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Did We Lose the Trade?
Russians ate our lunch here.
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World News
One More Trade Past the Deadline
U.S. and Russia Prisoner Swap
There might be a deadline to get trades done in sports (Major League Baseball’s deadline just passed last week), but not when it comes to countries exchanging prisoners. The U.S. performed a prisoner swap with Russia and other Western Nations last week.
Returning to the U.S. was Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was sentenced to 16 years in jail for espionage in July, and Paul Whelan, a former Marine who had spent six years in Russian prisons.
Gershkovich was the first American journalist to be arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War. However, his employer, the U.S. Government, and many supporters, called the trail a sham.
Whelan, meanwhile, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 and had been imprisoned since. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges, as well. Whelan, and the U.S. government, vehemently denied those claims, as he said he was in the country for a friend’s wedding (sounds like a costly trip).
Meanwhile, in order to get those two released, Vadim Krasikov was released from a German prison. Krasikov, a former high-ranking CSB Colonel, was at the top of Russia’s wishlist for a prisoner swap. He was serving a life sentence (a la former basketball coach Jimmy Valvano’s book: They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract and Then They Declared Me Dead).
Krasikov was found guilty of the execution-style murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who was fighting against Russia at the time. Russia had previously asked for his release in the famed prisoner swap that involved WNBA player Brittney Griner in 2022. When the U.S. couldn’t get the job done at the time, Russia refused to release Whelan… until now.
Also released from American prisons were: Vadim Konoshchenok, who was imprisoned on conspiracy charges, following a money laundering scheme in New York on behalf of the Russian government. Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian businessman who was sentenced to nine years in a Boston prison last year, following an “elaborate hack-to-trade scheme that netted approximately $93 million through securities trades based on confidential corporate information stolen from U.S. computer networks.” And Roman Seleznev, a convicted hacker and credit card fraudster, who was serving a 27-year sentence. Russia asked for his release in the 2022 Griner exchange, as well, but to no avail at the time.
There were also five German prisoners and seven Russia opposition figures released from various jails throughout the world, too. All-in-all, 24 prisoners, from a handful of countries, were released - it’s what they would call a blockbuster trade in the sports world.
Speaking of which, when asked about this, Griner said “It’s a great day. I am head over heels happy for the families right now… Like this is a big win, a huge win.” Not everyone may agree though.
More Stuff
Finance
Market Takes a Dip
The stock market took another dip to close out last week, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 610 points (1.5%). The S&P 500 sank 1.8% for its first back-to-back losses of at least 1% since April. And the Nasdaq composite fell 2.4%.
So, what gives? Well, there are still plenty of concerns that the U.S. economy could be in trouble, in part because of the high interest rates that remain. Furthermore, the new month meant new data… which wasn’t the best. One report showed that hiring slowed last month by much more than expected.
As we covered in the last newsletter, Fed Chair Jerome Powell still isn’t ready to cut the two-decade high interest rates. However, there’s now the worry that he may have already waited too long…
“The Fed is seizing defeat from the jaws of victory,” Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, explained. “Economic momentum has slowed so much that a rate cut in September will be too little and too late. They’ll have to do something bigger… to avert a recession.”
This also comes on the heels of underwhelming profit reports from many technology companies last week (such as Amazon, who fell 8.8%).
Water Cooler Talk
Partnership
A Word From Purple Carrot
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This summer, they’re sweetening the deal with five new fun and tasty meal options.
Tech
A.I., It’s a Race to the Top
You know what they say: if you can’t beat them, buy them. Or hire them.
That might be what is occurring in the AI world, as Google hired the co-founders of AI startup Character.AI, and some of its research team too. This continues the trend of big companies absorbing startups to come in and help them with their AI efforts.
Microsoft already did this in March, when it hired most of the workforce from AI startup Inflection, including its CEO. Amazon did a similar thing in June with the AI startup Adept.
As they also say: once is an outlier, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a trend. And this might not be the best one for AI startups, as the three big companies attempt to keep a stranglehold on the AI market. Big Tech is seemingly trying to swallow up the AI industry.
55 years later, it feels like a more modern space race. Except this one is between the same country and some of its companies, like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Google is hiring 30 of the Character.AI employees, while leaving 140 behind. Investors in Character.AI are being paid for the value of their equity by Google at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
In other news:
Sports
Simon Kept Receipts
Simon Biles became the most decorated Olympic gymnast of all-time, and then took a victory lap on a former teammate.
Following her record-setting eighth medal, Biles posted a photo of her and her teammates with the caption “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.” This was, of course, a tongue in cheek swipe at MyKayla Skinner, a former teammate, who was critical of this olympic team. Skinner, who won silver in the vault at the 2020 Olympics, had posted a now-deleted YouTube video in July, where she said, “besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be… I just notice, like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have work ethic.”
Skinner later took down the video and apologized on social media, saying it wasn’t her intention to “offend or disrespect any of the athletes or take away from their hard work.”
The victory lap continued on social media for Biles and her current teammates, prompting a later tweet from the star, in which she said “oop I’ve been blocked,” - apparently referring to Skinner blocking her on social media.
Biles would later add another gold medal to hold both records for most medals overall (nine) and most golds (6) for a gymnast.
Sportsmanship on Full Display
So many viewers fall for the emotions of the Olympics and the spirit of the competition, which was on full display Friday during the first day of track and field.
Laotian sprinter Silinia Pha Aphay and Lucia Morris of South Sudan were in the running lanes next to each other for the women’s 100-meter… at least to begin.
As Pha Aphay crossed the finish line, she noticed that Morris wasn’t alongside her, nor trailing right behind. That’s because Morris had fallen down, apparently injuring her right leg, and was yelling in pain. Pha Aphay ran back to check on her and called for the medics, who eventually had to carry Morris off on a stretcher.
“We are all athletes,” Pha Aphay said afterwards, according to the New York Post. “We are 100 meters - the same. All 100 meters athletes have to know how being hurt feels. And this is a big competition. It’s a big dream to come here. But you get hurt here. So, everybody knows the feeling.”
Though not everyone would run over to check on her. Only Pha Aphay did. Sadly, it must be a tough pill for Morris to swallow, after working so hard to get to the Olympics in the first place.
American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson won the first round to move on to the semi-finals, which was also a nice story- as Richardson was banned from competing in the last Olympics.”
What Else to Know
