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Krisanapong Detraphiphat | Moment | Getty ImagesA version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.Lawyers to the wealthy are advising clients to ramp up their charitable giving this year to take advantage of tax advantages that will decline in 2026.President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending bill included provisions that reduce the tax benefits of charitable giving for high earners. Since the provisions don’t take effect until next year, advisors to wealthy donors are recommending they frontload or “bunch”…

Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, wrote in a memo to staff on Wednesday that the company will cut about 600 jobs from its superintelligence lab, according to a report from Axios. Meta declined to comment, but told TechCrunch that Axios’ reporting is accurate. As Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other companies race to build the most powerful AI systems, Meta had a busy summer on the hiring front. The company poached more than 50 researchers from its competitors by offering multimillion-dollar pay packages, though OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that “none of [OpenAI’s] best people” took the offers. “By…

Prospective home buyers leave a property for sale during an Open House in a neighborhood in Clarksburg, Maryland.Roberto Schmidt | AFP | Getty ImagesThe majority of would-be homebuyers expect mortgage rates to continue their recent decline, and it’s one of the main reasons why they’re waiting to make a purchase, according to the findings of a new CNBC Housing Market Survey.Rates have been creeping down over the last few months and are hovering around the lowest level in a year, with the average rate on the popular 30-year fixed loan now sitting at 6.17%, according to Mortgage News Daily. But…

On Monday, SkyWest Flight 6569 from Omaha to Los Angeles, a regional American Airlines flight, made an abrupt return to Eppley Airfield (OMA) minutes into its flight, after the pilots feared a potential hijacking. In a statement, SkyWest said that the flight, “returned to Omaha out of abundance of caution after experiencing communication issues with a flight crew mic.” Shortly after takeoff, the flight crew was having problems with getting the communication system with the cockpit to work and began knocking on the cockpit door. The pilots feared there could be a breach of the cockpit in an attempted hijacking…

Ever wonder if you’re talking to a real person online or just another bot? As bots increasingly outnumber humans online, leading to an explosion of deepfakes and AI-driven fraud, one company has a solution straight out of sci-fi: scanning your iris to verify your identity.  Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan spoke with Adrian Ludwig, Chief Security Officer and Chief Architect at Tools for Humanity, the company behind World’s eye-scanning Orbs appearing around the globe. Bellan and Ludwig discuss building privacy-first identity verification, the open-source approach to biometric tech, and why proving humanity matters now more than ever.  Listen…

NEW YORK (AP) — Weddings are meant to be celebrations of love. They also may require invited guests to make a financial commitment that brings them stress. Whether it’s paying for hotels and flights to attend a destination wedding or different outfits and gifts for multiple pre-wedding events, friends and extended family often feel pressure to spend a large amount of money before the couple gets married. A sense of obligation and budget constraints can create resentment, hurt feelings and misunderstandings among friends and family. Future spouses who are trying to plan their dream wedding and are worried about their…

A “for rent” sign is posted in front of a home on Dec. 12, 2023 in Miami, Florida.Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesRents for single-family residential homes rose just 1.4% in August compared with the year before, according to analytics and data firm Cotality, down from a 2.3% annual gain in July. That’s also much less than the 3% average gain seen last year and is the smallest increase in 15 years.Rent growth weakened across all price points, continuing a trend that has persisted in the second half of this year. Rents had been strengthening in the first half of this…

ETS Tours, a faith-based operator, unveiled last-minute savings on an eight-day Holy Land fam trip, which is scheduled to depart on Jan. 13, 2026.“In response to the rapidly growing demand for Holy Land travel and a positive shift in global tourism indicators, ETS is waiving late registration fees for this advisor-exclusive departure through Oct. 30, 2025,” he company said. Rates for the fam trip start at $2,099 for departures from New York and $2,199 from Miami. Guests are welcome for just $100 more.“Travel to Israel is rebounding faster than expected, with the first half of 2025 showing a 16.7% increase…

General Motors will add a conversational AI assistant powered by Google Gemini to its cars, trucks, and SUVs starting next year, the U.S. automaker said Wednesday during an event in New York City.  The Google Gemini rollout is one of several tech-centric announcements made at the automaker’s GM Forward event, and it will be one of the first to get into consumers’ hands. Others, including an overhaul of its electrical architecture and computing platform and an automated driving feature that allows drivers to keep their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, aren’t coming to GM brands until…

Dating app giant Tinder announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its facial-verification feature to more users in the U.S.  The facial-verification feature, known as Face Check, requires new users to verify their identity by submitting a short video selfie. This initiative aims to reduce impersonation on the platform and ensure that people are not connected to bots or fake accounts. Face Check creates a 3D video scan of the user’s face to verify its similarity with their profile pictures. Members who successfully complete the verification process earn a badge on their profiles, indicating to others that they have been verified.…