Forbes - Under the microscope 🔬

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

Hackers will crack a gmail account for just $600. That’s the going rate charged by a crew of “cyber mercenaries” who targeted thousands of executives, politicians, journalists and, disturbingly, dozens of IVF clinics. 

Billionaires have salted away over $30 billion in Luxembourg. The tiny grand duchy was used to shelter a previously unreported fortune in airplanes, helicopters, vineyards and luxury hotels by some of Europe’s wealthiest. 

Europe’s antitrust drive against Google and Big Tech starts to bite. A court ruled this week that Google was on the hook for a $2.8 billion fine for pushing its price-comparison tools over European rivals like Kelkoo; more lawsuits and anti-monopoly regulation are likely to follow. 

Facebook’s ad targeting technology continues to cause controversy. Meta finally confirmed it would bar advertisers from buying ads based on the race or sexual orientation of users. Still on the to do list: addressing climate change disinformation. 

The world’s most expensive fungus is in trouble. Italy’s white Alba truffles are celebrated by chefs around the world but a disappointing annual harvest has heightened fears about the impact of climate change on the aromatic, and expensive tubers.

The good

The COP26 climate summit could run into extra time. The meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, has delivered some wins but the talks needed to make progress on key issues like ending subsidies for fossil fuel production could run into the weekend. 

The bad

Tesla made Elon Musk the richest person in the world, but what happened with his cofounders? The story is a salutary lesson for all entrepreneurs.

Got an event coming up?

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Watch

The blood moon is coming. Yes, Halloween is over but the longest partial lunar eclipse in a century will be visible over the Americas and eastern Asia on November 19. Free to view.

Listen

The catfishing kingpin. A new six-part podcast tells a twisted story of how a young woman was ensnared in a 10-year web of online deception and manipulation. Sweet Bobby, from Tortoise Media, free to listen worldwide.

Read

Flipping the narrative. Louis Theroux has built a celebrated career as a documentary maker for intense and intimate studies of his subjects but lockdown forced him to turn that lens on himself. Theroux the Keyhole: Diaries of a Grounded Documentary Maker, from $17.

Taste

Celebrate the ascendancy of Basque food. Restaurants inspired by the stripped back and grill-focused cooking style of the Spanish region, like London’s Brat, claimed six of the top spots in the recent The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. 

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