CNN BUSINESS | Why electric cars are so much heavier than regular cars

(CNN) – Batteries are heavy. That’s why, generally, electric cars weigh considerably more than otherwise similar gasoline-powered vehicles. Take the GMC Hummer EV, for instance. The Edition 1 version, which has lots of batteries for additional driving range and power, weighs over 9,000 pounds. That’s roughly three times the weight of a Honda Civic.  —read more— 

CNN politics | Obama criticizes Republicans for embracing 2020 falsehoods

(CNN) – Former President Barack Obama said Republicans have been “cowed into accepting” a series of positions that “would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago,” telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper he is worried about the state of democracy in the United States in an exclusive interview that aired Monday.

Obama, in an interview that comes after his latest memoir, “A Promised Land,” was published in late 2020, said he never thought some of the “dark spirits” that began rising within the Republican Party during his tenure would get this dark and reach the epicenter of the party.

“We have to worry,” Obama said, “when one of our major political parties is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago.”  —read more— 

F1 | Perez beats Vettel to Baku victory after Verstappen crashes out from lead late on

Max Verstappen looked set to take his first first-ever Azerbaijan Grand Prix victory before he crashed out from the lead with just five laps to go – giving Sergio Perez a second career victory, as Lewis Hamilton locked up on the penultimate lap to finish 15th in a hugely dramatic race in Baku.

For the first time this season, Charles Leclerc led away from pole, but he was passed for the lead by Lewis Hamilton with no need for DRS, so strong was the tow, on Lap 2. Verstappen then swept by the Ferrari man on Lap 7.

Verstappen took the lead after a crucial sequence of pit stops, Hamilton starting that sequence on Lap 12 with a slow switch for hards thanks to traffic in the pit lane. Verstappen pitted a lap later and emerged first, followed by Perez who split the championship rivals. And the Dutchman seemed to have victory in the bag, mastering a Lap 35 Safety Car restart after Lance Stroll’s terrifying accident, when the Aston Martin driver’s left-rear tyre appeared to gave way on the pit straight.  –read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | AMC shares jump more than 120% to an all-time high

New York (CNN Business) – The hits keep coming. Shares of AMC — the largest movie theater chain in the world — surged more than 120% Wednesday to a new peak above $70 before falling back slightly. Trading of the shares was halted twice due to volatility. The stock closed Wednesday at $62.55, up 95% for the day.

The popular WallStreetBets Reddit board has boosted the stock lately as a way to hurt short sellers who bet against the company. On Wednesday, AMC (AMC) announced that it would reach out to its new backers with an initiative called “AMC Investor Connect.”

The company described “Investor Connect” as a way to put AMC in “direct communication with its extraordinary base of enthusiastic and passionate individual shareholders.” The theater chain also revealed that it has seen its “retail shareholder base grow beyond 3 million owners” over the last several months.  –read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Every Lamborghini will have an electric motor by 2024

(CNN Business) – By the end of 2024, every model Lamborghini offers will be a plug-in hybrid, announced CEO Stephan Winkelmann. But don’t expect a fully electric Lamborghini supercar anytime soon.

Lamborghini hybrid models will combine electric motors and powerful batteries with traditional internal combustion engines.

Lamborghini’s target customers — those who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on cars that go fast but also look and sound fast — have shown they will accept this type of technology, Winkelmann said. Plug-in hybrids keep the feel and sound of an internal combustion engine when driven aggressively while allowing the car to operate under purely electric power at times.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Why Amazon just spent more than $8 billion on MGM

New York (CNN Business) – MGM, a classic Hollywood brand synonymous with “The Wizard of Oz” and Leo the roaring lion, was purchased for $8.45 billion on Wednesday by Amazon (AMZN), a company currently valued at nearly $1.7 trillion. Being gobbled up by a tech behemoth is a fitting finale for a studio that has been whittled down over the last century by one technology disruption after another.

“MGM is really the story of Hollywood,” Jonathan Kuntz, a film professor at UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV, told CNN Business. “The studio has gone through all of the cycles of the film business over the last 100 years.”

“In many ways, MGM is the idea of the classic Hollywood studio,” he said. “And it tried to preserve that idea long after it was no longer a viable business strategy.”

Here’s a brief history of MGM, and why Amazon was likely so interested in buying it:  —read more— 

CNN style Fashion | A visual history of space-age fashion

The 1960s space race was more than a measure of scientific progress. The anticipation of this next stage of humanity left an indelible impression on culture, too.

President John F. Kennedy’s vision of man reaching the moon soon spawned a throng of TV shows and films — including cartoon sitcom “The Jetsons” and the “Star Trek” franchise — all of which looked to cater to America’s newfound interest in space travel.

The success of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 only whetted appetites further. For fashion designers Paco Rabanne, Pierre Cardin and Thierry Mugler, it became the rocket that launched a thousand looks, as they centered whole collections around an intergalactic vision of the future.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Wall Street is facing a $9 trillion problem

London (CNN Business) – Central banks were the superheroes of the early phase of the pandemic, taking dramatic steps to save the economy and financial markets from ruin.

Now, as the recovery kicks into gear, they’ve become a major risk for investors.

What’s happening: The latest reading of the Back-to-Normal Index from CNN Business shows that the US economy’s comeback is 90% complete. But investors are increasingly worried that the Federal Reserve, observing such promising data and rising inflation, will make a damaging mistake, such as moving too soon to roll back unprecedented levels of support — or ignoring growing problems until they’re too late.  —read more— 

F1 | Verstappen claims dominant Monaco victory over Sainz and Norris, after polesitter Leclerc fails to take start

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen breezed to his maiden Monaco Grand Prix win over the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris, with Ferrari polesitter and home hero Charles Leclerc failing to take the start after suffering a pre-race driveshaft issue – Verstappen also claiming the lead of the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career after Lewis Hamilton finished a disappointed P7.

Starting effectively from pole after Leclerc’s cruel side-lining, Verstappen out-muscled Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas off the line to take a lead that he would only briefly relinquish in the pit stops, Verstappen claiming his second win of the season, and his first ever podium in Monaco.  —read more— 

watch: Race Highlights | 2021 Monaco Grand Prix