🐤 "An incredible impact"

🏦 Markets: Another month is in the books and Wall Street wrapped up September with some mixed results yesterday.

The week ended with Dow Jones and S&P 500 losses after gains earlier in the day. The Nasdaq finished ahead for the day.

According to the latest inflation numbers, which were released on Friday, core personal consumption expenditures ticked up 0.1% between July and August for a 3.9% annual hike. That’s roughly where most analysts predicted it would be.

Overall, investors were cautious in their outlook — particularly as the nation moves closer to a government shutdown.

🚔 Tupac murder: Nearly three decades after West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down, authorities say they have finally arrested a suspect. Duane Keith Davis, identified as a former gang leader, reportedly confessed his involvement in the 1996 shooting on multiple occasions. A grand jury this week approved a criminal charge of murder, which is enhanced due to the crime’s gang-related aspect. Davis was arrested and held behind bars without bail.

🌳 Tree crimes: Authorities in England confirmed that a teen was arrested this week after a tree that has stood near the iconic Roman-era Hadrian’s Wall for almost two centuries was deliberately knocked down. The Sycamore Gap tree attracted international acclaim when it served as a backdrop in the 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” In 2016, it was named “English Tree of the Year.” A man in his 60s was also reportedly arrested on related charges.

📀 End of an era: For a quarter of a century, Netflix has been shipping out DVDs to members. And, even though demand for the service has steadily declined, those red envelopes kept moving as most of the company’s attention shifted toward its streaming content model. After announcing the impending end of the service earlier this year (and promising a bonus shipment of up to 10 discs to interested customers), the final deliveries went in the mail yesterday.

🫡 Honoring McCain: As D.C. becomes increasingly divided along partisan lines, President Joe Biden emphasized the importance of bipartisanship during a speech on Thursday. In his address, he confirmed the development of a library and adjoining community facility at Arizona State University that will honor John McCain, a U.S. senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee who died in 2018. Biden touted McCain’s sacrifices in pursuit of protecting democracy.

Over the course of the past 30+ years, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has been a fixture on Capitol Hill. This week, the 90-year-old lawmaker died, leaving behind a legacy of accomplishments and an open seat to be filled on an interim basis by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A champion for women

Dating back to the ‘70s, when it was far rarer to see prominent women in politics, Feinstein broke the mold by holding positions including the mayor of San Francisco. She made a name for herself by shattering glass ceilings and paving the way for many of the women who came after her.

Then, in 1992, she was elected to represent her state in the Senate and went on to become the chamber’s longest-serving woman.

Although her positions sometimes drew criticism from the left and right, members of both parties have praised her for the professionalism and leadership she brought to D.C.

The president reacts

President Joe Biden, who served alongside Feinstein in the Senate for about 15 years, weighed in on her legacy upon learning of her death on Friday.

From the “enormous poise and courage” she showed in the early days of her political career to the “powerful voice for American values” displayed in Congress, he said: “Dianne made her mark on everything from national security to the environment to protecting civil liberties.”

James Sauls, Feinstein’s chief of staff, also issued a statement, noting: “There are few women who can be called senator, chairman, mayor, wife, mom and grandmother. Senator Feinstein was a force of nature who made an incredible impact on our country and her home state.”

The senator had experienced declining health in recent months and was expected to retire at the end of her current term.

Even if you prefer authentic moo juice, you’ve probably at least encountered some products that claim to be milk but don’t come from a cow. Soy and nuts are among the most common examples … and the dairy industry has tried on multiple occasions to crack down on the potentially misleading use of the word “milk.”

The latest effort

For its part, the Food and Drug Administration has provided the not-so-appetizing phrase “lacteal secretions of cows” to serve as the basic definition for dairy beverages — aka milk. And it’s this definition that dairy industry leaders want lawmakers to use in developing new restrictions on when the word can be used on product labels.

But the FDA threw the industry a curveball earlier this year when it determined that plant-based beverages can use “milk” in their names, arguing that consumers are broadly aware that these products are different from dairy milk.

That only redoubled the effort from dairy advocacy groups to push for new legislation — specifically the DAIRY PRIDE Act, which is designed to prohibit “milk” from being used on any label for a non-dairy beverage.

Where things stand

Politicians in dairy-producing states have attempted to pass similar bills in the past, including in 2017 when the effort stalled. But National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jim Mulhern believes the time is right to try again.

He said the proposed bill “is needed more than ever,” adding that the FDA hasn’t done enough to address “the proven confusion among consumers created when plant-based beverages steal dairy terms to make their products appear healthier than they really are.”

Not everyone in the industry supports the legislation, though, and there’s plenty of uncertainty about whether it will find any more success this year as part of a legislative farm bill reauthorization.

There’s been a lot of scientific advancement within China in recent years, and that’s got several other countries playing defense in an effort to keep the communist nation from becoming the world’s leading force in shaping our high-tech future.

In pursuit of that goal, an alliance between the United States and India appears to be growing stronger.

What’s the strategy?

While the broad mission appears to be countering the increasing capabilities of China’s scientific community, there are some more incremental mileposts that the U.S. and India are currently passing on their road to that destination.

Here are a few of the ways both countries are working together toward a common goal:

• They announced a new joint biotech initiative at the recent G20 summit.
• They are collaborating through a network of universities in both nations.
• They have teamed up with Israel and the UAE on a new space program.

There’s plenty of common ground on which the U.S. and India can start building an even closer relationship. After all, more than 720,000 individuals born in India have moved to the U.S. since 2019 to work in the science or engineering field.

Then there’s the $150 million that the National Science Foundation has set aside to fund more than 200 projects with India in the past five years alone.

Facing the giant

Will this collaborative plan be enough to stop China’s seemingly inevitable path to global dominance? That remains to be seen … and there are some hurdles to clear if the strategy will ultimately succeed.

Most notably, China is still America’s top scientific partner. Sure, collaboration between the two countries has waned lately, but experts in the States say there’s no feasible way that India can completely take over that role — at least in the near future.