Nigeria will be sending its first citizen to space as part of collaboration between its National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), a global space agency. SERA will reserve a seat for a Nigerian citizen on an upcoming Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital spaceflight. First Nigerian in Space Announced on June 19, 2024, this initiative is part of a broader effort to include nations historically underrepresented in space exploration. “Until now, space has been an exclusive domain, with over 80% of all astronauts
Latinas face the steepest drop in representation as they climb the corporate ladder, according to Lean In’s first-ever report on the state of Latinas in corporate America. Despite Latinas accounting for nearly 1 in 10 people in the US, they hold less than 1 in 20 entry-level corporate jobs and only 1 in 100 C-suite positions. Disparities in Advancement and Pay In 2023, white men’s representation increased by nearly two-thirds (64%) from entry-level to C-suite positions, while Latinas’ representation decreased by over three-quarters (78%). Latinas also experience the largest pay
Verzuz, the multimedia platform co-founded by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, announced a new distribution deal with Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter). Episodes will stream for free exclusively on X, while VERZUZ maintains full ownership and creative control. VERZUZ comes to X This partnership follows Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s reacquisition of VERZUZ from Triller after a lawsuit over $28 million in unpaid fees. Despite legal issues, the founders kept their equity in Triller and retained the artists who participated in VERZUZ. Swizz Beatz expressed excitement about the partnership: “We are beyond
MoviePass, a Black-owned movie-theater subscription service, has received an equity investment from Forecast Labs, a consumer venture group owned by Comcast. As first reported by Variety, this investment will help MoviePass attract new customers through targeted TV ads using Comcast’s media reach. The financial details were not disclosed. The company was recently the subject of the HBO series “MoviePass, MovieCrash.” The Rise, Fall, And Rise of MoviePass Launched in 2011 by Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, MoviePass allowed subscribers to buy one movie ticket daily for a monthly fee. Despite
Crunchbase has announced the expansion of its Diversity Spotlight feature to include companies in Europe. This expansion will allow up to one million additional companies on Crunchbase to add Diversity Spotlight tags to their profiles, enhancing the visibility of diverse founders and investors across the continent. Crunchbase’s Diversity Spotlight Crunchbase introduced its Diversity Spotlight feature in 2020 to centralize and highlight data about companies with diverse leadership and the investors who fund them. This feature indicates diversity in an organization’s leadership team, including founders and CEOs for startups and managing
A Georgia federal jury has awarded $535,000 in damages to a Black tech worker who alleged he was fired in retaliation for complaining about racial discrimination. The jury handed down the verdict on June 4 in favor of Matthew Reed, a former employee of Beko Technologies Corp. Retaliation and Discrimination Claims Matthew Reed began working at Beko, which develops and manufactures compressed air technology, in 2016 as a production technician. According to Law360, Reed claimed that despite his excellent work performance, his supervisor denied him raises and treated him discriminatorily.
Ancestry.com has released a new collection of newspaper articles related to more than 183,000 enslaved people in the US. The collection is free to access and leverages an AI-powered search tool to provide millions of descendants of formerly enslaved individuals with unprecedented access to detailed historical records. Never-before-seen records Ancestry’s “Articles of Enslavement” collection comprises approximately 38,000 newspaper articles dating from 1788 to 1867. Many of these original newspaper articles contain never-before-seen information about enslaved individuals and fill gaps in historical records where courthouse and community documents have been lost
Google has announced the construction of Umoja, the first-ever fiber optic cable to link Africa with Australia directly. This initiative, named after the Swahili word for “unity,” aims to boost the reliability and reach of digital infrastructure across the continents. The Umoja cable The Umoja cable will begin in Kenya and traverse Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, including the Google Cloud region, before crossing the Indian Ocean to Australia. According to Google’s press release, the terrestrial segment of the route has already been completed in collaboration with Liquid
Apple Inc. has appointed Cynthia Bowman as its new Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity. Bowman, a seasoned banking executive, succeeds Barbara Whye, marking the fourth executive to hold this position in recent years. Cynthia Bowman: Bank of America Veteran Cynthia Bowman, who previously served as Chief Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Responsibility Officer at Bank of America Corp., joins Apple following a 17-year tenure with the bank. “We are excited that Cynthia Bowman will serve as Apple’s next Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity,” an Apple spokesperson said in a
Kenyan President William Ruto made Atlanta his first stop during his official state visit to the United States, focusing on advancing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. During his visit to Spelman College, a historically Black college for women, Ruto signed a framework agreement to establish educational exchanges between Kenyan universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the US. Boosting STEM Education The agreement, signed by representatives from Spelman and Morehouse Colleges, Clark Atlanta University, and Howard University, aims to enhance STEM education in both countries. “We
