Очень интересные фигуры в воздухе приделывает Индийская политика: в мае 2024 года выборы в парламент — далее выборы премьера, правый консерватор из Гуджарата Моди планирует второй срок, и его министр иностранных дел Джайшанкар летит в Россию, где обещает встречу двух лидеров в 2024 году, а главным гостем на национальный праздник Индии - позвали Макрона, после визита в Пекин имеющего репутацию политика, выстраивающего политику, отличную от Вашингтона.

Я много раз говорил о глубоких неявных противоречиях между Байденом и Моди — и скорее всего, окончившийся ничем визит последнего в Вашингтон, заставил ставить на оппозицию. Моди не демонстрирует готовности бросить Индию в топку войны с Китаем, про QUAD давно ничего не слышно. Можно поздравить Китай с развалом антикитайской коалиции в Евразии. Палестинская кровавая жатва не сделало США популярней в стране, проекты трафика из Индии в Европы явно буксуют.

Индия явно делает ставку на ресурсную подушку Россию и нейтралитет к Китаю — на стоящих на пороге Гражданской войны США Индия ставку делать не готова.


Бессменный с 2014 года премьер страны, 73-летний Моди готовится сравняться с рекордным правлением Неру — эпоха долгих правителей Востока обусловлена долгим периодом смены эпох и вектора глобального развития. Моди бы не ставил на Россию, Францию и в конечном счёте Китай, если бы не сделал глубокий и обоснованный вывод о туманности американского будущего.

США в ходе СВО проиграли не только битву за Россию, за Китай - но и за Индию. Россия выиграла ещё одного союзника, Китай приобрёл осознание, что безопасность его Западных и Северных рубежей во многом зависит от России.

Россия и Китай могут праздновать укрепление евразийского трио. Встреча трех лидеров, скорее всего, состоится на саммите БРИКС в июне 2024 года в Казани, который укажет на неизбежный закат Запада.

России нужны в Индии свои гражданские порты - для начала территории туристического назначения - в перспективе возможность создания военно-морских баз.





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The Department of Transportation is in the early stages of looking into airline frequent flyer programs and checking whether airlines have engaged in unfair or deceptive practices, Reuters first reported and the agency confirmed to TPG on Thursday.

In what appeared to be the early stages of an exploratory effort, the DOT has met in the past several weeks with airline representatives to discuss various aspects of the programs, according to Reuters, while a DOT spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the airline is “actively meeting with U.S. airlines and gathering more information on this issue.”

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“We plan to carefully review complaints regarding loyalty programs and exercise our authority to investigate airlines for unfair and deceptive practices that hurt travelers as warranted,” the statement added.

Included in the topics the DOT is exploring with airlines are the transparency practices surrounding booking award tickets, along with aspects surrounding the devaluation of miles over time, the transferability of points and miles, and the nature of notice given to customers when making changes to the program, according to Reuters.

Frequent flyer programs have drawn increasing scrutiny from federal lawmakers and agencies in recent months.

In October, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) asked DOT and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to detail their enforcement actions amid “troubling reports that airlines are engaged in unfair, abusive, and deceptive practices with respect to these loyalty programs.”

“In practical terms, this means airlines can make changes to their points programs without notice to consumers, as long as the programs’ terms of service reserve the right to do so,” the senators wrote in a letter to the agencies. “As a result, these programs incentivize consumers to purchase goods and services, obtain credit cards, and spend on those credit cards in exchange for promised rewards — all while retaining the power to strip consumers of those rewards at any moment.”

The letter came roughly six weeks after Delta Air Lines announced changes to the elite statuses in its SkyMiles frequent flyer program. Those changes, some of which the airline partially walked back while leaving others in place, drew customer ire and served to underscore the unilateral control that the airlines hold over the programs, along with the few restrictions or regulatory statutes surrounding them.

Many of the changes to Delta’s program served to reward those who spend and engage more with the airline, particularly heavy users of its co-branded American Express credit cards.

“While these programs may have originated to incentivize and reward true ‘frequent flyers,’ they have evolved to include co-branded credit cards and now often significantly or exclusively focus on dollars spent using these co-branded credit cards,” Sens. Durbin and Marshall wrote in the October letter.

Durbin and Marshall, along with other legislators, have separately sponsored legislation that would affect the payment networks used by some credit card issuers. Airlines and issuers have lobbied against the legislation (as has The Points Guy, citing the possibility that rewards programs would be negatively impacted by the proposed law).

Related: DOT fines Southwest up to $140 million over 2022 holiday meltdown

Co-branded credit cards have become big business for airlines over the past decade, boosting valuations of their frequent flyer programs and driving billions of dollars in annual revenue for the carriers.

During an earnings call in January, Delta said that it added 8.5 million SkyMiles members to its rolls in 2022. In 2020 the airline said that it had 100 million members. The airline said in June that nearly 1% of the U.S. GDP is spent on its co-branded credit cards.

In 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, United used its MileagePlus loyalty program to secure a $5 billion loan, valuing the program at nearly $22 billion.

Delta and United declined to comment on the DOT initiative, while other airlines did not return TPG’s request for comment.

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For the people of Sandoy and the rest of the Faroes, Christmas comes early this year, with the end of Sandoy’s relative isolation—on December 21st, the new Sandoy Tunnel (Sandoyartunnilin) will finally open to the public, and for a period, driving through it will be toll free.

The opening of the giant undersea tunnel connecting the islands of Sandoy and Streymoy comes a good 20 years after the opening of the Faroe Islands’ first such road tunnel, the Vagar Tunnel (Vágatunnilin), which provided a fixed link between the islands Streymoy and Vágar.

Two more subsea tunnels were added in 2006 and 2020, respectively—the Northern Tunnel (Norðoyatunnilin), between the islands Borðoy and Eysturoy, and the Eysturoy Tunnel (Eysturoyartunnilin) between the islands Eysturoy and Streymoy. 

The Sandoy Tunnel, the Faroes’ fourth subsea tunnel, is also the longest road tunnel in the Faroes to date, stretching as far as 10,8 kilometers.

No wonder many people are excited over the impressive new piece of infrastructure that makes Sandoy part of the socalled Mainland.

Earlier this year, Hanna á Reynatúgvu, a member of the Municipal Council of Sandur, the largest settlement on Sandoy, told Local.fo that local residents there hope to see a change in the downward population trend.

“With this new tunnel, our island will be fully connected to the Mainland, with Tórshavn just half an hour’s drive from here,” she said. “That is a huge change and will bring many possibilities and options.”

Teitur Samuelsen, CEO of government-held tunnel owner and operator Eystur- og Sandoyartunlar, told broadcaster KvF earlier this month that the Sandoy Tunnel will remain toll free for its first 23 days of operation—that is, until January 12th, 2024.

When the Eysturoy Tunnel opened to the public three years ago, using the tunnel was free of charge until for the first 23 days after its inauguration; hence the new tunnel will be tollfree for just as long, he noted.

The combined cost of building the Eysturoy Tunnel and the Sandoy Tunnel, amounts to approximately 2.6 billion DKK (349 million EUR), according to Eystur- og Sandoyartunlar. The toll rate for using the Sandoy Tunnel will be the same as that for using the Eysturoy Tunnel, we’re told.

With the opening of the Sandoy Tunnel, a new bus route has been established to provide scheduled public transport between Sandoy and Tórshavn, ferry and bus operator SSL announced. On the day of the opening, retiring ferry Teistin—one of the only means of public transport between Sandoy and Streymoy for many years—will be making a few final trips between Gamlarætt and Skopun; from 4 to 6 PM the ship will be open to the public at the port in Skopun to offer people a chance to bid the ferry route a proper goodbye.

A grand opening ceremony in the afternoon of December 21st is slated to take place near the mouth of the tunnel at Traðardalur, Sandoy. According to Visit Sandoy, it will feature keynote speeches alongside several events immediately prior to and after the official opening. The events include a public run through the tunnel as well as a bicycle race plus exhibitions, open houses and more. 

View photos of the tunnel…

The post Sandoy prepares for festivities as mammoth undersea tunnel to open on December 21st appeared first on Local.fo.

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As a precocious teen looking to improve my college application, I sat in on a business studies class. I figured taking two extra A-Levels at night school alongside those I took during the day would make me irresistible to admissions tutors. The class I watched examined if it was worth a large factory keeping its own trucks and drivers in-house rather than outsourcing them. The data showed selling the trucks and firing the workers was more expensive in the long run, and yoked the company to the whims of any third-party logistics company in the local area. Not to mention, if you don’t own a mission-critical component of your business, you’re a lot less powerful when negotiating with your suppliers. But the teacher, and the class, all agreed it was smart to sell it all because it made a bigger profit in the quarter and was cheaper for the next two years. These people had never considered if something bad would happen, and how to prepare for it. It was at this point I realized my values were out of step with the commercial orthodoxy and opted not to take the course.

I mention this because I’ve always thought the people in the tech industry with all the money are probably halfway savvy about how All Of This Is Meant To Work. I’d told myself that what, to me, appeared illogical and self-defeating was because they were playing a game of six-dimensional chess on a board I was too dim to see. Unless, of course, the economics of our industry are so unmoored from reality that everyone’s just pretending, or deluding themselves. And more than a decade of cheap money and lax regulation means everyone’s behaved a little bit sillier than they should have. Now the lights are coming up and everyone’s looking to see what’s actually going on, there’s nowhere for these apparently smart people to hide.

It’s stopped making sense for investors

UCG via Getty Images

The Silicon Valley mindset is easy to grasp: If you’re lucky enough to have spare cash, put a small bit of it behind some kids with a big idea. All it takes is for one of those bets – emphasis on the word bet – to win and you’ll get a slice of some pretty big profits. In an era where zero interest-rate policies mean it’s almost free to rack up extraordinary debt, it’s a better route than heading to Las Vegas with your 401k. Not to mention the special cachet and attention you can garner by presenting yourself to the world as a “guru.” But you might have noticed that a lot of high-profile bets haven’t been coming off of late, wasting a lot of cash in the process.

Take WeWork, which this year filed for Chapter 11 after working its way through $16.9 billion since 2014. What logic can we apply to its main backer, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son*, to justify him burning the GDP of Jamaica on such a venture? Especially when Regus, which performs the same decidedly un-techy role of renting temporary office space, owns its properties and makes a small but regular profit every non-COVID year, was available to buy outright for a fraction of the cost? How did this amount of money pass from one company to another without any sort of internal or external oversight? And why did he think that WeWork’s nicer interior design and a beer tap on every floor was such a big draw? The only theory that holds water is that Son was so blindsided by promises of vast future profits (from office rental) that he lost any sense of self-restraint.

That mix of cheap credit and the promise of unbelievable future returns can be applied across the tech industry, too. It might help explain why the cost of streaming has leapt so high while the catalogs available have shrunk. The studios weren’t hurting for profit in the days before Netflix, but the fact it was valued like a tech company enabled it to rack up huge debts. That led plenty of studios to leap onto the bandwagon in the hope of getting some of that mythical profit. In the early days, the hope was that the sheer number of people paying for content would balance out the low cost. But now growth has stalled and there’s still $14.30 billion of debt, plus an audience with an ever-increasing desire for new content.

It’s stopped making sense for consumers

Mario Tama via Getty Images

The debt swinging around Netflix’s neck, and the necks of those who followed it into the streaming world save for Amazon, Apple and Warner Bros***, is directly related to this gold rush. And it’ll need to be paid off to the investors and banks who handed over billions of dollars in expectation of vast rewards further down the line. Which is why the cost of a standard Netflix subscription has pretty much doubled since 2011 – with Premium plans now costing $23 a month. Given the scattershot nature of streaming libraries and the fact Netflix can’t be your sole source of entertainment, most consumers have more than one subscription going at the same time. That’s been fine, more or less, while times are good, so what happens when the world’s economies all start to slow down and you’re looking to make room in your monthly budget?

It’s worth remembering new technologies are expensive, both in cost and how much time and effort you spend to get to grips with them. But while technology has had some world-changing hits in the past – personal computing, the internet, smartphones and, uh, social media – it’s been a while since we’ve had anything that big. But the industry can’t help but keep hyping the next big thing even if it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that it’s not going to be a winner. We’re at the peak of the hype cycle for machine learning, which its boosters tell us will automate us all into obsolescence in a decade or so**. The problem is, whenever you actually sit and try to use a generative AI, the results are underwhelming, so great is the gap between the promise and the reality. Take Google’s new AI which managed to give fake answers to spreadsheet-level questions like who won an Academy Award last year. You can already see the itchy feet of those hoping the Humane Pin will be the Next Big Thing despite its risible introduction video.

Consumers lose out here not just because of these expensive boondoggles but because they suck up all the oxygen from everything else. Many of these technologies were designed not to solve real-world problems, of which we have plenty, but to dazzle investors, placate Wall Street and dupe credulous buyers. It doesn’t help that generative AI, like crypto before it, uses a significant amount more energy than it should, exacerbating climate change. Sadly, when all the attention and money shifts to the next thing, we’ll all be poorer for it, both for the folks who were duped into reading machine-written articles about the importance of volleyball, and the folks who got laid off because some genius thought GPT-3 would do a better job without oversight.

It’s stopped making sense for workers

Embracer Group is a Swedish game publisher that loaded up on debt to buy every small studio and IP it could get its hands on. In 2018, CEO Lars Wingefors told GamesIndustry his company would eschew a “fewer, bigger, better” strategy in favor of a “diversified” lineup. In 2021, it said it had access to more than $2 billion in cash and credit to continue its spending spree, bankrolling a slew of newer, smaller titles. That included reviving TimeSplitters developer Free Radical to start work on a new game in the long-dormant cult series.Two years after that, the company admitted that a deal worth $2 billion in revenue over six years had fallen apart and that it would have to cut costs. Free Radical has now been closed, putting the last two years’ worth of work on the shelf and close to 1,000 people across Embracer have lost their jobs.

Across the industry, countless jobs have been lost as even profitable companies look to trim their headcount. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek even said the quiet part out loud when admitting the company “took advantage of the opportunity presented by lower-cost capital” to staff up. Now that the economic situation has shifted, and money isn’t as cheap as it used to be, the company is letting 1,500 people go less than a month before the holidays. Big names who have also trod the same path this year include (deep breath) Amazon (multiple times), ByteDance, LinkedIn (twice), Epic Games, Lyft, Metabook, Dell, Google and Microsoft.

Reality’s going to hit us in the face like a shovel

krisanapong detraphiphat via Getty Images

When I was a kid, a relative worked for a company that made and sold slot machines for adult gambling. I must have been 10 when he came over and set up a game where he gave me a pound in 2p pieces, which I could wager on the outcome of a deck of cards. He’d rigged the game so that, despite all of the pledges to double my cash as my funds shrunk, I’d wipe out. It was a valuable lesson in why it’s not a smart idea to gamble your money, given by someone who saw it up close and personal every day.

The other lesson he taught me was the vow of gratitude he would utter often, which was doubly amusing given his atheism. Whenever there was a bad story in the news, or a tale of corporate woe closer to home, he’d say “there but for the grace of God go I.” Because he knew that so much of what happens in our lives is governed by chance, so it’s pointless to claim it was wisdom. We should always remember that none of us are untouchable, and that the worst phrase in the English language is “what could possibly go wrong?” It’s just a shame that so many of the supposed great minds in the technology industry didn’t get the chance to learn this lesson when they were young enough to appreciate it.

* Wikipedia – hardly a symbol of partisanship – has gone studs-in on Son. At the time of writing, his biography says “his reputation as an investor rests almost solely on his $20 million initial investment in Alibaba Group in 2000.” Given the rest of his track record – and the fact he is presently in debt to his own company to the tune of several billion, ouch.

** I do wonder how many of its backers who spend their days worrying about Roko’s Basilisk have thought about how they’ll be treated by the 85 million or so people suddenly forced into serfdom.

*** Warner Bros. malaise is more directly related to the debt tied to the various buyouts and sales that has seen it shifted from one corporate parent to another. Not that the streaming wars has helped here, but it's fair to say that its problems are a different realm to those of its peers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/2023-was-the-year-the-economics-of-tech-caught-up-with-reality-153052312.html?src=rss Взято отсюда

Wednesday marks the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station’s (ISS) physical assembly in orbit. On December 6, 1998, the crew aboard the space shuttle Endeavor attached the US-built Unity node to the Russian-built Zarya module, kicking off the modular construction of the ISS. A quarter century later, we look back at the milestones and breakthroughs from one of humanity’s most impressive marvels of engineering and international cooperation.

The ISS, which orbits the Earth 16 times every 24 hours at a speed of five miles per second, has been inhabited by researchers for over 23 years. It’s the product of five space agencies from 15 countries. NASA, Roscosmos (Russia’s national space agency), ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) have contributed to the station’s assembly and operation.

From ink to orbit

Its official journey began in the early 1990s when the United States’ Freedom (ordered by President Ronald Reagan in 1984) and Russia’s Mir-2 space station projects were in danger of (literally) never getting off the ground. Freedom was in jeopardy primarily due to a lack of Congressional funding amid rising costs, while Mir-2 was on the brink partially because of financial hardships following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On September 2, 1993, the two nations, each needing an international ally to forge ahead, signed an agreement to combine their programs and collaborate on a joint mission that would have seemed wildly implausible a few years earlier. US Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin inked the pact, marking the formal conception of the cosmic laboratory we know today as the ISS.

VITALY ARMAND via Getty Images

The following years included a design overhaul to fold Russian technology into America’s existing Freedom plans, a milestone 1995 docking of NASA’s Atlantis to Russia’s Mir station (epitomizing the fruit of the once-far-fetched collaboration), the addition of funding and cooperation from Europe, Canada and Japan in 1996 and Russia’s launch of Zarya a month before the ISS assembly began. That all led to the day 25 years ago when the two nations’ space tech linked together, sounding the death knell for the Cold War-era space race.

The first crewed mission began on November 2, 2000, when NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev stepped onboard. The inaugural crew spent four months in space, laying the groundwork for subsequent crews. (The record for the most time living and working in space was set by Peggy Whitson, who celebrated 665 days aboard the ISS in 2017.)

NASA

The US Lab Module linked to the station in February 2001, expanding the station’s onboard living space by 41 percent. Four years later, Congress named the US portion a national laboratory. Far more than a symbolic gesture (although it was also that), the designation opened the door to funding and research from a much more comprehensive array of institutions, including universities, other government agencies and private businesses. In 2008, laboratories from Europe and Japan joined the ISS.

The ISS’s construction and expansion from 1998 to 2010 amassed around 900,000 pounds of modules. The station contains about $100 billion worth of gear spinning around the globe.

Research and breakthroughs

NASA

During the ISS’s more than 100,000 orbits of the Earth, it has ushered breakthroughs in areas ranging from disease research to bodily changes from microgravity.

Studying how proteins, cells and biological processes behave in microgravity has boosted research in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease and asthma. Many of these studies wouldn’t have been possible on Earth. Meanwhile, protein crystal growth experiments have sparked advances in developing treatments for conditions including cancer, gum disease and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

ISS researchers made surprising discoveries about “cool flames,” which can burn at extremely low temperatures. Nearly impossible to study outside of microgravity, the astronauts’ research has challenged our previous understanding of combustion. It may open new frontiers with internal combustion engines (ICE), allowing them to run cleaner and more efficiently.

Studies aboard the space station have contributed significantly to our knowledge of human muscle atrophy and bone loss. (ISS astronauts typically work out at least two hours daily to prevent these conditions.) Studying how prolonged time in microgravity affects muscle deterioration and recovery also applies to Earthbound patients stuck in bed for extended periods. In addition, the research can help us learn more about conditions like osteoporosis, leading to improved preventative measures and treatments. It has also helped scientists better understand broader biological changes in microgravity, which could pay dividends if or when humans colonize Mars.

Water purification systems designed to sustain astronauts over long periods have also borne fruit on Earth. ISS astronauts recycle 98 percent of their pee and sweat using highly efficient and compact systems. This has led to the technology’s use in agriculture, disaster relief and aid provision for less developed areas.

ISS astronauts studied the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC), a “fifth state of matter” that deviates significantly from known states like solids, liquids, gases and plasmas. In 2018, the ISS’s Cold Atom Lab produced BEC in orbit for the first time. Space’s colder temperatures and lack of gravity allow for longer observation times, helping researchers learn more about the behaviors of atoms and BECs. Not only is this crucial to quantum physics studies, it could aid in developing more advanced quantum technologies down the road.

For more detail on the ISS’s breakthroughs, NASA has a dedicated writeup from 2020.

Decommissioning

NASA

The ISS is currently scheduled for decommissioning in January 2031. (Russia currently plans to leave in 2028.) Its late 90s infrastructure is aging quickly, and the space station would grow increasingly and prohibitively expensive to maintain over the long haul. Government and commercial orbital labs will likely pick up the slack in the following years.

When its time comes, the ISS will undergo a controlled deorbit. As for what that might involve, Kirk Shireman, deputy manager of NASA’s space station program, broached the subject with Space.com in 2011. “We’ve done a lot of studies,” he said. “We have found an orbit and a change in velocity that we believe is achievable, and it creates a debris footprint that’s all in water in an unpopulated area.”

As Engadget’s Andrew Tarantola wrote about the ISS’s pending demise:

Beginning about a year before the planned decommissioning date, NASA will allow the ISS to begin degrading from its normal 240-mile high orbit and send up an uncrewed space vehicle (USV) to dock with the station and help propel it back Earthward. The ultimate crew from the ISS will evacuate just before the station hits an altitude of 115 miles, at which point the attached USV will fire its rockets in a series of deorbital burns to set the station into a capture trajectory over the Pacific Ocean.

NASA plans to guide any remaining bits into a remote area of the South Pacific Ocean. “We’ve been working on plans and update the plans periodically,” Shireman said. “We don’t want to ever be in a position where we couldn’t safely deorbit the station. It’s been a part of the program from the very beginning.”

NASA 25th-anniversary event

NASA held a live-streamed event on Wednesday to mark the quarter-century anniversary of the Zarya and Unity modules linking up. All seven STS-88 Space Shuttle Mission crew members joined NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana (mission commander) and ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano to discuss the milestone.

You can watch it here:

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/looking-back-at-25-years-of-the-iss-173155049.html?src=rss Взято отсюда

A third round of Spotify layoffs this year will see some 1,500 employees lose their jobs in the run-up to the holidays. This follows the loss of 600 jobs at the start of the year, and several hundred more in the summer.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek described the move as a ‘strategic reorientation,’ but the company’s fundamental problem remains unchanged …

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Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines said on Sunday that they would combine, the latest U.S. airlines seeking to grow and compete via merger.

Under the agreement, Alaska Airlines would acquire Hawaiian for $18 per share, or roughly $1.9 billion. That includes $900 million in debt.

In a joint announcement, the airlines said that the merger would allow both carriers to compete effectively across the U.S. and globally while expanding destinations and entrenching the combined carrier on the West Coast.

Both airlines’ brands would continue to exist “on a single operating platform,” the carriers said, with a single loyalty program. It was not immediately clear what parts of the airlines brands and operations would be kept separate and which would be combined, or how the differentiated brands could function as an integrated operational entity. In a presentation to investors, the airlines predicted run-rate synergies of approximately $235 million.

The combined entity would be based in Alaska Airlines’ headquarters of Seattle, with Honolulu as a key hub.

This combination is an exciting next step in our collective journey to provide a better travel experience for our guests and expand options for West Coast and Hawai‘i travelers,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement.

Minicucci would lead the combined entity, the airlines said.

The carrier would be the fifth-largest in the U.S. in terms of fleet size, with 365 aircraft.

Should the pending merger of JetBlue and Spirit be approved in federal antitrust court, the combined Alaska-JetBlue would drop to the sixth largest; Spirit will have 204 aircraft at the end of 2023, while JetBlue had 296 as of the end of the third quarter, according to both respective airlines.

Hawaiian Airlines has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic, and is on track to record a loss for 2023. The reopening of much of Asia, particularly Japan, has been a boon, with roughly 25% of Hawaiian’s revenue coming from transpacific passengers, according to some estimates. The airline also faces stiff competition from Southwest on inter-island routes and routes from the West Coast.

Hawaiian Airlines And Oneworld would bring an expanded network for Alaska Airlines

Following the transactions, the combined airline would be part of the Oneworld airline alliance, which Alaska joined in early 2021.

According to the carriers, the combined airline would initially service 138 destinations across its network, including 29 international markets. More than 1,200 destinations would be accessible through Oneworld partners.

The combined airline would have 31,200 employees and an estimated 54.7 million annual passengers.

The two airlines said that they would remain fully committed to Hawaii, with a strong operational presence and a leading position in the $8 billion leisure market.

The combined carriers would have more than 50% of the Hawaiian air market share, and would “retain and grow union represented jobs” in the state. Alaska currently allocates more than 10% of its capacity to Hawaii. The carriers would retain pilot, flight attendant and maintenance bases in Honolulu.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

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Dans le hall des départs

Ceux qui restent sont toujours tristes

C'est comme de rester là

À regarder partir

Le protagoniste

 

C'est le hall des aurevoirs

Je sais qu'il faut qu'tu t'en ailles

Mais attends encore

Qu'on se regarde en détail

 

Dans le hall des arrivées

Quelque chose de sacré

On attend, le cœur battant

Les grands pas se rapprochant

 

C'est le hall des retrouvailles

Là où le temps s'arrête

Où le désir s'emballe

Je n'sais jamais trop où me mettre

 

Bientôt, on se rapproche

De l'arrivée ou du départ

Bientôt, on sera loin

Pour ça, on est toujours en retard

Bientôt, on sera proche ou loin

Mais ce n'est que provisoire

Bientôt, on se rapproche

De l'arrivée ou du départ

Bientôt, on sera loin

Pour ça, on est toujours en retard

Bientôt, on sera loin

Oui, loin

Mais ce n'est que provisoire

 

Dans le hall des départs

J'affiche toujours un sourire triste

J'ai déjà hâte de te revoir

Mon très cher protagoniste

 

C'est le hall des mouchoirs

On pense toujours un peu au pire

Plus que de simples "au revoir"

Ce sont des "je t'aime", quoi qu'il arrive

 

Dans ces halls trop grands

Moi, je ne vois que toi

Et j'espère, en partant

Qu'en fait, tu décides de rester là

 

Je serai à l'heure pour ton vol

Pancarte à la main, qu'on rigole

Pour ne rater aucun

De nos galants hollywoodiens

 

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В зале вылета
Те, кто остаются, всегда грустны
Это как стоять и смотреть, как уходит главный герой

Это прощальный зал
Я знаю, тебе пора идти
Но подожди ещё
Давай запомним детали друг друга

В зале прилета
Что-то священное
Мы ждем, наши сердца бьются
Шаги становятся ближе

Это зал воссоединения
Где время останавливается
Где желание зашкаливает
Я никогда не знаю, куда себя деть

Скоро мы станем ближе
Вылет или прилёт
Скоро мы будем далеко
Мы всегда опаздываем
Скоро мы будем ближе или дальше
Но это только временно
Скоро мы станем ближе
Вылет или прилёт
Скоро мы будем далеко
Для этого мы всегда опаздываем
Скоро мы будем далеко
Да, далеко
Но это только временно

В зале вылета
У меня всегда грустная улыбка
Я не могу дождаться, чтобы увидеть тебя снова
Мой самый дорогой главный герой

Это зал с платками у глаз
Мы всегда думаем о худшем
Где простое «прощай»
Доносится как «я люблю тебя»

В этих огромных залах
Я вижу только тебя
И я надеюсь, что когда будешь уходить
Ты решишь остаться

Я успею встретить твой рейс
С табличкой в руках, чтобы посмеяться
Чтобы не пропустить ни одного
Из наших голливудских жестов

Norway has installed the world’s northernmost solar farm and battery storage in the Svalbard archipelago, just south of the North Pole.

State-owned energy company Store Norske Energi installed the solar and storage at Isfjord Radio on the island of Spitsbergen, the largest and the only permanently populated island in the archipelago, and the solar farm is expected to come online tomorrow.

Isfjord was built as a radio station in 1933 to provide a communication link between the Svalbard archipelago and Norway’s mainland. It’s still a radio station and a weather station, and now there’s a hotel for tourists and researchers.

The off-grid Isfjord Radio’s new ground-mounted solar farm joins its rooftop solar, which was installed earlier this year. The ground-mounted solar farm sits at 78° north, which makes it the world’s northernmost solar farm. Store Norske hasn’t yet provided details on the specs of the solar panels or battery storage.

The solar and battery storage will reduce emissions at Isfjord Radio by 70%. Before the renewables showed up, close to 200,000 liters of diesel were used at Isfjord Radio annually.

Store Norske says that installing the solar and storage was a demanding task. The company had to cast the foundations in permafrost, and the work was carried out under challenging Arctic conditions, with snow drifts, wind, snow, and ice loads. In order to not disrupt wildlife, all noisy work, such as drilling, had to be completed by May 15 due to its proximity to a bird reserve.

The energy company is collaborating with the University of Svalbard (UNIS) and Svalbard Energi in the testing of hybrid renewable energy, battery storage, and diesel generator systems, with a plan to implement them in many of the 1,500 Arctic communities that are off-grid and currently use coal or diesel as an energy source.

The region has continuous sun in the summer, but it’s dark in the winter, which is why diesel still can’t be dropped just yet. Store Norske plans on eventually including wind power in the energy mix, but there’s more research to do on how wind power functions in Arctic conditions.

Heidi Theresa Ose, general manager of Store Norske, said, “We are well under way with the establishment of Isfjord Radio as a pilot for emission-free hybrid energy systems for off-grid communities in the Arctic. The goal in the long term is to [achieve] a 100% renewable solution.”

Взято отсюда

Во вторник состоялись похороны главы ЧВК "Вагнер" Евгения Пригожина, погибшего в авиакатастрофе в Тверской области. Однако в Сети до сих пор обсуждается трагедия, пересматриваются старые интервью и видео. Одно из таких опубликовано в канале GREY ZONE.

Видео снято примерно 19-20 августа 2023 года, когда Пригожин был в Африке. На кадрах глава ЧВК "Вагнер" говорит, что у него всё в порядке - так он ответил "любителям обсуждать его ликвидацию и интимную жизнь".

Для обсуждающих, жив я или нет, как у меня дела,

- уточнил предприниматель.

Сейчас это обращение Евгения Пригожина буквально будоражит весь интернет. В комментариях люди разделились на два лагеря: одни с грустью пересмотрели кадры, а другие удивлённо уточнили дату выхода видео.

Кроме того, некоторым показалось странным, что глава ЧВК не назвал точную дату обращения, лишь уточнил про "вторую половину августа". Нашлись также те, кто не верит в реальность гибели Евгения Пригожина: мол, "нет такого ощущения". Однако похороны уже прошли в кругу близких людей, а в Сети продолжают появляться кадры с могилы предпринимателя.

(https://tsargrad.tv/news/...) Взято отсюда

Министерство иностранных дел (МИД) Литвы вызвало посла Папы Римского после слов понтифика о великой и просвещенной России. Об этом со ссылкой на заявление пресс-секретаря литовского внешнеполитического ведомства Паулины Левицките сообщает Telegram-канал "Sputnik Литва".

"Министерство иностранных дел пригласило Апостольского нунция на разговор в начале сентября, когда архиепископ Петр Раич вернется из отпуска", - сказала чиновник.

Ранее Папа Римский заявил, что Россия славится не только культурой, но и человечностью. "Вы наследники великой России, страны святых, царей, Петра I, Екатерины II, могучей и просвещенной Российской империи", - сказал Франциск. На Украине его слова назвали "империалистической пропагандой".

(https://m.lenta.ru/news/2...) Взято отсюда

After the new EV5’s debut last week, we are finally learning the starting price of the compact electric SUV. And as a pleasant surprise – the

EV5 is much cheaper than initial expectations.

more…

The post Kia EV5 will start much cheaper than expected, undercutting

’s Model Y in

China

appeared first on Electrek.

Взято отсюда

is in trouble with the federal government. Again.

A newly discovered version of Autopilot that allows drivers to operate the advanced driver-assist feature without applying any torque to the steering wheel — a long sought-after feature by Tesla drivers and one used by several other automakers as well — has caught the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In a July 26th letter (first reported by Bloomberg), NHTSA ordered Tesla to respond to a list of questions about the feature or face an escalating series of fines. The company was ordered to respond by August 25th; it’s unclear whether Tesla complied.

In the letter, NHTSA says it is concerned that any feature that allows drivers to remove their hands from the steering wheel without adequate driver monitoring could prove to be a safety risk.

NHTSA is concerned that this feature was introduced to consumer vehicles and, now that the existence of this feature is known to the public, more drivers may attempt to activate it. The resulting relaxation of controls designed to ensure that the driver remain engaged in the dynamic driving task could lead to greater driver inattention and failure of the driver to properly supervise Autopilot.

The letter was filed in the same docket as NHTSA’s two-year investigation into over a dozen incidents involving Tesla vehicles with Autopilot that crashed into stationary emergency vehicles. That investigation is expected to wrap up relatively soon. Regulators are also investigating issues with Tesla’s seatbelts, steering wheels, and “phantom braking” triggered by the driver assist.

Tesla’s handbook for drivers warns them to keep their hands on the steering wheel while using driver-assist features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. If drivers take their hands off the wheel for too long, a series of audio alerts begin to chime — annoying many Tesla owners. They have urged Tesla CEO Elon Musk to follow other automakers in introducing a truly hands-free system, like Ford’s BlueCruise or General Motors’ Super Cruise.

Those systems rely on a robust driver monitoring system that includes cameras and other sensors to ensure drivers keep their eyes on the road. And they are only available to use on certain roads, like divided highways. Tesla allows its customers to use Full Self-Driving (FSD), for example, on local roads, but still requires their hands to be on the steering wheel.

Earlier this year, a hacker discovered a version of FSD that doesn’t require the driver to apply force to the steering wheel while using it. The hacker called the version “Elon Mode” after Musk has shown himself using a version of FSD that also appears to be hands-free. It’s unclear whether NHTSA is referring to this version of FSD in its letter to Tesla.

Взято отсюда

CEO Andy Jassy has a message to employees who don’t want to return to the office: “It’s not going to work out for you.” That’s according to a report from Insider, which says Jassy made that statement during a meeting earlier this month.

While Amazon ordered its employees to return to the office for three days per week starting in May, many Amazon employees weren’t happy about the decision. Thousands of workers signed a petition against the mandate and staged a walkout in response.

That clearly hasn’t changed Amazon’s position on the matter. In a recording of the meeting obtained by Insider, Jassy told workers, “It’s past the time to disagree and commit,” adding that “if you can’t disagree and commit... it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week.”

Jassy reportedly said his decision to have employees return to the office was a “judgment call” and that employees can leave if they don’t want to comply. “It’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so,” Jassy stated. The Verge reached out to Amazon with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

On top of ongoing layoffs, Amazon has been cracking down on employees who refuse to return to the office. In July, leaked messages seen by Insider suggested that Amazon would force a “voluntary resignation” on employees who don’t relocate to the in-person hubs where their teams work while others just began quitting on their own. The company has also started sending warnings to workers about their in-person attendance, according to Insider.

Взято отсюда

Why You Shouldn't Try to Win Someone Back After They Lose Interest

5 Reasons You Should Let Them Go Rather Than Trying to Win Them Back

In reality, though, the idea that you should fight and fight to try to win someone back after they’ve lost interest in a relationship with you is a harmful idea.

“The idea that one can win someone back is not only emotionally damaging, but can also harm the person being pursued,” says Michelle English, LCSW, co-founder and executive clinical manager at Healthy Life Recovery. “There is somehow a false sense of control implied by this concept, as though one person has the power to manipulate another into changing his or her mind.”

If you’re considering trying to win someone back, you probably don’t have bad intentions. You have feelings — feelings that can range from a bruised ego to complete heartbreak. This is normal, especially in the face of rejection. You want to turn the outcome around into one that goes your way. You don’t want to say goodbye to the hopes you had for your future together. So you think about ways to win your love interest back.

“While this might seem like a logical romantic pursuit, it's essential to recognize the potential harm that can arise from this idea, both for yourself and others involved,” according to relationship coach Chris Gillis.

Here’s why trying to convince someone to be into you is a bad idea – and what to focus on instead:

---

You Can Overlook Important Boundaries

While there is something to be said about not giving up on your professional and personal goals, you can’t apply the same never-back-down attitude to love. There’s another human being involved, and doing so can lead you to overlook important boundaries. It sucks that they’ve lost interest, and you can absolutely express yourself and how you feel about the situation.

But if they’ve taken a step back or ended the relationship, attempting to win them back sends the message that you are disregarding their own feelings and decisions, says Gillis.

What you see as a romantic gesture or a refusal to give up on what you care about can translate into a lack of respect for others’ wishes and boundaries.

“It's never OK to pressure someone into changing their mind or guilting them into staying in a relationship they no longer want just because you want them back,” says English.

It Probably Won’t Work, Even If They Do Come Back

Even if your strategy worked, it probably won’t lead to a great relationship in the long run.

“This attitude leaves little room for truly resolving any underlying issues that may have caused the breakup in the first place,” adds English. “Without properly addressing these core issues, relationships are more likely to fail again in the future. This can create an unhealthy dynamic that can lead to further hurt and resentment.”

Plus, you may end up feeling insecure when considering the idea that the person already lost interest in you once. Wouldn’t you want to be with someone who wouldn’t entertain the idea of losing you?

You Won’t Address Deeper Self-Esteem Issues

There’s also the fact that trying to win someone back distracts you from dealing with deeper self-esteem issues.

“Trying to win someone back implies that their validation is necessary for your self-esteem and self-worth,” says Gillis. “Placing your value in the hands of another person can lead to a detrimental cycle of seeking external validation, making it difficult to maintain a healthy self-esteem.”.

Your persistence in gaining their interest back can signal that you need to work on your self-love. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s an opportunity for growth and healing — and better relationships in the future.

It’s a Time and Energy Drain

Not to mention all the time and energy that you’re investing in getting their attention.

As Gillis points out, this type of investment may prevent you from exploring other potential connections. You won’t be open to new romantic interests if you’re fixated on a person who doesn’t share your feelings.

It Sets You Up for More Hurt and Disappointment

It also sets you up for more hurt and disappointment. If they reject you again despite your best efforts at rekindling the relationship, it will only break your heart more. “Continuously pursuing someone who is not interested can result in repeated rejection and prolonged heartache,” adds Gillis.

The hard truth is, not all relationships are meant to be. People may not like you as much as you like them, and it has nothing to do with what you’re doing or not doing. Sometimes, people’s feelings also change over time, even if your connection started strong. Coming to terms with those facts is a process.

But when you try to win someone back after they’ve lost interest, you’re only delaying the start of that process and prolonging your pain.

---

What to Do Instead of Trying to Win Someone Back

---

“Rather than trying to win someone back, focusing on yourself and your own growth is better,” English says. “It's an excellent opportunity for personal development, and can help you become an even better version of yourself.”

She adds that you should take some time to reflect on what went wrong with the relationship so you can learn from the experience.

Having an open and respectful conversation with your romantic interest can be constructive and provide closure, says Gillis.

But respecting their ultimate decision is crucial. Since it won’t instantly resolve your hurt feelings, it’s important to surround yourself with loved ones and prioritize your own well-being. You can’t control how someone feels about you, but you can lean on your support system and cultivate healthy emotional habits. As you heal and feel ready to date again, do so with mindfulness.

“Be open to new connections but avoid the trap of seeking a replacement to fill the void left by the previous relationship,” adds Gillis.

Take a step back and work on processing your loss so you can have a fresh start. Unreciprocated feelings are never fun, but, as cheesy as it sounds, you may end up feeling grateful that things didn’t work out down the road.

Взято отсюда

Взято отсюда

With September just a few weeks away, it’s time to start thinking about all the trips you want to take next year.

As you plot your adventures for summer 2024,

Airlines will offer a handful of new seasonal routes and destinations to take you there.

The Fort Worth-based carrier on Thursday unveiled a major expansion for the upcoming summer season, which includes three all-new destinations, one new route and a service resumption.

Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG’s free biweekly Aviation newsletter.

Here are the details. Note that all of the new flights will be available for sale starting on Sunday, Aug. 20.

3 brand-new destinations

American’s expansion is headlined by the addition of three new route-map pins, all of which are in Europe.

This includes:

• Copenhagen
• Naples,
  Italy
• Nice, France

The carrier will fly daily nonstop flights to all three of these destinations from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). Service to Nice begins on May 6, followed by Naples on June 5 and Copenhagen on June 6.

American will exclusively deploy the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on all three new routes. It will use the -8 variant — which features 20 Flagship Business pods, 28 premium economy recliners and 186 economy seats — to Naples.

Meanwhile, the other two routes will be operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which features 30 Flagship Business pods, 21 premium economy recliners and 234 economy seats.

As far as the onboard experience goes, American’s -9 Dreamliners feature a top-notch reverse herringbone business-class product. The smaller “baby” -8 Dreamliners feature a mix of business-class products (one of which is arranged in an alternating forward- and rear-facing configuration). There’s no telling which aircraft configuration will operate your flight.

In total, American will offer 15 daily nonstop flights from PHL to 14

destinations next summer, representing its largest transatlantic schedule from Philadelphia since 2019.

That’s major news for the city and for the long-term viability of this Northeast hub. American hasn’t necessarily shown much love to Philly since it acquired the hub as part of the merger with US Airways.

For years, the airline hadn’t added much new Philly service, especially throughout its Northeast Alliance with JetBlue, which saw a slew of new transatlantic services added from New York.

Now that the Northeast Alliance is dead, American seems to be turning its attention back to Philadelphia.

Earlier this month, the airline shifted the gateway for its splashy Doha route from New York to Philadelphia. It’s possible that further expansions are in the works as American crystallizes its long-haul strategy.

As part of the Philly growth, the airline will also resume its PHL to San Antonio route next summer. This will boost the number of one-stop itineraries the airline can offer.

While Philly typically doesn’t suffer from the same air traffic-related delays that American’s New York hubs do, there is one downside to all this expansion in Philadelphia: There’s still no Flagship Lounge in the city.

Philly is one of American’s only long-haul hubs without a business-class-only lounge. Now that the airline seems focused once again on boosting long-haul service from PHL, hopefully, it will accelerate the construction that stopped years ago.

“We continue our commitment to offer customers a premium experience in the Philadelphia International Airport and will share more updates on the Flagship Lounge as they become available. Customers can continue to access the Admirals Club lounges in terminals A, B/C, and F,” an American Airlines spokesperson shared in a statement.

1 new route

Aside from the new destinations, American will also add its fifth gateway — Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) — to Barcelona next summer.

The carrier will launch a new daily service on this 5,195-mile route beginning on June 5, operated by a Boeing 777-200. It features 37 Flagship Business pods, 24 premium economy recliners and 212 economy seats. (Much like the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, American offers two wildly different business-class products in the pointy end of the plane.)

Expanding service to Barcelona is seemingly a no-brainer. There’s plenty of demand in the summer for this popular European city, and with the strength of American’s mega-hub at DFW, it shouldn’t have much of an issue filling the plane.

Service resumption and adjustments

While much of the focus is on the new routes and destinations, American is also boosting service on a plethora of existing routes. The full details are available in the table below.

The highlight is perhaps the service resumption from Chicago to Venice, Italy — a route that hasn’t operated since 2019.

Origin	Destination	Service Notes	Aircraft Type
DFW	BCN	New daily service begins June 5, 2024	Boeing 777-200
ORD	Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)	Resuming daily service on June 5, 2024	Boeing 787-8
ORD	Athens International Airport (ATH)	Earlier seasonal restart on May 6, 2024	Boeing 787-9
Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)	Dublin Airport (DUB)	Earlier seasonal restart on March 5, 2024	Boeing 777-200
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)	ATH	Earlier seasonal restart on March 31, 2024	Boeing 777-200
PHL	VCE	Earlier seasonal restart on April 4, 2024	Boeing 787-8
CLT	Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD)	Expanding to year-round service	Boeing 777-200
DFW	DUB	Expanding to year-round service	Boeing 787-8 (winter) and Boeing 777-200 (summer)
DFW	Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO)	Expanding to year-round service	Boeing 787-8 and 787-9
PHL	BCN	Expanding to year-round service	Boeing 787-8
PHL	Lisbon Airport (LIS)	Expanding to year-round service	Boeing 787-8 (winter) and 787-9 (summer)

All told, this announcement represents American’s largest European expansion since 2019, and it’s sure to please loyal flyers who’ve been craving some long-haul growth from the airline in recent years.

American has suffered from repeated delivery delays on new aircraft, and its network breadth has suffered because of it.

Now, it seems like things should all be settled by next year, and you’ll soon find an American Airlines jet in more European cities than ever before.

To facilitate the expansion, American is making some minor tweaks to its currently published schedule. This includes suspending service from Dallas/Fort Worth to Santiago, Chile, for next summer, as well as reducing frequencies on the following three routes:

• Dallas/Fort Worth to Paris (from two times to one time daily)
• Miami to London (from two times to one time daily)
• New York to Rome (from up to two times to one time daily)

Finally, the airline is also making a few changes to its winter schedule to Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America.

You can find all of the details in the table below. This expansion builds on American’s largest-ever schedule between the U.S. and these regions.

Origin	Destination	Service Notes	Aircraft Type
CLT	North Eleuthera Airport (ELH)	Expand to daily flights from Feb. 15 to April 3	Bombardier CRJ 700
CLT	Exuma International Airport (GGT)	Expand to daily flights from Feb. 15 to April 3	Bombardier CRJ 900
CLT	Leonard M. Thompson International Airport (MHH)	Expand to daily flights from Feb. 15 to April 3	Embraer E175
DFW	Ezeiza International Airport (EZE)	Expand to daily flights starting Oct. 29	Boeing 787-9
DFW	Cozumel International Airport (CZM)	Expand to two daily flights from Jan. 8 to April 3	Boeing 737-800
DFW	Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS)	Expand to daily flights starting Feb. 15	Boeing 737-800
Miami International Airport (MIA)	Clayton J. Lloyd Airport (AXA)	Expand to two daily flights from Jan. 8 to April 3	Embraer E175
MIA	Grantley Adams International Airport (BGI)	Expand to three daily flights from Jan. 8 to April 3	Boeing 737-800
MIA	Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM)	Expand to three daily flights from Jan. 8 to April 3	Boeing 737-800
MIA	Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport (EIS)	Expand to three flights on Saturdays from Jan. 8 to April 3	Embraer E175

Related reading:

• Your ultimate guide to American Airlines AAdvantage
• Best credit cards for American Airlines flyers
• What is American Airlines elite status worth?
• Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
• The best credit cards to reach elite status
• Everything you need to know about flying basic economy on American Airlines

Взято отсюда

Faroese national carrier Atlantic Airways is slated to begin direct flights between Vagar and New York starting later this month, however the airline has decided to cut back on the original number of flights to be offered.

Back in March, Atlantic Airways announced that they would be offering weekly flights to New York during the fall, seven flights in total. Yet new direct flight route between FAE Vagar Airport and New York Stewart International Airport has apparently garnered less interest than expected, forcing the airline to cancel the last two of the scheduled flights.

According to a statement from Atlantic Airways issued last week, the process of acquiring all the necessary permits and meeting all the criteria, took longer than expected and wasn’t completed until as late as May this year.

“We have had to adjust the schedule and thus cancel the last two flights so we’ll be offering five flights to New York this fall,” CEO Jóhanna á Bergi was quoted as saying. 

“The interest in flights from the Faroes to New York has been great,” she added. “Because the final permits were acquired so late, we were also delayed in putting tickets up for sale, and by then people had already made other plans for the summer and fall season.”

The CEO called the U.S. and “exciting market” while acknowledging that it “will take time” to establish the New York Stewart route.

The airline plans on offering direct flights between Vagar and New York again in the fall of 2024, we’re told.

The post Atlantic Airways reduces flights to New York Stewart citing delays in securing permits appeared first on Local.fo.

Взято отсюда

Finnair will adopt Avios as its Finnair Plus loyalty currency next year, replacing the existing Finnair Plus points.

Avios is the same loyalty currency used by British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and Qatar Airways (which joined the program last year).

While an official date for the program update has yet to be revealed, Finnair said it expects to make the move in “early 2024.”

Finnair operates from a handful of Oneworld hubs in the United States, including New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to its Nordic hub at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (HEL) and onward to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Once the airline has fully adopted Avios, Finnair Plus award points will be converted to Avios with a 3:2 ratio. Avios prices will be updated with the same 3:2 ratio, and the value of current Finnair Plus points will not change.

As with the other programs that use Avios, Finnair Avios can be transferred to any other Avios program at a rate of 1:1, making this valuable currency valuable easy to use.

Following the changeover, a current Finnair Plus points haul of 120,000, for example, would now be worth 80,000 Avios. TPG currently values Avios at 1.5 cents each.

Related: A review of Finnair’s new business class on the A350-900 from Helsinki to Singapore

“Finnair’s adoption of Avios is a recognition of the global significance of the currency and the incredible value it has for members worldwide,” Adam Daniels, CEO of IAG Loyalty, said. “We are excited to play a central role in Finnair’s new era for their loyalty program and for their members.”

Finnair isn’t just changing its loyalty currency. The overhaul will also see the Finnair Plus program shift to a revenue-based earning platform.

This means Finnair will award Avios and elite status based on the amount spent rather than distance flown — echoing similar moves from both British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus.

Many Finnair frequent flyers may not welcome this spend-based shift, but overall, the Avios adoption will hopefully open up much better redemption opportunities across partner airlines.

Related: When to use Avios with Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, Iberia and British Airways

Coinciding with the overhaul, Finnair will also increase the number of award seats available on flights, guaranteeing at least four award seats on flights within Europe. Finnair’s long-haul flights will see at least eight award seats — good news for those looking for more redemption opportunities.

In addition, Finnair Plus members will be eligible to receive extra rewards, such as upgrade benefits, upon reaching specific point limits, depending on their elite status. However, the details from Finnair here are vague, and exactly how this will look is unclear.

Finally, Finnair Plus members will now receive complimentary internet access for messaging on short-haul

flights operated by the airline’s narrow-body Airbus fleet. This perk will be available regardless of elite status.

In 2024, the airline will create a new Finnair lounge premise with a dedicated space for top-tier members on the Schengen side of Helsinki Airport. The current Schengen lounge will remain in operation until the new lounge opens.

“2024 marks the start of a new era with our loyalty program, with new benefits and improved options for our members to use their earned Avios — both within Finnair and IAG Loyalty’s partner network,” Ole Orver, Finnair’s chief commercial officer, said.

The Finnair Plus loyalty program currently has over four million members worldwide. More information regarding the exact date of the changes is expected to be shared by Finnair later this year.

Related reading:

• The ultimate guide to British Airways Executive Club and Avios
• 5 reasons why you should care about British Airways Avios
• 8 cool design elements in Finnair’s AirLounge business class (and 3 things I didn’t like)
• Comparing the Finnair premium economy flight experience on the A330 versus the A350
• What are points and miles worth? TPG’s monthly valuations

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users are growing increasingly concerned about the state of their iPhone’s battery health. A number of

iPhone 14

Pro users have taken to Twitter, Reddit, and more to share screenshots of their deteriorating battery capacity – less than one year after the iPhone 14 Pro was officially launched.

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Nuno Teixeira created this Apple+Zeiss mirrorless camera concept:

Zeiss has been rumored to have exited the photography business after they have not announced any new photography lenses in over 4 years now:

More reports that Zeiss has existed the photography industry

RIP Zeiss ZX1: the 37.4MP $6,000 full-frame fixed lens camera nobody wanted

Flashback: Zeiss has still not announced any new photography lenses in 3 years

The post Apple+Zeiss mirrorless camera concept appeared first on Photo Rumors.

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Cortana is

’s virtual assistant, which was introduced in 2014 back when Windows Phone was still a thing. Similar to Siri, Cortana lets users perform a number of tasks using voice commands. But it seems Microsoft is giving up on its old virtual assistant, as the latest Windows 11 update kills the Cortana app. The reason? The company will now bet on AI instead.

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The iPhone 16 Pro Max could be the first to feature a super telephoto periscope camera for dramatically increased optical zoom, according to a new report coming out of Asia.


The information comes from the Weibo account "Digital Chat Station," which has provided accurate information about Apple's plans in the past. The label of "super" or "ultra" telephoto is usually afforded to cameras with a focal length over 300mm, drastically magnifying and pulling in distant subjects. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro models' telephoto camera has a focal length of equivalent to 77mm, so a focal length in excess of 300mm on the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro Max would be a very large increase.

Super telephoto cameras are often used for sports and wild animal photography, but the extremely soft backgrounds they create also make them useful for portrait photography, providing there is enough distance between the subject and the photographer.

The change is seemingly facilitated by Apple's upgrade to a periscope telephoto camera system, starting with the iPhone 15 Pro Max later this year. With next year's ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro models, Apple is reportedly planning to bring the telephoto camera to both of the "Pro" models, apparently enabled by increasing the smaller model's size. As such, giving the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro Max a super telephoto periscope would enable Apple to maintain differentiation between the two "Pro" devices next year.

The Weibo user also reiterated their previous claim that the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro Max will feature a 12% larger camera sensor that is 1/1.14-inches in size. The ‌iPhone 14 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 14 Pro‌ Max currently feature a 1/1.28-inch sensor and no sensor size increase is expected for this year's ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ Max. A larger sensor could improve the main iPhone camera's dynamic range and background blur. It could also substantially enhance low-light photography capabilities since a bigger surface area can capture more light with the same shutter speed and aperture.

In their latest post on the matter, the Weibo user did not explicitly state which devices the rumor relates to in the ‌iPhone 16‌ lineup, it is believed to relate specifically to the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro Max due to their previous remarks. The same user shared similar camera information earlier this year, claiming that they had obtained industry insider information.
This article, "iPhone 16 Pro Max Rumored to Feature Super Telephoto Camera" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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During today’s press conference in which Hollywood actors confirmed that they were going on strike, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, revealed a proposal from Hollywood studios that sounds ripped right out of a Black Mirror episode.

In a statement about the strike, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said that its proposal included “a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members.”

When asked about the proposal during the press conference, Crabtree-Ireland said that “This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation. So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”

The use of generative AI has been one of the major sticking points in negotiations between the two sides (it’s also a major issue behind the writers strike), and in her opening statement of the press conference, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said that “If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble, we are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines.”

The SAG-AFTRA strike will officially commence at midnight tonight.

Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of

, East.

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Finnish schools are considering banning mobile phone usage due to a downward trend of focused learning.

The Programme for International Student Assessment explained that the country’s performance peaked in 2006 but has since seen a decline in results. Finland’s new right-wing government aims to pass a new law that bans students’ mobile phones.

Speaking on Monday, the Finnish government said, “The government will reinforce the powers of teachers and principals to intervene in activities that disrupt teaching during school hours.”

“We will make the necessary legislative amendments to enable more efficient restrictions in cases such as the use of mobile devices during the school day so that pupils and students can better concentrate on teaching,” it added.

In addition, Finland’s government is providing €200 million funding top-up for basic education to ensure students acquire the basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics.

The post Schools in Finland to ban usage of mobile phones first appeared on IceNews - Daily News. Взято отсюда