Sotheby’s is going broke

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Raghav Bikhchandani

Israel bombs Lebanon contd

The airstrikes on Lebanon have now killed more than 600 people—at least a quarter of them women and children. The Israeli chief of staff told troops on the border to prepare for a ground invasion. Meanwhile, desperate Lebanese civilians are fleeing to Syria (!!!) in droves.

Meanwhile, in New York: Joe Biden and French president Emannuel Macron announced they’re working on a 21-day ceasefire agreement—because it worked so well in Gaza. And yet, Washington is doing its best to block any Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire.” As the great Yogi Berra would say: It’s deja vu all over again. (The Guardian)

Meanwhile, in the West Bank: Israelis are outdoing Yogi Adityanath—using bulldozers to destroy everything in Jenin and Tulkarm. According to the governor of Jenin: “We watched their bulldozers tear up streets, demolish businesses, pharmacies, schools. They even bulldozed the town soccer field, and a tree in the middle of a road.”

This is Jenin getting the bulldozer treatment—from an Associated Press report:

Even roundabouts are not safe—as you can see below:

New York Times has a detailed ground report.

Sotheby’s is going broke

The legendary auction house is mired in debt—and running short of money—really short of money:

Now, amid signs cash is running low, it is pushing off payments to its art shippers and conservators by as much as six months. Several former and current employees said Sotheby’s this spring gave senior staffers IOUs instead of their incentive pay. And at a meeting this month of higher-ranking executives, some executives expressed worries about whether the company would be able to keep paying its employees on time.

Why is this happening? One reason is that the Chinese and crypto millionaires are no longer buying art by the cartload—due to the economic downturn. In the boom years, Sotheby’s was running up $1.8 billion in debt—without much comment. But that changed when the market slowed suddenly last year. The auction wing of the business went from a $3 million profit in the first half of 2023 to a loss of $115 million in the first half of 2024.

Another data point to note: “In 2022, the combined value of the top-10 art pieces sold at the bellwether May auctions was $760 million. Last year, it was $403 million. This year, the total was $312 million.” (Wall Street Journal, paywall, Quartz)

Are ‘suicide pods’ a crime?

The context: Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world that permits assisted suicide—but not euthanasia. So a person can take their own life—but health care workers cannot assist them in doing so. In 2019, Exit International unveiled something called a Sarco capsule that seemingly gets around this stipulation:

The "Sarco" capsule… is supposed to allow a person reclining inside to press a button, after which most of the oxygen in the sealed chamber is replaced with nitrogen… this triggers first mild disorientation and euphoria, then unconsciousness, and in a few minutes death by asphyxiation.

What happened now: The Sarco Pod was used for the first time earlier this week—and has now triggered a police investigation. The person was a 64-year-old woman from the US who “had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise.” But the police swooped in soon after—when they learned of the death from a newspaper article. The capsule is being treated as a crime scene—and the body has been taken for an autopsy.

What’s the problem? The pod may not be legal under Swiss law—according to one of the ministers:

“Firstly, it does not meet the requirements of product safety law and therefore cannot be placed on the market. Secondly, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the purpose article of the chemicals act,” [Swiss minister] Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said in a parliamentary session on Monday.

That’s a bit vague—but the wider debate over suicide pods is this:

Advocates say it provides an option not reliant on drugs or doctors, and that it expands access to euthanasia as the portable device can be 3D-printed and assembled at home… Critics fear the device's modern design glamorises suicide and the fact that it can be operated without medical oversight is concerning.

Associated Press has the most details.

Extra paisa for NYT podcasts

Get ready to pay up for New York Times’ podcasts—such as ‘The Daily’ and ‘Modern Love’. The media giant rolled out an audio subscription for $6 per month. But you can still listen to the latest episodes for free.

Expanding their subscriptions business, the New York Times announced audio subscriptions for its podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Starting in October, users will have to pay $50 to listen for the whole year. This is part of The Times move to monetise every bit of its content. But the good news: Times subscribers don’t have to pay separately for the audio content. (Axios)

Print is back! In the US, at least. The defunct Vice.com has staged a comeback in its original avatar—a print magazine. It will publish four issues a year—with the first edition slated for October. But this time around, you will have to pay for a subscription. The original Vice mag was free—and ran on ads. AdWeek has loads more.

People are becoming more myopic

A new study—the largest-of-its-kind—has found that more than one in three children are shortsighted. The number is set to rise from 36% at present to 40% or 740 million children by 2050. The highest rates are in Asia: 85% of children in Japan and 73% in South Korea and more than 40% affected in China and Russia. In comparison: Paraguay and Uganda had some of the lowest levels of myopia at 1%. The number for the UK, Ireland, and the US: 15%.

One likely reason for the spike in Asia—kids start school at a very young age—around two years old. Myopia is also higher among girls than boys since they tend to spend less time outdoors. (BBC News)

what caught our eye

business & tech

Textiles and packaged consumer goods account for around 90% of smuggled goods into India, according to a new study.
An update on the Sam Bankman-Fried case—his ex Caroline Ellison has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in the fraud. For more, check out our two-parter Big Story.
The US Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, claiming that the company has a debit network monopoly that affects the price of “nearly everything”.
In a first, OpenAI will provide access to its training data for review to catch any copyright violations.
An update on the global CrowdStrike outage in July—a senior executive of the company has apologised for the release of a faulty update that caused the outage. Check out our Big Story for more context.
Duolingo—the language app—now offers a physical keyboard for an online course in music.
Bloomberg News via BNN has a must-read on the world’s largest female-led startup—Canva—preparing to take on graphic design software giants Adobe via an upcoming IPO.

sports & entertainment

The UK’s official entry for the next Oscars is…Hindi film ‘Santosh’, directed by Sandhya Suri. We suspect their jury wasn’t too concerned whether their pick is ‘British’ enough.
The fallout of Diddy’s arrest continues—another victim has sued the rapper, claiming that she was drugged and raped by him and his bodyguard in 2001.
Meanwhile, Diddy is continuing to make bank on the music front—his work has seen a nearly 20% increase in streams since his arrest.
The fallout of the Hema Committee report on Kerala’s film industry continues—actor Edavela Babu has been arrested on rape charges. Check out our Big Story for more on Mollywood’s MeToo moment.
Didn’t get a Coldplay ticket? Catch them in Abu Dhabi instead, during tomorrow’s general sale—a 4-day UAE visa sets you back just under Rs 3,000.
India will face Bangladesh in a men’s Test match this weekend in Kanpur…where one of the stands has been deemed unsafe by local authorities.

as for the rest

Enough with the ‘casual’ remarks revealing communal and gender bias, the Supreme Court has said in reference to viral videos of a Karnataka High Court judge labelling parts of Bangalore as ‘Pakistan’.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah land scam woes are rising. The Karnataka High Court said the allegations “undoubtedly requires an investigation [since]... the beneficiary of all these acts is not anybody outside, but the wife of Mr. Siddaramaiah.” There’s now a separate Lokayukta probe as well.
A 31-year-old man—the prime suspect in the murder of a 26-year-old Bangalore woman whose body was found chopped up and stuffed in a fridge—has been found dead in Odisha with a suicide note confessing to the crime.
India ranks #2 in the list of top overworked countries in the world. Data to note: More than half of the workforce (51%) logs more than 49 hours weekly. Indian Express has the full list.
Scientists in the Philippines have created a new variety of rice that could help counter the rise of diabetes cases.
The threat of a strike by US east coast port workers—scheduled for October 1—has left shipping companies scrambling to prevent supply chains from grinding to a halt.
Kamala Harris has widened her lead over Donald Trump nationally with 47% to 40%, a new US presidential poll by Reuters/Ipsos has found.

Six things to see

One: Keir Starmer did a ‘Joe Biden’. What’s most astonishing: It was kinda funny—during a speech on Gaza. (The Guardian)

Two: Scientists have discovered a new kind of “ghost shark” off the New Zealand coast. Why this is cool and rare: These ‘spookfish’ live at a great depth of 2,600 metres—and sightings of younger sharks is rarer still. (Independent UK)

Three: Winners of the Bird Photographer of the Year contest are out. The overall winner: ‘When Worlds Collide’ by Patricia Homonylo—a heart-wrenching portrait of bird deaths caused by glass windows.

Far more fun and our fave: this goofy penguin captured by Nadia Haq—which won the Comedy category. See the winner’s gallery here. (The Atlantic)

Four: Glenlivet is going all out for its 200th anniversary celebration with its new Eternals Collection—which features a 55-year-old scotch. There are only 100 bottles—which come with their very own sculpture. The price: a whopping $55,000. (Quartz)

Five: We are super excited about ‘CTRL’—a cyber thriller from the director of ‘Sacred Games’ and ‘Trapped’—Vikramaditya Motwane. It stars Ananya Panday and Vihaan Samat. The movie is slated to release on October 4, only on Netflix. (The Hindu)

Six: Two animation studio giants—Pixar and Dreamworks—have teamed up for an ‘Inside Out’ spin off! This four-episode limited series is set in a time span between the two movies—and will show how Riley’s dreams are produced. The show drops on December 11 on Disney+ Hotstar. (Screenrant)