F1 insider | Ecclestone gives his verdict on Hamilton’s “Verstappen” clause

A clause in Lewis Hamilton’s new Mercedes contract is causing debate. We put this contract detail into a historic perspective

Lewis Hamilton’s (36) contract extension with Mercedes, which according to F1-Insider.com information will be officially announced next week, has caused a small earthquake in the Formula 1 landscape. Especially the so-called “Verstappen clause”, which insiders believe the British superstar had got written into his  new contract, is causing quite a lot of debate.

The background: Hamilton is said to have secured himself a say in the decision on who will be his teammate in the future, should he wish to pull his option and stay another year. None of the protagonists will confirm such a contract detail, but one possible reason is obvious: Red Bull’s wonder boy Max Verstappen (23), who some experts believe already would be able to beat the Briton in the same car, certainly is somebody Hamilton doesn’t want to put up with  in the autumn of his career.  –-read more—

CNN politics l Activists call on Democrats to pass major election reforms as states move to restrict voting

(CNN) – Faced with a barrage of bills to clamp down on ballot access around the country, some voting rights advocates are pinning their hopes on Congress and urging Democrats on Capitol Hill to use their slim majority to pass a sweeping election reform and voting rights package — even if they have to torpedo the filibuster in the Senate to make it happen.

The stakes are high: A recent analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found three times as many pieces of legislation at the state level to restrict voting access as there were at this time a year ago.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | A Black woman will be the world’s top trade official for the first time

London (CNN Business) – The path has been cleared for Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to become the first woman and the first African to lead the World Trade Organization after South Korea’s candidate pulled out of the race for the job.

Yoo Myung-hee, the South Korean trade minister, announced her decision to withdraw in a televised briefing on Friday.

Okonjo-Iweala, an economist and former finance minister of Nigeria, already enjoyed broad support from WTO members, including the European Union, China, Japan and Australia.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Analysis: Bezos leaves behind a company that’s created value but has also triggered a national reckoning

(CNN Business) – In 1997, the year Amazon (AMZN) became a publicly traded company, CEO Jeff Bezos promised investors they would be in for a journey. Amazon would not chase short-term profits, he warned in a letter to shareholders. It would focus “relentlessly” on customers. It would act with urgency but prioritize long-term investments. And it would run a lean culture that minimized costs and cut waste.

A quarter-century later, Bezos’s approach has made Amazon a global behemoth that employs more than a million people and touches almost every aspect of modern life, a fact that’s become even more apparent during the pandemic.

Bezos, the world’s richest person until recently, has gone from selling books out of his garage to running a company that makes consumer electronics, produces award-winning films and TV shows, offers organic groceries and hosts some of the world’s biggest websites. His company’s ambitions include delivering packages to households using flying drones and spreading facial recognition technology to virtually every consumer’s front doorstep.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | This Missouri dad makes $35k. Now his GameStop shares are worth over a million

(CNN BUSINESS) – AJ Vanover put about $4,500 into a risky bet on GameStop and followed the saga on the ]subreddit Wallstreetbets. Now, this Missouri dad who earns $35,000 a year is a millionaire on paper.  —read more—  

CNN BUSINESS | The Reddit forum that’s freaking out Wall Street briefly went dark, sparking yet another frenzy

(CNN Business) – The Reddit message board that’s breaking the internet by sending Wall Street into a frenzy was briefly taken private by its moderators on Wednesday, adding further confusion to a wild day.  —read more—