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Over the last week and change, there has been a series of headlines about domestic violence and sexual harassment that have, frankly, made me close my computer and take a break from the news. (And if this subject is triggering for you, please skip ahead to the featured list of the week, Forbes’ exclusive calculations of the most valuable U.S. women’s soccer teams.)

Between CNN’s bombshell investigation of the online forums where men exchange advice on how to drug their wives or partners and record sexual assaults, the sexual misconduct allegations against now-former Congressional representatives Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales and the muder of Dr. Cerina Fairfax at the hands of her soon-to-be ex-husband, former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax, the news has offered too many reminders of the ways in which this world is still far too violent towards women.

It also provoked a lot of questions about what this moment means and what support systems exist for women who need it. So for ForbesTV, I conducted two interviews that I want to share with you now. The first was with Katie Ray-Jones, the CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. She and I talked about why the end of a relationship is often the most dangerous time for women, what resources exist for women who are in harmful relationships, and how to take care of yourself when the news is so heavy.

I also spoke with Gretchen Carlson, journalist and cofounder of nonprofit Lift Our Voices, an organization that works to unwind the mechanisms that too often keep women silent in the face of mistreatment in the workplace (specifically, nondisclosure agreements and forced arbitration). In looking specifically at the allegations against Swalwell and Gonzales, Carlson sees a silver lining: “Since I came forward, for example, at Fox News, and so many other people came forward after that [during] #MeToo, [w]e automatically, for the most part, believe survivors at this point, and that was not the case 10 years ago.”

Carlson had some specific advice for Congress and our fellow journalists in this moment, but I’ll leave you with her final message about the women at the heart of these stories. “Let's take a moment to sit back and applaud the courage that it has taken these survivors of Gonzales and Swalwell to finally come forward, and let's stop saying it was politically motivated, or what took them so long,” she said. “It's a personal decision, and a difficult one, when you decide to build up enough courage to come forward.”

Take care of yourselves,

Maggie McGrath

Exclusive Forbes List: The NWSL’s Most Valuable Teams 2026

On Tuesday, National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman announced that Columbus, Ohio, had been awarded the league’s latest expansion franchise, due to begin play in 2028 as the NWSL’s 18th team. A group led by Jimmy and Dee Haslam, the billionaire owners of MLS’s Columbus Crew and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, is paying a $205 million fee to secure the spot, a person with knowledge of the deal tells Forbes—double Denver’s $110 million deal from January 2025, and almost quadruple the $53 million paid by Boston Legacy FC and the San Francisco area’s Bay FC in 2023.

These numbers would have been unimaginable a few short years ago, when even the most successful teams would sell for less than $5 million, but all of the NWSL’s clubs have recently found themselves propelled skyward on a rapidly rising tide. Forbes now estimates that the league’s current teams (excluding Denver and Boston in their debut seasons) are worth $200 million on average, a 49% increase from last year.

ICYMI: News Of The Week

Speaking of women in soccer (or football, as much of the rest of the world calls it): When Union Berlin FC named Marie-Louise Eta as head coach on April 12, the internet went wild with adjectives. The first woman ever to lead a men’s team in Europe’s top five leagues, the headlines practically wrote themselves. But the real story here isn’t about adjectives, or even these moments of hard-won glory. It is about why it took a crisis to see what was already there.

On Thursday, the Trump administration moved to reclassify FDA-approved and state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug, placing it in the less strictly regulated Schedule III category. Kim Rivers, CEO of Florida-based Trulieve, was instrumental in getting the president to issue an executive order to reschedule marijuana. Now she is trying to build her $1.2 billion company into the Starbucks of weed.

Shares of L’Oreal rose sharply on Thursday, boosting company heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers’ net worth by more than $6 billion, after the cosmetics giant beat analyst expectations and reported a 7.6% increase in sales in the first quarter of this year.

What does environmental advocacy look like in 2026? According to the Goldman Environmental Prize, it looks like women: This year marks the first time the prize, often called the “Green Nobel,” has gone to an all-female group. Recipients of the 2026 prize include Alannah Acaq Hurley, who defended Indigenous land rights and waterways from mining threats in Alaska and Iroro Tanshi, who developed conservation and biodiversity protection programs in Nigeria.

Most women believe the gender pay gap exists, but a new study finds that far fewer believe it affects them. The new study, which was posted on the Social Science Research Network for early review, found that women’s awareness of systemic pay disparities didn’t translate into believing the gap applied to them. Although a whopping 96% of women said they believed that the gender pay gap exists, only a third believed it impacted their own pay.

The Checklist

1. Don’t dismiss your overstimulation. Research has long shown that the human brain has limits. The Cognitive Load Theory suggests that working memory can only process a finite amount of information at once. When that capacity is exceeded, performance declines and stress increases—and this overstimulation disproportionately affects women.

2. Care but don’t share. In responding to your team’s emotions, practice something called “wise empathy:” respond with compassion rather than sharing your own feelings when employees come to you with an emotional issue. New research from the Harvard Business Review finds that leaders who do this report lower burnout, greater efficacy, and more engaged teams.

3. Audit your role for AI exposure. Nothing is truly AI-proof, but some jobs are more resistant to this technology. Take stock of the skills and tasks your job requires, and then demonstrate to others that your top skill—your ability to adapt and be flexible—can’t be replicated by automation.

The Quiz

The U.K. Parliament passed a bill this week that bans the sale of tobacco, including cigarettes and vapes, to people born after a certain age—forever. The landmark legislation will ultimately phase out tobacco for the entire population over time, similar to bans being considered or on the books in some U.S. states. At what age will the restriction apply when it goes into effect?

1. 25
2. 21
3. 18
4. 16

Check your answer.

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