Author: completebodyneeds

Google was accused of overcharging Android app developers for over a decade, leading to inflated prices on the Play Store for about 20 million UK customers. The US giant’s 30% levy for digital purchases violated competition law and consumers affected since 2015 could be in line for a £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) payout, lawyers representing them said on Tuesday at the start of a class action case at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London. “Free of competitive shackles, Google has exploited its market strength to extract unfair prices to the detriment of users and generated extraordinary returns for almost two…

Iran has increased the pace of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, just as oil shipments through the world’s most important energy chokepoint approach prewar levels. UK Maritime Trade Operations has reported nine attacks in the waterway already this month, half the total number it reported for all of September in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf combined. Last month’s figure was boosted by four assaults in the final two days, underscoring the recent acceleration. Vessels in Hormuz have been targeted for much of the Iran war, but with varying degrees of intensity. Previous…

Most of the attention on California’s weather is focused right now on an unusual October heat wave with triple-digit temperatures in some areas, but talk of “atmospheric rivers” bringing crashing waves, pounding rain and snow by the feet to the mountains may soon take center stage. Warnings are mounting as El Niño conditions strengthen based on oceanic and atmospheric observations, and NOAA is reporting a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event this fall and winter, with a seasonal outlook that favors above-normal precipitation across Southern California. AccuWeather released its 2026-2027 United States Winter Forecast on Wednesday, which…

The UK financing arm of Volkswagen AG has made a £725 million ($960 million) provision to cover the costs of a plan to compensate British customers who were overcharged for car loans. It’s the first time that Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Ltd. has revealed the hit it expects to take in its accounts filed at Companies House. The Financial Conduct Authority’s £7.5 billion plan to compensate customers was partially suspended in July following legal challenges from the motor finance units of manufacturers including VW. That decision added another layer of uncertainty over the implementation of the plan for lenders to…

San Francisco-based Corgi Insurance has launched fine arts coverage for individuals and businesses, and it introduced Golden by Corgi, a sports and entertainment insurance platform offering coverage through its surplus lines carrier. The fine arts coverage protects eligible artwork and collections against covered risks, including damage, theft and loss. Eligible works include paintings, photography, sculpture, prints and other collectible works. The coverage is available to eligible personal and commercial customers. It includes personal collections kept in homes or other covered locations, as well as artwork displayed in offices, hospitality spaces, galleries and other commercial environments. Related: New Corgi, Liberate, VERVE…

A tropical depression in the Atlantic is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane and bring heavy rainfall and high winds to the central Gulf Coast this weekend. Tropical Depression 9 is expected to impact southeastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The storm, which will take the name Isaias, is on track to become a tropical storm by Wednesday and develop into hurricane strength by Thursday. Landfall is forecast for Friday night. The storm would be the first named Atlantic hurricane of 2026, making it the latest first hurricane since the satellite era began in…

McDonald’s has been sued in federal court in Chicago in a proposed nationwide class action alleging the fast-food company illegally coordinates menu prices across its franchises and company-owned restaurants through an AI-powered pricing system. The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 2, said McDonald’s violated US antitrust law by conspiring with independent franchisees to fix prices using algorithms trained on nonpublic data. Reuters reported last week that McDonald’s pricing engine uses machine-learning algorithms to continually analyze data from millions of daily transactions across its nearly 14,000 restaurants. The lawsuit cited the Reuters article, which said other fast-food companies are also turning to…

A new report revealed half of U.S. homeowners paid out of pocket for weather damage the past three years, and only 22% feel very financially prepared for an unexpected weather repair, according to tech-native insurance group Hippo Holdings. Hippo’s third annual “Extreme Weather Report,” based on a survey of 1,047 homeowners across the U.S., also found nearly 80% of homeowners are not financially prepared for an unexpected weather-related repair, lacking either the savings to cover the cost or the ability to complete the work themselves. Nearly 60% of respondents experienced weather-related home damage the past three years, with half paying…

Karen Clark & Co., long considered one of the more accurate catastrophe risk modeling firms, has announced its latest severe convective storm model—Version 5.0—now with a new option on roof values. “While previously, roof replacement cost was assumed to be a fixed percentage of the total building value, roof replacement value can now be entered by the user, enabling further customization” of the actual cash value endorsement, KCC said in a news release Oct. 6. The convective storm modeling is separate from hurricane modeling. KCC released its U.S. latest hurricane model, Version 5.0, last year. The severe convective storm Version…

Elon Musk’s SpaceX SPCX.O is seeking approval to build a natural gas pipeline in Florida to supply fuel for its rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, according to a state regulatory filing from September. A SpaceX subsidiary, Coastal Connect Services (CCS), has requested the Florida Public Service Commission to approve a tariff for a new 32.4-mile, 16-inch natural gas transmission pipeline in Brevard County, where Cape Canaveral is located. Here are some details: This infrastructure is expected to provide supply of natural gas, as SpaceX uses methane in liquid form as propellant in its Starship rockets. SpaceX did not immediately respond…