Forbes - Up in smoke 💨

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

5 things we learned

Goodbye coal? More than 40 countries have pledged to shift away from coal in a major breakthrough at the COP26 climate summit but the list missed some of the biggest polluters like the U.S., China and India.

Tesla can’t get off the starting line in India. The country’s tech elite are clamouring to buy Elon Musk’s electric cars but a standoff with Narendra Modi’s government over taxes and local production pledges have stalled sales.

Everything you've wanted to know but were afraid to ask about the metaverse. Second Life 2.0? Maybe. Here’s a crib sheet for Facebook’s plan to build a hopefully less dystopian Ready Player One-style digital world.

A dark web kingpin earned $15 million from magic mushrooms. At least that’s the claim from investigators who say his international crew netted $140 million in bitcoin at current valuations. 

Never fly after noon during the holidays. With the reopening of travel to the United States for many next week, here’s a timely reminder how not to get grounded again by delays and bad weather.

The good

Facebook will dump creepy facial recognition technology. DeepFace has been tagging you in awkward group photos since 2010—but the promise to stop using face and body scanning algorithms doesn't extend to the nascent metaverse. 

The bad

Electric truckmaker Nikola could settle with the SEC for $125 million. The Nasdaq-listed startup had been under investigation for over a year because of fraud accusations against departed founder Trevor Milton.

Do this

Celebrate reinvention. Georgia O’Keeffe’s artistic career stretched across seven decades and her relentless creativity helped define modern American art. Centre Pompidou, Paris until December 6.

Got an event coming up?

Know a great event our community should hear about? Let us know and we'll include it next week.

Watch

Colin Kaepernick reclaims his narrative. The former NFL star-turned-civil rights activist became another talking point in America’s culture wars. Now in a collaboration with filmmaker Ava DuVernay and Netflix—Kaepernick tells his story. Colin in Black & White, available worldwide on Netflix.

Listen

Meet Fat Leonard. He’s the Malaysian playboy and entrepreneur at the heart of Billion Dollar Whale journalist Tom Wright’s new investigation into what was branded as possibly “the worst national-security breach” to hit the U.S. Navy. Fat Leonard, free to listen worldwide. 

Read

Catch up on COP26: The Sixth Extinction author Elizabeth Kolbert is back with a new book on the scientists with radical plans to conserve our dwindling natural world and potentially unwind the damage of the Anthropocene age. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, from $12.

Taste

November means Beaujolais nouveau. Pick your spot now to celebrate the opening of the first wine of this year’s vintage in Europe. London’s Noble Rot will host its annual fete for the bubble gum-scented wine with a guest appearance from star chef Angela Hartnett.

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