🐤 An 'A' for effort

🏦 Markets: All things considered, last week was a pretty good one on Wall Street. Interest rate hikes and banking industry fears weren’t enough to prompt a major stock sell-off, but the economy is clearly not on a firm foundation heading into the new week.

There’s not too much new data expected to drop over the next few days, but be on the lookout for Friday’s release of the core personal consumption expenditures price index. Some economists see this report as the most reliable way to gauge inflation.

💸 Bad deal: No matter what you think of Elon Musk, it’s clear that he’s had a tumultuous time at the helm of the social media platform Twitter. He acquired it last year for $44 billion, which analysts said at the time was significantly more than the property was worth. Since then, he’s implemented a series of controversial changes and, according to a leaked memo, the Tesla CEO now thinks the site is worth just $20 billion.

🇨🇳 New ties: China has been engaging in some provocative behavior that has adversaries around the world concerned. One prominent example is its increasing control over Taiwan, which is now only recognized as its own nation by 13 sovereign states. Most recently, Honduras cut off its ties with Taiwan in favor of establishing new relations with China, as commemorated in a meeting between the nation’s leaders in Beijing.

🫂 Thanks, Jonah: Losing lucrative business deals and watching his reputation fall apart apparently wasn’t enough to convince Ye to rethink his antisemitic rhetoric … but watching the 2012 film “21 Jump Street” did the trick. The disgraced rapper posted on Instagram that watching actor Jonah Hill perform in the movie “made [him] like Jewish people again,” adding: “No Christian can be labeled an antisemite knowing Jesus is a Jew.”

🌠 Lining up: Star-gazers around the world will have a pretty incredible view on Tuesday as five planets prepare to line up near the moon. Grab a pair of binoculars and look skyward shortly after sunset to witness Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars put on a unique and unforgettable show. The next time five planets will be in a row isn’t until June.

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When students make the transition from high school to college, it can often be a huge cultural shock. On top of fending for themselves without parents nearby, they’re expected to attend classes, complete assignments, and start off their college careers with good grades.

While some folks might say “yeah, that’s what college is,” a growing number of colleges think there’s a better alternative.

Trying to relieve the stress

The first year of college is largely filled with requisite classes that aren’t tied to a student’s selected major. For that reason, those with a firm grasp on standard subjects can sometimes breeze through their freshman year as others struggle to meet expectations.

What’s the solution? Well, some institutions — like the University of California at Santa Cruz — are weighing the benefits of “un-grading,” which just means eliminating A-through-F grades for freshmen.

Jody Greene, a special adviser at the university, is advocating for such a program, asserting that it is important to “break the mindset that if the student got an A it means they learned.”

Is it a good idea?

So far, the reception has been mixed. Greene and others say “un-grading” can be a useful tool to help struggling students succeed. In some cases, advocates even recommend extending the concept past freshman year.

On the other hand, opponents say it’s a symptom of a larger trend that de-emphasizes achievement in education.

According to Frederick Hess of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, eliminating grades sends the impression that “students are too fragile” to receive academic feedback, which bypasses “a pretty significant element of the purpose of higher education.”

Instead, Hess recommends offering tools designed to help students acclimate themselves to the new environment, adding: “Things like grades and clear assignments can be enormously useful handrails to help you make your way.”

Despite being one of the world’s smallest countries, Vanuatu is making a big scene at the United Nations.

According to reports, the island nation’s leaders are calling on the international body’s justice panel to consider whether larger countries that have contributed to the climate emergency should face punishment via The Hague.

Understanding the argument

The nonbinding assessment is not the first step in this direction. About four years ago, a movement began in a classroom at a law school in Fiji and has grown to involve a number of Pacific islands — but Vanuatu has been at the forefront of the effort.

Now, its advisory opinion is in the hands of the UN General Assembly and could go up for a vote by Wednesday. It already has more than 100 co-sponsors and could be cited in future court cases across the United States and elsewhere around the world.

Instead of naming specific countries, the resolution offers a series of questions that courts could use to determine whether any nations should face consequences for their record of pollution.

The remote islands that make up the country are especially susceptible to damage from increasingly powerful storms like the back-to-back cyclones that devastated much of its surface earlier this year.

Is anything really going to change?

It’s significant that a number of industrialized nations including Australia, the United Kingdom, and Norway have signed on to the resolution.

Furthermore, even though the measure isn’t binding, Environmental Law Institute’s Sandra Nichols Thiam said that if the UN approves the opinion, it would carry a lot of weight.

Since courts in the U.S. often use relevant international law in cases, she noted that such a decision “could be a really big deal.”

Whether the U.S. will join forces with Vanuatu, however, remains to be seen.

Consumers have long been accustomed to supplementing the income of service-industry employees — from restaurant servers and bartenders to hairstylists and landscapers — with a tip added to the cost of the purchase.

But in the post-pandemic era, the opportunity (or some would say obligation) to provide a gratuity has become far more common.

What caused the change

For starters, it’s easier than ever for businesses of all types to simply add an option to their point-of-sale computers that prompt customers to leave a percentage of the cost of any purchase as a tip. Some people are inclined to do so even if it’s not completely clear what the tip is for or who would actually receive it.

Additionally, we all came to respect and appreciate (for good reason) the cashiers, baristas, and others who literally risked their lives to go to work during the pandemic — and many consumers wanted to express that by adding a tip.

It’s become a hot-button issue

People used to see tip jars with some change and a few bucks in the bottom and not think twice to leave without adding anything to it. When declining a tip requires a tap on a screen at the cash register, however, it’s harder to ignore.

That’s where people have to make a choice. Some give in out of a sense of guilt and fork over a tip while others take a stance on the principle that certain jobs don’t require a gratuity.

Then there’s the matter of inflation, which has taken a bit out of tips across the board. Even though the percentage of quick-service restaurants like McDonald’s and Starbucks that include a tipping option has increased from 38% in 2020 to nearly 50% today, the average tip has dropped from 16.4% to 15.9% since last year.