Philippa Kaur

Modelo has been America’s favourite beer ever since Bud Light enraged conservative imbibers in 2023 with a “woke” social-media campaign featuring a trans woman. Now Constellation Brands, which owns the Modelo brand in America, also finds itself a victim of the country’s rightward lurch. According to the company, Hispanic customers, who make up half its total, are staying home and drinking less as they fear being swept up in the federal government’s mass deportations. More

Modelo has been America’s favourite beer ever since Bud Light enraged conservative imbibers in 2023 with a “woke” social-media campaign featuring a trans woman. Now Constellation Brands, which owns the Modelo brand in America, also finds itself a victim of the country’s rightward lurch. According to the company, Hispanic customers, who make up half its total, are staying home and drinking less as they fear being swept up in the federal government’s mass deportations. More

The Tesla Diner, an electric-vehicle (EV) charging hub and roadside restaurant that opened in July in Los Angeles, is not your typical service station. The architecture is sleek and retro-futuristic. The menu offers traditional diner fare with a deluxe twist (including wagyu-beef chilli). Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot, serves popcorn at an open-air cinema, which drivers can enjoy while their vehicles charge. More

Foul winds keep blowing Orsted’s way. On August 22nd Donald Trump’s administration ordered the offshore-wind developer to stop work on its $4bn Revolution Wind project off the coast of New England. The development, which is part-owned by BlackRock, an American investment titan, is roughly four-fifths completed, with all licences and approvals in hand. More

One of the more touching on-screen relationships is that between C-3PO and R2-D2, two robots who appear in the “Star Wars” films. The actors behind the droids got on less well. “He was in a box he couldn’t do anything with,” Anthony Daniels dismissively said of Kenny Baker, the man who played the part of R2-D2. “Rude to everyone”, was Baker’s verdict on his fellow actor. More

ON AUGUST 27TH Nvidia performed what has become a quarterly ritual beating of expectations. Analysts forecast that the chipmaker would sell $46bn-worth of semiconductors in the three months to July. It made closer to $47bn. Its latest Blackwell graphics-processing units (GPUs), whose unrivalled number-crunching prowess has won over artificial-intelligence modellers, are flying off the shelves. So are its GB-series AI superchips, which combine two Blackwells with a general-purpose processor. Nvidia probably sold over 600,000 Blackwells and nearly as many GBs, nearly 20% more than last quarter, accounting for almost 60% of total revenue. It is on track to sell 2.7m and 2.4m, respectively, this year. More

“IT’S NOT fun being a public company,” lamented David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, earlier this year. Firms should proceed with “great caution” before pursuing an initial public offering (IPO), he warned, owing to the additional burdens associated with being listed. Coming from the boss of an investment bank that makes its money partly by taking companies public, the comments carried a good deal of weight. More

Having once described Joe Biden’s electric-vehicle (EV) policies as “lunacy”, Donald Trump briefly seemed to be softening his opposition when he bought himself a Tesla in March. It was his way of helping Elon Musk, the carmaker’s boss and Mr Trump’s one-time pal. Yet after the pair fell out spectacularly a few months later, Mr Trump put his Tesla up for sale. More