of desalination plants will likely accelerate in Mediterranean countries as global warming is causing drought and desertification. More: - After the Llobregat desalination plant in Barcelona opened in 2009, it was little-used and supplied less than 5% of the city's drinking water.
- But due to a prolonged drought, over the past year, the plant has been operating at full capacity, generating 500 gallons of fresh water per second.
- The governments of Spain, Algeria, Israel, and Italy have all invested in desalination facilities and the pipelines needed to transport fresh water from plants to people's homes.
- One planned pipeline, which would stretch 100 km (62 miles) and cost €1B ($1.1B), would bring river water from Albania to Puglia in southern Italy.
- The region of Puglia wants to build three desalination plants for drinking water by the end of the decade.
Zoom Out: - Under E.U. rules, desalinated water should not be used as drinking water.
- In order to circumvent the rules, desalinated water from Barcelona's plant is released into a river before it is then extracted again downstream.
|     | |
| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: The price of Berkshire Hathaway A-Class stock rose by more than 3% to hit an all-time high after the company said it generated more than $10B in quarterly operating profit for the first time in Q2 2023. Berkshire made $35.9B in net income in the second quarter. Relevance: Berkshire's fixed-income investments have performed well due to the rise in interest rates over the past year. Berkshire owns a $177.6B stake in Apple and benefitted from a 17.6% rise in the technology company's stock price last quarter. Berkshire, which has a market capitalization of nearly $800B, has been run by the 92-year-old investing legend Warren Buffet since 1965. | | | |
| A message from our sponsor, Masterworks. |  | | Billionaires wanted it, but 54,578 everyday investors got it first… and profited When incredibly valuable assets come up for sale, it's typically the wealthiest people that end up taking home an amazing investment. But not always… One platform is taking on the billionaires at their own game, buying up and securitizing prized blue-chip artworks for its investors. In just the last few years, its investors have realized annualized net returns of 17.8%, 21.5%, 35% and more from these opportunities. It's called Masterworks. Their nearly $1 billion collection includes works by greats like Banksy, Picasso, and Basquiat, all of which are collectively owned by everyday investors. When Masterworks sells a painting – like the 15 it's already sold – investors reap their portion of the net proceeds. Offerings can sell out in minutes, but as a trusted partner, Inside readers can skip the waitlist to join with this exclusive link. SKIP THE WAITLIST See important disclosures at masterworks.com/cd | |
|
| 3 | | A new study estimates that the amount of plastic waste in the oceans is growing by 4% per year. The paper, which was published in Nature Geoscience on Monday, estimates that 500,000 metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year ― half from land and the other half from the fishing industry. More: - With a 4% growth rate, the amount of plastic in the world's oceans would double within 20 years.
- The findings indicate that estimates from a well-known 2015 study, according to which 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans from rivers every year, were overblown.
- Other recent papers claim that the 2015 estimates were too high, with a 2020 study estimating that 3.2 million metric tons of plastic were floating on the surface of the world's oceans.
Zoom Out: - In March, representatives from 175 nations agreed to begin working on a global treaty to slash plastic pollution.
- Dr. Marcus Eriksen, who runs a non-profit focused on reducing plastic pollution, said that such a treaty could be effective if it restricts the kinds of plastics that could be made and ensures that manufacturers stop producing harmful plastics.
| | | |
| 4 | | GOOD NEWS: "Barbie" is set to become the first movie directed solely by a woman to surpass $1B in sales worldwide. Of the 53 movies that have generated more than $1B in ticket sales, "Barbie" is one of only nine with a female protagonist. More: - Of the billion-dollar movies with a female protagonist, nearly half of them are animated films.
- On its first weekend in the U.S., 69% of "Barbie" ticket buyers were female and 71% on the second weekend.
- In 2019, "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig said she was "heartened" by the attention that female directors were getting and pointed to evidence that more and more popular films are directed by women every year.
| | | |
| |
|
| 5 | | Sweden knocked the U.S. out of the FIFA Women's World Cup. The U.S. team, which was aiming to win the World Cup for a third consecutive time, has been hit hard by injuries in recent months. More: - The round of 16 game went down to penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw.
- The U.S. team had never finished worse than third place since the Women's World Cup began in 1991.
- The U.S. team last lost a World Cup game in 2011, when Japan beat the Americans in the final.
- Sweden will play Japan on Friday, August 11.
Zoom Out: - Soccer analysts have argued that the gap between women's soccer in the U.S. has closed in recent years, in part thanks in part to professional-level development programs.
| | | |
| 6 | | PayPal launched a U.S. Dollar-denominated stablecoin called PayPal USD. Crypto firm Paxos Trust will issue the stablecoin, which will be available to PayPal customers in the coming weeks. More: - PayPal USD is an ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
- The company said the stablecoin will be available on Venmo and that centralized cryptocurrency exchanges will likely adopt it.
- PayPal USD will be backed by deposited dollars, short-term U.S. treasuries, and other cash equivalents. The company said it will publish regular reports outlining the assets backing the stablecoin starting in September.
Zoom out: - Roughly $126B worth of stablecoins are currently in circulation, with Tether Holdings Ltd.'s USDT being the largest.
| | | |
| 7 | | QUICK HITS: - Wiz partnered with Wiley to create the AWS Security Foundations Guide For Dummies. This free 46-page guide includes techniques for securing AWS resources.*
- The company behind the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has barred its artists from using generative A.I. to produce licensed pictures of wizards, dragons, or other fantastical creatures.
- A woman has sued an Irish newspaper that falsely reported that her son died after taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The teenager died of suicide in August 2021 and had not been vaccinated.
- Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will meet after the military junta that seized control of Niger ignored a deadline for reinstating the ousted president. The regional bloc previously said that it could take military action against the Niger junta, which shut down the country's airspace after the deadline passed.
- Colorado is set to offer up to $26,500 in electric vehicle incentives. Governor Jared Polis aims to have nearly 1 million EVs in Colorado by 2030.
- Join over 5,000 fast-growing companies around the world that trust Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Inside readers get $1,000 off.*
*This is a sponsored post. | | | |
| |
Term of the Day Cash burn: Cash burn is defined as the amount of cash a company utilizes to meet its expenses in a specific period. Question of the Week Do you think the 9-to-5 workday still relevant in today's modern workplace? Join the conversation |
| Upcoming Events | | AUG
5 | | Learn about streamlining SOC 2 compliance with Vanta and AWS. Join the webinar on Aug 17.* | | | | | | | OCT
4 | | Join this free hybrid event in Amsterdam and you'll hear from industry experts at Meta, Opera, AdGuard, Mozilla, Google, and more.* | | | | | | | OCT
16 | | Meet Our Fund 5, Building and Investing in AI | | | | | | | NOV
7 | | Join 300+ CCOs and senior leaders from Amex, Verizon, Hilton, Wells Fargo and more at Reuters Events: Customer Service & Experience East 2023.* | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | Writer | | Dr. Daniel Smith is an Inside writer with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow him on Twitter @DJS12321 or email him at Daniel@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by NO ACCOUNT ASSOCIATED WITH THE EDITOR | |
| |
 | Join 790,000+ people on the premier blue-chip art investing platform, Masterworks. Skip the waitlist.
| |
|
| |
|
| |
Comments
Post a Comment