Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday evening that telecommunications lines have been repaired and airport operations across the Northeast are resuming, though travelers should continue to expect delays.

“The telecom lines have been repaired, and all airport operations in the Northeast are resuming. It will take some time to clear all existing delays, so please check with your airline for the latest information,” Duffy wrote on X.

Earlier Monday, Duffy said a severed fiber-optic line in New Jersey triggered a telecommunications outage that forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to pause flights across parts of the Northeast.

“An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey which caused a telecom outage and forced FAA to pause flights in the Northeast,” Duffy wrote earlier in the day.

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“This incident underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent disruptions like this in the future,” he added.

As of about 6:40 p.m. ET, Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) was reporting average delays of 306 minutes because of the equipment outage, according to the FAA. Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) was reporting average delays of 212 minutes.

Teterboro Airport (TEB) was reporting average delays of 159 minutes, while John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) were reporting average delays of 72 minutes and 67 minutes, respectively.

Earlier Monday, the FAA told Fox News it had paused flights into PHL, TEB and EWR due to “issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON.”

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FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Philadelphia TRACON lost its primary communications circuit. When controllers switched to a backup system, they discovered a broken fiber-optic cable.

Speaking to reporters earlier Monday, Duffy said “these are issues that aren’t new to us.”

“We know these problems can happen. We know these cuts can happen,” Duffy said, adding that the department has been working to upgrade FAA equipment and its telecom architecture. 

“As we work through all the new equipment, all the new architecture of our telecom, which is fans, it all takes money. That’s why we have a holistic view of everything, including how we rework our telecom,” Duffy said.

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Duffy said the work is being done before the department has secured all the necessary money, adding that “when we get the cash” the department will be able to hasten progress. 

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“But this is not shocking,” Duffy said of the equipment outage.

Amtrak later disputed Duffy’s description of what caused the disruption, telling FOX Business that the fiber cut did not involve one of its crews.

“This incident occurred on New Jersey Transit property and involved a New Jersey Transit contractor. Questions regarding the outage and related work should be directed to New Jersey Transit,” a spokesperson said.

The FAA and New Jersey Transit did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ requests for comment.

The Northumberland firm’s team has recently been training FBI officers to use its drone capturing kit

Counter-drone tech maker OpenWorks has announced its expansion into the US with plans to set up a factory there.

The Prudhoe-based maker of optical sensors and drone capture equipment has opened a new regional American headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia, and has talked of a future factory in Detroit, Michigan. The decade-old firm – which was recognised with a King’s Awards for Enterprise for its exporting activity – says the move is part of its ongoing mission to protect the airspace and territories of NATO and allied countries.

Chris Bigwood has been appointed as the company’s new executive vice president, responsible for business development and corporate strategy in North America. He comes with more than 30 years’ experience in the defence industry and will spearhead the launch of the Detroit factory which is expected to open later this year.

OpenWorks’ products are already widely used in the US with its team having recently training FBI ‘elite operators’.

News of the stateside expansion follows growth of OpenWorks’ home base last year, when it outline plans to create 20 jobs amid a ramping up of production. The firm has also invested more than £2m in research and development over the past year alone, including work with the North East Space Communications Accelerator (NESCA) at Northumbria University, funding two PhD programs in autonomous vision systems development and providing support to post-doctoral research, and supporting university final year projects.

Significant investment has also gone into leading-edge artificial intelligence to boost its precision detection, tracking, identification and targeting capability against threats.

OpenWorks was launched by friends in the back room of a rented office in Northumberland more than 10 years ago. Soon after it launched SkyWall Patrol – a handheld drone net capture system which is said to have protected numerous EU heads of state as well as US presidents Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Its system has been used all over the world, by governments, militaries and private security organisations to protect the likes of airports, major infrastructure and the Pentagon. The company has grown its workforce four fold since 2024 and now employs 125 people.

Chris Down, CEO, said: “We pride ourselves on never forgetting how we started in North East England. The five original founders were friends who came up in the region’s rich engineering and manufacturing sector together and are proud of our heritage and what we’ve learned, and continue to learn, on our home soil.

“Our shared passion for engineering excellence is what took us from that small office in Northumberland, all the way to this expansion into the United States. This milestone is not only a point of pride for our company’s growth, but a great show of what the North East’s talent has to offer on the global stage.”

Happily retired, Sarah Moorhouse is using her private pension “to go places and do nice things at the drop of a hat”.

While other retirees with a decent monthly pension income may choose to build up an inheritance for their children, Sarah, 64, and her husband Geoff are opting to spend their money on living life to the max.

“We like going to Scotland,” says Sarah, a retired school administrator. “We’ve been down to Cambridgeshire, which was lovely. We go up to the Lake District quite regularly to a holiday cottage, and we’re planning to go to Norfolk.”

The couple, who live in the Yorkshire Dales, go on holiday four or five times a year, spending hundreds of pounds each time because, in Sarah’s view, “you only have one opportunity at life”.

They did recently sell their vintage Sunbeam Alpine sports car. But only so they could replace it with a more modern, sporty two-seater convertible, a Mazda MX-5.

“I’m of an age where I’m going to friends’ and acquaintances’ funerals, and I think you just need to live life and enjoy it while you can, because it’s a very precious commodity,” says Sarah.

Sarah and Geoff are part of a global personal finance phenomenon that has been dubbed “skiing”, which stands for spending the kids’ inheritance. It is challenging the notion that assets will get handed down to the next generation.

One in seven UK parents of children of all ages (15%) now plan to prioritise enjoying their money in their retirement over leaving an inheritance, according to a March report, external by pension provider Standard Life.

And in the US, the number of people expecting to get an inheritance from their parents dropped to 20% last year, from 25% in 2024, according to a study, external by financial services firm Northwestern Mutual.

The tokenization of real-world assets is moving beyond the question of how much capital can be brought on-chain, with Binance Research pointing to the growing importance of what holders can do with those assets after issuance.

According to Binance Research, total real-world asset (RWA) assets under management reached $34.18 billion, up 85.2% year-to-date through September 15, 2026. Bond and money-market funds remained the largest category at $18.29 billion, while equities recorded the fastest growth, rising 390.4% YTD.

Together, bond and money-market funds and equities accounted for more than three-quarters of the market’s additional value this year. Bond and money-market funds contributed 54.7% of the increase in on-chain AUM, while equities contributed another 22.4%.Other asset classes also recorded growth, with gold and commodities rising 46.6% YTD, private credit increasing 43.6% and real estate gaining 17.9%, according to the report.

Binance Research describes the shift as the “RWA Activation Era”, where a growing range of tokenized assets become usable across lending, exchanges and collateral markets.

The report uses two measures to track this development: the Programmable Asset Ratio (PAR), which measures tokenized assets against their underlying markets, and the Capital Activation Rate (CAR), which measures how much of the tokenized asset base is deployed in verified on-chain financial applications.
Tokenization remains a small part of underlying marketsDespite the growth in RWA AUM, tokenization remains a very small share of the underlying markets.

The principal asset categories addressable by tokenization exceed $300 trillion globally, while more than $34 billion is currently on-chain. This translates into an overall PAR of approximately 0.01%, according to Binance Research.

Equities highlight the gap between growth and penetration. Tokenized equities grew 390.4% YTD, reaching $4.43 billion, but that represents only 0.0029% of the $151.9 trillion listed-equity reference market.

At the same time, equities’ share of tracked RWA AUM increased from 4.9% to 13.0%.

Bond and money-market funds, meanwhile, had $18.29 billion on-chain and an indicative PAR of 0.0171%. Binance Research said their larger existing asset base provides a pool of interest-bearing assets for on-chain applications, while equities are expanding faster through broader distribution and access.

Utilization becomes the next measure

The report argues that the growth of tokenized supply needs to be considered alongside how much of that supply is actually being used.

CAR measures the share of qualifying tokenized assets deployed in applications such as liquidity pools, lending and collateral markets. The overall CAR stands at approximately 12%, meaning around US12ofeveryUS100 in tracked tokenized asset value is currently deployed.

Binance Research said this leaves scope for utilization to grow “without requiring additional issuance.”

CAR varies significantly by asset class. Private credit has the highest CAR at 49.67%, while equities recorded one of the largest increases, with their CAR rising from 1.95% to 7.54% YTD.

For tokenized equities, utilization is currently concentrated in market infrastructure. Liquidity pools account for 65.4% of equity DeFi TVL, while lending accounts for another 28.1%. Together, the two categories represent 93.5% of deployed equity value.

Binance Research said current adoption therefore points primarily to “trading liquidity and collateral use” rather than broad utilization across every potential tokenization application.

Equity tokenization shows the gap between adoption and activation

Binance Research uses tokenized equities as a case study because adoption remains low relative to the underlying market, while utilization is increasing.

The report’s 2030 scenarios, based on forecasts from its earlier Tokenization’s Trillion-Dollar Runway report, put tokenized equities at approximately US61billion,US349 billion and $987 billion under its Conservative, Base and Bull cases respectively. From the current $4.43 billion market, those scenarios would correspond to roughly 0.04%, 0.23% and 0.65% PAR by 2030.

The report notes that higher AUM should generally translate into higher PAR, while CAR can develop independently depending on whether liquidity, lending and collateral applications scale alongside issuance.

Under the Base PAR case of 0.23%, approximately $349 billion of equities would be programmable. If CAR increased from 10% to 20%, deployed capital would rise from US34.94billiontoUS69.87 billion, without any additional tokenized supply.

“This shows how asset growth and utilization can compound,” Binance Research said, adding that “activation can become as important as issuance.”

What comes next for RWA markets?

According to Binance Research, distribution can increase PAR by bringing more assets and users on-chain, while liquidity, lending and collateral integrations can increase CAR by providing holders with additional ways to use tokenized assets after purchase.

The report said platforms with integrated distribution and trading infrastructure can connect the two.

Earlier research cited by Binance Research found that 58.5% of early bStocks users also used perpetuals or direct equities, suggesting that distribution can build on existing user relationships. The next opportunity, according to the report, is to translate that access into recurring liquidity and financing activity.

Binance Research also said PAR and CAR can reinforce each other, with higher PAR creating a larger asset base for financial applications and higher CAR increasing the utility of tokenized ownership.

“The stronger signal for the industry is therefore not AUM growth alone, but PAR and CAR rising together,” the report said. “That would indicate tokenization is progressing from asset issuance toward repeat financial use.”

Disclosure: This article has been written by Kumar Gaurav, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an investment advisor. Gaurav does not hold any financial interest in the company as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of the EconomicTimes Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.

Apple customers may be able to collect up to $95 from a class action settlement that stems from a lawsuit alleging the tech giant put out false advertisements about the AI capabilities on devices which didn’t have the tech fully integrated.

This spring, Apple reached a $250 million agreement to settle the class action lawsuit related to delays in the integration of AI and Siri capabilities in new devices.

The September 2024 release of the iPhone 16 created a “clear and reasonable consumer expectation” that AI features would be added to the devices. While the company did release Apple Intelligence features that year, the integration of ChatGPT with Siri and an emoji tool fell short of those expectations, according to the lawsuit.

Under the terms of the settlement, members of the class who submit valid claims would receive a cash payment of $25 per device, which may be adjusted up or down to a maximum payment of $95 per device depending on the total number of valid claims submitted.

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To be eligible to receive compensation from the class action settlement, a customer must be a resident of the U.S. and have purchased an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025.

Eligible customers must also acknowledge that they “expected at the time of purchase to receive certain Siri Apple Intelligence features on your device, which you did not.”

To receive a payment, eligible customers must complete and submit a valid claim form by Dec. 21, 2026. They may submit a claim for each eligible device.

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The claimant must be the original purchaser of the device covered by the class action settlement, and may not have purchased it on a resale basis. Businesses are also eligible to submit claims for devices they bought.

Claims will be rejected if the submission is incomplete, contains false information, or isn’t submitted by deadline, according to the settlement website.

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Claim forms must include current contact information and confirm that the class member purchased an eligible device that they expected to have Siri Apple Intelligence features within the timeframe of June 10, 2024, to March 29, 2025. They must also include information to confirm the purchase and ownership of an eligible device.

Eligible claims will be paid via physical or digital check after the final approval of the settlement. Payment may be delayed by any appeals to the settlement, though payments would be processed promptly if there aren’t any subsequent appeals, according to the settlement website, which will provide further updates.

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A final approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2027, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose.

The hearing will give the court the opportunity to determine if the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate, while also considering any objections.

Hard Mountain Dew is offering a $1 million prize to anyone who can provide proof that Bigfoot exists, as the alcoholic beverage brand launches a fall marketing campaign built around the legendary creature.

The “Bigfoot Bounty” promotion opened Wednesday and runs through Nov. 30, giving adults 21 and older the chance to submit what the company describes as “verified evidence” of Bigfoot’s existence.

“Hard Mountain Dew has always been about chasing bold experiences, and Bigfoot Bounty takes that mindset to the next level,” Erica Taylor, senior brand director for Hard Mountain Dew, said in a statement. 

According to Hard Mountain Dew, entries will be evaluated using standards developed with Bigfoot researcher Bryce Johnson, who has appeared in and produced a docuseries exploring reports of the creature.

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In order to be considered for the $1 million grand prize, participants must submit compelling evidence that meets the contest’s verification requirements, including at least four types of supporting material.

Examples listed by the company include alleged Bigfoot footprints, handprints, thermal imaging, hair samples, audio recordings, environmental evidence and photographs purportedly showing the creature.

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Even if no one claims the grand prize, the company said 100 entrants will receive the equivalent of a free 12-pack of Hard Mountain Dew in the form of cash.

“Every fall, someone’s got a story of a shape in the trees or a sound they can’t explain. Whether you catch Bigfoot or just catch a good story trying, there’s nothing better than an ice-cold Hard Mountain Dew at the end of the hunt,” Taylor added.

Legends of Bigfoot have circulated for centuries, particularly across the Pacific Northwest, where stories describe a large, hairy, human-like creature roaming forests, according to the Washington State Military Department.

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The creature has long been the subject of reported sightings, footprint discoveries and blurry photos and videos.