Top Stories; Iran war, U.S. court’s tariff ruling delays India trade deal — but a bigger risk lies ahead
Top Stories — Friday, April 24, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Iran war, U.S. court’s tariff ruling delays India trade deal — but a bigger risk lies ahead — CNBC
- Porsche is selling its Bugatti Rimac stake and walking away from Rimac — CNBC
- OpenAI announces GPT-5.5, its latest artificial intelligence model — CNBC
Iran war, U.S. court’s tariff ruling delays India trade deal — but a bigger risk lies ahead
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/24/2026, 3:58:08 PM
The India-U.S. trade deal remains unsigned after months of negotiations, with the Iran war and a U.S. court ruling against tariffs creating room for fresh bargaining — a delay experts warn could come at a cost.
The first tranche of the deal was expected to be finalized by mid-March, but talks are still ongoing, leading to further delays.
"[The] Iran conflict is pulling diplomatic bandwidth toward energy security and geopolitical crisis management," said Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Verisk Maplecroft, adding that this could stall trade talks further as a result.
An Indian trade delegation wrapped up its visit to the U.S. on Thursday, but the talks have not led to a conclusive announcement.
"Both sides are working towards a balanced, mutually beneficial, and forward-looking trade agreement, taking into account each other's concerns and priorities," a spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs said on the same day.
The delay in finalizing the deal could prove to be expensive for India as the U.S. administration will wrap up the investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in June, a move that would shift leverage towards the U.S., experts said.
In March, the U.S. administration launched trade investigations into China, India, the European Union, and more than a dozen other economies, in a bid to replace President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs, which were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court on Feb. 20.
"It's critical that the agreement [between India and the U.S.] is sealed by the end of May," Mark Linscott, former assistant U.S. trade representative and senior advisor at the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum, told CNBC via email.
India could face the risk of higher tariffs than what was agreed upon in February if it fails to sign off on the deal before the Section 301 probe ends, he said.
In August last year, the U.S. slapped India with some of the highest tariffs, of 50%. A part of this levy was punitive, intended for curbing India's Russian oil imports.
In early February, the U.S. reduced those tariffs to 18% in return for New Delhi lowering duties on U.S. goods to zero, replacing Russian oil with supply from the U.S. and Venezuela, and buying $500 billion worth of American goods.
Both sides called the deal a success and were eager to sign a pact by mid-March, at least for the first tranche of the deal. But a few weeks later, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs as "illegal," after which the administration imposed a 10% tariff rate for all its trading partners.
India would then be paying a higher rate than other countries if it agreed to the terms of the deal agreed with Washington. Speaking on the sidelines of the India-Korea Business Forum on Monday, Piyush Goyal, India's commerce minister, said that India's trade negotiators were bargaining to get a preferential access to U.S. markets.
India does not have an unlimited room to maneuver, Harsh Pant, vice president for studies and foreign policy at New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation, told CNBC. "A tougher negotiating stance can pay off," but prolonged delay raises the risk of losing the strategic gain, he said.
India needs to secure first-mover advantage before the Section 301 investigations conclude, he added.
The U.S., meanwhile, has been pressing India to buy more American energy, as New Delhi scrambles to secure energy supplies amid the disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
For India, the partnership with the U.S. for energy has limited benefits. High freight costs, incompatible refinery infrastructure, and longer delivery times are among the key obstacles that stand in the way of a greater reliance on the U.S. for energy supplies.
On the other hand, New Delhi's reliance on Russian crude has increased significantly in March to nearly 50% of its oil imports.
"I don't see the return of a 25 percent penalty tariff associated with Russian oil purchases," said Linscott, but he added that "more attention needs to be given to concluding the trade agreement."
The only win-win for both the U.S. and India would be to sign the interim agreement soon, he said.
Porsche is selling its Bugatti Rimac stake and walking away from Rimac
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/24/2026, 3:52:45 PM
Porsche AG has agreed to sell its 45% stake in supercar brand Bugatti Rimac, fully exiting the joint venture that houses the iconic brand.
Porsche and Croatian sports-car maker Rimac Group established Bugatti Rimac in 2021, with Rimac holding a 55% majority stake and Porsche taking the remaining 45%. It will sell its stake to a consortium led by New York-based venture capital firm HOF Capital, with BlueFive Capital as its largest investor.
The deal comes as the automakers face mounting pressure to restructure business portfolios amid slowing growth, rising costs and intensifying margin pressure from tariffs and geopolitical disruption. Automotive and mobility deal value rebounded last year, reaching more than $35 billion by third quarter, according to Bain & Company.
Under the terms of the deal, Porsche will also divest its 20.6% stake in Rimac Group, marking a complete exit from its investment in the Croatian electric hypercar maker.
Following the transaction's completion, Rimac Group will take full operational control of Bugatti Rimac and form a strategic partnership with BlueFive and HOF Capital to support the brand's growth.
Shares in Frankfurt-listed Porsche dropped 1.6% in early trading on Friday.
HOF Capital was co-founded by a scion of Egypt's billionaire Sawiris family. BlueFive Capital is a private equity firm led by Hazem Ben-Gacem, a former executive at alternative investment firm Investcorp.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"As an early-stage investor of Rimac Group, Porsche made a significant contribution to developing Rimac Technology into an established Tier-1 automotive technology company," said Michael Leiters, CEO of Porsche AG. "With the sale of our stake, we are focusing Porsche on the core business."
The German automaker has been under pressure to sell off non-core assets as part of a broader restructuring, as U.S. tariffs and falling demand in China squeeze profit margins.
"With the strong foundations [Porsche's] support has provided, we now have a structure that allows us to execute even faster on our long-term vision," said Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti Rimac.
Rimac founder Mate Rimac had expressed interests to buy Porsche's stake last year, making a preliminary offer that valued the joint venture at slightly over €1 billion ($1.1 billion), Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
"BlueFive Capital approaches this opportunity as more than simply a financial transaction, and we look forward to working alongside the entire Bugatti Rimac team to honor that legacy for generations to come," said Hazem Ben-Gacem, Founder and Chief Executive of BlueFive Capital.
OpenAI announces GPT-5.5, its latest artificial intelligence model
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/24/2026, 3:44:43 PM
OpenAI on Thursday announced its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-5.5, which the company says is better at coding, using computers and pursuing deeper research capabilities.
The launch comes less than two months after OpenAI released GPT 5.4, the latest sign of the breakneck pace of development that's driving the AI sector.
"What is really special about this model is how much more it can do with less guidance," OpenAI President Greg Brockman said during a briefing with reporters on Thursday. "It can look at an unclear problem and figure out just what needs to happen next. It really, to me, feels like it's setting the foundation for how we're going to use computers, how we're going to do computer work going forward."
OpenAI is racing to keep up with rivals including Google and Anthropic, whose latest model, Claude Mythos Preview, has captivated Wall Street.
OpenAI said GPT-5.5 excels at analyzing data, writing and debugging code, operating software, researching online and creating documents and spreadsheets. The company added that the model does not cross its "Critical" cybersecurity risk threshold, which could bring "unprecedented new pathways to severe harm," but it does meet the criteria for its "High" risk classification, which could "amplify existing pathways to severe harm."
"GPT-5.5 underwent extensive third-party safeguard testing and red teaming for cyber and bio [risks], and we've been iterating on our cyber safeguards for months with increasingly cyber capable models," Mia Glaese, OpenAI's vice president of research, said during the briefing on Thursday.
The cybersecurity risks presented by AI have been top of mind for tech executives and government officials since Anthropic announced its Mythos model earlier this month. The company decided to limit Mythos' rollout because of its ability to identifying weaknesses and security flaws within software.
GPT-5.5 is rolling out to OpenAI's paid subscribers, including its Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users, in ChatGPT and its coding assistant Codex on Thursday. The company said the model will come to its application programming interface "very soon," but that those deployments require "different safeguards."
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