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Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining the United Auto Workers – marking the Detroit union’s first victory at a foreign-owned automaker plant in the South.
The historic vote could have wide-ranging impacts on other automakers, organized labor and the overall U.S. automotive industry.
VW and the union, barring any challenges to voting, are expected to move forward with bargaining over a contract for roughly 4,300 workers covered under the vote.

Volkswagens are seen in the employee parking lot at the Volkswagen automobile assembly plant on March 20, 2024 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Elijah Nouvelage | Getty Images

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers notched a big win this weekend.
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining the UAW late Friday – marking the Detroit union’s first victory at a foreign-owned automaker plant in the South. The vote could have wide-ranging impacts on other automakers, organized labor and the overall U.S. automotive industry.

“This is a really profound victory for the UAW and the labor movement in general,” said Alex Hertel-Fernandez, a former Department of Labor official and an international and public affairs professor at Columbia University. “It’s also a really decisive victory.”
Union organizing passed with 73% of the vote, or 2,628 workers, in support of the UAW, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw voting from Wednesday to Friday.
The German automaker and union, barring any challenges to voting, are expected to move forward with bargaining over a contract for roughly 4,300 workers covered under the vote. The NLRB still needs to certify the results.
Here’s what investors should know about the vote and next steps for the UAW:

UAW momentum

The UAW saw the Friday vote as the union’s best shot at organizing the VW plant following strikes and record contracts with General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis in 2023.

The union, led by President Shawn Fain, is using the deals with the Detroit automakers, which included record wage increases and benefits, as springboards for an unprecedented organizing drive of 13 non-union automakers in the U.S.
Other than Volkswagen, the union is targeting: BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota and Volvo. The drive covers nearly 150,000 U.S. autoworkers, according to the UAW.
“This is likely to be contagious,” said Hertel-Fernandez. “Where workers see successes in organizing or strikes, it tends to inspire further action in that industry and beyond it.”

Kelcey Smith displays UAW buttons in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 10, 2024. 
Kevin Wurm | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Next up for the union are 5,200 Mercedes-Benz workers at an SUV plant in Vance, Alabama. Workers at the facility earlier this month filed NLRB paperwork for a formal election that is scheduled for May 13 through May 17.
“We’re going to carry this fight on to Mercedes and everywhere else,” Fain told VW workers Friday night following the historic vote. “So, thank you all, thank you all for your fight, for your work. And let’s get to it. Let’s go to work. And let’s win more for the working class all over this nation.”

Impact on labor costs

Top of the list of likely impacts from organizing efforts at VW is labor costs.
UAW organizers used the record contracts with the Detroit automakers to gain support for the union in Chattanooga. UBS said in an investor note that VW has a relatively low operating margin in the U.S., and “substantial pay increases could undermine the profitability outlook of the local US operations.”
But for the Big Three Detroit automakers — and their shareholders — the VW organizing drive could be a positive.
GM, Ford and Stellantis have higher all-in labor costs than non-organized automakers such as VW. Depending on contract details, labor pushes like VW and others could somewhat even that playing field.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain cheers the U.S. President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., March 7, 2024. 
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

“Overall, given the substantial pay gap between UAW-unionized workers (Detroit-3) and non-unionized workers in the southern states, it can be assumed that the vote will lead to more upwards pressure on wages for VW over time,” UBS said in an investor note.
Before last year’s contracts with the Detroit automakers, all-in labor costs for Ford, GM and Stellantis were between $63 and $67 an hour, according to industry experts. That compared with workers at non-domestic, or transplant, automakers such as VW at $55 an hour. Those costs included all benefits and health care costs.
Still, there’s no guarantee that VW – a much smaller automaker in the U.S. – will agree to the same terms as the traditional domestic automakers.
Fain on Friday said “the real fight begins now,” referring to the expected negotiations between the union and VW.

Union jobs

The VW vote was widely expected to be the easiest in the UAW’s organizing plans, as the union had already established a presence there following votes that narrowly failed in 2019 and 2014.
The margin of success in Chattanooga could bode well for UAW efforts at other automakers, according to Sharon Block, a professor at Harvard Law School and former DOL and NLRB official.
“I think it’s really hard to overestimate the importance of this moment and to overestimate just how strategic the UAW has been in this campaign, which I think suggests that this is not the last time that we’re going to be talking about a UAW victory in an auto plant in the South,” Block said.
Though opposition during the VW vote was sparse, the most notable instance came a day before the election began, in the form of a letter from six Republican governors condemning the UAW’s push to organize automotive factories in the South and warning of potential layoffs.
“We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good-paying jobs to our states. These jobs have become part of the fabric of the automotive manufacturing industry. Unionization would certainly put our states’ jobs in jeopardy — in fact, in this year already, all of the UAW automakers have announced layoffs,” read the statement, which was signed by governors in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Block called the letter an “empty threat” and “cynical ploy” but noted that increased labor costs can result in fewer jobs.
Fewer jobs in the U.S. automotive industry also means fewer eligible workers for union membership.
Membership with the UAW at the Detroit automakers has significantly fallen in recent decades, as free trade agreements allowed automakers to produce vehicles for cheaper elsewhere.
UAW membership, largely made up of autoworkers but also including workers in agriculture and aerospace, peaked at 1.5 million in 1979. As of last year, the union’s membership was 370,239 workers – down 3.3% from 2022 and 75% from its peak. Workers from the Detroit automakers only made up roughly 150,000 of that 2023 total.
– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

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Luxury real estate sales increased more than 2%, posting their best year-over-year gains in three years, according to Redfin.
The median price of luxury homes hit an all-time record of $1,225,000 during the period.
Real estate experts and brokers chalk up the divergence to interest rates and supply.

Real estate is increasingly a tale of two markets — a luxury sector that is booming, and the rest of the market that continues to struggle with higher rates and low inventory.
Overall real estate sales fell 4% nationwide in the first quarter, according to Redfin. Yet, luxury real estate sales increased more than 2%, posting their best year-over-year gains in three years, according to Redfin.

Real estate experts and brokers chalk up the divergence to interest rates and supply. With mortgage rates now above 7% for a 30-year fixed loan, most homebuyers are finding prices out of reach. Affluent and wealthy buyers, however, are snapping up homes with cash, making them less vulnerable to high rates.
Nearly half of all luxury homes, defined by Redfin as homes in the top 5% of their metro area by value, were bought with all cash in the quarter, according to Redfin. That is the highest share in at least a decade. In Manhattan, all-cash deals hit a record 68% of all sales, according to Miller Samuel.
The flood of cash is also driving up prices at the top. Median luxury-home prices soared nearly 9% in the quarter, roughly twice the increase seen in the broader market, according to Redfin. The median price of luxury homes hit an all-time record of $1,225,000 during the period.
“People with the means to buy high-end homes are jumping in now because they feel confident prices will continue to rise,” said David Palmer, a Redfin agent in Seattle, where the median-priced luxury home sells for $2.7 million. “They’re ready to buy with more optimism and less apprehension.”

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The Trump International Hotel and Tower New York building is seen from the balcony of an apartment unit in the AvalonBay Communities Inc. Park Loggia condominium at 15 West 61 Street in New York on May 15, 2019.
Mark Abramson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The luxury market is also benefiting from more supply of homes for sale. Since wealthy sellers are more likely to buy with cash, they are not as worried about trading out of a low-rate mortgage like most homeowners. That has freed up the upper end of listings, creating more inventory and driving more sales.

The number of luxury homes for sale jumped 13% in the first quarter, compared to a 3% decline for the rest of the housing market, according to Redfin. While overall luxury inventory remains “well below” pre-pandemic levels, the number of luxury listings that came online during the first quarter jumped 19%, the report said.
“Prices continue to increase for high-end homes, so homeowners feel it’s a good time to cash in on their equity,” Palmer said.
Still, not all luxury markets are booming, and the strongest price growth is in areas not typically known for luxury homes. According to Redfin, the market with the fastest luxury price growth was Providence, Rhode Island, with prices up 16%, followed by New Brunswick, New Jersey, where prices were up 15%. New York City saw the biggest price decline, down 10%.
When it comes to overall sales of luxury homes, Seattle posted the strongest growth of any metro area, with sales up 37%. Austin, Texas ranked second with sales up 26%, followed by San Francisco with a 24% increase.
Luxury homes sold the fastest in Seattle, with a median days on the market of nine days, followed by Oakland, California, and San Jose, California.
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Private Medical is at the forefront of a new type of health care for the ultra-wealthy that has taken concierge medicine to a whole new level.
The company, founded by Dr. Jordan Shlain, pioneered a highly personalized, all-in-one service that’s more akin to the most sophisticated family offices for investments.
The rise of family office-style medical practices reflects the surge in wealth among families worth $100 million or more and growing demand for hyper-personalized, data-driven health care from an aging class of billionaires and millionaires.

Dr. Jordan Shlain, founder of Private Medical.
Credit: Jordan Shlain

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
When people ask Dr. Jordan Shlain to describe his medical practice, he says simply: “It’s a family office for your health.”

“Family offices typically have a goal of preserving wealth,” he said. “Our goal is preserving your health. After the age of 24 you’re a depreciating asset health-wise. So we aim to decrease the slope of the curve for as long as possible.”
As depressing as that sounds for patients, Shlain’s strategy is paying off as a business model. His company, Private Medical, is at the forefront of a new type of health care for the ultra-wealthy that has taken concierge medicine to a whole new level. Rather than simply offering on-call doctors and faster visits, Private Medical has pioneered a highly personalized, all-in-one service that’s more akin to the most sophisticated family offices for investments.
Like family offices, Private Medical has an in-house team to manage a family’s entire health portfolio – from fitness and dietary tracking to longevity research, surgeries and medical emergencies. It now serves more than 1,000 wealthy families, with offices in California — San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills — New York and Miami, and more offices on the way.
Private Medical’s team of 135 physicians, nurses, clinical staff, pharmacists and medical support professionals provides 24/7 on-call service, including home and office visits when needed. Private Medical doesn’t advertise and gets most of its business through referrals. It prefers to call patients “members.”
Shlain declined to give specifics on price, but clients of Private Medical say it charges $40,000 a year for each adult patient and $25,000 per patient under the age of 18. The annual fees cover the cost of visits, tests and procedures in the office, but not hospitalization.

The rise of family office-style medical practices – some of which are charging up to $60,000 a year for membership – reflects the surge in wealth among families worth $100 million or more and growing demand for hyper-personalized, data-driven health care from an aging class of billionaires and millionaires.
The market for concierge and personalized medical services for the wealthy is expected to grow by more than 50% by 2032, to nearly $11 billion a year, according to Precedence Research.

Shlain says insurance companies, overloaded doctors and inflated prices have turned the health-care system into what he calls a “sick care system.” Private Medical, for those who can afford it, aims to be proactive, running frequents tests and diagnostics on patients, constantly updating them with new research and science, and getting detailed information about a patient’s lifestyle, habits, family lives and work lives, Shlain said.
Shlain, whose father was a laparoscopic surgeon and whose mother had a Ph.D. in psychology, started out doing house calls for the Mandarin Oriental hotel in San Francisco. He took a “crash course” in high-end hospitality from top hotel concierges and realized health care should be more like five-star hotel service than an impersonal system of long wait times and error-filled diagnoses.  
“I will know everything about you to help you make the best decisions in your life,” he said. “I’m 70% doctor, 15% psychologist, 10% rabbi and 1% friend.”
Private Medical’s job is often to protect its patients from the broader medical system, Shlain said. One of his patients, a 38-year-old entrepreneur and big donor to a major hospital, was admitted for a bowel obstruction. The hospital CEO and chief of surgery rushed to start performing surgery. Shlain pushed back and recommended waiting a day or two. The patient recovered on his own while in the hospital “and walked out without surgery,” Shlain said.
Shlain also creates personalized medical kits for patients to take with them when traveling or working. When one patient scratched his cornea playing beach volleyball in the Bahamas, the patient was able to treat his eye with a prescription in his medical kit rather than searching for a hospital on one of the nearby islands.
Like most services for the ultra-wealthy, the main benefit of Private Medical is access. Shlain has spent over 20 years developing relationships with more than 4,000 specialists in various medical and scientific fields to connect patients with the right person for their specific needs.
With roots in Silicon Valley and many tech clients, Private Medical is also connected to biotech startups doing cutting-edge research and exploring new treatments. Shlain said Private Medical conducts due diligence on four or five new companies a month to keep pace with fast-changing science and research.
When one patient was diagnosed with severe depression, Shlain worked with a new “precision psychiatric” group at Stanford that does an MRI of the brain and uses connectomes (a map of the neural connections in the brain) to determine which medication was best for treatment.
“He got the right medication, and now he’s better,” Shlain said.
Private Medical also prides itself on its technology, developed with some of the top CEOs and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Its platform helps both doctors and patients easily access data, manage appointments and workflows.
Two big areas for his wealthy patients are longevity and sleep. With longevity, Shlain said there’s no magic bullet or diet or medication to roll back time, even for billionaires. The real goal, he said is to “enable you to live with your physical and mental faculties intact for as long as possible with the fewest high-quality interactions with the health-care system as possible.”
“Your good outcome is our income,” he said.
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Disney Entertainment CTO Aaron LaBerge is leaving the company.
LaBerge will stay on until June and a search for his replacement is already underway.
His departure is for personal reasons, according to a company memo, but continues a brain drain of veteran Disney executives in recent years.

The Walt Disney company logo is displayed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Dec. 1, 2023.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Aaron LaBerge, the chief technology officer for Disney Entertainment and ESPN, is leaving the company, according to an internal memo.
LaBerge is taking a job as CTO of PENN Entertainment, which operates ESPN Bet, the sports media company’s licensed online sportsbook. He’ll be responsible for driving technology strategy as a top executive in the company’s interactive division. LaBerge is leaving for personal reasons related to his family and will stay on at Disney until June, the memo said.

LaBerge has been a key figure in developing Disney’s streaming services and, more recently, integrating advertising into Disney+. He’s also led efforts to unify Hulu and Disney+ within one streaming application, which debuted last month.
At ESPN, LaBerge has been a central figure behind the company’s streaming services, including ESPN+, the upcoming sports streaming application co-owned by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, and ESPN’s flagship streaming service that will launch in 2025.
His departure adds to a growing list of veteran Disney executives who have left the company in recent years. They include former CEO Bob Chapek, former head of streaming Kevin Mayer, ex-finance chief Christine McCarthy, former Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn, former Disney general counsel Alan Braverman, ex-head of communications Zenia Mucha, and former president of Walt Disney Pictures, Sean Bailey.
“We want to thank Aaron for the contributions he has made and the leadership he has provided at Disney over his 20 years,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Disney Entertainment co-Chairmen Dana Walden and Alan Bergman in an internal note to employees. “It is a silver lining that he will continue to help Disney and ESPN win, as he transitions to a role at PENN Entertainment — where he will be a key partner in the continued growth and success of ESPN BET (and the rest of their Interactive business).”
According to his biography, LaBerge has been responsible for “helping set the vision and strategic leadership for how the Company uses technology to enable storytelling and innovation, drive its business, and create amazing consumer experiences with entertainment and sports content.”

A search for LaBerge’s successor is already underway, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous because the transition plan is private. Chris Lawson, currently Disney’s executive vice president of content operations and one of LaBerge’s direct reports, will take over LaBerge’s job on an interim basis when he departs.
LaBerge first joined Disney in the late 1990s as part of the company’s takeover of Starwave, a Paul Allen-founded company that partnered with ESPN before Disney fully acquired it it in 1998.

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Delta is hiking wages, including 5% pay increases for flight attendants and ground handlers.
The carrier is the most profitable of the U.S. airlines.
The pay increase matches a raise it gave workers last year.

Delta Air Lines jets are seen on a taxiway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on Dec. 22, 2021.
Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters

Delta Air Lines said it is raising staff pay by another 5% this year as the country’s most profitable airline prepares for the busy summer travel season.
The pay increase, which starts June 1, applies to workers including flight attendants, ground handlers, mechanics and some office workers, among others. It does not apply to pilots, who are unionized and ratified a contract last year for big pay increases after stagnant wages during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA launched a unionization campaign of Delta’s cabin crew in late 2019.

Delta raised staff pay by 5% last year and the pay hike unveiled Monday is the third the Atlanta-based carrier has announced since 2022. With the new raises, starting pay at Delta’s mainline operation in the U.S. will rise to $19 an hour from $16.55.
“With this increase in base pay and starting rates, we continue our commitment to provide Delta people with industry-leading total compensation for industry-leading performance,” CEO Ed Bastian said in a memo to staff on Monday.

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Robin Hayes will run Airbus’ North America business.
Hayes left JetBlue in February, saying he stepped down on the “advice of my doctor and after talking to my wife, it’s time I put more focus on my health and well-being.”
Hayes’ departure announcement from JetBlue came weeks before a judge knocked down JetBlue’s plan to purchase budget carrier Spirit Airlines.

Robin Hayes, chief executive officer of JetBlue Airways Corp., speaks during an Economic Club of New York event in New York, US, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Former JetBlue Airways CEO Robin Hayes will run Airbus’ North America arm, replacing Jeffrey Knittel, the airplane maker said Monday.
Hayes left JetBlue in February after the airline’s planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines fell apart following a federal judge’s decision to block the deal in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Justice Department.

Hayes, a longtime airline executive who has also held senior leadership roles at British Airways, will start in June. He will be managing Airbus’ business in the region, where it has expanded production of narrow-body jets in Mobile, Alabama. It has customers including Delta Air Lines, his former employer JetBlue and the carrier’s acquisition target Spirit.
When Hayes announced his departure from JetBlue in January, he said, “Extraordinary challenges and pressure of this job have taken their toll, and on the advice of my doctor and after talking to my wife, it’s time I put more focus on my health and well-being.”

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Cricket world cup matches will take place in the U.S. for the first time ever in June, marking a push to grow the sport in North America.
Cricket is hugely popular in countries such as India and Pakistan. The average value of an Indian Premier League team has exceeded $1 billion, according to Forbes, and investors are taking notice.
Experts and fans say the historic world cup could open the doors for the sport’s future in the U.S.

USA Cricket Vice-Captain Aaron Jones poses next to a giant cricket ball, installed at a marketplace to mark 100 days to go for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, in Miami, Florida, on Feb. 22, 2024.
Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images

A major cricket world cup is coming to U.S. soil for the first time in June as the sport sets out to chart its future in the U.S.
Cricket, a game similar to baseball, originated in England and has long been popular there. But the sport has boomed in India, the world’s most populous country, as well as some other former British colonies.

In the U.S., it is mostly immigrants and their children who enjoy cricket. But in 2023, the sport got a boost as Major League Cricket debuted in the U.S. with six teams: the Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom.
And now, the U.S. men’s national cricket team will represent the home country in this year’s International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup. The teams play in the Twenty20, or T20, format, the shortest and most popular form of the sport. While traditional cricket matches can last as long as five days, a T20 match typically lasts around three hours.
This year’s world cup is co-hosted by the U.S. and the West Indies and will take place in three U.S. stadiums — in Texas, Florida and New York — as well as several locations in the West Indies.
“This is a historic opportunity for the U.S.,” said former ESPN cricket writer Peter Della Penna.

Success in India

While it hasn’t broken through in the U.S., cricket has seen success in such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies. But it’s arguably made the biggest mark in India, where it’s the most popular sport in a country of more than 1.4 billion people, according to research firm Statista.

Cricket is already a big business in the Asian subcontinent. In 2022, it accounted for 85% of India’s national spending on sports, according to ISPO, which hosts trade shows for the sports business.
And viewership continues to break records. Disney said its Disney Star Network broadcast of the professional Indian Premier League, or IPL, tournament in 2023 saw a record 505 million viewers in India, making it the first one to draw more than half a billion viewers.
The average value of an IPL team has exceeded $1 billion, according to Forbes, and investors are taking notice. In June 2021, private equity firm RedBird took a 15% stake in IPL team Rajasthan Royals for $37.5 million.
A year later, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the country’s governing body for the sport, sold television and digital broadcasting rights for a record $6.2 billion. That gave the IPL the second-highest per-match value for a sporting league in the world, behind the NFL, according to Jay Shah, honorary secretary of the BCCI.
The early June world cup matchups will bring some of that star power to the U.S., with a high-profile India-Pakistan competition and culminating in a U.S.-India match.
“[The U.S.-India] match has already been sold out with 34,000 seats at the venue in New York,” Della Penna said. “That just gives you a sense of the magnitude of the opportunity that [the U.S. is] going to have during the world cup — with a television audience that’s unprecedented for any match that the U.S. has ever been involved with before — when you consider the Indian market and other markets like England or Australia.”
The ICC’s decision to host part of the world cup in the U.S. — and especially the highly anticipated India-Pakistan match — was a strategic move to take advantage of the potential for growth in the country, according to USA Cricket. The U.S. will host the tournament a few years before cricket comes to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Della Penna, who has covered cricket for nearly two decades, also said the move is financially motivated.
“[The ICC] made sure to put the India and Pakistan match on U.S. soil because they know there’s a couple million people in the [South Asian] diaspora who are massive cricket fans,” Della Penna said.

Cricketers Liam Plunkett, center left, and Dwayne Bravo, center right, pose for pictures with children during a media day to mark 100 days to go until the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 co-hosted in the West Indies and the U.S., at Times Square in New York City, Feb. 22, 2024.
Mike Stobe | Icc | Getty Images

Tasmai Krishnan, a teenage cricket enthusiast in India and host of podcast “Cricstatic,” said the sport is an “integral part” of Indian culture. With new sports such as pickleball gathering popularity, Tasmai said he hopes cricket will also grow in the U.S. and he’s interested to see how the U.S. will fit into the global cricket circuit after the world cup.
“Coming from an Indian perspective, this opens another range of cricket here because it unlocks another country that is going to be a fierce competitor in the future,” Tasmai said. “This is a great learning opportunity for the U.S. team, and to see a nation like the U.S. participating, it really fills my heart with joy.”

‘A dream come true’

The match between the U.S. and India will strike an interesting balance for Indian Americans in choosing which country to cheer for, Della Penna said.
One of those people is George Samuel, a resident of Nassau County, New York, where some of the world cup games will take place. Samuel is the head coach and director of Queens United Cricket Academy, which cultivates cricket skills for children and teens. Though he immigrated to the U.S. from India in 1987, he also coached cricket in England, Australia and South Africa. When he got to New York, he wanted to pass down the sport.
“I was super excited,” he said about learning the world cup would be taking place in his backyard. “I never thought that this was going to happen when I came to this country — it’s a dream come true.”
Samuel, who already has his tickets secured, said he believes this world cup will be a launching pad for cricket to take off in the U.S. — but he’s not rooting for either side in the final match.
“I like to see good cricket. I don’t have loyalty. I want to see the U.S. show good talent, and I want to see that good bat and bowl and lots of sixers,” he said. A “sixer” is the cricket equivalent of a baseball home run.
Samuel’s teenage son, Jeremy, said that despite his family’s Indian roots, he’s cheering for the U.S., the country he was born in, because he wants to play cricket professionally and for the U.S. team.
Jeremy also has his tickets for the world cup, along with his friends, none of whom have witnessed a major cricket match before.
“It’s really exciting to be able to watch it here — it’s 15 minutes away from my house,” he said. “It’s a big moment for us to finally see one. … It makes me feel happy because now more people will know about cricket and will start to play it.”
Others are more interested in supporting the Indian team against its traditional rivals.
California resident Mythili Sankaran, who said she has watched every match India has played in the last 25 years, said she isn’t even watching the U.S.-India match and is traveling to New York only for the India-Pakistan installment of the world cup.
“Growing up in India with the Indian team, we were always the underdogs. Now, India is one of the most, if not the most, promising and powerful team in world cricket,” said Sankaran, who said she played cricket at the university level in India before immigrating to the U.S.
“To be able to watch all these international stars, to watch an India-Pakistan match in the U.S. — I didn’t think I’d do that in my lifetime,” she said. “I think the cricket audience in the U.S. is maturing largely due to Indian Americans, and it’s about time.”
And ultimately, Sankaran said, she hopes the world cup marks the start of a new era.
“What I’m hoping is … people get to see women’s cricket in the U.S. as well,” she said. “The U.S. women’s cricket team is actually doing quite well, so I’m hoping that there will be a lot more awareness and visibility to that.” More

Most people taking GLP-1 medications say they are spending less on eating out at restaurants and ordering takeout, according to a new Morgan Stanley survey.
A smaller share of those surveyed say they are tightening their purse strings in the grocery store.
The findings add to concerns that soaring demand for GLP-1s could take a bite out of the bottom lines of some of the biggest restaurant companies and packaged food makers.
Some food and restaurant companies are more at risk than others.

A food delivery messenger carries a take out bag outside aSweetgreen in Manhattan on September 14, 2023.
Jeenah Moon | The Washington Post | Getty Images

A highly popular group of weight loss and diabetes drugs is decreasing some consumers’ appetites — and also how much they spend on food.
Most people taking those medications, called GLP-1s, say they are spending less on eating out at restaurants and ordering takeout, according to a Morgan Stanley survey released on Tuesday. A smaller share of those surveyed say they are tightening their purse strings in the grocery store.

The findings add to the mounting concerns that soaring demand for GLP-1s could take a bite out of the bottom lines of some of the biggest restaurant companies and makers of packaged snacks like Doritos, Oreos and Hershey’s Kisses. GLP-1s include Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss injection Wegovy and diabetes counterpart Ozempic, along with Eli Lilly’s popular weight loss treatment Zepbound and diabetes injection Mounjaro. 
The rising demand for these four drugs isn’t expected to ease anytime soon. In the new survey, Morgan Stanley analysts said they expect the market for GLP-1s to be worth $105 billion by 2030. They also estimate that 31.5 million people, or around 9% of the U.S. population, will take GLP-1s by 2035. 
“There is growing evidence that the drugs have a meaningful impact on consumer behavior and spending on groceries and restaurants,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in the survey. “All of these dynamics suggest GLP-1 drugs’ impact across consumer sectors is set to increase as drug uptake grows and the drugs reshape behavior among a demographic group that represents a disproportionate share of calorie consumption.”

But many food and beverage companies have reassured investors over the last few months that it’s still unclear how much those drugs will lower their revenue. Morgan Stanley also said in the survey that GLP-1s are a manageable long-term pressure on restaurants, not an “existential risk.”  
“Restaurants offer convenience and/or experience in addition to food, and that won’t change with GLP-1 usage,” the analysts said. But some restaurants may have to adapt to health-conscious consumer behaviors, they noted. 

Healthier fast-casual restaurants and coffee are better positioned to manage the increasing consumer use of GLP-1s, including Cava, Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Starbucks, according to Morgan Stanley. Domestic service restaurants and “more indulgent” fast-casual restaurants could face more pressure, including Jack in the Box, Wendy’s, Wingstop, Shake Shack and Portillos. 
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley views Hershey as the most at-risk among packaged food companies given its American consumer-focused snacking portfolio. Companies that offer healthy foods should benefit from GLP-1s, including Vital Farms, Bellring Brands, Simply Good Foods, the firm said. 
Among beverage companies, those that produce alcoholic drinks are at the highest risk. Those include Molson Coors, Boston Beer, Constellation Brands and Diageo, according to Morgan Stanley.

Boxes of Wegovy made by Novo Nordisk are seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024. 
Hollie Adams | Reuters

Morgan Stanley conducted the survey of 300 consumers who are currently taking GLP-1 drugs in February. Those people are “early in their weight loss journey,” but are making substantial changes to their diets and spending, according to the firm.
When asked to gauge how their monthly spending on eating out at restaurants has changed since starting a GLP-1, 63% of the consumers said they are spending less, 28% said they are spending about the same amount, and 9% said they are spending more. Meanwhile, 61% said they are spending less on deliveries or takeout from restaurants, 31% said they are spending around the same amount and 8% said they are spending more. 
Fewer participants said they lowered their grocery spending since they started a GLP-1: 31% said they are spending less, 46% said they are spending around the same amount and 23% said they are spending more. 
The survey also found that people tended to stick with the same restaurant but changed the kinds of meals they ordered.
When asked whether they finish less of the food they order in one sitting when dining out, 42% of participants said “always” or “most of the time,” and 44% said “occasionally.” Forty-one percent said they are “always” or “most of the time” ordering smaller portions of food overall, while 43% said they are only sometimes doing that. 
Consumers in the survey reported reduced food consumption across the board, but the difference is most notable on snacks, confections, carbonated and sugary drinks and alcohol, according to the Morgan Stanley survery. Roughly half of people reported cutting consumption of regular sodas, alcohol and salty snacks by 50% or more since starting on weight loss drugs. Twenty-two percent reported stopping alcohol consumption entirely. 

Based on those results, Morgan Stanley forecasts that consumption of ice cream, cakes, cookies, candy, chocolate, frozen pizzas, chips and regular sodas could fall 4% to 5% by 2035. The firm also expects a roughly 3% decrease in consumption of alcohol, frozen popcorn or pretzels, crackers, cereals, cheese, gum or mints and energy drinks, among others. 
Pre-packaged fruit juices, soups, sports drinks, coffee, frozen diet meals, tea, granola and energy bars are among the foods that will see the least reduction in consumption, the firm said. 
Notably, the survey also found that 40% of participants reported smoking traditional cigarettes at least weekly before starting a GLP-1, but that number declined to 24% after treatment. Weekly e-cigarette use similarly fell from 30% to 16% of respondents. 
However, Morgan Stanley said it is cautious about drawing conclusions from the survey on the impact of GLP-1s on addictive behaviors such as smoking. The firm said it is monitoring the ongoing medical research in that area.

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