Small Token Registry allows you to ask for donations to your charity instead of presents

If you want to avoid getting another ugly pajama set for Christmas, you might consider getting the Small Token Registry app, which allows you  to create a wish list of your favorite causes, which are neatly organized by categories such as women, refugees, animals, and education. 100% of the proceeds donated goes directly to the charities; the app does not take a cut. 

Celebrities sometimes use the site to draw attention to causes. Today, for instance, actress Sophia Bush announced she is using the platform to support of The Girl Project. 

A photo posted by Sophia Bush (@sophiabush) on Nov 30, 2016 at 9:21am PST

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Trump's announcement on Thursday that the U.S. would exit the U.N. Paris Agreement included a number of significant errors, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan website FactCheck.org.

• Trump said the U.S. would be exposed to "massive legal liability if we stay in" the Paris Agreement. But there is no liability mechanism in the Paris Agreement. International environmental law experts tell us that pulling out of the agreement won't reduce U.S. exposure to liability claims and, in fact, may increase it.
• Trump called China and India the "world's leading polluters," referring to carbon emissions. That's not accurate. China and the U.S. were the top emitters per kiloton in 2015.
• The president also falsely said "nobody even knows where the money [in the Green Climate Fund] is going to." The fund's website outlines all of the projects that have been funded.
• Trump said the agreement would cost "close to $3 trillion in lost GDP." That's one estimate from a report for a business-funded group that found a much smaller impact under a different scenario. Yet another analysis said the impact of meeting the emissions targets would be "modest."
• Trump again took credit for job gains, saying the economy has added more than a million private sector jobs since his election. That's true, but only 493,000 of them were added since he took office.

You can read the whole fact-check of Trump's address here.

It's still not clear whether or not Trump thinks that humans have an impact on the climate. At today's White House press briefing, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt said that he and Trump did not talk about his views on the science during discussions about the Paris decision.  AP

In the run-up to President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, the administration has backed away from using the term "climate change," and it won't say if the president still thinks the science is a "hoax."  

In 2009, Trump backed a climate agreement; later, he tweeted that the problem had been invented by the Chinese government to make the U.S. "non competitive." Trump referenced scientific findings in his address yesterday, arguing that the Paris accord would only improve the climate a "tiny, tiny amount," but MIT researchers said he had erroneously referenced some of their findings. As Buzzfeed's Tom Namako noted on Twitter, the White House officials who have refused to say if Trump thinks that climate change is real so far include

• Scott Pruitt, EPA administrator 

• Gary Cohn, economic advisor

• Kellyanne Conway, White House counselor

• Ryan Zinke, interior secretary

• Sean Spicer, press secretary 

During today's White House press conference, Pruitt said he had not discussed the President's thoughts on the science during discussions about the Paris decision. Spicer said he also had "not had an opportunity" to discuss the matter with Trump. A reporter asked him if he would have that discussion and report back. "If I can, I will," he said. 

[Photo: Flickr user Gage Skidmore] AP

Earlier this week, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers VC Mary Meeker released her annual, much-awaited report on internet trends. We embedded it and teased out some highlights. I even provided some tips on how to read it.

But really, what you want to do is experience Meeker's slide deck the way people who attended the Code conference did—by watching her present it. Now you can:  Recode has posted a video of her session. HM

The Trump administration has begun to send the most thorough account of the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" program back to Congress, raising the possibility that the only copies will be locked away in Senate vaults in perpetuity, exempt from public disclosure laws.

Senator Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee, asked for all copies of the full 6,700-page report to be returned in 2015, finding it flawed and overly critical of the CIA, which ran the program. Burr is now conducting an investigation into possible connections between Trump officials and Russia during last year's presidential campaign.

The report was the result of an investigation by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which found that the effects of the spy agency's interrogation methods were more brutal and less effective than the CIA claimed. A declassified summary of the report was made public in 2014, but the full history remains in the hands of the executive branch, after the CIA returned its copies and a number of other agencies refused to keep copies themselves. 

The story of rendition, interrogation, black sites—all out of the reach of American legal systems—has been widely reported (and partially turned into a fiction-based-on-fact film), but detailed evidence of what happened remains out of public view. In 2005, CIA officials destroyed the only known video evidence of post-9/11 interrogations; a 2007 New York Times report on the destruction sparked the Senate's decision to embark on an independent investigation to begin with. 

Speaking to the New York Times, which first reported the White House's move, Katherine Hawkins, senior counsel at the advocacy group The Constitution Project, called it "extremely disturbing." 

[Photo: Flickr user Diego Cambiaso] AP

Summer is about to get a lot more fun, thanks to three forthcoming theme parks in the works. Why hang out with some old mouse, when you could ride a cat bus at Studio Ghibli's new theme park? 

SoraNews24 reports that come 2020, a park filled with rides and attractions based on the work of legendary filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata will open in Japan's Aichi Prefecture's EXPO Park. The park is already home to a life-sized version of Satsuki and Mei's house from the beloved animated film My Neighbor Totoro, and perhaps it will be joined by a wild boar ride from Princess Mononoke, a water slide inspired by Ponyo, and a train ride inspired by the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away. The park may be tied to the opening of Miyazaki's triumphant return from retirement with the feature Goro the Caterpillar, also due in 2020.

If you're already in Japan, pop over to China for some football-themed fun at the forthcoming Lionel Messi theme park. Yes, the Barcelona and Argentina superstar is getting his own park in Nanjing, China, according to Fox Sports. The group that handles Messi's image rights have just signed a deal for the Messi Experience Park with around 20 attractions (a penalty shootout perhaps?) all dedicated to the soccer star. No word on an opening date, but hopefully before he retires.

If you can't wait that long for some theme park fun, remember that Eataly's $106 million, 80,000-square-meter culinary theme park is slated to open in Bologna, Italy, in September 2017. Book your rooms at the Eataly hotel now.

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On Monday, June 5 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, Apple will hold its WWDC keynote at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. My colleague Mark Sullivan and I will be in the audience to provide news and analysis as fast as our fingers can type.

Mark also rounded up some rumors and educated guesses into a preview of what the event may have in store. Apple has done a better-than-usual job of keeping details about its announcements from leaking; if its secrets stay secret for another 72 hours, this will be, by definition, an unusually newsy WWDC.

HM

It was a major disaster for yoga-pants lovers: Lululemon's site went down for an entire day. CNBC's Sara Eisen asked CEO Laurent Potdevin what happened and he said, "Ask IBM about that. They host our data and servers."

Potdevin says he talked to IBM CEO Ginny Rometty, and that the internal Lululemon team was up for 36 hours straight trying to sort out the mess. He also pointed out that there were no dips in sales or performance despite the outage. 

[Photo: Flickr user Phillip Pessar] ES

Love shoes and ice cream? You might want to check out this new job posting.

Direct-to-consumer shoe brand M.Gemi is loading up a truck full of espadrilles, sneakers, and flip-flops (plus gelato), then chugging around the country to vacation hotspots on the East Coast, including Nantucket and the Hamptons. It's looking for "vacation gurus" to serve up tasty desserts and help visitors try on shoes each weekend of the summer. 

Perks include: unlimited gelato, free handmade Italian shoes, and bragging rights as having the best summer gig ever. 

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It's National Donut Day, which means American citizens are duty bound to eat their feelings and bury their anxiety under a mound of deep-fried, sugar glazed donuts—and like it.  

To help mark the important holiday on the calendar, Yelp has compiled a list of some of the Most Beautiful Donuts in the Nation. They determined who made the cut by looking at the donut shops that had the highest number of photos on Yelp. The result is a collection of donuts that are better looking than most people's kids. One word of caution: Try not to drool on your phone or computer. 

Here are the top ten most Instagram worthy donuts:

1. Voodoo Doughnut (multiple locations)

2. Leonard's Bakery (Honolulu)

3. Donut Bar (multiple locations)

4. California Donuts (multiple locations)

5. Sidecar Doughnuts & Coffee (Costa Mesa, CA)

6. The Donut Man (Glendora, CA)

7. Afters Ice Cream (Fountain Valley, CA)

8. Blue Star Donuts (multiple locations)

9. The Donuttery (Huntington Beach, CA)

10. DK's Donuts & Bakery (Santa Monica)

Other notable entries just missing the top 10 on Yelp's list include the too-cute-to-eat doughnuts at the Hello Kitty Café in Irvine, California, the little gems served up at District Donuts Sliders Brew in New Orleans, and the gorgeous monstrosities served up at Gourdough's in Austin (they're the best reason not to mute all SXSW content on social media).

Voodoo Doughnuts 

[Photo: Rachel G. via Yelp]

Sidecar Doughnuts

[Photo: Hannah Y. via Yelp]

California Donuts

[Photo: Merica S. via Yelp] ML

A workers' advocacy organization yesterday released a report alleging a heinous work environment at Walmart, reports the New York Times. The group surveyed thousands of employees and found that many of them were illegally punished for taking sick days or taking time off to care for their family. The report concluded that Walmart's practices violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The Times noted that Walmart "had not reviewed the report but disputed the group's conclusions." CGW

Before you launch your Kickstarter campaign for your gluten-free doughnut delivery startup or try to raise funds on Facebook for your cousin's best friend's rabbit to get much-needed ear implants, you may want to rethink how you write your pitch. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago may have cracked the code for crowdfunding success and it all starts with how the campaign is written.

The researchers examined 656 Kickstarter campaigns from 2013 and 2014 and found that campaigns written to make the founders and their products seem relatable boosted the success of socially driven campaigns. Their research revealed that social entrepreneurs "need to build personal rapport with the audience, by sharing personal experiences and using a highly interactive style." They suggest things like "asking a series of questions rather than presenting statements" to engage audiences and telling personal, relatable stories. In short, channel Uncle Rico selling Nupont fiber-woven bowls in Napoleon Dynamite. 

The only time this laid-back linguistic style doesn't effect sales is for commercial entrepreneurs, whose product and content basically sells itself to the buttoned-up business market. ML

In an interview with Megyn Kelly at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum this morning, Russian president Vladimir Putin was asked about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. Putin mocked Kelly for not reading the agreement, then said he supports it because it is "aimed at resolving one of the global problems of the current times." But he couldn't help making fun of Trump: 

We don't feel here that the temperature is going hotter," Putin said. "And I should say that we should be grateful to President Trump because today in Moscow, I hear they're saying it snowed and it's raining here, very cold, so now we can blame him for that and the American imperialism."

He also made light of the current FBI probe into Russian hacking of the U.S. election. When asked about the assessment by intelligence agencies that the Kremlin was involved, Putin replied:

"IP addresses can be invented, a child can do that! Your underage daughter could do that. That is not proof."

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