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Elon Musk offers to pay TSA workers’ salaries amid DHS budget standoff

admin — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 15:53:42 +0000

Elon Musk offered to cover the salaries of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel during the ongoing government funding standoff.

“I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk said in an X post on Saturday morning.

Musk’s offer comes as a partial government shutdown passes one month, with lawmakers unable to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the TSA.

The DHS shutdown has left TSA agents working without pay, triggering staffing shortages and long airport lines nationwide, while raising concerns about the ability to prevent attacks.

Republicans have pushed to fund DHS, while Democrats have sought standalone funding for agencies like TSA that would exclude immigration operations.

People standing in a long line at the Delta Terminal C check-in at LaGuardia Airport. Brigitte Stelzer

TSA officers are considered essential employees and are required to report to work even during a shutdown, though pay can be delayed.

Elon Musk offered to cover salaries for TSA personnel amid the ongoing government shutdown. Ella Pellegrini for NY Post

Musk’s offer appeared aimed at easing the strain as airport lines grow and staffing pressures build.

Major U.S. airports have experienced severe delays, with security wait times exceeding 3 hours in some cases, due to high TSA officer absenteeism. Hardest-hit airports include Houston (HOU, IAH), Atlanta (ATL), New Orleans (MSY), and Philadelphia (PHL).

The DHS shutdown has left TSA agents working without pay, causing staffing shortages and long airport lines. AFP via Getty Images

Footage from PHL, shot early Thursday morning, showed hundreds of passengers waiting on elevators and escalators to clear a security checkpoint.

It comes as a top TSA union leader warned Thursday that airport security risks linked to the shutdown are set to “get worse,” given that TSA has been under a hiring freeze since last year.

It remains unclear how Musk’s proposed arrangement would work or whether it would be legally possible for a private individual to fund federal workers.

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Whiskey mogul offers free $200M college campus to religious groups, with one major catch

admin — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 05:22:55 +0000

The founder of a Vermont-based whiskey brand wants to give away a college campus that he bought during the pandemic — on the condition the new owner shares his vision for “the revival of our country and our civilization.”

Raj Peter Bhakta is offering to gift the campus of 185-year-old now-defunct Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont — an asset he estimates would cost $200 million to rebuild — to a Catholic or Christian institution that shares his belief that a return to Western civilization “is predicated on a spiritual revival.”

The 50-year-old WhistlePig and Bhakta Spirits founder credits his entry into the industry to President Donald Trump — who fired Bhakta when he was a contestant during the second season of “The Apprentice.”

“I got into the whiskey business by getting fired by the sitting president of the United States,” Bhakta told Fox News Digital.

After a failed congressional run involving an elephant and a mariachi band, he found himself “dead broke and alone” on a run-down Vermont farm during the 2008 recession. Identifying a gap in the high-end American whiskey market, he founded WhistlePig.

Despite the brand’s ascent, Bhakta’s tenure at WhistlePig ended in a high-profile corporate showdown.

Raj Peter Bhakta, founder of WhistlePig and Bhakta Spirits, is giving away the Green Mountain College campus in Poultney, Vermont. FOX News

Following a dispute with the company’s board, he sold his stake in WhistlePig in 2019, according to his website, and “embarked on a sabbatical in search of new discoveries in the world of spirits.”

Armed with the proceeds from his departure, Bhakta launched his namesake spirits company in 2020.

He then turned his attention to what he describes as the “epic, large-scale” disaster of American higher education. In the summer of 2020, amid the uncertainty of COVID lockdowns, he purchased the shuttered Green Mountain College campus at auction for $4.5 million. That was much lower than its $20 million original asking price.

“There’s a deeper, more fundamental need in this country, and that is to go back to our Christian roots.”

“I bought this place, and then quickly learned that starting a college was a little bit more complicated than I had originally envisioned, especially while starting a new spirit startup,” he said.

His vision for the campus is rooted in the belief that the nation’s values are eroding and that a technical or secular fix is not enough.

“There’s a deeper, more fundamental need in this country, and that is to go back to our Christian roots,” Bhakta said.

Bhakta bought the Green Mountain College campus for $4.5M in 2020, seeking a “spiritual revival.” FOX News

While he originally intended to lead the new institution himself, Bhakta is now vetting “credible potential beneficiaries” who possess the “execution capacity” to fulfill his vision.

His first preference is a Catholic institution — followed by a Christian group.

“And if I can’t find one of those, I’ll sell it,” he added. “But I don’t suspect that I’ll have to sell it.”

Green Mountain College closed in 2019, citing declining enrollment. It was one of three private colleges in Vermont that closed that year, along with Southern Vermont College and the College of St. Joseph.

Sarah Pelkey, former community development director for the town of Poultney, told The Associated Press in 2020 that Green Mountain College is “a beautiful space, a beautiful campus — and somebody definitely got a steal.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Pelkey, who recently left her post to join the Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region, for additional comment.

Bhakta is firm about his convictions.

“We’ve had two great awakenings in this country before, and I think we’re at the dawn, God willing, of a third great awakening,” said Bhakta.

The 185-year-old Green Mountain College closed in 2019 due to declining enrollment. FOX News

“And that will hopefully, by God’s grace, lead to the revival of this great country and this great civilization.”

He added, “That, incidentally, is worth fighting for.”

His website notes, among other things: “We know that mankind’s greatest achievements flow from humility and service, and that humility and service lie at the heart of our destinies.”

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Lowe’s offers kid’s events, loyalty program as Americans buy homes later

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 20:47:35 +0000

Near expansive aisles of home improvement supplies, some of Lowe’s tiniest shoppers worked this Saturday on do-it-yourself projects of their own.

The children, some as young as 3, sported miniature versions of the retailer’s signature red aprons while hammering together washing machine-themed piggy banks at the retailer’s kids’ workshop at the company’s store in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Lowe’s is trying to attract a younger audience — though it hasn’t suddenly found an untapped market for home improvement spending from preschoolers. When the retailer this month relaunched its Kids Club program and began handing out lollipops to children who visit its stores, it was really a step in a strategy to win more business from younger parents, especially those who aren’t yet homeowners.

It’s not just young parents, though. Lowe’s wants to reel in new shoppers from the Gen Z and millennial generations, which are buying homes later than their parents did. Other moves to win over the cohorts include adding a wider array of merchandise through its third-party marketplace and tapping into a network of influencers on social media.

The company wants to attract more frequent store and website visits as the U.S. housing market remains sluggish, consumers put off homebuying until later in life and higher prices of everyday expenses cause more people to postpone big purchases and projects like kitchen renovations. It is adding some of the features through My Lowe’s Rewards, a customer loyalty program for DIY shoppers, which the company launched two years ago and which has grown to over 30 million members.

“What we’ve been challenged with from a marketing perspective and a total brand perspective is how to drive relevancy among consumers who aren’t in the homeowner category or who desire to be in the homeowner category, but aren’t financially able to do that,” Lowe’s Chief Marketing Officer Jen Wilson said.

Lowe’s relaunched its Kids Club, a free workshop where children can tackle their own do-it-yourself projects. The workshop was recently held at its store in Matthews, North Carolina.

Courtesy of Lowe’s

She said that has encouraged the home improvement retailer to think about “driving relevancy in new ways,” including adding more events and seeking out surprising or buzzy merchandise that may catch the attention of a potential shopper on TikTok.

That’s where kids fit in, too. She said one of Lowe’s surprising findings from market research was the strong influence of children in shaping where their parents choose to shop, especially for millennial parents.

Home Depot and Lowe’s stores

Getty Images

Putting off projects

As home prices and borrowing costs have risen, more Americans have postponed homeownership, a life stage that tends to nudge people toward springing for purchases of paint or hardware, or hiring home improvement professionals like electricians or plumbers. The median age of a first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old, an all-time high, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Home improvement sales have dropped off since the years of the Covid pandemic. Lowe’s expects its total sales to be $86 billion this year. That would represent an increase from $83.7 billion a year ago, but it would be lower than each of the four years before that. Lowe’s also expects comparable sales, an industry metric that excludes one-time factors like store openings and closures, to be flat compared to a year ago.

Compared to its rival Home Depot, Lowe’s relies more heavily on DIY shoppers. About 70% of its sales come from those consumers, with the remainder from home professionals like contractors, roofers and electricians that homeowners typically hire, according to the company.

Home Depot, on the other hand, has historically drawn about half of its sales from home pros and half from DIY shoppers.

Executives from both Lowe’s and Home Depot have said they have seen lower demand for big-ticket items and pricier projects, which they have chalked up to slower housing turnover and economic uncertainty. Housing turnover typically encourages projects, as homeowners spruce up their homes before a sale or fix it up when moving in.

In the meantime, both companies have focused on drawing more pros, which tend to be bigger and more reliable spenders. Home Depot in 2024 acquired SRS Distribution, a Texas-based company that sells supplies to professionals in the landscaping, pool and roofing businesses, in the largest acquisition in its history at $18.25 billion. It’s bought other companies, too, including building-products distributor GMS last year.

Lowe’s made two of its own pro-focused acquisitions last year. It bought Foundation Building Materials, a distributor of drywall, insulation and other interior building products for large residential and commercial professionals, and Artisan Design Group, which provides design services and installation of flooring, cabinets and countertops for homebuilders and property managers.

In the coming year, however, Lowe’s larger reliance on do-it-yourself shoppers may give the company an edge, said Chuck Grom, a retail analyst for Gordon Haskett Equity Research. He upgraded the company’s stock earlier this month from a hold to a buy rating because of signs of an improving housing backdrop.

While the housing market is still challenged, furniture sales have picked up in recent quarters and more consumers appear to be getting used to higher borrowing costs as the “new normal,” Grom said. About 35% of consumers said in the equity research firm’s most recent quarterly survey that they would be willing to buy a home at a 5.5% to 6% mortgage rate. That’s up from about 25% in the third-quarter survey.

The average 30-year mortgage rate has dipped slightly in recent months and was around 6.2% last week.

Those are promising signs that consumers may dip their toes back into more DIY projects, even if recovery is gradual, he said.

Shares of Lowe’s have reflected some optimism about the coming year. Its stock has lagged the S&P 500’s performance over the past year and last five years, but its stock is up about 22% in the past six months. That’s compared to Home Depot, which has seen shares rise about 4% during the same period.

Starting this month, Lowe’s is handing out lollipops at stores in the hopes of drawing in more parents and families.

Courtesy of Lowe’s

Lowe’s leans younger

One of the key goals of Lowe’s strategy is giving customers more reasons to engage with its app or website, or make visits to stores part of their routine, even between DIY projects.

Amanda Bailey, vice president of customer marketing and loyalty at Lowe’s, said the company hopes free lollipops, for example, get kids to nudge their parents to stop by a store where they may purchase a few items or give parents a longer time to linger in peace when comparing appliances in the aisles.

Lowe’s is also trying to give shoppers more reasons to join or use its loyalty program. Customers must now sign up for the free monthly Kids Club workshop through the program, and children can collect digital badges on their parents’ loyalty account for completing the projects. Customers can rack up points from purchases that become MyLowe’s money, an incentive intended to get consumers to buy everyday items like household cleaning products or lightbulbs at the retailer.

And Lowe’s plans to expand kids’ workshops, which cater to 3- to 10-year-olds, and add more complex projects for older children and teenagers, she said.

It has also tested other free events for loyalty program members at select stores, including soccer clinics for kids, a ladies’ night out with do-it-yourself projects like terrarium building and a family night out with games and hands-on activities.

“Traditionally, loyalty programs have been around rewarding the transaction,” said Bailey, who previously worked to drive loyalty at brands including Hilton and Tory Burch. “And so now we think about, how can we engage with customers in different phases of their life, in different moments of their life?”

Children participate in the Lowe’s Kids Club at the retailer’s store in Matthews, North Carolina.

Courtesy of Lowe’s

Along with its typical home improvement items, Lowe’s is trying to debut products that surprise customers or go viral on social media. Lowe’s merchandising and marketing teams have started plotting out a 12-month plan of items that the company bets could become trending products, with about three to five items debuting each quarter, Wilson said. Loyalty program members get early or exclusive access to purchase some products, Wilson said.

One of Lowe’s first drops was its branded minibucket, which recently came out in light pink. Its mini-Kobalt toolbox kit, which comes in different colors, also gained traction on social media with customers using them to organize their makeup or store school supplies.

Lowe’s has other items in the works that it hopes will create buzz. These include a scented candle and tote bag that will drop in the spring, Lowe’s busiest sales season, and a pet-themed Advent calendar for the holidays.

“These are impulse buys that are affordable and are great ways to introduce our brands to consumers who wouldn’t otherwise be thinking about us,” Wilson said.

Lowe’s also launched a creator network in June to encourage more influencers to post their do-it-yourself projects or purchases. It also partnered with well-known social media creator MrBeast, who has a storefront on the retailer’s website where customers can shop his favorite items.

And its marketplace, which launched in late 2024, has been a way to add more brands and expand categories.

Gordon Haskett’s Grom said company initiatives to gain customer loyalty, especially among younger shoppers, are important, but “are not going to move the needle right away.”

“They are trying to control what they can control,” he said. “The winds of the housing turnover are hard right now for them.”

Home Depot has also made moves of its own to attract customers, including launching a new platform for creators late last year and creating a new hub on its website with advice and ideas for new homeowners. It has also sped up customer deliveries. Over half of its deliveries are now same-day or next-day, more than triple the number in 2022, the company said at its investor day in December. And it also offers free kids’ workshops at its stores.

Yet as the home improvement retailers try to win a limited pool of business, they’re also competing with independent and specialty home improvement shops, privately held Ace Hardware and retail giants like Walmart and Amazon, which carry some of the same merchandise.

Though they may not yield immediate dividends, events will play a role in that competition moving forward. For families who came to Lowe’s kids’ workshop at the North Bergen store on Saturday, the activity was a welcome way to spend a snowy day and get their kids to work with their hands.

Ivette Crisostomo, a mom from Fort Lee, New Jersey, brought her 3-year-old son, Kai, to the workshop. She coordinated with two friends, who also brought their kids.

“This is like a set playdate for everyone,” she said. “It builds his confidence, too.”

As the event wrapped, it illustrated the goal of Lowe’s strategy. Many parents browsed the aisles after finishing the project. Crisostomo said she sometimes winds up shopping, too.

“My eyes wander and if I do need something, I’ll come to Lowe’s,” she said.

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Krispy Kreme offers free doughnuts during nationwide Verizon outage: ‘SOS got you down?’

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:14:14 +0000

Never fear, doughnuts are here.

Krispy Kreme cheekily announced it will be handing out the “sweet backup plan” to all customers during Verizon’s nationwide network outage on Wednesday afternoon.

“SOS got you down? We can hear you now — and we’re serving up,” the popular doughnut company wrote on Instagram.

Krispy Kreme is giving out one free doughnut to customers amid the Verizon network outage. Rick Dembow N.Y. POST

Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Krispy Kreme will be doling out one free original glazed doughnut to each customer “because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on.”

The doughnut giant’s slick move of “marketing genius,” as praised by fans online, coincides with the nationwide Verizon network outage that forced tens of thousands of users offline Wednesday.

Most major cities in the US were impacted by the outage. Downdetector

The disruption, which affected major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC, started just after 9 a.m. EST and soon spread coast to coast.

Many customers reported total signal loss, failed or spotty calls, and dead data connections, according to Downdetector.

Verizon acknowledged the outage and assured its engineers were “working to identify and solve the issue quickly” in a brief statement to The Post.

“SOS got you down? We can hear you now — and we’re serving up,” Krispy Kreme wrote on Instagram. Stephen Yang

“We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience,” a Verizon spokesperson said.

The phone and internet company has not announced a cause or timeline for full restoration as of Wednesday afternoon. Scattered reports suggested service was beginning to return for some — while many others were still waiting.

T-Mobile, one of Verizon’s primary competitors, mercilessly trolled the network’s meltdown.

“T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected. However, due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time,” the company posted on X.

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Starlink offers free internet in Venezuela after U.S. strikes, Maduro arrest

admin — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:14:58 +0000

SpaceX headquarters is shown in Hawthorne, California, U.S. June 5, 2025.

Daniel Cole | Reuters

Elon Musk’s Starlink is offering free broadband internet service to users in Venezuela through Feb. 3, following U.S. airstrikes and the capture of ousted leader Nicolás Maduro.

The satellite internet provider said in a release on Sunday that service credits were being added to both active and inactive accounts as it monitored evolving conditions.

Starlink, a subsidiary of the aerospace company SpaceX, provides internet access via low-earth-orbit satellites and requires users to purchase separate equipment to connect to the service.

While Starlink’s availability map on its website lists Venezuela as “coming soon,” the company indicated that users can access the service through a roaming plan.

“While we do [not yet have] a timeline for local purchase availability, if and when there are updates they will be communicated directly through official Starlink channels,” it added. It remains unclear how the company’s services and pricing would evolve after Feb. 3.

Nonetheless, a temporary extension of free internet services in the country could help provide connectivity amid the fallout of recent U.S. airstrikes and a ground raid to capture and extradite Maduro for trial on allegations including narco-terrorism and election rigging.

Starlink allows internet to be provided by non-state companies in authoritarian regimes

Marko Papic

Global GeoMacro Strategist at BCA Research

Washington’s operations on Jan. 3 mostly targeted areas in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, with the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira also attacked, according to a government statement.

Following the airstrikes, reports indicated that areas of Caracas had lost power and internet connectivity. Some local outlets also reported outages in Miranda over the weekend.

U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that the U.S. would oversee Venezuela’s transition, though details remain unclear amid concerns over a power vacuum.

The president also announced Saturday that Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in after Maduro’s arrest, but has threatened a second strike on Venezuela if the leadership didn’t “behave.”

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council plans to hold a meeting on Jan. 6 to discuss the legality of U.S. action, as countries, including U.S. allies such as Brazil and Spain, have condemned the military actions.

Starlink’s growing reach

Venezuela is not the first conflict zone where Starlink has been deployed. The satellite service was rolled out in Ukraine in 2022 to replace internet and communication networks damaged by Russia’s invasion of the country, quickly becoming a critical tool for both civilian and military connectivity.

While Ukrainian and international officials praised Starlink’s role in the war-torn country, its use in the conflict also raised questions about the influence a single private company could wield over access to internet services during wartime.

These concerns escalated in September 2023 when a biography on Musk revealed that he had previously denied a Ukrainian request to activate Starlink coverage over Russian-annexed Crimea, effectively thwarting a planned drone submarine attack.

This disclosure prompted the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee to probe “serious national liability issues” stemming from a private citizen’s sway over the conflict.

However, in June 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense brought Starlink’s activities in Ukraine under its formal oversight through a contract with SpaceX, effectively making the company an official military contractor.

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment regarding potential involvement or oversight of Starlink’s operations in Venezuela.

Beyond conflict zones, Starlink has also been used to bypass government-imposed internet censorship and shutdowns in several countries.

In Iran, thousands of users have reportedly used Starlink to access the unfiltered internet, defying government restrictions despite the service not being officially approved.

Venezuela also has a well-documented history of internet censorship and shutdowns, especially during times of political upheaval under the governments of Hugo Chávez and Maduro.

“Starlink allows internet to be provided by non-state companies in authoritarian regimes,” Marko Papic, Global GeoMacro Strategist at BCA Research, told CNBC, adding that this is almost certain to become a trend.

It is highly likely that Starlink will become available everywhere where the U.S. is involved in an antagonistic relationship with the regime, he added.

However, amid broader international concerns over Starlink and the U.S.’s dominant role in the satellite broadband sector, governments such as China and the European Union have been supporting domestic alternatives.

That includes Shanghai-based Qianfan, also known as SpaceSail, which has launched at least 108 low-earth-orbit satellites so far, according to Chinese state-backed media.

Meanwhile, Beijing’s state-owned space program last month announced the successful launch of its 17th batch of low-Earth-orbit internet satellites under its Guowang constellation project.

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Paramount, Comcast, Netflix submit offers

admin — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 19:45:17 +0000

Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix formally submitted takeover offers for Warner Bros. Discovery this week ahead of a deadline for first-round offers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Paramount Skydance and its advisors had been weighing in recent days whether to submit a higher bid than its previous $23.50-per-share offer that WBD rejected, some of the people said. Both Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, and Netflix, bid solely for the film and streaming assets, which consists of the Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max, the people said.

Netflix’s offer was expected to be “disciplined” with its bid, one of the people said. The size and structure of the offers weren’t immediately clear.

Warner Bros. Discovery is aiming to have its sale process wrapped up by mid- to late-December, CNBC previously reported. Another round of bids is expected to occur in the coming weeks, some of the people said.

Representatives for Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Netflix and Comcast declined to comment.

Last month Warner Bros. Discovery said it was expanding a strategic review of its business to include a potential sale — even as it carries on with a plan to split into two separate entities: Warner Bros., made up of the film studio and streaming platform, and Discovery Global, which would include the company’s pay TV networks like CNN and TNT Sports.

While Warner Bros. Discovery’s split has been underway, takeover interest from the newly merged Paramount Skydance led WBD CEO David Zaslav and top brass to open up to a formal sale process.

The Warner Bros. logo is displayed on a water tower at Warner Bros. Studio on September 12, 2025 in Burbank, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

Paramount has already sent multiple letters to WBD’s board explaining why its offer of $23.50 per share for all of WBD’s assets is in the best interest of shareholders and the company itself.

WBD’s stock was up about 2% in Friday morning trading at roughly $23.40 per share. The company’s share price has increased more than 20% since announcing it was up for sale in October.

Paramount CEO David Ellison recently met with Saudi-backed sovereign funds about financing a potential transaction, although the conversations were only preliminary and Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, are prepared to fully finance a transaction, people familiar with the matter said.

While Paramount is interested in a deal for the entirety of WBD, the formal sale process has opened up the possibility of a buyer for only part of the legacy media company.

If Comcast’s offer for the studio and streaming assets were to be successful, Discovery Global would move forward with its spinout and current WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels would become CEO.

Comcast President and soon-to-be co-CEO Mike Cavanagh recently telegraphed in an earnings call that an acquisition of studio and streaming assets would be complementary to NBCUniversal. Comcast is currently in the process of spinning out its portfolio of cable networks, which includes CNBC, but will retain NBCUniversal.

Paramount Skydance, Netflix and Comcast are submitted takeover offers Thursday for Warner Bros. Discovery marking the first bid deadline in the sale process, according to people familiar with the matter.

— CNBC’s David Faber contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

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Delta Offers $30,000 to Passengers on Plane That Crashed in Toronto

admin — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:32:08 +0000

Delta Air Lines said on Wednesday that it was offering $30,000 to each passenger who was aboard the flight from Minneapolis that crashed and flipped upside down this week while trying to land in Toronto.

All 80 people — 76 passengers and four crew members — who were on Delta Flight 4819 survived after the jet made a rough landing and rolled over, ending belly-up with its right wing sheared off at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday.

Of the 21 passengers who were taken to hospitals, all but one had been released by Wednesday morning, Delta said. None of the passengers had life-threatening injuries.

Delta confirmed on Wednesday that it had made the $30,000 offer to passengers. Its representatives were telling the passengers that the offer came with “no strings attached and does not affect rights,” a company spokesman said via email.

Three days after the crash, officials have released few details about the investigation. On Wednesday, Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive, said in an interview on CBS that the flight had been staffed by an “experienced crew” but provided little further information.

But it appears that passengers are already considering how to seek compensation from Delta. Rochon Genova, a Canadian law firm, said it had been retained by some of the passengers.

According to international treaties, when an international aviation accident causes injury or death, airlines in the United States are required to make advance payments to passengers if the airline determines that the money is necessary to cover their immediate economic needs.

If a passenger dies, the initial payment must be more than about $20,000, according to the Delta Air Lines website, which cites the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions which govern airplane liability. If the passenger is injured, the amount of the payment is determined by the airline.

Making such a payment does not mean the airline admits liability. If passengers later win compensation in a lawsuit, the initial payment will be deducted from the sum of the compensation.

In 2013, Asiana Airlines made a similar payment offer to survivors of a crash landing in San Francisco which killed three people. The Korean airline offered $10,000 to each of the 288 surviving passengers, and said that the payment did not preclude them from filing lawsuits.

Dozens of lawsuits were filed against the airline and the plane’s manufacturer in the United States, and some later reached settlements for undisclosed amounts.

And last year, after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight, the airline offered a $1,500 payment to all passengers, as well as a full refund, to cover “incidental expenses to ensure their immediate needs were taken care of.”

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Musk’s Twitter Takeover Offers Trump a Blueprint

admin — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 18:05:36 +0000

The email landed in employees’ inboxes with the subject line: “Fork in the Road.” The message in the email was stark: Accept a sweeping set of workplace changes or resign.

That was the note that millions of federal employees received around 5 p.m. on Tuesday. It echoed a similar message that thousands of workers at Twitter got from Elon Musk in late 2022 after he bought the company.

Mr. Musk has brought his takeover tactics from Twitter to the federal government, where he’s become a close adviser to President Trump and is running the cost-cutting initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency. The administration is already eliminating diversity initiatives, testing engineering prowess and demanding federal employee loyalty, maneuvers Mr. Musk embraced to slash his social media company’s budget and operations.

The Tuesday email, sent by the Office of Personnel Management, was the latest example of the billionaire’s fingerprints, down to the subject line — the same as his 2022 buyout offer to Twitter employees.

“It’s a knife-at-your-throat feeling,” said Rumman Chowdhury, a former Twitter executive who left the company, which is now known as X, after Mr. Musk’s takeover. “The uncertainty is wild.”

Mr. Musk and a spokeswoman for his government cost-cutting initiative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Musk has previously said he expects to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget. Between 5 and 10 percent of federal workers were expected to accept the exit packages offered on Tuesday, “which could lead to around $100 billion in savings,” Mr. Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, said in a post on X.

Mr. Musk, who also leads Tesla and SpaceX, has enlisted the help of a team of loyalists to assess agencies and make cuts, the same thing he did during the Twitter takeover.

Steve Davis, the head of Mr. Musk’s tunneling startup, The Boring Company, helped oversee cost-cutting at Twitter and now leads DOGE Brian Bjelde, a longtime human resources executive at SpaceX who also helped during the Twitter takeover, is now an adviser to the Office of Personnel Management.

Michael Grimes, a top banker at Morgan Stanley who helped lead Mr. Musk’s Twitter acquisition, is expected to take a senior job at the Commerce Department.

One of Mr. Musk’s software engineers at Tesla, Thomas Shedd, was named the head of “Technology Transformation Services” at the General Services Administration, which helps manage federal agencies. Mr. Shedd promptly employed a Musk tactic: asking for proof of engineers’ technical chops.

Mr. Shedd asked for engineers to sign up for sessions in which they could share “a recent individual technical win,” according to an email sent to more than 700 employees on Tuesday night and viewed by The Times.

“These sessions are an opportunity to understand more deeply the types of expertise we have,” Mr. Shedd said in his email, which emphasized his “hours on the factory floor” at Tesla.

Just a day after acquiring Twitter, Mr. Musk demanded engineers print out and share code they had written for the company’s various products.

Mr. Musk also worked quickly to undo diversity initiatives at the social media company — a move echoed by Mr. Trump’s flurry of executive orders his first week in office, which eliminated diversity and inclusion efforts in the federal government.

“These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,” according to emails sent to federal workers viewed by The Times.

After buying Twitter, Mr. Musk slammed previous management’s attempts to foster diversity, sharing a video in which he mocked shirts made for the company’s Black employee group. Under his leadership, the company cut funding for employee resource groups, and took down a mural celebrating the Black Lives Matter movement in its San Francisco office, according to two former employees.

One of Mr. Musk’s go-to tactics for cutting costs at Twitter was reducing the company’s real estate footprint. He stopped paying rent for various office spaces around the world, leading to evictions from several facilities, including in Seattle and Boulder, Colo.

The General Services Administration is also targeting real estate for cost-cutting. Stephen Ehikian, a former tech executive and Trump appointee, told workers in an email on Tuesday viewed by The Times that two of the agency’s properties would be listed for sale while three leases had been terminated. The move would save about $11 million and was a “first step” in slashing real estate expenditures, according to the email.

While Mr. Musk ultimately transformed Twitter, reducing staff by 80 percent and minimizing its real estate footprint, its business has declined. Advertisers have fled the site in droves, and at least one investor, Fidelity, estimates the company is now worth 72 percent less than the $44 billion he paid for it.

“Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive and we’re barely breaking even,” Mr. Musk wrote in an email to X employees earlier this month, which was viewed by The New York Times and previously reported by The Wall Street Journal. “We need to be faster, more innovative and relentlessly focused.”

Mr. Musk on Tuesday evening resurfaced one of his 2024 posts on X, appearing to reference the “fork in the road” email to federal employees, which demanded that they be “reliable, loyal, trustworthy” and “strive for excellence.”

Some government workers are looking to former Twitter employees for guidance.

Several federal employees circulated online posts from Dr. Chowdhury offering advice about how to respond to a Musk takeover. Others contacted Shannon Liss-Riordan, an employment lawyer who is suing Mr. Musk on behalf of former Twitter workers.

“Elon clearly thinks he learned from Twitter how to decimate a workplace and he’s trying to roll out the same playbook with the federal government now,” Ms. Liss-Riordan said.

Theodore Schleifer, Ana Swanson and Maureen Farrell contributed reporting.

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Apple offers holiday discount in China as Huawei competition heats up

admin — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 10:41:36 +0000

People walk past an advertisement for the iPhone 16 Pro at an Apple store during National Day holiday on October 3, 2024 in Chongqing, China.

Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Apple is offering discounts on its top-end iPhones and other products in China for the upcoming Chinese New Year as the U.S. tech giant faces heightened competition in one of its most crucial markets.

The Cupertino giant is giving customers 500 Chinese yuan ($68.50) off of the iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max, and 400 yuan off the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus. Offers also include discounts for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15.

For a long time Apple has resisted offering discounts through its own retail channels. Instead, third-party retailers would offer deals at certain times of the year. However, as competition ramps up, Apple has been more inclined in the last year to post seasonal deals.

Apple offered a similar Chinese New Year deal last year and in May, the company offered hefty discounts as part of China’s 618 shopping festival.

The firm’s latest challenge has come from a resurgent Huawei and other domestic brands. Apple smartphone shipments fell 6% year-on-year in mainland China in the third quarter of 2024, according to Canalys. The company’s market share also slipped to 14% from 16% a year earlier.

Huawei meanwhile saw shipments jump 24% year-on-year, Canalys data shows, while the company’s market share hit 16% from 13% a year earlier.

Huawei, which was once the number one smartphone player in the world before U.S. sanctions crippled its handset business, has aggressively launched new devices since the latter half of 2023. These devices contain chips that many had thought would be difficult to produce due to U.S. restrictions on Huawei.

Last year, the Chinese tech firm launched a first-of-its-kind trifold phone in a bid to show off its technological capabilities.

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Elon Musk offers $1 million a day to entice swing state voters

admin — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 16:04:50 +0000

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump, gestures as he speaks about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 17, 2024.

Rachel Wisniewski | Reuters

Elon Musk said Saturday that he would randomly award $1 million a day to registered voters who sign a petition for his pro-Trump political action committee in an effort to get his fans in swing states to the polls.

Speaking at an America PAC event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Musk said, “I have a surprise for you,” adding that the prize money is available “every day from now until the election.”

Musk then called up a man named John Dreher, who he said was one of the petition signees in attendance, and handed him a giant check.

“I think this is kind of fun, and you know, it seems like a good use of money basically,” said the Tesla CEO, who is worth almost $250 billion.

Musk, who is also CEO of defense contractor SpaceX and owner of social media platform X, embarked on a speaking tour in Pennsylvania to drive voter registration in his support of the Republican nominee. He called the state the “linchpin” in this election.

“How Pennsylvania goes I think is how the election goes,” Musk said.

The deadline to sign the petition is Monday night, which is the day Pennsylvania’s voter registration closes. The petition, posted on the America PAC website, said that to be eligible for payments, signees “must be registered voters of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin.”

Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and NBC News election law analyst, said in a blog post that Musk’s initiative appears to be a violation of federal election laws, specifically one that says a person who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”

“Certain things in this country can be sold, and certain things we have decided should not be for sale,” Hasen told CNBC in an interview. “Congress has determined you should not be able to sell your vote to the highest bidder, and we should not have the political process distorted by people with the most wealth who may try to get you to vote in a certain way.”

CNBC reached out to Musk and one of his advisors for comment, but they didn’t respond.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said Musk’s plan to give money to registered voters in his state is “deeply concerning” and “it’s something that law enforcement could take a look at.”

Floating conspiracy theories

At pro-Trump events, Musk has pushed debunked voter fraud conspiracies, called for deregulation, and repeatedly characterized President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s rival, as replaceable “puppets.”

“No one’s even bothering to try to kill Kamala, you know, because there’s no point,” Musk said on Saturday, repeating a line he’s used in the past that caught the attention of the Secret Service. “I’m not suggesting someone should try to kill her, it would be pointless, but I’m just saying. I’m just making an observation.”

Musk said in his appearances that he views many government agencies and regulations in the U.S. as ineffective and unnecessary. Trump has taken up an idea floated by Musk to create a government efficiency commission, and said the tech magnate would be a big part of the commission.

“We should not trust the government, really. We just shouldn’t,” Musk said Harrisburg. “Even if I’m in the government, don’t trust the government.”

While Musk’s companies have long relied on government spending and support, he’s berated the Federal Communications Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Aviation Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries for holding SpaceX back.

“We get crazy things,” Musk said, “like SpaceX got fined $140,000 for dumping potable drinking water on the ground at Starbase.”

As CNBC previously reported, SpaceX has repeatedly discharged hot, industrial wastewater into the wetlands surrounding the company’s launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, which the EPA found was a Clean Water Act violation.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Clipper spacecraft sits on launch pad 39A before the launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024.

Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images

Musk mocked NOAA Fisheries for asking SpaceX to conduct a study to predict how its rockets could impact sharks and whales if they fall into the ocean.

“I’m like, it’s a big ocean, you know, there’s a lot of sharks. It’s not impossible, but it’s very unlikely,” Musk said. The agency’s mission is to “conserve America’s coastal and marine resources.”

Musk’s animosity toward Biden picked up in 2021, when the White House declined to invite Tesla to an electric vehicle summit.

“You know, Tesla’s about 140,000 people — it’s like there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears from people working hard to make great electric cars,” Musk said Saturday. “To be could-shouldered like that for no reason. It’s like, what’s the deal?”

Musk has long battled unions, and Tesla was charged with union busting before the EV summit. Biden has maintained a pro-labor platform throughout his presidency.

One attendee in Harrisburg asked Musk if he believed that self-driving cars should eventually be mandatory if they can perform more safely in traffic than human drivers. Tesla has promised customers a “robotaxi” for years, but never produced one.

Musk suggested he was against anything federally mandated.

“We should just get the government out of things and let the market figure it out,” he said. “I’m generally against government. With that, I’d like to thank you all for coming. It’s been an honor to speak with you.”

Musk only mentioned Trump sparingly throughout the evening, and didn’t discuss his policies or record as president in any detail.

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