Making Money, US Toll Booth, WiFi 8

Welcome, ladies, gents, and doomscrollers, strap in tight for a week-in-review! After all, who needs sanity when you have headlines?

America's Greatest Hits:
President Trump apparently realized D.C. had "too many criminals and gangs", shocking, so he did what any rational leader would do: federal police takeover of Washington, D.C.. He might try switching the MO next week; maybe free unicorns for all? Meanwhile, Trump also fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for reporting hiring was slow, because when numbers are bad, just fire the calculator.

European Affairs:
EU leaders are really into inspirational quotes this week. Ukraine, according to them, must "choose its own destiny." No word on what chapters are available, but a summit with Trump and Putin looms, which, if recent history is any guide, will resolve everything... except, you know, actual problems.

Diplomacy schedule alert: Vladimir Putin’s planning a grand tour to India this late August, likely to prove he’s not just about mystery war rooms.

Tech titans doing tech things: Apple pledged a whopping $600 billion to reshore manufacturing (because supply chains need a U.S. glow-up), and Salesforce and ServiceNow tossed $1.5 billion at Genesys for customer AI wizardry. Oh, and the GitHub CEO is quitting to found something new, naturally.

Pixel mania: Google leaked drool-worthy Pixel 10 lineup details ahead of its big reveal, and the August update just fixed a nasty Android 16 security flaw, because patching phones is more exciting than rocket launches.

Deals & drops in fintech: Ripple’s buying payments startup Rail for $200 million to flex in stablecoin moves, and Wells Fargo doubled down on AI agents with Google Cloud to automate everyday banking (because who needs humans, right?).

Now for Silly News, Because Why Not:

Taylor Swift, who probably lives in your feed whether you want her or not, announced her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” No release date, because suspense is part of the marketing budget. Nigeria’s military claims 100 gang members are gone, no word if this is by press release or actual statistics.

Real Money, Real Investment, No Advice

China is cranking out vehicles at a mind-blowing rate, producing three times more than the U.S. and accounting for nearly a third of the entire global supply! I totally thought countries like Japan, Germany, Italy, and the U.S. would dominate the scene with higher percentages. But the sheer volume coming from China and India is absolutely astonishing!

Fall of the Aztec empire

On this day in 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés captured Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) after a 93-day siege, thereby ending the Aztec empire and winning Mexico for the crown of Spain.

In what might be the world’s most expensive highway toll, Nvidia and AMD can now sell their AI chips to China, if they hand over 15% of the revenue to the U.S. government. The deal, personally hammered out by President Trump after a chat with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, was trimmed down from an initial 20% “suggestion fee.”

Market watchers warn this could set a strange precedent: future export restrictions could become “pay-to-play” passes, where strategic tech gets swapped for strategic cash. But Wall Street shrugged, Nvidia’s stock rose anyway. After all, China’s semiconductor market is like a casino where the house sometimes lets you win big.

💡 Why it matters:
The U.S. just turned high-stakes geopolitics into a revenue stream. If it sticks, this “toll booth diplomacy” could rewrite how tech companies navigate export bans, and turn the government into the ultimate middleman.

Good news for adventure lovers, photographers, and even emergency responders. But it also means tech surveillance, privacy concerns, and more questions about who's watching whom. The upgrades are inevitable. How we use them, that's up to us.

- It costs under $20K and includes:
- A DJI Air 3 drone that auto-launches from the vehicle.
- Advanced driver-assistance tech ("God’s Eye" ADAS).
- Off-road capabilities with smart navigation.

🌍 Why It Matters

Could your first $100K be closer than you think? 3 renowned money making experts reveal the exact blueprint for turning $1,000 into $100K, building passive income, hiring A-players, and scaling fast!

This Diary Of A CEO roundtable brings together contrarian investor and private equity dealmaker Codie Sanchez, entrepreneur and investor Alex Hormozi, and serial entrepreneur and business strategist Daniel Priestley. 

🦑 Jules - Google’s asynchronous coding agent, now out of beta

📺Create animated videos like CTAs, charts, and ads with text prompts in seconds

 xAI’s next-gen model, Grok4, available for free to all users for a limited time

Octopuses have three hearts, and two of them stop beating when they swim—literally putting their heart into taking it slow. 🐙