Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the potential for “reliable and lasting peace” after speaking with US President Donald Trump at the Vatican. 

“We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered,” Zelenskiy said on X. “Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”

The 15-minute meeting took place just before the funeral for Pope Francis as Trump presses for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia to end the longest European conflict since World War II. The White House said Trump and Zelenskiy had a “productive discussion.” 

Good meeting. We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to… pic.twitter.com/q4ZhVXCjw0— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 26, 2025

A spokesman for Ukraine’s presidential office said a possible second round of talks floated earlier didn’t happen. The schedules of the two men were too tight, said Zelenskiy spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov. Trump headed back to the US on Saturday shortly after the papal funeral.

Trump has been dialing up pressure for a peace deal that critics fear may favor Russia in his bid to reach an accord by April 30, the 100-day mark of his second term in the White House. 

Saturday’s meeting with Zelenskiy was the first since contentious talks in the Oval Office in late February. 

Zelenskiy also met in Rome with French President Emmanuel Macron and plans to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine’s foreign minister said. 

Pope Francis’s funeral was attended by dozens of international delegations, many of whom were hopeful of getting access to the US leader, who made his first overseas trip since taking office in January.    

Zelenskiy’s trip to the Vatican followed a massive Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and eastern city of Kharkiv, killing at least 12 people. Thursday’s attack, Russia’s largest airstrike on Ukraine this year, prompted the Ukrainian leader to return early from a visit to South Africa.

Read More: Trump Says Russia and Ukraine Are ‘Very Close to a Deal’

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday for the fourth time since the inauguration. On the same day, Zelenskiy appeared to make an overture to Trump when he acknowledged that Ukrainian forces would be unable to regain control over Crimea, saying the US won’t have to commit troops as part of security guarantees but could instead provide intelligence and anti-air capabilities.

In a social media post Saturday, Trump said “there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas” in recent days, and suggested further sanctions might result. 

“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions’?”

Washington’s proposals include the recognition of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and freezing the conflict largely along existing battle lines, leaving Putin in control of large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, Bloomberg News has reported. Ukraine would also have to abandon its goal of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Trump said Thursday that he’s “using a lot of pressure on both” sides in the war. He said he thinks Putin “wants to make a deal. We’re going to find out very soon.” Asked what concessions Russia has offered, Trump said, “Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country — pretty big concession.”

Read more: US Eyes Postwar Joint Business With Russia in Energy, Metals

Moscow failed to seize Ukraine’s capital and topple its government when it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 — in what was conceived as a potential weeks-long “special military operation” — because of strong resistance from Kyiv.  

While the Russian army now controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, it hasn’t significantly advanced during the last two years. Kremlin forces seized less than 1% of Ukrainian land in 2024 despite huge losses in personnel and equipment during a grinding ground campaign in Ukraine’s east.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Ukrainian Presidential Press Service—Getty Images

• The Vatican had a strict dress code for Pope Francis' funeral Sunday. President Donald Trump did not get the memo. Several other world leaders, including former President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, also deviated from the norm.

Some of the most powerful people in the world descended on Vatican City early Sunday to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, who died Monday at the age of 88. The Vatican, as it typically does, had a strict dress code for attendees. For men, it dictated dark suits with white shirts and long black ties. Shoes, long socks, coats, and umbrellas were also asked to be black to mark the occasion.

President Donald Trump, however, wore an all-blue suit with an American flag pin on his lapel. He sat in the front row during the event.

For what it's worth, Trump wasn't alone in deviating from The Vatican's dress code. Former President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, wore a blue tie. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did wear all black, but didn't don a tie at all.

Women were similarly asked to wear long black dresses, black closed-toe shoes, gloves, and a veil. First Lady Melania Trump wore a pair of black pumps.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Halil Sagirkaya / Anadolu—Getty Images

• Bob Bakish, who was ousted as CEO of Paramount in last April, received $69.3 million as part of his severance compensation. The package was revealed in a Paramount filing disclosed by the SEC on Friday.

Bob Bakish, the chief executive who was ousted by Paramount in April 2024 in the midst of contentious takeover battle, was reportedly given $69.3 million in severance, new SEC filings show.

According to the agreement—signed April 29, 2024 but filed in an 8-K with the SEC on April 25—Bakish received $6.2 million in salary continuation, $24.8 million in bonus continuation, $10.36 million as a pro-rata bonus for 2024, $88,160 in insurance continuation, $25,000 in outplacement assistance, and $27.81 million in acceleration/continuation of equity awards.

His compensation for 2024 totaled $86.96 million. The year prior, he received $31.3 million.

Bakish climbed the ranks at Viacom starting in 1997, moving up from VP of planning and development to executive VP of operations in 2004 before eventually becoming CEO of the company in 2016. He continued on in his chief executive role even after Viacom merged with CBS to form ViacomCBS, now Paramount Global, in December 2019.

Bakish reportedly had a major falling out with Shari Redstone, chair of Paramount and CEO of the theater chain National Amusements. Shari, of course, is also the daughter of Sumner Redstone, the founder and chairman of Viacom and the chairman of CBS Corporation who died in 2020, just one year after CBS and Viacom merged. According to The Wall Street Journal, Bakish reportedly went behind Shari Redstone's back in floating a potential streaming deal with Comcast in early 2024, which Redstone had previously been against. The two had also reportedly fought over Bakish's handling of the sale of Paramount's Showtime division; Bakish had balked at several offers, including one of which that was close to $6 billion.

The backdrop for all of this, of course, was one of the most dramatic corporate takeover battles in recent memory, which included offers from David Ellison's Skydance Media and a $26 billion joint bid from Sony and private-equity giant Apollo Global Management.

After Bakish left the company, Paramount created a three-person "Office of the CEO." George Cheeks was named president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy became president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins was named president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Dominik Bindl—Getty Images

If you’ve ever been to Europe, you might have returned raving about the food—French bread, Italian pasta, Portuguese seafood, Spanish tomatoes. But while the cuisine in European countries is famously tasty, increasingly people have taken to social media to claim the food also boasts superior quality.

“Can we just talk about how not once when we were in London and Paris did either of us feel like s--t after eating, feel bloated, or just feel flat-out disgusting?” one TikTok user posted last year.

Others have posted on social media about how they effortlessly lost weight and felt physically better while vacationing or living in European countries. Based on those experiences, people have concluded  that European food is simply better.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long railed against aspects of the U.S. food system, calling ubiquitous ultra-processed foods “poison” that drive chronic disease rates among Americans.

Does Europe really have healthier, higher-quality food than the U.S.? Here’s what experts say.

Does Europe have better quality food?

“You can get food that’s just as good in the U.S., but on average, it’s easier to get good food [in Europe],” says Harry Klee, professor emeritus of the University of Florida Horticultural Sciences Department. 

When it comes to fresh produce, Europe’s agricultural practices are actually no different from those in the U.S., according to Klee. Fruits and vegetables are largely produced on a global scale, Klee says, rather than locally except for when certain foods are in season.

For example, “I would argue their tomatoes are no better than ours,” Klee tells Fortune. “They’re the same genetic material, they’re grown the same way. They’re grown in Dutch hot houses, ours are grown in Canadian hot houses—and they’re the exact same varieties. It’s exactly the same tomato, produced in exactly the same way.” 

Food scientist Abbey Thiel agrees that Europe doesn’t have superior food quality to the U.S. In fact, the U.S. was ranked third for food quality and safety in the 2022 Global Food Security Index, behind Canada and Denmark.

Meat and poultry, however, is much better quality in Europe, Klee adds, because they have more varieties to choose from, and consumers are more aware of where the meat comes from because they are labeled with their origins. 

How cultural differences impact perception

Both Klee and Thiel point out that Europeans’ grocery shopping habits are a lot different from Americans’.

“[Europeans are] shopping regularly, almost every day, so things are by nature fresher,” Klee says.

Thiel, who lived in the Netherlands, says that it was normal to shop nearly every day for fresh groceries—meanwhile in the U.S., it’s much more common to shop for groceries on a weekly, or sometimes monthly, basis. Because that’s what consumers want, she explains, bread that lasts weeks on end is more prevalent in the U.S., for example, over fresh European bread that will get moldy in a matter of days.

Shopping more frequently leads to greater turnover in European stores, Klee explains, meaning that there will be fresher ingredients more readily available as food gets bought up.

Fresher food may influence taste, but does it affect weight? 

“I lost 15 pounds without trying when I moved to France,” one TikTokker said in a video. “I was not trying to lose weight—I even exercised a lot less when I lived in France.”

She went on to explain that while she was regularly eating baguettes, cheese, and butter, she attributed her weight loss to the smaller portion sizes in France, and the fact that meals included fruits and vegetables, or a small salad to start—which upped her fiber intake, helping to keep her fuller for longer and support overall health—and that desserts were often fruit, yogurt, and tea.

Thiel says changes like these can be attributed to cultural differences. “I think there are some lifestyle aspects that have nothing to do with the quality and safety of the food,” she tells Fortune.

Thiel notes that in Europe, more people walk and bike, keeping residents more active than the car-centric Americans. Home-cooked meals focused on socialization and family time are also central to European culture, while Americans on average eat out at least three times per month and order takeout or delivery four to five times per month.

Eating what’s in-season

Seasonality can also impact how Americans experience food in Europe, he adds—as many American tourists visit Europe in the summer, when foods like peaches and tomatoes are at their peak, perception of the food quality will be based on eating foods when they taste the best.

Europeans, Klee argues, are more informed about what’s in season and are more likely to buy in-season produce over Americans, who may be used to buying strawberries or tomatoes year-round.

Klee also believes that Europeans are willing to pay higher prices for better quality food than Americans. Even though foods are available out of season across Europe, it’s not as common that Europeans will cook with those foods because they know the quality will suffer.

Eating seasonally could have big health perks as well. The American Heart Association explains, that you are eating foods at their peak nutritional quality. Shifting your diet seasonally will also make you more likely to eat a greater diversity of foods—which is shown to boost gut health—as you eat a spectrum of fruits and vegetables throughout the year. 

How to find high quality food in the U.S.

Klee argues there’s no reason we can’t have tasty, quality food in the U.S.—we just have to know where to look. Here are some of Klee’s top tips for eating food at its best:

• Think seasonally: Inform yourself about when foods are in-season—and which have been shipped from far away. “If you see a peach that’s been shipped from Chile, you know it’s not going to be very fresh,” Klee says.
• Be willing to pay a little extra for better quality meats, poultry, and produce. 
• If you want to buy fruits and vegetables out of season, opt for frozen. Fruits and veggies are typically frozen when they are at their freshest, ripest stage, which helps to preserve the quality—the texture may suffer a bit, but they’re your best option, Klee says.

For more on American diets:

• This dietician warns of one major issue with American diets. Here are her 4 tips to fix it
• The 4 critical nutrients missing in most American diets
• Top nutrition expert shares the No. 1 mistake he sees in American diets
• New dietary guidelines warn Americans to limit these 4 food types—and eat more of this instead

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Getty Images

VATICAN CITY (AP) — World leaders and Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for people on the “most peripheral of the peripheries” and reflected his wishes to be remembered as a simple pastor. Though presidents and princes attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants welcomed Francis' coffin at his final resting place in a basilica across town.

According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 people flocked to the funeral Mass at the Vatican and 150,000 more lined the motorcade route through downtown Rome to witness the first funeral procession for a pope in a century. They clapped and cheered “Papa Francesco” as his simple wooden coffin travelled aboard a modified popemobile to St. Mary Major Basilica, some 6 kilometers (3.5-miles) away.

As bells tolled, the pallbearers brought the coffin past several dozen migrants, prisoners and homeless people holding white roses outside the basilica. Once inside, the pallbearers stopped in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary that the church is famous for and that Francis deeply revered. Four children deposited the roses at the foot of the altar before the burial ceremony began.

“I’m so sorry that we’ve lost him,” said Mohammed Abdallah, a 35-year-old migrant from Sudan who was one of the people who welcomed Francis to his final resting place. “Francis helped so many people, refugees like us, and many other people in the world.”

Earlier, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re eulogized Francis during the Vatican Mass as a pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to communicate to the “least among us” with an informal, spontaneous style.

“He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone,” the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals said in a highly personal sermon. He drew applause from the crowd when he recounted Francis’ constant concern for migrants, exemplified by celebrating Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and travelling to a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and bringing 12 migrants home with him.

“The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open,” Re said, noting that with his travels, the Argentine pontiff reached “the most peripheral of the peripheries of the world.”

An extraordinary meeting about Ukraine on the sidelines

Despite Francis’ focus on the powerless, the powerful were out in force at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Prince William and continental European royals leading more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had pride of place given Francis’ nationality, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and the pope alienated many in his homeland by never returning there.

In an extraordinary development, Trump and Zelenskyy met privately on the sidelines of the funeral. A photo showed the two men sitting alone, facing one another and hunched over on chairs in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Francis often preached the need for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Tens of thousands flocked before dawn to the Vatican

Francis choreographed the funeral himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the pope’s role as a mere pastor and not “a powerful man of this world.”

It was a reflection of Francis’ 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress priests as servants and to construct “a poor church for the poor.” He articulated the mission just days after his 2013 election and it explained the name he chose as pope, honoring St. Francis of Assisi “who had the heart of the poor of the world,” according to the official decree of the pope's life that was placed in his coffin before it was sealed Friday night.

The white facade of St. Peter's glowed pink as the sun rose Saturday and throngs of mourners rushed into the square to get a spot for the Mass. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn't get close.

Police helicopters whirled overhead, part of the massive security operation Italian authorities mounted, including more than 2,500 police, 1,500 soldiers and a torpedo ship off the coast, Italian media reported.

Many mourners had planned to be in Rome anyway this weekend for the now-postponed Holy Year canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis. Groups of scouts and youth church groups nearly outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians.

“He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind, above all very human," said Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru who said he had camped out all night near the piazza. "It’s very emotional to say goodbye to him.”

A special relationship with the basilica

Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering from pneumonia.

Even before he became pope, Francis had a particular affection for St. Mary Major, home to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani. He would pray before the icon before and after each of his foreign trips as pope.

The popemobile that brought his coffin there was made for one of those trips: Francis' 2015 visit to the Philippines, and was modified to be able to carry a coffin.

The choice of the basilica was also symbolically significant given its ties to Francis’ Jesuit religious order. St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass in the basilica on Christmas Day in 1538.

The basilica is the resting place of seven other popes, but this is the first papal burial outside the Vatican since Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and was entombed in another Roman basilica in 1924.

Following the funeral, preparations can begin in earnest to launch the centuries-old process of electing a new pope, a conclave that will likely begin in the first week of May. In the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key among them Re, who is organizing the secret voting in the Sistine Chapel.

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

Over three days this week, more than 250,000 people stood for hours in line to pay their final respects while Francis’ body lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommodate them, but it wasn’t enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7 p.m. on Friday, mourners were turned away in droves.

By dawn Saturday, they were back, some recalling the words he uttered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy.

“We are here to honor him because he always said ‘don’t forget to pray for me,’” said Nigerian Sister Christiana Neenwata. “So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Office of the President of Ukraine—Getty Images

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Iran and the United States held in-depth negotiations in Oman over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program on Saturday, talks that likely will hinge on the Islamic Republic's enrichment of uranium.

Iranian state television reported the talks had begun in Muscat, the mountain-wrapped capital of this sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. A person close to U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, also acknowledged the meeting had started.

However, neither Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi nor Witkoff offered any immediate specifics or details on the talks that they'll lead.

Araghchi arrived Friday in Oman and met with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who has mediated the two previous round of talks in Muscat and Rome. Araghchi then visited the Muscat International Book Fair, surrounded by television cameras and photojournalists. Video late Saturday morning showed Araghchi heading to the talks.

Witkoff was in Moscow on Friday meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin. He arrived Saturday to Oman, where the talks were expected to start in the coming hours, a source familiar with Witkoff's travels told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Meanwhile Saturday, a massive explosion rocked a port in southern Iran just after the talks began, injuring at least 516 people. Authorities offered no immediate cause for the blast, which appeared to have been caused by a highly combustible material — though officials ruled out its oil and gas industry.

Nuclear talks come after decades of tensions

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on half a century of enmity.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers did limit Tehran's program. However, Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018, setting in motion years of attacks and tensions. The wider Middle East also remains on edge over the devastating Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Trump, traveling to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, again said he hoped negotiations would lead to a new nuclear deal. However, he still held out the possibility of a military strike if they didn't.

“The Iran situation is coming out very well,” Trump said on Air Force One. “We've had a lot of talks with them and I think we're going to have a deal. I'd much rather have a deal than the other alternative. That would be good for humanity."

He added: “There are some people that want to make a different kind of a deal — a much nastier deal — and I don’t want that to happen to Iran if we can avoid it.”

Talks turn to experts

While Araghchi and Witkoff are again expected to speak through the Omanis, experts on both sides also will begin negotiating details of a possible deal.

From the Iranian side, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-e Ravanchi will lead Tehran’s expert team, said Mohammad Golzari, an Iranian government official. Takht-e Ravanchi took part in the 2015 nuclear talks.

The U.S. technical team, which is expected to arrive in Oman on Friday, will be led by Michael Anton, the director of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s policy planning staff. Anton does not have the nuclear policy experience of those who led America’s efforts in the 2015 talks.

Iran has insisted that keeping its enrichment is key. But Witkoff has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop. That demand all enrichment stop also has been repeated by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

However, Iranians remain hopeful the talks could be successful, as the Iranian rial has rebounded from historic lows during which it took over 1 million rial to buy $1.

“It’s OK to negotiate, to make the nuclear program smaller or bigger, and reach a deal,” Tehran resident Farzin Keivan said. “Of course we shouldn’t give them everything. After all, we’ve suffered a lot for this program.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Iranian Foreign Ministry—AP Photo

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Americans do not agree with President Trump’s aggressive efforts to quickly enact his agenda, a new poll finds, and even Republicans are not overwhelmingly convinced that his attention has been in the right place.

Americans are nearly twice as likely to say Trump has been mostly focusing on the wrong priorities as to say he has been focusing on the right ones, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Further, about 4 in 10 Americans say Trump has been a “terrible” president in his second term, and about 1 in 10 say he has been “poor.” In contrast, about 3 in 10 say he has been “great or ”good,” while just under 2 in 10 say he has been “average.”

Most haven’t been shocked by the drama of Trump’s first 100 days. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say the first few months of Trump’s second term have been mostly what they expected, and only about 3 in 10 say the Republican president’s actions have been mostly unexpected.

But that does not mean they are pleased with how those opening months have gone.

In fact, Democrats seem even unhappier with the reality of the second Trump term than before he was sworn in on Jan. 20. About three-quarters of Democrats say Trump is focused on the wrong topics and about 7 in 10 think he has been a “terrible” president so far. That is an increase from January, when about 6 in 10 anticipated that he would be “terrible.”

Rahsaan Henderson, a Democrat from California, said “it has been one of the longest 100 days I’ve ever had to sit through.”

“I think the next four years will be a test of seeing who can resist the most and continue defying whatever he’s trying to do, since he defies everything, including the Supreme Court,” said Henderson, 40.

Republicans are largely standing behind the president, but are ambivalent about what he has chosen to emphasize. About 7 in 10 say he has been at least a “good” president. But only about half say he has mostly had the right priorities so far, while about one-quarter say it has been about an even mix and about 1 in 10 said Trump has mostly had the wrong priorities.

“He’s really doing the stuff that he said he was going to do,” said Tanner Bergstrom, 29, a Republican from Minnesota. He is “not making a bunch of promises and getting into office and nothing happens. ... I really like that. Even if it’s some stuff I don’t agree with, it’s still doing what he said he was going to do.”

Those who were surprised by Trump’s first few months seem to have had a rude awakening. The people who say Trump’s actions were not what they expected — who are mostly Democrats and independents — are more likely to say Trump has had mostly the wrong priorities and that he has been a poor or terrible president, compared with the people who mostly expected his actions.

About 4 in 10 in the survey approve of how Trump is handling the presidency overall. The issue of immigration is a relative strength. According to the poll, 46% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the issue, which is slightly higher than his overall approval. But there are also indications that foreign policy, trade negotiationsand the economy could prove problematic as he aims to prove his approach will benefit the country.

Trump’s approval on those issues is much lower than it is on immigration. Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of how he is handling each. Republicans are less likely to approve of Trump’s approach to trade and the economy than immigration.

There are additional signals that some Trump supporters may not be thrilled with his performance so far. The share of Republicans who say he has been at least a “good” president has fallen about 10 percentage points since January. They also have grown a bit more likely to say Trump will be either “poor” or “terrible,” although only 16% describe his first few months that way.

Republican Stephanie Melnyk, 45, from Tennessee, is supportive of Trump’s handling of the presidency more broadly but said she did not approve of his handling of foreign affairs, particularly on the war in Ukraine. Melnyk’s family emigrated from Ukraine and she said Trump is “trying for a quick fix that’s not going to last” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not to be trusted.”

Melnyk, who voted for Trump largely for his positions on immigration, said she wished the president would stay on script.

“He sounds like he can be very condescending, and it sounds like my way or the highway,” Melnyk said. “It’s like, dude. You’re not 12.”

It’s common, though, for a president’s standing to be at its best before taking office and beginning the work of governing. And Trump continues to hold high approval from Republicans.

About 4 in 10 Americans have a favorable opinion of Trump, roughly in line with his approval number. Among Republicans, the figure is about double: About 8 in 10 Republicans have a positive view of the president, and about the same share approves of how he is handling the presidency. About one-third of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of Vice President JD Vance, including about 7 in 10 Republicans.

Those Republicans interviewed were particularly fond of efforts to scale back the size of the federal government led by billionaire outside adviser Elon Musk and Trump’s cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

“Overall, I would have to say that I’m happy with the Trump presidency,” said Matthew Spencer, 30, a Republican from Texas. “I think that the Department of Government Efficiency has made great strides in reducing our spending, and I also agree with putting America first. I agree with the policies he’s put in as far as border protection and America standing for itself again as far as the tariffs.”

“We’re only three months in, but so far, so good,” said Carlos Guevara, 46, who lives in Florida. Guevara, a Republican, said DOGE has been a “smash hit” and on tariffs, and while there may be short-term pain, “if that does encourage businesses to start manufacturing here ... then that’ll wash out over time.”

Democrats have a much bleaker outlook on the economy than they held before Trump took office. The poll also found that the vast majority of Democrats think he has “gone too far” on deportations and tariffs.

Gabriel Antonucci, 26, a Democrat who recently moved to South Carolina, said Trump’s second term is “just a lot more ridiculous” than he had anticipated.

“It really seems like he is doing everything he can to make the wrong decisions,” Antonucci said. “Things are probably going to be worse in four years than they are right now.”

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,260 adults was conducted April 17-21, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Alex Brandon—AP Photo

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain's Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died. She was 41.

Giuffre died by suicide Friday at her farm in Western Australia, her publicist confirmed.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors,” her family said in a statement. “Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.”

Her publicist Dini von Mueffling described Giuffre as “deeply loving, wise and funny."

“She adored her children and many animals. She was always more concerned with me than with herself," von Mueffling wrote in a statement. "I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in Australia is available by calling 13 11 14. In the U.S., it is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

The American-born Giuffre, who lived in Australia for years, became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors after emerging as a central figure in Epstein's prolonged downfall.

The wealthy, well-connected New York money manager killed himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial on U.S. federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14. The charges came 14 years after police in Palm Beach, Florida, first began investigating allegations that he sexually abused underage girls who were hired to give him massages.

Giuffre came forward publicly after the initial investigation ended in an 18-month Florida jail term for Epstein, who made a secret deal to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty instead to relatively minor state-level charges of soliciting prostitution. He was released in 2009.

In subsequent lawsuits, Giuffre said she was a teenage spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago — President Donald Trump's Palm Beach club — when she was approached in 2000 by Epstein's girlfriend and later employee, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Giuffre said Maxwell hired her as a masseuse for Epstein, but the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates. Giuffre said she was flown around the world for assignations with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18.

The men denied it and assailed Giuffre's credibility. She acknowledged changing some key details of her account, including the age at which she first met Epstein.

But many parts of her story were supported by documents, witness testimony and photos — including one of her and Andrew, with his his arm around her bare midriff, in Maxwell’s London townhouse.

Giuffre said in one of her lawsuits that she had sex with the royal three times: in London during her 2001 trip, at Epstein’s New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18.

“Ghislaine said, ‘I want you to do for him what you do for Epstein,’” Giuffre told NBC News’ “Dateline” in September 2019.

Andrew categorically rejected Giuffre’s allegations and said he didn't recall having met her.

His denials blew up in his face during a November 2019 BBC interview. Viewers saw a prince who proffered curious rebuttals — such as disputing Giuffre's recollection of sweaty dancing by saying he was medically incapable of perspiring — and showed no empathy for the women who said Epstein abused them.

Within days of the interview, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties. He settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a “substantial donation” to her survivors' organization. A statement filed in court said that the prince acknowledged Epstein was a sex trafficker and Giuffre “an established victim of abuse.”

She also filed, and in at least some cases settled, lawsuits against Epstein and others connected to him. In one case, she dropped her claims against a prominent U.S. attorney, saying she might have erred in identifying him as one of the men to whom Epstein supplied her.

Epstein's suicide put an end to his accusers' hopes of holding him criminally accountable.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She said she wasn’t to blame for Epstein’s abuse.

Prosecutors elected not to include Giuffre's allegations in the Maxwell case, but Giuffre later told the court that the British socialite had "opened the door to hell.”

Giuffre, born Virginia Roberts, told interviewers that her childhood was shattered when she was sexually abused as a grade-schooler by a man her family knew. She later ran away from home and endured more abuse, she said.

She said she met her now-husband in 2002 while taking massage training in Thailand at Epstein's behest. She married, moved to Australia and had a family.

Giuffre founded an advocacy charity, SOAR, in 2015.

Giuffre separated from her husband and children this year. She had been charged with breaching a family violence restraining order over an incident in February, and was set to apepar in court in June in the city of Perth, where her estranged husband and children live.

She had yet to enter a plea to the charge. A conviction would have carried a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Giuffre was hospitalized after a serious accident, her publicist said last month. She didn’t answer questions at the time about the date, location, nature or other specifics of the accident and about the accuracy of an Instagram post that appeared to come from Giuffre. The post said she had been in a car that was hit by a school bus and her prognosis was dire.

She is survived by her three children, whom the statement described as the “light of her life.”

Sigrid McCawley, an attorney for Giuffre, said in a statement, “Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring. The world has lost an amazing human being today. Rest in peace, my sweet angel.”

The AP does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual assault unless they have come forward publicly.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Bebeto Matthews—AP Photo

• As trade between the U.S. and China collapses, small businesses will be hit hard, according to Torsten Sløk, chief economist at private equity giant Apollo. Many independent toy, hardware, and clothing stores rely on cheap imports, and firms with 500 employees or less account for nearly half of America’s private workforce. 

Trade between the U.S. and China is falling off a cliff. Vacant shipping containers will soon mean empty shelves—and perhaps the dreaded combo of higher prices and unemployment. President Donald Trump is touting talks of a trade deal between the world’s two biggest economies, but Beijing denies any negotiations have taken place.

Container shipping from China spiked in late March and early April as firms presumably tried to front-run tariffs, said Torsten Sløk, chief economist at private equity giant Apollo. However, it went into free fall soon after April 9, when the full slate of Trump’s taxes on Chinese imports went into effect. It takes about 20-to-30 days for Chinese cargo ships to reach U.S. ports, Sløk said, and another one-to-10 days for those goods to reach stores and factories across the country.

“It’s probably sometime by the middle of May that we should begin to see more significant impacts of this in the form of empty shelves in stores with goods that are no longer arriving,” he told Fortune, “because [of trade] collapsing the way it is.”

The U.S. tariff on most Chinese goods, barring a significant carve-out for many electronics, sits at 145%. China has retaliated with a 125% tax on most U.S. imports but also rolled out exceptions for semiconductors and other sectors, like aviation, early Friday.

China is America’s third-largest trading partner, accounting for nearly $440 billion worth of U.S. imports in 2024, according to the United States Trade Representative. Meanwhile, shipping costs have roughly been cut in half since early January, per the Freightos Baltic Index, which tracks the spot rates for standard 40-foot containers across major international trade lanes. 

In other words, reduced demand is already hitting the industry’s revenues.

Significant layoffs in trucking and logistics could further drag down the economy, Sløk said in a note Friday morning.

“In addition, we will soon begin to see higher inflation because there are a significant number of product categories where China is the main provider of certain goods into the U.S. market,” he wrote.

That’s especially devastating for small businesses like independent toy, hardware, and clothing stores, he added. Most smaller firms rely on importing cheap goods to stay afloat, he explained, and do not have the working capital, or liquidity, that bigger businesses can leverage to weather the storm.

“Large businesses have flexible balance sheets,” Sløk said. “They are more nimble. They have several product lines and are, therefore, able to easier adjust relative to a small business.”

Mom-and-pop shops loom almost just as large, however, when it comes to the health of the broader economy. Small businesses employed about 62 million Americans in 2023, or more than 46% of the private-sector workforce, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. These companies, which have 500 employees or less on the payroll, also accounted for nearly two-thirds of net job growth from 1995 to 2021, per the agency. 

Firms of all sizes, meanwhile, must deal with added uncertainty caused by the opposing messaging coming from Washington and Beijing. Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have signaled tariffs will come down when a new trade agreement is reached. The president has insisted such talks are taking place, but China has denied those claims, saying it will not come to the table unless the U.S. walks back its “unilateral” measures.  

The anxiety is apparent, Sløk said, in recent surveys from regional Federal Reserve banks, some of which showed big declines in new orders and plans for capital expenditures at a standstill. Companies like Southwest, Chipotle, and PepsiCo, he added, have warned on their most recent earnings calls that nervous consumers are starting to cut back.  

In short, he’s worried things could get worse.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Veteran investment experts at Bridgewater Associates say the current economic outlook imperils the existing global hierarchy. In a newsletter obtained by Quartz, the executives criticized the Trump administration’s shift to mercantilism and its “exceptional risks.” The assessment stands in stark contrast to November, when one of Bridgewater’s executives recommended investing in U.S. stocks under Trump.

Chief investment officers at the hedge fund Ray Dalio founded, Bridgewater Associates, warned of an upheaval of the “existing world order” amid the fall-out from President Donald Trump’s trade policy in its latest newsletter. 

Trump’s trade, ignited by his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, have ripped through the stock market and left investors worried about a potential recession. In Bridgewater Associates’ latest newsletter, obtained by Fortune, co-CIOs Bob Prince, Greg Jensen, and Karen Karniol-Tambour, emphasized “exceptional risks” to U.S. assets as the Trump administration prioritizes a “rapid shift to mercantilism.”

“We expect a policy-induced slowdown, with the rising probability of a recession,” the three wrote. 

While JPMorgan predicts a 60% probability the US enters a recession, the Bridgewater co-CIO’s think the impact will go beyond just a recession and impact the economic hierarchy. 

“To state the obvious: We are facing a radically different economic and market environment that threatens the existing world order and monetary systems,” Prince, Jensen, and Karniol-Tambour wrote. “We have been through many big economic shifts over Bridgewater’s 50-year history, so we don’t speak lightly when we say this looks like a once-in-a-generation one.”

The sentiment is different from Karniol-Tambour’s announcement at a Yahoo Finance Invest event in November where she said that holding U.S. stocks was a “good thing” under Trump.

Historically, U.S. assets are reliant on foreign inflows and a “shift in asset allocations has created risks if the future is different than the past,” according to the newsletter. The hedge fund outlined portfolio vulnerabilities that include “any weakness in growth,” “central banks not being able to ease into problems,” “equity underperformance,” and “U.S. underperformance relative to the rest of the world.”

At its core, a new geopolitical and macroeconomic standard will create an acute threat to investment portfolios amid a “once-in-a-generation technological disruption,” the newsletter said. 

“Facing a new reality, everyone must adapt,” they wrote. “Those who adapt fast and well will gain at the expense of those who adapt slowly and poorly.”
The White House did not return Fortune’s request for comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Tide maker Procter & Gamble said this week that its customers were doing fewer loads of laundry to save money on detergent, the latest sign of a consumer pullback amid economic anxiety caused by trade-war talk and volatile markets. Elsewhere, nervous customers are spending less on body wash, snacks, and burritos as they hunker down for economic turmoil.

The White House’s ever-changing tariff regime is injecting record amounts of uncertainty into the economy, and that’s now made its way to consumers’ spending habits. After pulling back on everyday luxuries like travel and self-care and even big-ticket purchases, the uncertainty has come to settle in Americans’ laundry rooms.

Procter & Gamble CEO Jon Moller told Yahoo Finance that customers are doing fewer laundry loads each week to save on detergent. P&G, a major consumer-goods conglomerate, makes Tide, the U.S.’ best-selling detergent, as well as dozens of brands including Gillette razors, Pampers diapers, and Dawn dishwashing liquid.

It cut its financial outlook for the year due to consumer stress, to just 2% growth. 

Competitor Colgate-Palmolive corroborated the trend on Friday. CEO Noel Wallace told investors on the earnings call that, while “consumers are still brushing their teeth, taking showers, cleaning their floors and feeding their pets,” they were feeling less inclined to stock up on purchases.

“You'll see consumers destock their pantries and not necessarily buy that extra tube or that extra body wash as they see, obviously, a very volatile external environment,” he said. “Uncertainty creates a pensive and anxious consumer,” he noted, calling the February tariff announcements a “shock to the system” that made shoppers “very cautious.”

Makers of household staples from cleaning solutions to snacks are sounding the alarm over the possible impacts of tariffs on China and dozens of global trading partners. Even for companies that source domestically, tariffs represent a major headwind as they threaten to squash economic growth or possibly even lead America into a recession—which would make consumer spending dry up. 

PepsiCo, which makes soda and snacks such as Doritos and Cheetos, said it was making smaller snack packs and individual servings, priced at under $2, to attract customers who were spending less, according to the company’s earnings call Thursday and the New York Times. The company expects flat earnings growth this year. And burrito chain Chipotle saw its first drop in same-store sales since the 2020 lockdowns, which the CEO attributed to “the consumer sitting on the sidelines.”

“Saving money because of concerns around the economy was the overwhelming reason consumers were reducing the frequency of restaurant visits,” Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright told investors on a call. 

So far, April consumer spending has held up after taking a dive in February, according to Bank of America spending data. But the mood is bleak. Consumer sentiment has fallen for four months straight, according to the University of Michigan’s flagship survey, the steepest decline in mood since the 1990 recession, and their assessment of where their own finances will be in a year fell to the lowest level in the 40-plus years the survey has been run. 

“Consumers’ views of current conditions are as bad as at the end of 2022, when the Ukraine war and an overheating domestic economy sent home heating prices surging,” said Comerica Bank chief economist Bill Adams.

“Consumers are freaked out about tariffs, the stock market, inflation, and recession fears,” he added. “The U.S. economy is pointed in a bad direction, and the further it goes, the higher the risk of a recession.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Whether you’ve been in the workforce for a few years or a few decades, odds are you’ve tolerated a toxic boss; 71% of U.S. workers have had at least one such supervisor in their career, a 2023 Harris Poll showed. As with other ruinous relationships, toxic bosses are difficult to escape and any number of reasons, such as being unable to afford quitting your job, may keep you putting up with them. New research, however, offers an underlying reason for some employees’ willingness to work under an abusive leader.

Do you view your toxic boss as successful? This perspective makes you more likely to label their abuse as “tough love,” according to a study published last year in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Researchers at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business also found that employees tended to think a high-performing boss could boost their own career—reproachful behavior notwithstanding.

“If someone is a good performer, we almost have this halo effect, or you assume that they have all these other positive traits particularly associated with leadership, which goes directly in the face of an abusive leader,” lead study author Robert Lount, PhD, an Ohio State professor of management and human resources, tells Fortune. “We were trying to reconcile these issues and how that might help understand when abusive behavior might not necessarily be encoded as abusive.”

In one part of the study, Lount and his colleagues surveyed nearly 600 full-time U.S. workers spanning an array of industries and positions, who had worked for their current supervisor for an average of five years. They used a pair of established scales—a 15-point measure of abusive supervision and a four-point measure of leader performance—that asked participants to evaluate statements such as “My boss ridicules me” and “My boss is superior to other bosses that I have worked with before.” Two weeks later, respondents further evaluated supervisors’ abusive or tough-love behaviors, reacting to language such as “I think my boss abuses team members” and “I would describe my boss as stern but caring.” Another two weeks after that, participants answered questions about their career expectations and hostility toward superiors.

While the workers polled projected their supervisors’ perceived success onto their own career ambitions, there’s no evidence those things are actually linked, Lount stresses.

“Just because sometimes people look at [abusive bosses] as tough-love bosses doesn’t suggest that being an abuser is going to be good or beneficial,” Lount says. “There are all sorts of other leader behaviors that are far more developmental and far more valuable than working under an abusive boss, which has been found time and time again to have really negative psychological consequences for employees.”

Such impudent workplace behavior spells trouble for employers, according to Donald Sull, DBA, a professor of the practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also directs the MIT Sloan Management Review’s Culture 500, a database created in partnership with Glassdoor that ranks corporations on cultural values including integrity and respect. 

“People often think that high performance is an excuse for abusive behavior—they confuse disrespectful and bullying behavior for maintaining high standards,” Sull tells Fortune via email. “But it’s possible to set the bar for performance high without berating or bullying people. And to the extent these toxic managerial behaviors drive high performers out of the organization, the abusive behavior undermines performance.”

Sull adds, “The sharpest test of whether a corporate culture truly respects employees is how senior leaders deal with managers who hit their numbers but abuse their teams.”

It’s not you, it’s your boss—especially if they’re a psychopath

A leader’s top priority should be understanding and developing the people they manage—that’s what Bill Becker, PhD, a professor of management at the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business, teaches his MBA students. Yet not enough people in charge are equipped with the emotional and psychological skills to be in high-pressure positions and shepherd subordinates, he tells Fortune.

“Most bosses don’t come to work and say, ‘How can I be the biggest jerk today?’” Becker says, noting that when overwhelm is the probable cause of your supervisor’s unpleasant behavior, there’s opportunity for both of you to grow. “If you can be the bigger person and manage it and actually make things better, they’ll recognize that oftentimes [and] you’ll stand out.”

Anyone can succeed under a great boss, Becker says, but if you can find a way to flourish under a challenging one, you’ll be ahead of the curve. Even so, a fine line separates a thorny supervisor from a psychologically dangerous one.

“If you have a difficult boss, it’s more about them and it’s not about you,” Becker says. “Don’t see their behavior as a reflection of you and your worth and your value.”

It’s also well within the realm of possibility that your abusive boss could be a psychopath. No, that doesn’t mean they’re a serial killer; psychopathy is a common spectrum disorder that, in its most severe form, manifests in 1 in 100 people, according to the nonprofit PsychopathyIs. Adult psychopathic behaviors include frequent bragging, skilful lying, superficial charm, and trouble maintaining relationships.

In a 2021 Fortune commentary, Simon Croom, PhD, a professor of supply chain management at the University of San Diego Knauss School of Business, discussed the prevalence of corporate psychopathy: “My colleagues and I found in our research that 12% of corporate senior leadership displays a range of psychopathic traits, which means psychopathy is up to 12 times more common among senior management than among the general population.” 

Unrecognized psychopathy in senior management, Croom wrote, could have disastrous financial and ethical consequences for businesses, employees, and customers—not to mention society at large.

“It’s just their modus operandi to manipulate people and abuse people, and do whatever it takes to gain power over them or get them to do what they think needs to be done,” Becker tells Fortune. If that sounds like your boss, “there’s just no changing a psychopath, there’s no managing a psychopath. All you can do is insulate yourself as best as possible, and that might be the time when you really want to look to at least move out from underneath that leadership.”

How do I recognize workplace abuse?

Abuse takes many forms and can morph across employment environments. It’s also subjective.

“People bandy about terms like ‘toxic’ and ‘abusive’ to cover a lot of behavior that they don’t like,” Sull says. “What one person might view as abusive, another might see as candid.”

Sull’s own research, based on more than a million Glassdoor reviews, suggests egregious behavior such as outright harassment is rare. Nevertheless, a supervisor’s abuse doesn’t have to be overt to evoke negative reactions in employees, he says.

“Managers who are disrespectful, noninclusive, or undermine others qualify as toxic even if they don’t exhibit the extremes of abusive behavior,” Sull says.

The antibullying advocacy group End Workplace Abuse breaks up such mistreatment into verbal abuse, sabotage, and mobbing. The following are just a few of the organization’s examples of each:

• Verbal abuse
  • Blaming or guilt
  • Discounting and minimizing
  • Excessively harsh criticism or reprimands
  • Jumping to conclusions about what you think
  • Unwillingness to engage in a dialogue
• Sabotage
  • Blocking requests for training, leave, or promotion
  • Exclusion from meetings, social events, and conversations you should be involved with
  • Micromanaging
  • Vague unsatisfactory work performance reviews or accusations without factual backup
• Mobbing
  • An escalation of bullying that happens when you report abusive behavior, only to discover higher-ups are prioritizing avoiding liability over your well-being
  • Your employer doesn’t remove the bully or change your work environment

What can I do if I have a toxic boss?

If you have the means to do so, leaving your job is the best way to free yourself from an abusive supervisor, according to Ben Tepper, PhD, coauthor of the study and professor of management and human resources at Ohio State. If you can’t, notify HR as soon as possible so they can begin to ameliorate the situation on their end while you get to work on coping strategies, he tells Fortune. This includes documenting negative interactions with your boss. In addition, behave like a formidable opponent, so to speak.

“People who engage in abusive boss behavior, they pick their targets very strategically. They don’t do it to everybody,” Tepper says. “They go after people who come across as weak and vulnerable, and so it’s in the interest of the individual who has been targeted to present themselves as a bad target. And you do that by being good at your job, by being confident, by activating your social network—surrounding yourself with other individuals who are competent and capable.”

Tepper also recommends reading a pair of books by Robert Sutton, PhD, a professor emeritus of management science and engineering at Stanford University: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t and its successor, The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt. 

Becker advises journaling about abusive incidents with your boss and returning to your entries with a fresh perspective. Once the heat of the moment has passed, you’ll be able to more objectively assess whether you and your supervisor have butted heads here and there or recognize a clear pattern of toxic behavior.

When in doubt, “I’m a big fan of therapy,” Becker says.

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on July 12, 2024.

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The first foreigner tapped to head 7-Eleven expressed confidence Friday the Japanese convenience store chain will continue to attract thrifty customers, even in an economic slowdown.

But Stephen Hayes Dacus, an American with a Japanese mother, declined to comment on the specifics of the various investment plans now being studied, including an acquisition proposal by Alimentation Couche-Tard of Canada.

A special company committee, which he isn’t part of, is charged with studying the options “totally objectively,” he said.

“The process is moving forward very constructively,” Dacus, who is currently a director, told a small group of reporters at the Tokyo headquarters of Seven & i Holdings Co., which operates 7-Eleven.

His appointment as chief executive still needs shareholders’ approval, set for May. Seven & i shares have risen more than 2% in the past year.

Fluent in Japanese and English, Dacus said he was determined to build a culture of leadership that he’s learned to admire from his experience working at Walmart, Uniqlo and other retailers.

“If you’re not humble, you’re not listening to your customers. You’re not learning. But if you’re not aggressive, you’re going to get beat by your competitors,” he said.

Dacus stressed the 7-Eleven chain was growing globally. But the stores were different by nation, and his intent was not to duplicate everywhere the Japanese-style “conbini,” as they are known here.

Lowering costs can be delivered with a better supply chain, for instance, leveraging the chain’s global reach, while a cheaper recipe for a food item will merely drive customers away, said Dacus.

“This business in Japan has been built on innovation,” he said.

While declining to comment on U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies, he acknowledged buyers will likely tighten their purse strings in a slowdown.

The answer is to be the first choice for where they shop, Dacus said, noting that his mother and Japanese relatives he watched growing up never wasted anything. They would wrap leftover dinner rolls at restaurants in paper to take home, he recalled.

“If you want to talk to some tough customers, you go talk to my aunts,” he said.

“Japanese customers are incredibly demanding. That’s something that really resonates with me. And that forms the way I think about retail.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Bill Hoogterp is an author, entrepreneur, and one of the top executive coaches worldwide. He has advised dozens of Fortune 500 CEOs, and last year his company LifeHikes offered trainings at more than 100 global companies in 47 countries and seven languages. In this series for Fortune he has coaching conversations with real executives striving to become better leaders.

The subject of this week's column is Margaret, a West Coast executive who works for one of the biggest online retailers in the world.

Margaret: Bill, I am happy to get coaching, but I really wanted to know if you can tell me the story again about the 5% braver. It really had an impact on me, and I found myself wanting to hear it again. I’ve tried to tell it to others, and I can never remember the details.

Bill: So you want me to, in this coaching, re-tell you a story about another coaching? This feels like Kramer’s coffee table book about coffee tables.

Margaret: Exactly! And I think the story may be good to get out there to help others too. It’s where so many more people get value out of something you thought only you needed, you know?

Bill: The Lara Story. 5% braver.

Margaret: That’s the one!

Bill: A woman came up to me—Lara—and said, “I’ve had 3 promotions in two years, partly because of a 10-minute coaching I had with you at that training.” For context, our coaches were in Europe doing a program with execs from a huge engineering firm we all know. A LifeHikes coach, Rebecca Garvey—who is just the coolest—had told the group that when it comes to leadership and life, we’re all like fast sports cars, but we have the hand brake engaged when we’re driving. The whole conversation was rich. The point was, we’re all at a certain level of success and happiness—we’re all going 150 kilometers per hour—but we’re capable of going 235. Rebecca explored with the group, made them laugh, and see the insight underneath. It’s often us that hold ourselves back. Why do we do it? Different mindsets, but the solution is the same: release the brake. Let go. Let go of caring about things that don’t matter—the silly stuff—to become your best self.

Bill: One of the women in the group, Lara, signed up for 1:1 coaching with me and said that really landed with her. She said, “I'm that classic person that holds myself back. I know I do it. I know it. I feel like I could be more. I’m capable of more—but why do I do it?”She said, “Bill, you asked me 3 questions in that 10-minute coaching that changed my mindset.”

Bill: Lara continued, “The 1st question you asked me was, ‘Do you want your little ones’ (she had 2 girls) ‘to become fearless learners?’” She gave me a very fast answer. She said, “You have no idea how much money I spend on that. School, programs. Yes. Yes. I want them to get the best education.”

Bill: Lara said, “Bill, then you asked me the 2nd question: ‘Do you want your kids to reach their potential in life?’” And she paused for a long time and then gave me a very serious answer… “There's almost nothing in the world I want more than that.” And then she said, “Bill, then you asked me the 3rd question, which was, ‘Hmm, then who do the kids have to see do it first?’ Something clicked for me. I realized me being brave was not for myself.”

—segue to Margaret—

Bill: Margaret, who do you think she wanted to be brave for?

Margaret: Her girls in her case. My twins, my family, and friends in my case.

Bill: An aha for courage is that it’s almost never about you. It’s about who you care about. Whether it’s family, friends, community—or even people far away you’ve never met—how much you care about them is where the courage comes from. That’s the well you draw from.

—segue back to story—

Bill: Lara said she then developed a mantra—a little half-sentence phrase one tells oneself to trigger oneself. When I tell this to a group, I make the class say her whole mantra—and use their 3D body language, where your fingers match what you are saying. Lara’s mantra, that she made up herself, was: “Just be 5% braver for 5 seconds!”

Bill: If you think about many situations, that's all you need.

Margaret: Yeah.

Bill: Lara was in a meeting the next day where her skip (boss’s boss) said something she didn’t fully agree with. She wondered, should she say something? “Grrr, just be 5% braver for 5 seconds,” and she just stumbled in with a comment.

Bill: Lara said she started doing this in work situations and in home situations. For 2 weeks she tried doing it, and she said, “I felt stupid. I felt awkward. I felt embarrassed. Everybody was looking at me funny—like this isn't the personality we thought you had. The signal felt to me like it was, ‘Mmm, maybe don’t do that.’”

Bill: She continued, “All my instincts were to go back to my old personality—go back to my old approach—stay more in the background. Avoid getting judged.” Because she realized that Rebecca was right: when you take the brake off the sports car, the first thing that happens is… you hit the curb. You knock over mailboxes. You get a ticket for rolling a stop sign.

Bill: Lara said, “But I decided not to go backward. No, I’m gonna keep going forward.” And the next 2 weeks, she said, it started to get smooth.

Bill: Lara continued, “The next 2 weeks I started to get more confident. People started looking at me differently—with more respect—and I got the 1st of my 3 promotions.”

Bill: My favorite part of the story is two things she said she didn't count on.

Margaret: I remember one—her team became 5% braver.

Bill: Yes, why?

Margaret: Because they saw her do it, and they realized there was space for that, and that they could feel like they could make mistakes but still learn from it. And so I think her modeling it gave them the bravery to do it themselves.

Bill: It's like we all have a gravitational pull on each other—good and bad. Emotions are contagious. They’re cold viruses—good ones and bad ones. We see it at work, we see it in our families, we see it in the world. So if you’re braver, it will unlock others—just a little bit. I don’t want to overstate it. It doesn’t fundamentally change things. It unlocks just a tiny bit of bravery in everybody around you. Everyone in your orbit is affected by your orbit—and vice versa. If you’re uptight, you’re making everyone around you more uptight. If you’re chill, you’re helping everyone else be a bit more chill. We affect each other.

Bill: And my favorite part of the story was her skip’s boss, at an All Hands, said, “We just got a big contract. I didn't even think we should bid on the contract. I didn't think we had a chance. I just want to say—I got the courage to bid by watching Lara's team.”

—end of Lara story—

Margaret: I love that. I forgot about that.

Bill: So, what about the story resonates with you?

Margaret: Well, I'm honestly shocked. I forgot the whole coaching exercise you did with her started with her and the kids.

Margaret: But I think for me, it's just like—you see all the little things build on each other. You see her have this moment where she’s like, “I need to change my mindset, and I need to be 5% braver for 5 seconds.” It’s not an easy road, right? But you see all the different pieces. She gets a little bit braver, and then you see her team get a little bit braver. You also see how this impacts her career—right? Like she’s obviously getting promoted in a very short amount of time. But then to build on and see a CEO recognize this person?

Bill: We are each other’s stories.

To learn more about Bill, visit lifehikes.com. To apply to have Bill coach you for a future column, email [email protected].

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Illustration by Fortune

• Gen Alpha watched influencers make millions from daily vlogs and video game content—now they want a piece of the pie. The generation’s top career choice is to become a YouTuber or TikToker, according to a recent survey of 12 to 15-year-olds. 

Gone are the days of kids aspiring to be a ballerina, the president, or an astronaut—Gen Alpha wants the dream jobs of the digital era. They’ve swapped Neil Armstrong for MrBeast, and Serena Williams for Emma Chamberlain. 

That’s because being a YouTuber is Gen Alpha’s top job aspiration. More than 30% of 12 to 15-year-olds say they want the career, according to a recent report from social commerce platform Whop. The gig is followed up by 21% of the kids aiming to become TikTok creators—another highly lucrative platform, launching the careers of million-dollar successes Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, and Khaby Lame.

TikTok and YouTube creators are jobs that simply didn’t exist 25 years ago, but it’s a dream for digital natives who grew up with vlogs and bingeable videos as entertainment. 

“Gen Alpha has grown up watching YouTubers who have turned content creation into highly lucrative careers,” Cameron Zoub, co-founder of Whop, tells Fortune. “Unlike TV, movie, or sports celebrities, these digital figures feel more relatable and accessible, making the YouTuber career path seem achievable.”

Most of the youngest generation dreams of being the next Markiplier or digital world builder, with 19% of Minecraft and Fortnite-obsessed Gen Alpha seeking a career designing video games. But there’s still a cohort of kids pursuing traditional jobs like nursing, entrepreneurship, teaching, and athletics. They have one foot in the digital world of self-made influencers, and one in the storied arena of white-collar work. 

Gen Alpha’s siren call from the office to social media

Gen Alpha still aspires for some traditional jobs. The report found that 20% want to be a doctor or nurse, 15% hope to be an athlete, and 14% are looking to become a teacher. However, their choices might be more rooted in their home environment rather than emerging trends. 

“Traditional careers like doctors and lawyers will likely always hold a level of prestige and demand,” Zoub says. “If Gen Alpha grows up seeing family members in traditional professions or interacting with inspiring figures in these roles, they may be more inclined to follow a similar path.”

But there’s another player that has entered the chat: the internet. Just a couple of generations ago, kids may have looked up to their parents as the central money-maker of their lives. Now, just by logging onto Instagram or TikTok, stories of “get-rich-quick” tricks and overnight careers litter kids’ feeds. They’re even being lured into influencer jobs; around 23% of Gen Alpha kids have been contacted by a brand with a digital sponsorship opportunity, according to Whop’s data. And about 30% would consider making money through the partnerships on YouTube or TikTok.

“Kids today see YouTubers like MrBeast, streamers, and online resellers achieving financial success without a college degree or traditional career path,” Zoub says. “It’s also important to recognize that at a young age, career choices are also often based on what looks fun rather than financial logic.”

Alyssa Tucker, New York City school teacher and co-founder of popular kids comedy account @LiveFromSnackTime, also polled her followers on what their Gen Alpha kids want to grow up to be. Submissions from her 800,000-plus fans on Instagram began rolling in. 

The youngest children in the Gen Alpha range—which spans from children born after 2010, up until today—gave unpredictable answers like alligator, snow plow man, and Lady Gaga backup dancer. Multiple kids even espoused their dream career: being a tree. But Tucker’s survey results also pulled on a common thread found in Whop’s data: that Gen Alpha aspires to be video-game makers and artists. 

“A few years back, if [kids] wanted to be creative, they thought about art,” Tucker tells Fortune. “But nowadays, because there is so much technology, social media, computer games, and YouTube, they think of creativity in a different way.”

Top 10 job aspirations for Gen Alpha

Whop’s 2024 survey gathered insights from 910 U.S. Gen Alpha across the U.S. aged between 12-15 years old. Participants selected all careers they were aspiring towards. 

1. YouTuber (32%)
2. TikTok creator (21%)
3. Doctor/nurse (20%)
4. Mobile app/video game developer (19%)
5. Entrepreneur (17%)
6. Artist (16%)
7. Sports athlete (15%)
8. Professional online streamer (15%)
9. Musician (14%)
10. Teacher (14%)

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© vorDa / Getty Images

• These high earners rethought their careers as "lifestyle creep"—where spending rises with income—left them under financial pressure despite impressive paychecks, especially in the face of inflation and social pressure. Sources told Fortune they walked away from lucrative careers to pursue more meaningful, lower-paying paths that prioritize fulfillment, health, and personal values over material success.

Everyone remembers their first paycheck. Whether it's cash-in-hand for a paper round or a significant slip, few people forget the world of potential that opens up once you start earning.

Then people get older and their earnings potential and financial priorities shift: They find themselves with a pet, a mortgage, car payments, a child. Maybe they get promoted: They buy a bigger house, a newer car, holidays for the family are put on a credit card.

Suddenly, a salary that once would have made them feel rich barely scratches the surface.

This is 'lifestyle creep:' When a person's spending ties them into an income bracket.

In a tight housing market, relatively higher interest rate environment and tariff-induced inflation increases on the horizon, even those on the upper end of the income scale are being backed into a corner by their outgoings.

Sources told Fortune why they gave up their high-end homes, C-suite titles, and generous pay packages for careers that truly fulfilled them. But in a world of keeping up with every Jones on social media, it's only getting easier to fall into the same trap.

Money vs meaning

As the former CEO of a New York City-based investment firm, Neal Shah begrudgingly collected the hallmarks of success: The right watch, the correct suit, the $1,000 shoes.

Moving up the ranks from an investment analyst, to hedge fund partner by 27, to leading his own organisation with $20 million in assets under management [AUM] by 31, Shah saw his income soar accordingly.

"At some point in my late 20s I wanted a different life ... but every year it kept getting deferred—it was like golden handcuffs," Shah recalled. "I don't really care for fancy things, but by being in these careers, you're sometimes forced to do things.

"Early in investment banking, I learned the type of suit you wear and the type of tie [matters]—like I was good at my job, but all my bosses told me: 'You need to buy this and dress like this.'

"It's just a perception thing. All the community wears Ferragamo shoes, even though it gave me heartburn to spend that kind of money."

But when Shah's wife was diagnosed with cancer, the decision to leave the finance world could no longer wait.

Crestfallen with the care service available for his wife while he attempted to continue working, Shah became a caregiver full time and the couple moved home to North Carolina—where they encountered other families who had found the same.

In 2021, Shah launched CareYaya Health, which connects universities and their medical students with families in need of support. Now, with more than 30 universities, such as Duke, Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkley, verifying 28,000 students on the platform, Shah is charging no fees to connect caregivers to families and is not drawing a salary from the business.

"I'm very pleased with my life. Financially, things might have looked different ... and I'd have had a fancy life, but that isn't what drives me, so to some degree it would have been more meaningless," Shah added.

"There's a fulfillment aspect beyond money, which is that all these families that are struggling with care, you're helping. You're motivating these young people to do positive things in their community—that has tremendous value that you can't measure."

It's only getting worse in 2025

Judi Leahy, vice president of Citi's personal wealth management unit, said that even clients with "significant means" will turn to their wealth advisors for help cutting lifestyle costs in 2025.

"People do get caught up in the process of: You have money, but you're not forward thinking," Leahy told Fortune. "My mantra is when in doubt, do without.

"You can't sacrifice all the time ... if you are making money and you have that discretionary income then it's ok to go out and do something for yourself, but it shouldn't be part of your routine spending."

Lifestyle creep is only becoming more of a problem because of social media, easier access to goods and services and societal pressure, added Leahy, adding the problem is compounded in 2025 because of inflation.

"The biggest indication of that is just going grocery shopping," Leahy said. "When you think about your basic needs and your wants, when you go to the grocery store, it's very easy to splurge on things that you don't need really, and the prices have just really gotten out of whack.

"That's one place where you can be completely trapped because you're used to buying certain things and those prices have gone exponentially higher and you're still in the same game."

Take even the most basic purchase of a dozen large eggs. According to the St Louis Fed, the cost of eggs continues to spike, sitting at more than $6 in March 2025 compared to $2.99 a year prior.

Anyone worried about their spending vs. their necessary income needs to compile a brutally honest financial plan, Leahy added. "Use the different scenarios: If you retire at 60, if you retire at 65, if you take Social Security, if we sell the main house and buy a smaller house—what does that look like?"

"All of that should get factored in, and you have a very sobering moment to say 'I can make it' or 'Oh my god, you better go get a second job.' Once you have everything in black and white, things become more real."

Stepping away from it all

Unlike many in his family, Gene Cabalerro didn't grow up with an entrepreneurial itch, so he spent a happy decade in Nashville working at Dell Technologies.

His days consisted of hard work, enjoying his $3,000-a-month apartment in the best building in town, regular sports tickets at the nearby Nissan stadium, and weekends partying.

On a Friday afternoon a few years ago, looking out over commercial parking lots around his office, Cabalerro considered his lifestyle creep for the first time. He was counting the speedboats parked in the nearby lots, towed to work ahead of a weekend on the water.

"It was a fun place to live, a great environment, and you're surrounded by wonderful people that are also doing well. You just wanna keep up with them and keep striving," Cabalerro recounted.

But then an opportunity to invest in and lead GreenPal—an on-demand lawn care platform—was offered and the entrepreneurial itch kicked in.

"I'm now living in my sister's spare bedroom, and last year I stayed 196 nights in Marriotts across the world," Cabalerro said. "I'm in Peru right now, and I've already got six trips planned this year. Life is great, it just takes those shitty few first years."

The story is the same for Christopher Kaufman, who left behind his $1.5 million California home, healthy 401k, and high-end hotel stays to complete a doctorate and lecture at universities.

Kaufman went in search of more independence than his six-figure role in tech afforded him, but the decision to leave his job was made all the more complex by the medical insurance it provided him and his wife, who suffers with autoimmune issues.

"There were moments of regret," he recalls, particularly when the couple were searching for insurance cover.

Now living in the Coachella Valley, Kaufman added: "Tears were shed, going: How much do we burn into our retirement? Luckily, we didn't have to do that, but we got right up to the edge of saying: 'We could burn down what we built up' and that was not part of the plan.

"From teaching, I'm now probably earning between 5% and 10% of what I was. I'm ten times happier, but I'm making ten times less money."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• With social media consumption and skyrocketing tuition, Gen Z is facing financial confusion like never before. University leaders are hoping that by investing in financial literacy, they can navigate the true pathways to building success.

College campuses are often advertised as safe spaces where intellectual ideas can flow freely. 

However, even though nearly 8 in 10 college students report that financial struggles are harming their mental health, and finances are the leading reason why some 42 million students have ditched the classroom, money remains a taboo topic for many Gen Zers. 

There’s no question that the cost of college is a leading driver of angst, with the average public university student taking out $32,000 in student loans.In response, some universities are pouring millions of dollars into new financial wellness and literacy centers—and at some schools, it’s working.

At Indiana University (IU), which began prioritizing financial literacy in 2012, student loan borrowing has dropped 13% in the last decade. That’s a savings of nearly $73 million, even when tuition and fees for in-state students rose by nearly the same percentage. Moreover, while some 44% of students still graduate with student loan debt, the total amount they borrow is down 5.2%. 

Phil Schuman, IU’s executive director of financial wellness and education, says schools are slowly realizing that financial wellness is critical to the success and health of students and institutions alike. 

“Universities are seeing that parallel, where if students are stressed about their finances, and they're not going to have the ability to focus on their academics, and if they can't focus on their academics, their chances of succeeding are low,” he tells Fortune. 

Financial wellness is critical to solving the Gen Z mental health crisis

The initiatives, like those at IU, offer students online and in-person resources on how to establish healthy money habits like budgeting, paying for study abroad, or dealing with interpersonal relationships. Plus, students can receive one-on-one advice from either a student or staff financial expert, or even request a financial education presentation for their class or club.

And universities across the country are catching on. In the last two years, institutions like the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina, and Washington University in St. Louis have announced investments in financial literacy. mental health, financial well-being is being seen as critical to success.

This is especially true for the current generation of college students who went through the pandemic during high school and experienced intellectual and social setbacks unlike any other prior generation. In 2020, before the pandemic, a survey of undergraduates at The Ohio State University found that finances were a leading source of stress for 68.1% of students. By 2023, that number rose to 72.5%.

While there’s plenty of blame to go around, one of the glaring changes has been the rapid rise in the cost of college. Over the last two decades, tuition and fees for private universities have increased by 41%, even when adjusting for inflation, according to U.S. News. For in-state public universities, which are often viewed as the better financial deal for lower-income students, costs have risen by 45%.

Moreover, social media’s glorification of sometimes unwise financial decisions, like buying now and paying later, betting on their favorite athletic teams, and investing in shiny new cryptocurrencies like memecoins, is likely also contributing to a growing financial burden on Gen Z. 

On the flip side, technology has also made it easier than ever for young people to access smart financial information.

“There's an overwhelming amount of information out there,” says Gilbert Rogers, inaugural director of the center at the University of North Carolina. “And what that does is, it’s a double-edged sword. It's good that you have access to this info, but what's reliable? What's not reliable?”

Having a trusted campus center where students can seek guidance and confidence about their money is more important than ever, Rogers tells Fortune.

“There's a lot of finance talk that the average person may get intimidated by, but it's not so difficult once you break it down,” he adds.

The rise in personal finance education at the college level

Personal finance at the college level is nothing new. For years, universities have offered personal finance classes and resources, but some experts have voiced against having it be a graduation requirement (akin to the now 26 states mandating it in high schools)—with the primary reason being that students do better when they want to learn something versus being forced to do so. 

However, it’s unclear whether this wait-and-come-to-me strategy is beneficial to the generation at large. After all, instead of currently talking about their financial woes, students are brushing them off like it’s a homework assignment they can procrastinate in perpetually. A recent study by Inituit found that Gen Zers would rather talk about politics, sex, or infertility than financial topics like debt, salaries, or bad investments. 

Adam Nash, the former CEO of Wealthfront, has been teaching “Personal Finance for Engineers” at Stanford University for seven years. He tells Fortune that the subject is relatively rare, but probably should be taught to everyone in middle or high school. 

“I think it's wrong to send kids out into the world not understanding the basis of personal finance,” he says. 

Before the semester began last fall, he polled his students, who include freshmen undergraduates up to those in graduate school. Less than 10% reported not having student loans, and just over half reported not having their brokerage account. 

In his course, Nash says he largely just focuses on the basics—because that’s ultimately what’s important (he even releases all of his lectures online, for those to access and learn).

“The biggest liability that smart people, intelligent people, have with money actually comes from in some ways over-complicating it,” he says.

And while Nash’s course is just one example of financial wellness education in action, it’s emblematic of the fact that teaching young people about money is a marathon, not a sprint.

“Don’t be afraid to make decisions and learn from your mistakes,” Nash wrote at the end of the semester. “(It’s) better to make them when the dollars are small and your responsibilities are few.”

And at a time when many schools are facing rising enrollment rates but declines in federal funding from DOGE cuts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Education, investing in financial literacy might just be the win-win some schools need. Not only can it help students remain enrolled, but it also helps lead them down a path toward success.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Getty Images

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