🐤 Give it away now

⚔️ “No Serious Injuries”: Ukrainian forces have made some huge advancements against invading Russian troops in recent days, even reclaiming control of the Kharkiv territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the region this week but his motorcade was involved in a crash on the way back to the capital of Kyiv. Details of the collision were not immediately clear, but sources indicate that he was treated at the scene and did not sustain any serious injuries.

🏈 That’s Offensive: Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott underwent surgery on his thumb this week, which takes him out of the lineup for the immediate future. Nevertheless, head coach Mike McCarthy is set to stay the course with backup QB Cooper Rush. He said that the replacement is “as rehearsed in this offense as anybody” and doesn’t think there will be any major changes to the way the team conducts itself on the field during Prescott’s absence.

👬 Together Again: Although Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have found some geopolitical agreement on issues in the past, the two leaders haven’t met in person since Putin’s army invaded neighboring Ukraine. That changed this week when they interacted in person during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan. Putin acknowledged China’s “questions and concerns” about the Ukrainian situation, adding: “We will explain in detail our position on this issue, although we have spoken about this before.”

🚗 EV Ultimatum: While Ford has invested heavily in its line of electric-powered vehicles, customers might not be able to find them on dealership lots and in showrooms. The company has given its dealers until the end of next month to provide transparent pricing on the EVs, mandating that the information be readily available online. Failure to comply, Ford says, would mean that dealers would not be able to sell such vehicles. As CEO Jim Farley explained: “We’ve got to go non-negotiated price. We’ve got to go 100% online. There’s no inventory, it all goes directly to the customer. And 100% remote pickup and delivery.”

It’s not often that we see a billionaire businessperson voluntarily give away a profitable corporation, but that’s exactly what Yvon Chouinard did this week with the outdoor apparel company he founded way back in the 1970s.

Instead of passing off Patagonia to another executive, however, Chouinard revealed that he handed the reins over to a nonprofit group that will use profits as a tool to fight climate change.

Here are a few things to know about the deal:

• The newly formed Patagonia Purpose Trust will operate the 2% of stock with voting rights.
• The remaining 98% of the nonvoting stock will be controlled by the nonprofit Holdfast Collective.
• Chouinard considered selling the company or taking it public but decided that neither option would suit his broader goals.

In a statement on Wednesday, the founder celebrated “a half-century since we began our experiment in responsible business,” expressing hope that his decision will help protect the planet for the next half-century and beyond.

“If we have any hope of a thriving planet 50 years from now, it demands all of us doing all we can with the resources we have,” he said. “As the business leader I never wanted to be, I am doing my part.”

There are many facets of our modern high-tech world that are dangerous and often tragic for those at the receiving end of digital crime. Among the two most obvious examples are human trafficking and cyber scams.

As it turns out, these two crimes have become interconnected as a growing number of online scammers are using individuals taken against their will to carry out untold types of internet fraud.

This has apparently become especially prevalent in areas across Asia as people are tricked into falling captive to traffickers and then compelled to defraud others in a network of criminal enterprises.

Matt Friedman, who has worked for more than three decades to combat modern-day slavery, said the trend is especially insidious and leaves victims “double hurt” by their captors.

“This idea of combining two crimes, scamming and human trafficking, is a very new phenomenon,” he said, noting that he hasn’t seen anything like it at any other point in his career.

The scams can take a variety of forms and often begin with social media interactions that can appear completely legitimate.

Earlier this year, Vice spoke to the victim of one such scam in which a supposed love interest convinced her to part with a staggering sum of money.

She explained: “I met my scammer on Oct. 15, 2021. All said and done, I lost about $2.5 million.”

President Joe Biden on Thursday touted the negotiations between rail workers' unions and railway companies that tentatively avoided the threat of a costly strike.

If the shutdown had occurred, experts estimated that the amount of undelivered freight would cost the economy an eye-popping $2 billion per day.

The deal included some concessions by corporations, including an agreement — retroactive to 2020 — to hike wages by 24% and distribute bonuses of $5,000. At the same time, unions compromised on their demands for increased time off, specifically for sick days.

As part of the negotiations, workers will be able to take unpaid time off for doctor’s appointments without being penalized as they often had been before.

Senate Republicans had attempted to push through a bill earlier in the week that would have forced the unions to accept the terms of a nonpartisan panel, but Democrats stood in the way. In the end, Biden said that the resolution is a sign that two sides can still meet in the middle to get things done.

“This agreement is validation of what I’ve always believed,” he said. “Unions and management can work together … for the benefit of everyone.”

The terms of the agreement are designed to last for five years.