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North America
CNBC Finance

Airlines waive change fees ahead of nor'easter as flight delays trickle in

U.S. airlines waived change fees for flights Friday through Sunday ahead of a nor'easter that federal forecasters warn will bring high winds and rainfall with the potential for dangerous flooding. As of Friday afternoon, close to 600 flights to and from LaGuardia Airport in New York were delayed, more than half the schedule, according to FlightAware. Dozens of others were delayed at major New England and New York-area airports. Carriers will often cancel a chunk, if not most of their schedules, during severe winter storms or hurricanes to ensure planes, passengers and crews aren't out of place, but airlines are still assessing the nor'easter's potential path and impact. American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and JetBlue Airways said customers can change their flights for a host of airports in the New York City area, Boston and smaller New England airports, without paying a change fee or difference in fare if they can fly anytime before the middle of next week. The potential weekend disruptions come after an equipment outage on Monday forced carriers to cancel hundreds of flights bound for the New York area and Philadelphia. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Airlines waive change fees ahead of nor'easter as flight delays trickle in
Europe
BBC Business

OpenAI scraps rollout of new model over safety concerns

OpenAI will not release its new AI model - GPT-6.1 Astra - due to safety concerns, the ChatGPT-maker confirmed on Tuesday. The AI system - which performs tasks like browsing the web and using apps by itself - "didn't quite meet the bar" of the company's standards, Saachi Jain, head of safety systems at OpenAI, said. On Tuesday, OpenAI also issued an update on incidents, that occurred in June but were not made public until last week, in which its models accessed Australian government websites and systems without authorisation. Those incidents and similar breaches by models developed by major AI firms have in recent weeks intensified the debate around the risks posed by the technology. Top AI leaders including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic boss Dario Amodei have urged the industry to slow the pace of development due to concerns about risks associated with the technology. OpenAI's decision, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is a rare instance of a major AI developer pulling a new release over safety concerns. The model fell short in terms of "staying within scope and authorisation, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it's done," Jain said. "We want to make sure our model development is safe no matter whether that's in the company, or when we ship it to users. But when we ship it to users, we have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment," she added. The flagship GPT-6 Astra agentic model was released in September and specialises in complex reasoning and executing tasks autonomously. OpenAI said it was the result of "years of research and big bets". OpenAI is set to hold its annual DevDay developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, where it is expected to make several announcements. It is unclear if a new version of Astra will be among them. The company's security controls have come under intense scrutiny after several high-profile incidents involving its technology. Last week, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that a rogue OpenAI agent had hacked into government websites and systems in June in what experts said was the first known case of its kind in the world.

OpenAI scraps rollout of new model over safety concerns
North America
CNBC Finance

New study reveals the estate-planning choices that are likely to pit heirs against each other

Trusts are designed to keep wealth out the public eye, and inheritance battles usually happen behind closed doors. But a first-of-its-kind study of hundreds of contested trust cases offers a rare look at the circumstances that can send heirs to court. One of the biggest pitfalls for handing down wealth is choosing one child to control a family trust when siblings or other relatives would also benefit, according to the analysis of 640 trust disputes, published in the Washington University Law Review earlier this month. Christopher Ryan, one of the study's authors and a professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, described this specific trust setup as "an important recipe for conflict." "That arrangement could combine ordinary sibling rivalry with a genuine power imbalance," he told CNBC via email. For instance, he added, giving one child privileges such as discretion over trust distributions can deepen preexisting feelings among siblings that a parent played favorites. The study identified contested trust disputes by examining thousands of civil filings that were scheduled to come before San Francisco Superior Court between 2014 and 2020. Ryan co-authored the study with Reid Weisbord and David Horton, law professors at Rutgers Law School and University of California, Davis, School of Law, respectively. Nearly a quarter of the reviewed disputes involved a descendant beneficiary suing another descendant beneficiary who was also a trustee. Many of the petitioners were siblings — whether through blood or marriage — though some may have been grandchildren, noted Horton. Nearly all of the petitions involved revocable trusts, a common tool to allow a successor trustee to manage the settlor's property long after their death. While trusts are often used to avoid the time and expense of probate, they can draw families into costly disputes that span months or years. The average case, including filings that were settled, lasted 481 days. The study found that in 74% of cases a trustee was accused of misconduct, often specifically breach of duty of care or loyalty. In nearly a third of petitions, beneficiaries requested a detailed accounting of the trust's finances, which Horton said reflects beneficiaries who suspected their trustees were mismanaging funds or ripping them off. Many of these fights appeared to be driven more by emotion than money, according to Horton. He highlighted the case of the Mar siblings, who spent their trust's entire cash assets and more than five years in litigation. Raymond Mar, who died in 2016, gave his son the right to live rent-free in his home for the rest of his life. The siblings went to court after they disagreed over whether the son could accept a tenant. In 2024, a judge scolded both sides for excessive litigation and ruled for the trust to be dissolved and for the house to be sold. Despite the ruling, Raymond Mar's daughters filed in October 2025 to deduct attorney fees from their brother's share of the trust. Horton said the study's results suggest that feelings can cloud a litigant's judgment. When parties refused to settle, people who challenged the trust generally lost. Petitioners' odds of winning or reaching a settlement dropped by 48 percentage points if their cases required a formal trial rather than a judge ruling based on filings and oral arguments.

New study reveals the estate-planning choices that are likely to pit heirs against each other
Europe
The Guardian

Gouged: why Americans are being ripped off – and what to do about it

Close-up of a hand with jade and brown bracelets inserting a credit card into a payment terminal at a store checkout. Photograph: Julia Kozlov/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenClose-up of a hand with jade and brown bracelets inserting a credit card into a payment terminal at a store checkout. Photograph: Julia Kozlov/Getty ImagesConsumedUS economyGouged: why Americans are being ripped off – and what to do about itHow can we fix our pricing crisis? Economic sociologist Lindsay Owens urges tough new rules – and a consumer uprising “Repeat after me: it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault.” That’s the message to frustrated US shoppers in Gouged: The End of a Fair Price – and What That Means for Your Wallet by Lindsay Owens, economic sociologist and head of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive Washington thinktank. Consumer rage is rising and no wonder – we are all living through the “reinvention of the rip-off”, Owens told the Guardian, an experience that is undermining Americans’ trust in the economy. Nothing short of a consumer uprising and a slate of tough new rules is going to fix the problem, she believes. The book concludes with a “shoppers’ bill of rights” that lays out how local and federal governments could write rules to fix the problem: ban companies from using shared software to coordinate prices, it urges, and require AI “shopping assistants” to act in consumers’ best interest, not steer them to higher-price items, among other moves. “A cost of living crisis is the right time to build the constituency for a revived consumer movement in this country,” Owens says. The following interview was compiled from several conversations and edited and condensed for clarity. Right around the time that America started experiencing rising inflation and cost of living in 2021, I started to realize that there was something else going on besides just high prices. The way companies were talking about pricing was starting to shift. Their costs were going up but they weren’t too worried about it. They were planning to pass all of their rising costs along to us, and they were pretty bullish about gilding the lily and going for more. I started to see a little bit of a breadcrumb trail: “Oh, these companies are bullish because they have a plan for this, right?” They have some new techniques and technologies they’re planning to deploy, they have some new partnerships, they’ve been buying up AI pricing companies … they were ready for this moment. What actually changed inside corporate boardrooms? Cost-cutting hit bone. I cut my teeth in academia and the Senate studying the ruthless form of American capitalism that’s centered around it: bust unions and keep wages down, pass Nafta and outsource labor, bring in the bean counters from the big four accounting firms and ask: “How do we limit our regulatory costs?” But there’s been a shift toward the revenue side of the ledger that includes getting better on price hiking. That’s easier to do when there’s less competition, but it’s also the result of new technologies. Gouged details data-mining companies unknown to the average consumer, like EverSight, Kronos, Plexure. How important have they been to the “gouging” problem US consumers are facing?

Gouged: why Americans are being ripped off – and what to do about it
Europe
BBC Business

UK diesel price hits all-time high, RAC says

Image source, Getty ImagesByEmer Moreau, Business reporter and Theo Leggett, International Business CorrespondentPublished28 September 2026, 10:14 BSTUpdated 1 hour agoDiesel prices have hit an all-time high of 199.18p per litre, according to the motoring organisation RAC, as the war in the Middle East continues to push up the cost of fuel. Over the past seven months, the Iran war has severely disrupted the production and transportation of wholesale oil across the region, causing the price of fuels made from oil to surge. RAC said diesel prices had entered "uncharted territory" and served as a reminder of "just how exposed the UK is to events occurring far away". The cost of diesel has now risen by 59p a litre, or just under 40%, since the conflict between the USA and Iran erupted at the end of February. The previous record was 199.09p in June 2022. The increase means the cost of filling an average family car with diesel is now £110, £31 more than at the start of the conflict. Petrol prices are now 41p per litre more than at the start of the conflict, but still well below a 2022 peak. The RAC data is based on the average price of diesel at a range of supermarkets, motorway service stations and independent retailers. Simon Williams, RAC's head of policy, said the diesel record "spells pain not only at the pumps for drivers, but for everyone who buys goods or services that rely on diesel lorries and vans". "Undoubtedly these increased costs will be passed on to consumers," he said. Williams said prices at the pumps will not come down until there is a "sustained lower oil price - over several weeks, not days". The price of Brent crude, a benchmark for global oil used to make petrol, diesel and other fuel products, rose over the weekend and is now hovering at around $108 per barrel. Before the US invaded Iran, it was trading at around $73. Supplies of diesel internationally have been heavily constrained by the conflict in the Middle East, which has restricted the flow of both crude oil and refined diesel onto global markets. Russia, which is also a major producer, has also implemented an export ban on diesel, following attacks on its refineries by Ukraine, further limiting supply.

UK diesel price hits all-time high, RAC says
Europe
BBC Business

Warning more homes will be uninsurable due to flood risk

Homes are being built today that could become uninsurable in the future due to the risk of flooding, the boss of insurance giant Aviva has said. Amanda Blanc said the risk of flooding is "absolutely increasing", but based on current building patterns 115,000 new homes will be built in flood zones in the next decade. "That doesn't seem to me to make sense. We need to think about where those homes are being built," she told the BBC. About 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are at risk of flooding, according to the Environment Agency, and Aviva research found one in nine homes built between 2022 and 2024 are at medium to high risk of flooding. Blanc told the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast that England was "for sure" building homes that might be uninsurable at some point in the future. "It's very well known where these flooding areas are. Let's think very carefully about homes that are being built." Blanc said construction that borders those flood zones also needs a different approach. "You can do all sorts of different things to your property to make it more or less vulnerable to flood," she said. According to Aviva's research, nearly a third of new homes built in 2024 will be at risk of some flooding by 2050, and one in seven would be at medium to high risk of flooding as extreme weather becomes more acute. Earlier this year the Met Office estimated that with current levels of global warming, record-breaking wet winters like the one experienced in the UK in 2023-2024 have gone from once in 80-year events to once in 20-year events. In a wide-ranging interview, Blanc urged the government to avoid policy "kite flying" ahead of Chancellor John Healey's first Budget on 28 October. Aviva is a major UK private pension provider, and Blanc said speculation over the last couple of Budgets about changes to pensions led to a significant increase in withdrawals.

Warning more homes will be uninsurable due to flood risk
Europe
BBC Business

Unis are offering degrees in content creation for £30,000. But are they worth it?

As university courses go it may raise a few eyebrows, but Destiny McGowan has no doubt that hers was very useful. In July the 21-year-old graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a degree in content creation. As well as teaching how to best make videos and posts for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, the course also focused on how to build audiences, engage with brands and monetise your content. "I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, so for me the course was about the transferable skills that I believed I would gain," says Destiny, pointing to both the social media and business aspects she was taught. It's early on in her career, and Destiny refuses to disclose precisely what she is earning, but says she's already making money. In addition to posting about fashion on her own accounts, she makes videos for others, and has also been hired as a TikTok live selling host, presenting products for sale on camera. She says the course gave her access to equipment, technology and industry contacts. "The incredible people I've met through panels that the university hosted would take someone five to 10 years to get to that place," she explains. Nottingham Trent says its content creation degree, which it launched in 2022, provides "hands-on experience". Several universities in the UK now offer such courses. The University of Brighton says it teaches students how to create "content that cuts through the noise". Meanwhile in the US, Arizona State University say its similar qualification allows students to "turn your creativity into content that connects with audiences". Yet you'd be paying a lot of money for this. The three-year degrees at Nottingham Trent and Brighton both currently cost £9,790 per year for UK students, while the standard annual fee at Arizona State is $14,724 (£11,000) for a resident of that state.

Unis are offering degrees in content creation for £30,000. But are they worth it?
North America
CNBC Finance

Novo is betting on its next chapter as Eli Lilly gains more ground in GLP-1s

Every time Novo urges investors to look ahead, Eli Lilly gives them another reason to look back at its widening lead over the Danish drugmaker. Novo this week laid out an ambitious strategy to reignite growth beyond its top-selling Wegovy and Ozempic injections, which face patent expirations in key markets in the early 2030s. At its Capital Markets Day on Monday, the company promised a pipeline of potential blockbuster products, including drugs that would diversify from its core area of obesity and diabetes. But Wall Street so far isn't convinced by Novo's road map. Investors pummeled the drugmaker's stock, underwhelmed by growth targets that matched industry averages rather than outpacing them. They were also skeptical of the lack of clarity around a near-term turnaround plan. At the same time, Lilly continues to chip away at its rival's market share — including in the burgeoning obesity pill space. Novo hopes to keep its early lead in the oral weight loss market after the successful launch of the Wegovy pill, months ahead of Lilly's rival pill, Foundayo. Novo CEO Mike Doustdar told CNBC on Tuesday that early adoption suggests patients may have been waiting for an alternative to injections. "If that continues to the extent that we have seen, then yes, mathematically, by the end of the decade, there is going to be a larger portion on the pill than injectable," he said. In an exclusive interview with CNBC on Monday, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said the drugmaker's new obesity pill, Foundayo, is slowly gaining ground in the U.S. One-third of new GLP-1 pill patients are taking Lilly's drug, and its share of that oral market is growing "week by week," Ricks told CNBC in Houston, Texas. Lilly is also claiming an early lead in the newly established Medicare market for obesity drugs, after the federal program started covering those treatments in July. Ricks said 700,000 seniors have started GLP-1s in Medicare following the start of coverage, and 70% of those patients are on Lilly's drugs. He added that Medicare patients have shown a particular preference for Lilly's obesity injection Zepbound, which has helped the company become the dominant player in the broader market. Lilly said in August that it held about a 61% share in the U.S. GLP-1 space in the second quarter, while Novo held roughly 39%. While investors appeared to want more detail on Novo's plans for post-Wegovy and Ozempic growth at Monday's investor event, the drugmaker is betting that there could be more than one successor to the mega-blockbuster franchise. For Novo, the challenge is not solely replacing revenue from Wegovy and Ozempic when they lose exclusivity and face more generic competition. It is convincing investors that the company can regain momentum in a GLP-1 market it helped establish years before Lilly came into the picture, even as its rival continues to build its lead. Even as Novo works to turn itself around after two bruising years marked by multiple setbacks, analysts say Lilly has several advantages that could help it maintain its spot at the top of the obesity drug market.

Novo is betting on its next chapter as Eli Lilly gains more ground in GLP-1s
Europe
BBC Business

Trump and Xi exchange warm words at state dinner but little progress on key issues

US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping exchanged warm words at a lavish White House state dinner but gave little indication of progress on pressing issues. Xi stressed that they should ensure AI remain "under human control" and act "as responsible major countries", while Trump toasted a future of "harmony, peace and success" for both nations. But tensions remain despite the diplomatic niceties, including over Taiwan - with Xi urging Trump earlier in the day to take the "correct position" on the self-governing island which Beijing claims, amid a weapons package paused by Trump. Billionaire business leaders and US tech CEOs joined the leaders at the extravagant dinner late on Thursday. Their arrival was marked by protesters shouting from just outside the White House gates, some of whom were arrested. Trump lavished praise on Xi during his first visit to the US in over a decade, telling those attending the dinner that while the two countries had "different systems", they had "never gotten along better". Xi meanwhile welcomed the "historic juncture" in US-China relations - and said both leaders' ambitions could "surely be mutually reinforcing". "China and the United States must act as responsible major countries to meet the expectations of our peoples, keep pace with the trend of our times, and explore a new approach for major countries to get along with each other," he said. While Xi said he and Trump had shared "in-depth exchanges and reached common understanding on many issues", little to no mention was made of the crucial matters which divide the leaders of the world's two most powerful countries. China believes the US is trying to contain its rise as a superpower, and it wants Washington to stay out of its way - particularly when it comes to trade, technology and Taiwan. Trump has meanwhile been expected to aim for deals around trade and tariffs during the visit – like lowering Chinese tariffs on American goods, increasing imports of Chinese rare earth minerals, and increasing exports of US agricultural products. Trump has been blunt about his ambitions for artificial intelligence (AI) - and clear that he considers China to be the US's main rival for its development.

Trump and Xi exchange warm words at state dinner but little progress on key issues