>>> Barron’s Weekend Summary

Cover:
-The rising cost of parenthood is becoming prohibitive, which could negatively impact the economy. The falling birthrates and tighter immigration policies could lead to a population decline, causing a decline in the US economy. Both political parties have proposed policies to ease the financial burden on parents, with Ohio Sen. JD Vance proposing an increase in the federal child tax credit and Vice President Kamala Harris proposing initiatives to restore and expand tax credits for parents and increase the US housing supply. This could lead to a falling fertility rate, shrinking labor supply, diminished productivity and innovation, and declining wealth, all of which could threaten the US economy's long-term growth and vitality. The economics of child-rearing are looming large, with the crisis reaching a boiling point.

Interview:
-Dan Close, head of municipal fixed income at Nuveen, first became interested in the bond market while working as a caddie in 1995. He was convinced that the bond market held the keys to the global economy and that fixed income, not stocks, was where the true masters of the universe toiled. Close, who started in 2000 and has since moved from analyst to fund manager, is now the head of the $190B municipal bond complex at Nuveen. He spoke with Barron's about risks and rewards in the municipal market today, the potential impact of the coming presidential election, and some of Nuveen's best bond picks.

Tech Trader:
-Nvidia, a tech giant worth $3T, reported a year-over-year revenue growth of 122% to $30 billion in its fiscal second quarter, ending in July. The company's data-center business, driven by AI demand, grew even more at 154%. Nvidia's earnings report and commentary on its Blackwell graphics processing unit suggest that investors should ignore stock volatility tied to the near-term results and focus on the improving backdrop for the artificial-intelligence boom and Nvidia's next-generation GPU, which is well-suited for AI applications. The company's strong outlook for the current quarter and an additional $50 billion stock buyback program are expected to further boost growth.

The Trader:
-DexCom's stock has plummeted due to mismanaged investments in new growth opportunities, but shares could rebound with the introduction of a new product, Stelo, a new continuous glucose monitoring device for noninsulin Type 2 diabetics and prediabetics. DexCom's second quarter growth disappointed analysts, with earnings per share of 43 cents beating estimates by five cents. Sales of $1B grew 15% year over year, missing analyst expectations of $1.037B. Management reduced its 2024 sales-growth guidance, implying just over $4B in revenue for the year, forcing analysts to revise their 2025 sales estimates lower by 9% to $6.4B. The stock dropped 41% to $65 on July 26, and has barely rebounded since then.
-The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has only returned 4.6% annually over the past five years, trailing the S&P 500's 16% return. Over 80% of the companies in the ETF are losing money, making it difficult for them to raise cash for research and trials. However, relief is on the way with the Federal Reserve's upcoming rate cut, which is expected to have a 65.5% chance of a quarter-point cut and a 34.5% chance of a half-point decrease. The ETF has a strong negative correlation to interest rates, meaning that when rates rise, stocks tend to fall, and vice versa. The universe of biotech stocks has also improved, with 693 small- and mid-cap biotechs being cash-flow negative during the second quarter of 2024, down from 949 in 2022. This suggests that troubled companies have delisted, been bought, or faded away, potentially stabilizing consolidation for troubled names.

Features:
-Tesla stock closed a difficult week of trading by rising 3.8% at $214.11, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1% and 0.6%, respectively. Shares rose 0.3% on Thursday after William Blair analyst Jed Dorsheimer launched coverage of Tesla with a Buy rating, calling its energy-storage business an underappreciated asset. Tesla's energy storage and generation segment accounted for about 12% of second-quarter sales, growing 100% year over year. However, shares still gave up about 3% for the week. Shares of Chinese EV peer Li Auto fell on Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter numbers.
-Intuitive Machines, a space infrastructure and technology provider, has seen a significant increase in shares after winning more business from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The company announced a $117M contract to deliver six science and technology payloads to the Moon's South Pole, which was awarded by NASA. The contract is part of NASA's push to contract with private companies for services, and NASA also uses SpaceX to launch and carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Intuitive completed one mission to the Moon's South Pole in February, marking the first time the US had landed a spacecraft on the lunar surface in over 50 years. As of Friday trading, Intuitive Machines shares have risen 89% this year, with shares trading as high as $13.25 a share. The company is expected to generate sales of around $223M in 2024 and $371M in 2025. The average analyst price target for Intuitive Machines stock is just under $10 a share. Through Friday trading, Intuitive stock was up about 95% year to date.

Europe:
-No update

Emerging Markets:
-Outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has proposed several constitutional amendments, including instituting elections for Supreme Court judges and potentially axing autonomous regulatory bodies. His plans could undermine democratic evolution in Mexico, leading to a return to the 1980s with one-party dominance. The move could also endanger the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free trade pillar up for review in 2026. The shift to elected judges could threaten the historic trade relationship, which relies on investors' confidence in Mexico's legal framework. The removal of independent regulators would also violate USMCA requirements. The September offensive could also put Mexico's investment-grade sovereign credit rating at risk, with Fitch Ratings already holding the country by a thread at BBB-. The deterioration in institutional quality could lead to a negative outlook or downgrade over the next 12 months.

Commodities:
-Copper's price has dropped by about 10% due to weak global economic activity, particularly in the U.S. and China. The metal is a major component of heavy machinery, cars, and other goods, and Chinese companies contribute to global copper demand. However, there are signs that the metal should continue climbing, with its price stabilizing just over $4/lb. after bottoming around $3.95 earlier this month. Commodity strategists at 22V Research predict that the metal will continue to rise, possibly to $5/lb.. They are highlighting several "pure play" companies that primarily generate revenue from copper mining, such as Antofagasta, Lundin Mining, Southern Copper, and Freeport-McMoRan. Shares of the first three companies have more than doubled since their lows in the fall of 2022, while Freeport stock has increased by about 75% over the same period. Copper stocks tend to rise faster than the commodity price due to fixed costs for miners, such as depreciation and interest expense.

Streetwise:
-A short seller called Hindenburg Research has been accused of pursuing artificial-intelligence company Super Micro Computer, which has seen its shares drop by 2.48%. The company has a history of controversies, including a report in May last year that inflated the unit price of publicly traded Icahn Enterprises by 75%. This year, Hindenburg has found "glaring accounting red flags" at Super Micro, including undisclosed related-party transactions. Super Micro has not commented on the allegations but has said it will delay its annual report to assess the effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting. Shares have fallen from a high of over $1,200 in March to a recent $440. The company's founder, Trevor Milton, was sentenced to four years in prison for securities and wire fraud.

TechCrunch : Watch out for these 10 hot startups from South Korea

Watch out for these 10 hot startups from South Korea

The South Korean startup ecosystem has grown over the last decade as major tech firms and venture capital from the West has sought to make inroads in the country. No surprise there: South Korea has long been one of Asia’s strongest economies. Startups here have enjoyed good access to funding, benefiting from Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, Qualcomm and Samsung setting up operations locally, as well as from dedicated venture arms. It also helps that the Korean government has spurred investment by setting up innovation hubs, incubators and accelerators.

Today, South Korea ranks ninth on the list of countries with the highest number of unicorns, per Statista, and its capital city, Seoul, is considered one of the top destinations to build a tech startup.

But like elsewhere in the world, startups here have not been immune to economic turmoil — tech firms have been cutting costs and laying people off to make the most of a diminished funding environment, startup valuations have dipped, and growth-stage funding has proved hard to come by. Asian startups in general have struggled to raise capital since the market turned in early 2022, and in 2023, venture capital investments in South Korea dipped to around 5.4 trillion KRW ($4 billion) from 6.8 trillion KRW ($5.1 billion) a year earlier, according to Statista.

It seems that 2024 will prove to be a pivotal year for many startups in the country, especially as some big names intend to go public either domestically or in the U.S. Here’s a list of the top startups to look out for:


Yanolja
  • Founder: Su-jin Lee
  • Total funding raised: $1.95 billion
  • Key investors: SoftBank Vision Fund, GIC, Booking, SkyLake Investment
  • Revenue in 2023: $578 million (766.7 billion KRW)
A travel booking platform founded in 2005 by Su-jin Lee, Yanolja is best known for revisiting and pivoting the concept behind love hotels in Korea — turning them from places known best for amorous assignations (rented for as little as one hour) into attractive short-term rental options for hip young people and travelers. Today, it has operations in more than 200 countries.
The startup joined the unicorn club in June 2019 with a $180 million Series D round led by Singapore’s sovereign fund, GIC and Booking. And in 2021, SoftBank Vision Fund II invested about $1.7 billion in a Series E that valued the startup between $7 billion and $9 billion.

Earlier this year, Yanolja set up a subsidiary in Manhattan, Yanolja US, to speed up its move toward a Nasdaq listing. Last December, the company hired Alexandre Ibrahim, who had a stint at the New York Stock Exchange, as its new chief financial officer. Yanolja is reportedly preparing to raise $400 million in its initial public offering in the U.S., which could value the company between $7 billion and $9 billion.

However, Singaporean e-commerce platform Qoo10’s liquidity crisis has emerged as an important variable in Yanolja’s listing on the Nasdaq. Yanolja sold Interpark Commerce to Qoo10 in April 2023 and was promised to be paid $127.8 million in installments by 2026, but Yanolja has not yet received the remaining amount.


Viva Republica (Toss)
  • Founder: Seung-gun Lee
  • Total funding raised: $1.34 billion
  • Key investors: Alkeon Capital, Altos Ventures, Aspex Management, Bond Capital, Goodwater Capital, GIC, Greyhound Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Korea Development Bank, PayPal, Qualcomm Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia China
  • Revenue in 2023: $994.1 million (1.37 trillion KRW)
Seung-gun Lee, a former dentist, founded Viva Republica in 2015, the company behind the finance super app Toss, because he was fed up with the complexity of South Korea’s online payment systems. Lee was apparently not the only one tired of jumping through hoops to make payments, and his app quickly took off. Three years later, Viva Republica hit unicorn status after raising $80 million. The company was last valued at about $7 billion (9.1 billion KRW) in December 2022 after a $405 million Series G round. Today, Toss has more than 19 million monthly active users.

Earlier this year, Viva Republica hired advisers to go public next year in South Korea. It posted revenue of $994.1 million (1.37 trillion KRW) in 2023, and the company said it is likely to reach profitability this year.

Kurly
  • Founder: Sophie Kim
  • Total funding raised: $761 million
  • Key investors: Anchor Equity Partners, Aspex Management, CJ Logistics, DST Global, Hillhouse, Hugh Ventures, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Sequoia Capital China, SK Networks, Translink Capital
  • Revenue in 2023: $1.5 billion (2.07 trillion KRW)

Kurly has harbored dreams of an IPO for years, but it may finally be able to resume its listing plan.
Riding high on pandemic-driven tailwinds, the grocery delivery service initially planned to list in the U.S. in 2021. But then it shelved those plans in favor of an IPO in Seoul in 2023. Those plans ended up getting shelved, too, after the IPO window failed to reopen fully in 2023.
The company last year started diversifying its offerings, selling everything from high-end cosmetics to personal care products and supplements as it sought to bolster its revenue and gross merchandise volume ahead of its IPO.
But an IPO may be on the cards soon: Kurly recorded its first profitable month in December 2023, marking a significant milestone since its establishment in 2015. The company has long expressed its intention to pursue a listing after becoming EBITDA-positive.

Kurly was last valued at around $3.3 billion when it raised a $210 million pre-IPO round in December 2021, but reports suggest the company’s price tag has since shrunk to $669 million.

Dunamu
  • Founder: Hyoung Kim and Chi-hyeong Song
  • Total funding raised: $522 million
  • Key investors: Anchor Equity Partners, Altos Ventures Management, Hana Financial Group, Hanwha, Stonebridge Capital, Woori Technology Investment
  • Revenue in 2023: $751 million (1.02 trillion KRW)
Dunamu, the operator of Seoul-based cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, started as a stock trading service in 2012 and launched a crypto exchange in 2017. And in 2021, it became the first company to acquire a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in South Korea.

Currently South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange operator, Dunamu briefly enjoyed a juicy valuation of about $17 billion in 2022, when the crypto industry was still riding high. But as the hype around crypto faded in 2023 following the collapse of Luna and FTX, the company’s value similarly plummeted to $2.2 billion.
Dunamu saw an uptick in profit in the previous year, stemming from the recovery of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This resulted in a net profit of approximately $594 million in 2023, reflecting a 515.4% increase from the previous year. Nevertheless, the company has encountered obstacles in diversifying its revenue sources and managing losses within its subsidiaries. Dunamu is reportedly aiming to go public on the Nasdaq.

Musinsa
  • Founder: Man-ho Cho
  • Total funding raised: $330 million (~ 430 billion KRW)
  • Key investors: IMM Investment, KKR, Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management
  • Revenue in 2023: $662.5 million (883 billion KRW)
Along with its Kakao’s fashion platform Zigzag, Korean retail giant Shinsegae’s W Concept, and Naver-backed Brandi, Seoul-based fashion marketplace Musinsa is one of the biggest and most popular fashion marketplaces in South Korea. It offers more than 8,000 local and foreign fashion brands spanning diverse categories, including casual, sports and luxury to 13 million users.

The startup claims its annual GMV crossed $2.35 billion (3 trillion KRW) in 2022 and that its revenue hit $662.5 million in 2022.
The company is reportedly in talks with investment banks to run its initial public offering in South Korea in 2025. Founded in 2012 by CEO Man-ho Cho, the Korean fashion platform raised a $190 million Series C round led by KKR that valued it at approximately $2.76 billion in July 2023.

Danggeun Market
  • Co-Founders: Gary Kim, Paul Kim
  • Total funding raised: $205 million
  • Key investors: Altos Ventures, Aspex Management, Capstone Partners, DST Global, Goodwater Capital, Kakao Ventures, Reverent Partners, SBVA and Strong Ventures
  • Revenue in 2023: $96.3 million

Founded in 2015 by Gary Kim and Paul Kim, Danggeun Market runs Karrot, the hyperlocal marketplace app for owned goods. The platform has operations in South Korea, Canada, the U.K., the U.S. and Japan, and raised $162 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $2.7 billion in 2021.
The company posted its first profit in 2023 on the back of strong user growth in the U.S. and Canada. The company has since been expected to go public, but its CEO Gary Kim said in May that the company would consider an IPO after building a stronger financial base.

Bucketplace (O!House)
  • Founder: Seungjae Lee
  • Total funding raised: $261 million
  • Key investors: BRV Capital Management, Capstone Partners Korea, Industrial Bank of Korea, KB Investment and KB Investment & Securities
  • Revenue in 2023: $181 million
Founded in 2016, Bucketplace‘s home decorating and interior app OHouse started off simply as a community of people sharing interior design content. Today, the company is offering a variety of services that encompass almost everything involved in the residential space, ranging from home improvement, home repairs and maintenance to furniture delivery, moving services and even a garbage can pickup service.

The company last raised a $182 million Series D round at a valuation of $1.4 billion in 2022. It recently turned down an investment from China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba, according to local media reports.
Bucketplace’s business model is similar to Houzz, a California-based home remodeling software platform that’s preparing to go public as early as this year.

Moloco
  • Founder: Ikkjin Ahn, David Sehyuk Park
  • Total funding raised: $200 million
  • Key investors: DAOL Ventures, Draper Athena, EDBI, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Mirae Asset, Samsung Ventures, Smilegate Investment, Tiger Global Management
  • Revenue in 2023: $300 million

Moloco, an adtech startup that uses machine learning tech to build mobile campaigns, serves mobile app developers in a wide range of industries, like gaming, social networking, e-commerce, ride-sharing, food delivery and fintech, helping them turn their first-party user data into marketing, monetization and user acquisition campaigns.
The company was valued at more than $2 billion after EDBI, a Singapore-based private equity and venture capital arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board, acquired shares in the company from another investor.
The company had last raised $150 million in a Series C round led by Tiger Global Management at a valuation of $1.5 billion in 2021.

Moloco intends to pursue a public listing on the Nasdaq and is currently assessing the appropriate timing for its initial public offering, CEO Ikkjin Ahn said during a press conference in Seoul in December 2023.

ZigBang
  • Founder: SungWoo Ahn
  • Total funding raised: $248 million
  • Key investors: Altos Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Korea Development Bank, Hana Financial Group, and IMM Investment
  • Revenue in 2023: $97 million
ZigBang, a South Korean proptech startup, raised approximately $77 million (100 billion KRW) in Series E funding at a valuation of about $1.8 billion (2.5 trillion KRW) as its pre-IPO investment from the Korea Development Bank, IMM Investment and Hana Securities in 2022. It acquired a smart home business from Samsung SDS in January 2022 before getting Series E funding to enter the smart home industry.
The Seoul-based real estate platform has been in the red for three years in a row, which is in line with the state of the real estate market in the country.

Korea Credit Data
  • Founder: Kelvin Dong-ho Kim, Seong-ho Lee
  • Total funding raised: $196 million
  • Key investors: D-Camp, Fiserv, GS Holdings, Hanwha Life, Kakao, KB Securities, Kclavis, KT Investment, LG Uplus, Morgan Stanley Tactical Value, QUAD, Pavilion Capital, Playmake Ventures, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance
  • Revenue in 2023: $103 million
Founded in 2016, Korea Credit Data (KCD) is a Seoul-based fintech startup that offers an array of services for 2 million small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) merchants in Korea. KCD launched its flagship service, Cashnote, a bookkeeping app for SMEs, in 2017 to enable SME owners to track a comprehensive overview of cashflow, including revenues, credit card sales, expenditures, sales ledgers, and policy information.
The startup raised $77 million (100 billion KRW) in funding at a valuation of approximately $1 billion (~1.3 trillion KRW) from investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value in August 2023. KCD is reportedly planning to go public in 2025.

FT : Sotheby’s earnings plunge as art market catches a chill

Sotheby’s earnings plunge as art market catches a chill
Arch-rival Christie’s also suffering from slowdown in auctions

Sotheby’s has reported an 88 per cent plunge in its core earnings and a 25 per cent decline in auction sales, as a chill in the art market hits one of the industry’s most famous brokers.

The first-half figures at Sotheby’s main auction business reveal the extent of the financial pressure the group came under before it struck an investment deal with Abu Dhabi this month.

Weaker luxury spending in China is among the factors weighing on demand for fine art and affecting both Sotheby’s and historic rival Christie’s.

One of Sotheby’s marquee auctions fell short of expectations in May, when the winning bid for a Francis Bacon portrait of his lover George Dyer missed the low end of its $30mn-$50mn estimate.

Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund ADQ agreed to take a minority stake in the auction house this month, through a $1bn capital raise funded with its present owner Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, who has been looking to cut debt across his business empire.

Ahead of the deal, Sotheby’s told lenders that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) plunged 88 per cent to just $18.1mn in the first half of 2024. Even after it stripped out further costs — such as severance pay and legal settlements — from this earnings measure, Sotheby’s adjusted Ebitda fell 60 per cent to $67.4mn.

It also booked $558.5mn of revenue in the first six months of 2024, a 22 per cent fall on the $712.3mn recorded in the same period last year, according to an earnings report shared with its lenders.

The results cover Sotheby’s main auction business and do not include earnings generated under other arms of parent company BidFair, such as its financial services division that makes loans to art collectors.

Sotheby’s declined to comment.

The slowdown at Sotheby’s follows Christie’s last month publicly reporting a similar 22 per cent drop in auction sales over the same period.

Sotheby’s results also reveal that it intends to use $700mn from the planned capital raise to “reduce the company’s leverage”, with the deal with ADQ expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Founded in 2018, the ADQ sovereign wealth fund is tasked with fuelling development in the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi and is chaired by the UAE’s powerful national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan. An Abu Dhabi branch of the Louvre museum opened in 2017.

Sotheby’s reported more than $1.8bn of net “long-term debt” at the end of June, suggesting that it will still carry over $1bn of such debt even after the capital raise is completed. The company’s total liabilities stand at $4.3bn.

The wider Sotheby’s group has also borrowed money through creative means this year, with its financial services affiliate in April raising $700mn through new bonds backed by loans the auction house provides to art collectors.

Drahi took over Sotheby’s in a leveraged buyout in 2019, returning the centuries-old auction house to private ownership three decades after it listed on the New York stock market and bringing him into direct competition with French billionaire François Pinault, who owns Christie’s.

The deal handed Drahi a trophy asset alongside his Altice business empire, which he transformed from a niche cable company into a global telecoms conglomerate through a decade-long acquisition spree.

Now faced with rising interest rates and market jitters over a criminal probe into one of Altice’s co-founders, Drahi has been increasingly selling off assets in a bid to tackle his group’s over $60bn debt pile.

Earlier this month, Drahi agreed to sell a stake of nearly 25 per cent in BT Group to Indian billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s conglomerate, having borrowed heavily from banks to buy up shares in the British telecoms operator in previous years.

FT : Dating apps develop AI ‘wingmen’ to generate better chat-up lines

Dating apps develop AI ‘wingmen’ to generate better chat-up lines
Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Grindr are racing to create chatbots that can coach Gen Z users to flirt

Online dating giants are racing to create AI-powered “wingmen” that can coach frustrated Gen Z users on how to craft better chat-up lines and develop a budding romance.

Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Grindr said they are building or testing AI tools and chatbot assistants to do everything from generate icebreakers and building profiles to providing feedback on user flirting.

“AI is going to help people make better connections,” Grindr chief product officer AJ Balance told the Financial Times. “It’s that friend in the bar who’s helping you to ask someone out — but in the virtual context.”

This industry pivot towards AI-powered relationship advice and coaching comes as so-called dating app fatigue, particularly among younger users, continues to plague the online matchmaking market.

Online dating groups are betting that personalised feedback and advice from AI chatbots will bring disappointed daters back to their products. 

Balance said Grindr’s chatbot assistant, called the Grindr Wingman, would fend off burnout by helping users overcome the “biggest pain points” of online dating, including by generating conversation prompts based on users’ unique profiles and chat histories.

He added AI could ultimately eliminate the hard work of online dating: “The idea of a wingman talking to someone else’s wingman, maybe to see what it’d be like to go on a date or to find common areas of interest, is something that’s worth exploring,” he said.

Tinder, the product that first popularised the act of sorting through prospective matches’ profiles by swiping left or right, has likewise said that it aims to use AI “to support daters throughout the entire dating journey” within “the coming 12 months”.



The company has already begun a limited rollout of an AI profile-building tool, designed to alleviate “the burden of photo selection”, which scans a user’s personal photos and selects the best images. Bumble has said it is also developing a similar feature.

The moves come as online dating groups struggle to attract new users. Shares in $830mn Bumble, which owns the eponymous female-focused dating app as well as Badoo and Fruitz, tumbled more than 25 per cent in August after the company slashed its revenue outlook and acknowledged that a recent brand overhaul had not yet reignited user growth.

Meanwhile the $9.6bn giant of the dating industry Match Group is under pressure from activist investors to deliver a turnaround at its largest product, Tinder, which reported a seventh consecutive quarter of declines in paying subscriber numbers in the three months to June. 

A survey by OnePoll in March found that more than three quarters of dating app users had experienced burnout, with 40 per cent of them blaming their exhaustion on repeated failures to find a good match. 

Hinge, Match Group’s other major product besides Tinder, said it was also pursuing the “ultimate goal” of users feeling “like they have a personal matchmaker (driven by AI) inside the app”.

The relationship-focused app, which has continued to grow amid the recent slowdown at Tinder and Bumble, was the first mainstream dating product to provide prompts for users to answer on their profiles, such as “The way to win me over is . . . ” or “The dorkiest thing about me is . . . ”.

Hinge said it was planning to launch a chatbot tool offering AI-generated feedback on user answers to its signature prompts.

Match Group added it is investing in recruiting AI talent as a “game-changing” priority for its flagship dating products. The company said engineers from Hyperconnect, the South Korean social media company it acquired in 2021, would be redirected to build AI tools at Tinder and Hinge. 

Balance said Grindr was hiring relationship experts and sexual health experts to ensure that its chatbot assistant provided positive advice to users, while Bumble chief executive Lidiane Jones said that her company’s AI “conversation support” would “help our customers gain confidence to be their best selves”. 

Some experts remain unconvinced.

“The endpoint of all this is about turning love into an efficient matchmaking activity rather than an unpredictable turn of destiny,” said Carolina Bandinelli, a researcher at the University of Warwick. “And I don’t think that’s possible.”

CrunchBase : 5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In August: Laundry,

5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In August: Laundry, Space And Allergy Startups See Cash

Big bucks for dirty laundry
We don’t talk about laundry here much, so let’s clean that up.

This month New York-based Cents locked up a $40 million Series B led by Camber Creek. The startup provides a business management platform for all who take part in the dirty business of cleaning clothes — including laundromats, dry cleaners and even shared laundry rooms.

The company launched in 2021 and helps cleaners streamline all aspects of their business, including payments, delivery and even marketing.

Now backend platforms that help run business are nothing new, but one dedicated just to laundry is interesting. However, maybe it shouldn’t be surprising, considering it’s a critical errand we all must somehow do — even if that means sourcing it out.

Perhaps that’s why Cents has raised big bucks. The startup has now raised more than $77 million, per the company, and also announced it has acquired Laundroworks — a hardware-based payments system for paying at laundromats and shared laundry rooms.

Cents says its platform is currently used by more than 2,700 retail laundries — or about 1 in 14 laundromats in the U.S. — and more than 3,500 shared laundry rooms.
It would seem its investors are optimistic they won’t be taken to the cleaners.

Allergy protection in your pocket
In the U.S., approximately 33 million individuals manage food allergies, so going out to eat likely can cause some anxious moments.
Allergen detection company Amulet has something that may help. The Madison, Wisconsin-based startup raised a $5.8 million in Series A financing led by HealthX Ventures.

The startup has created the Allergy Amulet, a small device (that kinda looks like a USB drive) that allows people to test for food allergens on the go. The device has portable sensors containing rapid, on-site molecular detection technology that can find allergens, toxins and contaminants.

The startup also has another commercial device for restaurants, suppliers and manufacturers to identify food toxins and environmental contaminants.

If you have allergies, not knowing what’s in your food can be scary. Perhaps carrying this in your pocket can give a little peace of mind.

Space mining
Let’s face it, space is cool — so space startups make this list a lot.

This time it’s AstroForge, which locked up a $40 million Series A led by Nova Threshold.

The Southern California-based startup launched its first mission last year and plans its second later this year.

The new cash will be used for a third mission in which the company is hoping to dock a 440-pound spacecraft on a metallic asteroid next year. If that happens, it will be the first privately funded mission to land on a celestial body beyond the Earth-Moon system.

The company is looking to pioneer off-Earth mining to help address resource depletion.

AstroForge has now raised $55 million, so clearly investors believe that may just happen.

Not just for hangovers
Wellness is a growing sector in tech, as people look to live healthier and hopefully happier lives.

That includes the probiotics field, as ZBiotics’ recent $12 million Series A led by Spring Tide Capital raise can attest. The San Francisco-based startup is looking at ways ancient bacteria can help with health problems that are the result of modern diets and living — looking to develop genetically engineered probiotics that address the diets and toxic byproducts of modern living
If ZBiotics sounds familiar, it’s because the company made waves a few years ago when it unveiled its first product — its Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink. The drink breaks down acetaldehyde in the gut and lessens the hated day-after effects of alcohol.

The company says it has more than doubled sales every year of that product and is profitable. ZBiotics will use the fresh cash to transition from a single-product company to a portfolio of genetically modified organism probiotics for health.

Better wood
When a startup is called InventWood and says its goal is to create “superwood,” it gets our attention.

The Frederick, Maryland-based startup locked up an $8 million round this month from investors that included the Grantham Foundation and Builders Vision as it works on its proprietary technology that turns wood into a new high-performance, climate-resilient building material.

What is superwood? The company says it believes it can create a material that is stronger and lighter than steel with higher durability. The technology actually transforms wood’s nano-cellulose structure — nature’s strongest material — into something that can “offer fire, insect, and rot resistance with bulletproof hardness.”

The company is planning its commercial launch in early 2025.

Elctrek : Munich is getting 14 of these 352-ton electric aircraft tractors from

Munich is getting 14 of these 352-ton electric aircraft tractors from Goldhofer

Frequent visitors to Germany’s Munich Airport will be able to breathe a little bit easier soon, thanks to a new deal with the ground support experts at Goldhofer for 14 of its all-electric, 352 ton-rated PHOENIX E aircraft tractors.

You read that right: these electric aircraft tractors are rated to pull aircraft with a take-off weight of up to 352 tons at speeds up to 32 kph (approx. 20 mph). The Goldhofer packs more than enough power in its massive, 700 V lithium-ion battery packs, in other words, to rip the rear bumper off a Tesla Cybertruck and probably slow the rotation of the Earth if it could get enough traction. (That’s called “hyperbole” — Ed.)

The order was placed by EFM GmbH, a company that specializes in aircraft marshaling, de-icing, and air conditioning. And, in recent years, a company that’s become something of a pioneer in the field of zero-emission airport ground handling equipment (GHE).

“This latest investment in Goldhofer equipment is a further milestone for future-proof ground handling by EFM GmbH at Munich Airport,” says EFM’s Managing Director Jörg Abel. “As a pioneer in the field of zero-emission ground support, our goal is to make ground support fit for a sustainable future. Goldhofer’s PHOENIX E tractors make a valuable contribution to our endeavor and will help us achieve our vision of a green future.”

With a team of over 150 operative employees, EFM currently moves some 200,000 aircraft and performs up to 15,000 de-icing operations each year. Its 14 PHOENIX E tractors are expected to be delivered and in operation by 2028.

Electrek’s Take

With the short distances driven at limited speeds under extreme loads, GHE at airports present a nearly ideal use case for battery-electric vehicles. That’s a good thing, too — as demand for on-road fossil fuels drops, airports and airlines – historically responsible for about 4% Earth’s global warming – are becoming a bigger and bigger slice of a rapidly shrinking pie when it comes to fossil fuel emissions.

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FINANCIAL TIMES
-Sotheby's has reported an 88% drop in core earnings and a 25% decline in auction sales due to a cooling in the art market. The first-half figures reveal the financial pressure the group faced before signing an investment deal with Abu Dhabi earlier this month. Weaker luxury spending in China is affecting demand for fine art and affecting both Sotheby's and rival Christie's. Sotheby's marquee auctions fell short of expectations in May, with the winning bid for a Francis Bacon portrait missing the low end of its estimate. Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund ADQ agreed to take a minority stake in the auction house through a $1B capital raise.
-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, the commander of the Ukrainian air force, five days after a US-made F-16 jet crash that killed one of Kyiv's top fighter pilots. Zelensky stated that it was necessary to strengthen and protect people, personnel, and soldiers at the command level. Lt Gen Anatoliy Kryvonozhko was appointed acting commander in his place. This marks the third shuffle of a top military post in less than a year. The Ukrainian F-16 fighter crashed during a mission to shoot down Russian missiles and drones in one of the largest aerial attacks mounted by Moscow since its full-scale invasion.
-Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered the suspension of Elon Musk's X, escalating a feud between the billionaire and the top court. Justice Alexandre de Moraes gave regulators 24 hours to shut down access to the platform, which is used by over 20 million Brazilians. The move is expected to inflame public opinion, and any individual or company using virtual private networks to navigate around the block would face daily fines of around $8,000. Musk, a self-declared free speech absolutist, has criticized de Moraes for censorship requests and argued that the moves are part of a fight to protect democracy from misinformation and hateful content.
-Russian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has faced criticism for the rapid advances made by the Russian army in eastern Ukraine since Kyiv's invasion of Kursk. Critics argue that the redeployment of thousands of battle-hardened Ukrainian troops to the Kursk operation has weakened Ukraine's positions. Russian forces are closing in on Pokrovsk, taking several towns and forcing undermanned Ukrainian units to retreat. This loss would threaten the entire region's logistics for Ukraine's military, according to Ukrainian analytical group Frontelligence Insight.
-US Vice-President Kamala Harris has proposed a tax plan to tax the unrealized gains of wealthy Americans, sparking anger from Silicon Valley's wealthiest investors. The plan, part of President Joe Biden's 2025 federal budget, would require people with over $100M in wealth to pay at least 25% on a combination of their income and unrealized capital gains. This would change the way America's richest individuals are taxed, sweeping in investment gains before assets are sold or a person dies. Billionaires like Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos, as well as founders and backers of successful start-up companies, would likely face large tax bills.
-Goldman Sachs is set to cut a few hundred employees as part of an annual review process targeting underperformers. The cuts, expected to begin in the coming weeks, are expected to take a few months to complete. Goldman had 44,400 employees worldwide at the end of June. The bank paused its annual strategic resource assessment during the coronavirus pandemic and resumed it in 2022. Goldman expects the performance-related job cuts to be on the low end of its target range of 1% to 5% of its overall staff.
-Japan is aiming to boost military recruitment by improving living conditions on military bases. The country's defense ministry has requested a record $59B allocation for the fiscal year from next April, as part of a plan to raise the defence-related budget to 2% of GDP by 2027. The plan includes better satellite technology, automation and AI investments, and a strategy to make military careers more attractive. The budget will also allocate money for improved showers, toilets, and privacy in sleeping quarters. The funds will be used to build individual "capsule"-style sleeping rooms on naval vessels.
-Germany has deported 28 Afghans for the first time since the Taliban's return to power in 2021, as the country intensifies its immigration policy following a terror attack in Solingen. Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the move, stating that "whoever commits crimes cannot expect us not to deport [them]," but refugee advocacy groups criticized it as normalizing an Afghan regime guilty of human rights abuses, particularly against women and girls. Germany's security interests outweigh the interest of protecting criminals and potential terrorists, and it had previously refrained from deporting criminals to Afghanistan and Syria.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
-Vice President Kamala Harris has decided to use President Biden on the campaign trail, as she has risen from No. 2 on the Democratic ticket to No. 1. She must decide whether to distancing herself from the 81-year-old president, who has been pushed out by Democrats due to concerns about his age, mental fitness, and ability to defeat Trump, or to continue embracing Biden and his popular policies. Harris must also decide where Biden should campaign for her, how often, and what he should say. The decision comes as Harris moves from No. 1 on the 2024 election.
-Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court has ruled that mail-in ballots that are undated or have the wrong date on the outer envelope cannot be thrown out due to violating the state Constitution. The ruling, which is supported by voter advocacy groups, states that tossing ballots because they do not comply with a 2019 law requiring voters to date and sign the outer envelope would violate a State Constitution clause guaranteeing "free and equal elections" and pose a "substantial threat of disenfranchisement." The ruling could play a critical role in November in the battleground state, which polls show is a tossup between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. The ruling applies only to Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties, and whether it extends across the state will depend on county officials and guidance from the secretary of the commonwealth.
-Former President Donald Trump has announced his decision to vote against Florida's abortion rights measure, Amendment 4, following a conservative backlash. Trump had previously suggested he might support the measure, which would expand abortion access in the state. However, he clarified his stance and stated that he would be voting no, despite disagreeing with Florida's current ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The measure, known as Amendment 4, would allow patients to seek an abortion up to about 24 weeks of pregnancy.
-Former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican critic of Donald J. Trump, did not speak at the Democrats' convention, aiming to have more impact later in the race. Despite her commitment to defeating Trump, Cheney never took the stage in Chicago and has yet to endorse Kamala Harris despite repeated outreach from the vice president's campaign. On the eve of the convention, she posted a selfie with her daughter from a Taylor Swift concert in London. Trump responded by saying that "Liz has gone full democrat." Cheney has repeatedly pledged to do whatever it takes to stop Trump from holding office again, but has never taken the stage in Chicago and has yet to endorse Harris.
-The On Politics newsletter, a guide to the 2024 elections, has asked readers to share their favorite books about politics. Nearly 1,000 respondents responded, offering new reasons to read classics and drew out the politics in romance and fantasy books. The recent political moment has felt like a political thriller, with an epic co-written by Shakespeare and Clancy and a wash of the cacophonous political jostling captured by Richard Ben Cramer. The newsletter encourages readers to think broadly about fiction and nonfiction, with nearly 1,000 responding before submissions closed. The Times subscribers can read as many articles as they like.
-Gaza faces a new threat: polio, which has been stalking the population for nearly 11 months due to relentless bombardment. Under international pressure to prevent an outbreak of the crippling disease, Israel has agreed to temporary and localized pauses in fighting to allow United Nations aid workers to deliver vaccines to 640,000 children. Hamas, in a conflict where the warring sides have agreed on precious little, will also abide by the staggered pauses in fighting, which are scheduled to begin on Sunday. The Israeli military and Hamas are moving with relative haste to prevent an outbreak of the crippling disease. The first person to contract polio in Gaza in 25 years is Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan, who was the first person to contract the disease in Gaza in 25 years.
-A new bronze statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, has raised questions about how the wealthy city-state perceives its history. Singapore's prosperity has long set it apart from many other former British colonies, but it also clung to honoring its former colonial ruler. Raffles, who is considered to have founded modern Singapore in the early 1800s, has been the central character in a larger official narrative that says imperial Britain had set up Singapore for success as an independent nation. Dedications to Raffles dot the landscape of Singapore, with a business district, schools, and dozens of other buildings bearing his name. Two eight-foot likenesses of the man loom large in downtown Singapore.
-Two Colombian soldiers who fought for Ukraine are now under arrest in Moscow after stopping over in Venezuela, which apparently extradited them. The arrest follows their arrival and disappearance last month in Venezuela, a neighbor of Colombia and a Russia ally. The extradition of Colombian fighters could damage relations between Venezuela and Colombia, which share close economic and historical ties. The war in Ukraine is creating geopolitical ripples far from the battlefield, as the Kremlin's campaign to punish its enemies abroad escalates. The arrest of Colombian fighters in Moscow follows their arrival and disappearance in Venezuela, a neighbor of Colombia and a Russia ally.
-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the head of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, days after an F-16 warplane crash in what may have been a friendly fire incident. A Western official said that friendly fire from a Patriot missile battery might have brought down the jet, though mechanical failure and pilot error have not been ruled out. The dismissal of Oleschuk is the second high-profile departure this year, following Ukraine's top military leader, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, replacing him with Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky in February. Zelensky gave no specific reason for the decision, but said it was necessary to strengthen military leadership and take care of people, personnel, and soldiers.
-Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Mongolia next week, despite the Central Asian country's membership in the International Criminal Court (ICJ), which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2023. The visit is scheduled to commemorate the 85th anniversary of a joint military victory, and will be Putin's first trip to an I.C.C. member nation since March 2023, when the court accused him of war crimes in Ukraine and issued a warrant for his arrest. As part of their membership in the I.C.C., countries are bound by international law to arrest people for whom the court has issued arrest warrants, though that requirement is not always observed.
-The FBI has released a redacted version of a 2019 report that suggested Havana Syndrome was not caused by hostile action but by "social contagion." Some officials argue that the report raised doubts within the C.I.A. and parts of the Trump administration about the root causes of the syndrome and whether it was a functional illness spurred by stress. People with symptoms of Havana Syndrome and their legal representatives have long disparaged the F.B.I. findings, noting that investigators reviewed records but did not interview victims. The report was one of the first to argue that the syndrome was not a result of hostile action.

THE NEW YORK POST
-American and Iraqi forces have killed 15 ISIS terrorists in a joint raid in western Iraq, leaving seven US troops injured. The operation targeted ISIS leaders, who were armed with weapons, grenades, and explosive suicide belts. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) stated that 15 ISIS operatives were killed, and no civilians were injured or killed. The Iraqi military said that airstrikes targeted hideouts and an airborne operation followed. The US has 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq and 900 in Syria to combat ISIS. A coalition of over 80 countries, led by the US, was formed to fight the terrorist group, which lost its hold on territory in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019.
-Amazon is reportedly partnering with AI startup Anthropic to power its revamped Alexa, which is set to be released in October. The Seattle-based company plans to charge $5 to $10 a month for its new "Remarkable" version of Alexa, which uses powerful generative AI to answer complex queries. The "Classic" voice assistant will still be available for free. However, initial versions of the new Alexa using in-house software struggled for words, sometimes taking six or seven seconds to acknowledge a prompt and reply. Amazon's premium Alexa subscription will rely largely on Anthropic's artificial intelligence, not Amazon's. Anthropic, a major force in the AI industry, has raised nearly $8B-7B just this past year. Amazon has funneled resources into its smart devices for years despite the division's less-than-lucrative sales. Staff hoped customers would buy the devices and speak to Alexa to make purchases from Amazon. However, most customers have simply used the smart devices to answer questions, play music, and set timers.

Electrek : BYD’s bold move in Germany could spell big trouble for Volkswagen

BYD’s bold move in Germany could spell big trouble for Volkswagen

China’s leading EV maker, BYD, is making big moves to gain a foothold in Europe. BYD’s latest deal could spell big trouble for Volkswagen in Germany.

BYD is taking over its distributor in Germany, allowing it to sell its cars directly in Europe’s largest auto market.

On Friday, the Chinese auto giant officially signed an agreement with Hedin Mobility Group to buy out its subsidiary, Heden Electric Mobility.

Over the past two years, Heden Electric has imported vehicles and spare parts for BYD to sell in Germany. However, the move will give it more control over pricing and other key parts of distribution. BYD will now be able to sell its cars directly to buyers in Germany and set prices on its own terms.

“Together with its retail partners, BYD will further extend outstanding customer services and warranty support in Germany,” BYD’s executive vice president, Stella Li, said.

In addition to gaining control of distribution, BYD will also take over two flagship stores in Stuttgart and Frankfurt, Germany.

BYD is on the move in Germany
Anders Hedin, CEO of Hedin Mobility Group, explained, “The foundation is now in place to scale up volumes, and we look forward to continuing this journey in Germany together with BYD as a dealer.”

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024. As part of its long-term partnership, Hedin will still act as BYD’s dealer and retailer in the Swedish market.

Although no prices were revealed, Germany’s Handelsblatt reported it could be in the “low double-digit million” range with outstanding debts demanded by Hedin.

BYD’s big move is part of its ambitious plans to expand in Europe. BYD aims to control 5% of the European auto market by 2026. Germany will be a crucial part of achieving this. However, as of the end of July, the Chinese automaker accounted for a minor 0.1% with only 1,432 vehicle registrations in Germany.

That’s a far cry from the 120,000 BYD aims to sell in the country by 2026. Perhaps, as Hedin’s CEO claimed, more control over pricing and distribution will help ramp up output.

BYD is among several Chinese automakers, including XPeng and SAIC’s MG, with plans to expand in Europe. Meanwhile, EVs from China accounted for just 9.9% of European electric car sales last month.

The move comes after the EU announced plans last week to cut BYD’s EV import rate from China to 17% from 17.4%.

Electrek’s Take
Although BYD has struggled to gain traction in Europe, sales are expected to pick up as new models roll out.

Taking control over distribution in Germany is a big win for the company. BYD can now set prices with more flexibility on availability.

According to the latest European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) figures, EV registrations in Germany fell 36.8% last month. The drop dragged Europe’s EV market share down to 12.1% from 13.5% a year ago.

Volkswagen was among those with lower sales in July (-2.2%). The Volkswagen brand had 6.1% fewer vehicle registrations with its market share slipping to 10.8% in July from 11.1% a year ago.

The lower sales come as Volkswagen aggressively seeks to cut costs. It’s even considering closing Audi’s assembly plant in Brussels, which would be its first plant closure in 26 years.

Meanwhile, Volvo led Europe’s new car registration growth, with over 22,000 vehicles sold in July, up 36.7% year over year. Volvo’s cheapest EV, the EX30, is the main growth driver, with over 47,100 models registered through July.

With the ability to set prices, BYD may be able to match Volvo’s growth. According to research from Rhodium Group, BYD earns 14,300 euros ($15,400) on each Seal U model sold in Europe. That’s even more than in China with a 1,300 euro ($1,400) profit per unit sold.

Even with higher tariffs, BYD has the flexibility to offer lower prices. Does Volkswagen have the freedom? It’s not likely.

It will be interesting to see how the deal impacts BYD’s sales in Germany next year. After topping Honda and Nissan to become the seventh largest automaker globally in Q2, BYD looks to overseas markets to boost growth.

WSJ : Tennis Is Hot Now. The U.S. Open Is Bursting at the Seams.

Tennis Is Hot Now. The U.S. Open Is Bursting at the Seams.
The tournament is taking place as the sport is basking in a broader cultural renaissance, with record attendance numbers and fashion moments to show for it

If you want to find some consensus among tennis fans at the U.S. Open, ask them how they feel about the crowds.

Young and old. Novices and lifelong pushers. Alcaraz obsessives and Djokovic defenders. All agree that the Open’s notoriously raucous masses have swelled like a rising junior’s ego.

“A couple years ago it felt empty on a Tuesday,” said Leigh Silver, 34, of Philadelphia, wearing a worn-in tie-dye U.S. Open cap, as she waded through the crowds to make her way over to see Frenchman Arthur Fils take on America’s Learner Tien. Every year, said Silver, there are just more and more people.

It’s more than a feeling: On Monday night, Open organizers sent a proud press release noting that the tournament’s opening day set a single-day attendance record of 74,641 people. Many on the grounds grumble about the tournament overselling tickets, jamming in too many people. But the last grand slam of the year rolls in as tennis is basking in a broader cultural renaissance. The overstuffed U.S. Open is wobbling with those aftershocks.

Yes, there’s Zendaya’s “Challengers” and Netflix’s “Break Point.” World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is doing his best Zoolander impression in Gucci billboards and Naomi Osaka’s mega-bowed kit is going viral. But many fans I spoke with laid the credit, or perhaps blame, for this tennis boomlet on social media.

“It’s all over TikTok,” said Michelle Aninye, 27, of New York on the second day of the Open. She had stopped outside the mammoth Arthur Ashe arena to take a photo (using, it should be noted, a film camera, yet another Gen-Z fixation) with her friend Bolu Johnson, 28. The pair cited TikTok-happy players like Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff with boosting the sport’s cachet. “You’re seeing some of the best players be a little bit more active,” said Aninye.

It goes beyond athletes’ accounts. Dip a toe into tennis fandom and your social media feeds will quickly spiral into a deluge of not just scorelines, but videos dedicated coach-box chatter, rivalries and even (at the risk of being lecherous) player’s gym-toned bodies.

In the days leading up to the tournament, shirtless clips of top America players like Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton volleyed around the internet. The sport’s fandom has certainly evolved from just envying Roger Federer’s backhand.

“Challengers” got at least one thing right according to Nikolaj Hansson, the founder of Copenhagen-based tennis apparel brand Palmes. He was in town because his brand collaborated with Sperry on shoes, an occasion it celebrated by hosting people in a box at the Open on Monday.

The movie, Hansson said, sent the message that “tennis is a very sexy sport.”

He was not the only person to use this descriptor: “It’s sexy,” said Silver. “There’s definitely an aesthetic aspect of tennis that’s appealing with the prep outfits and following the player drama.”

There’s certainly some cosplay happening at the Open. Comic-Con has Spider-Man costumes. Tennis has nipped white skirts.

On the tournament’s second day, Janet Lee and Nathan Lian of New York, approached Arthur Ashe Stadium dressed like “Challengers” extras, he in a polo, she in a tennis skirt. “I gave him a color code, white on white,” said Lee, 26. Lian, also 26, almost followed the dictate perfectly—his shorts were more of a khaki.

They could be excused with picking a more Wimbledon-centric color scheme as Lee said her TikTok feed had been stacked with videos of influencers getting ready for that prim British slam.

“The fits are very cute,” said Lee.

That’s not to say that Lee and Lian were tennis noobs. They quickly rifled off the players they were itching to see: Alcaraz, Sinner and American top ten-er Jessica Pegula. And they’d been to the Open enough times for Lee to clock that the tournament now offered its signature vodka-based Honey Deuce cocktail on tap, shortening lines for this gulped-down $23 drink. Lee and Lian had taken advantage: each held a plastic Honey Deuce cup. (Though they, like most fans I spoke with, were only attending a single day, as tickets for the tournament have become increasingly, some say prohibitively, expensive.)

Harvey Rosen, 69, of New York, who’s been coming to the Open on and off for about 25 years, had a simple, deuces-and-aces answer for why the sport’s popularity continues to swell: The play is just darn good right now.

As his faded 2009 Open T-shirt indicated, Rosen has been a fan long enough to have seen the glory days of the big three, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. But he was thrilled by the play of Carlos Alcaraz in particular, whose rivalry with Sinner has added a new edge to the sport. As has Iga Świątek’s clay court dominance and Aryna Sabalenka’s walloping forehand. Also enticing American fans, Coco Gauff is defending her title at the Open this week and a handful of American men hover in the top 20 of the sport.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate, sidled up to a blistering match between France’s Adrian Mannarino and Belgium’s David Goffin on Thursday, his toddler son in tow. A self-described tennis fanatic, he said he’s been coming to the Open since 2006.

Over that time, he said, “we’ve seen a crescendo in fan enthusiasm and public enthusiasm about tennis because of rivalries.”

His thoughts on the crowds? “I love people,” said Ramaswamy, ever the politician.

Rosen was less enthused. The Open, he said, was “getting uncomfortably crowded,” as he skirted the crush by sitting in the shade outside Ashe, a cup of lemonade in his hand. Still, it wasn’t dimming his passion for the tournament. “It’s the best sporting event of the year,” he said. And he didn’t need TikTok to know that.

FT : Big Oil calls on Kamala Harris to come clean on her energy and climate plan

Big Oil calls on Kamala Harris to come clean on her energy and climate plans
Democratic presidential candidate has dropped her opposition to fracking but still supports green transition

The US oil industry and Republicans are demanding Kamala Harris clarify her energy and climate policy, as the Democratic candidate tries to please her progressive base without alienating voters in shale areas like Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state.

On Thursday, the vice-president said she no longer supported a ban on fracking, the technology that unleashed the shale revolution. But Harris's reversal has not quelled attacks from Donald Trump or US executives that she would damage the country's oil and gas sector.

The heads of the US’s two biggest oil lobby groups said the Democratic candidate must also say whether she would keep or end a pause on federal approvals for new liquefied natural gas plants, and whether she supported curbs on drilling imposed by the Biden administration.

“Based on what we know of her past positions, the bills that she has sponsored, and her past statements she’s taken a pretty aggressively anti-energy and anti-oil and gas industry stand,” said Anne Bradbury, head of the American Exploration and Production Council.

“These are significant and major policy questions that impact every American family and business, and which voters deserve to understand better when making their choice in November,” she said.

Mike Sommers, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, Big Oil's most powerful lobby group, said Harris should say whether she would stick with Biden administration policies that had unleashed “a regulatory onslaught the likes of which this industry has never seen”.

Trump, the Republican candidate, has accused Harris of plotting a “war on American energy” and has repeatedly blamed her and President Joe Biden for high fuel costs in recent years.

On Thursday, he vowed to scrap Biden administration policies that "distort energy markets". The former president has called climate change a hoax and his advisers have said he would gut Biden's signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act.

The debate over Harris’s energy policy comes as she and Trump court blue-collar workers in Pennsylvania, a huge shale gas producer that employs 72,000 workers — a potentially decisive voting group in a state Biden won narrowly in 2020.

Harris said in 2019 that she supported a fracking ban but told CNN on Thursday she had ditched that position and the US could have “a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking”.

US oil and gas production has reached a record high under Biden, even as clean energy capacity has expanded rapidly.

But gas executives in particular have been alarmed at a federal pause on building new LNG export plants, which supply customers from Europe to Asia, saying the policy will stymie further US shale output.

Toby Rice, chief executive of Pennsylvania-based EQT, the US’s largest natural gas producer, said Harris should lift the restrictions, which he argued would compromise energy security.

“Ignoring her anti-fracking statement four years ago for a second, can we talk about the recent LNG Pause that was put in place this year?”, he said. “This is a policy that has received massive criticism from all sides — our allies, industry and environmental champions . . . a step backwards for climate and American energy security.”

While Biden put climate at the centre of his and Harris’s 2020 White House campaign, Harris has been largely silent, and made only a passing reference to climate change in her speech at the Democratic convention.

“It looks like the Harris campaign has concluded that it’s safer to avoid antagonising producers or climate activists by skirting these issues entirely,” said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners.

Climate-focused voters are less vexed than energy executives by the lack of explicit policy from Harris.

“Let’s be clear: the most important climate policy right now is defeating Donald Trump in November,” said Cassidy DiPaola of Fossil Free Media, a non-profit organisation. “All the wonky policy details in the world won’t matter if climate deniers control the White House.”

Last week the political arms of the League of Conservation Voters, Climate Power and the Environmental Defense Fund unveiled a $55mn advertising campaign backing Harris in swing states, focused on economic rather than climate issues.

In contrast, Trump has courted oil bosses who are backing his pledge to slash regulation and scrap clean energy subsidies. His campaign received nearly $14mn from the industry in June, according to OpenSecrets, almost double his oil haul in May.