Twitter’s Elon Musk Challenge | Ukraine’s Tech Resistance | How To Fight Climate Change

Plus: World’s Billionaires List 2022

Good morning.

The fortunes of the world’s richest people have taken a hit this year. Forbes’ definitive world’s billionaires list 2022 is 87 spots shorter than it was last year—nonetheless, more than a 1,000 billionaires actually saw their net worths rise in the past 12 months. In other news, we’re covering how the market reacted to Elon Musk acquiring a 9.2% stake in Twitter, how Ukraine’s sprawling tech sector is fighting back against Russian propaganda and the changes scientists recommend to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Sofia Lotto Persio

Curator-In-Chief | Twitter

In The News Today

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong warned Seoul they are prepared to use nuclear weapons to retaliate against any “pre-emptive strikes,” responding to a recent statement from South Korea’s defense minister.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Kyiv this week to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Top Take-Aways

Elon Musk’s newly acquired status as Twitter’s largest shareholder presents a challenge for the social network’s relatively new CEO Parag Agrawal, but was cheered by investors who sent the stock up 27%.

A new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for “major transitions in the energy sector” to keep rapidly warming global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degree Celsius from pre-industrial levels by 2100.

As U.S. officials greenlit second booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines last week, experts question whether everyone even needs a fourth shot or if regular boosting is a sustainable strategy to manage coronavirus long-term.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s journey to the Supreme Court requires an extra stop as no Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to support her. Her ultimate confirmation is nonetheless all but assured, thanks to the support of three Republican Senators.

Technology companies proliferated in Ukraine before Russia's invasion, employing about 250,000 people. Now many of those IT professionals are using their digital skills to fight back and undermine Russian propaganda.

Spanish police, aided by agents from the FBI and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, boarded and seized a yacht owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg in Palma de Mallorca.

Today's Must Read

World’s Billionaires List 2022

War, pandemic and sluggish markets hit the world’s billionaires this year. The 2,668 on Forbes’ 36th-annual ranking of the planet’s richest people are worth a collective $12.7 trillion—$400 billion less than in 2021.

Check Out The Ranking →

Take a deeper look into the world's billionaires list 2022 by exploring:
- The classic categories: richest women, who’s new to the ranking, who made the biggest gains and who did not make the list this year.
- Billionaires in the tech and crypto sectors, as well as those owning sports teams.
- Top 10 richest people in: the U.S., India, China, Europe, as well as a deep-dive into how the war affected the fortunes of Russian and Ukrainian billionaires.
- Location: the four countries who claimed their first billionaires, the cities where most billionaires live, the richest billionaire in every U.S. state, and the countries with the most billionaires.
- Profiles of standout personalities: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, Elon Musk, Josh Kushner, MacKenzie Scott, Donald Trump, Changpeng Zhao.

We’ll be releasing even more stories in the next few days, so watch this space!

In Case You Missed It

Last week’s vote to unionize at an Amazon warehouse is a big win for labor unions and may help raise the profile of organized unions as a path for better working conditions, benefits and wages.

Tips You Can Trust

Saying "I don't know" can feel like an admission of stupidity—far from it! Here are three reasons why admitting your limits is always the smarter choice.

While it’s tempting to envy those who seem to be lucky in their careers, there are ways to build you own good fortune—here are six of them.

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Features

27-Year-Old Billionaire Ryan Breslow on His Pivot From Crypto To Retail

For a cloistered homebody who claims to disdain the Silicon Valley scene, Ryan Breslow seems to be everywhere in tech these days. In all he has raised $1 billion from venture capitalists, $873 million of it just since 2020 from blue-chip shops like General Atlantic, BlackRock, WestCap and H.I.G. Growth, turbocharging Bolt’s valuation to $11 billion.

Watch

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