With the presidential election just 99 days out, an unlikely piece of software is playing a key role in mobilizing support for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Zoom.

The company that exposes the sorry state of your kitchen is being leveraged by Harris’s backers to hold virtual rallies that have brought in an influx of energy and cash, Axios reported. Harris has raised a gargantuan $200 million in one week since President Biden dropped out of the election, which is four times more than the Biden reelection campaign raised in all of April.

These Zoom calls have focused on bringing together identity-based groups across the country:

• The Zoom call with the group Win With Black Women started the trend last Sunday, drawing over 90,000 participants and raising $1.5 million.
• A Thursday virtual rally named “White Women: Answer the Call” attracted ~200,000 attendees, making it reportedly the largest Zoom meeting in history.
• A “White Dudes for Harris” call is scheduled for Monday.

Big picture: This unprecedented use of virtual rallies, which cost much less to produce than an IRL one and can draw far more people, is an extension of the Harris campaign’s ultra-online, meme-heavy entrance into the race.

It’s also a sign that Zoom is still relevant…barely

Consider two numbers: $568.34 and $60.09. The first is Zoom’s highest closing stock price, from October 2020; the second is its stock price today. That’s an 89% decline, caused by more workers heading back into the office (even Zoom employees) and competition from rival products by Microsoft and Google.

In fact, Zoom’s stock is lower than it was in the Before-Times of 2019, when most people had never heard of it.

Looking ahead…to make sure Zoom isn’t just another washed-up child star of the pandemic, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan plans to grow the platform by introducing productivity tools like docs and email. And, of course, he’s also leaning into AI: In a June interview that raised lots of eyebrows, Yuan said that eventually, an avatar—what he calls a “digital twin”—will attend Zoom meetings on your behalf while you do more important things.—NF

Did you know it takes 10,000 iPhone batteries worth of lithium to make 1 EV? With over 350 million EVs projected to be sold globally by 2030, demand for lithium is projected to soar, and current extraction methods won’t be able to meet it.

EnergyX revealed their technology could extract 300% more lithium than traditional methods, and investors everywhere took note.

They’ve received $90m+ of investments from GM and others and just last week announced Project Lonestar, a US lithium plant supported by a $5m DOE grant—causing an upcoming share price increase.

EnergyX is accepting shareholders for a limited time. Become an EnergyX shareholder here.

₿ Trump pledges to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet.” The former president pitched himself as the pro-crypto candidate in a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. He told the audience that, if elected, he’d fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler (whom the crypto community accuses of waging a war on crypto) and install regulators friendly to digital tokens. He also said he’d create a strategic national crypto stockpile as part of a plan to make the US the “bitcoin superpower of the world.” The crypto industry has emerged as a tailwind behind Trump in the 2024 election, donating more money than in all prior elections combined, per OpenSecrets.

Nicolás Maduro declared winner in contested Venezuelan elections. Venezuela is set for fresh political turmoil after President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of Sunday’s election, securing a third six-year term leading the economically struggling South American nation. But opposition leaders contested the result and accused the regime of falsifying the vote count. Maduro’s opponent Edmundo González has led by more than 25 percentage points in the polls for weeks. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration has “serious concerns” Maduro’s announced victory “does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.” Should Maduro keep power, more Venezuelans could join the 7.7 million people who have already left the country under his rule.

It was a Marvel-ous weekend for superhero movies. After a series of disappointing box-office results in recent years, Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine led a weekend of comebacks for the struggling studio. The third installment in the franchise brought home $205 million domestically—the biggest opening for any movie this year and the most ever for an R-rated flick—and $438.3 million globally. The cherry on top for Marvel was its Comic-Con reveal that Robert Downey Jr. was back in the MCU—but not as Iron Man. The actor who took a break from the superhero life to win an Oscar was announced as villain Doctor Doom in the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday.

The hottest IPO of the year came from a company best known for its frozen assets.

Lineage, the world’s largest operator of cold storage facilities, raised $4.4 billion in its public listing last Thursday at a valuation of more than $18 billion. It was the largest IPO of 2024, showing that keeping pizza rolls ice-cold from factory to the freezer aisle is a massive business.

There’s money in the cold supply chain

Lineage was founded in 2008 by two former Morgan Stanley bankers who believed they could put a tech-forward spin on a creaky industry dominated by mom-and-pop warehouse owners. They’ve made 116 acquisitions since and now operate nearly one-third of the US’ temperature-controlled warehouse space, the WSJ reported.

Their timing was also impeccable. Demand for perishable items that require cold temps across the supply chain has been booming. Sales of frozen foods in the US reached $74 billion in 2023, up ~33% from 2019, per the American Frozen Food Institute.

Efficient cold storage helps more than the bottom line. About $600 billion worth of food is lost before it even reaches your home. That lost food accounts for 8% of global emissions and is one of the biggest contributors to climate change.—DL

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The Olympic surfing competition is so far away from Paris that even Vanessa Carlton wouldn’t be willing to walk it. Competitors are hanging ~10,000 miles away in Teahupo’o, Tahiti, making it the farthest distance between Olympic venues since the 1956 Melbourne Games, when equestrian events took place in Sweden due to a horse quarantine in Australia.

Why Teahupo’o? Located in French Polynesia, it falls under French jurisdiction, and while the Seine seems dangerous for more fecal-related reasons, the waves in Teahupo’o, which means “Wall of Skulls,” are a worthy challenge for the best surfers on the planet.

The Fed meets with a rate cut on the horizon: As far as Fed meetings go, this week’s is a biggie—Chair Jerome Powell could solidify expectations that the long-awaited cut in interest rates will come in September. Inflation continues to cool, the job market is slowing down, and Powell is worried that holding off on rate cuts for much longer would cause Americans to lose work. JPow and everyone else will get a clearer picture of the employment landscape when the July jobs report drops on Friday.

A magnificent earnings week is on tap: Is tech your thing? Four of the Magnificent Seven—Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Apple—will drop their reports throughout the week. More into value meals and people spelling your name wrong? Check out McDonald’s on Monday and Starbucks on Tuesday. Are troubled airplanes what get you out of bed in the morning? Boeing’s earnings are coming Wednesday. A fossil fuel enthusiast? Exxon and Chevron will cap the week on Friday.

Everything else…

• The Olympics continue from Paris. There will be gold medal events throughout the week in gymnastics and swimming, with track and field finals starting on Thursday.
• A joint hearing will be held on Tuesday by the Senate’s Judiciary and Homeland and Government Affairs committees on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
• Don’t look now, but the NFL preseason starts Thursday, with the Texans and Bears playing in the Hall of Fame Game.
• Lollapalooza starts Thursday in Chicago. Headliners include Megan Thee Stallion, The Killers, and Blink-182.