SUMMARY

EARTH AT 8 BILLION: CONSUMPTION

NOT CROWD IS KEY TO CLIMATE  08
TOYOTA SHOWS NEW PRIUS HYBRID
WITH MORE POWER, RANGE, STYLE  36
TV GAME: HOW APPLE TV IS BECOMING
THE NEW GO-TO CONSOLE  58
40 STATES SETTLE GOOGLE LOCATION-
TRACKING CHARGES FOR $392M  92
 ELECTRIC AIR TAXI COMPANY ARCHER PLANS $118M GEORGIA FACTORY   28

COMPUTER CHIP BAN SIGNALS NEW ERA AS BIDEN AND XI MEET   46

BATTLE OVER THE IPHONE APP STORE SPILLS INTO APPEALS COURT   84

SAM BANKMAN-FRIED’S DOWNFALL SENDS SHOCKWAVES THROUGH CRYPTO   102

BINANCE PROPOSES FUND TO SAVE CRYPTO FROM FUTURE FAILURES   114

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT BANKRUPT CRYPTO EXCHANGE FTX?   120

OREGON UNIVERSITY PLANS TO DEVELOP NEW RECHARGEABLE BATTERY   128

STUDIES FIND AUTOMATIC BRAKING CAN CUT CRASHES OVER 40%   134

PEACOCK HOPES TO CAPITALIZE ON SUBSCRIBERS WITH WORLD CUP   140

NASA’S MIGHTIEST MOON ROCKET LIFTS OFF 50 YEARS AFTER APOLLO   146

IN ‘WAKANDA FOREVER,’ AN EMPIRE MOURNS AND REBUILDS   174

1970S SANDALS WORN BY STEVE JOBS AUCTIONED FOR $218K   196

TARGET’S 3Q PROFIT DROPS 52% AS SHOPPERS FORCE PRICE CUTS   200

AIRBNB AIMS TO CONVINCE MORE PEOPLE TO RENT OUT THEIR HOMES   210

FLYING HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS WILL COST YOU MORE THIS YEAR   218

MUSIC   158
MOVIES & TV SHOWS   166
TOP 10 ALBUMS   186
TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS   188
TOP 10 TV SHOWS   190
TOP 10 BOOKS   192
TOP 10 SONGS   194
EARTH AT
8 BILLION:
CONSUMPTION
NOT CROWD IS
KEY TO CLIMATE

The world is getting hotter and more crowded

and the two issues are connected, but not quite
as much as people might think, experts say.

On Tuesday somewhere a baby will be born that

will be the globe’s 8 billionth person, according
to a projection by the United Nations and other
experts. The Earth has warmed almost 0.9
degrees Celsius (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since
the world hit the 4 billion mark in 1974.
Climate and population is a touchy subject for
scientists and officials.

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While more people consuming energy, mostly
from the burning of fossil fuels, is warming
the planet, the key issue isn’t the number of
people as much as how a small fraction of those
people are causing way more than their share of
carbon pollution, several climate and population
experts announced.

“We do have a population problem and we do

have a population issue,” said Vanessa Perez-
Cicera, director of the Global Economics Center
at the World Resources Institute. “But I think most
importantly, we have an overconsumption issue.”

And because of that the 8 billionth child born

will “not have what we had ... because there’s not
enough resources,” she said.
Kenya, which is suffering through a devastating
drought, has 55 million people, about 95 times
more than the population of Wyoming. But
Wyoming emits 3.7 times the carbon dioxide as
Kenya. Africa as whole has 16.7% of the world’s
population but historically emits only 3% of
the global carbon pollution, while the United
States has 4.5% of the planet’s people but since
1959 has put out 21.5% of the heat-trapping
carbon dioxide.

The average Canadian, Saudi and Australian put

out more than 10 times the carbon dioxide into
the air though their daily living than the average
Pakistani, where one-third of the nation was
flooded in a climate change worsened event.
And in Qatar the per capita emissions is 20 times
Pakistan’s, according to the World Bank.

“The question is not about population but

rather about consumption patterns,” said climate
scientist Bill Hare of Climate Analytics. “So it’s

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best to look at the major northern emitters to
begin with.”

Climate Interactive, a group of scientists who

run intricate computer simulations that can
be tweaked to see what factors matter the
most in fighting climate change, looked at the
difference population makes. It found it made
a small contribution compared to other factors,
like economics.

Comparing two United Nations population

projections scenarios of 8.8 billion people
and 10.4 billion people, Climate Interactive’s
Drew Jones found only a 0.2 degrees Celsius
(0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) difference. But the
difference between no price or tax on carbon
and $100 a ton was 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.3
degrees Fahrenheit).
Hare said there is more than a tinge of racism in
the myth that overpopulation is the major issue
behind climate change.

“One of the biggest arguments that I hear

almost exclusively from men in high-income
countries is that, ‘Oh, it’s just a population
problem,’” The Nature Conservancy Chief
Scientist Katharine Hayhoe said. “Nothing could
be further from the truth.”

“The 50% poorest people in the world are

historically responsible for 7% of heat trapping
gas emissions,” Hayhoe said. “Yet when you
look at which countries are bearing the brunt
of the impacts from climate change, countries
like Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Afghanistan
topped the list.”
And even within countries, it’s the wealthiest
who cause more of the carbon pollution, Hare

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said. Overall, he said, “80% of the population,
the global population, emits a small fraction
of emissions.”

The world’s population is growing mostly

in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia “and
they’re contributing the least to man-made
climate change,” said Colette Rose, project
coordinator at the Berlin Institute for Population
and Development.

Eight nations, five in Africa, three in Asia, are

going to have at least half of the population
growth between now and 2050, Rose said.
They are Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India
and the Philippines.
Worldwide population growth has substantially
slowed, will likely peak sometime this century,
and is now down to growing less than 1% a year,
Rose said. But carbon emissions are growing
faster, at 1% more this year than 2021.

For environmental advocacy groups and

officials the issue of population and climate has
caused problems.

“Population is an issue that no one has wanted

to touch from the very beginning. Too politically
sensitive,” Joanna Depledge, a climate historian
from the University of Cambridge in England, said
in an email. “There are many dimensions, notably
in relation to religion and accusations of racism
— population growth is mostly concentrated in
non-white populations, of course.”
For a long time, the Sierra Club had promoted
efforts to try to control the world population, until
a couple decades ago, when the environmental
group looked harder at the issue and broke

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down the numbers, said the group’s president,
Ramon Cruz. They found the problems were more
overconsumption and fossil fuel use and those
problems would be the same “at 6 billion, 7 billion
or 8 billion” people, he said.

While most environmental groups try to avoid

the issue, 11 years ago, when the world hit 7
billion people, the Center for Biological Diversity
made special issue condoms with population
and environmental messages such as “Wrap
with care, save the polar bear.”

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ELECTRIC AIR
TAXI COMPANY
ARCHER PLANS
$118M GEORGIA
FACTORY

A California company seeking to build small

electric aircraft says it will invest $118 million to
construct a plant near Atlanta, eventually hiring
up to 1,000 people.

Archer Aviation, based in Santa Clara, California,

said Monday that it would seek to build its aircraft
adjoining an airport in Covington, Georgia.

Archer is one of many companies trying to build

electric air taxis. Archer’s plan involves a battery-
powered vertical takeoff and landing craft with
six propellers, holding four passengers and a
pilot. The propellers would pivot allowing the
aircraft to take off and land like a helicopter and
fly like a plane.

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The idea is that such craft could be used for
short flights, especially in urban areas. United
Airlines last week said it would fly the craft
from downtown Manhattan to United’s hub at
Newark Liberty International Airport in New
Jersey, cutting a trip that can take an hour by car
in congested traffic to 10 minutes.
United earlier put down a $10 million deposit
to buy 100 aircraft from Archer for $1 billion.
United later put down a $15 million deposit for
200 aircraft from another company.

After building a prototype weighing 3,330

pounds (1,510 kilograms), the company plans to
unveil a production model dubbed “Midnight” on
Wednesday, aiming for it to enter service in 2025.
The U.S. Air Force is also evaluating the company’s
aircraft for possible use, Archer has said.

Archer is still seeking Federal Aviation

Administration certification, but says it could get
it in 2024. The company says it wants to produce
650 aircraft per year at the Georgia site, possibly
scaling up to 2,300 per year. Automotive firm
Stellantis, owner of Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep
and Ram, is providing manufacturing and
engineering help.
Archer said it expects to get a roughly $40
million incentive package from Georgia and
local governments, including the donation
of 96 acres (39 hectares) of land at Covington
Municipal Airport, a cash grant from the state,
and other tax incentives. Those would often
include a property tax break as well as a job tax
credit that could be worth $15 million to Archer
over five years, as long as employees make at
least $31,300.

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State and local officials did not immediately
respond to questions, including the decision to
incentivize a startup in an unproven industry.

The company said it chose the Georgia location

for locally available workers, the ability to conduct
test flights, affordable construction costs and
good highway, rail and air connections.

“Our eVTOL technology can transform how

urban and rural communities live and commute
and this factory can create pathways to highly
skilled manufacturing hobs and other ladders of
social and economic opportunity,” Archer CEO
Adam Goldstein said in a statement, using an
acronym for electric vertical takeoff and landing.
Archer said it expected to borrow money from
Georgia-based Synovus Financial Corp. for the
plant’s construction, which is expected to begin
and conclude in 2024. The company went public
last year, raising about $850 million. It lost $91
million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, reporting
$600 million in cash on hand.

Georgia economic development officials

have been focusing on recruiting electric car
companies, landing major plants from Rivian
Automotive and Hyundai Motor Group last year.
Norwegian batter startup Freyr announced a
$2.6 billion plant in Georgia on Friday, joining
an already-constructed electric battery plant
owned by South Korean firm SK Innovation.

Georgia Economic Development Commissioner

Pat Wilson said economic recruiters focused
on aerospace had worked with Archer, saying
“technology and innovation continue to drive
change across strategic industries.”

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TOYOTA SHOWS
NEW PRIUS
HYBRID WITH
MORE POWER,
RANGE, STYLE

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The new Toyota gas-electric Prius hybrid not
only comes with more power, acceleration and
driving range. It’s also more stylish, scrapping
the rather stodgy angular body for a sleekly
futuristic look.
Simon Humphries, senior general manager
of Global Toyota design who unveiled the car
in Tokyo, stressed that the company was still
defying the skeptics who keep asking how much
longer the Japanese automaker will stick with
hybrids in a rapidly electrifying industry.

“Simply because the Prius is an eco-car

within everyone’s reach. In order to achieve
carbon neutrality, everyone in the world
must participate,” he told reporters. “We need
ecological solutions within reach of the many.
And it needs to start today, not tomorrow.”

The fifth-generation Prius hybrid models will

go on sale this winter first in Japan then the U.S.
A plug-in version will hit the market next year,
according to Toyota Motor Corp. Prices were
not announced.
The automaker swapped an older nickel-metal-
hydride battery for a smaller, lighter lithium-
ion battery. The result will be almost double
the horsepower, quicker acceleration and 50%
longer range.

The Prius, which first went on sale in 1997,

switches back and forth between a gasoline
engine and electric motor to deliver a
cleaner drive than the models with regular
combustion engines.

Electric cars are zero-emissions but need

recharging. Some consumers are worried about
running out of juice on the roads. A hybrid
always has the gas engine as backup.

39
Toyota has cumulatively sold more than 20.3
million hybrid vehicles, including Prius cars,
around the world so far. The Prius, which means
“pioneer” or “first” in Latin, has defined Toyota as
a brand as much as its Lexus luxury models.

Still, Toyota has sometimes been criticized

by environmentalists as dragging its feet on
electrification, although some analysts say that’s
a bit unfair given that other automakers also
have few electric cars in their lineups, and many
others have developed various hybrid models.

“The sale of more hybrid vehicles, including the

Prius, drags us further into the climate crisis,”
said Daniel Read of Greenpeace East Asia,
based in Tokyo.
Read said electric vehicles and fuel-cell models
were better solutions against climate change
than hybrids.

Humphries said the new Prius was styled to

be more stable, with a lower center of gravity,
with bigger tires, curvaceous lines for its overall
design and a fancy interior.

He said it was more an expression of love than

a commodity. Making hybrid cabs or offering
them to to other manufacturers could also be
steps to spread the technology, he added, both
of which Toyota decided against.
“We really believed the next step for Prius was
to become a ‘car without compromises’ in order
to increase its appeal to the customer,” said
Humphries, standing before a screen splashed
with the words: “We chose love.”

The Prius, with its revamped styling and

efficiency, will compete better not only with
other hybrid models but also with the available

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generation of fully electric vehicles, said
Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst
for S&P Global Mobility.

The Prius models have always served as a kind of

bridge to a time when there are more charging
stations for EVs, said Brinley, who believes the
new Prius stacks up better against hybrids and
plug-ins from Hyundai, Kia, Ford and Jeep.
By adding 50% to the battery range, which
translates to around 38 miles (61 kilometers),
it can go far enough to cover the average U.S.
driver’s commute and errands around town. The
hybrid powertrain allows for road trips without
worrying about a charging network that’s not
yet complete, Brinley said.

“That really will make for more confident

driving,” she said.

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COMPUTER
CHIP BAN
SIGNALS NEW
ERA AS BIDEN
AND XI MEET

The Biden administration’s move to block

exports of advanced computer chips to China
is signaling a new phase in relations between
the globe’s two largest economies — one in
which trade matters less than an increasingly
heated competition to be the world’s leading
technological and military power.

The aggressive move, announced last month, it’s

evidence of Biden’s determination to “manage”
the U.S. competition with China, whose officials
were quick to condemn the export ban.

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After more than two decades in which the
focus was on expansion of trade and global
growth, both countries are openly prioritizing
their national interests as the world economy
struggles with high inflation and the risk of
recessions. The U.S. and China have each
identified the development and production of
computer chips as vital for economic growth
and their own security interests.
“We’re going to do whatever it takes to protect
Americans from the threat of China,” Commerce
Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an interview.
“China is crystal clear. They will use this
technology for surveillance. They will use this
technology for cyber attacks. They will use this
technology to, in any number of ways, harm us
and our allies, or our ability to protect ourselves.”

Xi responded to the export ban in his statement

at last month’s congress of the Chinese
Communist Party, where he secured a third term
as the country’s leader. He pledged that China
would move more aggressively to become
self-reliant in producing semiconductors and
other technologies.

“In order to enhance China’s innovation capacity,

we will move faster to launch a number of major
national projects that are of strategic, big-
picture and long-term importance,” Xi said.
The Chinese government has named the
development of advanced computer chips
that could handle everything from artificial
intelligence to hypersonic missiles as one of
its top priorities. To bridge the gap until it can
get there, China has been relying on imports of
advanced chips and manufacturing equipment
from the U.S., which imposed a series of export

49
controls last month that block sending to
China the world’s most advanced chips, factory
equipment and industry experts tied to America.

The U.S. and its allies famously deployed export

controls against Russia after the February
invasion of Ukraine, making it harder for
Russian forces to be resupplied with weapons,
ammunition, tanks and aircraft. As a result of
those constraints, Russia has relied on drones
from Iran and the U.S. has accused North Korea
of supplying them with artillery.

The U.S. had until recently operated from the

premise that strong trade relationships would
bring countries closer together in ways that
made the world safer and wealthier, a post-Cold
War order. Global supply chains were supposed
to lower costs, boost profits and enable
democratic values to seep into the terrain of
oligarchies, dictatorships and autocracies.
But after a global pandemic, the war in
Ukraine and China’s own ambitions, the Biden
administration and many European and Asian
allies have chosen to prioritize national security
and industrial strategies. Both the U.S. and
European Union have provided tens of billions
of dollars in incentives to spur more domestic
production of computer chips.

In a speech last month at IBM, Biden said China

specifically lobbied against a law that provides
$52 billion to produce and develop advanced
semiconductors in the U.S., an incentive
package that has been followed by a string of
announcements by Intel, Micron, Wolfspeed and
others about the construction of computer chip
plants in the U.S..

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He said that some of the GOP lawmakers who
opposed the measure had bought into the
arguments made by China.

“The Communist Party of China was lobbying in

the United States Congress against passing this
legislation,” Biden said. “And unfortunately, some
of our friends on the other team bought it.”

Donald Trump had fiery rhetoric on China

during his presidency, imposing tariffs that
the Biden administration has yet to lift. But
by any qualitative measure, the export bans
on computer chips are much tougher than
anything imposed by Trump, said Gregory Allen,
a senior fellow in the strategic technologies
program at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
Allen said the Trump-era tariffs were large in
terms of dollars, but they had almost no affect
on the balance of trade. Nor were the import
taxes strategic. The export controls imposed by
the Biden administration would be a setback
for Chinese technology that is already decades
behind the U.S.

“We have essentially committed ourselves to

saying: China you will not achieve your number
one goal,” Allen said.

The era of China, Russia and other competitors

having relatively unfettered access to U.S. and
European markets appears to be ending, said
Christopher Miller, a Tufts University professor
and author of the book, “Chip Wars.”
“The risks posed by these countries has grown,
so Western leaders have reconsidered the
wisdom of giving adversaries open access to
their markets,” Miller said.

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Instead of trying to work together as a single
global economy, new alliances are being formed
such as the Quad (Australia, India, Japan and the
U.S.) and existing partnerships such as NATO are
being expanded. Economic integration among
these partners has become essential, as the
U.S. export controls on advanced chips need
support from other producers in Japan and
the Netherlands.

“All the great powers are restructuring

international economic relations in ways they
hope will improve their geopolitical position,”
Miller said. “Semiconductors are just one of many
arenas in which trade, tech, and capital flows are
being re-politicized due to great power rivalry.”

55
 How Apple TV is becoming
the new go-to console

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The new Apple TV 4K offers speedy
performance, an A15 Bionic chip, Siri voice
recognition, a robust app, and a starting price
cheaper than the previous model: but that’s not
all. It’s the future of family entertainment and
marks the start of a new generation in gaming.

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INTRODUCING THE NEW APPLE TV 4K
This year’s Apple TV 4K might look virtually
identical to its predecessor, but Apple has
packed some serious punch into this year’s
model. Sure, it doesn’t offer the flexibility of a
TV streaming stick similar to the likes of Google
Chromecast or the Amazon Fire Stick, but it
looks stunning and stands proudly on a TV
unit in the home. It connects with all television
units, and you can use the remote to control the
volume and power on your television, making it
a firm favorite and a replacement for often ugly
television remote controls. The device supports
several formats, including Dolby Atmos and
HDR10 Plus, and the Siri Remote features USB-C
charging for speed and convenience. Perhaps
one of the most valuable things about the Apple
TV 4K is that you can access all of your favorite
Apple devices, from Apple Arcade to iCloud and
Apple Music, and they load lightning-fast.

For this year’s model, the Apple TV 4K serves as

a hub for innovative home products that work
with HomeKit, and thanks to Matter, it’s now
possible to control many more products from
your iPhone and Apple TV. The Apple TV will
work directly with HomePod mini units so that
you can play music and television shows via
your speakers and AirPods, should you want to
watch TV without disturbing others.
The truth is that the Apple TV 4K box does
what it says on the tin. It’s fast, handles the
basics well, and if you’re already locked into the
Apple ecosystem with an Apple TV+ and Apple
Fitness+ subscription, you can access the best of
the platform from your TV. It starts at just $129 in
the United States, making it an affordable smart

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home hub. But it’s the new A15 Bionic chip that
makes a real difference and sets the hub apart
from rival products from other manufacturers:
unlocking serious opportunities for developers.

A GENUINE CONSOLE COMPETITOR

One of the reasons why people are getting
excited about the Apple TV 4K is that it’s
powered by the A15 Bionic chip. According to a
new study from FlatpanelsHD, the new model
compares to the Playstation 4 and Playstation
5 and could start a revolution in the world of
family gaming, changing the way we play and
interact with content together and on our own.
Sure, the $129 model isn’t going to compete
with a state-of-the-art Xbox Series X, but the
testing results are conclusive: the Apple TV is an
excellent choice for gamers.

Apple added an A15 chip into this year’s

Apple TV 4K with a 4-core GPU and 4-core
CPU, and when compared to the A12 chip
featured in the previous Apple TV model, the
new unit is “roughly 40% faster,” according to
new benchmarks. Apple previously advertised
that the model was up to 50% faster and it’s a
superior product. One of the most significant
changes in this year’s model is that the Apple TV
4K doesn’t have a fan, allowing for a smaller and
lighter design that looks better in the home. As
a result, Apple throttles less than the previous
model. In tests, the Apple TV with an A12 chip
throttled to 65%, but without active cooling, the
A15 Bionic model throttled to 84%, meaning it
can sustain most of its CPU performance during
prolonged gaming periods. What’s even more
exciting is that the CPU in A15 Bionic is “much,
much faster” than previous-generation game

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consoles such as Xbox One and PlayStation
5. Indeed, the A15’s CPU performance core is
significantly faster than PS5’s CPU core (single-
core performance). However, the PS5 pulls
ahead in multi-core performance as it has eight
cores as opposed to five in the Apple TV version
of A15.

Even more exciting is that the Apple TV 4K

exceeds the 1 TFlops of graphical performance,
but there is no GPU info or benchmark apps
available for tvOS. FlatpanelsHD suggests
that the Apple TV 4K has much faster RAM
and is equipped with a “very fast NVMe SSD
unlike the old-school hard drive in last-gen
consoles,” meaning that Xbox One and PS4
could be played on Apple TV without too many
compromises. Of course, that’s in theory, porting
games from the Xbox to the Apple TV is a little
more challenging. But things are changing, and
with Apple Arcade allowing developers to utilize
the power of the new M1-powered Macs and
the power of the latest iPhones like the iPhone
14 Pro Max, we’re starting to see cutting-edge
mobile games that translate well onto the TV.

AMAZING GAMES
Perhaps one of the biggest games rewriting the
rulebook when it comes to gaming on Apple
Arcade is NBA 2K23 - the title, which has been
billed as an ‘Arcade Exclusive’ is also available to
play on the Xbox One, PS5, and more, making
it one of the most high profile games in the
history of the Apple Arcade genre. The title is the
latest in the world-renowned NBA 2K franchise.
An Arcade-exclusive version of the title allows
users to compete in challenges, earn points,
and become the finest shooter, playmaker, or

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defenseman in the NBA. Some of the world’s
greatest players of all time - from Devin Booker,
Kevin Durant, and Luka Doncic to NBA legends,
such as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, or
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, are featured in the title.
Despite its recent release, the title is already a
“classic” amongst NBA fans around the world.
Asphalt 8: Airborne+ is another Apple Arcade
game that’s defying the odds of what’s possible
on a smartphone and television box. This high-
speed premium racing game, which is packed
with real dream cars and bikes, has more than
400 million players around the world. Its latest
Apple Arcade-exclusive version features cars
from Ferrari, Ducati, Lamborghini, McLaren,
Bugatti, Mercedes, Audi, Ford, and Chevrolet.
It offers real-time multiplayer support for up to
12 opponents, allowing one person to play on
their TV and another on their iPhone. With over
fifty high-speed tracks and several limited-time
events for players to enjoy, there’s something
for everyone, and there are over 2,300
decals. Hence, it’s possible to take down your
opponents - or your family members - with style!

Monster Hunter Stories+ is another title that

originated on the PC and has made its way
over to the Arcade subscription service. What’s
good to know is that the Apple Arcade version
of this game contains the same content as the
Monster Hunter Stories app available elsewhere,
but without the usual microtransactions or
adverts, we’ve come to expect from mobile
gaming. Enter the game in a forest near the
village of Riders. Three young friends—the hero,
Lilia, and Cheval—stumble upon a shining egg.
Eventually, the egg hatches, revealing a baby
Rathalos, a flying wyvern known as “the King

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of the Skies.” The trio affectionately names him
“Ratha” and returns him to the village. In time,
the hero, separated now from childhood friends,
partners up with the cheerful Navirou and
embarks upon a new adventure into the world
of hunters. What happens next is up to you.

Finally, The Pathless, from the makers of ABZÛ,

takes players on a mythic adventure with an
archer and an eagle in a vast forest. Players can
become The Hunter, a master of archery who
travels to a mystical island to dispel a curse
of darkness that grips the world. The game is
also available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5,
and Windows, and it’s scheduled to launch for
Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. Xbox Series X/S
later in 2022, demonstrating the power of the
new Apple TV and the future potential as Apple
looks to boost subscription revenue. With a few
more high-end console-friendly titles like this
one, it will be a winner.

78
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There’s never been a
better time to invest
in an Apple TV 4K.
With a fantastic user
interface, speedy access
to the world’s biggest
apps, and a growing
library of console
games available from
your Apple TV remote,
it’s time to head into
battle and game on.

80
81
84
 BATTLE OVER
THE IPHONE
APP STORE
SPILLS INTO
APPEALS COURT

Apple and the company behind the popular

video game Fortnite squared off Monday
before three federal appellate judges who
will render the next decision in a high-stakes
battle over whether Apple created an illegal
monopoly via its exclusive control of its iPhone
app store. Such monopolies typically stifle
competition and drive up consumer prices.

The oral arguments laid out in the Ninth

Circuit Court of Appeals by lawyers from

85
Apple and Fortnite maker Epic Games follow a
September 2021 lower court ruling that largely
preserved Apple’s sway over the apps it allows
on more than 1 billion iPhones worldwide.
The 75-minute session was a prelude to an
expected ruling by the appeals court, likely to
be issued sometime next year.

A so-called “walled garden” protecting the

iPhone app store includes a payment system
that funnels Apple commission revenue
ranging from 15% to 30% on the purchases of
some subscriptions and other digital services
through its storefront. The setup generates an
estimated $15 billion to $20 billion for Apple
every year, which has helped lift its market
value to nearly $2.4 trillion.

Epic lawyer Thomas Goldstein depicted Apple’s

walled garden as a pretext for increasing its
profits at the expense of the companies making
the apps that have helped make iPhones
so popular.
“The only thing that is kept out by Apple’s
walled garden is competitors,” Goldstein said.

Apple lawyer Mark Perry defended that walled

garden as an indispensable feature prized
by consumers who want the best protection
available for their personal information. He also
described the barrier as a way for the iPhone
to distinguish itself from devices running
on Google’s Android software, which isn’t
as restrictive and is licensed to a wide range
of manufacturers.

“Apple made the decision to make this the

safest, the most secure, the most private
computing device that the world has ever
known,” Perry boasted to the three judges. He

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added: “What is kept out by walled gardens is
fraudsters, ‘pornsters’ and hackers.”

Perry pointed to previous sworn testimony

provided by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who
attended Monday’s arguments. As a witness in
last year’s trial, Sweeney acknowledged that he
owns an iPhone himself, partly because of its
security and privacy features.

During their questioning, two of the three

judges — Milan D. Smith Jr. and Michael J.
McShane — seemed to be struggling with
whether Epic had done enough to prove its
case in the first place.
At various times, Smith wondered whether Epic
had even been able to successfully define the
market in question — a key factor in antitrust
cases — while McShane asked whether
Epic had proven that Apple had made it too
cumbersome and expensive for consumers
unhappy with the iPhone to switch to an
Android device.

While questioning Epic’s Goldstein, Smith at

one point observed that Apple seemed to
“have made a pretty good case for ‘failure of
proof’” in the lower court trial. Signaling he
didn’t believe Epic’s contention that Apple has
locked consumers into keeping their iPhones,
McShane pointed out that isn’t why he doesn’t
change the kind of smartphone he uses. “I am
too lazy to switch,” McShane said. “There are a
lot of reasons people don’t switch phones.”

The third judge on the panel, Sidney R. Thomas,

asked only one question about a complex issue
that provided little insight into which way he
might be leaning.

89
40 STATES
SETTLE GOOGLE
LOCATION-TRACKING
CHARGES FOR
$392M

Search giant Google has agreed to a $391.5

million settlement with 40 states to resolve an
investigation into how the company tracked
users’ locations, state attorneys general
announced this week.
The states’ investigation was sparked by a 2018
Associated Press story, which found that Google
continued to track people’s location data even
after they opted out of such tracking by disabling
a feature the company called “location history.”

The attorneys general called the settlement

a historic win for consumers, and the largest

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multistate settlement in U.S history dealing
with privacy.

It comes at a time of mounting unease over

privacy and surveillance by tech companies that
has drawn growing outrage from politicians
and scrutiny from regulators. The Supreme
Court’s ruling in June ending the constitutional
protections for abortion raised potential privacy
concerns for women seeking the procedure or
related information online.

“This $391.5 million settlement is a historic win

for consumers in an era of increasing reliance
on technology,” Connecticut Attorney General
William Tong said in a statement. “Location
data is among the most sensitive and valuable
personal information Google collects, and
there are so many reasons why a consumer
may opt-out of tracking.”
At a news conference, Tong urged consumers
to “do a little personal inventory” of their online
settings and turn them off if they don’t want them.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in a

surveillance economy,” he said. “Understand that
you’re being tracked every minute of every day
where you are.”

Google, based in Mountain View, California, said it

fixed the problems several years ago.
“Consistent with improvements we’ve made in
recent years, we have settled this investigation,
which was based on outdated product
policies that we changed years ago,” company
spokesperson Jose Castaneda said.

Location tracking can help tech companies

sell digital ads to marketers looking to connect
with consumers within their vicinity. It’s another

95
tool in a data-gathering toolkit that generates
more than $200 billion in annual ad revenue
for Google, accounting for most of the profits
pouring into the coffers of its corporate parent,
Alphabet — which has a market value of $1.2
trillion.

2018 story reported that many Google services

on Android devices and iPhones store users’
location data even if they’ve used a privacy
setting that says it will prevent Google from doing
so. Computer-science researchers at Princeton
confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.

Storing such data carries privacy risks and has

been used by police to determine the location
of suspects.
The privacy issue with location tracking affected
some 2 billion users of devices that run Google’s
Android operating software and hundreds of
millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on
Google for maps or search.

The attorneys general who investigated Google

said a key part of the company’s digital advertising
business is location data, which they called the
most sensitive and valuable personal data the
company collects. Even a small amount of location
data can reveal a person’s identity and routines,
they said.

Google uses the location information to target

consumers with ads by its customers, the state
officials said.
The attorneys general said Google misled users
about its location tracking practices since at least
2014, violating state consumer protection laws.

As part of the settlement, Google also agreed

to make those practices more transparent

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to users. That includes showing them more
information when they turn location account
settings on and off and keeping a webpage
that gives users information about the data
Google collects.
The shadowy surveillance brought to light by The
AP troubled even some Google engineers, who
recognized the company might be confronting
a huge legal headache after the story was
published, according to internal documents
that have subsequently surfaced in consumer-
fraud lawsuits.

Tong, the Connecticut AG, thanked the AP for

its story, which he said “set the table for the
investigation by the states” and helped expose the
tracking practices.

He said a new Connecticut consumer-privacy law

set to take effect next year will require that people
opt into any location tracking, and not have to
turn it off.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed
the first state action against Google in May 2020,
alleging that the company had defrauded its users
by misleading them into believing they could
keep their whereabouts private by turning off
location tracking in the settings of their software.

Arizona settled its case with Google for $85 million

last month, but by then attorneys general in
several other states and the District of Columbia
had also pounced on the company with their own
lawsuits seeking to hold Google accountable for
its alleged deception.

99
 Image: Marta Lavandier
102
 SAM
BANKMAN-FRIED’S
DOWNFALL
SENDS
SHOCKWAVES
THROUGH
CRYPTO

Sam Bankman-Fried received numerous plaudits

as he rapidly achieved superstar status as the
head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX:
the savior of crypto, the newest force in
Democratic politics and potentially the world’s
first trillionaire.

Now the comments about the 30-year-old

Bankman-Fried aren’t so kind after FTX filed for
bankruptcy protection, leaving his investors
and customers feeling duped and many others
in the crypto world fearing the repercussions.
Bankman-Fried himself could face civil or
criminal charges.

103
 Image: Ting Shen
104
“Sam what have you done?,” tweeted Sean
Ryan Evans, host of the cryptocurrency podcast
Bankless, after the bankruptcy filing.

Under Bankman-Fried, FTX quickly grew to

be the third-largest exchange by volume.
The stunning collapse of this nascent empire
has sent tsunami-like waves through the
cryptocurrency industry, which has seen a
fair share of volatility and turmoil this year,
including a sharp decline in price for bitcoin
and other digital assets. For some, the events
are reminiscent of the domino-like failures of
Wall Street firms during the 2008 financial crisis,
particularly now that supposedly healthy firms
like FTX are failing.

One venture capital fund wrote down

investments in FTX worth over $200 million.
The cryptocurrency lender BlockFi paused
client withdrawals after FTX sought bankruptcy
protection. The Singapore-based exchange
Crypto.com saw withdrawals increase this
weekend for internal reasons but some
of the action could be attributed to raw
nerves from FTX.
Bankman-Fried and his company are under
investigation by the Department of Justice and
the Securities and Exchange Commission. The
investigations likely center on the possibility
that the firm may have used customers’
deposits to fund bets at Bankman-Fried’s hedge
fund, Alameda Research, a violation of U.S.
securities law.

“This is the direct result of a rogue actor

breaking every single basic rule of fiscal
responsibility,” said Patrick Hillman, chief strategy
officer at Binance, FTX’s biggest competitor.

105
106
Early last week Binance appeared ready to
step in to bail out FTX, but backed away after a
review of FTX’s books.
The ultimate impact of FTX’s bankruptcy is
uncertain, but its failure will likely result in the
destruction of billions of dollars of wealth
and even more skepticism of cryptocurrencies at
a time when the industry could use a
vote of confidence.

“I care because it’s retail investors who suffer

the most, and because too many people still
wrongly associate bitcoin with the scammy
‘crypto’ space,” said Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan
Bitcoin, who for months raised concerns about
FTX’s business model. Klippsten is publicly
enthusiastic about bitcoin but has long had
deep skepticism about other parts of the
crypto universe.

Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019, and it

grew rapidly — it was recently valued at $32
billion. The son of Stanford University professors,
who was known to play the video game “League
of Legends” during meetings, Bankman-Fried
attracted investments from the highest echelons
of Silicon Valley.
Sequoia Capital, which invested in Apple,
Cisco, Google, Airbnb and YouTube, described
their meeting with Bankman-Fried as likely
“talking to the world’s first trillionaire.” Sequoia
enthusiastically invested in FTX after one Zoom
meeting in 2021.

“I don’t know how I know, I just do. SBF is a

winner,” Sequoia Capital’s Adam Fisher, wrote
in a profile of Bankman-Fried for the firm,
referring to Bankman-Fried by his popular
online moniker. The article, published in

107
late September, was removed from
Sequoia’s website.
Sequoia has written down its $213 million in
investments to zero. A pension fund in Ontario,
Canada wrote down its investment to zero
as well.

In a terse statement, the Ontario Teachers’

Pension Fund said, “Naturally, not all of the
investments in this early-stage asset class
perform to expectations.”

But up until last week, Bankman-Fried was seen

as a white knight for the industry. Whenever the
crypto industry had one of its crises, Bankman-
Fried was the person likely to fly in with a rescue
plan. When online trading platform Robinhood
was in financial straits earlier this year —
collateral damage from the decline in stock and
crypto prices — Bankman-Fried jumped in to
buy a stake in the company as a sign of support.
When Bankman-Fried bought up the assets of
bankrupt crypto firm Voyager Digital for $1.4
billion this summer, it brought a sense of relief
to Voyager account holders, whose assets has
been frozen since its own failure. That rescue is
now in question.

As king of crypto, his influence was starting

to pour into political and popular culture. FTX
bought prominent sports sponsorships with
Formula One Racing and bought the naming
rights to an arena in Miami. He pledged to
donate $1 billion toward Democrats this
election cycle — his actual donations were in
the tens of millions — and prominent politicians
like Bill Clinton were invited to speak at FTX
conferences. Football star Tom Brady invested
in FTX.

108
Image: Spencer Heyfron
109
Bankman-Fried had been the subject of some
criticism before FTX collapsed. While he largely
operated FTX out of U.S. jurisdiction from his
headquarters in The Bahamas, Bankman-Fried
was increasingly vocal about the need for more
regulation of the cryptocurrency industry.
Many supporters of crypto oppose government
oversight. Now, FTX’s collapse may have helped
make the case for stricter regulation.

One of those critics was Binance founder and

CEO Changpeng Zhao. The feud between
the two billionaires spilled out onto Twitter,
where Zhao and Bankman-Fried collectively
commanded millions of followers. Zhao helped
kickstart the withdrawals that doomed FTX
when he said Binance would sell its holdings in
FTX’s crypto token FTT.

“What a s(asterisk)(asterisk)t show ... and it’s

going to be crypto’s fault instead of one guys’s
fault,” Zhao wrote on Twitter.

110
111
BINANCE
PROPOSES FUND
TO SAVE CRYPTO
FROM FUTURE
FAILURES

Cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance is

proposing the creation of a rescue fund that
would save otherwise healthy crypto companies
from failure, aiming to stave off the cascading
effects of last week’s implosion of FTX, the
world’s third-largest crypto exchange.

Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao

posted on Twitter that his company would
create “an industry recovery fund, to help
projects who are otherwise strong, but in a
liquidity crisis.”

114
115
116
Zhao provided no details on the fund’s size or
scope, or how the funds would be distributed.
The entire cryptocurrency universe is reeling
from the bankruptcy of FTX, which was
besieged with withdrawal requests in what has
been the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank
run. It’s the latest failure of a cryptocurrency firm
this year, as the prices for Bitcoin, Ethereum and
other cryptocurrencies have collapsed in value.

The broader effects of FTX’s failure are still too

early to determine, but there are other firms
now facing withdrawal requests straining their
systems. BlockFi and Crypto.com both said they
were facing high withdrawal requests after
FTX’s failure.

Cryptocurrencies have no government backing,

so there’s no equivalent of deposit insurance or
government backstop. What Zhao is proposing
may be something similar to deposit insurance
or a central bank-like entity for cryptocurrencies.

117
WHAT’S
HAPPENING
AT BANKRUPT
CRYPTO
EXCHANGE FTX?

The imploding cryptocurrency trading firm FTX

is now short billions of dollars after experiencing
the crypto equivalent of a bank run.
The exchange, formerly one of the world’s
largest, sought bankruptcy protection last
week, and its CEO and founder resigned. Hours
later, the trading firm said there had been
“unauthorized access” and that funds had
disappeared. Analysts say hundreds of millions
of dollars may have vanished.

The unraveling of the once-giant exchange

is sending shockwaves through the industry.
Here’s a look at the company’s collapse so far:

120
121
WHY DID FTX GO BANKRUPT?
Customers fled the exchange over fears about
whether FTX had sufficient capital, and it
agreed to sell itself to rival crypto exchange
Binance. But the deal fell through while
Binance’s due diligence on FTX’s balance sheet
was still pending.

FTX had valued its assets between $10 billion to

$50 billion, and listed more than 130 affiliated
companies around the world, according to its
bankruptcy filing.
FTX and dozens of affiliated companies —
including founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s hedge
fund, Alameda Research — filed the bankruptcy
petition in Delaware last Friday (11).

The week’s developments marked a shocking

turn of events for Bankman-Fried, who was
hailed as somewhat of a savior earlier this
year when he helped shore up a number of
cryptocurrency companies that ran into financial
trouble. He was recently estimated to be worth
$23 billion and has been a prominent political
donor to Democrats.

WAS IT HACKED, TOO?

FTX confirmed there had been unauthorized
access to its accounts, hours after the company
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
A debate formed on social media about whether
the exchange was hacked or a company
insider had stolen funds — a possibility that
cryptocurrency analysts couldn’t rule out.

Exactly how much money is involved is unclear,

but analytics firm Elliptic estimated that $477
million was missing from the exchange. FTX’s

122
Image: Erika Rodriguez
123
124
 new CEO John Ray III said it was switching off
the ability to trade or withdraw funds and taking
steps to secure customers’ assets.

IS MY BITCOIN SAFE?
People who own bitcoin should be OK if they
keep them off exchanges such as FTX that
effectively work as a “crypto-casino gambling
website,” said Cory Klippsten, the CEO of financial
services firm Swan Bitcoin.

“Any exchange is a security risk,” said Klippsten.

Some are more reputable than others, but he
said a better option is to take control of your
digital assets. “With bitcoin, you have the option
to take self-custody and take your coins off the
exchange,” he said.

IS FTX UNDER INVESTIGATION?

The Royal Bahamas Police Force said it is
investigating FTX, adding to the company’s
woes. The police force said in a statement it was
working with Bahamas securities regulators to
“investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred”
involving the exchange, which had moved its
headquarters to the Caribbean country last year.

IS ANYONE ELSE INVESTIGATING?

Even before the bankruptcy filing and missing
funds, the U.S. Department of Justice and the
Securities and Exchange Commission began
examining FTX to determine whether any
criminal activity or securities offenses were
committed, according to a person familiar
with matter who spoke to The Associated
Press last week on condition of anonymity
because they could not discuss details of the
investigations publicly.
Image: Michael M. Santiago
125
WHAT ARE THE REPERCUSSIONS?
Companies that backed FTX are writing down
investments, and the prices of bitcoin and other
digital currencies have fallen. Politicians and
regulators are calling for stricter oversight of the
unwieldy industry. FTX said that it was moving
as many digital assets as can be identified to a
new “cold wallet custodian,” which is essentially
a way of storing assets offline without allowing
remote control.

FTX had entered into a number of sports-related

deals, some of which are crumbling. The NBA’s
Miami Heat and Miami-Dade County decided to
terminate their relationship with FTX, and will
rename the team’s arena. Mercedes said it
would immediately remove FTX logos from its
Formula One cars.

126
127
128
 OREGON
UNIVERSITY
PLANS TO
DEVELOP NEW
RECHARGEABLE
BATTERY

A research team led by Oregon State University

is planning to develop a new rechargeable
battery that could reduce the need for
environmentally destructive mining of rare
minerals like nickel and lithium and accelerate
the clean energy transition.

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded OSU

$3 million to explore the development of a new
rechargeable battery technology that would
accelerate the clean energy transition without
relying on rare finite minerals such as lithium,

129
cobalt and nickel. OSU chemistry professor
Xiulei “David” Ji, who will lead a battery research
team, said it could be a game-changer.

“It’s a new paradigm,” he told Oregon Public

Broadcasting. “We are very excited and very
grateful to have this opportunity to work on
this project.”

As the world transitions from fossil fuels to

clean energy to reduce contributions to climate
change, there is a growing need for batteries
to store renewable energy and power electric
vehicles. The resulting battery boom has
generated environmental concerns because of
the impacts of mining battery materials such as
lithium, and it has driven up prices and demand
for the minerals used to make batteries.
According to the International Energy Agency,
an organization that provides data analysis for
global energy policies, the world could face
lithium shortages by 2025. The price of lithium
has soared, tripling in 2021. Nickel, a mineral
used for lithium-ion batteries, has also grown in
demand and seen price hikes.

Ji, who will lead a team of researchers from

Howard University, the University of Maryland
and Vanderbilt University, said depending on
these minerals is unsustainable and expensive.
He said meeting clean energy goals soon
will require a move away from relatively rare,
finite minerals.

His plan is to explore anion batteries that

provide the necessary components without
using limited minerals like the ones lithium
batteries use and that could potentially
increase how much energy a battery
can hold.

130
131
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“The new battery chemistry does not have to rely
on these elements,” Ji said. “That’s the benefit of
the new chemistry. It’s a game changer.”
Ji said the primary market for these batteries
would be electric vehicles, but he doesn’t
rule out the possibility of anion batteries
being used by large-scale utilities, like
Portland General Electric’s solar, wind and
battery facility. He also said they could be
commercialized soon and be used in homes.

That’s something Meredith Connolly, executive

director of the environmental nonprofit
Climate Solutions, is looking forward to.

She said powering the economy with 100%

clean electricity from wind and solar is a key part
of reducing fossil fuels, and batteries are a critical
part of achieving a clean energy transition.
“Part of the technological magic that batteries
provide is the ability to store wind energy when
the wind is blowing and solar energy when the
sun is shining, and then deploy that renewable
energy when there’s no wind or the sun goes
down,” she said.

133
STUDIES FIND
AUTOMATIC
BRAKING CAN
CUT CRASHES
OVER 40%

Two new U.S. studies show that automatic

emergency braking can cut the number of rear-
end automobile crashes in half, and reduce
pickup truck crashes by more than 40%.

The studies released this week, one by a

government-auto industry partnership and
the other by the insurance industry, each used
crash data to make the calculations. Automatic
emergency braking can stop vehicles if a
crash is imminent, or slow them to reduce
the severity.

134
135
136
Some automakers are moving toward a
voluntary commitment by 20 companies
to make the braking technology standard
equipment on 95% of their light-duty models
during the current model year that ends
next August.
A study by The Partnership for Analytics
Research in Traffic Safety compared data
on auto equipment with 12 million police-
reported crashes from 13 states that was
collected by the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, the partnership said in a
statement. The group studied forward collision
warning as well as emergency braking.

The group found front-to-rear crashes were

cut 49% when the striking vehicle had forward
collision alert plus automatic braking, when
compared with vehicles that didn’t have either
system. Rear crashes with injuries were cut by
53%, the study found.

Vehicles with forward collision warning systems

only reduced rear-end crashes by 16%, and cut
rear crashes with injuries by 19%.
Automatic emergency braking works well in
all conditions, even when roadway, weather
or lighting conditions were not ideal, the
study showed.

The group also looked at lane departure

warning systems, and lane-keeping systems,
which keep vehicles in their lanes. They
reduced crashes from autos leaving the
roadway by 8% and road-departure crashes
that cause injuries by 7%.

“These emerging technologies can

substantially reduce the number of crashes
and improve safety outcomes,” said Tim

137
Czapp, senior manager for safety at European
automaker Stellantis, the industry co-chair of
the partnership’s board.

In the other study, the Insurance Institute

for Highway Safety found that automatic
emergency braking reduces rear crash rates
for pickups by 43% and rear-end injury crashes
by 42%. Yet pickups are less likely to have
automatic braking than cars or SUVs despite
posing more danger to other road users, the
IIHS found.

“Pickups account for 1 out of 5 passenger

vehicles on U.S. roads, and their large size
can make them dangerous to people in
smaller vehicles or on foot,” the institute’s Vice
President of Research Jessica Cicchino said in
a statement.
Mitsubishi, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis
(formerly Fiat Chrysler), Volkswagen and Honda
have filed documents with the government this
year saying they’ve made emergency braking
standard on at least 90% of their models.

General Motors reported that only 73% of its

models had the technology at the end of the
2022 model year, but a spokesman said GM
would hit 98% by the end of the current model
year as long as there aren’t supply chain issues.

In addition, BMW, Hyundai, Mazda, Subaru,

Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo passed 90% last year,
according to the IIHS.

138
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140
 PEACOCK
HOPES TO
CAPITALIZE ON
SUBSCRIBERS
WITH
WORLD CUP

Since its launch in 2020, NBCUniversal has had

its share of big events to showcase its Peacock
Streaming Service. It gets another one this
month with the FIFA Men’s World Cup.

With Telemundo as the official Spanish-language

broadcaster in the United States, Peacock will
simulcast the games and have them available
on-demand and other ancillary programming.

Rick Cordella, the president of programming

for NBC Sports and Peacock Sports, said
NBCUniversal was a bit behind its competitors
when rolling out a streaming service, but he
feels they have closed the gap.

141
142
He hopes the World Cup is another event that
will drive more viewers to the platform.

“We’ve seen sports has been the catalyst to

get people in the door. They seek it out, they
find it, and then they’re exposed to all the
entertainment options we have,” he said. “It just
gives you a reason to open up our app every
week if you’re a fan of a certain sport.”

Peacock reported it had 15 million paid

subscribers and 30 million monthly active
accounts last month.
Before moving back to NBC Sports, Cordella
was Peacock’s chief commercial officer and
instrumental in its launch.

Before Peacock’s launch, NBC’s streaming

offerings were spread out among its Olympic
site and the various NBC Sports Gold packages
for Premier League soccer, rugby, motorsports,
and the Tour de France. Peacock helped put
them under one roof and one price.

Over the past couple of months, Peacock has

touted its advantage of having the most varied
live sports package. Besides the Olympics
and World Cup, it also has NFL “Sunday Night
Football,” the Premier League, “Sunday Morning
Baseball,” Notre Dame football and hockey,
NASCAR, and golf, among others. It will add Big
Ten football and basketball next season.
As the World Cup draws near, those promotions
have ramped up over the past month.

Peacock has also benefitted from adding WWE

in the spring of 2021, including its 12 premium
live events.

“The model we put together for WWE was

very much a sports model of how many people

143
show up for that live event on Saturday or
Sunday night, how long will they stay around,
or how much other content they have,” Cordella
said. “There’s not a lot of difference between
the passion you see for Premier League and the
passion you see for WWE events.”
Cordella also noted that fans are tuning in for
more than one sport. Premier League fans will
stream sports, as will WWE fans.

Like the Olympics, Cordella hopes that the World

Cup is another vehicle to draw subscribers and
keep them.

The World Cup is also beneficial when it comes

to streaming. According to a study from Tremor
International, a video-first ad tech platform, 38%
of fans ages 25-34 prefer to watch games on
streaming compared to 33% on broadcast or
cable television.
“I think one of the advantages we have in this
particular property is that if you’re outside the
pay-TV ecosystem, you don’t have a slot to
watch it outside. You can come to Peacock for
the tournament,” Cordella said.

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 NASA’S
MIGHTIEST MOON
ROCKET LIFTS
OFF 50 YEARS
AFTER APOLLO

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NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its
debut flight with three test dummies aboard
Wednesday, bringing the U.S. a big step closer
to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface
for the first time since the end of the Apollo
program 50 years ago.
If all goes well during the three-week flight, the
crew capsule will be propelled into a wide orbit
around the moon and then return to Earth with
a Pacific splashdown in December.

After years of delays and billions in cost

overruns, the Space Launch System rocket
thundered skyward, rising from Kennedy
Space Center on 8.8 million pounds (4 million
kilograms) of thrust and hitting 100 mph (160
kph) within seconds. The Orion capsule was
perched on top and, less than two hours into
the flight, busted out of Earth’s orbit toward
the moon.

“It was pretty overwhelming,” said NASA

Administrator Bill Nelson. “We’re going out to
explore the heavens, and this is the next step.”
The moonshot follows nearly three months of
vexing fuel leaks that kept the rocket bouncing
between its hangar and the pad. Forced
back indoors by Hurricane Ian at the end of
September, the rocket stood its ground outside
as Nicole swept through last week with gusts
of more than 80 mph (130 kph). Although the
wind caused some damage, managers gave the
green light for the launch.

An estimated 15,000 people jammed the

launch site, with thousands more lining
the beaches and roads outside the gates,
to witness NASA’s long-awaited sequel to
Project Apollo, when 12 astronauts walked on

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149
150
the moon from 1969 and 1972. Crowds also
gathered outside NASA centers in Houston and
Huntsville, Alabama, to watch the spectacle on
giant screens.

Cheers accompanied the rocket as it rode a

huge trail of flames toward space, with a half-
moon glowing brightly and buildings shaking..

The liftoff marked the start of NASA’s Artemis

lunar-exploration program, named after
Apollo’s mythological twin sister. The space
agency is aiming to send four astronauts
around the moon on the next flight, in 2024,
and land humans there as early as 2025.
“For the Artemis generation, this is for you,”
launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson
called out, referring to all those born after
Apollo. She later told her team: “You have
earned your place in history.”

The 322-foot (98-meter) SLS is the most

powerful rocket ever built by NASA, with
more thrust than either the space shuttle or
the mighty Saturn V that carried men to the
moon. A series of hydrogen fuel leaks plagued
the summertime launch attempts as well as
countdown tests. A fresh leak erupted at a new
location during Tuesday night’s fueling, but an
emergency team tightened the faulty valve on
the pad. Then a U.S. Space Force radar station
went down, resulting in another scramble, this
time to replace an ethernet switch.

“The rocket, it’s alive. It’s creaking. It’s making

venting noises. It’s pretty scary,” said Trent
Annis, one of the three men who entered the
blast danger zone to fix the leak. “My heart was
pumping. My nerves were going.”

151
Orion should reach the moon by Monday,
more than 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers)
from Earth. After coming within 80 miles (130
kilometers) of the moon, the capsule will enter
a far-flung orbit stretching about 40,000 miles
(64,000 kilometers) beyond.

The $4.1 billion test flight is set to last 25 days,

roughly the same as when crews will be aboard.
The space agency intends to push the spacecraft
to its limits and uncover any problems before
astronauts strap in. The mannequins — NASA
calls them moonequins — are fitted with
sensors to measure such things as vibration,
acceleration and cosmic radiation.

Nelson cautioned “things will go wrong” during

this demo. A few minor issues cropped up early
in the flight, although preliminary indications
were the boosters and engines performed well.
“I personally am not going to rest well until we
get safely to splashdown and recovery,” mission
manager Mike Sarafin told reporters.

The rocket was supposed to have made its dry

run by 2017. Government watchdogs estimate
NASA will have spent $93 billion on the project
by 2025.

Ultimately, NASA hopes to establish a base on

the moon and send astronauts to Mars by the
late 2030s or early 2040s.
But many hurdles still need to be cleared. The
Orion capsule will take astronauts only to lunar
orbit, not the surface.

NASA has hired Elon Musk’s SpaceX to develop

Starship, the 21st-century answer to Apollo’s
lunar lander. Starship will carry astronauts back
and forth between Orion and the lunar surface,

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153
154
at least on the first trip in 2025. The plan is to
station Starship and eventually other companies’
landers in orbit around the moon, ready for use
whenever new Orion crews pull up.

Reprising an argument that was made

during the 1960s, Duke University historian
Alex Roland questions the value of human
spaceflight, saying robots and remote-
controlled spacecraft could get the job done
more cheaply, efficiently and safely.

“In all these years, no evidence has emerged to

justify the investment we have made in human
spaceflight — save the prestige involved in this
conspicuous consumption,” he said.
NASA is waiting until this test flight is over
before introducing the astronauts who will be
on the next one and those who will follow in
the bootsteps of Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin.

155
Most of NASA’s corps of 42 active astronauts
and 10 trainees were not even born yet when
Apollo 17 moonwalkers Gene Cernan and
Harrison Schmitt closed out the era, 50 years
ago next month.

“We are jumping out of our spacesuits with

excitement,” astronaut Christina Koch said
before Tuesday’s launch.

After a nearly yearlong International Space

Station mission and all-female spacewalk, Koch,
43, is on NASA’s short list for a lunar flight. So
is astronaut Kayla Barron, 35, who finally got
to witness her first rocket launch, not counting
her own a year ago.
“It took my breath away, and I was tearing up,”
Barron said. “What an amazing accomplishment
for this team.”

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 Only the Strong
Survive
Bruce Springsteen

In a statement about his 21st studio album,

Bruce Springsteen declared: “I wanted to
make an album where I just sang. And what
Genre: Rock
Number of Songs: 15
better music to work with than the great
Price: $12.99 American songbook of the ‘60s and ‘70s?”
The fruits of his labor pay tribute to an array
of classic artists.

FIVE FACTS:
1. Springsteen’s previous studio album, Letter
To You, was released in October 2020.
2. Only the Strong Survive is Springsteen’s
second cover album after 2006’s We Shall
Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.
3. In the above-quoted statement shared
by Pitchfork, Springsteen cited various artists
whose work inspired Only the Strong Survive
— including Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy
Ruffin, and Diana Ross.
4. Springsteen added: “I’ve tried to do justice
to them all — and to the fabulous writers of
this glorious music.”
5. He continued: “My goal is for the modern
audience to experience its beauty and joy,
just as I have since I first heard it.”

159
 Bruce Springsteen - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
(Official Video)

160
Bruce Springsteen - Nightshift (Official Video)

161
ELEVATION
Black Eyed Peas

Black Eyed Peas are on typically genre-

bending form with their ninth studio album,
ELEVATION, which merges touches of hip-
hop, R&B, electronic, trap and Latin music
into a fascinating whole — with acclaimed
Genre: Pop
single “DON’T YOU WORRY” serving as a Number of Songs: 15
suitable taster. Price: $7.99

FIVE FACTS:
1. Shakira and David Guetta both appear on
“DON’T YOU WORRY”.
2. “SIMPLY THE BEST” — in which Black Eyed
Peas, Anitta, and El Alfa trade verses — has also
been released as a single from the album.
3. In justification of the new album’s title, Black
Eyed Peas lead member will.i.am has declared
that ELEVATION “is the next stage for us,
reaching higher.” (https://www.the360mag.
com/black-eyed-peas-elevation/)
4. In 2020, will.i.am said that former bandmate
Fergie left the group in 2017 because she
wanted to focus more on being a mother to
Axl, her son with ex-husband Josh Duhamel.
5. “That’s a hard job, and that’s what she
really wants to do and we’re here for her,”
will.i.am added.

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Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, David Guetta - DON’T YOU
WORRY (Official Music Video)

163
 Black Eyed Peas, Anitta, El Alfa - SIMPLY THE BEST
(Official Music Video)

164
165
166
 Ticket to Paradise
Divorced exes David (George Clooney) and
Georgia Cotton (Julia Roberts) hate each
other, but team up in a bid to sabotage the
upcoming wedding of their daughter Lily
(Kaitlyn Dever) in Bali and prevent her from
making the same mistake they think they
once made.

FIVE FACTS:
by Ol Parker 1. Other cast members include Billie Lourd
Genre: Romance
Released: 2022 as Lily’s friend Wren Butler, Maxime Bouttier
Price: $24.99 as Lily’s would-be husband Gede, and Lucas
Bravo as Georgia’s boyfriend Paul.
2. This is the fifth film in which Clooney
and Roberts have co-starred together, after
Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind (2002), Ocean’s Twelve
(2004), and Money Monster (2016).
3. Dever and Lourd previously co-starred
together in 2019’s Booksmart.
4. In Ticket to Paradise, Georgia hates
surprises — a trait she has in common with
Roberts’ character of Anna Scott in the 1999
romcom Notting Hill.
5. Ticket to Paradise is the first full-blown
romcom in which Clooney has appeared
since 1996’s One Fine Day.

Rotten Tomatoes

57
%
167
 Ticket to Paradise | Official Trailer [HD]

168
Julia Roberts On George Clooney - “He’s Everything
You Think He Is.”

169
The System
Former marine Terry Savage (Tyrese
Gibson) has only recently returned from
war when he is caught up in a drug bust.
The authorities subsequently recruit him
for an undercover mission to a notoriously
dangerous prison, where he soon discovers
corruption behind the scenes.

FIVE FACTS:
1. In August 2021, news broke that distributor by Dallas Jackson
The Avenue had acquired North American Genre: Action & Adventure
Released: 2022
rights to The System. Price: $12.99
2. The film was written and directed by Dallas
Jackson and produced by Gibson, Bryan Lord,
Petr Jákl, and Joe Di Maoi.
3. “Bryan Lord and Dallas Jackson have pulled
together an incredible cast of household
names that will take audiences on an edge-
of-their-seat ride,” JJ Caruth, one of the film’s
executive producers, enthused.
4. Jackson commented: “I think The System
has a chance to not only shift the culture
here in the States but entertain action fans
around the world!”
5. Gibson is well-known for playing
the character of Roman in the Fast &
Furious franchise.

Rotten Tomatoes

40 %
170
THE SYSTEM | Official HD Trailer | Tyrese Gibson | In
Theaters 10.28 & On Digital 11.04

171
 Terrence Howard and Tyrese Gibson talk Dallas
Jackson’s The System

172
173
IN ‘WAKANDA
FOREVER,’ AN
EMPIRE MOURNS
AND REBUILDS

174
175
 In ‘Wakanda Forever,’ an empire mourns and
rebuilds

176
Made in the wake of tragedy, “Black Panther:
Wakanda Forever” reverberates with the agony
of loss, piercing the usually less consequential
superhero realm. Like someone going through
the stages of grief, Ryan Coogler’s movie is at turns
mournful and rootless, full of rage and blessed
with clarity. In the fantastical Marvel Cinematic
Universe where mortality is almost always a
plaything, wrestling with the genuine article, in
the death of T’Challa star Chadwick Boseman,
makes for an unusually uncertain, soul-searching
kind of blockbuster-scale entertainment.

It’s a fine line, of course, between paying tribute

and trading on it. I did cringe a little when the
Marvel logo unspooled with images of Boseman
within the letters: Eulogy as branding. That “Black
Panther,” a cultural phenomenon and a box-office
smash, would get a sequel, at all, was momentarily
in doubt after Boseman’s unexpected death
from colon cancer in 2020. Radically reworked by
Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole, “Wakanda
Forever” pushed ahead in hopes of honoring both
Boseman and the rich Afrocentric world of the
landmark original. In its admirably muddled way, it
succeeds in both.

Part of the profound appeal of Coogler’s first

“Black Panther” resided in its deft channeling of
the real world into mythology. It fed centuries
of colonialism and exploitation into a big-
screen spectacle of identity and resistance. In
an invented African nation, Coogler conjured
both a fanciful could-have-been history and
emotional right-now reality.
“Wakanda Forever,” which opens in theaters
Thursday, expands on that, weaving in a Latin
American perspective with a similar degree of

177
cultural specificity in the introduction of the Aztec-
inspired antagonist Namor (Tenoch Huerta), king
of the ancient underwater world of Talokan. At the
same time, Boseman’s death is poignantly filtered
into the story from the start, beginning with off-
screen death throes.
“Time is running out,” we hear whispered while
the screen is still black. Shuri (Letitia Wright),
T’Challa’s tech-wiz sister, is frantically trying to
craft something in her AI lab to save her brother.
But in a moment, their mother, Queen Ramonda
(Angela Bassett), informs her: “Your brother is
with the ancestors.” He’s laid to rest in a glorious,
celebratory procession, carried through a multi-
tiered channel of white-clad, singing-and-dancing
Wakandans. It’s as stunning as anything Coogler
has shot.

After this prologue, “Wakanda Forever” shifts to a

year later. “Black Panther” took some of the spy-
thriller shape of a Bond movie, and the sequel
carries that on in a new geopolitical context. At
the United Nations, the United States and France
are pressuring for access to vibranium, the rare
metal that Wakanda has built its empire on.
Soon after, a U.S. military expedition discovers
vibranium at the bottom of the ocean. But just
as they’re celebrating, a mysterious tribe of blue
underwater people, led by Namor, a pointy-eared
monarch in green short-shorts with wings on his
ankles, ruthlessly wipe out the entire expedition.

You can feel “Wakanda Forever” searching for a

way forward in these early scenes. After such an
anguished beginning, how much care can we
summon for the whereabouts of magical ores?
And more blue people? “Avatar,” you might think,
has already laid claim to them. What steadies
the film is Bassett. Her awesome presence leads

178
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 Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
| Official Trailer

180
“Wakanda Forever” through grief with a staunch
defense of Wakanda that rebalances the newly
king-less kingdom. She carries on.
What follows is a globe-trotting plot that draws
the film away from perhaps its greatest asset
in Wakanda but uncovers new places of latent
power among historically exploited people.
Shuri and Okoye (Danai Gurira), the Dora Milaje
general, travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts,
to seek the student (Dominique Thorne) who
created a vibranium detector. In the Washington
D.C. area, Wakanda’s friendly CIA officer (Martin
Freeman) experiences new scrutiny from his
boss, played by an unannounced comic actress
familiar to Beltway politics.

But, mostly, a series of exchanges draw Wakanda

and Talokan closer. Are they friends and foes? They
are, at least, a captivating tweak to the mythology
of Atlantis. Talokan, dark and watery, is no
Wakanda, though, and there’s less hint this time of
a larger society. Still, Huerta brings a magnetism to
Namor. In many ways, he’s a corollary to Michael
B. Jordan’s Killmonger, a non-villain whose fury is
in many ways justified. His anger appeals to the
still-grieving Shuri who finds herself ready, after
T’Challa’s death, to “burn the world.”

As in the first “Black Panther,” the question again

hangs in the balance of whether, in a pain-ridden
and prejudiced world, rage is the answer. This
time, it applies to another powerful civilization,
too. “Wakanda Forever,” where the role of Black
Panther is passed down, is in more ways than one
about the transfer of power.
Wakanda and Talokan are brought together a
little haphazardly in conflict, as Namor pressures
the African nation to join his brewing surface

181
 Dream Team-Ups? | The Cast & Crew of Marvel
Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

182
183
184
war. “Wakanda Forever” proceeds as a murky,
middle-act film that may ultimately serve as a
bridge to future “Black Panther” chapters. But
along the way, there are countless marvels that
Coogler conjures with returning magic-workers
like production designer Hannah Beachler
and costume designer Ruth E. Carter. How the
Talokan are flung into the air by whales. The
fierce friendliness of Gurira’s performance. Lupita
Nyong’o is unfortunately less central here, but
every time her Nakia (who has been laying low
in Haiti) is present, she graces the film.
“Wakanda Forever” is overlong, a little unwieldy
and somewhat mystifyingly steers toward a
climax on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic.
But Coogler’s fluid command of mixing intimacy
with spectacle remains gripping. He extends
the rich detail and non-binary complexity that
distinguished “Black Panther” in sometimes
awkward but often thrilling ways. “Wakanda
Forever,” grappling in the aftermath of loss,
ultimately seeks something rare in the battle-
ready superhero landscape: Peace.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” a Walt Disney

Co. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture
Association of America for sequences of strong
violence, action and some language. Running

185
 Nas

186
 KING’S DISEASE III
NAS

MIDNIGHTS (3AM EDITION)

TAYLOR SWIFT

ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

RIHANNA & TEMS

LAST SCENE - THE 3RD MINI ALBUM - EP

CHEN

HER LOSS
DRAKE & 21 SAVAGE

TANTRA
YUNG BLEU

BELL BOTTOM COUNTRY

LAINEY WILSON

BADINYAA KUMOO
SONA JOBARTEH

SO HELP ME GOD
BRANTLEY GILBERT

187
 Hailee Steinfeld

188
 THRILLER
MICHAEL JACKSON

COAST (FEAT. ANDERSON .PAAK)

HAILEE STEINFELD

ANTI-HERO
TAYLOR SWIFT

BEAT IT
MICHAEL JACKSON

CAIRO
KAROL G & OVY ON THE DRUMS

WAIT IN THE TRUCK (FEAT. LAINEY WILSON)

HARDY

LIFT ME UP
RIHANNA

NEVER GONNA NOT DANCE AGAIN

P!NK

WHERE WE STARTED
THOMAS RHETT & KATY PERRY

MADE YOU LOOK

MEGHAN TRAINOR

189
 Yellowstone

190
 ONE HUNDRED YEARS IS NOTHING
YELLOWSTONE

THE STING OF WISDOM

YELLOWSTONE

DAVE CHAPPELLE - NOVEMBER 12, 2022

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

BURNIN’ AND BEEFIN’

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF POTOMAC

DAYBREAK
YELLOWSTONE

THE KNIFE IN THE KIDNEYS

SISTER WIVES

GRASS ON THE STREETS AND WEEDS...

YELLOWSTONE

THUNDERSTRUCK
GREY’S ANATOMY

ASK YOUR BEST FRIEND

SIESTA KEY

BLOWBACK
THE EQUALIZER

191
 Michael Connelly

192
 DESERT STAR
MICHAEL CONNELLY

IT STARTS WITH US
COLLEEN HOOVER

IT ENDS WITH US
COLLEEN HOOVER

THE BOYS FROM BILOXI

JOHN GRISHAM

NO PLAN B
LEE CHILD & ANDREW CHILD

VERITY
COLLEEN HOOVER

AT BERTRAM’S HOTEL
AGATHA CHRISTIE

GOING ROGUE
JANET EVANOVICH

FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG ...

MATTHEW PERRY

LONG SHADOWS
DAVID BALDACCI

193
 Lily Meola

194
 UNHOLY
SAM SMITH & KIM PETRAS

LIFT ME UP (FROM BLACK PANTHER...)

RIHANNA

WAIT IN THE TRUCK

HARDY & LAINEY WILSON

MADE YOU LOOK

MEGHAN TRAINOR

ANTI-HERO
TAYLOR SWIFT

I’M GOOD (BLUE)

DAVID GUETTA & BEBE REXHA

DAYDREAM
LILY MEOLA

HEART LIKE A TRUCK

LAINEY WILSON

THE KIND OF LOVE WE MAKE

LUKE COMBS

THANK GOD
KANE BROWN & KATELYN BROWN

195
1970S SANDALS
WORN BY STEVE
JOBS AUCTIONED
FOR $218K

196
197
198
The California house where Steve Jobs co-
founded Apple is a historical site, and now the
sandals he wore while pacing its floors have
been sold for nearly $220,000, according to an
auction house.

The “well used” brown suede Birkenstocks

dating to the mid-1970s set a record for the
highest price ever paid for a pair of sandals,
Julien’s Auctions said.

“The cork and jute footbed retains the imprint

of Steve Jobs’ feet, which had been shaped
after years of use,” the auction house said in the
listing on its website.
The sandals were expected to bring $60,000,
but the final sale price with an accompanying
NFT was $218,750, Julien’s said. The buyer was
not named.

Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple

in 1976 at Jobs’ parents’ house in Los Altos,
California. In 2013, the property was named a
historic landmark by the Los Altos Historical
Commission.

Jobs died in 2011 from complications of

pancreatic cancer.

199
TARGET’S
3Q PROFIT
DROPS 52% AS
SHOPPERS FORCE
PRICE CUTS

200
201
202
An unexpected and potentially ominous
pullback in customer spending ahead of the
holiday shopping season pushed third-quarter
profits at Target down 52% after it was forced to
slash prices with Americans feeling the squeeze
of inflation.
The Minneapolis retailer voiced caution about
its sales and profit during the fourth quarter
because of what it’s seen from its customers in
recent weeks. They’re waiting for sales rather
than buying goods at full price, and finding ways
to cut down on spending in other ways as well.

Shares of Target tumbled 13% and other

retailers slid as well. Macy’s and Kohl’s fell 6%
and Nordstrom slumped 9%. Walmart’s shares
were flat.

Target said that will be slashing expenses with

a goal of saving $2 billion to $3 billion over
the next three years. Those cost cuts will not
include widespread layoffs or hiring freezes,
executives said.
Target’s dour quarter arrives amid a backdrop of
resiliency from American consumers.

The U.S. on Wednesday reported that retail sales

rose 1.3% in October from September, though
there was some noise in that report. The increase
was led by car sales and higher gas prices, but
those car sales may have been supercharged by
the arrival of Hurricane Ian in late September,
which destroyed up to 70,000 vehicles,
according to economists at TD Securities.

Still, excluding autos and gas, retail spending

rose 0.9% last month.
What has become clear is that spending by
the American consumer is shifting, with many

203
trading down to cheaper options, and to stores
where they think they can save money. That was
evident at Walmart, which reported better-than-
expected earnings Tuesday. One factor: more
than 50% of Walmart’s U.S. business comes from
groceries; that number is 20% at Target. With
inflation all around, households take care of
needs like food and shelter first.

That dynamic is playing out as retailers head into

the unofficial start of the holiday season, the
most critical period of the year for them.

Target’s sales weakened significantly in the

weeks leading up to November, with more
customers cutting back on discretionary items,
said Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell. They’re
also buying smaller packages and trading down
to instore brands. That trend pushed quarterly
profit far below the expectations of both Target,
and Wall Street.
Many Target customers have begun to lean
on credit cards or have dipped into savings to
shop, Christine Hennington, the company’s chief
growth officer, told analysts Wednesday.

Target has built a reputation as being tuned into

fashion and a place to outfit your home smartly,
areas where shoppers may now be cutting back.
But other retailers are not immune to customers
anxious about rising prices.

“With its exposure to a lot of discretionary spend,

Target will feel the chill first, but it will not be the
only retailer to catch a cold,” said Neil Saunders,
managing director at GlobalData Retail.
“It’s an environment where consumers have
been stressed,” Target’s Cornell said. “We know
they are spending more dollars on food and

204
205
206
beverage and household essentials. And as they
are shopping for discretionary categories ... they
are looking for that great deal.”

Cornell expects that trend to continue through

the holidays.

The disappointing quarter follows Target’s nearly

90% profit slide in the second quarter and a 52%
drop in the first. In early June, Target warned
that it was canceling orders from suppliers
and aggressively cutting prices because of a
pronounced spending shift by Americans.
Retailers were blindsided by the lightening-
fast shift from pandemic spending on things
like TVs and kitchen appliances, to dinners out,
movies and vacations. Now, inflation has created
less wiggle room for a new flat screen or a
smart blender.

Target posted quarterly net income of $712

million, or $1.54 per share. That compares with
$1.49 billion, or $3.04 per share in the year ago
period. Analysts had expected $2.16 per share in
the latest quarter, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 3.4% to $26.52 billion compared

with the year ago quarter, which edged out Wall
Street expectations, according to FactSet.
Comparable sales increased 2.7% — those that
come from stores and online — on top of a
12.7% growth last year.

Cosmetics, food, beverage and household

essential drove sales, offsetting weakness in
discretionary items. Target did gain market share
across all five of its key merchandise categories
based on the number of items sold.

207
And Cornell said that shoppers are ready
to spend when it comes to such events as
Halloween and the back-to-school season.

The quarterly operating income margin rate was

3.9% in 2022, compared with 7.8% in 2021 as
markdowns hit profits, on top of rising theft and
merchandise and freight costs.

Target said theft is a growing problem.

Executives say that Target booked more than
$400 million in losses from theft so far this year,
with the number of thefts rising 50%.
Because of softening of sales and profits toward
the end of the reporting period, Target said it is
planning for a “wide range of sales outcomes in
the fourth quarter.”

The company expects a low-single-digit decline

for comparable sales for the fourth quarter with
an operating margin rate of around 3%.

Target’s shares fell $26.80 to $152.16 after

the announcement.

208
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210
 AIRBNB AIMS TO
CONVINCE MORE
PEOPLE TO RENT
OUT THEIR HOMES

211
Convinced that the boom in leisure travel is
permanent, Airbnb aims to expand its listings
by convincing more people to turn their homes
into short-term rentals.
The company said that it will increase the
amount of liability coverage for hosts, up to $3
million, in a play for owners of nicer houses in
high-cost places such as California. It will also
pair newbies with a “superhost” to guide them
through the process of becoming a short-term
landlord, from signing up through welcoming
their first guest.

More listings would not seem to be Airbnb’s

biggest challenge.

CEO Brian Chesky says the San Francisco

company is taking steps to make price more
transparent when consumers browse Airbnb
listings, and he predicts that will reduce sky-
high cleaning fees that many hosts tack on well
into the booking process — a major complaint
of consumers.
The company also continues to try to crack
down on large parties at rentals, a few of which
have turned violent. And it faces efforts to
increase regulation of short-term rentals.

Through it all, Airbnb has fared better than

most travel companies during the pandemic.
This month, it reported a record $1.21 billion
profit for the third quarter. Its stock fell, however,
because earnings and bookings were less than
Wall Street expected and the company gave a
cautious fourth-quarter outlook.

Investors worry that consumers paying more for

food, gas and housing — and facing predictions
of recession — will cut back on discretionary
spending like travel, hurting Airbnb.

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Some current hosts are worried that might
already be happening. Last month, a post on a
Facebook page for Airbnb “superhosts” asked,
“Has anyone seen a huge decrease in bookings
over the last 3 to 4 months? We went from at
least 50% occupancy to literally 0% in the last
two months.”

Other hosts on social media have suggested

theories ranging from a fragile economy to
pent-up travel demand finally running out, and
some think the problem might be that Airbnb
already has too many listings.

AirDNA, which tracks short-term-rental

numbers, said Airbnb listed nearly 1.4 million
rentals in the U.S. in September, a 23% jump
from a year earlier and 9% over 2019. Nearly
two-thirds were added since 2020. The trends
are similar for global listings.
Chesky said in an interview that Airbnb has
enough hosts now — he didn’t say it has too
many — but needs more because leisure travel
will keep growing. And, he said, a recession
could push more people to turn their homes into
Airbnbs. After all, he likes to point out, Airbnb
launched during the great recession in 2008.

“People are pulling back spending in tons

of areas, but not travel,” he said. “And with a
looming recession, we felt like more people than
ever are going to want to make extra money.”

Potential hosts sometimes hesitate, Chesky

said, because they are uncomfortable having
strangers in their homes. The company’s
response is to triple the amount of coverage
for hosts — from $1 million to $3 million —
against damage, including to vehicles, boats
and a wider range of art on the property.

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Chesky is betting that will persuade more
owners of nice homes to list them on Airbnb.

“Exactly, and home values have increased since

we wrote the $1 million plan,” he said. “We
just noticed more than 20% of the homes on
Airbnb, and maybe even more than that, were
over the $1 million limit in value.”

The company said it is also launching a

system to verify the identity of guests and flag
potential parties, immediately in the U.S. and
Canada and worldwide by next spring. Chesky
said the system is “not a silver bullet,” and he
didn’t provide many details but said in the
U.S. it will include a check of criminal and sex-
offender records.
In the meantime, the company is working on a
plan to display the all-in price of a stay up front
on its app and website — an amount that would
include cleaning fees, which can be very high
and only appear later in the booking process.

Chesky said he didn’t want to bar or cap cleaning

fees — that’s a decision for hosts, he said. But
including fees in the upfront price — and in the
order in which search results are displayed — “is
going to correct the market,” he said.

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 Image: Charles Rex Arbogast
218
 FLYING HOME
FOR THE
HOLIDAYS
WILL COST
YOU MORE
THIS YEAR

People still looking to book trips home to visit

family or take a vacation during the holidays
need to act fast and prepare for sticker shock.
Airline executives say that based on bookings,
they expect huge demand for flights over
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Travel
experts say the best deals for airfares and
hotels are already gone.

On social media, plenty of travelers think they

are being gouged. It’s an understandable
sentiment when government data shows
that airfares in October were up 43% from
a year earlier, and U.S. airlines reported a
combined profit of more than $2.4 billion
in the third quarter.

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Part of the reason for high fares is that airlines
are still operating fewer flights than in 2019 even
though passenger numbers are nearly back to
pre-pandemic levels.
“Fewer flights and more people looking to head
home or take vacation for the holidays means
two things: Prices will be higher, and we will see
flights sell out for both holidays,” says Holly Berg,
chief economist for travel-data provider Hopper.

Yulia Parr knows exactly what Berg is talking

about. The Annandale, Virginia, woman
struggled to find a reasonably priced flight
home for her young son, who is spending
Thanksgiving with his grandmother in Texas
while Parr visits her husband, who is on active
military duty in California. She finally found a
$250 one-way ticket on Southwest, but it’s not
until the Tuesday after the holiday.

Parr figures she waited too long to book a flight.

“My husband’s kids are flying home for
Christmas,” she said. “Those tickets were bought
long ago, so they’re not too bad.”

Prices for air travel and lodging usually rise

heading into the holidays, and it happened
earlier this year. That is leading some travelers
in Europe to book shorter trips, according to
Axel Hefer, CEO of Germany-based hotel-search
company Trivago.

“Hotel prices are up absolutely everywhere,”

he said. “If you have the same budget or even
a lower budget through inflation, and you still
want to travel, you just cut out a day.”
Hotels are struggling with labor shortages,
another cause of higher prices. Glenn Fogel,
CEO of Booking Holdings, which owns travel-

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Image: Matt Rourke
221
search sites including Priceline and Kayak, says
one hotelier told him he can’t fill all his rooms
because he doesn’t have enough staff.
Rates for car rentals aren’t as crazy as they were
during much of 2021, when some popular
locations ran out of vehicles. Still, the availability
of vehicles is tight because the cost of new
cars has prevented rental companies from
fully rebuilding fleets that they culled early in
the pandemic.

U.S. consumers are facing the highest inflation

in 40 years, and there is growing concern about
a potential recession. That isn’t showing up in
travel numbers, however.

The number of travelers going through airport

checkpoints has recovered to nearly 95%
of 2019 traffic, according to Transportation
Security Administration figures for October.
Travel industry officials say holiday travel might
top pre-pandemic levels.
Airlines haven’t always done a good job
handling the big crowds, even though they
have been hiring workers to replace those who
left after COVID-19 hit. The rates of canceled and
delayed flights rose above pre-pandemic levels
this summer, causing airlines to slow down
plans to add more flights.

U.S. airlines operated only 84% as many U.S.

flights as they did in October 2019, and plan
about the same percentage in December,
according to travel-data firm Cirium. On
average, airlines are using bigger planes with
more seats this year, which partly offsets the
reduction in flights.

“We are definitely seeing a lot of strength for

the holidays,” Andrew Nocella, United Airlines’

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chief commercial officer, said on the company’s
earnings call in October. “We’re approaching the
Thanksgiving timeframe, and our bookings are
incredibly strong.”
Airline executives and Transportation
Secretary Pete Buttigieg blamed each other for
widespread flight problems over the summer.
Airline CEOs say that after hiring more pilots
and other workers, they are prepared for the
holiday mob.

Travel experts offer tips for saving money and

avoiding getting stranded by a canceled flight,
although the advice hasn’t changed much from
previous years.

Be flexible about dates and even destinations,

although that’s not possible when visiting
grandma’s house. In a recent search, the
cheapest flights from Los Angeles to New York
around Christmas were on Christmas Eve and
returning New Year’s Eve.
Look into discount airlines and alternate
airports, but know that smaller airlines have
fewer options for rebooking passengers after a
flight is canceled.

Fly early in the day to lower your risk of a delay

or cancellation. “If something goes wrong, it
tends to progress throughout the day — it gets
to be a domino effect,” says Chuck Thackston,
general manager of Airlines Reporting Corp., an
intermediary between airlines and travel agents.

There are plenty of theories on the best day

of the week to book travel. Thackston says it’s
Sunday because airlines know that’s when many
price-conscious consumers are shopping, and
carriers tailor offerings for them.

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For the most part, airlines have dodged the
accusations of price-gouging that have swirled
around oil companies -- which drew another
rebuke this week from President Joe Biden -- and
other industries.
Accountable US, an advocacy group critical
of corporations, linked airline delays and
cancellations this summer to job cuts during the
pandemic and poor treatment of workers. “But
generally, we would say the airline industry is
not currently at the same level as big food, oil or
retail in terms of gross profiteering,” says Jeremy
Funk, a spokesman for the group.

Brett Snyder, who runs a travel agency and

writes the “Cranky Flier” blog about air travel,
says prices are high simply because flights are
down from 2019 while demand is booming.

“How is it gouging?” Snyder asks. “They don’t

want to go (take off) with empty seats, but they
also don’t want to sell everything for a dollar. It’s
basic economics.”
Travelers are sacrificing to hold down the cost of
their trips.

Sheena Hale and her daughter, Krysta Pyle, woke

up at 3 a.m. and left their northwestern Indiana
home an hour later to make a 6:25 a.m. flight in
Chicago last week.

“We are exhausted,” Hale said after the plane

landed in Dallas, where Krysta was taking part in
a cheer competition. “We started early because
the early flights were much cheaper. Flights are
way too expensive.”
They’re not going anywhere for Christmas.

“We don’t have to travel. We’re staying home

with family,” Hale said.

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