International

Dengue is ravaging Latin America

Latin America is dealing with what be the worst dengue epidemic in modern history. Argentina, in particular, is going through it. The country is one of the hardest hit by the disease, and they just ran out of bug spray. Not a good combo.

But that isn’t all…

In the past year, infection rates in Argentina have octupled, and the country reported over 230,000 cases of the disease this year. Argentina’s government eased limitations on bug spray imports Monday evening, but it’ll likely take another week for it to make its way back on shelves.

After seeing a 300% surge in demand, owner of the Off! brand, SC Johnson, donated 20,000 cans of mosquito repellent to Argentina on Tuesday, saying the increase is “unprecedented”.

But for every good, there’s a bad: People are hoarding the bug spray and reselling it on the online marketplace MercadoLibre for five times the price, nearly $20/can.

Argentina isn’t the only victim

Between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, 3.5 million people have contracted dengue this year alone. Among them, 83% live in Brazil. Experts have voiced concerns about infection rates climbing in areas where outbreaks aren’t usually an issue.

• In Peru, dengue cases have gone up 300% from the same period last year to around 135,000.

• Vacation destinations are also a target, with Barbados, Costa Rica, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Martinique, and Mexico showing increased infection rates, according to the Pan American Health Association.

Brazil was able to release a vaccine program this year, becoming the first country to do so. However, it only has enough to immunize 3.3 million of its 220 million citizens, and a widely available shot is more than a year away.

Concerns mount over oil prices after Iran strikes Israel

Amid a growing conflict in the Middle East, oil prices hang in the balance. Last Saturday, Iran launched an estimated 300 missiles and armed drones at Israel, marking the first time the country has directly attacked Israel from its own territory. The attack raises existing tensions in the Middle East and has the potential to spike already growing oil prices.

What happened?

Iran said it sent the aerial assault to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike earlier this month, which killed three Iranian generals and four officers at an Iranian consular building in Damascus.

However, the attack caused little damage as Israel, the UK, the US, and France intercepted 99% of the projectiles, with Jordan intercepting missiles over its airspace.

• Only five projectiles landed within Israel’s borders, with one wounding a 7-year-old girl.

Israel has vowed they will retaliate, while President Joe Biden said the US wouldn’t provide support for a counterattack against Iran. Other western leaders are urging Israel not to respond, as the resulting attack could develop into a full-blown regional war.

What does this mean for the energy market?

Investors have been concerned about oil prices since Hamas’s Oct. 7th attack on Israel, especially so if a direct confrontation involving Iran, Israel, and the US that impedes oil supplies ever ensued. These worries have raised in recent months, and oil prices have gone up nearly 20% this year as a result.

• Average US gas prices have spiked about 50 cents per gallon since early January to around $3.70.

• Before Iran’s attack, oil prices had climbed since February and hit six-month highs, and they might not be done yet.

If tensions in the Middle East are strained much further, a shock to the energy market isn’t too far from the horizon. This could complicate the US’s already complex inflation situation and have far reaching geopolitical consequences, outside of the ones present in the Middle East.

Travel

The US is adding new national parks

If you’re looking for a new place to travel, there may be a few new options to explore. National parks have become a staple of American culture and with 63 of them to visit, you might have your hands full for the summer. And that isn’t counting “national park sites,” which would put the total up to 429, with anything from scenic trails to battlefields and everything in between.

What’s new?

2023 was big for national parks:

• Big steps were taken to preserve natural elements, like new picturesque trails that were added to the National Park System (NPS).

• Other locations were given the national park designation in order to preserve its history. In February of this year, the Amache National Historic Site in Granada, CO, which was the site of a former Japanese internment camp, was formally established as a national park.

The past few years have added to the total too:

• The New River Gorge National Park & Preserve in West Virginia, popular for white-water rafting and rock climbing, was formally added by the NPS in 2020.

• White Sands National Park in New Mexico, which is home to the world’s largest gypsum dune field, and Indiana Dunes National Park were both added in 2019. Big year for dunes too (and Dune 2).

Why does the national park designation matter, you ask? The label is mainly used for conservation and allocation of federal funds. The national park status protects the locations from logging, mining, and helps maintain a healthy ecosystem. It also allows the government to use taxpayer funds for upkeep, but that comes with a fee to enter the location, which might not always be the best option.

Grab Bag

Will Germany be receiving 20,000 elephants?

Botswana wants to send Germany a pretty interesting gift… I’m sure you can guess by the title. While the gift is rhetorical, Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi made the offer as he scolded at a potential German ban on trophy elephant imports.

The African country’s government is concerned that the proposed embargo could propagate poaching and harm the nation’s economic interests.

Elephants can be a lot to deal with

In an interview with a German magazine, Masisi said that the giant animals are a big headache for townspeople, and that hunting is an admissible strategy to keep their population in check.

Masisi also claimed that the German people don’t know what it’s like to live among the animals, and it’s easy to judge Botswana’s policies from the outside looking in.

He said Germans should “live together with the animals” before judging the country’s people, who live together with Africa’s largest elephant population of 131,000, almost a third of the world’s total.

• Locals say that elephants eat crops, trample property, and, sometimes, kill people.

• The animals’ numbers skyrocketed after the country abolished trophy hunting in 2014.

  • Five years later, in 2019, Botswana repealed the measure in response to complaints from affected communities.

Germany isn’t the only one that’s concerned: The United Kingdom is thinking about its own ban (Botswana’s president, in turn, threatened to send elephants to London’s Hyde Park), plus, the US issued new regulations around elephant trophy imports last month (hopefully we won’t be getting a herd anytime soon).

Ghost kitchens are going to the grave

Ghost kitchens are finally living up to their name and heading to the grave. These pseudo restaurants thrived during the pandemic and are now struggling to maintain business, according to the NYT.

Why are they vanishing?

A big financer of ghost kitchens named Kitchen United took in $175 million in funding (and was also backed by Kroger), said it was closing its doors (metaphorically) at the end of last year.

• Wendy’s had planned to open 700 ghost kitchens and has since scrapped the idea.

• Applebee’s closed its virtual dining option entirely.

Poor quality and low trust are factors in the disappearance of the ghost kitchen, plus, the main attractor to them was the feeling of eating in a restaurant during the pandemic.

The whole business is coming down. Mr. Beast, the biggest individual YouTuber in the world, sued his ghost kitchen business partner, Virtual Dining Concepts, after a plethora of critics claimed their beef patties were “revolting” and “inedible.”

Uber Eats removed 8,000 ghost kitchens from its offerings in 2023 over complaints that there was no place to physically eat, which customers didn’t take a liking to.

Although, some haunted kitchens still remain: Denny’s owns two popular delivery-exclusive brands and is planning to test a third ghost kitchen. Chuck E. Cheese has Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings, which offers bigger versions of its pizza and (hopefully) no robot mice.

Fast Facts

Papa Pentagon: An X user saw the Papa Johns next to the Pentagon was much “busier than usual”. Maybe this is the important indicator for stress among domestic officials we’ve been looking for.

Risque Running: Nike revealed its new US Olympic Track and Field uniforms and they’ve garnered some criticism.

Sleep Survey: Americans are not sleeping well, according to a new survey from Gallup. For the first time in 23 years, more than half (57%) said they would feel better if they got more sleep. Only 42% said they get the sleep they need.

Chronological Chart: This interactive chart shows what prominent figures in history were alive at the same time, and how old they were. 

Data Dollars: Amazon plans to spend $150 billion on data centers over the next 15 years to keep its cloud computing edge over Google and Microsoft, Bloomberg reported.