Trump on Wednesday night signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to compel the domestic production of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides. Trump, in the order, said shortages of both phosphorus and glyphosate would pose a risk to national security. Kennedy backed the president in a statement to CNBC Thursday morning. "Donald Trump's Executive Order puts America first where it matters most — our defense readiness and our food supply," he said. "We must safeguard America's national security first, because all of our priorities depend on it. When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families." But Kennedy's MAHA coalition that supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election hates glyphosate, which has been alleged to cause cancer in myriad lawsuits. "Just as the large MAHA base begins to consider what to do at midterms, the President issues an EO to expand domestic glyphosate production," Kelly Ryerson, a prominent MAHA activist known as Glyphosate Girl, said in a post on X. "The very same carcinogenic pesticide that MAHA cares about most." Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog that has pushed back against chemicals in food for years, said in a statement that he "can't envision a bigger middle finger to every MAHA mom than this." "Elevating glyphosate to a national security priority is the exact opposite of what MAHA voters were promised," Cook said. "If Secretary Kennedy remains at HHS after this, it will be impossible to argue that his past warnings about glyphosate were anything more than campaign rhetoric designed to win trust — and votes." The executive order came down one day after Bayer proposed paying $7.25 billion to settle a series of lawsuits claiming Roundup causes cancer. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., knocked Trump for signing "an EO protecting cancer causing Glyphosate in our foods." It's applied to many key cash crops, such as corn and soybeans, and has been defended by agricultural trade organizations. Phosphorus is a key input to the creation of glyphosate, which the White House argues is necessary to maintain food security. Elemental phosphorus is also used in the manufacture of some military materials. "Thank you, President Trump, for acknowledging the importance of glyphosate-based herbicides in American agriculture," the House Agriculture Committee said Wednesday night in an X post. "This is a vital step forward in ensuring a domestic supply of this critical crop input remains available for our producers." Thompson, R-Pa., is trying to push a farm bill through Congress this year — a legislative package that covers federal farm support and nutrition subsidies. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

The stock was up by as much as 15% after the bell on Wednesday, when the design software maker reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations and offered rosy guidance. It reported a net loss of $226.6 million, or 44 cents per share, compared with net income of $33.1 million, or 15 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2024. Analysts polled by LSEG were expecting $292 million. Analysts at Bank of America said Figma's fourth-quarter results were solid, and its guidance took center stage. They said all key growth drivers are "very much in place" at the company, but it could still face some headwinds because of broader market uncertainty. "Figma's AI monetization timetable is certainly on track, though Figma shares could remain under pressure until a tangible revenue disclosure, given the bearish sentiment on apps generally," the analysts wrote in a Wednesday note. In recent months, investors have grown worried about artificial intelligence's potential to disrupt software companies, sparking a massive sell-off in the sector. Shares of the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF are down more than 20% year to date. Figma, which was caught up in the sell-off, has been working to build AI into its products. "If you look at software, not only is it not going away, there's going to be way more of it than ever before," Figma CEO Dylan Field said in a Wednesday interview. He did note, however, that the market is "potentially increasingly competitive." Analysts at Morgan Stanley said even Figma's "best in class growth rates" couldn't insulate shares from the "rising tide of investor concerns around the disruptive impacts of GenAI." They said the company's fourth-quarter results suggest it is a strong participant in the AI innovation cycle, and not a company at risk of disruption. The analysts pointed to rising usage of Figma's AI-based tooling, broadening partnerships with AI companies and competitive monetization avenues. "Bottom line, we come out of the Q4 print feeling better about Figma's expanding solution portfolio and positioning in an AI world, and with shares having pulled back considerably we see a much moreattractive risk/reward in the shares," the analysts wrote in a note Thursday. — CNBC's Jordan Novet contributed to this report Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Peter publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. No one really knows how AI will affect the movie and TV business, but there's lots of fear it won't be good. And barring something truly surprising, Warner Bros., one of Hollywood's most important movie and TV studios, is going to get swallowed up in the next year or so, which will mean even more consolidation. But don't take it from me: Ask Janice Min, who has spent a couple decades enmeshed in Hollywood. That means she's not a disinterested observer at all: If the center of the movie and TV industry is shrinking, that's bad news for the advertising, subscriptions, and events businesses she's trying to build. I talked to Min about all of that on my Channels podcast, and you can listen to the whole thing here. The following is an edited excerpt of our conversation. Peter Kafka: If you had to bet right now, who wins the newly reopened bidding war for Warner Bros. Or cofounder Reed Hastings' famous "keeper test": You aren't performing well. And shareholders are not loving this pursuit of Warner Bros. At some point, they will cut it off. The conventional wisdom is that Netflix would really like this deal, and that Paramount has to have this deal. If you're David Ellison and you've assembled probably the most expensive leadership team in history, you are prepping to have Warner Bros. David Ellison was not prepping to have the seventh-biggest studio or the seventh-biggest streamer. In the end, if he doesn't have that, you're kind of left holding the bag that nobody wanted. You are holding the thing that Shari Redstone was desperately trying to get rid of. This battle is so interesting to me because Warner Bros. is such a stinker, with so much debt, that they are being forced to sell. Paramount was such a stinker that Shari Redstone couldn't get the stink off of her fast enough. And there was basically, in the end, one bidder [for Paramount]. We get caught up in the excitement that these are huge prizes, but they're just these debt-stuffed, slow-moving beasts that need to have someone who has an emotional attachment to them for them to make sense as a buyer. After Netflix won the first bidding round in December, there was an immediate negative reaction from Hollywood. What's the current vibe when it comes to Netflix vs. Paramount as WBD's future owner? I think for most people it's Sophie's Choice. There are two potential bad outcomes here. On the plus side for David Ellison: People love that he loves movies. It's not a sophisticated business argument, but everyone here has dollar signs spinning in their eyes, everyone's looking for the next deal for themselves. Perhaps David Ellison will pay and maybe even overpay for what you are making. I don't think they like a lot of the things they are seeing happening at Paramount right now, like the situation that happened with Stephen Colbert and James Talarico. They certainly don't like what's happening with CBS News. Fundamentally, though, it does come down to your bottom line. So people like the idea of a buyer with deep pockets, even if it's daddy's money. There is a steady stream of stories and social media posts about how AI is going to disrupt Hollywood. How much of that concern do you see reflected in day-to-day conversations? The thing with AI right now in Hollywood: Everyone's lying just a little bit. Studios are lying about how much they're using it. Companies are lying about the capability of their products. I dare you to find a screenwriter who is staring at a blank page and not talking to Claude or ChatGPT at the same time. It seems clear that it's going to be a big deal for people working in visual effects, and that was already a challenged industry. I have a friend who's been sending me LinkedIn posts that are showing up in his feed, and it is so grim. It's people largely who have worked in VFX, and they are posting this full-on bleed out, like "I will be homeless by next Thursday if I don't have work." It doesn't appear they're being hyperbolic. During last year's Oscar race, [there was a controversy about] "The Brutalist," and how Adrian Brody's voice was made more Hungarian-accented through technology. Even the Academy, the most precious, legacy-protecting institution in Hollywood, has not come out in a really firm way about AI. I would say with some certainty that every single best picture nominee this year has used AI in its production process. What's the story people outside Hollywood are missing about your industry right now? People are having a hard time here. You're seeing a city that is so big and sprawling, with a kind of rudderless feeling: Who's going to stop this? There is definitely a Detroit vibe underway if things don't course correct. I was struck by the fact when you saw the Grammys, you have these musicians getting up on stage, — Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny — and really sticking it to the president and ICE. And you compare that with the Golden Globes, where it was sponsored by Polymarket, and no one's saying anything. When you think about how to capture young people, who are the pipeline for everything — they love this culture of rebellion and revolt and speaking out. I worry about Hollywood containing itself so much to the point that it stops speaking to the audience.

Accenture has told senior staff they must regularly use its AI tools to be considered for promotions for leadership roles. Associate directors and senior managers at the consultancy giant were informed that "regular adoption" of AI would be required to progress to leadership positions, according to an FT report. An Accenture spokesperson told CNBC the report was correct. They added: "Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work. "That requires the adoption of the latest tools and technologies to serve our clients most effectively." "Use of our key tools will be a visible input to talent discussions," the email said, according to the FT. The FT reported that Accenture staff in 12 European countries were unaffected by the policy, as well as staff working in the division that handles U.S. government contracts. In September, Accenture outlined a restructuring strategy in which it said staff who are unable to reskill on AI would eventually be laid off. On an earnings call, CEO Julie Sweet said all employees would be expected to "retrain and retool" at scale, adding that 550,000 workers had already been reskilled on the fundamentals of generative AI. Accenture employs a total of 780,000 people globally. 1 strategy is upskilling, given the skills we need, and we've had a lot of experience in upskilling, we're trying to, in a very compressed timeline, where we don't have a viable path for skilling, sort of exiting people so we can get more of the skills in we need," Sweet added. Sweet told CNBC at the time: "Our early investment in AI is really paying off." The challenge right now they're facing is that they're really excited about the technology and they're not yet AI ready for most companies," she told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." Accenture announced a string of partnerships and tools in recent months. Accenture also partnered with Anthropic to train 30,000 employees on Claude AI tools, with tens of thousands of Accenture developers to use Claude Code for coding and AI-assisted work. Other ventures include partnering with Palantir so that over 2,000 Accenture staff can get AI training using the software company's platforms. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

West Virginia's attorney general has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Apple, alleging that it has failed to prevent child sexual abuse materials from being stored and shared via iOS devices and iCloud services. John "JB" McCuskey, a Republican, accused Apple of prioritizing privacy branding and its own business interests over child safety, while other big tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Dropbox, have been more proactive, using systems like PhotoDNA to combat such material. In 2021, Apple had tested its own CSAM-detection features that could automatically find and remove images of child exploitation, and report those that had been uploaded to iCloud in the U.S. to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. But the company withdrew its plans for the features after privacy advocates who worried that this technology could create a back door for government surveillance, and be tweaked and exploited to censor other kinds of content on iOS devices. The company's efforts since then have not satisfied a broad array of critics. In 2024, UK-based watchdog the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said Apple failed to adequately monitor, tabulate and report CSAM in its products to authorities. And in a 2024 lawsuit filed in California's Northern District, thousands of child sexual abuse survivors sued Apple, alleging the company never should have abandoned its earlier plans for CSAM detection features, and by allowing such material to proliferate online, it had caused survivors to relive their trauma. Apple has positioned itself as the most privacy-sensitive of the Big Tech companies, since its CEO Tim Cook wrote an open letter on the topic in 2014. If West Virginia's suit is successful, it could force the company to make design or data security changes. The state is seeking statutory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief requiring Apple to implement effective CSAM detection. In an e-mailed statement, a spokesperson for Apple told CNBC that "protecting the safety and privacy of our users, especially children, is central to what we do." The company pointed to parental controls and features like Communication Safety which, "automatically intervenes on kids' devices when nudity is detected in Messages, shared Photos, AirDrop and even live FaceTime calls," as an indication of its commitment to provide "safety, security, and privacy" to users. "We are innovating every day to combat ever-evolving threats and maintain the safest, most trusted platform for kids," the spokesperson added. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Doordash's stock rallied on Thursday as Wall Street shook off disappointing fourth-quarter results and commended early progress in the food delivery platform's investment cycle. Shares initially fell about 10% in extended trading after earnings fell short of Wall Street's expectations on the top and bottom lines and the company issued disappointing profit guidance. Doordash also anticipates a $20 million impact from recent U.S. winter storms and higher order costs driven by investments in longer-distance deliveries and cost increases in regulated markets. But Wall Street managed to overlook Doordash's subpar results as the company's investments start to show signs of an early payoff. "DASH's businesses are strong and accelerating, and unit economics are improving, giving it an ability to deliver more durable growth and invest," Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak wrote in a note to clients. Nowak reiterated his confidence in the company's core U.S. restaurant business and highlighted improving unit economics and growth in newer verticals like retail, grocery and international. Bank of America analyst Justin Post said the company is "executing well," and its Deliveroo purchase sets it up to double its U.S. total addressable market globally. Last quarter, shares slumped to their worst day ever after Doordash said it planned to spend more on its new tech platform and innovations like autonomous delivery. Doordash finance chief Ravi Inukonda said during an earnings call on Wednesday that the company is making good progress on its tech stack overhaul, and management expects the majority of spending to occur in 2026. "We're being very disciplined," Inukonda told analysts. "We're investing in areas where we're improving the products to ultimately drive both scale as well as profitability." Some of those investments include creating warehouses to bring inventory closer to customers and fulfillment services. Doordash also said it had a record number of subscribers in the fourth quarter and 2025. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox. My spin class soundtrack of mainly Kesha's music last night was more evidence that the 2016 aesthetic is back. The three major indexes are coming off a winning session. Shares of Walmart slid more than 2% in premarket trading this morning after the company's guidance for the current fiscal year came in softer than anticipated. Minutes from the Federal Reserve's January meeting released yesterday showed officials largely approved of holding interest rates steady. However, there was notable division within the central bank on where monetary policy should go next. As CNBC's Jeff Cox reports, some Fed members said interest rates could come down further if inflation slides as they expect it to. Others said such easing may not be necessary for some time while they await clear signs that disinflation is taking place. Speaking of the central bank: White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett told CNBC yesterday that the authors of a recent New York Fed paper should be "disciplined." Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary warned yesterday that U.S. is falling behind China on early-stage drug development, saying the U.S. should streamline the process for beginning trials on new treatments. In an interview with CNBC's Annika Kim Constantino, Makary also said that all drugs "should be over the counter" — with the exception of those that are unsafe, addictive or require monitoring. Some in the pharmaceutical industry have raised doubts about the effectiveness of such a move, warning that it could increase costs and decrease access for patients. Meanwhile, Moderna said yesterday that the FDA agreed to review its experimental mRNA flu shot — a reversal from the regulator's prior refusal of the application. Moderna's shares jumped around 6% in yesterday's session following the announcement. CNBC's Morning Squawk recaps the biggest stories investors should know before the stock market opens, every weekday morning. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand yesterday in a landmark trial on social media and safety. As CNBC's Jonathan Vanian and Samantha Subin note, the Los Angeles trial is just one of several major court cases that are together being described as the social media industry's "Big Tobacco" moment. In his testimony, Zuckerberg said that increasing users' time spent on Instagram was never a company goal, despite an email he sent in 2015 that seemed to make improving engagement a critical issue for the company. The Facebook founder also said he approached Apple CEO Tim Cook to talk about the "wellbeing of teens and kids." Members of Zuckerberg's team were seen entering the courthouse wearing Meta's Ray-Ban artificial intelligence glasses, but Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl later threatened to hold anyone using smart glasses during the CEO's testimony in contempt of court. United said Thursday that it will no longer reward customers flying basic economy who don't have the airline's credit card, following in the footsteps of American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Card-holding travelers, meanwhile, will earn more points and receive frequent flyer discounts. As CNBC's Leslie Josephs reports, the airline's changes mark some of the biggest adjustments to its frequent flyer program in more than a decade. But as CNBC's Gabrielle Fonrouge and Natalie Rice report, the furniture industry likely won't be sitting pretty, regardless of the court's decision. — CNBC's Melissa Repko, Annie Palmer, Jeff Cox, Annika Kim Constantino, Samantha Subin, Jonathan Vanian, Leslie Josephs, Gabrielle Fonrouge and Natalie Rice contributed to this report. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Shares in Blue Owl Capital tumbled 8.7% on Thursday after the private market and alternative assets manager sold $1.4 billion of loan assets held across three of its private debt funds. Blue Owl said Wednesday it had agreed the sale with four North American pension and insurance investors, with the loans changing hands at 99.7% of par value. The largest sale comes out of the Blue Owl Capital Corporation II fund, also known as OBDC II, a semi-liquid private credit strategy aimed at U.S. retail investors. OBDC II offloaded $600 million in loans, amounting to about 34% of its $1.7 billion portfolio. In a major switch, Blue Owl said that following the deal, OBDC II would end regular quarterly liquidity payments to the fund's investors. Instead, the business development company — which specializes in private credit lending to U.S. middle-market companies — will pivot to periodic payouts that will be funded by asset sales, earnings, repayments and other strategic deals. It follows a recent rise in redemption requests in some of Blue Owl's business development companies, according to a Bloomberg report. Last November, Blue Owl Capital attempted to merge OBDC II with the larger, publicly-traded Blue Owl Capital Corporation (OBDC) fund. Before abandoning its plans, Blue Owl halted redemptions in OBDC II until the deal — which could have brought losses of some 20% to investors — was completed. The episode rattled investors, sending Blue Owl Capital's shares lower. Now, Blue Owl will use the proceeds from this sale to pay down debt and return capital to OBDC II shareholders, at up to $2.35 per share or approximately 30% of OBDC II's net asset value. Elsewhere, the other funds — the OBDC and Blue Owl Technology Income Corp (OTIC) — each sold $400 million in assets, representing 2% and 6% of their respective portfolios. "These sales consist of 97% senior secured debt investments with an average size of $5 million and include investments in 128 distinct portfolio companies across 27 industries," Blue Owl said in a statement. "The largest industry represented is internet software and services at 13%, generally consistent with the industry composition of Blue Owl's overall direct lending strategy and reflecting continued confidence in the quality and valuations of these software investments." Logan Nicholson, president of OBDC II and OBDC, said the deal "opportunistically" delivers value to shareholders and, in OBDC II, provides a "significant liquidity event" while maintaining a diversified portfolio with strong earnings potential. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Sinéad publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Troops say it doesn't matter if a drone is Ukrainian or Russian. These unjammable drones controlled by long, thin cables have flooded the battlefield as a countermeasure to the electronic warfare that often renders radio-frequency drones inoperable. Every time Sinéad publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Sinéad and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. He said that his unit "actually stopped considering them friendly or foe. In a YouTube video about the gear he carries, Zhluktenko said scissors became so essential that when his unit started operating in areas littered with fiber-optic cables, every team member was required to carry a pair. A Ukrainian soldier who spoke with Business Insider on the condition of anonymity said troops can often break the thin strands with their hands; that isn't often necessary, though. Soldiers in his unit already carry scissors for medical purposes. He said that there can be so many cables about on the battlefield that "you don't know if it's a new thread or if it's an old one that's been lying around for a long time." Other similar behaviors have been observed on the battlefield. There are sometimes so many drones in the sky that soldiers looking up from the ground can't even begin to tell which is friendly and which is hostile. In such cases, soldiers can be ordered to shoot down any drone they see. Soldiers in charge of electronic warfare systems sometimes panic and jam everything in the air when they can't tell drones apart, Zhluktenko previously told Business Insider. Zhluktenko told Business Insider that cutting the fiber-optic cables is not something that he had to do often, as his unit was typically working in areas further from the front-line fighting that had fewer of the fiber-optic drones. If the cable is intact on an active and operational drone, the only other way to stop it is to physically shoot it (troops say a shotgun works best); that requires a mix of skill and luck, though. That these drones can be disabled with simple tools — scissors, knives, bare hands — underscores a broader pattern in Ukraine: sophisticated systems are often countered with low-tech fixes. Even the drones themselves are cheap innovations designed to overcome more expensive equipment and wartime demands.

Bill Gates has become a source of controversy at this week's high-profile India AI Impact Summit, as speculation around his planned keynote address ultimately ended with his withdrawal at the last minute. The drama comes as the Microsoft co-founder receives public backlash for his past relationship with deceased financier and sex predator Jeffrey Epstein — with more details on the two men's years of communications revealed in the Department of Justice's file drop last month. The official announcement capped a back-and-forth saga that began earlier this week when local Indian media pointed out that Gates' name had been removed from some of the summit's public-facing materials. Government sources later briefed the media that Gates was not expected to attend the event. However, the Gates Foundation issued a conflicting message on Wednesday, insisting that he was participating "as planned" before the recent reversal. Asked about the controversy on Tuesday, India's IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters that Gates' attendance would come down to "personal choices," adding he "need not comment." The summit organizers and the foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Gates' absence. The American tech leader turned philanthropist has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks following the release of millions of documents related to financier Jeffrey Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The files included a draft email written to himself in which Epstein suggests that he had helped facilitate extramarital affairs and sexual encounters for Gates, amongst other references of the Microsoft co-founder. In an interview with Australia's 9News last month, Gates denied any wrongdoing, commenting in relation to new files, calling Epstein's allegations "absolutely absurd and completely false." He emphasized that his interactions with Epstein were limited to dinners aimed at potential philanthropy discussions, adding that he "never went to the island" and "never met any women." The New Delhi AI Impact Summit, where Gates had been scheduled to speak, has seen participation from leading tech names such as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei, besides a host of global leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The Gates Foundation has invested in India across health and development, and has also backed projects related to AI. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

United is overhauling its MileagePlus frequent flyer program to reward travelers with more miles and lower redemption rates, including for some of its long-haul business-class seats — if they have one of the airline's credit cards. It's the latest move by an airline to reward its highest-spending customers. United Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella told CNBC in an interview that the airline has been working on the changes for about 18 months and that the carrier is aiming to reward its most loyal customers. The shift also comes as United tries to stand out in an ever more competitive landscape for travel and rewards credit cards. That space also includes American Express' Platinum, Capital One's Venture X and Chase's Sapphire Reserve cards. "What I'm thinking about as we make these changes for United is to make sure that if you hold the credit card, you put it top of wallet, and then if you don't hold the credit card, there's a reason to get the credit card that seems incredibly compelling if you'd like to fly United Airlines and if you'd like to have that ... trip to Tahiti or to Rome or wherever we may be able to take you." United is planning to show the discounted award flights on its website "so customers can see exactly how much having a United card could save them on their travel," the airline said. United's loyalty program update is part of a trend among airlines to reward frequent flyer program members depending on how much they spend. About a decade ago, the major carriers tweaked their loyalty programs to reward customers for dollars spent over miles traveled. Airlines also encourage customers to sign up for their credit cards by offering perks like no fees for checked bags and earlier boarding. United MileagePlus primary cardholders will get more miles per dollar spent on United flights compared with customers without a card, and higher rates than they do currently. Their earning goes up, too, when they actually use that card to purchase the ticket. Meanwhile, customers without the card will earn less than they do today. Those with elite MileagePlus status earn miles at a higher rate, too. United will also now allow customers with one of its credit cards to redeem their miles for flights at a discount of at least 10% compared with those without the card. The carrier said that, as an example, an economy-class award ticket that was 15,000 miles will go for 13,500 without elite Premier status. Those with elite MileagePlus Premier status will get deeper discounts and better miles redemption. Elites with a card get at least 15% off mileage tickets. United said its a seat in a long-haul business class Polaris cabin that is going for 200,000 miles would be 170,000 miles if the cardmember has elite Premier status. United added the lowest priced "Saver Award" seats for Polaris would be accesible to MileagePlus members with a United card, seats that were previously just available to high-tier elites. Their earning rates also increase if they have both the credit card and status. MileagePlus 1K, the highest tier before Global Services, will get 17 miles for each dollar spent when they use their United Club credit card. American Airlines last year similarly said it would no longer allow travelers in that class to earn miles, following an earlier move by Delta Air Lines. There's an exemption, however, for holders of United's elite Premier status, who can still earn miles in basic economy. Business travelers often have to book with company credit cards under corporate travel policies. But United said that individuals who personally hold a United credit or debit card will still get more miles than an employee who doesn't. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Pete publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, was arrested on Thursday morning, his 66th birthday. "We are unable to name the arrested man as part of national guidance," it added. Around two hours after news of the arrest broke, King Charles released a statement saying: "The law must take its course." Every time Pete publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Pete and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Photos showed police at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Thursday, where Mountbatten-Windsor is said to have been living. The police said it was carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk. The family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the former Prince three times, also issued a statement on Thursday. "Today, our broken hearts have been lifted by the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty," they wrote. In 2010 and 2011, when the former prince was a UK trade envoy, he appeared to forward official reports on his work visits to Epstein. "Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office," said Oliver Wright, assistant chief constable with the Thames Valley Police. "It is important that we protect the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our partners to investigate this alleged offence," he added. Princess Anne — Mountbatten-Windsor's sister — pleaded guilty under the Dangerous Dogs Act when her English bull terrier bit two children while walking in Windsor Great Park.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sharply criticized the Trump administration's fuel blockade on Cuba, saying Moscow considers the latest restrictions unacceptable. "This is a special period, with new sanctions. We do not accept anything like this," Putin said on Wednesday during a meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, according to Russian news agency Tass. Russia, which has been allied to Cuba for decades, has recently described Havana's fuel situation as "truly critical" and said it is actively discussing what help it can provide to the country. "We have always been on Cuba's side in its struggle for independence, for the right to follow its own path of development, and we have always supported the Cuban people," Putin said. "We know how difficult these past decades have been for the Cuban people as they have fought for the right to live by their own rules and defend their national interests," he added. The U.S. has effectively cut Cuba off from Venezuelan oil since launching an extraordinary military operation to depose Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3. Cuba said 32 of its citizens were killed in the attack. U.S. President Donald Trump has since pledged to impose tariffs on any country that supplies Havana with oil and labeled its government as "an unusual and extraordinary threat." Cuba's dwindling oil supplies prompted the United Nations to warn of a possible humanitarian "collapse" earlier in the month. Cuba's government, which has condemned the U.S. pressure, has recently adopted measures to protect essential services and ration fuel supplies for key sectors. It also suspended an annual cigar festival which had been due to take place in Havana later this month, without providing details of a new date. Photos of daily life in Cuba have shown piles of waste building on Havana's street corners in recent days as many collection trucks have been left with empty fuel tanks. The White House has said it was in Cuba's interest to make big changes soon, although stopped short of calling for a change of government. Their country is collapsing and that's why we believe it's in their best interest to make very dramatic changes very soon," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Robert publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. AI is shaking up the job market — but in some cases, companies are blaming the technology for layoffs they were already planning, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. "I expect we'll see more of the latter over time," he said. Companies that have cited AI when reducing employee head count include Amazon, IBM, Salesforce, and HP. There is no evidence of AI washing at these companies, a term used to describe companies overstating the role of artificial intelligence in a product or business decision. Altman, whose company provides AI tools that reshape and displace jobs, has previously said the technology will cause job disruption, but that people will find new forms of work and adapt. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, warned last year that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next five years. Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, said last month that he was already seeing some evidence that AI was causing a hiring slowdown at the company for junior roles.

Every time Jack publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Lorenzo Miro San Diego first learned about Polymarket after seeing the prediction market on an episode of "South Park" last fall. His first wager: $498 on the University of Houston beating Oregon State in a college football game. He netted more than $100 after the odds shifted further in Houston's favor. For the next two months, things didn't work out as well. He also began dabbling in cryptocurrency price movement wagers — and lost money on those, too. "I wasn't able to set any virtual limits," San Diego told Business Insider. "Unlike sportsbooks that I can visit when I'm in an area where they are legal, there was a lack of control and tools to be transparent for how much I could lose." Every time Jack publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Jack and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. And as courts, lawmakers, and regulators debate what limits to put on sites like Polymarket and its chief competitor, Kalshi, problem gambling experts say their lack of guardrails increases the potential harm to millions of Americans. K.A., a 24-year-old engineer from Virginia, sank more than $10,000 into Kalshi during an eight-day stretch in late December, according to screenshots he shared with Business Insider. After initially limiting himself to small bets on Counter-Strike, a shooting game he played that's popular among e-sports fans, he began staking more than $1,000 at a time on the outcome of NBA games and tennis matches. "There'll be a big winning streak at the beginning, which happened to me — then bam, everything's gone," he said. Daniel Umfleet, the CEO of the telehealth company Kindbridge Behavioral Health, said problem-gambling treatment providers have only just begun to try to tease out their patients' use of prediction markets from financial activities like day-trading cryptocurrencies or stocks. The National Council on Problem Gambling has estimated that about 2.5 million adults in the US could be diagnosed with severe gambling addiction, and 5 to 8 million more meet some criteria. Problem gambling poses a special threat to young men, many of whom initially seek help because of pressure from a spouse or parent, Umfleet said. Some compulsive gamblers have other mental health issues, like anxiety or depression, Umfleet and others said. said he thinks more young people should know the warning signs for when their use of prediction markets becomes a problem. Placing larger and larger bets, "chasing losses" with the belief that they will make their money back, and selling other financial assets to take positions on prediction markets — all of which he said he did — are red flags, he said. The amount Americans spend on "event contracts" on platforms like Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, and Crypto.com is still only a fraction of what they spend at brick-and-mortar casinos and on state-regulated gaming and sportsbooks apps. As with sportsbooks, researchers have found that most users of Kalshi and Polymarket lose money. The CEO of Robinhood, a finance app that lets users buy event contracts from Kalshi and ForecastEx, has said prediction markets could eventually generate $300 million for the company each year. Kalshi said the total volume of trades on Super Bowl-related markets on its platform was $1 billion, 27 times higher than the year before. The American gambling industry has grown rapidly since 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports betting. The popularity of speculating on cryptocurrencies, meme stocks, and prediction markets by young people has been a particular cause for concern among policy experts and financial-wellness advocates. Robinhood and other brokerages geared toward young people were accused of "gamifying" markets to drive growth during the meme-stock mania of 2020 and 2021. Critics have accused them of blurring the line between gambling and investing. College-aged Americans in particular see gambling as something that's "so easy," said Pamela Brenner-Davis, who works on gambling addiction issues in New York. said his first introduction to Kalshi was through TikTok. He saw one ad after another — every third or fourth video in his feed, he said, was about "how easy or accessible" it was to use the platform. Sportsbooks have also advertised and spent heavily on promotions in recent years, surpassing $800 million in 2021 and falling somewhat since then, according to industry-sponsored research based on Nielsen data. Prediction markets aren't required to do the same. Earlier this month, the National Council for Problem Gambling called on all prediction markets to publicize the national gambling helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET. Kalshi has ways for users to limit their use and cut themselves off. The company also announced a partnership with a telehealth company that helps people with problem gambling and other mental-health challenges, which often co-exist. Other event-contracts platforms do not have any such features, however. Polymarket, whose US product is still in limited release, has no information on its website about gambling safeguards. OG, a prediction market created by Crypto.com, recently announced plans to offer "margin trading" on events contracts and leans heavily into sports imagery in its marketing. Polymarket and OG didn't respond to requests for comment. Some prediction markets take issue with the use of the term "wagering" or "betting" to describe what users do on their platforms. They have resisted efforts by state governments to regulate their activities and have described their products as swaps or futures, which are financial instruments subject to regulation by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The National Council for Problem Gambling told the CFTC last year that "betting on futures is functionally gambling" and expressed concern that anti-addiction safeguards weren't available on prediction markets. Commodities regulators "are used to regulating things like prediction market liquidity, manipulation, fair access," said Glenn Yamagata, an economist, consultant, and part-time executive director of the Oregon Council on Problem Gambling. "They're not sort of used to dealing with mental-health issues or having things like voluntary self-exclusion," he said. The "South Park" episode that introduced San Diego to Polymarket lampooned the regulatory uncertainty that exists in prediction markets. Now he's in recovery, has uninstalled the Kalshi app, and is meeting with a therapist. San Diego said he would tell other users: "Bet with your head, set limits, and know when to quit."

Every time Charles publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. More than half of employees — 57% — said AI tools helped their team identify opportunities that would have been impossible otherwise. And 62% said their workload is more manageable because they use AI tools. Every time Charles publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Charles and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. A composite it creates called the AI Readiness score was at 85% enterprise-wide, an 18% gain year-over-year. The results suggest that Salesforce is ahead of the pack on encouraging AI adoption, said Jason Schloetzer, an associate professor at Georgetown University's business school who has interviewed dozens of executives about AI adoption. The results also show that, for some employees, AI intensifies their workload rather than reducing it. Salesforce, which sells customer relationship management software, has garnered attention for an intense AI push led by CEO Marc Benioff. Last August, he said half of the work at Salesforce was being done by AI and that the company had eliminated 4,000 support roles because of AI agents. Salesforce's website says the company uses a mix of internal AI tools, including an AI from Salesforce-owned Slack that can quickly find old project templates, and Career Connect, which analyzes employees' strengths and weaknesses to help them move within the company. Salesforce is facing challenges despite its embrace of the AI revolution. The company has also struggled to deliver on promises made in demos of its AI product Agentforce, Business Insider previously reported.

Every time Alistair publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. AI demand has surged in recent weeks, according to new data that could support tech giants' decisions to dramatically ramp up investment in this area. OpenRouter, which helps developers access different AI models, has seen activity roughly double in the first weeks of 2026. This is measured by the number of AI tokens OpenRouter processes. One token is about ¾ of a word. OpenRouter handled 13 trillion AI tokens in the week that ended February 9. That's up from 6.4 trillion during the first week of January. Seen over a year, this recent surge is even more striking. AI models that OpenRouter taps into include Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, xAI's Grok, OpenAI's GPT range, and a host of open-source offerings from DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and others. This data excludes AI tokens processed directly by the major AI companies, so it represents a small fraction of total activity. For instance, Google was processing 1.3 quadrillion tokens a month this past summer. However, the recent rate of change in OpenRouter's data is a valuable signal. Anand Iyer, a partner at VC firm Lightspeed, said the recent surge has been driven by an explosion in AI agent activity and especially the rapid emergence of OpenClaw, an open-source agentic system. That's sparked an exponential increase in inference, which is how models, agents, and other AI services are run in the cloud. "The demand for AI inference right now is coming from agentic platforms, especially OpenClaw," Iyer told Business Insider this week. "We moved from simple chatbot experiences to agentic automation and execution, which has driven exponential growth of OpenClaw installations and OpenRouter usage." Data compiled by Bloomberg suggests demand for Nvidia AI chips has increased lately. As you can see, prices have rebounded strongly since early December, which implies robust AI demand. A third data point comes from Barclays analysts, who recently looked at online traffic to vibe coding services, including Lovable, Replit, and Wix's Base44. "The uptick in interest here was driven largely by frontier model improvements in late 2025 that made these platforms more effective." Big Tech companies recently increased capital expenditure plans to eye-watering levels, raising new concerns about a potential AI bubble. This new AI usage data may suggest that demand could be strong enough to support such heavy spending. "AI capex today, as we know it today, is largely driven by training requirements from large frontier labs," Iyer said. More recently, AI models have begun to support autonomous digital agents and similar tools that can use computers independently to accomplish complex tasks. OpenClaw's open-source technology supports agents that help users automate coding and other workflows by accessing computer files, email, calendars, and messaging services. In January, Anthropic unveiled Claude Cowork, an AI agent that handles tasks such as document generation and file management. The startup rolled out Claude Sonnet 4.6, its latest AI model, this week. It's gotten better at what Anthropic calls "computer use," where AI models and agents use computers in similar ways to humans to get tasks done. AI models never sleep and can hack away at a task uninterrupted until it's done.

Every time Ellen publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The old saying "Everything is bigger in Texas" now applies to data centers. The Lone Star State is on track to unseat Virginia as the world's largest data center market by 2030, new research from Jones Lang LaSalle shows. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta plan to spend more than $600 billion on AI infrastructure expansion in 2026 — a number so dizzyingly high that Wall Street is on high alert for signs of an AI bubble. More than half of all data center construction in the US now happens outside the industry's traditional hubs, according to JLL's North America Data Center Report — Year-End 2025. Tennessee, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Texas are now considered the top emerging markets for data centers. Texas alone has 6.5 gigawatts of data center capacity under construction. Every time Ellen publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Ellen and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Oracle and OpenAI's flagship Stargate data center is in Abilene, Google is planning a $40 billion expansion in West Texas, and Meta is building a massive new site in El Paso, just to name a few. Texas also has abundant energy resources, which is good news for data center developers. In Texas, several data centers — including Stargate — are being built alongside on-site power plants.

Every time Emily publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. To some extent, Americans are talking about alcohol more than ever. We're having open conversations about the negative health impacts of drinking. People are consuming less booze overall and examining strategies to moderate, even as each drink packs more punch. There is one aspect of alcohol we're still not talking about: addiction, and, more precisely, the medical treatments available to combat it. What's even odder — your doctor may not know much about them, either. It's why the ones we already have are so rarely used. There are three FDA-approved medications to treat AUD in the US: naltrexone, acamprosate, and disulfiram. They've existed for decades, are effective for some people in reducing or stopping drinking, and, addiction physicians say, have few drawbacks. Despite all of this, they are broadly unknown to patients and widely underprescribed. Just 2% of Americans with an alcohol disorder diagnosis receive approved medications for treatment, says Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. By comparison, 85% of people diagnosed with diabetes get approved treatments for it. But they're an important tool in a toolbox to treat a condition that affects millions of Americans and takes thousands of lives each year. At a basic level, the medications used to treat alcohol use disorder do something quite simple: they make drinking less appealing. The idea is that if the person takes naltrexone every time they drink, the associated reward with alcohol will lessen, reducing cravings over time and thus leading to a significant drop in drinking or even abstinence. Some people may choose to take naltrexone only when they have what could be a potentially heavy drinking event, like a wedding, so they end the night with two drinks instead of 10. Naltrexone is also available through an extended-release one-month injection. Every time Emily publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Emily and get more of their work as it publishes. By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Another option is acamprosate, which restores brain balance after it's been thrown off by heavy alcohol use and can help reduce cravings, though it doesn't reduce alcohol's effects in the moment. "I really view medications as being tremendously helpful in turning the volume down on craving, on withdrawal symptoms, on some of the other reasons that people struggle," says Katie Witkiewitz, a psychologist at the University of New Mexico who specializes in substance use disorders. The same goes for side effects, which can include headache or nausea (sometimes caused by naltrexone), and lack of appetite or irritability (sometimes caused by acamprosate). Addiction specialists say the medications are generally well-tolerated by most patients. "There's lots of benefits and very few drawbacks," says Sarah Wakeman, the senior medical director for substance use disorder at Mass General Brigham in Boston. "These medications are incredibly safe, and you need very little, if any, lab monitoring." Alcoholism is a disease of denial — individuals often minimize, rationalize, or lie about their drinking. Even people who drink moderately tend to fudge the numbers when asked about their alcohol habits, either by their doctor or people they know. Our culture writ large is in denial about alcoholism, too. Treatment for alcohol use disorder has "largely evolved outside of the mainstream of healthcare," says Dr. Caleb Alexander, a practicing internist and drug safety expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Historically, it's been siloed into specialty treatment programs — behavioral therapies, rehabilitation centers, or groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous or SMART Recovery. Alexander adds that many of these settings don't have prescribers, formularies, or medication management that would provide access to AUD drugs. Some groups may also be opposed to medication intervention. Those who do seek help through the healthcare system often run into discouraging obstacles, and doctors themselves may be ill-equipped to help. Doctors are also people, and they may hold the same biases as anyone else about alcohol. "A lot of doctors don't even want to have these conversations at all," says Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University who specializes in addiction and a former senior policy advisor in the Obama administration. Because these drugs are generics and don't lead to a huge payday for manufacturers, there's no marketing money behind them, and they have no champions. "If doctors don't want to prescribe it and patients have never heard of it, then a company is not going to develop the next drug for drinking because they're like, 'It's a waste of money,'" Humphreys says. There are some online providers to fill the void, such as telehealth company Oar Health and Ria Health, which focus on medication-assisted alcohol treatment. They can be options for people who may be too embarrassed to go to their doctors or whose doctors are resistant to trying medications, but they're also costlier and may not come with the same level of supervision. There are some signs that this neglect may not be a permanent state of affairs. Researchers are studying whether GLP-1s such as semaglutide and tirzepatide might help reduce alcohol consumption. If GLP-1s do prove useful in helping to treat alcohol use disorder, they have some advantages other medications do not: there's a lot of money and momentum behind them. "They're already part of the cultural milieu," Witkiewitz says. GLP-1 makers were initially hesitant to investigate the effectiveness of their drugs on alcohol use because they were concerned it might damage their brands, Humphreys says, in another example of just how pervasive the addiction stigma is. Now, "the companies have decided they're going to go for it." At the moment, GLP-1s are merely a hope in helping people manage problem alcohol use. Ideally, there would be multiple other drugs under development for the treatment of AUD, and more patients and doctors would know about what's already out there. The FDA recently formally recognized a reduction in drinking as a valid endpoint in alcohol-related clinical trials, meaning the goal of medications under development doesn't need to be total abstinence — it can also be helping people to slow down. It's a "paradigm shift," Witkiewitz says, and may lead to more drugs to help curb drinking and more doctors aware of the health benefits of cutting back. While there's still a stigma around obesity, that is changing, thanks in part to GLP-1s, as more people accept the idea that weight loss is about more than willpower. "There's this idea that medications are a crutch or making it an easy way out," Wakeman says. For years, it, too, was swept under the rug. There are a variety of medications available, and many patients try different formulations and dosages until they find the right fit. People aren't expected to be free of depressive episodes forever, even with treatment, and in many circles, it's quite commonplace to discuss, whether at the doctor's office or over lunch. "Prior to Prozac becoming now a completely banal thing that you can talk about at a dinner party, depression was, 'You need a kick in the butt, pick yourself up, what's the matter with you?'" Alcohol use disorder could now be reaching a similar inflection point. And if we're talking so much about the dangers of drinking, shouldn't we be giving people as much help as possible to slow down and stop? Business Insider's Discourse stories provide perspectives on the day's most pressing issues, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise.

Every time Shubhangi publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The world's biggest AI leaders gathered in New Delhi this week, prepared to talk about the latest models and their impact on societies. On Thursday, top executives, including Demis Hassabis, Sundar Pichai, Brad Smith, Sam Altman, and Dario Amodei, lined up on stage with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India AI Impact Summit. Modi has previously taken photos this way with world leaders, including former US President Joe Biden and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. After a pause, they raised their arms without making contact. The moment was widely screenshotted and shared on social media. After Anthropic released a series of Super Bowl ad teasers, Altman responded with a lengthy post on X, calling the Anthropic ad "dishonest." Amodei cofounded Anthropic in 2021 after leaving OpenAI, citing disagreements over AI safety priorities and the lab's leadership style.