Forbes Daily: Supreme Court Gives A Boost To Oil And Gas Billionaires

Published 2 days ago• 7 minute read

J.K. Rowling brought magic to multiple generations with her wizarding world—and , again, despite plenty of recent controversy.

The Harry Potter author is now worth $1.2 billion, according to Forbes estimates, after previously falling off the Billionaires List in 2012 as a result of charitable giving. That’s in spite of the fact that Rowling has placed herself at the center of a culture war, frequently posting anti-transgender rhetoric on social media. Since 2020, she has earned more than $80 million per year from the sales of her books and the vast litany of Potterverse brand extensions.

The staying power of the franchise is only set to continue, with a new HBO Max series adaptation of the books going into production this summer.

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President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs will stay in effect for now, a federal appeals court ruled, despite a Wednesday ruling from the Court of International Trade ,plus a second, similar ruling from a federal court Thursday. But if an appeals court or the Supreme Court, where the case is likely to end up, ultimately sides with the international court and says they’re unlawful, the Trump Administration will have to refund any tariffs collected.

MORE: Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company again Thursday after its latest earnings report, surpassing Microsoft, before falling back into No. 2. The post-earnings and after the international trade court’s tariff ruling, helping lift the broader market, before indexes ended the day at more modest gains.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade talks between China and the U.S. have stalled and a may be needed to close a deal, leading U.S. stock futures to drop slightly in early trading on Friday. After their meeting in Geneva earlier this month, U.S. and Chinese officials announced they would significantly cut back tariffs placed on each other's goods for at least 90 days, while both sides work on a trade agreement.

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Despite President Jerome Powell, the pair met Thursday at Trump’s request—Powell’s first meeting with a sitting president since May 2022. Trump has expressed frustration with the Fed’s hesitation to lower interest rates, but Powell was insistent that the Fed would determine monetary policy based on economic data, according to a statement from the central bank.

The SEC dropped a lawsuit against Binance on Thursday, days after the crypto exchange began listing a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial, one of President Donald Trump’s blockchain ventures. Binance admitted in a November 2023 plea deal to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, agreeing to pay $4 billion, and it’s personally from his administration.

The as it sided Thursday with a railway company that argued an environmental review of a planned construction project in Utah was too broad. Dozens of energy billionaires stand to benefit, like Anschutz Exploration Corporation leader Philip Anschutz and Energy Transfer LP founders Kelcy Warren and Ray Davis, who are worth $16.9 billion, $7.2 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively.

As like helping to diagnose medical patients or screening loan applications, they’re also making more mistakes,—which means assessing a model’s performance is more crucial than ever. The once-buzzy data-labeling startup Snorkel AI is shifting gears to help enterprises create evaluation systems and datasets to test their AI models, raising $100 million at a $1.3 billion valuation.

Despite repeated promises of an imminent launch, President Donald Trump’s Gold Card visa—which would give wealthy investors U.S. residency and an expedited path to citizenship—would require Congress to change immigration laws, a process that could take months or years. And furthermore, while Trump has suggested the administration could raise trillions selling the cards,, according to one expert: To afford the visa, someone would have to be worth over $100 million, and there are fewer than 30,000 centimillionaires in the entire world, more than a third of whom are American.

A federal judge will indefinitely block the Trump Administration’s ban on Harvard University’s enrollment of foreign students, amid the .In a shift from the Department of Homeland Security’s initial announcement, which stated the ban would take effect immediately, the administration told Harvard ahead of the court hearing that it had 30 days to show why the school should not be barred from enrolling international students.

Real Madrid forward Vinícius Jr.

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In Forbes’ latest ranking of the World’s Most Valuable Soccer Teams, , worth an estimated $6.75 billion after becoming the first soccer team to cross $1 billion in annual revenue during the 2023-24 season. Together, the 30 most valuable soccer teams are worth more than $72 billion, or an average of $2.4 billion, up 5% from last year.

Michigan Potash & Salt founder Ted Pagano

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Michigan is , a mineral which is the main ingredient in agricultural fertilizer. The U.S. uses 5.3 million tons annually and imports 95% of it, mostly from Canada.

Ted Pagano’s Michigan Potash & Salt Company is on the cusp of closing on $1.8 billion of financing for a new mine, including a $1.3 billion loan from the Department of Energy and $500 million in equity being arranged by JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. If all goes well, the mine will be churning out 1 million tons per year of potash (worth $350 million) and 1.3 million tons of salt (worth $80 million) by the end of the decade. With a resource base proven to be 130 million tons, the company could keep that up for a century or more—and make Pagano, who owns 65%, very rich. Even now.

To extract the potash, Pagano will use a form of “in-situ,” or solution mining. He’ll drill 8,000-foot-deep wells in pairs. One is the injection well, down which Michigan Potash will send hot water to dissolve potash and salt in place. The second is the production well; the solution travels up that well to the processing plant for separation and drying. The water is reclaimed, heated and sent back down the hole. From the surface the mine will hardly be noticeable and should be eligible for green tax credits. “There’s no hair on this project that we’re ashamed of,” says chief operating officer Aric Glasser.

In all, Forbes estimates that ; potash sells for about $350 a ton today. And agricultural giant ADM has already agreed to buy nearly all of Pagano’s yearly potash production.

“This story shows how even in a giant, oligopoly-controlled industry like fertilizer, an individual entrepreneur like Ted Pagano—in the right place at the right time—can generate huge value for himself and for the country,” says Forbes senior editor Christopher Helman. “This matters now because there are to develop secure domestic supplies. Hopefully Pagano’s story can inspire more entrepreneurs to take on the challenge.”

The $800 Million Rare Earths Portfolio Of Australia’s Richest Woman

References to DEI in the corporate reports of top companies took a sharp dive this year, according to analysis by Gravity Research. As President Donald , many companies have dropped or reframed their diversity initiatives:

The drop in references to diversity, including “DEI” and “racial diversity,” in the reports of major corporations between 2024 and 2025, per the study

The increase in usage of the word “belonging” between 2023 and 2024 as a “safer” alternative to DEI, though mentions of the word then declined 47% between 2024 and 2025

said Joanna Piacenza, vice president of thought leadership at Gravity Research

No matter the reason, , you can still create your own opportunities for leadership development in your current role. Look at previous performance reviews to figure out what skills you need to work on, and collaborate with your manager to restructure your role for stretch assignments. And if you’re looking for an opportunity to manage people, start by managing a project or asking your boss if you can take something off their plate.