By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

Netflix missed the earnings target set by stock market analysts during the video streamer’s latest quarter, a letdown that the company blamed on a tax dispute in Brazil.

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The results announced Tuesday broke Netflix’s six-quarter streak of posting a profit that eclipsed analysts’ projections.

The Los Gatos, California, cited an unexpected $619 million expense tied to the Brazilian tax dispute for the earnings shortfall while hailing its lineup of distinctive TV series and films for keeping its audience engaged and delivering a mix of subscriber fees and increased ad sales that helped it deliver revenue that matched analyst forecasts.

Investors, though, weren’t placated by the explanation as Netflix’s shares still fell by about 6% in extended trading after the numbers came out.

Analysts varied in their interpretation of the third-quarter report.

Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro worries Netflix is using the Brazilian tax hit as a way to mask signs of a slowdown in subscriber growth and advertising amid economy uncertainty. “The truth is that the company failed to deliver the kind of growth we’ve grown used to over the past couple of years,” he said.

But Zacks analyst Jeremy Mullin said he sees little reason for concern, asserting Netflix’s “underlying story remains solid.”

Netflix earned $2.5 billion, or $5.87 per share, in its July-September quarter, an 8% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 17% from last year to $11.5 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had predicted the Los Gatos, California, company to earn $6.96 per share on revenue of $11.5 billion.

Delivering solid financial growth has become more important than ever for Netflix as management has steered investors from fixating on how many subscribers its service gains from one quarter to the next. As part of that process, Netflix stopped disclosing its subscribers at the end of last year.

The shift has paid off so far, with Netflix’s stock price rising about 40% so far this year, although the downturn in extended trading signaled some of those gains are about to evaporate.

Although Netflix no longer reveals the specific, this year’s revenue growth signals that its worldwide subscriber count has increased from the roughly 302 million it had at the end of last year – by far the most among video streamers, even as rivals with deeper pockets such as Amazon and Apple expand their programming selections.

In the company’s quarterly conference call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streaming service’s total worldwide audience — including multiple people living in the same subscriber household — is approaching 1 billion.

“We have a better understanding of the streaming business than any of our competitors,” Greg Peters, Netflix’s other co-CEO, boasted during the call.

Netflix has maintained its lead by adding more live sports and video games to supplement its wide array of scripted programming – a diversification effort that will expand into video podcasts from Spotify next year.

And now Netflix may have another opportunity to add even more compelling programming with Warner Bros. Discovery announcing it may sell all or part of its holdings, which include HBO, DC Studios and CNN. Analysts are already speculating that Netflix may join the bidders looking to grab a piece of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In response to a question about Netflix’s acquisition strategy, Sarandos noted that the company traditionally has been “more builders than buyers” without ruling out a potential bid for some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s properties other than cable TV networks like CNN and TBS. “We can be and will be choosey,” Sarandos said.

The company has also mining a new vein of revenue by selling commercials as part of a low-priced option of its service it introduced three years ago.

Although the advertising business still isn’t large enough to require the company to disclose its sales, management expects its revenue to more than double from last year. A recent analyst by S & P forecast $1.1 billion in ad sales for Netflix this year — a figure that would represent about 2% of its projected total revenue.

It’s getting to the point that Netflix may be in danger of trying to juggle too many ball at once, said Forrester Research analyst Mike Proulx. “If the company goes too broad to become all things entertainment, it risks diluting its core.”

By JALAL BWAITEL and NATALIE MELZER

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists this week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, beating them with clubs in an attack Palestinian health officials said sent at least one woman to the hospital with serious injuries.

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The attack Sunday in the town of Turmus Ayya, which was captured in videos obtained by The Associated Press, came as Palestinians say settler violence in the region is worsening. The United Nations and rights groups have raised the alarm as harvest season begins and Palestinian farmers are at growing risk while gathering olives.

“Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,” Ajith Sunghay, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement released Tuesday. “Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists.”

In one of the videos obtained by the AP, a masked man was seen running through an olive grove and beating at least two people with a club, including a woman as she lay motionless on the ground. The masked man appeared to be wearing tzitzit, a ritual fringed garment for Jews.

This Oct. 19, 2025, image taken from video shows what appear to be masked settlers beating activists and Palestinian farmers in Turmus Ayya, West Bank. (AP Photo)

The woman was hospitalized with serious injures, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said.

In a separate video, more than a dozen masked men were seen running down a village road alongside an olive grove, pursuing a car. One settler clubbed the car and opened the door. A passenger managed to escape and run away with the group of men running after him.

A third video showed flames and smoke rising from several torched cars.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the head of the West Bank police force said in an internal police WhatsApp group that the footage of the masked settler beating the woman “kept him up at night” and instructed officers to bring the settler to justice.

Israel’s military and police did not respond to an AP request for comment on the attack.

Turmus Ayya, whose population is predominantly Palestinian American, has long been a target of settler attacks, but villagers say the violence worsened during the Israel-Hamas war. It’s nestled in a valley surrounded by hilltops crowned with Israeli settlements and outposts. Since the killing of a 14-year old Palestinian-American, Amer Rabee, by Israeli forces in the town in April protests against settler violence and the military’s perceived failure to curb it have provoked regular clashes with settlers.

More broadly,  settler violence is surging across the West Bank. The U.N. says the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage — a 13% increase compared with the same period last year.

The first week of olive harvest season has seen more than 150 settler attacks and over 700 olive trees uprooted, broken or poisoned, according to Muayyad Shaaban, who heads an office in the Palestinian Authority that is tracking the violence.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Settler advocates hold key Israeli Cabinet positions that grant them and the settlers an important say over the West Bank.

Melzer reported from Tel Aviv.

An group that includes activist investor Jana Partners and NFL player Travis Kelce says it has accumulated one of the largest ownership stakes in Six Flags Entertainment and intends to press the company’s leadership on ways to improve the struggling amusement park operator’s business.

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Jana said Tuesday that the investor group now owns an economic interest of approximately 9% in Six Flags. The group plans to “engage” with Six Flags’ management and board of directors to discuss ways to enhance shareholder value and improve visitors’ experience.

Shares in the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Six Flags surged 17.7% on the news. The shares added another 5.1% gain in after-hours trading. Even with Tuesday’s rally, the company’s shares are down about 47% so far this year.

Six Flags reported a loss of $319.4 million for the first half of the year. The company said attendance fell 9% in the three months ended June 29, due partly to bad weather and a “challenged consumer” in most of the markets it operates in.

The investor group also includes consumer executive Glenn Murphy and technology executive Dave Habiger.

Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, said in a statement that he grew up going to Six Flags amusement parks.

“The chance to help make Six Flags special for the next generation is one I couldn’t pass up,” he said.

By JOSH FUNK

A United Airlines plane appears to have collided with a weather balloon while cruising over Utah at 36,000 feet last week, fracturing layers of its windshield and forcing an emergency landing.

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A California company called Windborne Systems said it started looking into the situation Sunday, not long after the National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating. Windborne quickly concluded that the Boeing 737 Max very likely ran into one of its balloons, despite the company’s best efforts to prevent such collisions.

The plane, which was flying from Denver to Los Angeles, did not lose cabin pressure and landed safely in Salt Lake City last Thursday. United said 134 passengers and six crew members were aboard.

Windborne CEO John Dean said he was surprised at the extent of the damage to the plane’s windshield because Windborne’s balloons weigh only 2.4 pounds at takeoff with a simple bag of sand serving as ballast. The impact sent fragments of glass flying in the cockpit.

The company said it follows all Federal Aviation Administration rules for the size and design of its balloons that gather data to help improve weather forecasts.

“I find this extremely concerning, and unacceptable in the case of a collision, regardless of what the official regulations are, It resulted in injury to a pilot, which I’m simply not okay with whatsoever,” Dean said in a post on X.

The airline referred questions to the NTSB, which isn’t responding during the current government shutdown. The NTSB statement didn’t mention any injuries.

Dean said in an email Tuesday that data about the location of the flight lined up closely with the last known location and altitude of one of the company’s balloons before it stopped transmitting right around the reported time of the collision. Windborne forwarded all of its data to the NTSB, which will ultimately determine what happened.

Windborne has launched more than 4,000 balloons, and the company said it coordinates with the FAA each time, filing notices for pilots and sharing live updates on balloon positions with the FAA.

The company said it has already tweaked the software for its balloons to minimize the time they spend between 30,000 feet and 40,000 feet. It’s also looking at different ballast designs to reduce the force of any future collisions and minimize the potential for damage or injuries.

NTSB investigators will release a preliminary report in a few weeks, but the full report might not come for more than a year.