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Women athletes who want to start a family have often received little to no support or faced repercussions. Remember when, back in 2019, Olympic runners Allyson Felix, Alysia Montao, and Kara Goucher shared that Nike, their sponsor, said it would stop paying them if they werent runningeven during pregnancy and postpartum. It wasn’t until after the women called out the company in The New York Times that Nike instituted a new maternity policy. Women basketball players, soccer players, and other athletes across sports have also shared their negative experiences as expecting or new mothers and their fight for change. So its deeply heartening when progress occurs, like a new policy championed by players at the Womens Tennis Association (WTA). The organizing body for womens tennis has announced the Fertility Protection Special Entry Ranking Rule, which protects the ranking of women who undergo procedures like embryo or egg freezing. After hearing from players that the option of fertility protection offers a proactive way to balance family goals and career ambitions, were delighted that this new measure, alongside the fertility grant offered by the PIF WTA Maternity Fund, will contribute to enabling our athletes to realize their full potential and become parents at a time of their choice, said Portia Archer, CEO of the WTA, in a statement. (PIF stands for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.) How the new rule will work Athletes will qualify if they leave for at least 10 weeks to undergo the treatment and are ranked between Nos. 1 and 750 in singles or doubles. They will then receive a special entry ranking (SER) based on the 12-week average of their WTA ranking from eight weeks prior to the start of their out-of-competition period, the WTA states. Players can use the ranking for up to three tournaments. The WTA, founded by Billie Jean King, already offers ranking protection for pregnant individuals or those pursuing another form of parenthood. In March, the organization introduced 12-month paid maternity leave for athletestechnically independent contractorsand two months for adoption, a partners pregnancy, or surrogacy. The WTA claims its the first instance in womens sports history that comprehensive maternity benefits are available to independent, self-employed athletes. However, they must meet specific qualifications, such as participating in a certain number of tournaments. The WTA simultaneously introduced grants for fertility treatments.
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E-Commerce
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who heads the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has announced eight new members to the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committeesome who are critical of vaccinesafter firing the entire group, prompting questions and concerns. Kennedy said the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be at ACIP’s upcoming meeting on June 25 to June 27, which is slated to discuss vaccine recommendations for the HPV vaccine (which the CDC has deemed safe, and prevents cervical cancer and 90% of cancers caused by HPV in females), and of course the COVID-19 vaccine. Those new members are: Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Robert W. Malone, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth, and Michael A. Rosssome of whom are either close allies of RFK Jr. or vaccine skeptics, according to the BBC. Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and biostatistician, helped write the Great Barrington Declaration, which questioned lockdowns and other public health measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic, per National Public Radio; while Malone worked on mRNA technology for the COVID-19 vaccine early on, then became a critic and made false claims about the shot, also per NPR. Wednesday’s move comes just days after Kennedy fired all 17 sitting members of the ACIP, which makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy, and clinical need for the shots, advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the vaccine schedule and required coverage of immunizations. While Kennedy justified the firings, saying in a Wall Street Journal op-ed the panel of esteemed pediatricians, epidemiologists, immunologists, and other physicians was plagued with conflicts of interest, that’s questionable. As Fast Company has previously reported, Kennedy has a long history of repeatedly making false claims that have been debunked, and railing against or ranting about vaccines, medical drugs, the health system, and our nations food. RFK Jr. also has no medical degree, breaking with long-standing tradition for the health secretary post, and his nomination was the latest in a string of controversial picks by Trump for his second term.
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E-Commerce
Oracle investors are on cloud nine today as the stock reached record heights. The companys fourth quarter earnings results beat expectations yesterday and projected even more gains in cloud infrastructure. After rising nearly 8% in after-hours trading following the earnings release Wednesday evening, Oracle (ORCL) has continued to rise throughout the day on Thursday. The stock reached an all-time record of $202.04 at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, and has been steady since then. Oracle’s financial results for the fourth quarter showed $15.9 billion in total revenue, up 11% from the previous quarter. The net income for the quarter was $3.4 billion, with earnings per share of $1.19. Growth in Oracles cloud infrastructure revenue was particularly strong, jumping 52%, and it shows no signs of slowing in fiscal year 2026. The companys cloud infrastructure sales are projected to grow over 70% next fiscal year. Today, Oracle got the ball rolling by announcing a multi-year cloud infrastructure contract with Seekr, an artificial intelligence company. FY25 was a very good yearbut we believe FY26 will be even better as our revenue growth rates will be dramatically higher, Oracle CEO Safra Catz said on the companys Q4 earnings call. Oracle is well on its way to being not only the worlds largest cloud application companybut also one of the worlds largest cloud infrastructure companies. These powerful growth projections have also helped propel Oracle stock upward today, helping to boost the big tech sector and the S&P 500 along with it. Oracle has a market capitalization of $563 billion as of midday Thursday.
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E-Commerce
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