The Supreme Court said Monday that it will hear from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars in damage linked to climate change.
The conservative-majority court agreed to take up a case from Boulder, Colorado, one of multiple lawsuits alleging the companies deceived the public about how fossil fuels contribute to climate change.
Governments around the country have sought damages totaling billions of dollars, arguing it’s necessary to help pay for rebuilding after wildfires, rising sea levels and severe storms worsened by climate change. The lawsuits come amid a wave of legal actions in states including California, Hawaii and New Jersey and worldwide seeking to leverage action through the courts.
The case out of Boulder County will likely have implications for those other lawsuits.
Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil appealed to the Supreme Court after Colorados highest court let the Boulder case proceed. The companies argue emissions are a national issue that should be heard in federal court, where similar suits have been tossed out.
The use of state law to address global climate change represents a serious threat to one of our Nations most critical sectors, attorneys wrote.
President Donald Trump‘s administration weighed in to support the companies and urge the justices to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court decision, saying it would mean every locality in the country could sue essentially anyone in the world for contributing to global climate change.
Trump, a Republican, criticized the lawsuits in an executive order, and the Justice Department has sought to head some off in court.
Attorneys for Boulder had agued that the litigation is still in early stages and should stay in state court. There is no constitutional bar to states addressing in-state harms caused by out-of-state conduct, be it the negligent design of an automobile or sale of asbestos, they wrote.
City officials said the case was about dealing with problems people are facing in Colorado. Our case is, fundamentally, about fairness. Boulder is already experiencing the effects of a rapidly warming climate, and the financial burden of adaptation should not fall solely on local taxpayers,” said Jonathan Koehn, its climate initiatives director.
The Supreme Court also asked the two sides to present arguments on whether the case is truly ready to be heard by the justices. Arguments are expected in the fall.
Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press
Author and alternative medicine guru Deepak Chopra is the latest celebrity to come under scrutiny after the Department of Justice (DOJ) released more than three million pages of files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
A slew of famous names pop up in the DOJ’s files, released on January 30, including business leaders like Casey Wasserman and powerful politicians like former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Chopra was among them, and a new investigation from CNN reveals the extent of his ties with Epstein.
On February 4, Chopra posted on X defending his appearance in the files and distancing himself from Epsteins crimes, which include operating a sex-trafficking ring and sexually abusing underage girls.
I want to be clear: I was never involved in, nor did I participate in, any criminal or exploitative conduct. Any contact I had was limited and unrelated to abusive activity, he wrote. Some past email exchanges have surfaced that reflect poor judgment in tone. I regret that and understand how they read today, given what was publicly known at the time.
Fast Company has reached out to Deepak Chopra for further comment.
I am deeply saddened by the suffering of the victims in this case, and I unequivocally condemn abuse and exploitation in all forms.I want to be clear: I was never involved in, nor did I participate in, any criminal or exploitative conduct. Any contact I had was limited and— Deepak Chopra (@DeepakChopra) February 4, 2026
Now, those email exchanges are under scrutiny, particularly Chopras frequent references to Epsteins girls.
Chopra and Epstein maintained frequent contact over text and email from 2016 to 2019, the year that Epstein was arrested. Their messages, which number in the hundreds, according to reports, also indicate several in-person meetings at Epsteins properties in New York City, Paris, and South Florida.
In at least two exchanges, Chopra encouraged Epstein to bring his girls on trips. In 2017, he wrote, If you want use a fake name. Bring your girls, while inviting Epstein to Israel, later adding, Your girls would love it as would you. Later that year, Chopra invited Epstein to Switzerland, again inviting him to come with your girls. It is unconfirmed if Epstein accepted these invitations, nor is it clear the age of the girls Chopra referenced.
Girls frequently came up in Epstein and Chopras conversations. In 2017, while discussing philosophy, Chopra wrote to Epstein, God is a construct Cute girls are real. In 2016, after sending Epstein a video of himself with actress Kat Foster, Chopra described her as innocent and smart at the same time, to which Epstein replied, secondary to cute. Over text, the two once discussed Chopras apparent seduction of a woman whose name was redacted. Epstein wrote, I liked watching you zero in on your prey. Made me smile. Chopra responded: I not a predator Just a lover.
Chopra also expressed support for Epstein in early 2019 ahead of his arrest in July. In a text exchange, Chopra said he was sending love to Epstein from India. Epstein replied, Can you send it in female form.
In a later exchange, Epstein complained about another round of very bad press. Chopak advised him to Stay silent and Meditate. When Epstein reached out again noting the toxicity of my press, Chopak replied, I am not concerned about that.
Being named in the Epstein files is not necessarily indicative of wrongdoing. Chopra maintains his innocence: A recent video circulating on X shows Chopra being approached at an airport and asked about his appearance in the Epstein files. Chopra replied: No misconduct. Zero.
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Back on January 7, President Donald Trump announced: I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it. On January 20, Trump went further, outlining elements of the proposed ban.
The order directed multiple federal agenciesincluding HUD, the Department of Agriculture, the VA, the GSA, and the Federal Housing Finance Agencyto issue guidance within 60 days limiting the federal governments role in facilitating institutional purchases of single-family homes that could otherwise be bought by owner-occupants.
Specifically, within 60 days, the government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) would no longer be permitted to approve, insure, guarantee, or securitize single-family home purchases by large institutional investors. The order also stated that, within 30 days, the administration would define large institutional investors and that build-to-rent transactions would be exempt.
On Thursday (February 19), the Wall Street Journal reported that the White House has settled on a key detail of its proposed banone it plans to send to Congressprohibiting large investors, defined as entities owning 100 or more homes, from purchasing additional single-family houses.
Because the threshold is set at 100 homes, the policy would affect not just major institutional landlords, but also some larger individual investors. The plan still includes the build-to-rent exemption and adds another carveout: large investors can continue to purchase homes in need of significant repair.
Those two proposed exemptions are notable given that most institutional activity right now is in build-to-rent, and when purchasing scattered-site homes, institutional investorsat least when they are actively buyingtend to target properties that require sizable renovation spending.
Notably, this proposal would not mandate large investors to liquidate existing holdings.
The measure announced on Thursday would need congressional approval, and its prospects are uncertain. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, passage is still far from guaranteed.
At the height of the Pandemic Housing Boom, large investorsthose owning at least 100 single-family homesmade up an all-time high of 3.1% of home purchases in Q2 2022, according to John Burns Research and Consulting.
That period, at the tail end of the boom, was when yields were particularly attractive as borrowing costs were ultra-low, home prices were soaring, and rents were climbing rapidly. However, since mortgage rates spiked and capital markets shifted, their share has fallen to around 1.0% of transactions over the past three years. The math isnt as favorable right now.
ResiClub members (paid tiers) can find an interactive version of the map below here
On a national level, large investorsthose owning at least 100 single-family homesonly own around 1% of total single-family housing stock.
That said, in a handful of regional housing markets, institutional and large single-family landlords have a much larger presence. Markets like Phoenix and Atlanta became major hubs for institutional single-family rental investment following the 2008 housing crash as the asset class started to institutionalize.
Firms such as Invitation Homes, Progress Residential, and AMH built sizable portfolios in these metros by acquiring distressed homes. That early activity helped establish a reliable local SFR ecosystemincluding property management firms, leasing infrastructure, and contractor networksthat makes it easier to scale and expand single-family rental and build-to-rent operations today.
A turf war has broken out between the fandoms of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones over the highest-rated episode spot on IMDb.
Released last month, the Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, set a century before the events of the HBO drama, has garnered much praise. A Guardian reviewer said it has “saved the Game of Thrones universe.”
Fans appear to agree, as the fifth episode, In the Name of the Mother, which aired February 15, briefly secured a rare 10/10 rating on IMDb. Unfortunately for fans, it didnt last long.
For over a decade, Ozymandiasthe 14th episode of the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad, and the climax of the serieshad been the only television episode to secure a perfect 10 rating on IMDb. Its an accolade fans werent prepared to give up lightly.
Taking matters into their own hands, according to reports across Reddit and X, fans of the crime drama started review-bombing the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode with one-star ratings to tank its score.
The Ozymandias episode of BREAKING BAD has dropped to a 9.9 on IMDb.It held a 10/10 rating on the platform for almost 13 years. pic.twitter.com/9zLtW00a01— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 20, 2026
One IMDb reviewer admitted as much, writing, I like this episode. I like this show overall. Hell, I love this episode. But… its not 1% as good as the episode mentioned in the title of this review is. I therefore decide the leave this one star review in order to defend the number one episode.
What followed was an all-out review-bombing war between the two fandoms. On the IMDb review page for Ozymandias, a slew of reviews titled “The Lannisters Send Their Regards or Winter came for Breaking Bad! The North remembers started appearing.
Meanwhile, of the hundreds of one-star reviews A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has accumulated on IMDb so far, many hit back “in the name of walter white” or “For Heisenberg.”
For the first time in 13 years, the Breaking Bad episode lost its perfect score on the site. At the time of writing, neither episode is in the top 10 list on the platformor even the top 100.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, now with an average score of 9.5, sits at number 519 on the best TV episode ranking. Ozymandias, now with an average score of 9.6, has dropped to number 461.
The only winner here? Six Feet Under, which has now slipped into the top spot.
AI is reshaping how work gets done in institutions, both public and private. However, the impact is unevenconsumer AI chat interfaces like ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and Gemini are fundamentally mismatched to the realities of government work.
That doesnt mean government agencies arent turning to AI. They cannot hire their way to capacity, so theyre looking to technology to lighten the load. More than half of local governments report difficulty filling positions, a problem especially potent in larger metros. San Franciscos local government, for example, has more than 4,700 open positions. Since 2020, state government employment has increased, but much of that is a bounce-back from the pandemic, not true growth needed to deliver services with the efficacy governments want.
But drop-in chatbots cant make a significant impact on operations because data within government agenciesand even within individual departments in agenciesis exceedingly siloed. State and local governments are managing budget constraints. IT teams are stretched thin. Its no surprise, then, that consumer AI tools dont meet their promise in government institutions. They fundamentally lack all the information they need to be effective in a public service context.
THE TOOL GAP
Commercial software tools, including AI chatbots, are built for private companies with hierarchies, contracts, and linear processes. Government work is inherently different. Public institutions are cross-organizational, the work is omnidirectional, and success necessitates constant collaboration across agencies, nonprofits, and community partners.
Emergency management departments, for example, must identify points of contact within local police departments, fire departments, sheriffs offices, emergency medical services, utility companies, FEMA regional offices, and community emergency response teams to effectively deliver their servicecoordinating disaster response and recovery operations.
The sum of these problemsfrom data siloes to budget constraints to technological roadblocksis that consumer AI struggles in government institutions because these tools lack the necessary context. Try asking ChatGPT Provide our current reimbursement process or Create a survey to gather feedback on the latest heat season coordination. These are tasks that require explicit, non-public knowledge. To execute such tasks, AI needs not only access to data that lives across disparate systems, but also governance and rules specifying which definition is best suited for each purpose. And even if you get a good answer, traditional AI is not built to help users know what to do next.
THE PATH FORWARD
Embedding AI is the path forward to deploy AI in government, effectively overcoming data silos to tackle inter-organizational work. Embeddedness refers to AI that lives directly within the platforms where work happens, within coordination, memory, and decision-making systemsnot inside a chatbot.
Government is uniquely suited to benefit from AI thats truly embedded because it has the perfect raw material to make AI maximally useful: conversations, decisions, workflows, institutional memory, and loads of information. In other words, government has context. Unfortunately, most AI chatbots today assume their users work inside of a single organization, and therefore only need context from one organizations systems.
For government, thats not the reality.
A homelessness coordinator in Essex County or an election administrator in New York isn’t just working at one organization: they’re juggling relationships, meetings, decisions, and shared knowledge across constantly shifting agencies, nonprofits, contractors, and community partners. The hardest parts are aligning, coordinating, remembering, onboarding, and maintaining shared understanding across people who come and go.
Because government work is inherently lateral, true embedded AI has information not only across one organizations systems but also across its partners systems, too. Taking the idea of embeddedness one step further, its vital for AI to seemingly disappear into public servants workflows. If AI is one more tool, one more thing government employees must be trained on, then AI is notembedded in the way it needs to be.
Public servants dont want or need another new widget. They need technology that helps them do what they do faster, better, and more accurately. That is embedded AI.
Consider this example: Its common for certain AI tools to send a summary and action items after a meeting. But embedded AI goes further. It would ask the user if they wanted a follow up email to socialize action items. It could draft the follow-up email, too. Then, after a couple of days, the embedded AI would surface engagement data, showing that someone assigned an action item hasnt read the follow-up email, and the AI would ask the user if they want a follow-up email, and then draft the note.
When a public servant is searching for information, the next step is usually to read it to send something to somebody or take an action. AI that supports that next step without explicit prompting or forcing the user to switch tools is the kind of technology that can help public servants better deliver services more quickly. This is the shift that accelerates action.
THE END GOAL
Its vital we do not lose sight of the goal. State and local governments are where the rubber meets the road, turning rules into real servicesfrom handling daily operations to helping low-income people get nutrition assistance, providing veterans services, supporting people experiencing homelessness, and everything in between.
Yes, chatbots and similar tools can help one person be more effective. But when AI is embedded, benefits are magnified; people and entire programs are faster and more effective. That means the people who rely upon municipal government services are better served.
And that is the ultimate promise of technology, like embedded AI efficiently deployed in governmentbetter communities for all.
Madeleine Smith is the CEO and cofounder of Civic Roundtable.
For years, retail investors were dismissed by some on Wall Street as “dumb money.”That typically referred to those prone to trading on hype, or chasing trends rather than company or industry fundamentals, or responding late to big market moves.That’s no longer the case. An analysis of where retail investors put their money last year shows they outperformed two of the most popular, professionally managed index funds, SPY and QQQ, whose goal is to mirror the performance of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively.Retail investors accounted for $5.4 trillion in trading activity in 2025 across stocks and exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, according to Vanda, an independent data and research firm. That’s a nearly 47% increase from the previous year and the most going back to at least 2014.“I personally want to dispel the myth of retail being dumb money, because it’s not dumb money anymore,” said Joe Mazzola, head trading and derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab, at an investor education event held in Anaheim, California, last November that drew around 800 of the financial services company’s clients.Many Americans have long invested in the stock market, although largely hands-off through managed funds in retirement plans, such as a 401(k). But over the last decade, the advent of mobile trading apps, zero-commission trading, stock market-focused communities on social media and online tools for education and research has helped usher in a new era of do-it-yourself trading in stocks, crypto and other investments.The COVID-19 lockdowns were an inflection point. A new crop of investors, many young newcomers using investing apps like Robinhood, helped drive the “meme stock” frenzy that catapulted the price of GameStop, AMC Entertainment and other stocks.Meme stocks aside, years of mostly uninterrupted, strong stock market gains provided an attractive backdrop for more people to take up investing. The benchmark S&P 500 has posted an annual loss only three times going back to 2015.By early last year, the number of people moving money from checking accounts to investment accounts reached its highest levels since 2021, according to a report by JPMorgan Chase. Some may have been younger Americans who couldn’t afford to buy a house and instead put the money in stocks, the report suggests.All told, money coming into the market from individual investors jumped about 50% from 2023 to early 2025, according to the report.“I would say they are considerably more important as a force in markets right now,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “Markets used to be really dominated by institutional investors, but if you put enough ants together, they can move a very big log.”
Buying the dip
Frank Sabia from Encino, California, started dabbling in investing in 2018. Over the years, he’s leveled up his market and trading knowledge by joining private investor chat groups online or attending investing seminars like Schwab’s.“I learned a lot more about options strategies and charting and everything from there,” he said in an interview in November. “Now I’m independent. I just look for my own trades. I have my own strategy. I hunt on my own.”Sabia, a high school registrar, said he trades in cryptocurrencies and other assets, but that his “bread and butter” is options trading.That involves trading contracts to buy or sell a stock at a specific price before a specified date. This can be less costly upfront than buying stocks, but can also be riskier, because options expire and a small move in a stock’s price can translate into a big swing in the value of options contracts.Last April, Sabia opened a Roth IRA account and bought into the market as stocks tanked after President Donald Trump announced a sweeping set of tariffs that were more severe than investors expected. The announcement sent the S&P 500 into a two-day tailspin of more than 10%, the type of plunge not seen since the 2020 COVID crash.“I just bought the dip,” Sabia said.He was wasn’t alone. Retail investors seized on the market skid, buying more than $5 billion in stocks over the two days, according to Vanda.“In April, it was retail (investors) that bought the dip,” Mazzola said. “They were the ones that were willing to step in front. They saw the opportunity.”Retail investors also had one of their biggest buy-the-dip days of the year on Oct. 10, when the market dropped 2.7% after Trump threatened a “massive increase on tariffs” on China.
The AI trade and silver
Retail investors haven’t slowed down this year. Their trading activity hit an all-time high on a rolling monthly basis last month, according to J.P. Morgan. They were particularly active in the last week of January, coinciding with the S&P 500 climbing to an all-time high.Retail traders also had a hand in turbocharging the price of silver last month to record highs by buying a record amount of silver ETFs, according to data from Vanda.A recent analysis by Charles Schwab of trading and stock positions by its millions of retail investor clients found they were net buyers of stocks in January, with Microsoft, Netflix and Tesla among the most popular stock buys.
Some take on more risk
Many retail investors have gone beyond stocks or ETFs and into other investment vehicles. Options trading, which can expose them to higher risk, accounted for about $650 billion of retail investors’ trading last year and has been mostly rising steadily going back to at least 2019, according to Vanda.Noah Goodwin, a junior in high school in the L.A. suburb of Castaic, started options trading on Robinhood Markets early last year using in his mother’s custodial account. It paid off right away.He bought $148 worth of Nvidia options on Jan. 20, 2025, the same day shares of the tech giant plunged on news of AI advances by Chinese startup DeepSeek.Goodwin sold his options later that day.“I made a $200 profit. My very first trade!” Goodwin said in an interview in November.Not all his trades have gone his way. In July, he thought he could capitalize on market volatility caused by more uncertainty over tariffs, but he miscalculated.“I lost a lot of money, like probably like around $600 to $800,” he said. “So, a horrible month for me.”“For the most part, with only some exceptions, buying the dip has tended to be a very profitable tactic for many retail investors,” said Sosnick. But he cautioned that the strategy had led to retail investors making trading decisions without giving full consideration to the risks and rewards.“The risk to it is that for many of them it’s become sort of mechanical,” he said.
Balancing short-term and long-term trading
It’s not uncommon for retail investors to strike a balance between higher-risk moves and making trades to build out a long-term investment portfolio.Andy Hu, a financial analyst in Los Angeles who attended the Schwab event in November, said he had 50% of his investment portfolio in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, a popular fund that aims to track the performance of the S&P 500.For his short-term trades, he tends to buy micro-cap stocks, which are very small publicly traded companies that can see big swings in price because of small trading volume.The approach had his active trading account up by around 20% through the first 11 months of last year, he said.Hu stopped making trades toward the end of last year when a pullback in big tech companies helped drag the S&P 500 to a monthly loss in December, clouding sentiment on Wall Street.“I haven’t made a single trade in the last two months,” Hu said.
Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
The American promise is one of equal opportunity, but in most of our communities today, access to the resources that enable prosperity are too far out of reach.
Thats because there is one unseen factor that influences who is able to thrive and who cannot: capital. The flow of capital into communities has a dramatic effect on which kind of people can open small businesses, buy homes, and generally participate in the American Dream.
Places that are already thriving are able to easily access capital. Banks see these neighborhoods as a safe bet and will readily support the opening of new businesses, construction of new homes, and mortgage lending. But those places that are strugglingand have been strugglingdo not receive the same treatment. These are the inner-city neighborhoods, the rural communities, and the suburban areas that have been abandoned.
There are some capital options for these under-resourced communities. Nonprofit and community banks offer concessionary loans, and government grants help fill gaps. For example, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law helped drive $28.3 billion in federal grants to over 1,500 cities, according to the National League of Cities.
But this is not enough. We need a different way to think about capital to drive the prosperity that has been out of reach for too many for too long.
THE 3 TYPES OF CAPITAL
Decades of redlining, exclusionary lending, and the uneven distribution of government funds have created entrenched divisions in American communities. Despite legal reforms, barriers to capital still persist, including higher burdens for lending placed on marginalized groups, discrimination against those groups, and capital providers simply not showing up for these places. Over 12 million Americans live in a banking desert, with no bank close by. These deserts are rural and urban, but also overwhelmingly suburban: two thirds of banking deserts are in suburban areas.
Overcoming these barriers is not as simple as getting more money out to communities that need it. Communities need ways to not only absorb the capital, but use it. Offering money is not enough; the dollars must be combined with expertise and knowledge to help get it to the people who actually need it.
At Living Cities, we have identified three different types of capital that lead to prosperity:
1. Financial capital: Funds, credit, and investment needed to start businesses, buy homes, and generally support community growth. Systemic gaps in creditworthiness, collateral requirements, and bias in financing limit the spread of financial capital.
2. Social capital: Networks of trust, mentorship, and informal connections that open doors to opportunity.
Research shows social capital is strongly associated with upward mobility and improved economic outcomes, with limited networks leading to lower rates of entrepreneurship and employment. Not all communities have equal access. Decades of segregation and underinvestment have eroded social infrastructure in marginalized neighborhoods.
3. Knowledge capital: Information, skills, and know-how required to navigate business, government, and civic systems.
When you have financial capital, but lack knowledge of regulatory systems, market trends, and grant opportunities, the capital cant get to where it’s most needed and most effective. Knowledge capital is a multiplier: pairing capital with business training or legal literacy increases success rates for entrepreneurs.
THE CAPITAL EQUATION IN ACTION
Only when all three types of capital come together can the cycle of exclusion be broken. Offering only one isnt enough.
For example, small business programs that blend loans (financial), local business incubators (social), and technical training (knowledge) see higher success rates than those providing only cash infusions. Our Breaking Barriers to Business cohort is leveraging all three types of capital to create and execute projects that create jobs through hands-on small business assistance.
Cities should audit procurement, zoning, and economic development policies to identify the gaps in all types of capital access, not only financial capital. Any federal and philanthropic interventions should require grantees to demonstrate not only financial investment but strategies for bridging social and knowledge capital divides.
TOWARD INCLUSIVE GROWTH
Equitable capital flow is about more than headline numbers. Its about shifting the deeper patterns that determine who gets to build the future. By understanding and reshaping capital flows, cities can fire up new engines of shared prosperity.
Joe Scantlebury is president and CEO of Living Cities.
Authoritarian acolytes will tell you that, to be strong, a country must demonstrate force.
White House advisor Stephen Miller recently put that worldview plainly on CNN, arguing that the real worldis governed by strengthby forceby powera claim belied, as it were, by history.
America did not become a superpower primarily by proving it could dominate. It became a superpower by proving it could partner.
After World War II, the United States stood unrivaled militarily. Yet it did not rely on force alone to secure its position. Instead, it invested in rebuilding a shattered world. The Marshall Plan was not charityit was a strategy, linking economic recovery with political stability and turning war-torn nations into long-term allies. By helping others prosper, the U.S. increased its own security and economic future. That is soft power at work.
Dwight Eisenhower, a five-star general, advanced the idea that diplomacy is not the sole province of governments, and that when people know you, they are less likely to fear you. And when they trust you, they are more likely to collaborate with you. John F. Kennedy carried that logic forward with the Peace Corps. The program sent a clear signal that American power included service, partnership, and humility. In a Cold War offering competing models to aspire to, that mattered, and it continues to matter today.
THE ROLE OF SOFT POWER
Soft power was never intended to be solely a government project. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States again faced a pivotal choice: declare victory and walk away or support the hard work of transition. Out of that moment emerged citizen diplomacy initiatives like what later became Pyxera Globalformed at the behest of the George H.W. Bush White House that called for a Citizens Democracy Corps to mobilize private-sector volunteer expertise to help planned-economy societies build market economies and democratic institutions.
Alongside these efforts, agencies like USAID institutionalized development as a pillar of U.S. foreign policyinvesting for decades in health, education, food security, and economic growth as tools of stability and influence. That modelpublic purpose paired with private capabilityhas always been central to Americas soft power.
There are certainly many situations and geographies where U.S. engagement fell woefully short. Still, taken together, these efforts point to a simple conclusion: Americas influence has been strongest when it was most usefulnot most intimidating. Soft power was never a weaknessit was leverage.
That history matters now. When the U.S. government pulls back from development, diplomacy, and partnership, the vacuum does not remain empty. Other forces are surely eager to fill it with transactional relationships, debt dependence, and authoritarian influence.
If Washington is narrowing its role now, the private sector faces a choice of its own. It can retreat inward, treating global instability as someone elses problem. Or it can recognize a simple truth: A stable world is a prerequisite for sustainable business. Soft power is not philanthropy. It is long-term risk management.
HOW BUSINESS CAN STEP INTO THE GAP
None of the following actions is a substitute for government. But they represent a sampling of ways that global business now has the opportunityand the capacityto step into the vacuum.
Normalize board service as leadershipnot a side project. Encouraging executives to serve on nonprofit and civic boards strengthens institutions at a time of severe resource constraints, when we need them to function well. It also builds empathy, governance skills, and real-world decision-making capacity, qualities companies claim to value in leaders.
Scale skills-based volunteering. Finance, compliance, cybersecurity, HR, and logistics are some of the skills that many public and nonprofit institutions cannot easily access. Deploying them fills a dire resource gap while meeting employee demand for purpose-driven work that uses real expertise.
Double down on supply-chain resilience as a form of stability. Diversifying suppliers, investing in transparency, and ensuring local equity reduce exposure to disruption and coercion. Resilient supply chains are not just good businessthey help anchor opportunity and stability in the places where companies operate.
Expand community-driven initiatives where companies operate. Corporate success cannot sustainably outpace community well-being. Health, nutrition, education pipelines, workforce training, and local economic development are not public relations gesturesthey are investments in human capital, social cohesion, and long-term operational continuity.
THE POWER OF PARTNERING
Taken together, and implemented at scale, these actions underscore a simple truth: strength is not only the ability to strikeit is the ability to attract, rebuild, and partner. And if Washington continues to pull back from soft power, global business can advance something new, durable, and worth trusting.
Deirdre White is the CEO of Pyxera Global.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E cruises down a London road choked with traffic, using its onboard AI system to avoid jaywalkers and cyclists, and navigate roadwork as it drives to its destination.The autonomous vehicle from British startup Wayve Technologies is on a test run ahead of the U.K. government’s robotaxi trials set to launch in the spring. Tech companies including U.S. company Waymo and China’s Baidu also plan to take part in the pilot program, making London the latest arena in the global robotaxi competition.While self-driving cabs aren’t new, London’s ancient road layout and busy streetscapes could pose special challenges for the technology.There’s also skepticism from London’s famed black cab drivers, who must pass a grueling training course known as “The Knowledge,” which requires memorizing hundreds of routes and takes years to complete. They’ve previously opposed technology that’s disrupted their industry, and protested the arrival of Uber.Self-driving taxis are “a solution looking for a problem,” said Steven McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, which represents black cabbies.He doubts that robotaxis would have any advantage on London’s road network, which is laid out in a convoluted spiderweb that dates back to Roman times unlike the grid layout in American cities like San Francisco and Phoenix where Waymo operates.The British capital is notorious for being one of the world’s most congested cities and its streets are already clogged with other modes of transport, including private cars, buses, motor scooters, bicycles and electric rental bikes.McNamara and many others have noted that robotaxis face another challenge from pedestrians crossing the streets. While jaywalking is illegal in the United States and many other countries, it’s not an offense in Britain.“It’s virtually impossible to drive anywhere (in London) without somebody walking in front of you,” McNamara said. In London, with a population of nearly 10 million, he wondered “how these cars are going to deal with those volumes of people?”The robotaxi companies say there’s room for the new technology.“I think Londoners are going to love autonomous driving. It’s going to be another choice alongside the Tube, cycling, walking, “said Wayve CEO Alex Kendall in a recent interview at the company’s workshop.Wayve is teaming up with Uber for the taxi trials, which are part of Britain’s move to adopt national regulations for self-driving vehicles. The nation is seeking to position itself as a world leader in the technology.Chinese tech company Baidu is also teaming up with Uber, as well as its ride-hailing rival Lyft, to operate its Apollo Go autonomous vehicle service in the London pilot.Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, will also take part and plans to launch a London passenger service by the third quarter of 2026, company representatives told reporters last month.Waymo officials sought to ease concerns that the company would suddenly flood London streets with robotaxis, noting that it has operated 1,000 total vehicles in San Francisco since going into full service in 2024.“We’re not here to replace anyone,” Waymo spokesman Ethan Teicher said. “We’re here to add another option for people who will choose to take black cabs or other modes of transportation when it suits them and choose to take Waymo, when it makes sense.”Waymo’s self-driving Jaguar I-Pace sedans have been spotted doing test runs around London. Wayve’s Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles have also been doing road tests with human backup drivers sitting behind the wheel, ready to intervene if needed.On a recent demo ride for The Associated Press, Wayve’s Ford steered automatically through a three-mile (five kilometer) loop in North London without any problems.Cruising down a straight and open stretch of road, the car maintained a steady pace of 19 miles (30 kilometers) per hour, a tick under the speed limit.A traffic light changed as the car approached, forcing it to brake firmly and lightly jolting the passengers forward the only moment that the driving was less than smooth.Kendall said Wayve takes a different approach from traditional self-driving technology. It doesn’t rely on “high definition” maps and “hand-coded” safety systems rules written by programmers anticipating every scenario.Instead, it uses an AI trained on millions of hours of data gathered by its cars to learn and understand how the world works.“This is the key thing for self-driving, because every time you drive on the road, you’re going to experience something different,” Kendall said. “You can’t rely on a self-driving car being told how to behave in every scenario it encounters.”He said Wayve is positioning itself as a technology company providing hardware and software that can be added to any vehicle to make it autonomous. It signed a deal with Nissan in December to build self-driving cars that will go on sale in Japan and North America by 2027.Kendall wouldn’t reveal any more specific details about the robotaxi service it will operate in collaboration with Uber, such as pricing.Waymo, which has its own app to hail rides, will have “competitive” prices and fares will be in line with the market, officials said last month, while adding that it is often able to “demand more premium pricing.”Experts say there’s a role for robotaxis in Britain, but it might be a niche one.They’re best poised to fill gaps in Britain’s public transport network, such as serving villages that have lost bus services connecting them to bigger towns and cities because of budget cuts, said Kevin Vincent, director of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Automotive Research at Coventry University.There will still be demand for human drivers, especially from out-of-town visitors and tourists, he said.If you find a “cab driver who knows the area, you can ask him questions. You feel confident and comfortable you’re going where you need to go,” which is a service that won’t be easily replaced in the short term, Vincent said.Self-driving taxis can’t replicate the human touch, said Frank O’Beirne, who has been driving black cabs for 14 years.For example, one of his recent fares was a pair of blind passengers going to touristy Leicester Square. He ended up parking at a cab rank and walking them across the street to their destination, a Chinese restaurant that turned out to be in the basement of a casino.“They would never have found that, ever, (on their own),” said O’Beirne. “There’s nothing like us. I can’t see the space where autonomous taxis can operate, really.”
Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer
For the last several years, enterprises have treated AI as something to test. A pilot here, a proof of concept there. That era is ending. According to new global DeepL research, a survey of 5,000 global executives on the impact of AI agents reshaping business, 69% expect AI agents to fundamentally change how their companies operate in 2026. Nearly half anticipate major transformation, while another quarter say that change is already underway.
This moment didnt arrive overnight. While 2025 was the year agentic AI moved from theory to application, enterprises are making the shift structural this year. Leaders are no longer asking whether AI works but rather deciding where AI agents belong inside their operating model. As tools mature and agentic systems become capable of coordinating work across functions, AI agents are unlocking new opportunitiesnot just automating tasks. By eliminating manual coordination, AI agents enable organizations to move faster and smarter, enabling the creativity, problem-solving depth, and judgment that turn velocity into measurable value.
Yet, when it comes to scaling agents and validating their investment, most organizations remain stuck in pilot mode. McKinsey reports that while 62% of companies are experimenting with agents, only 10% are scaling them across a single function, and just 32% of leaders report an impact on EBIT at the enterprise level. The gap between early adopters and those who hold out will widen in 2026not because of trial and error, but execution.
Three shifts will define this gaphow enterprises automate core operations, deploy AI for growth, and build the communication infrastructure agents require.
AUTOMATE THE CORE
AI agents are no longer confined to experimentation or pilots. Enterprises are deploying them into operational workflows like processing returns in customer service, investigating customer complaints, automating approvals and ticketing, supporting prospect and competitor research in sales and marketing, and optimizing working capital in finance. Whats changing is continuity. Instead of accelerating individual tasks, organizations are increasingly making agents responsible for managing handoffs between themreducing friction.
Looking at AI agent adoption more broadly, DeepLs research shows global executives cite proven ROI and efficiency (22%), workforce adaptability (18%), and enterprise readiness (18%) as the primary reasons they feel confident expanding agent deployment. Results, not optimism, are driving this shift.
At the same time, known barriers are beginning to soften. Cost (16%), workforce preparedness (13%), and technology maturity (12%) remain challenges, but enterprises are actively addressing them as they gain experience operating agents in production environments.
The real risk now is inaction. Organizations that fail to identify which workflows should be automated first keep valuable talent focused on low-leverage workwhile competitors redesign operations around intelligent systems. Customer service offers a clear example. Companies like Perk are deploying AI agents to take on routine operational work in customer support, while human agents focus on complex, relationship-driven scenarios.
As Tom Davis, senior director of operational excellence at Perk, notes: When weve got travelers stuck in airports, we want our humans focused on those momentsand in the background, a machine of AI handling the grunt work. That division allows human agents to focus on high-stakes relationship work while AI agents manage operational tasks at scale.
AI AS A GROWTH ENGINE
AI is no longer confined to cost reduction. Its becoming a driver of growth.
The broader AI landscape shows strong momentum: 67% of executives reported measurable impact from AI initiatives in 2025, and 52% expect AI to contribute more to company growth than any other technology in 2026.
Enterprises seeing the strongest returns are applying AI across revenue-generating functionscustomer service, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT supportrather than limiting it to back-office automation. The competitive advantage comes from scale and integration, not just isolated use cases.
But the real gain isnt just efficiencyits faster, higher-quality decision making. As b2ventures noted in their work with AI agents, the technology helps them make higher-quality investment decisions faster because agents excel at evaluating companies and surfacing insights that inform critical choices.
According to DeepLs research, leaders in the UK (80%), Germany (78%), and the U.S. (71%) are seeing measurable performance gains from AI initiatives. This underscores that execution and organizational readiness are just as important as access to technology when it comes to turning AI into a strategic advantage.
Ignoring AI in growth-critical areas is no longer conservative. Its a strategic risk, particularly in sectors where margins and customer expectations are shifting fast.
LANGUAGE AND VOICE AI
As AI agents move deeper into enterprise workflows, theyre changing how people interact with software itself. Instead of clicking through dashboards or submitting forms, employees increasingly instruct systems through natural language. In an agent-driven operating model, language becomes the primary user interface. This is the mechanism through which work gets done.
That shift raises the stakes for fluency and accuracy. When language is the interface, a mistranslated prompt or misunderstood instruction doesnt just slow down communication; it can derail an entire workflow. For enterprises scaling agents across teams and regions, language precision becomes a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
This is reflected in enterprise priorities where 64% of companies plan to increase investment in language AI in 2026, while organizations expect adoption of real-time voice translation to rise to 54%. These investments arent standalone initiatives. They are foundational to making AI agents reliable, scalable, and effective.
EXECUTION, NOT EXPERIMENTATION
This year, the organizations experiencing the biggest impacts will stop experimenting with AI and start embedding AI agents into core operations and applying them across growth-critical functions. By turning AI into a strategic advantage, these companies will streamline operations, make better decisions, and unlock measurable business value. Those who delay will watch the gap grow as early adopters accelerate ahead.
Jarek Kutylowski is the CEO and founder of DeepL.
