Shell bursts ESG bubble

• No IPO for the wicked: Fast-fashion juggernaut Shein, which was recently valued at $66 billion, is facing more scrutiny from U.S. officials who want the company to prove it doesn’t use forced labor before it files for a widely rumored IPO (NYT)
  

• Shell abandons ESG: Six months after becoming CEO at Shell (SHEL), Wael Sawan quietly ended the world’s biggest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets to focus on oil & gas (Bloomberg)
  

• Facing a shutdown (again): The White House has asked Congress to pass a short-term measure to fund the federal government and avoid a shutdown at the end of September (Reuters)
  

• Potential historic reform in cannabis: The Department of Health and Human Services sent a recommendation yesterday to the DEA that cannabis should be rescheduled to Schedule 3 from a Schedule 1 illegal drug (Marijuana Moment)
  

• American’s can’t shake their spending habits: The personal saving rate fell to 3.5% in July, down from 4.3% and 4.7% in May-July, yet spending still roared ahead, rising 0.8%. Pretty much, American’s are saving less to continue spending robustly, even as income growth slows (Axios)
  

• Consumers weren't flocking to Dollar General: Dollar General (DG) slashed its sales and profit outlook for the year, blaming headwinds including weaker consumer spending on non-essential purchases and increasing theft; shares tumbled ~14% (CNN)
  

• Couch crunch: Several major furniture brands are experiencing a sales crunch including Pottery Barn, West Elm, and Wayfair (W), as the drop-off in home sales has meant fewer new homeowners shopping for furniture (Axios)
  

• JCPenney wants to upgrade: The company said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion by the end of 2025 in a bid to revive the storied but troubled 121-year-old department store chain (AP)
  

• Watch out Apple: Chinese consumer electronics firm Honor, a spinoff from Huawei, launched its flagship foldable smartphone overseas — venturing into a high-end market dominated by Samsung and Apple (CNBC)

• How China became the king of new nuclear power, and how the U.S. is trying to stage a comeback (CNBC)

• The G20 pledged to end fossil fuel subsidies in 2021—and then quadrupled them in 2022 (Ground News)

• Trump Georgia trial will be streamed live, judge rules (CNBC)

• STVR/Airbnb has destroyed America's resort towns (Of Two Minds)

• In some countries, politicians are actually getting younger (Semafor)

• The Stuff of Cities (Bloomberg)

• Crypto just scored a major victory against the SEC (CoinSnacks)

• The real story of Musk’s Twitter takeover (Walter Isaacson)

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