This Week in Review ☕️: BYD signs $1bn Turkey plant deal | Justin Bieber performs at India’s mega wedding | Doubts on Biden fitness | The world’s biggest restaurant | Samsung workers to strike indefinitely |

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Quick Bites:

Business 💵: China Tesla rival BYD signs $1bn Turkey plant deal 🚘

China’s biggest electric car maker BYD has agreed a $1bn (£780m) deal to set up a manufacturing plant in Turkey, as it continues to expand outside its home country.

Ps; The new plant will be able to produce up to 150,000 vehicles a year.😵

The facility is expected to create around 5,000 jobs and start production by the end of 2026. 😎

The deal was signed at an event in Istanbul attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and BYD’s chief executive Wang Chuanfu.

Key Highlights:

💡 Last week, the EU took action to protect the bloc’s motor industry by raising tariffs on Chinese EVs.

💡 The decision saw BYD hit with an extra tariff of 17.4% on the vehicles it ships from China to the EU, which was on top of a 10% import duty.

💡 Turkey is part of the EU’s Customs Union, which means vehicles made in the country and exported to the bloc can avoid the additional tariff.

💡 The Turkish government has also taken action to support the country’s car makers by putting an extra 40% tariff on imports of Chinese vehicles.

💡 In May, US President Joe Biden ramped up tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars, solar panels, steel and other goods.

💡 The White House said the measures, which include a 100% border tax on electric cars from China, were a response to unfair policies and intended to protect US jobs.

💡BYD, which is backed by veteran US investor Warren Buffett, is the world’s second-largest EV company after Elon Musk’s Tesla.

💡The company has been rapidly expanding its production facilities outside China.

Our Thoughts 💭:

BYD’s plant will eventually have an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles and is projected to generate 10,000 jobs. Way to gooooo 😎

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Culture 💃🏻: Justin Bieber performs at India’s mega wedding 💍

Justin Bieber has become the latest in a string of international stars to perform for the son of India’s richest man and his wife-to-be as they celebrate their upcoming wedding.

The Canadian singer flew in to perform for Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant – along with their guests – in Mumbai at the weekend.

He had a lot to live up to🙈. The couple’s first pre-wedding party featured Rihanna, while the second – a cruise around the Mediterranean – had performances from 90s teen heartthrobs The Backstreet Boys, singer Katy Perry and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

Ps; So it is with bated breath that Ambani wedding-watchers – of whom there are now legions around the globe – await news of who will perform at the actual wedding itself this weekend. 😵

Rumours swirling on the internet suggest it could be Adele, but the family are remaining tight-lipped.🤐

Key Highlights:

💡 No expense is being spared on the wedding of Mukesh Ambani’s youngest son, putting it in a different league from even the most extravagant of Indian weddings. It outshines even his daughter’s nuptials, which featured a headline-grabbing performance by Beyoncé.

💡 Last weekend Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant celebrated their sangeet ceremony – a night of music and dance ahead of the wedding ceremony. In typical style, the Ambanis went above and beyond what would usually be expected by guests.

💡 It saw Mukesh Ambani, the head of Reliance Industries, with an estimated net worth of $115bn, according to Forbes, and the rest of the family take to the stage in their own choreographed dance to Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s hit song, Deewangi Deewangi.

💡 It was also another chance for wedding-watchers to pore over the outfits worn by the guests – which included some of India’s most glamorous stars wearing dresses by the country’s top fashion designers. 

💡 It seems as much as the pre-wedding events have been concerts, they have also become catwalks, with stars sharing professional shots on their social media accounts ahead of the parties.

💡 The cost of the three parties to date is not known. It was rumoured Rihanna had been paid $7m (£5.5m) for her performance, while the figure suggested for Justin Bieber is said to be $10m.

Our Thoughts 💭:

Exactly what the weekend’s three-day event holds remains to be seen. For some in India, it will come as a relief that the wedding and its extravagance is over, while those in Mumbai will be hoping it does not make the city’s famously bad traffic any worse. 😂🤯

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Politics 🙌🏻: White House fights back against doubts on Biden fitness 🤐

The White House has pushed back on questions about Joe Biden’s mental fitness, with the US president daring doubters in the party to either challenge him or unite behind his candidacy.

Mr Biden, 81, took the highly unusual step of calling in to a cable news show, saying: “I am not going anywhere.”

In a tense news conference later, the president’s spokeswoman rejected suggestions that he might be suffering from an undisclosed illness.

In Monday afternoon’s daily press conference, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre rejected speculation that Mr Biden was being treated for Parkinson’s disease, which can cause stiff movement and slurred speech.

“Has the president been treated for Parkinson’s?” she said. “No. Is he being treated for Parkinson’s? No.”

She was responding to a question about a report in the New York Times that an expert on Parkinson’s disease had visited the White House eight times since last year.

Key Highlights:

💡A letter released on Monday night from Mr Biden’s doctor said the specialist in question, Dr Kevin Cannard, had been neurology consultant to the White House since 2012 and helps “thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations”. 

💡Physician to the President Dr Kevin O’Connor also said Mr Biden had not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical, in which he is checked by specialists from a range of medical fields. 

💡He noted that Mr Biden’s last physical, in February, was “extremely detailed” and contained “no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder”.

💡On Monday morning, the president called in to MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme, laying down the gauntlet to critics to “challenge me at the convention” next month, or rally behind him against Trump.

💡It came as he sent an open letter to congressional Democrats, saying he “wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe” that he could beat the Republican challenger in November’s election.

Our Thoughts 💭:

Amid mounting speculation over Mr Biden’s candidacy in November, the thoughts of some Democrats have turned to who could replace him. 

Some party members have rallied around Vice-President Kamala Harris, who is Mr Biden’s running mate in November. 

Trump has suggested the vice-president would be “better” than Mr Biden, but still “pathetic”.

During a pair of interviews last week, Mr Biden acknowledged that he had “screwed up” the debate, but later vowed that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to end his bid to win the White House again.

Ps; “He is not leaving this race. He is in this race.” 🤓

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Travel ✈️: Meet the chefs behind the world’s biggest restaurant 🍕

“As the Olympic and Paralympic Games kick off in Paris, more than 200 chefs will be tasked with preparing more than 13 million meals.”

When the Olympic Games kick off in Paris on 26 July, it will usher in a host of firsts. Breaking will debut as an Olympic event. Gender parity will reign for the first time, with as many women competing as men. And given that the Games are being held in France, it’s perhaps no surprise that the Olympic Village will also become home to the world’s biggest restaurant.

The Cité du Cinéma film studio complex in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, will be the nexus of this culinary feat. Here, athletes will have access to six main areas devoted to French, Asian, Afro-Caribbean and world cuisine, with 500 different recipes catering to a wide variety of tastes. 

Ps; All we can say…. “an overall pleasurable, nourishing offering that would satisfy any type of diner ” Simply mouth watering 🤤

Key Highlights :

💡A strict quality charter also governed the food at the Paris Olympics. It was developed over the course of four years of work with the goal of halving the carbon footprint of meals produced during the Games, as compared to London 2012.

💡As a result, a quarter of all ingredients will be sourced in a 250km radius from Paris, and 20% will be certified organic. All meat, milk and eggs will be from France, and a third of the food will be plant-based. “I believe that there’s an important health aspect to French gastronomy,” Defrance said, noting that in France, a love of good food can be found anywhere from “the village bakery [to] the fine dining restaurant” and even at “high-quality grab-and-go” options. 

💡Two hundred water, juice and soda fountains have been installed in the Olympic Village, and only reusable cups and crockery will be offered.

💡In addition to offering a diversity of international menu options, superstar chefs Amandine Chaignot, Alexandre Mazzia and Akrame Benallal, each of whom have developed a signature dish marrying the best in French tradition and local ingredients with an eye towards the nutritional needs of the world’s top athletes.

Our Thoughts 💭:

“I believe that there’s an important health aspect to French gastronomy,” In France, a love of good food can be found anywhere from “the village bakery to the fine dining restaurant” and even at “high-quality grab-and-go” options. 🍰🍔

The entirety of the culinary approach of French chefs will be infused, in little touches, into the offerings on the whole. And the athletes will be able to take advantage of it all.

Ps; With all eyes on Paris, the stage is set for the French terroir to shine. 

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Tech📱: Tech giant Samsung workers to strike indefinitely 😵

A union representing workers at South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics has called on its roughly 30,000 members to go on strike indefinitely, as part of its campaign for better pay and benefits.

The announcement came on the last day of a three-day general strike being held by the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU).

The union said it had made the decision after management showed no intention of holding talks over its demands.

The NSEU, which represents nearly a quarter of Samsung Electronics’ workers in South Korea, said its actions had disrupted production. Samsung has disputed these claims.

“Samsung Electronics will ensure no disruptions occur in the production lines. The company remains committed to engaging in good faith negotiations with the union,”  – firms official statement.

However, the union said: “The company has no intention to engage in a dialogue even after the first general strike, thus we declare a second general strike starting from July 10th, lasting indefinitely.”

Ps; We would say better befriend the union than facing the indefinite strike !! 🤯

Key Highlights :

💡The NSEU said about 6,500 workers have been taking part in the strike so far and called on more of its members to join the industrial action.

💡A spokesperson for Samsung Electronics declined to comment on how many workers had joined the walkout.

💡A protest on Monday was attended by around 3,000 people.

💡Last month, the union staged the first walkout at the company since it was founded five and a half decades ago.

💡Samsung Electronics is the world’s largest maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions. It is the flagship unit of South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group. The firm is also the biggest of the family-controlled businesses that dominate Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

💡Samsung Group was known for not allowing unions to represent its workers until 2020, when the company came under intense public scrutiny after its chairman was prosecuted for market manipulation and bribery. After the NSEU announcement, the company’s shares were trading flat to slightly lower on the Korea Stock Exchange.

Our Thoughts 💭:

A boom in artificial intelligence (AI) technology has lifted the prices of advanced chips which has driving the firm’s forecast.

But the ongoing strike of union workers can eventually lead to disruption in production. 🤯

Ps; Well we can only hope that the firm can meet their demands to put an end to this indefinite strike. 🙈

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Quicker Bites :

• South Korea politician blames women for rising male suicides.
• Biden pledges air defences for Ukraine as Nato summit begins.
• At 42, Gautam Gambhir, becomes the youngest head coach in the history of the Indian cricket team.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being keenly watched by his Western allies as he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on his first foreign trip since he returned to office for a third term in June.
• Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud charge.
• Blackpink star Jennie has apologised after a video that showed her vaping indoors sparked a huge outcry in South Korea.

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