Tesla Is More a Musk Dream Stock Than a Meme Stock
The sort of bad news or numbers that nudge ordinary stocks off a cliff can weirdly lend Tesla wings. Take those dreadful sales figures it just reported, which somehow sent the stock up 5% in a flat market. The ostensible reason was that, while they missed the consensus forecast, it was only by a little and a relief rally kicked in. It's a handy rationale let down only by its glaring logical inconsistencies. The forecast had already dropped by 23% since the start of the year. Moreover, during that time, Tesla's triple-digit earnings multiple had actually increased further — a prerequisite for relief is some angst beforehand, surely?
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15 minutes ago
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Israeli PM nominates Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize - as Gaza ceasefire talks continue
Israel's prime minister has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement as he attended a dinner at the White House, and the US president appeared pleased by the gesture. Speaking to reporters, Mr Netanyahu said the US and Israel are working with other countries who would give Palestinians "a better future" - and indicated those in Gaza could move elsewhere. "If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave," he added. Indirect negotiations with Hamas are currently taking place in the hope of securing a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, which could lead to the release of Israeli hostages in the territory. Mr Trump has suggested an agreement could be finalised this week. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
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18 minutes ago
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Who's Running American Defense Policy?
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Remember when the United States engaged in an act of war against a country of some 90 million people by sending its B-2 bombers into battle? No? Well, you can be forgiven for letting it slip your mind; after all, it was more than two weeks ago. Besides, you've probably been distracted by more recent news. The United States has halted some weapons shipments to Ukraine, despite the increased Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities as Moscow continues its campaign of mass murder. Fortunately, last Thursday Donald Trump got right on the horn to his friend in Russia, President Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, Putin apparently told Trump to pound sand. 'I didn't make any progress with him today at all,' Trump said to reporters before boarding Air Force One. Meanwhile, the president has decided to review AUKUS, the 2021 security pact between the United States, Australia, and Great Britain, a move that caught U.S. diplomats (and their colleagues in Canberra and London) off guard and has generated concern about the future of the arrangement. Technically, the president didn't decide to review it, but rather his handpicked secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, did. Well, it wasn't him, either; apparently, the review was ordered by someone you've likely never heard of: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a career-long Beltway denizen who initiated the process on his own. But at least someone's keeping an eye on Asia: CNN is reporting, based on a Ukrainian intelligence report, that North Korea is planning to send as many as 30,000 more soldiers to assist Russia in its war of conquest. Of course, this is largely based on a single source, but Pyongyang has already sent at least 10,000 troops into the European battlefield over the past nine months, and things are going poorly for Russia's hapless conscripts, so perhaps a deal really is in the works to provide the Kremlin with another shipment of foreign cannon fodder. All of this raises an obvious question: Who's running America's foreign and defense policies? It's not the president, at least not on most issues. Trump's interest in foreign policy, as with so many other topics, is capricious and episodic at best. He flits away from losing issues, leaving them to others. He promised to end the war in Ukraine in a day, but after conceding that making peace is 'more difficult than people would have any idea,' the president has since shrugged and given up. It's not Marco Rubio—you may remember that he is technically the secretary of state, but he seems to have little power in this White House. It's not Hegseth, who can't seem to stop talking about 'lethality' and trans people long enough to deliver a real briefing that isn't just a fawning performance for Trump. (As bad as Hegseth can be, he seems almost restrained next to the State Department's spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, whose comments about Trump—she thanks God for him from her podium and says he is 'saving this country and the world'—have an unsettling Pyongyang-newsreader lilt to them.) It's not the national security adviser. That's also Rubio. Apparently, American defense policy is being run by Bridge Colby, and perhaps a few other guys somewhere in the greater Washington metropolitan area. Their influence is not always obvious. The order to halt shipments, for example, came from Hegseth, but the original idea was reportedly driven by Colby, who backed the moves because, according to NBC, he has 'long advocated scaling back the U.S. commitment in Ukraine and shifting weapons and resources to the Pacific region to counter China.' (Per the NBC reporting, an analysis from the Joint Staff showed that Colby is wrong to think of this as an either-or situation; the Ukrainians need weapons that the U.S. wouldn't even be using in a conflict in the Pacific.) In this administration, the principals are either incompetent or detached from most of the policy making, and so decisions are being made at lower levels without much guidance from above. In Trump's first term, this kind of dysfunction was a lucky break, because the people at those lower levels were mostly career professionals who at least knew how to keep the lights on. In Trump's second term, though, many of those professionals have been either silenced or outright replaced by loyalists and inexperienced appointees. Ironically, allowing various lower offices to fill the policy void empowers the unknown appointees whom MAGA world claims to hate in other administrations. The Trump White House's policy process—insofar as it can be called a 'process'—is the type found in many authoritarian states, where the top levels of government tackle the one or two big things the leader wants done and everything else tumbles down to other functionaries, who can then drive certain issues according to their own preferences (which seems to be what Colby is doing), or who will do just enough to stay under the boss's radar and out of trouble (which seems to be what most other Trump appointees are doing). In such a system, no one is really in charge except Trump—which means that on most days, and regarding many issues, no one is in charge. In Trump's current administration, irrational tariffs and brutal immigration enforcement are the two big ideas. Both have foreign-policy ramifications, but they are being pursued by Trump and his team primarily as domestic political issues. Everything else is on the periphery of the White House's vision: Pakistan and India, nuclear weapons, the Middle East (or nuclear weapons and the Middle East), the Ukraine war. All of these get Trump's temporary attention in the form of a quick evaluation of their utility to Trump personally, and then they're dumped back outside the door of the Oval Office. Even the Iran strike—one of the most important military actions taken by the United States in years—has apparently lost its luster for the president. Trump said that Iran's nuclear program was 'obliterated'; other parts of the U.S. defense and intelligence communities said they weren't sure; Israel thanked America; Trump moved on. This might be because the political advantage of the bombings never materialized: The American public disapproved of Trump's actions, and so the president is now looking for some other shiny object. Today, that trinket seems to be in Gaza. Over the weekend, Trump claimed that he has a 'good chance' of making a deal, perhaps in the coming week, with Hamas for the release of more hostages. This is foreign policy in the Trump era: Announce deals, push their resolution out a week or two, and hope they happen. If they don't—move on and declare success, regardless of any actual outcomes. No one in Trump's administration has any incentive to fix this, because serious changes would be admissions of failure. Repopulating the National Security Council with people who know what they're doing means admitting they were needed in the first place. Hegseth or top people resigning would admit the enormity of the mistake that Trump made in hiring them. Reining in policy freelancers and curtailing the power of lower-level policy makers (as Rubio has at least tried to do with regard to diplomacy) is to admit that senior leaders have lost control of their departments. This administration was never directed or staffed with any coherent foreign policy in mind beyond Trump's empty 'America First' sloganeering. Less than a year into his second term, it's clear that the goals of Trump's 2024 run for the presidency were, in order of importance, to keep Trump out of prison, to exact revenge on Trump's enemies, and to allow Trump and his allies to enrich themselves by every possible means. No one had to think much about who would defend America or conduct its diplomacy; Trump's appointees were apparently chosen largely for shock value and trolling efficacy rather than competence. The rest of the world's most powerful nations, however, are led by grown-ups and professionals. Some of them are enemies of the United States and are quite dangerous. 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18 minutes ago
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Kansas committee wants stadium deal done by end of the year
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Chiefs and Royals will get another year to consider a deal with Kansas using Sales Tax and Revenue or STAR Bonds if they cross the state line. Legislators do not want that process to go beyond this calendar year. Construction on Kansas City Buc-ee's delayed Monday's unanimous vote of the eight-member Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) was to be expected, although Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins was critical of Democrat, Gov. Laura Kelly and Lt. Gov. David Toland. During the meeting, Hawkins said that previously, he's been of the opinion that extending the STAR Bond offer was not a good idea. But on Monday he said sometimes you don't know everything. 'Sometimes you find out things that really kind of take you back,' Hawkins said. 'For instance, when you find out that one of the teams went from November to February without ever getting a response from the administration, from the Department of Commerce.' Department of Commerce Director of Marketing and Communications Patrick Lowry expressed disdain for Hawkins comments. 'This is categorically false. Communication and negotiations between the Commerce Department and both the Chiefs and Royals have been ongoing since the legislature approved the STAR Bonds statute to include stadiums for professional teams. During the period from November 2024 to February 2025, there have been countless meetings with both teams to discuss numerous deal points as part of making proposals and counterproposals,' Lowry said. After the meeting, State Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes said she's had five updates either through the Commerce Department or from individuals. Sykes, a Democrat, said she believed Hawkins' statement was political. 'I think they're having conversations, Whether or not the teams are liking what they're getting as the offers and as they're negotiating. I mean these are businessman that we are talking to, so they're looking at the best interests for themselves,' Sykes said to reporters after meeting. The Royals sent out a statement following Monday's decision: 'We are again grateful to Chairman Masterson and the members of the Legislative Coordinating Council for the dedicated time and energy they have put forth. We also appreciate their recognition of the diligent work that goes forward on multiple fronts in this complex process.' 'Our focused discussions continue as we seek the best option for the future generational home of the Kansas City Royals. The extension of the Kansas STAR Bond legislation enables us to continue our pursuit of the right choice for our fans, our organization and our regional community.' The Chiefs also released a statement: 'We are grateful to the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council for extending the dates of the STAR Bond legislation. We continue to have fruitful conversations with community leaders and public officials, and this legislation allows us to further evaluate our potential options for a stadium in Kansas. As we have said from the beginning, the Chiefs are committed to making the best long-term decision for our fans, our franchise, and all of Chiefs Kingdom.' Second person dies in Independence farmhouse fire that killed 13-year-old girl Republican State Senate President Ty Masterson said a similar statement Monday that he told to our John Holt on Friday, June 27. He believed Gov. Kelly's administration was more interested in getting the Royals than the Chiefs while everyone else has the opposite priority. Masterson said if Kansas can get both teams though, that'd be great. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
