Image of the week: Cursed cruise
It’s important to abide by some fundamental standards in life and one of them must surely be this: never go on a cruise. Now we have an addendum: never sign up to become a resident on a “perpetual” cruise.
That’s what the inaugural three-year, 425-port Villa Vie Odyssey experience billed itself as and it turns out the perpetual part may have been more accurate than the “cruise” bit.
The liner, notoriously stranded in Belfast for four months after it underwent repair work, set sail on Monday night amid ecstatic waving and the happy tale of a couple who alleviated the boredom of the delays by getting engaged. It’s supposed to be initially heading to the Bahamas, via France, Spain and Portugal. But progress, like boat travel in general, has been slow.
The liner – on which some passengers bought “villas” apparently guaranteeing them a room on board for 15 years – left the dock but moved just a few miles to Belfast Lough to anchor. It was still there, waiting to leave, several days later. The explanation? Some paperwork hadn’t been completed.
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“We needed the right person to press the button at the end of the day,” explained Villa Vie Residences chief executive Mike Petterson.
One passenger, meanwhile, was “removed” from the ship after being told her “continuous complaints and negativity” in a WhatsApp group were affecting morale. Petterson, however, had some negativity of his own. Asked how he would remember Belfast, he said: “Your summer is horrible” and “you can’t cook to save your lives, but you do know how to drink”.
So will all 125 passengers by the end of this.
In numbers: Nike’s lost ground
18%
Plunge in Nike’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange this year. When sportswear companies talk about a “brand new drop”, this isn’t the kind of drop they have in mind.
10%
Decline in Nike’s revenues in the first quarter of its fiscal year, it said this week, as it withdrew its full-year sales guidance and indicated to investors that it would pin its hopes on the turnaround strategy of incoming new chief executive Elliott Hill.
15%
Sales of Converse, a brand owned by Nike, are down this much year on year, which is surprising – they had only just come back into vogue among style-conscious young women. Fashion moves fast.
Getting to know: Scott Wiener
California senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, is an “utter scumbag”, according to Elon Musk. To quote Guinan from Star Trek: The Next Generation, sounds like someone I’d like to know. “I think that’s called projection, dude,” was the text of the gif Wiener sent Musk on X in response.
Ostensibly Musk sent the insult Wiener’s way after an account called “End Wokeness” highlighted his support for various trans rights laws. But Wiener has other legislative concerns that Musk might not like. He authored one Bill, for instance, that would have imposed some of the first regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) in the US.
The landmark AI safety Bill – which would have forced developers to ensure their technology included a “kill switch” – was opposed by major technology companies and has now been blocked by California governor Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, on the grounds that it would have stifled innovation.
Big Tech will now be free to continue developing an “extremely powerful technology” without government oversight, Wiener says. What could possibly go wrong?
The list: Trump’s tech backers
Silicon Valley glows increasingly red these days, with several “tech bro” billionaires unable to stomach the thought of either a woman or a Democrat becoming president and throwing their wealth behind Donald Trump instead. Who are they?
1. Elon Musk: The richest man in the world denied that he planned to donate $45 million (€41 million) a month to help Trump’s push to the White House. But he is making a “lower level” contribution to a Super-Pac organisation supporting “meritocracy and individual freedom” (for billionaires, anyway).
2. The Winklevoss twins: The crypto-hawking pair immortalised in Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook film The Social Network gave so much in bitcoin to the Trump campaign, it exceeded the federal limit and they had to be part-refunded.
3. David Sacks: The venture capitalist once donated to Hillary Clinton, but he is now a key Trump enthusiast. He’s even hosted fundraisers for the former president. “Come on in, the water’s warm,” he tweeted his fellow rich men.
4. Peter Thiel: Once an outlier in Silicon Valley, right-wing extremist Thiel – who once argued that women getting the vote was bad for democracy – is widely regarded as the man behind Trump’s vice-president pick, JD Vance.
5. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz: The high-profile venture capitalists have endorsed Trump on – where else? – their podcast.
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