• ☝️ The 24th annual Hampton Beach Sand Sculpting Classic took place in New Hampshire last week, with Canadian David Ducharme earning the top prize for “Sophia’s Cradle” (left).

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with “America Says” by Game Show Network

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.6%; Dow: +0.4%; Nasdaq: +0.8%); the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both hit new record highs.
• 🚘🔌 Tesla reported a better-than-expected 444,000 global vehicle deliveries in Q2, though it marks the second straight quarter of annual declines; Tesla shares closed up 10.2%. | 🚗 GM reported its best quarterly sales since 2020, including notable increases in full-size pickups and all-electric vehicles.
• 🏦 How thousands of Americans got caught in fintech's false promise and lost access to their bank accounts. | 🥤 7-Eleven is reinventing its $17 billion food business to be more Japanese. (Video)

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎥 Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, has reportedly reached a preliminary deal with Skydance to pass on control of the media conglomerate. | 📰 CNBC is launching a new vertical focused on the business of sports, which will be helmed by new and existing talent.
• 🏈🍺 The NFL and its “Sunday Ticket” broadcast partners – a group that now includes TKO Group Holdings – are getting into the business of streaming live sports at bars and restaurants.
• 🎤 B.G., a New Orleans-based rapper, was ordered by a federal judge to have all his future songs approved by the US government while on supervised release from prison.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Asutra

• 🦿🧠 MIT researchers developed a bionic device that allows people to control a leg prosthetic with their minds, according to a new study.
• 🤖🎗️ Swedish engineers created nanobots that were able to kill cancer cells while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue alone in mouse studies. | 🐜 Carpenter ants carry out amputations on their injured nest mates, per a new study; scientists describe it as the first known example of a non-human animal carrying out life-saving amputations.
• 💰 The Biden administration announced $504 million in implementation grants for a dozen technology hubs across 14 states.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🥵 The National Weather Service is warning of “persistent, dangerous heat” across America for the rest of this week – especially in the southern and southwestern US, and on the July 4th holiday. | 🌀 Hurricane Beryl intensified into a Category 5 storm late Monday before dropping back to Category 4 hours later; it marks the earliest Category 5 storm on record in the Atlantic basin. (More: Beryl marks a warning sign for this year’s hurricane season)
• 🧑‍⚖️ Sentencing in former President Trump's hush-money case has been delayed until at least September 18 while the judge weighs the impact of this week’s Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity. (Read more)
• 🏛️ Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and personal lawyer to Donald Trump, was disbarred in the state of New York for repeatedly making false statements about Trump’s 2020 election loss. | 🚕🗽 17 years, $700 million wasted: The stunning collapse of New York’s traffic moonshot.

CLICKBAIT

• 🏙️📈 The US states with the highest cost of living for single people.