1) Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick releases in theaters this Friday. Cruise’s 44 films have earned $4.4B in box office sales in just the US and Canada. The release comes as the US male name “Maverick” is more popular than ever, rising from 864th place in 2000 to 47th in 2021.
2) A US military plane flew 77.8k pounds of baby formula from Germany to Indianapolis yesterday as part of “Operation Fly Formula.” It’s enough formula for ~500k+ bottles and alleviates 15% of the national shortage.
3) Rideshare prices in April were up ~39% from 2019. Per-mile pricing has increased over 27%, the result of a perfect storm of rising gas and car prices, as well as labor shortages and renewed investor interest in meaningful profits.
4) A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe race car sold for $142m at a secret auction. Mercedes says it will contribute the proceeds toward environmental research and scholarships.
5) Sean Hollister from The Verge detailed his wild experience with Apple’s new Self-Service Repair program, which entailed renting a 79-pound toolkit — and placing a $1.2k credit card hold — just to replace a 1.1-ounce battery.