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Business

Tesla 🤝 China

But sales are dropping.

As Tesla’s sales continue to drop, they have expanded their market to include another country: China. 

It has been reported that Tesla’s Model Y has been added to China’s government procurement list, which now allows Chinese government workers to choose a Tesla vehicle for official use. Tesla is the sole foreign-owned electric vehicle company to be featured on the list, which is a huge feather in the cap for Tesla and owner Elon Musk.

With tensions always high between China and America, it could seem like an interesting move by Tesla and Musk, further aligning themselves with the country. Tesla opened its factory in Shanghai, their first outside of the United States, in 2019. This will now ensure that all the self-driving data that Tesla will collect from its Chinese customers will remain within the country, which adheres to local data privacy laws. 

Tesla also recently navigated regulatory challenges, as they secured a deal with Chinese authorities to introduce its latest self-driving features. They also collaborated with Baidu (a Chinese web services company) for access to high-resolution maps.

All of this news comes on the heels of Tesla’s sales dropping for the second straight quarter, despite price cuts. Their sales from April through June were down 5%, compared to the same time period a year ago. This was also the first time in company history that sales declined from the previous year for two quarters in a row. Additionally, Tesla’s shipment figures from its aforementioned Shanghai factory are down 24% year-over-year. 

Nevertheless, the deal with China is a big development for the Texas-based company. 

Politics/Election

What You Need to Know

There will be continued drama every day until the Election, in this tug-of-war battle between the two sides. 

In the aftermath of the first debate, President Biden’s side is trying to play damage control. Biden has been making the interview rounds since, both to explain that performance, but also to show how it truly was an outlier. To show how sharp he remains.

One of those interviews was on a Philadelphia radio station with host Andrea Lawful-Sanders. Lawful-Sanders later appeared on CNN to discuss the interview, where she was asked if the White House had provided the questions. CNN noticed that the questions asked to Biden were similar throughout his radio tour. When asked, Lawful-Sanders admitted that she was given predetermined questions by Biden’s campaign, which was a condition of the interview. Wisconsin radio host, Earl Ingram, who also interviewed Biden, shared the same information.

This shone the wrong kind of light Biden’s campaign was aiming for, in their attempt to show how mentally sharp the President still is. Additionally, Lawful-Sanders was then fired by the radio station, following her admission.

“WURD Radio is not a mouthpiece for the Biden, or any other, Administration,” said Sara M. Lomax, president and CEO of WURD Radio. 

This is not only a huge blunder in politics, but just media in general (to accept certain questions as a condition to an interview). “This is something we take very seriously. Agreeing to a predetermined set of questions jeopardizes that trust and is not a practice that [we] engage in or endorse,” Lomax continued.

There was also a bit of a strange interview Biden did with ABC News that aired on Friday, which CNN’s David Axelrod just simply called “sad.”

Biden blamed his debate performance on just having “a bad night.” And also said only “Lord Almighty” could tell him to step down from this race.  

World News

I Thought They Had A King

UK Elections Important for Global Stage

The United States isn’t the only country in the midst of an important election. UK’s general election just concluded and a big change seems to be on its way. 

Britain’s Labour Party won the most recent election in a landslide, which means Sir Keir Starmer’s centre-left party will return to power after 14 years of right-wing government under the Conservatives. That included five different leaders over those 14 years. This was the first general election won by Labour since 2005.

On the flip side, this was the worst result in the polls for Conservatives in decades. Which, ironically, follows Labour’s worst defeat in over 80 years in the last general election, which was back in 2019.

The UK runs a Parliament system with 650 members, all representing different areas of the country. Of those 650: Labour won 410 seats, the Conservatives won 131, the Liberal Democrats won 61 and Reform won 13. That now gives Labour a huge 170-seat majority, while the Conservatives lost nearly ⅔ of the 372 seats it was defending.

Britain’s third party, the Liberal Democrats, also enjoyed a bump, improving from 11 seats won in 2019 to 61 this year - its most ever. The tide has seemed to turn in the UK.

Starmer, who only first entered the Parliament in 2015, became the new UK Prime Minister on Friday, following a meeting with the King at Buckingham Palace.

Russia & Ukraine Are Still At War

As the war continues on in Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia today and tomorrow. This is the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit, but the first visit to Russia for Modi since their invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In fact, this is his first visit since 2019, as the two are meeting for the first time since 2022. However, overall, Modi has met with Putin 16 times over the past decade.

Despite tested relations between Russia and New Dehli, due to the war in Ukraine, India has continued to ramp up its purchase of Russian oil, which provides a huge benefit for the country during the war. 

In September of 2022, Putin told Modi at a regional summit that he understood Modi’s concerns (about the war) and Modi said he wanted the conflict to “end as soon as possible.”

In the meantime, India has urged its citizens to “stay away from this conflict.”

Business

Rollercoaster Day for Six Flags

8 Billion Dollar Merger

Former amusement park enemies have now become friends. In the words of Six Flag’s own catchphrase: FUN!

Cedar Fair and Six Flags announced their $8 billion merger last week, forming the largest amusement park operator in the country. The combined company will now be operated under the name “Six Flags Entertainment Corporation,” as Cedar Fair will control 51%, while Six Flags owns 49%. Together, they will operate 42 amusement and water parks across 17 states. There are also parks in Canada and Mexico.

For huge amusement park fans, this seems to be considered a real fork in the road: will this deal be successful and improve the amusement parks? Or, will prices increase and are (some of) these parks on their last legs. 

These two are partnering up with the hopes that they can compete against Disney and Universal, which are more global parks and destinations, as opposed to the more regional Six Flags. Six Flags stock had dropped 40% over the last five years. Following a near 25% increase in ticket prices in 2022 ($28.73 to $35.99), attendance dropped by 26%. However, following news of the merger, Six Flags stock jumped up 30% in June. 

It’s much like Terminator 2, where Terminator teams up with Sarah Connors for the greater good. Former enemies becoming partners in an attempt to save (the rollercoaster) day!

Sports

Another Dream Team

The summer olympics are only 18 days away! And with that, the men’s basketball team began practice for the first time this past Saturday in Las Vegas. 

Team USA has won the gold medal in four consecutive games, but this version of the team is being compared to the 1992 Dream Team, by some. Head coach Steve Kerr predicted that all 12 players on the roster will eventually be Hall of Famers. “They’re all Hall of Famers,” Kerr said.

To compare to the ‘92 team, which the Naismith Hall of Fame calls “the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet”, not every player was a Hall of Famer. The team was put in the Hall of Fame, so were three coaches, but only 11 of the players. Christian Laettner, who had a great college career, is the lone outlier. Many (still) wonder why the 22 year old was even on the roster to begin with. But he was coming off one of the greatest college careers of all-time and many believed it would translate to the pros. That it would be an easy transition for him. It wasn’t.

Laettner was taken over someone like Shaquille O’Neal, or Alonzo Mourning, just to name a couple of the runners-up. So in comparing (potential) HOFers on the teams, we’re sort of splitting hairs. The Dream Team could have had 12 Hall of Famers too, but took a shot on a young kid out of college. 

This version of Team USA features Steph Curry (regarded as the greatest shooter of all-time), LeBron James (NBA’s all-time leading scorer), Kevin Durant (USA Basketball’s all-time leading scorer), 11 current All-Stars, two members of the most recent NBA champions (Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum) and a plethora of former champions and gold medalists. 

Despite Kerr’s praise to the media, he did attempt to humble the team in meetings. The American team did finish fourth in the World Cup last year, though only two players from that team are on this one. Additionally, basketball competition around the world has become much better now, compared to the Dream Team’s run 32 years ago. In fact, this is expected to be the most competitive field yet. 

For LeBron, this will be his first (and last?) Olympics since 2012. And while practicing in Las Vegas, he missed his son Bronny’s lackluster debut in the NBA Summer League.  

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