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Just days ahead of the COP 26 U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, San Francisco tech billionaire Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne are announcing $200 million in commitments to plant trees and fund ecologically-focused entrepreneurs. Salesforce, the software firm he founded and runs, will donate $10 million a year for the next decade to nonprofits working in ecosystem restoration and climate justice, according to a statement from the company. “We’re in a planetary emergency—a climate crisis that impacts everyone, especially the most vulnerable among us,” Benioff said in a statement. “We need to apply every strategy possible to protect and preserve our planet.” Read more about the #COP26 and Benioff's pledge via the link in our bio.

October 29, 2021

Donald Trump set off fireworks on Wall Street when he announced that a new business, the Trump Media and Technology Group, planned to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC). Shares soared 550% in a week. At one point, when they hit their peak at $175, a little-known investor who organized the SPAC controlled a stake of more than $1 billion. Hedge funds who got in early were sitting on hundreds of millions in gains, assuming they hadn’t already cashed out. And everyday Trump supporters, betting on the SPAC from their brokerage accounts, were doubling and tripling their money in a matter of hours. Not everyone is going to make money, though. In any frenzy, there are suckers and there are sharks. Some will get lucky. But many—especially the true Trump believers, who want to stick with the former president for the long haul—seem destined to lose big. The sharks, on the other hand, already won the game before anyone else even came to the table. Find out which sharks are hitting it big and which suckers are losing money in our bio link.

October 28, 2021

Facebook has officially changed its name to ‘Meta’, the social media giant announced at its annual conference on augmented reality and virtual reality technology Thursday. During the conference, the company’s sign at its One Hacker Way headquarters in Menlo Park was covered with a temporary canvas adorned with a thumbs-up logo. Once the new name was announced, the temporary canvas was removed, unveiling a new logo for a new name: a blue infinity-like symbol. Facebook’s new name ‘Meta’ is Greek for “beyond,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the event. Swipe through to see the before and after, and learn more about the new moniker via our bio link.

October 28, 2021

The world’s top two soccer players have flipped spots and wear new jerseys but have familiar paychecks, earning a combined $235 million this season. In total, Forbes’ top ten highest-paid soccer players are expected to collect pretax earnings of $585 million this season, up from last year’s $570 million. Read more about the list in our bio link and make sure to follow us on TikTok, too.

October 28, 2021

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October 28, 2021

Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his new Cabinet Tuesday and has promoted women in top roles in another gender-balanced Cabinet. Women are now in charge of the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, and defense. In a Cabinet of 38 people, including Trudeau, 19 are women. Familiar faces like Chrystia Freeland as Finance Minister and deputy prime minister and Melanie Joly as foreign affairs minister remain integral parts of Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet. Former Procurement Minister Anita Anand also becomes minister of national defense. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has made it a priority to have a gender-equal Cabinet since his first term as prime minister in 2015 and had promised to name another gender-equal cabinet following the country’s latest election Read more in the link in our bio.

October 28, 2021

The U.S. has issued its first passport with an X gender marker, opening the door for Americans who don’t identify as male or female to check the X gender option when applying for U.S. passports, the Statement Department announced Wednesday, marking a milestone in recognizing different gender identities on official government documents. The Department of State plans to roll out the X gender option early next year once it updates its system and receives the green light from the Office of Management and Budget, it said in a statement. Jessica Stern, the U.S. special envoy to advance LGBTQ rights, told the Associated Press that the issuance of the X gender passport was historic and that people live with “greater dignity and respect” when they have documents that correspond with their identities. Read more via our bio link.

October 28, 2021

As vaccine mandates have become more commonplace around the country, over two-thirds of Americans have gotten at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, a number that’s expected to grow as children ages 5 to 11 will soon become eligible. Over 220 million residents have gotten at least one dose, making up over 66% of the U.S. population, according to the CDC, but they've been slower to get the vaccine than President Biden wanted. In May, the President set a goal for 70% of U.S. adults to get at least one shot by July 4th, and that goal wasn’t met until August. Now though, almost 80% of Americans over 18 have now had at least one dose. Read more about the U.S. vaccination effort via our bio link.

October 28, 2021

Auston Matthews may be the NHL’s best sniper, leading the league in goals last season, but this year’s biggest score belongs to Connor McDavid. The Edmonton Oilers’ 24-year-old captain reclaims the top spot on Forbes’ list of the NHL’s highest-paid players with $16.4 million for the 2021-22 season. That includes a league-high salary and bonus package of $12.4 million plus another $4 million in annual off-ice income from endorsements, appearances, memorabilia and licensing deals. Combined, the NHL’s ten highest-paid players are set to collect $117 million, a pittance compared with the top-ten totals in the NBA ($714 million), the NFL ($418 million) and even Major League Baseball ($357 million). Hockey’s relatively meager revenue is projected to surpass $5 billion this season, a third of what the NFL made in its last pre-pandemic season, in 2019. Already paid much less than the stars of the NFL, the NBA and even MLB, the top NHL hockey players have seen their annual earnings fall 27% since 2019. Swipe through to see the top ten and read more via the link in our bio.

October 28, 2021

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October 28, 2021

Uber, which wants more of its drivers using zero-emissions vehicles, is partnering with Hertz to put up to half of the 100,000 Teslas the rental car company is buying from Elon Musk’s electric-automaker into operation on its network — with the first cars entering service in November. By 2023 the San Francisco-based rideshare giant hopes to have drivers using as many as 50,000 Teslas across its U.S. network, via a preferred weekly lease program with Hertz and added enticements to encourage use of the vehicles. The program would be the largest EV initiative to date for any rideshare service in the U.S., kicking off on Nov. 1 in cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington D.C., Uber says. It will expand to additional cities in the coming weeks. Read more via our bio link.

October 28, 2021

Cigarette sales rose last year for the first time in two decades, providing more evidence that more Americans took to smoking amid the stresses of pandemic lockdowns. Spending on cigarette advertising and promotion increased 2.9% to $7.84 billion, according to annual reports from the Federal Trade Commission on the tobacco industry released Tuesday. The FTC reports shows that 203.7 billion cigarettes were sold from large tobacco companies to retailers in the U.S. in 2020, a small increase from the 202.9 billion reported in 2019. It’s a long way from the peak of 636.5 billion cigarettes sold in 1981, though. Read more about pandemic vices via the link in our bio.

October 27, 2021