š The real loser of the UAW deals
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Hereās what you need to know
Consumers lost in the United Auto Workersā deals with Ford, GM, and Stellantis. Higher labor costs, while a win for autoworkers, will have to be absorbed somewhere, and itāll probably mean higher car prices.
Instagram and Facebook users in Europe are getting an ad-free version. The paid options that parent company Meta unveiled yesterday are in response to the continentās changing data privacy laws.
Adani Green Energyās profit more than doubled in the second quarter. Energy sales were up more than 87% in the reporting period, largely driven by solar and wind demand.
Lower battery production in Japan sent Tesla shares down. The electric vehicle makerās long-time partner Panasonic further stoked worries that EV demand is cooling.
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Todayās iMacs fall pretty far from the tree
Itās a good time to usher in a new season for the iMac. Appleās first product to use āiāāfor internet!āin its name hasnāt had a new iteration since 2021, and with competitors like Qualcomm claiming its PCs will be 50% faster than Appleās last chip, the companyās feet are being held to the fire.
But if Apple were competing with itself, the latest iterations of its iMacs couldnāt be more different than the originals:
25: Years ago that the first iMac debuted
Quartzās Ananya Bhattacharya took a look back at the design evolution of the iMac.
Person of interest: Katherine Maher
Former Wikimedia Foundation CEO Katherine Maher is stepping into the now-infamous shoes of Paddy Cosgrave, the ex-Web Summit chief who resigned from his 14-year-tenure after his controversial statements about the Israel-Hamas war.
Maherās resume sits at the intersection of tech and dialogue. In the past, she has been an adviser for UNICEF, the National Democratic Institute, and the World Bank, among others, and continues to chair messaging platform Signal.
But with individuals and behemoths like Google, Meta, Intel, Amazon, and Stripe having already pulled out from the Nov. 13-16 conference in Lisbon, could Maherās pitch to deliver āan event as compelling as any that have come beforeā be a little too late?
Defense spending isnāt driving the US economy
The US has been increasingly spending more on weapons and defense, even adding 0.28 percentage points to the 4.9% annualized economic growth the country saw in its latest quarter. But thatās not what was behind the booming economy (cue āBarbenheimerā and Taylor Swift).
While the defense business is doing well, it still faces concerns over supply chains to obtain key materials and components for weapons. Quartzās Tim Fernholz has the latest.
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Surprising discoveries
Gene therapy is allowing some deaf children in China to hear. One child who couldnāt hear a chime that ended naptime now can.
The worldās biggest Spider-Man gathering occurred in Argentina. More than 1,000 people in red and blue costumes took part in the meetup.
The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs likely stopped plants from photosynthesizing. Fine dust that obscured the Sun possibly stopped the critical process for two years.
The winner of Barbenheimer was neither Barbie nor Oppenheimer. It was IMAX.
Anger can help people perform tough tasks. One explanation could be a link between the emotion and greater persistence.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, Spider-Man costumes, and IMAX tickets to [email protected]. Todayās Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.