Good morning. It’s Tuesday, May 13 — the most unremarkable day of the week. Not painfully Monday, not gloriously Friday. Just… Tuesday. 

We’re still emotionally digesting Mother’s Day from this past Sunday — some of us basked in brunch and roses, others sent last-minute flower emojis and hoped for the best. Either way, the moms in our lives deserved more than the burnt pancakes and recycled Hallmark poems. So if you forgot to call her, consider this your gentle shame bell. 

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Today’s stories:

• Russia unearths record-breaking amber diamond

• Coinbase grabs Deribit, expands crypto options

• Gates donates $107B, exits philanthropy early

• Netflix redesigns for quicker binge decisions

• Everest now requires serious climbing creds

• Holmes’ partner revives Theranos déjà vu

• Perplexity aims high with $14B valuation

• U.S.-China pause tariffs, markets cheer

• U.S.-born cardinal becomes Pope Leo

• 53-year-old probe finally falls back

• Podcasts hit $7.3B, surprise boom

• 1960s future homes oddly accurate

• Starship gets FAA go for liftoff

  and more…

Wall Street roared back Monday after the U.S. and China agreed to temporarily slash tariffs, reviving hopes that a trade war won’t tank the economy.

The Dow jumped 1,160 points (2.81%) to close at 42,410, while the S&P 500 surged 3.26% to 5,844 — now up over 20% from April’s lows. The Nasdaq led the rally with a 4.35% gain, closing at 18,708 as tech giants like Tesla and Apple soared on the trade optimism.

It was the best day for all three indexes since April 9.

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Bill Gates Is Giving It All Away

Bill Gates just pledged nearly all his remaining fortune — around $107 billion — to the Gates Foundation. The plan speeds up the foundation’s closure to 2045 and adds $200 billion to its spending over the next 20 years. It’s one of the biggest philanthropic moves in history, even topping Rockefeller and Carnegie when adjusted for inflation. Only Warren Buffett’s pledge might be bigger, depending on the stock market’s mood.

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Coinbase buys Deribit. Coinbase is buying Deribit for $2.9 billion in cash and stock, adding crypto options to its global menu. This expands Coinbase’s reach in Asia and Europe, where high-risk, high-leverage trading is booming. Options trading helps traders hedge and stay active during market chaos. For Coinbase, it’s a smart grab as it pushes harder into institutional markets — and tries to stay relevant beyond U.S. borders. Shares rose 5.7% after the news, despite being down 21% in 2025. If the U.S. ever greenlights options and perpetuals trading, Coinbase will be ready to cash in.

Trade war time-out. After a weekend in Geneva, the U.S. and China agreed to pause most of their brutal tariffs for 90 days. Stocks loved it. Economists called it “promising.” Everyone else is just waiting for the next tweet. U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports drop from a wild 145% to 30%. China’s go from 125% to 10%. It’s the first real conversation since Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement torched trade policy and set off an economic panic spiral. The new 30% U.S. rate sticks around — made up of Trump’s 20% fentanyl retaliation plus his signature 10%-on-everything tariff. For now, both countries are playing nice. Emphasis on for now.

Perplexity AI in talks to raise $500M at $14B valuation. Perplexity AI is wrapping up a $500 million funding round at a $14 billion valuation, down slightly from the $18B it wanted a few months ago — but still, not exactly struggling. Accel is leading the round, which hasn’t closed yet. The AI-powered search engine has tripled its value since June 2024, going from $3B to $9B by December, and now aiming even higher. It’s gunning for Google and OpenAI, but with fewer press releases and more VC checks.

Podcast industry quietly doubles expectations. The podcast world raked in $7.3 billion in 2024 — more than twice what experts predicted. Owl & Co. dropped the report, and suddenly everyone with a ring light and a microphone is feeling professionally validated. Ad dollars still carry the load, with subscriptions chipping in. Live events weren’t even factored in. So yes, podcasting is now officially big business. And somewhere, three guys in matching hoodies and zero credentials are yelling into a mic about "alpha energy," convinced they built this entire $7 billion industry.

Netflix Finally Updates Its Home Screen

For the first time since 2013, Netflix is giving its home screen a full makeover. Starting next week, your TV will greet you with fewer titles, more motion, and a flashier design meant to get you to hit “play” faster — and stay there. When Netflix last did this, it had 30 million subscribers. Now it has 300 million and basically invented modern streaming. So yes, when Netflix changes its look, the rest of the industry scrambles for a matching outfit.

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New blood-test startup, same vibe. Billy Evans, partner of jailed Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is now raising money for a new blood-testing startup. The company promises “human health optimization” and a “radically new approach” to diagnostics — language that sounds painfully familiar. Evans has two kids with Holmes, who’s serving time for defrauding investors with her finger-prick miracle that wasn’t. Now he’s pitching something eerily similar. What could possibly go wrong?

Starship cleared for 25 launches a year. Elon Musk’s giant rocket just got the green light to launch up to 25 times a year from Texas. The FAA says all those explosions probably won’t hurt the planet too much. Starship — a 403-foot beast built for moon missions and Martian road trips — is now cleared for takeoff and landing at a much faster pace. The booster already pulled off a midair catch with giant robot chopsticks. Starship itself is still working on the whole “not exploding” part, though. Two test flights this year have already ended in classic “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” But hey, progress.

Soviet space junk finally gives up. Kosmos 482, a Soviet probe launched in 1972 to explore Venus, finally crashed back to Earth after 53 years of doing absolutely nothing. The mission failed at launch, and the spacecraft got stuck orbiting Earth like Cold War décor. It was last spotted over Germany before disappearing from radar. No one was hurt. It’s just one of thousands of space junk items that fall back to Earth — but few hang around this long just to flop.

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No More Everest for Beginners

Starting in 2025, climbers hoping to summit Everest will need to show receipts — specifically, proof they’ve already climbed a 7,000-meter peak in Nepal. No more showing up with a GoPro and a dream. The new rule is part of Nepal’s tourism overhaul, aimed at cutting back the Everest chaos. Crowds have exploded in recent years, dragging safety and the environment down with them. The permit policy forces climbers to earn their way up and, conveniently, nudges them toward Nepal’s other massive mountains first.

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The Pope is American now, try not to panic. Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago just leveled up to Pope Leo XIV — officially the first U.S.-born pope in Catholic Church history. That’s right: the Vatican’s now got a Chicago guy in charge. Somebody check if he brought deep dish. Leo made his debut on the St. Peter’s Basilica balcony, calling for peace and tipping his hat to Pope Francis. He’s 69, holds both U.S. and Peruvian passports, and has spent decades bouncing between continents like a holy diplomat. World leaders lost their minds with congratulatory messages. Trump called it an “honor for the country,” because of course he did. 

468 carats of “look what we found”. Russia’s top diamond miner, ALROSA, just pulled a 468.30-carat amber-colored gem out of the Arctic dirt in Yakutia. It’s the biggest gem-quality diamond the country’s ever found. They’re calling it “The Amber Giant,” which sounds like a vodka brand or a Bond villain, but no — it’s just a massive, sparkly flex from a frozen corner of Siberia.

Retro-futurism still slaps. Back in the ’50s and ’60s, designers loved dreaming up the “home of the future.” Turns out, they were weirdly good at it. A new look at illustrator Charles Schridde’s work — originally commissioned by Motorola — shows just how spot-on (and charmingly off) those old-school visions still are. Schridde imagined sleek, space-age homes with Motorola gadgets front and center. Seven decades later, his work still hits.

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TikTok of the day: watch here

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