Travelers are stranded as far away as Australia, Brazil and the Maldives after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran this weekend. With airspace in the region still closed, getting home could be a challenge at least several days. Around 3,000 flights have been cancelled since the conflict in Iran began Saturday and subsequent attacks by Iran continue to impact other parts of the region, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. Airspace was closed over a large swath of the Middle East, suspending flights to and from Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest hubs in the world, Tel Aviv, and Doha, Qatar. More than 40 flights were forced to divert early Saturday morning after the attack prompted airspace closures in the region. That means customers connecting through major hubs in the region are also affected, with vacationers, business travelers, and other flyers stranded around the world. ET, regional airspace closures continue to affect flights. Airlines will have to reposition their aircraft, which are spread out around the world. Four are on the ground at its base in Abu Dhabi, Flightradar24 said Sunday. However, Etihad was starting to reposition aircraft at its Abu Dhabi hub, should airspace reopen. Qatar Airways has one A380 at its Doha base, while others are in Sydney, Bangkok and elsewhere. Israeli airline El Al paused ticket sales and said its priority over the coming weeks will be to ensure ticket-holding travelers can return home. Airlines have all issued waivers for affected destinations. Major carriers are also likely to add extra flights once airspace reopens to accommodate the surge in demand. The State Department didn't immediately comment on its plans, but special flights were added around the world to get travelers home when the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020. Standard travel insurance policies generally don't cover events that have already happened or developed, whether it's a military strike or a hurricane. Travelers would need to have purchased a more expensive option called "cancel anytime" insurance that allows them to do just that. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Honor on Sunday showed off the capabilities of its Robot Phone as the Chinese electronics firm looks to stand out from some of its bigger rivals like Samsung and Apple. The company, which spun off from Huawei in 2020, also launched the Magic V6, its latest foldable smartphone, as part of its event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday. In addition, Honor teased a humanoid robot, but with very few details. The releases come against the backdrop of the ongoing shortage and unprecedented price surge of memory chips, which is expected to see device makers increase prices and strain demand for smartphones in 2026. Honor first teased the Robot Phone in October. It features a camera on a robotic arm that pops out of the main body of the device. For those into video work, it looks like it's inspired by the Osmo product line from Chinese dronemaker DJI. The camera, which is powered by a small motor, can lock onto an object or person and track it as it moves. A user can talk to Honor's AI assistant, and the camera can then respond with a yes or no answer by nodding. The Robot Phone shows how companies like Honor are looking to stand out in a sea of similar-looking smartphones and give users a compelling enough reason to upgrade or switch from their current device. The device is expected to be expensive and continues Honor's push into the high-end area of the market where it is looking to challenge the likes of Samsung and Apple, particularly in overseas markets like Europe. In China, Honor ended the year as the sixth-biggest smartphone player with a market share of just over 13%, according to Counterpoint Research. But it's a much smaller player overseas, where it is trying to establish a brand presence. Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president for data and analytics at IDC, told CNBC the launch was more of a "marketing push" to create a buzz around the brand as it looks to build market share outside of China. "There is some novelty to it and they need that kind of innovation to show their capabilities," Jeronimo said. While Samsung dominates the foldable smartphone category with its Galaxy Z Fold line of devices, Honor is trying to make inroads into the premium segment with its foldable V series of devices, featuring ultra-thin batteries. The Honor Magic V6 launched on Sunday is 8.75 mm thick when closed, the company said, which is smaller than the 8.8 mm to 9 mm size of its predecessor. That is the same thickness as an iPhone 17 Pro Max. The company has not yet disclosed pricing. While few details were provided about the device, it shows how Chinese companies in particular, are expanding into the field of robotics. Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi, for example, has developed its own humanoid robot called CyberOne. Meanwhile, electric carmaker Xpeng also has its own humanoid robot model. A plethora of Chinese companies have developed humanoid robots with analysts expecting the country to ramp up production of the devices this year. Honor's robot will focus on providing shopping assistance, workplace inspections, and supportive companionship, the company said Sunday. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

As AI systems become more complex, humans aren't able to fully understand, predict, or control them. That inability to understand at a fundamental level where AI models are going in the coming years makes it harder for organizations deploying AI to anticipate risks and apply guardrails. A recent experience Hickman had spending time with the founder of a company building core AI models left him shocked, he says, "when they told me that they don't understand where this tech is going to be in the next year, two years, three years. The technology developers themselves don't understand and don't know where this technology is going to be." They are quickly discovering that AI isn't dangerous because it's autonomous but because it increases system complexity beyond human comprehension. It's often silent failure at scale," said Noe Ramos, vice president of AI operations at Agiloft, a company that offers software for contracts management. When mistakes happen, she says, the damage can spread quickly, sometimes long before companies realize something is wrong. "It could escalate slightly to aggressively, which is an operational drain, or it could update records with small inaccuracies," Ramos said. "Those errors seem minor, but at scale over weeks or months, they compound into that operational drag, that compliance exposure, or the trust erosion. Early signs of this chaos are emerging across industries. In one case, according to John Bruggeman, the chief information security officer at technology solution provider CBTS, an AI-driven system at a beverage manufacturer failed to recognize its products after the company introduced new holiday labels. The system had behaved logically based on the data it received but in a way no one had anticipated. "The system had not malfunctioned in a traditional sense," said Bruggeman. Rather, it was responding to conditions developers hadn't anticipated. These systems are doing exactly what you told them to do, not just what you meant," he said. Suja Viswesan, vice president of software cybersecurity at IBM, says it identified a case where an autonomous customer-service agent began approving refunds outside policy guidelines. The agent then started granting additional refunds freely, optimizing for receiving more positive reviews rather than following established refund policies. These failures highlight the fact that problems don't necessarily come from dramatic technical breakdowns but from ordinary situations interacting with automated decisions in ways humans didn't foresee. As organizations begin trusting AI systems with more consequential decisions, experts say companies will need ways to quickly intervene when systems behave unexpectedly. With agents connected to financial platforms, customer data, internal software, and external tools, intervention may require halting multiple workflows simultaneously, according to AI operations experts. "And you need someone who knows how to use it. The CIO should know where that kill switch is, and multiple people should know where it is if it goes sideways." Experts say better algorithms won't solve the problem. Avoiding failure requires organizations to build operational controls, oversight mechanisms, and clear decision boundaries around AI systems from the start. "People have too much confidence in these systems," said Mitchell Amador, CEO of crowdsourced security platform Immunefi. But, he said, "most people don't want to learn it, either. They want to farm their work out to Anthropic or OpenAI, and are like, 'Well, they'll figure it out.'" Ramos said many companies lack operational readiness and often don't have fully documented workflows, exceptions, or decision-making boundaries. "If your exception-handling lives in people's heads instead of documented processes, the AI surfaces those gaps immediately." Ramos also said companies often underestimate how much access teams are granting AI systems in the belief that automation feels efficient, and that edge cases that humans handle intuitively often aren't encoded into systems. You need to shift from humans in the loop to humans on the loop, she said. "Humans in the loop review outputs, while humans on the loop supervise performance patterns and detect anomalies and system behavior over time, mitigating those small errors that can increase at scale," she said. According to a 2025 report by McKinsey on the state of AI, 23% of companies say they are already scaling AI agents within their organizations, with another 39% experimenting, though most deployments remain confined to one or two business functions. That represents early enterprise AI maturity, according to Michael Chui, a senior fellow at McKinsey, and despite intense attention around autonomous systems, a large gap between "the great potential that manifests in a 'hype cycle' and the current reality on the ground," he said. "It's almost like a gold rush mentality, a FOMO mentality, where organizations fundamentally believe that if they don't leverage these technologies, they are going to be put into a strategic liability in the market," Hickman said. "There's pressure among AI operations leaders to move really quickly," Ramos said. Even as risks grow, expectations for the technology continue to rise. "We know these technologies are faster than any human will ever be," Hickman said. "In five, 10, or 15 years, we're going to get to a place where AI is fundamentally more intelligent than even the most intelligent human beings and moves faster." In the meantime, Ramos says there will be a lot of learning moments. "The next wave isn't going to be less ambitious, but more disciplined." The organizations that are going to mature the fastest, she says, are going to be the ones that don't avoid failure but learn to manage it. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Fears about AI-led disruption in sectors like software and financials, along with geopolitical tensions, continue to impact the U.S. stock market. Despite the ongoing volatility, investors seeking enhanced returns can bolster their portfolios by adding attractive dividend stocks. In this regard, insights from top Wall Street analysts can help investors shortlist stocks of dividend-paying companies that have the ability to consistently generate strong cash flows to support dividends. Here are three dividend-paying stocks that are highlighted by Wall Street's top pros, as tracked by TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. Midstream energy company Williams (WMB) is this week's first dividend pick. The energy infrastructure provider recently increased its quarterly dividend by 5% to 52.5 cents per share. Impressed by the company's recently held Analyst Day event, Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith reiterated a buy rating on WMB stock and increased his price target to $81 from $78. Interestingly, TipRanks' AI Analyst is also bullish on WMB stock with an outperform rating and a price target of $75. Smith believes that given Williams' push into behind-the-meter (BTM) power generation, the company is no longer just a traditional pipeline and gathering & processing (G&P) midstream operator. The 5-star analyst is confident about the company's ability to generate about a 12% to 13% EBITDA CAGR (compound annual growth rate) through 2030, with over 10% growth potential through the early 2030s. In particular, Smith's optimism about the durability of Williams' growth is backed by the potential for longer-term contracts for the company's Power Innovation business and new announcements. The analyst highlighted extended contracts on Apollo/Aquila projects, an actionable 6 GW of unsanctioned Power Innovation backlog, and a $15.5 billion Transmission "shadow" backlog (pipeline of potential projects). "Taken together, we do not see WMB as facing a 'cliff' beyond 2030," said Smith. The analyst argues that WMB's valuation framework needs rethinking as the company is moving back to transmission, making its earnings and growth profile similar to a higher-growth industrial company than a conventional midstream operator. 519 among more than 12,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. It is a diversified, large-cap master limited partnership (MLP) that operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets and provides fuel distribution services. With a quarterly cash distribution of $1.0765 per common unit ($4.31 on an annualized basis), MPLX offers a yield of about 7.4%. Recently, RBC Capital analyst Elvira Scotto updated her estimates to reflect MPLX's fourth-quarter 2025 results and reaffirmed a buy rating with a price target of $60. TipRanks' AI Analyst has an outperform rating on MPLX with a higher price target of $63. "We view MPLX as a compelling income play among large-cap MLPs, supported by an attractive current yield of nearly 8% and plans to grow further," said Scotto. Scotto highlighted that MPLX plans to grow its distributions by 12.5% annually for the next two years. This plan is backed by the ramping of the company's growth projects through 2027 with mid-teens returns, which provides visibility into mid-single digit adjusted EBITDA growth in 2026 and 2027. Scotto also believes that MPLX's strong balance sheet gives it financial flexibility to pursue opportunistic bolt-on acquisitions that align with its return criteria. The analyst noted that MPLX plans to direct $2.4 billion in growth capex in 2026, with 90% dedicated to Natural Gas and NGL Services in the Permian and Marcellus. 98 among more than 12,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. In January 2026, the company announced a quarterly cash distribution of 33.5 cents per common unit for fourth quarter 2025. Following the company's fourth-quarter 2025 results, Stifel analyst Selman Akyol reiterated a buy rating on ET stock with a price target of $23. Akyol noted that Energy Transfer delivered fourth-quarter results in line with his expectations. Specifically, Akyol stated that ET is seeing demand for natural gas fueled by not only data centers but also utilities that are serving data center load. The analyst mentioned that ET has started supplying the first of three data centers for Oracle (ORCL). Moreover, the company has struck a 20-year deal with Entergy Louisiana and has connected to three power plants in Oklahoma. It is also in advanced talks with another Oklahoma power plant. The analyst is confident about Energy Transfer's ability to meet the rising demand, thanks to its strong natural gas footprint and storage capabilities. He added that ET's bidirectional Hugh Brinson pipeline will commence service in 2026 and is expected to be fully operational by early 2027. 131 among more than 12,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. See ET Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.) In his first letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, new CEO Greg Abel didn't try to emulate Warren Buffett's folksy, conversational writing style. He did, however, emphasize he won't be making major changes to the way the company has operated for decades under Buffett's leadership. At the top of his letter, Abel called Buffett "arguably the greatest investor of all time," and acknowledged that "Warren is obviously a very hard act to follow." Abel wrote that last month, he "sent a letter to our employees to emphasize that Berkshire's cultures and values remain unchanged and will continue into perpetuity." "We are committed to strengthening the great legacy" built by Buffett and Charlie Munger, "ensuring it endures through our commitment to excellence." Abel said Munger's comment at the 2021 annual meeting that "Greg will keep the culture" will "forever resonate with me" as a "reminder that our culture is our most treasured asset, a call to maintain what defines Berkshire, and a challenge to ensure our culture continues." Any investors hoping Abel would be more specific about criteria for buybacks didn't get satisfaction. His sentence on the subject could have been written by Buffett himself: "We will buy back Berkshire shares when they trade below our estimate of intrinsic value, conservatively determined, ensuring that repurchases enhance per-share value for continuing owners." There were no buybacks during the fourth quarter, extending a streak that goes back to May 2024. Abel also disappointed any shareholders hoping he might reverse Buffett's longstanding opposition to using some of Berkshire big cash pile to pay a dividend. "Our approach to cash dividends continues to be that Berkshire will not pay dividends so long as more than one dollar of market value for shareholders is reasonably likely to be created by each dollar of retained earnings." Abel vowed to maintain Buffett's "fortress-like balance sheet, ensuring Berkshire's foundation is never compromised." Calling the cash Berkshire's "dry powder," he acknowledged there will "undoubtedly be incremental opportunities to deploy our owner's capital without compromising Berkshire's resilience. "Many times in Berkshire's history, some observers have suggested that our substantial cash position signals a retreat from investing. We continue to evaluate many opportunities and will remain patient and disciplined in pursuing the right ones for the benefit of our owners." Berkshire's overall cash decreased 2.2% in the fourth quarter to $373.3 billion as of December 31. Excluding BNSF's cash and subtracting T-bills payable, it increased 4.1% to $369.0 billion. Operating earnings fell 29.8% from last year's fourth quarter, coming in at $10.2 billion. Insurance underwriting was down 54%, insurance investment income fell 25%, while BNSF gained 5.3% and manufacturing, service and retailing edged 3.3% higher. Abel praised Ajit Jain's "judgment and disciple" over four decades but didn't provide any clues on who may ultimately succeed him as Berkshire's insurance chief. He also gave no indication on whether Berkshire still plans to reduce or eliminate its stake in Kraft Heinz now that its new CEO shelved plans to split the company in two, saying only the return "has been well short of adequate." Abel did confirm the responsibility for Berkshire's equity portfolio "ultimately resides with me as CEO," with Ted Weschler continuing to manage about 6% of the investments, including those previously overseen by Todd Combs who left in December for a new job at JPMorgan. There will be some new faces joining the Q&A sessions at the company's shareholder meeting on May 2 in Omaha. Abel and Jain will do the morning session as would be expected, but the afternoon session will include Abel, BNSF's Katie Farmer, and Adam Johnson, who runs NetJets and is president of consumer products, service, and retailing, a new position created late last year. In an email to Warren Buffett Watch, Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Macrae Sykes praises Abel for covering all of Berkshire's major segments in the letter, saying he "showed humility" and "expressed clarity in communication and confidence in his role as the new CEO." Christopher Davis of Hudson Value Partners tells me we may be seeing "the first 'Abel Rule' added to the Berkshire playbook," a preference for immediate full control of private businesses it acquires. He cites Abel's comment that while Berkshire first invested in Pilot in 2017, its ability to manage it was contractually delayed until 2023. Davis also thinks Abel saying the company may purchase large blocks of shares from major holders "when the opportunity presents itself," supports his thesis there will be a "very large buyback program" of Buffett's shares after he dies "as his children put the money to work in philanthropy." One of the few analysts who covers Berkshire Hathaway is out with a detailed report on the company that includes a prediction its stock will rise by 10% to 12% each year over the next decade. He estimates Berkshire's intrinsic value gained 9.3% last year to reach $1.1 trillion, which works out to $855,396 per share for the A shares and $570 for the B shares. Bloomstran believes Abel may be more aggressive with Berkshire's cash than Buffett has been. "It's likely that Berkshire under Greg Abel's leadership will commit a large portion of today's outsized cash reserves at materially higher returns than are presently being earned on U.S. Warren Buffett explains why his successor, who he expected would come from within Berkshire, would not need any formal training. AUDIENCE QUESTION: How do you train your successors? WARREN BUFFETT: We want managers to join us who believe in the sort of operation we have, a partnership with shareholders, a lifetime commitment to the businesses. So everything we do we hope is consistent with what most people would call a "culture" at Berkshire. It's the same sort of training you get as a child. And, believe me, if you're a bright Berkshire manager — and they are bright — you know, they buy into it to start with, they see that it works, you know, and it doesn't require formal lessons or mentoring or anything of the sort. I mean, if you talk to our Berkshire managers, you would find that they think consistently with how, in effect, Charlie and I think. The nice thing about it is our culture is so well-defined that there aren't many mistakes, in terms of people entering it or behaving in a way inconsistent with it. CHARLIE MUNGER: At headquarters, we aren't training executives. You know, if a mountain stands up like Everest, you don't have to be genius to recognize that it's a high mountain. Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by market value, based on the latest closing prices. The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker. Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.) Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. 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OPEC+ has agreed in principle to a modest oil output increase on Sunday, five OPEC+ sources said, after the U.S.-Israeli strikes on OPEC+ member Iran and Tehran's retaliation led to shipment disruptions in the Middle East. OPEC+ has a history of raising oil output to cushion disruptions, but analysts said the group currently has little spare capacity to add to supply, except for its leader, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, who will also struggle to export oil until navigation in the Gulf returns to normal. Riyadh has been raising oil production and exports in recent weeks in preparation for U.S. strikes on Iran, sources have told Reuters. Oil, gas and other shipments from the Middle East via the Strait of Hormuz have come to a halt since Saturday after shipowners received a warning from Iran saying the area was closed for navigation. OPEC+ has agreed in principle to raise production by 206,000 barrels per day after having debated options ranging from 137,000 bpd to 548,000 bpd, the five sources told Reuters on Sunday. On Friday, Brent crude ​futures rose $1.73, or 2.45%, to close at $72.48 a barrel, the highest level since July, on fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East and supply disruptions through Hormuz, the world's most important oil route — amounting to over 20% of global oil transit. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed $1.81, or 2.78%, to settle at $67.02. Middle East leaders have warned Washington that a war on Iran could push oil prices above $100 per barrel, said veteran OPEC analyst Helima Croft at RBC. Analysts from Barclays also said prices could rise to $100. Croft said the market impact of any large increase in OPEC output will be limited due to a lack of production capacity outside Saudi Arabia. The meeting on Sunday involved only eight members of OPEC+ — Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria and Oman. The eight members raised production quotas by about 2.9 million bpd from April through December 2025, roughly 3% of global demand, before pausing increases for January to March 2026 due to seasonal weakness. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Every time Steve 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 AI-driven job apocalypse is no longer a hypothetical. Block CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey gutted his fintech company, restructuring it into smaller, flatter teams built to move fast and embrace what he calls "a new way of working." That's the part rattling white-collar workers across Corporate America. And what does that mean for everyone else? People are questioning what it means for their jobs. Tech has been in its hardcore era for a while now. He cut nearly half his staff, from over 10,000 to just under 6,000. Then he made the strategy explicit: "we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do." A Block data analyst who was just laid off said he could see how AI was automating his work, and how it ultimately cost him his job. "It was definitely a 'whoa' moment when I realized just how powerful things had gotten," he told Business Insider in an interview. Wall Street rewarded Dorsey's move, with Block shares surging 17% on Friday Investors and analysts say this could be a turning point, opening the floodgates for other companies to take a similar approach. "This is the first AI cut," Balaji Srinivasan, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, said in a post on X. Srinivasan said the Block cuts were a "signal to everyone in tech: get good now. Learn the AI tools and raise your game. The company overhired during COVID, which Dorsey has acknowledged. Matt Shumer, an AI CEO who wrote the viral "Something Big is Happening" essay a few weeks ago, said this is "one of the first major examples of AI driving layoffs, but certainly not the last." "If you're saying 'this won't happen to me', re-evaluate your thoughts. "It may be the most important thing you do." Do you think this is the beginning of an AI jobs apocalypse?

As of Sunday, all flights in and out of Dubai International Airport — the world's busiest airport for international travelers — remain suspended until further notice. Data from the aviation analytics firm Cirium shows their home airlines — Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways — carry a combined 90,000 transit passengers a day. Emirates passenger Jaiveer Cheema, who was set to fly back home to the US on Saturday, told Business Insider that he was stuck on his plane for five hours with no food before everyone was deplaned and shuffled into the crowded terminal at Dubai International. Cheema said they stood in line after line until they eventually got a hotel voucher and took a bus to the lodging. While many passengers are stranded within the region's closed airspace, shuttered until further notice, the disruption has rippled far beyond it. Flights to the affected region from places like London, Bali, Bangladesh, and the US have been canceled outright or diverted mid-journey — leaving travelers far from home in crowded airport terminals and uncertain when they will be able to depart. Airlines have told passengers on social media to expect long wait times at airports and on customer-service phone lines as they try to manage the abrupt disruptions. The sheer number of displaced people and planes is expected to snowball worldwide if airports are unable to restart operations soon. Flight operations at the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport in Lebanon on Saturday. Cheema spent hours in line but managed to secure a hotel voucher — though he had yet to secure a room when talking with Business Insider. An Emirates spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Airlines are pivoting their operations in response to the strikes. Lufthansa Group said it is suspending flights to Beirut, Tel Aviv, Amman, Erbil, and Tehran until March 7. "The following airspaces will also not be used until March 7: Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, and Iran," the aviation corporation said. Passengers not in the region are still stuck as flights to the megahubs of Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi remain canceled through at least March 2. The flights that diverted to places like Rome, Paris, Istanbul — and those that never took off — have left travelers far from home with uncertainty about when they'll depart. The Tribhuvan International Airport shared a passenger advisory on Saturday, saying international flights "may be subject to delay, rescheduling, or cancellations" due to airspace restrictions. The airport told passengers flying with major airlines — including Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines — to coordinate with those companies to navigate travel issues. The flight suspensions will have a significant impact on international travel. Qatar's Hamad International Airport said all aircraft movement has been temporarily suspended due to the country's closed airspace. We are working closely with government stakeholders and airline partners to look after passengers that have been impacted," the airport wrote in an advisory. Flights heading to the Middle East were also canceled at London Gatwick Airport in England on Saturday. A London Gatwick Airport spokesperson told Sky News it's "expecting disruption to our Qatar and Emirates flights."

Here's what we know so far as investors brace for impacts when markets open after the weekend. The president had stated on Saturday that the aggressive strikes were aimed at ending a decades-long threat from Iran and ensuring it could not develop a nuclear weapon. Iran retaliated with an unprecedented wave of strikes across the Middle East, targeting several nearby countries that host U.S. military bases, as well as Israel. In Israel, sirens and mobile-phone warnings sent people rushing to air raid shelters as Iran launched a series of missile barrages that were mostly intercepted. Blasts were reported in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, with footage showing people fleeing a smoke-filled passageway at Dubai International Airport. Separately, a spokesperson for Iranian armed forces reportedly warned that "we will teach Israel and the U.S. a lesson that they have never experienced in their history." In a Truth Social post Sunday, meanwhile, Trump warned Tehran against further retaliatory moves, threatening to "HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE" if Iran continued to strike. Investors are braced for risk-off trades once markets reopen after the weekend, with potential gains expected in so-called safe-haven assets like the U.S. dollar and gold, while equities could pull back. Offering some indication of how markets could respond, on crypto-exchange Hyperliquid, which allows 24/7 trading, perpetual swap futures tied to oil jumped nearly 5% to $71.7 per barrel, while those for gold rose roughly 1.2% to $5,334 per troy ounce. The cryptocurrency slipped to $66,325 as of 4:48 a.m. EST on Sunday. Oil market participants have been closely watching the conflict, which risks a major oil supply shock in the Middle East. Bob McNally, a former White House energy advisor to former President George W. Bush, predicted crude future prices could rise by $5 to $7 per barrel when trading opens at 6 p.m. ET Sunday, if there is no sign of de-escalation. This could see oil prices spike above $100 per barrel, McNally said. More than 14 million barrels per day flowed through the Strait in 2025, or a third of the world's total seaborne crude exports. About three-quarters of those barrels went to China, India, Japan and South Korea. For markets, a key question is what comes next. Standard Chartered's Global Head of Research Eric Robertsen said in a note that investors had already been underpricing geopolitical risk. The U.S. dollar is only modestly weaker year-to-date, but the dispersion beneath the surface is telling: commodity-linked currencies are outperforming, he said, suggesting markets are paying for exposure to scarce resources and terms-of-trade winners. Ben Emons of FedWatch Advisors argued that leadership strikes in Tehran raise regime-change tail risks and leave an uncertain endgame. Markets could swing between risk-on relief — if regime collapse removes the threat of oil blockades or nuclear escalation — and risk-off persistence if conflict drags on and supply disruptions intensify, he said. A sustained surge in crude prices would ripple quickly through inflation expectations and hit Asia's oil-importing economies hardest, analysts say. As trading resumes, how oil prices and the U.S. dollar trade versus Asian currencies will be the first real signal of how seriously this shock is being priced in. Some services were paused until at least the end of next week. Airspace closures also forced carriers to scrub flights that would normally transit the region. More than 1,800 flights in and out of the Middle East countries were canceled on Saturday, according to aviation data firm Cirium, with another 1,400 flights in and out of the region were canceled for Sunday. Qatar Airways said it was temporarily suspending all flights, while Dubai-based Emirates said service at Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest airports, was halted. — CNBC's Spriha Srivastava, Spencer Kimball, Pippa Stevens and Leslie Josephs contributed to this story. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Follow CNBC's live coverage of the U.S.-Israel strikes in Iran President Donald Trump made it clear in a video message Saturday following the initial wave of U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran that his objective was "eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people." "There is substantial immediate risk for regional and potentially global escalation, as Iran may now use any available option to respond." "The previous strikes were targeted at the nuclear weapons program," said David Silbey, a professor of military history at Cornell University, referring to the 12-day war in June last year when the U.S. and Israel launched air strikes that damaged three key Iranian nuclear sites. "Since there doesn't seem to be a U.S. ground campaign in the offing, the goal is to get the regime overthrown domestically, either by a popular uprising or a palace coup." Silbey warned that Iran could respond with retaliatory attacks, including missile strikes on Israeli and U.S. military bases and vessels in the Persian Gulf, as well as potential terrorist operations across the Middle East, Europe and the United States. Iranian missiles targeted Israel and multiple Gulf states, including the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, all countries with air bases containing U.S. assets. "Years of Iranian détente-building with the Gulf may be over," said Aysha Chowdhry, principal at The Asia Group. Both Russia and China have offered statements condemning the U.S., and that will likely continue to be the case even as the situation escalates, but analysts say neither is in a position to give more meaningful material support. China, a critical economic lifeline for Iran amid heavy Western sanctions, purchased more than 80% of Tehran's shipped oil in 2025, accounting for 13.5% of all crude China imported by sea. Iran has also been a vital supplier of military drones and missiles to aid Moscow's warfare efforts in Ukraine. But years of grinding war in Ukraine have hollowed out Russia's capacity to project power beyond its borders, said Matt Gerken, chief geopolitical strategist at BCA Research. With its military overstretched and its economy under sustained pressure from Western sanctions, Moscow's influence in the Middle East is set to diminish further, Gerken added. But Beijing has refrained from coming out in strong support of Iran as Washington continued to build up its military presence in the Gulf in the lead up to the attack. Instead, it has focused on encouraging diplomacy and regional security. Analysts are watching for potential signs of whether this latest Middle East conflict could risk derailing the U.S.-China diplomatic engagement and even President Trump's planned visit to Beijing later this month. In a statement Saturday night, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry urged the U.S. and Israel to "immediately stop military actions" in the region and restore dialogues, calling for "respect of Iran's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity." Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping discussed issues including Iran, Taiwan and trade in a phone call on Feb .4. "Beijing may seek concessions on issues more directly related to its interests, such as Taiwan and trade, in exchange for its significantly watered-down messaging on Iran," said Ahmed Aboudouh, a fellow at Chatham House, a London-based policy think tank. A weakened Iran, paradoxically, may suit Chinese interests. "China will need to make a demonstration of power projection in its region to deter American military action and create a sphere of influence," though for now, oil supply vulnerabilities may limit its options, Aboudouh said. The military actions appeared to have have, at least for now, shattered any remaining prospect of a negotiated settlement over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and Iran had engaged in three rounds of indirect talks with a focus on reaching a deal on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and Washington lifting economic sanctions on the country. With Iran's regime at a moment of "critical vulnerability," Washington and Jerusalem were unable to get guarantees of denuclearization and disarmament from Tehran and decided that they "could not afford to miss the opportunity to reshape the region," Gerken said. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar have all closed their airspaces. A video shared by Flightradar24 showed airplanes deserting the region on Saturday morning. Airspace clearing after strikes by the United States and Israel in Iran. Factoring in outbound cancellations, that number is closer to 3,200. The three major Middle Eastern airlines — Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, and Emirates — operate major hubs that connect passengers to destinations around the world, creating a massive ripple effect of disruptions. All three said that flights would remain temporarily suspended through at least noon Monday. Qatar has so far canceled about 92% of flights to and from Doha. Dubai International Airport — the world's busiest megahub for international traffic — was damaged by an apparent missile strike on Sunday morning. Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi was similarly hit. It's unclear how that could further impact operations even if the airspace opens back up. A Cirium spokesperson said these airlines collectively carry 90,000 transiting passengers through their hubs daily — not including those destined for the Middle East. Even for flights that don't land in the region, it's a key corridor for flying between Europe and Asia. And it's possible mass diversions could overwhelm certain airports. In a post on X, Emirates said it was temporarily suspending all flights to and from Dubai, its home base. Emirates urged customers to check their flight statuses before visiting the airport. Qatar Airways said all flights to and from the country were suspended until at least midnight UTC, or 7 p.m. Etihad Airways, which is based in Abu Dhabi, said all departures and arrivals to the city were suspended until 2 p.m. local time Sunday. Saudia said flights to and from affected airports were canceled until at least Tuesday. For those already in the air during the strikes, many flights diverted to other nearby airports or turned back to their origins. A Qatar flight from New York to Doha crossed the Atlantic but then diverted to Rome after about 10 hours in the air. An American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Doha had flown for more than six hours when it turned around over Ireland and started heading back across the Atlantic Ocean, flight-tracking data showed. It looks like the total flight-to-nowhere will last about 13 hours. An Air Canada flight from Toronto to Dubai was over the Mediterranean Sea before U-turning. Passengers appear to face a total journey time of 10 hours. In a video statement posted to Truth Social on Saturday morning, President Donald Trump vowed to destroy Iran's missile program and navy, and ensure that the country can "never" have a nuclear weapon. When Iran launched strikes on a US air base in Qatar last June, more than 160 flights were diverted. Air India, for example, had to reroute flights around Pakistani airspace last year, requiring some long-haul services between India and Europe and North America to add a fuel stop in Vienna. Some airlines, like Finnair, still fly the long way around Russia on certain long-haul treks rather than canceling the service altogether.

Every time Katherine 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. OpenAI says its agreement with the Department of Defense is "better" and has more safety guardrails than the one Anthropic was blacklisted for refusing to comply with. In a blog post published Saturday, OpenAI shared some contract language from its agreement with the Department of Defense, including clauses that indicate its tech cannot be used for mass domestic surveillance or to power autonomous weapons or high-stakes decision systems like "social credit" scores. In Ask-Me-Anything-style responses, he doubled down on OpenAI's agreement being better than Anthropic's, not just for the broader AI landscape but also for the American people. Every time Katherine publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Katherine 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. "Anthropic seemed more focused on specific prohibitions in the contract, rather than citing applicable laws, which we felt comfortable with," Altman wrote in response to a question about why OpenAI agreed to partner with the government when its rival would not. "I think Anthropic may have wanted more operational control than we did." Anthropic, in a Friday statement, said that "no amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of Defense will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons" and vowed to "challenge any supply chain risk designation in court." OpenAI, in its Saturday post, argued that Anthropic should not be designated as a supply chain risk and said it had made its position "clear to the government." "As part of our deal here, we asked that the same terms be made available to all AI labs, and specifically that the government would try to resolve things with Anthropic; the current state is a very bad way to kick off this next phase of collaboration between the government and AI labs." It was not immediately clear whether Anthropic, or any other leading AI company, had been offered similar contractual terms to those that OpenAI said it had agreed to. OpenAI said that, as part of its deal with the Department of Defense, it will maintain "full control" over the safety stack it deploys, and robust "safety guardrails" to prevent misuse. "We don't expect that to happen," OpenAI said in its post. Altman, in his Ask Me Anything posts, wrote that OpenAI would not agree to allow the government to use its technology for mass domestic surveillance "because it violates the constitution." He added that he is prepared for a potential dispute over the legality of specific governmental requests in the future, but added that if the Constitution were amended to make such surveillance legal, "Maybe I would quit my job." "I am terrified of a world where AI companies act like they have more power than the government. I would also be terrified of a world where our government decided mass domestic surveillance was ok. OpenAI on Saturday said it believes AI will "introduce new risks in the world" and, by allowing the government use of its models, will give people defending national security "the best tools" to do so.

Every time Matthew 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. Satellite images captured after Saturday's US and Israeli strikes on Tehran show that the residence of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sustained severe damage. The photos, provided to Business Insider by Airbus, show several collapsed buildings inside a compound in Tehran, which is known to be one of Khamenei's main residences. Every time Matthew publishes a story, you'll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Matthew 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. In the images, smoke appears to be rising from its roof. Much of the compound has been obliterated, with felled trees and several more smoking buildings. It's unclear whether this larger building was also attacked, but what looks like debris can be seen on its roof. A satellite image taken a year earlier shows the complex included at least six buildings, all of which are now damaged by the strikes. In a video address after the attacks began, President Donald Trump told Iranians to "take over your government." This will be, probably, your only chance for generations," Trump said. The US and Israel began their attacks on Saturday morning local time, hitting Tehran and several other Iranian cities in what has been one of the largest strike campaigns in recent years. Meanwhile, Iran has responded by firing dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at its neighbors, saying it is targeting US military bases. It remains to be seen how his death will impact the fate of Iran's military, society, and government structure.