Good morning! Tim Walz and JD Vance were civil to the point of agreement at last night's VP debate, in what was very likely the last matchup between any of the 4 names on the ticket before election day.  Today we’re exploring:

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TOGETHER WITH

On Monday, a group of baristas in Bellingham, Washington were the latest members to join the Starbucks Workers United ranks, as the store became the 500th location to unionize since 2021.

Back then, in the relatively brief interim between Howard Schultz’s second and third terms as the company’s CEO, it was a store in Buffalo, New York that made history by becoming the first Starbucks branch to organize officially. These days, a new location unionizing is a weekly, or even daily, occurrence, with data from Unionelections.org tracking the steady trickle of successful Starbucks votes.

The red cup rebels

While Starbucks has long been known for referring to employees as “partners”, it seems like many of the issues that its coffee makers have expressed through the years have largely fallen on deaf ears. In September, for example, workers at the Washington branch and 8 other organizing stores sent a letter to Brian Niccol, the company’s new $20 billion boss, expressing concerns over staffing, scheduling, better benefits, and wages. The Buffalo, New York unionists were making many of the same complaints back in December 2021.

Despite the constant flow of labor complaints and the recent milestone, just 3% of the ~16,700 Starbucks stores have now unionized.

Interestingly, while American industrial action has been on the rise as of late, especially during the Hot Strike Summer of 2023, just 10% of US workers reportedly belonged to a union last year, the lowest membership rate since records began in 1983.

Saudi Arabia’s oil boom has transformed deserts into glistening cities, reshaped the geopolitics of the region, upended the world of golf, turned Manchester City into a soccer superpower, and produced the foundation for one of the most ambitious — and expensive — development projects in history (Vision 2030). Now, that flood of capital is finding its way into the world of tennis with the Six Kings Slam, an exhibition tennis tournament featuring some of the biggest names in the sport, set to be held on October 16-19th in Riyadh.

The trailer for the event looks more like the promotion for a Marvel movie than a tennis tournament — at one point in the video world number 3 Carlos Alcaraz hits a backhand with such venom that it carves a tennis ball-shaped hole in his cyborg opponent. His rival — the world’s top-ranked player, Jannik Sinner — is seen carving a statue of himself out of stone with vicious serves, Rafael Nadal is depicted as a kind of clay warrior god... and the rest is frankly hard to describe.

So how did Saudi Arabia convince some of the biggest names in tennis to travel to Riyadh, in the middle of an increasingly gruelling tennis season, to play a tournament that offers no ranking points? The $1.5 million reported appearance fee, which each participant will receive even if they lose every match, certainly helps.

Indeed, the prize money that’s been reported is unheard of in tennis, with the winner set to take home $6 million. That’s ~60% more than the winners of the US Open or Wimbledon got over the summer, an achievement which required 7 match wins over two weeks.

The Biggest Disruption to IP since Disney?

History is being made in the $2T¹ global entertainment & media industry and you can get a piece by investing in Elf Labs — but only for a limited time. The clock is ticking as the round is filling out fast, and closing this month. Here’s what Elf has achieved:

🌌 Elf has developed patented next-gen technology to revolutionize entertainment, including compression algorithms, and advanced AR, VR capabilities (no headsets needed) for never-seen-before levels of immersion. 

📝 100+ historic trademark victories, meaning that Elf Labs owns rights to some of the highest-grossing characters in history, including Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid, and more. 

👛 Elf Labs is bringing their character IP to life in new immersive ways that are completely transforming the dynamic entertainment, gaming, and merchandise space. 

Now you can become an Elf Labs shareholder and earn bonus shares² and exclusive investor perks. This limited time opportunity ends on October 30 or once the round fills out, whichever comes first. 

Chinese stocks are soaring. American investors are along for the ride. Kanye West is helping to reinvigorate the nation’s economy. And even Macau, the gambling center that suffered under the CCP’s anti-corruption crackdown, and then China’s zero-Covid strategy, is doing better than analysts expected.

Blackjack players and roulette chancers flocked to the region, the only jurisdiction in China where casino gambling is legal, to spend some 17.25 billion patacas (~$2.16B) in September, up more than 15% on the same month last year. Although those takings were ahead of expectations for the month, it was still only 78% of the revenue figure posted in September 2019. 

Despite tourist numbers hitting a record monthly high in August, when over 3.6 million people visited Macau, the casinos still aren’t posting the sorts of numbers they were before restrictions slowed the industry to an almost complete standstill in 2020 and 2022. Macau’s casino pit bosses will be hoping that the typically busy Golden Week, which kicks off today, will boost the odds of a full recovery.

With 100+ historic trademark victories behind them, Elf Labs is revolutionizing high-grossing, much-loved characters like Cinderella and Snow White. Elf’s patented tech could establish a brand new frontier in streaming and gaming… learn more about investing here.³

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Advertiser’s disclosures:

¹ PWC Perspectives from the Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2024–2028: Seizing growth opportunities in a dynamic ecosystem, July 2024.

² A minimum investment of $2000 or the watching of an investment webinar is required to receive 5% bonus shares.

³ This is a paid advertisement for Elf Labs’ Regulation CF Offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at elflabs.com.

Start-up investments are speculative and involve a high degree of risk. Those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest in start-ups. Companies seeking startup investment tend to be in earlier stages of development and their business model, products and services may not yet be fully developed, operational or tested in the public marketplace. There is no guarantee that the stated valuation and other terms are accurate or in agreement with the market or industry valuations. Further, investors may receive illiquid and/or restricted stock that may be subject to holding period requirements and/or liquidity concerns.

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