A Fast Fashion Lawsuit & Your Tongue Is Like A Snowflake
December 15, 2023
A Low-Price Lawsuit For The Ages
There’s a war going on outside between two retailers who might sell you a white elephant gift. One firm, Chinese-owned Temu (you’ve probably seen their ads at this point) has accused Singapore-based Shein of intimidating its Chinese manufacturers as part of a “mafia-style intimidation” campaign.
Temu alleges that Shein has tried to “illegally interfere” with its supply chain, going as far as confiscating its merchants’ cell phones during ongoing meetings to access confidential information. Shein “has resorted to even more desperate and coercive measures, including physical detention of merchants who dare to work with Temu, personal threats, and illegal seizures of merchants’ personal devices to obtain access to the merchants’ Temu accounts and Temu’s confidential information and trade secrets,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit goes on to say that Shein had threatened suppliers with products sold by both retailers, explaining that the company had an “ongoing program of summoning Temu’s suppliers on false pretenses to Shein’s offices, detaining those suppliers’ representatives in Shein’s office for up to 10 hours, seizing these Temu sellers’ phones, searching their phones for Temu sales, commercial, and other financial information without permission, demanding the sellers’ chat histories and log-in credentials for their Temu account, compelling them to sign documents against their will, and threatening them with extensive penalties and termination of their Shein contracts for selling on Temu.”
The legal battle appeared to be on pause since October, when both parties requested that their lawsuit be dismissed. Temu has resuscitated the case ahead of a planned ad campaign set for February. The company alleges that Shein has upped its aggression to cut off Temu’s exponential growth, which has taken off thanks to massive ad spends since the company’s founding in 2022. Honestly, we’ll be fine if they just take each other down.
Some Good News
- Coral reef: How divers are using antibiotics to save sick corals (BBC)
- Nations strike deal at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels (Reuters)
- No more drunk driving? US automakers forced to adopt life-saving tech by 2024 (Guardian)
- Vertex’s non-opioid drug reduces nerve pain in trial, shares hit record high (Reuters)
- FCC proposes to ban cable and satellite TV ‘junk fees’ (CNN)
This will be our last regular edition for the rest of the year (but keep your eyes peeled for a couple of special editions!). Have a happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year, and we’ll see you all bright and early in your inboxes on January 2!
LDP Is For “Losing Dat Popularity”
- Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) found itself embroiled in yet another scandal this year, following revelations that many of its members are in the pocket of the Unification Church (a cult) that broke earlier this year. Japanese prosecutors have recently begun investigating claims that a faction of the LDP has hidden over $3 million in funds raised over the past five years.
- Multiple ministers have stepped down from their positions, and sitting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is battling to keep the controversy from pulling his faction of the LDP into the mess. Last week, Kishida stepped down from leading his own faction to appear more neutral while resolving the controversy.
- His government is facing the lowest levels of support that an LDP regime has seen in a while — the party has been in power for decades, which was only interrupted by a short period of opposition rule that ended in 2012. His government’s approval rating is just 23% at this point, a low since the LDP’s return a decade ago. Luckily for the party, the next national election is slated for 2025, so it has some time to recover in the court of public opinion — or maybe it’ll sink even lower.
God’s In The Bible, Not The Machine
- Apparently, the pope doesn’t want to see a new god in town anytime soon. On Thursday, the 86-year-old head of the Catholic church called on world leaders to sign a “binding international treaty” on artificial intelligence in order to prevent the establishment of an AI-powered “technological dictatorship” that might threaten world peace. The pope is “no Luddite” according to one Cardinal, but has also been the victim of one AI-powered incident earlier this year, when people spread an AI-generated image of the pope wearing a dope puffer jacket and looking, quite frankly, fly as heck.
- “The unique human capacity for moral judgment and ethical decision-making is more than a complex collection of algorithms, and that capacity cannot be reduced to programming a machine, which as ‘intelligent’ as it may be, remains a machine,” wrote the pope. “Any number of urgent questions need to be asked. What will be the consequences, in the medium and long term, of these new digital technologies? And what impact will they have on individual lives and on societies, on international stability and peace?”
Additional World News
- Turkish MP dies after suffering heart attack in parliament (Reuters)
- Why the Indian Ocean could be China’s Achilles’ heel in a Taiwan war (Reuters)
- Top EU official lauds Italy-Albania migration deal but a court and a rights commissioner have doubts (ABC)
- Parliament security breach: 15 India opposition MPs suspended for protests (BBC)
- South Korea scrambles jets as China and Russia fly warplanes into its air defense zone (CBS)
Middle East Reads
- Jake Sullivan heads to Israel amid signs of Netanyahu rift (CNN)
- Discrimination investigations mount against schools in the US amid Israel-Hamas war (ABC)
- Scoop: U.S. delaying sale of M16 rifles to Israel over settler violence (Axios)
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
The Surveillance State Lives To See Another Day
- The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act yesterday with a 310 to 118 vote, with 73 Republicans and 45 Democrats opposing it (it passed the Senate on Wednesday in an 87-13 vote). Lawmakers have been negotiating the bill for months now, but ultimately, some of the more conservative provisions had to be left out.
- The bill did not block the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy, nor did it restrict gender-affirming healthcare. However, in a win for Republicans, hiring for DEI training is halted until a full report on the programming and costs is completed and reported to Congress. The bill also calls for a 5.2% boost in service member pay, the biggest increase in more than 20 years.
- Perhaps most interestingly, the bill also includes a short-term extension of a surveillance program, which lets the government monitor the communications of non-Americans without a warrant. The surveillance program has opponents on both sides of the aisle, who argue that loopholes in the law open the whole “the government can spy on Americans too” can of worms.
Charles McGone-igal
- Charles McGonigal, the former top counterintelligence official at the FBI’s New York office, was sentenced to more than four years in prison on Thursday. McGonigal admitted to helping Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch and close ally of Putin, gather dirt on a rival Russian oligarch, and concealed the source of the payments for that intelligence gathering.
- McGonigal was ordered to pay a $40,000 fine, forfeit $17,500, and serve three years of supervised release. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that McGonigal “violated the trust his country placed in him” and “jeopardized our national security.” McGonigal’s lawyers said the work for Deripaska to get another Russian oligarch sanctioned was “at least in part aligned with U.S. interests.”
Additional USA Reads
- Man charged with murder in death of Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll (NBC)
- 13-year-old charged after allegedly planning a mass shooting at an Ohio synagogue, according to court docs (CNN)
- Wisconsin University approves deal limiting diversity roles (BBC)
- Rudy Giuliani made it ‘dangerous’ for Georgia election workers, attorney says in closing arguments in defamation case (CNN)
- Ohio governor urged to use veto after anti-trans bill approved by legislature (Guardian)
- Trump is leading big in Iowa, but these GOP women are looking at someone else (CNN)
- Man starts fire at New York court hosting Trump trial, injuring 17 (Guardian)
A Taste Of Individuality
- According to a new study, a 3D scan of your tongue is more unique to you than your fingerprints. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, used AI computer models to examine thousands of scans of individual papillae — the tiny buds that cover our tongues — to learn more about one of the most complex organs in the human body.
- They found that a scan of a single papilla could predict an individual’s gender with 65%-75% accuracy — the computer was even able to distinguish between the 15 tongues used in the study with about 48% accuracy. “We were surprised to see how unique these micron-sized features are to each individual,” said the study’s senior author.
- The researchers hope to use their findings to learn more about how the unique distribution and shapes of our papillae affect how we experience taste and texture. One day, they hope to apply their findings to tailor food to individuals, allowing them to experience more flavors or enjoy eating healthier. “Imagine being able to design food customised to the conditions of specific people and vulnerable populations and thus ensure they can get proper nutrition whilst enjoying their food,” said the senior author.
Additional Reads
- It’s Only a Matter of Time Before a Tsunami Hits the Northwest. Why Is It Missing from FEMA’s Risk Analysis? (Politico)
- Prisoners are suing Alabama over forced labor, calling it a ‘form of slavery’ (NPR)
- Elon Musk spends $100m to open new university in Texas (Guardian)
- Early risers may have inherited faster body clock from Neanderthals (CNN)
- Thieves argued they should face lesser charge because their stolen goods were on sale (CBS)
- Australian woman charged with stealing van carrying 10,000 doughnuts (BBC)
- Perseverance rover uncovers intriguing new clues about water on Mars (CNN)