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Nepals prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, resigned on Tuesday after youth-led protests sparked by a government ban on social media in the Himalayan country left nearly two dozen people dead and hundreds injured, CNN reported. That ban has since been lifted, per Reuters. Protesters reportedly set government buildings, police stations, and the houses of politicians on fire Tuesday, a day after police fired tear gas at and used rubber bullets on protesters storming parliament in the capital, Kathmandu, per Reuters. The protests, led by Nepal’s Generation Z, aged 13 to 28, come after the government blocked Facebook, X, and YouTube, saying the social media platforms failed to register and comply with necessary oversight. What started as an outcry against a social media ban has grown violent and expanded into widespread criticism of the nation’s political elite and poor economic prospects for its citizensespecially young people, who are frustrated by their lack of opportunity, according to the Associated Press. Unemployment among Nepal’s youth is staggeringly high at 19%, according to the International Labor Organisation (ILO), with thousands estimated to be leaving daily to seek work elsewhere. Last Thursday, Nepals minister for communication and information, Prithvi Subba Gurung, said about two dozen social media platforms were repeatedly given notices to officially register their companies. TikTok, Viber, and three others were allowed to continue operating because they had registered. Critics argue it was an attempt at censorship. On X, where Nepal is trending, one user wrote: “Nepal protest is primarily against corruption and misgovernance. Social media ban was just the tipping point.” Others posted video of Nepal’s parliament burning and Gen Z protesters in the streets. The clashes are the most deadly Nepal has seen in decades, and come after a long period of turbulence marked by a dozen different governments once it became a republic, following the end of the monarchy in 2008 and a decade-long civil war.
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E-Commerce
Amid the uncertainty around tariffs earlier this year, some companies had delayed their plans to go public. But despite the typically sleepy end-of-summer season, the initial public offering (IPO) market has been heating up again heading into the fall. Investors appear to want in after recent successful listings from companies like Figma, Bullish, Circle Internet Group, and others. In fact, this week is expected to be one of the busiest weeks for IPOs in years, with a number of well-known companies expected to list their shares on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq. Here are five of the IPOs were watching this week. (Note that the expected dates are subject to change.) Klarna Group (KLAR) Founded in 2005, Klarna Group is the Swedish fintech startup known for its buy now, pay later services. The startup exploded in popularity during the early days of the pandemic when online shopping was at its peak, reportedly reaching a peak valuation of $45.6 billion in 2021. However, that figure declined after stay-at-home restrictions were lifted. After announcing its target IPO share price last week, the company is expected to list on Wednesday, September 10, with a share price of $35 to $37. Legence Corp (LGN) Legence Corp, a San Francisco-based engineering and maintenance provider backed by Blackstone, is expected to list on Friday, September 12, with a share price of $35 to $37. Via Transportation (VIA) Via Transportation is a tech startup working to change public transit across cities. The company filed for an IPO earlier this month and is expected to list on Friday, September 12, with a share price of $40 to $44. The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Allen & Company, and Wells Fargo Security. Black Rock Coffee (BRCB) After it was reported back in July that the Arizona-based coffee chain filed confidentially for an IPO, Black Rock Coffeea fast-growing rival to chains such as Starbucks and Dutch Brosannounced its target pricing last week. It is expected to list on Friday, September 12, with a share price between $16 and $18. Gemini Space Station (GEMI) Gemini Space Station, Inc. is a cryptocurrency exchange company founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. After recently securing a $50 million from Nasdaq, it is expected to list on Friday, September 12, with a share price of between $17 and $19.
Category:
E-Commerce
Some say there are no new ideas. When it comes to the iPhone Air, maybe they are right. Announced today, the iPhone Air will debut on September 19 for $999. Its selling point? The iPhone Air is 5.6mm thick. Except for the camerathat part still sticks out. Truly amazing and unlike anything you experienced before, according to CEO Tim Cook, the iPhone Air is Apples attempt to reignite excitement in the iPhone business, which hit a 6-year low in new activations last year as people decide to stick with their perfectly adequate phones for longer. On one hand, a thinner iPhone seems to be a page right out of the playbook of Steve Jobs and Jony Ive. This is classic Apple! you might think. Thinness was a gimmick during Apples golden age, but it was a beloved one. Apple might have advertised thinness as a feature, but it didnt define the design unto itself. Thinness was but one advancement that enabled it to rethink entire product categories. [Image: Apple] Apple was always about more than thin Apple’s obsession with thinness started in 2001 with the iPod. The first iPod was remarkable compared to anything we’d seen. It squeezed a thousands songs into something the size of a deck of cards. But it was still a hefty thinga modified laptop hard drive that was still a third of a pound in your hand. [Photo: Apple/Getty Images] Over several generations, the iPod thinned out significantly, to the point where its entire effect felt less like a cleverly packaged computer component and more like a product with its own uncompromising design language. (Biased, but the third generation iPod will always be a personal favorite for its almost jewelry feel and glowing orange buttons.) [Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images] Still, Apple kept going. It introduced the much smaller iPod mini in 2004 (with a unique, 1-inch microdrive hard drive). It was more diminutive, but also more expressive in candy colors. It edged toward some platonic ideal of what music in your pocket should be. [Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images] That thought experiment culminated with the first generation iPod Shuffle. The iPod, at the end of the day, could be nothing more than the clickwheel control living on a clip that needed no pocket at all. But that didnt stop the release, in 2005, of a ridiculously enticing object: the thin and tall iPod nano (so much smaller thanks to flash storage). This cadence of releases was parodied by SNL, but at the same time, we couldnt get enough. Smaller, lighter, cheaper iPods democratized the platform and drove its profits to new heights. And critically speaking, you only needed to scope out the latest iPodeach a tantalizing new technological wonderto realize its justification to exist. The introduction of the Macbook Airthe iPhone Airs namesakein 2008 didnt create as long and branching of a design lineage for Apples laptop line, but it was radical all the same. Its core innovation was a smaller motherboard developed in conjunction with Intel. The new design wasnt just about a third of an inch thinner than earlier Macbooks overall: It featured an elegantly tapered edge that gave it motion and harkened to its own implausibility. [Photo: Tony Avelar/AFP/Getty Images] Oh, and it was also a full 2lbs lighter. Perceptually, the weight was what made it feel like something worthy of that Air namesake; as if we fast forwarded ten years into the future overnight. It was the difference between a 5 lb laptop and a 3 lb laptopthe difference between grabbing it with one hand or two. Like the iPhone Air, the Macbook Air’sbattery life and processing power didnt keep up with Apples bigger models. But the gulf between its standard laptop and the Air was wide. It was so wide that it wiped out the budget mini laptop market at the time (a wave of tiny-screened laptops introduced by the Asus Eee), and prompted the entire PC industry to launch a wave of ultraportable thin laptops based upon much of the same core architecture. Yes, incremental thinness drives the entire portable electronics industry. But in Apple’s hands, it’s often meant more. It’s been a tool for immediate and long term categorical disruption. [Image: Apple] The iPhone Air is engineering, not design Apple, at its best, used thinness to redefine what a product was and where it could go next. But the iPhone Air isnt defining a new category of thin phones. (Incidentally, Samsungs S25 phone already offered an ultra-thin approach to disappointing sales.) Apples most loyal fanbase is concluding that, if nothing else, the Air is a peek at the future of thinner phones, or even a preview for a folding iPhone to come. I dont mind that Apple introduced a thinner iPhone. They do so every year. This one just happens to be thinner than usual. But I do mind that it failed to release a smaller iPhone before prioritizing other ideasand that the iPhone Air does nothing to push forward the greater experience of using an iPhone. Why didnt Apple resurrect the beloved iPhone Minia phone that fits into pockets and has a smaller screen that can be easier on a thumb? I also cant help but wonder: If Apple is re-entering its gadget era, why arent we seeing explorations into the Mini/Nano/Shuffle versions of what the iPhone can be? Maybe those explorations would be silly and misguided. But at least theyd be different. And at least theyd be interesting. To me, the most notable hardware announcement of the day is that the Airpod Pro is getting a heart rate monitor, negating a major advantage of an Apple Watch, and pointing to Apples greater ambitions in what an AI-infused headphone will be in just a few more years. The second is that the iPhone’s camera has a new sensor so that you can take a landscape photo in portrait mode, so media is just media, no matter how youre holding the iPhone. With the iPhone Air, Apple did not present a concept car of the future, which challenges the status quo or ushers in a new design language for the company. It didnt imagine how AI and industrial design could merge into a radical, or even notable, new idea. Instead, it’s selling three iPhone models that are all ostensibly the same thing in different thicknesses. Even if Apple purely wanted to focus on aestheticsif it saw this as a moment to truly merge its industrial design with the UX of Liquid Glassthat could be interesting! Maybe functionally unimportant, but at least its a product with a point of view. But the iPhone Air is like so much of what we see coming out of Apple these days: not made from the heart of innovation, but responding to the demands of shareholders curious when theyll offer the same lineup of hardware we see from Samsung, Google, and Meta. With the iPhone Air, Apple feels like its cosplaying Apple.
Category:
E-Commerce
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