readers, we’re just going to say this once: it’s halloween tonight, so gird yourselves accordingly. go buy up all the eggs and toilet paper you can get your hands onto - not because there’s a COVID shortage, but so those neighborhood youths can’t attack you again. don’t say we didn’t try to save you...

big idea: Joe flees for italy while dems fail to do anything (again)

1. for the second time this month, dems failed to pass massive infrastructure or climate bills. again, bickering between the progressive and moderate ends of the party prevented any work from getting done. 
2. Joe unveiled a $1.75 trillion climate bill earlier this week, which conservative dems in the senate (namely Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) refused to back publicly, despite them negotiating on the package for months. because of that, house progressives refused to vote on another $1 trillion infrastructure bill, fearing that if they vote for the infrastructure bill, the climate policy bill will never actually pass.
3. Joe could’ve forced everyone’s hand by publicly backing both bills and telling house dems to fall in line, but he didn’t...and left the US for the G-20 summit after everything fell apart. there’s still time before the end of the year for dems to pull it together, and the odds for success are much higher now that the outline of a climate policy bill has been announced. however, the devil (and Sinema) are in the details, so there’s a very real possibility dems will be running in the midterms next year with no accomplishments to point to.

story to watch: college enrollment is in the dumps

1. for the second year running, college enrollment declined substantially. since 2019 undergraduate enrollment has dropped by 6.5%, with this year’s drop being nearly identical in scale to last year’s. colleges are surprised, to say the least - they figured the recovery from COVID would boost enrollment, not dent it further. 
2. the drop is almost exclusively felt by community colleges and smaller four year universities at the lower end of the market. of note, enrollment among black students fell the most dramatically, at 5.1% this year alone.
3. so, what’s happening? basically the job market is so hot right now that high school students and older professionals who are switching careers don’t think they need a degree to get a job - and they’re right, at least in the short-term. the problem will come in the long-term, after the next recession, or when automation or outsourcing takes out a few more million jobs. these poorly trained workers won’t have many career options at that point, and will either have to settle for a lifetime of low paying jobs, or go back to college later in life.

this week’s image: silence of the lambs

Image caption

• (The Atlantic) shepherds drive thousands of lambs through the streets of madrid, part of an agreement for free passage through the city dating back to 1418. baa-utiful.

this week’s number: 32% of TV casts were majority-minority last year

1. UCLA released an annual report on the state of diversity in hollywood, and found that 32% of TV casts were majority-minority, an all-time high. perhaps more importantly, it also found that these diverse shows had the highest engagement on social media compared to more white or male centric shows.
2. of course, there are major areas of improvement for hollywood - latinos and indigenous peoples are drastically underrepresented, and the report shed little light on the anti-arab and islamophobic storylines often featured on TV. however, hopefully it does put to bed the notion that shows can’t be financially successful if they’re not about white girls living it up in new york city.

what we’re watching: “Dune”

1. after reading the novel last week, we watched the movie “Dune” this week, and came away...pleasantly surprised. science fiction novels are tricky to adapt, and “Dune” is the heaviest lift of them all. we still think this would’ve been better off being a season or two of TV instead of a two part movie, but the movie does a great job of transporting the audience to a different world.
2. Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, and Stellan Skarsgård steal the film with vivid and memorable performances, and director Denis Villeneuve (who also created “Arrival”) knew just what bits of the book to gloss over. its sequel has already been announced for 2023, so here’s to hoping the world survives till then.

and, in case you missed it:

• James Michael Tyler, the actor who played Gunther in F.R.I.E.N.D.S., passed away from prostate cancer
• Merck has agreed to cheaply sell its antiviral COVID pill to poor countries, unlike Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines
• in british columbia, police found a car splattered with blood and with a sign asking for help. the mounties realized it was just an all-too-realistic halloween decoration, and the canadian owner of course immediately apologized repeatedly.

the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal, and Ahmed. learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!