Forbes - Italy's Green Pass Gamble🚦

Every Saturday I send you a tight edit of Forbes’ future trends across tech, entrepreneurship, sustainability and more. Enjoy.

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5 things we learned

Italy has brought in one of the world’s toughest anti-covid measures. The Green Pass scheme which requires all workers to show proof of vaccination, or a negative Covid test, was met with a wave of protests.

America’s booming legal marijuana industry is largely a cash business. Billionaire music mogul Jay Z invested in a $19 million funding round for a fintech firm that’s trying to solve the banking problem that stems from the federal prohibition of cannabis.

Deepfakes are being used in bank heists. Fraudsters tricked a Dubai bank manager into making a $35 million transfer using the technology to impersonate a key client.

Donald Trump’s kids went into a terrible deal with their dad. The three eldest Trump children—Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka—only have an ownership stake in one of the family’s businesses - the Trump International D.C. A reported sale could bail them out of the money pit project.

King James reigns supreme. For the eight straight year, LeBron James has topped the list of the top earning NBA stars, and earlier this week sold a minority stake in his entertainment business SpringHill to Nike, RedBird Capital and other investors at a $725 million valuation. 

The good

In a market sloshing with liquidity, companies are reaching the unicorn level with breakneck speed. That's made the latest edition of America’s Next Billion-Dollar Startups different from previous years, identifying these fast-growing, venture-backed startups at a far earlier stage.

The bad

Zymergen raised $500 million when it went public in April, on top of more than $1 billion in venture funding. By August, its CEO was out and the synthetic biology company wouldn’t say when it might have commercial revenue. Here’s what went wrong.

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Watch

Diversify your workforce from the start. Workplace diversity is something that a lot of larger companies are playing catch up on. Here’s how to build diversity as your business grows. Forbes, available to watch worldwide

Listen

Squid Game’s inside story. Listen to the Wall Street Journal’s Timothy Martin explain how the Korean Netflix show became a global streaming megahit. Gimlet Media, free to listen worldwide 

Read

A manifesto on not giving up. Writer, teacher, and activist, Bernardine Evaristo tells her story of overcoming adversity to become the first black woman to win the Booker Prize award. Penguin, from $13.68 

Taste

A new breed of croissant. Head chef Pâtissier at the Ritz, François Perret, has opened a new boutique bakery, but his bakes are far from conventional. You knead to try this 

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