Cybertruck debut, Cuban sells the Mavs, and T Swift classes.

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Big Stories

Tesla’s Cybertruck makes its long awaited debut

Tesla is set to deliver its first round of Cybertrucks to customers this week, nearly four years after Elon Musk announced the EV.

• Details: The Cybertruck is Tesla’s first new model in three years and the company’s first attempt at breaking into the American truck market. CEO Elon Musk said last week that Tesla has already started shipping the vehicles in North America.

• Breaking the mold: The upper-tier trim level will be able to tow 14,000 pounds, go from 0-60 in 2.9 seconds, and cover 500 miles on a single charge. The Cybertruck has an angular, futuristic shape and is made of a reflective stainless steel, making it look more like a time machine than a truck.

• Production issues: The vehicle’s stainless steel body has already proven costly and difficult to bend on the production line. Musk has acknowledged this and said that there will be enormous challenges in reaching volume production and subsequently making the Cybertruck cashflow positive. Tesla had originally announced a base price of $39,900 in 2021, but the estimated entry-level cost has crept up over $50,000 since then.

Mark Cuban to sell the Dallas Mavericks

Billionaire Mark Cuban has reportedly agreed to sell a majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks.

• The deal: Cuban will sell a majority stake of his NBA team to Las Vegas casino tycoon Mariam Adelson at a valuation of $3.5 billion. The terms of the contract will allow Cuban to retain full control over basketball operations. He bought the team in 2000 for $285 million.

• Big plans: Cuban has advocated for the legalization of gambling in Texas and said last year that he was interested in partnering with Adelson’s company, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Sands will be charged with developing a new sports entertainment complex for the Mavs in Dallas, and it could potentially include a casino resort if Texas does legalize gambling.

• Political aspirations: Cuban has long toyed with the idea of pivoting into politics and the sale comes after his announcement that he isn’t returning to “Shark Tank” after next season. Early reports suggest that he could be gearing up for a 2028 presidential run.

Indigenous community in Ecuador win legal battle to reclaim ancestral land

Eighty years after being forced out of their ancestral land due to war, an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon has won a court case to reclaim ownership of their homeland.

• Details: An Ecuadorian appeals court sided with the Siekopai Nation, supporting their effort to reclaim their ancestral homeland named Pë’këya, which is located on border of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador and Peru. Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment has 45 days to deliver the property title to the Siekopai people.

• Work to be done: The ruling grants the indigenous community a little over 104,000 acres of land. Yet, the Siekopai are engaged in other legal battles in both countries to recover more than a half-million acres of land that was taken from their ancestors. Their population numbers have dwindled to 2,000 and they continue to fight for cultural and physical recognition.

• Progress: This marks the first time that the Ecuadorian government has granted a land title to an indigenous community with ancestral lands located in a protected area. The court’s recognition of the Siekopai as the owners of Pë’këya is a significant step towards preserving their heritage.

Little Stories

U.S. News

• The Department of Justice has accused the Indian government of orchestrating the attempted assassination of an American citizen on U.S. soil. (More)

• More than 40 inches of snow blanketed areas around the Great Lakes and interior Northeast in the first major lake-effect snow storm of the season. (More)

• Two Arizona county officials have been indicted for allegedly preventing the timely transmission of the county’s vote returns during the 2022 midterm elections.  (More)

World

• A U.S. Air Force Osprey aircraft crashed during a training mission on Wednesday off the coast of Japan, killing at least one of the crew members with several more missing. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. (More)

• Hamas released a dozen more Israeli hostages on Wednesday, including an American, as negotiators worked to extend the pause in the fighting in Gaza for a second time. (More)

• Russia has lost over 300,000 soldiers in the Ukraine War, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Additionally, hundreds of Russian aircrafts, and thousands of tanks have been destroyed. (More)

Business & Economy

• U.S. stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday (S&P -0.09%, Nasdaq -0.16%, Dow 0.04%). (More)

• Cigna and Humana, two of the nation’s largest health insurance providers, are in talks to merge in a stock-and-cash deal. Shares of both companies fell after the story broke. (More)

• Said Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and private equity firm Ardian will buy a 25% stake in London’s Heathrow Airport for £2.37 billion. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• NASCAR has added two new partners to a $7.7 billion seven-year media rights deal that will run from 2025 through the 2031 season. Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon will join existing partners Fox Sports and NBC in the new package. (More)

• Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been cleared to practice 11 weeks after having surgery to repair a torn Achilles. The team will have 21 days to decide whether to activate Rodgers from injured reserve before the Dec 20. deadline. (More)

• Actor Jonathan Majors’ assault trial began on Wednesday in NYC after a series of delays. Majors was arrested in Manhattan on March 25 after an alleged domestic dispute with his girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• The life expectancy is the U.S. increased by more than a year in 2022 — the first increase since the pandemic began. Life expectancy ticked up across every racial and ethnic group but is still lower than it was in 2019. (More)

• On Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added wolverines to the list of threatened species. The addition was due to the decline in the amount of mountain snow where wolverines create dens and live. (More)

• Google has agreed to pay Canadian publishers in order to keep their news content on its platforms. The company will pay $73.5 million a year into a fund that will be distributed among the publishers. (More)

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