Good morning. Twitter Inc. investors backed a $44 billion takeover that Elon Musk is trying to abandon on the same day that a whistleblower testified about alleged security failures at the company.

Former Twitter security executive Peiter Zatko, who was fired by the company in January, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday that Twitter executives’ “incentives led them to prioritize profits over security,” echoing his whistleblower complaint.

Twitter has pushed back against his charges, and said he was making misleading statements. He was called before the committee to provide more information on his assertions.

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Dataiku Inc., the company behind the Everyday AI machine-learning platform for businesses, said on Tuesday that it named former Twitter Inc. executive Daniel Brennan as its chief legal officer.

Until last October, Mr. Brennan served as a Twitter vice president and deputy general counsel, helping to lead the social-media company’s corporate, securities and legal operations team, Dataiku said. Earlier, he was legal director of Dell Technologies Inc.'s global services business.

The appointment came as New York-based Dataiku, which has received funding from Alphabet Inc.-backed venture-capital fund CapitalG, also announced that its annual revenue grew 60% year-over-year.

—Mengqi Sun

Chief executives are lending some support to environmental, social and governance programs, but many businesses don’t provide those programs with dedicated staff or budgets, according to a survey by compliance software company Navex Global Inc.

More than half the roughly 1,100 risk and compliance professionals polled between March 30 and May 9 said their CEOs supported their organization’s ESG program, Navex said on Tuesday. About the same share said helping their organization maintain social and environmental accountability was “very important” or “absolutely essential.”

But about a third of respondents said their organization didn't consider ESG risks. Another third said their organization had a dedicated person to deal with ESG issues, and about a quarter noted a dedicated ESG budget.

–Richard Vanderford

Uber Technologies Inc. and its subsidiary agreed to pay New Jersey more than $100 million in back taxes after the state said the company improperly classified its drivers as independent contractors.

Uber and subsidiary Raiser LLC paid $79 million in unpaid unemployment taxes and fines, as well as $22 million in interest, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and state attorney general’s office said on Tuesday. The total was revised down from the nearly $650 million the state said Uber owed in 2019.

Audits by the New Jersey labor department found the ride-sharing company had misclassified hundreds of thousands of drivers as independent contractors, the state said. As a result, Uber didn’t make mandated payments for unemployment, temporary disability and workforce development.

• Diverging portraits of Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton emerged Tuesday at the start of his securities-fraud trial, as lawyers clashed over whether the former executive was a fraudster who lied about his company’s electric-truck technology, or a visionary who promoted its innovative products.
   
• The National Basketball Association suspended Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver for one year and fined him $10 million for having “violated common workplace standards,” the league announced on Tuesday.
   
• Some union members of the New York Times and NBC News’s digital properties vowed not to come to the office this week and instead work remotely, defying their respective employers’ back-to-the-office plans.
   
• Alphabet Inc.’s Google lost most of its appeal to overturn the largest antitrust fine it has so far faced globally, a boost to the European Union’s campaign to rein in alleged anticompetitive conduct by big tech companies.
   
• The Biden administration said Wednesday that it would transfer billions of dollars of Afghanistan’s frozen assets to a fund in Switzerland, effectively shelving talks on recapitalizing the central bank under Taliban rule.

Ukrainian forces looked to maximize gains from a lightning-quick offensive in the country’s northeastern Kharkiv region, making a diplomatic push for more weapons and deeper security ties with Western allies.

A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said on Tuesday they were drafting a proposal to shore up ties between Kyiv and its Western allies with the aim of guaranteeing the flow of weapons, intelligence, financial aid and training to the country.

The document, they said, won’t include a commitment similar to Article 5 of the NATO alliance, which requires allies to intervene militarily if a member is attacked. Instead, the officials said the document is modeled on guarantees between the U.S. and Israel, which ensures the flow of support is steady and unwavering.

• Ukraine’s Economy Stabilizes, a Boost Alongside Rapid Military Gains
• China’s Xi and Russia’s Putin Meet for First Time Since War Began
• Putin, Erdogan to Meet Amid Questions Over Ukraine Grain Deal

U.S. consumer prices overall rose more slowly in August from a year earlier, but increased sharply from the prior month after excluding volatile food and energy prices, showing that inflation pressures remained strong and stubborn.

The Labor Department on Tuesday reported its consumer-price index rose 8.3% in August from the same month a year ago, down from 8.5% in July and from 9.1% in June, which was the highest inflation rate in four decades. The CPI measures what consumers pay for goods and services.

• U.S. Incomes Fail to Grow for Second Year in a Row, Census Shows
• Inflation Report Keeps Fed on Aggressive Rate-Rise Path

Another turbulent week in oil markets carried crude prices to their lowest point since January, with thin trading and a blurry outlook for supply and demand driving a fitful 30% decline from this year’s highs.

• As Gasoline Prices Drop, Electricity and Some Heating Costs Rise
• OPEC Reiterates Warning About Disconnected Oil Market
• Global Oil Demand Undermined by China Lockdowns, IEA Says

• The White House is assessing how other transportation providers could fill potential gaps in the nation’s freight network as labor unions and railroads continue contract talks to avert a potential labor stoppage this week.
   
• U.S. and European officials are increasingly gloomy about the prospects of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran before the U.S. midterm elections, as a hardening of demands from Tehran raises doubts about its willingness to conclude a deal soon.

Grindr LLC named a former Walt Disney Co. executive as its next chief financial officer as the firm behind the dating app plans to go public through a combination with a special-purpose acquisition company later this year.

Los Angeles-based Grindr, which specializes in connecting gay, bi, trans and queer users, on Tuesday said Vanna Krantz is set to become CFO effective Sept. 26. Current finance chief Gary Hsueh is stepping down and will serve in an advisory role, Grindr said.

Grindr also named a new chief executive officer. George Arison, founder of online car marketplace Shift Technologies Inc., will take over from Jeff Bonforte, who will step down as chief executive after more than two years in the role. Mr. Bonforte will stay on in an advisory capacity. Mr. Arison has been on the Grindr board since May.

Starbucks Corp. said it would invest hundreds of millions of dollars into new stores and equipment upgrades while expanding employee benefits, moves that Interim Chief Executive Howard Schultz said will put the coffee giant on track for a turnaround by 2024.

Mr. Schultz, opening a highly anticipated investor briefing on Tuesday outlining the chain’s strategic revamp, said that Starbucks’s spending on cafe operations and worker benefits would boost sales and profit, and that shareholders would benefit from dividends and the eventual return of stock buybacks. The enhancements are expected to help improve customer service and employees’ experiences, he said.

“We are reinventing the company, but we’re not reinventing what we do,” Mr. Schultz said. “We’re just reinventing how we do it.”

• Amazon.com Inc. said it is planning to raise pay and benefits for its delivery partners, as the e-commerce giant gears up for the peak holiday season amid a persistently tight labor market.