Latest News

Since the Houston Spaceport secured the 10th FAA-Licensed commercial spaceport designation in 2015, the development's tenants have gone on to secure billions in NASA contracts. Now, the Houston Spaceport is on to its next phase of growth.

“Reflecting on its meteoric rise, the Spaceport has seen remarkable growth in a short span of time. From concepts on paper to the opening of Axiom Space, Collins Aerospace, and Intuitive Machines, the journey has been nothing short of extraordinary,” says Arturo Machuca, director of Ellington Airport and the Houston Spaceport, in a news release. “These anchor tenants, collectively holding about $5 billion in contracts with NASA and other notable aerospace companies, are not just shaping the future of space exploration but injecting vitality into Houston’s economy.”

The next phase of development, according to Houston Airports, will include:

• The construction of a taxiway to connect Ellington Airport and the Spaceport
• The construction of a roadway linking Phase 1 infrastructure to Highway 3
• The expansion of the EDGE Center, in partnership with San Jacinto College

The Houston Spaceport's first phase completed in 2019. Over the past few years, tenants delivered on their own buildouts. Last year, Intuitive Machines moved into its new $40 million headquarters and Axiom Space opened its test facility. In 2022, Collins Aerospace cut the ribbon on its new 120,000 square-foot facility.

Undeterred by declining appetites for whale meat, and unfazed by global opposition to commercial hunts, Japan's whaling industry is doubling down. Earlier this month, a company unveiled a new "mother ship" at a port in the heart of the industry, declaring the investment the start of a bright new future.

On April 3, a crowd gathered in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, to celebrate the completion of the Kangei Maru, a 9,300-ton colossus built by Tokyo-based firm Kyodo Senpaku at a cost of 7.5 billion yen — just shy of 50 million dollars.

The vessel will replace Japan's only existing mother ship, the 30-year-old Nisshin Maru, and comes with a vast array of technological upgrades, as well as extra work and storage space. The "mother ship" designation refers to the process where smaller and more agile craft hunt the whales, then bring the carcasses to the bigger ship for freezing.

Rather than carving up the carcasses on deck, often in bad weather, the workers will now be able to perform their duties in the Kangei Maru's vast indoor space, ensuring a better standard of hygiene.

"The Kangei Maru is the first step toward passing on the 'offshore mother ship whaling' method forever," declared Kyodo Senpaku president Tokoro Hideki.

LinkedIn is adding three puzzle games — Pinpoint, Queens, and Crossclimb — on desktop and mobile.

LinkedIn is now in the gaming business. Starting today, users on the LinkedIn mobile app or on desktop can play one of three different games — Pinpoint, Queens, and Crossclimb. You’ll be able to play each game once per day, and after your daily session, you’ll get access to all kinds of metrics including your high score and daily streak, different leaderboards, and who in your networks has also played. The games are available here under the LinkedIn News and My Network section on desktop or the My Network tab on mobile.

Here’s a brief rundown of the three games.

Pinpoint is a word association game. The game will unveil five different words, and your job is to guess the category the words fit into. The words will reveal themselves on a timer with the objective being to guess the category in as few words as possible.

Crossclimb combines trivia with clever wordplay. You’ll be given a clue for a word, and with that word as a starting point, you’ll create a ladder of words with each subsequent entry being just one letter off from the one before. Arranging the words in the correct order will reveal the clue to guess the locked entries on the ladder to win the game. It’s probably better to see it in action:

The rental giant is rushing to unload more of its electric cars after running into a familiar problem.

Hertz may have been bullish on EVs after the initial turmoil of the early pandemic set off a fleet selling spree, making plans to buy some 100,000 Teslas in renewing its fleet in 2021 in addition to EVs from other brands.

But despite what Elon Musk said at one point, EVs have not turned out to be an appreciating asset.

Now the rental giant is rapidly heading for the exits after a series of painful losses.

Hertz intends to get rid of 30,000 EVs, or 10,000 more than initially planned, as part of its EV downsizing, citing substantial vehicle depreciation that increased $588 million in the first quarter of 2024 compared to a year prior.

Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and one of the first whistleblowers to allege Spirit leadership had ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX, died Tuesday morning after a struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection.

Known as Josh, Dean lived in Wichita, Kan., where Spirit is based. He was 45, had been in good health and was noted for having a healthy lifestyle.

He died after two weeks in critical condition, his aunt Carol Parsons said.

Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino said: “Our thoughts are with Josh Dean’s family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones.”

Dean had given a deposition in a Spirit shareholder lawsuit and also filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.

Spirit fired Dean in April 2023, and he had filed a complaint with the Department of Labor alleging his termination was in retaliation for raising concerns related to aviation safety.

Parsons said Dean became ill and went to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing just over two weeks ago. He was intubated and developed pneumonia and then a serious bacterial infection, MRSA.

Just ahead of its blowout first-quarter earnings report on April 25, Google laid off at least 200 employees from its “Core” teams, in a reorganization that will include moving some roles to India and Mexico, CNBC has learned.

The Core unit is responsible for building the technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products and for protecting users’ online safety, according to Google’s website. Core teams include key technical units from information technology, its Python developer team, technical infrastructure, security foundation, app platforms, core developers, and various engineering roles.

At least 50 of the positions eliminated were in engineering at the company’s offices in Sunnyvale, California, filings show. Many Core teams will hire corresponding roles in Mexico and India, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC.

Asim Husain, vice president of Google Developer Ecosystem, announced news of the layoffs to his team in an email last week. He also spoke at a town hall and told employees that this was the biggest planned reduction for his team this year, an internal document shows.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has shown off a CGI video of its vision of a lunar base, a vastly ambitious plan the country is hoping to realize in a matter of decades.

The showy — albeit dated-looking — render shows plans for the International Lunar Research Station, a Chinese and Russian endeavor that was first announced in 2021.

The video is also raising eyebrows for a bizarre cameo: a NASA Space Shuttle taking off from a launch pad in the distance, as spotted by Space.com.

It's either some next-level humor from the Chinese space program or a hilarious oversight, since the Shuttle has been retired for more than a decade — not to mention that China and NASA aren't even allowed to talk to each other, nevermind collaborate.

Police say that the incident appears to be a “tragic accident.”

A 2-year-old boy was killed and another child was injured when a strong gust of wind sent a bounce house they were playing in flying into the neighboring lot, according to police.

Authorities from the Pinal County Sheriff officials say they were called at approximately 5 p.m. on Saturday to a residence on W. Rosemead Drive and N. Bel Air Road outside of Casa Grande, Arizona, according to the police statement detailing the incident.

“That afternoon, several children were playing in a bounce house when a strong gust of wind sent it airborne into the neighboring lot,” Pinal County Sheriff’s Office said. “A two-year-old child was transported to the hospital where he passed away. A second child received non-life threatening injuries and was also transported to the hospital for care.”

The boy, who currently remains unnamed, was transported to a local hospital where he died while the other child was found to have non-life-threatening injuries.

DONG NAI, Vietnam: Hundreds of thousands of fish have died in a reservoir in southern Vietnam's Dong Nai province, with locals and media reports suggesting a brutal heatwave and the lake's management are to blame.

Like much of Southeast Asia – where schools have recently been forced to close early and electricity usage has surged – southern and central Vietnam have been scorched by devastating heat.

"All the fish in the Song May reservoir died for lack of water," a local resident in Trang Bom district, who identified himself only as Nghia, told AFP.

"Our life has been turned upside down over the past 10 days because of the smell."

Pictures show residents wading and boating through the 300ha Song May reservoir, with the water barely visible under a blanket of dead marine life.

According to media reports, the area has seen no rain for weeks and the water in the reservoir is too low for the creatures to survive.

A man accused of kicking a bison in the leg at Yellowstone National Park while under the influence of alcohol was injured by the animal and later arrested, park officials said Monday.

Clarence Yoder of Idaho Falls, Idaho, approached the bison “too closely (within 25 yards)” on the afternoon of Sunday, April 21, on a road about seven miles east of the park’s West Entrance, according to a National Park Service news release.

The release said that park rangers went to the area after getting “a report of an individual who harassed a herd of bison and kicked a bison in the leg. They located the suspect’s vehicle near the West Entrance and stopped it in the town of West Yellowstone, Montana.”

Rangers took the 40-year-old Yoder to a nearby medical facility where he was “evaluated, treated and released from medical care,” the release said. He then was taken to the Gallatin County Detention Center in Bozeman, Montana.

The park did not have further details on the encounter or the nature of Yoder’s injury.

Hours of violence that unfolded overnight at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on UCLA’s campus has prompted concern about authorities’ response and left questions about the future of the student protest in the coming days.

In a letter to the University of California Board of Regents obtained by The Times, UC President Michael V. Drake wrote that there is “sufficient confusion” surrounding the violence and that he was ordering an independent review of the university’s planning, its actions and the response by law enforcement.

“I believe such a review can address many of my immediate questions but also help guide us for possible future events,” he wrote.

In the wake of Wednesday’s violence, officials have not said whether they plan to remove the encampment, which was erected last week in a demand for divestment from Israel and an end to the country’s military actions in Gaza. Just before midnight, a large group of counterdemonstrators, wearing black outfits and white masks, arrived on campus and tried to tear down the barricades surrounding the encampment.

"Tens of millions" of people are using technical workarounds to secretly access WhatsApp in countries where it is banned, the messaging platform's boss has said.

“You’d be surprised how many people have figured it out,” Will Cathcart told BBC News.

Like many Western apps, WhatsApp is banned in Iran, North Korea and Syria.

And last month, China joined the list of those banning users from accessing the secure platform.

Other countries, including Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, restrict features such as voice calls.

But WhatsApp can see where its users truly are, thanks to their registered phone numbers.

“We have a lot of anecdotal reports of people using WhatsApp and what we can do is look at some of the countries where we're seeing blocking and still see tens of millions of people connecting to WhatsApp," Mr Cathcart told BBC News.

Electric-car maker’s public policy unit also being disbanded as chief announces in memo hundreds more jobs to be cut

Elon Musk has shut down the division that runs Tesla’s Supercharger business, dismissed two senior executives and fired hundreds more staff as the electric-car maker continues its restructuring amid a sharp downturn in the EV market.

Musk announced internally on Monday that the head of the superchargers group, Rebecca Tinucci, and Daniel Ho, head of new products, would be leaving along with their entire teams. About 500 people were in the supercharger group, the memo said.

Tesla’s supercharger system is among the largest charging networks in the world, and was one the reasons the company enjoyed such a commanding lead over rival carmakers for so long. While the supercharger operations will continue, the move raises questions over the future of the charging business.

The entire public policy unit will also be disbanded following the departure of its leader, Rohan Patel, in the middle of April.

Just last month, the retail giant announced plans to expand the initiative.

Walmart will close all 51 of its doctor-staffed health clinics as part of an announcement that its Walmart Health initiative is shutting down.

The clinics, in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas, had been open just a few years. Walmart also said Tuesday it is winding down its virtual care option.

Walmart pharmacies and vision centers will not be affected.

Patients with scheduled appointments will continue to be seen, and Walmart will make efforts to direct patients to high-quality providers in their insurance networks to ensure they continue to get care, CNBC reported.

Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.

The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”

The hard-hitting report said children needed to be protected from the tech industry’s profit-driven “strategy of capturing children’s attention, using all forms of cognitive bias to shut children away on their screens, control them, re-engage them and monetise them”.

Children were becoming “merchandise” in this new tech market, the report said, adding: “We want [the industry] to know we’ve seen what they’re doing and we won’t let them get away with it.”


If I had a child in the future, I will be damn sure not to hand a smartphone to them until they are grown up.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision tell NBC News.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to approve an opinion by the Department of Health and Human Services that marijuana should be reclassified from the most strict Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III, marking the first time that the U.S. government would acknowledge its potential medical benefits and begin studying them in earnest.

Attorney General Merrick Garland will submit the rescheduling proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget as early as Tuesday afternoon, a source familiar with the timeline told NBC News.

The Justice Department "continues to work on this rule," a Biden administration official said. "We have no further comment at this time."

Estuaries – the place where a river meets the ocean – are often called the “nurseries of the sea”. They are home to many of the fish we eat and support vast numbers of birds, while the surrounding salt marsh helps to stabilise shorelines and absorb floods.

However, a new study shows that nearly half of the world’s estuaries have been altered by humans, and 20% of this estuary loss has occurred in the past 35 years.

Using satellite data, researchers measured the changes that had occurred at 2,396 estuaries between 1984 and 2019. The results, published in the journal Earth’s Future, found that over the past 35 years more than 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of estuary have been converted into urban or agricultural land, with the majority of the loss (90%) having occurred in rapidly developing Asian countries.

By contrast, very little estuary loss has occurred in high-income countries during the past 35 years – mostly because extensive estuary alteration happened many decades before, during those countries’ own phase of rapid development.

Many high-income countries are now recognising and undoing the damage, with locations such as the Tees estuary in northern England investing in returning the area to mudflats and salt marsh to help reduce flood risk, increase resilience to the climate crisis, replenish fish populations, and let nature recover.

Williams-Sonoma could be paying a hefty fine for claiming a small chunk of its products were "Made in USA" when they weren't.

In a federal court filing on Monday, the Federal Trade Commission asked a judge to sign an order that would fine the luxury home goods company $3.18 million for violating a 2020 order regarding the same false label claims. Williams-Sonoma settled those charges and was required to pay $1 million to the FTC, and the following year, it submitted a report describing how it had complied with every provision in the order.

However, the FTC's new claims state the company has violated the order with multiple deceptive U.S.-origin claims in the years since — including on three products in July 2021, when it filed the compliance order.

One such claim, which the FTC says Williams-Sonoma made between April 2022 and August 2023, involved certain PBTeen mattress pads that were advertised as "crafted in America from domestic and imported materials." The federal body said in numerous instances, those products were actually "wholly imported" from China.

DETROIT — In the not-too-distant future, automatic emergency braking will have to come standard on all new passenger vehicles in the United States, a requirement that the government says will save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of injuries every year.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration unveiled the final version of the new regulation on Monday and called it the most significant safety rule in the past two decades. It's designed to prevent many rear-end and pedestrian collisions and reduce the roughly 40,000 traffic deaths that happen each year.

"We're living through a crisis in roadway deaths," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview. "So we need to do something about it."

It's the U.S. government's first attempt to regulate automated driving functions and is likely to help curb some of the problems that have surfaced with driver-assist and fully automated driving systems.

Parts of Jakarta are subsiding at unprecedented speed. The longshot fix rests with noodle billionaire Anthoni Salim.

Venice is sinking. So are Rotterdam, Bangkok and New York. But no place compares to Jakarta, the fastest-sinking megacity on the planet. Over the past 25 years, the hardest-hit areas of Indonesia’s capital have subsided more than 16 feet. The city has until 2030 to figure out a solution, experts say, or it will be too late to hold back the Java Sea.

Cue Anthoni Salim, the billionaire owner of PT Air Bersih Jakarta, the firm tapped by the government to expand piped water access to the city’s 11 million residents immediately, if not sooner. As of now, one in three Jakartans doesn’t have access to piped water, relying instead on the thousands of illegal wells that dot the city — and deplete the aquifers and weaken the ground, creating prime conditions for further sinking.

If Salim’s ABJ can help deliver on the plan to bring water to every Jakarta household, experts say the city has a chance — and the company will rake in billions of dollars. If it fails, it’s likely that chaos will reign in the world’s second-biggest metropolis. Unabated sinking, combined with intensifying storms and rising sea levels, will be more than Jakarta’s seawalls can withstand, said JanJaap Brinkman, a flood expert at Dutch water research institute Deltares: “There will be so much sea water rushing in, it will never stop. There will be no escape.”

For Salim, who didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story, it’s been a long time coming. He’s amassed more than $10 billion through a handful of industries, including one of the world’s biggest instant-noodle makers, but controlling the capital’s water supply has been a personal priority since a revolution almost dismantled his family’s conglomerate 25 years ago. When the government sought bids to revamp the city’s water infrastructure, Salim’s was one of two companies to raise its hand.