Also: X's $1 fee, BYD's record sales, a boom in sick days. 
Good morning, Peter Vanham here in Geneva, filling in for Alan.
As the Israel-Hamas war escalates, with thousands of Israelis and Gazans dead or injured and hundreds of thousands of civilians in harm’s way, how should business leaders respond?
I asked a few business leaders, and there was no consensus. The most common suggestion was to speak up and empathize with employees—and to stay away from politics and social media.
“If a corporation felt it was inappropriate to stand out against terrorists during 9/11 or speak out against gross atrocities or injustices in any other prior context, then it can be excused from speaking out. If [not], then it has a moral responsibility to stand by its Jewish employees and consumers.”
—Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Snacks and Peaceworks (a company that works with Israelis and Palestinians)
“If you don’t speak up and frame the conversation, you leave all the others to react. The frame for this has to be, ‘I as a human being, speak to you as a friend, and not a boss. And I put my arms around you, and say, this is not humanity.’ Try and stay away from the politics…This is a time…to see people.”
—Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman
Jim Snabe, chairman of Siemens, told me that he’s leaving X as a result of the hate and misinformation spread on the social media platform in the past few weeks. “It is sad to see how hate is amplified on a platform that could be the place for dialogue and solutions,” he said.
Other business leaders suggested donating and matching employee donations to organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is calling for corporate contributions amid the worsening humanitarian crisis.
But it’s easy to get the balance wrong. I polled some international employees from U.S. multinational companies, and they were critical of what they consider U.S. business leaders’ ignorance on the matter at hand.
“Corporate America is still so U.S.-centric,” one of them told me. “These are, at the end of the day, people who consume U.S. news that reports in a certain way.”
“I have many friends who are disappointed by CEO statements that seem uninformed and missing context,” another said. “This is a huge problem for corporate leaders as they weigh in.”
I’ll dive deeper into this topic in tomorrow’s Impact Report. You can sign up for that newsletter here.
More news below.
Peter Vanham
peter.vanham@fortune.com
@petervanham
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Not-so-free speech
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is piloting a scheme to charge new users $1 per year to post, repost, and access other basic features. The charges are now live in New Zealand and the Philippines. X claims that the “Not a Bot” program will reduce spam on the platform, yet the company is also struggling with crashing revenue since its takeover by Elon Musk. Fortune
BYD surges
Chinese EV maker BYD is forecasting as much as $1.6 billion in net income for the current quarter, thanks to record sales. That would be equal to almost 70% of the company’s entire profits last year, standing at $2.3 billion. The company was just 3,400 cars behind Tesla as the top seller of battery-powered cars last quarter. BYD shares rose by over 6% in Hong Kong trading following the EV maker's announcement. Bloomberg
Sick days
Bosses have a new complaint: Workers staying home when they’re sick. Data from payroll company Gusto reports that 30% of U.S. workers have taken sick leave this year, compared to 21% before the COVID pandemic. Those aged 25 to 35 are taking sick days more often, as younger workers increasingly reject the idea that you should work through illness to seem more reliable. The Wall Street Journal
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Corner Kick to Corner Office Sports can transcend cultural, social and economic differences. Pete Giorgio, sports practice leader, looks at Deloitte's research on the impact of sports on women professionals and shares how being raised by strong women and raising strong women himself helps him lead each day. Read his article here.
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