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Negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Detroit automakers formally kicked off Wednesday.
UAW President has vowed to be aggressive in bargaining with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis for new worker contracts.
A prolonged workers strike is a particularly high risk this year and could cost automakers billions.

UAW President Shawn Fain chairs the 2023 Special Elections Collective Bargaining Convention in Detroit, March 27, 2023.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

DETROIT — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain promised union members he’d do things differently during contract talks with the Detroit automakers this year. Thus far, he has delivered.
Fain has propelled the UAW into the national spotlight with politically savvy strategies, resonant social media messaging and confidence that the embattled union can ride a national wave of support for organized labor to win a “war” against “corporate greed” and multibillion-dollar corporations General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis.

“This is our defining moment, as a union as working people. And we’re taking a different approach every step of the way,” Fain said Tuesday night during a Facebook Live event with members.
The consensus among past bargainers and several people involved with prior negotiations is that this year’s bargaining, which formally kicks off Wednesday, will be “different.”
It will also be “confrontational,” “costly,” “critical,” “unprecedented” and a “s—show,” some said.
The negotiations feature new top bargainers on nearly all sides attempting to prove themselves, a belief among union membership that concessions are not an option, and significant concerns about the industry’s transition to electric vehicles eliminating jobs and deteriorating wages.
The negotiations also are taking place at the same time as contract talks with Canadian union Unifor, which represents 18,000 employees with the Detroit automakers whose contracts expire in September. While the American and Canadian unions have expressed unity with each other, it is expected to add even more complexity and competition for investments and jobs.

Instead of a customary handshake between the two sides to signal the start to bargaining, the union is opting for a “members’ handshake” Wednesday between international UAW leaders and plant workers. No officials from the companies are expected to attend the events, however the union will begin meeting in private with company officials during the next week.

Former UAW President Gary Jones, left, and Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor, shake hands at Ford World Headquarters to begin negotiations for a new contract, July 15, 2019.

Fain acknowledged Tuesday the start to negotiations marked a “break with tradition” and said, “I’m not shaking hands with any CEOs until they do right by our members and we fix the broken status quo with the Big Three.”
Public disagreements between the UAW and automakers have already begun — unexpectedly early, in the past two weeks — with local Detroit newspaper editorials from both Ford CEO Jim Farley and UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, who leads the union’s Ford department.

Playing hard ball

“We’re in the process of changing the culture of this union from a reactionary, defensive union, to an aggressive and offensive-minded union,” Fain said last month during a Facebook livestream. “We’ve also made big changes in how we do politics. … We’re going to be organizing elected officials rather than being organized by them.”
Most notably, Fain decided to withhold the organization’s reelection endorsement of President Joe Biden, a longtime union ally, until he addresses UAW concerns involving the industry’s transition to EVs. Fain has also consistently talked about doing “whatever it takes” to get members their “fair share,” including utilizing work stoppages, or strikes, if needed.
“Mr. Fain’s powertrain roots and commentary since being sworn in indicate the risk of tough negotiations is high, and we expect there could be a strike when the current UAW Master Agreement expires in mid-September,” Bank of America Securities analyst John Murphy said in a June 22 investor note.
BofA estimates such a work stoppage would cost hundreds of millions of dollars per week in earnings before interest and taxes for the companies, potentially amounting to billions of dollars in losses for automakers.

Estimated weekly effect of a union strike, per automaker

General Motors: $770 million, or 46 cents in adjusted earnings per share
Ford Motor: $620 million, or 11 cents in adjusted EPS
Stellantis: $470 million, or 12 cents in adjusted EPS

According to BofA Securities estimates.

During the last round of bargaining in 2019, a breakdown in negotiations between the Detroit automakers and UAW led to a national 40-day strike against GM. The automaker said the strike cost it about $3.6 billion that year.
Negotiations with Stellantis will formally begin Thursday, with Ford on Friday and GM on July 18. The current contracts are set to expire Sept. 14. The deals cover roughly 150,000 UAW members who work for the automakers.
In previous negotiations, after such initial meetings, the union would select a target company out of the three to focus its early efforts on, tabling the other negotiations and extending their contracts. However, Fain has not committed to such a process.
Many expect Jeep-parent Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, to be the leading company in the talks, after an Illinois assembly plant was idled indefinitely for potential closure in February. Fain and several newly elected UAW leaders also rose through the ranks of the union through Stellantis.
Members of the union who work for Stellantis also are among the most outspoken and unhappy. Stellantis was at the center of a multiyear federal investigation into the UAW that led to 18 convictions, including two ex-union presidents, and ongoing government oversight of the labor organization.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles assembly workers build 2019 Ram pickup trucks at the FCA Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Oct. 22, 2018.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

Stellantis, in a statement, said the company and the union have “a long history of working together, and our intent is to continue this partnership.”
“Together, we must approach these negotiations with open minds and a willingness to roll up our sleeves to find solutions that will result in a contract that is competitive in the market, provides a path to the middle class for our employees and meets the needs of our customers,” the company said. 
GM and Ford released similar statements this week. The companies do not historically comment on specifics of the negotiations until they are concluded.

What’s at stake?

Automakers have spent decades attempting to remove fixed costs from their balance sheets. They continue to support variable bonuses such as profit sharing, based on the company’s operations instead of cost-of-living-adjustments that are dependent on outside factors such as inflation.
Fain has been steadfast in the reinstatement of COLA as a top issue for the union during this round of negotiations in addition to increased wages, retention of a platinum health-care package and the end of a grow-in, or tiered, pay system.
“The United Auto workers are ready to get back into the fight against corruption, against concessions, against tiers,” Fain said during a UAW bargaining convention shortly after becoming president. “The UAW is ready to get back into the fight for good jobs, for economic justice, for our families and for our communities.”

United Auto Workers members on strike picket outside General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant in Detroit, Sept. 25, 2019.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Under the current pay structure, UAW members start at about $18 an hour and have a “grow-in” period of four years to reach a top wage of more than $30 an hour.
Following the last UAW-Detroit automaker negotiations in 2019, the Center for Automotive Research forecast average hourly labor costs would increase $11 per worker for Stellantis and $8 per worker at GM and Ford through the current contracts, which expire in September. Those hikes increase labor costs for the automaker to $66 per hour for Stellantis, $69 for Ford and $71 for GM, CAR said.
Wage hikes in this year’s negotiations could mean further labor cost increases for the Detroit automakers of between 25% and 30% over the next four years, according to BofA’s Murphy, based on recent UAW negotiations with companies outside the auto sector such as Deere & Co., Caterpillar and CNH.
In addition to pay, benefits and bonuses, the union also has the auto industry’s transition to EVs in its sights. Fain has called for a “just transition” for workers, as the government uses taxpayer money to subsidize the EV industry.
A 2018 study by the union found mass adoption of EVs could cost the UAW 35,000 jobs, however the union has more recently said that number could be less.
“The federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition, with no strings attached and no commitment to workers,” Fain said earlier this year. “The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments.”

Battery workers

Making matters all the more complicated, the UAW is simultaneously negotiating separate contracts with Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution to produce batteries for the automaker’s EVs near Lordstown, Ohio, where the company closed a major assembly plant during the last round of negotiations.
In a white paper released Monday, the UAW detailed some reported safety issues and concerns at the plant by workers. The union suggested the GM national agreement, including its wages, could be a solution to fixing the problems at the site.

General Motors revealed its all-new modular platform and battery system, Ultium, on March 4, 2020 at its Tech Center campus in Warren, Michigan.
Photo by Steve Fecht for General Motors

Ultium condemned the report and the UAW’s depiction of the plant, calling the UAW’s characterization of the safety concerns “knowingly false and misleading.” 
“We strongly object to the UAW whitepaper and will provide a detailed response after further review,” Ultium said in an emailed statement. “Ultium Cells is eager to resume bargaining with the UAW to discuss any specific concerns, as well as the total compensation package, for our team members.”
Ultium has said hourly workers currently make between $16 and $22 an hour with full benefits, incentives and tuition assistance. That compares to traditional hourly UAW members that can make upward of $32 an hour at GM plants. More

Brand management firm Go Global Retail, which owns children’s apparel company Janie and Jack, was eager to acquire Buy Buy Baby from Bed Bath & Beyond but couldn’t reach an agreement on valuation.
Dream on Me Industries, a little-known New Jersey-based retailer and one of Buy Buy Baby’s former suppliers, won the chain’s trademark and digital assets for $15.5 million.
The sale was approved during a hearing in federal bankruptcy court in Newark, New Jersey.

Signs stating everything is on sale at a Buy Buy Baby store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Feb. 6, 2023.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Buy Buy Baby’s stores are set to disappear after a last ditch effort to save the chain and keep the business alive fell apart, CNBC has learned. 
Brand management firm Go Global Retail, which owns children’s apparel company Janie and Jack, was eager to buy the beloved Bed Bath & Beyond chain and keep it running, but ultimately couldn’t reach an agreement on valuation, the firm’s CEO Jeff Streader told CNBC. 

Lender Sixth Street Partners, Bed Bath & Beyond’s lead creditor, determined it could recover more of its losses than what Go Global was willing to offer by selling Buy Buy Baby’s intellectual property, auctioning off its leases and moving ahead with liquidation sales. 
Dream on Me Industries, a little-known New Jersey-based retailer and one of Buy Buy Baby’s former suppliers, won the chain’s trademark and digital assets for $15.5 million after Bed Bath & Beyond failed to receive any higher bids. 
Go Global believed there was a path to close as recently as Monday, but in the end, it couldn’t agree on a number with Sixth Street, Streader said. 
“We were being fair in our offer. Sixth Street was not unreasonable but there was a difference in opinion on valuation,” he said. “We wish the IP bid winners success in their journey.” 
In total, Go Global’s offer had a higher dollar amount than Dream on Me’s, but not by much because “there was a huge erosion of value in the last six weeks,” according to a person close to the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. 

If the firm’s offer was accepted, it would’ve needed to put up additional capital at the time of the sale to keep stores running and the way its bid was constructed didn’t factor in the cost of Buy Buy Baby’s intellectual property, said another person close to the matter. While Sixth Street would’ve preferred to keep stores open, Bed Bath didn’t receive a viable bid to allow that, said the person.
When the auction process first began, Go Global was prepared to offer a “substantially higher” price, said one of the people. In May, the firm was seeking an additional $50 million in capital to shore up its bid, CNBC previously reported. 
However, nearly three months into liquidation sales at Buy Buy Baby’s 120 stores, there was very little left to bid on besides its IP, empty stores, leases and whatever inventory was left, said the source. 
For the past several weeks, Bed Bath & Beyond has repeatedly pushed back and split up the bankruptcy-run auction process for Buy Buy Baby so it could secure higher bids and find a firm that was willing to keep stores running. 
However, each time the auction was pushed back, it was only delayed by about a week or so, which “definitely deterred prospective bidders or investors,” said the source. 
“Most people cannot move that quickly,” the source added. 
During a hearing in federal bankruptcy court in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Judge Vincent Papalia approved the sale of Buy Buy Baby’s intellectual property to Dream on Me as one of the bidder’s staffers, who appeared virtually via Zoom for the hearing, was seen smoking a cigarette on screen. 
Bed Bath & Beyond’s lawyers said it was “unfortunate” they weren’t able to secure a buyer as Papalia and other attorneys present for the hearing expressed their disappointment that the chain couldn’t be saved. 
“I share in the disappointment for the lack of going concern bids,” said Papalia. 
“It’s a shame, I guess both parts are not going forward and that is disappointing. I had higher hopes going in but sometimes, those hopes aren’t realized.”   More

The European Union’s drug regulator said it has broadened an investigation into the risk of suicidal thoughts among patients taking Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Wegovy and Saxenda drugs to include other weight loss and diabetes medications. 
The agency didn’t specify which additional drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, are now included in the investigation.
Suicidal behavior is not currently listed as a side effect in the EU product information for any GLP-1 receptor agonists. 

In this photo illustration, boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles, April 17, 2023.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

The European Union’s drug regulator on Tuesday said it has broadened an investigation into the risk of suicidal thoughts and self-injury among patients taking Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Wegovy and Saxenda drugs to include other weight loss and diabetes medications. 
The European Medicines Agency didn’t specify which additional drugs are now included in the investigation, but it could potentially include Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro, which is approved in the EU. Other companies such as Pfizer and Amgen are developing similar products. 

The EMA said it is now evaluating about 150 reports of possible cases of self-injury and suicidal thoughts in patients taking weight loss and diabetes drugs. It’s still unclear if the medicines caused the events or whether they are linked to patients’ underlying conditions or other factors, the statement said.
The EMA expects to finish its probe in November, according to a statement.   
On Monday, the agency told CNBC it launched an investigation into the matter after the Icelandic Medicines Agency flagged three cases of suicidal thoughts and self-injury in patients taking drugs containing liraglutide and semaglutide. 
Liraglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Saxenda. Semaglutide is the active ingredient in the Danish company’s weight loss injection, Wegovy, and its diabetes counterpart, Ozempic. 
Liraglutide and semaglutide are part of a class of highly popular drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists. 

They mimic a hormone produced in the gut called GLP-1 to suppress a person’s appetite and ultimately aid with weight loss. Those drugs can also help people manage Type 2 diabetes because they encourage insulin release from the pancreas, lowering blood sugar levels.
Novo Nordisk said in a statement to CNBC on Monday that “safety data collected from large clinical trial programs and post marketing surveillance have not demonstrated a causal association between semaglutide or liraglutide and suicidal and self-harming thoughts.”
The company said it is “continuously performing surveillance of the data from ongoing clinical trials and real-world use of its products and collaborates closely with the authorities to ensure patient safety and adequate information to healthcare professionals.”
The EMA’s investigation could potentially establish new side effects associated with blockbuster drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic, which are already known to cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. 
Suicidal behavior is not currently listed as a side effect in the EU product information for any GLP-1 receptor agonists. 
The U.S. prescribing information for Novo Nordisk’s Saxenda, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, also does not list suicidal thoughts or self-injury as side effects. But it does include a recommendation to monitor patients for depression or suicidal thoughts and to discontinue the drug if symptoms develop. 
Clinical trials in adults found nine of 3,300 people on Saxenda reported suicidal ideation. That’s compared with two of more than 1,900 people on a placebo. The prescribing information says “there was insufficient information to establish a causal relationship to Saxenda.”
There is no similar warning in the U.S. prescribing information for Ozempic. 
Wegovy’s U.S. prescribing information notes suicidal ideation and behavior have been reported in clinical trials for other weight management products. Patients on Wegovy should be monitored for depression and suicidal thoughts or behavior, the information says. 
If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the U.S. at 988 or the Samaritans in the U.K. at 116 123. More

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin suffered a rocket engine explosion while testing its BE-4 rocket engine last month, CNBC has learned.
During a firing on June 30 at Blue Origin’s facility in West Texas, a BE-4 engine detonated about 10 seconds into the test.
A Blue Origin spokesperson confirmed the incident, noting no personnel were injured and an investigation is underway, with a “proximate cause” identified.

A test of a BE-4 engine at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One facility in West Texas, Aug. 2, 2019.
Blue Origin

A Blue Origin rocket engine exploded during testing last month, CNBC has learned, a destructive setback with potential ramifications for the company’s customers and its own rocket.
During a firing on June 30 at a West Texas facility of Jeff Bezos’ space company, a BE-4 engine detonated about 10 seconds into the test, according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people described having seen video of a dramatic explosion that destroyed the engine and heavily damaged the test stand infrastructure.

The people spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters.
The engine that exploded was expected to finish testing in July. It was then scheduled to ship to Blue Origin’s customer United Launch Alliance for use on ULA’s second Vulcan rocket launch, those people said.
A Blue Origin spokesperson, in a statement to CNBC on Tuesday, confirmed the company “ran into an issue while testing Vulcan’s Flight Engine 3.”
“No personnel were injured and we are currently assessing root cause,” Blue Origin said, adding “we already have proximate cause and are working on remedial actions.”
The company noted it “immediately” made its customer ULA aware of the incident. ULA is the rocket-building joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which competes primarily with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, especially going head-to-head over the most lucrative military launch contracts.

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Blue Origin also said it will be able to “continue testing” engines in West Texas. The company previously built two stands for the tests.
“We will be able to meet our engine delivery commitments this year and stay ahead of our customer’s launch needs,” Blue Origin added.

Vulcan delays

BE-4’s test failure threatens to further push back the already-delayed first Vulcan launch — which was recently rescheduled to the fourth quarter of this year — while Blue Origin examines the cause of the problem.
Each Vulcan rocket uses a pair of BE-4 engines to launch. ULA waited anxiously for years to receive delivery of the first set. A month ago, ULA completed a key milestone in preparation for the first Vulcan launch, known as Cert-1, with a short static fire test of the rocket using the first pair of BE-4 flight engines.
In a statement to CNBC, a ULA spokesperson said, “The BE-4 testing issue is not expected to impact our plans for the Vulcan Cert-1 mission.” The company noted that the engines for Cert-1 “successfully passed acceptance testing” and are qualified to launch.

The Vulcan rocket for the Cert-1 mission stands at SLC-41 during testing in Cape Canaveral, Florida, May 12, 2023.
United Launch Alliance

As ULA’s Cert mission name implies, the company needs to launch two Vulcans successfully to complete the U.S. Space Force’s certification of the rocket for operational flights. With ULA set to retire its currently operational rockets, Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy, the company needs Vulcan to be certified as soon as possible to begin flying national security missions.
Last month, Space Force assigned SpaceX and ULA each with six missions under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 program. All six of ULA’s NSSL missions are set to fly on Vulcan. Additionally, ULA is preparing to bid for Phase 3 contracts under NSSL, with the Space Force welcoming heightened competition.
Blue Origin’s BE-4 incident comes after ULA spent three months investigating its own test explosion. In March, a separate part of the rocket, known as the upper stage, exploded during a structural test and required ULA to partially disassemble the first Vulcan rocket to reinforce the upper stage that was already installed.
While ULA determined the problem would be fairly easy to fix, it is now testing a change to the thickness of the upper stage’s steel walls to ensure the solution is sufficient before the company reinstalls an improved version.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn

At the same time that Blue Origin needs to get BE-4 working well and humming off the production line for its main customer, the company also needs the engines for its own reusable New Glenn rocket that’s in development.
While Vulcan uses two BE-4 engines, each New Glenn rocket requires seven BE-4 engines, meaning Blue Origin needs to produce dozens a year to support both rockets.
Vulcan and New Glenn are both under contract to fly satellites for another Bezos-founded company, Amazon. The blockbuster commercial launch deal saw Amazon order 38 Vulcan launches and up to 27 New Glenn launches to fly its Project Kuiper internet satellites over the next few years.
Blue Origin also plans to use New Glenn to fly the lunar lander it’s developing under a $3.4 billion NASA contract.

A mass simulator version of a New Glenn rocket is moved for testing in November 2021.
Blue Origin

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 has meant the company only finished the first flight-ready engines recently.
Similarly, New Glenn was originally slated for its inaugural flight in 2020. But delays have changed that timeline to unknown, with Blue Origin leadership in recent public appearances declining to comment on a new debut launch target for New Glenn.
Blue Origin opened a major engine production factory in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2020, and has expanded its facilities in the area to about 1 million square feet. NASA leased engine test stands at the Marshall Space Flight Center to Blue Origin. The company tests its smaller BE-7 lunar lander engine there, while restoring a larger NASA stand for BE-4 testing at its testing facility in Texas. More

The PGA Tour defended its controversial deal with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league during a Senate hearing.
PGA Tour officials Jimmy Dunne and Ron Price told senators that the PGA Tour’s previous standoff with LIV posed an existential threat to professional golf.
Critics of the agreement say it is anti-competitive and that it helps with Saudi “sportswashing” to gain political influence through investments in sports.

The PGA Tour on Tuesday defended its controversial deal with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league before senators, as scrutiny of the agreement intensifies.
PGA Tour operating chief Ron Price and policy board independent director Jimmy Dunne testified Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s investigations subcomittee, while representatives from LIV Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund weren’t present.

LIV CEO Greg Norman is out of the country, according to a spokesperson. A representative for the subcomittee said it is preparing to hear testimony from Norman as well as tour golfers in the future.
Dunne and Price said they believed the PGA Tour would benefit the most from the proposed deal. Dunne said that if a deal were to get done, the tour would “definitely stay intact and becomes more powerful,” and added he hoped PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan would have “a more productive role in the game of golf” in a more constructive way.

Ron Price, chief operating officer of PGA Tour, during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, DC, US, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Price also said the tour didn’t seek out the Saudis. “We are in a situation where we faced a real threat … you could go elsewhere for $1 billion, $3 billion, maybe $50 billion,” he said. “We could do it but if we went down that path, we would end up giving up total control.”
The Senate panel is probing the agreement, which would merge the commercial operations of the golf leagues. The proposed deal with LIV has triggered questions regarding the future of the tour and its players’ sponsorships.
The tour rakes in billions of dollars between sponsorships and media rights deals that air its events on television. The PGA Tour has a nine-year deal, which began in 2022, with Comcast, Paramount Global and Disney that brings in $700 million in annual fees, according to previous reports. The PGA tour also signed a 12-year $2 billion deal with Warner Bros. Discovery in 2018 for international TV rights, although it was restructured earlier this year.

In a framework agreement, the proposed deal shows it would create a for-profit subsidiary of the PGA Tour, and the new entity would manage commercial assets for all the tours. The PGA Tour would manage competitions, and has said it is leading the negotiations to reach a finalized deal.
Documents obtained by the subcommittee show that PCP Capital Partners, an investment firm headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, proposed a long-term agreement to PGA Tour Policy Board Chairman Edward Herlihy and Dunne as early as April.
The proposal included an idea that would have superstars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy own LIV Golf teams and participate in at least 10 league events. McIlroy is one of the most outspoken critics of the PGA Tour’s LIV deal.
The subcommittee also discovered that PGA Tour officials requested to dismiss Norman and golf marketing agency Performance54 from LIV Golf after the completion of the deal. It is unclear which professional players, including McIlroy and Woods, had knowledge of the negotiations before the agreement was unveiled last month, according to the documents.
The June merger announcement shocked the sports world, with many critics on Capitol Hill accusing LIV, which is funded by the PIF, of “sportswashing,” or spreading government influence through sports.
“A regime that has killed journalists, jailed and tortured dissidents, fostered the war in Yemen, and supported other terrorist activities, including 9/11. It’s called sportswashing,” subcomittee chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement.

Jimmy Dunne, board member with PGA Tour, during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, DC, US, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Concerns about Saudi influence

Critics have also pointed to the Saudi government’s ties to the 9/11 attacks, which the Saudis have denied, and the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, accusing the Saudis of “sportswashing.” Since its inception, LIV has faced such criticism, and protesters have targeted its events, particularly family members of those who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers that day were from Saudi Arabia, and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks, was born in the country. It has been concluded by U.S. officials that Saudi nationals helped to fund the terrorist group al-Qaeda, although the investigations didn’t find that the Saudi officials were complicit in the attacks.
Former President Donald Trump took heat from 9/11 families over hosting LIV events at his courses. The league this week said it would hold its final event of the 2023 season in late October at Trump’s Doral course in South Florida, moving the competition from Saudi Arabia. Trump is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
While Blumenthal is a critic of the deal, subcommittee ranking member Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., took a softer tone.

Ron Price, chief operating officer of PGA Tour, left, and Jimmy Dunne, board member with PGA Tour, during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, DC, US, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“The PGA was faced with an existential threat and this is what they’re trying to do to preserve the game of golf and the purity of the competition at the highest level,” Johnson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” before the hearing Tuesday.
“Listen I have the deepest sympathy for the 9/11 families. I understand the issue of ‘sportswashing.’ I don’t think there’s enough billions of dollars for the Saudis to wash away the stain of the brutal [Jamal] Khashoggi murder,” Johnson added. “But the reality is we all buy oil. We drive cars. We are the ones filling up the coffers of the [Public] Investment Fund. I would rather have the Saudis invest their oil wealth in the U.S., rather than China or Russia, that’s just a reality of the world.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Blumenthal called out the Saudi ties and how a year before the deal was announced PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan spoke out on such controversies. Blumenthal, like the group 9/11 Families United, pointed to Monahan’s comments during an earlier interview with CBS Sports, when he said he had discussed these controversies with tour players.
“I think you’d have to be living under a rock not to know there are significant implications,” Monahan said during the interview. “I would ask any player who has left or any player who would consider leaving, ‘Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA tour?'”
Following the deal announcement, Monahan said he expected to be called a hypocrite and that he accepted the criticism, especially after PGA Tour players voiced their shock and anger. Monahan has been on a leave of absence, due to an unspecified medical condition, but is expected to return Monday.
While the tour has defended the proposed deal as being the best foot forward for the game of golf, especially in light of the expensive litigation and severe competition presented by LIV, it had yet to acknowledge the controversial ties to Saudi Arabia until Tuesday’s hearing.
“Of course, we expect many questions about who we are dealing with,” Dunne said before the subcommittee on Tuesday. He went on to say he lost 66 friends and colleagues at his firm during the Sept. 11 attacks.
Dunne then added that if the deal goes through he has “nothing to gain except the sense of pride that we helped unite the game we love.” More

Only around one-third of patients prescribed weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster injection Wegovy continued to take it a year later, according to an analysis shared with CNBC.
But annual health-care costs for all patients who took the Wegovy injection or a similar treatment soared.
The findings highlight the hefty price tag of the highly popular medicines, which are also known as GLP-1s.
The analysis also suggests that adherence to treatment is poor beyond the one-year mark, which is when patients typically see substantial weight reduction.

A selection of injector pens for the Wegovy weight loss drug are shown in this photo illustration in Chicago, Illinois, March 31, 2023.
Jim Vondruska | Reuters

Only around one-third of patients prescribed weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster injection Wegovy continued to take it a year later — but total health-care costs for the entire group soared, according to an analysis shared with CNBC on Tuesday.
The annual health-care cost for patients before they started a weight loss medication was $12,371 on average, said the analysis from Prime Therapeutics, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S. 

That cost of care jumped by nearly 60% to $19,657 on average after patients started treatment, the analysis said.
And a group of patients in the analysis who didn’t take a weight loss drug saw their health-care costs decrease by 4% on average during the same time period. 
The analysis reviewed U.S. pharmacy and medical claims data for more than 4,000 people with commercial health-care plans who received new prescriptions for weight loss drugs between January and December 2021.
Those patients had a diagnosis of obesity, prediabetes, or a body mass index of 30 or higher.
Weight loss drugs are also known as GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite.

The new findings highlight the hefty price tag of the highly popular weight loss medicines, most of which can cost more than $1,200 per month out of pocket. 
That cost may also be a burden for insured patients, who likely see copayments and deductibles charged by the health plans for the drugs add up over time. 
“While the industry is poised to see broader approval of GLP-1a drugs for weight loss by the Food and Drug Administration in the near-term, our analysis shows that a large, upfront financial investment is required when treating weight loss with these drugs,” said Dr. Joseph Leach, Prime Therapeutics’ senior vice president and chief medical officer. 
Pharmacy benefit managers such as Prime Therapeutics are middlemen who negotiate drug discounts with manufacturers on behalf of health insurers, large employers and others that contract them.
The company’s analysis also suggests that adherence to treatment with Wegovy or similar drugs is poor beyond the one-year mark, which is when patients typically see substantial weight reduction.
Wegovy, for example, leads to 15% weight loss after 68 weeks, according to clinical trials on the drug.
Prime Therapeutics’ analysis does not indicate why patients stopped taking weight loss drugs. 
But many users have said that the ongoing shortages of Wegovy have forced them to discontinue treatment. 

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Novo Nordisk’s clinical trials have shown that some patients stop treatment due to unpleasant side effects like gastrointestinal issues.
Novo Nordisk did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Prime Therapeutics’ analysis.
The Danish company’s stock price fell nearly 3% on Tuesday after Reuters first reported the analysis.
Pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer started zeroing in on the weight loss industry after Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic, also made by Novo Nordisk, catapulted to the national spotlight in recent years.  
Social media influencers, Hollywood celebrities and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk have reportedly used the popular injections to get rid of unwanted weight.   
But experts say the medicines may further perpetuate a dangerous diet culture that idealizes weight loss and thinness.
More than 2 in 5 adults have obesity, according to the National Institutes of Health.
About 1 in 11 adults have severe obesity. More

Boeing handed over 60 new aircraft to customers in June, the most since March.
The company won orders for 288 new aircraft last month, net of cancellations and conversions.
Much of that was from a massive order Air India announced earlier this year.

A Boeing 737 Max is displayed during the Farnborough Airshow, in Farnborough, on July 18, 2022. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Justin Tallis | AFP | Getty Images

Boeing handed over 60 new aircraft last month, the most since March, as the manufacturer tries to ramp up production of some of its bestselling planes.
So far this year, Boeing delivered 266 aircraft to customers, shy of the 316 rival Airbus has handed over. Both manufacturers have struggled to increase output fast enough to avoid delays to airline customers eager for more planes during a boom in air travel.

Boeing said Tuesday it logged orders for 288 aircraft, net of cancellations and conversions, in June, most of them from the massive order Air India announced earlier this year and firmed up at the Paris Air Show last month. The 470-jet order was split between Boeing and Airbus. Boeing’s June tally included nearly 40 787 Dreamliners for new Saudi carrier Riyadh Air, part of a deal announced in March.
Boeing’s total net orders for the month came in at 305 aircraft after it added some planes to its backlog. The company routinely removes or adds planes to its backlog for reasons including whether a customer is likely to have financing to buy the aircraft.
Boeing is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 26, when it will update investors on its plans to increase production of its 737 Max planes and 787 Dreamliners. More

Astranis recently signed a deal to provide dedicated service to the Philippines, a first for the archipelago nation.
“We estimate that we will get up to 2 million people connected, having access to this broadband internet that they didn’t have before,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark told CNBC.
The San Francisco-based company has an alternative approach to providing internet access, using small, low-cost satellites that operate in the geosynchronous orbit of traditional players.

A visualization shows an Astranis satellite over the Philippines in orbit.

Astranis, a San Francisco-based company with an alternative approach to providing internet access from satellites, recently signed a deal to provide dedicated service to the Philippines, a first for the archipelago nation.
“They are going to use this capacity to connect hospitals, schools and other enterprises, as well as set up community Wi-Fi centers,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark told CNBC. 

“We estimate that we will get up to 2 million people connected, having access to this broadband internet that they didn’t have before,” Gedmark added.
The satellite that will provide service to the Philippines is scheduled to launch in 2024. It represents the latest exercise in Astranis’ campaign to bring service to underserved communities around the world, with its first small satellite dedicated to bringing service to “hundreds of thousands of people” in Alaska, and another upcoming satellite that’s expected to bring service to 3 million people in Peru.
Astranis will own and operate the satellite, with services provider Orbits Corp. buying capacity through a long-term contract for a local Philippine internet service provider, HTechCorp. Astranis declined to specify financial details of the contract, but Gedmark emphasized the service comes at “a very low cost.”
The Philippines has a population of more than 100 million people, spread across more than 7,000 often-mountainous islands. That makes broadband service “one of their biggest problems to date,” Gedmark said.
Astranis pointed to a recent third-party study that estimated bringing broadband access to the Philippines, also known as “closing the digital divide,” would create economic value in the country of over $100 billion by the end of this decade.

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Astranis launched its first satellite in May. Its currently preparing to launch two more batches of satellites – which Astranis calls “Block 2” and “Block 3.” Block 2 is launching in the fourth quarter and will feature four satellites, one of of which is for Peru, and Block 3 is launching in mid-2024 and will feature five satellites, one of which is for the Philippines.
The company is one of a number of next-generation broadband satellite systems in development, as companies race to meet a growing global demand for data — including SpaceX’s Starlink, British-owned OneWeb, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, AST SpaceMobile and others.
But the company’s approach marks a unique way of providing broadband service from space, Gedmark has previously said. The company’s dishwasher-sized satellite combines the small form factor of satellites such as Starlink in low Earth orbit with the distant, geosynchronous orbit of traditional players such as Viasat.
Geosynchronous orbit, or GEO, is about 22,000 miles away from the planet’s surface — a position that allows the spacecraft to stay above a fixed location, matching the Earth’s rotation.
Astranis will be able to “cover the entire Philippines with this one satellite,” Gedmark noted. More