JBizNews5 minutes agoTEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s stock market is signaling growing concern that the October 27 national election could fail to produce a governing majority, potentially sending the country into another round of political uncertainty.
Research by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange suggests that Israeli stocks have historically performed significantly worse ahead of elections that ended without a decisive outcome, raising questions about whether investors are already pricing in another political stalemate.
The concern comes after a sharp decline in Israeli equities during the week ending October 9, even as major U.S. stock indexes advanced.
The TA-125 Index fell 3.6%, the blue-chip TA-35 dropped 3.7%, and the TA-90 declined 3.3%. During the same period, the S&P 500 gained 1.2%, highlighting the gap between Israeli and American market performance.
Recent polling suggests neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing bloc nor the main opposition can independently secure the 61 seats necessary to control Israel’s 120-member Knesset.
That raises the possibility of prolonged coalition negotiations, political compromises, or another national election.
Israel experienced four elections between 2019 and 2021 during an extended period of political instability.
For businesses and investors, the concern is not simply which political party wins. It is whether the next government can provide the stability necessary for economic planning, investment decisions, and fiscal policy.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange examined market performance surrounding Israel’s last 10 elections dating back to 2003.
Its findings revealed a significant difference between elections that produced stable governments and those that ended in political deadlock.
During the three months preceding inconclusive elections, the TA-125 Index declined an average of 5.3%.
By comparison, the index fell just 0.2% on average before elections that ultimately produced stable governments.
The findings suggest political uncertainty can weigh heavily on investor confidence, although stock performance cannot reliably predict election outcomes.
The current decline may also reflect global market volatility, geopolitical developments, corporate earnings, and changing interest-rate expectations.
Political uncertainty can complicate government budgeting, infrastructure investment, economic reforms, and long-term business planning.
For international investors evaluating opportunities in Israeli technology, real estate, manufacturing, and financial markets, the formation of a functioning government could prove more consequential than which coalition ultimately takes power.
However, the exchange’s historical findings also offer a more encouraging perspective.
The performance gap between elections that produced decisive results and those that ended in stalemate largely disappeared within three months after voting. After five months, average market returns were nearly identical.
Across the elections studied, the TA-125 generated an average return of 16.4% during the year following an election.
That suggests investors have historically looked beyond short-term political disruption and returned their attention to the underlying strength of Israel’s economy.
With less than two weeks remaining before the election, Israeli financial markets face an increasingly important question: Will the vote deliver a government capable of providing economic stability, or will another round of political uncertainty delay key decisions?
The market’s recent weakness is consistent with historical patterns preceding inconclusive elections, but it is not proof that investors know what the election will deliver.
For now, the financial message is clear. Political certainty carries economic value, and Israeli investors are watching closely for signs that the next election will deliver it.
JBizNews Desk | Tel Aviv, Israel
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 hour agoTesla unveiled its long-anticipated Roadster on Thursday during a dramatic event in which the vehicle used compressed-air thrusters to fly off a ramp and perform a midair maneuver.
The vehicle was seen flying, doing flips and reaching 60 mph in under a second.
The jaw-dropping showcase featured the new Roadster accelerating up a massive curved ramp until it was completely upside down before using integrated cold-gas thrusters developed in collaboration with SpaceX, to fly off the ramp, flip in midair and land safely back on the ground.
“Today, Roadster presents a new moment in history – the best of the last human-driven cars,” Tesla wrote on X.
JBizNews1 hour agoJBIZNEWS | GLOBAL COMMERCE & NATIONAL SECURITY | OCTOBER 15, 2026
By Duvi Honig, Founder & CEO, Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce
WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia holds some of the world’s largest oil reserves, commands enormous financial wealth and has spent billions on American military equipment. Yet a terrorist organization operating out of neighboring Yemen is striking its airports, threatening its energy infrastructure and disrupting global commerce.
Now President Donald Trump is advancing a nuclear cooperation agreement with that same kingdom.
The question is no longer simply whether Saudi Arabia can defend itself against the Houthis. It is whether the United States should help expand nuclear capabilities in a country whose defenses are already being penetrated by militants who have demonstrated their ability to seize territory, challenge governments and inflict enormous economic damage.
If the Houthis can create this much destruction without controlling Saudi Arabia, what happens if they eventually overrun the kingdom and gain access to its nuclear facilities and materials?
It is a danger Washington should confront before proceeding any further.
Tim Lenderking, who served as U.S. special envoy for Yemen from 2021 to 2025, warned Thursday that the Houthis have developed into an international security threat, increasingly capable of operating independently of Iran.
In remarks reported by Fox News, Lenderking described the group as a “clear and very present danger.”
His warning followed a devastating series of attacks against Saudi Arabia.
According to Saudi military officials, Houthi strikes against King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed 17 people and injured 333 between October 7 and October 11. The airport has reportedly faced 20 attacks since the beginning of October.
The militants have also struck Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, threatening facilities connected to one of the most important energy companies in the world.
Lenderking explained that the Houthis have developed their own weapons capabilities, smuggling operations and financing networks. Although Iran helped build their military strength, they no longer depend exclusively on Tehran to operate.
That makes the threat more difficult to contain.
Saudi Arabia is not facing a conventional army with comparable resources. It is facing a militant organization that has found ways to overcome vastly superior spending, sophisticated defense equipment and international military assistance.
The Houthis have demonstrated how much destruction an armed movement can inflict without possessing the economic or military strength of a major nation.
Their attacks threaten the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital maritime passage connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean and international shipping routes through the Suez Canal.
Shipping companies facing missile and drone threats must contend with increased insurance expenses, longer voyages and higher operating costs.
These disruptions affect businesses and consumers far beyond the Middle East.
Manufacturers in Asia, importers in Europe and retailers in the United States depend on reliable shipping routes. When those routes become dangerous, the consequences spread through international supply chains.
The threat to Saudi oil infrastructure is even more consequential.
Saudi Arabia’s production capacity plays a major role in international energy markets. Attacks on its oil facilities, pipelines and shipping infrastructure can affect fuel supplies, transportation costs and business confidence worldwide.
On Thursday, Gulf stock markets declined as the Houthis threatened further attacks against Saudi Arabia following the strike on Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters.
The disruption has extended to international aviation, investment conferences, sporting events and tourism.
Saudi Arabia has the money, the oil and the advanced weapons. Yet the Houthis continue to inflict serious damage.
That is the weakness Washington must recognize.
On July 22, the Trump administration signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia.
The agreement establishes the foundation for a multibillion-dollar nuclear energy partnership and potentially opens the way for sensitive nuclear activities, subject to additional requirements.
The administration has described the arrangement as an economic opportunity that will expand American business while strengthening regional security.
But recent events expose a danger that cannot be dismissed by commercial agreements or diplomatic assurances.
Saudi Arabia cannot guarantee that its current government will remain in control forever.
Nor can it guarantee that armed groups will never penetrate its borders, seize territory or exploit a major political crisis.
The concern is not that Saudi Arabia’s current leadership is necessarily seeking to hand nuclear technology to terrorists.
The concern is that the nuclear facilities and capabilities established under today’s Saudi government could eventually be captured by forces hostile to the United States and the international community.
Civilian nuclear power is distinct from nuclear weapons, and capturing a reactor would not automatically give terrorists an atomic bomb. But access to sensitive nuclear materials and facilities could create serious risks of sabotage, theft, radiological attacks and nuclear proliferation.
The United States would be taking a long-term security risk that could outlive the Saudi leadership making the agreement.
The Arab Spring should remain a central lesson in American foreign policy.
Beginning in 2010, uprisings swept across the Middle East and North Africa.
Long-established governments collapsed in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Yemen descended into political upheaval and civil war.
Leaders who once appeared firmly in control suddenly lost their positions, while competing factions and armed movements fought for power.
Yemen itself offers a particularly relevant example.
The Houthis exploited years of conflict and political division to seize the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, eventually establishing control over substantial territory.
They did not begin as a global military power.
They grew through political disorder, territorial conquest, weapons acquisition and the weakening of established state authority.
Today that same movement threatens Saudi Arabia, international shipping and global energy markets.
There is no established evidence that the Houthis could currently conquer Saudi Arabia. But the Arab Spring demonstrated why a government’s present control cannot be assumed to last indefinitely.
A nuclear program cannot be secured merely by trusting the government that receives it today. It must remain secure even if that government falls tomorrow.
Saudi Arabia has enormous financial resources and some of the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
Its military spending ranks among the highest internationally.
Yet those advantages have not prevented the Houthis from inflicting deadly attacks and threatening essential infrastructure.
That contrast makes the proposed nuclear partnership particularly concerning.
The question is not whether Saudi Arabia can afford nuclear facilities.
It is whether the kingdom can protect them against an armed organization that has already demonstrated an ability to exploit military weaknesses and political disorder.
And the danger would not necessarily come only from the Houthis.
A future uprising, military breakdown or violent takeover could create opportunities for other extremist organizations or hostile regimes.
The fall of a government could place critical infrastructure under entirely different control from the leadership Washington originally trusted.
Once nuclear facilities and sensitive materials exist, the consequences of losing control could extend far beyond the kingdom’s borders.
The Trump administration has pursued closer economic and strategic relations with Saudi Arabia, including major investment and energy agreements.
But the nuclear agreement introduces risks that cannot be measured solely in billions of dollars or American jobs.
The Houthis are already disrupting international commerce and threatening one of the world’s most important oil-producing nations.
They are exposing weaknesses in a kingdom that has invested heavily in military protection.
And their own rise during Yemen’s political collapse demonstrates how quickly a militant organization can emerge as a territorial and regional power.
President Trump should reverse course on nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia rather than risk introducing capabilities that a future terrorist takeover could put in hostile hands.
This is not about whether the United States maintains its partnership with the Saudi government or supports the kingdom’s economic development.
It is about recognizing that some security risks cannot be undone once nuclear materials, facilities and sensitive capabilities are established.
The lesson from the Houthis is already unfolding in front of the world.
A relatively small militant force has disrupted international trade, threatened oil infrastructure, struck major airports and undermined the security of a wealthy nation.
If Saudi Arabia is struggling to contain that threat today, Washington must consider what could happen during a more serious military or political collapse.
The Arab Spring showed how rapidly governments can fall. Yemen showed how the Houthis can exploit that collapse and seize control.
America should not gamble on the assumption that Saudi Arabia could never face a similar loss of control.
Oil facilities can be rebuilt. Airports can reopen. Shipping routes can recover. But allowing nuclear capabilities to fall into terrorist hands could produce consequences that no economic recovery plan can reverse.
That is a risk President Trump should not take.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews2 hours agoAUTOMOTIVE | INTERNATIONAL TRADE | OCTOBER 15, 2026
TORONTO — Tesla has suspended orders for its two least-expensive Model 3 vehicles in Canada, blaming restrictions on Chinese-built electric vehicle imports, even as Canadian government figures show that tens of thousands of import slots remain unused.
The decision removes Tesla’s most affordable electric sedan from the Canadian ordering system, leaving buyers with a significantly more expensive alternative and raising questions about how Ottawa distributes permits under its trade agreement with China.
Tesla stopped accepting new orders on October 12 for the Shanghai-built Model 3 Premium, which starts at C$39,490, approximately US$28,000.
The company told customers that strong demand had exhausted its available import allocation. Orders may resume in March 2027 if the Canadian government issues additional permits.
With the lower-priced versions unavailable, the only Model 3 currently offered through Tesla’s Canadian online ordering system is the Performance all-wheel-drive model, priced at C$74,990.
That represents a difference of C$35,500 from the entry-level vehicle.
Model 3 version
Canadian starting price
New orders
Premium RWD
C$39,490
Paused
Premium AWD
C$49,990
Paused
Performance AWD
C$74,990
Available
The interruption highlights how trade restrictions can directly affect vehicle availability and consumer prices, even when manufacturers have production capacity overseas.
The dispute centers on Canada’s quota for electric vehicles manufactured in China.
Under a trade arrangement negotiated earlier this year, Canada agreed to permit 49,000 Chinese-built electric vehicles to enter the country during the first year at a reduced tariff of 6.1%.
The arrangement replaced a much higher tariff barrier for qualifying vehicles and was intended to encourage more affordable electric car imports.
However, government figures released October 9 showed that just 15,931 permits had been used, leaving 33,069 available.
CANADA’S FIRST-YEAR CHINESE EV IMPORT QUOTA
Total vehicles
15,931 used (32.5%)
33,069 unused (67.5%)
Based on government utilization figures reported as of October 9, 2026. Unused national quota does not necessarily represent quota available to Tesla.
That discrepancy has prompted questions about why Tesla cannot continue importing vehicles when most of the overall allocation remains unused.
The distinction appears to lie in how Ottawa allocates permits among individual manufacturers.
Iain Myrans, Tesla’s Canadian public policy executive, addressed the issue publicly on October 13.
He explained that Global Affairs Canada provides automakers with advance guidance about the maximum number of vehicles they can expect to import during a particular period.
Although the program appears to operate on a first-come, first-served basis, Myrans indicated that government allocation decisions introduce additional restrictions.
Global Affairs Canada has declined to disclose Tesla’s specific allocation, citing commercial confidentiality.
The department said it was consulting with manufacturers to improve utilization of the remaining quota and reviewing its longer-term policy.
The available figures therefore do not establish that Tesla’s explanation is inaccurate. They show a difference between the overall national quota and the allocation Tesla says it can use.
Tesla’s Canadian supply strategy has shifted as tariffs have changed.
The company previously supplied Canadian customers with Model 3 vehicles manufactured in California. It subsequently moved to Shanghai-built vehicles to benefit from Canada’s lower tariff treatment for qualifying Chinese imports.
Many U.S.-built vehicles have faced Canadian tariffs of 25% amid the continuing trade dispute between Ottawa and Washington.
That creates an unusual situation for an American automaker: Tesla can potentially supply Canadian buyers more competitively from China than from its U.S. factories.
The issue extends beyond Tesla. Canada’s trade policy also aims to encourage Chinese automotive investment and future manufacturing partnerships inside Canada.
For American manufacturers, those arrangements introduce another competitive challenge in a neighboring market historically closely integrated with U.S. vehicle production.
The immediate consequence is reduced choice for Canadian electric vehicle buyers.
Customers seeking Tesla’s least-expensive sedan may have to postpone purchases, consider more expensive models or turn to competing manufacturers.
For Tesla, the suspension could restrict sales in a market where affordable electric vehicles remain central to broader adoption.
For policymakers, the dispute illustrates how import allocations can influence competition even when national quotas are not fully utilized.
The key unresolved question is whether Ottawa will make additional import capacity available to Tesla before March 2027.
Until then, the company’s most affordable Model 3 remains unavailable for new Canadian orders, demonstrating how international trade rules can determine which cars consumers can buy and how much they must pay.
JBizNews Desk | Toronto
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews2 hours agoARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | TECHNOLOGY | OCTOBER 15, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic is preparing to integrate official U.S. voting information directly into its Claude artificial intelligence chatbot ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, giving millions of Americans another way to obtain election information without visiting government websites.
The company announced Wednesday that it will begin incorporating election data supplied by Democracy Works, a nonprofit organization that gathers voting information from state and local election authorities.
The expansion will allow users to ask Claude where to vote, what identification is required and how to navigate voting procedures in their state. The chatbot will also display updated official vote counts as election results become available.
The initiative places Anthropic more directly into the election-information business at a time when artificial intelligence platforms are becoming increasingly important sources of public information.
Beginning later this month, U.S. users will be able to receive state-specific voting information inside Claude rather than being directed exclusively to outside resources.
The integration builds on Anthropic’s existing partnership with Democracy Works, whose TurboVote service provides election-related information to voters.
Until now, Claude has primarily directed users seeking voting information toward established election resources.
The new system will bring that information directly into the chatbot’s responses, including polling locations, voter identification requirements and election dates.
On election night, Anthropic also plans to provide updated vote totals drawn from official sources.
The company did not announce that Claude would administer elections, count ballots or make official determinations about results. Its role will be to distribute information gathered from election authorities.
Anthropic released new internal research examining approximately 250,000 Claude conversations in the United States during a week in September.
The findings offer a view of how Americans are already using artificial intelligence to discuss public policy and elections.
Politics, policy and social issues
Election or voting questions
Questions about whom or what to vote for
Share of U.S. Claude.ai conversations, according to Anthropic’s September 21–27 analysis.
Anthropic expects election-related activity to increase as Americans prepare to vote in congressional, state and local races.
The expansion also raises questions about the growing influence of artificial intelligence companies over how Americans receive politically sensitive information.
Although Democracy Works collects data from official election authorities, Claude will still be responsible for presenting that information accurately.
A misleading answer about a polling location, identification requirement or voting deadline could have consequences for individual voters.
Anthropic says it has strengthened its systems to identify political misinformation, coordinated manipulation and attempts to misuse Claude during elections.
The company disclosed that it identified foreign-based operators using Claude to produce political content promoting Russian, Iranian and North Korean narratives. Anthropic said the accounts involved were banned.
The company has also updated its usage policies to prohibit deceptive political campaigns, impersonation of election officials and efforts to suppress voter participation.
Beyond election security, the announcement reflects an increasingly competitive market for artificial intelligence services.
Companies developing consumer AI products are seeking to make their platforms destinations for everyday information, from financial research and business decisions to news and government services.
Providing reliable election information could attract additional users and encourage existing customers to rely more heavily on Claude.
For Anthropic, the challenge will be maintaining accuracy and public confidence while expanding into a politically sensitive area.
The company has emphasized that its objective is to provide factual information without directing users toward particular political choices.
The development marks another step toward AI chatbots becoming gateways to information traditionally obtained from government agencies, search engines and news organizations.
For voters, the potential benefit is convenience: a single question could provide details about where and how to cast a ballot.
For election officials, the challenge is ensuring that information distributed by private technology platforms remains current and accurate.
And for AI developers, November’s midterm elections will provide a significant test of whether conversational systems can deliver reliable civic information during a fast-moving national event.
As artificial intelligence takes on a larger role in distributing election information, the distinction between providing accurate data and influencing how that data is understood will face closer examination.
JBizNews Desk | San Francisco
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews3 hours agoWASHINGTON | FEDERAL INVESTIGATION | OCTOBER 15, 2026
WASHINGTON — Rep. Ilhan Omar has not been seen publicly since federal agents searched her Washington residence Monday as part of an immigration-fraud investigation, fueling questions about her whereabouts after her husband declined to directly answer a reporter asking whether the Minnesota Democrat had left the United States.
Omar’s husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, was approached Wednesday outside the couple’s Washington rental home by a Fox News Digital reporter who asked whether rumors that the congresswoman had left the country were true.
Rather than confirm or deny the report, Mynett complained that journalists were disturbing the neighborhood.
His response left the central question unanswered: Where is the congresswoman, and has she remained in the United States since federal authorities searched her home?
There is no independently verified evidence that Omar has fled the country, and her absence from public view does not establish that she has left the United States.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations executed a court-authorized search warrant at Omar’s Washington residence on October 12, according to the Justice Department.
The search is part of an ongoing investigation into potential irregularities in immigration documentation associated with Omar’s family.
Investigators are reportedly examining records submitted by her late father when the family immigrated to the United States from Somalia, including questions surrounding Omar’s reported date of birth and the circumstances under which she acquired American citizenship.
Federal authorities reportedly seized Omar’s passport, cellphone and other materials during the search. More than a dozen grand-jury subpoenas have also been issued, including subpoenas involving relatives of the congresswoman.
The Justice Department has not publicly announced criminal charges against Omar.
While Omar has not appeared publicly since Monday’s search, Mynett has been photographed outside their residence on multiple occasions.
Fox News reported that he was seen Wednesday walking the family’s dog, taking out the trash and accompanying a member of Omar’s staff.
A congressional staffer was also seen entering the residence with food.
When questioned about the investigation earlier in the week, Mynett said he had no concerns about what federal investigators would uncover.
But Wednesday’s questioning focused on Omar’s whereabouts rather than the underlying allegations.
His refusal to directly address whether she had left the country has added to speculation, although no travel records, official statements or other independently verified information have established that she departed the United States.
Omar’s citizenship history is a central focus of the investigation.
She arrived in the United States as a refugee from Somalia and obtained citizenship through her father’s naturalization in 2000.
Investigators are reportedly examining whether discrepancies in her documented birth year could have affected her eligibility to acquire citizenship as a minor.
The distinction is potentially significant under immigration law, although any attempt to revoke citizenship would face substantial legal requirements and judicial review.
Omar has denied wrongdoing. Her office has described the investigation as politically motivated, accusing the Trump administration of targeting one of the president’s most outspoken congressional critics.
The investigation remains ongoing, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
Omar is also facing scrutiny over congressional financial disclosures involving business interests associated with Mynett.
On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed that her office was investigating the congresswoman’s financial reporting.
Earlier disclosures had listed ownership interests in a winery and venture-capital business with combined estimated values reaching $30 million.
Omar’s office subsequently amended the filings, explaining that the earlier numbers reflected overall business valuations rather than Mynett’s actual ownership interests and failed to account properly for liabilities.
Officials have indicated that the financial inquiry is separate from the immigration investigation that prompted the residential search.
The unanswered question surrounding Omar’s whereabouts has emerged just weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, in which she is seeking another term representing Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District.
The federal search, seizure of personal records and expanding investigations have placed the congresswoman under intense scrutiny.
Yet the reported absence from public appearances and her husband’s unwillingness to answer a direct question are not, by themselves, evidence that she fled the United States or attempted to evade investigators.
As of Thursday evening, no verified public account had established that Omar had left the country.
For now, the federal investigation is confirmed, her husband’s exchange with reporters is documented, and the question of her whereabouts remains unanswered.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews3 hours agoUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun about the confiscation of hundreds of kilograms of explosives from Hezbollah, a US State Department official said on Thursday.
Rubio urged Aoun to hold accountable those who ordered, financed and directed the shipment, and “underscored that returning explosives to (Hezbollah) should be out of the question,” the US official said.
Rubio urged direct military-to-military communication between Lebanese and Israeli forces “for deconfliction,” the official added.
A Hezbollah lawmaker said earlier the explosives seized last week by Lebanese security forces belonged to his group.
The lawmaker, Hassan Fadlallah, said Hezbollah had intended to use the explosives against Israel, whose troops are occupying swathes of Lebanese territory seized in this year’s war.
A Hezbollah official and a Lebanese security source told Reuters the explosives seized in a car last week were intended to be used in explosive drones targeting Israeli troops.
Aoun told Rubio the Lebanese army and security forces were fully carrying out decisions to prevent armed displays, confiscate weapons and combat smuggling, the presidency said, adding Aoun asked Rubio to pressure Israel to halt attacks on southern Lebanese towns and villages.
On March 2, the Lebanese government specifically banned Hezbollah’s military activities after the movement launched rockets at Israel to back up Tehran, pulling Lebanon into the broader US-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28.
Tehran subsequently launched its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon during the war have killed thousands and displaced millions.
Under a deal reached through US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks, Beirut vowed to disarm Hezbollah, which would in turn lead to Israeli troops gradually withdrawing from Lebanon. But Hezbollah has refused to disarm as long as Israeli forces remain on Lebanese land and Israel has continued striking southern Lebanon.
JBizNews3 hours agoNEW YORK CITY | GOVERNMENT SPENDING | OCTOBER 15, 2026
NEW YORK — Expanding New York City’s publicly funded childcare programs to provide full-day, year-round coverage would require an additional $735 million annually, according to a new study released Thursday, putting a substantial price tag on a key part of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s childcare agenda.
The estimate, prepared by advocacy group New Yorkers United for Child Care, covers approximately 81,500 children enrolled in the city’s 3-K and prekindergarten programs.
The proposed expansion would extend childcare hours to 6 p.m. and keep programs operating through summer vacations, allowing working parents to receive care beyond the traditional school schedule.
The study breaks down the proposed annual expenditure into two major categories:
Most publicly funded 3-K and pre-K programs currently end around 2:30 p.m. and follow the academic calendar, leaving parents responsible for arranging and financing additional coverage.
The advocacy group says approximately 93% of existing 3-K and pre-K seats do not provide full-time care.
The $735 million estimate represents proposed additional spending, not money already appropriated or a final city budget commitment.
The study arrives as Mamdani continues expanding publicly financed childcare across New York City.
Earlier this month, his administration announced that more than 10,000 low-income children would be moved off the city’s childcare voucher waiting list, supported by a $1.2 billion state investment from Governor Kathy Hochul.
Separately, New York City is expanding its 2-K program for two-year-olds, with plans to increase enrollment from approximately 2,000 seats this year to 12,000 in the 2027-2028 school year.
City officials have said state funding for that program will rise from $73 million to $425 million in fiscal 2028.
The latest $735 million proposal addresses longer hours and year-round services for three- and four-year-olds, rather than the separate 2-K expansion.
The central financial question is how New York City would cover the additional recurring expense while maintaining existing education, social services and infrastructure commitments.
A $735 million annual expansion would represent approximately $3.68 billion in additional expenditure over five years if costs remained constant.
Childcare advocates argue that longer hours could help parents remain employed, reduce household expenses and allow employers to retain workers who otherwise struggle with childcare schedules.
But additional public funding would be required to pay providers, hire staff and maintain facilities throughout the year.
An October report from the city’s Independent Budget Office also identified existing challenges involving childcare provider payments, contract administration and access to available seats.
Those problems raise implementation questions beyond the proposed funding itself.
For working families, expanded childcare could reduce the need for private after-school and summer programs, which can cost thousands of dollars annually.
For employers, more dependable childcare coverage could help reduce employee absences and make it easier for parents to maintain full-time employment.
For taxpayers and city officials, the proposal introduces another substantial recurring spending commitment.
The study provides a clearer estimate of what expanded childcare would cost. The next question is whether City Hall and Albany will commit the additional funding and how they would pay for it.
JBizNews Desk | New York
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews3 hours agoAUTOMOTIVE | LUXURY MARKETS | OCTOBER 15, 2026
NEW YORK — Porsche is moving deeper into the ultra-luxury sports car market, unveiling its new Mission S concept on Thursday as the German automaker prepares to challenge Ferrari with a higher-priced, more exclusive vehicle positioned above its iconic 911.
The move is part of a broader effort to revive profitability by selling more expensive vehicles rather than relying on higher production volumes.
The Mission S, unveiled in Queens, New York, introduces a mid-engine supercar platform intended to become a permanent part of Porsche’s lineup, rather than a limited-production specialty vehicle.
Porsche CEO Michael Leiters said the new model will sit above the 911, opening a higher tier of the company’s sports car business.
Competing for Ferrari’s Customers
Porsche’s ambitions put it in more direct competition with Ferrari and McLaren, whose high-performance vehicles attract wealthy buyers willing to pay substantial premiums for exclusivity, engineering and customization.
The Mission S draws on Porsche’s historic racing designs, including the 917, 959 and 911 GT1, while introducing a new design direction under styling chief Tobias Sühlmann.
Unlike the technology-heavy interiors increasingly common in luxury vehicles, Porsche has eliminated the permanently installed center display in favor of a retractable smartphone system, physical controls and a more traditional driving experience.
Final performance specifications, pricing and production timing have not been officially confirmed.
Porsche Needs Higher Profits
The launch comes as Porsche faces pressure from declining sales and weaker demand in China.
Global vehicle deliveries fell 16% during the first nine months of 2026, underscoring the challenges facing the German luxury brand.
Porsche’s response is to push further into high-margin sports cars, expand personalization options and prioritize profitability over sales volume.
Its long-term strategy, known as Sportwagenschmiede ’35, calls for more exclusive products and stronger positioning in premium vehicle segments.
What It Means for the Luxury Car Market
The Mission S reflects a significant shift in Porsche’s business model.
Rather than compete primarily through additional vehicle sales, Porsche is seeking to generate greater revenue and profit from each high-end vehicle it produces.
The approach could strengthen the company’s competitive position against Ferrari while reducing its dependence on more price-sensitive customers.
For Porsche, the Mission S is more than a new sports car. It represents a bet that exclusivity, brand prestige and higher prices can help restore earnings after a difficult period for the luxury automaker.
JBizNews Desk | New York
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews4 hours agoWASHINGTON | October 15, 2026
President Donald Trump’s longtime friend Paolo Zampolli has been removed from his position as U.S. special envoy for global partnerships following months of internal disputes with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
A U.S. official confirmed Thursday that Zampolli had been notified his appointment was terminated and that he was no longer a government employee.
The dismissal came hours after Politico published details of a nearly yearlong confrontation between the two officials, including heated email exchanges over Zampolli’s authority to conduct diplomatic and economic activities on behalf of the United States.
Zampolli, an Italian-born businessman and former modeling executive, has maintained a close personal relationship with Trump for decades. He is also credited with introducing Trump to Melania Knauss, who later became the first lady.
According to emails obtained by Politico, Landau repeatedly instructed Zampolli to limit his activities to cultural diplomacy, warning him against conducting broader foreign-policy initiatives without authorization.
The dispute intensified after Zampolli engaged with foreign officials, including meetings in the Balkans that raised concerns within the State Department about the scope of his authority.
Landau maintained that Zampolli remained subject to the department’s leadership structure, while Zampolli argued that his appointment came directly from the president.
The exchanges reportedly included allegations of information leaks, threats of legal action and repeated disagreements over the chain of command.
Trump appointed Zampolli to the diplomatic position in March 2025, citing his international business relationships and experience with global institutions.
Zampolli had promoted his role as an opportunity to strengthen American commercial relationships abroad, using his international network to encourage business partnerships and investment.
He previously pointed to major international transactions, including Uzbekistan Airways’ agreement to acquire 22 Boeing aircraft, as examples of the economic opportunities associated with international engagement.
His departure raises questions about the limits of special-envoy authority when privately connected presidential appointees pursue commercial diplomacy alongside the State Department’s established leadership.
The administration has not publicly established whether the dispute with Landau directly caused his removal.
Following the announcement, Zampolli expressed appreciation to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, presenting his departure as an opportunity to return to private business.
In a statement posted on X, he said his appointment had been extended beyond its original term and described serving the United States as the greatest honor of his life.
He also recounted a recent conversation in which Trump encouraged him to return to making business deals.
Zampolli told Italy’s Corriere della Sera that Trump had personally called him Thursday afternoon.
His removal marks the end of a diplomatic appointment that combined longstanding presidential access, international business relationships and growing disagreements within the administration over who has authority to represent American interests abroad.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
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JBizNews5 hours agoA new investigation reports that former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines helped shape a stablecoin law while, at the same time, a consulting firm he co-owned received millions of dollars from Tether, the industry’s biggest player. Hines then joined Tether’s new U.S. division shortly after leaving the government.
The investigation, conducted by the Wall Street Journal, found that Nxum, a consulting firm Hines cofounded in 2022, earned $6.3 million under a deal to develop a “strategic brand and public affairs plan” for El Salvador-based Tether. Payments began while Hines, then 29, was leading the White House push for the GENIUS Act, a law regulating stablecoins, or dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies. He reportedly stepped back from managing the firm when he joined the administration but kept his one-third ownership stake.
Hines left the White House weeks after President Donald Trump signed the bill into law in July 2025. Tether hired him the following month to lead its new U.S. division, as the company continued paying millions to Nxum, according to the Journal.
The controversy surrounding Hines adds to scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest between the Trump administration’s crypto policies and the private business interests of the president and his advisers. Trump has championed the industry and pushed Congress to pass crypto legislation while his family has launched ventures including his namesake memecoin and World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform. His latest financial disclosure revealed $1.4 billion in crypto-related wealth, largely tied to those two ventures, Fortune reported in July.
Hines cofounded Nxum in 2022 with his father, Todd Hines, and marketing executive Gary Dennis, with each partner holding equal ownership stakes. The small firm presented its business as spanning media, consulting and investments. Beyond the three founders, its website reportedly listed just one employee: chief investment officer Nav Singh, who was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to fraud in a bribery case involving New York’s state pension fund.
Nxum’s work ahead of the 2024 election included helping create Restore the Republic, a Trump-themed memecoin. It also contributed $1 million in billboard ads to MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump.
A potential Tether deal took shape in April 2025, when Peter Vincer, a marketing entrepreneur who had worked with Nxum on previous business deals, arranged for Todd Hines and Dennis to meet Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino near Central Park in New York, per the Journal. Bo Hines was then working to advance the GENIUS Act from inside the White House.
Vincer reportedly followed up with a draft “Tether Comprehensive Brand Plan” proposing that Nxum oversee “strategic lobbying and a full scale public relations and media awareness campaign” for the stablecoin issuer.
The final agreement omitted references to lobbying, with Vincer’s agency, Notorious, signing the contract with Tether as an intermediary for Nxum. But Nxum was expected to perform the work: a planning document stated that “Nxum will engage all necessary parties and lead the entire process,” the Journal reported.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews5 hours agoThe outcome of the 2026 election will have a significant impact on the public policies affecting commercial real estate investment and development. While voters may focus primarily on the candidates for federal and state offices at the top of the ticket, they should not overlook several down-ticket statewide ballot initiatives. Ballotpedia estimates that there will be a total of 164 statewide ballot measures voted upon in 40 states in 2026.
The two main processes for these measures appearing on the ballot are through state legislative action or a citizen’s petition receiving the necessary number of registered voter signatures that have been checked and certified by state’s secretary of state. For ballot measures that are legislatively referred amendments to the state’s constitution, Ballotpedia reports that 11 states require approval by a supermajority of the votes cast on election day.
It should be mentioned that the general debate on citizen’s ballot measures, irrespective of the policy being voted upon, may differ. Some pundits contend that the outcome of these ballot measures represent the will of the voters and is truest form of the democratic process, while others argue that it circumvents those elected to represent them within their respective state legislature.
The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 15 statewide measures in nine states impacting property taxes will appear on the November ballot. Florida’s Amendment 3 is a noteworthy example of a property tax measure placed on the ballot by the state legislature. Voter approval of the “Save our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes” initiative will raise the state’s homestead exemption on a property’s assessed value from $25,000 to $150,000 in 2027, and $250,000 in 2028 with further increases in later years based on inflation. The amendment would also establish a five-year residency requirement for anyone moving to Florida after January 1, 2027, to qualify for the exemption.
Florida legislators also included language in the amendment to adjust property taxes on non-homestead properties, which includes commercial real estate. Approval of Amendment 3 would cap annual commercial property assessments at 5%, a reduction from 10% currently. This constitutional amendment requires a supermajority of the popular vote.
Initiatives to reduce or eliminate property taxes that are occurring in Florida and other states raise concerns with the impact of reduced revenue for local governments, who are mandated to maintain balanced budgets. Less revenue will require local governments to either cut government services and programs or generate additional revenue through tax and fee increases. Concerns are that these increases will target non-voting commercial real estate.
Heading west, California residents will also head to the polls in November to cast their vote on Proposition 43. This statewide, citizen-led ballot measure would require special local tax increases, including real estate transfer taxes, to receive a two-thirds supermajority of the popular vote to pass instead of a simple majority (50%+). Proposition 43 would close a loophole created by the state Supreme Court’s decision in the Upland case that reduced the threshold to a simple majority. CREDA of California, along with the California Business Properties Association and other organizations, strongly support the ballot measure.
In Tennessee, the legislature placed Amendment 2 on the November ballot to property owners from a state-level tax. The amendment to the state constitution would prohibit the state from imposing property taxes on “real, personal, or mixed property.”
It is worth mentioning that the state of Minnesota currently places a state property tax on commercial real estate and other non-residential homestead properties such as cabins. CREDA Minnesota continues to actively advocate for the elimination of this state tax, arguing that it is an unfair and burdensome tax that targets commercial properties. This is similar to the on-going “spit roll” debate in California.
These ballot measures reflect the many appearing on state ballots this fall. Their outcomes will determine state policy moving forward. It is important for CREDA members to participate in electoral process because many will affect commercial real estate development.
The post 2026 Ballot Initiatives Affecting Commercial Development appeared first on Market Share.
JBizNews5 hours agoRun your finger down the key races in the Real Clear Politics average. What you see is seven toss-up races, well within the polling error margin. One tie in Kansas. One big GOP win in Florida. And one Democrat win in Georgia.
Again, the toss-ups are well inside the error margin. This does not spell a Democratic blue wave in the Senate. I first heard this argument about 10 days ago listening to Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire podcast, where he made this point. As Mr. Shapiro put it, if you listen to the mainstream press, the Dems are going to take the Senate 100 to 0. But that isn’t going to happen.
A couple of days ago, the Real Clear Politics polling analyst made a similar point: “the grim headlines for Republicans overlook how thin the margins are in most toss-up races, leaving the GOP a real path to keeping the Senate.” Real Clear Politics’ Senate map features eight “toss-up states, and Republicans need to win only four of them to keep control of the chamber.”
And I’m here to tell you that Senator Roger Marshall is going to hold his seat in Kansas. And Congresswoman Ashley Hinson will hold the Republican seat in Iowa. Whether he deserves it or not, the Lone Star State’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, is going to beat James Talarico, because Texas doesn’t believe in crazy people.
And the incumbent senator, Jon Husted, is going to keep Ohio in the red. Senator Susan Collins is going to win in Maine because she always does. And I refuse to believe Michigan is going to vote for Abdul El-Sayed, whose biggest sin is not just that he is a card-carrying socialist, or that he hangs out with Hasan Piker, though all that’s bad enough.
To be sure, though, he is going to push with other socialists for Medicare for All. And what that means is quite simply, if you like your health care plan now, and over half of Michiganders have employer-based health care, the socialists will not let you keep it. And it will cost the country more than $50 trillion. And they will attempt to raise taxes by some considerable proportion of that $50 trillion.
And that’s true for Mr. Talarico, and for Maine senate challenger, Troy Jackson. And oh yes, Peggy Flanagan, who is the deputy in Minnesota of Governor Tim Walz, the socialist fraudster, is going to lose to the GOP senate candidate, Michele Tafoya. Now, I’m the first to admit that not all these predictions are going to come true, but I believe Republicans are going to keep the Senate easily.
The House is a different story. And sure, I wished the GOP had communicated another big tax cut and large scale spending and anti-fraud budget reforms. Yet when the Democrats talk about affordability, that’s when I start giggling. They have no plan to reduce inflation, except President Biden’s 21 percent cumulative big-government socialism inflation.
And they will promise free this, free that, tax the rich, tax the middle, and at least $50 trillion for Medicare for all. And lord knows how much they’ll spend for their socialist, Green New Deal, climate change, open borders, and woke DEI policies. Let Mr. Trump and the GOP stay on message for the next 19 days, and they can yet do very well in the midterms.
JBizNews6 hours agoIn The Man of Destiny (1898), George Bernard Shaw gave Napoleon the definitive line on the English: “You will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles; he bullies you on manly principles; he supports his king on loyal principles, and cuts off his king’s head on republican principles.” Britain has spent a fortnight proving him right.
On October 4, in Brighton, the Green Party of England and Wales adopted a “Zionism is Racism” motion by 1,022 votes to 813. The party now “declares itself to be an anti-Zionist party,” resolves that Zionism “will be treated as any other form of racism,” and calls for “a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.”
An amendment to protect members of synagogues that identify as Zionist was defeated, 1,026 to 684. Outside, supporters chanted: “Say it loud, say it clear, Zionists are not welcome here.”
The motion’s brochure is franker still. It invokes “struggling by all available means, including armed struggle,” and asserts: “Only racists, genocidaires and supporters of apartheid can argue (and kill) for the continuation of Zionism.”
The lead author’s signed text ends with “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea!” – repeated on the endorsements page. The river is the Jordan, the sea the Mediterranean; between them lies Israel, which the slogan erases.
Zionism is nothing other than the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in the land where it became a people. By a grim twist of fate, the very same tireless champions of the right of return and of self-determination for every people deny both to the Jews alone.
And the “racism” Brighton denounces has a face: according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 64% of British Jews identify as Zionists. The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council called the motion “an attack on the Jewish community” and answered in three words: “Zionism is anti-racism.”
Brighton is no island. That same weekend, the Royal College of Nursing cut ties with Teva UK, the Israeli drugmaker’s subsidiary, after a Nurses for Palestine campaign.
Days earlier, The Sunday Times revealed Britain had granted asylum, then citizenship, to a former bodyguard of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh – accused by German prosecutors of helping prepare attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe.
A former Hamas bodyguard naturalized, an Israeli company shown the door, Zionism outlawed: each decision has its principle, and none is in the wrong.
Green Europe refused to follow. The European Green Party said: “As EGP we unequivocally distance ourselves from it” – while lambasting Israel’s government. German Greens co-leader Felix Banaszak called the motion “intolerable and unacceptable.” At home, a councillor, a former opposition leader in Richmond, and Amnesty International UK’s board chair have quit the party.
The J50, a forum of Diaspora Jewish leaders convened by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, which declared in September that “Zionism is part of Jewish identity,” is working to keep the other Green parties apart from Brighton. Its aim is plain: Brighton must stand alone.
Israel has answered the Labour government – not Brighton. On October 8, Sa’ar confirmed the four measures announced on September 8 were implemented: British representatives removed from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat; British training of Palestinian Authority forces in Judea and Samaria terminated; 12 British elected officials and other Britons involved in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity denied entry; and the British Consulate in Jerusalem closed, its sign taken down.
London is saving face: Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband says the building “will be known as the UK Mission, Jerusalem,” its staff only “temporarily withdrawn,” and pledges no “reciprocal action while such discussions are underway and credible.” The consul general and 19 diplomats are leaving all the same.
“We did not want to reach this point,” Sa’ar said, “but the actions of the UK Labour Government brought us here.”
Since July 2024, that government has recognized a virtual “Palestinian state,” restored UNRWA funding, suspended defense export licenses and free trade talks, sanctioned Israeli ministers, frozen military dialogue, kept IDF officers out of the Royal College of Defence Studies and, lately, imposed far-reaching sanctions on Judea and Samaria’s communities, amid accusations of “ethnic cleansing.”
Israel does not confuse a government with a nation. Sa’ar stressed that relations with Britain “are important and have repeatedly proven their value also in protecting the lives and interests of British citizens” – most recently with vital information in the RAF Fairford affair. Yet he warns: “any country that acts against Israel must know that there will be a price for doing so. … Israel will no longer turn its cheek to diplomatic attacks against it.”
That is how duplicity is sanctioned: not with invective, but with measured acts of state. The rest must follow – politically, at the ballot box; legally, wherever British equality and nationality law offers a foothold.
The self-determination of peoples is enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter; Britain’s Greens grant it to every people but one. Denying to Jews alone what is granted to everyone else has a precise legal name. That name is not “Zionism.” It is “discrimination.”
Shaw’s Englishman is never in the wrong. This time, he is simply wrong in law.
The writer is a Portugal- and Israel-based French entrepreneur, legal adviser, and expert in crypto assets, information security, and computer warfare. A former lecturer at the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale (IHEDN) on influence operations, he has participated in French parliamentary missions on economic intelligence and advised on digital threats facing France and European institutions. He regularly comments on French foreign policy and Middle East affairs.
JBizNews6 hours agoIsrael was “very close” to creating conditions for regime change in Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk told The Jerusalem Post in a studio interview, while stressing that the Iranian people would have to determine their country’s future.
“I think we’re very close to creating those conditions,” Falk said when asked how close pressure on Tehran had brought the prospect of regime change. “Those conditions are being created as we speak right now.”
Speaking with Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein and diplomatic correspondent Amichai Stein, Falk said Israel’s actions were creating conditions that would allow Iranians to challenge their rulers.
“Regime change in Iran is up to the Iranian people,” he said.
Falk described the US-led economic blockade as successful, while noting that economic pressure needed time to produce results. He argued that Iran and its regional proxies had been severely weakened by the war, citing strikes on senior figures, nuclear scientists, missiles, launchers and production capabilities.
Stein asked whether Israel and the US had done enough to provide the Iranian people with the means to challenge their rulers. Falk described Operations Rising Lion and Roaring Lion as “two of the most successful military operations in recent history,” saying their achievements had been “incredible” while acknowledging that no military operation could be perfect.
He also acknowledged the danger facing Iranians who took to the streets, citing the regime’s violent repression of protesters.
“I can appreciate the concerns of people,” he said when the discussion turned to their fear of demonstrating.
Falk did not offer a timetable for political change in Tehran or detail what further assistance might be provided to Iranians seeking it.
Turning to Gaza, Falk said Hamas could disarm “in an afternoon” if it wanted to, and that Israel would not redeploy before the terrorist group was fully disarmed. Reconstruction, he said, would have to wait for demilitarization.
“If Hamas wanted to disarm, they could do that in an afternoon,” he said. “And that’s what we expect.”
Falk outlined three requirements for Gaza: disarming Hamas, demilitarizing the territory and deradicalizing its population. He presented those goals as consistent with US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.
“That means zero weapons,” he said of demilitarization.
The Trump-led Board of Peace was established to oversee implementation of the plan, including Gaza’s reconstruction and transition to a new governing framework.
Stein pressed Falk on why Israel would not agree to a two-week pause in targeted killings and other military activity to allow an attempt at securing Hamas’s disarmament. The question followed Klein’s description of frustration among figures in the Trump administration over Israel’s approach to the board’s work.
Falk said he was unfamiliar with the 14-day proposal. He reiterated that Hamas and all other terrorist organizations in Gaza had to disarm, and that Israel would not redeploy before Hamas was fully disarmed throughout the territory.
“We’re not going to settle for anything less,” he said.
When Klein pointed out that changing attitudes among Gaza’s population could not be accomplished in an afternoon, Falk agreed that deradicalization would take time. He reiterated that Hamas could disarm in an afternoon if it wanted to.
Falk’s assessment of Israel’s diplomatic position was consistently upbeat. He pointed to relations with the US, India, South American countries and European partners as evidence that Israel’s military strength had reinforced its international standing.
Klein challenged that assessment, asking about hostility toward Israel among Democrats and signs of erosion within the Republican Party. Stein raised statements marking October 7 in which US political figures devoted substantial attention to Palestinian suffering and criticism of Israel.
Falk acknowledged a problem in the public arena.
“We’ve been fighting a seven-front war, and on the eighth front, the information warfare, we have not been as successful as we have been on the battlefield,” he said. “And we will need to address that as well.”
He nevertheless maintained that the strategic relationship with Washington remained exceptionally close, citing joint military activity, planning and frequent conversations between Netanyahu and Trump.
Asked how many times the two leaders had spoken over the preceding week or two, Falk said they spoke often but could not recall the precise timing.
“I haven’t seen daylight between the president and the prime minister on the big issues,” he said when asked about differences over Iran.
Pressed on whether American requests had constrained Israeli military decisions, Falk said Netanyahu’s approach was to agree when possible and refuse when Israel’s security required it. He added that Netanyahu had said no on a number of occasions.
‘We’re going to get them all out’: Falk on the hostage negotiations
Falk said Netanyahu rejected an early working assumption held by some that Hamas would kill all the hostages and insisted that bringing every hostage home become a formal war objective.
“The prime minister did not accept that,” Falk said. “He said we’re going to get them all out, and we’re going to put it as a war objective to get them all out.”
Falk maintained that military pressure, diplomatic pressure and a united Israeli-American position were the combination that produced hostage releases. He said perceived differences between Jerusalem and Washington encouraged Hamas to retreat from negotiations.
Falk also credited Netanyahu with pressing then-president Joe Biden to increase pressure on Qatar to secure additional releases during the first agreement in November 2023.
One of the most pointed exchanges concerned whether Israel could have secured an additional hostage agreement between the November 2023 releases and the January 2025 deal.
Stein asked whether any agreement had been possible during that period, distinguishing between the availability of a deal and whether it would have been a good deal for Israel.
“No, there was no deal on the table,” Falk initially replied.
When pressed, he defined that answer in terms of the government’s war objectives: dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, freeing all the hostages and ensuring Gaza could no longer threaten Israel.
“There was no deal that could enable Israel to achieve its war objectives,” he said.
Falk argued that an arrangement requiring Israel to release large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw and leave the prewar threat intact would have contradicted the goals approved by the cabinet. He cited an Israeli proposal that then-US secretary of state Antony Blinken described in April 2024 as “extraordinarily generous,” saying Hamas had rejected it.
His account addressed a dispute that has resurfaced around former White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk’s book, Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages, and McGurk’s recent interview with the Post.
In a separate interview on Dan Senor’s Call Me Back podcast, McGurk called the suggestion that Hamas had been ready to release all the hostages in the days after October 7 “complete bullshit.” He said Hamas had demanded the release of all Palestinian prisoners, continued Hamas rule and a return to the prewar status quo.
Phil Gordon, who served as national security adviser to then-vice president Kamala Harris, challenged claims that McGurk’s account vindicated Netanyahu. Gordon alleged that Netanyahu introduced additional conditions in July 2024 after Hamas accepted the basic framework, delaying an agreement by six months.
Asked about McGurk’s impression that members of Israel’s negotiating team had sometimes gone beyond Netanyahu’s position, Falk declined to dispute the former US official’s personal assessment.
“I don’t want to argue with Brett’s feelings,” he said. He added that Netanyahu and the cabinet would not approve an agreement that jeopardized Israel or its war objectives.
Falk praised Trump’s approach, while declining to speculate about whether Israel would have reached the same position had Kamala Harris won the 2024 presidential election or Biden served another term.
He accused the Biden administration of imposing a “de facto embargo” on some weapons Israel needed before the Rafah operation. The Biden administration paused a shipment of heavy bombs in May 2024 over concerns about civilian casualties, while other US weapons continued to flow to Israel.
Falk also described his own morning on October 7, 2023, saying he was asleep when the attack began and was called shortly afterward to the Kirya, Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Before leaving, he woke his children, who were serving in the military, and told them to report to their units.
He described Netanyahu as focused while receiving updates on the unfolding attack.
“He told me it’s going to be a long war,” Falk recalled, saying the remark came on the way to an initial briefing from the security chiefs.
According to Falk, Netanyahu’s immediate instructions included reinforcing the northern front to deter Hezbollah from joining the fighting, enabling the military to concentrate on the south, preventing the terrorists who had entered Israel from returning to Gaza and calling up as many reservists as needed.
Falk said that, to the best of his recollection, French President Emmanuel Macron was the first foreign leader to call Netanyahu that day. He recalled Macron offering to mediate on the day of the massacre and Netanyahu rejecting the approach.
According to Falk, Netanyahu compared Hamas to ISIS and warned that Macron would face the group in Paris if Israel did not dismantle it in Gaza. Falk said Netanyahu also told Macron not to convey messages on his behalf, adding that Hamas would soon receive a message from Israel.
He also denied reports raised by Klein that UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had telephoned Netanyahu before October 7 to warn him of an impending attack.
“There was no such call,” Falk said.
Klein distinguished that allegation from possible communications between the countries’ intelligence agencies. Falk said he was unaware of any warning or caution, while reiterating his denial of a warning call between the leaders.
On regional diplomacy, Falk praised the United Arab Emirates and said economic relations under the Abraham Accords, the US-brokered normalization agreements launched in 2020, had continued to develop through the war.
Asked why the UAE had publicly acknowledged Netanyahu’s visit, Falk said doing so served both countries’ national interests. He described the visit as “fantastic.”
He expressed support for normalization with Saudi Arabia but gave no details of negotiations or conditions for an agreement.
The discussion also touched on the flydubai passengers diverted to Saudi Arabia. Asked about the refusal to allow an Israeli civilian aircraft to collect them, Falk emphasized reports that they had been treated well and had reached Israel safely. He said a joint investigation into the incident was underway.
On the Houthis, the Iranian-backed movement in Yemen, Falk condemned attacks on civilians and said Israel would act to defend its security and national interests. He did not specify whether Israel was assisting Saudi Arabia against the group.
Asked what needed to happen for additional countries to establish relations with Israel, Falk initially said Israel had to win the war and then secure peace. When pressed on whether normalization would therefore have to wait, he said agreements could come whenever prospective partners were ready.
“I think that can happen and will happen much quicker than you think,” he said.
JBizNews7 hours agoOctober 15, 2026 | Restaurants & Consumer Business
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — KFC is ending its nearly four-decade relationship with PepsiCo and switching to Coca-Cola across approximately 3,700 U.S. restaurants, delivering a major victory to Coca-Cola in the longstanding battle for restaurant beverage contracts.
The decision, announced Thursday, marks a significant loss for PepsiCo, which once owned KFC and continued supplying its restaurants long after selling the chain in 1997.
Coca-Cola products are expected to begin appearing in U.S. KFC restaurants in 2027, with the transition beginning in January and broader availability expected by spring.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
KFC operates approximately 3,718 restaurants across the United States, representing a substantial beverage distribution opportunity.
Restaurant fountain contracts provide beverage companies with more than direct sales. They create consumer exposure, predictable demand and long-term relationships with major foodservice operators.
Losing KFC comes at a difficult time for PepsiCo, which has been working to improve performance in its North American beverage business amid changing consumer preferences and pressure on sales volumes.
The relationship dates back to 1986, when PepsiCo acquired Kentucky Fried Chicken for approximately $840 million.
PepsiCo later separated its restaurant operations into a publicly traded company that eventually became Yum Brands. Despite the separation, KFC continued serving Pepsi beverages for decades.
The new agreement brings that history to an end in the United States.
KFC has been working to strengthen its position in the increasingly competitive American chicken restaurant market.
Chains are competing aggressively on pricing, menu innovation and customer loyalty as consumers become more selective about restaurant spending.
Beverages represent an important source of restaurant profitability because fountain drinks generally carry attractive margins compared with many food items.
KFC has also been expanding its beverage offerings, including specialty lemonades and other drinks aimed at attracting younger customers.
Switching to Coca-Cola gives the chain access to one of the world’s largest beverage portfolios and a new opportunity to market its food-and-drink combinations.
The decision does not end PepsiCo’s broader relationship with Yum Brands.
PepsiCo recently renewed beverage supply agreements covering Taco Bell and KFC’s international operations, including a 10-year agreement with Taco Bell.
Those contracts remain important because Yum operates tens of thousands of restaurants internationally through its brands and franchise networks.
The American KFC business, however, represents a high-profile loss in PepsiCo’s home market.
The deal strengthens Coca-Cola’s already extensive presence in American restaurants, where it supplies numerous major chains.
For beverage companies, winning restaurant contracts can secure years of recurring sales while putting their products directly in front of millions of customers.
For KFC franchise operators, the transition will involve replacing or modifying beverage dispensing equipment, adjusting inventory and preparing restaurants for the new lineup.
Customers will ultimately see the most visible change: Coca-Cola products replacing Pepsi beverages alongside KFC’s chicken meals.
The decision underscores how fiercely beverage manufacturers compete for restaurant partnerships, even when those relationships have lasted generations.
JBizNews Desk | Louisville, Kentucky
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
Original AI-generated JBizNews editorial illustration.
JBizNews7 hours agoOctober 15, 2026 | Technology & Business
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple and Meta, two of Silicon Valley’s fiercest competitors, are joining forces to bring advanced artificial intelligence directly to desktop computers, giving developers a way to operate sophisticated AI models without relying on expensive cloud computing services.
The collaboration, announced Thursday, centers on Meta’s new Muse Spark Open, an artificial intelligence model designed for complex software development, coding and automated tasks.
The model has 816 billion parameters, making it one of the largest publicly available American-developed AI systems. It has been optimized to operate on Apple’s powerful Mac Studio computers equipped with its latest M5 Ultra processors.
For businesses and software developers, the development could offer an alternative to renting processing capacity from major cloud providers, shifting some AI infrastructure spending toward equipment businesses can own and control.
Apple and Meta have spent years battling over consumer privacy, digital advertising and control of the mobile technology marketplace.
Apple’s privacy restrictions on iPhones disrupted Meta’s advertising operations, creating tensions between the companies and their leadership.
Their cooperation reflects the growing economic importance of artificial intelligence and the enormous computing resources needed to compete in the industry.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO John Ternus publicly acknowledged the collaboration, which involved months of technical work.
For Apple, the partnership demonstrates the ability of its hardware to operate increasingly sophisticated AI systems. For Meta, it creates another distribution channel for its AI technology.
One of the most significant features of Muse Spark Open is its ability to operate locally rather than requiring a connection to large remote data centers.
Using Apple’s MLX software framework, developers can run the model across two high-memory Mac Studio computers, which together provide approximately one terabyte of unified memory.
Apple also reported that a four-machine configuration can generate more than 36 tokens per second.
The arrangement could allow companies to keep sensitive information within their own infrastructure while reducing ongoing cloud-computing charges.
However, the technology comes with a substantial upfront investment. The high-memory machines required to operate the complete model can cost tens of thousands of dollars, limiting its immediate appeal to developers, research institutions and businesses with demanding AI workloads.
The partnership comes as American technology companies face increasing pressure from Chinese developers releasing powerful AI models at competitive costs.
Meta is positioning Muse Spark Open as a domestic alternative that developers can download, customize and operate independently, subject to its licensing restrictions.
Unlike proprietary AI systems accessible primarily through paid online services, open-weight models provide developers access to the underlying model parameters.
That flexibility allows businesses to modify their systems, build specialized applications and exercise greater control over computing costs.
Muse Spark Open is also available through several cloud platforms, giving developers the option of operating it remotely without purchasing Apple’s high-end hardware.
The financial implications extend beyond Meta and Apple.
Cloud-computing providers have benefited from enormous demand for AI processing power, driving investment in data centers, specialized processors and electricity infrastructure.
Making advanced models practical on locally owned computers could give businesses another option for deploying AI and managing long-term operating expenses.
The development will not eliminate demand for large data centers, particularly for training sophisticated AI systems. But it could change how some companies deploy AI for software engineering, internal automation and sensitive business operations.
For Apple, the opportunity is equally significant: selling premium computers as AI infrastructure rather than simply productivity equipment.
For Meta, the partnership expands the reach of its technology and strengthens its position in the increasingly competitive market for advanced AI models.
The broader significance is that two longtime rivals now see enough commercial opportunity in artificial intelligence to work together.
JBizNews Desk | Cupertino, California
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews7 hours agoGen Z is stepping into new wealth; the young generation amassed $9 trillion in income back in 2023, and by 2030, their earnings are expected to shoot up to $36 trillion. And in spending their riches, the 20-somethings are already snapping up fine art and luxe collectibles. Last year Gen Z spent twice as much on art compared to every other generation, according to recent data from Swiss bank UBS—and a fine arts expert says their buying habits are reshaping the market.
“There are a lot of people now that have a lot of money and they don’t know what to do with it,” Anita Heriot, president of The Fine Art Group Americas, told leadership editor Claire Zillman onstage at Fortune’s annual Most Powerful Women conference in Santa Barbara, California.
“I’m talking about a lot of the tech, sudden-wealth scenarios, and they buy what looks cool, and they don’t really think about [it],” she continued. “They don’t think about price.”
Heriot said they pay no mind to price tags, as they don’t know how to understand the value around the world. Gen Zers have been spending big on dinosaur bones, sneakers, $20 million Pokémon cards, the art executive explained. Beyond collectibles, she’s seen that young buyers have a strong interest in artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Plus, they’re far less picky about how they snatch up multimillion-dollar art. Historically, older generations went in-person to art galleries or auctions to view pieces before deciding to put in an offer. But Gen Zers are just fine growing their collections from behind a laptop; when the COVID-19 shutdown forced them to stay at home, online bidding shot up 450%, Heriot said.
“So, this generation, they don’t mind buying off a JPEG. If it looks cool on a computer, they’ll buy it,” the The Fine Art Group president said. She believes Gen Zers are outspending all others due to their online shopping habits, and a “desire to start spending” their sudden wealth.
The young generation’s interest in art will be no passing fad—but what they put within that category could shift, according to Heriot. While they may be buying up paintings and luxe collectables now, she predicts that they’ll seek out items that remind them of their youth, just like generations before them. Baby boomers bought up cars from the 60s, Heriot noted, hoping to reconnect with the experiences from their memories. She explained that it’s typical for people to “buy heavy” into that period of their culture. 1990s and 2000s-era items like the iPhone Classics or Xbox could become big-money items as Gen Zers age and yearn for that nostalgia.
“I think it’s important to look at art with a big ‘A.’ I think there’s going to be a huge interest in those objects that they grew up with,” the executive explained. “For instance, we’re seeing a huge interest in buying Audis. Like, who’s buying an old Audi from 1982? They are. So that’s what we’re starting to see, and I think we’ll continue to see that.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews7 hours agoManhattan’s Upper West Side has been reveling in the company of its latest celebrities: A family of barn owls nested in a water tower atop a building near Central Park.
This is the first documented instance of barn owls nesting in Manhattan in modern history, according to one expert, and the owls have attracted nightly crowds of people in the street eager to get a glimpse of the elusive birds.
“It was, like, totally shocking,” Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said of the barn owls. “To the best of our knowledge, like the collective birding knowledge, there hasn’t been a nest in, you know, in Manhattan, at least in recorded history.”
Word of the barn owl family didn’t get around until last week, when Elisabeth Williams, an Upper West Side resident, notified a local news outlet on Oct. 6 that she and her husband saw multiple owls at the water tower atop a building on West 75th Street close to Central Park West.
The couple had previously seen a single owl on an apartment windowsill a few days earlier and were shocked even then, Williams recalled.
“In a place like Manhattan, you normally really have to go out of your way to encounter nature,” she said. “And here it was, just sort of right outside our window.”
It’s not the first time that birds have captivated New Yorkers. Residents have fallen in love with American woodcocks, who are known to stop in Midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park every year as they migrate north in early spring. After Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl died in 2024, dozens of mournful fans gathered to say goodbye to the beloved creature who flew around Manhattan and became a joy to many after someone let him out of his zoo enclosure the previous year. Then there was Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who nested above Fifth Avenue for three decades before dying in 2023.
But barn owl sightings in New York City parks are very rare, according to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. New York is at the northern fringe of the barn owl’s range and the barn owl population has declined “at an alarming rate” over time, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
“There’s lots of excitement among New Yorkers, both birders and non-birders alike, about these owls because owls really capture the attention,” said Jessica Wilson, executive director of NYC Bird Alliance. “They’re magical, they’re nocturnal, they are secretive, they’re not commonly seen, especially on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And to have this chance to see these birds is really thrilling.”
Photographers and casual onlookers have gathered on the street on a nightly basis to spot the owls.
“I’ve only seen one barn owl ever, and that was in California,” said Val Coleman, a retired New York City resident who was on the Upper West Side earlier this week trying to spot the owls. “At dusk, we hope they will come out to hunt. We hope they don’t eat poisoned rats with rodenticide in ’em.”
David Barrett, a Manhattan-based birder who runs the popular social media account, Manhattan Bird Alert, said he’s observed at least one adult barn owl and five fledglings at the water tower. He’s also seen an adult owl carrying rodents back to the water tower. There are believed to be two adult owls, and some photographers have claimed to have seen six fledglings, Barrett added.
“Having one barn owl is a rarity, but it’s not national news. Having a family, for the first time ever, breeding in Manhattan in recorded history, that’s special news,” Barrett said.
Before the recent barn owl sightings, Williams and her husband heard periodic screeching noises outside going back to early September. They initially assumed it was a bird of some kind but were skeptical when a phone app indicated the noise was from a barn owl.
Thomas Obersteiner said that he first heard bizarre screeching and wailing noises from outside one evening in mid-September. It sounded like someone was “being murdered outside,” he said.
“That lasted for two or three weeks, every night, sometimes more, sometimes less, coming from different directions,” Obersteiner added. “But I had no idea what that was.”
On multiple occasions, Obersteiner or his wife ran into their children’s bedroom after mistaking the owls’ screech for a child in pain, he said. It wasn’t until he saw a news report that he realized that owls were making the sounds.
Farnsworth said the screech is typical of barn owls, who use it to communicate with one another. The screech is like a “horror movie kind of experience,” he said.
Obersteiner, who said his roof deck is the “probably the best location in town right now” to watch the owls, has been letting nature photographers access that perch to observe the owls “almost every night” since news of the barn owls spread. On one night last week, 20 people had gathered.
“We can’t say no because it’s so much fun and these people are so serious,” Obersteiner added. “It’s beautiful.”
Williams and her husband were not bird watchers before the barn owl family moved in to the water tower. But that may change soon after their “delightful” experience.
“I think we’re about to become birders,” Williams said.
__
Kelety reported from Phoenix.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews7 hours agoSweetgreen is adding lower-priced menu options as it tries to shed its reputation for expensive salads and attract more customers.
The Los Angeles-headquartered fast-casual chain rolled out four wraps nationwide in May, all priced below $15 and averaging around $12.50, according to a news release from Sweetgreen.
Sweetgreen Chief Financial Officer Jamie McConnell told The Wall Street Journal that the lower starting prices are part of an effort to change how consumers view the chain.
“When you’d walk into a Sweetgreen, you’d see more things above $15 than you would see under $15,” McConnell said.
“So psychologically, even though a lot of our prices could be lower than some of our peers, we were viewed as a very expensive company because we didn’t have any of those entry prices in,” she added.
The changes come as Sweetgreen works to improve sales and customer traffic.
Sweetgreen’s same-store sales fell 6.2% in its latest quarter, prompting the company to cut its full-year forecast. It now expects a 7% to 8% decline, compared with its previous forecast of 2% to 4%, the Journal reported.
Sweetgreen said it spent years developing the wraps before testing them in New York, the Midwest and Los Angeles ahead of the nationwide launch.
CEO Jonathan Neman said in May that the new menu items were designed to offer “more flavor, more substance, more convenience” at a price point aimed at making Sweetgreen an “everyday choice.”
Sweetgreen is also working to make pricing clearer for customers building their own salads and bowls.
“What used to happen is you’d start off with a $10 green bowl, and then you go down the line, add all of these different things, and before you know it, you have a $22 salad, and you’re pissed, right?” McConnell told the Journal.
“We want to make sure that’s more transparent,” she added.
McConnell said customers can get a protein, two bases and four toppings for around $13, with dressing and bread included.
The chain is also making an effort to speed up service.
Some busy locations have assigned workers specifically to wrap assembly during peak hours, according to the Journal.
“People don’t want to always come into Sweetgreen, because they feel like it’s slow,” McConnell told the Journal. “If you can go into a restaurant, be in and out with your salad in under five minutes, that would be the goal.”
Sweetgreen’s push toward lower-priced options comes as consumers continue to face broader price pressures.
Inflation accelerated in September, driven in part by higher energy prices. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.6% from the prior month and 3.7% from a year ago.
FOX Business reached out to Sweetgreen for comment.
FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.
JBizNews7 hours agoAt least eight states are suing artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, saying the company’s popular chatbot model violated state consumer protection laws by hurting children and deceiving adults.
The company’s chatbot model, ChatGPT, is giving dangerous medical advice, encouraging paranoia and coaching people to hurt others or commit suicide, Iowa’s lawsuit said. At the same time, the chatbots are pretending to be agreeable and compassionate while preying on the vulnerable, according to the lawsuit.
“OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement.
In a statement, OpenAI said it has already built safety protections into ChatGPT for children, and that it would continue to do so to improve the model.
The wave of lawsuits are the latest filed by states under their consumer protection laws, accusing tech giants that offer AI chatbots and social media platforms of harming children. The states that filed separate lawsuits Wednesday in state courts are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia.
In its lawsuit, Arizona said ChatGPT encourages teens to share personal information with it and, at times, discourages them from sharing that information with parents, authorities or friends.
ChatGPT is the most popular chatbot in the world, commanding nearly half the American marketplace, according to the lawsuits.
In August, Meta agreed to add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms in an $18 billion landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state.
Coordinated, multistate lawsuits against the tech industry have borne fruit. Although the safety measures that Meta agreed to adopt did not apply industrywide, the company quickly urged its competitors to adopt similar measures.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said in a statement that the company is committed to working with states on “advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry — not just one company.”
ChatGPT is intended for users age 13 and older, and users under 18 need permission from a parent or guardian to use it, OpenAI said. The chatbot model for teens has safeguards that are designed to reduce exposure to self-harm, violence, eating disorders and explicit sexual or graphic content, it said.
Nearly nine in 10 teens who use ChatGPT use it for learning, information, skill-building or productivity, the company said. On average, teens spend under 15 minutes a day on ChatGPT, it said.
ChatGPT provides break reminders for periods of extended use and OpenAI said it works with external experts who review policies and the model’s behavior.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews7 hours agoCiti Bike is now available to more New Yorkers. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s Department of Transportation, and Lyft announced on Thursday the completion of a major expansion of the bike-share program, with 230 stations and 3,700 docks added to seven neighborhoods. The expansion was first announced under former Mayor Eric Adams as a way to reach underserved neighborhoods and add more stations to high-demand areas.
The expansion brings 3,700 docks across seven neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, including Norwood, Riverdale, Brownsville, East New York, Kensington, Bay Ridge, and Forest Hills.
Last September, the rollout began in Bay Ridge, where riders have taken more than 75,000 trips in the year since. With the additional stations, Citi Bike now covers 86.5 square miles, putting 62 percent of New Yorkers within its service area.
“Riding a bike is one of the best ways to get around the city, and expansions like this one help more New Yorkers get where they need to go,” Mamdani said in a statement. “We’re making it easier for people to get to work and school, make their dentist appointments, and take advantage of a museum or concert—and everything else our city has to offer.”
Lyft plans to deploy hundreds of new docks in areas with the highest ridership, including Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Park Slope and Gowanus, Greenwich Village and Hudson Square, Lower East Side, Chelsea, Midtown East, and Harlem.
“Bringing Citi Bike to seven new neighborhoods in just over a year wouldn’t have been possible without our partners at NYC DOT and the communities who helped shape where stations went,” said Patrick Knoth, General Manager of Citi Bike.
“What matters most to us is who’s riding: in Norwood, more than half of trips at the new stations are Reduced Fare trips. That’s what it looks like when affordable, sustainable transportation reaches neighborhoods that haven’t had it before, and we’re committed to keeping it reliable for the New Yorkers who depend on it every day.”
Lyft said the expansion of its Citi Bike fleet led to an increase in the price of e-bike and classic bike overages and of annual memberships this year. The cost of e-bike and classic bike overage fees increased to 27 cents per minute for members, and annual memberships went up by $20 to $239 per year.
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JBizNews7 hours agoThe US midterm elections on November 3 will determine the balance of power in Congress during the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term. Historically, the president’s party tends to lose seats in midterm elections, and Trump’s declining approval ratings, particularly on the economy, leave Republicans facing a challenging political environment.
For Israel, however, the stakes extend well beyond whether Democrats regain control of the House or Senate. The elections will also offer an indication of how far criticism of Israel has spread from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing into its political mainstream – and whether candidates who oppose US military assistance to Israel can translate that message into electoral success.
The war with Iran has further complicated the administration’s political position. Rising energy costs have made the conflict harder to defend to voters already concerned about their household finances, who tend to judge presidents by the prices they encounter at the gas pump and in the supermarket rather than by broader economic indicators. Trump has promised that oil prices will fall, telling supporters: “I will be out of there soon, and you watch those oil prices come down like a rock, and watch everything, everything else come down.”
This environment gives Democrats an opportunity to campaign on affordability and lets candidates link foreign policy to economic concerns, arguing that America should not spend resources on overseas commitments while households face financial pressure.
One of the clearest examples came during a debate in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Rep. Mike Collins, who are competing for the state’s Senate seat. Although the economy remains a central concern for many Georgians, Ossoff, a Jewish American seeking reelection and a potential contender in the 2028 Democratic presidential primaries, was asked directly about the widening divide within his party over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.
“Israel’s response has led to a major divide in your party, with many prominent Democrats accusing Israel of committing genocide,” the moderator said. “You yourself voted to block a shipment of arms to Israel, seen by many in Atlanta’s Jewish community as a betrayal. Do you believe Israel is guilty of committing genocide?”
Ossoff responded by focusing on the conduct of the Israeli military. “There is no doubt in my mind that Israeli forces prosecuting the war in Gaza violated the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law,” he said. The exchange illustrated the increasingly difficult position facing Democrats who support maintaining the US-Israel relationship while confronting pressure from voters demanding a tougher approach toward the Israeli government.
The Senate race in Michigan offers another example of how Israel has become entangled in debates about American identity, foreign influence, and national priorities. Republican Mike Rogers is competing against Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate whose campaign has sharply criticized Israeli policy and US military assistance to Israel. During a debate, El-Sayed was asked a direct question: “Who do you think is a bigger threat to the United States, Israel or Iran?” Rather than choosing between the two, he rejected the premise. “That’s a ridiculous hypothetical,” El-Sayed said. His response reflects a broader argument advanced by some progressive candidates: that the United States should not automatically treat Israel as a strategic partner whose policies warrant continued American support, regardless of the circumstances.
Yiftach Dayan, a US political analyst, said El-Sayed had used media appearances and campaign messaging to portray Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as outside forces exerting undue influence over US policymaking. “He managed, through a number of smart moves in the media and in his appearances, to brand AIPAC and Israel as foreign money, as a foreign actor pushing American policy in a direction that does not serve the interests of the American citizen,” Dayan said. “That has been his case from the moment he entered the race, and it is working for him, certainly in the primaries.” Dayan added that the argument could resonate beyond the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, including among some conservative voters who are skeptical of overseas commitments and foreign lobbying.
The shift is also visible in New York, where progressive politics and opposition to Israeli military assistance have become increasingly prominent in Democratic contests.
The rise of Zohran Mamdani has shown the electoral appeal of a message that combines affordability, expansive social programs, and sharp criticism of Israel. His success has encouraged other candidates to test similar arguments, including Brad Lander, a Jewish American Democratic candidate for the US House of Representatives in New York. Lander has taken an unequivocal position against additional US military assistance to Israel, including defensive aid. “I will not vote for any additional US military aid to Israel, offensive or defensive, as long as Israel is violating international law and Palestinian human rights,” he said when asked about his position.
For Yaki Dayan, a former Israeli consul in Los Angeles, the broader trend is unmistakable. “Israel, as we are seeing in these midterm elections, has increasingly become a tool for political gain, particularly for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” he said. He pointed to the Democratic Socialists of America and the growing reluctance among some Democratic candidates to accept campaign support associated with pro-Israel lobbying. “AIPAC was one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States,” he said. “Today, Democrats are not even willing to touch its money.” The implication is not that every Democratic candidate opposes Israel, or that criticism of the Israeli government is necessarily anti-Israel. Rather, positions that might once have been considered outside the party’s mainstream are increasingly becoming central to primary campaigns in certain districts. The question is how far this shift will extend.
For years, outspoken criticism of Israel in Congress was associated primarily with a small group of progressive lawmakers commonly known as the Squad. Some Israeli observers are concerned that the next Congress could include a larger number of Democrats who oppose military assistance to Israel or seek to impose additional conditions on the bilateral relationship. “There are circles in the Democratic Party that look at Israel as a litmus test,” Yiftach Dayan said. “The message is essentially that if you are not anti-Israel in every fiber of your being, or at least highly critical of Israel’s policy in Gaza and the supply of weapons to Israel, you do not belong.” That dynamic could have consequences beyond the candidates who win individual races. If Democrats take control of one or both chambers of Congress, lawmakers could use hearings, resolutions, restrictions on military assistance, and other legislative measures to challenge the administration’s approach to Israel. Even if such initiatives do not immediately change US policy, they could influence the political debate and signal which positions are gaining legitimacy within the party.
The implications extend beyond the midterms, as the next Congress will serve as an important testing ground for Democratic candidates considering a 2028 presidential run. If candidates who oppose military assistance to Israel perform well, their campaigns could encourage others to adopt similar positions. Yiftach Dayan said congressional votes and declarations could establish a new baseline for future Democratic presidential contenders. “If Democrats control both chambers and pass legislation and symbolic measures against Israel, changing the status quo to Israel’s disadvantage, that is unequivocally bad for Israel,” he said. “Even if it does not produce an immediate practical change over the next two years, it establishes a status quo within the Democratic Party. It signals to every presidential candidate for 2028 that these statements and measures against Israel are the baseline. This is where you start. You cannot afford to be less radical against Israel, because otherwise you will have no chance. The public has spoken.”
For Israel, the political environment is becoming more complicated as different motivations converge. Progressive Democrats often focus on Palestinian rights and opposition to the war in Gaza, while some conservatives and Republicans question foreign aid and American involvement abroad. Others object to what they see as the influence of lobbying organizations on US policy. These positions are not identical, nor do they necessarily lead to the same policy conclusions, but they can converge around demands for a more restrictive approach to American support for Israel.
JBizNews7 hours agoSupport is growing for Rep. Joaquin Castro’s Stop the Settlements Act, which targets Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, despite there being no Jewish presence in the latter.
As of this week, the bill has 53 co-sponsors, including high-profile figures such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna.
The Stop the Settlements Act, introduced on October 1, aims to halt the construction of new settlements and the expansion of existing Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank and Gaza through sanctions and a prohibition on importing goods made in these settlements and outposts.
It claims that ending settlement construction and expansion would protect Palestinians from “the dispossession of their land and help create a pathway to peace, where both Israelis and Palestinians are able to fully exercise their right to self-determination.”
It specifically calls for sanctions to be imposed on any individual determined to be complicit in the construction of “any Israeli settlement or outpost on or after September 30, 2026; construction or development of settlements in E1; or anyone deemed to have facilitated the transfer of Israeli civilian population into Israeli settlements or outposts on or after September 30, 2026.”
In a similar manner to sanctions imposed by the UK, Netherlands, Canada, and France, the bill would also mean prohibiting the import of all goods produced or manufactured wholly or in part in any Israeli settlements or outposts in the West Bank or Gaza.
“Under Netanyahu’s government, settlers are engaged in a violent land grab that’s ripping Palestinians from their land,” said Congressman Castro. “Democrats must face this with urgency – act now or watch the prospect of Palestinian self-determination slip away forever.”
He said the Stop the Settlements Act gives any person or company looking to take Palestinian land in the West Bank or Gaza a choice to “pursue settlements or do business with the United States.”
Castro said that, if enacted, the legislation could lead to essentially a de facto settlement freeze with no new settlement construction in the West Bank, while also giving the US president the authority to “begin going after some of the most problematic and destabilizing settlements and outposts in the West Bank.”
The bill has garnered the support of left-wing anti-Israel groups such as J Street and the New Jewish Narrative.
Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of the New Jewish Narrative, said the “bill fills a crucial void” as “the Trump administration has failed to take action that would stop the Israeli government from executing its reckless agenda of land grabs and annexation.”
The continual reference to Jewish settlements or outposts in Gaza is striking, given there have been no established Israeli civilian settlements in the Gaza Strip since 2005, and no goods are produced there.
It would, therefore, appear the bill is written to prevent the construction of new settlements in the future, potentially preempting the outcome of a right-wing bloc success in the upcoming Israeli election.
JBizNews10 hours agoTesla is set to unveil the redesigned Roadster on Thursday after the EV-maker first previewed a next-generation version of its electric sports car nearly nine years ago.
The automaker first revealed a prototype of the $200,000 Roadster in 2017 and the company said at the time it would begin deliveries in 2020. While the price of the Roadster hasn’t been updated, reservations cost buyers $50,000 apiece.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has downplayed the importance of the Roadster to the company’s finances, saying in 2023 that it’s a “small potato situation” that wouldn’t “move the needle in a major way financially.”
While the Roadster may not be a key part of Tesla’s auto lineup from a financial perspective, high-performance luxury sports cars can serve as platforms for the automaker’s technology.
Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said in a note last month that “Tesla does not currently have a halo car, or high-performance luxury vehicle designed to showcase an automaker’s best engineering and technology. The Roadster will be Tesla’s new halo car.”
Musk said in 2017 that a four-seat, next-gen Roadster would be able to travel 620 miles on a single charge, though he said in a 2024 post on X that the car had been redesigned.
In his update, Musk said that the new Roadster would accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than a second, which he explained was the “least interesting part” as he added the vehicle was a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX, the space exploration company Musk also leads.
Goldstein expects Tesla will sell about 2,000 Roadsters a year, which would represent a small fraction of the 1.6 million vehicles the company sold last year.
Tesla’s original Roadster was released in 2008 and on sale until 2012. It was the company’s first EV and was built on a Lotus Elise chassis, and paved the way for Tesla’s Model Y and Model X SUVs and its Model S and Model 3 sedans.
The reveal of the second-generation Roadster comes amid Tesla’s shift in focus to artificial intelligence (AI) to power self-driving technology and robotics.
Tesla stopped selling Model S and Model X vehicles to make space for production of its Optimus humanoid robots.
The company also launched Cybercab, a two-seater robotaxi that doesn’t have manual controls like a steering wheel, pedals and mirrors.
Tesla’s event for the next-generation Roadster is scheduled to start at 8:55 p.m. ET on Thursday at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas.
Reuters contributed to this report.
JBizNews10 hours agoIf the exclusivity of Miami’s “Billionaire Bunker” isn’t enough for some of the world’s wealthiest buyers, a record-breaking oceanfront home nearby could be the next addition to their real estate portfolios.
In September, the 17,500-square-foot estate at 255 Ocean Boulevard in Golden Beach sold for $69.5 million, breaking a local sales record. Property records reviewed by Fox News Digital show the home was purchased by Delaware-based Meridian Coast LLC, which sources familiar with the transaction told The Real Deal is tied to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“I can’t speak to whether Jeff Bezos is involved in this particular transaction, but from a real estate perspective, the acquisition would make sense for someone with an existing footprint on Indian Creek. The two properties would serve entirely different purposes,” Devin Kay of The Exclusive Group at Douglas Elliman told Fox News Digital.
“It’s about lifestyle diversification,” Miami’s No. 9 agent by sales, Jordan Karp, also told Fox News Digital. “Golden Beach is the only neighborhood in Miami offering true, oceanfront homes sitting directly on the beach with absolute privacy. For ultra-high-net-worth buyers, it’s not an ‘either-or’ decision. They can have a property to live, a property to entertain and house staff, or a beach home they may only visit a few times a year.”
“That said, I think there’s a tendency to attach recognizable names to extraordinary transactions, particularly when the buyer’s identity is protected,” Kay added. “The reality is that South Florida’s billionaire buyer pool has expanded considerably. There are international business owners, hedge fund executives, technology founders and multi-generational families quietly acquiring some of the most valuable real estate in the region.”
If Bezos is confirmed as the buyer, the Golden Beach acquisition would add to his existing $234 million real estate portfolio on the heavily guarded Indian Creek Island. According to Kay, ultra-high-net-worth buyers are curating portfolios of local properties that serve distinct lifestyle functions, with Golden Beach offering direct access to sandy Atlantic Ocean beaches.
“I would look at a Golden Beach property as the ultimate private beach house. There’s a significant difference between owning a waterfront estate on Biscayne Bay and having direct frontage on the Atlantic Ocean. Golden Beach offers something that’s increasingly difficult to replicate in South Florida,” Kay reflected.
“We’re seeing ultra-high-net-worth buyers place a significant premium on that flexibility, particularly when it comes to privacy, security and convenience,” he further explained. “What makes Golden Beach especially compelling is the scarcity. There is a finite number of single-family oceanfront parcels, and opportunities to acquire substantial beachfront estates are extremely limited. For buyers who can afford virtually anything, the real value is often in owning something that simply cannot be recreated.”
“Oceanfront single-family land in Miami-Dade County is virtually extinct,” Karp — who sold a home in Golden Beach to rapper French Montana, said. “Golden Beach is the only neighborhood where homes sit directly on the sand. There is significant demand and limited inventory, especially on the ocean, with about 60 homes total on the strip… Buyers are paying a scarcity premium for irreplaceable land, and that inventory is shrinking even further as buyers buy two or three adjacent lots to build massive compounds.”
Historically, Golden Beach has been known as a quieter, family-oriented enclave with its own municipal police force and zoning restrictions that prohibit high-rise developments, a stark contrast to the flashy culture of Miami Beach or the established old money of Palm Beach.
“The emergence of transactions in the $50 million to nearly $70 million range is changing how the market values Golden Beach. It’s no longer simply viewed as a quiet beachfront neighborhood. It’s increasingly being recognized as one of the most exclusive oceanfront residential markets in the country,” Kay said.
“What’s important to understand is that the fundamentals haven’t changed. The community hasn’t suddenly become more desirable because billionaires are buying there. The land was always exceptional. What’s changed is the concentration of wealth in South Florida and the number of buyers who recognize the scarcity of these properties.”
“Another important distinction is that these buyers aren’t necessarily negotiating based on the same considerations as the broader market. Price matters, but certainty of execution, confidentiality, timing and the ability to structure a clean transaction can be equally important,” Kay expanded. “A seller at this level may place tremendous value on knowing that a buyer can close discreetly and without complications. The broker’s role has evolved considerably. It’s not simply about finding someone who can afford the property. It’s about having access to a very specific buyer pool, understanding how those individuals operate and being able to manage an extremely sensitive transaction from beginning to end.”
“The type of wealth moving into South Florida has completely raised the bar for how real estate deals are negotiated, marketed and closed. At this price point, deals are negotiated through family offices, wealth managers, and specialized attorneys under strict NDAs,” Karp noted. “Before a buyer even steps foot on a property, it is vetted by a team and often even the real estate agents are not allowed to attend the showings when the client does the final walkthrough. Discretion at this level is a mandatory business proposal and can kill a deal if it gets out.”
Douglas Elliman’s Dina Goldentayer represented the seller at 255 Ocean Boulevard, while Jill Eber and Hillary Hertzberg of The Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker Realty represented the buyer.
Goldentayer declined Fox News Digital’s request for comment, while The Jills Zeder Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
JBizNews11 hours agoIsrael’s President Isaac Herzog met President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan in Baku this week. He also met Foreign Minister of Bahrain Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani. These are important meetings for Israel. They come amid a number of diplomatic and other successes. For instance, Colombia has inaugurated its embassy in Jerusalem. Colombia’s foreign minister Omar Bula Escobar came to Israel for the event. In addition, on October 8 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Vice President of Paraguay, Pedro Alliana in Jerusalem.
These are historic days for Israel. Three years after the October 7 attacks, Israel is increasing its engagement with various countries. This comes as there is discussion in media about whether fighting with Iran may resume. The meetings between Herzog and the president of Azerbaijan and foreign minister of Bahrain are important in this context. Azerbaijan is a rising power in its area of the Caucasus, with influence that extends to Europe and Central Asia and beyond. It also borders Iran.
Bahrain is an important Gulf country. It joined the Abraham Accords in 2020. In the October 14 meeting between Herzog and Aliyev, Herzog’s office said that “President Herzog thanked President Aliyev for the warm welcome and noted that Azerbaijan is a model of stability and an important and respected voice in the international community.” His office also noted “the meeting was held as part of President Herzog’s participation in the Seventh Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, at the invitation of President Aliyev.”
The leaders discussed “ways to deepen the strategic relationship between Israel and Azerbaijan, which is rooted in mutual respect, shared interests, and the deep historical ties between the two peoples. They also discussed recent regional developments and the two countries’ shared commitment to stability and security in the region.” This is important; Azerbaijan is an important country for many reasons. It is doing outreach to Syria recently. It is a close friend of Turkey. Turkey has tended to be critical of Israel and Israel has concerns about Turkey’s role in Syria. Baku can potentially play an important role to reduce tensions.
Herzog’s office noted that “President Aliyev thanked President Herzog for his words of appreciation regarding Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of CICA, and emphasized that his country continues to work to strengthen mutual trust among CICA member states and to advance practical cooperation between them.”
Herzog said, “Israel and Azerbaijan share a unique relationship, one that has been developed over many years and has proven its importance in complex times as well. I thank President Ilham Aliyev for our partnership and for the open dialogue between us, and I believe we have much more to achieve together: strengthening the ties between our peoples, expanding our cooperation, and creating new opportunities for generations to come.”
In the meeting with Bahrain, which also took place in Baku, Herzog also discussed the importance of strengthening the Abraham Accords. This is important because the October 7 war has made it difficult for expansion of the Accords to take place. However, with war winding down, there are many opportunities. “President Herzog emphasized the great importance Israel attaches to its relations with the Kingdom of Bahrain and commended the courageous leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the Government of Bahrain. The President conveyed his warmest wishes to His Majesty the King and the Bahraini people,” Herzog’s office said in a statement distributed by Israel’s Government press Office.
It’s worth recalling the important relationship between Israel and Azerbaijan that has developed over the last decades. Israel and Azerbaijan established diplomatic relations in April 1992, shortly after Azerbaijan gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The relationship expanded over the years. Energy trade and defense sales have been important building blocks. Azerbaijan has become a modern military power, and it has showcased Israeli defense technology during events in the past. In 2023, Azerbaijan opened an embassy in Israel. George Deek played a key role as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2018 to 2025.
Bahrain-Israel ties are also important. They are less in the spotlight than Israel-UAE ties or even Israel-Morocco ties. However, Bahrain is an important part of the Abraham Accords. Bahrain is a cautious country and this caution means it is not often in the spotlight in the Gulf. However, it has also suffered from threats during the recent Iran conflict. Israel opened an embassy in Manama in 2021 following the Abraham Accords. There has been cooperation in the past years.
The meetings in Baku are important in terms of the larger regional context. Israeli defense companies also had a major role at the Marrakesh Air Show this week in Morocco. As such, there is a growing perception that Israeli ties with various Muslim countries are now improving and also more public than they have been in the last several years.
JBizNews11 hours agoSocial Security beneficiaries could face a 22% across-the-board benefit reduction in 2032 without congressional action, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), as a new cost-of-living adjustment renews debate over the program’s financial future.
The warning comes as Social Security’s retirement trust fund approaches a projected 2032 depletion date, putting pressure on lawmakers to address the program’s long-term funding shortfall.
Social Security recipients will receive a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment in 2027, raising the average retired worker’s monthly benefit by about $75, from $2,095 to $2,170, according to estimates cited by AARP.
The increase, announced by the Social Security Administration on Wednesday, will take effect with December benefits, which are paid in January.
The 2027 increase is the highest COLA in four years and compares with a 2.8% adjustment this year. It reflects inflation readings from the third quarter, including a 3.9% year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in September.
The boost comes as many older Americans continue to face higher costs for groceries, utilities, insurance and health care. The standard Medicare Part B premium is also projected to rise by $6.60 per month in 2027, to $209.50, according to AARP.
CRFB estimates the 3.6% adjustment will add about $900 annually to the average retiree’s benefits, even as the program’s projected funding shortfall raises questions about the sustainability of future payments.
But the increase will not be distributed equally in dollar terms. CRFB estimates that while the average retiree will receive about $900 more annually, the highest-benefit recipients could see increases exceeding $2,200. The group said the highest-earning couples who retired this year at normal retirement age could receive a combined $3,600 increase, pushing their annual benefits above $100,000.
The larger dollar increases come amid a broader generational economic divide. A Federal Reserve report released in May found that just 63% of adults ages 18 to 29 reported doing okay financially or living comfortably in 2025, compared with 83% of adults ages 60 and older. Nearly half of adults under 30 received financial assistance from someone outside their household to cover expenses during the year.
The financial pressures facing younger Americans add another dimension to the debate over Social Security’s future. Current workers help fund the program through payroll taxes, even as its retirement trust fund faces a projected shortfall. According to the Social Security trustees’ 2026 report, the fund is expected to exhaust its reserves in 2032, leaving continuing income sufficient to cover about 78% of scheduled retirement and survivor benefits without changes to the law.
CRFB has advocated for changes to the way COLAs are calculated, including using a different inflation measure or placing a dollar cap on increases for higher-income beneficiaries. The group also supports additional revenue and other benefit reforms to improve the program’s finances.
AARP, however, opposes proposals to reduce or cap annual COLAs, arguing that the adjustments already fall short of keeping pace with the costs older Americans face.
JBizNews12 hours agoFormer US president Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Israel “took land off people and they were excessive,” in reference to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people throughout the history of the nation.
Obama made his comments while visiting Belfast, Northern Ireland, to receive an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast.
In a conversation with journalist Susan McKay, the former president referred to the Palestinians’ reaction to the Jewish people’s exerting cultural and military control over the State of Israel by explaining that “those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice, and I want my land back.'”
McKay asked Obama about the current state of the conflict in the Middle East surrounding the State of Israel. The hostility toward Israel after the October 7 massacre was an indication that a “genuine cessation” was needed in order for long-term solutions to be implemented, the former president responded.
“The fact is,” Obama explained, “that the Jewish people, for millennia, were oppressed, discriminated against, killed. Europe was responsible for much of it. They understandably sought a refuge.”
“If the attitude of Israel is, now that we are the strongest, the most technologically advanced in the region, then our security will depend on us simply doing whatever we need and taking whatever we want, and not making any concessions to anyone,” Obama continued. “That may work short-term… but you have ceded moral ground if that is the position you take.”
A report from The Irish Times noted that Obama did introduce nuance into the conversation, saying that the millions of Jews and Palestinians in the region “aren’t going anywhere.”
“The citizenry of Israel has to rethink, to reimagine, how your children and grandchildren are going to live in this region. Are you just going to be behind walls and wipe out everybody around you, or are you going to find some just way of defending yourself while still acting in an ethical, moral way?” the former president said.
The Palestinians, he said, have to understand that they will not “outkill” or “outweaponize the Israelis…We have to look to other examples of how change comes about,” he said, pointing toward “nonviolent strategies.”
“That’s going to take some time,” the former president acknowledged.
JBizNews12 hours agoNEW YORK — Bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000 Thursday as a wave of selling swept through cryptocurrency markets, extending losses fueled by hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation and fears that the Federal Reserve could keep interest rates elevated or raise them further.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped to approximately $79,700 on some major trading platforms before recovering above the psychologically important $80,000 threshold. The decline followed several days of weakening prices and reflected growing investor caution across global financial markets.
The selloff has also spread beyond Bitcoin, with Ether and other cryptocurrencies suffering sharper percentage losses as traders reduce exposure to volatile assets.
The latest selling intensified after U.S. consumer inflation accelerated to 3.7% annually in September, above economists’ expectations of 3.6%.
The report showed consumer prices rising 0.6% from the previous month, with higher gasoline costs accounting for much of the increase.
The unexpected acceleration raised concerns that the Federal Reserve may need to maintain restrictive monetary policy for longer than investors anticipated.
Higher interest rates generally increase the appeal of interest-bearing assets and raise financing costs, making speculative investments, including cryptocurrencies, less attractive.
Bitcoin has increasingly traded alongside other risk-sensitive investments, particularly technology stocks, rather than consistently behaving as a safe haven during periods of financial stress.
The downturn has been amplified by leveraged cryptocurrency trading.
When Bitcoin falls sharply, exchanges may automatically close positions held by investors who borrowed heavily to increase their exposure. Those forced liquidations can accelerate selling and push prices lower.
Industry market data indicated that approximately $483 million in leveraged Bitcoin and Ether futures positions were liquidated over a recent 24-hour period.
The selling coincided with substantial declines across Asian equity markets, including sharp losses in South Korea and Japan, as investors reacted to inflation concerns and weakness in technology stocks.
Bitcoin’s latest decline comes one year after the cryptocurrency climbed above $126,000 in October 2025.
At $80,000, Bitcoin is approximately 37% below that record, underscoring the volatility that continues to define the cryptocurrency market despite growing institutional participation.
Digital assets have gained broader acceptance through regulated investment products, financial institutions and corporate holdings. However, those developments have not insulated Bitcoin from broader shifts in investor sentiment.
The latest decline also raises questions about whether Bitcoin can sustain investor demand when inflation remains elevated and borrowing costs are high.
The immediate focus is whether Bitcoin can stabilize around $80,000 or whether continued selling will drive prices lower.
Investors are also monitoring the Federal Reserve’s October 27–28 policy meeting, where officials will assess inflation, employment and broader financial conditions.
A decision to maintain interest rates could provide some relief if investors had anticipated another increase. Conversely, renewed signals of tighter monetary policy could prolong pressure on cryptocurrencies and other speculative assets.
For investors, the latest selloff illustrates a familiar reality: Bitcoin’s long-term institutional growth has not eliminated its sensitivity to inflation, interest rates and rapid changes in global market sentiment.
The next test is whether buyers return around $80,000 or whether the latest retreat develops into a broader correction across digital assets.
JBizNews Desk | New York
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews12 hours agoWe are living in an extraordinary time. We can reach more people in more markets than ever before and work seamlessly across continents. Even the routine effort of our day-to-day is diminished with the use of AI, giving us more time to be creative, curious and explore the bigger picture. In business terms, this is a new golden age. But have we gone too far, too fast, and lost sight of what made it all possible in the first place: trust?
Our world has become so much bigger, and while technology has brought us closer, in many ways it has also sparked our need for deeper human connections. It has become easier and more cost-effective to connect virtually, but we miss out on those impromptu moments. A friendly exchange in the elevator or the realization of a shared interest while grabbing a coffee before a meeting – it’s all much more meaningful than just small talk. Coaching or quick feedback delivered over a chance meeting in the hallway is more spontaneous but can be more impactful particularly if delivered in the moment.
AI has made our days more efficient, but it has also prompted new conversations around trust and authenticity. Our latest report highlights continuing concerns around the over-reliance on AI but, beyond the obvious risk concerns, has this growing dependence replaced yet another opportunity for human connection? When we consult AI, we may lose out on the moment we ask a colleague for feedback on an idea, or for advice on how to handle that difficult conversation.
The same report suggests that a powerful enabler of better business outcomes is in the ability to build strong stakeholder relationships. Those relationships are often strengthened in the margins of our day-to-day work – the informal interactions – and when we make space for meaningful connection, we move the dial on our relationships and trust begins to grow.
This is particularly important as we navigate the changing global dynamics of the working world where, according to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in many distant institutions and leaders is declining but growing within our personal networks, including with our work colleagues and employers. Trust really is built closer to home.
When trust thrives within our teams, we tend to speak more candidly. We are more likely to challenge a viewpoint or raise a concern. It might create some tension, but where there is mutual respect, that can be healthy. With trust, we create an environment where the good, the bad and even the ugly ideas can be battle-tested. It’s where candor leads to better insights and outcomes. It’s where innovation thrives.
The organizations that will thrive in the years ahead will be those that balance the need to move faster, while continuing to invest in the people and relationships that make progress possible. Technology is transforming how we work but trust will determine how we succeed. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.
Invest in meaningful connection. We excelled at this during the pandemic – leaders proactively spent time with their teams connecting beyond the transaction or the matter at hand. Business still needed to get done, but we prioritized human connection because we missed it so much due to the environment we were forced into. At Dentons, I have something called my ‘gratitude hour’ where I will carve out time in my calendar to send notes of appreciation for work well done. These small but meaningful gestures can really make people feel valued which builds trust.
Make your organization feel smaller. The larger your organization, the more important it is to bring people together in meaningful ways, strengthening bonds between teams and different parts of the business. Our local leaders and teams are encouraged to prioritize communication and to learn from each other by sharing best practices and knowledge. We’ve been intentional about creating global communities which are built around our clients’ priorities but provide our people with opportunities to work together towards a common goal – our clients’ success. When people have a shared sense of purpose, collaboration becomes easier and trust begins to naturally follow.
Lead by listening. Whether it’s with our teams or our clients, we should focus on making people feel truly heard. This is about moving beyond the performative town hall exercise to sitting down with our new hires, our younger team members, and understanding what’s on their minds. With our clients, it’s about spending time to deeply understand their needs and listening closely before offering solutions. This is when the most valuable conversations happen. I’ve found that intentionally building time into my week to do a check-in with people, can have a huge impact. It’s simple but effective.
Be consistent. How we show up for our clients and our people matters. Delivering against what we promise, demonstrating predictable behavior and eliminating surprises builds trust. One theme I hear frequently from clients is the value of experiencing Dentons as one firm, even when matters span multiple jurisdictions. Consistency in service, collaboration and responsiveness is a tangible way trust is built. Inconsistency, conversely, will erode trust faster than it was earned.
As business leaders, we’re wired to chase speed, scale and efficiency. However, in our pursuit of bigger, better and faster, we shouldn’t lose sight of a key element of lasting success: trust. Trust cannot be automated or accelerated. It is earned through consistent actions, meaningful relationships and genuine human connection.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune_._
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews12 hours agoUS President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the execution of the Fort Hood gunman would not be livestreamed, but that the immediate families of the victims could view it in person if they want.
According to multiple officials, Trump was not initially aware that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would be announcing the livestream of the execution, and polled several advisers and allies on how he should proceed.
“There are two thoughts: Don’t show it and show it,” Trump told reporters over the weekend. “Because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So, I’ll ultimately make the decision. I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”
“I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan, but many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed. That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE!”
Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, as well as religious leaders and international observers, had expressed doubts about the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the December 3 execution of Nidal Hasan. Recent polls have also shown a majority of Americans opposed livestreaming it.
Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist, was found guilty in a military trial of fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009.
JBizNews12 hours agoHezbollah appeared to admit on Thursday that it is the owner of more than 500 kilograms of explosives that were seized by Lebanese authorities.
It appears that this is one of several recent attempts at smuggling explosives, and conflicting information is circulating. Nevertheless, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called for “no leniency” and for “truth and accountability” in this incident.
“The vehicle and its cargo belong to the resistance,” Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said. He noted that his organization also called for the immediate release of those arrested over the seizure, according to the AFP and Reuters.
This marks a rare admission by Hezbollah and follows several days of questions about the shipment of explosives. Al-Ain media, based in the United Arab Emirates, noted that “the Lebanese Hezbollah party has acknowledged that a shipment of explosive materials seized by Lebanese authorities this week belongs to it.”
Fadlallah indicated that the explosives belong to “the party,” which is a euphemism for Hezbollah.
“Lebanese authorities opened investigations that began with the judicial police and expanded to include military intelligence and the information branch of the Internal Security Forces,” Al-Ain added, based on a Reuters report.
This follows a shipment that was seized earlier this week. Reports indicated the shipment had been smuggled from Syria. At the time, the Lebanese army claimed it had found the explosive materials in the Qasr area of Hermel, packed inside bags and prepared for smuggling from Syrian territory into Lebanese territory. Lebanon attempted to make it appear that the smugglers had fled to Syria. It was not clear whether this was true. Damascus has halted attempts by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons through Syria over the past year.
The reports this week said that the explosive material consisted of C4 and that it had been moved by donkey. It was unclear from reports how many donkeys were used to move the material.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam praised Lebanon’s efforts to identify “all those involved and the parties behind the shipment and to determine their plans and objectives, in preparation for referring them to the judiciary,” Al-Ain media noted. The same report said that Lebanon and Syria are trying to prevent smuggling along their roughly 330 km. of shared border, where there are dozens of illegal crossings.
Lebanese authorities seem to want to make a show of cracking down on explosives smuggled to Hezbollah. However, they don’t want to actually mention Hezbollah by name. The goal may be to indicate to the US that Lebanon is doing “something” to stop smuggling.
It’s convenient for Lebanon to make it seem that the smugglers flee to Syria, which means they need not be charged with crimes in Lebanon. This narrative can also be used to depict Syria negatively.
Hezbollah invaded Syria in 2012 to back the Assad regime against Syrian rebels. When it fell in 2024, Hezbollah had to flee Syria. Since then, there have been discussions about whether Syria might intervene against Hezbollah in Lebanon. While some in the Trump administration discussed this, Damascus appears reluctant to intervene, as it is still rebuilding after years of war.
Salam said this week, “It has become known that a few days ago, a truck was stopped in the town of Zahle, heading from the Bekaa Valley to the Greater Beirut area, containing hundreds of kilograms of explosives, including the highly explosive C-4 substance.” The Lebanese president praised the actions of the security forces.
“I understand the anxiety gripping the Lebanese people upon the news of this truck’s interception and the materials it was transporting, especially since C-4 has been used in several of the infamous political assassinations in modern Lebanese history,” Salam said.
“But from my position as head of government, I call on all Lebanese to rest assured that we will not relent in pursuing the investigation and expanding it to identify every individual involved in this criminal operation, as well as those behind them, uncover their plans and objectives and bring them all to justice to receive the punishment they deserve.”
The reality in Lebanon is that Hezbollah appears to be challenging Salam. They know that the politicians in Lebanon are afraid to condemn Hezbollah. The terror organization wants to see if it can continue to get away with smuggling.
The smuggling incident comes amid an attempt to intimidate Lebanon’s Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh Moawad. A complaint about her was filed with Lebanon’s military judiciary by a lawyer believed to be pro-Hezbollah. The US has been critical of this complaint.
Naharnet media in Lebanon said that the “state Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Claude Ghanem has decided to dismiss the complaint filed by pro-Hezbollah lawyer Hassan Bazzi against Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad, MTV reported on Thursday.”
Hezbollah’s aim is to attempt to intimidate Lebanese officials who meet with American and Israeli officials.
It is worth noting, Naharnet added, that “Lebanon’s boycott law, adopted in 1955, prohibits direct and indirect dealings with Israeli individuals or entities, including commercial, financial, and cultural institutions. It carries prison sentences ranging from several years to harsher penalties under the broader criminal code.”
The current situation in Lebanon is that Hezbollah remains in the country and is a threat.
Despite rounds of talks, the Lebanese government is not able to rein in Hezbollah, and it continues to challenge the state. It wants to show that it can continue to stockpile explosives.
The group was likely linked to the Beirut Port blast in 2020, but was never held accountable. Hezbollah also murdered former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005 and was not held accountable, despite years of investigation.
JBizNews12 hours agoIran continues to clash with rebels in its Balochistan region, according to numerous reports. This follows several weeks of growing unrest in the region – the Sistan and Balochistan province of Iran. Little is known about the situation because media is not allowed in the area, and Iran keeps a tight lid on information. Nevertheless, videos that have appeared over the last two weeks, along with reports, appear to indicate a growing insurgency.
Recently, an Iranian commander and a police officer were reportedly killed in clashes. Haalvsh, a human rights group, said that “both casualties were from Zabol district.” It identified them as “Afsaneh Aqila, a female commander of the all-women’s Basij unit in Mehrestan County and Mohammad Ali Shahriari, a male police officer.”
On October 1, videos shared on social media showed smoke billowing from fighting in the area of Zahedan city.
Now, the Kurdish media outlet Rudaw has reported that “Iranian forces deployed around 40 additional vehicles to Taftan county in southeastern Sistan and Balochistan province on Tuesday, a Baluch rights monitor reported, as clashes between Iranian security forces and militants continue.”
A human rights group that covers the Baloch region said it has documented the arrival of more regime forces to the region, as well as fighting between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and local rebels. “As the clashes intensified, approximately 40 additional military vehicles carrying reinforcements were reportedly dispatched to the area on Tuesday,” Rudaw said.
The reports indicated that not much is known about the results of the clashes, notably the number of casualties on both sides. “The reported deployment of reinforcements and other details have not been independently verified,” it said.
However, Rudaw added, “More than a dozen Iranian military and police personnel were killed or wounded in four attacks over a 24-hour period last week, according to Haalvsh.”
Iranian state media also reported on the clashes. The regime views the Baloch rebels as “terrorists.” Fars News in Iran, which is linked to the IRGC, described clashes on Tuesday, saying “initial reports indicated that several militants had been killed during the operation. The reported casualties could not be independently verified, and it was unclear whether the incident was connected to the clashes in Taftan.”
TodayPress.TV, a media organization based in Azerbaijan, noted that “a bloody crackdown by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is reportedly unfolding in the Sistan and Balochistan region, where assassinations are being carried out almost daily.”
It added: “Several militant groups have joined forces in the region and claim to be fighting for control of all of Iran. However, at least one of these groups has historically been associated with Baloch separatism and follows a distinctly conservative Sunni ideology.”
TodayPress.TV noted the scale of the fighting: “IRGC members, Basij forces, clerics affiliated with the regime, and foreign militants have been targeted. Police stations, military bases, and checkpoints have come under attack, while patrols have also been targeted. Clashes have reportedly extended as far as Kerman Province.”
Meanwhile, The Arab Weekly asked whether fighting might become Iran’s “Achilles heel.” This indicates that many people in the region are watching closely what happens in southeastern Iran, some 10 months after the Islamic Republic’s brutal crackdown on protests in January 2026, with tens of thousands of people murdered.
The Arab Weekly explained: “Sistan and Balochistan Province lies in Iran’s far southeast and is the country’s second-largest province by area, after Kerman. It consists of two main regions: Sistan, whose population is predominantly Shia, and Balochistan, which is considerably larger than Sistan, accounts for most of the province’s territory, and has a predominantly Sunni population.”
It added that “if we classify the regions inhabited by Iran’s non-Persian national and ethnic communities according to their national identities and geographical characteristics, rather than the country’s official administrative divisions, we can speak of Balochistan as a distinct region within Iran.
“This region extends beyond the Baloch-inhabited areas of Sistan and Balochistan Province to include parts of Kerman Province where Baloch communities also live,” The Arab Weekly said.
Iran’s IRGC continues to portray itself as able to “dismantle” what it calls “terrorist cells” in the Balochistan region.
A recent report at Al-Monitor said, “Iran’s IRGC announced a new operation against armed militants in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which is witnessing almost daily attacks and clashes.” The Baloch groups in southeastern Iran include the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl.
Meanwhile, across the border in Pakistan, Baloch armed groups are fighting the Pakistani government. This week, the Baloch Liberation Army in Pakistan said it had carried out numerous attacks.
On Monday, that army was reported to have “carried out 16 organized and intense attacks against the occupying Pakistani military in various regions of Balochistan over the past six days, inflicting severe personnel and material losses on the enemy.”
JBizNews12 hours agoZURICH — UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank and one of the country’s most recognizable corporate institutions, is considering something that once would have seemed almost unthinkable: leaving Switzerland.
The bank is evaluating whether it could relocate its headquarters if Swiss regulators impose significantly tougher capital requirements following the collapse of Credit Suisse and UBS’s government-brokered takeover of its former rival.
The proposed rules could force UBS to hold as much as $20 billion in additional high-quality capital, depending on how the final framework is structured.
For UBS, the issue is not simply regulatory compliance.
It is competitiveness.
The bank argues that substantially higher capital requirements in Switzerland could leave it at a disadvantage against major U.S. and European rivals that operate under different regulatory structures.
That has pushed UBS management to examine alternatives that would have been nearly unimaginable for a bank so closely associated with Switzerland’s identity as a global financial center.
Among the possibilities reportedly being discussed are acquiring a U.S. financial institution, merging with a European bank, shifting its legal headquarters outside Switzerland, or ultimately selling itself to a larger foreign institution.
No decision has been made.
UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher and Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti have both indicated that remaining in Switzerland is still the preferred outcome if the bank can reach a workable compromise with regulators.
But the fact that relocation is being seriously considered shows how far the dispute has progressed.
The regulatory pressure stems directly from the 2023 collapse of Credit Suisse.
UBS acquired its longtime rival in an emergency transaction supported by the Swiss government, creating a financial institution whose size and importance to Switzerland increased dramatically overnight.
That rescue left Swiss lawmakers determined to prevent another banking crisis from requiring large-scale government intervention.
The government has since pushed for tighter capital standards and stronger protections around systemically important banks.
Under the proposed framework, UBS could be required to back its foreign subsidiaries with substantially more common equity than it does today.
Regulators view that as protection for taxpayers.
UBS views it as a potential competitive handicap.
Bank capital acts as a financial cushion.
The more capital a bank is required to hold, the greater its ability to absorb losses during a crisis.
But that protection comes at a cost.
Capital held to satisfy regulators cannot be deployed as aggressively for lending, acquisitions, share buybacks or other investments that generate returns for shareholders.
For a global bank competing with JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other international financial institutions, billions of dollars of additional capital can materially affect profitability.
That is the heart of the dispute.
Switzerland wants a stronger financial safety net after Credit Suisse.
UBS wants to ensure that being headquartered in Switzerland does not make it structurally less competitive than foreign rivals.
A UBS departure would carry consequences far beyond the bank itself.
Switzerland has built much of its international financial reputation around stability, private banking and wealth management.
UBS is one of the most important symbols of that system.
Moving the headquarters of the country’s largest bank abroad would represent a major symbolic loss for Switzerland and could raise broader questions about whether its regulatory environment remains attractive to global financial institutions.
UBS also remains deeply tied to the Swiss economy.
Its domestic operations generate a substantial portion of the group’s revenue, and any relocation would be extraordinarily complicated and expensive.
That is one reason Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has publicly questioned whether UBS would actually leave.
The bank would likely face enormous restructuring costs, tax consequences and regulatory complications if it attempted to relocate.
Still, investors are taking the possibility seriously.
Some major shareholders have publicly supported the idea of UBS leaving Switzerland if the final capital rules significantly reduce its competitiveness.
The dispute creates a difficult policy question.
After the collapse of Credit Suisse, Switzerland has strong reasons to demand more protection from its remaining global banking giant.
But requiring too much capital could create a different problem — pushing that bank to reconsider whether Switzerland remains the best home for its global operations.
That is the balance lawmakers are now trying to strike.
Too little regulation could leave taxpayers exposed during another crisis.
Too much regulation could weaken one of Switzerland’s most important companies or potentially push it abroad.
For UBS, the immediate goal appears to be leverage in those negotiations rather than an imminent departure.
But the fact that moving has become a serious strategic option is significant on its own.
UBS has spent generations helping define Switzerland’s reputation as one of the world’s premier financial centers.
Now Switzerland’s largest bank is asking whether remaining Swiss could eventually cost it too much.
JBizNews Desk | Zurich
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JBizNews13 hours agoIsraeli digital advertising agency Discover-Tech spied on internet users through a sprawling network of online ads that it used to track targets and help hack their devices, two research groups said on Thursday.
Its services gave Israel’s Candiru, a spyware company blacklisted by the US government, and other Israeli surveillance firms access to advertising platforms run by Google, Comcast, Russia’s Yandex, and others, according to separate reports from the Canadian cyber watchdog group Citizen Lab and New York advertising security firm Confiant.
The reports show how the online advertising business, long a subject of privacy concerns, can also serve as a channel for sweeping espionage campaigns.
“The way online advertising works today is a systemic security threat,” Wolfie Cristl, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, told Reuters. “For states, the private sector, civil society, and everyone else alike.”
Discover-Tech’s online ads, often for ordinary products such as phones or earpods, reached more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps through its various partnerships, Citizen Lab said.
Discover-Tech could identify and track users who visited sites or used apps with the malicious ads, and it would sometimes also try to extract phone numbers from some smartphone users, the researchers said. Ads only needed to load on a website for the spying to occur.
Some ads would be used to help plant spyware from Candiru on users’ devices, both research groups said, though Confiant said that ads it tied to Candiru were a tiny fraction of Discover-Tech’s overall volume.
Confiant cofounder Jerome Dangu said Discover-Tech was pumping out at least 10 million ads per day all around the world and that data-sharing arrangements – called cookie matching – allowed it to track people even beyond the reach of its advertisements.
“Very likely hundreds of millions of people would have been touched by Discover-Tech,” Dangu said.
Discover-Tech, which was founded in 2020, did not return messages left via its contact form. A LinkedIn message and emails sent to its chief executive, Dekel Boni, were not returned.
Reuters‘ attempts to reach Candiru’s owners were not successful. The US Commerce Department blacklisted Candiru in 2021 for allegedly supplying spyware that was used to maliciously target government officials, journalists, activists and academics.
Citizen Lab said a powerful form of Candiru spyware delivered through Discover-Tech’s ads had been used to compromise 45 Windows devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025, something it said it was able to confirm because the media group had shared its network logs with the group. Al Jazeera did not return messages seeking comment.
Dangu of Confiant said that the malicious ads had been shown to users in “hundreds of networks in sensitive categories,” including the Pentagon, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Criminal Court. He also said that some regions, such as Gaza and the West Bank, were particularly saturated by the Israeli firm’s ads.
“You go to almost any site in Palestine – any site – you find a Discover-Tech ad. It gives them a very complete visibility on the digital activities of an entire country,” he said.
Citizen Lab also said it had similar evidence showing the malicious ads were shown to people in the United Nations, NATO, the European Commission, and more than a dozen other national governments. Other networks the ads appeared in included chip-related firms such as Nvidia, Sandisk, Broadcom, and Micron, as well as several media organizations in Mexico, Israel, and Europe that were not identified.
In addition to identifying Candiru and a couple of other surveillance vendors, Citizen Lab said it was able to glean some details about where Discover-Tech’s users might be based because the firm inadvertently exposed its authentication logs to the internet, showing people logging in from internet protocol addresses in Israel, Europe, and the Gulf.
Discover-Tech is now being frozen out of parts of the online ad market.
Google said in a statement that it had collaborated with Citizen Lab and Confiant on the investigation and kicked Discover-Tech off its ad platforms “for systematically violating our policies.”
IAB Europe, the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, said in an email that it suspended Discover-Tech from its list of globally approved vendors last week after an audit identified policy violations.
Comcast ad tech subsidiary Beeswax removed Discover-Tech from its platform “following recent activity,” Comcast said in a statement. Yandex did not return Reuters messages seeking comment.
Advertising-driven surveillance is increasingly being seen as a national security threat. Earlier this year, the Pentagon said it had received reports that US forces deployed to war zones had been targeted using location data harvested by ad tech firms and data brokers. Branches of the military have since disabled ad tracking on some devices.
JBizNews13 hours agoSix Palestinian farmers have petitioned the High Court of Justice to restore access to agricultural land around Nahalin in the West Bank, saying soldiers and settlers have prevented or severely restricted their work since October 2023 without presenting orders authorizing the restrictions.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which submitted the petition on their behalf, is seeking an urgent hearing as the olive harvest begins. The farmers say they face a fourth harvest under restrictions that have damaged crops, deprived families of income, and left cultivated land vulnerable to encroachment.
The petition, dated Wednesday, targets the IDF commander in the West Bank, the head of the Civil Administration, and the commander of the Israel Police’s Judea and Samaria District.
Its central argument concerns the absence of any disclosed legal basis for the restrictions. Rather than asking the court to overturn a particular closure order, the farmers say no such order has been shown to them, their lawyers, or local Palestinian authorities despite repeated requests.
They describe overlapping obstacles: agricultural roads blocked with earth and stones, soldiers ordering farmers off their plots, settler threats and violence, and a checkpoint where passage allegedly depends on an unexplained list of approved residents.
According to the petition, farmers have been turned back at the Etzion checkpoint since April 2024 because their names were absent from that list. They say neither the criteria for inclusion nor the legal authority for denying passage has been explained, and attempts to add names through Palestinian liaison officials have failed.
The land includes olive groves, vineyards, fruit trees, and seasonal crops around Nahalin, southwest of Bethlehem. Some petitioners claim ownership through family holdings; others cultivate leased land, including property belonging to the Muslim religious trust Wakf.
One farmer says he worked a plot for approximately 50 years before worsening harassment and military instructions prevented him from continuing. The petition acknowledges that access varies: cultivation has stopped on some plots, while farmers continue trying to reach others despite the threat of expulsion or violence.
In one incident described in the filing, on June 23, 2026, a farmer said settlers brought sheep into his olive grove, damaging trees. He called police, who he said did not arrive. Soldiers who subsequently reached the site allegedly detained him, threatened him at gunpoint, and ordered him to leave instead of removing the settlers.
The petition also describes a September 14, 2025, visit accompanied by the farmers’ lawyer, during which soldiers allegedly claimed a closure order existed but did not produce it.
The filing includes photographs and mapped locations of roadblocks and cites affidavits, land records, and police complaints. It lists four written approaches to the authorities between October 2025 and August 2026, which it says received no response.
The legal argument draws on the High Court’s 2006 Morar ruling, which held that keeping Palestinian farmers off their land to protect them from attacks was disproportionate. Authorities should provide protection and act against those responsible for the threats. The ruling nevertheless preserved narrowly limited emergency powers to impose temporary closures.
ACRI argues that such exceptions cannot justify restrictions continuing for years without a disclosed order. It also says the damage extends beyond missed harvests: trees and soil require regular care, and prolonged absence exposes plots to takeover and threatens the farmers’ interests in the land.
“The state and the army are obligated to protect Palestinian residents, their property and their livelihoods,” ACRI attorney Reut Shaer said in the accompanying statement.
The petition asks the court to order the removal of unlawfully placed barriers, ensure access wherever no valid, duly published restriction applies, and instruct troops not to demand prior coordination without legal authority. It also seeks to allow residents to pass through the checkpoint to access their farmland, set a short deadline for the authorities’ response, and request an urgent hearing.
JBizNews13 hours agoThe call was for a young man having a heart attack in an apartment near Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Dr. Michael Block, an American anesthesiologist, was riding with a Magen David Adom ambulance crew alongside his son, Evan, an EMT. The team started an IV, called ahead to Ichilov, and rushed the patient to the hospital.
They didn’t take him to the emergency room. He went straight to the catheterization lab.
“He would have died had we not gotten there so fast,” Michael said. “The way that it was organized was just incredible. It doesn’t happen in [the US].”
Jeff Covitz had a similar reaction when he came to Israel.
A paramedic captain with the San Francisco Fire Department, Jeff has spent years working on mass-casualty training and policy. He knew Israel handled major emergencies differently. He wanted to see how.
“We run out of ambulances in San Francisco on your average Tuesday,” he said. “How do they get 30 ambulances to the scene in 10 minutes? That’s amazing.”
He was particularly struck by the speed. In an incident with 20 casualties, Jeff said, Israeli teams can sometimes triage, treat, and transport everyone from the scene in under 15 minutes.
“In San Francisco, it would take us the better part of an hour,” he said.
“I always knew the Israeli way was better, but I just wanted to know exactly why it’s better and how they do it. What’s their secret?”
Jeff went looking for the answer through Magen David Adom’s International Seminar on Emergency Response, which brings doctors, paramedics, and other medical professionals from around the world to Israel for an inside look at the country’s emergency medical system.
MDA will hold its 11th seminar from December 13 to 18, with a new group of medical professionals training in mass-casualty response, disaster preparedness, and search and rescue. They will participate in simulations, meet Israeli medical teams, visit MDA facilities and communities in southern Israel, and spend a day on MDA ambulances.
Jeff found plenty that was different from home.
In the US, EMS is largely local, and hospital care is highly specialized. Israel has a national emergency medical service that can move personnel, ambulances, and equipment quickly. During a mass-casualty event, hospitals can also shift their operations to take on large numbers of patients.
This year’s participants will also take part in a simulation at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, offering a firsthand look at how an Israeli hospital prepares for a sudden influx of casualties.
Some of that would be difficult to replicate in the United States. Other ideas, Jeff thought, were worth bringing back.
But some of the most memorable lessons came from simply talking to the people who had been there.
During a visit to southern Israel, Jeff met MDA paramedics who responded on Oct. 7. They told him about handling casualties at seven or eight locations at the same time, with terrorists still on the ground.
“An MCI [mass casualty incident] on a good day is finding order in chaos,” Jeff said. “They were doing it across seven to eight different locations while there were roving bands of terrorists murdering everyone they encountered. “There’s no training for that. They just made it up as they went along.”
This year’s program will include lessons from Israel’s recent wars, mass-casualty simulations, and visits to MDA’s Sderot station and sites in southern Israel.
For Michael, who first attended the seminar in 2019, the experience ended up leading somewhere he hadn’t expected.
His son later volunteered with MDA, and the two eventually worked ambulance shifts together, including the heart attack call near Ichilov.
Then, after Oct. 7, Michael came back.
His parents were Holocaust survivors. His father was the only member of his family to survive Auschwitz, Dora, and Bergen-Belsen. Michael felt strongly that, as a Jewish physician, he should use the skills he had.
He traveled to Israel three times to volunteer as an anesthesiologist at Ichilov while Israeli doctors were being called into military reserve duty.
“As a Jewish physician, my parents were Holocaust survivors,” he said. “I really wanted to be in a Jewish state in Israel and just work side by side and take care of Israelis, Jews and non-Jews and everybody. “MDA really gave me that connection.”
Michael thinks emergency physicians and trauma surgeons are obvious candidates for the seminar, but says they aren’t the only ones who would benefit.
“It could be anybody who’s a doctor,” he said. “If you have an interest in prehospital care and emergency medical services, that’s who should go.”
Jeff apparently agrees. A Jewish affinity group he helped establish for San Francisco firefighters and other city employees is already funding another participant this year, with the goal of sending one or two people annually.
Magen David Adom’s 11th International Seminar on Emergency Response will take place Dec. 13-18, 2026. The $1,750 fee includes five nights of hotel accommodation, two meals per day, transportation, and program activities. Airfare and health insurance are not included.
For information or to apply, contact Vicki Angel at [email protected]
Written in collaboration with MDA
JBizNews13 hours agoIn September 2025, US President Donald Trump introduced the 20-point Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, which established a framework for ending the war, returning the remaining hostages, providing humanitarian assistance, establishing transitional governance, and ultimately demilitarizing Gaza and facilitating its reconstruction.
On November 17, 2025, the UN Security Council adopted this plan through Resolution 2803, which also welcomed the establishment of the Board of Peace.
However, nearly one year after the ceasefire, the UN reported in September 2026 that Hamas and other armed groups had not disarmed, the transitional governance arrangements had not yet become operational in Gaza, and the International Stabilization Force had not deployed.
The main obstacle has been disagreement over the sequencing and implementation of the second phase.
While the US and Israel insist on dismantling Hamas as an initial step according to the plan, and before a complete withdrawal of the IDF, leaders of Arab states maintain that the second phase must include immediate delivery of humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation of critical infrastructure, and a clear path to the two-state solution.
These gaps have created a significant financing problem, as the failure to establish the security and governance conditions has prevented reconstruction from proceeding.
On February 19, 2026, Saudi Arabia joined eight other founding donors in signing the Declaration of the Founding Donors to the Board of Peace.
Riyadh committed to providing core financial support to implement the plan and pledged $1 billion toward peace and reconstruction.
However, it has since withheld these funds, making full delivery of humanitarian aid and a clear path to a two-state solution preconditions for its support.
The impasse therefore threatens to prolong humanitarian suffering, delay reconstruction, and perpetuate the broader regional instability that emerged from the Gaza war.
Saudi Arabia is the country best placed to break the diplomatic deadlock and restore US credibility in the region. Saudi Arabia has agreed that proceeding to phase two won’t happen as long as Hamas holds military capabilities. Additionally, strengthening Saudi security serves a core US interest in regional stability, which is why the two countries signed the Strategic Defense Agreement in November 2025.
Saudi Arabia faces an increasingly serious security challenge from the Houthis in Yemen. By September, the Houthis escalated attacks on Riyadh. While Pakistan and Turkey remained cautious about the extent of their involvement under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, Saudi Arabia may seek alternatives.
Since the US has already considered a military campaign against the Houthis, Washington should now go further and turn that readiness into a more strategic course of action that serves long-term US interests. It should offer Riyadh security guarantees that are stronger than the 2025 agreement and more credible than the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.
In exchange, Riyadh would recommit to implementing phase two of the 20-point plan without further preconditions.
The subsequent escalation of Houthi activity and the abstention of Pakistan and Turkey from taking an active part in the defense alliance have exposed the limits of relying exclusively on regional partners.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have already shown an intention to collaborate and share intelligence against the Houthis. The US could exploit Pakistan’s and Turkey’s hesitancy by offering Saudi Arabia an alternative: a US-Saudi joint defense agreement that commits US forces to direct action against the Houthis while deepening the US-mediated channel for Israeli-Saudi security cooperation.
This course of action would demonstrate that the US remains the only credible security guarantor capable of assisting Saudi Arabia’s national security. A joint defense treaty with the US would give the Saudis the ultimate strategic “carrot.” This would give Riyadh the political cover to translate its commitment into concrete action on phase two of the 20-point Comprehensive Plan.
Bringing the US and Saudi Arabia into direct ties through a joint defense agreement could lead to the most desirable outcome in aggregate terms.
Sharing responsibilities with Israel, which has a strong incentive to eliminate the Houthi threat, the US could create a framework for gradual engagement, allowing Israel to serve as their frontliner in the Middle East. In other words, the US could devise a plan of escalating measures, providing an initial, indirect response through intelligence, weaponry, and advanced defense systems, while intervening actively only when necessary.
This framework could also strengthen Saudi-Israeli ties and improve the prospects for normalization, which Washington has declared a US national security interest.
Finally, by giving Saudi Arabia incentives to reengage with the 20-point plan, the US could restore the plan’s credibility, encourage other members of the Board of Peace to follow suit, and strengthen regional stability.
This course of action reflects the understanding that a two-state pathway is a possible outcome that should be discussed simultaneously through diplomatic means, but not as a precondition for implementing the plan. It depends on both sides implementing the plan in good faith, which would create the conditions for Palestinian self-determination.
The writer is an Israeli attorney and an MA candidate in international relations at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, specializing in International economics and finance. The writer has a comprehensive security background, with about eight years of service as an officer and combatant commander in the IDF.
JBizNews13 hours agoJBizNews U.S. Market Opening Report | Thursday, October 15, 2026 | 10:00 AM ET
NEW YORK — Wall Street opened sharply divided Thursday as another inflation shock deepened the selloff in artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks, sending the Nasdaq Composite down nearly 330 points while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced.
The latest economic reports showed wholesale prices rising at their fastest monthly pace in more than four years, retail sales increasing largely because of higher gasoline costs, and unemployment claims remaining historically low.
Investors are confronting a difficult combination: rising inflation, increasingly expensive corporate financing and questions about whether the enormous investment in artificial intelligence can produce sufficient returns.
The technology selloff intensified despite strong quarterly earnings from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., suggesting investor concerns are extending beyond corporate profitability to the cost of financing future growth.
Index
Opening Level
Point Change
Percentage
Dow Jones Industrial Average
51,888.22
+266.74
+0.52%
S&P 500
7,685.59
−33.35
−0.43%
Nasdaq Composite
26,363.01
−329.86
−1.24%
The figures reflect Reuters’ reported 9:30 a.m. market readings, rather than later intraday prices.
Technology stocks continued to lead the decline, while the Dow benefited from investors shifting toward companies with less exposure to the artificial intelligence investment boom.
Thursday brought six economic reports covering inflation, consumer spending, employment, manufacturing and business inventories.
Producer Price Index — Inflation Accelerates
The Labor Department reported that September producer prices increased 1.3% from August and 6.3% from a year earlier.
The monthly increase was the largest since March 2022 and substantially exceeded economists’ expectations of approximately 0.5%.
Energy costs were the biggest contributor. Wholesale energy prices jumped 10.8%, including a 20.3% increase in gasoline prices.
Services prices also increased 0.8%, indicating that inflationary pressure extended beyond fuel.
Even after excluding food, energy and trade services, producer prices rose 0.5% for the month.
For businesses, the report signals rising costs for transportation, manufacturing, distribution and other operations.
Retail Sales — Consumers Spend More, but Gasoline Drives Much of the Increase
The Commerce Department reported September retail sales increased 0.8%, exceeding expectations for approximately 0.3% growth.
August’s increase was revised to 1.3%.
However, the headline figure masked weaker underlying activity. Sales excluding gasoline increased just 0.2%, suggesting that higher fuel costs accounted for a significant portion of the spending increase.
The distinction matters for retailers heading into the holiday shopping season. Consumers spending more on gasoline may have less available for discretionary purchases.
Weekly Unemployment Claims — Layoffs Remain Low
Initial unemployment claims increased by 1,000 to 199,000 for the week ended October 10, slightly below economists’ forecasts of 200,000.
Continuing claims declined by 4,000 to approximately 1.71 million.
The report suggests employers remain reluctant to lay off workers, even as hiring activity slows.
That leaves the Federal Reserve confronting persistent inflation without a significant deterioration in employment.
New York Manufacturing — Strongest Reading in Nearly Five Years
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported its Empire State Manufacturing Index jumped to 25.5 in October from 7.6 in September.
The increase marked the strongest reading since December 2021.
New orders and shipments improved substantially, although manufacturers continued reporting elevated costs and worsening supply availability.
The results suggest industrial activity remains resilient despite higher borrowing and operating costs.
Philadelphia Manufacturing — Growth Continues at a Slower Pace
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported its manufacturing activity index declined to 20.9 in October from 37.8 in September.
Although activity continued expanding, the decline indicated slower growth.
New orders weakened considerably, while manufacturers reported continued increases in selling prices.
The differing New York and Philadelphia results suggest regional manufacturing conditions remain uneven.
Business Inventories — Stockpiles Increase
The Commerce Department’s 10 a.m. report showed August business inventories increasing 0.4% to approximately $2.82 trillion.
Combined manufacturing and trade sales increased 1.1%, bringing the inventory-to-sales ratio to 1.33 from 1.34 in July.
The figures suggest businesses were generally selling merchandise faster than inventories accumulated, an encouraging indication for demand despite higher operating costs.
Artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks remained under pressure following Wednesday’s steep technology selloff.
Before the opening bell, Nvidia declined approximately 1.3%, Advanced Micro Devices fell 1.9% and Micron Technology dropped about 4%.
CoreWeave lost another 4.5% in premarket trading following Wednesday’s approximately 15% decline.
The cloud infrastructure company has become a focus of investor concerns about the debt required to construct and operate massive artificial intelligence data centers.
Investors are increasingly examining whether the anticipated revenue from AI infrastructure can justify the borrowing costs and capital expenditures required to build it.
The weakness extended internationally. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index fell nearly 8%, while Japan’s Nikkei declined approximately 5%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported third-quarter net profit of approximately $23.6 billion, up 69% from a year earlier.
The company exceeded analysts’ expectations and projected fourth-quarter revenue between $52.3 billion and $54.3 billion.
TSMC also raised its expected full-year revenue growth to approximately 44%.
Despite those results, its U.S.-listed shares declined approximately 2% before the opening bell.
The contrasting developments highlight the market’s current dilemma: Demand for advanced semiconductor manufacturing remains substantial, but investors are increasingly questioning whether the industry’s growth expectations are sustainable at current valuations.
TSMC also warned that higher component prices and economic uncertainty could affect price-sensitive consumer markets heading into 2027.
Charles Schwab reported adjusted third-quarter earnings of $1.69 per share, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $1.65.
Revenue reached approximately $7.2 billion, supported by higher client activity and expanding investment balances.
The brokerage attracted approximately $190.4 billion in core net new assets during the quarter.
Despite those results, shares declined approximately 2.4% in premarket trading.
The weakness reflects broader caution toward financial companies as investors assess interest-rate uncertainty and the outlook for market activity.
Federal Reserve Policy and Treasury Yields
Investors will monitor remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET.
Markets are assessing whether September’s sharp increases in consumer and producer prices will prompt another interest-rate increase.
Energy Reports
The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release weekly natural gas storage figures at 10:30 a.m. ET and petroleum inventory figures at noon.
Oil and gasoline supplies remain particularly important as the conflict involving Iran continues affecting energy markets and transportation costs.
Technology and AI Stocks
Investors will watch whether Nvidia, AMD, Micron and CoreWeave stabilize after the opening selloff.
Further declines could increase pressure on the broader market, particularly if selling spreads beyond semiconductor and cloud infrastructure companies.
Corporate Earnings
BNY, PNC Financial Services, U.S. Bancorp and Charles Schwab are among Thursday’s major financial-sector earnings reports.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services is scheduled to report after the closing bell, providing another indication of freight demand and transportation costs.
Friday’s Economic Reports
Friday brings September industrial production and capacity utilization at 9:15 a.m. ET, offering another measure of manufacturing activity and the strength of the U.S. economy.
Thursday’s market opening exposes two growing challenges for American businesses.
The first is inflation. Rising fuel, transportation and wholesale costs are increasing the price of doing business while reducing consumer purchasing power.
The second is the increasingly expensive financing behind the artificial intelligence investment boom.
Strong earnings alone are no longer sufficient to reassure investors that every AI-related company can justify its valuation or borrowing requirements.
The Dow’s advance and Nasdaq’s sharp decline reflect a market beginning to distinguish between established businesses generating profits and companies whose valuations depend heavily on future growth.
With wholesale inflation now running at 6.3% annually, borrowing costs remain a central risk for businesses, consumers and investors.
The remainder of Thursday’s session will test whether investors continue reducing exposure to technology or whether the sector can stabilize following its latest losses.
JBizNews Desk | Wall Street
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews14 hours agoWashington is considering its largest conventional blast weapon, but its destructive power, military purpose and ability to end the Iran war are very different questions.
WASHINGTON — After more than seven months of American military operations against Iran, the Pentagon is considering using the so-called Mother of All Bombs, a massive conventional weapon capable of devastating a wide area in a single explosion.
But the proposal raises an important question: What could this weapon accomplish that months of American and Israeli bombing have not already achieved?
According to CNN’s October 14 report, the U.S. military has developed additional strike plans involving Iranian nuclear sites and energy infrastructure. Those options include the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, commonly known as the MOAB.
President Donald Trump has not approved its use, and officials familiar with the planning have questioned whether it would materially advance American military objectives.
A devastating bomb, but nothing close to Hiroshima
The MOAB weighs approximately 21,600 pounds and produces explosive energy equivalent to roughly 11 tons of TNT.
By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945 released approximately 15,000 tons of TNT equivalent.
That makes Hiroshima’s nuclear explosion roughly 1,360 times more powerful.
The MOAB is a conventional weapon. It does not produce the nuclear radiation, extreme thermal effects or radioactive fallout associated with an atomic explosion.
Its destructive advantage comes from concentrating a very large conventional explosion across a broad surface area.
CNN reports that the weapon can devastate an area roughly equivalent to nine city blocks, though actual damage would depend on terrain, buildings and the conditions of the explosion.
This is enormously destructive by conventional military standards. It is not nuclear-scale destruction.
Why the 30,000-pound bunker buster is different
The United States has already demonstrated a different type of large-bomb capability in Iran.
In June 2025, American B-2 stealth bombers dropped 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators during attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Each weapon weighed approximately 30,000 pounds.
Unlike the MOAB, these bombs were engineered to penetrate deep into reinforced underground structures before exploding.
The difference is essential.
A bunker buster attempts to deliver its explosive force inside a protected facility. The MOAB releases much more explosive energy across a broad area but is not engineered to penetrate hundreds of feet through granite.
The distinction is not which weapon is heavier. It is where the destructive energy is delivered.
Both could theoretically be used in a broader military campaign, but there is no confirmed plan to deploy them together, and one does not automatically make the other more effective.
Why not simply drop several smaller bombs?
That question goes directly to the military value of the MOAB.
American forces possess precision-guided weapons capable of striking numerous separate targets, including aircraft, missile launchers, storage facilities, radar systems and energy infrastructure.
Several conventional bombs could collectively release more explosive energy than a single MOAB.
For perspective, the MOAB’s approximately 11-ton TNT-equivalent yield is comparable in total energy to that of multiple smaller conventional weapons.
But total explosive energy and destructive effectiveness are not interchangeable.
Ten separate explosions can damage ten different targets. One enormous explosion concentrates much of that energy into one event.
Conversely, several weapons delivered against the same area do not necessarily reproduce the pressure, timing and blast characteristics of one very large explosion.
The military question is therefore not whether the United States can drop enough smaller bombs to equal the MOAB’s explosive energy. It can.
The question is whether concentrating an exceptionally large explosion into one location would provide a specific advantage over precision attacks.
So far, Pentagon officials cited by CNN have not established that such an advantage would be decisive against Iran’s remaining nuclear facilities.
Has America changed its objectives in Iran?
The original American military campaign launched in February 2026 focused on degrading Iran’s nuclear capabilities, ballistic missiles, naval forces and ability to project military power throughout the region.
Those objectives involve disabling specific military capabilities.
The newer planning described by CNN includes potential attacks on extensive Iranian energy infrastructure and the possible use of the MOAB against nuclear-related locations, including Pickaxe Mountain.
That represents a potentially broader range of targets.
However, preparing additional strike options does not establish that the administration has formally changed its war objectives.
It does raise a serious strategic question.
Is Washington still focused primarily on destroying Iran’s remaining military capabilities, or is it increasingly considering attacks intended to impose sufficient economic and psychological pressure to force Tehran into an agreement?
Those two approaches can overlap, but they are not identical.
Destroying equipment requires identifying and disabling it. Coercing a government requires convincing its leadership that the cost of continuing the conflict exceeds the cost of accepting American demands.
An enormous explosion may contribute to that pressure. It does not guarantee a political concession.
Why consider the weapon now?
The timing is particularly significant.
The United States has already conducted an extensive bombing campaign, yet Iran’s government remains in power, its nuclear infrastructure remains a concern, and negotiations have failed to produce an agreement ending the conflict.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a major source of instability, affecting international shipping and global energy markets.
CNN reports that some administration officials have discussed additional attacks that could create an opportunity to declare a military success and begin withdrawing American forces.
Under that scenario, the MOAB’s extraordinary visual and psychological impact could be part of its appeal.
The weapon was originally developed in 2003, partly to intimidate opposing forces, and was first used in combat against an ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan in April 2017.
But intimidation and military victory are not the same thing.
A powerful explosion might destroy a target, demonstrate American capabilities or increase pressure on Iranian leadership.
It would not necessarily destroy deeply buried nuclear material, eliminate Iran’s missile capabilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz or persuade Tehran to accept Washington’s conditions.
Indeed, officials familiar with the current military discussions told CNN that the MOAB is poorly suited to penetrating the granite protecting some of Iran’s remaining underground nuclear infrastructure.
The real test: What remains after the explosion?
The Mother of All Bombs is an extraordinary conventional weapon, but its name can create a misleading impression of unmatched military capability.
It is not America’s heaviest bomb. It is not a nuclear weapon. And it cannot replace precision weapons or deep-penetrating bombs across every target.
Its principal advantage is the ability to release an exceptionally large conventional explosion over a broad area.
That capability has military applications. Whether it addresses the specific obstacles preventing the United States from achieving its objectives in Iran is another matter.
After months of military operations, the central challenge for Washington is no longer simply demonstrating that America possesses overwhelming firepower.
It is determining which remaining Iranian capabilities must be eliminated, what military actions could realistically eliminate them, and what conditions would bring the conflict to an end.
A larger explosion may produce more immediate destruction without producing a better strategic result.
The measure of success will not be the size of the bomb or the spectacle of its explosion. It will be what Iran can no longer do afterward — and whether that brings the war any closer to ending.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews14 hours agoLinkedIn shared its 2026 ranking of the best Israeli startups on Wednesday, with the newly unveiled identity security firm Oak, which was launched publicly in July with a $60 million seed investment, leading the ranking.
Greylock Partners, Accel, and CRV led Oak’s seed funding, and Shai Morag, who has already founded two cybersecurity companies acquired by market giants such as Palo Alto Networks and Tenable, co-founded the company with Tal Marom.
“Our annual LinkedIn Top Startups list surfaces the 15 emerging Israeli companies growing fast, gaining attention and recruiting top talent right now,” said LinkedIn in a statement.
The three-year-old AI development firm doubleAI placed second, AI operating system developer Wonderful placed third, open software platform Kela Technologies was fourth, and business-to-business (B2B) cybersecurity firm Kela Technologies placed fifth.
LinkedIn explained that it identified companies working on pioneering cybersecurity solutions, AI “expert intelligence,” and automation of workflows, while only data from LinkedIn was used to develop the ranking.
The full ranking includes Cyera (Private network security), Notch (AI automation), Mate Security (Cybersecurity), Eon (Cloud data protection), Port (Workflow automation), Encore AI (AI data analysis), Limitless Labs (AI for precision manufacturing), Adaptive6 (Spending control), Dream (AI cybersecurity), and FINQ (AI fintech firm).
The professional social networking platform explained that the ranking focused on five sections of data available on LinkedIn: employee growth, engagement, job interest, and attraction of top talent.
It also specified that engagement was measured with “views and follows of company pages by non-employees, as well as non-employees’ views of startup employees’ profiles.”
The “job interest” ranking used views of and applications to advertised roles, while the acquisition of top talent was measured by ranking the company’s ability to hire workers from LinkedIn’s global Top Companies lists.
LinkedIn also explained that companies included in the ranking were required to be no more than seven years old, privately held, fully independent (and not owned by larger firms), and to have at least 30 employees employed from July 2025 to June 2026.
It also clarified that startups that laid off 10% or more of their workforce during July 1, 2025, and the list’s publication were ineligible for the ranking.
JBizNews14 hours agoUkraine has resumed its attacks on Russian refineries with a strike at an installation in the Ryazan region, the regional governor said on Thursday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced his anger at a “dangerous” withdrawal of US intelligence.
Since US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday, Kyiv had refrained from attacking Russian refineries, which the US leader had blamed for raising diesel prices on global markets.
But Zelensky had voiced increasing frustration with Russia’s continued attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which he said on Wednesday had left 600,000 people without power. He warned that Ukraine would not suspend its own attacks indefinitely if Russia did not reciprocate and also criticized what he said was Trump’s favoritism toward Russia.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, he said Ukraine’s patience had run out.
“The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We’re done,” he told the newspaper.
Pavel Malkov, the governor of Ryazan, said in a post on Telegram that a major Ukrainian drone attack on the region had sparked a fire at an oil refinery.
“The material damage is now being assessed. Emergency services are working at the scene,” he said.
In his interview, Zelensky criticized Washington’s eagerness to strike business deals with Moscow and Trump’s apparent admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Trump on Saturday called for Ukraine to replace Zelensky and railed against Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, one day after announcing a diesel supply deal with Russia, aiming to lower fuel prices that have soared since the US-Israeli war with Iran began in February.
Despite Ukraine’s suspension of refinery attacks, Ukrainian officials complained that they had not received any US early-warning alerts in recent days for incoming Russian ballistic missiles.
They also said the military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications service had been slowed across the country, hampering frontline operations and medium-range strikes against Russian military sites.
Musk said on Wednesday in a post on X/Twitter that Starshield – the military version of Starlink – was owned and controlled by the US government, which decided on any limits on speed.
Zelensky has said that Ukrainian military officials were warned by their US counterparts that Washington would block intelligence unless they halted strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
In the FT interview, Zelensky said the suspension was presented to Kyiv as a technical glitch, but he dismissed the idea that failures of the Starlink satellite system might have been caused by a fault.
“It was not a technical problem, it was the will,” he told the FT.
Asked whether Ukraine would be open to halting energy strikes as a way of repairing relations with the White House, he told the newspaper he could only agree if, in return, he was given more US-made Patriot interceptors, calling it the “minimum” that would be acceptable.
“We didn’t destroy any relationship,” he said, claiming it wasn’t up to him to repair US-Ukraine relations.
Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had damaged six Russian Su-34M military aircraft in an overnight strike on the Borisoglebsk airfield in Russia’s Voronezh region.
In a Telegram statement, Ukraine’s military general staff said it had confirmed damage of varying degrees to all six aircraft.
The Su-34M is a large fighter-bomber, costing tens of millions of US dollars apiece and frequently used by Russia to drop devastating glide bombs onto Ukrainian cities near the frontline.
Ukraine said on Telegram that it used its Neptune coastal missile system in the attack.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Ukraine’s targeting of Russian energy infrastructure ran counter to US peace efforts, after a Ukrainian drone struck a refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region overnight.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia did not perceive that Ukraine had ever complied with an energy ceasefire announced last week by Trump. Ukraine says it paused such strikes for three days but resumed them after Russia continued to attack its own energy sector.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
JBizNews15 hours agoA bomb scare aboard a Delta Air Lines flight at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday morning prompted a security search that found no explosives, less than two weeks after an attempted hijacking of a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv exposed serious questions about Israel’s aviation security arrangements.
Passengers were evacuated after the Delta flight arrived from New York, and the aircraft was moved to an isolated area for inspection. Authorities found no explosives, and preliminary assessments suggested the anonymous threat might have been a hoax.
The September 30 flydubai incident presented a different and potentially more dangerous threat: An airline employee allegedly attempted to turn the aircraft into a weapon.
According to prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates, a co-pilot aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 attacked the captain with an emergency axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft. Investigators said he intended to crash the plane into the passenger terminal at Ben-Gurion Airport, causing mass casualties.
The aircraft plunged thousands of feet before the wounded captain, passengers, and other crew members managed to subdue the attacker. Two additional pilots aboard the flight helped bring the aircraft safely to an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Dr. Mena Bacharach, an international aviation security expert and former senior aviation security official with Israel’s Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), said the attack demonstrated the need for additional technological safeguards inside aircraft cockpits.
Bacharach proposed installing remotely activated, Wi-Fi-based cockpit cameras that would allow authorized personnel on the ground to observe what was happening during an emergency. The cameras would remain off during normal operations and activate only after a distress signal had been triggered, potentially allowing ground personnel to assess a crisis and coordinate a response.
Such a system would require careful consideration of operational reliability, secure communications, privacy, and protection against unauthorized access.
“A serious problem needs creative solutions, and there is need for a whole range of them,” aviation commentator Aharon Lapidot told The Media Line. “Any solution, especially the technological ones, brings with it a host of new challenges, such as privacy issues and vulnerability to cyberattacks.”
The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, had passed professional and security checks before joining flydubai in January. UAE investigators said he had developed extremist views years earlier and had deliberately pursued a career in aviation to carry out an attack inspired by the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
The disclosures have intensified scrutiny of how airlines assess their employees and whether existing safeguards adequately address threats originating inside the cockpit.
“In professional terms, this is an ‘insider threat,’ and it forces us to re-examine the fundamental beliefs that aviation security is built on,” Yossi Amrusi, a former senior officer in the Shin Bet security agency and a researcher at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told The Media Line. “It highlights the importance of having additional protection mechanisms in case one of the crew members, not necessarily the pilot, turns out to be a threat.”
He said security screening must extend beyond pilots to include other flight personnel and ground crews responsible for maintaining and servicing aircraft.
“This is a major earthquake,” Lapidot told The Media Line. “It opens a whole new perspective and a wide range of possibilities for terrorists to carry out attacks.”
UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said on October 9 that the co-pilot’s radicalization began in 2017 while he was studying in Australia. Investigators said he had consumed extremist material, adopted beliefs advocating violence, and made preparations for an attack.
The suspect had previously worked for Oman Air and Royal Air Maroc before joining flydubai. According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, his employment history included concerns about extremist interests that had affected his prospects at those airlines. Flydubai reportedly did not consult his former employers about those concerns before hiring him.
The revelations have raised questions about whether airlines should be required to share more information about employees whose conduct or expressed beliefs have prompted security concerns.
“You can check a person’s history, his training and his professional abilities, but it is much harder to predict his future intentions,” Amrusi told The Media Line.
The incident recalls the March 2015 Germanwings disaster, when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew a passenger aircraft into the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard.
French investigators subsequently found that Lubitz had experienced serious mental health problems and had concealed information about his condition from his employer.
Although the Germanwings crash was not a terrorist attack, both incidents demonstrate how dangerous it can be when a person entrusted with operating an aircraft deliberately endangers those aboard.
“There are far more terrorists than people with suicidal tendencies who wish to commit suicide while killing other people,” said Lapidot, explaining why the flydubai incident is being viewed as a turning point in the aviation industry.
Bacharach said the flydubai incident exposed weaknesses in Israel’s aviation security arrangements that had already been highlighted in a 2024 State Comptroller’s report.
The report called for a comprehensive examination of civil aviation security, including flights departing Israel, Israeli aviation operations abroad, and foreign aircraft entering Israeli airspace. It recommended that the National Security Council work with relevant government and security agencies to reassess responsibilities, oversight, and the allocation of resources.
Following the report, the security cabinet ordered an interagency review of security arrangements for international commercial flights to Israel. The National Security Council was tasked with coordinating the work of the Transportation Ministry, Civil Aviation Authority, Shin Bet, Mossad, and Finance Ministry.
According to subsequent Israeli media reporting, disagreements emerged over which agency should bear responsibility for security checks on foreign airlines and whether the Transportation Ministry had the personnel and resources to carry out the task.
The ministry ultimately retained responsibility, but reporting following the flydubai attack indicated that important screening requirements had not been consistently enforced.
Bacharach said the attempted attack illustrated the need to translate security recommendations into practical safeguards.
“Israel spends billions of dollars on security; it shouldn’t be left to the hands of a brave pilot, courageous civilians and a miracle to thwart attacks,” said Bacharach. “Someone didn’t do their job and fell asleep while on guard.”
One of the most immediate questions concerned how the Omani co-pilot was allowed to operate a flight to Israel.
Oman does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Israeli security regulations restrict the participation of crew members holding citizenship in certain countries on flights to Israel, including countries without diplomatic relations.
According to an internal security directive reported by Israeli media, foreign airlines were responsible for checking crew members against a list of restricted nationalities. However, the Transportation Ministry had not consistently enforced those requirements or verified crew lists.
Following the attempted hijacking, the ministry tightened restrictions on foreign airline crews, barring people holding citizenship in countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel from operating or traveling aboard Israel-bound flights, according to Channel 12.
The change has already affected airline operations.
Israeli media reported that an Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight traveling from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv was forced to turn back overnight Sunday after Israeli authorities discovered an Indonesian national among the crew.
Indonesia has no diplomatic relations with Israel. According to reports by Channel 12 and The Jerusalem Post, the crew member was a pilot.
Channel 13 reported that the crew list was transmitted to Israeli authorities only after the aircraft departed Ethiopia. The plane subsequently resumed its journey after the crew member was replaced.
The incident illustrated the operational difficulties of enforcing restrictions when authorities do not receive and check information about flight crews before departure.
But Bacharach warned against treating nationality as a sufficient measure of risk.
“The problem is not only pilots from hostile countries,” Bacharach told The Media Line. “With the massive migration waves into Europe in recent years, even a pilot from a country that has relations with Israeli could undergo radicalization.”
Israel has also established a legal framework to collect and analyze passenger and crew information to help identify potential security threats.
A 2023 law provided for the establishment of the National Center for Passenger Data Analysis within the Israel Tax Authority. The legislation authorizes the creation of a database containing passenger and crew information and specifies how authorized agencies may access and use that information.
The legal framework is intended to support aviation security, counterterrorism, border control, and other authorized activities. However, the current operational status of the center, and whether it played any role in screening the flydubai crew, has not been established.
The attempted attack has raised broader questions about whether existing information systems are adequately integrated with airline screening procedures and whether relevant intelligence reaches officials responsible for approving foreign flight crews.
“This isn’t just an Israeli problem,” Amrusi said. “An ‘insider threat’ is relevant to all airlines. A person’s nationality isn’t necessarily the main motivator once someone has decided to use their position in order to target the plane.”
Aviation security has changed significantly since the September 11 attacks, with tighter passenger screening, reinforced cockpit doors, and stricter access controls.
Those measures were largely designed to prevent unauthorized individuals from bringing weapons aboard or gaining control of an aircraft.
The flydubai incident demonstrates the different challenges posed by an authorized crew member who already has access to the cockpit and the aircraft’s controls.
“Airlines have to conduct much more thorough and frequent background checks and psychological evaluations,” Lapidot said. “Peer reviews must also be more frequent.”
Such measures could help identify concerning behavior, changes in circumstances, or information unavailable during initial hiring.
But expanded screening raises questions about privacy, employment rights, the reliability of intelligence, and the possibility of unjustified suspicion based on nationality or personal beliefs.
Airlines also operate across numerous jurisdictions, each with different legal requirements governing background checks, professional licensing, and the sharing of security information.
Establishing a coordinated approach would require clearer rules governing what information should be exchanged, who may access it, and what action should follow when a potential warning sign is identified.
Lapidot warned that additional security requirements would also carry financial consequences.
“All of this is going to raise prices for the consumers,” Lapidot added.
Amrusi said screening improvements alone would be insufficient because no system can reliably predict every person’s future behavior.
“We need to be honest though – there is no test that can predict with certainty the malicious intentions of a person,” Amrusi said. “Therefore, we need a system that can handle the situation once a person has managed to evade the testing.”
That approach would place greater emphasis on safeguards capable of limiting the damage if an authorized crew member attempts to seize control of an aircraft.
The flydubai incident has already produced operational consequences. The airline suspended its Tel Aviv flights following the attack, and Transportation Minister Miri Regev subsequently declined its request to resume service pending further scrutiny of its security procedures.
According to published reports, flydubai has conducted an internal investigation, dismissed several employees, and sought discussions with Israeli authorities about measures needed to restore service.
The case has renewed pressure on governments and airlines to reconsider how they identify potential insider threats and how aircraft can be protected when prevention fails.
Any new safeguards will have to balance security requirements with the realities of international aviation. Yet the questions raised by the attack extend beyond screening technology or the nationality of individual crew members to the effectiveness of coordination among airlines, regulators, and intelligence agencies.
For the passengers aboard flight FZ1073, the existing defenses were insufficient to prevent a violent cockpit attack. Their survival ultimately depended on the wounded captain, other pilots, and passengers who intervened before the aircraft could be brought down.
JBizNews15 hours agoThe EU and Gulf states have agreed to postpone their summit that was due to be held in Saudi Arabia on October 24, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The sources confirmed remarks by Bulgaria‘s Prime Minister Rumen Radev, who earlier on Thursday said he had understood the meeting would be scrapped due to security concerns.
“Unfortunately, as far as I know, this meeting in Riyadh will be postponed, maybe for security reasons,” Radev told reporters on arrival at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said discussions about the summit were ongoing. “You will hear when there is something to announce,” she told reporters in Brussels.
On Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition said that it intercepted three missiles and two drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi terrorists towards Riyadh and Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran.
The initial interception announcement regarding Dhahran came after loud booms were heard in the area, six sources told Reuters on Tuesday, with the coalition saying that missile fragments fell in a nearby residential area.
Four people were injured and 15 homes sustained limited damage in Riyadh after debris from two intercepted missiles fell on the Saudi capital, the state news agency SPA reported on Wednesday, citing the Civil Defense spokesperson.
JBizNews15 hours agoBespoke Investment Group spotted something it did not like in the most recent National Federation of Independent Business survey this week: That small businesses increasingly report their “number one problem” is poor sales. Of all the options in the survey, “the one problem that you don’t want to be your #1 problem is poor sales,” the asset manager says. “During prior economic contractions, we’ve seen this reading for poor sales tick sharply higher. As shown below, while still relatively low for now, it has begun to tick higher again recently.”
The NFIB index fell to 97.9 in September, from 98.7 in August. “The other major business surveys also generally suggest that activity lost a little momentum towards the end of Q3, likely weighed down by the rebound in global energy prices,” according to Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen at Pantheon Macroeconomics. (They also note that only 411 companies responded to the survey, down from a level of around 1,200 over a decade ago.)
Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics thinks the U.S. economy is “vulnerable.” He is especially worried about the labor market: “Monthly payroll growth has averaged around 40,000 over the past year and has been essentially zero when excluding the healthcare sector. Hiring is moribund, hours worked are very low, and while the unemployment rate remains low, that is partly a reflection of declining labor force participation [from increased retirements and low immigration,]” he told Goldman Sachs’ Allison Nathan recently.
In addition, he’s concerned that higher rates being demanded by the Fed and the bond market could derail AI capex spending. “AI capex is also vulnerable as a higher cost of capital makes investment more expensive and falling valuations make it harder to raise the capital necessary to sustain the current pace of the AI buildout,” he says. “If rates remain at these levels or higher for longer than a quarter or two, AI could become the part of the economy that breaks.”
That scenario—interest rates higher for longer—appears to be shaping up. The consumer price index for September came in at 3.7%, up from 3.4% the previous month and ahead of analysts’ expectations. The Fed may feel compelled to act by raising rates further.
“Inflation is cooking with gas,” Jamie Cox of the Harris Financial Group told Fortune in an email. “It is abundantly clear where the inflation impulse originates, but two wars need to end before we get any relief. The Federal Reserve made the mistake of calling Covid-era inflation transitory, and now it appears they are set to make the same mistake in reverse on the energy supply shock.”
Pimco’s Tiffany Wilding was equally alarmed: “This is not a good data point for the Federal Reserve, whose committee members had been signaling they were not likely to raise interest rates later this month. After the [CPI] report was published, markets priced in a 50 percent chance that the central bank would raise rates again in October.”
Traders decided they hate tech stocks in the last 24 hours, driving a global wave of selling. The tech-heavy South Korean KOSPI index fell 8% and at one point triggered a halt in trading. Nasdaq futures were down 1.03% this morning, signalling that the bloodletting may continue after the markets open in New York. CoreWeave lost 15.46% yesterday and sank a further 5.89% overnight; Oracle was down 8.83%, and lost another 1.57% in post-market trading. Chipmakers suffered declines across the board.
Counterintuitively, much of the selling came despite some good news for the sector: Chipmaker TSMC reported Q3 earnings today that beat expectations and guided that its capex would increase over the next two years. In addition, Apple stock closed at a new record high, making it only the second company (after Nvidia) to gain a $5 trillion market cap. And Anthropic reported that it was profitable (on an adjusted basis) although its revenue growth ($17 billion in Q3) appears to be slower than previously estimated
The drama extended to the bond market, where investors couldn’t decide whether the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury was a safe haven or offering a risk premium. The yield on the bond peaked at 5.32% before sinking back to 5.08% this morning—a huge swing for the normally sedate asset.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews15 hours agoThis story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews15 hours agoBy 7:15 a.m. Eastern Time today, oil had reached $106.67 per barrel, measured using the Brent benchmark. That’s $2.03 less than it cost yesterday morning and about $44 above its price a year earlier.
Oil price per barrel
% Change
Price of oil yesterday
$108.70
-1.86%
Price of oil 1 month ago
$107.70
-0.95%
Price of oil 1 year ago
$62.71
+70.10%
Oil prices are inherently unpredictable. While many variables come into play, the basic push and pull of supply and demand is what ultimately matters. In times of heightened concern about recession, war, or other major disruptions, oil can swing suddenly.
Each gallon you pay for at the pump bundles together several costs. Crude oil is one piece, but you also pay for refineries, wholesalers, government taxes, and the price markup set by gas stations.
Because crude oil usually accounts for more than half of the price per gallon, it tends to move the needle the most. Sharp increases in oil almost always show up quickly at the pump. Declines in the price of oil, on the other hand, often translate into slower, more delayed drops in gas prices—the “rockets and feathers” effect.
When an emergency arises, the U.S. has a reserve of crude oil called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Its chief function is to secure energy during disasters like sanctions, severe storm damage, or war. It can also help take the edge off brutal price spikes when supply gets hit.
It’s not a solution for the long haul. It’s more of an immediate safety net to support consumers and keep crucial sectors of the economy running (think key industries, emergency services, public transportation, and the like).
Oil and natural gas are two of the main fuels that keep the world running. A big change in oil prices can end up affecting natural gas. As an example, if oil prices increase, some industries may sub natural gas for certain areas of their operations wherever possible. This can increase demand for natural gas.
The oil market typically tracks two benchmarks:
Between the two, Brent offers a clearer view of global oil performance because it prices much of the world’s traded crude. It’s also often the preferred gauge for tracking historical oil trends. In fact, the U.S. Energy Information Administration now uses Brent as its primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook.
Looking at the Brent benchmark over multiple decades, you’ll find oil has been anything but stable. It’s seen sharp rises due to factors like wars and supply cuts, along with steep declines tied to global recessions and oversupply (called a “glut”). For example:
Bottom line, oil’s historical performance has been anything but smooth. It’s hugely affected by wars, recessions, OPEC whims, evolving energy initiatives and policies, and much more.
Looking to stay up-to-date regarding the latest energy developments? Check out our recent coverage:
How is the current price of oil per barrel actually determined?
The current price of oil per barrel depends largely on supply and demand, including news about potential future supply and demand (geopolitics, decisions made by OPEC+, etc.). In the U.S., prices also move based on how friendly an administration is to drilling, as it can affect future supply. For example, 2025 saw the Trump administration move to reopen more than 1.5 million acres in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing the Biden administration’s policy of limiting oil drilling in the Arctic.
How often does the price of oil change during the day?
The price of oil updates constantly when the “futures” markets are open. A futures market is effectively an auction where people agree to buy or sell oil in the future. As long as people and companies are trading contracts, the oil price is changing.
How does U.S. shale oil production affect the current price of oil?
In short, shale is rock that contains oil and natural gas. Think of shale as energy yet to be tapped. The more shale the U.S. accesses, the more energy we’ll have—and the more easily oil prices can keep from spiking as much thanks to a greater supply.
How does the current price of oil impact inflation and the broader economy?
When oil is expensive, it tends to make everyday items cost more. This can be related to energy (your heating, gas utilities, etc.), but it’s also due to the logistics involved with making those items accessible to you. Shipping, for example, can affect the price of things at the grocery store, as it’s more expensive to get those products from warehouses and farms onto the shelf.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews15 hours agoFederal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s attorney is challenging the impartiality of a White House committee investigating mortgage fraud allegations against her, raising concerns about the fairness of President Donald Trump’s latest effort to remove her from the central bank.
In an Oct. 13 letter reviewed by Reuters, attorney Abbe Lowell questioned the inclusion of National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on the three-member panel, saying Hassett had previously pressured Cook to take leave and suggested Trump had “cause” to fire her.
“A hearing with demonstrably biased members, unspecified additional allegations, and an unclear schedule for the disclosure of any additional evidence – with no explanation for why it was not previously produced – is not a process that respects the appearance or history of independence,” Lowell wrote, according to Reuters.
Lowell also requested a delay of the panel’s Nov. 5 hearing, saying Cook would be in Europe for official financial and monetary policy meetings, and would not be available until after the Fed’s Dec. 8–9 policy meeting.
Trump established the committee through an Oct. 7 memorandum to determine whether mortgage-related allegations against Cook provide sufficient grounds for her removal. The panel also includes the chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the director of the Office of Government Ethics.
Under the memorandum, Cook would receive the evidence against her and have up to four hours to present her defense at a closed-door hearing. The committee would then recommend whether Trump has cause to remove her. It remains unclear whether the hearing will be postponed.
Trump has sought Cook’s removal since August 2025, following allegations that she designated properties in Georgia and Michigan as primary residences on separate mortgage agreements. The White House also alleges she later rented out the Georgia property.
Cook has denied committing mortgage fraud. Her attorneys maintain that the Georgia designation was an inadvertent error and that she consistently identified Michigan as her primary residence.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that Trump could not remove Cook without providing adequate notice and an opportunity to contest the allegations, leaving open a potential path for removal.
The dispute has broader implications for the Federal Reserve’s independence from political pressure.
Fox Business has reached out to Lowell for further comment.
JBizNews16 hours agoSam’s Club announced Thursday it is rolling out its largest Thanksgiving meal offering to date, expanding holiday offerings while keeping the price under $10 per person.
The Walmart-owned membership club said its 2026 Thanksgiving meal, designed for 16 people, includes 11 different offerings, including turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.
The meal grew from nine offerings last year, while Sam’s Club said the per-person price remains unchanged.
The holiday offering comes as consumers continue to contend with higher inflation heading into the Thanksgiving season.
Food prices are up 2.5% compared with last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ September consumer price index. The food at home index decreased 0.1% on a monthly basis and is up 1.8% from a year ago. The food away from home index rose 0.2% for the month and is up 3.5% from last year.
The meal will be available beginning Oct. 28 in clubs and online. Members can purchase the full spread or customize their order by adding or removing individual items.
Sam’s Club said it spent roughly 12 months developing the meal, with a team of more than 20 employees incorporating feedback from members.
The final lineup includes a boneless carver ham, hickory smoked turkey, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, two packages of green beans with dried cranberries and almonds, two packages of macaroni and cheese, sweet corn with garlic butter, cranberry crunch salad, yeast dinner rolls, a charcuterie tray and two 12-inch pumpkin pies.
Sam’s Club said the meal was designed to be prepared in about two hours in an average household kitchen with one oven and two racks.
The company noted that the final cost may vary because several items in the meal are sold by weight.
FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.
JBizNews23 hours agoThe Treasury Department is encouraging Americans to take newly minted President Donald Trump dollar coins to their favorite liberal coffee shops, issuing a challenge in a TikTok video posted Wednesday.
U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach urged Americans to pick up rolls of the coins at banks next month and use them to purchase coffee at businesses he described as liberal.
“This is the dollar coin. It will be in the banks next month,” he said in the clip as he removed the coins from a bank. “And I want to challenge you to go get a roll of dollar coins next month. And then I want you to go to your favorite liberal coffee shop with your top dollar coins. Buy a cup of coffee. Watch their heads explode. They will not like it. But I love it. And I love this president. And I love this coin.”
The challenge, shared on the Treasury Department’s official TikTok account Wednesday, comes after the U.S. Mint began selling the Trump-themed currency in September as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary commemorations.
The Trump dollar coins went on sale through the U.S. Mint in September, with a roll of 25 priced at $61 and a bag of 100 selling for $154.50, significantly above their face value, FOX Business previously reported.
The Mint also indicated the coins could be used for everyday transactions, despite being marketed to collectors.
“These coins are also in circulation, so check your pocket change,” the U.S. Mint wrote in a September post on X.
The coins feature Trump’s likeness beneath the word “LIBERTY,” with the years “1776 ~ 2026” below his portrait and “IN GOD WE TRUST” alongside it. The currency commemorates the nation’s 250th anniversary.
According to the Mint’s product description, the coins were produced in Philadelphia with circulating finishes but had not been placed into circulation when they were offered for sale. The coins can still be used as legal tender.
Beach’s announcement that the coins will be available at banks next month suggests Americans could have another way to obtain the currency beyond purchasing it directly from the Mint.
The Treasury Department has not specified which banks will carry the coins or whether they will be available at face value.
FOX Business reached out to the Treasury Department for clarification on the coins’ availability at commercial banks, distribution schedule and whether customers will be able to obtain them at face value.
JBizNews1 day agoThe attorney for the former OpenAI employee accused of planting a recording device in the company’s San Francisco headquarters is calling the allegations “wholly out of character,” insisting his client’s flight to Saudi Arabia was pre-booked, and urging the public not to jump to conclusions about the suspect’s Saudi nationality.
William Pernik, who represents the suspect Abdulrahman Alfozan, admits that his information was still “limited” and says he plans to respond more fully “in court of law” once he has full information. The next court appearance is set for Oct. 19.
Alfozan, along with his wife and small child, was set to travel from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia on a one-way flight on Oct. 12; the federal complaint suggests that Alfozan may have been planning to use that trip to “flee” the U.S.
The flight was “prepaid,” and Alfozan was “surprised by the search and arrest,” according to Pernik. The reason for the flight and the date it was booked remain unknown.
Still, Pernik insists that “the allegations appear wholly out of character for this gentleman.”
Alfozan is a Saudi national and has been a legal permanent resident of the U.S. since 2020, according to the FBI complaint. He has lived and worked in the U.S. since 2011, when he enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s computer science program.
The FBI highlighted Alfozan’s Saudi nationality in its press release announcing the arrest. Yet Pernik urges the public to “refrain from jumping to conclusions based on the nature of the allegation or our client’s national origin, which seems to be the focal point of attention, despite many years spent living, studying, and raising his family here, like millions of other immigrants.”
Alfozan’s work history features well-known tech companies, including internships at SAP and Microsoft, as well as a five-year stint at Meta. He then founded his own startup in Silicon Valley, and joined OpenAI in July 2025, OpenAI told Fortune. Alfozan also joined a Saudi-based venture capital firm, RAED Ventures, as a partner in 2025.
Pernik says Alfozan was “passionate about technology and was proud to be working at OpenAI.”
OpenAI terminated Alfozan’s employment on Oct. 9, the same day the FBI arrested him. OpenAI and the FBI worked together after an OpenAI security team found the recording device during a routine sweep on Sept. 30. According to the complaint**,** Alfozan allegedly planted the device on Sept. 28 after spending over a month planning the act on ChatGPT and an internal agentic AI tool.
“Our security program is designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation states,” said OpenAI.
Neither the FBI nor OpenAI has found any evidence that Alfozan leaked any information. Pernik notes that Alfozan was not charged with sharing trade secrets, but rather with violating “a general federal recording statute.”
“Our government has the right to protect our country’s intellectual property and technological assets, and it should, but it must be consistent with our values and our laws,” Pernik says. “Like any other person, Mr. Alfozan is entitled to presumption of innocence and due process of law. It is our duty to ensure that he is treated fairly and justly. That’s what we are going to do.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoA failure by the United States and Iran to agree within weeks on a UN-backed plan for moving fertilizer through the Strait of Hormuz could cause a food security crisis in parts of Asia and Africa, an official overseeing the proposed scheme said on Wednesday.
The United Nations set up a taskforce in March to facilitate passage of fertilizers through the strait. It is yet to implement the mechanism it drew up, but United Nations Under-Secretary-General Jorge Moreira da Silva said this could be activated within 7-10 days of an agreement between Washington and Tehran.
“It’s absolutely crucial to get the deal in the next few weeks. Otherwise, we will miss the planting season,” he said in an interview in Bangkok, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings.
In response to questions from Reuters, a US State Department spokesman said the US military has assisted thousands of commercial vessels with transiting the strait.
“The United States will continue to take decisive action against Iran’s attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and hold the global economy hostage,” he said.
The White House and Iran’s Embassy in Bangkok did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Iran has sought to tighten its grip on the Strait of Hormuz since US and Israeli strikes on February 28, using the chokepoint to pressure Washington, which has been pressing its own naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Before the war, the waterway handled roughly a third of globally traded urea — the world’s most widely used fertilizer — and nearly half of seaborne sulphur, a key input. It is also a major conduit for global oil supplies.
Fertilizer shipments out of the Gulf region remained largely halted more than six months after the start of the conflict, the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute said in a note last month. Fertilizer products accounted for a “very negligible” share of the resumption of some shipping during a ceasefire between mid-June and mid-July, it said.
If the Hormuz disruption continues, commodity prices could rise by up to 81% for cereals, 66% for oil crops and 30% for animal products, according to an August report by the International Chamber of Commerce.
“If we miss that planting season, the productivity of agriculture would significantly drop and the impact on prices will significantly increase,” said Moreira da Silva, who is also the executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services.
The proposed operation would use a coordination center in Oman to register vessels and coordinate safe passage, with UN monitors working alongside local authorities at Gulf ports to verify cargo loading.
The passage of only five vessels per day through Hormuz could keep fertilizer supplies flowing to countries in critical need, Moreira da Silva said.
Ships would be tracked during transit, and additional inspections could be carried out if countries raised concerns about a vessel or its cargo, he added.
Iran and the United States have exchanged proposals through intermediaries since a June interim ceasefire collapsed, but efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz have stalled over Tehran’s conditions and Washington’s insistence on addressing Iran’s nuclear program from the outset.
The proposed UN mechanism could operate alongside negotiations on a comprehensive deal aimed at securing lasting peace and freedom of navigation, Moreira da Silva said.
“What we are telling them is, while you continue your discussions towards a comprehensive deal, let us work, let us do our job,” he said, declining to specify the exact bottlenecks to a deal as discussions continue with both sides.
Beyond the Hormuz crisis, a deteriorating situation in the Black Sea region, where cargo vessels have come under attack, and an offensive by Iran-backed Houthi militants along a key Red Sea shipping route are compounding the threat to global food security.
“What we are witnessing now is a concentration of factors,” Moreira da Silva said. “Climate crisis, simultaneous disruption of maritime chokepoints on the Black Sea, on the Red Sea and on Hormuz.”
JBizNews1 day agoIsrael has fallen from outperforming the world’s leading advanced economies on a key productivity measure to trailing them, according to a Shoresh Institution report warning that the next government must address educational and budgetary priorities that threaten the country’s long-term economic viability.
The report, published last Thursday by the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research, places Israel’s total factor productivity at 15% below the G7 average in 2023, compared with 9% above it in 1975. The measure assesses how efficiently an economy combines labor and capital to produce goods and services.
Written by Shoresh President Prof. Dan Ben-David, the report said weak education, rapid demographic change, and the departure of skilled Israelis reinforce one another, leaving the country increasingly dependent on a narrow group of workers to sustain its economy, healthcare, and defense capabilities.
“The upcoming election will determine who governs Israel, but the deeper question is what kind of country the government will govern a generation from now,” Ben-David said in a statement accompanying the report.
The historical comparison showed how sharply Israel’s relative position changed. In 1954, its total factor productivity was 27% below the G7 average. It overtook that benchmark within roughly two decades, then fell behind again.
A separate measure, output per hour worked, tells a similar story. According to Shoresh’s calculations, Israel exceeded every G7 country in 1972 but trailed six of the seven by 2024. Its output per hour was 34% below Germany’s and 30% below the United States’. Japan was the exception.
These are relative comparisons: falling behind other countries does not necessarily mean Israel produces less than it did in the past. It means, rather, that its performance has failed to keep pace.
Ben-David attributes the change to a shift beginning in the 1970s away from investment in infrastructure, education and public services toward sectoral interests. He said that defense spending alone cannot explain the shortfalls, pointing to decades when civilian government expenditure, measured against the size of the economy, matched or exceeded the OECD average.
Israel’s hi-tech success masks a much weaker performance across the rest of the economy. According to the report’s 2022 figures, each hour worked in hi-tech generated 22% more economic value than the average hour worked across OECD economies. But outside hi-tech, where roughly nine in 10 Israeli workers were employed, each hour generated 24% less than that average.
The report also said the highest-earning fifth accounted for 93% of income-tax revenue in 2024, up from 83% in 2000. That concentration, Ben-David said, makes the country vulnerable when highly skilled workers leave.
Expanding that skilled workforce will depend on the education children receive today. According to the report, haredi (ultra-Orthodox) children account for 25% of first graders in 2026 and Arabic-speaking children for another 23%. Haredim make up approximately 6% of Israelis aged 50-54, but 26% of children aged four and under.
The question, Ben-David asked, is whether today’s pupils receive the education needed to become tomorrow’s engineers, physicians and other skilled workers.
Shoresh’s analysis of the 2025 PISA assessments places pupils in state-religious schools below 76% of OECD countries and those in secular Jewish schools below 81%, based on average performance across mathematics, science and reading. Arabic-speaking pupils scored below every OECD country and six of the seven participating Arab countries.
Most haredi boys, who do not study the full core curriculum, do not participate in the tests, the report noted.
When the PISA results were released, the Education Ministry stressed the wartime conditions under which students took the assessments, including displacement and interrupted schooling.
The report also points to a growing number of Israeli physicians abroad. In 2000, the number working in other OECD countries, excluding the United States, was equivalent to 0.7% of the number of physicians in Israel. By 2023, that ratio had risen to 1.9%, according to Shoresh’s analysis.
Ben-David warns that departures could increase the burden on those who remain, encouraging further emigration.
His proposed “Israel 2.0” program calls for an upgraded compulsory core curriculum for all pupils, public funding only for compliant schools, and a shift in national spending priorities. It also proposes electoral and governance reform, stronger checks and balances.
“The window for change is still open – but it is closing,” he said.
JBizNews1 day agoJBizNews | Washington, D.C. | October 14, 2026
WASHINGTON — Newly appointed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia failed the California bar exam, according to The Wall Street Journal, despite years of publicly identifying herself as an attorney. The disclosure raises questions not only about her professional credentials but also about the White House officials responsible for reviewing her qualifications before she was appointed to represent President Donald Trump.
The Journal reported that Zacharia took the California bar examination after graduating from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011 but did not pass. Separate investigations by Reuters, The Washington Post and other news organizations found no record that she was ever licensed to practice law in the United States.
The distinction matters. Graduating from law school is an academic achievement. Being licensed to practice law is a separate professional qualification. Yet Zacharia has repeatedly been described as an attorney, including in television appearances and in Trump’s own announcement of her appointment.
The controversy now raises a broader question: Who was responsible for verifying those credentials before the president publicly endorsed them?
Trump announced Zacharia’s appointment on October 9, praising her background, loyalty and support for his administration. She replaced Karoline Leavitt, who left the position in August.
Zacharia previously worked as a communications adviser for Trump Media & Technology Group, appeared as a commentator on Fox News and Newsmax, and held a public affairs position at the Department of Homeland Security.
Her résumé also includes work at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing and a position identified as general counsel for Fix California, an organization founded by Trump ally Richard Grenell.
Those experiences may have contributed to her selection. But they do not resolve questions about how her legal credentials were represented or independently verified.
When reporters questioned Trump on October 13 about where Zacharia had passed the bar exam, he turned to her for an answer. She appeared to respond, “When I moved to China.”
The answer did not identify a jurisdiction in which she had qualified to practice law.
Zacharia subsequently said she had practiced international transactional law with appropriate credentials. The White House has defended her professional experience, while stopping short of identifying a U.S. bar admission.
Failing the bar exam does not disqualify someone from becoming White House press secretary. The position does not require a law license.
But the responsibility of the position goes far beyond reading announcements or conducting press briefings.
The White House press secretary communicates the administration’s positions on military operations, national security, international diplomacy, economic policy and decisions that can move financial markets.
An inaccurate statement from the White House podium can create consequences well beyond Washington.
That makes the appointment process particularly important.
Was Zacharia’s professional background thoroughly examined? Who reviewed her qualifications? Were the president and senior White House officials aware that she had failed the California bar examination? Did anyone question her repeated identification as an attorney?
And beyond the legal credentials, what assessment was conducted of her readiness, training and experience to handle sensitive national and international matters?
These are questions about the appointment process, not conclusions that Zacharia failed security screening or lacked required training. Neither allegation has been established.
Zacharia’s first White House briefing on October 13 lasted approximately 14 minutes and included questions from only a handful of reporters.
Associated Press reporting described a presentation heavily reliant on prepared remarks, with limited questioning and several awkward moments.
The performance drew criticism, although Trump publicly defended her debut.
One briefing cannot establish whether someone is capable of performing the job. But alongside the unresolved credential questions, it places renewed attention on how Zacharia was selected and prepared.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has defended her qualifications, describing her as highly intelligent and capable of explaining the administration’s accomplishments.
That endorsement, however, does not answer what verification occurred before her appointment.
The White House is not an ordinary workplace. Its press secretary speaks on behalf of the presidency, addressing decisions that can affect American businesses, foreign governments, financial markets and national security.
That responsibility requires more than political loyalty or television experience. It demands preparation, sound judgment and an appointment process that accurately evaluates professional qualifications.
The president has the authority to select his spokesperson. But that authority does not eliminate the responsibility of senior officials to ensure that the information used to support an appointment is accurate.
If Zacharia’s failed bar examination was known, why did the president publicly describe her as an attorney without clarifying her licensing status?
If it was not known, how did the credential review miss it?
And if her professional background was never adequately checked, who was responsible for conducting that review?
These questions deserve answers regardless of political affiliation.
The central issue is no longer simply that Katie Zacharia failed the bar exam. It is whether the people responsible for placing her behind the White House podium performed the necessary checks before giving her one of the administration’s most visible responsibilities.
Zacharia should answer questions about her credentials. The officials who approved her appointment should answer questions about their review.
Accountability must extend to both.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoNEW YORK — YouTube is exploring a major expansion into the audiobook business, holding discussions with book publishers about launching a dedicated listening service that could challenge Amazon’s Audible and Spotify while opening a new source of revenue for authors, publishers and Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
According to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday, YouTube has been discussing the proposed offering with publishers in recent months, with a potential launch as early as next year.
The company is considering whether audiobooks could become part of its existing YouTube Premium subscription, which costs $15.99 per month in the United States.
No final agreement or launch date has been announced, and key details—including whether subscribers would receive unlimited listening hours or pay separately for individual titles—remain unresolved.
YouTube already attracts a vast audience for podcasts, interviews, educational videos and other long-form content.
Adding licensed audiobooks would extend that business by giving users another reason to remain on the platform rather than switching to competing services.
The opportunity is particularly attractive because audiobooks fit naturally into how consumers already use streaming apps: listening while driving, exercising, working or performing everyday tasks.
Rather than building a completely new audience from scratch, YouTube could introduce professionally produced audiobooks to existing users.
The company could also use its recommendation systems to help listeners discover books through author interviews, podcasts, book reviews and related videos.
For Alphabet, the initiative would be another way to generate subscription revenue beyond advertising while increasing the value of YouTube Premium.
The proposed expansion would put YouTube directly into competition with two established players.
Amazon’s Audible operates a major audiobook subscription and retail business, while Spotify has aggressively expanded beyond music and podcasts into books.
Spotify said in May that its audiobook catalog had grown to more than 700,000 titles across 22 markets.
The company has also introduced additional listening plans, audiobook discovery tools and services designed to help users move between printed books and audio editions.
Last week, Spotify announced a major international expansion intended to extend audiobook availability from 22 markets to more than 180 by the end of 2026.
That expansion could potentially reach hundreds of millions of additional consumers.
YouTube’s entry would add another major technology company to a market where distribution, licensing agreements and subscriber loyalty are becoming increasingly important.
The economics behind YouTube’s interest are substantial.
According to the Association of American Publishers, U.S. digital audiobook revenue exceeded $1 billion in 2025, compared with approximately $265 million in 2016.
2016 digital audiobook revenue
2025 digital audiobook revenue
Revenue growth represents an increase of more than 277% over nine years.
The expansion reflects consumers’ growing willingness to pay for spoken-word content.
It also creates competition over how revenues are divided among platforms, publishers, authors and narrators.
For publishers, additional distribution could produce new sales and access to audiences who rarely purchase printed books.
But it could also increase their dependence on large technology companies that control discovery, subscription pricing and customer relationships.
YouTube’s existing platform already contains recordings of books, including some uploaded without authorization from copyright holders.
A formal audiobook marketplace could provide publishers with a clearer way to distribute authorized recordings and collect revenue.
That could make the proposed business attractive to publishing companies seeking to monetize their catalogs while reducing the impact of unauthorized uploads.
However, licensing terms will be central to negotiations.
Publishers must determine whether the additional listening audience compensates for potentially lower earnings per book compared with direct retail sales.
Authors and narrators also have an interest in how streaming revenue is calculated and distributed.
That remains one of the biggest unanswered questions.
YouTube could bundle a limited number of monthly listening hours with its Premium subscription, offer audiobooks as a separate subscription, or allow individual purchases.
Each approach has different business implications.
Including audiobooks within Premium could make the subscription more attractive and help YouTube retain customers. But it would also require the company to compensate publishers for content consumed by existing subscribers.
Charging separately could produce additional revenue but would require YouTube to compete more directly with Audible and Spotify on pricing and selection.
The company’s ability to negotiate a broad catalog of popular books will likely be just as important as its pricing model.
For independent authors, YouTube could eventually become a major discovery channel.
An author whose interview attracts substantial views could potentially direct listeners to a licensed audiobook without requiring them to leave the platform.
Book publishers could also use YouTube’s established advertising and promotional infrastructure to market new releases.
For consumers, additional competition could eventually mean more listening options, new subscription packages and improved discovery features.
Those benefits are possibilities rather than confirmed plans. YouTube has not yet disclosed its final product design or licensing arrangements.
YouTube’s potential audiobook launch reflects a broader transformation in digital media.
Video services increasingly compete for podcast audiences. Music platforms are expanding into books. Audiobook companies are experimenting with subscriptions, exclusive recordings and new ways to distribute content.
The boundaries between these businesses are becoming less distinct.
For Alphabet, audiobooks could provide another opportunity to strengthen its recurring subscription revenue while using the distribution power of one of the world’s largest streaming platforms.
For Amazon and Spotify, the potential arrival of YouTube introduces another competitor with substantial financial resources, established technology and an enormous existing audience.
The question is no longer whether consumers will listen to books through digital platforms.
It is which technology company will control the relationship between listeners, publishers and the growing audiobook market.
JBizNews Desk | New York
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoA police lieutenant in a Cincinnati suburb has been indicted on a felony charge for allegedly using his department’s Flock license plate reader cameras to track someone he knew.
Walter Cordes, 48, a lieutenant with the Sharonville Police Department, searched the Flock system 29 times between Dec. 19, 2024, and April 20, 2026, to find the person’s whereabouts for personal reasons unrelated to police work, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office.
A grand jury indicted him Oct. 13 on one count of unauthorized use of a computer, cable or telecommunication property. The charge is a fifth-degree felony that carries up to 12 months in prison under Ohio law. Prosecutors have not identified the person Cordes allegedly tracked or said why he searched for them.
The searches came to light in June when Cordes self-reported during a department audit of the system, then admitted to them in an interview, prompting an investigation by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Sharonville Police Chief Jim Nesbit told WKRC the audit turned up other improper use, which the department addressed, and that “Lt. Cordes came forward to share that he too had misused the system.” Sharonville leases 24 Flock cameras, and the department said Cordes has been placed on administrative leave while it finishes its own investigation.
“When technology is misused, it undermines public trust,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said in a statement. Pillich said Cordes is the first law enforcement official her office has charged with misusing the technology since she took office.
Rich Krummen, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 74, told FOX19 that people he’d spoken with were shocked, but added, “that’s why we have checks and balances.”
The case is one of several in recent weeks. In September, prosecutors in Marion County, Indiana, charged five Indianapolis police officers with misusing their access to Flock cameras. One officer allegedly looked up the location of his ex-wife’s car more than 950 times over six months. On Oct. 7, a former Joliet, Illinois, police lieutenant, Jeremy Harrison, was charged with computer tampering and official misconduct over his use of the city’s Flock system, according to FOX 32.
The charges add to pressure on Flock, an $8 billion startup backed by a16z and Tiger Global whose cameras let any police department with a contract reconstruct where a car has been. Flock told Fortune it has raised $500 million at an $8.3 billion valuation and has argued it is adding customers far faster than it loses them.
In August, two Arizona cities, Tempe and Cave Creek, ended their Flock contracts on the same day, with Cave Creek citing privacy concerns and cases of misuse. A Flock spokesperson said then that every search is logged and reviewed through the company’s Audit Assistance tool, which flags unusual activity for administrators.
Closer to Sharonville, many jurisdictions in Greater Cincinnati have halted or canceled their Flock contracts over misuse concerns, WVXU reported, including the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated Cordes.
Flock declined to comment. An attorney for Cordes could not be reached.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoToyota is recalling nearly 31,000 vehicles over a software issue that could cause the plug-in hybrid system to shut down while driving at high speeds, according to federal regulators.
The recall affects 30,978 2026 Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The software issue could cause the vehicle’s plug-in hybrid system to reduce power or shut down when driven at higher speeds.
“The motor generator ECU may encounter an error, causing the plug-in-hybrid system to reduce power or shut down when driven at higher speeds,” the NHTSA said in its notice.
The NHTSA warned that the defect could increase the risk of a crash.
“An unexpected powertrain shutdown can cause a loss of drive power, increasing the risk of a crash,” the recall notice reads.
Toyota dealers will update the affected software free of charge.
Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed beginning Nov. 22, according to NHTSA. Toyota said affected owners will be notified by early December.
JBizNews1 day agoBy Duvi Honig, Founder & CEO, Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce
The United States has the most powerful military in the world. Yet Iran and the Houthis continue threatening international shipping, launching missiles and drones, and disrupting global commerce.
If America is struggling to stop these threats, what happens when it faces China, Russia or nuclear-armed North Korea?
Iran and the Houthis are not military superpowers. Yet their attacks threaten oil supplies, disrupt aviation, increase shipping costs and place pressure on businesses and consumers worldwide.
The concern goes beyond military strength. It is about America’s ability to sustain that strength.
A relatively inexpensive drone can force the use of an interceptor costing millions of dollars. Every missile fired must eventually be replaced, sometimes through a manufacturing process that takes years.
Meanwhile, China is expanding its military, Russia continues challenging European security, and North Korea is strengthening its nuclear capabilities.
What happens if several of these adversaries act at the same time?
Imagine China moving against Taiwan, Russia escalating in Europe, North Korea threatening South Korea, and Iran and the Houthis disrupting Middle Eastern shipping.
Can America defend all these fronts simultaneously without exhausting its weapons, stretching its military and damaging its economy?
And what happens to global commerce when major shipping routes, energy supplies and semiconductor production are threatened at once?
President Trump has emphasized peace through strength. But strength must deliver results, not simply demonstrate the ability to launch powerful attacks.
America needs greater weapons production, stronger missile defenses, more affordable technology to stop drones and allies capable of carrying more of the burden.
Most importantly, military success must be measured by whether threats are actually stopped, not simply by how many targets are destroyed.
If smaller adversaries can repeatedly disrupt international commerce despite America’s military superiority, what message does that send to the world’s major powers?
China, Russia and North Korea are watching. They are measuring America’s capabilities, its weapons stockpiles and its ability to sustain prolonged conflicts.
The question is no longer whether America has the strongest military in the world.
The question is whether America has the strategy, resources and staying power to confront multiple threats before its enemies discover the limits of that strength.
JBizNews | Opinion
© 2026 JBizNews. All rights reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoSometime after Netflix’s 2001 layoffs, Patty McCord told Reed Hastings she was having a blast.
The company was broke and couldn’t hire. The people left were doing twice the work. Nobody was arguing or complaining.
Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder, gave McCord an assignment: “Go figure out why.”
Her answer was “talent density,” the idea that a small group of exceptional colleagues will outwork a bigger team. It became the foundation of Netflix’s culture, and of the “keeper test” its managers still use to decide who stays.
Twenty-five years later, Netflix is cutting again. The company is eliminating roughly 1,000 jobs, about 6% of its workforce, in a restructuring announced Wednesday. The cuts fall largely on its product, technology, legal and human resources teams. McCord ran human resources.
This time, the company has plenty of money and a growth problem. Netflix is still expanding, just not as fast as its leaders or its shareholders want. Its stock is down 22% this year and 42% over the past 12 months. In February, it lost a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters have not described the cuts as an effort to improve talent density. Still, the layoffs revisit a question embedded in the company’s origin story: When does getting smaller make a business better—and when does it simply make it smaller?
In 2001, Netflix was a DVD-by-mail startup, three years after its 1998 launch, with about 120 employees. The year before, Blockbuster had turned down Hastings’ $50 million asking price for the company. When the dot-com bubble burst, venture capital funding evaporated, and Netflix laid off a third of its staff.
In No Rules Rules, his 2020 book with INSEAD professor Erin Meyer, Hastings wrote that he and his HR chief agonized over whom to keep, and that he expected morale to collapse. It rose instead. Hastings traces the keeper test to that sorting.
“We were broke, so we couldn’t hire anybody, yet at the same time we were doing twice the work with a third fewer people and it was more fun!” McCord, the company’s former chief talent officer, recalled in a conversation at IESE Business School in June 2025.
“I realized we had what we came to call ‘talent density’—a really tight group of people who were absolutely clear about what they had to do,” she said.
In her account, the lesson had little to do with cost. A focused team, with the right skills and a clear sense of the mission, got more done once the friction that had eaten its time was gone.
The experience changed how Netflix hired once it could afford to again. Rather than assume a team of four engineers should become a team of eight, McCord said, she began asking what kind of talent the company needed. That could mean replacing “wonderful, talented people” whose skills no longer matched the work ahead, with severance instead of a performance-improvement plan that couldn’t close the gap fast enough.
Even in the philosophy’s formative years, a layoff at Netflix could say more about the company’s changing needs than about the person shown the door.
“We realized, Wow, maybe we should do a one-third layoff every year,” Hastings, 65, recently told Semafor, quickly adding that the idea was impractical. Netflix went public the next year, in 2002.
The culture had been moving in that direction before the layoffs. In Netflixed, journalist Gina Keating describes how venture money gave Hastings the power to steer the young company away from co-founder Marc Randolph’s collective of creators and toward an organization run by experienced executives, preferably with engineering and math backgrounds. Randolph left in 2002.
Today Netflix’s culture memo compares the company to a professional sports team. Families offer unconditional love; teams choose the right player for each position, even when that means replacing someone they like. The memo’s “Dream Team” is driven by performance. Seniority, tenure and unconditional loyalty don’t earn a spot.
To protect the talent density McCord identified in 2001, managers apply the keeper test: Would they fight to retain an employee who wanted to leave? Knowing what they know today, would they hire that person again?
“If the answer is no, we believe it’s fairer to everyone to part ways quickly,” the memo says.
McCord found that out herself. In 2012, Hastings let her go. The keeper test she helped build for him had been applied to her.
The bargain runs both ways. Netflix says it pays at the top of the market, shares information widely and gives employees room to use their judgment instead of surrounding them with rules. Its vacation policy is “Take vacation.” Its expense policy is “Act in Netflix’s best interests.” Hiring unusually responsible people is supposed to make layers of control unnecessary. Talent density demands more from workers. Netflix also uses it to justify managing them with fewer rules.
Netflix itself concedes there is almost always a gap between having no rules and truly having no actual rules. “While we don’t always live up to these principles,” the memo says, most people who join are surprised by how great their colleagues are.
The memo also cautions against treating every setback as grounds for dismissal. Managers should evaluate an employee’s full record, it says, and support people through short-term difficulties so they stay willing to experiment.
The last time Netflix cut staff in a meaningful way, it was losing customers. In April 2022, the company reported its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, and it lost subscribers again the next quarter. “Our revenue growth has slowed considerably,” Netflix told shareholders, blaming high household penetration, including the many households sharing accounts, and a wave of new streaming rivals. By June, the stock was down nearly 70% for the year.
Netflix cut about 150 jobs in May and roughly 300 more in June, out of about 11,000 employees. The company said the May cuts were “primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance.”
Then it rebuilt. Netflix launched a cheaper ad-supported tier late that year and moved to charge for shared accounts. By August of this year, its market value topped $315 billion.
Stratechery’s Ben Thompson, writing in January 2023 as Hastings stepped back to executive chairman, argued that the crisis had changed what Netflix needed. Hastings, in his telling, was Spock: a leader built for execution, which is what shipping DVDs and building a streaming service demanded. Netflix’s future would hinge on whether it could make compelling content at scale. “It’s time for a Captain Kirk,” Thompson wrote.
In Thompson’s terms, Wednesday’s cuts fall hardest on the execution side of the house: product and technology, as Wall Street questions whether Captain Kirk is really programming the hits needed to revive growth for the service.
Sarandos and Peters framed the cuts as a question of priorities.
“Our mission—to entertain the world—is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,” they wrote in an employee memo obtained by the Wall Street Journal and CNBC. “Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full-year forecast.”
The numbers back the second half of that. Netflix had about 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025, and revenue reached almost $25 billion in the first half of 2026, up 15% from a year earlier.
The rest of the picture is harder. Sarandos acknowledged the slowdown last month at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference. “Overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” he said. In February, when Paramount Skydance topped Netflix’s offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix walked away, saying, “We’ve always been disciplined.”
Generative AI was used for research assistance and/or transcription of this article. The reporter independently reported and verified the factual claims in this article, and a human editor reviewed it before publication. This editor worked at Netflix from June 2024 through July 2025.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoAn OpenAI employee who left the ChatGPT maker for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and later made a presentation about the unreleased product to senior Apple leadership, a new filing in the lawsuit between OpenAI and Apple alleges.
In a filing in US federal court in San Jose, California, OpenAI alleged that the presentation occurred months ago and that Apple is now developing its own AI products, citing the release of Apple’s HomeView product this week.
“OpenAI is very concerned that its trade secret and confidential information is now circulating inside Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple’s upcoming products based on OpenAI’s confidential and innovative work,” OpenAI said in its filing.
Apple said that it has policies and procedures in place to ensure new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers and that it has found no evidence to support OpenAI’s allegations.
The document, filed on Tuesday, is part of an ongoing trade secret dispute that Apple filed earlier this year, in which it alleged that employees of the iPhone maker left and took confidential information to OpenAI’s hardware division. OpenAI has denied those allegations.
Earlier this week, US District Court Judge Edward Davila granted part of Apple’s request to get early access to digital files from OpenAI in the suit.
Davila said Apple could gather data from some of its former employees’ devices and sit three of them for depositions on a sped-up schedule, including the two defendants in the case, Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch.
The case is likely to go to trial in October 2027, though OpenAI has said in court filings that it could be ready for trial as soon as June 2027.
JBizNews1 day agoThe horrific death of a man who was ejected from a Six Flags roller coaster in Georgia is drawing attention to the safety of amusement park rides that have become increasingly faster and steeper in their quest for the biggest thrill.
Even so, deaths on roller coasters are still extremely rare, and Georgia officials have said little about what happened Monday when Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, was thrown from his seat while riding the Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia before striking other patrons and then landing below the ride.
Goliath uses a sheer drop from 200 feet (61 meters) to reach top speeds of 70 mph (112 kph) and focuses on velocity and downhill plunges rather than turning riders upside down through loops or corkscrews. It has operated at the park for two decades.
Six Flags temporarily closed nine similar coasters across North America following the death, saying it was doing so out of an abundance of caution.
Ride manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard said it is “actively investigating the incident and will not comment further until we have a better understanding of what happened.”
In the U.S., roller coasters and other rides at major amusement parks such as Six Flags are not regulated by the federal government. That responsibility falls to states.
Some say this has led to an inconsistent patchwork of rules where some states have strict regulations and others have little to no oversight.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts has repeatedly introduced legislation to close what he calls a “loophole” in federal law that allows U.S. safety officials to regulate mobile rides but prevents the Consumer Product Safety Commission from overseeing stationary rides like those at major amusement parks.
Brian Avery, a University of Florida professor and amusement ride safety expert, agrees that more federal regulations are needed.
“Who’s watching those in these organizations to ensure that they are adequately trained, that they are compliant, that they are monitoring these rides to the level in which the standards have established?” Avery said.
Georgia’s Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, which oversees annual ride inspections in the state, is “conducting an in‑depth and comprehensive review” of what happened Monday at Six Flags, said Garrison Bennett, a spokesperson.
Amusement park operators worldwide generally adhere to what are known as ASTM standards set by industry experts, which cover everything from ride design and construction to how much acceleration and force each rider is allowed to experience.
The industry has multiple layers of inspection, said Dennis Speigel, a theme park consultant and past president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, a trade group. Park operators are under pressure from insurance carriers that could face a hefty payout if something goes wrong.
“With the checks and balances that are put in place, theme parks are really one of the safest places to be on the planet,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
The trade group said the chance of being seriously injured on a U.S. amusement park ride is 1 in 15.5 million rides taken.
Martin Lewinson, a roller coaster expert and a professor at Farmingdale State College, said it was difficult to imagine there being a mechanical malfunction on a roller coaster such as Goliath because of its design.
The ride features a pull-down lap restraint, called a “clamshell,” that works with a ratchet mechanism that makes clicking sounds as you press it down over your hips. These have multiple disks to ensure redundancy if one fails, Lewinson said.
“They’re dependable. They’re not so technically advanced that theme parks have difficulty with operations,” Lewinson said.
The operator then has a safety system that displays a green “go” light for every seat on the train before it can be dispatched. The train should theoretically not be allowed to proceed unless all restraints are locked, Lewinson said.
But few things are 100% safe.
In 2022, a 14-year-old Missouri boy fell to his death from an Orlando amusement park ride when the harness didn’t lock properly due to his size. In 2013, a 52-year-old Dallas woman was killed when she slipped out of her seat on the Texas Giant ride at Six Flags Over Texas. Six Flags has since added redesigned restraint-bar pads, seat belts and a coaster seat at the ride’s entrance so guests can check before they get on whether they fit safely into the cars.
Nick Mendenhall, who has been on the Goliath more than a dozen times in recent weeks, said he saw Six Flags staff check the restraints each time he rode it.
“There are two employees, one on either side of the train, and with their hands they push down and they make sure it locks every time. I’ve never seen them not do it,” Mendenhall said.
In California, the state Department of Industrial Relations approves new rides and rides that have been modified. State officials either directly inspect them and how they are being operated each year or rely on an annual inspection by the owner, according to the department’s website.
Florida’s largest theme parks, on the other hand, are exempt from state safety inspections, unlike smaller venues and fairs. Instead, the largest theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal conduct their own inspections and have their own protocols, but they must report to the state any injury or death. Texas, similarly, relies on inspections carried out by private inspectors hired by park operators or their insurance companies.
Arizona, where Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Phoenix is located, does not have a state-level agency that regulates amusement park rides or conducts safety inspections at all. The law requires an annual private inspection, with enforcement largely by local government.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoThe field of agentic commerce, which describes the use of AI agents to carry out Internet transactions, is rapidly maturing, and crypto is fueling the boom. That’s according to a new report by the blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis, which found developers are increasingly giving AI agents their own budgets to buy the computing power, live web data, and code tools they need to complete tasks.
The growth of agentic commerce over the past 15 months has been steep. On Base, the Coinbase-incubated blockchain, cumulative payments through the x402 protocol—which lets bots automatically pay for online services using crypto—rose from about 1,500 in mid-2025 to more than 138 million by the third quarter of 2026.
In practice, agentic commerce entails providing an AI bot with an allowance: A developer funds the bot’s wallet with stablecoins—typically Circle’s dollar-pegged USDC—and the bot pays for services as it works, without asking a person to approve each purchase. When it needs help with a task, it can pay to get up-to-date information, ask a more capable AI model for help, or use an automated tool to check software code for security flaws.
More than 87% of these payments were for less than 10 cents, per the report. At those amounts, the fee for processing a credit card payment can cost more than the service itself. That makes blockchains an ideal alternative for bots buying services in small amounts, according to Eric Jardine, head of research at Chainalysis.
“You have this perfect combination of speed plus low cost to settle, and that’s the sort of thing that you would need if you were doing true AI-to-AI commerce,” Jardine told Fortune.
Agentic commerce has proliferated over the past year, and its use cases have spanned from online shopping to travel booking and payments settlement. It has also given AI systems a bigger role in deciding what to buy and how to pay. For consumers and businesses, this means handing AI systems not just tasks, but also spending decisions. Crypto companies have played a key role in spurring their popularity in the United States.
Chief among them is Coinbase, which introduced x402 in May 2025 and later teamed up with cloud security firm Cloudflare to support its development. The protocol’s foundation launched under the Linux Foundation in July with 40 members, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Google, extending its backing beyond the crypto industry.
Chainalysis centered its research on x402 because the protocol was purpose-built for agent-to-agent commerce.
Beyond transaction growth, the report shows that bots are putting funds to work sooner. The median time between a wallet receiving its first deposit and making its first payment fell from 73 days in late 2025 to 18 minutes by the third quarter of 2026. Roughly two-thirds of new wallets now spend within an hour of receiving funds.
Repeat funding has also become more common. Around 90% of qualifying active wallets received another deposit within 30 days, up from roughly 71% a year earlier, suggesting that developers are funding ongoing tasks rather than using them for one-off experiments.
Given agentic commerce’s exponential growth so far, Jardine expects this bot-driven economy to keep expanding as more online platforms accept payments from AI agents.
“I would hazard that the trend is likely to be exponential,” Jardine said. “As activity increases, there’s network effects, and those network effects tend to act like magnets for more activity,” he said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoAbu Dhabi wants to become the world’s first “AI-native” government, harnessing artificial intelligence to personalize services and manage straightforward tasks. Backing the ambition is a 13 billion dirham ($3.5 billion) investment to transform the emirate’s digital services by 2027. Western governments, often tech-phobic, will be watching.
Speaking at the Ai Everything conference in Abu Dhabi last week, Ruba Al Hassan, director general of strategic affairs and future foresight at Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement, described a government gearing up to handle more of the paperwork it usually expects residents to do.
In October 2025, the government launched AutoGov through its TAMM app—a unified digital platform that centralizes over 1,000 smart government services for citizens, residents, businesses, and visitors in Abu Dhabi.
AutoGov takes care of regular tasks like renewing licenses, paying bills, and booking routine health appointments. The goal is to spare residents the inconvenience of repeatedly visiting government offices, particularly when little has changed in their circumstances.
Al Hassan wants the government to handle car registrations so seamlessly that you forget it needs to be renewed. Instead, residents can authorise the TAMM services app to handle the task. “I enter my preferences, give my consent, and then I forget about it,” she explained. “I don’t ever have to think about my car registration ever again. It just happens.”
The initiative relies on residents being comfortable with the government acting for them. When asked about potential trust issues, Al Hassan pointed to the government’s history of completing projects and handling emergencies, like the pandemic. “That comes from when we say something, we do it. We get it done,” she said. “It comes because we’ve proven time and time again that we can deliver on our promises”.
In Edelman’s 2026 Trust Barometer, 86% of people in the UAE said they trust the government to “do the right thing”, compared with 53% in 28 other countries surveyed.
It helps that the emirate’s services are centralised. For example, licensed health facilities must join Malaffi, Abu Dhabi’s health information exchange, unless exempt (failure to join can prevent license renewal). By August 2025, the exchange reported 3.5 billion clinical records from over 3,000 facilities.
The use of AI predictive technology highlights risks like diabetes, heart failure, and kidney disease. Al Hassan describes a doctor’s appointment where the doctor can review the patient’s history and risk information before deciding on treatment. “So the doctor doesn’t waste time on paperwork and looking for information, and can just focus on spending time with you,” she said.
However, diagnosis and treatment are still the doctor’s job, “because the doctor can add context.” Diagnosing problems early could prevent expensive complications, but only time and use of the system will reveal how much money or how many hospital visits it has saved.
Al Hassan says using AutoGov is optional. Abu Dhabi’s rules allow medical data to be shared through Malaffi without written patient consent, but it’s unclear what permission is needed for subsequent use by AI. Patients can ask the provider who collected their records to limit sharing, but it’s not clear if they can refuse AI analysis while still allowing their records to be used for treatment.
Getting different departments to work together is another challenge. Their common question, Al Hassan said that visiting governments often ask “how did you get everyone to come together and cooperate?” She talks of meetings with eight government groups where the shared goal is agreed on before talks start.
“There is no more fighting. There is a discussion,” she said. Years of integrating services, supported by money and the authority to require involvement, help explain Abu Dhabi’s progress.
Sometimes the problem is more simple . Al Hassan remembers showing a group of visitors TAMM’s feature for taking pictures and reporting potholes. One of the visitors, she said, quickly saw a problem: “We can’t do this. There are too many potholes. The city will be overwhelmed.” An app can make it easier to report a problem without giving the city the ability to fix it.
Looking ahead, Abu Dhabi will need to assess whether the investment leads to both time and cost savings. Britain’s 2025 Copilot trial, with 20,000 civil servants, showed workers saved about 26 minutes a day. Turning those minutes into cost savings depends on how staff use the extra time, after paying for software, training, and reviewing its results.
Earlier this month, the emirate launched AiNative, a program with OpenAI, Microsoft and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, to train 20,000 government workers in practical and responsible AI use by the end of the year.
Al Hassan says workers’ skills must keep up with technology; just calling the government “AI-native” won’t be enough. “It’s not the final goal. It will keep changing.”
For residents, her long-term goal is easier to imagine. When a passport is about to expire, the government already knows the owner will need a new one. Al Hassan wants renewal to happen automatically without needing to apply.
“Why would I even have to request it?” she asks.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoNvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the AI industry shouldn’t tolerate any cybersecurity incidents caused by the technology, putting him at odds with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who has recently said that some hacks and scams may be a necessary trade-off for AI’s benefits.
“I’m willing to accept no incidents of cybersecurity. We should not accept any of them,” he told Fortune in an interview in London. “We should do everything we can to avoid them.”
Earlier this month, Altman said in an interview with Vanity Fair that the world may have to accept “some bad things happening” in return for AI’s benefits, including major hacks, misuse and scams, because people will do “orders of magnitude” more good than harm with the technology. In a subsequent interview with Politico’s “Decoded” podcast, he warned of “a coming tidal wave of cybersecurity problems” from rival open-source models, months after a swarm of OpenAI’s own agents escaped their training sandbox and hacked into the Hugging Face website.
Huang told Fortune that the incidents so far could all have been avoided with stronger containment and monitoring of AI agents. He compared the problem to the early consumer internet, when clicking on a website could infect a PC with a virus. The fix was for browsers to run websites in isolation, so they couldn’t touch the rest of the computer. Huang says AI agents need the same treatment and should be sealed inside a secure container where they can’t do damage beyond what they’re allowed to.
Huang also shrugged off warnings of existential risks from AI that have come from many within the leading AI companies, including executives such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, by companies like Anthropic, telling Fortune the technology was “completely in our control.”
“I don’t know why anybody would want to support the advancement of a technology that’s going to result, you know, in the end of human civilization as we know it. And so, if they believe that, they really ought to stop working on it,” he said.
Huang is in London as part of a European tour that kicked off in Paris on Tuesday, where he told the audience that “Europe needs to get in the race” on AI. Huang said Nvidia would announce $2 billion in new European investments within the next week. That comes on top of the $8 billion the chipmaker has already committed to the continent. The tour also includes Berlin, where Nvidia’s GTC conference will be hosted later in the month.
The region still trails at the frontier, but Huang has pitched open-source models as Europe’s best route to catching up with the U.S. Nvidia is already a major backer of Mistral, the French open-weight developer that recently released its Large 4 model, trained on 4,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GPUs. The sovereignty pitch also suits Nvidia. Open-weight models lower costs for the companies building them, but the hardware spending still goes to the chipmaker.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoIn much of industrial America, a sale still starts with a spec sheet, an inbox and a rep who has worked the account for 20 years. Emanate wants AI to do that job, and now it has one of the country’s largest private companies in its corner.
Koch Disruptive Technologies, the venture arm of Koch, Inc., is making a strategic investment in the San Francisco-based startup, Emanate told Fortune exclusively. Neither side would say how much. Koch is private, and Emanate said it doesn’t disclose investment size.
Koch, the second-largest private company in the U.S., runs refineries, factories, farm-to-market supply chains, software and logistics. Koch said it generates more than $125 billion in annual revenue and employs about 120,000 people in more than 50 countries.
“While much of the conversation around AI has centered on efficiency and cost reduction, we believe some of the biggest opportunities lie in helping companies accelerate growth,” Jon Chisholm, managing director at Koch Disruptive Technologies, said in a statement.
Emanate said the collaboration extends to “Koch Inc. owned companies,” but it wouldn’t name one using the technology.
Emanate’s bet is that speed wins. The industrial buyer can usually get the same part from the next supplier, so whoever answers first, with a better read on price, gets the order. The company says its software sits on top of the systems suppliers already use and pulls that scattered knowledge into one place.
“Doing nothing isn’t neutral in this market,” Nirghin said in a statement.
Fortune previously wrote about Emanate in February, when it came out of stealth with backing from a16z, Peter Thiel and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian. Founder and CEO Kiara Nirghin is a Thiel fellow, a former Grand Prize winner of the Google Science Fair, and the youngest board member of the Google Impact Fund. She founded Emanate in 2025.
“Before Emanate, customer accounts were handled per account, by whoever owned them, with whatever that person remembered and had time for,” Nirghin told Fortune in written responses. “Now they’re handled 24/7, with a full knowledge graph of every single interaction on the account.”
She doesn’t call the product a chatbot or an agent. She calls it an engine. “You point it at a business metric, and the engine figures out the rest.”
Emanate wouldn’t name a customer, citing confidentiality agreements. It didn’t share revenue or margin figures for any customer. In February, the company said its product could lift customer revenue by 60% to 80%.
Nirghin said Emanate measures results by giving the engine to one group of accounts and comparing it with the rest of the customer’s business over the same stretch. Both groups face the same prices and demand, so the gap should be the engine’s doing.
Nirghin said the engine can autonomously reactivate, manage, price and expand accounts. But it doesn’t start out that way. “Our model is earned autonomy,” she said. “The engine starts with a human in the loop and earns the right to act on its own, step by step, as it proves itself on an outcome.”
Asked about the worst mistake its engine has made, Nirghin said there hasn’t been one.
“Because autonomy is earned and we deploy incredibly intelligently, it has never happened,” Nirghin said.
Generative AI was used for research assistance and/or transcription of this article. The reporter independently reported and verified the factual claims in this article, and a human editor reviewed it before publication.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoNBC’s “Today” co-anchor Craig Melvin pressed Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy on Wednesday about the fast-food chain’s position on LGBTQ rights, repeatedly questioning the company’s Christian beliefs and past opposition to same-sex marriage during a segment highlighting its history and business success.
When Melvin asked for Chick-fil-A’s official position on equal rights, Cathy emphasized the company’s commitment to serving customers rather than directly addressing its position on LGBTQ issues.
“We’re focused on hospitality, serving great-tasting food and great service,” Cathy said.
The exchange came after Melvin revisited the company’s 2012 controversy, when Cathy’s father, former CEO Dan Cathy, publicly supported traditional marriage, triggering protests and boycotts. The company faced criticism over charitable donations to Christian organizations accused of opposing LGBTQ rights.
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck criticized NBC’s handling of the interview in comments to Fox News Digital, accusing the network of deliberately emphasizing the controversy.
“While it was only just over 90 seconds of a roughly six-minute block, its mention and prominence after its airing on the ‘Today’ social media platforms was proof this was wholly intended to be an ambush,” Houck said. “Never mind the company’s remarkably courteous staff who serve everyone no matter whom they love. That alone is never enough. NBC should be ashamed of itself.”
“It’s incredibly disappointing that Melvin dwelt on it for that much of the package, as he, like the Cathy family, is a fellow Believer in Christ. Just before the haggling, he praised Chick-fil-A for how much their faith has guided them, from their humble beginnings to its status as the third-largest fast-food chain in America,” he continued.
Melvin asked Cathy how he would respond to people who previously protested Chick-fil-A over accusations that the company did not support the LGBTQ community.
Cathy responded by emphasizing that customers were welcome at the restaurant chain regardless of their backgrounds.
“Everybody that’s willing to walk in the door, they’re welcome to come eat with us. We would love to give them a great-tasting sandwich and great hospitality,” Cathy said.
Melvin subsequently pressed Cathy about whether he wanted to discuss that chapter of the company’s history before asking directly about its position on equal rights.
The exchange also drew criticism from former “Today” anchor Katie Couric, who commented on the show’s Instagram post about the interview.
“A non answer answer,” she said. “This is what his father Dan Cathy said in 2012. ‘We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition.’ A good follow-up would have been: ‘Do you agree with your father?'”
Chick-fil-A’s religious foundation has remained central to its corporate identity despite past controversies. During Wednesday’s interview, Cathy reaffirmed the company’s longstanding practice of closing on Sundays and described its Christian mission as an anchor.
In 2019, Fox News Digital reported that Chick-fil-A would stop donating to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army after criticism of the organizations’ positions on LGBTQ issues. The company redirected its charitable giving toward education, homelessness and hunger initiatives.
Chick-fil-A’s current corporate policies prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The company’s official corporate purpose continues to emphasize glorifying God and positively influencing those who interact with the business.
Fox News Digital reached out to NBC, Cathy and Chick-fil-A for comment, but did not immediately receive responses.
JBizNews1 day agoDelta Air Lines is revamping its Delta One premium cabin with wagyu burgers, high-end wines and new luxury amenity kits.
The Atlanta-based airline announced Wednesday that its revamped Delta One experience will begin rolling out on transoceanic flights departing Los Angeles International Airport this fall before expanding across its global network in early 2027.
The overhaul includes a redesigned menu, expanded meal pre-selection, new cocktails and wines, and upgraded amenity kits, among other changes.
“Every investment we make is deliberate and designed to deliver the industry’s most premium end-to-end travel experience,” Delta’s Chief Marketing and Product Officer Ranjan Goswami said in a statement.
“This elevated dining and hospitality experience reflects our relentless focus on raising the bar while giving customers greater control throughout their journey,” Goswami added.
The new menu includes a Delta One wagyu beef burger, roasted sea bass, braised lamb and beef short rib, along with upgraded desserts.
One new option is a dairy-free sorbet that travelers can opt to pair with Champagne Taittinger.
Delta is also expanding its meal pre-selection options and allowing its passengers to order an entrée up to 18 hours before departure, six hours closer to departure than previously allowed.
Passengers who want more sleep on long-haul flights will have the option to skip the morning meal service and instead request a coffee and croissant before landing.
The airline is also upgrading its Delta One beverage lineup.
Blanton’s single-barrel bourbon will be added Dec. 1, while Delta’s revamped wine program features 13 wines from 11 wineries. The lineup includes Silver Oak wines, which Delta says can retail for more than $200 per bottle.
Delta is also adding alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions of the Hugo Spritz and Paloma beginning in 2027. Dassai 45 sake will be offered on flights to and from Tokyo-Haneda beginning Nov. 3.
The changes extend beyond food and drinks.
Delta is introducing new Missoni amenity kits beginning Nov. 3, featuring Grown Alchemist skincare, a Marvis dental kit and Missoni-branded items. The airline will also introduce a new Missoni Mini pillow on transoceanic Delta One routes.
Bombas socks are also returning on select domestic and international Delta One flights.
Delta also announced it is expanding its Porsche airport-transfer fleet from 40 to 70 vehicles across 15 airports and hubs by 2028.
“Luxury is about having the experience designed around you — today’s premium traveler values choice as much as quality,” Kristen Manion Taylor, senior vice president of brand experience at Delta, said in a statement.
“These enhancements offer greater flexibility, ensuring every Delta One customer can enjoy the journey in the way that suits them best.”
More than 200 Delta flight attendants and other employees helped develop and test the revamped experience over more than 14 months, according to the airline.
JBizNews1 day agoNEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new tax on expensive second homes is delivering a costly surprise to wealthy property owners, including Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff, whose Manhattan property faces a reported $101,000 surcharge on top of the loss of an approximately $24,000 annual tax break.
The new levy, known as the pied-à-terre tax, targets qualifying properties that are not used as primary residences. But some owners face a double financial blow as city officials also examine whether they improperly received tax reductions reserved for residents who live primarily in New York City.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that several prominent property owners who primarily reside outside New York have faced increased scrutiny of tax abatements previously applied to their Manhattan apartments.
The policy is part of Mamdani’s effort to generate approximately $500 million annually to address the city’s budget pressures. Its implementation has already prompted lawsuits, thousands of exemption applications and concerns within New York’s luxury real estate market.
The tax applies to qualifying expensive New York City homes that are not anyone’s primary residence.
Under legislation approved as part of New York State’s 2026 budget, the surcharge covers certain one- to three-family houses, condominiums and cooperative apartments.
The threshold and tax rate depend on the property’s classification and valuation method.
For the first two fiscal years, qualifying condominiums and cooperatives generally face the following surcharge rates:
City-assessed property value
Surcharge rate
$1 million–$3 million
4%
Above $3 million–$5 million
5.25%
Above $5 million
6.5%
Different thresholds and rates apply to one- to three-family houses. Beginning in fiscal year 2028–29, the statutory thresholds and rates for condominium and cooperative units are scheduled to change substantially.
The percentages do not mean the city will necessarily charge that percentage of a property’s full market sale price. The law uses prescribed valuation methods and calculations, making a property’s actual assessment critical.
The city says the tax is intended to generate revenue from owners who maintain valuable New York residences without living in them as their primary homes.
Among those affected is Steve Witkoff, the real estate developer and Trump administration special envoy.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Witkoff’s Manhattan property faces a $101,000 surcharge under the new system.
He also stands to lose an approximately $24,000 annual property tax abatement previously associated with the residence.
Together, those changes represent approximately $125,000 in additional annual tax costs compared with the property’s earlier treatment, assuming both adjustments remain in place.
The abatement issue is separate from the new surcharge.
Certain property tax reductions are reserved for owners who use eligible apartments as their primary residences. The city is examining properties where owners may have received those benefits despite primarily living elsewhere.
That scrutiny has affected other prominent property owners, including executives with principal residences in Florida.
The financial consequences could be substantial for owners of expensive Manhattan apartments who maintain their permanent residences outside New York.
The rollout has encountered significant resistance.
According to an October 11 New York Post report, approximately 10,000 exemption applications had been submitted, with about 5,700 already approved.
That means a substantial number of properties initially identified as potentially taxable may not ultimately qualify for the surcharge.
The city has also faced litigation over how it notified property owners and established the list of affected residences.
A Staten Island judge ruled against aspects of the rollout in September, but the city’s appeal produced a stay, allowing implementation to proceed while the legal dispute continues.
Separate lawsuits challenge the tax itself.
These developments create uncertainty about how much revenue the city will ultimately collect and how many owners will be required to pay.
For the real estate industry, the concern extends beyond wealthy homeowners receiving higher tax bills.
New York’s luxury residential market supports brokers, construction and renovation firms, architects, property managers, attorneys, financial institutions and numerous service businesses.
Higher annual ownership costs could influence decisions by buyers considering a Manhattan apartment as a secondary residence.
Some prospective buyers may reassess the economics of purchasing, while existing owners could consider selling, renting or changing how they use their properties.
The extent of that response remains uncertain.
Supporters argue that the tax can generate additional revenue from high-value properties without increasing taxes on ordinary homeowners. They also contend that stricter enforcement of primary-residence tax benefits helps ensure that public subsidies reach eligible residents.
Critics question whether the surcharge will discourage investment in the city and reduce demand in the high-end property market.
Both concerns matter for New York’s broader economy, particularly given the city’s dependence on property taxes and real estate transactions.
The city initially anticipated approximately $500 million in annual revenue from the surcharge.
But the large number of approved exemptions and pending lawsuits could complicate that projection.
The final revenue will depend on how many properties remain taxable, how valuations are determined, how court challenges are resolved and whether owners change their behavior.
New York City must also distinguish between collecting the new surcharge and recovering property tax benefits granted to owners who did not qualify.
The latter is an enforcement question involving existing rules, while the former represents an additional tax burden authorized by new legislation.
For homeowners receiving notices, the practical issue is immediate: determining whether they qualify for an exemption, reviewing the property’s valuation and understanding the applicable appeal procedures.
Mamdani has made taxing wealthy property owners a central part of his strategy to fund city services and address budget pressures.
The pied-à-terre tax offers an early test of that approach.
The administration must demonstrate that the levy can be administered accurately, withstand legal challenges and generate meaningful revenue.
Property owners, meanwhile, are assessing how the added cost affects their investment decisions and whether they can establish eligibility for exemptions.
For New York’s real estate industry, the question is not simply whether wealthy homeowners can afford higher taxes.
It is whether the city’s effort to raise revenue from luxury properties will produce the anticipated financial benefits without significantly weakening the market activity on which other tax collections and local businesses depend.
JBizNews Desk | New York
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoApple shares rise to a record closing high despite a major technology selloff, placing new CEO John Ternus under pressure to deliver the company’s next generation of innovation.
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple became only the second company in history to close above a $5 trillion market valuation Wednesday, joining Nvidia in an exclusive club as investors bet that the iPhone maker can maintain its extraordinary growth under newly appointed Chief Executive John Ternus.
Apple shares rose 0.5% to a record closing price of $342.96, pushing the company’s market capitalization to approximately $5.005 trillion.
The milestone came during a difficult session for Wall Street. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.88%, Nvidia declined more than 3%, and several major artificial intelligence companies suffered sharp losses as investors reacted to hotter-than-expected inflation and renewed concerns about interest rates.
Apple stood out as one of the few major technology stocks to finish higher.
The achievement also marks a significant moment in the company’s leadership transition. Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook on September 1, inherits a business transformed into one of the most valuable enterprises in history, but faces questions about whether Apple can lead the next technological revolution rather than follow its competitors.
Market capitalization
First closing valuation above $5 trillion
AAPL closing share price
+0.5%
2026 year-to-date gain
Nvidia valuation
October 14, 2026, closing market data.
Apple had briefly surpassed $5 trillion during trading sessions earlier this year, including in July. Wednesday marked the first time it maintained that valuation through the closing bell.
The distinction matters to investors because a closing valuation provides a more established benchmark than a temporary intraday move.
Cook’s 15-year tenure reshaped Apple from a company largely dependent on the success of individual hardware products into a global consumer technology business with enormous recurring services revenue.
During his leadership, Apple’s market value increased approximately thirteenfold, annual iPhone sales expanded substantially, and services revenue climbed from approximately $10 billion to more than $100 billion annually.
Apple also returned more than $1 trillion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Cook’s operational discipline, global supply chain management and emphasis on profitability helped Apple generate enormous cash flow without adopting the same level of artificial intelligence infrastructure spending as some competitors.
That approach has become particularly relevant as investors question whether the enormous capital commitments made by AI-focused technology companies will produce sufficient returns.
Cook now serves as Apple’s executive chairman, leaving Ternus responsible for the next phase of the company’s development.
Ternus inherits a company with extraordinary financial strength, worldwide brand recognition and a customer base deeply integrated into Apple’s products and services.
But maintaining that position will require more than releasing updated versions of existing devices.
Apple has faced criticism for moving more slowly than competitors in generative artificial intelligence, particularly as Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, OpenAI and other companies invest aggressively in new AI products and services.
Apple recently introduced an upgraded Siri assistant developed with assistance from Google’s AI technology, while expanding its product portfolio with the foldable iPhone Duo and new smart-home devices.
The company this week unveiled HomeView, a $299 smart-home hub designed to connect household devices and place its AI-powered Siri at the center of customers’ homes.
These products are part of Apple’s effort to develop new sources of revenue beyond its traditional smartphone business.
Yet the challenge remains substantial: Apple must demonstrate that its next generation of products can create new consumer demand rather than simply encourage existing customers to upgrade their devices.
At $5 trillion, even modest percentage changes in Apple’s share price represent enormous shifts in market value.
A 1% movement is equivalent to roughly $50 billion, demonstrating the scale at which Apple now operates.
For investors, Apple’s valuation reflects expectations that the company can maintain strong profit margins, generate dependable cash flow and persuade consumers to continue paying premium prices for its products.
However, higher valuations also mean greater expectations.
New products must generate meaningful revenue, while continued share repurchases and strong earnings growth will be important in supporting shareholder returns.
That challenge has become more pronounced as rising interest rates place pressure on technology stock valuations.
Apple’s performance Wednesday suggests investors continue to distinguish its established profitability and disciplined spending from companies financing enormous AI infrastructure projects.
Apple is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on November 2.
Investors will closely examine iPhone demand, profit margins, services revenue and management’s outlook for its newest products.
Particular attention will focus on whether higher device prices and rising component costs are affecting consumer demand.
The company will also face questions about the commercial prospects of its AI-enabled devices and whether the new product lineup can justify the market’s expectations.
For Ternus, the challenge is unusually large.
He has inherited one of the most successful businesses ever built, with a valuation greater than the annual economic output of most countries.
But Apple’s historic market capitalization is also a measure of the expectations now confronting its leadership.
The company has proved that it can manufacture, distribute and sell consumer technology on an extraordinary scale. Its next test is whether it can deliver the kind of innovation that built that success in the first place.
JBizNews Desk | Cupertino, California
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoA California barbecue joint praised by celebrity chef and restaurateur Guy Fieri is feeling the heat from City Hall, with zoning restrictions forcing its owners to find a new home for their outdoor smokers.
The owners of A&M BBQ in Sebastopol said in a Facebook statement they must stop using their outdoor smokers at the current location by the end of this week, warning the change could limit how much food they can prepare and which menu items are available.
“We are not being shut down. Our restaurant can remain open, the restriction is on having our smokers at our current location,” the statement said.
Sebastopol officials voted unanimously Oct. 6 against two zoning changes that could have allowed A&M BBQ to keep operating its outdoor commercial smokers at its South Main Street restaurant, according to a city statement.
The decision ends a temporary pause in enforcement and revives the prospect of fines if the business does not comply.
The city, located roughly 55 miles north of San Francisco, said outdoor commercial barbecues are prohibited in the restaurant’s Office Commercial district, although they can be allowed with conditions in other commercial districts.
Food at the restaurant, owned by Kris Austin, has attracted attention well beyond the Sonoma County community.
Fieri praised the eatery’s confit smoked oxtail at the 2025 Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience in a video posted to Austin’s “Smoking With Austin” YouTube channel.
But the dispute over how that food gets cooked has dragged on for months.
A&M BBQ opened in June 2024, and replaced smaller smokers with larger equipment as demand grew, according to the Sebastopol Times.
Neighbors subsequently complained about smoke drifting into their neighborhood, including at a May 5 council meeting.
The city considered either rezoning the restaurant’s property or changing the rules throughout the Office Commercial district. Both approaches would have required a conditional use permit and standards addressing smoke, odor and air quality.
Council members rejected both options, leaving the existing restrictions in place.
“It definitely wasn’t the outcome that we were hoping for,” Austin told the Sebastopol Times after the vote.
An earlier attempt to keep the barbecue coming involved cooking meat about 3 miles away and driving it back to the restaurant, co-owner Finn Liss told the council, according to the Sebastopol Times.
But Liss said the business stopped that arrangement after the Sonoma County Health Department objected to transporting meat between the locations.
The owners have also explored placing a smoker on property offered by the owner of El Coronel Mexican Restaurant as a temporary solution, the outlet reported.
City Manager Mary Gourley told SFGATE that officials had sent A&M a courtesy notice warning that continued use of the two large smokers could trigger enforcement, including fines. She said officials would follow up on compliance at the end of this week.
The owners’ latest statement said they are talking with individuals and businesses about a temporary home for the smokers that would allow them to continue cooking off-site. They asked supporters to share leads on properties, commercial spaces or business owners who could help.
“We want to be courteous to the community around us while we continue working toward a long-term solution,” the statement said.
They also urged customers to be patient with menu changes and sellouts and to treat employees kindly during the transition.
“Please be kind to our staff. Our team works incredibly hard, and they’re doing their best through a challenging situation,” the statement said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the city of Sebastopol for comment.
JBizNews1 day agoUS President Donald Trump called for severe punishment of those who leak classified military information, days after authorizing the execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at a Texas military base.
Trump, who was campaigning in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday as part of an intensive nationwide tour ahead of the November midterm elections, recalled the story of an intelligence leak that he claimed had forced him to postpone the June 2025 American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, carried out by B-2 stealth bombers during Operation Midnight Hammer.
He continued, stating that people who leak sensitive military information should be shot, delivering the remarks just days after approving the execution by firing squad of Hasan, the former US Army officer convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
“Now leakers should be dealt with very, very strongly,” Trump told the crowd.
He then escalated his criticism, declaring: “The leakers are the scum of the earth.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans last week to livestream the execution, scheduled for December 3, with a military firing squad expected to carry out the sentence. The proposal has drawn criticism and sparked debate across the US.
Trump subsequently indicated that he would make the final decision on whether the execution would be broadcast and that the livestream could still be canceled.
During his Arizona speech, Trump revisited his account of how sensitive information about Operation Midnight Hammer, the planned June 2025 attack on Iran’s nuclear program, reached the media before the mission was carried out.
According to Trump, the disclosure included the precise departure and arrival times of the American bombers.
“But they leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in the New York Times, CNN,” he said.
Trump said he subsequently contacted Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss the potential implications for the operation.
“I said, ‘General, that’s not good, is it?’” Trump recalled.
According to the president, Caine replied: “Not good, sir, but we can do it anyway.”
Trump said he nevertheless decided to change the timing of the mission.
“So I called off the raid,” he told the audience.
The decision, he claimed, was particularly disappointing to the pilots who had been preparing for the operation.
“You know the unhappiest people were the pilots. They were miserable,” he said.
Trump went on to explain that two days later, he decided the attack could proceed — using the same departure time that had previously been disclosed.
“All right, good. Now we can do the raid. Let’s leave it exactly the same time,” he recalled telling his team.
“We used the exact same time,” he added.
According to Trump’s account, returning to the original timing meant the Iranians would be less likely to anticipate the aircraft’s movements.
The president presented the episode as an example of the potential consequences of leaking operational military information and as justification for imposing exceptionally harsh penalties on those responsible.
He did not present new evidence identifying the alleged leakers or independently establishing the circumstances of the disclosures he described.
Later in the rally, Trump returned to another theme he has raised repeatedly in recent days, joking that the US may have eliminated so many members of Iran’s leadership that Washington is now struggling to determine whom it should negotiate with.
The president began by listing what he described as the destruction of Iran’s military capabilities.
“Their radar is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Their leaders are gone,” Trump said.
“That’s one of the problems. I might have gone too far. I don’t know who the hell to deal with.”
Trump continued his account of the successive losses suffered by Iran’s leadership, claiming that American military operations had eliminated multiple generations of senior officials.
“Their first level leaders are gone. They picked the second level. Their second level leaders are gone. They picked the third level, half of them are gone.”
The comments were delivered in a joking, boastful tone, rather than as an expression of regret over the American campaign.
Trump also claimed that he had been asked to refrain from targeting additional Iranian leaders and had agreed.
“They made me promise not to take out anymore, and I did. I promised them,” he said, without specifying who had made the request.
The president then joked that the leadership losses had made the prospect of assuming power in Tehran particularly unattractive.
“But nobody wants to be the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said.
“We hear, we have conversations. We hear them. Who would like to be the president of Iran? Please raise your hand. No, I don’t want to be.”
Returning to the difficulty of identifying a negotiating counterpart, Trump repeated the joke.
“I probably went a little too far. I’m sorry, because I don’t know who the hell we’re dealing with anymore.”
Despite the seemingly apologetic language, the comments formed part of a broader speech in which Trump repeatedly celebrated the effectiveness of American military operations against Iran.
He also reiterated his argument that military action had been necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
According to Trump, before the June 2025 attack, Iran had been just two weeks away from obtaining such a weapon — an assessment he presented as justification for ordering the strikes.
The president argued that the economic consequences of the confrontation, including higher gasoline prices, were a relatively small price to pay for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.
Trump also addressed the economic consequences of the continuing confrontation with Iran, asserting that the US had established control over the Strait of Hormuz and that more oil was now moving through the strategic waterway than before the conflict began.
He credited the US Navy and the American blockade, which he described as a “Wall of Steel,” for securing the waterway.
The president argued that the military operations had prevented Iran from threatening global security and suggested that energy prices would decline further once the confrontation ended.
“But that’s going to end very soon, and when that ends, your gasoline is going to go down to even lower than it was before,” Trump told supporters.
His comments came amid continuing tensions with Tehran and renewed American warnings against Iranian-backed forces in the region.
JBizNews1 day agoUS Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Yashar party chairman and former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot to discuss a myriad of security topics, KAN News reported on Wednesday.
The meeting, confirmed to The Jerusalem Post by a source with knowledge of the matter, covered tensions in the West Bank, settler violence, and the situation in the Gaza Strip.
The source also told the Post that the agenda included many other topics, though the Yashar party declined to comment on the meeting after KAN requested it.
A source told KAN that the meeting was initially discreet, having only been publicized on Wednesday, with only Huckabee and Eisenkot known to have participated.
According to KAN, a separate meeting between Huckabee and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was canceled at the last minute and has yet to be rescheduled, with the US ambassador noting that the meeting was not security-related.
“It will be rescheduled when the schedule is convenient,” said Huckabee, according to the KAN source. “Any suggestion that this is anything other than a very cordial social event with our wives would be ridiculous and patently false.”
JBizNews1 day agoThe US military destroyed an Iranian-affiliated dhow in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced in an X/Twitter post.
The ship was targeted after being observed “conducting surveillance and targeting US Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman,” according to CENTCOM.
On Oct. 6, U.S. forces destroyed an Iranian-affiliated dhow conducting surveillance and targeting U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman. Over the past seven months, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has continued to indiscriminately target thousands of civilian mariners transiting regional waters in addition to U.S. Navy warships. Crew members were safely removed prior to destruction of the dhow. Repatriation efforts are ongoing.
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) October 14, 2026
Over the past seven months, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has continued to target thousands of civilian mariners transiting regional waters, as well as US Navy warships, CENTCOM added.
“Crew members were safely removed prior to the destruction of the dhow. Repatriation efforts are ongoing,” CENTCOM confirmed.
The ship’s destruction comes after an October 10 announcement by CENTCOM that it had disabled a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman after its crew ignored repeated warnings and attempted to bypass the US naval blockade of Iranian ports along the Strait of Hormuz.
The Panama-flagged vessel, named the Ocean Molica and also known as the Arika Sun, was struck by a US military fighter jet, disabling its propulsion system without harming the crew, according to CENTCOM.
JBizNews1 day agoTravis Kelce’s investment in Six Flags was already caught up in a fight over the struggling theme-park operator’s future. Now, a fatal roller-coaster accident has added a safety crisis to the financial troubles fueling an activist push to sell the company.
The NFL star teamed up with activist hedge fund Jana Partners and other investors last October to acquire a roughly 9% stake in Six Flags. Last month, Jana urged the company to explore a sale after disappointing financial results. Then, on Monday, a passenger was ejected from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia and died, according to police. Six Flags temporarily closed nine similar coasters across six parks.
The death of Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, a 42-year-old Atlanta educator, sent the company’s shares tumbling roughly 14% Tuesday. It also introduced another layer of uncertainty for a business struggling with losses, falling attendance, and the aftermath of its 2024 merger with Cedar Fair.
The accident has not by this point increased the likelihood of a sale, nor has it been established that Six Flags’ financial problems contributed to the death. But it raises the stakes of the dispute over the company’s future: Management must now respond to a fatality investigation and reassure customers while a major shareholder is already pressing the board to consider new ownership.
Kelce initially described his investment in personal terms.
“As a lifelong Six Flags fan, I grew up going to these parks with my family and friends,” he said when he announced the investment. Six Flags named him a brand ambassador in March, giving the company a celebrity advocate who was also financially invested in its recovery.
Jana’s campaign has since moved toward a more consequential demand. In September, the hedge fund urged Six Flags to promptly hire an investment bank to explore a sale, citing disappointment with its second-quarter results.
Six Flags reported a second-quarter net loss of approximately $203 million, more than double its year-earlier loss. Citi analysts estimated that park foot traffic fell 15% year over year during the April-to-June period. The company also sold seven parks for $331 million earlier this year.
Six Flags has not recorded a profitable quarter since the summer of 2024, following the completion of its $8 billion merger with Cedar Fair. Its shares had lost more than 80% of their value since that merger, CNN reported Tuesday.
The accident therefore did not derail an otherwise smooth recovery. It hit a company whose performance had already prompted an influential investor to question whether it should remain independent.
Police said preliminary information from witnesses and employee interviews indicated that Kariem was ejected from Goliath, struck other patrons, and fell beneath the ride. The circumstances evoke the roller-coaster nightmare associated with the Final Destination franchise, and investigators are still determining the real-world cause.
Georgia’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire has opened an investigation alongside police. Six Flags said it was “deeply saddened” and was cooperating with authorities. Goliath will remain temporarily closed when the Georgia park reopens Friday. The company also halted nine other roller coasters as it investigates what happened.
Investigators have not publicly established why Kariem flew out of his seat. There is no established finding that maintenance failures, financial pressures, or operator distraction caused his death.
The tragedy raises questions beyond when the affected rides can reopen. Six Flags must contend with potential legal exposure and the possibility that safety concerns could complicate its efforts to bring customers back. The company has previously warned that its liability insurance might not cover all potential liabilities and that future coverage might not be available at commercially reasonable rates. The financial cost of this incident remains unknown.
It also comes amid separate lawsuits alleging serious injuries on X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, which the company announced last month it would retire. Six Flags has maintained that X2 passed required safety tests. Those allegations do not establish a connection to the Georgia death, but they add another legal issue to the company’s turnaround challenges.
For Jana and its fellow investors, greater pressure on Six Flags does not necessarily translate into an easier sale. A prospective buyer would have to assess the existing operating problems alongside an unresolved fatality investigation and its possible consequences. The accident may sharpen the debate over ownership without resolving what the business is worth.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoUkraine says sudden restrictions on U.S.-supplied satellite communications have forced military missions to be canceled, raising questions about who controls battlefield technology and whether government contracts can be changed without warning.
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk says the Trump administration and U.S. military, not SpaceX alone, are responsible for restrictions that have disrupted Ukraine’s military satellite communications, limiting the country’s ability to operate high-speed drones and defend against Russian attacks.
The restrictions, introduced overnight without advance notice to Ukrainian forces, affect Starshield, a military satellite communications system developed by SpaceX using technology from its commercial Starlink network.
According to Ukrainian officials, terminals installed on platforms traveling approximately 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) or faster began losing connectivity. Some units reported interruptions even below that speed, forcing them to cancel missions.
The development immediately raised concerns in Kyiv about the reliability of American defense technology and the consequences of becoming dependent on communications infrastructure controlled by a foreign government and private contractor.
Musk Says Washington Controls the Restrictions
As criticism mounted Wednesday, Musk publicly attributed responsibility for Starshield’s operating restrictions to the U.S. government.
He said the U.S. military ultimately determines limitations on the system’s speed and usage, with final authority resting with the president.
Starshield is built and operated by SpaceX, but the U.S. government controls specific national-security capabilities through contracts administered by the Pentagon and U.S. Space Force.
Musk’s remarks did not establish whether President Donald Trump personally approved the restrictions or whether they originated with military officials.
The Pentagon and White House had not publicly explained the decision or its military purpose as of Wednesday afternoon.
For Ukraine, the uncertainty over who authorized the change is nearly as consequential as the technical restriction itself.
Why the 100-MPH Limit Matters
Ukraine relies heavily on satellite-connected drones for reconnaissance, battlefield coordination and intercepting Russian aerial attacks.
A drone traveling at 100 mph covers almost 150 feet every second. Even a brief interruption in communications can interfere with its ability to navigate, transmit intelligence or respond to changing conditions.
Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps reported that one of its unmanned systems units operating near Huliaipole had canceled missions because of connectivity problems.
Ukrainian defense adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov warned that the restrictions could significantly undermine the country’s ability to counter newer Russian jet-powered Shahed attack drones.
The concern is particularly serious because interceptor drones must be able to pursue fast-moving targets. A speed restriction on satellite terminals could limit operations precisely when those aircraft need reliable communications.
Not all Ukrainian drones depend on Starshield, and the restrictions do not mean the country’s entire drone fleet has stopped operating. But affected units have reported immediate operational consequences.
Ukraine Says Its Contract Runs Through May 2027
The restrictions also raise questions about contract reliability.
A source familiar with the arrangement told Fox News that Ukrainian forces use the satellite services through a U.S. government agreement scheduled to remain in effect until May 15, 2027.
The source said the restrictions had not previously applied to the affected terminals and that Ukrainian forces received no advance warning of the change.
Ukrainian personnel reportedly discovered the new limitations after contacting SpaceX customer support about unexplained connection failures.
It remains unclear whether the contract guarantees unrestricted high-speed operation or allows the U.S. government to modify service conditions for national-security reasons.
That distinction could determine whether Ukraine has any contractual recourse.
By Wednesday afternoon, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said connectivity at speeds below 160 kilometers per hour was being restored. Ukraine continued to seek removal of the speed restriction itself.
Tensions Over Russian Oil Strikes
The timing comes amid growing disagreements between Washington and Kyiv over Ukraine’s attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
The Trump administration has pressed Ukraine to limit strikes on Russian oil refineries as global energy prices remain elevated during the broader Middle East conflict.
Musk publicly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week over attacks on Russian energy facilities.
The satellite restrictions followed that exchange, prompting questions about whether they were intended to influence Ukraine’s military decisions.
However, no public evidence has established that the communications change was ordered in retaliation for refinery attacks.
There is also an important technical distinction: the drones Ukraine uses for some long-range attacks on Russian refineries do not necessarily depend on the same satellite communications systems affected by the new restrictions.
A Business Risk for SpaceX and the Defense Industry
Beyond the immediate battlefield consequences, the controversy highlights a growing issue in modern defense contracting.
Governments increasingly depend on private companies for satellite communications, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other infrastructure essential to national security.
SpaceX has become a major supplier of space-based communications to the U.S. military and allied countries.
Starshield was developed to meet national-security requirements, while Starlink primarily serves commercial customers, although its terminals have also become important military communications tools.
The episode raises questions about operational control, service guarantees, customer protections and what happens when political or military decisions alter access to critical technology.
For defense contractors, the implications extend beyond Ukraine.
Countries purchasing American technology must assess not only equipment performance and cost but also whether access can be restricted during an emergency.
For SpaceX, the situation demonstrates the complexity of operating a commercially developed system that is also deeply integrated into government military operations.
European Allies Demand Answers
Poland, which finances thousands of Starlink terminals for Ukraine, has expressed concern about the restrictions.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski publicly questioned Musk about the changes, warning that European customers were watching how the company handled the situation.
The response underscores the international dimension of the dispute. Although Ukraine is the immediate customer affected, European governments that depend on U.S. defense technology have a direct interest in how service decisions are made.
For American defense companies seeking to expand internationally, customer confidence depends partly on predictable access, clearly defined contractual obligations and transparent government oversight.
Who Controls the Technology When Lives Depend on It?
The immediate question is whether the affected satellite services will be fully restored and whether Ukrainian forces can resume the operations interrupted Wednesday.
The larger issue is who ultimately controls technology that has become indispensable to modern warfare.
Musk says the responsibility lies with Washington. Ukrainian officials say they received no warning and are seeking restoration of service they were already using.
The Pentagon has not publicly provided an explanation resolving those questions.
For the global defense industry, the controversy illustrates how a decision involving satellite software and operating permissions can have consequences far beyond the technology itself.
When military operations depend on privately developed communications systems, control over access can become as strategically important as the weapons those systems support.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoThe reason the Bruce Blakeman-Kathy Hochul race for governor is so important, is because a Blakeman victory will not only knock out a far-left blue state governor, it will also knock down New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
In other words, if you take down Mrs. Hochul, you basically call a halt to all of the damage, be it antisemitism, woke culture, insane tax increases, of course the pied-à-terre tax, and all of the other crazy stuff Mr. Mamdani and his merry band of Democratic Socialists of America are trying to inflict on what should be the greatest city in America and the world. That’s why it’s a crucial race. And from my perspective, having watched last night’s Blakeman-Hochul debate, I thought the Nassau County executive, Mr. Blakeman clocked Governor Hochul time and again.
She was running against President Trump. Mr. Blakeman was running against Mrs. Hochul and Mr. Mamdani. As Mr. Blakeman put it: “when you talk about Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, that’s all you can talk about because you have a record of failure and misery for the people who live in this state.” Mrs. Hochul replied: “I do not wrap myself in the shroud of Donald Trump the way you did.” Mr. Blakeman’s riposte: “No, you wrap it in Zohran Mamdani.”
Mr. Blakeman hammered away on high taxes, big utility bills, and Mrs. Hochul’s attempt to stop AI data centers, which by the way would hand the AI race to Communist China. She prevaricated a number of times on huge increases on state taxes and spending and state corruption.
And I want to give a shout out to Mr. Blakeman who several times said, let’s drill and pipeline natural gas sitting on top of the Marcellus Shale as the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania has done, which has lowered utility costs over there and made them high here. He wouldn’t relent on that.
And at one point, Mrs. Hochul just said, oh, you want to build oil wells everywhere, you want build oil wells everywhere, which I thought was pathetic. Mr. Blakeman, too, hammered away on New York’s sanctuary state and city policies, causing more criminal violence from Mrs. Hochul’s soft-on-crime policies, and her soft-on-immigration policies.
And Mr. Blakeman threw two haymakers at the governor. First, the Cornell sexual misconduct allegations where the governor did nothing, though she was a trustee of Cornell.
As he put it: “what I have to say to you, Kathy, is as follows. Where were you? What did you do? You were the trustee of Cornell University. You were the governor of the state. You fund Cornell University to the tune of $150 million a year.” He added that “they’re a partner of the state of New York and as a trustee and as governor, you didn’t call for an independent investigation when you found out that the district attorney was dropping the case.”
The second was right near the end of the debate. Mr. Blakeman absolutely put the wood to Mrs. Hochul’s friend, Mr. Mamdani, and his rampant antisemitism by saying this: “Zohran Mamdani is an antisemite. The first thing he did as mayor, with all the issues that face New York City, the first thing he did was sign an executive order to water down the definition of anti-Semitism. Shame on you, mayor. You are campaigning around the state with a guy who doesn’t believe in American values. “
Mr. Blakeman averred that “I think Zohran Mamdani is an antisemite. I believe he’s anti-Christian. And I don’t think he has American values.” We’ll see what the next round of polls bring. That’s still important, but right now I actually think it would advantage Blakeman.
JBizNews1 day agoShares of Skydance Corp. fell Wednesday after the newly formed media giant distributed nearly 471 million stock warrants to shareholders.
Skydance shares fell as much as 26% in Wednesday trading, trading at $6.68 per share as of 11:35 a.m. ET. The stock later pared some of those losses, closing down 22.2% at $7.06 a share.
The company distributed about 470.7 million warrants on Oct. 13 following its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
Warrants give investors the right to buy shares at a set price before they expire.
Eligible shareholders received one warrant for each share of Skydance Class B common stock they held as of the Oct. 5 record date. Each warrant allows the holder to buy one Skydance Class B share for $12.
If all the warrants are exercised, Skydance could raise about $5.7 billion, according to the company.
The warrants are set to expire in October 2036, although they could expire earlier under certain conditions.
The warrant distribution followed Skydance’s completion of its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal brought brands including CBS, CNN, Paramount+ and HBO Max under one company, according to Reuters.
The combined company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “SKYD” following the deal.
Wells Fargo analysts said the warrant distribution marked the “final step” in closing the Warner Bros. Discovery transaction, according to Variety.
CEO David Ellison has said the merger would help Skydance better compete with streaming and technology giants including Netflix and Amazon, Reuters reported.
Skydance plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single streaming service while pursuing about $6 billion in planned savings.
The combined company is expected to carry roughly $80 billion in debt, according to Reuters.
FOX Business reached out to Skydance for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
JBizNews1 day agoWith at least 18 people killed, hundreds of flights disrupted and international investors preparing to gather in Riyadh, Mohammed bin Salman faces a growing security crisis despite billions spent on defense and diplomatic alliances.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is facing one of the most serious challenges of his rule as Iran-backed Houthi forces strike deep inside Saudi Arabia, damaging the headquarters of state oil giant Aramco, disrupting the kingdom’s main airport and threatening the multibillion-dollar economic transformation he has spent nearly a decade building.
The crisis is unfolding less than two weeks before Riyadh’s major international investment conference, raising new concerns about the kingdom’s ability to protect business travelers, energy infrastructure and foreign investment.
The Houthi missile and drone campaign has killed at least 18 people, according to Bloomberg, while hundreds of flights remain grounded and businesses have shifted employees to remote work.
For a country seeking to establish itself as a global center for tourism, financial services, advanced technology and international investment, the attacks strike directly at its economic ambitions.
Aramco Headquarters Hit as Houthis Threaten Further Strikes
The latest escalation reached the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry Tuesday when an attack damaged an administrative tower at Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran.
The strike caused a fire and damaged approximately three floors of the building, which houses important corporate and operations-management functions.
Employees were instructed to work remotely. Saudi officials reported no casualties at the facility, and initial accounts indicated that oil-production operations had not been disrupted.
On Wednesday, the Houthis threatened additional attacks on Saudi airports and oil installations, describing them as retaliation for Saudi military operations in Yemen.
The threats create a new challenge for Aramco, which remains central to Saudi government revenues, global petroleum supply and the financing of the crown prince’s Vision 2030 program.
Riyadh Airport Attacks Expose Saudi Arabia’s Vulnerability
King Khalid International Airport, the main international gateway to the Saudi capital, has suffered repeated strikes.
A particularly deadly attack on Saturday killed 13 people and injured more than 300, according to subsequent reporting.
The airport disruption has forced airlines to cancel flights, ground aircraft and reconsider operations, causing uncertainty for international travelers and businesses.
Other effects have reached daily life in the capital. Schools shifted to online classes, while parts of Riyadh’s financial district adopted remote-working arrangements.
The disruption comes as the government has been investing heavily in Riyadh Air, airport development, tourism infrastructure and projects intended to turn the Saudi capital into an international business hub.
The challenge is not simply repairing damaged facilities. Saudi Arabia must convince airlines, insurers and investors that its airports and commercial districts can operate safely despite continuing missile and drone threats.
Billions Spent on Defense, Yet Drones and Missiles Get Through
Saudi Arabia possesses some of the region’s most sophisticated American-made defensive equipment, including Patriot missile systems.
Yet repeated Houthi strikes have exposed the difficulty of protecting a vast country against relatively inexpensive drones and missiles.
Defense analysts point to several challenges: Saudi Arabia must protect widely separated airports, oil facilities, cities and military bases, while defending against attacks involving different types of weapons approaching from multiple directions.
Interceptors also cost substantially more than many of the drones they are designed to destroy, creating an expensive imbalance during prolonged attacks.
According to the Associated Press, concerns about interceptor availability and the effectiveness of Saudi early-warning systems have grown as the frequency and sophistication of Houthi attacks increase.
This raises a fundamental question for Riyadh: Can additional weapons purchases provide the protection needed, or will the kingdom require a different military and diplomatic strategy?
Trump Relationship and New Defense Alliances Face a Test
For years, Mohammed bin Salman has invested heavily in building relationships with international leaders, particularly President Donald Trump.
Those relationships have helped Saudi Arabia pursue military purchases, foreign investment, technology partnerships and greater international influence.
But the latest crisis has demonstrated the limitations of those connections.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the crown prince has not secured direct U.S. military intervention against the Houthis, while a newer defense arrangement involving Turkey and Pakistan has so far provided limited practical assistance.
Regional governments remain wary of becoming involved in another prolonged conflict in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia therefore faces a difficult choice between expanding military operations, seeking stronger international assistance or pursuing negotiations with an adversary it has been unable to decisively defeat.
The Houthis, meanwhile, retain the ability to attack strategic Saudi targets despite years of military pressure.
Vision 2030 Faces a New Investor Confidence Test
The crown prince’s Vision 2030 strategy depends on transforming Saudi Arabia from an economy overwhelmingly reliant on oil into a major destination for international capital.
Its priorities include tourism, entertainment, financial services, artificial intelligence, logistics and technology.
The latest attacks introduce a security cost into those plans.
Foreign investors evaluating Saudi projects must consider not only projected financial returns but also the risks of business interruption, higher insurance costs, flight cancellations and threats to personnel.
Riyadh’s upcoming investment conference is particularly important because it is intended to showcase the kingdom as a stable destination for international business.
Although the conference has not been confirmed canceled, the current security environment creates uncertainty for organizers, speakers and international attendees.
A successful conference could provide an opportunity for Saudi officials to reassure investors. Continued attacks, however, could undermine that message regardless of how many investment agreements are announced.
The Oil Market Is Also Watching
The attack on Aramco’s headquarters did not initially disrupt reported oil production, but further strikes could place actual production facilities, export terminals or energy transportation routes at risk.
That distinction matters.
An attack on an office building can damage business confidence without reducing the world’s immediate oil supply. A successful strike on major processing facilities or export infrastructure could have much more direct consequences for global energy prices.
The Houthis have also expanded their influence near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical passage linking the Red Sea with international shipping routes.
Any prolonged disruption to Saudi energy exports or commercial shipping could increase transportation expenses and put additional pressure on oil markets already affected by the broader U.S.-Iran conflict.
A Defining Test for Mohammed bin Salman
The crisis reaches beyond Saudi Arabia’s military response.
Mohammed bin Salman has built his international reputation around the promise of transforming the kingdom into a modern economic powerhouse capable of competing for global investment.
The return of large-scale Houthi attacks threatens that vision at precisely the moment Saudi Arabia is attempting to demonstrate its financial and diplomatic strength.
A military escalation could draw the country deeper into Yemen’s conflict. A diplomatic agreement could reduce immediate pressure but might require difficult concessions. Continuing under attack risks damaging investor confidence and increasing the cost of doing business.
For Saudi Arabia, the coming weeks will test whether its enormous investments in defense, infrastructure and international relationships can deliver something essential to economic growth: reliable security.
JBizNews Desk | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoA second cargo vessel has also sunk, while escalating Iranian shipping attacks push U.S. oil to a three-week high just 20 days before the November 3 elections.
NEW YORK — A Singapore-flagged container ship capable of carrying 2,824 twenty-foot shipping containers has sunk in the Strait of Hormuz after being struck by an unidentified projectile and catching fire, as Iran intensifies attacks on commercial shipping in an effort to keep global oil prices elevated and increase pressure on the United States ahead of the midterm elections.
The vessel, GFS Pride, sank after Tuesday’s attack. All 21 crew members were evacuated safely, according to Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority. Containers were subsequently reported floating in the waterway, creating an additional navigation hazard for commercial vessels.
In a separate development, the Cape Dao, a dry bulk cargo ship damaged in a September 23 attack, also sank near the strait. One crew member was killed in the earlier strike.
The losses come as two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran is changing its maritime attack tactics partly to maintain elevated oil prices and influence the political environment ahead of the November 3 U.S. congressional elections.
Oil Prices: Where They Stand
Brent crude · Global benchmark
$106.06
+$0.37 (+0.35%)
WTI · U.S. crude
$95.09
+$0.95 (+1.01%)
Wednesday, October 14 settlement prices. U.S. crude reached its highest settlement in three weeks.
Wednesday’s gains reflect several simultaneous threats to Middle Eastern energy supplies, including attacks near the Strait of Hormuz and a Houthi strike on Saudi Aramco’s administrative facilities in Dhahran.
Oil traders are pricing in the risk that continued attacks could interrupt recovering Gulf exports, raise shipping insurance costs and force vessels to avoid critical routes.
Although neither GFS Pride nor Cape Dao was an oil tanker, their loss demonstrates that the danger now extends beyond energy vessels to ordinary commercial shipping.
What Type of Ship Was GFS Pride, and How Much Cargo Was Lost?
GFS Pride was a 2008-built container ship registered in Singapore and managed by United Arab Emirates-based GFS Ship Management FZE.
Its stated carrying capacity was 2,824 TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent units, making it a relatively small container ship used for regional and international freight transportation.
A TEU is the industry’s standard measure of container capacity. One 40-foot shipping container generally counts as two TEUs.
That distinction is important: 2,824 TEU represents the ship’s maximum rated capacity, not a confirmed count of containers aboard when it sank.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy separately claimed that a container ship carrying more than 2,500 containers struck a naval mine while navigating what Tehran described as an unauthorized route.
Independent maritime authorities reported that GFS Pride was struck by an unidentified projectile. It has not been conclusively established that Iran’s mine account describes the same incident or that its container count is accurate.
The precise number of loaded containers lost, their contents, cargo value and insurance exposure have not been publicly established.
For cargo owners, the financial exposure could extend from the loss of individual shipments to salvage expenses, disrupted deliveries and insurance claims.
A Second Ship Sinks as Another Container Vessel Escapes
The Cape Dao, registered in Antigua and Barbuda, was a dry bulk carrier rather than a container ship. Bulk carriers transport unpackaged commodities such as grain, minerals, coal and other raw materials.
It was damaged on September 23 and remained in distress before sinking Wednesday following an unsuccessful rescue effort.
The loss of GFS Pride and Cape Dao brings the number of confirmed vessels sunk since the U.S.-Iran war began February 28 to three, according to International Maritime Organization data reviewed by Reuters.
A third container ship involved in the latest incidents, GFS Giselle, survived an attack.
The 4,350-TEU Singapore-flagged vessel sustained hull damage but remained operational and reached a safe anchorage under its own power. All 22 crew members were reported safe.
The different outcomes illustrate the growing danger to vessels using the strait: ships may suffer limited damage, become disabled, catch fire or be lost entirely.
Iran’s Strategy: Keep Oil Expensive Before November 3
The maritime escalation has a political dimension that extends directly to Washington.
According to Reuters, two senior Iranian officials acknowledged that Tehran has adopted new methods for attacking commercial shipping, with the aim of sustaining higher oil prices and influencing the U.S. midterm elections.
Iran has restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz since U.S. and Israeli strikes began in February. Washington has responded with a blockade of Iranian ports and additional sanctions targeting the country’s energy trade.
Iranian crude exports have effectively fallen to zero under the U.S. blockade, according to shipping data, increasing Tehran’s incentive to exert pressure on international energy markets.
Rather than rely exclusively on oil tankers as targets, Iranian operations have expanded to container ships, bulk carriers and other commercial vessels.
Reuters reported that Iranian forces have increasingly used small boats to identify potential targets after damage to their radar infrastructure.
The strategy creates a difficult economic challenge for the United States: disrupting enough shipping traffic can increase global oil costs even without destroying a major oil-production facility.
Why the Strait of Hormuz Matters to Every Business
Before the conflict, approximately one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade moved through the Strait of Hormuz, connecting major Gulf energy producers with international customers.
Attacks on ships in the strait can affect businesses in several ways.
First, higher crude prices feed into gasoline, diesel and transportation costs. Trucking companies, airlines, manufacturers and logistics operators can face increased expenses.
Second, threats to commercial vessels increase insurance premiums and security costs, potentially raising the price of shipping ordinary merchandise.
Third, uncertainty about delivery schedules can force importers to hold more inventory, find alternative routes or pay more for freight capacity.
The International Energy Agency reported Wednesday that Middle Eastern Gulf crude exports had recovered to roughly 75% of prewar levels in September.
That recovery provides some relief to global energy markets, but the latest attacks threaten to reverse the progress.
Will Iran Keep Oil Above $100 Until the Midterms?
Brent crude is currently above $106 per barrel, while U.S. WTI remains above $95.
Those prices are elevated, but the latest trading activity does not establish that Iran can maintain them through November 3.
Oil prices also depend on production, global demand, inventories, alternative supplies and the ability of Gulf exporters to keep shipments moving.
The Trump administration has taken steps to increase supply, including temporarily easing restrictions on certain Russian diesel exports.
However, additional attacks on tankers, export terminals or energy infrastructure could introduce new risk premiums into oil prices.
The political implications are significant. Higher gasoline and diesel costs can increase financial pressure on American households and businesses, especially when voters are already concerned about inflation.
Iranian officials have explicitly identified the election period as part of their strategy. Whether the campaign changes voter behavior is uncertain, but the attempt to use oil markets for political leverage is itself a consequential development.
For global commerce, the sinking of GFS Pride sends a warning well beyond the loss of one vessel.
Iran does not need to shut down every oil tanker to disrupt trade. By extending attacks to container ships and bulk carriers, it can make one of the world’s most important shipping corridors more dangerous and expensive for nearly every industry.
As the November 3 midterms approach, the immediate question is whether international efforts to restore shipping security can bring oil prices down—or whether further attacks will keep global energy markets under pressure.
JBizNews Desk | New York
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoWASHINGTON — With fewer than three weeks until the November 3 midterm elections, the Trump administration is facing two high-profile personnel controversies that are raising questions about the qualifications, vetting and judgment behind key appointments.
On Tuesday, Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as U.S. ambassador to Greece after the White House requested her departure amid allegations of improper conduct. That same morning, newly appointed White House press secretary Katie Zacharia delivered a troubled 14-minute debut that immediately drew scrutiny over her preparation and professional credentials.
The timing places two separate personnel decisions under a national spotlight at a particularly sensitive moment for the administration.
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality and California prosecutor who was previously engaged to Donald Trump Jr., was asked to resign following allegations involving improper gifts, financial requests and possible misuse of diplomatic influence.
Among the allegations was a reported request for $100,000 from a political donor to help cover a personal American Express bill.
Guilfoyle denies wrongdoing. The State Department’s inspector general has reportedly begun examining the allegations.
The controversy nevertheless raises questions about how personal relationships, political loyalty and professional qualifications are weighed when filling senior diplomatic positions.
Hours after Guilfoyle’s departure became public, Zacharia’s first White House briefing created another round of unfavorable headlines.
The new press secretary relied heavily on written remarks, answered questions from only three media outlets and ended the briefing after approximately 14 minutes.
Her appearance also brought attention to her legal credentials. Although President Trump had described Zacharia as an attorney, reporting found no confirmed record of her admission to practice law in the United States.
Zacharia holds a law degree from Pepperdine University and has worked in communications and conservative media. The White House praised her first briefing, and Trump defended her performance.
But questions about her preparation were compounded by reports that she had been given less than 24 hours to prepare.
The Guilfoyle and Zacharia controversies involve different circumstances and should not be treated as equivalent. One concerns allegations of misconduct during a diplomatic appointment; the other concerns the preparation and credentials of a newly appointed spokesperson.
Yet both have placed the administration’s selection process under scrutiny.
Were candidates chosen primarily for their demonstrated ability to perform demanding public responsibilities, or did personal relationships and political loyalty receive greater weight?
Neither controversy, by itself, establishes favoritism as the reason for an appointment. But the simultaneous questions about credentials, preparation and conduct create an opening for broader examination of White House personnel decisions.
With the midterms approaching, the administration faces serious domestic and international issues requiring experienced leadership and clear communication.
Instead, two senior appointments have become subjects of controversy within the same news cycle.
The political consequences remain uncertain. But the personnel questions are immediate: How thoroughly were these appointments vetted, what standards were applied, and who was responsible for ensuring the appointees were prepared for their responsibilities?
Those are questions the White House will need to address as scrutiny intensifies ahead of November 3.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2026 | MARKET CLOSE
NEW YORK — Wall Street suffered its sharpest broad-market decline since July on Wednesday after unexpectedly high inflation sent Treasury yields higher, revived fears of additional Federal Reserve interest-rate increases and triggered heavy selling in technology and artificial intelligence stocks.
The Nasdaq plunged nearly 2%, while the S&P 500 lost more than 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average avoided a comparable decline but still finished lower.
Dow Jones
51,621.48
−48.62 points
S&P 500
7,718.94
−86.51 points
Nasdaq
26,692.87
−511.51 points
Wednesday’s closing levels and changes.
The September Consumer Price Index showed consumer prices rising 3.7% from a year earlier, above economists’ expectations of 3.6%.
Higher gasoline prices contributed to the increase, reinforcing concerns that inflation may remain too persistent for the Federal Reserve to ease borrowing costs.
Instead, investors are now preparing for the possibility of additional interest-rate hikes.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note briefly reached approximately 5.31%, its highest level since 2002, before retreating somewhat.
Higher Treasury yields increase the cost of financing mortgages, commercial development, business expansion and government borrowing.
Technology companies were among Wednesday’s biggest losers as investors reassessed the enormous spending commitments behind the artificial intelligence expansion.
Oracle shares plunged 8.8%, while AI infrastructure providers CoreWeave and Nebius dropped approximately 15% and 10%, respectively.
Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise also came under pressure after Barclays downgraded their shares.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined for a sixth consecutive trading session, reflecting intensifying concerns about valuations, borrowing costs and the sustainability of infrastructure spending.
The selloff exposed the sensitivity of AI-related companies to interest rates. Businesses investing billions of dollars in data centers depend on financing, continued demand and expectations of substantial future earnings.
Rising borrowing costs can undermine those calculations.
Bank of America and Morgan Stanley shares also declined, as investors assessed earnings and higher regulatory expenses.
Smaller companies faced significant selling pressure, with the Russell 2000 index falling 1.9% to 2,729.53.
For businesses that depend on loans, the implications extend beyond the stock market.
Higher interest rates can increase the cost of working capital, commercial real estate financing, equipment purchases and expansion projects.
For consumers, the prospect of sustained high borrowing costs raises concerns about housing affordability, automobile financing and household spending.
Wednesday’s Federal Reserve Beige Book added to investors’ concerns by highlighting weak wage growth, a softening labor market and continuing price pressures.
That combination raises the possibility of stagflation — an economy experiencing persistent inflation alongside sluggish growth.
Financial markets now assign roughly a 37% probability to another Federal Reserve rate increase at the October 28 policy meeting, up from approximately 22% a day earlier.
The Fed faces competing pressures: raising rates to control inflation could slow economic activity further, while leaving rates unchanged could allow inflation to remain elevated.
Investors will focus on the September Producer Price Index, corporate earnings and Treasury yields for indications of whether Wednesday’s selloff could continue.
The immediate question is whether inflation pressures will force the Federal Reserve to maintain higher interest rates for longer than investors previously anticipated.
Wednesday’s decline was not a full-scale market crash. But with the S&P 500 suffering its biggest one-day loss since July 29 and technology shares retreating sharply, the session marked a significant shift in investor sentiment.
JBizNews Desk | Wall Street
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoMarshalls is growing its U.S. footprint, with several new stores slated to open this month.
The TJX Companies-owned chain has upcoming openings planned in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas, Minnesota and New York, according to the retailer’s website.
The next openings are scheduled for Oct. 15, when Marshalls will debut new stores in Mercedes, Texas, and Malone, New York.
Both locations are scheduled to remain open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on the opening day.
A new Marshalls in Virginia, Minnesota, is slated to open Oct. 22.
The retail giant will then follow with three more openings Oct. 29 in Circleville, Ohio; Nacogdoches, Texas; and Concord, New Hampshire.
Marshalls’ Lawrence, Massachusetts, store is also moving to a new location at North Andover Mall in North Andover, with the relocated store scheduled to open on Oct. 29.
The retailer has also recently opened locations in San Antonio, Texas; Bakersfield and Elk Grove, California; Waukee, Iowa; Altamonte Springs and the Dadeland area of Miami, Florida; and North Augusta, South Carolina, according to its grand openings page.
In May 2024, TJX Companies CEO Ernie Herrman announced that the company was planning to open at least 1,300 additional stores globally across its portfolio, which includes Marshalls, HomeGoods, T.J. Maxx, Sierra and HomeSense, according to USA TODAY.
JBizNews1 day agoPresident Isaac Herzog traveled to Azerbaijan on Wednesday to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the Foreign Minister of Bahrain, Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, in Baku.
Herzog and Aliyev met at the Presidential Palace during the Seventh Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), where the two presidents discussed ways to deepen the strategic relationship between their nations, the President’s Office confirmed.
They also discussed regional developments and their shared commitments to security and stability in the region.
Herzog thanked Aliyev for the warm welcome and called Azerbaijan a model of stability and a valued voice in the international community.
At the meeting, Herzog said, “Israel and Azerbaijan share a unique relationship, one that has been developed over many years and has proven its importance in complex times as well. I thank President Ilham Aliyev for our partnership and for the open dialogue between us, and I believe we have much more to achieve together: strengthening the ties between our peoples, expanding our cooperation, and creating new opportunities for generations to come. The friendship between our countries is of deep value, and we are committed to continuing to nurture it.
Meanwhile, Herzog’s meeting with Zayani focused on the necessity of strengthening the Abraham Accords and the expansion of peace and cooperation.
During the meeting, Herzog commended the King of Bahrain and emphasized the value of the relationship between the two nations.
JBizNews1 day agoAbdulrahman Alfozan has a glowing LinkedIn profile, more of a natural fit for a future CEO than someone arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as he was on Oct. 9. It lists nine awards, five volunteer experiences, an enthusiastic recommendation from a coworker, a healthcare-related patent, degrees from two top-tier U.S. universities, and positions at well-known companies such as SAP, Microsoft, Meta, and, of course, OpenAI.
The federal complaint charging him with secretly placing a recording device in an executive conference room does not allege a motive. But since his arrest, the internet has done what it does best: dug up details about his past.
Alfozan is a Saudi national who has been a legal permanent resident of the U.S. since Sept. 2020, according to court documents. He has a 15-year professional and educational history in the states, beginning with his enrollment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011. While most of his work history since then has been U.S.-focused, in 2025 he became one of 20 venture partners at the Saudi Arabia-based RAED Ventures, of which, he is still pictured on their website. RAED has not responded to Fortune’s requests for comment on whether he is still associated with the firm.
Abdulrahman Alfozan was still listed on RAED’s website after news of his arrest surfaced.
RAED
Also pictured on this screenshot of RAED’s site is Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, also is a partner at RAED as of Feb. 6, 2025. He founded the AI company Echelon in 2025, and it emerged from stealth on Oct. 6, 2026. Al Saud is also an advisor for the U.S.-based venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, which is an early backer of Echelon. “Congratulations to our great partner!” wrote Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at a16z, in Al Saud’s LinkedIn post announcing Echelon.
RAED announced Alfozan became a partner on Feb. 8, 2025, two days after their announcement of Al Saud. Alfozan didn’t join OpenAI until July 2025, the company told Fortune in a statement, while Alfozan’s personal LinkedIn says he joined the company in Sept. 2025. OpenAI did not respond to a question about the discrepancy.
It’s unclear whether OpenAI allowed Alfozan to hold an outside investing role at RAED while he worked there. The company declined to share its conflict-of-interest policy.
The complaint does not charge him with stealing trade secrets, nor does it allege that he acted for a foreign government. OpenAI said in a post on X that it had “no indications” he inappropriately accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code or customer data.
It’s unclear whether OpenAI allowed Alfozan to hold an outside investing role at RAED while he worked there. The company declined to respond to Fortune’s request for its conflict-of-interest policy.
Saudi Arabia has been an active investor in U.S.-based AI firms, such as the chipmaker Groq, which Reuters reported in 2025. OpenAI also reportedly held talks with Saudi Arabian investors in 2025, which The Information reported at the time. In Jan. 2026, the company returned to the Middle East and was in talks with sovereign wealth funds, CNBC reported at the time. Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s largest, called the Public Investment Fund (PIF), although it was not listed in the article.
Alfozan has been “charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications,” the DOJ said. A trial attorney from the department’s National Security Division, in its Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, is assisting the prosecution.
Saudi Arabia has put money into U.S. AI companies. In 2025, AI chip startup Groq secured a $1.5 billion commitment from the kingdom, Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia also has a state-backed artificial intelligence company, HUMAIN, which in 2025, led a $900 million funding round for the media production startup Luma AI that year, Semafor reported. HUMAIN also partnered with U.S.-based AI coding platform Replit in 2025.
OpenAI reportedly held talks with Saudi Arabian investors in 2025, which The Information reported at the time. In Jan. 2026, the company returned to the Middle East and was in talks with sovereign wealth funds, CNBC reported at the time. Nothing in the court filings connects Alfozan to any of these investments.
Alfozan has ties to a few government-related investors, which hints at the type of circles he may be a part of in Saudi Arabia. For example, a member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, is also a partner at RAED. He founded the AI company Echelon in 2025, and it emerged from stealth on Oct. 6, 2026. Al Saud is also an advisor for the U.S.-based venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, which is an early backer of Echelon. “Congratulations to our great partner!” said Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at a16z, in a LinkedIn post when Echelon revealed itself.
Alfozan allegedly asked a workplace AI tool about OpenAI’s meeting rooms in the six weeks before the device was planted, according to the complaint. He, his wife and a third family member had booked one-way tickets from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia, via Istanbul, for Oct. 12, according to a motion to seal the case.
Starting Aug. 17, Alfozan allegedly asked a productivity agent internal to OpenAI about OpenAI’s conference room capacities and which meetings were held in them, the complaint says. He also asked how to send USPS packages to the building.
Then, starting on Sept. 24, Alfozan allegedly used a ChatGPT account associated with his wife to submit prompts about building a continuous audio recorder, encrypting its memory card and adding live listening, according to the complaint. He is then alleged to have planted the device on or about Sept. 28. Sources told Fortune OpenAI found the device during a routine sweep on Sept. 30.
That’s when the company alerted the federal government. A camera was then placed behind the TV in the conference room where the device was located, and Alfozan was subsequently seen on the camera on Oct. 5. The company terminated Alfozan on Oct. 9, the same day the FBI arrested him. That’s three days before his booked flight.
Court documents don’t say why the family booked the trip. Prosecutors cited it in asking a judge to keep the complaint sealed until this week. “The defendant has the means—and will have an incentive—to flee the United States sooner if he learns about this case before he is arrested,” the motion reads.
Alfozan first appeared in federal court on Oct. 13, and he will return again on Oct. 19.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoJBIZNEWS | AVIATION & GLOBAL BUSINESS | OCTOBER 14, 2026
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabian airlines are scrambling to move billions of dollars worth of passenger aircraft out of danger after deadly Houthi missile and drone strikes on Riyadh’s main airport damaged commercial jets, killed civilians and forced airlines to suspend operations.
The emergency effort involves aircraft valued at approximately $4 billion, with the number remaining at King Khalid International Airport falling from 134 to just 38 since the attacks began.
Six aircraft have reportedly sustained damage valued at approximately $375 million, including a Saudia Airbus A320 that was destroyed and a Boeing 787 belonging to the kingdom’s new national carrier, Riyadh Air.
The evacuation represents an extraordinary challenge for Saudi Arabia’s aviation industry, which has invested billions of dollars in expanding its international airline network and transforming the kingdom into a major global transportation hub.
The attacks have forced Saudi airlines to make urgent decisions about where to relocate their most valuable assets.
Saudia, Riyadh Air and Flyadeal are among the carriers exposed to the escalating conflict.
Riyadh Air, which began operating in June, has already suffered damage to one Boeing 787 and evacuated four additional aircraft.
Moving aircraft away from Riyadh could protect them from further destruction, but it creates new operational challenges. Airlines must arrange parking, maintenance, staffing and aircraft positioning while dealing with restrictions on Saudi airspace.
Unlike aircraft that can be moved on short notice, commercial jets require safe departure corridors, flight crews, fuel, maintenance clearance and permission to enter other countries’ airspace.
The logistical difficulty increases when the airport itself has been struck repeatedly.
The crisis escalated following Houthi attacks on October 8 and October 10.
The earlier attack killed three people and damaged five aircraft. A subsequent strike devastated parts of the airport, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 300.
Saudi authorities have suspended operations at King Khalid International Airport, with the closure currently expected to continue until at least October 17.
The Houthis, an Iran-aligned armed movement based in Yemen, have threatened additional attacks on Saudi airports and oil infrastructure.
The disruption has spread beyond Saudi carriers. International airlines including Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have suspended or adjusted flights, while travelers face cancellations and alternative routings.
Beyond physical damage, the attacks threaten to increase the cost of operating commercial aircraft in Saudi Arabia.
War-risk aviation insurance protects airlines and aircraft owners against certain losses involving armed conflict, missiles and other hostile acts, subject to policy terms and exclusions.
Saudi Arabia’s major carriers face insurance renewals next month, placing the timing of the attacks under particular scrutiny.
Insurers must now reassess the possibility that several aircraft could be damaged or destroyed in a single attack, especially when large numbers of jets are parked at one airport.
Higher premiums, restricted coverage or additional security requirements could increase operating costs even after flights resume.
For aircraft leasing companies and lenders, the situation also raises questions about where valuable aircraft can safely be based.
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in sophisticated air defense systems, including American-made equipment. Yet the Houthis have demonstrated an ability to penetrate defenses using combinations of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
Low-flying drones and cruise missiles can exploit limitations in radar coverage, while simultaneous threats force defensive systems to identify, prioritize and intercept multiple incoming weapons.
Saudi Arabia’s vast territory complicates the challenge. Protecting major cities, military installations, oil facilities and airports requires extensive radar coverage and sufficient interceptor supplies.
The sustained attacks have also raised concerns about depleted interceptor stocks and the cost of defending against relatively inexpensive weapons.
Saudi authorities are investigating how missiles and drones managed to reach the airport despite the kingdom’s substantial defense investments.
The damage extends far beyond airline balance sheets.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 economic diversification strategy depends heavily on aviation, tourism, international business and logistics.
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in new airports, airlines, hotels and tourism destinations to reduce its dependence on petroleum revenues.
Repeated attacks on major aviation infrastructure threaten those ambitions.
International businesses considering conferences, investments or regional offices must now weigh transportation reliability and employee safety.
The attacks also threaten cargo operations, business travel and the kingdom’s ability to position Riyadh as a reliable international connection point.
For Saudi airlines, the immediate priority is protecting aircraft and personnel. For the government, the greater challenge is restoring confidence that its airports can operate safely despite the continuing conflict.
With tens of aircraft already relocated and the Houthis threatening further strikes, the crisis underscores a costly reality for modern aviation: billions of dollars in aircraft and infrastructure can remain vulnerable even in countries equipped with advanced military defenses.
JBizNews Desk | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoThe new Museum of Moroccan Jewish Culture opened its doors in the city of Fes on Monday, marking the first time in history that an Arab-Muslim country has allocated public funds to establish a museum entirely dedicated to Jewish culture.
According to Morocco’s National Foundation of Museums, the 1,700 square meters space invites visitors on a journey into the heart of Moroccan Jewish life and Judaism through a rich and diverse collection of ritual and everyday objects, archaeological, ethnographic and artistic artifacts, archives and rare manuscripts, crafts, traditions, as well as practices and testimonies handed down through the 2500 of Jewish history in the country.
Local media said the exhibition galleries explore communal institutions, including synagogues, Hebrew schools and rabbinical courts, as well as traditions associated with birth, bar mitzvahs, weddings, funerals and religious holidays. Objects on display include Torah scrolls, prayer shawls, marriage contracts, circumcision chairs, bridal costumes and jewelry.
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Traditional crafts also feature prominently, including a reconstructed jeweler’s workshop, tools, silver ornaments, textiles, regional clothing and musical instruments. Audiovisual and digital installations complement the collections, while dedicated spaces will host educational activities for children and school groups.
The front of the building features a brass inscription in four languages: Arabic, Amazigh, Hebrew, and French.
The museum was designed with the involvement of the Moroccan Jewish community, represented in particular by Serge Berdugo, Founding President of the Foundation for Moroccan Jewish Cultural Heritage.
Construction of the museum was initiated by King Mohammed VI during his visit to Fez in April 2019, as part of a program to rehabilitate and showcase the old medina.
The Museums Foundation said the museum “forms part of King Mohammed VI’s vision,” which places “great importance on preserving and promoting all components of Moroccan identity, in their diversity and complementarity.”
The work, completed in March 2023, was carried out by ADER-Fez in consultation with the National Foundation of Museums.
The opening of the Museum of Moroccan Jewish Culture on Monday was attended by Ahmed Toufiq, Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs; Khalid Aït Taleb, Wali (regional governor) of the Fez-Meknes region and governor of Fez Prefecture; Serge Berdugo, Founding President of the Foundation for Moroccan Jewish Cultural Heritage; Mehdi Qotbi, President of the National Foundation of Museums; and several other prominent figures, including ambassadors, directors and university presidents.
JBizNews1 day agoBritish Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday ruled out any future deal with the Green Party following its adoption of the “Zionism is racism” motion at its recent annual party conference.
During Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament, Burnham was asked whether he would make “crystal clear” that “following the Green Party’s descent into the most abhorrent antisemitism… he will rule out cooperating with them.”
The prime minister responded by saying that he “unequivocally” condemns the motion that was passed by the Greens.
“It is wrong. It is antisemitic, and this side of the House will have nothing to do with it, and we will always take the right response when it comes to any partnerships we have with other parties,” he told the Speaker.
“We cannot support a partnership with a party that holds a position that has recently been adopted,” he said.
In response, Greens leader Zack Polanski said, “The dangerous and irresponsible blurring of challenging Israel and antisemitism is deeply revealing.”
“A Labour Government who apologized over their actions over Gaza is demonstrating that it was all performative. Andy Burnham still stands with Israel whilst it kills innocent people [sic].”
Polanski added that he is “the only Jewish leader of a political party” and, allegedly, the victim of antisemitism every day.
David Lammy’s former adviser in the Foreign Office, Ben Judah, said Burnham’s answer is “hugely welcome after the Greens measure has caused such shock and distress in the Jewish community.”
Burnham’s response came just hours after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage published an op-ed in The Jewish Chronicle calling on the Labor Party to “draw a red line” and announce that “there will be no electoral pacts with the Green Party. Not now, not ever.”
“The Green Party’s formal adoption of the poisonous doctrine that Zionism is racism has unequivocally placed it beyond the pale of civilized politics,” he said.
“Make no mistake, any political party that even contemplates sharing power with Mr. Polanski now would be legitimizing an ideology that denies the Jewish people the right to a homeland.”
Britain’s Green Party became the first mainstream party in Europe to declare itself openly anti-Zionist after voting on the controversial “Zionism is racism” motion at its party conference in Brighton on October 4, passing the motion by 1,022 votes to 813.
The motion recognizes Zionism as Israel’s foundational ideology and says it created and maintains an apartheid regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
It further affirms the right to self-determination and liberation of the Palestinian people and supports the establishment of a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.”
JBizNews1 day agoThe Social Security Administration projected Wednesday that the annual cost-of-living adjustment for older adults and people with disabilities will go up by 3.6% beginning in 2027, with some recipients complaining that is not enough to offset soaring prices.
The adjustment translates to $75 extra per month for the nearly 72 million people who receive monthly Social Security benefits and about 7.3 million beneficiaries who get Supplemental Security Income.
The announcement comes as inflation adds pressure on household budgets and businesses and as midterm elections are weeks away.
The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retirees and disabled beneficiaries is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers, up to a certain annual salary. That is set to increase to $192,300 in 2027, from $184,500 in 2026.
The agency’s commissioner, Frank Bisignano, said in a statement that the adjustment will give recipients “greater financial stability.”
Some older adults feel the increase is a drop in the bucket as inflation has eaten away at monthly savings. The government reported Wednesday that inflation accelerated in September, with the consumer price index rising 3.7% in September compared with a year ago and gas prices have spiked in the wake of renewed fighting between the United States and Iran.
Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy group, said the latest inflation data shows that “as important as the Social Security COLA is, it is not keeping up with prices.”
Lorrie Ufkin, a 71-year-old retiree who lives outside Rochester, Minnesota, said the COLA will not put a dent in her healthcare costs, which are set to increase after the Trump administration concludes at year’s end a temporary Medicare Part D subsidy program that has helped offset premiums. Ufkin said that her premiums and drug cost are expected to rise, although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has projected a modest increase for most people.
The COLA “doesn’t even meet what they’re going to do for changes to Medicare,” she told The Associated Press.
She said one of the medications both she and her husband take will go from $11 per month for each prescription, to $200 per month, after Republican administration changes made to older Americans’ healthcare programs. She said that was “catastrophic.”
Senior advocacy groups say the COLA is a strong reminder of the financial straits of many older people.
“There’s a lot on the line financially right now for older Americans — one in five have no retirement savings, and more people feel financially insecure this year than last. That makes Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment critically important,” said AARP CEO Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan.
Jaime Jakubczak, a 68-year-old resident of Buffalo, New York who retired early at 55, has recently gone back to work to make ends meet, specifically to afford rising property taxes. He said the COLA is insufficient because it is offset by high inflation and a proposed 3.9% property tax increase in his town.
Jakubczak called the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment “a pittance,” given how high food, healthcare and gasoline prices have become across the country.
“We were getting ahead a little bit with the COLA based on inflation, but the inflation is so high that it doesn’t offset what our COLA allowance is,” he said.
Most older adults believe the COLA isn’t adequately keeping up with inflation, according to an AARP poll from September. That poll found that about three-quarters of those 50 or older disagreed with the idea that a 3.5% COLA in 2027 would be enough to keep up with rising prices.
The Social Security Administration faces a looming bankruptcy date if a funding shortfall is not addressed by Congress.
The June 2026 Social Security and Medicare trustees’ report states that Social Security’s combined trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034. After that, incoming revenue would cover about 83% of scheduled benefits.
While a permanent solution for shoring up the benefits program has not been passed into law, lawmakers on the Hill have called for new measures to replenish the trust funds.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in June proposed lifting the Social Security payroll tax cap, which is a maximum amount of earnings taxable. Treating all income the same “would generate substantial revenue that would extend the solvency of Social Security for another generation,” they wrote in The New York Times.
The move is controversial because Republicans have traditionally criticized calls to raise taxes on the wealthy.
The Peterson Foundation estimates that lifting the payroll tax cap would add roughly $3 trillion into the program over the next 10 years.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations signed into law new benefits for retirees, which boosted their finances, but simultaneously accelerated the insolvency of the old-age benefits program.
The Trump administration, as part of Republicans’ tax and spending bill, gave a temporary tax deduction for people 65 and over, which applies to all income — not just Social Security. But those who aren’t able to claim the deduction include the lowest-income older adults who already don’t pay taxes on Social Security, those who choose to claim their benefits before they reach 65 and those above a defined income threshold.
Additionally, Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024 repealed two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that previously limited Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people, including largely former public workers.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoMayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday announced the city will invest nearly $30 million in a new quantum technology lab at New York University in exchange for a stake in new technologies developed with city-funded tools. Expected to open in 2030, Quantum Fabrication Facility (QFab) will take up 23,000 square feet at 770 Broadway, where NYU entered a lease for 1 million square feet last year.
770 Broadway. Photo by Loominosity Z on Flickr
As the first public-private partnership of this scale in the city, the deal allows the city to profit when intellectual property is created at Qfab using tools the city funded. The mayor wants this type of deal to set up a new national model for “economic development for the public good,” according to the city.
NYU will invest an additional $255 million in the new lab, which includes construction and 10 years of operations. According to the city, the facility will support more than 100 companies working to develop new technology utilizing quantum mechanics. The lab will help create 50 companies and support 50 new startups.
QFab will help “turn prototypes into products and provide support from NYU’s academic and entrepreneurial programs,” according to a press release.
Under the deal, when intellectual property is created at the lab using the tools the city funded, the city will receive 15 percent of the NYU Central Administration’s proceeds, “including equity, royalties, milestone payments, and licenses of the patent.” The mayor did not estimate revenue projections for the city but said the technology could generate up to $2.7 trillion in economic value by 2035.
The partnership between the city and the university includes three seats on the QFab Executive Advisory Board to ensure “all New Yorkers see the profits and progress from quantum technology, not just the wealthy few,” the mayor said in a statement.
“Right now, at subatomic levels that we can only glimpse, new technologies are being developed that will transform how we fight disease, store energy, and exchange information. We want those technologies, investments and jobs to be created here in New York City — and we want New Yorkers to have a say and a share in their success. With this new quantum lab, we are bringing that vision to life,” Mamdani said.
The partnership is similar to what President Donald Trump has done on the federal level. Since January 2025, the U.S. government has invested $28.4 billion across 42 deals with private companies, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
As the Center for Strategic & International Studies noted, the Trump administration has shifted industrial policy in the country by acquiring equity in companies related to national security, “spanning minerals, nuclear energy, and semiconductors.” In the past, the U.S. intervened directly in the economy during times of crisis, like Lincoln’s support of the rail system during the Civil War and state procurement programs to make automotive and shipbuilding industries focus on wartime production, according to the policy research nonprofit.
NYU plans to provide students from the City University of New York (CUNY) and New York City Public Schools with access to the labs, training, certificate programs, and summer workshops.
“This is our chance to make sure that as the quantum industry takes shape, it takes shape here, so the NYU and CUNY students training in our labs today can forge careers right here in New York, tomorrow,” Dr. Juan de Pablo, NYU’s executive vice president for Global Science and Technology and the Executive Dean of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, said.
“The quantum future is coming whether New York builds it or not. Today we make sure it’s built here in New York City, by New Yorkers from all five boroughs.”
The post NYC invests $30M in NYU quantum lab in exchange for stake in industry first appeared on 6sqft.
JBizNews1 day agoIranian leaders believe that a US strike against the country is inevitable, viewing the question not as “if” Washington will launch another attack, but “when” it will happen.
According to several regional diplomats who spoke to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday following conversations with senior Iranian officials, concerns are growing within Iran’s leadership that the current period of relative calm could be short-lived and that hostilities may resume in the near future.
One diplomatic source described the mood in Tehran, saying that the atmosphere in the Iranian capital reflects a widespread expectation that further US strikes are imminent. “The atmosphere in Tehran is such that people feel the bombings are going to resume in the short term.”
The growing sense of uncertainty has been accompanied by forceful rhetoric from Iranian officials, who have warned Washington against launching another offensive. On Wednesday, Iranian Army spokesman Mohammad Akrami-Nia accused the United States of seeking to destroy Iran’s Islamic civilization through what he described as an illegal war.
“America’s objective in waging an illegal war is to destroy Iranian Islamic civilization,” Akrami-Nia said.
A spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) similarly warned that, although initiating another war against Iran would be strategically irrational for Washington, the possibility of renewed hostilities cannot be ruled out.
According to the spokesman, the Trump administration may be seeking a significant political or military achievement ahead of the US midterm elections, potentially increasing the risk of further escalation.
The IRGC spokesman stressed that Iran would respond forcefully to any additional military action. “Iran is prepared to respond to any further aggression with greater force than in the past, and the consequences for the United States will be far more painful,” he warned.
Tensions intensified further on Wednesday as Iran increased its attacks on vessels and oil tankers operating in the Strait of Hormuz. Two tankers belonging to the United Arab Emirates were sunk after being hit by Iran.
Since the beginning of the month, Iran has attacked approximately 30 vessels transiting the strait. These attacks are described as part of an Iranian effort to disrupt an operation conducted by US Central Command (CENTCOM) involving the transportation of oil barrels, which has recently been able to transfer 20-22 million barrels per day out of the Straits, reaching the numbers that were there before the war.
Earlier this week, Iranian forces conducted a military exercise during which approximately 30 ballistic missiles were launched.
JBizNews1 day agoAmericans are still spending, but frustration over inflation and borrowing costs is clouding how they feel about the economy, a disconnect the White House says it is trying to understand.
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss why consumers remain uneasy about the economy despite signs of continued spending and investment.
The tension comes as higher energy costs put renewed pressure on inflation.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – increased 0.6% on a monthly basis and is up 3.7% from a year ago.
Hassett attributed September’s disappointing inflation reading in part to attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East, while pointing to more stable prices in other categories.
“But for sure, there was a top line number that was disappointed. But inside the top line there’s a lot of good news,” Hassett said.
Mortgage rates are another challenge for households. Hassett said stronger income growth and lower inflation could eventually improve affordability, but cautioned against drawing conclusions from a single month of data.
“We really need to see the next month before we make a judgment about whether it’s right for the Fed to do something about this,” he said.
Even with those concerns, Hassett pointed to strong capital spending, factory construction and consumer demand. He said bank executives told him customers are continuing to make purchases rather than falling behind on their payments.
“It’s a puzzle that we’re noodling about every day ourselves, because if you look at the top line data, you’ve got [a] capital spending boom unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Hassett said of the gap between economic activity and public sentiment.
He argued that worries about job security can weigh heavily on consumer confidence, even when broader spending remains resilient. Hassett also predicted a strong holiday shopping season, suggesting that Americans’ spending habits may paint a more optimistic picture than their views of the economy.
“My view is that the strength of the economy is visible,” he said.
FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report
JBizNews1 day agoDemocrats lambasted President Donald Trump while the White House spoke of economic growth following the release of a new Consumer Price Index (CPI) report on Wednesday as Americans continue to suffer the economic consequences of inflation amid the 2026 midterm election cycle.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in September after rising 0.4 percent in August.”
“Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.7 percent before seasonal adjustment,” it stated.
The House Democratic Caucus declared in a post on X, “Trump promised to lower costs and end inflation on day one. The exact opposite has happened. This president has been a total failure.”
House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., similarly declared, “Inflation is up. The cost of gas and groceries is soaring. Inland Empire families are paying more for everything. This Trump economy has been a total failure.”
And House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., said in a post on X, “The GOP economy is a failure. Inflation remains too high, as families struggle to afford the basics. House Democrats are ready to win in November and stop this mess.”
The latest CPI report comes less than a month before Election Day, as the Republican and Democratic Parties jockey for control of the House and Senate during midterms.
The GOP currently holds the majority in both chambers, but Democrats are aiming to change that.
A White House official indicated to Fox News Digital that “President Trump is bringing inflation down after it was astronomically high under Biden” and noted that “food prices remain stable, unchanged, month-over-month.”
The CPI report states that “the food index was unchanged in September after rising 0.1 percent in each of the preceding 2 months.”
Other Democrats faulting Trump included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served in the post under President Joe Biden.
“Donald Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ means never ending, higher prices for the American people while he gets a ballroom and billionaires get tax cuts,” Schumer said in a post on X.
“Inflation is up again. Not because of a pandemic. Not because of a natural disaster. Because of Trump’s war, tariffs, and corporate tax breaks. It really is this simple: Republicans took over, and then drove up the cost of living in America,” Buttigieg said.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokesman Matthew Middleton said, “President Trump has implemented an aggressive, pro-growth economic agenda that has blunted Biden’s inflation crisis, driven economic growth, increased wages and created private-sector jobs in areas that had been hollowed out and shipped overseas.
“The President has always been clear about temporary disruptions as a result of the Iran conflict, but this administration will continue to deliver economic wins for the American people over the next two years.
“While Democrats pretend to care about ‘affordability’ this administration has delivered tangible wins to make life more affordable for American families: President Trump signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, cut the cost of prescription drugs, added more than one million private-sector jobs, locked in nearly 20 trade deals and will continue to put American workers first,” Middleton added.
JBizNews1 day agoThe IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) conducted a joint raid operation on the offices of the Addameer Charity Association in Ramallah on Tuesday, as well as the Islamic Association for the Care of Orphans in Yatta, near Hebron, the military confirmed on Wednesday.
According to the military, the “illegal charities” acted as fronts for terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Five terrorist collaborators were arrested in the West Bank operations, while evidence including computers, documents, and checkbooks bearing markers associated with Hamas was seized.
The Addameer Charity Association, according to the military, is funded by terror funds in order to provide legal assistance to PFLP terrorists held in detention.
Terrorists who participated in the Danny Spring bombing of 2019, which resulted in the death of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, were working at the association at the time of the raid.
In Yatta, wanted individuals were arrested during the raid on the Islamic Association for the Care of Orphans, and Hamas funds were seized before being transferred to security forces for further investigation.
The organization served as an organizational hub and financial arm of Hamas that transferred funds directly to the terrorist organization as well as to family members of Hamas terrorists. The military said that it “serves as infrastructure for entrenching the Hamas terrorist organization’s standing in Yatta, while exploiting its purportedly civilian activities.”
According to the IDF statement, the director and other senior officials at the association have been imprisoned in the past.
Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said the IDF must remain vigilant on all fronts and act swiftly to thwart threats, while deploying the 98th Division to the West Bank to “strengthen security and stability in the area.”
In a situational assessment held in coordination with IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth and senior leadership within the Central Command, Zamir reviewed operational challenges during a tour of the West Bank region. According to the IDF, Zamir approved plans for continued operational activity in the area.
“In light of the increased number of alerts across all fronts and the sensitivity of this period, the potential for escalation has grown… The IDF is at a high level of readiness to launch extensive offensive operations against anyone who attempts to harm Israeli civilians,” the military chief said.
JBizNews1 day agoU.S. President Donald Trump said “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration is set to begin in “our new and beautiful Greenland ” early Wednesday, though it wasn’t clear what developments he was referring to on an island where resource extraction has stymied companies for decades.
Despite Trump’s optimism, the harsh climate of Greenland — a self-governing territory of Denmark, rather than a part of the United States — as well as a lack of infrastructure have foiled all previous attempts to extract so-called rare earth minerals, as well as oil and gas. No efforts have ever progressed beyond the exploratory stage.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform following a campaign event Tuesday in Wasilla, Alaska, to stump for Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan as he seeks his third term to represent the state in an election against Democratic former U.S. congresswoman Mary Peltola.
Rising energy prices — a direct result of Trump’s war in Iran — are creating serious and sustained financial hardships for America’s working class ahead of the midterm elections next month. Trump’s comments Wednesday are likely aimed at addressing voters’ concerns before they head to the polls.
Last month Trump signed an agreement with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland to strengthen security in the Arctic and North Atlantic, following months of tensions with NATO allies over the U.S. president’s repeated demands to take control of the semiautonomous Danish territory. It does not grant the U.S. any special exploration rights, but does place some limits on investments by non-NATO countries in strategic sectors.
The deal also paved the way for more U.S. bases in Greenland and eased tensions over Trump’s repeated calls for Greenland to become part of the United States. The agreement would still apply if Greenland eventually chooses independence.
Trump has expressed his desire to acquire Greenland since 2019 and, during his second term, issued threats to seize the territory from Denmark, a NATO ally.
Representatives from Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as from Greenland’s prime minister and the island’s mining ministry, did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday.
Naaja H. Nathanielsen, who represents Greenland at the Danish parliament, told Danish broadcaster TV2 that she believes Trump used his post to get attention.
She said she does not attach significance to Trump calling the island “our Greenland.”
Greenland has large deposits of the rare earth minerals that are needed to make everything from computers and smartphones to the batteries, solar and wind technologies that will power the transition away from fossil fuels. China currently dominates the world’s supply of these critical minerals and the Trump administration is seeking to break Beijing’s chokehold on them.
The U.S. Geological Survey has also identified major potential offshore deposits of oil and natural gas.
But tapping these resources could be prohibitively difficult: the rare earth minerals are encased in rock, and the offshore oil and natural gas deposits are covered by Arctic ice.
Trump’s Truth Social post also touted Greenland’s strategic location, saying that “from a Security Purpose in the Defense and Offense of both the United States of America, and Europe,” the island is “second to none.”
“Any future attack on the United States will have to come across Greenland, where our Defense will routinely knock down drones, missiles, or any other form of weapon not yet even conceived,” he wrote. “It gives us time, location, and sightline, like nowhere else in the World!”
The United States was prominent in Greenland for decades but, since 1945, the U.S. military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers on 17 bases and installations to roughly 200 soldiers on the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest. The base supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.
Trump said last month that the U.S. would “immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate locations,” including “building two very major military bases.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
JBizNews1 day agoJBIZNEWS | BANKING & REAL ESTATE | OCTOBER 14, 2026
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America reported a 12% decline in home loan production during the third quarter, joining JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo in a broader mortgage slowdown as elevated interest rates continue to discourage homebuyers and strain one of the banking industry’s major lending businesses.
The nation’s second-largest bank originated $9.8 billion in home loans between July and September, down from approximately $11.1 billion in the previous quarter. The decline raises questions about whether traditional banks are losing mortgage business to nonbank lenders or simply experiencing the same slowdown affecting the broader housing market.
The figures come as Americans face mortgage rates significantly above the levels available just a few years ago, making monthly payments more expensive and discouraging existing homeowners from selling properties financed at much lower rates.
The weakness extends across some of America’s largest financial institutions.
Bank
Q3 mortgage production
Change from Q2
JPMorgan Chase
$16 billion
−7%
Bank of America
$9.8 billion
−12%
Wells Fargo
$7.8 billion
−13%
JPMorgan remained the largest mortgage originator among the three, although its retail mortgage production fell 18% to $8.7 billion. That decline was partly offset by an increase in loans acquired through correspondent lending channels.
Wells Fargo reported a decline in home lending revenue to $743 million, down 15% from a year earlier.
The figures underscore the pressure facing large banks despite stronger performance in other businesses, including consumer deposits and commercial lending.
Higher mortgage rates have reduced the purchasing power of prospective homebuyers, especially first-time purchasers who lack equity from an existing property.
Homeowners who secured mortgages at rates near 3% during the pandemic also face a financial disincentive to move. Purchasing another property could mean replacing an inexpensive mortgage with one carrying a substantially higher rate.
That dynamic reduces housing transactions and limits demand for new mortgages.
The consequences extend beyond banks. Reduced home purchases can affect real estate brokerages, title companies, mortgage processors, home improvement businesses and other industries dependent on residential transactions.
Bank of America’s traditional first-lien mortgage originations declined to $6.8 billion from $8.2 billion in the second quarter.
However, home equity lending increased slightly, reaching $2.9 billion compared with $2.8 billion previously.
That contrast suggests some existing homeowners are continuing to borrow against the equity in their properties rather than sell or refinance their low-rate mortgages.
Bank of America also reported third-quarter net income of $6.9 billion, down from $8.3 billion a year earlier, after substantial regulatory penalties related to anti-money-laundering and sanctions compliance failures.
The mortgage slowdown, therefore, comes as the bank faces additional pressures outside its housing operations.
One of the larger questions facing the mortgage industry is whether the decline at major banks reflects weaker demand or a continued shift toward independent mortgage companies.
Nonbank lenders operate without the same deposit-taking structure as traditional banks and have become major competitors in mortgage origination.
Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said the reported declines were generally consistent with broader industry projections.
The Mortgage Bankers Association had projected an 8.5% quarterly decline in mortgage originations, while Fannie Mae forecast a 7% decrease.
Those estimates suggest that a substantial part of the banks’ weaker production reflects market conditions rather than necessarily a loss of competitive position.
Still, individual bank declines exceeding industry forecasts could prompt closer examination of lending strategies, pricing and distribution.
For consumers, weaker mortgage activity does not automatically translate into cheaper loans.
Mortgage rates are heavily influenced by Treasury yields, inflation expectations and investors’ demand for mortgage-backed securities. Banks can compete more aggressively for customers, but those broader financial conditions remain important determinants of borrowing costs.
For the housing industry, sustained weakness in mortgage production could mean fewer transactions, slower activity for real estate service companies and continued difficulties for families trying to purchase homes.
The next test will be whether mortgage rates ease enough to bring buyers back into the market or remain elevated through the end of the year.
For banks, the challenge is equally clear: protecting mortgage profitability while competing for fewer transactions, without sacrificing lending standards.
JBizNews Desk | Charlotte, North Carolina
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
JBizNews1 day agoAVIATION & GLOBAL BUSINESS | OCTOBER 14, 2026
LISBON, Portugal — Germany’s Lufthansa has won a $1.3 billion battle for a major stake in TAP Air Portugal, defeating rival Air France-KLM in a deal that will reshape European aviation and give the German airline group a stronger foothold in the lucrative transatlantic travel market.
Portugal’s government announced Wednesday that it selected Lufthansa to acquire an initial 44.9% stake in the national carrier, with the possibility of increasing its ownership to 49.9%. The agreement values TAP at approximately €2.55 billion ($2.85 billion), while the Portuguese government will retain a controlling 50.1% stake.
Lufthansa’s offer was 16% higher than Air France-KLM’s competing bid, according to Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who said the German company’s proposal also carried less financial uncertainty.
The acquisition gives Lufthansa something difficult to build from scratch: an established airline with a strong position linking Europe to Brazil, Africa and North America.
Lisbon’s location makes it a strategic gateway for flights between Europe and South America, particularly Brazil, where TAP has an extensive network.
For Lufthansa, which already controls SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Italy’s ITA Airways, TAP represents another significant step in consolidating Europe’s airline industry.
The deal also keeps TAP within the Star Alliance network, strengthening Lufthansa’s ability to connect passengers across its existing international operations.
The agreement extends beyond purchasing airline shares.
Lufthansa’s proposal calls for expanding TAP’s fleet from approximately 101 aircraft to 117 by 2035 and eventually to 130. Plans also include the introduction of up to eight Airbus A350-900 aircraft beginning in 2030.
Portugal expects the airline’s expansion and associated aviation investments to support approximately 5,500 direct and indirect jobs.
Additional commitments include a pilot training school, an aviation innovation center and investments in airport infrastructure.
For the Portuguese economy, the government sees the partnership as an opportunity to increase tourism, strengthen international connectivity and attract further investment in aviation-related industries.
Despite Wednesday’s announcement, Lufthansa will not immediately take ownership.
The transaction still requires European regulatory approval, with completion expected in 2028.
Portugal has also left open the possibility of further privatization, potentially allowing Lufthansa to increase its ownership beyond the initial minority stake.
TAP transported 16.7 million passengers in 2025, operating a network spanning Europe, the Americas and Africa. However, the airline recorded a net profit of only €4.1 million that year, underscoring the challenge of converting passenger traffic into sustained profitability.
For Lufthansa, the opportunity comes with financial and operational responsibilities, including integrating another major European airline while improving returns across its existing businesses.
The decision is a setback for Air France-KLM, which had sought to establish Lisbon as a major southern European hub within its own international network.
For travelers and businesses, the longer-term consequences could include expanded flight connections, more capacity between Europe and the Americas, and increasingly concentrated competition among Europe’s largest aviation groups.
JBizNews Desk | Lisbon, Portugal
© 2026 JBizNews. All Rights Reserved.
AI-generated editorial illustration for JBizNews showing Lufthansa and TAP Air Portugal aircraft. Not an actual photograph of the transaction.
JBizNews1 day agoCity Council Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani have reached an agreement on legislation that would end the use of the horse-drawn carriages in Central Park by June 2028, the New York Times reported. The issue has been a contentious one for over 150 years and the subject of fierce debate between animal rights activists and labor unions that represent the industry’s drivers and business owners. The topic once again came to the forefront when a visiting teen died after being thrown from a carriage in June; according to Menin, the bill is likely to pass with a veto-proof majority in a council vote scheduled for October 22.
A similar version of the bill, known as Ryder’s Law and supported by former mayor Eric Adams, was voted down by a council subcommittee last November, as 6sqft reported. In June, a carriage horse bolted after the driver stepped away to snap a photo for a family visiting from India; an 18-year-old fell from the carriage and struck his head, leading to his death. That tragedy and a number of additional horse-related incidents have made the law a priority for its proponents.
“When Romanch was killed, it was, to me, a breaking point where we have to do something,” Menin said in an interview with the Times.
Animal rights groups like New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets have opposed the carriages for years. The group celebrated the bill as a “long-overdue ban on cruel and dangerous horse-drawn carriages.”
Introduced in 2022 and sponsored by Council Member Christopher Marte, Ryder’s Law, the previous version of the bill, was named after a horse that collapsed in Hell’s Kitchen and was later euthanized. Following the incident, the Animal Legal Defense Fund showed that 71 percent of city residents agreed with banning horse-drawn carriage rides, as 6sqft previously reported.
Prior to a city council hearing on the bill in June, the Central Park Conservancy called for its passage, pointing to eight horse-related incidents in Central Park over the previous 13 months.
The group publicly backed the measure, now called Romanch’s Law after the teen killed in the recent carriage incident, for the first time in August.
Opposition to the measure comes from the city’s Transport Workers Union Local 100, representing the carriage operators, who say the law does not sufficiently protect workers, including 150 active and licensed drivers, who hold 68 medallions for horse-drawn carriages. In a statement to the Times, John Samuelson, the union’s president, said the current bill “has no meaningful economic relief for workers.”
The bill would require drivers to “dispose of their horses humanely,” rather than being sold for slaughter or put to use elsewhere in the horse-drawn carriage industry. The bill also asks the city to consider financial compensation for carriage owners who have purchased expensive city-issued medallions and spent years building their business.
Both Menin and Mamdani said they’re considering plans to compensate drivers for loss of their employment. In a post on X on Tuesday, Mamdani said: “The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City. Our administration will make sure workers and owners are protected and the horses are safe.”
When asked about his commitment to the union workers during a press conference on Wednesday Mamdani said:
“We have stated our commitment before, and I will count to echo it. That it is a commitment to ensuring that we are protecting the workers in this industry, the owners in this industry. Every single day, over the course of the next negotiation of both this legislation and the broader framework around it, is one that we’re spending to advance that kind of agenda.”
“We want to ensure that this is a resolution that also comes with a measure of a just transition for those who have earned their livelihood from this kind of work,” the mayor added.
Though Mamdani has not specifically stated whether he would sign the bill into law, he has voiced support for it and said that he had reached an agreement with the speaker on the bill, which is expected to pass the upcoming city council vote with a veto-proof majority.
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The post Horse-drawn carriages to be banned in Central Park after deal between Council and Mamdani first appeared on 6sqft.
JBizNews1 day agoCrypto titan Michael Saylor predicts bitcoin will surge past $100,000 over the next year to kick off a massive new bull market.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is trading around $81,800, up from about $75,900 a month ago, around the time the Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act in a procedural vote.
Saylor, the executive chairman of Strategy Inc., argued that the best thing to happen to crypto was the major piece of legislation failing on Capitol Hill.
“Bitcoin didn’t need the law,” Saylor said.
He noted that the stalled 630-page Clarity Act bill was loaded with heavy restrictions. When it tanked, the Washington logjam broke.
Instead of suffocating mandates, the Treasury rushed in to back stablecoins, the Securities and Exchange Commission paved the way for tokenized securities and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission unlocked prediction markets and derivatives.
“It was really the best thing that could happen for the industry because the industry got constructive guidance that they can grow with and all of the restrictions that had been placed in the bill didn’t become law,” Saylor said.
Skeptics worry future administrations might try to roll back these new rules. Saylor waved off the panic, comparing crypto to the early days of Uber and Airbnb.
If digital assets enrich 100 million Americans by the next election cycle, Saylor noted, no politician will dare take that away.
Traditional banking giants are already diving headfirst into bitcoin custody and credit lines.
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JBizNews1 day agoThe head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) declared Wednesday that his agency uncovered “irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses,” including over political views.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould made the remark after the OCC said it investigated debanking activities at the nine largest banks it supervises: JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank and BMO Bank. The practice of debanking is the denial, restriction or closure of an individual’s or organization’s access to banking services.
The 47-page OCC report found that in February 2021, under the Biden administration, “a payment processor owned by one bank closed the account of a merchant that sold merchandise promoting President Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) brand.” And two years later, “one bank declined to provide financial services to a public education organization due to its partisan leanings — namely, the organization’s political arm’s endorsement of solely Democratic candidates.”
“Americans should have access to financial services regardless of their beliefs, affiliations, or political views,” Gould said in a statement. “Fair access to financial services is not a mantra — it is a mandate. The Trump Administration is committed to ending the weaponization of finance against hardworking Americans, once and for all.”
The report also said: “Fear of being on the wrong side of public opinion led at least one bank to distance itself from certain customer affiliations that could possibly be viewed as partisan.
“Until 2025, one bank’s business line treated a business engaged in ‘partisan activity’ as presenting presumptively high reputation risk. While the policy appears to have been applied consistently to organizations on both sides of the political spectrum, the bank’s business line ultimately declined to provide financial services to organizations merely for the constitutionally protected views the organizations espoused,” it said. “By contrast, organizations deemed to be ‘bipartisan’ received services.”
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the report is “damning.”
“Debanking Americans over faith or politics is simply un-American,” he added. “Expect to hear more from the Banking Committee on this important issue when Congress returns.”
The OCC said it carried out its review in compliance with an executive order President Donald Trump signed in August 2025, “to determine whether these banks’ policies or practices may have required, encouraged, or otherwise influenced banks to deny or limit access to financial services to Americans because of their political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities.”
“The OCC’s findings show that, between 2020 and September 2025, all nine banks had such policies,” it said.
The White House, after Trump signed the executive order, said the president “believes that no American should be denied access to financial services because of their political or religious beliefs, and that banking decisions must solely be made on the basis of individualized, objective, and risk-based analyses.”
Trump previously said he himself has been targeted by debanking efforts, which he claims are driven by political bias from bank regulators. Melania Trump also said in her memoir that she too had her account closed after many years of banking with a specific banking institution and that Barron Trump was subsequently denied the creation of an account after the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Prior to the executive order last summer, sources on Wall Street told Fox News Digital that regulators under the Biden administration put pressure on top banks to examine accounts for political reasons. Banking regulators operate under an alphabet soup of federal agencies, and sources said that when a regulator speaks, whether couched as a rule, guidance or even a simple conversation, banks have little choice but to listen.
“In the report, the OCC found that broad reputation risk policies — which lacked clear standards and objective, risk-based criteria — disadvantaged certain Americans based on their political, religious, or social views or based on their lawful business activities,” the OCC also said. “The OCC also found that banks maintained public and nonpublic policies restricting certain industry sectors’ access to financial services, including those in oil and gas exploration, coal mining or coal-powered plants, firearms or ammunition manufacturing or distribution, construction or operation of detention facilities, the manufacturing, distribution or online retail of tobacco or e-cigarettes, and digital asset activities.”
The report was based on “nearly 100,000 complaints to OCC-regulated institutions,” while the OCC also “received approximately 50,000 documents consisting of approximately 420,000 pages from these banks regarding their policies, procedures, practices, and individual customer decisions.”
“The OCC first announced this review of its nine largest banks by asset size in September 2025 and issued preliminary findings in December 2025. Today’s report is the latest action by the OCC to address debanking and promote fair access,” the OCC continued.
The agency said it is “considering actions to prevent banks from discriminating against customers or prospective customers on the basis of their political or religious beliefs and to address the problematic role of reputation risk in bank decision-making.”
In a statement to FOX Business, JPMorgan Chase Bank said its policies “prohibit discrimination against customers based on political or religious views.”
“The report also discusses a limited number of historical interactions among the nearly 90 million customers and small businesses we serve across the country and around the world,” the bank added. “We take this seriously, learned from it, and improved the way we do business.
“We agree with the Administration on a broader point: years of operating in a regulatory environment that often second-guessed decisions contributed to a culture of caution across the banking industry. That system needs fixing,” JPMorgan Chase also said.
Wells Fargo declined to comment. BMO Bank referred FOX Business to a statement from the Bank Policy Institute, which said, “The banking industry supports fair access to banking services and has been working to ensure that government regulations and policies enable banks to serve law-abiding customers.
“We look forward to continued engagement with the administration and Congress as they consider additional proposals that ensure that political or religious beliefs do not unfairly affect customers’ access to banking services,” the BPI statement added.
FOX Business has also reached out to Bank of America, Citibank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank and TD Bank for comment.
FOX Business’ Amanda Macias contributed to this report.
