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After U.S. failure, Vietnam’s EV leader turns to markets dominated by Tesla and BYD

Vietnam’s leading automaker remains undeterred despite a botched U.S. expansion and $9.8 billion in accumulated losses. VinFast shipped its first electric vehicles to the U.S. in 2022, and has been...

© Linh Pham for Rest of World

A red VinFast electric vehicle travels along a street on July 28, 2024, in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Linh Pham for Rest of World)
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This is how China skirts U.S. chip bans

President Donald Trump’s administration last week added 80 companies — mostly Chinese — to a list of firms barred for national security reasons from acquiring U.S. technology. The move expands...

© Augusto Zambonato for Rest of World

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China’s SpaceSail is expanding where Elon Musk is stumbling

China’s satellite internet upstart seems to be taking aim at Starlink. SpaceSail, a Chinese space company backed by the Shanghai municipal government, has been entering markets where Elon Musk has...

© Zheng Taotao/Xinhua/Getty Images

The sixth batch that will constitute the Spacesail Constellation group is launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province, Jan. 23, 2025.
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Turkey’s brain drain is taking its female coders with it

In the summer of 2013, Gülçin Yildirim, a database administrator, received an invitation for a meeting at an Istanbul chocolate shop with 11 other female coders. They were there to...

© Nicole Tung for Rest of World

A student at a game design lab at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, Turkey.
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A former Meta employee reviews the new Facebook memoir

Last week, I read Sarah Wynn-Williams’ Careless People and was reminded of Carl Jung’s Everyman archetype — someone who fears being left out, and often compromises their morals in order...

© Bloomberg/Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., center, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, center left, and Robert Greifeld, chief executive officer of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., center right, remotely ring the opening bell for trading at the Nasdaq MarketSite from the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California, May 18, 2012.
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Mexico’s first homegrown EV faces a bumpy road 

Earlier this year, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum beamed as a rendering of  three boxy, compact electric vehicles was displayed on a screen during a media briefing in the capital city....

© Moises Pablo/Cuartoscuro

Roberto Capuano Tripp, head of the Sustainable Development project for Mexico City, explains the Olinia project at a press conference led by the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.
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When foreign factories clash with locals

When the Chinese battery company Gotion announced its plans to open a factory in the small college town of Big Rapids, Michigan, in 2022, it seemed like the kind of...

© Lyndon French for Rest of World

Feb 19th, 2025 - Big Rapids, MI - Lori Brock’s horse farm with anti Gotion poster.
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