Tag: News

• The top 10 women on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index are worth just over $500 billion combined.
• Walmart heiress Alice Walton and Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson are both on the list.
• Take a closer look at some of the world's richest women.

L'Oréal's biggest shareholder, a Walmart heir, and the CEO of Fidelity are among the 10 richest women in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

They've each amassed fortunes of more than $25 billion — and are worth a staggering $500 billion combined.

Check out this list of the 10 wealthiest women on the planet.

1. Françoise Bettencourt Meyers — $100 billion

Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, with a net worth of $100 billion, is the highest-placed woman on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in 15th spot.

Her grandfather, Eugène Schueller, founded the French cosmetics giant L'Oréal and she inherited a one-third stake from her mother.

Bettencourt Meyers, 70, is known for her intellectual pursuits — even writing books on Greek mythology and Bible commentaries — and her philanthropy. The Bettencourt Schueller Foundation supports scientific research, arts, and humanitarian projects.

2. Alice Walton — $83 billion

Alice Walton, 74, inherited her wealth from her father, who founded Walmart.

Unlike her brothers Jim and Rob, who are more directly involved in Walmart's operations, Alice has focused on the arts and charitable activities, including promoting education and conservation.

Her wealth has increased by just over $13 billion this year as Walmart's share price has risen by more than a fifth. Alice is in 19th place on the Bloomberg list, just behind her brothers.

3. Julia Flesher Koch — $73 billion 

Julia Flesher Koch's husband David was a cofounder of Koch Industries, and she became a billionaire when he died in 2019.

The 62-year-old contributes to causes including education, medical research, and the arts. and serves on the board of several charities.

4. Jacqueline Badger Mars — $47 billion

Jacqueline Badger Mars' grandfather founded the candy, pet care, and food conglomerate that bears the family's name. Press-shy and limelight-avoidant, the Mars family remains somewhat mysterious.

The 84-year-old has been on the Mars board of directors, and has also sat on the boards of the National Archives and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Mars and her ex-husband David Badger have three children. Their son Stephen has been on the Mars board since 2010.

5. MacKenzie Scott — $38 billion

MacKenzie Scott is the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. When the couple divorced in 2019, she received a settlement worth $38 billion.

Scott has since donated billions of dollars to a wide range of causes, including racial equality, LGBTQ+ rights, public health, and education, and has "revolutionized philanthropy," says the CEO of one charity that received a donation from Scott.

She's also written two novels.

6. Abigail Johnson — $37 billion 

Abigail Johnson, 62, is the CEO of Fidelity Investments, one of the world's largest financial firms that was founded by her grandfather. She has a one-third stake in its parent company, FMR, and succeeded her father as CEO in 2014.

Johnson, who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, is also known for pushing for women's opportunities in the financial world.

7. Miriam Adelson — $34 billion 

Miriam Adelson, 78, is the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and inherited a significant portion of his fortune when he died in 2021.

She cofounded a clinic that specializes in treating substance abuse and has been a prominent supporter of medical research and Jewish causes.

Adelson is also known for her political donations, particularly to conservative and pro-Israel groups, and was awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump in 2018.

8. Iris Fontbona — $34 billion 

Iris Fontbona, 81, was married to Andrónico Luksic, one of Chile's wealthiest people.

Following his death in 2005, Fontbona inherited his stake in the copper-mining giant Antofagasta, as well as positions in his banks and beverage companies.

9. Savitri Jindal — $31 billion

Savitri Jindal's family owns the Jindal Group, one of India's largest conglomerates, with steel, mining, power, and infrastructure businesses.

The 74-year-old is the widow of the group's founder O.P. Jindal and inherited a significant share of his wealth when he died in 2005, putting her in 55th spot on the Bloomberg list.

Jindal is also actively involved in politics, having served as a member of the Haryana state's Legislative Assembly.

10. Susanne Klatten — $29 billion

Susanne Klatten, one of Germany's richest people, has about 20% of BMW after interiting stakes in the car maker from both her father and mother.

She also inherited her father's stake in the pharmaceuticals and chemicals manufacturer Altana.

Klatten, 62, holds various leadership positions in her family's business empire and also donates money through her philanthropic foundation, the SKala Initiative.

• Kellsie Bain is a makeup artist who moved from Australia to Canada.
• Bain moved for her career and because she wanted to see the world beyond Sydney.
• While she's happy in Canada, she does miss the weather, beaches, and the people in Australia.

Kellsie Bain, 33, said she "always had a travel bug."

Bain, who grew up and lived in Sydney, told Business Insider she visited the US several times in her 20s, including trips to New York City. She dreamed of moving there.

"But as I got older, I just realized how difficult that was, especially as an Australian, to get a US visa," Bain said. "It's quite challenging, especially being self-employed."

While her dream of moving to New York may not have come true — at least not yet — the "travel bug" didn't go away, and she was able to move somewhere else: Canada.

"Canada is exactly what I expected it to be like," Bain said. "There's a few things here that have shocked me. I didn't think the homeless problem would be as bad as what it is here."

Bain said she got her visa "approved in a couple of months, and it was just a lot more simple" than what the process would have been like for a US visa.

Bain, a destination makeup artist, said she "had to pack up the house" she owned and made the "big move" to Canada in the summer of 2022. She said, "I travel a lot with my bridal makeup business, so I've kind of been traveling throughout that time, but primarily I keep coming back to Vancouver, and this has been my base since then."

Bain was excited about the move and ready for a change. "I wanted to meet new people, and I wanted a challenge," she said. "And, that's what I got."

Pros and cons of living in Vancouver

Bain noted to BI several personal advantages to living in Vancouver, including the people who she has found can be welcoming and generous.

"For the most part, I've been here on my own, which has been challenging," she said but added people have supported her and her business.

But there are also pros beyond the people, such as the location.

"It's a beautiful country," Bain said. "The landscape is stunning. I love being close to the water."

Bain, who said she's into health and fitness, also has found "a lot of people live a really healthy lifestyle here" and that people love the outdoors. She said she loved the spin studio she joined.

After living in Australia and given her work as a destination makeup artist, Bain said another pro is the proximity from Vancouver to other places.

"The main reason behind my move was I started to get global attention from my TikTok," Bain, who had over 100,000 followers on her TikTok account at the time of reporting, said. With that attention, she said there were people looking to book her work, and she wanted to be closer to where bookings would need her.

While Bain moved partly for her career, she was also ready to see what life was like outside of Sydney after living there for so long.

"I felt like I really wanted to experience more of the world," she said.

While she finds the summertime can be beautiful, she finds the weather and temperature in general a large con of being in Vancouver. She misses the weather and beaches in Australia, although she noted there are beaches in Vancouver too.

She said she also misses her family dog and "the familiarity of being around my family and friends." Plus, she said, "I miss the Australian people."

"They're down to earth," she said. "They're honest. They're loud, and I really miss that at times."

Another issue is the cost of living. She has found this is quite high.

Bain said she's been subleasing because she prefers "short-term rentals because I really don't know what's around the corner." She looks for fully furnished apartments when subleasing. Her current rent is over 2,000 Canadian dollars.

"A few years ago, I definitely wouldn't have been able to afford that on my own, but I'm grateful that I can now," she said.

Bain had to adjust her work in Canada.

"I had more of a client-facing business two years ago," she said. "In Sydney, I was doing four or five weddings a week, and then on my days off, I'd have clients coming to my house to get makeup done."

She thinks Canadians aren't as obsessed with makeup as Australians and Europeans are.

"So when I moved here, I just wasn't picking up as many client-facing makeup jobs," she added.

She also found that wedding work in Canada is more seasonal than in Australia due to the snowy winters. Given that, she tried working at a hotel spa early on after her move to help make some money, but she did that only briefly as she said she wasn't making a lot at the hotel.

"I had to basically transform my whole business," she said. "I launched an online business selling masterclasses, workshops. I do coaching calls for makeup artists."

In addition to launching the masterclass in the spring of last year and starting those calls in the summer, she also does content creation and picks up makeup jobs in Canada.

She said if she were "relying solely on makeup jobs and client-facing work, it would be very, very hard to live here."

Bain is happy living in Canada and the positives that come with being there. However, her dream of New York isn't completely out of the picture either.

"I think eventually I'll move back to Australia, but there is a part of me that would love to experience living in the States, even if it's just for a year or two," she said. "New York still really interests me, but then I also just think I've just built my reputation in this town and built my business up here."

She said while she's confident she could do it, "it's also a very expensive process to get a visa in the States. So I don't know what's around the corner, but we'll see."

Share your moving story with this reporter at mhoff@businessinsider.com.

• Severe weather degrades the accuracy of navigation systems and hampers military operations.
• Climate change has made weather patterns more erratic and harder to forecast.
• This makes it harder for commanders to plan missions and prepare for weather effects.

More extreme weather is scrambling the high-tech systems that have given the US military its edge.

For example, severe weather can degrade navigation systems such as GPS and sensors on precision-guided munitions. Heavy rain ground aircraft and drones, intense heat exhausts troops, dust storms gum up tank engines, and storms damage ships at sea. Smoke and sandstorms blind aerial drones. Commanders and troops need to have a good idea of what the weather will be like the next day or the next month — forecasts that are getting fouled by the growing unpredictability of weather patterns.

"Reliably forecasting extreme weather's frequency and intensity to inform strategy is perhaps the most important challenge for the US and allied militaries to adapt to or mitigate a changing climate, because it is imperative that operations and campaigns are feasible meteorologically," warned James Regens in a recent essay for the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

Unexpected weather has always frustrated the best-laid plans of commanders. Had rain not turned the ground muddy the night before the battle, Napoleon might have been able to move up his artillery and win at Waterloo. Surprise dust storms crippled helicopters in the daring American operation to rescue hostages from Iran in 1980. And rain and rough seas almost caused the D-Day landings in June 1944 to be cancelled. But in military meteorology's finest hour, sharp-eyed Allied weathermen were able to forecast a break in the storms that the Germans didn't foresee, which allowed the invasion to achieve tactical surprise.

However, these mishaps reflect weather, which is a short-term phenomenon. Climate refers to long-term patterns, including the probability of severe weather. While climate change has become a highly politicized issue, there is general agreement among scientists that the Earth's climate is getting warmer.

This doesn't mean the weather will be hotter everywhere all the time, but it does indicate that severe weather events — heat, rain, even snow — will be more intense when they happen. One example is California in 2024, which went from years of drought to "atmospheric rivers" that dumped massive amounts of rain that caused mudslides and damaged homes and roads.

This can be catastrophic for farmers and people living in flood zones. But it's equally bad for militaries, especially those with advanced capabilities such as the US armed forces, which rely on delicate and interconnected systems that can be degraded by weather.

For example, meteorological information is key to the position, navigation and timing (PNT) systems that enable many guided weapons and communications networks to function and coordinate. "Precision fires, aircraft flight operations, surface warship maneuver, ballistic missile trajectories and satellite launch windows to support intelligence collection and communications systems all depend on reliable PNT solutions grounded in meteorological projections," wrote Regens, an intelligence expert and founding partner of Antiphon Solutions, an Oklahoma-based analytics firm.

This puts a premium on developing models and technologies that can offer accurate short- and long-term weather forecasts, and do so even as scientific understanding of the impact of global climate change evolves. The strategic implications are profound. For example, knowing the rate at which Arctic ice is melting — creating new shipping channels and uncovering mineral riches — is of great interest to many nations.

Arctic warming creates a "significant homeland defense and national security challenge for US and allied decision-making for North America and NATO's northern flank in Europe," Regens told Business Insider. "Add to this mix the humanitarian missions the US military does in response to floods, monsoons, and other weather problems, and the Pentagon and NATO need to recognize the risk extreme weather in a changing climate poses to military operations."

However, Regens points to another problem: getting timely weather forecasts to those who need them. "Military forecasting works fine as long as units have secure network access to near-real time numerically predictive weather information for planning and executing missions," Regens told Business Insider.

The problem is that tactical units on the front lines, or in remote areas, often lack the connectivity to receive weather reports. "NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], the private sector and universities are actively working to improve global weather models," Regens said. "The missing link is compressing this capability into a tactical package for warfighters."

"This requires a major effort to meet the requirements of tactically disaggregated, independently operating units for immediate reliable data," said Regens. "Otherwise, they are going to have limited success firing highly lethal and expensive munitions at significant ranges."     

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

• Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame revealed an $8 million wager on gold this week.
• The renowned investor bought into a trust that owns physical gold bullion.
• John Paulson, who also called the mid-2000s housing crash, continues to bet big on gold.

It turns out Michael Burry isn't only a metalhead when it comes to music.

The investor of "The Big Short" fame purchased about 441,000 units of the Sprott Physical Gold Trust last quarter. The trust holds virtually all of its assets in physical gold bullion.

Burry's Scion Asset Management revealed its first-quarter holdings in a regulatory filing this week. The gold bet was worth $7.6 million at the end of March, ranking it as Scion's fifth-largest position with a 7.4% weighting in the firm's $103 million US stock portfolio.

If the wager remains intact, it was valued at $8.1 million as of Friday, per Sprott's bullion calculator.

Buying gold is a surprising move from Burry, a value investor known for sniffing out dirt-cheap stocks — including GameStop years before it became a meme stock.

He's also bet against high flyers like Elon Musk's Tesla, Cathie Wood's Ark Innovation ETF , and a microchip ETF that counts Nvidia as its top holding.

Burry shot to fame for predicting and profiting from the collapse of the mid-2000s housing bubble. The saga was chronicled in the book and movie "The Big Short."

John Paulson made his name with a similar wager, immortalized in a book titled "The Greatest Trade Ever." Like Burry, the Paulson & Co. chief appears to be bullish on gold and other precious metals.

Paulson's firm counted AngloGold Ashanti, Agnico Eagle Mines, Equinox Gold, Iamgold, International Tower Hill Mines, Novagold, Perpetua Resources, Seabridge Gold, and Trilogy Metals among its 18 holdings at the end of March, a SEC filing showed this week.

Back in 2021, the veteran investor predicted stubborn inflation would force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates, spurring investors to dump their cash and other assets for gold. He argued the double whammy of surging demand and limited supply would cause the yellow metal's price to soar.

Paulson's call proved prescient. The Fed has raised its benchmark rate from nearly zero to north of 5% in a bid to bring down inflation, and the price of gold has jumped from about $1,800 per troy ounce when Paulson touted it in 2021 to record levels above $2,400 in recent weeks.

Burry correctly predicted inflation and rising rates as well, and appears to share Paulson's view that gold stands to benefit.

However, it's worth pointing out that portfolio updates are only a snapshot of an investor's holdings on a single day, and may have changed by the time they're made public.

They also exclude shares sold short, private investments, overseas holdings, and non-stock assets like bonds and real estate.

Still, Burry's relatively large and uncharacteristic gold purchase is certainly notable — especially when one of the few other winners from the housing crash is also betting big on bullion.

• Indonesia plans to relocate its capital from Jakarta to the new city of Nusantara.
• The new city will cost $35 billion and won't be finished until 2045.
• Officials are using a range of promotional tactics to drum up interest.

Jakarta, on the northwest coast of Java at the mouth of the Ciliwung river, is Indonesia's capital and its biggest city.

It's home to some 10.6 million people and about 30 million in the metropolitan area. It's also sinking, with about 40% of the area below sea level.

The Indonesian government plans to move the capital to Nusantara, a new city being built on the eastern coast of Borneo, about 870 miles north of Jakarta.

It will cost an estimated $35 billion and won't be finished until 2045. However, about 6,000 government workers are expected to move there in time for the next president's inauguration in October.

The decision is not without precedent. Brazil shifted from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia in 1960, while Abuja replaced Lagos as Nigeria's capital in 1991.

But this is the first time that the climate crisis has played a role in the process. In recent years, rising sea levels have made Jakarta the world's fastest-sinking megacity, which sparked the Indonesian government's decision to move the capital.

Take a closer look at Nusantara.

A new beginning

In August 2019, Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, approved a plan to move the capital from Jakarta to Nusantara.

The site in East Kalimantan was chosen because it's close to the sea and there's a relatively low risk of earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions.

Under water

This mosque in Jakarta has been affected by rising sea levels. Excessive groundwater withdrawals have contributed to subsidence rates of up to six inches a year, and 40% of the city is now below sea level.

Environmental experts warn that a third of Jakarta could be submerged by 2050 if subsidence continues at the current rate.

Indonesia's government is also spending tens of billions of dollars on measures to try to stop flooding in Jakarta.

Flood risk

Researchers at NASA and partner agencies used data in 2020 to produce this map to identify areas of Jakarta under threat of being flooded.

'Nusantara' roughly translates to 'the outer islands'

The site was chosen to reflect Widodo's geopolitical vision and reflect Indonesia's unity as an archipelagic state. The country's 276 million people are spread across more than 17,000 islands.

Nusantara is on Borneo, one of the world’s largest islands

Borneo is known for its 140 million-year-old rainforests, home to endangered native species including the Bornean orangutan.

About three-quarters of the island is Indonesian territory, while the remainder is split between Malaysia and Brunei. Borneo has a total population of about 23 million people.

Construction began in July 2022

Widodo sent some 100,000 workers to start building Nusantara, and the number of workers rose to between 150,000 and 200,000 as construction ramped up.

This is how the Nusantara site looked in April 2022

The satellite image was taken by the OLI-2, an operational land imager, on Landsat 9.

This is how it looked in February

A network of roads has been carved into the forest since 2022 so that the construction of government facilities and other dwellings can begin. The initial population is expected to be about 500,000, according to the project website.

Indonesia’s government has pledged to make the city 100% green

Policymakers have claimed that Nusantara will be a "green, walkable" metropolis, powered entirely by renewable energy by 2045.

Construction includes a plan to build a 50-megawatt solar plant, and aims to allow only electric vehicles by the end of this decade.

Some big names are involved in the project

Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, and Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, are both on the steering committee for Nusantara. In October, the Tony Blair Institute signed a deal to build a research center in the new capital.

Indonesia has also used influencers to promote Nusantara

Last year, Widodo took dozens of influencers on a tour of the $35 billion site in a bid to ease concerns about deforestation. "Remember, this is an industrial forest. It's chopped down every six years. It is not a natural forest," he reportedly said. "Don't get it wrong."

The social-media stars later posted gushing videos about the project

TikTok star Jerhemy Owen told his roughly 3 million followers that Nusantara would be "the smartest and most eco-friendly city in the world." A YouTube video showing footage of Widodo's tour has racked up over 700,000 views.

It's not clear where the money is going to come from, though

While the city is expected to cost about $35 billion, the Indonesian government has only committed to providing about 20% of the funds, and it's struggling to find other sources of finance. In March 2022, Japan's SoftBank pulled out of investing in the project.

• Google Business Profile lets owners control how their business appears in Google search results.
• Google Business Profile is completely free, and caters primarily to smaller local establishments.
• Business owners can add images, contact information, descriptions of services, reviews, and more.

Ever wonder why certain businesses pop up on Google Maps while others don't show unless you search for them specifically? Or why some businesses pop in search results up with all their relevant information, such as operating hours and the phone number, crisply displayed?

In most cases, when a business is prominently displayed on Google Maps or in Google search results, it's because its owners took the time to use Google Business Profile to improve the way their business appears to Google users.

Launched in 2014 as Google My Business and changed to Google Business Profile in late 2021, this service from Google lets business owners create a profile for their business to which they can add images, contact information, a description of their services, reviews, and more.

Google Business Profile is separate from Google's online advertising program, known as Google Ads. Regardless, Google Business Profile is an invaluable tool that small, local businesses can use to maximize their exposure to potential clientele. And it's completely free. 

Sundar Pichai lauded the service in Google's 2023 Economic Impact Report: The Google CEO noted that one local Missouri business attributed 90% of its new customers to Google Business Profile. 

How do I set up Google My Business/Google Business Profile?

There are several ways to add your business to Google Business Profile, but the easiest route is to go through Google Maps.

Simply open Google Maps, right click anywhere on the Google Maps page and then click "Add your business" from the popup window. You will then be prompted to sign into Google, then you simply follow the step-by-step prompts. You'll be asked to confirm that your business has a physical location that people can visit, and then to add the address and contact information for it. You'll next add your website information, and then you choose how you want to confirm your profile, the options being a text or phone call with a verification code.

You can also add attributes to your business profile, such as whether your business offers free WiFi, wheelchair-accessible seating, dining options, etc. These attributes will show up when people search for your business on Google, Google Maps, or Google Pay.

Businesses without locations people can visit can still set up on Google Business Profile, such as service-based businesses that make deliveries or house calls, but in most cases, the benefits of Google Business Profile are limited to brick-and-mortar establishments where actual customer contact occurs.

How do I access Google Business Profile?

Once you have created or claimed your business on Google Business Profile (sometimes your business will already show up on Google; claiming it lets you take control of how it appears there), you can access it via Google Search. Just sign into Google and enter your business's name, or just type "my business" into the search bar.

You can also access your profile through Google Maps. While signed into Google, go to Maps and click on your profile image, then click on your business profile.

How long does it take to verify Google Business Profile?

It can take up to seven days for your business to be verified by Google Business profile, but in most cases, it will happen much faster than that. You will know your business has been verified by Google because Google will inform you with a message.

You will also see a blue check logo next to your business' information when you are signed into Google that confirms your business has been verified by Google. If your business is not visible on Google, is lacking this check mark, or you experience any other issues with Google Business Profile, contact Google for help.

• You can use Google Trends to understand how often people search for certain terms or topics.
• Google Trends lets you customize search data by region, time period, category, and type of search. 
• You can also compare search terms to see how each fares among different audiences.

Have you ever wondered how something became viral on social media? Or whether people in your state are actually excited about the latest iPhone? 

Google Trends allows you to search, track, and compare Google search terms and topics over a period of time and by location. 

It can be particularly useful for business owners to understand how their brand fares with customers, showing how often they search for it and when it hits peak popularity.

Google Trends is helpful for content creators and product developers, too, since you can easily access when certain terms are most popular. This includes seasonal trends (for example, "Christmas presents for mom" ticks up in November and December in the United States).  

From the outside, Google Trends can seem tricky, so let's break it down. 

How to use Google Trends to search for a term

1. First, go to trends.google.com and type in the search term you want to view or start with an example. 

2. Specify your search term — this is important if the company or product has a more general name, like Alphabet, so be sure to select "Alphabet Inc." — not the letters. 

3. Google Trends will then generate a series of charts based on your search term, which we'll break down below.  

How to customize a Google Trends search 

1. To customize your Google Trends search, first search for a term or topic — here, for example, using Apple.

2. To customize the "Interest over time" chart for your search term, use the four drop-down menus to see more specific metrics for region, time period, category, and the type of search (these include searches for web, Google Images, news, Google shopping, and YouTube).

3. For this example, we decided to see how often Alphabet Inc. was searched on Google News over the last 30 days in the United States in all categories.

What we see above is a peak on April 26, 2024, just one day after Alphabet's earnings call, during which it reported major beats and the company's first dividend.

Below the "Interest over time" graph is an "Interest by subregion" graph — where you can specify where in the country (metro, city, or subregion) the search was the most popular. 

How to interpret what each graph on Google Trends means

Once you've searched a term or topic and customized some of its variants, understanding what the peaks (represented with a 100 on the graph) and plateaus actually mean can be confusing. Here's how Google describes it:

• "Each data point is divided by the total searches of the geography and time range it represents to compare relative popularity. Otherwise, places with the most search volume would always be ranked highest."
• "The resulting numbers are then scaled on a range of 0 to 100 based on a topic's proportion to all searches on all topics."
• "Different regions that show the same search interest for a term don't always have the same total search volumes."

For the example we used above with Apple, this would mean that on August 18, Apple was one of the most popular search terms when compared to every other topic, for those searching on Google News in the US. 

A zero rating, however, wouldn't mean that no one searched for Apple, but only a small number compared to the peaks. 

How to compare search terms on Google Trends

1. To compare search terms, click on Compare and type in your terms or topics. 

2. For this example, we will compare Alphabet with Microsoft and Meta, adding each by clicking on the "+" icon. 

3. A series of graphs will be generated below, which you can then customize with time frame, category, region, and type of search. 

4. After searching for a comparison between Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta in the United States in the last 30 days in all categories on web search, we can see that Microsoft beat out the bunch in terms of frequency and volume of searches overall.

How to use related queries on Google Trends

Located at the bottom of your Google Trends search results is a box titled "Related Queries." Here, you will find the popular terms that often accompany or follow your selected search term. For example, people who searched for "Alphabet Inc." also searched for Alphabet, Amazon, and Google stock prices. 

Within the "Related queries" box, you can click on a related search term like "Alphabet stock price" to see its search popularity and compare it to other searches. 

See Google's 'Year in Search'

Every year, Google compiles a list of the year's top search trends in various categories like news, people, deaths, movies, sports teams, and more.

You can even see the top categories for searches people performed using Google Lens — Google's image recognition technology — and Google Maps.

Tragedy and destruction were key themes for the top-searched news events in 2023. The top five search terms were all related to war, death, or natural disasters:

1. War in Israel and Gaza
2. Titanic submarine
3. Turkey earthquake
4. Hurricane Hillary
5. Hurricane Idalia

The top-searched people of 2023 were mostly athletes:

1. Damar Hamlin
2. Jeremy Renner
3. Andrew Tate
4. Kylian Mbappé
5. Travis Kelce

The deaths that sparked the most Google searches in 2023 were all celebrities:

1. Matthew Perry
2. Tina Turner
3. Sinéad O'Connor
4. Ken Block
5. Jerry Springer

• CEO Robert Hale Jr. spoke at UMass Dartmouth's commencement ceremony on Thursday. 
• The telecom billionaire gave each graduate two $500 payments.
• Hale gifted the second $500 payment on the condition it goes to charity or someone in need.

A billionaire gifted graduating students at UMass Dartmouth with "envelopes full of cash" totaling $1,000.

Robert Hale Jr., the CEO of Granite Telecommunications, made the announcement during the school's commencement ceremony on Thursday. The school shared a video of the ceremony online, showing the moment Hale told the 1,200 graduates and their families.

"These trying times have heightened the need for sharing, caring and giving," Hale said. "Our community needs you and your generosity more than ever."

A UMass Dartmouth press release said security brought onstage two large duffle bags "packed with envelopes full of cash."

Hale told graduates that he had two envelopes to give them: one reading "gift" and the other reading "give."

Hale explained that each student would receive $1,000 but added there was a "stipulation."

"The first $500 is our gift to you," Hale said. "The second $500 is for you to give to somebody else or another organization who could use it more than you."

If all 1,200 students received the $1,000, Hale's giveaway amounted to about $1.2 million.

During the ceremony, Hale also received the UMass Dartmouth Chancellor's Medal for his philanthropy work.

Representatives for UMass Dartmouth and Hale at Granite Telecommunications did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

College graduation season in the United States this year has been rife with controversy, mostly due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Several schools, including Columbia University, have canceled school-wide commencement ceremonies, citing security concerns. And several schools have called in the police to disperse pro-Palestinian protest camps, a move that one expert on dissent told Business Insider would ultimately backfire.

Students at Duke University walked out during a commencement speech by comedian Jerry Seinfeld last weekend. Seinfeld has become a vocal supporter of Israel. Some students held Palestinian flags as they left the ceremony.

A representative for Duke University told BI that "we respect the right of everyone at Duke to express their views peacefully, without preventing graduates and their families from celebrating their achievement."

• Geoffrey Hinton is worried that AI will take "lots of mundane jobs," the BBC reported.
• Hinton advised the British government to establish universal basic income to mitigate AI's impact.
• Hinton pioneered neural networks, which is the foundation of artificial intelligence.

Some say AI will be a great equalizer. Others say it's bound to widen the wealth gap.

Geoffrey Hinton, known as the AI godfather for his work pioneering neural networks, is a vocal member of the latter group. He told the BBC that he's "very worried about AI taking lots of mundane jobs." And he believes a universal basic income might be the solution.

"I was consulted by people in Downing Street," he said. "I advised them that universal basic income was a good idea."

Universal basic income is a recurring cash payment made to all adults in a certain population regardless of their wealth and employment status — with no restrictions on how they spend the money. It's become a hot topic among AI researchers, futurists, and industry leaders as a way to mitigate AI's economic impact.

The idea is also gaining attention in countries like South Africa, Kenya, and India as a way to tackle poverty. And in the United States, numerous cities and some states have experimented with guaranteed basic incomes, which also give no-strings-attached monthly payments but to a targeted group of people.

In Hinton's view, AI will boost productivity and generate more wealth. But unless the government intervenes, it will only make the rich richer and hurt the people who might lose their jobs. "That's going to be very bad for society," he said.

Hinton advocates for a more cautious approach to AI development and says that in just 5 to 20 years, AI could be an "extinction-level threat" for humans.

Even those advocating more aggressive development believe governments should consider some sort of recurring payment to redistribute wealth.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — who's been racing to develop artificial general intelligence — is running his own experiment around a universal basic income, the results of which he expects to release soon. He also recently floated the idea of a "universal basic compute." Instead of receiving cash, everyone could receive a slice of a future large language model like GPT-7, he said.

"They can use it, they can resell it, they can donate it to somebody to use for cancer research," Altman said.

• Donald Trump's hush-money trial is proving beneficial for professional line-sitting businesses.
• Limited courtroom spots and long wait times are driving the demand for their services.
• Line sitting is a controversial practice, especially for courtroom spaces.

Donald Trump's hush-money trial at Manhattan's criminal court isn't being televised, and with limited spots inside the courtroom for the public and media, seats are given out on a first-come-first-served basis.

But for those who don't fancy the inevitably long queues, there's another option — hire someone to do it for you.

Professional line sitters, who will wait in line so you don't have to, have been cashing in on the former president's trial. Trump is facing 34 counts of fraud relating to a hush-money payment to adult entertainer Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

This past week, Trump's former "fixer" Michael Cohen, the key witness behind prosecutors' "election conspiracy" theory, took the witness stand in the court, further fueling the public appetite to watch the action unfold.

Robert Samuels, who runs the line-sitting company Same Ole Line Dudes, told NBC News that the trial had meant his company had "definitely had to staff up.

The high demand for spots has also been leading to big money offers for places toward the front of the queue.

On Thursday morning, one woman who was 12th in line was offering her place for $450, while a lawyer behind had shelled out hundreds of dollars for line sitters so she could get a place in an overflow room, The New York Times reported.

The first person in line on Wednesday morning had paid $1,800 for someone to keep their spot for them, the NBC News report said.

Since the trial began, Samuels said he had doubled his prices from $25 to $50 per hour and increased the number of line standers he has available from 26 to 32, the report added.

Line sitting is a controversial practice

Professional line sitters help people wait for hugely popular events or offerings, such as buying the latest sneakers or seats at exclusive restaurants.

"Whether it's iPhones, the latest Air Jordans, or the hottest Broadway tix in town, Same Ole Line Dudes, understands your wants & needs and is here to help," Same Ole Line Dudes says on its website.

But high-profile trials are often the big moneymakers for such firms.

One Washington-based professional line stander previously told BI that the Supreme Court was one of her biggest money-spinners.

"For Supreme Court lines we charged $40 an hour per person. That was the most expensive line because it was a limited-seating event and a longer wait, and we had to plan more," she said, adding that her usual rate was $25 to $35 an hour.

"The longest we have camped out in a line was for a Supreme Court case, for three to four days. For these kinds of lines we have a group of people who rotate so that everyone gets to take a break," she continued.

But professional line standing has been a controversial practice, especially for courtroom spaces.

The Supreme Court says on its website that attorneys who are admitted as members of the Supreme Court Bar must not employ line sitters to hold their places to hear arguments.

"Only Bar members who actually intend to attend argument are allowed in line for the Bar section; 'line standers' are not permitted," it says.

Members of the public do not face the same restrictions, however.