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👋 Hi friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
Image of the week, above:
🥧 Once again, for Thanksgiving, I made my Aunt Cece’s world-famous pecan pie.
And once again, it did not disappoint.
My WSJ latest:
🐦 I had two stories out last week, both about Twitter.
The first, with my colleague Selina Cheng, on Wednesday: Twitter Becomes Stage for China Protests Despite Ban by Beijing.
The lede:
Twitter is banned in China, but it is proving a critical platform for getting videos and images of protests occurring across the nation out to the rest of the world.
One Twitter user we profiled, who goes by Li Laoshi, or Teacher Li, had about 760,000 followers at that point, more than three times the number before the demonstrations began. The count has now surpassed 818,000.
And the second story, a spot news piece out Friday with my colleague Sarah Needleman: Kanye West Suspended From Twitter After Swastika Tweet. It began:
Twitter Inc. again suspended Kanye West’s account after the musician and designer posted a swastika in a tweet that the social-media platform’s owner, Elon Musk, said violated its rules.
Here are 10 items worth your time this week:
1) ⚽ The U.S. lost to the Netherlands 3–1 in the World Cup round of 16. Yes, we made it out of a tough group and were beaten by a much stronger team with more seasoned players and a more storied footballing history. But some avoidable defensive mistakes cost us the game. Still, with World Cup 2026 in the U.S., Canada and Mexico – and one of the youngest teams at this year’s competition – I’m optimistic about our future.
2) 🧤 One bright spot for U.S. Men’s National Team fans, and goalkeepers everywhere: Matt Turner. He walked on at Fairfield University and once gave up a goal so bad it went viral, but has since made it to MLS and the Premier League. He had a great tournament.
3) 🎧 For an entertaining summation of the U.S. performance and thoughts on where the team goes from here, check out this Men in Blazers podcast episode.
4) ⭐ Elsewhere: The Financial Times’s 25 most influential women of 2022.
5) ☀️ How solar engineering could help mitigate climate change.
6) 🐢 Happy birthday to Jonathan, the world’s oldest tortoise, who just turned 190.
7) 💡 Why are streetlights in the U.S., Canada and Ireland turning purple?
8) 🔉 Here’s a collection of obsolete sounds.
9) 🍎 The tastiest apples, ranked.
10) 🐻 And now for something completely bizarre: “Cocaine Bear” is a real movie. Here is the trailer.
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🦴 Dog-related video of the week:
“Thanksgiving at Michigan Animal Rescue League 💙”
•••
💡 Quote of the week:
“No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.” – Daniel Kahneman
👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,
Newley