‘The future now looks a lot brighter’
‘The future now looks a lot brighter’
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U.K. turtle dove populations are on the rise thanks to a recent hunting ban, according to the Guardian.
Over the past 30 years, the turtle dove population in the U.K. had plummeted by 98%. A Western European ban on shooting them was put in place in 2021, including countries along its migratory route, like France, Spain, and Portugal.
The end result has been an increase in the population by 25% (or 400,000) across the entire region. This data comes by way of a new report from the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme.
Operation Turtle Dove has been coordinating with over 442 landowners across the U.K. to provide suitable habitat for the species. It remains vulnerable, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Populations within the U.K. have still dipped by 15% since 2023, despite the increase across European migration routes overall.
Results like these go to show that well-regulated hunting bans can be a lifeline to species that are on the brink. Florida was forced to enact a ban on harvesting a species of bass recently for similar reasons. When it comes to birds, international cooperation is needed to cover a wide territory. We’ve seen similar projects bear fruit in North America, including a conservation program for parrots moving between the U.S. and Mexico.
Volunteers working to protect turtle doves in the U.K. are feeling good about its long-term survival.
Watch now: How bad is a gas stove for your home’s indoor air quality?
“There is real optimism that effective conservation at scale across the turtle dove’s migratory route, combined with our efforts in the U.K., will soon see a positive impact for turtle doves,” said Mike Shurmer, the head of species for Royal Society for the Protection of Birds England, per the Guardian. “The future now looks a lot brighter for these special birds, and we hope to see the results of the dedicated efforts of farmers, landowners, and volunteers when we carry out the next national turtle dove survey.”
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4 Nations Face-Off: Canada beats USA in OT on Connor McDavid goal – Yahoo Sports
4 Nations Face-Off: Canada beats USA in OT on Connor McDavid goal – Yahoo Sports
4 Nations Face-Off: Canada beats USA in OT on Connor McDavid goal Yahoo SportsUSA vs Canada live score updates: 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Game latest – The Athletic The AthleticMcDavid delivers Canada 4 Nations title in OT ESPN4 Nations Face-Off Live Blog: Canada vs. United States NHL.com4 Nations Face-Off final game time tonight: How to watch Team USA vs Canada in Boston Detroit Free Press
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Treasurer Jim Chalmers refuses to ‘second-guess’ RBA despite previously criticising interest rate calls
Treasurer Jim Chalmers refuses to ‘second-guess’ RBA despite previously criticising interest rate calls
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he won’t “second-guess” the decisions made by the Reserve Bank of Australia despite previously saying they were “hammering” working families.
Dr Chalmers made the comments in Perth on Friday during a whistle-stop visit, hours after Ms Bullock told a parliamentary committee the RBA’s board was highly attuned to getting the timing wrong on interest rate cuts, saying that “arguably we were late raising interest rates on the way up, we didn’t respond as quickly as we should have to rising inflation.”
The RBA this week cut the cash rate for the first time since November 2020, from 4.35 per cent to 4.1 per cent.
When asked whether the Reserve Bank moved too late to help families, Dr Chalmers said: “I don’t second guess the decisions taken by the Reserve Bank Governor and her board.”
“I do welcome the governor’s candour and frankness, and we see that repeatedly, the opportunity to explain to Australians how the Reserve Bank is coming at our economic challenges,” he added.
“I think that’s a really good thing, but I’m not going to pass or second guess the commentary that she makes.”
Dr Chalmers had previously said working families had been “smashed” and “hammered” by high rates, in comments urging the Reserve Bank to cut rates much sooner than they did.
The Treasurer said on Friday that the Government would not “pretend that one interest rate cut will solve all of the challenges in our economy or deal with the pressures on household budgets, but it will help”.
Ms Bullock this morning poured cold water on hopes of more rate cuts sooner rather than later, telling the committee that the “job is not done” on inflation and that the 2.5 per cent inflation target was not likely to be reached until June.
But Dr Chalmers said inflation is heading in the right direction.
“These are not accidental outcomes, they’re deliberate outcomes.”
Speaking on the WA election, Dr Chalmers brushed off concerns about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s popularity.
It’s been confirmed the Prime Minister will skip Labor’s official State campaign launch on Sunday, but the Federal Treasurer denied that was due to concerns he has become a distraction.
“I wouldn’t have thought so, I mean Anthony Albanese has been a very regular visitor to the west and works very closely with Mr Cook,” Dr Chalmers said.
“I think Premier Cook’s an outstanding Premier in Australia . . . we couldn’t be more supportive but, overwhelmingly, it will be a State election fought on state issues.
“The Prime Minister will be here from time to time, but the election on the 8th of March is Roger’s show.”
The Treasurer also conceded the Federal election, due to be held by May 17, will be tight in mortgage belt seats. This includes Tangney and Hasluck in WA, which Labor seized from the Liberal Party in 2022.
“There’s no use pretending otherwise,” he said.
“This election will be hard fought, it will be close, it will be hotly contested in WA and right around Australia.”
Premier Roger Cook described Mr Albanese as a “mate” and said the campaign no-show was a matter of timing, when asked on Friday.
“It’s our election, it’s not a Federal election,” he said.
“I notice Peter Dutton is not going to the Liberal party campaign launch as well. I speak regularly with the Prime Minister. He’s not only my Prime Minister, he’s one of my mates and so I speak to him about issues all the time and, obviously, welcome him to come to Western Australia when he can.”
Mr Albanese is expected to visit WA during the final week of the State campaign, with no date set yet for a Federal poll that must be held on or before May 17.
The Federal Treasurer wouldn’t be drawn on a likely date, that could delay a March Budget.
“I see what you’re trying to do,” he told reporters in Perth.
“Look we’re working towards a Budget towards the end of March and the Prime Minister will decide the date of the election.
“But we’re working very hard to put that Budget together, we spent hours and hours in the cabinet room at the start of this week making decisions to feed into that Budget.”
Dr Chalmers was only in WA for about 12 hours. The whirlwind trip included a fundraising dinner with resources industry figures, followd by a morning run and a press conference to spruik this week’s interest rate cut before heading to the airport.
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Two states face chance of tropical cyclones while other parts of Australia put on high fire danger
Two states face chance of tropical cyclones while other parts of Australia put on high fire danger
Two potential tropical cyclones flanking either side of Australia are being monitored by authorities as parts of the country face an elevated fire danger.
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Dr. Mehmet Oz holds millions from companies that he’d wield power over if confirmed, report shows
Dr. Mehmet Oz holds millions from companies that he’d wield power over if confirmed, report shows
WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth of Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has swelled in part from for-profit health care companies over which he’d wield significant power if confirmed, according to a newly filed government ethics report.
In the filing, the 64-year-old former talk show host pledged to divest from those companies within three months of confirmation and said that until then, he wouldn’t participate in any matter that could affect his investments.
Oz’s net worth is between $98 million and $332 million, according to an analysis of the disclosure, which lists asset values in ranges but does not give precise dollar figures. Oz shot to fame and made millions off his daytime talk show. His most recent disclosure shows he also holds millions of dollars worth of shares in health insurance, fertility, pharmaceutical and vitamin companies.
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Oz said in the filing that he will sell off parts of his significant and diverse investment portfolio, which ranges from retail giants such as Walmart to tech companies such as Apple.
His roster of investments includes up to $5 million in Inception Fertility, a company with a network of fertility clinics; a maximum of $100,000 with pharmaceutical giant AbbVie; and as much as $600,000 with the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group. He also holds up to $5 million with Nvidia, an artificial intelligence company that outfits hospitals.
And his work as an adviser for iHerb, a website that sells health and beauty supplements, has earned Oz as much as $25 million in company stock, which he pledged to forfeit “as soon as practicable but not later than 90 days after confirmation.” He indicated he would also resign from his position with the company if confirmed.
His investments touch nearly every aspect of the health care system, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health professor at Georgetown University.
“He has his fingerprints and his financing all over the health care system, from services to artificial intelligence to medical products,” Gostin said. “It seems to me that those conflicts are so intertwined in his and his families finances, I don’t know how he disentangles himself from it all.”
A spokesman for Oz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If confirmed by the Senate, Oz would be responsible for the programs that more than half the country relies on for health insurance: Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.
Medicaid provides nearly-free health care coverage to millions of the poorest children and adults in the U.S. while Medicare gives older Americans and the disabled access to health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is the Obama-era program that offers health insurance plans to millions of Americans who do not qualify for government-assisted health insurance, but do not get insurance through their employer.
As the administrator for CMS, Oz would make decisions on how the government covers procedures, hospital stays and medications in these programs and the reimbursement rates doctors and other providers get for their services.
Oz ran a failed 2022 bid to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate as a Republican. During the campaign, he called to expand Medicare Advantage, the increasingly popular version of Medicare that’s run by private insurers who have been accused of defrauding the government by billions of dollars through the program.
Before his turn to politics, Oz was a renowned heart surgeon at Columbia University. He rose to fame on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” with appearances where he discussed weight-loss diets, Botox and anti-aging techniques. Eventually, he landed his own show, which was popular but attracted deep criticism from the scientific community. Some colleagues at Columbia University called for his removal over claims he made about products on TV. Senators, too, scolded him during a 2014 hearing over the weight-loss drugs he promoted
He has formed a kinship, though, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was sworn in as the nation’s top health official last week. Kennedy and Oz have shared concerns over pesticides and unhealthy foods.
Oz’s confirmation hearing to become CMS administrator has not been scheduled.
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Three buses explode in Tel Aviv in 'suspected terror attack' – BBC.com
Three buses explode in Tel Aviv in 'suspected terror attack' – BBC.com
Three buses explode in Tel Aviv in ‘suspected terror attack’ BBC.comTerror attack rocks Israel; three buses reportedly explode Fox NewsIDF to step up counterterror op in some West Bank areas after attempted bus bombings The Times of IsraelVideo 3 buses explode in suspected terror attack near Tel Aviv: Israeli police ABC NewsBen-Gvir slams Trump, Israeli government, calls for war after bus bombings The Jerusalem Post
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San Vicente Bungalows Is Coming to NYC’s West Village
San Vicente Bungalows Is Coming to NYC’s West Village
There was no image of Lady Gaga at 3 a.m., hanging near the wall with various members of Arcade Fire and Eddie Vedder. No images of Kevin Costner, single and ready to mingle by the bar. No images of Cher and Lauryn Hill over at the banquettes of the softly lit dining room. The owners of San Vicente West Village had made sure that no paparazzi could be found inside last Friday, despite the fact that some of the biggest names in music and Hollywood had come for a party after the Saturday Night Live 50th-anniversary concert at Radio City Music Hall.
Had any of those images been beamed across the internet, it might have built a sense that the first event at SVB, which officially opens in March, was a rager for the ages.
Perhaps that is the point: You had to be there.
Among New Yorkers who flock to power and crave exclusivity, the upcoming opening of Los Angeles’s best private club is being greeted with a sense of urgency that is second only to the future of democracy.
“Everyone in fashion has been talking about this club, whether to join, how to get on the list,” said Kendall Werts, a founder of the Jeffries, an agency at the intersection of branding and celebrity.
San Vicente West Village is the brainchild of Jeff Klein, a businessman with a long track record in hospitality, who opened San Vicente Bungalows Los Angeles in 2018.
In the 1990s, Mr. Klein bet that hotels would be to that decade what nightclubs had been to the 1980s.
In 2004, Mr. Klein spent $18 million to buy the dilapidated Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles. It went on to become the town’s premier canteen for moguls and movie stars (think: Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Bezos, George Clooney) and, for several years, it was the site of Vanity Fair’s famous Oscars party.
Mr. Klein also teamed up with the magazine’s former editor, Graydon Carter, on the Monkey Bar, a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.
But the real follow-up to the Sunset Tower was the San Vicente Bungalows, a members-only club that changed how celebrities could socialize.
A cynic might say the idea was to create a safe space for the town’s best-known and best-connected people, one where they could gawk at and hit on one another without having those moments memorialized in a bad iPhone picture taken by a tourist. (The club requires all guests to cover their phone cameras with stickers for the duration of their stay.) The challenges associated with navigating Los Angeles’s sprawl also worked in the club’s favor. With fewer ways to run into people, they settled into picking one.
Dues ran around $4,000, not including initiation fees that ranged from $3,000 to $15,000, depending on age. Among those who joined were Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Tom Ford.
“When I’m in L.A., if I’m not eating at home, I’m at San Vicente. Before that, I was at Tower Bar,” Mr. Ford said by phone last week. “It’s like I’m at home. They know my favorite table and what I like. My Coca-Cola arrives before I ask for it. You feel Jeff’s presence in every way.”
After the coronavirus pandemic, an idea began to gnaw at Mr. Klein: Might he be able to bottle the magic in Los Angeles and bring it back to the city he’d left behind?
In short order, he decided to test his luck at the Jane Hotel, a red brick West Village landmark along the West Side Highway.
The blowback and intrigue from New Yorkers began as soon as the first invitations to join were extended. A select group of current members were instructed to invite their friends or people who they thought should be members. In emails, those new insiders were given the rare opportunity to join without the formal review process that most members were subjected to. The membership is being vetted by Gabe Doppelt, a British magazine editor who cut her teeth as the assistant to Anna Wintour and Tina Brown. After going on to be the editor of Mademoiselle, she oversaw Hollywood coverage at W magazine and The Daily Beast.
People who did not get invites were angry about not being invited. People who did get invites were angry about the fees, especially the older ones and some of the most creative ones who were not high-net-worth individuals. Prospective invitees were asked to upload their drivers licenses so that their age-adjusted fees could be determined. No one liked that.
It so happens that San Vicente’s annual fees are in the same ballpark as those of other New York City private social clubs, such as Casa Cipriani and Chez Margaux. They’re considerably cheaper than the Core Club’s.
A fair amount of debate began about whether the city had enough juice left to create a lasting clubhouse full of people who were both creative enough and financially solvent enough to pay for membership. Power in New York City is often cultural as much as it is capital.
“Does real fabulousness even take place in public anymore? Isn’t it behind closed doors in other people’s homes?” said Jon Reinish, a well-connected political consultant who received an invitation to the club last month and had not yet joined. “I just don’t know that it exists in Manhattan anymore the way it did during the days of Michael’s the Grill Room and Mortimer’s, and it’s very hard to reverse-engineer it any kind of lasting way.”
But for every person sniping, another was joining. Also helping ensure success: Mr. Klein’s unique popularity, according to Kevin Huvane, who, as the co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency, helps guide the careers of many San Vicente regulars, among them Ms. Aniston, Demi Moore and Jennifer Lopez. “People underestimate good will,” he said, before going on to liken Mr. Klein to Joe Allen, the impresario whose restaurants in the theater district established him as a king of Broadway.
The night after the star-studded S.N.L. party, Mr. Werts of the Jeffries was among roughly a thousand people who attended a hard-hat party celebrating the club’s upcoming opening.
Others in the crowd included the power literary agent David Kuhn, the television mogul Darren Starr, the actress Zooey Deschanel and the political pundit Molly Jong-Fast.
A magazine editor who earlier in the week had complained to me about having wasted several thousand dollars to join (largely because of FOMO) was now grousing about the long line for the coat check.
Even Mr. Klein appeared a little embarrassed by the size of the crowd. A few feet away, he talked to Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of Woody Allen.
“It’s a good thing Woody didn’t come,” Mr. Klein said. “It’s too crowded.”
Officially, Mr. Klein was not participating with this piece. Last December, he gave an interview to The New York Times in connection with the opening of a San Vicente outpost in Santa Monica, Calif. After its publication, Jay-Z asked him why on earth he’d cooperated with it. After all, a central promise of the club is privacy for its members. (Some have been suspended for uploading pictures to Instagram.)
And Mr. Klein had to concede that Jay-Z had a point.
Still, he also knew that in a town of journalists, nothing about the weekend was going to be totally off the record. And with opening costs in the $130 million range, he was not going to be able to make that back without some press. (“Oof, that’s a lot of money,” said Mr. Huvane, when told the number.)
So Mr. Klein did not exactly shoo me away as he greeted Risa Heller, a crisis manager whose clients have included Jeff Zucker and Anthony Weiner.
Waiters marched around the space serving crispy shrimp satays and cappuccino-flavored macaroons.
Ms. Jong Fast and Ms. Deschanel went upstairs to see the movie theater, then checked out a few of the guest suites, where the hardwood floors had an amber hue and the bed linens were airy and white.
“This would be a great place to cheat on your spouse,” said Ms. Jong-Fast, stopping for a minute to admire a pumpkin-colored sofa with a Hudson County vibe. “Although maybe that’s more Casa Cipriani.”
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Anti-Semitic attacks 'number one priority' for ASIO
Anti-Semitic attacks 'number one priority' for ASIO
Anti-Semitic attacks have become the top priority for ASIO when it comes to dealing with threats to life, Australia”s spy boss reveals.
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Electric aircraft founder Kyle Clark threw out the Silicon Valley playbook
Electric aircraft founder Kyle Clark threw out the Silicon Valley playbook
On a cool morning last November, 800 people gathered before sunrise in a South Burlington hangar to witness the maiden flight of Beta Technologies’ first electric aircraft to be built on its new scaled production line.
Kyle Clark, Beta’s enigmatic founder and CEO, piloted the Alia CX300 — one of the startup’s two aircraft models — in a flight that lasted over an hour. As he climbed through clear skies in a “perfectly quiet electric airplane,” he says he felt grateful.
“There’s not a piece in that airplane that we didn’t design, build, assemble, test,” Clark told TechCrunch. “I got to sit in a chair in the sky, flying west by myself at 7,000 feet in a system that wasn’t even conceived a few years ago, and that’s a pretty special thing to be able to do.”
For Clark, a successful launch was crucial, in part so he could honor his commitment to the company’s board. Clark has a simple rule at Beta: Keep your promises.
“We set a goal of November 13, and on the morning of November 13, we went and flew that airplane,” Clark told TechCrunch. “Keeping that promise meant so much to our board because the next promises we make, they’ll trust us to keep.”
Image Credits:Beta Technologies
Clark is something of an anomaly within the burgeoning electric aviation industry — starting with his decision to headquarter Beta in his hometown state of Vermont and not Silicon Valley, where his rivals reside. His unconventional aesthetic permeates the company he founded, including the design of its two electric aircraft and a go-to market strategy that includes an EV aircraft charging business.
The Harvard-educated, former professional hockey player, and pilot instructor has also rejected venture capital.
“My entire career…has been in power electronics controls,” Clark said. “Every single day, I fly two or three different airplanes. I taught my daughter to fly before she knew how to drive. We at Beta have a very different culture and type of business here than all these West Coast folks who stumbled onto a train that was already moving.”
Despite flying more under the radar than competitors Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation, the startup has continued to rack up hours in piloted flight, as well as financially backed customer orders.
Image Credits:Beta Technologies
Beta’s go-to-market strategy is different from its competitors. Archer and Joby are producing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, called evTOLs, to sell to customers and operate themselves in air taxi networks. Archer is also pursuing a program of record with the Department of Defense in partnership with Anduril.
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Beta wants to be the OEM in the equation; it’s focused on building both a conventional electric aircraft called the Alia CX300 eCTOL, which Clark flew in November, and an evTOL dubbed the Alia A250 eVTOL. The aircraft are identical in everything but the propulsion and propellers, which Beta argues will help it save on production costs and streamline certification.
Clark says building two types of aircraft also allows Beta to tap a wider customer base. ECTOLs are well-suited for regional flight, whereas eVTOLs are better for urban environments. Going to market with an eCTOL also gives Beta a nearer-term path to commercialization. The company hopes its Alia CX300 will be the first eCTOL certified for commercial flight this year or by 2026. Clark reckons FAA certification for the A250 will follow about 12 to 18 months after that.
An even nearer-term path to revenue generation, though, is Beta’s electric aviation charging network, of which Archer is currently a customer, despite their competition in the skies. The startup has 46 charging sites online today across 22 states and New Zealand, with 23 more in development and plans to get up to 150 operational in 2025.
Beta plans to begin operations in 2025 with one of its first customers, Air New Zealand. The airline has committed to four CX300s, with the option to buy 20 more, and will use them to deliver mail for the NZ Post. Beta also counts United Therapeutics, UPS, and the U.S. Air Force as customers for a range of use cases, including medical, logistics, and military, and recently received orders for passenger-carrying aircraft from Blade and Helijet.
But the competition is stiff. Archer’s new focus is on defense, and the startup this month raised an additional $300 million in funding, on top of the $430 million it raised in December. That brings Archer’s total funding up to $3.36 billion. Joby has locked in strategic backers like Delta and Uber, and last year raised another $500 million from Toyota, plus $222 million more from underwriters, bringing its total funding up to $2.82 billion. Both Archer and Joby’s early funding rounds came from VC.
Beta has raised $1.15 billion from institutional investors, but Clark says the startup’s “fundamental efficiency” has maximized impact.
In February, Beta hit a critical milestone when its pilots flew the CX300 on its first airport-to-airport mission between four regional airports in New York, stopping to charge at infrastructure Beta had set up along the way.
Beta has also done multiple piloted hover and transition tests with its eVTOL model, the Alia A250. Archer has only flown its eVTOL remotely. Joby began piloted tests in October 2023.
“We’re a relatively private company that has quietly tucked ourselves up here in Vermont and gone way further, both metaphorically and physically, than anybody else in this industry on the things that really matter, which is flying aircraft, charging aircraft, and building an industrial complex to produce those things,” Clark said, noting that Beta’s Vermont facility will be able to produce 300 aircraft at peak.
“We have a fully online production facility right now. Nobody else has that.”
Clark’s “whole world [has been] reliable power systems architecture” since long before he founded Beta in 2017, whether it be through his role teaching power electronics engineering at the University of Vermont or his previous induction power supply company.
Clark is also a pilot and a flight instructor who has built and flown “at least 20 airplanes.” His LinkedIn displays some of his earliest jobs, like being a bouncer at a Boston bar who “wrestled drunks up stairs after Red Sox games.”
Oh, and Clark briefly played hockey for the NHL after studying material sciences at Harvard.
This is all to say, Clark is both a nerd and a jock, and he carries himself with the humility of a blue-collar engineer.
We last spoke on the day Clark presented Air New Zealand with its first CX300, and despite the occasion, he dressed in a well-worn ****** hoodie, jeans, and a camo baseball cap with BETA written in bright orange letters. When prompted, he proudly showed me the tattoo on his arm that his son had designed, which the two inked onto his body using a robotic arm they built for fun.
Perhaps it’s that sort of tinkerer mindset that led Clark to design the power systems architecture in Beta’s aircraft differently than his competitors.
Both Archer and Joby place separate batteries near the electric motors powering their propellers — Archer has 12 propellers, Joby has six. The idea is to distribute power so that if a battery pack or a part of the propulsion system fails, the aircraft can continue flying.
Beta instead places all five batteries together in a pack underneath the seats. A “singular ring bus” provides an electrical connection where every motor gets access to every battery. If there’s a singular failure, it gets isolated from two sides of the failure, according to Clark.
“A reliable power system is not a fully distributed system because any permutation of failure that happens precludes the utilization of energy that’s stored elsewhere,” he said.
Clark says it’s important for leaders building safety critical power systems to have technical experience. Designing and flying airplanes isn’t like building and testing software, he said.
“You don’t get two shots and say, ‘I’ll crank it up till it breaks and back off it a little,’” Clark said. “You bury an airplane in the side of a mountain, you’re done.”
Image Credits:Beta Technologies
The $1.15 billion Beta raised has come from institutional investors like Fidelity and Qatar Investment Authority. The startup has not accepted any venture capital, Clark was adamant to point out.
“We skipped over the VC because we had a customer out of the gates, and it was United Therapeutics,” Clark said.
Clark said his rejection of VC came from something United’s CEO Martine Rothblatt taught him called “regret assist game theory.”
“Fast-forward some ******* of time and define what you don’t want to happen,” he said. “What would you regret the most? And then you set your priority to preclude that from happening.”
Clark’s biggest regret would be for his business to run out of money, followed closely behind by his fear of losing steerage of the ship, which could prevent Beta from achieving its mission.
“Equity dilution versus equity control are two very different things,” he said. “Somebody can have an equitable return on their securities without having control in the business.”
Clark says each aircraft build is cash-neutral since Beta only accepts financially backed orders that pay for the parts and labor. That has led Beta to hit positive contribution margins, though Clark says he expects net profitability to be “greater than 12 months away.”
Investor funds have largely gone toward building out manufacturing facilities and certifying aircraft, which Clark says demonstrates respect for investor capital because investors want to see their money go to growth, not to operations.
It’s why Beta put investor dollars toward its $170 million bespoke factory, Clark said.
“The only way we can build aircraft that are going to be profitable on the unit economics, and long-term extremely low cost, is to engineer a system that builds the product. The process is the product,” Clark said. “It’s not as sexy or as interesting as flying a beautiful quiet airplane, but it’s almost more important.”
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Odds of recently discovered asteroid hitting Earth drop nearly to zero – The Washington Post
Odds of recently discovered asteroid hitting Earth drop nearly to zero – The Washington Post
Odds of recently discovered asteroid hitting Earth drop nearly to zero The Washington PostAn asteroid’s chances of hitting Earth keep shifting. Here’s why that is happening CNNNASA Makes Big Update to Asteroid Potentially on Collision Course With Earth in 2032 GizmodoNASA just changed the odds of asteroid YR4 hitting Earth in 2032 yet again Livescience.comNASA massively lowers impact risk of ‘city-killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 to 1 in 360 Space.com
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Netflix hops aboard Sifu movie adaptation, assigns a screenwriter
Netflix hops aboard Sifu movie adaptation, assigns a screenwriter
We in December 2022 that a production company had signed on to turn Sloclap’s excellent martial arts game Sifu into a film. Today, the news dropped that Netflix is involved with the project, which seems to have caused some personnel shuffling behind the scenes.
The initial announcement saw Story Kitchen, which has since amassed of video game adaptations, securing a treatment of Sifu with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad attached as the writer. Story Kitchen is still working on the film, but Kolstad is no longer serving as the screenwriter and T.S. Nowlin has instead been tapped for that role. Nowlin’s past credits include the screenplays for the Maze Runner adaptations and most recently he was a writer for Netflix’s splashy Ryan Reynolds vehicle The Adam Project.
However, there is still a John Wick connection with Sifu. The director for all four John Wick films, stunt performer Chad Stahelski, has joined the producer team, as have members of Stahelski’s 87Eleven Entertainment company.
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U.S. Objects to Calling Russia ‘Aggressor’ in G7 Statement on Invasion
U.S. Objects to Calling Russia ‘Aggressor’ in G7 Statement on Invasion
The United States is opposing calling Russia the aggressor in the war with Ukraine in a Group of 7 statement being drafted to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, three senior officials from countries involved said on Thursday.
The American objections to the statement come after President Trump earlier this week blamed Ukraine for starting the war, which in fact began with Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
One senior official from a Group of 7 country said that Canada had circulated the first draft of the statement to the other six member countries. That version, the official said, used language that retained the pro-Ukraine tone the group of allies adopted after the full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
The U.S. side went through that first draft this week and removed all references that could be interpreted as being pro-Ukraine, the official said. The result, the official added, was a neutral draft statement that made no references to Russia as the aggressor in the conflict, nor to Ukraine as the victim of the invasion.
Canada took the lead in writing the draft because it currently holds the presidency of the Group of 7.
Diplomats are continuing to work on the language in the draft, which currently describes “a devastating war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” but does not use the words “Russian aggression” or “aggressors,” which have been in Group of 7 statements since 2022, senior ******* and European officials said.
The U.S. objection to labeling Russia as an aggressor was reported earlier by The Financial Times.
One of the senior officials from a Group of 7 nation, who asked not to be identified because this person was not authorized to speak publicly, added that the drafting and negotiating over the text could continue until Monday, when the text is set to be published.
Similarly, it is not yet settled whether the Group of 7 leaders who will meet virtually on Monday will invite President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to participate, as he did last year, the official said.
The United States is also refusing to serve as a co-sponsor of a draft U.N. General Assembly resolution for the anniversary that backs Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and condemns Russian aggression, the Reuters news agency reported.
The American objections follow a bitter exchange of insults between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump. The U.S. president has vowed to try to end the war rapidly and has authorized envoys to hold talks with Russia without the involvement of Kyiv or European nations.
The officials emphasized that the Group of 7 draft was not finished but also said that it was important to come up with a mutually agreed to statement, which is never easy and always requires “wordsmithing.”
Canada began the drafting process by adhering to expressions used in previous Group of 7 statements on the war, which condemned Russia at some length. But Trump administration officials indicated they wanted something different from and shorter than the statement issued under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and sought to ensure it did not interfere or block the negotiations now underway with Russia, the officials said.
The Americans also wanted to cut passages that described the invasion as a breach of sovereignty, one official said.
For now, the current draft includes a statement that says strong security guarantees and Ukraine’s integration into the European Union “will be critical to secure a lasting peace that prevents future aggression.”
Negotiations are continuing, one official said, so the final language is still to be determined.
Foreign affairs ministers from the Group of 7 are scheduled to meet in Quebec from March 12 to 14. The countries’ leaders are scheduled to meet in Alberta in mid-June.
The last time Canada was the Group of 7 chair, during Mr. Trump’s first term in 2018, the president walked out of a summit meeting in Quebec and withdrew his support for the final joint communiqué, angry about its language on trade.
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Mitch McConnell's retirement sparks a political explosion in Kentucky – Axios
Mitch McConnell's retirement sparks a political explosion in Kentucky – Axios
Mitch McConnell’s retirement sparks a political explosion in Kentucky AxiosSenator Mitch McConnell Says He Won’t Seek Re-election in 2026 The New York Times‘GOOD RIDDANCE’: MAGA reacts to ‘RINO’ Mitch McConnell Senate exit Fox News
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Acting U.S. attorney opens inquiries into Democrats alleging possible threats to DOGE, Supreme Court justices
Acting U.S. attorney opens inquiries into Democrats alleging possible threats to DOGE, Supreme Court justices
Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, revealed he has opened inquiries into public statements of Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, according to an internal memo to federal prosecutors in Washington.
The inquiry will also review a public statement made by Rep. Robert Garcia, a second-term House Democrat from California, Garcia told CBS News.
The U.S. attorney’s memo, which was obtained by CBS News, alleges the public statements of Democratic legislators could constitute a threat to Supreme Court justices and the newly hired employees of the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency, the DOGE operation linked to the world’s richest man and close ally of President Trump, Elon Musk.
Mr. Trump appointed Martin to serve as acting U.S. attorney for D.C. hours after he was inaugurated last month. Martin, a one-time activist in the post-2020 election “stop the steal” movement, previously served as a defense attorney for some U.S. Capitol rioters. He posts on social media under the handle “Ed the Eagle.”
Martin’s memo to his new subordinates in the U.S. attorney’s office is titled “Operation Whirlwind” and said the office would prioritize investigations into threats against public officials. The memo alleged, “One of the most abhorrent examples was when Senator Charles Schumer led a rally to attack US Supreme Court justices. Schumer said, reading from notes in his hand: ‘I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.'”
Martin’s memo also cited an incident months later in which a man was arrested outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, though Martin’s memo mistakenly claimed the incident happened in Washington, D.C., rather than in Maryland, and Martin’s jurisdiction is the District.
Schumer had made the statement years earlier, in March 2020, at an abortion rights rally. Martin’s memo alleged he reached out to Schumer “to investigate his threats. He has not responded to me.”
In a Feb. 6 letter to Martin, Schumer’s top aide said Schumer clarified in a Senate floor speech in March 2020 that his comment was “not a threat to physically harm anyone.”
Martin also alleged public threats were being made against DOGE employees.
“We will protect each other,” Martin wrote. “We will protect DOGE.”
In a statement to CBS News, Garcia’s office said the U.S. attorney for D.C., “a Trump appointee and ally, sent a threatening letter to Congressman Garcia as part of an effort to silence individuals willing to oppose Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s dangerous overreach.”
Earlier this month, Garcia, in a cable news interview said of Musk and DOGE, “What I think is really important and what the American public want is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy, for the future of this country. And it’s important to push back on the chairperson of this committee.”
In the statement to CBS News on Thursday, Garcia said, “No reasonable person would view my comments as a threat. We are living in a dangerous time, and elected members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump administration. We will not be silenced.”
Martin’s office did not respond to requests for comment from CBS News. Two sources inside the Justice Department told CBS News Martin’s memo to staffers breaks from a Justice Department policy by declaratively and openly detailing a pending inquiry.
Scott MacFarlane
Scott MacFarlane is a congressional correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting has resulted directly in the passage of five new laws.
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Tesla Cybertruck gets top safety rating, but there's a catch
Tesla Cybertruck gets top safety rating, but there's a catch
The Tesla Cybertruck has finally been independently ******-tested, but questions remain about how safe pedestrians would be.
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World Anti-Doping Agency Drops Defamation and Ethics Cases Against U.S. Officials
World Anti-Doping Agency Drops Defamation and Ethics Cases Against U.S. Officials
The World Anti-Doping Agency has dropped a defamation lawsuit against its American counterpart, a major retreat for the agency after nearly a year of escalating conflict over its handling of positive tests for a banned drug by 23 elite ******** swimmers.
The decision by the agency — known by its acronym, WADA — to drop the suit it had filed in a Swiss court came months after it angrily reacted to comments from Travis T. Tygart, the leader of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Mr. Tygart accused WADA of covering up the tests after The New York Times revealed details of how swimmers in China were found to have had a banned heart drug in their systems at a competition just months before the Tokyo Olympics.
That revelation led to anger and recrimination among athletes and antidoping regulators around the world, including a deep rupture in an already strained relationship between WADA and the United States. The United States had contributed more than any other country to WADA’s budget, but withdrew its funding over doubts that WADA’s leadership was up to the task of keeping sports clean.
On top of walking away from the defamation suit, WADA also retreated on another matter: It dropped an ethics case against Dr. Rahul Gupta, who represented the United States on WADA’s executive board during the Biden administration.
A WADA official had claimed that Dr. Gupta, who had been the drug czar in the Biden White House, had failed to disclose to the agency what he knew about a Justice Department investigation into how the tests of the ******** swimmers were handled. Dr. Gupta has said he knew nothing about the investigation, which is being run by the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.
“The dismissal of the unauthorized and baseless lawsuit against USADA and the ethics complaint against the White House is complete vindication for us both,” the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement.
“WADA’s actions were nothing more than retaliatory, wasteful and abusive attempts to suppress the truth and the voice of those seeking answers to why WADA allowed China to blatantly disregard the rules for 23 elite swimmers who tested positive,” the statement said.
In a statement, WADA attacked Mr. Tygart, insisted that it had done nothing wrong in how it handled the positive tests and did not provide specifics for why it was walking away from the suit.
“In the interest of moving on and focusing our efforts on strengthening the global antidoping system that the community has worked hard to build together over 25 years, WADA has made the decision to withdraw the lawsuit against Mr. Tygart and USADA,” the World Anti-Doping Agency said. “The lawsuit was only ever about protecting WADA’s reputation (indeed, no financial compensation was sought).”
WADA had opened its ethics investigation into Dr. Gupta in July after receiving an anonymous complaint against him, which U.S. officials believe was filed by a senior WADA official. Mette Hartlev, chairman of the agency’s independent ethics board, wrote Dr. Gupta on Jan. 30 to tell him the matter had been closed, according to a document reviewed by The Times.
The World Anti-Doping Agency’s Swiss lawyers wrote to lawyers representing Mr. Tygart and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency a week later to say the defamation case had been dropped. The WADA lawyers wrote that the turnabout was because WADA’s “sole goal” of protecting its reputation had “been achieved through non-procedural means,” without providing details.
WADA’s secretary general, Olivier Niggli confirmed that the agency had dropped the lawsuit in a letter to members of its executive board. The letter was first reported by Honest Sport, an online publication focusing on sports integrity.
“While we remain convinced that the lawsuit would be successful on its merits, we have determined that it is futile to argue with somebody who is unwilling to accept clear evidence, whose only goal is to damage WADA and the global antidoping system,” the letter said.
Dr. Gupta had a different interpretation.
WADA’s decision to drop its claims, he said in emailed comments to The Times, “clearly demonstrate the meritless and politically motivated claims that WADA leaders attempted to pursue against the United States.”
Some of the ******** swimmers who had tested positive went on to win medals, including golds, at the Tokyo Olympics. After the revelation about the earlier positive tests and WADA’s decision not to impose any sanctions on the swimmers, Congress sought testimony from antidoping officials. A Justice Department investigation has for months rattled sports and antidoping officials around the world.
The United States, through Dr. Gupta, had been asking WADA to undertake an independent audit of its operations in light of the ******** cases. WADA has resisted and, according to Dr. Gupta, retaliated against the United States.
“These actions are not only damaging to the integrity of global antidoping efforts but demonstrate a clear example of why reform of WADA is urgently needed,” he said.
The tension ratcheted up before a meeting of the WADA board in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December. Dr. Gupta had demanded before the meeting that the agency submit to the audit and also drop the defamation lawsuit against American antidoping authorities, who have repeatedly accused WADA of covering up the failed ******** tests, if it wanted to keep receiving United States funding.
WADA countered by saying there would be consequences — including harm to U.S. efforts to stage international sporting events — should it not make the payments. The Americans have continued to withhold the funds. The next Summer Olympics are set to be held in Los Angeles in 2028, two years after the United States hosts the majority of the 2026 soccer World Cup.
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Explosions on buses in central Israel appear to be a militant attack, police say
Explosions on buses in central Israel appear to be a militant attack, police say
Explosions on buses in central Israel appear to be a militant attack, police say
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Live updates: Trump administration actions, federal firings, DOGE news and Ukraine policy | CNN Politics – CNN
Live updates: Trump administration actions, federal firings, DOGE news and Ukraine policy | CNN Politics – CNN
Live updates: Trump administration actions, federal firings, DOGE news and Ukraine policy | CNN Politics CNNJudge rules Trump admin can move ahead on mass government layoffs The HillJudge rejects unions’ request to pause Trump administration firings The Washington PostFederal judge won’t stop Trump administration’s mass firings for now CBS News
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Cheng Lei exposes China’s ‘secretive’ prison system in new memoir
Cheng Lei exposes China’s ‘secretive’ prison system in new memoir
Sky News presenter Cheng Lei is set to release a “harrowing” memoir in April, detailing her three-year incarceration in China.
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Dairy workers’ cats died from bird flu, but it’s not clear how they got infected
Dairy workers’ cats died from bird flu, but it’s not clear how they got infected
Two cats that belonged to Michigan dairy workers died after being infected with bird flu. But it’s still not clear how the animals got sick or whether they spread the virus to people in the household, a new study shows.
Veterinary experts said the report, published Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lacks detail that could confirm whether people can spread the virus to domestic cats — or vice versa.
“I don’t think there is any way of concluding that there was human-to-cat transmission based on the data that is presented,” said Dr. Diego Diel of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.
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Cats in two separate households died in May after developing severe illnesses that were confirmed as the Type A H5N1 bird virus found in U.S. dairy herds, investigators reported. Both were indoor-only cats that had no exposure to infected cattle or birds and didn’t consume raw milk.
One cat that died belonged to a worker on a dairy farm in a county known to have bird flu-infected cattle. The worker reported symptoms of illness before the cat got sick. That cat fell ill, tested positive for H5N1 and had to be euthanized. A second cat in that household also got sick, but it recovered. A third cat in the household didn’t get sick and tested negative.
Meanwhile, an adolescent in the household got sick but tested negative for flu.
The other cat that died lived in a different household. That **** belonged to a dairy worker who transported raw milk and reported frequent splashes of milk on the face, eyes and clothing. That worker reported eye irritation, a possible symptom of bird flu, two days before the cat got sick.
The cat was known to roll in the worker’s dirty clothing and died within a day of developing signs of infection, the study authors wrote. Another cat in that household tested negative for the virus.
In both instances, the dairy workers declined to be tested for H5N1, the study said.
That means it’s impossible to know whether they directly transmitted the virus to their cats, said Dr. Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. It’s more likely that the cats were infected by virus on the workers’ clothing, boots or hands, he said.
“We know that people at this point are not shedding large amounts of virus,” he said. “I don’t think it’s because this person coughed on their cat.”
The study concluded that reports of bird flu infections in indoor cats are rare, but “such cats might pose a risk for human infection.”
In the months since the cats died, there have been several reports of domestic cats becoming infected and dying after consuming unpasteurized milk or **** food contaminated with bird flu.
The new report underscores the need for more comprehensive testing for H5N1 in all arenas, Poulsen said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: CELH, DBX, XYZ
Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: CELH, DBX, XYZ
Check out the companies making headlines after the bell : Booking Holdings — The online travel company jumped 3% after fourth-quarter results surpassed analysts’ expectations. Adjusted earnings came in at $41.55 per share and revenue clocked in at $5.47 billion. Analysts were looking for $36.03 per share in earnings and $5.18 billion in revenue, per LSEG. Akamai Technologies — The cloud computing stock shed more than 6% after the company guided for first-quarter earnings and revenue estimates that were lower than what analysts had expected. In the current quarter, Akamai sees adjusted earnings coming in between $1.54 and $1.59 per share on revenue of $1.00 billion to $1.02 billion. Analysts called for earnings of $1.65 per share on revenue of $1.045 billion, per LSEG. Dropbox — Shares slipped nearly 6%. The cloud storage company said its non-GAAP gross margin came in at 83.1% in the fourth quarter, in line with analysts’ expectations, per StreetAccount. Dropbox reported adjusted earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street’s forecasts, however. Rivian Automotive — Shares of the electric vehicle maker advanced more than 3%. Rivian posted an adjusted loss of 46 cents per share in the fourth quarter, narrower than the loss of 65 cents per share that analysts sought, per LSEG. Revenue also beat expectations, landing at $1.73 billion, versus Wall Street’s estimate of $1.40 billion. Rivian anticipates fewer deliveries in 2025 compared to last year. Block — The fintech stock dipped 6% after Block reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 71 cents per share on $6.03 billion in revenue. This missed analysts’ expectations for earnings of 87 cents per share on revenue of $6.29 billion, per LSEG. Sprouts Farmers Market — Shares slipped 2% despite the organic supermarket chain posting a fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat. Sprouts also forecast first-quarter and full-year earnings that were above LSEG consensus estimates. Insulet — Shares shed 6%. The manufacturer of insulin delivery systems called for first-quarter revenue growth of 22% to 25%, encompassing analysts’ estimate of 23.1%, per FactSet. Fourth-quarter results beat expectations on the top and bottom lines, however. Celsius Holdings — The energy drink company surged 28% in extended trading. Celsius posted adjusted earnings of 14 cents per share on revenue of $332 million in the fourth quarter, topping analysts’ expectations for 11 cents in earnings per share and $326 million in revenue, per LSEG. The company also said it entered an agreement to acquire Alani Nutrition in a cash and stock deal. Copart — The used car auction stock added 1% after Copart posted fourth-quarter earnings of 40 cents per share, exceeding the 37 cents per share analysts polled by FactSet had expected. Copart’s revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter was also above the estimated $1.13 billion. — CNBC’s Darla Mercado contributed reporting.
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Trump Signs Order Targeting Federal Benefits for Migrants: What to Know
Trump Signs Order Targeting Federal Benefits for Migrants: What to Know
President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed at eliminating federal benefits for undocumented migrants, saying those benefits are an incentive for people to come to the United States illegally.
But for the most part, the federal government does not provide funding for people who are in the country without authorization.
The directive is short on specifics, but it says that Mr. Trump wants all federal agencies to find out what government funds are being given out improperly. The Office of Management and Budget and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have 30 days to find other streams of federal funding to people who are in the country illegally.
Here, we try to answer some questions about this latest executive order.
What federal benefits are undocumented immigrants eligible for now?
Not many. There are some exceptions for emergency medical care and public schooling for children. But in general, people who are in the country illegally cannot receive federal benefits. This is enshrined in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Changes to eligibility would have to go through Congress.
The lack of federal benefits for undocumented immigrants is one reason some cities across the country have been struggling to support an influx of people who crossed the border illegally in recent years.
How much does the Trump administration say it’s spending on ******** immigrants?
It does not say, but one goal of this executive order is to figure that out. Mr. Trump and others have asserted that undocumented immigrants are a drain on federal resources that should be going to Americans.
However, there is no current federal assessment for how much the federal government spends on undocumented immigrants.
The review will be looking for federal benefits paid to people who are not eligible to receive them, including people who are temporarily allowed to be in the country and those who have no authorization to be in the United States at all.
While conservatives have long expressed concern about undocumented immigrants claiming federal benefits, it has mostly been unfounded.
“There’s not evidence of widespread benefits fraud in the United States by undocumented communities,” said Heidi Altman, vice president of policy for the National Immigration Law Center.
What is the practical effect of this executive order?
At this point, it is not clear what effect this order will have on existing programs and policies. The White House is directing officials to report instances in which federal benefits are being improperly given to undocumented immigrants.
Ms. Altman said the order, like the others Mr. Trump has issued related to immigration during his first month in office, will stoke more fear in immigrant communities across the country.
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