An anonymous reader shares a report: Among the harrowing details of the blown-off fuselage panel that triggered a sudden decompression event on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, one revelation seemed to defy the laws of physics: one of the mobile phones that had been sucked out of the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet's cabin remained in functioning condition after a 16,000-foot tumble. A new-generation Apple iPhone landed intact, unlocked and with hours of battery life remaining on a Portland, Oregon roadside, according to a post on X by a user calling himself Seanathan Bates, who said he discovered the device. The screen showed an email from Alaska Airlines about a baggage claim for the flight, based on Bates' photos.

The phone was in airplane mode, Bates said in a TikTok video. "It was still pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush and it didn't have a screenlock on it," he said. The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed at a briefing on Sunday that one phone was found on the side of a road and another in a yard. The people have handed in both of the devices, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters.

As General Motors prepares to roll out electric versions of its Buicks, "hundreds of Buick dealerships nationwide" are "turning their backs on the storied brand," reports the Boston Globe.

"The move to electric Buicks is one reason so many dealers are giving up their Buick franchises, according to auto industry watchers." They say that smaller, low-volume Buick dealers either can't or won't make the big investments needed to begin selling EVs, especially as sales growth in the sector has cooled and unsold electrics are piling up on dealer lots. "I think there are dealers who are just not confident in the electric vehicle transition and they don't want to have to commit to the investment," said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at online car retailer iSeeCars.com...

Buick has announced its intention to migrate to an all-electric line of cars by the end of the decade. The brand's first EV is set to go on sale this year. But getting ready to sell EVs is a costly proposition. Dealers must purchase new equipment to service the cars and must pay for worker retraining. GM estimates that the upfront cost to dealers will range between $200,000 and $400,000. "If you're in a market where you're not selling a lot of Buicks, investing a lot to sell electric Buicks may not make a good business case," said Mark Schirmer, spokesperson for Cox Automotive, an Atlanta-based automotive marketing company.
While 854,000 Buicks were sold in 1980, just 103,000 were sold in 2022 — down from 207,000 in 2019, according to the article. So in 2022 GM bought out 44 percent of its dealerships (which they say accounted for just 20% of all U.S. Buick sales), with the majority of them still selling other GM brands like Chevrolet and GMC.

But the article also includes some perspective from Robert O'Koniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association. "The only reason GM has kept the Buick alive is that it's popular in China." That's Buick's biggest market by far, thanks to a 50-50 joint venture it launched in 1997 with government-owned SAIC Motor, China's biggest carmaker. The partnership sold 653,000 Chinese Buicks in 2022.

But that's a big decline from the 926,000 sold in 2020. Brauer said that Chinese consumers are pulling away from the US brand in favor of Chinese companies like BYD, which passed Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2023 to become the world's largest maker of electric vehicles.

Today America's Federal Aviation Administration "ordered the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft," reports CNN, identifying the aircraft as "the model involved in an Alaska Airlines emergency landing in Oregon on Friday after a section of the plane apparently blew out in midflight." A passenger's video posted to social media shows a side section of the fuselage, where a window would have been, missing — exposing passengers to the outside air. The video, which appears to have been taken from several rows behind the incident, shows oxygen masks deployed throughout the airplane, and least two people sitting near and just behind the missing section...

The plane "landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and six crew members," the airline said... According to FlightAware, the flight was airborne for about 20 minutes.
"There was a really loud bang toward the rear of the plane and a whoosh noise," one passenger told a local news station — and then "all of the masks dropped."

Long-time Slashdot reader ArchieBunker shares more details from the BBC: Diego Murillo said the gap was "as wide as a refrigerator".

Fellow passenger Elizabeth Lee added: "Part of the plane was missing and the wind was just extremely loud. but everyone was in their seats and had their belt on."

Jessica Montoia described the flight as a "trip from hell" adding a phone was taken out of a man's hand by the wind.
CNN covers the federal response: The FAA said the planes must be parked until emergency inspections are performed, which will "take around four to eight hours per aircraft."

"The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight," FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said Saturday in a statement. "Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the (National Transportation Safety Board's) investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282." The order impacts 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 jets, the agency approximates....

Boeing said the company supported the FAA's grounding decision. "Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers," Boeing said in a statement
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader lsllll for sharing the news.

More than 4 million electric vehicles are now on America's roads. And Friday the U.S. Energy announced that more than a third of them (1.4 million) were sold within the last year.

That's 50% more than were sold in the previous year — and about the same number sold in the entire five years between 2016 and 2021. But the energy secretary's statement also touts the current administrations efforts at "building out a reliable and interoperable nationwide EV charging network — an undertaking never before seen in the United States." Today, the U.S. has close to 170,000 public EV chargers — a 75% increase since the president took office with nearly 900 new chargers coming online per week.

These developments are part of an inevitable shift toward a thriving electric transportation sector — a shift that American automakers and battery manufacturers are already carrying forward.

The White House has convened a last-minute meeting to discuss a private lunar mission, Peregrine Mission One, after the Navajo Nation requested a delay due to cultural concerns over the transport of human ashes for burial on the moon. "The moon holds a sacred place in Navajo cosmology," said Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren in a statement. "The suggestion of transforming it into a resting place for human remains is deeply disturbing and unacceptable to our people and many other tribal nations."

If successful, the commercial mission scheduled to launch Monday "will be the first time an American-made spacecraft has landed on the lunar surface since the end of the Apollo program in 1972," notes CNN. Longtime Slashdot reader garyisabusyguy shares the report: The private companies providing these lunar burial services, Celestis and Elysium Space, are just two of several paying customers hitching a ride to the moon on Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lunar lander. The uncrewed spacecraft is expected to lift off on the inaugural flight of the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Celestis' payload, called Tranquility Flight, includes 66 "memorial capsules" containing "cremated remains and DNA," which will remain on the lunar surface "as a permanent tribute to the intrepid souls who never stopped reaching for the stars," according to the company's website.

"We are aware of the concerns expressed by Mr. Nygren, but do not find them substantive," Celestis CEO Charles Chafer told CNN. "We reject the assertion that our memorial spaceflight mission desecrates the moon," Chafer said. "Just as permanent memorials for deceased are present all over planet Earth and not considered desecration, our memorial on the moon is handled with care and reverence, is a permanent monument that does not intentionally eject flight capsules on the moon. It is a touching and fitting celebration for our participants -- the exact opposite of desecration, it is a celebration." Elysium Space has not responded to CNN's request for a comment, but the company's website describes its "Lunar Memorial" as delivering "a symbolic portion of remains to the surface of the Moon, helping to create the quintessential commemoration." "I've been disappointed that this conversation came up so late in the game," John Thornton, Astrobotic Technology CEO, said. "I would have liked to have had this conversation a long time ago. We announced the first payload manifest of this nature to our mission back in 2015. A second in 2020. We really are trying to do the right thing and I hope we can find a good path forward with Navajo Nation." [...]

Friday's meeting convened by the White House is scheduled to feature representatives from NASA, the FAA, the US Department of Transportation, and the Department of Commerce. But Navajo Nation officials have little hope that they will be able to stop Monday's launch. "Based off of what we're seeing, and NASA are already having their pre-launch briefing, it doesn't look like they have any intention of stopping the launch or removing the remains," Ahasteen said.

All new cars and vans bought in the UK must be zero emission by 2035, according to the latest legal mandate updated this week. From a report: The date for all new petrol and diesel cars to be banned was originally set for 2030. However, in September, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed this date back to 2035. The government says this is giving consumers more time to make the switch and deal with the UK's charging infrastructure.

The transition will still be challenging. Eighty percent of new cars and 70 percent of new vans sold in Great Britain must be zero emission by 2030, increasing to 100 percent by 2035. While the government points to statistics indicating a 41 percent increase in zero-emission vehicles registered for the first time -- note, the vast majority of newly registered vehicles still remain conventionally powered -- charging infrastructure is an altogether different story. The government boasts of more than 50,000 public charge points, an increase of 44 percent year on year, but not all chargers are born equal. According to research from RAC, a local roadside assistance business, the government has failed to meet its target of having six or more rapid or ultra-rapid electric vehicle chargers at every motorway service area in England.

According to NBC, law enforcement in California can't ticket driverless cars for traffic violations, thanks to a legal loophole requiring an actual driver in the car. NBC Bay Area reports: An internal memo from San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, obtained by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit, instructs officers that "no citation for a moving violation can be issued if the [autonomous vehicle] is being operated in a driverless mode." Scott added, "Technology evolves rapidly and, at times, faster than legislation or regulations can adapt to the changes."

While autonomous vehicles in California have received parking citations, the state's transportation laws appear to leave driverless vehicles immune from receiving any type of traffic ticket stemming from moving violations. "I think it sends a message that it's not a level playing field, that fairness is not the priority," said Michael Stephenson, the founder and senior attorney of Bay Area Bicycle Law, a law firm that specializes in representing cyclists in accident cases.

Stephenson said that driverless vehicles don't exactly fit into the state's current legal framework and that California needs new laws to appropriately govern the evolving technology. "We're perhaps trying to shove a square peg into a round hole," he said. "We are very much in the Wild West when it comes to driverless cars." The report notes that other states have rewritten traffic laws to allow ticketing of driverless cars. "Texas, which rivals California as another popular testing ground for autonomous vehicles, changed its transportation laws in 2017 to adapt to the emerging technology," reports NBC. "According to the Texas Transportation Code, the owner of a driverless car is 'considered the operator' and can be cited for breaking traffic laws 'regardless of whether the person is physically present in the vehicle.'"

"Arizona, another busy site for autonomous vehicles, took similar steps," adds NBC. "In revising its traffic laws, Arizona declared the owner of an autonomous vehicle 'may be issued a traffic citation or other applicable penalty if the vehicle fails to comply with traffic or motor vehicle laws.'"

Climate change is already beginning to reshape global agriculture. India, the world's most populous country, looks particularly vulnerable: not just because of extreme weather, but because of government price controls. Fixing the problem is becoming more urgent, both for India and the world -- because India is a big food exporter, too. But politics makes that very difficult. From a report: In early December, India banned overseas shipments of onions until March in an effort to tame domestic prices. That is on top of export restrictions on rice, wheat and sugar already imposed over the past 18 months. And since India is the world's largest rice exporter, second-largest sugar and onion exporter, and a significant wheat producer, the bans are wreaking havoc globally. Thai rice prices had risen 14% and Vietnam rice prices had risen 22% from July levels by October, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. Malaysia and the Philippines introduced their own measures to damp rising prices after India's curbs on rice exports in July.

Climate change will almost certainly pose a major problem for India's food supply. India's Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare recently estimated that, in the absence of adaptation measures, rain-fed rice yields could fall 20% by 2050. But domestic agricultural policies are almost as big a problem. At present, the government sets price floors for two dozen crops, guarantees purchases of certain agricultural products, and provides subsidies to farmers for fertilizers, electricity and transportation. All that might seem positive for food security, but on net it probably hampers investment and food supply growth. Price floors mean that supply might sometimes exceed final buyers' willingness to pay during slow times, leading to wastage. And restrictions on exports artificially depress domestic prices when global demand is hot. The government's own investigations have found that Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee laws, which regulate the trade of farmers' produce by providing licenses to buyers, commission agents and private markets, lead to cartelization and reduced competition.

Tesla topped Norway's car sales for a third straight year in 2023, extending its lead over rivals despite an ongoing conflict between the U.S. electric vehicle maker and the Nordic region's powerful labour unions. From a report: Almost five out of six new cars sold in Norway last year were powered by battery only, with Tesla's share of the overall market rising to 20.0% from 12.2%, registration data showed on Tuesday. Electric vehicles accounted for 82.4% of new vehicles sold in 2023, up from 79.3% in 2022, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said. Seeking to become the first nation to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, oil-producing Norway exempts fully electric vehicles from many taxes imposed on internal combustion engine rivals, although some levies were introduced in 2023.

"Digital twin technology is one of the most significant disruptors of global manufacturing seen this century," argues Motor Trend, "and the automobile industry is embracing it in a big way." Roughly three-quarters of auto manufacturers are using digital twins as part of their vehicle development process, evolving not only how they design and develop new cars but also the way they monitor them, fix them, and even build them...

Nvidia, best known for its consumer graphics cards, also has a digital twin solution, called Omniverse, which manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz are using to design their manufacturing processes. "Their factory planners now have every single element in the factory that they can then put in that virtual digital twin first, lay it all out, and then operate it," Danny Shapiro, VP of automotive at Nvidia said. At that point, those planners can run the entire manufacturing process virtually, ensuring every conveyor feeds the next step in the process, identifying and addressing factory floor headaches long before production begins...

Software developers can run their solutions within digital twins. That includes the code at the lowest level, basic stuff that controls ignition timing within the engine for example, all the way up to the highest level, like touchscreens responding to user inputs. "We're not just simulating the operation outside the car, but the user experience," Nvidia's Shapiro said. "We can simulate and basically run the real software that would be running in that car and display it on the screens." By bringing all these systems together virtually, developers can find and solve issues earlier, preventing costly development delays or, worse yet, buggy releases...

Using unique identifiers, manufacturers can effectively create internal digital copies of vehicles that have been produced. Those copies can be used for ongoing tests and verifications, helping to anticipate things like required maintenance or susceptibility to part failures. By using telematics, in-car services that remotely communicate a car's status back to the manufacturer in real-time, these digital twins can be updated to match the real thing. "By monitoring tire health, tire grip, vehicle weight distribution, and other critical parameters, engineers can anticipate potential problems and schedule maintenance proactively, reducing downtime and extending the vehicle's lifespan," Tactile Mobility's Tzur said.

"Electric cars are already upending America," argues a new article in the Atlantic, citing booming sales and new models that are "finally starting to push us into the post-gas age." Americans are on track to buy a record 1.44 million of them in 2023, according to a forecast by BloombergNEF, about the same number sold from 2016 to 2021 total. "This was the year that EVs went from experiments, or technological demonstrations, and became mature vehicles," Gil Tal, the director of the Electric Vehicle Research Center at UC Davis, told me.... Nearly 40 new EVs have debuted since the start of 2022, and they are far more advanced than their ancestors. For $40,000, the Hyundai Ioniq 6, released this year, can get you 360 miles on a single charge; in 2018, for only a slightly lower cost, a Nissan Leaf couldn't go half that distance....

All of these EVs are genuinely great for the planet, spewing zero carbon from their tailpipes, but that's only a small part of what makes them different. In the EV age, cars are no longer just cars. They are computers... The million-plus new EVs on the road are ushering in a fundamental, maybe existential, change in how to even think about cars — no longer as machines, but as gadgets that plug in and charge like all the others in our life. The wonderful things about computers are coming to cars, and so are the terrible ones: apps that crash. Subscription hell. Cyberattacks... If cars are gadgets now, then carmakers are also now tech companies. An industry that has spent a century perfecting the internal combustion engine must now manufacture lithium-ion batteries and write the code to govern them. Imagine if a dentist had to pivot from filling cavities to performing open-heart surgery, and that's roughly what's going on here.

"The transition to EVs is completely changing everything," Loren McDonald, an EV consultant, told me. "It's changing the people that automotive companies have to hire and their skills. It's changing their suppliers, their factories, how they assemble and build them. And lots of automakers are struggling with that...." Job cuts are already happening, and more may come — even after the massive autoworker strike this year that largely hinged on electrification. Such a big financial investment is needed to electrify the car industry that from July to September, Ford lost $60,000 for every EV it sold. Or peel back one more onion layer to car dealerships: Tesla, Rivian, and other EV companies are selling directly to consumers, cutting them out. EVs also require little service compared with gas vehicles, a reality that has upset many dealers, who could lose their biggest source of profit.

None of this is the future. It is happening right now.

"Since the 1960s engineers around the world have been fiddling with a novel type of jet called a rotating detonation engine (RDE), but it has never got beyond the experimental stage," reports the Economist.

"That could be about to change." GE Aerospace, one of the world's biggest producers of jet engines, recently announced it was developing a working version. Earlier this year America's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $29m contract to Raytheon, part of RTX, another big aerospace group, to develop an RDE called Gambit.

Both engines would be used to propel missiles, overcoming the range and speed limitations of current propulsion systems, including rockets and existing types of jet engines. However, if the companies are successful in getting them to work, RDEs might have a much broader role in aviation — including the possibility of helping revive supersonic air travel.

In a nutshell, an RDE "replaces fire with a controlled explosion", explains Kareem Ahmed, an expert in advanced aerospace engines at the University of Central Florida. In technical terms, this is because a jet engine relies on the combustion of oxygen and fuel, which is a subsonic reaction that scientists call deflagration. Detonation, by comparison, is a high-energy explosion that takes place at supersonic speeds. As a result it is a more powerful and potentially a more efficient way of producing thrust, the force that drives an aircraft forward...

By modifying an aircraft's fuselage and wings, engineers believe they can reduce the boom's impact on the ground below. Such work will help to determine whether or not future supersonic passenger planes will, like Concorde, be restricted to flying beyond the speed of sound only over oceans.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader SpzToid for sharing the article.

Deliveries of the world's first mass-produced electric vehicle equipped with a sodium-ion battery will begin in January 2024. According to CarNewsChina, they're being produced by JAC Motors, a Volkswagen-backed Chinese automaker, through its new Yiwei EV brand. From the report: The Yiwei EV hatchback will have a cylindrical sodium-ion pack from Beijing-based HiNa Battery and adopt JAC's UE (Unitized Encapsulation) module technology. UE is also known as a honeycomb design because of its appearance. It is another battery structure concept like CATL's CTP (cell-to-pack) or BYD's Blade battery. Yiwei is a new EV brand under Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC), established in 2023. JAC's parent company, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Holdings (JAG), is 50% state-owned, and 50% belongs to Volkswagen Group. The German automotive giant acquired its stake in 2020 in an unprecedented move to invest in China's state-owned car maker.

[...] In February 2023, JAC announced they were the first automaker to put the lithium-free sodium-ion battery on an electric vehicle. That EV was a Sehol E10X hatchback, and the Na+ battery had the following specifications: 25 kWh capacity, 120 Wh/kg energy density (single cell 140 Wh/kg), 3C to 4C charging (10% - 80% in 20 minutes), 252 km (157 miles) range for E10X, and HiNa NaCR32140 cell. Sehol was a brand under Volkswagen Anhui JV, which VW transferred to JAC in 2021. When the Yiwei brand was launched in May 2023, JAC announced that it would ditch the Sehol brand, and all vehicles are being rebadged to JAC or Yiwei. The pictures JAC released today tell us that the new sodium-ion-powered EV is the Sehol E10X. JAC hasn't yet confirmed the name of the new car under the Yiwei brand; it could be Yiwei E10X, but we have to wait for JAC's confirmation.

JAC recently pushed a lot into sodium-ion batteries R&D. During the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2023, the company showcased its first car under the Yiwei brand called Yiwei 3, which was equipped with a sodium-ion battery. However, the EV launched later in June, only with a classic LFP lithium battery, and promised the Na+ variant would come later. The Yiwei 3 is a compact hatchback that competes with Wuling Bingo, BYD Seagull, or ORA Funky Cat. It has two power train options, both front-wheel drive: 70 kW and 100 kW motor. The maximum cruising range is 505 km CLTC with a 51.5 kWh battery.

Chemists at a lab in Gloucertershire have developed a low carbon jet fuel made entirely from human sewage. James Hygate, Firefly Green Fuels CEO, said: "We wanted to find a really low-value feedstock that was highly abundant. And of course poo is abundant." The BBC reports: Independent tests by international aviation regulators found it was nearly identical to standard fossil jet fuel. Firefly's team worked with Cranfield University to examine the fuel's life cycle carbon impact. It concluded that Firefly's fuel has a 90% lower carbon footprint than standard jet fuel. Mr Hygate, who has been developing low-carbon fuels in Gloucestershire for 20 years, said although the new fuel was chemically just like fossil-based kerosene, it "has no fossil carbon, it's a fossil-free fuel."

"Of course energy would be used (in production), but when looking at the fuel's life cycle, a 90% saving is mind-blowing, so yes, we have to use energy but it is much lower compared to the production of fossil fuels," he added. [...] First, they create what they call "bio-crude." It looks like oil: thick, black, gloopy. Most importantly, it behaves like crude oil chemically. Dr Sergio Lima, who is also research director at Firefly Green Fuels, said: "What we are producing here is a fuel which is net zero." [...] The bio-kerosene is now being tested independently at the DLR Institute of Combustion Technology at the German Aerospace Center, working with Washington State University. Further future testing will also be carried out by the UK SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuels) clearing House, based at University of Sheffield. First results have confirmed the fuel has near-identical chemical composition to A1 fossil jet fuel. The UK Department of Transport has awarded the team a 2 million pound research grant.

So they can make a test tube of kerosene in the lab. That is a long way from replacing kerosene in the world's airports. Mr Hygate has done his maths. Each human, he calculates, makes enough sewage in a year to produce 4-5 liters of bio jet fuel. To fly a passenger jet from London to New York would need the annual sewage of 10,000 people. And another 10,000 to come back. Put another way, the UK's total sewage supply would meet about 5% of the country's total aviation fuel demand. It may sound small, but he insists: "That's pretty exciting." "There's a 10% sustainable aviation fuel requirement, that's a legal mandate. And we could meet half of that with poo."

Daihatsu, the Japanese automaker owned by Toyota, has halted domestic production after admitting it forged the results of safety tests for its vehicles for more than 30 years. From a report: The brand, best known for manufacturing small passenger cars, has stopped output at all four of its Japanese factories as of Tuesday, including one at its headquarters in Osaka, a spokesperson told CNN. The shutdown will last through at least the end of January, affecting roughly 9,000 employees who work in domestic production, according to the representative.

The move comes as Daihatsu grapples with a deepening safety scandal that Toyota says "has shaken the very foundations of the company." Last week, Daihatsu announced an independent third-party committee had found evidence of tampering with safety tests on as many as 64 vehicle models, including those sold under the Toyota brand. As a result, Daihatsu said it would temporarily suspend all domestic and international vehicle shipments and consult with authorities on how to move forward.

The scandal is another blow to the automaker, which had admitted in April to violating standards on crash tests on more than 88,000 cars, mostly sold under the Toyota brand in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand. In that case, "the inside lining of the front seat door was improperly modified" for some checks, while Daihatsu did not comply with regulatory requirements for certain side collision tests, it said in a statement at the time.

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has revealed its first electric car, a sharp-looking sedan called the SU7. Slated to roll out in China next year, it's another entry into an increasingly crowded market for EVs. It's also another attempt in this software-obsessed world to match up the technology people find in their phones to what goes on inside their car. From a report: Xiaomi might have a shot. That's because the car will run Xiaomi's "HyperOS," a new architecture the company has been working on for more than six years that's supposed to be dynamic enough to power everything including phones, smart home systems and cars. The goal is a more seamless experience, one where your apps and preferences are ready to go no matter where you are.

[...] As for the specs, they look impressive on paper. The company is claiming as much range on a full charge as 800 km, or just shy of 500 miles, though that's on China's rosy test cycle. That is on the higher-end model, which is built atop a 101kWh battery pack from Chinese giant CATL. A base model with just 73.6kWh of capacity will allegedly get closer to 668 km, or 415 miles, on a charge. They will charge fast (220 km in five minutes) and will be fast (0-100 km/h in just 2.78 seconds). Pricing will come at a later date.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The United States and the state of California have reached an agreement in principle with the truck engine manufacturer Cummins on a $1.6 billion penalty to settle claims that the company violated the Clean Air Act by installing devices to defeat emissions controls on hundreds of thousands of engines, the Justice Department announced on Friday. The penalty would be the largest ever under the Clean Air Act and the second largest ever environmental penalty in the United States. Defeat devices are parts or software that bypass, defeat or render inoperative emissions controls like pollution sensors and onboard computers. They allow vehicles to pass emissions inspections while still emitting high levels of smog-causing pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, which is linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

The Justice Department has accused the company of installing defeat devices on 630,000 model year 2013 to 2019 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines. The company is also alleged to have secretly installed auxiliary emission control devices on 330,000 model year 2019 to 2023 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines. "Violations of our environmental laws have a tangible impact. They inflict real harm on people in communities across the country," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "This historic agreement should make clear that the Justice Department will be aggressive in its efforts to hold accountable those who seek to profit at the expense of people's health and safety."

In a statement, Cummins said that it had "seen no evidence that anyone acted in bad faith and does not admit wrongdoing." The company said it has "cooperated fully with the relevant regulators, already addressed many of the issues involved, and looks forward to obtaining certainty as it concludes this lengthy matter. Cummins conducted an extensive internal review and worked collaboratively with the regulators for more than four years." Stellantis, the company that makes the trucks, has already recalled the model year 2019 trucks and has initiated a recall of the model year 2013 to 2018 trucks. The software in those trucks will be recalibrated to ensure that they are fully compliant with federal emissions law, said Jon Mills, a spokesman for Cummins. Mr. Mills said that "next steps are unclear" on the model year 2020 through 2023, but that the company "continues to work collaboratively with regulators" to resolve the issue. The Justice Department partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency in its investigation of the case.

After thousands of U.S. flights were canceled or delayed over the holidays in 2022, most holiday travelers this year are off to a cheerier start this Christmas. But a few trouble spots were emerging on Christmas Day. From a report: Roughly 135 flights to, from or within the U.S. had been been cancelled as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, while just over 1,100 were delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware. Airlines had canceled only 1.2% of U.S. flights so far this year as of Dec. 22, the lowest in five years. Nearly 3 million passengers were expected to pass through domestic airports during the busy holiday period, up 16% from 2022. Not everyone got off so lucky.

Some passengers at Chicago's Midway International Airport this Christmas Eve were left stranded on Christmas Eve, according to CBS News Chicago, with the U.S. carrier most disrupted during last year's holiday period -- Southwest Airlines -- again experiencing problems. Southwest attributed the delays to foggy weather in Chicago, but passengers also told CBS2 that a shortage of workers was a factor. Those snafus also affected passengers at Denver International Airport, with Southwest canceling 293 flights on Sunday, while nearly 1,300 trips were delayed, FlightAware data shows.

"The Portland International Airport in Oregon understands holiday travel is stressful. So this season, it invited a few specialists..." writes the Washington Post.

One TV station describes them as "therapy llamas... two 400-pound fluffballs serving as therapy animals" stationed at Portland International Airport (or PDX) earlier this week, for "travelers, in need of a calming moment."

From the Washington Post: Airports around the globe use a variety of methods to inject some Zen into one of the busiest travel periods of the year. They decorate their halls in holiday lights, host carolers and concerts, and bring in therapy dogs for group canine counseling.

Portland does all of the above. True to the city's quirky spirit, it also invites local camelids to the airport to canoodle with passengers. That's where Gregory, president and founder of Mountain Peaks Therapy Llamas & Alpacas, comes in. "PDX has an ongoing partnership with various therapy animal programs," said Allison Ferre, media relations manager with the Port of Portland, which operates the airport. "So this year, when we were bringing back holiday concessions programing, we just thought, "Who better to lead that parade than the llamas and alpacas?"

This year's theme was "reindeer." Gregory and her daughter, Shannon Joy, dressed the pair in antler headbands, glittery halters with tinkling bells and poinsettia-adorned wreathes. Red velvet banners worn like saddles were inscribed with their names and silvery snowflakes. "They looked pretty fancy," Gregory said...

Though the pair had to pass through security, they didn't have to submit to a pat down, which they might have enjoyed for the extra pets.

Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation company building tube-encased lines to zip passengers and freight from city to city at airplane-like speeds, is shutting down, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation. From the report: Once a high-profile startup, Hyperloop One raised more than $450 million since its founding in 2014, according to PitchBook. It built a small test track near Las Vegas to develop its transportation technology, and for a time took the name Virgin Hyperloop One after Richard Branson's Virgin invested. Virgin removed its branding after the startup decided last year to focus on cargo rather than people.

Now, the company has laid off most of its employees, and is trying to sell its remaining assets, including the test track and machinery, according to one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous discussing private information. In early 2022, the company employed more than 200 people. The business has also closed its Los Angeles office. The remaining workers, tasked with overseeing the asset sale, were told their employment will end on Dec. 31. DP World, the Dubai-based conglomerate, has backed Hyperloop One since 2016 and owns a majority stake. The startup's remaining intellectual property will be transferred to DP World, a person familiar with the situation said.