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Three words told the story. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s campaign had billed this afternoons event in Philadelphia as a much-anticipated announcement. Of course, that specific phrase may have been more true than intended.

Ever since Kennedy entered the Democratic presidential primary race in the spring, observers had been anticipating that hed one day announce his honest intentions as a 2024 candidate. Given Kennedys rhetoric, his positions, and his support from conservative operatives, was he really running as a Democrat? A couple thousand peoplesupporters, journalists, campaign volunteers, people with nothing to dotrekked to Philly to find out.

The candidate was nothing if not on message. Standing in front of a backdrop that read DECLARE YOUR INDEPENDENCE , Kennedy looked out at Independence Hall as he spoke of a new declaration of independence for our entire nation. He rattled off a list of everything wed soon be independent from: cynical elites, the mainstream media, wealthy donors. (Though, presumably, not the same wealthy donors who recently raised more than $2 million for him and his super PAC at a private estate in Brentwood, California, with help from his friend Eric Clapton). Onstage, Kennedy formally declared his independence from the Democratic Party and all other political partiesperhaps an unsubtle way to shoot down speculation that he might change his mind and run as a Libertarian, or even a Republican. As his wife, Cheryl Hines, said a bit cryptically before her husband took the stage: Are you really ready for Bobby Kennedy?

Kennedy, whom many came to know as a Boomer environmentalist, was the star of this mellow show with a distinct 60s campus vibe. At one table, attendees were invited to literally sketch their vision of the future on blank sheets of paper with colored pens. Throngs gathered on the grass in front of the National Constitution Center and were led in a Native American tribal dance, followed by the inoffensive piano stylings of Tim Hockenberry, who covered Jersey Girl in a Springsteen growl. Outside the entrance, enterprising vendors sold an array of Kennedy memorabilia: buttons that read RESIST INSANITY, RAGE AGAINST THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE , and FIT TO BE PRESIDENT , featuring a photo of a buff, shirtless Kennedy. One attendee waved a giant black-and-white flag with a message for their fellow Kennedy-heads: WE ARE THE CONTROL GROUP . Many people wore fedoras.

Read: Inside the mind of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

They came from all over. Michael Schroth, 69, and his wife, Luz, had taken a 4:30 a.m. bus down from Boston. Schroth told me he voted for Barack Obama twice, but also voted for the third-party candidate Ralph Nader twice, as well as Jill Stein in 2016. I look for the best candidate, and I dont care if theyre going to win or not. Its getting the idea out,” he said. Chris Devol, 56, from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was wearing a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie and smiling ear to ear as he awaited Kennedys arrival. Devol told me he had voted for the third-party candidate Ross Perot in 1992, and that although he wasnt sure whether hed support Kennedy next November, he 100 percent supported the idea of him competing in the Democratic primary. An elderly woman named Barbara (last name withheld), a retired teacher from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, told me she believed that President Joe Biden wasnt doing anything to address the nations drug problem. She said a bag of fentanyl was recently found on the steps of her local church, then asked me if I was familiar with the Boxer Rebellion.

Prior to Kennedys address, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, one of the opening speakers, asked for a moment of silence to honor the violence of this past weekend. Someone in the crowd yelled out Warmonger! Another screamed, Free the Palestinians! Boteach acknowledged neither individual, and said he greatly respects Kennedy, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, as a man of faith. Later, Kennedy said he had arrived at a place where he was serving only his conscience, his creator, and youthe voters.

This afternoon marked the culmination of what he described as a very painful decision. He noted his long-standing ties to the Democrats, the party of his family, which he casually referred to as a dynasty, before tearing into the tyranny of the two-party system. For weeks, Kennedy had been attacking the Democratic National Committee for rigging the primary process. (The DNC has refused to hold primary debates, as is custom when a partys incumbents are running for reelection.) Kennedy has been polling in the double digits against Biden, but his support hasnt grown meaningfully since he launched his campaign. As of last Friday, according to the FiveThirtyEight average, Kennedy was polling at 16.4 percent compared with Bidens 61.2 percent. Four of his siblingsKerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsendissued a statement today denouncing their brothers newly independent candidacy, calling his decision perilous for our country. Kennedy acknowledged the challenge ahead of him. There have been independent candidates in this country before, he said. But this time its going to be different.

Kennedy is the second candidate in as many weeks to go rogue. Cornel West dropped his Green Party affiliation in favor of an independent bid, telling The New York Times, I am a jazz man in politics and the life of the mind who refuses to play only in a party band! Though neither Democrats nor Republicans seem particularly worried about the candidacies of West or Marianne Williamson, Kennedy is different. The Democrats are frightened that Im going to spoil the election for President Biden, and the Republicans are frightened that Im going to spoil the election for President Trump, Kennedy said. He waited for a strategic beat. The truth is, theyre both right.

Read: The 2024 U.S. presidential race: a cheat sheet

All year long, mainstream Democrats have tried to pretend that Kennedy simply doesnt exist, with mixed results. Both the Biden campaign and the DNC declined to comment today on Kennedys switch. The RNC, for its part, blasted out a list of 23 Reasons to Oppose RFK Jr., and reports have been circulating that Trump’s allies are preparing to pummel Kennedy with opposition research. Last week, the election analyst Nate Silver argued that Kennedys independent run wont necessarily hurt Biden, and it might even help him. David Axelrod, the chief strategist of Barack Obamas campaigns, took a different view. I think anything that lowers the threshold for winning helps Trump, who has a high floor and low ceiling [of support], Axelrod told me.

Kennedy tantalized the crowd with nuggets that purport to make the case for his electability: I have seen the polls that they wont show you. He pointed out that 63 percent of Americans want an independent to run for president. Though he didnt cite the origin of this statistic, it aligns with recent Gallup polling, which also showed that 58 percent of Republicans endorse a third U.S. political party, up from 45 percent last year.

Kennedy has built his candidacy, and his career as a lawyer and writer more broadly, on the idea that there are lots of things they wont show you. As I wrote in a profile of Kennedy this summer, he has promoted a theory that Wi-Fi radiation causes cancer and leaky brain, saying it opens your blood-brain barrier. He has suggested that antidepressants might have contributed to the rise in mass shootings. He told me he believes that Ukraine is engaged in a proxy war and that Russias invasion, although illegal, would not have taken place if the United States didnt want it to.

Hes drawing from many of those Trump votersthe two-time Obama, onetime Trumpthat are still disaffected, want change, and maybe havent found a permanent home in the Trump movement, Steve Bannon told me as I was reporting the profile. Populist left, populist right, and where that Venn diagram overlapshes talking to those people.

The reality is that Kennedy will have an extremely hrd time even getting his name on the ballot. The GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone, who earlier this year was accused of being among those propping up Kennedys candidacy (something he has repeatedly denied), told me in a text message that Kennedy faces a Herculean task with 50 different state laws written by Republicans and Democrats working together to make ballot access as difficult as possible. Even if Kennedy is right and voters are looking for a true alternative to Trump and Biden, mathematically, Kennedys path to 270 electoral votes is almost incomprehensible.

Nevertheless, he said he believes that he is at the start of a new American moment. Something is stirring in us that says, It doesnt have to be this way, Kennedy said onstage. He nodded to Martin Luther King Jr.s Ive Been to the Mountaintop speech from the eve of his assassination and quoted Abraham Lincoln quoting Jesus Christ: A house divided cannot stand. He said that the left and the right had become all mixed up. He said that he was proud to count those on both sides of the abortion debate among his supporters, in addition to climate activists and climate skeptics, and, of course, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Perhaps saying the quiet part out loud, Kennedy said it would be very hard for people to tell whether my administration is left or right. He had no shortage of curious metaphors. He promised not just to take the wheel, but to reboot the GPS. The nations two-party system? A two-headed monster that leads us over a cliff. And, in case it wasnt clear: At the bottom of that cliff is the destruction of our country.

When I interviewed Kennedy for the profile, I asked him what he thought would be more dangerous for the country: four more years of Biden, or another Trump term. I cant answer that, he said.

Around that time, I asked his campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, if Kennedy was committed to running solely as a Democratic candidate.

Hes running in the Democratic primary, Kucinich responded.

So, no chance of a third party?

Hes running in the Democratic primary.

Gotcha. And nothing could change that?

Hes running in the Democratic primary.

Today, after Kennedy finished speaking, Kucinich briefly seized the mic and led the crowd in a building, dramatic chant:

I declare my independence!

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Technology

Tesla shares drop 7% in premarket trading after Elon Musk says he is launching a political party

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Tesla shares drop 7% in premarket trading after Elon Musk says he is launching a political party

White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tesla shares fell in premarket trade on Monday after CEO Elon Musk announced plans to form a new political party.

The stock was down 7.13% by 4:27 a.m. E.T.

Musk said over the weekend that the party would be called the “America Party” and could focus “on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.” He suggested this would be “enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”

The billionaire’s involvement in politics has been a point of contention for investors. Musk earlier this year was part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and worked closely with President Donald Trump — a move seen as potentially hurting Tesla’s brand.

Musk left DOGE in May, which helped Tesla’s stock.

Now tech billionaire’s reinvolvement in the political arena is making investors nervous.

“Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story,” Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said in a note on Sunday.

“While the core Musk supporters will back Musk at every turn no matter what, there is broader sense of exhaustion from many Tesla investors that Musk keeps heading down the political track.”

Musk’s previous political foray earned him Trump’s praise in the early days, but he has since drawn the ire of the U.S. president.

The two have clashed over various areas of policy, including Trump’s spending bill which Musk has said would increase America’s debt burden. Musk has taken issue to particular cuts to tax credits and support for solar and wind energy and electric vehicles.

Trump on Sunday called Musk’s move to form a political party “ridiculous,” adding that the Tesla boss had gone “completely off the rails.”

Musk is contending with more than just political turmoil. Tesla reported a 14% year-on-year decline in car deliveries in the second quarter, missing expectations. The company is facing rising competition, especially in its key market, China.

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Environment

Paris’ popular bike share program has a big sticky finger problem

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Paris' popular bike share program has a big sticky finger problem

Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.

According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.

“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.

The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.

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The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.

Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.

And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.

The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.

Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.

That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.

The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.

Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.

The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.

Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.

In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.

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Environment

CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk, founder of companies and political parties

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CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk, founder of companies and political parties

U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend a press event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

When they lose a significant other, most men do indeed become a “TRAIN WRECK.” Then they pick up the pieces of their lives and start living again — paying attention to their personal grooming, hitting the gym and discovering new hobbies.

What does the world’s richest man do? He starts a political party.

Last weekend, as the United States celebrated its independence from the British in 1776, Elon Musk enshrined his sovereignty from U.S. President Donald Trump by establishing the creatively named “American Party.”

Few details have been revealed, but Musk said the party will focus on “just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” and will have legislative discussions “with both parties” — referring to the U.S. Democratic and Republican Parties.

It might be easier to realize Musk’s dream of colonizing Mars than to bridge the political aisle in the U.S. government today.

To be fair, some thought appeared to be behind the move. Musk decided to form the party after holding a poll on X in which 65.4% of respondents voted in favor.

Folks, here’s direct democracy — and the powerful post-separation motivation — in action.

 — CNBC’s Erin Doherty contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

And finally…

An investor sits in front of a board showing stock information at a brokerage office in Beijing, China.

Thomas Peter | Reuters

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