Axios

Tens of thousands of academic workers at University of California campuses on Monday went on strike demanding better pay and benefits, according to the workers' union, the United Auto Workers (UAW).

Why it matters: The strike, which union officials said is the largest of the year and the largest in higher education history, could disrupt classes at all of the UC's 10 campuses across the state.

Alibaba's Singles Day, or 11.11 shopping festival, has plateaued.

Driving the news: The fabricated e-commerce holiday saw sales that were "in line with last year’s [gross merchandise value] performance despite macro challenges and Covid-related impact," the company reported on Friday.

A federal appeals court again blocked President Biden's student debt relief program on Monday.

Driving the news: The decision comes days after a federal judge in Texas struck down the program and after the Department of Education removed the application from its website.

Voluntary audits are suddenly in vogue again, with crypto exchanges trying to prove their stability with a trust exercise meant to stem a raft of outflows.

Driving the news: Operators of crypto marketplaces are pledging to soon produce proof-of-reserve (PoR) reports, showing publicly what coins they hold on balance, with some promising more regular, third-party audited reports going forward.

"Sam, if I said I need a million dollars to cure world hunger, could you get it in an hour?"

• That's a question I asked Sam Bankman-Fried last October, after having read that the "billionaire" FTX founder had relatively little cash in his personal bank account.
• His reply, after a pause: "I could. What I would be doing is I would basically be withdrawing it from companies. So, you know, you could dividend it out from FTX."

Jeff Bezos plans to give away most of his $124 billion fortune during his lifetime, he told CNN in an exclusive interview that aired on Monday.

Why it matters: Bezos said he plans to devote his wealth to combatting climate change and toward people who he considers "unifiers."

FTX and its web of 134 bankrupt affiliates, as private companies, were a black box to outsiders. That’s all about to change.

Driving the news: FTX’s Friday Chapter 11 filing appears to have been pretty rushed — the company hasn’t even filed the standard first-day documents.

A weaker-than-expected inflation report last week triggered the biggest rally markets have seen in months.

Why it matters: The knee-jerk response to a single economic report — the Consumer Price Index report for October — shows that even after a horrible year, hope springs eternal among some investors.

Never in business history has there been a more abrupt heel turn than the one we saw from Sam Bankman-Fried — or SBF, as he's universally known — over the past week.

Why it matters: The crypto world has seen large financial losses before, and will see them again; it's notoriously rife with ponzis, frauds and rug-pulls. If the collapse of SBF's crypto exchange, FTX, caused nothing but financial losses, that would be bad but not unprecedented.

Tech's tumultuous past week has brought the grand visions and moonshot dreams of many of its celebrity leaders back down to earth.

Driving the news: The implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange FTX brought an overnight end to its young founder's "maximize wealth, give it all away" life plan based on "effective altruism" thinking.

Elon Musk said Monday he has "too much work on my plate, that's for sure."

The big picture: The Twitter owner made the comments in a virtual Q&A at the B20 Summit, a business conference held in parallel with the G20 summit in Bali, days after his newly acquired company laid off half its staff and as it culls vast ranks of contract staff, per Axios' Ina Fried.

Disney's latest Marvel movie, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," brought in an estimated $180 million domestically over the weekend, making it the second-biggest box office hit in North America this year and the biggest November domestic opener ever.

Why it matters: The film brings energy to a sluggish season at the box office.