It’s the life of a saleswoman. Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, sold 2.7 million copies in traditional album sales which include physical and digital formats in its first day in the U.S. That’s according to Luminate, an industry data and analytics company.
The album was released Friday.
The sales are impressive for a number of reasons. Swift has broken her record for most first-week sales… in one day. Her last album, 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department, amassed 2.61 million equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week.
The Life of a Showgirl has also become the second-largest sales week for any album in the modern era, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. That was also accomplished in just one day.
Currently, Adele’s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015 in the U.S., holds the top spot.
Also, according to Luminate, The Life of a Showgirl has already broken the record for the most copies of a vinyl album sold in a single week in the U.S., with 1.2 million copies. The previous record holder? The Tortured Poets Department, which sold 859,000 copies on vinyl in its first week.
Swift’s many variants may have something to do with the album’s economic success. One of her major partners, Target, carries three CD variants, titled as Its Frightening, Its Rapturous and Its Beautiful editions. There is also an exclusive vinyl release, The Crowd Is Your King edition in summertime spritz pink shimmer vinyl.
There are a number of other vinyl variants as well: The Tiny Bubble in Champagne Collection, The Baby Thats Show Business Collection, The Shiny Bug Collection, and the standard LP and cassette, in sweat and vanilla perfume Portofino orange vinyl.
Artwork varies throughout, likely inspiring diehard fans to pick up multiple copies.
And most recently, on Saturday, Swift announced four new CD variants featuring acoustic renditions of the album’s tracks. Each edition features two different stripped-down recordings.
She also dominated the box office over the weekend with her three-day event, The Official Release Party of a Show Girl, which debuted at No. 1 with $33 million in North America, according to Sunday estimates from Comscore.
Maria Sherman, AP music writer
Semiconductor maker AMD will supply its chips to artificial intelligence company OpenAI as part of an agreement to team up on building AI infrastructure, the companies said Monday.
OpenAI will also get the option to buy as much as a 10% stake in AMD, according to a joint statement announcing the deal. It’s the latest deal for the ChatGPT maker as it races to beef up its AI computing resources.
Under the terms of the deal, OpenAI will buy the latest version of the company’s high performance graphics chips, the Instinct MI450, which is expected to debut next year.
The agreement calls for supplying 6 gigawatts of computing power for OpenAIs next generation AI infrastructure, with the first batch of chips worth 1 gigawatt to be deployed in the second half of 2026.
AMD also issued OpenAI with a warrant allowing the AI company to buy up to 160 million shares of AMDs common stock. That amounts to about 10% of the chipmaker based on AMD’s 1.6 billion outstanding shares. The warrant will vest based on two milestones tied to the amount of computing power deployed, as well as unspecified share-price targets.”
Shares of AMD spiked 25% before the opening bell Monday. Shares of Nvidia, which have repeatedly set new record-highs this year, fell slightly.
This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize AIs full potential, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a news release. AMDs leadership in high-performance chips will enable us to accelerate progress and bring the benefits of advanced AI to everyone faster.
The deal is a boost for Santa Clara, Calif.-based AMD, which has been left behind by rival Nvidia. But it also hints at OpenAI’s desire to diversify its supply chain away from Nvidia’s dominance. The AI boom has fueled demand for Nvidia’s graphics processing chips, sending its shares soaring and making it the world’s most valuable company.
Last month, OpenAI and Nvidia announced a $100 billion partnership that will add at least 10 gigawatts of data center computing power. OpenAI and its partners have already installed hundreds of Nvidias GB200, a tall computing rack that contains dozens of specialized AI chips within it, at the flagship Stargate data center campus under construction in Abilene, Texas.
Barclays analysts said in a note to investors Monday that OpenAI’s AMD deal is less about taking share away from Nvidia than it is a sign of how much computing is needed to meet AI demand.
We realize there will be delays with these deals, and that the infrastructure required largely doesnt exist today, but we would again highlight this as a proof point that the ecosystem is desperate for more compute, the Barclays analysts wrote.
The list of retailers that have yanked pasta products from their shelves continues to grow in the wake of a deadly Listeria outbreak.
On October 4, grocery retailer Kroger Co voluntarily recalled deli pasta salads sold at Kroger-owned locations including Ralphs, Smith’s, and Fred Meyer, in addition to Kroger stores. The products were recalled due to a risk of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
The recall notice was published to the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday.
To date, no illnesses have been reported in connection with this recall. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have been tracking a multi-state Listeria outbreak linked to read-to-eat meals containing pasta.
The outbreak, which dates back to last year, has caused four deaths and more than a dozen hospitalizations.
Heres what you need to know:
Which products are included in the recall?
Kroger Co has recalled its Basil Pesto Bowtie Salad and Smoked Mozzarella Penne Salad products.
These items were sold at deli service counters and self-service deli cases at 1,860 Kroger-owned stores, which include, Kroger, Baker’s, City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Gerbes, King Soopers, Payless, Ralphs, and Smith’s.
This announcement follows a recall initiated by Fresh Creative Foods due to a potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination of the pasta ingredient manufactured by Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California.
Recalled products have been removed from store shelves.
Kroger has also been notifying customers who may have purchased the recalled products through register receipt tape messages and email alerts.
Here are the specific product details for impacted products:
Basil Pesto Bowtie Pasta Salad (UPC 217573-10000): Sold from September 6, 2025, through October 2, 2025, in random-weight containers sold at the deli service counter and in grab-n-go packages at the deli department.
Smoked Mozzarella Penne Salad (UPC 227573-10000): Sold from August 29, 2025, through October 2, 2025, in random-weight containers sold at the deli service counter and in grab-n-go packages at the deli department.
Products were sold in the following states:
Alaska
Alabama
Arkansas
Arizona
California
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Michigan
Missouri
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
Nevada
Ohio
Oregon
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Washington
West Virginia
Dont eat the recalled products
Customers who have purchased affected products shouldnt eat them. They should return it to a store for a full refund or replacement.
If you have questions about the recall, contact Kroger by calling 1-800-KROGERS.
Pasta-related recalls continue to increase
This is one of several pasta-related recalls in recent days due to concerns of potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination.
According to data from the CDC, 19 hospitalizations and four deaths have been reported following a Listeria outbreak connected to prepared pasta meals sold at grocery stores.
Ready-to-eat pasta meals sold at Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Kroger were previously recalled on September 26, 2025. The FDA added a new recall notice on September 30, 2025, which included ready-made products sold at Albertsons and Trader Joe’s.
Before consuming ready-made pasta products that you have in your fridge, you should verify whether theyve been included in any recent recalls.
Listeria infection can be serious and even fatal
Listeria infection is spread through contaminated food.
According to the Mayo Clinic, healthy people rarely become seriously ill from Listeria infection. However, the disease can be fatal for unborn babies, newborns, and people with weakened immune systems.
Pregnant women, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems are more at risk for infection.
Paramount said Monday that it has bought the news and commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, saying it believes the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based.
It’s a bold step for the television network of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and 60 Minutes, long viewed by many conservatives as the personification of a liberal media establishment. The network is placing someone in a leadership who has developed a reputation for resisting orthodoxy and fighting woke culture.
I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News, said David Ellison, who took over this summer as the corporate leader overseeing the network when his company, Skydance, purchased Paramount. This move is part of Paramounts bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects directly and passionately to audiences around the world.
No purchase price was announced for The Free Press, which has grown to reach 1.5 million subscribers since Weiss started it after leaving The New York Times as an opinion editor. When she left the Times, she wrote a letter of resignation that spoke of a culture of intolerance at the newspaper and said she was bullied by colleagues who disagreed with her.
Weiss will report directly to Ellison and partner with the current CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who reports to Paramount executive George Cheeks.
Editor-in-chief is a new role at CBS News. Ellison said that Weiss will shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.
In a letter to CBS News employees on Monday, Weiss said that watching CBS was part of a family tradition growing up in Pittsburgh. Her goal in the next few weeks is to get to know the staff, she said.
I want to hear from you about whats working, what isnt, and your thoughts on how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world, Weiss wrote. Ill approach it the way any reporters would with an open mind, a fresh notebook and an urgent deadline.
Some at CBS News have been concerned about what they see as signs that the news division is moving in a direction more friendly to President Donald Trump. Paramount’s merger with Skydance was approved by the administration shortly after Paramount settled the president’s lawsuit against 60 Minutes. Ellison has hired Kenneth Weinstein, former head of a conservative think tank and a Trump contributor, as an ombudsman to examine complaints about CBS News.
60 Minutes, which is two weeks into its new season, has been seeking an interview with Trump.
Rather, who stepped down as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News in 2005, told The Associated Press on Monday that he did not know Weiss and hopes she gets to know the people at CBS News before making any big changes.
No one has to send a memo to everyone down the line at CBS News about what is going on with journalism and this presidency, Rather said. It is obvious that there is tremendous pressure to bend the knee to the Trump administration. The fear is that this appointment is part of that overall play.
Weiss has worked in opinion journalism and has little background in broadcast journalism. She has described herself politically as a centrist and wrote a column for the New York Post in 2021 headlined, 10 ways to fight back against woke culture.
Writing for the liberal website the Unpopulist, Matt Johnson said that one reason for The Free Press’ popularity is that it offers intellectual reassurances to legions of anti-anti-Trump readers sophisticated conservatives who may be uneasy about Trumpism, yet want to believe that wokeness and other left-wing excesses are the primary threats to western civilization.
In her memo to CBS News employees on Monday, Weiss said she stood for the same core journalistic values that have defined the profession from the beginning, including reporting on the world as it actually is and being fair, fearless, and factual.
In his own letter to Paramount employees, Ellison said that media has too often become a platform for the partisanship that is tearing society apart.
Today, that danger extends far beyond politics threatening the very fabric of our communities, Ellison wrote. When we reduce every issue to us vs. them or my way vs. the wrong way, we close ourselves off from listening, learning, and ultimately growing, both as individuals and as a society. I don’t pretend to have a solution to this challenge. But I do believe we each have a responsibility to do our part.
In a Pew Research Center survey taken earlier this year, 56% of Americans who are Democrats or lean Democrats say they trust CBS News, while only 23% of Republicans say the same thing. Trust in is similar across all major broadcast media outlets.
David Bauder, AP media writer
Six years ago, I wrote (with colleague Jennifer Riel) a Harvard Business Review article on functional strategy. But the questions about functional strategy keep coming unabated. It is a vexatious issue for CEOs, functional leaders, and boards of directors. So, I thought it would make sense to dedicate a Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) to Functional Strategy: The Three Key Functional Leader Tasks. And as always, you can find all the previous PTW/PI here.
How Did We Get Here?
In the business world today, there are great differences of opinion as to what functional strategy is or even whether functions should have strategies. A prevalent view holds that functions shouldnt have strategy; they just execute. In my experience, it is a hot and contentious issue. I understand why. Functions have become huge in terms of both dollars spent and people employed. In that 2019 article, we pointed out that on average the Dow Jones 30 companies spent $20B/year on their functions in 2017 and it would undoubtedly be more today. So, there is lots at stake.
It was a much simpler world through the mid-1950s when companies were functionally organized. The CEO acted as the sole integrator and made the set of decisions that would currently be called strategy. Starting in the late 1950s and continuing through the 1960s and 1970s, virtually all large companies converted to business unit (BU) organizations in large part because they had diversified and coordinating across the various product lines had become ever more difficult within a functional structure.
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It is interesting to me that two prominent business concepts, business strategy and organizing by BU, came along historically at the same time. In the 1960s, both were considered avant-garde. If you were a cool, leading-edge company, you did strategy and converted your functional organization to a BU one.
Functional StrategyDownload
I believe though it is speculation that because the two were linked cool ideas, when a company converted to BU structure, it naturally put the BUs in charge of strategy that was seen as new age management in the 1960s and 1970s. It made sense. BUs were mini versions of the company, and the company CEO did strategy so why not devolve strategy responsibility to BU Presidents?
While it made sense, it didnt have to be so. Apple is one of the worlds giant diversified companies and of course one of the worlds most successful and as my friends Joel Podolny and Martin Hansen wrote in an interesting Harvard Business Review article, the functional heads, not the product heads, are in charge of strategy at Apple.
However, Apple is a tiny exception to the rule of BUs running strategy. However, that created challenges as functions struggled to figure out how to serve multiple product masters. Plus, companies found that it was hard to maintain functional excellence and motivation when the BUs were so obviously in charge. This gave rise to another corporate concept matrix management which gained popularity in the 1970s and was considered avant-garde for a time. In this approach, neither BU nor function was singularly in charge. Rather they worked together to figure things out including strategy. Somewhat unsurprisingly, enthusiasm for this structure faded pretty quickly after it was put in practice extensively.
That all brings us to today for which the dominant approach is that BUs will do strategy. In a small minority of cases, it is a collaborative task in a matrix management environment. In a miniscule proportion of cases, like Apple, functional heads have responsibility for strategy. This begs the question: what should functions do with respect to strategy in todays dominantly BU-led world?
Balancing Three Tasks
As context, it is important to recognize that functions cant not do strategy because strategy is what you do and since functions do some things and not others, they are making strategy choices. A function cant say that the BUs do strategy, so we dont. The only question is whether you make explicit and conscious strategy choices backed by compelling logic or just do a bunch of largely random stuff.
In my view, functional leaders need to balance three strategic tasks. The three tasks are in tension, which is what makes functional strategy hard. There is no way to make the tension go away it just needs to be managed on an ongoing basis.
1) Serve Individual BU Customers
The first task is to serve the functional needs of each BUs strategy. BUs are your customers, and you must be responsive to their needs. In many respects, you can think of your function supplying key Must-have Capabilities (MHC) and running important Enabling Management Systems (EMS) for the BUs.
For example, at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, the human resources (HR) function provides the Four Seasons Hotels BU (the biggest but not only BU) its key MHC long-serving hotel staff that are motivated and capable of providing the differentiated guest service central to the BU Where-to-Play/How-to-Win (WTP/HTW) strategy choice. And HR operates some of the BUs key EMS its recruiting and career management processes, for example.
To produce those MHC and run those EMS for the Four Seasons Hotels BU requires upstream choices for Four Seasons HR in its WTP and HTW. HRs WTP focuses disproportionately on hiring, training, and career planning. Its HTW involves spending wildly greater resources on interviewing candidates personally rather than hiring from resumes or the Internet as Four Seasons competitors do. It has a specific EMS to carry it out, including the hotel manager conducting th final interview.
At Lego, a key aspect of its HTW is bricks that are of remarkably consistent color (so that creations never look patchy) and have perfect clenching power (tight enough to not fall apart but loose enough for childrens fingers to easily separate them). Lego manufacturing function supplies the MHC for this to happen and it does so by investing disproportionately in color technology and injection molding precision.
In this first task, the imperative is to understand the strategies of each BU well enough to make your own functional strategy choices aimed at producing key aspects of the BUs MHC and running supporting EMS.
2) Leverage Across BUs Current Strategies
If you solely create entirely customized MHC/EMS for each BU, you will be challenged in benefiting from scale or the learning curve. That is not a disaster, but it limits the strategic value a function can add for its company. The second task is to invest in generating MHC that will be leverageable across the businesses i.e. will empower their WTP/HTWs and will enable your function to leverage scale and learning.
For example, a key aspect of the HTW across all P&Gs BUs is product superiority through consumer-valued innovation. The P&G R&D function has a big role to play in that that is in delivering the MHC of superior product innovation across the businesses.
P&G R&D delivers this with its functional strategy. Its Winning Aspiration is to deliver to the businesses the most valuable innovation in the industry. Its WTP choice is to invest a wildly disproportionate level of resources in what it calls products research. That is having a large cadre of engineers and scientists who spend their time interacting with consumers to figure out what innovations would be valuable to them. It is a distinct WTP choice because its competitors tend to engage in that activity with non-technical personnel within their marketing or market research functions. Its HTW is to focus its product creation R&D resources on more valuable insights (delivered by products research) at massive scale. Its MHC is to have the biggest and most experienced and talented products research capability in the industry which it has by a wide margin. And it has EMS that ensure that this unique capability is built and maintained on an ongoing basis.
Because this R&D functional strategy delivers across the BUs, it enables the function to leverage massive scale and get farthest down the learning curve in the industry.
3) Creating Future Opportunities for the BUs
The third task is to enable future competitive advantages for the BUs. That is to build a capability that will enable the BUs to pursue valuable strategies that they would not have been able to pursue without it.
Sticking with P&G R&D, its creation of Connect & Develop (which this Harvard Business Review article chronicles) is an example of completing this third task. This initiative tapped the outside world to bring into the incredibly effective commercialization engines within the BUs double the flow of consumer-valuable inventions thus providing the BUs with more valuable innovation opportunities at a lower cost many that the BUs would have not come up with otherwise. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, P&G R&Ds initiative has been flattered repeatedly as innumerable companies across various industries have parroted Connect & Develop.
Practitioner Insights
If you are a functional leader, dont ever let anyone tell you that you dont have a strategy task, that you are just there to execute the BU strategies. Regardless of what they say, you will make strategy choices because you cant not make important choices.
Your strategy job is hard. The more straightforward task is BU strategy. It has been around in full force for over half a century. There is lots of support for it, lots of case studies, lots of advisors. There is little written on functional strategy.
It is doubly hard because you do have a tripartite strategy task and a tricky one because you must balance your effects and resources across the three tasks.
The first task is to understand the WTP/HTW of each BU well enough to design a functional strategy that contributes by supplying each BU the MHC that needs to win. Of course, any single function cant supply all the MHC each BU needs. Each function needs to figure out where it can add value to each.
If you dont accomplish this task, you will be viewed by the BUs as unresponsive and bureaucratic, and they will lobby the CEO to shift your resources into their BUs. However, if you accomplish only this first task, you will spend your functional life racing around, serving potentially disparate needs and spreading your resources thinly.
Go beyond by tackling the second functional strategy task. That entails determining for your function what MHC it can contribute consistently across the BUs. What is the cross-BU throughline for your function? If you follow that throughline, you can provide more value to the BUs thanks to greater scale and faster learning. And your function will be a key contributor to winning across the BU portfolio. To attempt to keep up, each BUs competitors will need to have functions that are leveraging across a similarly broad portfolio in a similar fashion, which is unlikely.
The third task, making possible a future for the BUs that wouldnt be possible otherwise is the cherry on top. There is no limit to the long-term value that a function can create, whether Connect & Develop by R&D at P&G, the Toyota Production System by manufacturing at Toyota, iconic design by the design function at Apple, or the Frito-Lay direct-story delivery system by logistics at PepsiCo.
One thing to keep in mind however is that it is truly a balance. If you focus on the second and third task or even worse, exclusively the third task because they are more fun and exciting than the first task, the BUs will revolt against you. They need the first output for their strategies. If you dont give them that, they will be forced to do it themselves and will ask the company to take the resources from you to do it themselves. Doing the first task well gives you the option to do the second. Doing that well gives you an option on the third. And if you get there, you are a great functional strategist!
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Empathy is not just a nice-to-have soft skillit is a foundation of how children and adults regulate emotions, build friendships, and learn from one another.
Between the ages of 6 and 9, children begin shifting from being self-centered to noticing the emotions and perspectives of others. This makes early childhood one of the most important periods for developing empathy and other social-emotional skills.
Traditionally, pretend play has been a natural way to practice empathy. Many adults can remember acting out scenes as doctor and patient, or using sticks and leaves as imaginary currency. Those playful moments were not just entertainmentthey were early lessons in empathy and taking someone elses perspective.
But as children spend more time with technology and less in pretend play, these opportunities are shrinking. Some educators worry that technology is hindering social-emotional learning. Yet research in affective computingdigital systems that recognize emotions, simulate them or bothsuggests that technology can also become part of the solution.
Virtual reality, in particular, can create immersive environments where children interact with characters who display emotions as vividly as real humans. Im a human-computer interaction scientist who studies social-emotional learning in the context of how people use technology. Used thoughtfully, the combination of VR and artificial intelligence could help reshape social-emotional learning practices and serve as a new kind of empathy classroom or emotional regulation simulator.
Game of emotions
As a part of my doctoral studies at the University of Florida, in 2017 I began developing a VR Empathy Game framework that combines insights from developmental psychology, affective computing and participatory design with children. At the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland, I worked with their KidsTeam program, where children of 7-11 served as design partners, helping us to imagine what an empathy-focused VR game should feel like.
In 2018, 15 masters students at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy at the University of Central Florida and I created the first game prototype, Why Did Baba Yaga Take My Brother? This game is based on a Russian folktale and introduces four characters, each representing a core emotion: Baba Yaga embodies anger, Goose represents fear, the Older Sister shows happiness and the Younger Sister expresses sadness.
The VR game Why Did Baba Yaga Take My Brother? is designed to help kids develop empathy.
Unlike most games, it does not reward players with points or badges. Instead, children can progress in the game only by getting to know the characters, listening to their stories and practicing empathic actions. For example, they can look at the games world through a characters glasses, revisit their memories or even hug Baba Yaga to comfort her. This design choice reflects a core idea of social-emotional learning: Empathy is not about external rewards but about pausing, reflecting and responding to the needs of others.
My colleagues and I have been refining the game since then and using it to study children and empathy.
Different paths to empathy
We tested the game with elementary school children individually. After asking general questions and giving an empathy survey, we invited children to play the game. We observed their behavior while they were playing and discussed their experience afterward.
Our most important discovery was that children interacted with the VR characters following the main empathic patterns humans usually follow while interacting with each other. Some children displayed cognitive empathy, meaning they had an understanding of the characters emotional states. They listened thoughtfully to characters, tapped their shoulders to get their attention, and attempted to help them. At the same time, they were not completely absorbed in the VR characters feelings.
Others expressed emotional contagion, directly mirroring characters emotions, sometimes becoming so distressed by fear or sadness that it made them stop the game. In addition, a few other children did not connect with the characters at all, focusing mainly on exploring the virtual environment. All three behaviors can happen in real life as well when children interact with their peers.
These findings highlight both the promise and the challenge. VR can indeed evoke powerful empathic responses, but it also raises questions about how to design experiences that support children with different temperamentssome need more stimulation, and others need gentler pacing.
AI eye on emotions
The current big question for us is how to effectively incorporate this type of empathy game into everyday life. In classrooms, VR will not replace real conversations or traditional role-play, but it can enrich them. A teacher might use a short VR scenario to spark discussion, encouraging students to reflect on what they felt and how it connects to their real friendships. In this way, VR becomes a springboard for dialogue, not a stand-alone tool.
We are also exploring adaptive VR systems that respond to a childs emotional state in real time. A headset might detect if a child is anxious or scared through facial expressions, heart rate, or gazeand adjust the experience by scaling down the characters expressiveness or offering supportive prompts. Such a responsive empathy classroom could give children safe opportunities to gradually strengthen their emotional regulation skills.
This is where AI becomes essential. AI systems can make sense of the data collected by VR headsets, such as eye gaze, facial expressions, heart rate, or body movement, and use it to adjust the experience in real time. For example, if a child looks anxious or avoids eye contact with a sad character, the AI could gently slow down the story, provide encouraging prompts or reduce the emotional intensity of the scene. On the other hand, if the child appears calm and engaged, the AI might introduce a more complex scenario to deepen ther learning.
In our current research, we are investigating how AI can measure empathy itselftracking moment-to-moment emotional responses during gameplay to provide educators with better insight into how empathy develops.
Future work and collaboration
As promising as I believe this work is, it raises big questions. Should VR characters express emotions at full intensity, or should we tone them down for sensitive children? If children treat VR characters as real, how do we make sure those lessons carry to the playground or dinner table? And with headsets still costly, how do we ensure empathy technology doesnt widen digital divides?
These are not just research puzzles but ethical responsibilities. This vision requires collaboration among educators, researchers, designers, parents, and children themselves. Computer scientists design the technology, psychologists ensure the experiences are emotionally healthy, teachers adapt them for the curriculum, and children co-create the games to make them engaging and meaningful.
Together, we can shape technologies that not only entertain but also nurture empathy, emotional regulation, and deeper connection in the next generation.
Ekaterina Muravevskaia is an assistant professor of human-centered computing at Indiana University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
As top congressional Republican and Democratic leaders dig in their heelsa signal that the ongoing federal government shutdown may continue for a whilemany older Americans are wondering if they will still get their Social Security checks, and questioning how a prolonged showdown will affect their future benefits.
Currently, thousands of federal employees are working without pay and President Donald Trump is threatening mass federal layoffs.
During the shutdown, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is continuing to issue retirement and disability benefits, but is furloughing 12% of its staff, per USA Today. Medicare and Medicaid payments also continue for now.
However, the furlough could delay the SSA’s announcement, scheduled for next week on October 15, on how much Social Security checks will increase in 2026 as a result of cost-of-living adjustments, or COLA.
That increase is based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) inflation numbers for September, due to come out October 15. The problem is all of that bureaus 2,055 employees, except one person, have been furloughed, and according to the Labor Department’s shutdown plans, that report will likely be delayed if the lapse is prolonged, USA Today reported.
Without the BLS crunching the numbers and releasing September’s inflation report, COLA can’t be calculated.
Social Security checks are estimated to increase by about 2.7%, according to the Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior groupwhich, on an average retirement check of $2,007, would mean another $54 per month.
The White House has said mass layoffs of federal workers will start if President Donald Trump decides negotiations are “absolutely going nowhere.” That would be a way to force the hand of congressional Democrats, by threatening American government workers’ jobs and benefits.
Meanwhile, the Senate is currently battling it out to advance a bill that would fund the government to stay open through November 21.
Below, Tim Higgins shares five key insights from his new book, iWar: Fortnite, Elon Musk, Spotify, WeChat, and Laying Siege to Apples Empire.
Tim is a business columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he covers Silicon Valley and writes about the worlds most influential business leaders. He is also a frequent contributor to CNBC and has previously written for Bloomberg News.
Whats the big idea?
Those who operate in the digital world accessed by the iPhone have no choice but to operate by Apples rulesor do they? Objections that Apple has overstepped fair play in the app economy resulted in pushbacks, including one of the biggest antitrust battles of the last century. The highlight reel of this great corporate drama features fascinating fights between Apple and its rivals, including Spotify and Epic Games.
1. Its easier to win when you make the rules.
Almost 20 years ago, Apple followed up the iPhone with the App Storea new way for software developers to sell their offerings to smartphone users. Instead of going to a physical store, software could be acquired through the internet. It was basically free for developers, unless they charged users. If so, then Apple would take as much as 30 percent. The genesis of the fee was simple enough: Apple would claim a royalty on digital goods consumed on its devices (like video games), but not goods purchased through the app and used in the real world (like sneakers).
The early days were something of the Wild West as entrepreneurs rushed to see what they could sell. At first, the rules seemed simple enough: no scams, no porn, etc. As time went on, however, Apple realized policing its digital realm was going to take a lot of effort. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs wanted to ensure that Apple users were safe.
Eventually, big businesses began to emerge in the App Economy. Facebook had to redo its web-based business for mobile computing. Spotify, the streaming music service, saw huge adoption. Epic Games, maker of expensive video games, started tinkering with smaller iPhone offerings. As those companies executives saw what was possible in the new iPhone world, they grew concerned about the control Apple held over it. They felt Apple was taxing them and controlling access to their users. But they had little recourse.
Very quickly, the mobile computing world boiled down to basically the iPhone and smartphones running on Googles Android operating system. Apple controlled its own hardware and software, while, for the most part, Google controlled its own software and depended on phone makers, such as Samsung, to use its operating system. Google would try to match Apples ecosystem as best as it could, collecting its own 30 percent.
2. Execute, execute, execute.
Apples digital world became known as a Walled Garden because its App Store was essentially the only entrance. Users digital lives grew deeply rooted in that garden. Text messages with non-Apple users would show up as green bubbles instead of blue bubbles. In the abstract, such a subtle difference might seem trivial. But with time, the blue bubbles became a status symbol, another reason to stay inside the Walled Garden. Nobody wanted to go green.
Blue bubble envy was a powerful selling tool.
Some inside Apple discussed offering its popular messaging system to Android users, essentially making its iMessage a rival to WhatsApp. But the idea was continually shot down. Blue bubble envy was a powerful selling tool. As one senior Apple executive argued to his colleagues in an email: In the absence of a strategy to become the primary messaging service for [the] bulk of cell phone users, I am concerned the iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove [an] obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.
Apple was creating a world where consumers wanted to live, and other companies had to operate if they wanted to reach those deep-pocketed users.
3. Trust no one.
Apple prided itself on the idea that it didnt cut special deals with developers to be on the App Store, while Google did, in part, because it wanted to ensure that the hot new games and apps were available in its app store. It also had a disadvantage to Apples Walled Garden. In theory, a user could download software onto an Android device outside of the Google App Store. Though users rarely did because it was so complicated.
Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, grew convinced that the taxes charged by Apple and Google were unfair. The success of his wildly popular video game Fortnite created an opening, he thought, to change how the app economy worked. He wanted to create his own store outside the reach of Apple and Google.
To much fanfare, he attempted to do that for Android phones but eventually found too many barriers to making such a gambit work. In part, other game makers werent rushing to join him. Behind the scenes, Google was offering lucrative deals to game makers to stay in its store. It seemed that Sweeneys idea was great negotiating leverage for other game makers to get a better deal from Google.
Frustrated, Sweeney concluded he needed to challenge the legality of both Apples and Googles control over the app economy, triggering costly court battles that would drag on for many years. Fortnite was also kicked out of the app stores, cut off from the app economy entirely.
4. Sail close to the wind.
Many companies choose the easy way. They settle legal disputes to avoid costly litigation, reputational harm, and the unknown risks associated with public fights. Not Apple. Apple fights. A former top lawyer at Apple once talked about Apples willingness to embrace legal risk as an advantage in fighting rivals.
Not Apple. Apple fights.
Bruce Sewell, who was armed with an annual budget approaching $1 billion, compared his approach to sailing close to the wind. You want to get to the point where you can use risk as a competitive advantagethats the point at which law actually becomes a commercial asset to the company, he once said.
During his time, Apple fought against U.S. government claims that it improperly colluded with book publishers and against European regulators unhappy with its tax deal in Ireland. Ultimately, Apple would lose both battles. But how many other fights did it avoid by scaring off others?
Like Epic Games, Spotify was unhappy with the control Apple held over its streaming business, especially after Apple CEO Tim Cook launched a rival music service that was undercutting Spotifys prices. Instead of challenging Apple in U.S. court, Spotify plotted another path that took it to Europe, where its headquarters was located. It worked with European regulators to develop a case against Apples control, specifically an App Store rule that prohibited developers, such as Spotify, from directing users outside of their app to purchase services not covered by Apples fees.
In Brussels, the home of the European Union, Spotify found a receptive audience, especially among officials who had battled Apple over its tax case and felt like te U.S. tech giant was overreaching. The European Commission would ultimately rule in Spotifys favor against Apple and subsequently pass new laws aimed to weakening Apples control over the App Store.
5. Losing by winning.
Back in the U.S., Apple would mostly win its case against Epics Sweeney. One area that a judge found fault with Apple was its rules prohibiting developers from providing links outside of apps to alternative payment methods. Apple was ordered to stop that practice. At the time, it seemed like a small thing.
But Apple didnt simply allow Epic or Spotify or anyone else to do whatever they wanted. What followed was a complicated effort to make it so burdensome for developers to link out that they would ultimately just stick with Apples own payment system and continue to pay that 30 percent commission.
The issue was a matter of principle.
Fuming, Sweeney sought more help from the court. That would take many more months of fighting before a judge would ultimately find that Apple had violated her order. It was a stunning rebukeone that Apple would appeal. Nevertheless, very quickly, Sweeneys Fortnite was back in the App Store. And Spotify was offering links to outside payment methods.
Sweeney would say the fight would cost his company more than $1 billion in legal fees and lost revenue. But for him, the issue was a matter of principle.
It was a matter of principle for Apple as well. Cook and his executives felt like they had done nothing wrong. To them, it was Sweeney, Spotify, and others who wanted special deals and didnt want to pay their fair share.
In the end, the years-long fight ranks as one of the biggest antitrust battles of the past century. And threatens to remake Apples business.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
The plan started coming together inside a luxury box at MetLife Stadium.As the Premier League’s Chelsea was on its way to a shutout victory at the Club World Cup final in July, President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino were deep in discussion at the New Jersey sports complex outside New York City on another matter: where the draw for next year’s World Cup would be held.The high-drama spectacle decides which teams will face each other in the group stage of soccer’s most prestigious tournament, along with the schedule for competition. It was widely expected to unfold in Las Vegas, home to the 1994 draw when the U.S. last hosted the World Cup and a natural backdrop for glitz. But since at least March, officials had privately discussed bringing the draw to Washington, home to a showman president who regularly hugs the spotlight associated with sports.So during that July match in the stadium that will also host the final game of next year’s World Cup, Trump and Infantino agreed to get going on holding the draw in the U.S. capital namely, the Kennedy Center, another institution that Trump reshaped to his liking.“During that Club World Cup final, there was a real seriousness to well, look, if we’re going to do this, we’ve got to do it now,” Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House FIFA task force, told The Associated Press. “That’s when talks heated up between the president and Mr. Infantino in terms of getting this done.”The collaboration over the draw, slated for Dec. 5, illustrates the bond that has formed between Trump and Infantino, described by the U.S. president as “probably the most respected man in sports.” The relationship will come into even sharper focus as the World Cup approaches, jointly hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.Tickets are now open to fans as major questions hang over the tournament, including how welcome visitors from some countries will be in the U.S. amid its immigration crackdown. Even as the White House pledges openness, Trump has added another uncertainty by suggesting he could move games from cities he thinks are unsafe.
Trump and Infantino develop a deep alliance
Despite his affinity for sports, Trump is known more for his ties to golf and football than soccer. But his awareness of the sport was spurred in part by his youngest son, Barron, who is such a soccer fan that he had a net in the first lady’s garden during Trump’s first term.Trump’s interest only grew when the U.S. won World Cup hosting rights in 2018. Nothing excites Trump like hosting a major event, and Giuliani recalled that, at the time, the president and his aides were almost wistful that he wouldn’t be in the White House when the tournament arrived, assuming he would be well into a post-presidency following an immediate second term.Shortly after the U.S. was awarded the tournament, Trump hosted Infantino at the White House. Infantino, who was also serving his first term as FIFA president, made an impression by handing Trump red and yellow penalty cards, joking they could be used on the press.The relationship flourished in 2020 as both men plotted their futures.During a dinner that January at the global economic summit in Davos, near FIFA’s home in Zurich, Infantino called the U.S. president “my great friend.” Trump, always appreciative of a compliment, responded by inviting Infantino to a White House signing event for the Abraham Accords, which sought to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries.The ceremony happened as Infantino was aligning FIFA’s sporting and commercial ties with Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It followed a pattern of Infantino, much like Trump, cozying up to autocratic leaders.Infantino appeared to relish public meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin before, during and after that country hosted the 2018 World Cup. Visiting Putin at the Kremlin with a group of soccer greats during the tournament, Infantino said he felt “like a child in a toy shop” in Russia. He collected the Russian Order of Friendship from Putin the following year.Infantino would later relocate to Doha ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, emerging as a strong defender of the tiny Gulf state that was fiercely criticized for its treatment of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers needed to build essential stadiums, transport projects and hotels.
Infantino’s connections to Biden were far more limited
As the connection between Trump and Infantino deepened, Joe Biden dashed Trump’s hopes of staying in the White House. For the next four years, Infantino’s ties to Washington were far more limited. The two leaders had a brief meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, a fleeting moment FIFA captured with one photo on its website.Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff also met with Infantino when he traveled for the Women’s World Cup in July 2023.Preparations for the World Cup under Biden were under the radar by design, according to one senior official for that administration who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Even though the administration had its own World Cup 2026 task force, Biden aides were aware of sensitivities surrounding large gatherings so soon after the COVID-19 pandemic.The Biden White House was also careful not to overtly promote a relationship with FIFA, which had sidelined the U.S. Soccer Federation in its traditional role in coordinating a home World Cup. Instead, it negotiates individually with each of the 11 U.S. host cities on security, ticketing and other matters.Infantino visited the White House while Biden was president at least once, meeting for about an hour in 2024 with then-national security adviser Jake Sullivan, an avid soccer fan. Biden officials emphasized to Infantino that they wanted to ensure the host cities ultimately benefited from holding World Cup matches and that the U.S.’s human rights values would be respected.
Trump’s return sets stage for a ‘MAGA’ World Cup
Trump’s disappointment about missing out on the World Cup would prove to be unfounded after he was elected to a second, nonconsecutive term last year.Since that victory, Infantino’s embrace of Trump has been gushing. He promptly congratulated him the day after Election Day, was at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s South Florida club, during the presidential transition and had a prime seat at his January inauguration. Trump called Infantino a “winner” in a video played at the Miami draw for the Club World Cup in December, which was attended by daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.Meanwhile, FIFA has set up shop at Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Infantino worked last month as world leaders gathered nearby for the annual United Nations General Assembly. Infantino and Trump met again last week in New York, along with first lady Melania Trump, according to the FIFA president’s Instagram account.Infantino has teased the idea of Trump doing the draw himself, which Giuliani called the “MAGA-FIFA World Cup draw.”“Just like a great opera, there will be high drama,” Giuliani said.Infantino has had more public appearances with Trump than with any soccer officials from the sport’s heartlands of Europe and South America, according to the FIFA leader’s schedule and social media posts. He was late for his own FIFA Congress in Paraguay in Ma because he was with Trump and the Saudi crown prince in the Middle East, a move seen as disrespectful of his own voters and criticized by Europe’s soccer federations.During Infantino’s most recent appearance at Trump’s side in the Oval Office on Aug. 22, he took even some fellow soccer officials by surprise when he gifted a gold replica World Cup trophy to the U.S. president, saying it was “for winners only.”That handover was unexpected, according to one senior soccer official who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive dynamics. Even though it was a replica, the moment was still seen as a snub of World Cup tradition because Trump has held onto a trophy that is supposed to belong to the sport as a whole, not an individual person.A White House official said the trophy remains in the White House’s possession.No such offer was publicly extended by FIFA to Mexico’s President Claudia Scheinbaum or Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney. Infantino has not met with Carney this year and met Sheinbaum for the first time on Aug. 29.The episode is a reminder of how Infantino can shift with the moment. The man who remarked in Qatar on the eve of the World Cup in November 2022 that “today, I feel (like) a migrant worker” comments interpreted as solidarity with migrants was laughing along with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this year as they bantered about migrants being unable to scale the repainted wall on the U.S. southern border.Infantino has framed his close relationship with Trump as “crucial” to the success of the World Cup, a massive operation that relies on expansive cooperation with federal, state and local governments. Trump’s suggestion that he could move the host cities was a reminder that Infantino is working with a famously impulsive president whose whims could expose FIFA to logistical havoc and legal jeopardy if he followed through.Even without those threats, those involved with World Cup planning said the tournament’s stakes are high because it’s the first in a series of global sporting events hosted by the U.S., including the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.“This needs to go well in order to show the world that if you want to have the best sports and entertainment events, you want to have them in the United States,” said Alex Lasry, CEO of the New York/New Jersey host committee. “I don’t think it’s unusual for a White House to be coordinating and be involved, and I don’t think it’s unusual for the heads of state and for the president to be excited and to be talking about a mega event coming here.”
Dunbar reported from Geneva.
Seung Min Kim and Graham Dunbar, Associated Press
For actors, its the Golden Globes. Musicians, its the Grammys. Now, content creators have their own award to aspire to.
Introducing Instagram Rings.
As social medias place in the entertainment ecosystem grows, the new award program from Instagram is meant to honor those creatives who dont just participate in culture – but shift it, break through whatever barrier holds them back to realize their ambitions, according to a blog post about the launch.
Judged by a panel of creatives spanning fashion and makeup to sports and entertainment, each nominated their own longlist of favorite creators and voted on which 25 of Instagrams three billion users will be among the first to receive the honor.
The panel includes Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, filmmaker Spike Lee, designers Marc Jacobs and Grace Wales Bonner, tech influencer Marques Brownlee, and others.
As well as a physical ring designed by Wales Bonner, the winners also received a unique digital golden ring for their Instagram profile and Stories.
When we thought about how to bring this to life, we wanted winners to be celebrated in a way thats uniquely Instagram, the blog post explained. We know the profile is an important space for creators to show who they are and what theyre about – so when winners post a story, an exclusive gold ring will show up around their profile picture, in place of the usual Stories ring.
The soon-to-be-announced winners will also have a chance to customize their profile backdrop color and show off their creativity with their own twist on the like button.
The photo sharing platform has been busy this year, dropping new features at breakneck speed. Just this year, theres been the Blend feature launch, followed by the Maps feature, the Schools feature. Instagram is also rolling out the first official iPad app. Most recently came the news that Reels may soon become the new default tab upon opening the app.
But as the platform leans into Content with a capital C, with the ability to post a simple photo now obfuscated with endless customization options, the app has come a long way from when a grainy snap of your morning coffee was worthy of a main grid post.
