29 afghanistan falls apart, Rivian files for IPO

amid the haze of dehydration brought on by the unforgiving august sun, we began to ponder life’s big questions. which came first, racoons’ bandit masks or their reputation for banditry? why does hollywood keep casting british actors despite their terrible american accents? what the heck are carbon tariffs and why should I care? well, we don’t have answers to the first two, but we did a deep dive on that last question in our weekly wednesday segment, hottakes. check it out before racoons steal your internet too.

big idea: afghanistan falls apart

1. a suicide bomber ripped through a crowd at kabul’s airport this week, killing nearly 200 afghan civilians and american soldiers. Joe’s argument that afghanistan is no longer a haven for terrorists is kaput - but the withdrawal continues. Joe resisted pressure to extend the withdrawal date beyond august. for once, we have a ‘murican foreign policy decision based on logic, not fear.
2. in response to the attack, a drone strike took place in eastern afghanistan, reportedly killing the planner of the operation. notably, the attack was organized by an offshoot of IS, perhaps the taliban’s most potent rival in the region.
3. more than 100k people have been airlifted out of kabul in recent days, with the massive operation already slowing pace. the europeans have more or less completed their evacuation, and the americans are not far behind. the taliban have increasingly cut off access to the airport to native afghans, who are now attempting to flee the country via its porous borders with iran and pakistan.
4. the taliban continues its PR offensive with the west, condemning the suicide bombing, allowing female civil servants to continue working, and meeting with american leaders, including the CIA director. 75% of the afghan government’s budget comes from foreign aid, so the taliban are more than willing to play ball.

story to watch: another tesla competitor is going public

1. Rivian, an EV startup based in michigan and california, filed paperwork for an IPO late this week. it’s clearly trying to capitalize on a booming stock market and the frenzy over electric vehicles. in many ways, Rivian is the anti-Tesla - it’s notoriously secretive, initially plans on making money with delivery vans instead of consumer products, and has major corporate investors like Amazon.
2. the company is aiming for an $80 billion valuation, well above the market caps of GM ($72 billion) and Ford ($53 billion), and almost double the $43 billion valuation another EV startup, Lucid, earned in july
3. this comes amid other big moves in the EV market. Waymo, Google’s play in the auto industry, recently replaced its CEO to speed commercialization efforts, a chinese EV company raised $500 million in a funding round, and Ford is doubling production of its EV truck amid higher than expected demand. who knew EVs could prove to be so...electric.

this week’s image: bear gone rogue

• (CNN) a bear in california attempts to break and enter. in his defense, some little blond girl broke into the bear’s house last week and ate a bunch of porridge. 

this week’s number: 1.6% of corporate giving targets criminal justice reform

1. a recent analysis found that of the $4.2 billion pledged by 50 of america’s largest companies in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the BLM movement, only $70 million, or 1.6% of that total, was given to charities involved in criminal justice reform. the vast majority of the money went instead towards education, health, and economic inequality causes.
2. while those latter causes are no doubt worthy endeavors, corporations are clearly afraid to touch the politically-sensitive issue of justice reform, despite an unjust system being most directly responsible for Floyd’s murder. we suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that big business is more scared of rich WASPs than your average black consumer.

what we’re reading: “Where You Are is Not Who You Are”

1. a brief memoir by the first-ever Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Ursula Burns shares intimate details about her rise from summer intern to head honcho at Xerox. she discusses her upbringing in new york city’s projects, her turnaround of Xerox, and her mother, who inspired the book’s title.
2. Burns is now a corporate director at Uber, and it’s clear she’s not through with public life. what shines through her storytelling is a resiliency forged in the fires of overt sexism and racism she faced, a grit and unwillingness to quit which is hard to find these days.

and, in case you missed it:

• a 21-year-old kid turned out to be the hacker behind stealing data on 50 million T-Mobile customers
• the supreme court struck down Joe’s latest national eviction moratorium, while just 11% of rental aid has been distributed
• a florida family bought a house for 900k - despite there being an enormous oak tree growing out of the middle of the kitchen floor

the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal, and Ahmed. learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!