Ticker: Apple AirPods Pro’s new hearing aid feature could help people face a problem they’d rather ignore

Some Apple AirPods wireless headphones can be used as hearing aids with a new software update available Monday. It’s a high-profile move that experts applaud, even if they only reach a small portion of the millions of Americans with hearing loss.

An estimated 30 million people — 1 in 8 Americans over the age of 12 — have hearing loss in both ears. Millions would benefit from hearing aids but most have never tried them, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Countless others have tried them, but don’t use them because of cost, poor quality, poor fit, how they look or for other reasons.

Oil prices fall as reality of weak global demand overtakes risk of wider war in Middle East

Global oil prices are falling sharply after a retaliatory strike by Israel over the weekend targeted Iranian military sites rather than its energy infrastructure as had been feared.

Prices for crude spiked globally on October 2 after Iran fired nearly 200 missiles into Israel, part of a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatened to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.

Iran is the world’s 7th largest oil producer, but a wider conflict in the Middle East could have an impact for some of the world’s largest energy producers in the region.

With many seeing that threat diminishing, at least in the near term, the price of benchmark U.S. crude and Brent crude, the international benchmark, tumbled 6% Monday. U.S. crude fell well below $70 per barrel.