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Europe
The Guardian

US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time since 2023

Kevin Warsh at the Federal Reserve in in Washington in July. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersView image in fullscreenKevin Warsh at the Federal Reserve in in Washington in July. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersFederal ReserveUS Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time since 2023Trump urges lower rates after central bank agrees increase by quarter-percentage point to range of 3.75% to 4% The US Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2023 as the central bank continues to fight to tamp down inflation. The Fed’s open market committee voted unanimously to raise its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4%. This is the first time the Fed has raised rates since July 2023 and potentially sets Kevin Warsh, the current Fed chair, on a collision course with Donald Trump. “The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Warsh said on Wednesday. “This summer’s inflation readings do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved.” After the announcement, Trump said in a Truth Social post that interest rates should be 1% or less and criticized the US trade deficit. Trump said the US would make “at least 1.5 Trillion Dollars a year” if it were to stop trading with countries with which it has a deficit. Though Warsh acknowledged changing geopolitics, he avoided calling out the US-Israel war with Iran by name. “There’s no hiding from hotspots around the world, and our judgment about what is the most likely or least likely of the geopolitical situation has changed,” he said. Warsh also declined to answer questions about how Trump would react but reiterated that Fed independence was “a two-way street”. “We will let people that do trade policy and fiscal policy stay in their lane. That is the way we can stand up here and call them the way we see them,” he said. New projections showed a majority of officials penciled in another rate hike before the year’s end, with four officials predicting the Fed’s benchmark interest rate would reach a range of 4.25% to 4.5% by the end of the year. And though estimates on the country’s economic growth and unemployment rate were upbeat, Fed officials believed it would take roughly until 2029 for inflation to reach its 2% goal. At its last meeting in late July, the open market committee voted 9-3 to maintain rates, the first time in 10 years that so many members shared dissent on a policy decision. Since then, the US and Iran have renewed attacks against each other, driving up the Brent crude benchmark to its highest levels in month.

US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time since 2023
North America
CNBC Finance

American Airlines says 30% of seats drive half of revenue as premium cabin rush heats up

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Wednesday that just 30% of its seats account for half of the company's revenue, a proportion that has the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier and competitors large and small ripping up existing airplane configurations to add more first-class and other higher-yielding options. "Those 30% of seats, they're only going to grow in our fleet as the reconfigurations come on board as the new aircraft deliveries come on," Isom said at a Morgan Stanley industry conference, referring to the carrier's premium seat options. The airline earlier this month unveiled a monster 70-suite business-class cabin on its largest aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, with more planes still awaiting their remodeling. American had fallen behind its large airline competitors in profits. Isom has said that adding premium seating to capitalize on higher-spending customers, a resilient and bright spot in air travel, is key, especially as airlines try to cover this year's surge in fuel costs, their second-largest expense after labor. Even smaller and budget carriers like Allegiant Air and JetBlue Airways are adding upgraded seat options to appeal to those flyers. Isom told CNBC in June that the airline is also planning a revamp of its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners and that new interiors on its 777-200s are also on tap. The carrier is set to order new wide-body aircraft this year, Isom said. 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.

American Airlines says 30% of seats drive half of revenue as premium cabin rush heats up
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

CCPA slaps ₹10 lakh fine on Amazon, Flipkart; ₹5 lakh on JioMart over unregistered herbicide sales

CCPA imposed penalties of ₹10 lakh each on Amazon and Flipkart, and ₹5 lakh on JioMart. | Photo Credit: Dado Ruvic The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed penalties of ₹10 lakh each on Amazon and Flipkart, and ₹5 lakh on JioMart, for selling and advertising an unregistered agro-chemical product called 'Cyclosinone Herbicide' on their platforms. In a separate order dated September 22, the consumer protection regulator directed the three e-commerce companies to immediately discontinue the sale and advertisement of the product, which it found was being marketed without disclosing the chemical name of its active ingredient or its composition. The CCPA also directed the platforms to conduct a self-audit to prevent listings of products that contravene existing law or pose a hazard to consumer safety, and asked them to submit compliance reports within 15 days of the order. The investigation was triggered after the CCPA received a complaint forwarded by the Union Ministry of Agriculture, originally filed by the Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI). During the probe, the Agriculture Ministry informed the CCPA that no chemical by the name "Cyclosinone" is listed in the Schedule to the Insecticides Act, 1968, meaning the product's sale and marketing bypassed mandatory safety, bio-efficacy, quality and legal checks required under the law. The CCPA noted that the marketplaces had not carried out adequate independent verification of the product's regulatory status before allowing the listings to go live. In its order against Amazon, the regulator cited 38,410 orders involving 43,634 units, with an aggregate sale value of ₹96,42,572/- as evidence of the scale of consumer exposure and the misleading impression created among buyers. Rejecting the platforms' defence that compliance responsibility lay contractually with individual sellers, the CCPA held that a private arrangement between a marketplace and its sellers cannot override statutory obligations imposed by Parliament or delegated legislation meant to protect consumers. It said the very requirement of obtaining a seller undertaking shows that the marketplace itself carries a compliance obligation, and it is not enough to merely point to contractual terms with sellers. The regulator also invoked Rule 4(3) of the E-Commerce Rules, which bars e-commerce entities from adopting unfair trade practices in the course of business. "Sellers may submit false or incomplete declarations in order to list their products. Therefore, relying only on self-declaration is inadequate. It reflects gross negligence and deficiencies in the Opposite Party's seller onboarding procedures, product verification and content moderation mechanisms," the CCPA observed.

CCPA slaps ₹10 lakh fine on Amazon, Flipkart; ₹5 lakh on JioMart over unregistered herbicide sales
North America
CNBC Economy

Indonesia's new finance minister faces an uphill battle on fiscal credibility

Indonesia just got its third third finance minister in two years, putting the spotlight on concerns plaguing Southeast Asia's largest economy, with analysts flagging the need for fiscal prudence and a shift away from "interventionist" policy. President Prabowo Subianto fired Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa on Monday and replaced him with his deputy Suahasil Nazara. The reshuffle comes weeks after Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo abruptly resigned, intensifying scrutiny over how much control Prabowo now wields over fiscal and monetary policy. For investors, elevating a known technocrat could restore confidence, after a combative year under Purbaya that saw credit-rating outlooks cut and the currency slide to historic lows this year. Nazara, sworn in hours after Purbaya's dismissal, spent seven years as deputy finance minister and led the ministry's fiscal policy agency from 2015 to 2019. "He is a known technocrat with deep Finance Ministry experience and strong links to the Sri Mulyani era," said Qi Hang Tay, senior Asia analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. His internal pedigree "lowers transition risk" because he already understands the budget machinery, Tay said. Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics, described it as "a welcome development," though more evidence of improvements in policymaking would be needed to conclude that Indonesia has "truly turned a corner." Indonesia's economy came under pressure this year, squeezed by the Iran war-led energy crisis and mounting fiscal constraints. Surging energy costs drove up subsidy costs, forcing cuts to key flagship programs. Markets have reacted badly, with the benchmark index losing more than 25% this year, and the currency hitting record lows in June. A subsequent pivot toward fiscal discipline, however, has helped stabilize sentiment over the past month. The rupiah has strengthened, and was at 17,680 per dollar on Wednesday. DBS Bank economist Radhika Rao expects the currency to trade in a range of 17,600 to 17,800 near-term, with fiscal credibility underpinning the bond market and shoring up the currency. The country's fiscal deficit is expected to widen to 2.85% of GDP in 2026, with Purbaya's 1-year tenure marked by credit outlook downgrades from Fitch and Moody's over policy uncertainty, even as the country's growth climbed to three-year highs. "The new finance minister will need to be much clearer about his priorities and provide investors with more consistent signals on fiscal policy," Leather said. "Early signs are encouraging," he said, as Nazara, in his first remarks as minister, vowed to safeguard the budget's credibility and pledged to keep the deficit below 3% of GDP.

Indonesia's new finance minister faces an uphill battle on fiscal credibility
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Odisha floods: 70,000 evacuated as 13 districts face flash floods, waterlogging

A view of a strong current of floodwater washing over a road following heavy rainfall that triggered a flood-like situation in the Banpur area, in Khordha on Saturday, September 26, 2026. | Photo Credit: ANI The Odisha government on Saturday evacuated over 70,000 people living in low-lying areas to safety and housed them in 395 relief camps as all rivers in the state swelled due to heavy rainfall over the past few days, officials said. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi will conduct an aerial survey of the affected areas in south Odisha on Sunday morning. Flash floods and incidents of water-logging have been reported from 13 districts -- Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj, Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Keonjhar, Nayagarh, Kandhamal, Bolangir and Jagatsinghpur, they said. The coastal district of Balasore was among the worst hit as three major rivers were flowing above their danger level. The water level of the Subarnarekha River was flowing at 11.07 meters at Jaleswar’s Rajghat at 5 pm against the danger level of 10.36 metres. This has led to flooding in the villages in Bhograi, Jaleswar, Baliapal and Basta blocks, the officials said. Budhabalang was flowing above the danger level at 8.8 metres over NH-16 at Govindpur at 3 pm. Other rivers such as Kansabansa, Soa and Gangahar were also in spate in Balasore, they said. In Mayurbhanj, authorities of Similipal National Park have announced temporary closure of Devkund, a tourist destination, and visitors were discouraged to visit the sanctuary as several streams and water channels have experienced a significant rise in water levels, an official said. Heavy rainfall has also resulted in the washing away or damaging of bridges and culverts on the access route to Devkund, he said. The floodwaters of Budhabalang River entered some areas in Baripada municipality, and Badasahi, Betanati, Udala, Kaptipada, Saraskana, Rasagobindapur blocks. Meanwhile, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said 11 more gates of the Hirakud Dam had to be opened on Saturday to release excess water from the reservoir. “We have to open more gates due to heavy rainfall in the upper catchment area of Mahanadi River in Chhattisgarh. At present, water level is at 629.56 feet against the full reservoir level of 630 feet,” a senior official said, adding that people living in the floodplains and low-lying areas have been asked to remain alert.

Odisha floods: 70,000 evacuated as 13 districts face flash floods, waterlogging
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

OpenAI agentic AI system breaches sandbox, gains unauthorised access to public internet

OpenAI said another agentic AI system that was being trained in what was supposed to be a secured, internet-free environment was able to gain access to the web to reach an external, third-party chatbot. The discovery was made less than a week ago, according to a blog post on OpenAI’s website on Friday. One of its agentic AI systems was being trained in a sandbox environment when it exploited a “gap” to reach the public internet. With that access, it sent at least 20 queries to an unnamed, third-party chatbot service, including “What is the capital of France,” the report showed. OpenAI described the breakout as the first security incident of its kind since a combination of models gained internet access during internal testing and inadvertently breached the system of the AI platform Hugging Face in July. “It gives us an important signal about where to focus the next phase of that work,” the AI developer said. The company said it decided after the latest incident to pause training with tool use on its most capable models until the sandbox flaw was resolved. “We will not resume training this particular model,” OpenAI added. Breaches by AI models developed OpenAI, Anthropic PBC, Google’s DeepMind and Meta Platforms Inc. in recent months have alarmed cybersecurity and AI safety experts. The Hugging Face incident was among the reasons cited by Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei when he called for an industrywide slowdown in AI development two weeks ago. His call, quickly endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Elon Musk and others, has touched off a global debate over the need for more AI regulation. OpenAI disclosed the latest sandbox failure even while it’s still working to understand the disruption brought about by its agentic AI systems when they previously gained access to the internet. The company confirmed on Friday that its models accessed information from US government websites, including those of the Census Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission, during training and evaluation. Just days ago, OpenAI disclosed that its models had disrupted an Australian government website earlier this year. The most recent sandbox breach also exposed gaps in OpenAI’s operational processes. A “human reviewer” received an alert from an internal monitoring system and acknowledged it on Slack within three minutes, but the training run didn’t automatically stop as expected, the blog post showed. It took more than two hours for someone to manually stop the run, according to the report. “It’s unfortunate that even after upping their security in the wake of Hugging Face, OpenAI’s models are still capable of gaining unauthorized internet access,” said Sydney Von Arx, founder of an AI safety nonprofit Nightingale. “The big question now is whether they will slap a Band-Aid on this and turn training back on ASAP versus if they’ll find the root cause of the issue and fix it.” Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

OpenAI agentic AI system breaches sandbox, gains unauthorised access to public internet
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Centre extending support to manufacturing to end dependency, says Finance Minister

The Central Government has ensured through several budget announcements, necessary support to industry to either start domestic manufacturing for the long run or immediately for the short run, source it from elsewhere and remove dependence on other countries, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said. The government was incentivising those who want to get themselves out of this dependence and be able to produce in our country. Speaking at an interactive session at the Bharat Shakti Pondy Lit Fest here on Friday, the Finance Minister said, "our export account would say that we are still not adequately exporting to China. But actually it is going to China. But it never gets accounted like that because it goes to Vietnam and from Vietnam it sort of crosses the road and goes to China." "It should technically be in my account of I am exporting to China. It doesn't happen that way because, and I will be blunt in saying this, it's not going to be diplomatic, people are not going to like it. We don't get market access for those goods which are of bulk value, both in quantity and also the value that we can realise out of it," she said. Noting that India doesn't get the market access to China, she said whether it is buffalo meat or pharmaceutical generic drugs, both of which are bulk goods, which they buy from India, but not directly. "They go via Vietnam, they go via somebody else. So, there are items on which we have done better in the export, though they constantly deny market access." India has taken a conscious call that for some items, capacity should be created within the country. "We may be importing them now. But sooner, you will find that there will be a complete shift. All the active pharmaceutical ingredients at one point in time, India was the leader... gradually because of predatory pricing, we lost out on that game and we are not producing any. But now we've given incentives for people to restart," she said. She said industries could produce their own APIs or KPIs also, which are required for our bulk drug industry. The Opposition's GDP number agenda had mala fide intent guiding it. "What hurts me more is to see them rejoice at what they perceive as India’s failure. This country, against all odds, the people of this country against all odds, are doing their best and India is growing as a result of that," Sitharaman said. On freebies and welfare schemes, Sitharaman said if a scheme is properly budgeted and financially sustainable, it shouldn't be sensationalised or strictly categorised as a "freebie." However, she warned against the dangers of unplanned welfare, noting that allocating 80 per cent of tax collections to committed expenditures, leaves only 20 per cent for vital capital investments such as schools and hospitals. While discussing the financial strain of unplanned freebies, she cited the example of a previously revenue-surplus state that fell into a revenue deficit within three years. She noted that such states then seek to borrow beyond the established ceiling of 3 per cent of their Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) just to run the government. Addressing concerns around digital payments, she clarified that the proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions is not a tax, cess or surcharge, and it does not go into the government's tax kitty. She assured that the MDR is strictly a fee between the merchant and the service provider and will not be passed on to the consumer. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

Centre extending support to manufacturing to end dependency, says Finance Minister
North America
CNBC Finance

Tropical Smoothie Cafe is getting a makeover as it prepares for its 'next 3,000' locations

Tropical Smoothie Cafe on Wednesday unveiled a new look as the restaurant chain prepares to continue its streak of rapid growth under Blackstone's ownership. "We are a company and a brand that has evolved significantly over the last few years and really over the last 10 years," CEO Max Wetzel told CNBC. "We're thinking about what our next 3,000 cafes look like, and so it's a perfect time for us to roll this out." The redesign comes as Tropical Smoothie prepares to introduce itself to more consumers, both in the U.S. and internationally. The chain, which also sells bowls and wraps, surpassed $1.6 billion in system sales over the 12 months ended in June. By the end of the year, it is projecting it will exceed 1,800 locations nationwide, up 50% since the end of 2022. Tropical Smoothie has plans to expand outside of the U.S., too. But its bold plans come during a tricky time for the restaurant industry. Diners have been eating out less frequently, trying to save money while paying more for gas, groceries and other necessities. As a result, eateries have been battling for a smaller pool of customers and often leaning on discounts to win them over. Tropical Smoothie last tinkered with its logo a decade ago. The new design, which will be found everywhere from packaging for its wraps to its mobile app interface, uses brighter colors and a uniform font, in part to try to set it apart from quick-service competitors. "The color palette is entirely created by the ingredients that you can find in our cafe," Wetzel said. "All these ingredients are very different than a category that's really dominated by browns and beiges and fried food." It also introduces the "Palm T," a frond-shaped icon that will represent the brand in "shorthand," particularly on digital platforms, according to Wetzel. Tropical Smoothie has been working on the new branding for more than a year. But it is just one step toward what Wetzel called his ultimate goal: "building a best-in-class company." In late 2024, Tropical Smoothie consolidated national and local media budgets into a single advertising fund. Franchisees pay 5% of their gross sales in marketing fees, meaning that the fund will grow as system sales — lifted by successful marketing initiatives — increase. Tropical Smoothie's $80 million marketing budget is now deployed "much more effectively," according to Wetzel. As a result, its national brand awareness has increased from 34% of consumers a year ago to 42%, he said. Tropical Smoothie has also been trying to improve its cafe operations. Earlier this year, it started to rearrange its food and bowl assembly lines for better speed and accuracy. Outside of the cafes, Tropical Smoothie has also invested in what Wetzel called "the digital front door" of the brand. By the end of the year, the company will roll out an improved version of its mobile app and website, all with the new unified look. It is also testing self-ordering kiosks.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe is getting a makeover as it prepares for its 'next 3,000' locations
Europe
BBC Business

Not all AI workers think the tech could kill everyone

Image source, Getty ImagesByKali HaysTechnology reporter, San FranciscoPublished20 September 2026, 00:01 BSTNot all employees of major firms working on artificial intelligence (AI) think the technology spells doom for humanity. In text exchanges and conversations, multiple people who have worked for companies including OpenAI, Meta and DeepMind were sceptical of the idea that unchecked AI development would lead to tools that could kill people en masse. "Lol", "Haaaaaa" and "Bringing the luls" were among the reactions the BBC received to a recent flurry of high-profile warnings by some people in the industry. While these fears go back decades, claims made last week by Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee, went viral and were echoed by others in the sector who urged a slowdown in development. The idea that a future AI tool or agent, an AI bot that is programmed to operate somewhat autonomously, could endanger people has been supported online by employees of Anthropic, as well as OpenAI, Deepmind and Elon Musk, who has an AI startup called xAI. All of the workers who spoke with the BBC did so on condition of anonymity as they were not permitted to speak to the press. Their identities are known to the BBC. "My first thought was, 'That guy?'" said a former OpenAI employee who knew of Coxon when they both worked at the company. The person, who now works at another AI company, said their amusement at the new moment of existential AI fears largely stemmed from how little detail had been provided by its proponents to defend the notion that all of human life was at stake. The claims are "always vague", the person said, adding that when they sound specific, they tend toward major jumps in reasoning or hypothetical circumstances. Coxon has said a group of AI agents, based on AI models that do not currently exist, could decide to create and then aim a biological weapon, but he did not detail how exactly that would take place. Rishub Jain, who this summer founded the AI safety research firm Sampura Research after spending seven years at DeepMind, told the BBC that the current tone among many people working in AI with regard to fresh fears had "definitely been a little jokey". "People have been talking about this idea for many years now, so people in AI companies didn't just wake up last week thinking 'Oh no, AI is going to kill everyone,'" Jain said. "If this was all new, it would be a different tone."

Not all AI workers think the tech could kill everyone