24 olympics on fire, crisis in south africa

the weekly rundown

we hit up four parties last weekend, and we realized how much we missed...well, actual human interaction. let's not kid ourselves folks - before COVID, we just made excuses to stay home, but now we're all social butterflies. who knew it would just take a global pandemic to get us out of our cocoons? if you got another hot party invite, email us!

big idea: the olympics are...happening...

1. the 2020 olympics started this week - we won’t harp on the fact that it is 2021. we wouldn’t blame you if you thought these olympics would never happen after they were delayed by a year (costing nearly $3 billion), the chair of the organizing committee was forced to resign after making sexist remarks, tokyo being in the midst of a COVID lockdown resulting in no spectators at events, and 55% of the japanese public wishing the games just wouldn’t happen. now, we don’t really believe in omens, but none of that can be good luck.
2. closer to home, Comcast-owned NBC is still hoping people tune in to watch everything. they spent more than $1.1 billion on the rights to exclusively broadcast all the events in the US on its networks and its streaming platforms, NBC Olympics and Peacock.
3. Peacock’s launch last summer was supposed to coincide with the tokyo 2020 games, which obviously didn’t happen. NBC is betting big that the postponed games will still generate subscriptions and interest in its service, which with fewer than 10 million paying subscribers, is running far behind rivals like Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max.

story to watch: crisis in south africa

1. reader S.K. reached out and asked us to explain the turmoil in south africa, where earlier this month former president Jacob Zuma was imprisoned and as a result riots broke out, costing over 300 lives and $1 billion in damages. Zuma resigned in 2018 amid corruption allegations, and he was imprisoned for not cooperating with that investigation. this whole episode is seen as a test of the rule of law in south africa, which became a democracy less than 30 years ago.
2. it is clear that Zuma is guilty of corruption, but he still controls parts of the state security apparatus, which makes quelling this violence all the more difficult. police largely refused to stop the rioting, prompting the government to send in 25,000 troops, the largest deployment since the end of apartheid. while the rioting stopped in recent days, the economic damage is immense, with one province’s entire supply chain essentially destroyed.
3. it is also clear that Zuma instigated the riots as a message to the government, in hopes they would end his prosecution. that’s not to say that south africans don’t have reason to be upset - unemployment among young people is 75% and the country is in the midst of a third COVID lockdown. unfortunately though, we should probably expect more violence as Zuma’s trial resumes next month and a conviction seems inevitable. whether the government can maintain rule of law by both imprisoning Zuma and maintaining order on the streets is the billion dollar question.

this week’s image: peace for eid

• (BBC) a girl in nigeria celebrates eid-ul-adha on tuesday. if only we had her flair...

this week’s number: food’s real cost is 3x the price tag

1. a study released this week found that for every $1 an american spends on food, they incur an additional $2 in societal costs, which means the “true cost” of food is three times what you’d expect. poor nutrition leads to about an additional dollar of healthcare spending, and destructive agricultural practices lead to about another dollar worth of environmental damage. we knew we’d regret that late night Taco Bell run eventually...
2. it should come as no surprise that these costs are unequally shared. black americans are exposed to air pollution 41% more than whites, and are 1.7x more likely to have diabetes. we hope this report will encourage policymakers to consider the real cost of food when revamping programs like food stamps and farm subsidies.

what we’re making: smashburgers

1. it’s summer and some of us got some fresh meat this week - which can only mean burgers! with help from our friends over at Serious Eats, we made ultra-thin, crispy smashburgers with homemade shack sauce on pillowy-soft Martin’s potato rolls with some baby spinach and sliced pickles.
2. this is the perfect burger for those monsters people in your family who prefer their meat well-done, and can be made outdoors on a grill or indoors in your favorite skillet

and, in case you missed it:

• following up from a story in issue 22, OPEC+ agreed to increase oil production with the UAE getting a bigger share of the pie than it otherwise would’ve
• Ben & Jerry’s will stop selling ice cream in illegal israeli settlements in occupied palestine
• vaccinated americans will be able to travel to canada starting august ninth, a privilege which won’t be immediately reciprocated for vaccinated canadians, more evidence that canada is thirsty as heck

the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal (@faisalc93), and Ahmed (@ahmedhcheema). learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!