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It’s no secret that Satya Nadella has created a nicer and friendlier image for Microsoft since taking over as CEO last year.

In large part, Nadella’s been able to do it by opening up the company to more partnerships, even teaming up with old foes like Salesforce and Box, who had often engaged in public, trash-talking events with Microsoft in the past.

In fact, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who had been one of the most vocal critics of ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his tenure, thinks that’s exactly why Nadella was picked to replace Ballmer as the head of the company.

“I think one of the reasons Steve Ballmer is not the CEO of Microsoft and Satya Nadella is because Steve had a hard time having relationships with other CEOs,” Benioff said in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday. “I know that from my personal experience, and Satya’s the opposite.”

Before Nadella came on board, Salesforce didn’t do any meaningful work with Microsoft. If anything, Benioff would openly criticize the company for failing to go social or mobile under Ballmer’s tenure. 

But over the past two years, after Nadella’s appointment, the two companies have been working closely together, announcing multiple collaboration deals, including a more tightly integrated Salesforce product with Microsoft’s Windows devices and Office suite offerings.

Attracting talent

The two companies have grown so close to each other that there were even reports of Microsoft possibly acquiring Salesforce earlier this year. Nadella, in fact, also became the first Microsoft CEO to ever hold a keynote speech at Dreamforce this year, the big annual user conference hosted by Salesforce.

Nadella’s strategy to collaborate with others is also drawing more talented executives to Microsoft. Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s executive VP of business development, who also happens to be Nadella’s first big hire, said she was convinced to join Microsoft last year because of his openness towards partnerships.

“I had watched his progression and I was curious about his vision. He seems so different. And out of the blue, when I got a call to look at the role as head of business development, and got to meet Satya in person — he’s such a change agent,” Johnson said in a previous interview with Bloomberg.

In the past year, Johnson has already been able to strike deals with Uber, Yahoo, and AOL. And she believes the list of partners will only continue to grow.

“Satya recognizes the importance of working with partners, so I think you’ll continue to see perhaps surprising relationships in the year ahead,” she said.

SEE ALSO: Here’s how Marc Benioff tested Satya Nadella before deciding to cozy up with Microsoft

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LONDON (AP) — The latest developments regarding the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq: All times local:

8 p.m.

The Islamic State group has released a video in which a Russian-speaking man confesses to spying for Russia’s security service and then is shown apparently being beheaded with a knife by another Russian-speaking man.

The authenticity of the video or the claims in it could not immediately be confirmed and there was no comment from Russia’s Foreign Ministry or its FSB security service.

The man, appearing to be in his late 20s, is shown speaking from a chair. He says he is from Chechnya and was pressured into working for the FSB, to report on Russians who had gone to fight with IS.

The video then shows the man kneeling on a beach while another man stands behind him, declaring that Russians will be killed in retaliation for Russia’s airstrikes in Syria against IS. The man then places a large knife against the prisoner’s throat and appears to begin decapitating him.

___

4:40 p.m.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected Russian claims that he and his family are profiting from trade in oil with the Islamic State group.

“No one has the right to make such a slander as to suggest that Turkey buys Daesh’s oil,” said Erdogan, speaking in Qatar and using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

“Turkey has not lost its moral values as to buy oil from a terror organization… Those who make such slanderous claims are obliged to prove them. If they do I would not remain on the presidential seat for one minute. But those who make the claim must also give up their seat if they can’t prove it. “

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov and his colleagues on Wednesday showed foreign defense attaches based in Moscow satellite images purporting to show IS transporting oil to Turkey.

Relations between Turkey and Russia have fallen to a low point since Turkey shot down a Russian jet that it claimed had encroached into Turkish airspace.

___

4 p.m.

Poland’s foreign minister says that the country is mulling how it might support the anti-Islamic State coalition, though it is unlikely that Warsaw would provide troops.

Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said Wednesday that Poland’s Defense Ministry is determining how Poland might help the coalition after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry appealed for support during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.

Waszczykowski said: “We will certainly exchange political and intelligence reports. Everything depends on the abilities of the Defense Ministry.”

Poland sent troops to the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but many Poles feel bitter that its contributions in Iraq did not bring more benefits to the country.

___

3:50 p.m.

British Prime Minister David Cameron says the British government is changing the way it refers to the Islamic State militant group, now calling it Daesh.

Britain had previously used the acronym ISIL — Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Cameron told lawmakers in the House of Commons that he was making the change “because frankly this evil death cult is neither a true representation of Islam nor is it a state.”

Cameron spoke amid an all-day debate about whether Britain should extend airstrikes against IS from Iraq into Syria.

Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the group’s name that also carries negative associations. The Twitter account U.K. Against ISIL — now rebranded U.K. Against Daesh — said the term is hated by the militants because it sound similar to Arabic words meaning “trample” and “one who sows discord.”

___

3:30 p.m.

The U.S.-led coalition has been pounding Islamic State group targets near the militant-held Iraqi city of Ramadi. Iraqi forces have encircled Ramadi and this week asked the city’s civilian residents to leave — a sign that a major operation could be imminent.

The coalition says its aircraft conducted 15 airstrikes in Iraq on Wednesday, nine of them on IS targets near Ramadi, including fighting positions, vehicles, weapons and buildings. Also hit were IS group units and vehicles in Iraq’s north, outside the recently liberated town of Sinjar.

In Baghdad, coalition spokesman Col. Steve Warren says the strikes are in support of Iraqi operations to liberate Ramadi.

He says that “with the support of coalition air power, Iraqi forces recently seized the Palestine bridge, which completed the isolation of the city.”

___

2 p.m.

The top NATO commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, says the bulk of Russia’s air operations in Syria are still directed against moderate opposition forces that oppose President Bashar Assad.

He said there’s been some shift in Russian tactics lately but the “vast majority of their sorties” are targeting moderate groups, not Islamic State extremists.

Breedlove said Wednesday that coalition forces “are not working with or cooperating with Russia in Syria” but have devised safety rules with Russia.

He says “we have established a safety regime — a series of tactics, techniques and procedures — by which the two groups, the coalition forces and the Russian forces, communicate and try to maintain safety.”

He says the coalition “is focused almost entirely” on fighting Islamic State extremists.

___

1:50 p.m.

France’s finance minister is calling for tougher rules on imports of art works as part of efforts to dry up financing for the Islamic State group.

Minister Michel Sapin says Wednesday “we perhaps don’t speak enough of financing … by the sale of works of art” of the group. He said that trafficking of art looted by IS isn’t as big a source of money for the extremists as oil, but it is “one element.” He says ultimately it is “people in our developed countries” who buy the looted art, sometimes without knowing.

He said many countries control exports of art works, but there needs to be harmonized rules in Europe and beyond on imports too.

German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble said money-laundering rules should also be expanded to cover art.

___

12:45 p.m.

Russia’s deputy defense minister says the Turkish president and his family are benefiting from illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants.

Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters on Wednesday that Moscow has evidence showing that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family are involved in the oil trade with IS and personally benefit from it.

Antonov and his colleagues at the defense ministry’s headquarters showed foreign defense attaches based in Moscow some satellite images purporting to show IS transporting oil to Turkey.

Erdogan has said he would resign if the accusations against him are proven.

____

12:25 p.m.

Prime Minister David Cameron has opened a critical debate on whether Britain will take part in airstrikes in Syria, insisting that Britain could make a real difference in the fight against Islamic State militants.

But Cameron struggled to get through his opening remarks Wednesday as outraged opposition Labour Party lawmakers demanded he retract remarks at a closed-door meeting Tuesday in which Cameron branded opponents of the measure a “bunch of terrorist sympathizers.”

Lawmakers demanded an apology as the 10½ hour debate got underway, arguing the comment showed a lack of respect to those who disagreed with his policy.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond defended Cameron before the debate started, saying the comments weren’t aimed at long-time opponents of war such as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Hammond says Corbyn’s views were “obviously sincerely held.”

___

12:20 p.m.

Secretary of State John Kerry has lauded British Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to go to parliament and seek approval for British strikes against IS in Syria.

Speaking at NATO headquarters, Kerry says “this is a very important step. We applaud his leadership.” The US envoy urged the British parliament to approve the request.

The British vote would authorize the Royal Air Force to launch air strikes against suspected IS positions inside Syria, allowing it to take a more active role in the U.S.-led coalition seeking to weaken the militants held responsible for attacks in Paris, Beirut, Egypt and elsewhere.

___

11:55 p.m.

Authorities in Russia’s predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya have organized classes to stave off Islamic State recruitment.

Thousands of Russian Muslim have joined IS in Syria, and some have taken senior positions. Local students in Chechnya say many of their peers are tempted to go to Syria because they believe in a true Islamic state there.

Islamic militancy has engulfed Russia’s North Caucasus region, the republic of Dagestan in particular, following two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya. While nearly 1,000 people are believed to have left Dagestan for Syria, the number of Chechen recruits is far lower.

Chechnya’s authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov said last month that less than 500 Chechens are believed to have joined IS and about 200 of them have been killed. Kadyrov has even offered to send thousands of Chechen fighters to fight IS.

___

11:15 a.m.

The European Union is trying to close legal loopholes that allow people to travel to Syria or Iraq as foreign fighters and then launch attacks like those in Paris last month when they return home.

Around 5,000 so-called foreign fighters are thought to be in the EU or come from it, but only about 1,500 are listed on Europe’s criminal databases. The EU’s executive Commission unveiled proposals on Wednesday that would criminalize attempts to recruit or train people for extremist activities.

New measures would target those who travel within the 28-nation EU or abroad to work with extremists like the Islamic State group. Others would attempt to choke off access to funds and assets.

The proposals must still be debated and adopted by EU member countries and the European Parliament.

___

11.05 a.m.

Belgian police have raided five more houses in the Brussels area early Wednesday and detained two people for questioning regarding the Paris attacks that left 130 people dead last month.

The raids targeted people who could have a link to Mohamed Abrini, who was seen driving with Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslam two days ahead of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, and Ahmed Dahmani, who is detained in Turkey.

None of Wednesday’s detainees have been charged.

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CityHub may be the best alternative to staying in a hostel.

CityHub, which is only available in Amsterdam, offers the best of both worlds: there’s communal areas that allow you to meet new people, but private “rooms” for sleeping.

These “rooms” are really pods that come with a double bed and other fun, tech-y features.

Here’s a look inside:

Welcome to CityHub! Staying here usually costs between $40 to $60 a night, depending on when you’re checking in.

The 50 pods are minimalist and tucked away. From the outside, it seems unreal that they would fit you comfortably.

But they actually are able to fit a double bed. There’s a window to ensure you don’t feel claustrophobic inside, but you can shut the blinds for extra privacy.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The Bentley Bentayga is the fastest and most expensive SUV you can buy, with a base price of $229,100 and top speed of 187 mph. 

Produced by Jacqui Frank

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Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement yesterday that he would be giving away 99% of his Facebook stock to “advancing human potential and promoting equality” was greeted with universal cheers, right?

Well, no. 

There were a lot of people who found bad things to say about the announcement.

They fell into several camps.

The “gotcha – it’s not really a charity!” camp

Buzzfeed pointed out that the organization they’re donating to, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is a corporation (an LLC) rather than a non-profit charity. In addition, the Initiative won’t necessarily be donating all the money to charitable causes — it will also make private investments and do things like advocacy work and lobbying.  

Entrepreneur Anil Dash called the structure of the giveaway “clearly flawed,” but admitted that:

It’s impossible to know how much of those flaws are about ulterior corporatist goals and how much are accommodations of arcane regulations. For example, almost all non-profit organizations are founded as conventional corporations and then converted after the fact, so starting as an LLC may not be an indicator of future purpose.

The “Zuck sucks” camp

Gawker pointed out that Zuckerberg’s donation is going toward furthering the things that he thinks would help the world, which are not necessarily the things that other people think would help the world.

For instance, the writer called Zuckerberg’s question “Can you learn and experience 100 times more than we do today?” a “patently hellish” vision that could only be hatched by a “technocrat.” 

The “billionaires don’t know anything” camp

There were several takes with this angle. Dash pointed out that most charitable contributions don’t really help society:

No matter how good their intentions, the net result of most such efforts has typically been neutral at best, and can sometimes be deeply destructive. The most valuable path may well be to simply invest this enormous pool of resources in the people and institutions that are already doing this work (including, yes, public institutions funded by tax dollars) and trust that they know their domains better than someone who’s already got a pretty demanding day job.

A lot of folks linked to a 2010 Der Spiegel interview with businessman Peter Kramer, who argued that billionaires in the U.S. who give their money away are implicitly saying that they know better how to help society than government does:

It is all just a bad transfer of power from the state to billionaires. So it’s not the state that determines what is good for the people, but rather the rich want to decide. That’s a development that I find really bad. What legitimacy do these people have to decide where massive sums of money will flow?

Devon Maloney at The Guardian had a similar caution and linked it to white imperialism:

But it also means that the rich are still effectively buying the future they’d like to see, no matter how selfless their intentions may be. International philanthropy and the western world’s desire to eradicate poverty and disease can’t ever truly rid themselves of their imperialist roots; as many critics have pointed out, the white savior industrial complex has never been more pervasive in global culture.

Capitalism!

Here’s some perspective.

It’s Mark Zuckerberg’s money. He made it legally, by building a product that a lot of people use by choice. He can do anything he wants within the bounds of the law with that money. He could bury it in a hole. He could set it on fire. He could buy guns, or boats, or islands.

Instead, he publicly pledged to use it to fix some of the problems that he sees in the world.

You have to look really, really hard to find something to criticize here.

A lot of journalists are numb from the relentless spin we receive from the companies and people we cover. But if you’re seeing this strictly as a public relations move meant to distract us from the evils of Facebook, you need to turn off your computer for a while and go for a walk. 

The guy had a kid. He’s looking at the future. He’s got a crazy amount of money which he’ll never spend. He wants to spend it on things that he thinks will make the world a better place.

Perhaps Y Combinator CEO Sam Altman and founder Paul Graham summed it up best:

SEE ALSO: The fabulous life of new father Mark Zuckerberg

MORE BACKGROUND: Mark Zuckerberg says he’s giving away 99% of his Facebook shares — worth $45 billion today

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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Police in San Bernardino, California, were responding to reports of an active shooter at a social services facility.

There were reports of multiple victims, Lt. Rich Lawhead said Wednesday. No arrests have been made.

Police were working to secure the scene in the inland region east of Los Angeles, Sgt. Vicky Cervantes said.

San Bernardino is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

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If you are eating, I wouldn’t read this article.

Right now you most likely have little mites living and growing on your face. They look like this under a powerful microscope:

Yes, it’s true. At least two species of mites live on human skin: Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis. They’re usually just called eyelash or face mites, though they have been found in and on the ear canal, nipple, groin, chest, forearm, penis, and buttocks, too.

Each type of mite lives in different parts of our skin — D. folliculorum calls your pores and hair follicles home, while D. brevis hangs out in the deeper, oil-secreting sebaceous glands, according to BBC Earth.

These little eight-legged arachnids are closely related to spiders and live out their entire existence on our skin.

There’s probably a lot of them on you. In a study of patients with rosacea, a skin-reddening condition that has been linked to the mites, researchers found hundreds in just a tiny 5-millimeter-wide square of skin. These numbers decreased when the patients were treated, so this is likely on the high end of mite density.

“It’s hard to speculate or quantify but a low population would be maybe in the hundreds,” study researcher Megan Thoemmes, of North Carolina State University, told BBC Earth. “A high mite population would be thousands.”

A study published in the journal PLoS ONE in 2014 found that, in a small sample of 29 people, 100% of subjects older than 18 had mite DNA on their face (for 18-year-olds, the number dropped to 70%).

However, scientists could see mites under a microscope on only 14% of the people, likely due to the animals’ nocturnal nature.

Each one lives about 14 days, five of which as adults. The males crawl out of your pores in the middle of the night, find females holed up in other pores, mate with them, and then crawl back. Females lay their eggs in their home pores.

They grasp on to you with a clawed palpus on each of their eight legs, and they eat the bacteria on your skin, dead skin cells, the oils you secrete, or possibly all three. (Researchers aren’t entirely sure because, even though the mites are ubiquitous, they’re still quite mysterious).

They can’t poop, so they just fill up with feces until they die. The carcass then dries up and the dead mite — waste and all — breaks down on your face as other microorganisms living there feed on it.

The 2014 study also suggested that mites are transferred from mother to child while breastfeeding, since they are frequently found on nipple tissue as well.

That’s probably not the only way they are transferred, though.

If you wipe out your Demodex colonies, they’ll rebound in about six weeks, so it seems like they are picked up in many different ways — from contact with others and from things like towels and pillow cases.

This all sounds gross and horrible and you are probably itching right now, but these mites are typically harmless.

“I would think that they’re not harming us in a way that’s detectable,” Thoemmes told BBC Earth. “If we were having a strong negative response to their presence, we’d be seeing that in a greater number of people.”

Recent studies have suggested that people with rosacea have more of these mites, and that after successful treatment of rosacea people have fewer mites. So the mites and the bacteria that live in and on them could be the cause of the skin-reddening condition.

Yet some researchers think the condition is an inflammatory reaction their presence, while others think that rosacea is caused by unrelated skin changes. So the mites just proliferate more when the skin is inflamed, not cause the inflammation itself.

The mites have also been associated with acne and inflammation of the eyelids. But since everyone has them, they frequently show up when someone has a skin condition; their presence doesn’t necessarily mean they are the cause.

Fascinatingly, since Demodex mites live on almost everyone, the Apollo moon walkers probably carried some along during their mission. Which means when Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module, face mites likely became the first invertebrates to visit the moon.

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With his new deal at HBO and the freshly-launched “Bill Simmons Podcast Network,” Bill Simmons has reportedly upgraded his living arrangements, purchasing a $7.5 million house along Malibu’s exclusive Carbon Beach, also known as “Billionaires’ Beach.”

Mark David of Variety dug up the details on the new purchase using county tax records and other sources.

The house is a “humbly sized … not-quite 1,500-square-foot, two-story cedar-shingled residence,” with three bedrooms and three baths. According to David, Simmons and his wife also own a 4,200-square-foot home in L.A.’s historic Hancock Park, which they bought for $3.1 million in 2007.

While Simmons may not be a billionaire, many of his new neighbors are, making it one of the most exclusive enclaves in the country. It also shows that Simmons’ budding media empire is already taking off.

Below we’ll take a closer look at what makes Carbon Beach so exclusive and some of Simmons’ new neighbors, some of whom have sports ties.

Madeline Stone, Julie Zeveloff, and Meredith Galante contributed to this story.

The nearly 1.5-mile-long Carbon Beach sits between the Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean, and includes about 70 residences, just north of Santa Monica.

The area is better known as “Billionaires’ Beach” as many of the homes are owned by some of the biggest names in entertainment and tech, as well as lawyers, and financiers.

The area has made headlines in recent years as residents fought to limit access to the public beach. However, after a decade-long legal battle, more access pathways will be built.

Read more: Malibu’s exclusive ‘Billionaire’s Beach’ is now open to the public after a decade-long legal fight

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Climate change could result in destruction worse than all wars in history combined, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday.

During a presentation at the Paris-Sorbonne University in Paris, Musk said the adoption of sustainable energy over fossil fuels is ultimately inevitable because eventually humans will run out of the latter.

However, he said one of two things will happen if governments continue to rely on fossil fuels.

“If we wait and delay the change, the best case is simply delaying the inevitable transition from sustainable energy. This is the best case if we don’t take action now,” he said.

“The worst case, however, is more displacement and destruction than all the wars in history combined. These are the best and worst case scenarios. This is why I call it the dumbest experiment in history,” he said.

If no action is taken, it’s possible as much as 5-10% of the Earth’s landmass could be absorbed by water, Musk said. This may not sound like a lot, but about one-third of humanity, or more than two billion people, live within 60 miles of the coastline and in low-lying countries.

“We would be talking about maybe two billion people being displaced and their homes being destroyed and their countries being gone. So I think we should take action,” he said.

Musk’s comments come at a time when global leaders are meeting in Paris for the World Climate Change Conference to try and come to a legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Musk said he is hopeful the international governments will come to an agreement, and that addressing climate change is fundamentally a government issue. 

The reason the transition to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal has progressed so slowly is because there is a hidden subsidy on all carbon producing activity, Musk said. But if governments propose a carbon tax, there’s a chance the damage from climate change can be contained.

“There needs to be a clear message from government in this regard. Because the fundamental problem is the rules today incent people to create carbon. This is madness. Whatever you incent, will happen. That is why we are seeing very little effect thus far,” he said.

“The government is the setter of rules, the government decides what rules the companies play by. And if we currently have a system that massively incent bad behavior.”

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YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon’s government spokesman says troops have freed 900 hostages held by Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremists, killed more than 100 fighters and arrested 100 others.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary said Wednesday that Cameroonians, Chadians and Nigerians held by the Islamic extremists were freed in an operation from Nov. 27 to 29 from several camps by joint forces from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Benin. He said they are being reunited with families.

Bakary said troops killed more than 100 fighters and also arrested one of the group’s leaders along with about 100 other fighters in Boko Haram strongholds in the Sambisa Forest, which straddles northeastern Nigeria and Cameroon, and the Lake Chad area.

Boko Haram’s 6-year uprising has killed 20,000 people. The Islamic extremist group has expanded attacks into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

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