WORD ON THE STREET 

• Double Dippers – Bank of America is having to cough up $250 million because regulators said the company double-dipped on overdraft fees. The bank hit customers with an overdraft fee and then hit them again every time the transaction was attempted again by merchants.

• Toyota And Stellantis Tell POTUS To Calm Down ON EVs – All out on electric vehicles? Don’t get too excited, say Toyota and Stellantis. They said President Joe Biden is being “overly optimistic” about a new rule that would require two-thirds of new vehicle sales to be EVs in less than ten years. They accuse the president of not considering the massive problems that need to be solved, including the scarcity of materials and the lack of charging infrastructure

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• New Feature: Door Opens While Car Is Being Driven – Maybe they can frame it as a good thing. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the Ford Escape after repots that the door might open while the car is moving. There were 118 complaints on Ford Escape SUVs from the 2020 and 2021 model years.

• Anheuser-Busch Executive Expresses “Shock” Over Losses – Anson Frericks, former president of operations for Anheuser-Busch, says he was shocked by losses the company suffered after trying to use a transgender to market Bud Light. “I think I’m even more shocked, though, about the lack of clear response that the current CEO has delivered during this crisis,” he said. Bud Light was replaced by Modelo Especial as the top beer seller in the United States in May.

HOT SPOTS: What’s Going on in Geopolitics

• Ukraine In NATO… After The War – Latvia’s Prime Minister said that “everyone is on the same page: Ukraine will be in NATO,” after the most recent summit. Of course, there’s a catch – only after the current war with Russia ends. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the lack of a specific timeframe is “absurd,” complaining that “it looks like there is no readiness either to invite Ukraine to NATO or to make it a member of the Alliance.
  

• Trump Opposes Cluster Bomb Decision – Former president Donald Trump, rapidly becoming the presumptive Republican nominee (if you believe the polls), came out against President Joe Biden’s decision to arm Ukraine with cluster munitions. “Joe Biden is needlessly and dangerously leading us into World War III, which would be a nightmare beyond imagination – obliteration!” he said.

• NATO Blasts China On Taiwan, Russia – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the “Chinese government’s increasingly coercive behavior abroad and repressive policies at home challenge NATO’s security, values, and interests.” He alleged that Asian countries believe China will follow Russia’s actions in Ukraine and that many are “clearly concerned that what is happening in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow.

CUTTING EDGE: What‘s Happening In Tech

• Blue Origin Rocket Explodes During Test – Well, that’s why we have testing. On June 30, a BE-4 engine blew up 10 seconds into a test. Blue Origin simply said that the engine “ran into an issue.” (Talk about burying the lede.) No one was hurt.

• That’s The Worst Name I’ve Ever Heard – Mercifully, Google has dropped, or “deprioritized,” plans for an AI-powered mobile chatbot app aimed at younger users. It would have featured digital characters that would boast “human-like conversations” that are “interesting for Genz.” The working name was “Bubble Characters.” Ugh.

• Tesla Settles Solar Roof Lawsuit – Tesla will pay $6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by Solar Roof customers who were surprised by price increases in 2021. About 6,300 customers canceled their contracts because of the company reportedly changing the terms post-sale.

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