The mother of the man who killed four people at a Manhattan office tower home to the NFL told 911 dispatchers during a 2022 incident when he threatened to kill himself that he suffered from a sports-related concussion and other issues, new information released by Las Vegas police Tuesday revealed.

Shane Tamura, 27, had a documented history of mental health problems and carried a handwritten note in his wallet when he carried out the shooting that claimed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known at CTE, investigators said. He fatally shot three people in the building lobby before taking an elevator to the 33rd floor, killing a fourth victim and then ending his own life, according to police.

He accused the football league of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports. Tamura didn’t play professional football but played during his high school years in Southern California, where he grew up.

His mother told the dispatchers on Sept. 12, 2022, that her son was under a doctor’s care for “depression, concussion like sports concussion, chronic migraines, and insomnia.” She also said he was taking sleeping pills, smoking marijuana, and kept a gun in his backpack. It was one of two incidents that led to Tamura being admitted to hospitals for mental health crises.

“He said he’s going to kill himself,” she said in the recorded 911 call. “He didn’t say he made a plan, he just said he just can’t take it anymore.”

Tamura’s mother placed the call from outside a Budget Suites Motel. She told dispatchers she would wait in the stairwell because she did not want Tamura to know she had called the police.

“He just started crying and slamming things and said I’m making him worse, so I said, ‘I’ll step outside,’” she said. “I don’t want you to be upset, but I’m afraid to leave.”

Tamura was committed to a hospital again in 2024 after calling his mother and making statements about wanting to hurt himself, according to a first responder captured on body camera video released by Las Vegas police.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the records, which would normally be withheld due to privacy protections, were being released “in light of the extraordinary circumstances.”

Tamura worked at the Horseshoe Las Vegas’ surveillance department until last week, when authorities say he drove his car to New York and carried out the shooting. He bought the rifle he used in the attack and the car he drove from his supervisor at the casino.

New York City detectives searched Tamura’s locker at the Horseshoe casino Wednesday and found a tripod for his rifle, a box for a revolver that was found in his car in New York, and ammunition for both guns, the police department said.

Police said they also found in his apartment a psychiatric medication, an epilepsy drug and an anti-inflammatory that had been prescribed to Tamura.

His psychiatric history would not have prevented him from legally purchasing the revolver, unless relatives or law enforcement sought a so-called extreme risk protection order from the courts. However, a new state law effective this month will allow officers to confiscate firearms in the immediate vicinity of someone placed on a mental health crisis hold.

Las Vegas police also released records Tuesday related to two other run-ins with the law. Tamura was arrested for trespassing at a casino in 2023, where he became agitated after he was asked to show his ID to collect his winnings and was asked to leave when he refused to. He was also cited for driving an unregistered car and without a license in 2024.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis

Mall-based teen accessories retailer Claire’s, known for helping to usher in millions of teens into an important rite of passage — ear piercing — but now struggling with a big debt load and changing consumer tastes, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Claire’s Holdings LLC and certain of its U.S. and Gibraltar-based subsidiaries — collectively Claire’s U.S., the operator of Claire’s and Icing stores across the United States, made the filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Wednesday. That marked the second time since 2018 and for a similar reason: high debt load and the shift among teens heading online away from physical stores.

Claire’s Chapter 11 filing follows the bankruptcies of other teen retailers including Forever 21, which filed in March for bankruptcy protection for a second time and eventually closed down its U.S. business as traffic in U.S. shopping malls fades and competition from online retailers like Amazon, Temu and Shein intensifies.

Claire’s, based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois and founded in 1974, said that its stores in North America will remain open and will continue to serve customers, while it explores all strategic alternatives. Claire’s operates more than 2,750 Claire’s stores in 17 countries throughout North America and Europe and 190 Icing stores in North America.

In a court filing, Claire’s said its assets and liabilities range between $1 billion and $10 billion.

“This decision is difficult, but a necessary one,” Chris Cramer, CEO of Claire’s, said in a press release issued Wednesday. “Increased competition, consumer spending trends and the ongoing shift away from brick-and-mortar retail, in combination with our current debt obligations and macroeconomic factors, necessitate this course of action for Claire’s and its stakeholders.”

Like many retailers, Claire’s was also struggling with higher costs tied to President Donald Trump’s tariff plans, analysts said.

Cramer said that the company remains in “active discussions” with potential strategic and financial partners. He noted that the company remains committed to serving its customers and partnering with its suppliers and landlords in other regions. Claire’s also intends to continue paying employees’ wages and benefits, and it will seek approval to use cash collateral to support its operations.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a research firm, noted in a note published Wednesday Claire’s bankruptcy filing comes as “no real surprise.”

“The chain has been swamped by a cocktail of problems, both internal and external, that made it impossible to stay afloat,” he wrote.

Saunders noted that internally, Claire’s struggled with high debt levels that made its operations unstable and said the cash crunch left it with little choice but to reorganize through bankruptcy.

He also noted that tariffs have pushed costs higher, and he believed that Claire’s is not in a position to manage this latest challenge effectively.

Competition has also become sharper and more intense over recent years, with retailers like jewelry chain Lovisa offering younger shoppers a more sophisticated assortment at low prices. He also cited the growing competition with online players like Amazon.

“Reinventing will be a tall order in the present environment,” he added.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

More beachgoers have been getting an unexpected shock this summer as jellyfish numbers bloom along the Delaware coast, interrupting — but not stopping — the summer fun.

Beach patrol captains reported a dramatic increase in jellyfish activity and stings in July, the most they’ve seen in recent memory. Lewes Beach reported a fourfold increase in stings compared to 2024.

Lion’s manes, which can have 100-foot (30-meter) tentacles, sea nettles and moon jellyfish are some varieties that frequent Delaware’s summertime waters.

Jellyfish blooms have become common from Maine to Florida in recent years. Warming waters can create ideal conditions for jellyfish growth.

Normally, Delaware’s five state parks may report a handful of summer jellyfish stings, said Bailey Noel, a beach patrol captain. But Fenwick Island State Park recently reported 92 stings on a single July day. Three lifeguards were taken to urgent care after swimming in jellyfish-infested waters, Noel said.

The jellyfish at Delaware’s Towers Beach surprised Philadelphia resident Christina Jones, whose two daughters refused to wade back into the water after being stung, she said.

“The jellyfish are pretty bad,” Jones said. “And not only are they a lot in number, but they’re pretty big.”

Delaware State Beach Patrol started tracking jellyfish stings this year due to the rise in cases, said Noel. Most patrol teams do not track the data.

Lewes Beach Patrol treated 295 stings in 2024, the first year the data was collected, but reported over 1,200 cases so far in 2025, said Capt. Strohm Edwards. Lifeguards started carrying vinegar solutions, which can neutralize the venom agents, to help ease pain, he said.

But vinegar solutions may cause microscopic venom-coated barbs known as nematocysts to discharge, according to some research. Those experts recommend a baking soda slurry.

While venomous, stings from Delaware’s lion’s manes and sea nettles typically only cause minor irritation and pain, said Edwards. In cases of severe allergic reactions and symptoms — nausea, vomiting and trouble breathing — lifeguards can help.

Jellyfish blooms, sudden fluctuations in jellyfish populations, are not uncommon, said Gisele Muller-Parker, a retired marine biologist who would count dozens of lion’s mane jellyfish during her daily Lewes Beach walks in July. Temperature, salinity and food availability influence jellyfish breeding, and in favorable conditions, such as warmer waters, populations can explode.

“This year, we’ve never seen anything like this,” Muller-Parker said.

The jellyfish were near the end of their life cycle, finishing their reproductive phase and laying their eggs. Those jellyfish will die once water temperatures cool, said Keith Bayha, a research collaborator with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History.

The jellyfish boom can harm ecosystems and marine industries, said Bayha, who has studied the animals for more than 20 years and helped identify a nettle species. Fish larvae primarily feed on plankton, but jellyfish can eat both the plankton and the fish. And with few natural predators, the jellyfish food chain is an ecological dead end, said Bayha.

Delaware’s boom this summer is far from alone. Florida’s Volusia County reported hundreds of stings around Memorial Day weekend. Gloucester, Massachusetts, reminded beachgoers to stay safe around jellyfish in mid-July. And in June, Maine’s Ogunquit Fire Department warned beachgoers about the increase in jellyfish after stings were reported.

Jellyfish research is limited, but Muller-Parker hopes more work will be done to assess the ecological ramifications of jellyfish blooms and improve safety advisories.

For now, some unlucky beachgoers will have to rely on home remedies and, in the case of Massachusetts resident Kathy Malloy-Harder’s third-grade nephew, a little bravery.

“When he got stung, he jumped up and started crying and said, ’I’m never coming back to the beach again ever,’” said Malloy-Harder, who had to try two stores to find vinegar for him. But she said that after talking about it “and once the sting subsided, he was interested in coming back and enjoying the beach.”

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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Mingson Lau

Switzerland’s president and other top officials were traveling to Washington on Tuesday in a hastily arranged trip aimed at striking a deal with the Trump administration over steep U.S. tariffs that have cast a pall over Swiss industries like chocolates, machinery and watchmaking.

President Karin Keller-Sutter was leading the delegation after last week’s announcement that exports of Swiss goods to the U.S. will face a whopping 39% percent tariff starting Thursday — a move that took many Swiss business leaders by surprise.

That rate is over 2 1/2 times higher than the one on European Union goods exported to the U.S. and nearly four times higher than on British exports to the U.S.

It’s also more than the 31% that Switzerland had been set to face when U.S. President Donald Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on products from dozens of countries in early April.

The Swiss government said the trip was “to facilitate meetings with the U.S. authorities at short notice and hold talks with a view to improving the tariff situation for Switzerland.”

Keller-Sutter, who also serves as Switzerland’s finance minister, has faced criticism in Swiss media over a last-ditch call with Trump before a U.S. deadline on tariffs expired Aug. 1. She was leading a team that included Economy Minister Guy Parmelin.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Trump alluded to the call, saying “the woman was nice, but she didn’t want to listen” and that he had told her: “We have a $41 billion deficit with you, Madame … and you want to pay 1% tariffs.”

“I said, ‘you’re not going to pay 1%,'” he added.

It was not immediately clear where that $41 billion figure came from. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States ran a $38.3 billion trade imbalance on goods last year with Switzerland.

Swiss officials have argued that American goods face virtually zero tariffs in Switzerland, and the Swiss government says the wealthy Alpine country is the sixth-biggest foreign investor in the United States and the leading investor in research and development.

“It’s hard to negotiate when you’re dealing with someone as unpredictable as Donald Trump,” said Ivan Slatkine, head of the Federation of Romandie Enterprises, which groups companies in French-speaking Switzerland. He expressed concern that Swiss goods could become less competitive to rival products from the neighboring EU.

“We had a (Swiss) government that gave the impression the deal was done, it only awaited a signature from the president,” he said by phone. “We have the impression that we were punished, but we don’t know why.”

Switzerland’s powerful pharmaceutical industry — which promised tens of billions of investments in the United States in recent months amid the tariff worries — is exempt from the 39% rate. But Slatkine said the steep tariff level could be aimed to send Switzerland’s Big Pharma — epitomized by Roche and Novartis — a message that it too could come under pressure.

The trip comes a day after Switzerland’s executive branch, the Federal Council, held an extraordinary meeting and said it was “keen to pursue talks with the United States on the tariff situation,” the government statement Tuesday said.

After consulting with Swiss businesses, the council said it had developed “new approaches for its discussions” with U.S. officials and was looking ahead to continued negotiations.

“Switzerland enters this new phase ready to present a more attractive offer, taking U.S. concerns into account and seeking to ease the current tariff situation,” a council statement said Monday.

Under the U.S. announcements Friday, Swiss companies will now have one of the steepest export duties — only Laos, Myanmar and Syria had higher figures, at 40-41%.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File

In firing the head of the agency that produces monthly jobs figures, President Donald Trump alleged that the recent weaker-than-expected numbers were phony and that positive numbers reported before the 2024 election were manipulated to make him look bad.

It’s a familiar cadence Trump has adopted in reacting to jobs reports: He treats the figures as legitimate when they are favorable to him and fraudulent when they are less than stellar or seem to benefit his opponent.

A look at some of Trump’s observations on jobs reports over the past year:

Aug. 5, 2024

“STOCK MARKETS ARE CRASHING, JOBS NUMBERS ARE TERRIBLE, WE ARE HEADING TO WORLD WAR lll, AND WE HAVE TWO OF THE MOST INCOMPETENT ‘LEADERS’ IN HISTORY. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!” — Trump post on Truth Social

Suggesting President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were responsible, Trump was reacting to the news that U.S. employees had added 114,000 jobs in July — 35% fewer than expected — and that the unemployment rate was at its highest level in nearly three years.

Nov. 1, 2024

“Today’s jobs report is a great embarrassment for our Nation. Kamala has lied for years about their pathetic job growth, which has never been real. Kamala killed 46,000 manufacturing jobs, while 773,000 Americans have lost employment in just the last year — all while their jobs have been taken by foreign-born workers. America is a Nation in Decline because Sleepy Joe, and Lyin’ Kamala, didn’t do their job. ‘TRUMP’ WILL FIX IT! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! GO VOTE!” — Trump post on Truth Social

Days ahead of the presidential election, Trump blasted news that U.S. employers had added just 12,000 jobs in October, a total that economists say had been held down by the effects of strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls.

Nov. 4, 2024

“Nearly 250,000 people dropped out of the labor force. They dropped out because they couldn’t get a job. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine? These are the numbers, and they don’t want to talk about it, but that’s OK. These numbers are disqualifying.” — Trump campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, around 220,000 people left the civilian U.S. workforce from September to October 2024 during Biden’s presidency.

April 4, 2025

“GREAT JOB NUMBERS, FAR BETTER THAN EXPECTED. IT’S ALREADY WORKING. HANG TOUGH, WE CAN’T LOSE!!!” — Trump post on Truth Social

Trump quickly praised news that in March, U.S. employers had added a surprising 228,000 jobs, showing that the American labor market was in solid shape as he embarked on a risky trade war with the rest of the world. The hiring numbers were up from 117,000 in February and were nearly double the 130,000 that economists had expected.

June 6, 2025

“GREAT JOB NUMBERS, STOCK MARKET UP BIG! AT THE SAME TIME, BILLIONS POURING IN FROM TARIFFS!!!” — Trump post on Truth Social

Trump responded enthusiastically to the initial numbers on the May jobs report, which indicated that the economy added 139,000 jobs.

That estimate was later revised down to 125,000 jobs, prior to the most recent revision down to just 19,000.

Aug. 1, 2025

“I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory. … I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY.” — Trump post on Truth Social

Trump ousted McEntarfer following a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported, taking issue in subsequent days to the revisions of jobs figures that are a regular occurrence with the monthly reporting.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The New York Post is launching a California tabloid newspaper and news site next year, the company announced Monday, bringing an assertive, irreverent and conservative-friendly fixture of the Big Apple media landscape to the Golden State. In the process, it is creating a 21st-century rarity: a new American newspaper with a robust print edition.

Adding another title to Rupert Murdoch‘s media empire, The California Post is setting out to cover politics, local news, business, entertainment and sports in the nation’s most populous state, while drawing and building on the venerable New York paper’s national coverage. Plans for the Los Angeles-based paper call for a print edition seven days a week plus a website, social media accounts and video and audio pieces.

“There is no doubt that the Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit,” Robert Thomson, chief executive of Post corporate parent News Corp., said in a statement. In typically brash and punchy Post fashion, he portrayed California as plagued by ”jaundiced, jaded journalism.”

It enters at a bumpy moment for its industry

However bold its intentions, the venture is being launched into a turbulent atmosphere for the news business, particularly for print papers. More than 3,200 of them have closed nationwide since 2005, according to figures kept by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The online world spawned new information sources and influencers, changed news consumers’ tastes and habits and upended the advertising market on which newspapers relied.

“While it’s true the media landscape is challenging, The New York Post has been finding success through its unique voice, editorial lens and quality coverage. That same formula is tailor-made for California,” said the New York Post Media Group. It includes the Post and some other media properties.

California, with a population of nearly 40 million, still has hundreds of newspapers, including dailies in and around Los Angeles and other major cities. But the nation’s second-most-populous city hasn’t had a dedicated tabloid focused on regional issues in recent memory, according to Danny Bakewell, president of the Los Angeles Press Club.

“It’s really an untested market here,” said Bakewell, who is editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly focused on the city’s Black population. “L.A. is always ready for good-quality news reporting, and particularly in this moment when so many other papers are shrinking and disappearing, it could be a really unique opportunity.”

The Post is a unique beast

There is no U.S. newspaper quite like the 224-year-old New York Post. It was founded by no less a luminary than Alexander Hamilton, the country’s first treasury secretary, an author of the Federalist Papers, the victim of a duel at the hands of the vice president and the inspiration for the Broadway smash “Hamilton.” Murdoch, News Corp.’s founder and now its chairman emeritus, bought the Post in 1976, sold it a dozen years later, then repurchased it in 1993.

The Post is known for its relentless and skewering approach to reporting, its facility with sensational or racy subject matter, its Page Six gossip column, and the paper’s huge and often memorable front-page headlines — see, for example, 1983’s “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”

At the same time, the Post is a player in both local and national politics. It routinely pushes, from the right, on “wokeness” and other culture-war pressure points, and it has broken such political stories as the Hunter Biden laptop saga. The Post has an avid reader in President Donald Trump, who gave its “Pod Force One” podcast an interview as recently as last month.

In recent years, the Post’s website and such related sites as PageSix.com have built a large and far-flung digital audience, 90% of it outside the New York media market, according to the company.

With the Los Angeles readership second only to New York’s, The California Post “is the next manifestation of our national brand,” Editor-in-Chief Keith Poole said in a statement. He’ll also be involved in overseeing the California paper with its editor-in-chief, Nick Papps, who has worked with News Corp.’s Australian outlets for decades, including a stint as an L.A.-based correspondent.

The company didn’t specify how many journalists The California Post will have.

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Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed from Los Angeles.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

The United States’ suspension of live cattle imports from Mexico hit at the worst possible time for rancher Martín Ibarra Vargas, who after two years of severe drought had hoped to put his family on better footing selling his calves across the northern border.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Ibarra Vargas has raised cattle on the parched soil of Sonora, the state in northwestern Mexico that shares a long border with the United States, particularly Arizona. His family has faced punishing droughts before but has never before had to contend with the economic hit of a new scourge: the New World Screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite.

U.S. agriculture officials halted live cattle crossing the border in July – the third suspension of the past eight months — due to concerns about the flesh-eating maggot which has been found in southern Mexico and is creeping north.

The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including humans. The parasite enters animals’ skin, causing severe damage and lesions that can be fatal. Infected animals are a serious threat to herds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it a “devastating pest” and said in June that it poses a threat to “our livestock industry, our economy, and our food supply chain.” It has embarked on other steps to keep it out of the United States, which eradicated it decades ago.

As part of its strategy the U.S. is preparing to breed billions of sterile flies and release them in Mexico and southern Texas. The aim is for the sterile males to mate with females in the wild who then produce no offspring.

The U.S. ban on live cattle also applies to horses and bison imports. It hit a ranching sector already weakened by drought and specifically a cattle export business that generated $1.2 billion for Mexico last year. This year, Mexican ranchers have exported fewer than 200,000 head of cattle, which is less than half what they historically send in the same period.

For Ibarra Vargas, considered a comparatively small rancher by Sonora’s beef-centric standards, the inability to send his calves across the border has made him rethink everything.

The repeated bans on Mexican cows by U.S. authorities has pushed his family to branch into beekeeping, raising sheep and selling cow’s milk. What he earns is just a fraction of what he earned by exporting live cattle, but he is trying to hold on through the lean times.

“Tiempos de vacas flacas” — times of the lean cows — as he calls them.

“At least it lets us continue” ranching, the 57-year-old said with a white cowboy hat perched on his head.

Reinvent to survive

Even as ranchers in Sonora intensify their efforts to make sure the parasitic fly never makes it into their state, they’ve had to seek new markets.

In the past two months, they’ve sold more than 35,000 mature cows within Mexico at a significant loss.

“We couldn’t wait any longer,” said Juan Carlos Ochoa, president of the Sonora Regional Cattle Union. Those sales, he said, came at a “35% lower price difference compared with the export value of a cow.”

That’s hard to stomach when beef prices in the U.S. are rising.

The U.S. first suspended cattle imports last November. Since then, more than 2,258 cases of screwworm have been identified in Mexico. Treatment requires a mix of manually removing the maggots, healing the lesions on the cows and using anti-parasite medicine.

Some ranchers have also started retail beef sales through luxury butcher shops referred to as “meat boutiques.”

There are other foreign markets, for example Japan, but selling vacuum sealed steaks across the Pacific is a dramatically different business than driving calves to U.S. feedlots. The switch is not easy.

An uncertain future

With his calves mooing as they ran from one end of a small corral to the other waiting to be fed, Ibarra Vargas said he still hasn’t figured out how he will survive an extended period of not being able to send them to the U.S.

The recent two-year drought reduced his cattle stocks and forced him to take on debt to save the small family ranch that has survived for three generations.

Juan Carlos Anaya, director of Agricultural Markets Consulting Group, attributed a 2% drop in Mexico’s cattle inventory last year to the drought.

Anaya said Mexican ranchers who export are trying to get the U.S. to separate what happens in southern Mexico from the cattle exporting states in the north where stricter health and sanitation measures are taken, “but the damage is already done.”

“We’re running out of time,” said Ibarra Vargas, who already laments that his children are not interested in carrying on the family business. For a rancher who “doesn’t have a market or money to continue feeding his calves, it’s a question of time before he says: ‘you know what, this is as far as I go.’”

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Sánchez reported from Mexico City.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Vietnam’s Vinfast began production at a $500 million electric vehicle plant in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state on Monday, part of a planned $2 billion investment in India and a broader expansion across Asia.

The factory in Thoothukudi will initially make 50,000 electric vehicles annually, with room to triple output to 150,000 cars. Given its proximity to a major port in one of India’s most industrialized states, Vinfast hopes it will be a hub for future exports to the region. It says the factory will create more than 3,000 local jobs.

The Vietnamese company says it scouted 15 locations across six Indian states before choosing Tamil Nadu. It’s the center of India’s auto industry, with strong manufacturing, skilled workers, good infrastructure, and a reliable supply chain, according to Tamil Nadu’s Industries Minister T.R.B. Raaja.

“This investment will lead to an entirely new industrial cluster in south Tamil Nadu, and more clusters is what India needs to emerge as a global manufacturing hub,” he said.

VinFast Asia CEO Pham Sanh Chau said the company has aspirations to export cars across the region and it hopes to turn the new factory into an export hub.

The new factory could also mark the start of an effort to bring other parts of the Vingroup empire to India. The sprawling conglomerate, founded by Vietnam’s richest man Pham Nhat Vuong, began as an instant noodle company in Ukraine in the 1990s and now spans real estate, hospitals, schools and more.

Chau said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had invited the company to “invest in a big way” across sectors like green energy, smart cities and tourism, and said that the chief minister had “promised he will do all what is necessary for us to move the whole ecosystem here.”

A strategic pivot to Asia

Vinfast’s foray into India reflects a broader shift in strategy.

The company increasingly is focusing on Asian markets after struggling to gain traction in the U.S. and Europe. It broke ground last year on a $200 million EV assembly plant in Indonesia, where it plans to make 50,000 cars annually. It’s also expanding in Thailand and the Philippines.

Vinfast sold nearly 97,000 vehicles in 2024. That’s triple what it sold the year before, but only about 10% of those sales were outside Vietnam. As it eyes markets in Asia, it hopes the factory in India will be a base for exports to South Asian countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka and also to countries in the Middle East and Africa.

India is the world’s third-largest car market by number of vehicles sold. It presents an enticing mix: A fast growing economy, rising adoption of EVs, supportive government policies and a rare market where players have yet to completely dominate EV sales.

“It is a market that no automaker in the world can ignore,” said Ishan Raghav, managing editor of the Indian car magazine autoX.

A growing EV market in India

EV growth in India has been led by two and three-wheelers that accounted for 86% of the over six million EVs sold last year.

Sales of four wheel passenger EVs made up only 2.5% of all car sales in India last year, but they have been surging, jumping to more than 110,000 in 2024 from just 1,841 in 2019. The government aims to have EVs account for a third of all passenger vehicle sales by 2030.

“The electric car story has started (in India) only three or four years ago,” said Charith Konda, an energy specialist who looks at India’s transport and clean energy sectors for the think-tank Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis or IEEFA. New cars that “look great on the road,” with better batteries, quick charging and longer driving ranges are driving the sector’s rapid growth, he said.

The shift to EVs is mostly powered by Indian automakers, but Vinfast plans to break into the market later this year with its VF6 and VF7 SUV models, which are designed for India.

The company chose the VF7 for its India launch—unlike the models introduced in the U.S., Canada, the EU, or Southeast Asia—to position itself as a premium global brand while keeping the price affordable, added Chau, the Vinfast Asia CEO.

Can Vinfast succeed where Chinese EVs faltered?

Chinese EV brands that dominate in countries like Thailand and Brazil have found India more challenging.

After border clashes with China in 2020, India blocked companies like BYD from building their own factories. Some then turned to partnerships. China’s SAIC, owner of MG Motor, has joined with India’s JSW Group. Their MG Windsor, a five-seater, sold 30,000 units in just nine months, nibbling Tata Motors’ 70% EV market share down to about 50%.

Tata was the first local automaker to court mass-market consumers with EVs. Its 2020 launch of the electric Nexon, a small SUV, became India’s first major EV car success.

Vinfast lacks the geopolitical baggage of its larger Chinese rivals and will also benefit from incentives like lower land prices and tax breaks for building locally in India. That’s part of India’s policy of discouraging imports with high import duties to help encourage local manufacturing and create more jobs.

The push for onshore manufacturing is a concern also for Tesla, which launched its Model Y in India last month at a price of nearly $80,000, compared to about $44,990 in the U.S without a federal tax credit.

“India’s stand is very clear. We do not want to import manufactured cars, even Teslas. Whether it’s Tesla or Chinese cars, they are taxed heavily,” added Konda.

An uphill battle in a tough market

The road ahead remains daunting. India’s EV market is crowded with well-entrenched players like Tata Motors and Mahindra, which dominate the more affordable segment, while Hyundai, MG Motors and luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and Audi compete at high price points.

Indians tend to purchase EVs as second cars used for driving within the city, since the infrastructure for charging elsewhere can be undependable. Vinfast will need to win over India’s cost-sensitive and conservative drivers with a reputation for quality batteries and services while keeping prices low, said Vivek Gulia, co-founder of JMK Research.

“Initially, people will be apprehensive,” he said.

Vinfast says it plans to set up showrooms and service centers across India, working with local companies for charging and repairs, and cutting costs by recycling batteries and making key parts like powertrains and battery packs in the country.

Chau added that after a customer clinic in September 2024 and input from top engineers in Vietnam, the company upgraded its feature list to better match Indian customer expectations.

Scale will be key. VinFast has signed agreements to establish 32 dealerships across 27 Indian cities. Hyundai has 1,300 places for Indians to buy their cars. Building a brand in India takes time—Hyundai, for instance, pulled it off over decades, helped by an early endorsement from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

VinFast can succeed if it can get its pricing right and earn the trust of customers, Gulia said, “Then they can actually do really good.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Dhiraj Singh—Bloomberg via Getty Images

When Susana Pacheco accepted a housekeeping job at a casino on the Las Vegas Strip 16 years ago, she believed it was a step toward stability for her and her 2-year-old daughter.

But the single mom found herself exhausted, falling behind on bills and without access to stable health insurance, caught in a cycle of low pay and little support. For years, she said, there was no safety net in sight — until now.

For 25 years, her employer, the Venetian, had resisted organizing efforts as one of the last holdouts on the Strip, locked in a prolonged standoff with the Culinary Workers Union. But a recent change in ownership opened the Venetian’s doors to union representation just as the Strip’s newest casino, the Fontainebleau, was also inking its first labor contract.

The historic deals finalized late last year mark a major turning point: For the first time in the Culinary Union’s 90-year history, all major casinos on the Strip are unionized. Backed by 60,000 members, most of them in Las Vegas, it is the largest labor union in Nevada. Experts say the Culinary Union’s success is a notable exception in a national landscape where union membership overall is declining.

“Together, we’ve shown that change can be a positive force, and I’m confident that this partnership will continue to benefit us all in the years to come,” Patrick Nichols, president and CEO of the Venetian, said shortly after workers approved the deal.

Pacheco says their new contract has already reshaped her day-to-day life. The housekeeper no longer races against the clock to clean an unmanageable number of hotel suites, and she’s spending more quality time with her children because of the better pay and guaranteed days off.

“Now with the union, we have a voice,” Pacheco said.

Union strength is fading nationally

These gains come at a time when union membership nationally is at an all-time low, and despite Republican-led efforts over the years to curb union power. About 10% of U.S. workers belonged to a union in 2024, down from 20% in 1983, the first year for which data is available, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.

President Donald Trump in March signed an executive order seeking to end collective bargaining for certain federal employees that led to union leaders suing the administration. Nevada and more than two dozen other states now have so-called “right to work” laws that let workers opt out of union membership and dues. GOP lawmakers have also supported changes to the National Labor Relations Board and other regulatory bodies, seeking to reduce what they view as overly burdensome rules on businesses.

Ruben Garcia, professor and director of the workplace program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas law school, said the Culinary Union’s resilience stems from its deep roots in Las Vegas, its ability to adapt to the growth and corporatization of the casino industry, and its long history of navigating complex power dynamics with casino owners and operators.

He said the consolidation of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip mirrors the dominance of the Big Three automakers in Detroit. A few powerful companies — MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — now control most of the dozens of casinos along Las Vegas Boulevard.

“That consolidation can make things harder for workers in some ways, but it also gives unions one large target,” Garcia said.

That dynamic worked in the union’s favor in 2023, when the threat of a major strike by 35,000 hospitality workers with expired contracts loomed over the Strip. But a last-minute deal with Caesars narrowly averted the walkout, and it triggered a domino effect across the Strip, with the union quickly finalizing similar deals for workers at MGM Resorts and Wynn properties.

The latest contracts secured a historic 32% bump in pay over the life of the five-year contract. Union casino workers will earn an average $35 hourly, including benefits, by the end of it.

The union’s influence also extends far beyond the casino floor. With its ability to mobilize thousands of its members for canvassing and voter outreach, the union’s endorsements are highly coveted, particularly among Democrats, and can signal who has the best shot at winning working-class votes.

The union has — and still — faces resistance

The union’s path hasn’t always been smooth though. Michael Green, a history professor at UNLV, noted the Culinary Union has long faced resistance.

“Historically, there have always been people who are anti-union,” Green said.

Earlier this year, two food service workers in Las Vegas filed federal complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of deducting dues despite their objections to union membership. It varies at each casino, but between 95 to 98% of workers opt in to union membership, according to the union.

“I don’t think Culinary Union bosses deserve my support,” said one of the workers, Renee Guerrero, who works at T-Mobile Arena on the Strip. “Their actions since I attempted to exercise my right to stop dues payments only confirms my decision.”

But longtime union members like Paul Anthony see things differently. Anthony, a food server at the Bellagio and a Culinary member for nearly 40 years, said his union benefits — free family health insurance, reliable pay raises, job security and a pension — helped him to build a lasting career in the hospitality industry.

“A lot of times it is an industry that doesn’t have longevity,” he said. But on the Strip, it’s a job that people can do for “20 years, 30 years, 40 years.”

Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer and lead negotiator, said the union calls this the “Las Vegas dream.”

“It’s always been our goal to make sure that this town is a union town,” he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/John Locher

A group of countries that are part of the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries has agreed to boost oil production, a move some believe could lower oil and gasoline prices, citing a steady global economic outlook and low oil inventories.

The group met virtually on Sunday and announced that eight of its member countries would increase oil production by 547,000 barrels per day in September.

The countries boosting output, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman, had been participating in voluntary production cuts, initially made in November 2023, which were scheduled to be phased out by September 2026. The announcement means the voluntary production cuts will end ahead of schedule.

The move follows an OPEC+ decision in July to boost production by 548,000 barrels per day in August. OPEC said the production adjustments may be paused or reversed as market conditions evolve.

When production increases, oil and gasoline prices may fall. But Brent crude oil, which is considered a global benchmark, has been trading near $70 per barrel, which could be due to a potential loss of Russian oil on the market and a large rise in crude inventories in China, according to research firm Clearview Energy Partners.

“President Trump has not obviously relented from his threat to sanction Russian energy if the Kremlin does not reach a peace deal with Ukraine as of August 7, potentially via “secondary tariffs” on buyers,” Clearview Energy Partners said in an analyst note Sunday.

The eight countries will meet again on Sept. 7, OPEC said in a news release.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Lisa Leutner, File

Marvel’s first family stumbled in theaters in its second weekend, but still held on to the top spot at the box office.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” earned $40 million from 4,125 North American theaters, a 66% drop from a healthy $117.6 million debut. The film was accompanied by comedies “The Bad Guys 2” and “The Naked Gun” in the top three box office rankings.

The superhero movie dipped significantly more than Marvel’s previous film, “Thunderbolts,” which took a 55% dive in its second weekend.

“First Steps” is the last major blockbuster of the summer. It added nearly $40 million internationally in its second weekend, bringing the film’s global total to $369 million. The movie’s box office drop off was surprising given its strong reviews, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore.

Though the movie’s debut weekend may have given box office results a strong push toward the $4 billion summer benchmark, August is off to a slow start, he said.

“It’s a tough lift, but we might be able to get there. It really means that all the films are gonna have to stand on their own,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s gonna be about getting great reviews, having that staying power, that longevity in the marketplace.”

Newcomer comedy “The Bad Guys 2” earned second place at the box office this weekend, with $22 million from 3,852 North American theaters. That was on par with projections and also in line with the first movie in the series, which brought in $23 million in 2022. Paramount’s slapstick comedy, “The Naked Gun,” also in its debut weekend, snagged the third box office spot, earning $17 million from 3,344 locations.

Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, said the solid debut for “The Bad Guys 2,” coupled with strong audience reaction scores, “should point to a very long, very successful run through not only the rest of the summer, but really, I think into the fall.”

James Gunn’s “Superman,” which opened four weekends ago and already crossed $550 million globally, earned $13.8 million domestically this weekend, taking the fourth spot. “Jurassic World Rebirth” followed with $8.7 million.

The horror movie “Together” had a strong debut weekend, coming in at sixth place and earning $6.8 million domestically, proof that August is a month for edgier and off-beat films, Dergarabedian said.

“That’s what this month is about. It’s not just about box office,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s also about providing really interesting, rewarding movie-going experiences for audiences.”

Dergarabedian said he expects highly-anticipated movies hitting theaters in the next few weeks — including “Freakier Friday,” and Zach Cregger’s horror movie “Weapons” — to give August a needed boost.

The box office is currently up 9.5% from last year.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” $40 million.

2. “The Bad Guys 2,” $22.2 million.

3. “The Naked Gun,” $17 million.

4. “Superman,” $13.8 million.

5. “Jurassic World Rebirth,” $8.7 million.

6. “Together,” $6.8 million.

7. “F1: The Movie,” $4.1 million.

8. “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” $2.7 million.

9. “Smurfs,” $1.8 million.

10. “How to Train Your Dragon,” $1.4 million.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Marvel/Disney via AP)

Saying “enough is enough,” thousands of workers at three Boeing manufacturing plants went on strike overnight less than a year after the company boosted wages to end a separate, 53-day strike by 33,000 aircraft workers.

On Monday, about 3,200 workers at Boeing facilities in St. Louis; St. Charles, Missouri; and Mascoutah, Illinois, voted to reject a modified four-year labor agreement with Boeing, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said Sunday.

In a post on X, the union said: “3,200 highly-skilled IAM Union members at Boeing went on strike at midnight because enough is enough.”

The vote followed members’ rejection last week of an earlier proposal from the troubled aerospace giant, which had included a 20% wage increase over four years.

“IAM District 837 members build the aircraft and defense systems that keep our country safe,” said Sam Cicinelli, Midwest territory general vice president for the union, in a statement. “They deserve nothing less than a contract that keeps their families secure and recognizes their unmatched expertise.”

The union members rejected the latest proposal after a weeklong cooling-off period.

Boeing warned over the weekend that it anticipated the strike after workers rejected its most recent offer that included a 20% wage hike over four years.

“We’re disappointed our employees rejected an offer that featured 40% average wage growth and resolved their primary issue on alternative work schedules,” said Dan Gillian, Boeing Air Dominance vice president and general manager, and senior St. Louis site executive. “We are prepared for a strike and have fully implemented our contingency plan to ensure our non-striking workforce can continue supporting our customers.”

Boeing has been struggling after two of its Boeing 737 Max airplanes crashed, one in Indonesia in 2018 and the other in Ethiopia in 2019, killing 346 people. In June, one of Boeing’s Dreamliner planes, operated by Air India, crashed, killing at least 260 people.

Last week, Boeing reported that its second-quarter revenue had improved and losses had narrowed. The company lost $611 million in the second quarter, compared to a loss of $1.44 billion during the same period last year.

Shares of Boeing Co. slipped less than 1% before the opening bell Monday.

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© AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File

Tesla is awarding CEO Elon Musk 96 million shares of restricted stock valued at approximately $29 billion, just six months after a judge ordered the company to revoke his massive pay package.

The electric vehicle maker said in a regulatory filing on Monday that Musk must first pay Tesla $23.34 per share of restricted stock that vests, which is equal to the exercise price per share of the 2018 pay package that was awarded to the company’s CEO.

In December Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick reaffirmed her earlier ruling that Tesla must revoke Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package. She found that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent.

At the time McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys, who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million.

The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package.

That pay package carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla’s stock price.

Musk appealed the order in March. A month later Tesla said in a regulatory filing that it was creating a special committee to look at Musk’s compensation as CEO.

Tesla shares have plunged 25% this year, largely due to blowback over Musk’s affiliation with President Donald Trump. But Tesla also faces intensifying competition from both the big Detroit automakers, and from China.

In its most recent quarter, Tesla reported that quarterly profits plunged from $1.39 billion to $409 million. Revenue also fell and the company fell short of even the lowered expectations on Wall Street.

Under pressure from shareholders last month, Tesla scheduled an annual shareholders meeting for November to comply with Texas state law.

A group of more than 20 Tesla shareholders, which have watched Tesla shares plummet, said in a letter to the company that it needed to at least provide public notice of the annual meeting.

Investors have grown increasingly worried about the trajection of the company after Musk had spent so much time in Washington this year, becoming one of the most prominent officials in the Trump administration in its bid to slash the size of the U.S. government.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File

Russia’s space chief has visited the United States to discuss plans for continued cooperation between Moscow and Washington on the International Space Station and lunar research with NASA’s acting chief, the first such face-to-face meeting in more than seven years.

Dmitry Bakanov, the director of the state space corporation Roscosmos, met Thursday with NASA’s new acting administrator, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, on a visit to attend the planned launch of a U.S.-Japanese-Russian crew to the space station. The launch was delayed by weather until Friday, when it blasted off successfully.

Roscosmos said Bakanov and Duffy discussed “further work on the International Space Station, cooperation on lunar programs, joint exploration of deep space and continued cooperation on other space projects.”

Once bitter rivals in the space race during the Cold War, Roscosmos and NASA cooperated on the space station and other projects. That relationship was beset with tensions after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, but Washington and Moscow have continued to work together, with U.S. and Russian crews continuing to fly to the orbiting outpost on each country’s spacecraft.

Plans for broader cooperation, including possible Russian involvement in NASA’s Artemis program of lunar research, have fallen apart.

As Russia has become increasingly reliant on China for its energy exports and imports of key technology amid Western sanctions, Roscosmos has started cooperation with China on its prospective lunar mission.

Speaking to Russian reporters after the talks with Duffy, Bakanov said that they agreed to keep working on keeping the space station in operation to the end of the decade.

“Our experts will now start working on those issues in details,” Bakanov said, praising Duffy for giving a green light for those contacts “despite geopolitical tensions.”

The Russian space chief added that he and Duffy will report the results of the meeting to Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to secure their blessing for potential space cooperation.

“In view of the difficult geopolitical situation, we will need to receive the necessary clearance from the leaders of our countries,” Bakanov said.

He added he invited Duffy to visit Moscow and the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan for the launch of another Russia-U.S. crew to the space station scheduled for November.

“I will put my efforts into keeping the channel of cooperation between Russia and the U.S. open, and I expect NASA to do the same,” Bakanov said.

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© Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File

The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Ed Martin Jr.

Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed 50-45. Before becoming the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show “The Five” on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump.

Trump yanked Martin’s nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support him due to Martin’s outspoken support for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin now serves as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

In 2021, voting technology company Smartmatic USA sued Fox News, Pirro and others for spreading false claims that the company helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from Trump. The company’s libel suit, filed in a New York state court, sought $2.7 billion from the defendants.

Last month, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send Pirro’s nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove’s nomination to become a federal appeals court judge.

Pirro, a 1975 graduate of Albany Law School, has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who had never served as a prosecutor or tried a case before taking office in January. She was elected as a judge in New York’s Westchester County Court in 1990 before serving three terms as the county’s elected district attorney.

In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

The Washington Commanders’ hopes of returning to the site of their former home at RFK Stadium cleared a significant hurdle Friday when the District of Columbia Council approved the legislation.

The bill advanced by a 9-3 vote, but it still must be approved a second time by the council before being sent to Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Bowser negotiated an initial plan with Commanders owner Josh Harris in April, with the team contributing $2.7 billion and the city investing roughly $1.1 billion for the stadium, housing, green space and a sportsplex on land bordering the Anacostia River.

“We are one step closer to securing a sure path to transforming 180 acres of land, which has been our promise to D.C. residents all along,” Bowser said Friday.

The Commanders currently play at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, but aim to open a new venue in 2030.

“Today’s approval by the council is transformational for D.C. and brings the Commanders back to our spiritual home,” Harris said in a statement. “Like many fans, RFK was the site of memories that fueled my love for this team and this city. Now we’re closer than ever to reigniting that energy for a new generation.”

The bill still faces a process called second reading and must be approved again in a vote that is expected in September. And its advancement Friday was not without some reservations. Councilmember Robert White Jr., who opposed the bill, had three amendments rejected. But one of them, proposing stronger penalties if the team fails to deliver on development commitments, drew a sympathetic response from the panel.

“I want to see us do better than where we are, between now and second reading,” said Councilmember Charles Allen, who supported the bill at this stage. “I think you’re going to hear enough voices on this dais that want to see us continue to work on this between first and second reading, to continue to make this better. … The promises made have to be delivered, and we need to safeguard (so) that happens.”

Councilmembers Zachary Parker and Janeese Lewis George supported the measure after announcing earlier in the day that a contract agreement between the Commanders and union partners had been signed.

The ownership group led by Harris has been considering locations in Washington, Maryland and Virginia since buying the team from Dan Snyder in 2022. Congress passed a bill transferring the RFK Stadium land to the city that was signed by then-President Joe Biden in early January.

That paved the way for possibly replacing the old stadium with a mixed-use development, including the new playing field for the Commanders.

However, President Donald Trump last month threatened to block federal support for the stadium project unless the team reverted to its former name, Redskins. The debate over the team’s nickname did not come up during Friday’s council meeting, although Councilmember Anita Bonds did stress the need to pass this legislation as a way of avoiding possible federal intervention.

“The land was transferred to us via a bill that passed Congress and signed by President Joe Biden two weeks before he left office. I don’t need to remind everyone that times are very different now,” Bonds said. “There is new leadership in our federal government, a new party controlling Congress, and perhaps others across the country and region that may be waiting for us to not approve this deal, so that they can take over. And trust me — if that happens, D.C. gets nothing.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File

Former Nike CEO John Donahoe has been hired as athletic director at Stanford.

Donahoe will become the school’s eighth athletic director and replace Bernard Muir, who stepped down this year. He will officially begin in the role Sept. 8.

“Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape,” school president Jon Levin said in a statement. “We needed a distinctive leader — someone with the vision, judgment, and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics, and with a deep appreciation for Stanford’s model of scholar-athlete excellence. John embodies these characteristics.”

ESPN first reported the move.

Donahoe graduated from Stanford Business School and was CEO at Nike from 2020-24. Donahoe also served as the CEO of ServiceNow, a global software company, and as CEO of eBay. He served as chair of the board at PayPal from 2015-25 and he worked for Bain & Company for nearly 20 years, including as the firm’s worldwide CEO.

“Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous potential in a changing environment, including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels,” he said. “I can’t wait to work in partnership with the Stanford team to build momentum for Stanford Athletics and ensure the best possible experiences for our student-athletes.”

Donahoe takes over one of the country’s most successful athletic programs with Stanford having won at least one NCAA title in 49 straight years starting in 1976-77 and a record 137 NCAA team titles overall.

But the Cardinal struggled in the high-profile sports of football and men’s basketball under Muir’s tenure, leading to the decision to hire former Stanford and NFL star Andrew Luck to oversee the football program as its general manager.

The Cardinal are looking to rebound in football after going to three Rose Bowls under former coach David Shaw in Muir’s first four years as AD.

Shaw resigned in 2022 following a second straight 3-9 season and Muir’s new hire, Troy Taylor, posted back-to-back 3-9 seasons before being fired in March following a report that he had been investigated twice for allegedly mistreating staffers.

Luck hired former NFL coach Frank Reich as interim coach.

The men’s basketball program hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since Muir’s second season in 2013-14 under former coach Johnny Dawkins.

Dawkins was fired in 2016 and replaced by Jerod Haase, who failed to make the tournament once in eight years.

Muir hired Kyle Smith last March to take over and the Cardinal went 21-14 for their most wins in 10 years.

Muir also hired Kate Paye as women’s basketball coach last year after Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer retired. The Cardinal went 16-15 this past season and in missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1987.

Muir also oversaw the Cardinal’s transition to the ACC this past year after the school’s long-term home, the Pac-12, broke apart.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File

Online creators from dozens of countries, led by MrBeast and popular science YouTuber Mark Rober, are launching a $40 million fundraiser to build water quality projects around the world.

The monthlong crowdfunding campaign, touted as the biggest YouTube collaboration and called #TeamWater, promises to rally their combined 2 billion subscribers around combating unsafe water sources. Funds will primarily benefit WaterAid, an international nonprofit that builds community-tailored infrastructure ranging from solar-powered wells to rainwater harvesting systems.

More than 2 billion people lacked access to safely managed drinking water as of 2022, according to the United Nations. Organizers want to put a dent in that figure by providing sustainable access for 2 million people — and instilling new generations with a lifelong commitment to advocacy.

Joining #TeamWater are smaller creators and some of the biggest names online such as streaming giant Kai Cenat, trendy YouTubers the Stokes Twins and sports entertainers Dude Perfect. Whether they are filming serious explainers or silly water-themed challenges, creators are encouraged to produce content that is authentic to their brand.

Water access was identified as a solvable issue that could also unite their mass global following. But MrBeast CEO Jeff Housenbold acknowledged they are better awareness builders than infield executors So, they sought a partner with global reach, existing community partnerships and long-term change-making abilities.

That led them to WaterAid. The organization first started talking with MrBeast’s team two years ago, according to WaterAid America CEO Kelly Parsons.

She said WaterAid typically engages communities for up to a year designing the proper solution. That work sometimes involves training local water technicians.

“It all begins and ends in the communities we work with and through them to ensure design that lasts,” Parsons said. “It’s about people more than about plumbing.”

While WaterAid would did not provide a list of all the places where funds would go, countries include Colombia, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Malawi and Kenya. Charity partners GivePower and the Alok Foundation are also helping implementation in rural Kenya and Brazil, respectively.

U.S.-based projects include an atmospheric water generator for an assisted living facility in Jackson, Mississippi, where the fragile water system nearly collapsed three years ago. The nonprofit DigDeep is helping fix crumbling infrastructure in the small town of Rhodell, West Virginia.

Alex and Alan Stokes, whose 129 million subscribers make them one of YouTube’s biggest channels, filmed in a Nepalese village where the campaign is building a 15,000-liter tank. The trip recalled their own upbringing in a Chinese town where their grandfather walked miles to fill 5-gallon water jugs.

“Being there in person was definitely one of those experiences that brought it all back for us,” Alex said. “(We) saw these kids there and it just reminded us a lot of our childhood as well.”

The multi-platform drive follows the 2019 #TeamTrees and 2021 #TeamSeas campaigns, which reportedly drew more than $50 million altogether. That money helped plant millions of trees and remove millions of pounds of waste from bodies of water.

Those humanitarian efforts, however, drew criticism that they promoted oversimplified solutions to complicated issues and applied Band-Aids instead of addressing the main drivers of forest loss or ocean pollution.

“Ideally, you would not use philanthropy simply to take away the symptoms of whatever is the problem,” said Patricia Illingworth, a Northeastern University philosophy professor who writes about ethics in philanthropy. “But, rather, you would want to address the root cause.”

Matt Fitzgerald, a digital campaign strategist who has organized the efforts, said the campaigns were never intended to be the “end all be all.” He hopes they serve as an entry point for deeper commitments.

While the previous two campaigns were about “a fist-bump, Mother Earth-style of environmentalism,” he said, this one seeks to center people while still “keeping the planet top of mind.”

“No matter how big a mass internet mobilization moment might be, real progress on these issues demands people continuing to pay attention and continuing to stay involved,” Fitzgerald said. “To me, the way you do that, is you reach people’s hearts before you try to convince them with their minds.”

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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© AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File

The head of the agency that compiles the closely watched monthly jobs report usually toils in obscurity, but on Friday, the current holder of that job was loudly fired by the president of the United States.

Erika McEntarfer, a longtime government employee, bore the brunt of President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with Friday’s jobs report, which showed that hiring had slowed in July and was much less in May and June that previously estimated. He accused her without evidence of manipulating the job numbers and noted she was an appointee of President Joe Biden.

McEntarfer, a longtime government worker who had served as BLS head for a year and a half, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press. But her predecessor overseeing the jobs agency, former co-workers and associates have denounced the firing, warning about its repercussions and saying McEntarfer was nonpolitical in her role.

Here’s what to know about Erika McEntarfer:

McEntarfer has a strong background on economics

McEntarfer, whose research focuses on job loss, retirement, worker mobility, and wage rigidity, had previously worked at the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy and the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a nonpolitical role.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Social Science from Bard College and a doctoral degree in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

She was confirmed as BLS head on a bipartisan vote

McEntarfer was nominated in 2023 to serve as BLS head, and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions recommended that her nomination go to the full Senate for a vote.

She was confirmed as BLS commissioner in January 2024 on a bipartisan 86-8 Senate vote. Among the Republican senators who voted to confirm her included then-Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who is now Trump’s vice president, and then-Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is now Trump’s secretary of state.

Before her confirmation hearing, a group called the Friends of the BLS, made up of former commissioners who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, members of statistical associations and credentialed economists, said McEntarfer’s background made her a great choice for the job.

“The many reasons to quickly confirm Dr. McEntarfer as the new BLS Commissioner all boil down to this: the agency, like the entire statistical system, is undergoing an intense, significant period of change and Dr. McEntarfer’s wealth of research and statistical experience have equipped her to be the strong leader that BLS needs to meet these challenges,” Friends of the BLS wrote.

Her former associates and co-workers decry her firing

William Beach, who was appointed BLS commissioner in 2019 by Trump and served until 2023 during President Joe Biden’s administration, called McEntarfer’s firing “groundless” and said in an X post that it “sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau.”

Former Labor Department chief economist Sarah J. Glynn, who received regular briefings from McEntarfer about BLS findings, said McEntarfer was generous with her time explaining what conclusions could or couldn’t be reached from the data.

If the data didn’t support something an administration official was saying, McEntarfer would say so, Glynn said. She also never weighed in on how the administration should present or interpret the data, Glynn said — she would simply answer questions about the data.

“She had a sterling reputation as someone who is concerned about the accuracy of the data and not someone who puts a political spin on her work,” Glynn said.

Heather Boushey, a senior research fellow at Harvard University, served with McEntarfer on the White House Council of Economic Advisers and said McEntarfer never talked politics at work.

“She showed up every day to focus on the best analysis and the best approach to her field and not get political. That is what I saw from her time and again. She is brilliant and well-respected among labor economists generally,” Boushey said. “She wasn’t coming into my office to talk politics or the political implications of something. She definitely wasn’t engaging on that side of things.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© J. Scott Applewhite—AP Photo

President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught this week left a lot of losers – from small, poor countries like Laos and Algeria to wealthy U.S. trading partners like Canada and Switzerland. They’re now facing especially hefty taxes – tariffs – on the products they export to the United States starting Aug. 7.

The closest thing to winners may be the countries that caved to Trump’s demands — and avoided even more pain. But it’s unclear whether anyone will be able to claim victory in the long run — even the United States, the intended beneficiary of Trump’s protectionist policies.

“In many respects, everybody’s a loser here,’’ said Barry Appleton, co-director of the Center for International Law at the New York Law School.

Barely six months after he returned to the White House, Trump has demolished the old global economic order. Gone is one built on agreed-upon rules. In its place is a system in which Trump himself sets the rules, using America’s enormous economic power to punish countries that won’t agree to one-sided trade deals and extracting huge concessions from the ones that do.

“The biggest winner is Trump,” said Alan Wolff, a former U.S. trade official and deputy director-general at the World Trade Organization. “He bet that he could get other countries to the table on the basis of threats, and he succeeded – dramatically.’’

Everything goes back to what Trump calls “Liberation Day’’ – April 2 – when the president announced “reciprocal’’ taxes of up to 50% on imports from countries with which the United States ran trade deficits and 10% “baseline’’ taxes on almost everyone else.

He invoked a 1977 law to declare the trade deficit a national emergency that justified his sweeping import taxes. That allowed him to bypass Congress, which traditionally has had authority over taxes, including tariffs — all of which is now being challenged in court.

Winners will still pay higher tariffs than before Trump took office

Trump retreated temporarily after his Liberation Day announcement triggered a rout in financial markets and suspended the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to give countries a chance to negotiate.

Eventually, some of them did, caving to Trump’s demands to pay what four months ago would have seemed unthinkably high tariffs for the privilege of continuing to sell into the vast American market.

The United Kingdom agreed to 10% tariffs on its exports to the United States — up from 1.3% before Trump amped up his trade war with the world. The U.S. demanded concessions even though it had run a trade surplus, not a deficit, with the UK for 19 straight years.

The European Union and Japan accepted U.S. tariffs of 15%. Those are much higher than the low single-digit rates they paid last year — but lower than the tariffs he was threatening (30% on the EU and 25% on Japan).

Also cutting deals with Trump and agreeing to hefty tariffs were Pakistan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Even countries that saw their tariffs lowered from April without reaching a deal are still paying much higher tariffs than before Trump took office. Angola’s tariff, for instance, dropped to 15% from 32% in April, but in 2022 it was less than 1.5%. And while Trump administration cut Taiwan’s tariff to 20% from 32% in April, the pain will still be felt.

“20% from the beginning has not been our goal, we hope that in further negotiations we will get a more beneficial and more reasonable tax rate,” Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te told reporters in Taipei Friday.

Trump also agreed to reduce the tariff on the tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho to 15% from the 50% he’d announced in April, but the damage may already have been done there.

Bashing Brazil, clobbering Canada, shellacking the Swiss

Countries that didn’t knuckle under — and those that found other ways to incur Trump’s wrath — got hit harder.

Even some poorer countries were not spared. Laos’ annual economic output comes to $2,100 per person and Algeria’s $5,600 — versus America’s $75,000. Nonetheless, Laos got rocked with a 40% tariff and Algeria with a 30% levy.

Trump slammed Brazil with a 50% import tax largely because he didn’t like the way it was treating former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial for trying to lose his electoral defeat in 2022. Never mind that the U.S. has exported more to Brazil than it’s imported every year since 2007.

Trump’s decision to plaster a 35% tariff on longstanding U.S. ally Canada was partly designed to threaten Ottawa for saying it would recognize a Palestinian state. Trump is a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Switzerland was clobbered with a 39% import tax — even higher than the 31% Trump originally announced on April 2.

“The Swiss probably wish that they had camped in Washington” to make a deal, said Wolff, now senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “They’re clearly not at all happy.’’

Fortunes may change if Trump’s tariffs are upended in court. Five American businesses and 12 states are suing the president, arguing that his Liberation Day tariffs exceeded his authority under the 1977 law.

In May, the U.S. Court of International Trade, a specialized court in New York, agreed and blocked the tariffs, although the government was allowed to continue collecting them while its appeal wend its way through the legal system, and may likely end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. In a hearing Thursday, the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sounded skeptical about Trump’s justifications for the tariffs.

“If (the tariffs) get struck down, then maybe Brazil’s a winner and not a loser,’’ Appleton said.

Paying more for knapsacks and video games

Trump portrays his tariffs as a tax on foreign countries. But they are actually paid by import companies in the U.S. who try to pass along the cost to their customers via higher prices. True, tariffs can hurt other countries by forcing their exporters to cut prices and sacrifice profits — or risk losing market share in the United States.

But economists at Goldman Sachs estimate that overseas exporters have absorbed just one-fifth of the rising costs from tariffs, while Americans and U.S. businesses have picked up the most of the tab.

Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Ford, Best Buy, Adidas, Nike, Mattel and Stanley Black & Decker, have all hiked prices due to U.S. tariffs

“This is a consumption tax, so it disproportionately affects those who have lower incomes,” Appleton said. “Sneakers, knapsacks … your appliances are going to go up. Your TV and electronics are going to go up. Your video game devices, consoles are going to up because none of those are made in America.’’

Trump’s trade war has pushed the average U.S. tariff from 2.5% at the start of 2025 to 18.3% now, the highest since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. And that will impose a $2,400 cost on the average household, the lab estimates.

“The U.S. consumer’s a big loser,″ Wolff said.

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AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this story.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Andre Penner)