While everyone is focused on who will blink first in the labor standoff between Detroit’s car manufacturers and its unionized workers, one person is already being declared a winner—Elon Musk.

Tesla’s CEO was already enjoying a major cost advantage over his competitors thanks to more streamlined production processes and lower wages for his nonunionized workforce. Now that UAW employees are on strike and likely to see increased wages no matter how this labor dispute ends, Tesla’s edge in that area will only grow.

• Tesla’s labor costs average $45 an hour, compared to GM, Stellantis, and Ford’s estimated $66 an hour, per the WSJ.
• And if the UAW gets the dramatic pay bumps it initially sought, labor costs for Detroit’s Big Three would swell to $136 an hour, according to Wells Fargo.

This year, Tesla has used that cost advantage to slash its car prices in a bid to maintain its commanding market share in electric vehicles. So far, that strategy has paid off: Despite the price cuts, Tesla’s Q2 profits rose 20%.

UAW President Shawn Fain has brushed off comments that his labor action would only solidify Tesla’s dominance in the EV market. “Our concern is working-class people need their share of economic justice in this world,” he told CNBC last week.

So, what could slow Tesla’s roll? It’s possible that the UAW strike, if successful at securing higher wages, could galvanize Tesla workers to unionize at Musk’s factories. But the UAW tried and failed to do this in 2017 and 2018.

In other auto strike news…

Fain rejects Stellantis offer: As the union and automakers returned to the negotiating table, the UAW president said Stellantis’s offer of a 21% pay bump was “definitely a no-go.”

Don’t expect price increases immediately. Analysts believe it will take weeks for the cost of automobiles to rise, as long as Americans don’t start panic-buying vehicles.

John Fetterman joins the march. The senator drove from Pennsylvania to Michigan to march in solidarity with workers this weekend, following the lead of Bernie Sanders, who spoke at a UAW rally on Friday. “It’s time to decide what side you’re on,” Fetterman wrote.

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Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assault. Four women have accused British actor and comedian Russell Brand of sexual assault between 2006 and 2013, one of whom said that Brand raped her. Another claimed that Brand assaulted her when she was 16. Brand has denied the allegations, calling his relationships “always consensual.” The accusations surfaced as part of a joint investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches that began in 2019 and included hundreds of sources. The BBC, which employed Brand in the past, said it is “urgently looking into the issues.”

California sues energy giants. The State of California filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute (the US oil industry’s biggest lobby), alleging that they misled the public for decades about the dangers of fossil fuels. In the past year, California has dealt with record heat, wildfires, unusual bouts of severe rain and snow, and rising sea levels that have threatened the state’s shorelines—extreme weather events that studies show were made more likely or more intense due to climate change. The suit seeks funding for recovery efforts related to California’s weather-related disasters.

Climate is a hot topic in New York, too. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Midtown Manhattan ahead of the UN General Assembly, urging President Biden to cease issuing approvals for new oil and gas drilling projects. The Biden administration is responsible for the US’ most aggressive climate law (the Inflation Reduction Act) and is working to transition the country to renewable energy, but climate advocates believe he could be doing more. This protest and similar ones around the world this weekend come as the Earth just experienced its hottest summer on record.

The practice of cash bail in the United States dates back to before the country won its independence from England. Over two centuries later, Illinois will become the first state to abolish it.

The state’s Pretrial Fairness Act, which goes into effect today, will replace a cash bond with a hearing before a judge to determine if a person requires pretrial detention because they pose a flight risk or threaten public safety. Proponents say the change will result in fewer nonviolent offenders who cannot afford cash bail being detained while awaiting trial and fix a system that disproportionately harms Black people and other minority populations.

• According to the advocacy group Prison Policy Initiative, there are 427,000 people in local jails awaiting trial, and 8 of 10 people in those jails have not been convicted of a crime.

Critics of abolishing cash bail argue it’ll lead to increased crime rates and serve as a pretext for advocates to eliminate incarceration altogether, the FT reported.

But a study by the University of Albany found that bail reform in New York, which last year enacted a law that allowed most people charged with a crime to be released without bail, had a “negligible” impact on crime rates (that NY law has since been rolled back somewhat).

Big picture: While cash bail is rare in other countries, it’s big business in the US. Reuters reported in 2021 that the for-profit bail industry brought insurers $15 billion in revenue a year.

Some Assembly required: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attempt to avoid the roadblocks this week while visiting New York City for the UN General Assembly, the annual gathering of world leaders that starts today. Zelensky will try to rally more support for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia through speeches at the UN and later in the week on Capitol Hill. Good news for New Yorkers: The infamous traffic jams that come with the UNGA may not be as awful this year since many prominent leaders are expected to skip the event.

Instacart IPO: Instacart, the company that will go to Publix for you, is ready to go public for you. The grocery delivery service plans to IPO on Tuesday in one of the most anticipated public offerings of the year. Instacart is aiming to piggyback off the success of the chip designer Arm, which popped in its first day of trading last week.

Fed meeting: The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady following its meeting on Wednesday, but we’ll still be paying attention to Jerome Powell’s press conference for his views on inflation. It’s a busy week for central bankers everywhere: Ten of the G20 economies will announce monetary policy decisions in a span of 36 hours.

Everything else…

• Talk Like A Pirate Day is on Tuesday. Patchy, Jack Sparrow, and Doug Drabek are all appropriate.
• Apple’s iPhone 15 and new line of watches will be available on Friday.
• The next day, Saturday, is the first official day of fall.

Stat: When you throw shade at Coach Prime, he sells shades. After Colorado State coach Jay Norvell knocked Colorado coach Deion Sanders for not taking off his sunglasses when talking to adults in the lead-up to their game, Sanders said he sold $1.2 million worth of his line of custom sunglasses on Friday. The next night, Colorado continued its dream season with a come-from-behind 43–35 double OT win against Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown. Such is the gravitational pull of Coach Prime that celebs including The Rock, Offset, and Kawhi Leonard were in Boulder for the game.

Quote: “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt.”

Drew Barrymore, who was roasted online for aiming to bring her talk show back during the writers strike, now says she’ll pause the show’s return until the strike ends. After Barrymore’s U-turn, other talk shows, including The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Talk, delayed their planned returns to TV.

Read: The winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes, including one doctor who invented a toilet that does fecal analysis. (Ars Technica)

Watch: Two TED Talks, one on how AI may let us talk to animals, and another on how to change your sleep patterns.

Dress up: It’s never too early to plan your Halloween costume.

Travel: The 10 best places to see fall foliage.

Productivity hack: Have you considered the simple to-do list?

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Turntable: Vowels abound in today’s Turntable, but there are only 30 words you can make from them. Play the puzzle here.

Geography trivia

1. Kazakhstan
2. Mongolia
3. Chad
4. Niger
5. Mali

What is this list?

The world’s largest landlocked countries.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: piggyback, meaning “to carry up on the shoulders and back.” Thanks for the suggestion, Lori Victory of Houston, TX. Submit another Word of the Day here.