Hitting the breaks: The crisis enveloping Volkswagen, the world’s top-selling carmaker, escalated this morning as the company issued a profit warning following a stunning admission that some 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide were fitted with software at the center of a U.S. emissions scandal. The Associated Press reports the German company announced it is setting aside around $7.3 billion to cover the fallout from the scandal that has tarnished VW’s reputation, raised questions over the future of CEO Martin Winterkorn and battered its share price. Read the full story.
Sign of the times: Traditional business school programs are experiencing the strongest level of interest from U.S. applicants since 2009, a new report shows. Bloomberg reports 59% of U.S. business schools say American applications to full-time, two-year MBA programs increased over last year. The figure comes from a survey of hundreds of institutions by Graduate Management Admission Council, the body that administers the main business school entrance exam. “There is a cyclical trend in U.S. application volumes that mirrors the economy,” says Gregg Shoenfeld, director of management education research at GMAC. Read the full story.
Money talks: Casting the fight against climate change as an urgent moral duty, Pope Francis in June urged the world to phase out highly polluting fossil fuels. But Reuters reports that in the heart of U.S. oil country several dioceses and other Catholic institutions are leasing out drilling rights to oil and gas companies to bolster their finances. And in one archdiocese—Oklahoma City—church officials have signed three new oil and gas leases since Francis’s missive on the environment, leasing documents show. Read the full story.
