Flagship

EU grants Tesla lower tariffs

The European Union will grant lower tariffs to Chinese-made Teslas, it announced Tuesday, in a win for CEO Elon Musk. Following a probe into market-distorting Chinese state subsidies, the European Commission found that Tesla receives less of a boost than its Chinese competitors. While Chinese EV makers will face up to 36.3% in tariffs, Tesla will only see duties of 9% on its China-made vehicles. Politico wrote that the move represents “another coup” for Musk, whose firm is the biggest exporter of EVs from China to Europe, and who has benefited extensively from Beijing’s backing. “You don’t disrupt an industry that has 100-plus years in history without a lot of government support,” one automotive analyst told the outlet.

TSMC breaks ground in Germany

Taiwanese chip giant TSMC broke ground Tuesday on a massive new plant in Dresden, Germany, its first in Europe. The $11 billion factory “is an endorsement for Europe as a global innovation powerhouse,” ​​European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. The move also carries geopolitical significance: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tied the new plant to the country’s strategy of economically “derisking” from Beijing and becoming less reliant on foreign-made chips, though he didn’t mention China by name. TSMC, meanwhile, could benefit from geographic expansion, after being continuously in the US-China crosshairs.

Obamas front and center at convention

US political power couple Barack and Michelle Obama will make their pitch for Kamala Harris during the Democratic National Convention’s second night. The former president is “still a north star in the party,” Illinois’ lieutenant governor told The Associated Press, and his voice will be integral to rallying Democrats, independents, and moderate Republicans behind Harris. It could also be a memorable moment of “the first Black president passing the baton” to another Black candidate. Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech, meanwhile, will “give the crowd a glimpse of the party’s fantasy candidate” The Hill wrote. It remains to be seen if she will repeat her now-famous convention speech approach of “taking the high road” when talking about Donald Trump.

Malaysia, Singapore currencies hit highs

Malaysia and Singapore’s currencies are at 18-month highs against the dollar as the US Federal Reserve contemplates a rate cut. The Malaysian ringgit stood as the best-performing Asian currency Tuesday, rising 5.3% over the last 12 months to 4.361 per dollar, its highest since February 2023, Nikkei reported. The Singapore dollar, meanwhile, rebounded to 1.3066 per US dollar. Malaysia’s domestic policy and new foreign investment are helping the ringgit, but it is highly correlated with the Chinese yuan. The ringgit is outperforming its Asian peers “due to the unwinding of long US dollar-Chinese yuan positions,” said one trade strategist, referring to positions betting on the weakness of the Chinese currency.

OpenAI strikes Condé Nast deal

Condé Nast struck a multiyear partnership with artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, the media giant’s CEO Roger Lynch told staff Tuesday. Details of the deal are not clear from the memo, but Lynch told employees that it would “expand the reach of Condé Nast’s content.” It’s the latest in a string of agreements struck by OpenAI and publishers, including the Financial Times. The Information previously reported that the tech startup offered publishers $1 million to $5 million a year to license their content to be used to train ChatGPT, its flagship AI. But the history of the internet should show that such a deal almost “never, ever works as planned,” The Information’s founder Jessica Lessin (a Semafor investor) warned in The Atlantic.

7-Eleven’s lucrative offer

The billionaire heirs of Japanese convenience store chain 7-Eleven could see a massive payday if they accept a foreign takeover. Alimentation Couche-Tard, the Canadian owner of rival brand Circle K, made a “friendly, non-binding” $38 billion bid Monday to purchase 7-Eleven, an offer that valued it at a fifth more than its pre-bid price on the Japanese stock market, the BBC reported. But Japan’s wealthy Ito clan may not want to part with their family legacy, one analyst told Bloomberg, and the bid may face opposition in Japan given the company’s institutional importance in the country. A merger, which would create one of the US’ largest retail chains, would also likely subject it to US antitrust scrutiny, the Financial Times reported.

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Massive US data breach confirmed

A massive trove of leaked data that appears to contain the personal information of millions of Americans has underscored the long-term consequences of hacks. The information, stolen from a breach on US consumer data broker National Public Data earlier this year, contains email addresses, names, and social security numbers — although much of it isn’t correctly matched. The company acknowledged the leak only last week, but many of those impacted likely had no idea that it even had their information in the first place, and the fallout will be a “slow-burn nightmare,” Wired noted. “Every trove of information that attackers can get their hands on ultimately fuels scamming, cybercrime, and espionage,” when combined with other hacked data, the outlet wrote.

War reshapes Ukraine’s workforce

The war in Ukraine is reshaping the country’s male-dominated workforce. One mine lost 1,000 male workers — 20% of its workforce — following the 2022 Russian invasion, but it has since hired 330 women to make up for the shortage after Kyiv lifted a ban on women working in unsafe conditions, according to The New York Times. More are also becoming bus drivers and steel welders, breaking the Soviet-inherited perception of “women as second-class and less reliable workers,” one economist told The Times. Still, it’s not enough to fill the gap: With around 1.5 million female workers having left Ukraine since the war began, 75% of Ukrainian employers continue to face labor shortages, according to a recent survey.

The debate over genocide’s meaning

The ongoing debate over the meaning of genocide offers the world an opportunity to revisit its origins and rethink its legal boundaries, the author of a book on the Holocaust argued in The New York Times. Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word in 1944, meant for it to encompass not just mass killings of a people, but also their cultural obliteration, Linda Kinstler wrote in The Times. But rigid legal interpretations of the term have prevented international courts from describing many atrocities as genocide, she wrote, such as China’s treatment of the Uyghurs. While it is unlikely that courts will recognize current Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide, Kinstler argued that global outrage over the violence signals “a renewed sense of moral clarity may soon come.”

China launches blockbuster game

China’s gaming industry hit a major milestone Tuesday with the global release of one of its most expensive video games. Black Myth: Wukong, based on the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, cost at least $56 million to make and shot to the top of online gaming platform Steam within hours of its release. Black Myth’s success could give Beijing a soft power win, Nikkei wrote, thanks to cultural aspects that reflect China’s ideology. But the launch has stirred controversy: Overseas reviewers were given a list of topics to avoid discussing while livestreaming, including “feminist propaganda” and COVID-19, The New York Times reported, prompting one French gamer to say: “This is very clearly a document which explains that we must censor ourselves.”

August 21:

• Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz addresses the Democratic National Convention.
• The Sarajevo Film Festival awards the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo to Hollywood star Meg Ryan.
• A new London exhibition titled Homelessness: Reframed highlights works from artists inspired by their experiences of living on the street.

A collection of objects that changed science and technology forever will go under the hammer at Christie’s this fall. Owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the selection “traces the history of human ingenuity,” the auction house said, and includes the first computer used by Allen and his childhood friend Bill Gates, as well as a spacesuit worn by Ed White, the first American to perform a spacewalk. Allen’s collection previously yielded the most valuable night in auction history, with a 2022 sale fetching $1.5 billion in a single evening.

• Fed officials head to Jackson Hole as interest rates loom large.
• A protest carnival produces little heat in Chicago.
• US pressures Kenya’s President Ruto over police killings, abductions.