Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright. Note: It’s my 39th birthday today! It’s also the day my new book, fittingly called How To Turn 39 (https://books2read.com/htt39), goes on pre-sale (it officially launches in paperback, ebook, and audiobook form in a month, on May 16). This is a book about aging in general, not just for elder millennials like myself—so for folks who are older, younger, or around the same age and are thinking about what it means to get older and how we might do it better. If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider pre-ordering yourself a copy (and thanks in advance if you do). Colombia’s capital starts rationing water after reservoirs hit historically low levels Summary: Last week, for the first time in four decades, the government of Bogotá, the capitol of Colombia, started rationing water due to historically low reservoir levels caused by an ongoing regional drought. Context: The city implemented water rationing in 1997, but that was due to a technical failure in the city’s water system—the last time it suffered a drought that led to rationing was 1984; these new rationing rules are fairly lightweight at this point, requiring that neighborhoods reduce their water use for 24-hour periods three times per month, and officials will review the impacts of these measures every 15 days to determine when and whether they should be increased or halted. —The Associated Press One Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. US drug shortages reach record high with 323 meds now in short supply Summary: New data collected by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists indicate that there are 323 ongoing shortages of drugs in the US right now, including chemotherapy drugs, Adderall, and emergency crash cart injectables used at hospitals. Context: This surpasses the previous widest-spanning drug shortage in the country, back in 2014 when 320 drugs were in short supply, and the primary cause, of multiple causes, is money-related, many generic drugs earning their producers little or no profit, and the razor-thin margins on these products disincentivizing competitors from stepping in to fill the gap. —Ars Technica Tesla to lay off more than 10% of workforce, Musk tells staff in email Summary: After reporting its first year-over-year decline in quarterly deliveries since 2020, Tesla owner Elon Musk told Tesla’s staff, in an email, that the company needs to reduce costs and will thus be laying off more than 10% of employees. Context: That decline in deliveries was only one bad piece of news for Tesla in recent years, as the company has been struggling to keep up with heightened competition in the West, and incredibly aggressive and government-backed EV makers in China, which have been moving quickly to export their ever-higher-quality, ever-lower-price offerings internationally; Musk says that the company’s rapid expansion has also led to a duplication of roles and responsibilities across Tesla’s more than 140,000-strong global workforce, and this wave of layoffs aims to reduce those growth-related redundancies. —The Wall Street Journal The counterattack by Iran against Israel, following the latter’s attack on the former’s embassy in Syria, was dramatic and pulled in a collection of international players, including launches of missiles and drones from Yemen and Syria, and interception support from the US and Jordan. —The Wall Street Journal 20 Number of times a Falcon 9 rocket first stage has been used, setting a new record for SpaceX (and the space launch industry, in general) which has been reducing the cost of space launches, in part, by recapturing, refurbishing, and reusing rocket components. —Space.com Trust Click Get full access to One Sentence News at onesentencenews.substack.com/subscribe