Warren Buffett-backed BYD all-electric automobile gross sales under pre-pandemic

BYD’s Han electric car, pictured here at the 2021 Shanghai auto show, is one of the most popular new energy vehicles in China.

Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

BEIJING — Chinese automaker BYD sold fewer all-electric passenger cars in the first six months of this year than the same period in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

The company, backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, said Monday it sold 20,016 all-electric passenger cars in June for a total of 93,440 units in the first half of the year — double the year-ago figure.

But that growth still fell short of sales of 95,779 all-electric passenger cars in the first six months of 2019.

In June, BYD also sold 84 more hybrid-powered passenger cars than all-electric ones. That contrasted with a recent trend of BYD’s all-electric cars outselling hybrid ones.

Passenger car sales in China likely fell 14.9% in June from a year ago, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Monday. Vehicle sales overall likely fell to 1.93 million units in June, a decline of 16.3% year-on-year and down 9.5% from the prior month, the association said.

The figures indicate China’s vehicle sales still rose over the last two years.

Based on the association’s estimate, data from Wind shows China would have sold 12.8 million vehicles in the first half of 2021. That’s up 24.8% from a year ago and above the 12.3 million units sold in the same period in 2019.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

Singapore’s minister on the Covid-19 vaccination program, opening the border

SINGAPORE – Singapore aims to immunize 75% of its population by early October to gradually relax border restrictions as the coronavirus becomes endemic over time, trade minister Gan Kim Yong told CNBC on Tuesday.

“Covid-19 is likely to be endemic in the future. That is why vaccination is so important. Because the transmission will continue and you will be confronted with a new variant from time to time when the virus mutates, “Gan told the” Squawk Box “from CNBC Asia.”

He said the goal is to vaccinate at least two-thirds of the country by August 9, when Singapore celebrates its national day, which marks the country’s independence after separating from Malaysia in 1965.

Data from the scientific publication Our World In Data showed that by July 3, nearly 37% of Singapore’s 5.6 million residents were fully vaccinated. This is a significantly higher percentage compared to more populous neighbors like Malaysia and Indonesia, who each vaccinated nearly 8% fully. and 5% of their population.

Vaccines can help limit transmission to some extent and reduce the severity of the disease, the minister said. This ensures that Singapore’s hospitals and medical facilities are not overwhelmed and would allow the country to “continue to live with Covid-19”.

Singapore’s national vaccination program runs vaccinations from Pfizer and Moderna, but some private clinics have been allowed to administer Sinovac for those who prefer the Chinese-made vaccine.

Travel corridors and reopening of borders

Vaccination rate will be an important marker in easing border restrictions to allow non-resident travelers to enter Singapore, Gan said.

“We hope that by the end of September or beginning of October we can cover 75% or more (of the population). Then we can open up our borders more to allow more.” Visitors to Singapore come both for business and pleasure, “added Gan.

Discussions about the establishment of travel corridors with Hong Kong and Australia have not yet produced any concrete results this year.

A bubble agreement would have enabled people from Hong Kong or Australia to travel to Singapore and vice versa without quarantine.

“We decided not to call it a travel bubble because it tends to burst,” said Gan. “We will continue to do our best to discuss with our partners and the discussion is moving forward.”

Singapore and its partners need to be prepared for potential travel corridors by making sure infection rates stay low and vaccination rates high, Gan said.

The city-state plans to conduct studies that will allow vaccinated travel between Singapore and several other destinations, he added. First, it will be done in small groups to test the process, and if those efforts are successful, it will be expanded to let more travelers into the country, Gan said.

“This will be very important for us to do it safely, build trust and allow us to refine our actions and process to ensure we can continue to protect Singapore and our visitors,” he added .

Loosen restrictions further

Singapore tightened restrictions in May as locally transmitted cases spiked and the highly contagious Delta variant was discovered in the city-state. These strict measures included a ban on eating in restaurants and grocery stores and restricting public social gatherings to two people.

Some of those measures have since been relaxed as cases are now under control and only a handful of unrelated infections are reported in the community each week.

We always believe that we have to find a very careful balance between protecting life on the one hand and preserving livelihoods on the other.

Gan Kim Yong

Minister for Trade and Industry

“We have to be careful and take a cautious approach as we open up our economy and our community,” said Gan, the former health minister and still co-chair of Singapore’s Covid-19 task force.

“This is to ensure that we can continue to keep public health under control and ensure the safety of Singaporeans,” he said, adding, “We always believe that we can strike a very careful balance between protecting life and protecting ourselves Life “must find a livelihood on the other side.”

If things keep moving steadily forward, Gan said Singapore will allow in-person dining for up to five people from July 12th. Currently, only groups of two people are allowed to dine together outside of homes.

The US Supreme Courtroom Simply Licensed Extra Voter Suppression

The United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) dealt several blows to the Voting Rights Act last week.

In a majority conservative 6-3 ruling, SCOTUS upheld two Arizona restrictions.

The first prohibits individuals other than close family members or caregivers from collecting mail-in ballots.

The second requires elections officials to reject votes from people who report to incorrect precincts even if they are registered voters in their states.

One of the few dissenting voices, Justice Elena Kagan, stated:

“What is tragic here is that the Court has yet again rewritten—in order to weaken—a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness, and protects against its basest impulses. What is tragic is that the court has damaged a statute designed to bring about ‘the end of discrimination in voting.’”

This transcends Arizona.

At a time when republican-majority legislatures all over the country are passing scores of draconian voter suppression laws in the run up to next year’s mid-term elections, the SCOTUS decision will inflict far-reaching damage on every future election coast to coast.

The court’s conservative majority also rejected a California law requiring charities to privately disclose their top donors to the state attorney general, a move that will undoubtedly expand the corruption “dark money” already plays in political campaigns.

People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, Ben Jealous, recently proclaimed in an interview with Democracy Now!:

“They are hijacking our democracy from the top to aid and abet these Republican governors who have sought to hijack it from the bottom.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat from Rhode Island, tweeted:

The Court That Dark Money Built just built dark money a home in our Constitution. A dark, dark day for democracy. https://t.co/X1wGZgjcqL

— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) July 1, 2021

Record turnout in last year’s election threw republicans into a tailspin.

They do not want democracy.

They want oligarchy.

But they know Americans outside the extremely wealthy do not.

So to maintain their wealthy donors’ hegemony, they work tirelessly to prevent voters from exercising their civic duty to choose whom they want to represent them.

And it isn’t like it’s been a secret.

Republicans have been wagging their voter suppression flag in our faces since Paul Weyrich, the Heritage Foundation founder and “founding father of the conservative movement,” announced as much in a speech to a religious right group in Dallas in 1980.

The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) is tracking 125 bills 28 states are pushing to change ballot measure processes.

Republican lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills to restrict voting, criminalize peaceful protest, revoke authority from state courts and local election boards, and discard votes that aren’t for them.

In March, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation to strip election control from local and county election boards in order to impose new voter ID requirements, limit mail-in ballot drop boxes, reject entire ballots erroneously misdelivered to incorrect precincts, allow conservative activists to challenge voters’ eligibility, even criminalize distributing pizza and water to voters waiting in line for their turn to cast their ballots.

Then Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis followed suit.

Other restrictive bills have been signed in Iowa, Arkansas, and Utah.

Arizona republican state senators are behind a recount of 2020 presidential election ballots because the entire party they serve has doubled down on the Donald Trump’s dangerous “rigged election” lie that led to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.

They’ve even resorted to hunting for bamboo fibers as evidence thousands of ballots were mailed from China.

As the New York Times added:

“[Ballots are] receiving microscope and ultraviolet-light examinations, apparently to address unfounded claims that fraudulent ballots contained watermarks that were visible under UV light.

“Untrained citizens are trying to find traces of bamboo on last year’s ballots, seemingly trying to prove a conspiracy theory that the election was tainted by fake votes from Asia.”

All this is happening as legislation designed to prevent it languishes in the Senate.

Re-introduced this January, HR1 passed 220-210 on March 3 with no Republican support and only one Democrat opposing.

It now sits as S.1 in the 50/50 Senate awaiting certain filibuster.

HR1/S.1 seeks, in part, to:

A full breakdown of its sweeping provisions can be found here.

The Senate needs to pass S.1.

But, as Vox reports, there are several obstacles.

The first is none other than the filibuster, a racist anachronism invented to placate a once-insatiable slave-holding South.

The second issue is the number of centrist Democrats–WV Sen. Joe Manchin and Ariz. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema paramount among them–perfectly fine with the current Senate rules, gridlock and all.

As Vox’s Andrew Prokop wrote:

“The third problem is that, even if Democrats lined up the votes to abolish the filibuster somehow, Manchin has said he’s inclined to oppose any party-line effort to overhaul voting in the country. If Manchin holds firm on this, the For the People Act is essentially dead.”

Prokop adds:

“The party has near-unanimity around the bill in public, with all but one House Democrat voting for it, and every Senate Democrat except Manchin co-sponsors it. But some members of the Congressional Black Caucus aren’t thrilled about it (fearing its redistricting reforms would dilute predominantly Black districts), and moderate senators have doubts as well.”

So what’s to be done?

All 50 Democrat senators–Joe Manchin included–must not only support the bill, but a Senate rules change to advance S.1 with a simple majority and circumvent a filibuster.

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) has the power to put pressure on Manchin.

So, of course, does President Biden.

We should contact our senators at 202-224-3121 and let them know our concerns.

They work for us, after all.

Ted Millar is writer and teacher. His work has been featured in myriad literary journals, including Better Than Starbucks, Caesura, Circle Show, Cactus Heart, & Third Wednesday. He is also a contributor to The Left Place blog on Substack, Liberal Nation Rising, and Medium.

The world’s hottest journey experiences

People may not have traveled a lot in the past year, but that hasn’t stopped them from looking for ideas online.

Luxury travel company Unforgettable Travel wanted to know which travel experiences people have been looking for the most over the past year. With the help of digital marketing agency SEO Travel, the company compiled a list of 135 of the world’s most popular bucket list destinations and uses software to determine how many people are planning to visit each website.

The 10 Most Wanted “Bucket List” Travel Experiences

Travel experience Global monthly searches
Visit to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai 10,000
Sailing around the Statue of Liberty 9,300
Hike to Mount Everest base camp in Nepal 9,000
A cruise on the Nile in Egypt

 7,900
To the top of the Eiffel Tower 7,900
See the Las Vegas Strip 7,400
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco Francisco 7,400
See New York City from the Empire State Building 6,500
Tour of the Louvre in Paris 6,400
Explore the Colosseum in Rome 6,400

According to the study, which analyzed searches from May 2020 to May 2021, the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, was the most wanted travel experience, a result that surprised the team at Unforgettable Travel.

With more than 160 stories, the Burj Khalifa is 2,716 feet tall, or more than double the height of the 1,250 foot Empire State Building in New York.

Fraser Hall | The image database | Getty Images

“In the top 10 alone there were some experiences that we thought would be listed below, even though they were great experiences … that includes the # 1 Burj Khalifa in Dubai,” said Luke Harvey, a marketing manager for the Company. “But the fact that Dubai stayed open to visitors most of the time during the pandemic will have supported his position.”

That wasn’t the only surprise for the team.

“Trekking to Mount Everest base camp is definitely a once in a lifetime experience, but we didn’t think it would beat the Colosseum in Rome,” he said.

The Statue of Liberty is located on Liberty Island, a small state-owned island in southern Manhattan.

Victor Blue | Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Mount Everest’s place on the list could reflect a growing preference for outdoor travel activities. Six hikes appeared in the top 50 list, including Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Havasu Falls in Arizona, Trolltunga in Norway, Table Mountain in South Africa and the Inca Trail in Peru to Machu Picchu.

Travel experiences “Bucket List” by continent

Continent lists show the travel experiences and websites with the greatest online interest in certain parts of the world.

Africa

History, wildlife and natural wonders are Africa’s most searched websites, including some that are linked in terms of global search activity.

1. Go down the Nile
2. Ascent of Kilimanjaro
2. Hiking to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town
4. Visit of Chefchaouen, the “Blue City” of Morocco
5. Hiking in Kenya
6. Bungee jumping from the Victoria Falls Bridge
6. Trekking to gorillas in Uganda
8. See the Sahara desert
9. On safari in the Ngorongoro Crater
9. Visit to the Medina (old town) of Marrakech

“These are all great things to do in some of Africa’s top destinations,” said Kent Redding, president and co-founder of luxury safari company Africa Adventure Consultants.

He told CNBC that due to the pandemic, travelers should expect some restrictions while these locations are open. For example, visitors must stay 10 meters from the gorillas in Uganda, and the cable car up Table Mountain will be closed until at least July 11, he said.

Travelers to Africa this year are enjoying “a level of exclusivity not seen in a century,” said Kent Redding of Africa Adventure Consultant.

Sergio Pitamitz | VW Pictures | Universal picture group | Getty Images

The 2022 travel season is filling fast due to postponements from this year and “a ton of new bookings” for next year, Redding said. That means there are plenty of options for travelers ready to travel this year, he said.

“While travelers now face some hurdles while traveling – including canceled flights, sporadic bans, and lots of Covid testing – those who can roll with the punches enjoy incredible experiences,” Redding said. “You visit some of Africa’s most popular parks and see amazing wildlife … with no one around.”

Antarctic

The White Continent has only one experience on the list – just step on it.

1. Visit to Antarctica

“Antarctica has always had a unique pull,” said Patrick Woodhead, executive director of White Desert, a luxury tour operator that organizes expeditions into the continent. “Customers are drawn to the continent because there is still a sense of discovery in travel that has been lost in so many other places around the world.”

Despite the impression that Antarctica is a large block of ice, the continent is “incredibly diverse,” said Patrick Woodhead of White Desert.

Jaime Diaz | 500px Prime | Getty Images

Woodhead said the 2021-2022 travel season will be the company’s busiest season yet.

“With such a long backlog, customers aren’t waiting to experience a lifelong dream,” he told CNBC.

Asia

Even though most of Asia was closed to tourism last year, people were still looking for information about these experiences:

1. Visit to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai
2. Hike to Mount Everest base camp in Nepal
3. Tour of the Taj Mahal
4. Travel to Japan during the cherry blossom season
5. See China’s Forbidden City
6. Diving in the Indonesian Raja Ampat Islands
7. The sunrise at Angkor Wat. observe
8. Swimming in the Dead Sea
9. Visit to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur
10. The sunrise at the temple of Borobudur. see

Perhaps the least known place on Asia’s list, the Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia is considered one of the best places in the world for diving.

Afriandi | Moment | Getty Images

The list includes both modern architecture – Burj Khalifa, Petronas Towers – and historic ones – the temples of Angkor Wat and Borobudur, as well as China’s Forbidden City.

The extremes of nature are also emphasized; the highest mountain in the world – Mount Everest – and the lowest place on earth – the Dead Sea between Israel and Jordan – are on the list.

Europe

The top 3 searched spots in Europe come as no surprise, and the rest of the list is an eclectic mix of architecture, nature, exercise, and entertainment.

1. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
2. Visit to the Louvre in Paris
2. Explore the Colosseum of Rome
4. Go to Glastonbury Festival
5. Celebrate in Ibiza
6. Ride with the Orient Express
7. See the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
8. Visit to Buckingham Palace in London
9. Cruise through the Norwegian fjords
10. Run the London Marathon

Europe had the most places on the longer list, taking 19 out of 50 places. Italy secured four more with Pompeii, Cinque Terre, the Sistine Chapel and the Canals of Venice.

Two experiences in Iceland – seeing the Northern Lights and swimming in the warm waters of the Blue Lagoon – also made the breakthrough, as did a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany and Stonehenge in the United Kingdom.

Spain’s still unfinished La Sagrada Familia church narrowly ousted British Buckingham Palace in terms of global search interest last year.

By Eve Livesey | Moment | Getty Images

Europe has reopened to some international travelers, but tourists should note that not all of these experiences have been made yet.

North America

Four big city travel experiences in North America made it into the global top 10 list. The rest was concentrated in more rural parts of the continent.

1. Visit the Statue of Liberty
2. See the Las Vegas Strip
2. Cross the Golden Gate Bridge
4. Go to the top of the Empire State Building
5. Helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon
6. Road trip on Route 66
7. Participation in Coachella
7. See Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border
9. Camping in Canada’s Banff National Park
10. See Mount Rushmore

“This is a great list, and I think it hits many of the best US locations and experiences,” said Ruzwana Bashir, CEO of Peek, a travel experience booking website.

She said one way to make bucket list trips special is to see them in interesting ways. From that list, she recommends an underground tour of the Grand Canyon, a zip line in the Mojave Desert outside of Las Vegas, and a seaplane ride over the Golden Gate Bridge.

A seaplane ride offers “incredible views” of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city of San Francisco, said Ruzwana Bashir of Peek.

Xavier Hoenner Photography | Moment | Getty Images

“On Route 66, I’d recommend taking a tour of the breathtaking caves in Peach Springs, a trip around Santa Fe to raft the Rio Grande, and a local handcrafted cocktail at a beautiful distillery in Galena, Kansas , to enjoy.” said Bashir.

She added that other must-see experiences in North America include a hot air balloon ride over the Napa Valley, a visit to Yosemite National Park, and waterfall yoga in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains.

Oceania

After Antarctica, Oceania is the most populous continent in the world, comprising Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and many smaller islands such as Fiji, Guam and French Polynesia.

Unsurprisingly, all but one of the most sought-after travel activities involve the outdoors.

1. Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef
2. Watch a show at the Sydney Opera House
3. See New Zealand’s Hobbiton
4. Visit the monolith of Uluru or Ayers Rock
5. Spend the night in an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora
6. A tour of New Zealand’s Waitomo Glowworm Caves

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visits Hobbiton on October 4, 2018 in Matamata, New Zealand.

Hannah Peters | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The latest of these experiences is the Hobbiton movie set in Matamata on New Zealand’s North Island. Tolkien enthusiasts can book a guided tour of the 12 acre film set used in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

South America

In South America, too, online interest is directed towards outdoor activities.

1. Hike to Macchu Picchu
2. See the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands
2. Experience the biodiversity of Costa Rica
4.Hiking on Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni (salt flat)
4. Visit the Iguazu Falls, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet
4. See the Moai statues on Easter Island
7. Visit to the San Pedro de Atacama desert
8. Explore Patagonia
9. Sandboarding in Huacachina, Peru
10. See the Amazon rainforest

Rain still makes Bolivia’s salt desert of Uyuni appear smooth as glass.

Kazuki Kimura / EyeEm | EyeEm Premium | Getty Images

Peru’s most famous tourist destination, Macchu Picchu, topped the list. It was also one of four of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” to appear in the list of the 50 Most Wanted Travel Experiences.

“The biggest surprise was that some of the ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ didn’t make the top 50, including the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil,” said Harvey of Unforgettable Travel.

In the end, he attributed it to the sheer size of the competition.

“There are so many amazing things to see and do in our world,” he said.

The necessary position Carson Daly performed in Gwen & Blake’s marriage ceremony

Keep it in the The Voice family.

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani recruited a close friend to officially pronounce them husband and wife: Carson Daly. That’s right, the NBC contest series host was hosting the couple’s July 3 wedding in Oklahoma, Today confirmed, shortly after the couple shared footage of the ceremony online.

The trio has grown very closely together over the years thanks to their time at The Voice. In fact, Daly couldn’t help but tease his buddy Shelton in 2015 after he and Stefani first went public with their romance. “I didn’t think Blake could make a girl as hot as Gwen, to be honest,” he said on Today. “He’s a silly cowboy. She is the queen of cool. But God bless them. They are two of the nicest people in the business. “

Daly even advised Stefani against seeing Shelton early on. “When you started dating Blake five years ago, you’ll remember that we went back to your house, your old LA house, and I put you and Blake in the kitchen,” Carson recalled during Stefani’s performance in January 2021 today. “And I said, ‘You guys, hit the brakes. That’s not good. It won’t work.

Oil costs soar to multi-year highs after OPEC + talks didn’t result in a manufacturing deal

Oil pump jacks, also known as “nodding donkeys”, work in an oil field near Almetyevsk, Tatarstan, Russia on Wednesday March 11, 2020.

Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Oil jumped to its highest level in nearly three years on Monday after talks between OPEC and its oil-producing allies were indefinitely postponed and the group failed to reach an agreement on production policies for August and beyond.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, the US oil benchmark, rose 1.56%, or $ 1.17, to $ 76.33 a barrel, their highest level since October 2018. The international benchmark Brent crude rose 1.2% or 93 cents to $ 77.10 a barrel.

Talks between OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC +, began last week when the Energy Alliance tried to set a production policy for the remainder of the year. The group voted on Friday on a proposal that would have brought 400,000 barrels a day to market every month from August through December, adding up to an additional 2 million barrels a day by the end of the year. Members also suggested extending the production cuts until the end of 2022.

The UAE turned down these proposals, however, and talks stretched Thursday through Friday as the group tried to reach consensus. The talks were originally supposed to resume on Monday, but were ultimately broken off.

“The date for the next meeting will be set in due course,” said OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo in a statement.

OPEC + took historic measures in April 2020, removing nearly 10 million barrels per day of production to support prices as demand for petroleum products plummeted. Since then, the group has been slowly returning barrels to the market while meeting almost monthly to discuss production policy.

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“It wasn’t a good deal for us,” UAE Energy and Infrastructure Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told CNBC on Sunday. He added that the country would support a short-term increase in supply but would like better terms if the policy is to be extended through 2022.

Oil’s soaring rally this year – WTI is up 57% in 2021 – meant many Wall Street analysts, ahead of last week’s meeting, expected the group to step up production to curb price hikes.

“Without an increase in production, the imminent growth in demand should lead to the global energy markets picking up even faster than expected,” wrote analysts from TD Securities in a message to customers.

“This impasse will lead to a temporary deficit well above expectations, which should fuel even higher prices for the time being. The summer oil price eruption will accelerate at a rapid pace, ”added the company.

– CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to the coverage.

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VW and Porsche comply with Bugatti three way partnership with EV firm Rimac

Porsche and Croatian electric performance car manufacturer Rimac have agreed to create a joint venture that incorporates Volkswagen’s high-performance Bugatti brand, officials announced Monday.

The new joint venture — called Bugatti-Rimac — is expected to be established as a hypercar manufacturer (think high-end sport car or supercar but better performance and more exclusive) in the fourth quarter of this year.

Rimac will have a 55% stake in the joint venture, while Porsche will hold a 45% stake in the company. Bugatti’s shares will be transferred from Volkswagen, which owns Porsche and Bugatti, to Porsche and then to Rimac, the companies said. Porsche also currently holds a 24% stake in Rimac, up from an initial 10% ownership in 2018.

The first vehicles planned from the tie-up are an eight-cylinder, 1,500-horsepower Bugatti called the Chiron and a $2.4 million all-electric hypercar called the Rimac Nevera, which the company says has about 1,900 horsepower and can exceed 250 mph. The vehicles had previously been announced separately by the companies.

Bugatti Chiron

Source: Bugatti

“We are combining Bugatti’s strong expertise in the hypercar business with Rimac’s tremendous innovative strength in the highly promising field of electric mobility,” said Porsche CEO Oliver Blume, in a statement.

Blume, during a call with media on Monday, called the new joint venture a “perfect combination.”

Blume and Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke will become members of the board at Bugatti-Rimac. Rimac founder Mate Rimac will lead the joint venture as CEO, the companies said.

In a statement, Mate Rimac, who founded the company in his garage in 2009, called the joint venture an “exciting moment” and the combination of the companies “a perfect match for each other.”

“I think we can do incredible things,” he told reporters Monday. “It’s an immense opportunity.”

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the new joint venture.

Bugatti-Rimac is expected to have about 430 employees. That includes 300 at the company headquarters in Croatia, where Rimac is based, and 130 at the Bugatti factory in Molsheim, France. The companies said all Bugatti models will still be produced at the famed facility.

Marc Lamont Hill says he was “disgusted” by Decide Joe Brown’s misogyny after Brown labeled Cosby prosecutors as “groupies.”

There was much public opinion on Bill Cosby’s overturned case, but the words of former TV judge Joe Brown stunned political commentator Marc Lamont Hill during a heated debate.

Hill invited Judge Joe Brown to speak about Cosby’s release on his newscast, Black News Tonight, and their heated debate illustrated the rift in the black community over the case.

The nearly 19-minute conversation had tense moments, particularly when Joe Brown suggested that Cosby’s accusers be held accountable for their actions for being groupies.

“They were groupies,” Joe Brown told Hill. “The bimbos are coming to the party. They hang out, they get drunk, they snort headlines and have fun. You use the hall cabinets to give head. The toilets to come down and you go in to get your coat off the bed and they lay down on it for someone to do. See, that’s what it’s about. “

Hill reminded the retired judge that these types of activities must be consensual. You can see part of that debate below:

But it seems like the final minutes of their debate were the most troubling for Hill, who later tweeted that he felt “disgusted” after the exchange.

I interviewed Judge Joe Brown last night. I was disappointed and disgusted with his misogyny and apology for the rape culture. I wish I had finished the interview earlier. https://t.co/XwWgaSU31D

– Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) July 2, 2021

“I was disappointed and disgusted with his misogyny and apology for the rape culture,” said Marc Lamont Hill of Judge Joe Brown. “I wish I had finished the interview earlier.”

What do you think of the debate between Marc Lamont Hill and Judge Joe Brown? Let us know.

Would you like tea right in your text inbox? Call us at 917-722-8057 or Click here to take part!

Why U.S. will not hit Fourth of July targets

Biden administration says it will fall short of its Fourth of July vaccination goal

All the free beer, doughnuts and baseball tickets won’t be enough to keep up the pace of vaccinations.

President Joe Biden’s goal of getting at least one shot in the arms of 70% of U.S. adults before the Fourth of July holiday is set to fall short.

At the current pace of vaccinations administered, about 67% of adults will be at least partially vaccinated by then, according to a CNBC analysis of CDC data.

Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards

The president said he hoped Independence Day would mark a turning point in the pandemic.

And yet, inoculation efforts in some states have hit a wall even as the delta variant of the disease spreads rapidly across the country.

More from Personal Finance:
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More people plan to quit as return-to-work plans kick in

From Krispy Kreme to cold-hard cash, there’s no shortage of incentives now to entice Americans to get the Covid vaccine. But vaccination rates remain under 70% and are likely to stay there, according to Iwan Barankay, a professor of business economics and public policy at Wharton.

“These incentives are a great idea and they are very appealing, but the evidence is just not there that these incentives are addressing the barriers,” Barankay said.

“We are getting into a population of people who are vehemently opposed or have too complicated a living situation,” he said. This group won’t be swayed by vaccine sweeteners, like cash giveaways, sports tickets and free food, he added.

For some, socio-economic obstacles remain, such as lining up childcare or getting time off work to get vaccinated.

Barankay has spent years studying what works to encourage patients to take their medications. Financial incentives aren’t persuasive for patients who have complicated lives, he said. Low income, inadequate housing, lack of transportation and providing care to others in the household are all factors that can stand in the way.

In some cases, there is no amount of incentive you can offer people.

Iwan Barankay

Wharton professor

For others there are behavioral hurdles as well, including skepticism about the vaccine, which can be even more difficult to overcome.

“In some cases, there is no amount of incentive you can offer people,” Barankay said.

Some Americans, especially in Black, Hispanic and rural communities, are more vaccine hesitant when it comes to Covid shots specifically.  

“People are influenced by others around them,” Barankay said. “If you can change the behavior of one person in a community, it has a multiplier effect, but this is much more difficult work.”

Still, as vaccination rates plateau, public and private groups continue to up the ante — from million-dollar payouts and even marijuana or a spin around a NASCAR track — to encourage more immunizations.

In May, Maryland held the first of its $40,000 lottery drawings for people who have been vaccinated. Forty consecutive days of drawings for a $40,000 prize end on July 4 with a final drawing for a $400,000 payout.

Ohio is also holding a series of drawings for cash prizes, with its own “Vax-a-Million” contest.

On the private front, Krispy Kreme in March became one of the first businesses to roll out a nationwide Covid vaccine incentive, offering a free glazed doughnut to any adult with a vaccination card. The company said it had already given away more than 1.5 million doughnuts. (The offer still stands through the remainder of the year.)

And Anheuser-Busch recently said it would buy anyone over 21 “a round of beer” once Biden’s 70% goal is met on July 4.

A handful of states have reported that vaccine incentive programs have increased local vaccination numbers in some demographics after recent drops.

For its part, Ohio said its vaccination rates doubled in some counties after the state vaccine lottery was announced.

Recent data shows that the gambit might be effective among certain groups, and with little downside overall, according to a report by Morning Consult.

The poll of 2,200 adults, including nearly 1,600 people who are unvaccinated, found that men are more inclined than women to say these offers would make them sign up to receive a shot.

Democrats, more than Republicans, also said they’d be more likely to get vaccinated if they could get free goods or services and, when broken down by generation, millennials were the most likely to say certain freebies would encourage them to get vaccinated.

A separate survey by Blackhawk Network found that money was the most preferred motivator, over a sweepstakes, paid time off, free food or drinks or other merchandise.

Roughly 66% of unvaccinated adults said they would accept a monetary incentive and 44% said they would even get vaccinated for $100 or less. Blackhawk Network polled more than 3,000 adults in June.

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Andy Jassy, ​​new CEO of Amazon, takes over Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos announces Blue Moon, a lunar lander for the moon, during a Blue Origin event in Washington, DC, May 9, 2019.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Ann Hiatt recalls that Jeff Bezos didn’t sit down for long.

As executive assistant to the Amazon CEO from 2002 to 2005, Hiatt was tasked with keeping an eye on Bezos’ whereabouts. At the time, the fast-growing internet retailer had moved into an Art Deco building that was once a US Navy hospital. It would be years before Amazon moved into a series of shiny glass buildings in downtown Seattle, with a campus that spans several city blocks and includes three glass spheres filled with plants from around the world.

Bezos refused to take the elevator to Amazon’s office on the 14th floor in the historic building commonly referred to as the old PacMed Center, recalls Hiatt. Instead, he often ran up and down the stairs without breaking a sweat.

“He’s like a puppy. He did laps and was never tired,” Hiatt said in an interview. “This is Jeff. He couldn’t be held back.”

This image of Bezos captures the relentless drive and energy that would fuel Amazon’s meteoric rise from internet bookseller to the world’s largest online retailer and cloud computing company.

Now, after almost three decades, the 57-year-old founder is preparing to direct his energy towards other goals. Starting Monday – 27 years to the day after the founding of Amazon – Bezos will become CEO of Amazon and hand over the CEO title to his former protégé, Cloud Computing boss Andy Jassy.

Bezos is leaving the CEO role at a time of great success for the company when Amazon topped $ 100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in February.

While Bezos doesn’t get very far, he still leaves many of the headaches of day-to-day business to Jassy, ​​some of which are more intense than before. Amazon is under investigation by antitrust authorities in the US and abroad. It is facing pressure from lawmakers to say it should focus on being a better corporate citizen. Within the company, employees routinely raise complaints about working conditions and have been on the front lines with unions to look into organizing opportunities.

Opening of the “largest bookstore on earth”

Bezos was vice president of Wall Street hedge fund DE Shaw when he came up with the idea of ​​starting an online bookstore. He quit in 1994 and moved across the country to Seattle, where he bought a suburban home and started the company that turned his garage into Amazon. The company was almost called “Cadabra”, but it sounded too much like “Carcass,” so Bezos turned to Amazon instead.

The site went live on July 16, 1995. The homepage welcomed users with the reputation of being “the largest bookstore on earth”, stocking a million titles and offering “consistently low prices”. Within the first month of its launch, Amazon had sold books in every state in the US and 45 countries around the world.

“I remember flying to Seattle to see the company at their First Avenue offices across from a free needles clinic in a pretty shabby part of Seattle,” said John Doerr, an early Amazon investor and Chairman of the risk firm Kleiner Perkins, told CNBC. Tech Check “on Friday.” We built these tables out of desk doors we bought at Home Depot. We went online with a very fast website and were able to get all the books in the world in less time at better prices than anyone else in the world. “

After a successful IPO in 1997 that made Bezos a millionaire, CEO Amazon successfully navigated the dot-com bubble. In the mid-2000s, Bezos began expanding Amazon’s focus beyond online retail to include cloud computing, video entertainment, and devices. He has taken on wide-ranging projects outside of Amazon, such as founding the rocket company Blue Origin, which he funded through the sale of billions of Amazon stocks.

Bezos often looked at Amazon’s business long term, which meant putting growth before profit, much to Wall Street’s horror. In a notable exchange, former Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak Bezos squeezed Amazon’s budget for its burgeoning Kindle e-reader project, which launched in 2007, according to a former Amazon vice president. Bezos joked back, “Well how much money do we have in the bank?”

Bezos is the richest man in the world, which makes him the target of politicians and advocates who want to reduce income inequality and see him as an example of uncontrolled corporate power. He is now a regular guest at the Oscars and has steadily expanded his presence in the country’s capital, among other things by taking over the Washington Post. He was brought into the spotlight when he became the direct target of former President Donald Trump.

In interviews, former Amazon employees suggested that Jassy’s softer personality, coupled with the fact that he’s not well known outside of Silicon Valley circles, could end up working for Amazon’s advantage if it stares at its critics.

“Andy will represent Amazon when Congress or other stakeholders call in and ask or ask tough questions,” said John Rossman, Amazon executive in the early 2000s and author of The Amazon Way. “Perhaps in a way it helps him not to be the founder, to be even more effective in these dialogues.”

The next iteration of Amazon

The transition from Bezos to Jassy will not change much. Imbued with Amazon’s corporate culture, Jassy has helped develop the key leadership principles that guide employees.

Jassy also served as Bezos’ “shadow” in the early 2000s. For Bezos, shadows act as “brain doubles” and provide another pair of eyes and ears in meetings, Hiatt said. Officially known as a technical assistant, you are copied into every email and flight plan, helping to summarize each day’s events in preparation for the next.

Andy Jassy, ​​Chief Executive Officer of Web Services at Amazon.com Inc., listens during the Amazon Web Services Summit in San Francisco on April 19, 2017.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shadows usually play prestigious roles within the company. For Jassy, ​​that was the boom in Amazon’s burgeoning cloud computing business.

Jassy helped advise Bezos’ next shadow, Colin Bryar, on how to handle the task. As Bezos ‘shadow, he interacted with Jassy in meetings with Bezos’ S-Team, a group of top corporate executives who met for four-hour breakfast meetings every Tuesday.

Bryar and other former colleagues said the AWS CEO has the same drive as Bezos but is known for taking a slightly different approach to his leadership style.

Bezos can be opinionated, forceful and at times aggressive, said people who have worked closely with the CEO. Jassy often has a gentler charisma, but can be just as intense by remembering specific details from presentations and pointing out inconsistencies with a laser-like focus.

Jassy also has Bezos’ penchant for getting employees to think bigger. Bezos was sometimes fixated on a specific project and, to the surprise of some employees, regularly followed the teams to make sure they were on the right track.

“For example, people would say my team of 23 met with me like every other week for two months,” said David Anderson, a former manager at Amazon’s AWS and device units. “Every now and then, it was like that huge hammer would come in and get this problem out of the way because Jeff interfered.”

Jassy is “more like Bezos than any other” executive at Amazon, said Anderson, thanks to his intelligent intelligence and deep knowledge of Amazon’s business from top to bottom.

He recalled an AWS Operations meeting that was attended by senior executives where Jassy delved into very specific and technical matters.

“It just blew my mind because this is the guy who runs AWS and is very familiar with very low details,” said Anderson. “It struck me that he is running the organization for a very good reason. He not only thinks big, he knows the details.”