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Women athletes who want to start a family have often received little to no support or faced repercussions. Remember when, back in 2019, Olympic runners Allyson Felix, Alysia Montao, and Kara Goucher shared that Nike, their sponsor, said it would stop paying them if they werent runningeven during pregnancy and postpartum. It wasn’t until after the women called out the company in The New York Times that Nike instituted a new maternity policy. Women basketball players, soccer players, and other athletes across sports have also shared their negative experiences as expecting or new mothers and their fight for change. So its deeply heartening when progress occurs, like a new policy championed by players at the Womens Tennis Association (WTA). The organizing body for womens tennis has announced the Fertility Protection Special Entry Ranking Rule, which protects the ranking of women who undergo procedures like embryo or egg freezing. After hearing from players that the option of fertility protection offers a proactive way to balance family goals and career ambitions, were delighted that this new measure, alongside the fertility grant offered by the PIF WTA Maternity Fund, will contribute to enabling our athletes to realize their full potential and become parents at a time of their choice, said Portia Archer, CEO of the WTA, in a statement. (PIF stands for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.) How the new rule will work Athletes will qualify if they leave for at least 10 weeks to undergo the treatment and are ranked between Nos. 1 and 750 in singles or doubles. They will then receive a special entry ranking (SER) based on the 12-week average of their WTA ranking from eight weeks prior to the start of their out-of-competition period, the WTA states. Players can use the ranking for up to three tournaments. The WTA, founded by Billie Jean King, already offers ranking protection for pregnant individuals or those pursuing another form of parenthood. In March, the organization introduced 12-month paid maternity leave for athletestechnically independent contractorsand two months for adoption, a partners pregnancy, or surrogacy. The WTA claims its the first instance in womens sports history that comprehensive maternity benefits are available to independent, self-employed athletes. However, they must meet specific qualifications, such as participating in a certain number of tournaments. The WTA simultaneously introduced grants for fertility treatments.
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E-Commerce
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who heads the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has announced eight new members to the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committeesome who are critical of vaccinesafter firing the entire group, prompting questions and concerns. Kennedy said the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be at ACIP’s upcoming meeting on June 25 to June 27, which is slated to discuss vaccine recommendations for the HPV vaccine (which the CDC has deemed safe, and prevents cervical cancer and 90% of cancers caused by HPV in females), and of course the COVID-19 vaccine. Those new members are: Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Robert W. Malone, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth, and Michael A. Rosssome of whom are either close allies of RFK Jr. or vaccine skeptics, according to the BBC. Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and biostatistician, helped write the Great Barrington Declaration, which questioned lockdowns and other public health measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic, per National Public Radio; while Malone worked on mRNA technology for the COVID-19 vaccine early on, then became a critic and made false claims about the shot, also per NPR. Wednesday’s move comes just days after Kennedy fired all 17 sitting members of the ACIP, which makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy, and clinical need for the shots, advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the vaccine schedule and required coverage of immunizations. While Kennedy justified the firings, saying in a Wall Street Journal op-ed the panel of esteemed pediatricians, epidemiologists, immunologists, and other physicians was plagued with conflicts of interest, that’s questionable. As Fast Company has previously reported, Kennedy has a long history of repeatedly making false claims that have been debunked, and railing against or ranting about vaccines, medical drugs, the health system, and our nations food. RFK Jr. also has no medical degree, breaking with long-standing tradition for the health secretary post, and his nomination was the latest in a string of controversial picks by Trump for his second term.
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E-Commerce
Oracle investors are on cloud nine today as the stock reached record heights. The companys fourth quarter earnings results beat expectations yesterday and projected even more gains in cloud infrastructure. After rising nearly 8% in after-hours trading following the earnings release Wednesday evening, Oracle (ORCL) has continued to rise throughout the day on Thursday. The stock reached an all-time record of $202.04 at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, and has been steady since then. Oracle’s financial results for the fourth quarter showed $15.9 billion in total revenue, up 11% from the previous quarter. The net income for the quarter was $3.4 billion, with earnings per share of $1.19. Growth in Oracles cloud infrastructure revenue was particularly strong, jumping 52%, and it shows no signs of slowing in fiscal year 2026. The companys cloud infrastructure sales are projected to grow over 70% next fiscal year. Today, Oracle got the ball rolling by announcing a multi-year cloud infrastructure contract with Seekr, an artificial intelligence company. FY25 was a very good yearbut we believe FY26 will be even better as our revenue growth rates will be dramatically higher, Oracle CEO Safra Catz said on the companys Q4 earnings call. Oracle is well on its way to being not only the worlds largest cloud application companybut also one of the worlds largest cloud infrastructure companies. These powerful growth projections have also helped propel Oracle stock upward today, helping to boost the big tech sector and the S&P 500 along with it. Oracle has a market capitalization of $563 billion as of midday Thursday.
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E-Commerce
It hits at a certain time in the afternoon, when a familiar craving strikes. You walk to the kitchen. The satisfying sound of a can cracking, the hiss of bubbles. Its time for a fridge cigaretteor as you might know it, a can of Diet Coke. Earlier this week, TikTok user @reallyrachelreno posted: Overheard someone call Diet Coke a fridge cigarette and nothings been more true to me since. The video, which has since been viewed 3.5 million times, shows her cracking open a cold one in the sun. The caption: Time for a crispy ciggy in the summer. (ICYMI: The term crispy is used to describe a Diet Coke chilled to perfectionbonus points if served with pebbled ice and a lemon wedge.) @reallyrachelreno time for a crispy ciggy in the summer @Diet Coke #fyp #dietcoke Cruel Summer – Taylor Swift For many, the comparison is spot-on. Wow, thats so real. It just takes the edge off, one person commented. I gauge how hard my day is to determine if I get a little fridge cigarette, another added. In a follow-up video, @reallyrachelreno cleared up a few things based on the comments. According to her analysis: Diet Coke equals Parliaments, regular Coke equals Marlboro Reds, and Coke Zero equals American Spirits. Any other diet soda equals menthol (disparaging). Full-fat Coke in a glass bottle? Thats a cigar. In recent years, Diet Coke has made a noticeable comeback. Gen Zs version of the smoke break is the “Diet Coke break.” On TikTok, Diet Coke recipes go viral. Gen Z is obsessed with Diet Coke, Snaxshot writer Andrea Hernández noted in a recent newsletter. What is now being dubbed as fridge cigarettes has earned a cultural cachet without Coca-Cola having to do anything . . . but focus on delivering on taste and product. According to Hernández, Coca-Cola has held onto its position as the number one soda in the U.S. by tapping into nostalgia. After all, what captures the sweet nostalgia of summer better than a crisp can of Diet Coke in the sun? @hauskris the @Diet Coke break origin story – yall arent ready for whats next #dietcokebreak #middaydietcokebreak #dietcoke #narratortrend #narratorsvoice #originstory #storytelling #dietcokerecipe #dietcokeforlife Got To Be Real (s performed by Cheryl Lynn) – Pop Music Workshop Alongside the rise of the fridge cigarette, actual cigarettes have also crept back into pop culture, as The New York Times reported. In her hit single Headphones On, Addison Rae sings: Guess I gotta accept the pain / Need a cigarette to make me feel better. In What Was That, Lorde recalls: I remember saying then, This is the best cigarette of my life / Well, I want you just like that. Its a sign of the times. Clean Girl is out. Cigarettes are cool again. And in a world full of prebiotic soda and protein water, sometimes all you really want is a crispy fridge cigarette to take the edge off.
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E-Commerce
A dozen years after its launch, fintech company Chime rang the bell this morning at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square to celebrate its initial public offering. One of the most anticipated IPOs of the year, Chime is seemingly already basking in listing-day glory. After announcing that shares would hit the exchanges at a price of $27, investors were champing at the bit, and shares opened much higher, at around $43. That gave the company a valuation of around $18.4 billion. I never imagined when Chris [Britt, Chimes other cofounder and current CEO] and I met that wed be standing here today, Chime cofounder Ryan King tells Fast Company. Even if Chime does manage to reach that lofty $17 billion valuation, that is still a far cry from the $25 billion valuation it lassoed in 2021. Notably, another fintech company, eToro Group, also recently went public and has seen shares grow by 18% in the weeks since. Circle Internet Group, a stablecoin issuer, experienced a similar post-IPO boost in recent weeks. While we dont know where Chimes stock is headed, the companys leadership is happy to mark the milestone. Its a special moment, and Im feeling a lot of gratitude, King says. I figured itd be fun, wed learn some stuff, and build something new. But odds were, it wouldnt work out. That was the extent of it. But after building the company into one of the biggest fintechs on the market over the last 12 years, King says its a culmination of everything he and Britt have worked toward. Chime offers online banking products and services, many of which don’t add on additional fees or charges that may be associated with the same services at traditional banks. It has roughly 8.6 million members, and during 2014, generated $1.7 billion in revenue, a 31% increase over 2023. King says that the IPO timing was right for the company, despite volatility in the markets and political space. We have been preparing for this moment for a while. Were not trying to time the market, he says. We felt like the time was right. As for whats ahead, King says theres still more work to do. Two-thirds of the country are not well served by the big, traditional banks, and we feel like weve created a better model, he says. Were just getting started. Theres a lot more [work] in front of us than behind us.
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E-Commerce
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