A CEOs canoodling with his companys human resources chiefcaught on the kiss cam at a Coldplay concertmade global headlines this summer. Beyond the memes and tabloid fodder, personal lives were shattered and a company was left in turmoil after its leaders sudden exit.
The case, involving the AI firm Astronomer, may be the most visible of recent CEO personal scandalsthink sex affairs, drug abuse, or embarrassing behaviorbut its not an isolated incident. Just weeks following the Coldplay kiss cam incident, the CEO of Nestlé was shown the door for similar behavior involving a relationship with a subordinate. Personal scandals have been the top cause of CEO terminations in recent years.
How do these scandals stack up to other corporate indiscretions, such as financial fraud? As a management professor, I knew that theres lots of research on CEOs financial crimes, but surprisingly little on personal misdeeds.
So my colleagues and I examined nearly 400 CEO scandals involving either financial or personal misconduct. In this research, published in August 2025 in the journal Strategic Organization, we found that not all CEO scandals are treated equally: The type makes all the difference.
Personal scandals are harder to survive
For most people, personal indiscretionssuch as having an extramarital affair or abusing drugsare a private matter. But for CEOs, even scandals unrelated to business create doubt about their judgment, integrity, and leadership. The result is usually career-ending for the CEO, research shows, and can create lasting harm for the company.
We found that CEOs overwhelmingly exit in the wake of personal scandalsfive times as often as CEOs who commit financial misconduct do, in fact. And strong business performance doesnt tend to offer protection.
For example, Hewlett-Packards Mark Hurd, whos widely credited with turning around HP in the mid-2000s, was ousted following a very visible personal misconduct scandal 15 years ago. The fallout was swift: The companys stock fell nearly 10% immediately after the announcement, and with leadership in a tailspin, it dropped more than 40% within a year.
Why bad numbers come with better odds
Companies are also routinely accused of cooking the books. In recent months, several firms have been forced to restate their earnings after their financial statements did not add up. These scandals shake investor trust, trigger sharp drops in company stock, and often lead to the chief financial officers departurewith some CEOs following suit.
However, while cooking the books is considered a severe form of corporate misconduct, our research suggests that it has fewer job-ending repercussions for CEOs than personal scandals do. Roughly half of all CEOs implicated in financial scandals survive, we foundbecause, unlike in personal scandals, CEOs can often shift blame.
We also found that CEOs dismissed due to financial scandals tend to be replaced with outside candidates, which has been shown to stabilize a companys stock price and lead to stronger long-term performance.
It might be surprising to learn that a CEOs personal misconduct can come at a greater costboth to the business and the executivethan outright financial fraud. Is corporate America overestimating the importance of CEOs private behavior? Or is it underestimating the importance of cooking the books?
While I dont have answers to these questions, I think our findings show the need for more discussionand more research.
Michael Nalick is an assistant professor of management at the University of Denver.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Heartwood Preserve doesnt look like typical stormwater infrastructure. Instead of a primarily utilitarian design, this project in Omaha doubles as public art. Meyer Studio Land Architects created a series of 14 sculptural water retention basins across 500 acres of land that sit in a watershed at risk of flooding. The project is meant to be enjoyed by the public and even has features that educate about climate change. Heartwood Preserve is a winner of Fast Companys 2025 Innovation by Design Awards.
Whenever theres economic uncertainty, its easy to worry that your position is at risk. But what if the worst has happened: Your company has done a big layoffand you and your team werent on the list? Of course, you and your direct reports may both fear that more cuts are on the horizon. And yet, theres work to be done.
How do you support your team, keep them productive and also find the opportunities in the middle of such a big disruption, especially when you may face the need to do more with less?
We work with executive clientsAlisa Cohn as an executive coach and Dorie Clark as a keynote speaker and consultantand have seen this increasingly as layoffs stay stubbornly in the news. Here are five valuable things you can do in the near-term to maintain your focus in the wake of a major shakeup.
1. Identify why you got saved
Its helpful to discern why you werent included in the layoff. Analyze the situation dispassionately. What are the patterns you see in who was let go? Perhaps certain divisions were hit hard, indicating that their strategic importance has waned at your company. And its equally useful to identify what you bring to the table. Perhaps you work in an area the company has identified as valuable (a certain functional role, geography, or growth initiative).
For example, one of Alisas clients on the risk team was retained when others were let go because she had deep industry expertise in the most strategic area for the company.
Understanding your competitive advantage can help you leverage it further. This may be an area youll want to highlight by talking about your skills and experience more widely. For instance, as Dorie has pointed out, one of the most overlooked networking opportunities is how you choose to answer the question What have you been up to lately? because you can choose to talk about areas that matter to your company. If you know your company is prioritizing building its customer base in financial services, for example, you could talk about a recent conference you attended or article youve read about that industry. That will position you as someone focused on the most important things.
2. Reset expectations with your team
In an environment where there have been big layoffs, teams are certainly being scrutinized. Your team is likely upset and may feel bitterness about what happened. You might be inclined to soothe them (this wont happen to us) or commiserate (I cant believe those idiots did that.) But the kindest thing you can do for them is to help them deliver.
Its a good moment to look at how you work together. In many companies, leaders often get in the habit of playing down a level and doing some of the work of their team. But after a layoff when you have more on your plate, you need everyone working at full capacity, and that means not doing their work for them. Push decision-making down wherever you can. Give high level guidance more clearly and more regularly so everyone is aligned on the most important things and can make smart decisions in the moment.
Alisa experienced this with one of her clients, a vice president of product in a large tech company. The deadline for a big project was only three months away when two of her key peers and a good portion of their teams got laid off, leaving her with massive pressure to finish the project but a lot less support and resources. She directed her teams to own their domains like general managers and asked them to run with decisions that were reversible. They created a process to huddle and quickly resolve conflicts as a team. The project shipped on time and the team got a lot more capable during this periodin fact, many of them said theyd grown more in those three months than in the past three years.
3. Rethink your calendar
If youre like most managers, your day is filled up with meetings. Use this moment as an opportunity to look at all the group meetings and one-to-ones youre doing and evaluate what can be cut (indeed, if youre now being asked to manage more people, you may not physically have the capacity to take on any more meetings).
Alisa created the the 4R Framework to assess how useful meetings are. They might be warranted if youre using them to:
Review progress
Resolve conflicts and problems
Refine strategy or decisions
Reinforce alignment and understanding
But if your meetings arent meeting any of these objectives, theyre probably good candidates to omit.
Once you have more room in your day, think carefully about high value activities you could do instead. These include getting more involved with high visibility strategic projects or spending more time with customers.
4. Stand out and find the opportunities
Now that there are fewer managers or colleagues, the good news is that youll probably have more opportunities to shine. Youll have more exposure to senior leaders and may be asked to join meetings with clients or other key stakeholders. Prepare for this by sharpening your presentation skills. It might be a good moment to get formal training, join a group like Toastmasters, or just practice more in small, low stakes environments.
You should also consciously build your executive presence and bone up on your strategic thinking. See if there are key projects you can become part of, or volunteer to take over.
5. Dont neglect your network
The world of work is never certain and having a strong internaland externalnetwork helps you build more career security. Even though you may be busy dealing with the extra obligations this round of layoffs created, make sure you continue to nourish your network and build it more robustly so youre prepared if the hammer comes for you. Examples could include hosting virtual one-to-ones or small group coffees with colleagues you havent seen in a while or making a point to attend conferences or industry meetings.
One professional Dorie profiled in her book Reinventing Youwho realized with concern that his network mostly consisted of other people employed by his longtime companydecided to start weekly breakfast meetings with people outside the company, leading both to a fresher network and ideas about new technologies and acquisitions his organization cold make. One client Alisa worked with resolved to get back in touch with people shed lost contact with, leading her to a board director position, as well as a new career opportunity.
Layoffs are challenging for everyone, and its both emotionally and logistically difficult to lose a number of your coworkers. But by accepting reality and focusing on the things you can control, youll be able to move forward and keep your team focused, even in uncertain times.
Your company rolls out an AI agent to assign tasks, draft updates, and nudge overdue approvals. But within days, its flagging completed work, tagging the wrong people, and creating confusion instead of clarity.
Its a familiar outcome for companies that adopt agentic AI without the workflows, data, or systems to support it. New research from Wrike reinforces that disconnect: 74% of employees say their company treats data like gold, yet most dont manage it well enough for AI to use it effectively.
Even the smartest, most context-aware tools stall without strong foundations. And automation doesnt fix broken operationsit magnifies them.
To get agentic AI right, organizations need a phased approach that tightens processes, clarifies whats worth automating, and ensures AI is set up to actually move work forward.
What happens when AI meets a broken system
The rush to adopt agentic AI has outpaced the work needed to make it effective. Many leaders assume their systems are readyuntil AI is asked to act. Thats when the cracks show.
AI cant make informed decisions when workflows are improvised, institutional knowledge is undocumented, and escalation paths live in someones head.
Approvals that happen ad hoc in Slack and inconsistent team processes leave no single source of truth for AI to follow.
And when data is scattered across siloed platformsthe leading cause of lost institutional knowledge in the past yeareven the most dynamic, context-aware models struggle to generate accurate insights or identify risks.
AI is like a microphone: It doesnt improve your voice, it just makes it louder. Without structured workflows that define ownership, execution order, and visibility, AI only amplifies dysfunction at scale.
The building blocks of an AI-ready workflow
To deliver value, AI needs to understand whats happening, whos doing it, and where work lives. That requires workflows built with:
ClarityAre project roles and steps clearly defined so AI can quickly grasp objectives?
AccountabilityIs ownership consistent and visible so AI can route tasks and escalate issues to the right people?
VisibilityCan teams easily track progress and identify blockers before they derail timelines?
ConnectivityAre systems integrated so AI can access information across tools, not just in silos?
ConsistencyAre workflows standardized enough for AI to detect patterns and recommend improvements?
These elements give AI the context it needs to add value. But even well-designed workflows fall apart without reliable data. AI needs clean, organized inputs, which means enforcing naming standards, having good quality descriptions in place, surfacing the right files, and creating a single source of truth.
Getting these fundamentals right reveals where work breaks down, making it easier to reflect and improve. Its a chance to ask not just how to automate, but why. Whats slowing you down? Wheres the friction? Whats repetitive, frustrating, or pulling focus from higher-impact work?
Thats where AI makes a real difference.
3 steps to get agentic AI right
While perfect workflows arent a prerequisite for agentic AI, the adoption process will quickly surface whats broken. A phased approach lets you experiment, close gaps, and build trust in AI tools as you go.
Phase 1: Build AI fluency
Before deploying AI into production, give teams visibility into how the system reasons, what actions it will take, and which data it draws from. This transparency builds trust by making AI behavior understandable. It also gives teams a chance to assess whether data and workflows are structured and dependable enough for automation.
Phase 2: Test the waters with AI assistants
Once teams trust how AI behaves and understand how it makes decisions, begin applying AI to realbut low-stakestasks. Assign AI assistants to repeatable work like drafting project updates or answering internal FAQs.
This is where theory meets execution. Youll quickly see which processes are truly repeatable, where AI struggles, and which workflows still need clarity. Think of it as a pressure test: By using AI in everyday operations, you can spot and fix problems before scaling further.
Phase 3: Shift to agentic AI strategically
With predictable workflows and a team ready to collaborate with AI, you can begin exploring more autonomous tools. Agentic AI offers compounded value, but it also raises the stakes. When AI begins taking action, it needs clean data, stable systems, and clear oversight.
But even the best AI agents need humans in the loop to course correct, add real-world context, and keep AI aligned with actual business goals. The goal isnt hands-off automation, but smarter collaboration between people and AI.
This phased approach to agentic AI adoption reinforces your foundation at every step, giving you the structure and insights to improve as you go.
Thats the difference between using AI and being ready for it. AI-ready teams dont rush adoption. They ask sharper questions about what tools should do, what work matters most, where human judgment is critical, and what should never be automated in the first place.
What AI needs from you
Agentic AI can streamline work and free up your teams to focus on what matters most, but only if your operations are organized, your data is clean, and your systems are connected.
Without that foundation, automation doesnt solve problems. It just scales them. So while the future of work may be automated, success still depends on how well you define, connect, and manage the work itself.
Eight months into the second Trump administration, whats most striking about its cybersecurity policy is whats missing: Much of the workforce of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, a permanent leader for the agency, and a public discussion about what the president did to its two previous directors.
On top of this, CISA and other federal information-security offices have been plunged into this turmoil even as digital threats continue to escalate, with Chinese and North Korean attackers regularly breaking into critical U.S. systems.
The next cybersecurity crisis could come in the form of yet another penetration of corporate or government networks, or of less-defended but still-critical infrastructure like sewer and water systems. Or it could involve a target that the Trump administration has itself created: the large amounts of data compiled and copied with questionable security by its DOGE government-disruption project and its brutal crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
But since Trumps second inauguration, standing before a contingent of tech CEOs, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has ordered CISA to drop election security and misinformation from its missions. Layoffs have cut deep into its ranks: In June, the trade publication Cybersecurity Dive reported that one-third of CISAs workforce had headed for the exits.
That marks a stark contrast with the first Trump administrations approach to cybersecurity — which included launching CISA.
Sure, there was some upheaval, but nothing like this administration, says Katie Moussouris, CEO of the bug-bounty firm Luta Security.
The government shutdown, which is forcing about a third of CISAs remaining employees to work without pay while it furloughs the remainder, seems unlikely to improve the situation.
Outrage, weaponized
CISA also lacks a Senate-confirmed director, with Trumps nominee Sean Plankey stalled after Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon, placed a hold on the nomination until CISA releases a 2022 report on the security of U.S. telecom networks.
Trump himself has paid less attention to his would-be CISA head than to the two previous occupants of that office: Jen Easterly, who ran it under President Biden, and Chris Krebs, whom Trump appointed in 2017 at CISAs founding and then fired in November of 2020 for his public defense of the 2020 elections integrity.
In April, Trump ordered agencies to yank Krebs security clearances and launch investigations into him and his employer, the security firm SentinelOne. A week later, Krebs resigned, telling colleagues that he needed to take on that fight fully – outside of SentinelOne.
In July, the Army rescinded Easterlys appointment to a temporary department chair at West Point after the extremist influencer Laura Loomer complained about it on X as she has about other staffing choices.
When outrage is weaponized and truth discarded, it tears at the fabric of unity and undermines the very ethos that draws brave young men and women to serve and sacrifice, Easterly, a West Point graduate, wrote in a LinkedIn post denouncing the move.
Neither Krebs nor Easterly, contacted via intermediaries, responded to requests for comment.
Worse than expected
Add in developments like Trump dismissing the members of the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), an investigatory office modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board, and the barely averted end of federal funding for a widely consulted database of security vulnerabilities, and the picture looks grimmer than the forecasts of security experts last summer for a possible Trump victory.
I did not think they were going to break with norms as much as they have in this administration, says Moussouris. She worries about attackers overseas now taking advantage of this disarray: I think our adversaries are having a field day.
She finds the punishment of Krebs and Easterly especially toxic. Its going to make it harder for career professionals to want to move into the federal government space, she says. Its going to make it harder for those folks coming out of government to be hired by private industry.
Steven Bellovin, a computer-science professor at Columbia University with multiple stints on government advisory boards, gripes about the pettiness of cutbacks like shutting down the CSRB. Of course they didit was a Biden initiative, he says.
Ari Schwartz, executive director of the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law and, in President Obamas second term, the National Security Councils senior director for cyber, worries about the loss of experience and talent at ISA and elsewhere.
They lost some people that have been there a long time, he says. They lost some people who are really, really good. And its the nations loss.
Schwartz also sees this White Houses foreign policy impeding cooperation with other countries. This administration has done some things to build good relationships with our allies and has done some things to put our allies off a bit,” he says.
He declined to comment about Krebs and Easterly.
CISA is laser-focused on its role as America’s premiere cyber defense agency and national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience, the agencys public-affairs director Marci McCarthy said in a statement.
A somewhat silenced CISA
When security researchers, policymakers and marketers convened in Las Vegas in August for the annual Black Hat conference to compare notes and do business, CISA had a much lower profile there. Agency representatives speaking this year were relegated to side stagesa sharp contrast with last year, when that event opened with a keynote from Easterly.
Chris Butera, acting executive assistant director for CISAs cybersecurity division, acknowledged that the agency had lost some people, while adding that it has a very talented workforce.
He noted CISAs speedy response to a Microsoft Exchange vulnerability disclosed in a Black Hat talk the day before the first time, he said, the agency had directed other federal offices to install patches for a just-identified weakness within 24 hours.
Following a panel featuring McCarthy hosted by the Washington security-startup foundry DataTribe, Fast Company asked her what the administrations treatment of Krebs and Easterly suggested about its openness to dissenting views.
That would be a question for President Trump, McCarthy replied.
The work continues
The Trump administrations capriciousness notwithstanding, Schwartz and Moussouris cited some reasons for cautious optimism.
Schwartz points to Trumps pick of Sean Cairncross as national cyber director. Hes known to be a good manager, Schwartz says of Cairncross, who served as CEO of the governments Millennium Challenge Corporation in the first Trump administration.
Schwartzs suggested a key next step for the administration: Get Congress to renew the 2015 law offering legal protection to companies for sharing threat data amongst themselves and with the government. Congress allowed that statute expire at the end of September. That, of course, will have to wait until the conclusion of the shutdown.
Moussouris, meanwhile, gives a thumbs-up to the Trump administrations push back against Britain’s demand that Apple compromise end-to-end encryption securing iCloud backupswhich resulted in Westminster giving in to Washington.
Whoever is giving them advice on that particular policy matter has it dead right, she says.
Thats also her advice for cybersecurity leaders in this administration going forward.
Listen to the technologists, she says. Go beyond the scope of whatever policy agenda has been given to you.
You might have noticed some of your coworkers are overly excited this week and counting down the minutes until midnight on October 3. No, these are not diehard cinephiles devoted to the 2004 film Mean Girls (which features a joke about the date). Instead, they’re Taylor Swift fans.
The Life of a Showgirl, Swifts twelfth studio album, is set to be released late Friday night. (So if the Swifties in the office seem overwhelmed, grant them grace, because this is a big week.)
Heres everything you need to know about the albumin case you’re cornered by the coffee maker by someone with a friendship bracelet (the unofficial signifier of a Swift super fan).
When and how did Swift announce The Life of a Showgirl?
On August 11, Swifts website revealed a countdown to 12:12 a.m. ET on August 12. When time ran out, she announced The Life of a Showgirl and promised more details would be revealed on her later appearance on her fiancé Travis Kelces podcast “New Heights.
How did the Eras Tour influence The Life of a Showgirl?
During her two-hour podcast conversation with both Travis and his brother Jason Kelce, Swift revealed that the album was inspired by her experiences behind the scenes of the Eras tour. She wrote, produced, and recorded the majority of the album on the European leg in 2024. She would do three days of shows, then fly to Sweden to record.
It was hard but rewarding work: I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating, she explained.
Who is the creative team behind The Life of a Showgirl?
For this album, Swift is teaming up with producers Max Martin and Shellback again. The trio had previously collaborated on tracks such as 22, Blank Space, and “. . . Ready for It?” Former long-time collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner did not work on this album.These guys, theyre just geniuses, Swift gushed on the podcast, referring to Martin and Shellback. Weve never actually made an album before where its just the three of us. Theres no other collaborators. Its just the three of us making a focused album.
What do we know about the album’s tracks, titles, and lead single?
There are just 12 tracks on the album, which is a big departure from Swifts recent releases. The Tortured Poets Department turned into a surprise double album with 31 tracks. Midnights had 13 tracks, until Midnights (3am Edition) added seven bonus tracks.
Because of Martin and Shellbacks involvement, we can guess this will be a more pop-centered album full of big showstopping numbers, and likely more upbeat and less folksy than recent releases.It just comes from like the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life, Swift explained on the podcast. And so that effervescence has come through on this record.
The albums lead single is The Fate of Ophelia, referencing William Shakespeares tragic character from Hamlet. Meanwhile, the title track features Sabrina Carpenter, who opened for Swift in select cities during the Eras Tour. She is the only known guest artist on the album at this time.Historically, the fifth track of a Swift album is saved for the most emotional song. This time around, Eldest Daughter gets that honor.
I heard there’s also a movie?
Swift is a master of public relations and marketing. To coincide with the album release, she is also hosting a movie event.
Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl will feature behind-the-scenes footage, the music video for The Fate of Ophelia, and special commentary on the creative process.
The 89-minute extravaganza will only be in limited theaters from October 3 to 5.
How is Swift promoting The Life of a Showgirl?
During release week, Swift is appearing on The Graham Norton Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Her social media accounts have a calendar listing all the events leading up to the big day.
Why are Swift fans talking about the word ‘standby’?
One of these events is currently a mystery: Saturday, October 4 is simply listed as standby.
Swifties, known for being internet detectives, are desperately trying to figure out what this means. Could it be a tour announcement, or a surprise Saturday Night Live appearance?
All will be revealed with time, but one can see how Swifties have a lot to be excited about this week.
Rumor has it that soda fountains at a handful of gas stations and convenience stores across the Midwest are serving a thicker, more syrupy variant — with extra sweetness.
Aptly dubbed heavy soda, the drink option can be traced back to a singular post on the subreddit r/Soda, and a few TikTok videos. You know when the gas station fountains have this option youre in gods country, creator Kate Boyer wrote in the caption of a post earlier this year. The video has since gained almost seven million view. The drink has recently been picked up by a number of news organizations.
Not to be confused with the recent dirty soda or protein soda trends, heavy soda is all about dialling up sweetness and flavor (also rumored to be the secret recipe behind McDonalds Cokes superiority to all other types of Coke).
The soda fountain supposedly dispenses an extra blast of syrup, resulting in a sweeter, more concentrated version of popular sodas like Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Dr Pepper. Taking it a step further, one TikToker, an employee at a movie theater, even claimed that co-workers skipped the water altogether and drank straight from the Mountain Dew syrup fountain.
Some commenters have taken this as an opportunity to dunk on America’s sweet tooth culture. Heavy soda is the most American culture, one wrote. Gods country is the reason we cant have free healthcare, another wrote.
Many, however, protested their innocence, claiming theyve never seen the heavy option out in the wild. Ive lived in and been all over the South most of my life, and I have never heard of or seen this anywhere, one Reddit user responded. This must be some very backwoods rural area place.
It seems most of the confirmed sightings have been in Missouri. For everyone asking, Heavy Pepsi is a Missouri thing, one wrote. Another responded: Ive seen it in Missouri gas stations south of St. Louis. I tried the heavy Mountain Dew. Its way better than it should be.
Another explained that the fountain option is ideal for those who need their Big Gulp to last all day, with the ice diluting the heavy soda over time to the perfect ratio, thereby avoiding a watered down drink by the end of the day.
Viral soda recipes?
While heavy soda may not have caught on in other parts of the U.S. just yet, companies like McDonalds and Crumbl Cookies are trialling their own versions of viral soda recipes to capitalize on the social media-fueled frenzy for ultra-customized and made-to-order beverages.
Beverages have been one of the hottest growth businesses for U.S. restaurants, the Wall Street Journal reported, with sales up 9.6% in 2024, the biggest annual increase of any restaurant category. At Starbucks, one-quarter of the chains custom drinks sold in the U.S. have more than three customer modifications like an extra shot or pump of flavored syrup, a company spokeswoman recently told The New York Times.
In an era of personalization and little treat culture, an off-shelf soda no longer hits the same.
Tesla has raised lease prices for all its vehicles in the U.S. after a $7,500 federal tax credit that helped boost electric vehicle sales expired, according to the company’s website on Wednesday.
The change follows the end of tax incentives under sweeping legislation passed by Congress, which eliminated the $7,500 credit for new EV leases and purchases, as well as a $4,000 credit for used EVs, effective September 30.
Tesla and its rivals had been passing these credits on to customers through competitive lease offers.
The monthly lease of the electric vehicle manufacturer’s best-selling Model Y increased to a range between $529 and $599, from a range of $479 to $529. Prices of all vehicles, however, remain unchanged.
Model 3 lease prices touched a range of $429 to $759 per month, from a range of $349 to $699.
Demand for battery-powered models is already showing signs of a slowdown after rapid growth earlier in the decade. Sales could drop after the credits dry up, auto executives and analysts have warned.
Reuters reported last month that Tesla’s U.S. market share dropped to a near eight-year low in August, as buyers chose electric vehicles from a growing stable of rivals, according to data from research firm Cox Automotive.
Tesla, which once held more than 80% of the EV market in the United States, accounted for only 38% of the country’s total EV sales in August, according to early data from Cox.
Nilutpal Timsina and Kanjyik Ghosh, Reuters
Scientist and global activist Jane Goodall, who turned her childhood love of primates into a lifelong quest for protecting the environment, has died at the age of 91, the institute she founded said on Wednesday.
Goodall died of natural causes while in California on a speaking tour, the Jane Goodall Institute said in a social media post.
“Dr. Goodalls discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” it said on Instagram.
The primatologist-turned-conservationist spun her love of wildlife into a lifelong campaign that took her from a seaside English village to Africa and then across the globe in a quest to better understand chimpanzees, as well as the role that humans play in safeguarding their habitat and the planet’s health overall.
Goodall was a pioneer in her field, both as a female scientist in the 1960s and for her work studying the behavior of primates. She created a path for a string of other women to follow suit, including the late Dian Fossey.
She also drew the public into the wild, partnering with the National Geographic Society to bring her beloved chimps into their lives through film, TV, and magazines.
She upended scientific norms of the time, giving chimpanzees names instead of numbers, observing their distinct personalities, and incorporating their family relationships and emotions into her work. She also found that, like humans, they use tools.
“We have found that after all there isn’t a sharp line dividing humans from the rest of the animal kingdom,” she said in a 2002 TED Talk.
As her career evolved, she shifted her focus from primatology to climate advocacy after witnessing widespread habitat devastation, urging the world to take quick and urgent action on climate change.
“We’re forgetting that we’re part of the natural world,” she told CNN in 2020. “There’s still a window of time.”
In 2003, she was appointed a Dame of the British Empire and, in 2025, she received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Kenya-bound
Born in London in 1934 and then growing up in Bournemouth on England’s south coast, Goodall had long dreamed of living among wild animals. She said her passion for animals, stoked by the gift of a stuffed toy gorilla from her father, grew as she immersed herself in books such as “Tarzan” and “Dr. Dolittle.”
She set her dreams aside after leaving school, unable to afford university. She worked as a secretary and then for a film company until a friend’s invitation to visit Kenya put the jungle – and its inhabitants – within reach.
After saving up money for the journey, by boat, Goodall arrived in the East African nation in 1957. There, an encounter with famed anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey and his wife, archaeologist Mary Leakey, set her on course to work with primates.
Under Leakey, Goodall set up the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve, later renamed the Gombe Stream Research Centre, near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania. There she discovered chimpanzees ate meat, fought fierce wars, and perhaps most importantly, fashioned tools in order to eat termites.
“Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as humans,” Leakey said of the discovery.
Although she eventually paused her research to earn a PhD at Cambridge University, Goodall remained in the jungle for years. Her first husband and frequent collaborator was wildlife cameraman Hugo van Lawick.
Through the National Geographic’s coverage, the chimpanzees at Gombe Stream soon became household names – most famously, one Goodall called David Greybeard for his silver streak of hair.
Nearly thirty years after first arriving in Africa, however, Goodall said she realized she could not support or protect the chimpanzees without addressing the dire disappearance of their habitat. She said she realized she would have to look beyond Gombe, leave the jungle, and take up a larger global role as a conservationist.
In 1977, she set up the Jane Goodall Institute, a nonprofit organization aimed at supporting the research in Gombe as well as conservation and development efforts across Africa. Its work has since expanded worldwide and includes efforts to tackle environmental education, health, and advocacy.
She made a new name for herself, traveling an average of 300 days a year to meet with local officials in countries around the world and speaking with community and school groups. She continued touring to the end of her life, speaking at Climate Week in New York City just last week.
She later expanded the institute to include Roots & Shoots, a conservation program aimed at children.
It was a stark shift from her isolated research, spending long days watching chimpanzees.
“It never ceases to amaze me that there’s this person who travels around and does all these things,” she told the New York Times during a 2014 trip to Burundi and back to Gombe. “And it’s me. It doesn’t seem like me at all.”
A prolific author, she published more than 30 books with her observations, including her 1999 bestseller “Reason For Hope: A Spiritual Journey,” as well as a dozen aimed at children.
Goodall said she never doubted the planet’s resilience or human ability to overcome environmental challenges.
“Yes, there is hope It’s in our hands, it’s in your hands and my hands and those of our children. It’s really up to us,” she said in 2002, urging people to “leave the lightest possible ecological footprints.”
She had one son, known as ‘Grub,’ with van Lawick, whom she divorced in 1974. Van Lawick died in 2002. In 1975, she married Derek Bryceson. He died in 1980.
Susan Heavey; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh, Reuters
Not even half of the spots in the 48-team field have been claimed. The schedule of matches wont be finalized until December. And other than host nations U.S., Canada and Mexico, nobody has any idea where or when theyll be playing.
Millions of soccer fans worldwide evidently dont seem to mind any of those points.
Tickets to next years FIFA World Cup officially go on sale Wednesday. The buyers will be those who were selected, out of 4.5 million applicants in a lottery that took place last month, to have the first formal chance to purchase tickets over the next few days. FIFA said lottery winners have been, or will soon be, informed by email.
There are unique questions for consumers heading into the tournament, particularly about how they’ll get visas, if necessary, to visit the U.S. as the country cracks down on immigration. There are also more traditional concerns such as who, when, and where and none of those will be answered until the draw on Dec. 5. FIFA knows many fans wont fret about those answers; they just want tickets now and will figure out the rest later.
These are not only outstanding figures, but also a strong statement, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on social media, reacting to the 4.5 million applicants for a spot in the purchase window that opened Wednesday. The whole world wants to be part of the FIFA World Cup 26, the biggest, most inclusive and most exciting event ever. From Canada, Mexico and the United States, to countries big and small across every continent, fans are proving once again passion for football truly unites.
In divided times, the notion of soccer being something that truly unites will be put to the test.
Here are some things to know as tickets go on sale.
Whats for sale?
Fans can purchase seats in one of four categories; Category 1 is the best seats, Category 4 is somewhere around the tops of stadiums. Ticket prices will range initially from $60 for group-stage matches to $6,730 for the final but could and almost certainly will change as soccers biggest event utilizes dynamic pricing for the first time.
There are other ways to get tickets other than shelling out big bucks. American Airlines announced last month that its AAdvantage loyalty program members can redeem miles for World Cup tickets, starting Oct. 13 for executive platinum and concierge key members, then Oct. 14 for platinum pro, platinum and gold members, followed on Oct. 15 by all members.
And starting Thursday, some Verizon customers will have access to free World Cup tickets and other perks. The telecommunications giant is a World Cup sponsor and will simply start dropping free ticket chances to its customers through its app.
For me, there are few things as exciting as experiencing football live, whether thats on or o the pitch, and so I am proud to partner with Verizon to celebrate their plans to give fans unprecedented access to the tournament, said soccer icon David Beckham, part of Verizons promotion for the World Cup.
Whos in?
The U.S., Mexico and Canada all automatically qualified as host nations. Also in so far: defending champion Argentina, Japan, New Zealand, Iran, Uzbekistan, Jordan, South Korea, Brazil, Australia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Tunisia, Colombia, Paraguay and Morocco.
That leaves 30 spots still unclaimed.
FIFA said fans from 216 countries and territories applied to be part of the first ticket lottery. The top three nations of interest, to no surprise, were the hosts: the U.S., Mexico and Canada, in that order. The rest of the top 10, also in order of application totals: Germany, England, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Spain and Italy.
Nobody has said how many tickets FIFA plans to sell in this first window. Availability wont be depleted; based on the listed stadium attendance figures, there are roughly 7.1 million seats to fill for the 104 matches around 16 North American venues, though its unknown how many of those seats will be available for sale to the public.
Will visitors travel to the US?
There is an immigration crackdown unfolding across the U.S., which could dampen overseas interest in traveling to the country. U.S. tourism officials already have noted a drop in overseas visitors this year and even organizers in some U.S. host cities have acknowledged that political dynamics may have an impact on attendance.
Adding to some of the uncertainty, President Donald Trump, who has a close relationship with Infantino, has suggested that the host cities could be changed if he wants to move some events away from places his administration considers unsafe.
The U.S. cities that are scheduled to host are East Rutherford, New Jersey; Inglewood, California; Foxborough, Massachusetts; Houston; Arlington, Texas; Atlanta; Seattle; Santa Clara, California; Philadelphia; Kansas City, Missouri; and Miami Gardens, Florida.
If any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup we wont allow it to go there, Trump said last week. Well move it around a little bit. But I hope thats not going to happen.
The State Department says that the safety and security of the United States along with World Cup matches, athletes, fans, and venues are the top priorities with regard to its role in the World Cup process. It also suggests that travelers who need a visa should start applying now, and officials have said the U.S. is trying to ensure an efficient, smooth, and effective visa process.
Whats next?
A second phase, called an early ticket draw, likely will run from Oct. 27-31, with purchase time slots from mid-November to early December. A third phase, termed a random selection draw, will start after the final draw of teams on Dec. 5 determines the World Cup schedule.
Tickets also will be available closer to the tournament on a first-come, first-served basis. FIFA also said it will start an official resale platform.
Some tickets already have been snagged; hospitality packages have been sold since May.
The world will come together in North America, Infantino promised, like never before.
The tournament runs from June 11 through July 19.
Tim Reynolds, AP sports writer
