Raphael Stevens

The National Women’s Soccer League called off its weekend games amid sexual abuse allegations against former North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley.
The announcement comes after accusations of sexual coercion against Riley surfaced this week. The Courage on Thursday fired Riley because of the “very serious allegations of misconduct.”
Riley has denied the allegations.

Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman (2) makes a move between several defenders during the NWSL game between Kansas City and Washington Spirit September 26, 2021 at Segra Field in Leesburg, VA.
Randy Litzinger | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The National Women’s Soccer League has called off its weekend games after former North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley was accused of sexual abuse.
“This week, and much of this season, has been incredibly traumatic for our players and staff, and I take full responsibility for the role I have played. I am so sorry for the pain so many are feeling,” NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird said in a statement Friday. “Recognizing that trauma, we have decided not to take the field this weekend to give everyone some space to reflect.”

Both Baird and NWSL General Counsel Lisa Levine were removed from their roles on Friday, multiple sources told The Athletic. It is unclear who will assume their positions.
The cancellations come after accusations of sexual coercion against Riley — who led the Courage to back-to-back NWSL championships in 2018 and 2019 — exploded on Thursday, first appearing in a report from The Athletic.
As a result, the Courage on Thursday fired Riley because of the “very serious allegations of misconduct.”
Riley has denied the allegations. In response to a series of questions from The Athletic, he called the accusations “completely untrue” and wrote “I have never had sex with, or made sexual advances towards these players.”
The allegations were reported to the U.S. Center for SafeSport for investigation, Baird said in a statement Thursday.

The NWSL players’ union said in a statement Friday that it had asked the league on Thursday night to cancel this weekend’s games. It said the “pain has stretched across years” for many players, and acknowledged the fans who would be affected by the cancellations.
“We hope that fans will understand and support us through this time,” the statement said. “This is far from over for any of us.”
FIFA said in a statement Friday that it was “deeply concerned” by the allegations, and confirmed that judicial bodies are conducting a preliminary investigation. FIFA will reach out to both U.S. Soccer and NWSL about further information regarding the allegations.
The women’s sports industry has been grappling with a string of allegations against various sports figures in recent years.
Last week, University of Florida women’s basketball players detailed allegations of abuse against former coach Cam Newbauer. And more than 150 women, including decorated U.S. Olympian Simone Biles, came forward accusing Larry Nassar, a former doctor for USA Gymnastics, of sexual abuse during his 18-year tenure. Nassar pleaded guilty to charges of criminal sexual conduct and federal child pornography charges in 2017.
The NWSL was established in 2012 as the successor to Women’s Professional Soccer. In addition to the Courage, the NWSL has nine other teams, including the Chicago Red Stars, the Houston Dash, the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit.
The Athletic on Thursday morning detailed the allegations after interviewing more than a dozen athletes who played under Riley since 2010. 
Former soccer player Sinead Farrelly said she had experienced “multiple incidents where she felt coerced into having sex” with her coach, according to The Athletic. Riley coached Farrelly during her time with the Philadelphia Independence, New York Fury and Portland Thorns. Farrelly told The Athletic, “I felt under his control.”
Star players, including Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, took to Twitter to slam the NWSL for not taking earlier action against Riley.
“The league was informed of these allegations multiple times,” said Morgan, who played under Riley at Portland several years ago, in a Twitter post Thursday. “The league must accept responsibility for a process that failed to protect its own players from this abuse.”
Morgan also posted emails with Baird from earlier this year in which Morgan raised concerns during a 2015 investigation by the Thorns into Riley, which she said were not looked into.
Rapinoe, a two-time World Cup winner, said in a Twitter post that “never once” was the “right person protected” by the league.
“Not Mana, not Sinead, not us not the players not the little girls who will become us not the big girls who already are us not any of US,” she said in the post.

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Attrition at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has steadily climbed, passing 20% for this year, multiple people familiar with the situation told CNBC.
Multiple people told CNBC that the departures are a direct reflection on the leadership of CEO Bob Smith.
The central sticking point, and cause cited by many people who recently left, was Smith’s strong push this year for all Blue Origin employees to return to the office.
During Smith’s tenure the company has struggled to deliver on multiple major programs, highlighted by Blue Origin’s chief operating officer leaving late last year.

Billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos walks with Blue Origin’s President and CEO Bob Smith after Bezos flew on the company’s inaugural flight to the edge of space, in the nearby town of Van Horn, Texas, U.S. July 20, 2021.
Joe Skipper | Reuters

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is suffering from an elevated turnover rate, CNBC has learned, with the space company losing talent primarily from CEO Bob Smith’s pressure to return to the office.
A Blue Origin spokesperson told CNBC that attrition “has never exceeded 12.7%” on an annualized rate, which measures personnel losses over the 12 months.

While that’s notably above the company’s typical attrition of 8% to 9% a year, multiple people familiar with the situation told CNBC that, measuring from the start of the calendar year, attrition has already exceeded 20% for 2021 – noting that Blue Origin’s lower rate includes months of data before the recent surge of employees leaving.
“We are seeing attrition rates comparable to those reported by other companies as part of what many are calling ‘The Great Resignation,'” a Blue Origin spokesperson said in a statement.
Given that Blue Origin has nearly 4,000 employees, the departures represent hundreds of personnel this year. The company’s spokesperson told CNBC that Blue Origin’s total headcount has grown by just over 450 people since the end of last year, from 3,503 employees to 3,957 as of August.
One person explained that losing talent causes widespread delays for Blue Origin’s programs, as getting new hires up to speed can take from six months to a year.
Blue Origin’s talent exodus, which CNBC reported in August, features employees from top to bottom in the corporate hierarchy, including:

New Shepard SVP Steve Bennett
Chief of mission assurance Jeff Ashby
Senior director of recruiting Crystal Freund
National security sales director Scott Jacobs
New Glenn senior directors Jim Centore, Bob Ess, and Tod Byquist
New Glenn senior finance manager Bill Scammell

Multiple people told CNBC that the departures are a direct reflection on the leadership of Smith – in sharp contrast to the praise they gave for the passion and creativity of their peers within the company. The people who spoke to CNBC did so on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution or loss of job opportunities.
The experience of those who spoke to CNBC, and their view of the company’s management, in many ways matched that of the 21 current and former employees who published an essay about Blue Origin on Thursday, alleging a “toxic” work culture. Smith responded internally to the essay in a company-wide email that was obtained by CNBC, seeking to “reassure” the company and emphasize that there is “no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind.”
Smith runs the company for founder Bezos, who hired him from Honeywell in 2017. Many of those leaving Blue Origin do so reluctantly, CNBC learned, loving the technology’s potential and having bought into Bezos’ vision.
Several people emphasized the exodus is a huge concern for Blue Origin, as the space industry has become incredibly competitive. Additionally, its headquarters in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington means that the best engineers can find high-paying work in other sectors. Finding the right new hires may also become more difficult without Freund, who left in September.
Some business units have suffered greater losses than others: The New Shepard program has had people leave in droves, one person said. The finance team has also had steady personnel losses, with a source describing budgeting as a nightmare at Blue Origin. One example of budgeting issues told to CNBC was the Jacklyn ship, which Blue Origin bought from Swedish shipping company Stena Line to turn into a landing platform for its New Glenn rocket boosters. Jacklyn has had number of setbacks during retrofitting, one person said, and the project is 21% over budget, according to another – who noted that delays were related to the Covid pandemic.
The company’s vice president of finance Lisa Graham is leaving next week, two people familiar said.
Blue Origin’s human resources team used to perform exit interviews for anyone who left the company. But HR representatives have largely stopped doing so, two people said, with the few still doing exit interviews “drowning in people” leaving.

The return to office push

Blue Origin’s headquarters in Kent, Washington.
Blue Origin

The central sticking point, and cause cited by many people who recently left, was Smith’s strong push this year for all Blue Origin employees to return to the office. Called “Blue Back Together,” the plan came despite a petition signed by hundreds of employees to at least implement a hybrid work model – a petition people familiar said was never acknowledged by Smith.
Instead, Smith spent millions of dollars this year renting out expansion office space near the company’s headquarters, sources told CNBC. He wanted every single employee back into the office by September, with no flexibility for a hybrid model – and planned to effectively ban remote work, these sources said.
Additionally, as part of Smith’s rush to return employees to the office, people familiar with the matter said the CEO in May began a Covid vaccination disclosure program, through “green dots” on company badges. But Smith’s initiative was on a good faith basis, multiple people said. Employees simply had to ask the office receptionist for the circular green stickers to add to their badge, with no proof of vaccination required. Later Blue Origin added a paper sheet for employees to sign before they could get a green dot, but still no one had to show a vaccine card or indicate when they received it.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos speaks to company employees during a launch preparation meeting in 2019.
Blue Origin

While Bezos in the spring was supportive of bringing employees back, a person familiar said he later overruled Smith’s push. Aside from a limited number of essential workers, Blue Origin employees continue to work fully remote, two sources said, with the full return to the office now delayed to January.

Smith: ‘There’s nothing you guys can teach me’

Bob Smith, chief executive officer of Blue Origin LLC, speaks during TechCrunch Disrupt 2019 in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Bezos hired Smith to be his right-hand man and make day-to-day decisions, serving in a similar role to SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell under Musk.
Smith has rapidly grown Blue Origin’s headcount, from just over 1,000 employees when he joined in 2017. But Smith’s time has also seen the company struggle to deliver on multiple major programs, highlighted by Blue Origin’s chief operating officer leaving late last year.
The company’s biggest win this year was the first crewed New Shepard launch, which was a smooth success. But the milestone for the suborbital rocket came after years of delay, with Blue Origin having previously said New Shepard would launch people by the end of 2017.

Jeff Bezos and his crew pose in front of the Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on July 20th, 2021.
Michael Sheetz | CNBC

New Glenn is the reusable, next-generation rocket that Blue Origin is developing for orbital launches, a marketplace dominated by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. The rocket was originally slated for its inaugural flight in 2020, but was delayed until at least the fourth quarter of 2022. A person familiar with the rocket’s development progress said that goal is extremely optimistic, putting New Glenn’s inaugural launch at 2024 or later.
BE-4, the centerpiece of Blue Origin’s stable of rocket engines, was supposed to be ready by 2017, but a myriad of development issues mean the company has yet to deliver its first flight-ready engines. Notably, the BE-4 program is important beyond the company, as ULA signed on to use the engines to power its Vulcan rockets, choosing Blue Origin over Aerojet Rocketdyne as its supplier – with ULA long-serving as a trusted launch provider for the Pentagon’s valuable and classified spacecraft.
The ULA contract specified that Blue Origin would delivered the first two flight-ready BE-4 engines by April 2020, a person familiar with the deal told CNBC. But, in early 2019, the company’s engines team presented an update to Smith and every component of the BE-4 engine had a technical issue associated with it, that person said. The company has yet to deliver those flight-ready BE-4 engines to ULA.

Blue Origin tests one of the BE-4 rocket engines the company is developing to launch its New Glenn rocket.
Blue Origin | gif by @thesheetztweetz

Blue Origin is also locked in a fierce court battle, after having lost NASA’s award of a multi-billion dollar lunar lander contract to SpaceX.
Pressure from delays and contract losses might explain why some see Smith’s leadership style as gruff or heavy-handed. But one person close to the CEO emphasized a disparity between Smith and the expectations of the largely Washington-based workforce – who are often very competitive, and don’t need to move to find similarly technical, well-paying jobs.
That person also highlighted disjointedness in the team around Smith. At one meeting, for instance, Smith told his team “there’s nothing you guys can teach me that I don’t already know,” according to two people with knowledge of this discussion.
Another person close to Smith told CNBC said that at one point the relationship between the CEO and his senior team deteriorated so much that Blue Origin hired a leadership consultant to examine the situation. After doing hours of one-on-one interviews with Smith’s executive team, the consultant began their feedback presentation to Smith with the line: “It is the unanimous opinion of your senior leadership team that you are a micromanager.”
Smith responded simply: “You think you’re telling me something I don’t know? I’m damn proud of it, and have no intention to change,” according to two people who were in the meeting and a third who heard about his comments after the fact.
A Blue Origin spokesperson denied those comments, saying in a statement: “We have checked with the entire leadership team and the leadership consultant you referenced and we can 100% confirm that those statements were never said.”
While the specifics around Blue Origin’s turnover have not been previously reported, the broad internal distaste for Smith has. It’s reflected in the job site Glassdoor, which shows that just 19% of employees approve of Smith’s leadership. That’s sharply below the approval for other space executives, as Glassdoor shows 91% of SpaceX employees approve of CEO Elon Musk and 77% of United Launch Alliance approve of CEO Tory Bruno.
Bezos, who is investing billions into Blue Origin through Amazon stock sales, has yet to show that he is unhappy with Smith.
For his part, Bezos has begun to spend more time with his space company, as CNBC reported on Monday. Two people familiar with his involvement said Bezos is technically astute, showing an in-depth understanding of spacecraft and rocketry. However, those people also said there is little to no chance Bezos decides to run Blue Origin full-time himself.

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The broadcast deal between MSG Networks and Comcast expired on Sept. 30.
That means customers in New Jersey and Connecticut lost access to upcoming Rangers and Knicks games.
Comcast said MSG viewership was extremely low and that MSG is asking for too much money to carry the channel.
MSG said it wants a deal with Comcast that’s consistent with the deals it has with other carriers.

Julius Randle #30 of the New York Knicks drives to the basket against the Atlanta Hawks during Round 1, Game 5 of the 2021 NBA Playoffs on June 2, 2021 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
Nathaniel S. Butler | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

Madison Square Garden Network traded barbs with Comcast on Friday as the two media companies dispute over rights fees that halted pro sports content on the service.
The broadcast deal between MSG Networks and Comcast expired on Sept. 30, leaving sports viewers in the New Jersey and Connecticut areas without content featuring the New York Knicks and the National Hockey League’s Rangers. Both are controlled by MSG. The network also airs Devils, Islanders and Major League Soccer games. The NBA season starts on Oct. 19, while the NHL season starts on Oct. 12.

MSG called the failed negotiations “disappointing,” claiming Comcast attempted to “force us to accept terms they’d never agree to for their own regional sports networks, including SNY in New York,” a MSG statement to CNBC said. SNY is another regional sports network that airs Mets MLB games.
MSG’s statement also said Comcast rejected proposals similar to deals MSG has with other carriers.
MSG Networks also planted a banner across its website alerting consumers of the dispute. The network is owned by Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., which trades on the New York Stock Exchange and has a $2.4 billion market cap.
It’s not clear how much Comcast pays MSG to distribute its channels. The network generated total revenues of $166.1 million, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report last August. But the report added its “affiliation fee revenue decreased $9.7 million, primarily due to the impact of a decrease in subscribers of approximately 7%.”
Comcast, the parent company of CNBC, defended its decision to drop MSG. In a statement, it wrote its internal data shows “95% of all customers who received MSG over the past year did not watch more than 10 of the approximately 240 games it broadcast.” Comcast doesn’t serve residents of New York City, who instead get cable from companies including Charter, Altice USA and Verizon.

Said Comcast: “We don’t believe that our customers should have to pay the millions of dollars in fees that MSG is demanding for some of the most expensive sports content in the country with extremely low viewership in our markets.”
On Xfinity’s website, the company wrote it would lower its regional sports network (RSN) fees to customers in “applicable areas” impacted by the decision to drop MSG Networks.
In media circles, this dispute could be a sign RSNs and that could impact local pro team revenues.

Fans arrive to Madison Square Garden before the game between the Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks on February 23, 2021 in New York City. For the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Madison Square Garden reopened its doors at limited capacity.
John Smith | Corbis News | Getty Images

A new reality for RSNs?

The loss of Comcast viewers for MSG Networks comes at a critical time for its Knicks franchise. The team made the NBA playoffs last season for the first time since 2013 and energized its fan base. But Comcast is no stranger when it comes to turmoil regarding RSNs that feature New York City teams.
In 2015 it dropped YES Network, co-owned by the Yankees. The channel eventually returned to Comcast in 2017. That dispute needed to resolve because the Yankees are a premium sports brand outside of New York. And Major League Baseball games are the main blood vessel for RSNs.
NBC operates its RSN in New York with SNY and has properties in regions that include Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. And Comcast temporarily renewed its deal with Google-owned YouTube to allow the service to continue streaming its NBCUniversal content.
When discussing the Comcast, MSG dispute, longtime sports media rights advisor Lee Berke called the move a “risk” as there could be pushback from customers. But he also cautioned RSNs are in danger if they don’t improve their strategy.
“The Comcast MSG situation is more than a temporary situation,” Berke said. “It’s a symptom of an ongoing, substantial problem for RSNs to continue to gain distribution from pay-TV services as the pay-TV universe continues to shrink.”
“The (cable providers) feeling is, ‘How many subscribers are we going to lose versus that improved margin we have by not carrying these expensive RSNs,” Berke added. “If the savings surpass the loss in subscribers, then they’ll keep it up.”
MSG Networks doesn’t carry MLB games, so it can’t leverage that asset to sports marketers. And distribution took another hit with losing Comcast. In 2010, MSG didn’t agree to terms with Dish Network, resulting in it being dropped from the satellite service. The network still isn’t available on the service.
Dish slashed RSN offerings overall over the years. For now, it stopped carrying AT&T-owned SportsNet and Root Sports, which just picked up the Portland Trail Blazers rights. And it removed NBC Sports properties last April.
“The current RSN model is fundamentally broken,” said Dish president Brian Neylon in a statement last April. “This model requires nearly all customers to pay for RSNs when only a small percentage of customers actually watch them. As the cost of these channels continues to escalate, we no longer think it makes sense to include them in our TV lineup.”
Berke said RSN offerings would further decline in the coming years.
“When your pay-TV universe has shrunk to 100 million subscribers at peak, down to approximately 70 million or less – shrinking to about 8% a year – it becomes more and more difficult to maintain the same stable of channels you’ve had in the past,” Berke said. “The RSNs are increasingly feeling the heat and the brunt of these changes.”
Most of MSG’s subscribers are in the New York area, but losing Comcast viewers in surrounding regions impacts affiliate revenue and impressions – that could hurt advertising sales. And Berke factored in more ways to watch hockey content.
“If you really want hockey, you have new packages with ESPN and TNT,” he said. “And 75 additional NHL games will be shown on ESPN+ and Hulu.”
–CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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GM on Friday said it sold about 447,000 vehicles from July through September, down 32.8% from a year earlier.
The decline was slightly wider than industry analysts’ expectations of 28.9% and 31.5%.
GM continues to maintain its financial guidance for the year, including adjusted earnings between $11.5 billion and $13.5 billion, or $5.40 to $6.40 a share.

An American flag flies at a Chevrolet dealership on August 4, 2021 in Glendale, California. In spite of a computer chip shortage, General Motors (GM) posted a $2.8 billion net profit in the second quarter.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

DETROIT – General Motors’ U.S. vehicle sales during the third quarter plummeted by more than 30% from last year as an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips interrupted vehicle production and cut dealer inventories.
The Detroit automaker on Friday said it sold about 447,000 vehicles from July through September, down 32.8% from a year earlier when sales volumes were depressed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The decline was slightly wider than industry analysts’ expectations of 28.9% and 31.5%.

The chip shortage has caused GM to shutter plants for weeks, if not months, and also partially produce vehicles that are in high demand such as its full-size pickup trucks to then finish when chips become available.

GM warned investors last month its North American wholesale volumes would be down about 200,000 units in the second half of 2021 compared with the first six months of the year. It continues to maintain its financial guidance for the year, including adjusted earnings between $11.5 billion and $13.5 billion, or $5.40 to $6.40 a share.
Every brand for the automaker reported double-digit sales losses in the third quarter, led by a 36.1% decline for Chevrolet.
GM plans to make up some lost volume in the fourth quarter, as Steve Carlisle, GM president of North America, on Friday said the chip supply constraint is improving.
“The semiconductor supply disruptions that impacted our third-quarter wholesale and customer deliveries are improving,” he said in a statement. “As we look to the fourth quarter, a steady flow of vehicles held at plants will continue to be released to dealers, we are restarting production at key crossover and car plants, and we look forward to a more stable operating environment through the fall.”

GM reported its overall sales through September were level with a year ago at about 1.8 million units. Sales for the company’s brands are all up for the year side from Chevrolet, which is down by 5.6% Buick increased by 27.4%, GMC by 8% and Cadillac by 10.8%, according to GM.
GM was among the first major automakers to report third-quarter sales on Friday. Overall, analysts estimate automakers sold less than 3.4 million vehicles, down between 13% and 14% from the same time last year.

South Korean automakers Kia and Hyundai, which have the same parent company but operate separately in the U.S., were expected to be outliers in the third quarter.
Combined, sales for Hyundai-Kia increased 9.1% from a year earlier. The sales beat overall industry expectations but were slightly lower than some analysts forecasted. Hyundai reported a 10.9% increase, including its luxury Genesis brand, and Kia’s sales were up 7.3%.
Asia-based automakers, including Hyundai and Kia, have fared better through the semiconductor chip shortage than U.S. companies.
Others automakers to report September and/or third-quarter sales include:

Toyota Motor said its third-quarter sales increased 1.4% from the same time last year to 566,005 vehicles, despite a 22.4% decrease in September.

Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) sold 410,917 vehicles during the third quarter, down about 19%.

Honda Motor reported sales of 345,914 in the third quarter, down by 10.9%

Porsche said it sold 15,289 vehicles during the third quarter, down 1.7% compared with a year earlier.

Nissan Motor sold 198,955 vehicles during the third quarter, down 10%.

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Auto executive turned international fugitive Carlos Ghosn said he believes German automakers are best positioned to challenge electric vehicle leader Tesla.
Ghosn, speaking from Lebanon, where the former Nissan chairman fled to elude Japanese authorities, mentioned Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen specifically during an interview Friday.

Auto executive turned international fugitive Carlos Ghosn said he believes German automakers are best positioned to challenge electric vehicle leader Tesla.
Ghosn, speaking from Lebanon where the former Nissan chairman fled to elude Japanese authorities, mentioned Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen specifically during an interview Friday with CNBC’s Phil LeBeau during “The Exchange.”

“In my opinion, it’s going to be a German company,” Ghosn said. “The Germans are the first ones who, after criticizing the electric car heavily in 2008 and mocking it, discovered all of a sudden that they needed to move, and moved swiftly.”
Ghosn, who is promoting a new book called “Broken Alliances: Inside the Rise and Fall of a Global Automotive Empire,” said the Japanese automakers have been slow to move toward electric vehicles, and it’s going to hurt them. He did not mention General Motors or Ford Motor, both of which are investing billions in the technologies.
Volkswagen has been particularly aggressive in expanding its EV sales globally. The German automaker expects more than 70% of its Volkswagen brand’s European sales to be EVs by 2030. In the U.S. and China, it expects half of its sales to be EVs by that time frame.

Carlos Ghosn, former chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, gestures as he speaks to the media at the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020.
Hasan Shaaban | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Regarding the recent surge in electric vehicle start-ups, Ghosn said he believes a lot of the companies will “prosper as long as they put their act together.” He did not mention any by name, but some of the most high-profile companies include Rivian, Lucid, Fisker and Lordstown Motors.
“I’m very optimistic about some of the start-ups turning around electric car and autonomous cars,” Ghosn said.

Ghosn, who has maintained his innocence, has said he escaped Japan because he had “zero chance” of getting a fair trial. He secretly fled the country on Dec. 29, 2019, with the help of a former U.S. Army Green Beret and his son, both of whom are serving prison sentences in Japan. Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor were arrested by U.S. authorities in Massachusetts in spring 2020 and extradited to Japan in March.
When asked about the Taylors, Ghosn reiterated concerns about Japan’s legal system and their high conviction rates.
“I feel bad for them. I feel bad for all the people who are going through the system, particularly if you are a foreigner,” he said.
Ghosn was initially arrested in Japan on accusations of financial misconduct and misuse of corporate resources in November 2018.
Ghosn reiterated Friday that he hopes to one day leave Lebanon.

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The flood of new private jet customers — driven by health concerns during the pandemic and the rapid creation of wealth — is now taxing an industry geared for slower growth.
The problem has been made worse by a shortage of new and used planes, delays getting aircraft parts and crew and pilot shortages.
NetJets has halted sales of jet cards, fractional shares and leases for light cabin aircraft amid the challenges.

Private jet fliers are facing increasing delays, cancellations and lack of available flights as the industry struggles to serve a record number of new fliers, while facing supply chain troubles.
July was the busiest month ever for private jet flights, with more than 300,000 flights, according to Argus International. While business usually cools in the fall, September saw nearly 300,000 flights and Argus projects October’s pace will break the July record.

The flood of new private jet customers — driven by health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic and the rapid creation of wealth — is now taxing an industry geared for slower growth. A shortage of new and used planes, delays getting aircraft parts, crew and pilot shortages, catering snafus, and air traffic problems are combining to create a growing number of delays and cancellations, according to industry executives.
Customers who paid five or six figures for their dream flights are now learning that even private jets encounter delays and logistics problems.
“These are people who spent $200,000 and they want perfection,” said Doug Gollan, founder of Private Jet Card Comparisons, a website that reviews jet card programs.
A Private Jet Card Comparisons survey of private jet fliers found that more than 20% had experienced a service issue in recent months.

Shortages ripple through the system

Industry executives say the main issue is a lack of aircraft. People who own private jets and usually hire them out for charter are using the planes more often themselves, leaving fewer available for the charter market.

Fractional owners are also using their planes more. The supply shortage is feeding through the entire private aviation system, from charter companies and jet management companies to brokers and operators. The inventory of used planes is at all-time lows, and private jet makers Bombardier, Textron and General Dynamics’ Gulfstream have all raised production to meet demand.
Pilots are in short supply as well. Many retired or dialed back during the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the commercial airlines aggressively hiring, private jet companies and owners are scrambling to find pilots. Finding cabin crew is also becoming difficult and costly.
Shortages and delays are also hurting the availability of aircraft parts, which means that repairs that should take a day or two are now stretching for a week or more, taking more planes out of circulation.
Wheels Up, which started trading as a public company this summer, just launched a new Pilot Employee Equity Grant to try to lure and retain more pilots. The program provides equity to full-time and part-time pilots on its seniority list as of Aug. 31, and new pilots hired after Sept. 1 will be eligible.
Even catering has become a source of customer complaints. Private jet customers typically call in their catering order a day or two before the flight. But many of the new fliers are calling it in the night before, which has created a mad scramble for the caterers trying to source and make the meals — and line up the right wine or spirits — that clients are requesting.
“Say you’ve got a client who ordered Belvedere vodka and the caterer couldn’t only get Grey Goose,” Gollan said. “So the customer gets on the plane and he’s ticked off that he’s paying all this money and saying “why didn’t I get my Belvedere vodka?'”

Turning away new business

The cascade of problems has led some companies to halt sales and new customers. Sentient Jet just stopped sales of jet cards as of midnight on Sept. 30, saying it wants to focus on its existing customers.
NetJets has halted sales of jet cards, fractional shares and leases for light cabin aircraft — like the Citation XLS and Phenom 300. The company said flight demand is the highest in its 57-year history, averaging 500 flights a day compared with under 400 in 2019.
“The vast number of flights is taxing the air travel infrastructure in ways we haven’t seen in years,” the company said. Pausing light jet sales, along with other restrictions on card buyers, “allows the company to continue prioritizing what is most important — delivering the best possible experience to all owners.”
Concerns about rising costs and lower margins are squeezing some private jet operators and companies. Wheels Up’s share price has fallen by more than 40% since its peak in July, in part because of analyst concerns over margins.
Wheels Up said it “is uniquely positioned to service our members and customers in the current environment with our fleet of owned, operated, managed and third-party partner aircraft.”
The big question is whether the more than 10,000 customers who started flying private for the first time during the pandemic will stick around if the problems continue to mount. Gollan said that while customers may complain about service issues, none of the 300 it surveyed said they planned to go back to commercial airlines. 

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CEOs are at their wits’ end to figure out how to get their employees back to the office as high levels of Covid infections persist 18 months into the pandemic.
That’s the sentiment shared by CNBC’s David Faber and Jim Cramer, who regularly speak with business leaders about return-to-work challenges.
“It’s just a never-ending theme,” Faber said.

CEOs are at their wits’ end to figure out how to get their employees back into the office as high levels of Covid infections persist 18 months into the pandemic. That’s the sentiment shared by CNBC’s David Faber and Jim Cramer, who regularly speak with business leaders about return-to-work challenges.
“I continue to hear a litany of frustration from those who run large organizations in terms of their inability to get people back in the office,” Faber said Friday in an exchange with his “Squawk on the Street” co-host Cramer. “I had a lunch and a dinner last night,” Faber said. “It’s just a never-ending theme. Some of these CEOs are at their wits’ end as how they deal with it. ‘How do I get people back in.'”

Cramer said possible approval of a new Covid antiviral pill from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics could be the “game changer we’ve been looking for” to get people who are worried about getting sick at work less fearful to go into the office. Pfizer and Swiss pharmaceutical Roche are also racing to develop Covid drugs.
“A lot of the times when you speak with companies that are involved in the supply chain, the issue is absenteeism,” Cramer said. “People are scared. Maybe if this makes it so you’re less scared, you’re going to show up to work.”
Merck and Ridgeback said Friday they plan to seek emergency authorization in the U.S. for their oral treatment for Covid after announcing “compelling results” in a late-stage clinical trial of unvaccinated participants. The drug, molnupiravir, reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by around 50% for patients with mild or moderate Covid cases. If cleared by regulators, molnupiravir could be the first oral antiviral treatment for Covid.
Faber questioned whether people unwilling to get vaccinated against Covid would take an antiviral pill. “It’s Merck. They know how to do trials,” Faber said to Cramer, who was nodding his head. “We wouldn’t sit here and question it. But there will certainly be those who do, I’m sure.”
The delta variant led to another recent spike in infections in the U.S. While cases seemed to have peaked last month, the latest seven-day average of new daily infections was still 114,243. New Covid deaths averaged 1,957 over the past seven days after hitting a recent high over 2,000, the worst since March.

Corporate America has been grappling, in fits and starts as cases fluctuate, with how to safely bring their employees back to work and whether to impose vaccine mandates.

On Friday, PwC announced it will allow all U.S. employees, nearly 40,000 of them, who can telework the ability to work virtually from anywhere in the continental United States moving forward.
Many big technology names including Apple, Amazon, Alphabet’s Google, Facebook and Microsoft have postponed their return-to-work plans.
Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff said Tuesday, “We’re not all going back” to the office. CEOs of large companies call him and say they want their employees to return to the office, Benioff said, in an on-stage interview at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California. Benioff previously told CNBC he expects 50% to 60% of Salesforce employees to work from home even after the pandemic.
Wall Street financial firms have largely recalled their office workers, with many of them on hybrid schedules. Goldman Sachs is also requiring employees to be vaccinated in order to return to offices, following similar edicts from Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.

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