Twitter’s Board Games | Tesla’s Water Worries | MLB’s Highest-Paid Players 2022

Plus: Nigeria-Born Tope Awotona Poured His Life Savings Into Calendly. Now He’s One Of America’s Wealthiest Immigrants

Good morning.

One way to explain Parag Agrawal’s decision to name Elon Musk to Twitter’s board of directors might be an old adage: keep your friends close—and the world’s richest person who has just become your company’s largest shareholder, closer. We’re also covering how Tesla is dealing with water supply challenges at its newest manufacturing plants, and unveiling this year’s list of baseball’s highest paid players. Finally, don’t miss the story of how a Nigerian-born entrepreneur became one of just two Black tech billionaires in the United States.

In The News Today

The Dutch authorities seized 14 megayachts believed to be owned by Russian individuals that were under construction or maintenance at several shipyards in the Netherlands. 

A man has died after crashing his car into the gate of Russia’s embassy in Romania—it remains unclear whether the incident was an accident or deliberate.

Top Take-Aways

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal’s decision to offer Elon Musk, now the company’s largest individual shareholder, a seat on the board is likely an attempt to forestall a public spat with the incendiary billionaire, who has long nursed a love and hate relationship with the social network.

Trading app Public, which last year denounced the controversial payment-for-order-flow practice common among competitors such as Robinhood, has come up with a different way to offer free trades: sell public companies and ETF sponsors access and data.

Concerns about water supplies delayed the opening of Tesla’s first European auto plant in Germany. The same issue is also plaguing another one of the electric vehicle maker’s “giga” manufacturing plants—the one in Austin, Texas, due to open tomorrow.

Federal investigators are on the trail of an insider at a California government agency who allegedly helped inmates at a state prison siphon $250,000 in taxpayer funds—a peculiar yet not uncommon case of Covid-19 unemployment benefit fraud involving public sector employees.

As MLB emerges from a three-month lockout over a new collective bargaining agreement, its ten top earners are set to collect $377 million combined this year, an all-time high. One of the sport’s top agents, however, believes the league missed a big opportunity. For one player, instead, the big money is earned off the field.

We’ve published new stories digging into the data and the personalities featured in this year’s world’s billionaires ranking: we’re looking at which U.S. state is home to the most billionaires, who are the youngest members of the global three-comma club, a budget airlines pioneer making his list debut, and which 2021 newcomers dropped off in 2022.

Today's Must Read

In Case You Missed It

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the MORE Act, a bill that would end the federal prohibition on cannabis by removing it from the list of banned controlled substances, on Friday. It’s the second time the bill passed the House—it will face strong headwinds in the Senate.

Tips You Can Trust

The pressure to be “always on” is contributing to a growing problem of fatigue among employees. Workplace leaders should consider these six tips to prevent both their teams and themselves from feeling exhausted.

Deciding whether to leave a job is never easy, so it can help to think about whether there’s any compatibility between your personality and the workplace—here are three examples.

Today's Must Watch

Recommendations
From Beyond The Newsroom

A Forbes subscription illuminates, informs and inspires. Join today to gain unlimited access to all our journalism and a front-row seat at exclusive subscriber-only events.