Tag: airports

Thursday flight cancellations top 2,300 nationwide, disrupting holiday travel | CNN Business

CNN
—

Snow, rain, ice, wind and frigid temperatures are disrupting air travel plans across the United States as well as bus and Amtrak passenger train service.

Airlines canceled more than 2,390 US flights by 8:30 ET p.m. Thursday and proactively canceled more than 2,200 flights for Friday, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Even for Saturday, more than 125 flights were already canceled.

Delays were even more extensive on Thursday: More than 9,000 as of 8:30 p.m. ET.

The impacts are being felt hardest in Chicago and Denver, where around a quarter of arrivals and departures – hundreds of flights at each airport – were canceled on Thursday, FlightAware data show.

At one point Thursday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, delays averaging 159 minutes – almost three hours – were being caused by snow and ice, according to a notice from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Temperatures at the O’Hare dropped to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius) around 6:45 p.m. local time. Light snow and fog/mist were reported by the National Weather Service.

The FAA said departing aircraft at Dallas Love, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver and Minneapolis airports require a spraying of de-icing fluid for safe travel.

In the busy New York City metro area, the FAA warned that Newark flights should expect delays because of visibility issues.

The region’s three large airports are all warning travelers that the incoming winter weather front may disrupt their travels.

“Flight activity at #LaGuardiaAirport may be disrupted by heavy rain and strong winds later today and Friday. Travelers, please confirm flight status with your airline before heading to the airport,” LaGuardia Airport posted on Twitter. John F. Kennedy and Newark Airport also posted similar notices.

Many airlines have issued weather waivers allowing travelers to change their itineraries without penalty during a short window.

For those whose flights are still scheduled to fly, the Transportation Security Administration is recommending that passengers arrive at the airport earlier than usual.

John Busch, Reagan National Airport’s TSA federal security director, told reporters that all airports “expect to be busier this holiday season than we’ve been in several years coming out of the pandemic. We’ve already seen some of our busiest days, yesterday and today and we expect maybe Friday 30th ahead of the New Year’s holiday can be also a very busy day.”

But Busch added that TSA is “very well prepared to handle additional volume and throughput for our security checkpoints.”

Maria Ihekwaba, who was traveling from Chicago to Clear Lake, Iowa, with her granddaughter on Thursday morning, told CNN she was trying to depart as soon as possible.

“Especially when you’re traveling from Chicago, you never know what could happen in Chicago because it’s the Windy City,” Ihekwaba said.

Traveler Kari Lucas, from San Diego, told CNN she was visiting her sister and brother-in-law, but cut the trip short as she didn’t want to get caught in the impending weather.

“I was worried because San Diego, we don’t get these snowstorms,” she said. “So I don’t like it to be trapped in the airport for long periods of time.”

“It seemed like the best choice to make right now,” she said.

It’s not just flights that are being affected by the bomb cyclone.

Greyhound issued a service alert on Thursday warning customers that those traveling in the Midwest over the next two days may have their trips delayed or canceled altogether.

Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus service, listed more than a dozen cities from West Virginia to Minnesota that are among those impacted. They include:

• Charleston, West Virginia
• Chicago
• Cleveland
• Dallas
• Danville, Illinois
• Davenport, Iowa
• Denver
• Detroit
• Indianapolis
• Kansas City
• Minneapolis
• St. Louis
• Wichita, Kansas

Greyhound said riders can call 1-833-233-8507 to reschedule.

Amtrak has also been forced to delay or cancel passenger service for some lines in the Midwest and Northeast.

Click here for disruptions the rail service posted as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

In its notice, Amtrak said that “customers with reservations on trains that are being modified will typically be accommodated on trains with similar departure times or another day.

“Amtrak will waive additional charges for customers looking to change their reservation during the modified schedule by calling our reservation center at 1-800-USA-RAIL.”

FedEx says it is watching the winter weather and has “contingency plans in place to help keep our team members safe and lessen any impact” on Christmas deliveries.

“In anticipation of severe weather, we have been repositioning assets so we can provide service where and when it is safe to do so,” FedEx told CNN in a statement.

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December 22, 2022
Passenger Throws Monitor at Gate Agent After Missing Flight

Chaos ensued at the Miami International Airport this week when a woman threw a computer monitor at a gate agent in an apparent public meltdown, documented by several social media users.

The woman, identified as 25-year-old Camila McMillie, caused the scene at Gate D-39 on Tuesday afternoon when she noticed that her children had wandered off to use the bathroom without her knowing.

At the time, McMillie was being rebooked for a flight she had missed while on her way from Birmingham, Alabama to New York City.

She can be seen on video demanding that the gate agents find her children before starting to scream, flail, and pull the boarding pass equipment off of the gate counter— before eventually lifting the computer monitor at the gate counter and throwing it at the gate agent.

In another video, McMillie is being detained by officers as she attempts to climb on and over the gate counter as passengers videotape the ordeal.

@kyeezy17 Miami girl destorys American Airlines kiosk after missing her flight and gets arrested #miami #airport #destory #arrested ♬ original sound – KY

“Once the subject noticed the children were not with her, she became irate and began to scream, demanding the gate agent to find her children,” police said, according to reports from CBS Miami.

Other clips show McMillie pacing and yelling as a crowd of passengers surrounds her. She begins to dissemble parts of the gate check-in area and knock equipment to the ground.

@mark_d4life Miami Airport girl loses mind after missing her flight. #Miami #destroy #airport ♬ original sound – mark_d4life

@ppvtahoe

Miami Airport tantrum / Woman arrested at MIA has meltdown for messing up computers

♬ original sound – ppvtahoe

American Airlines acknowledged the incident and supported for the gate agent who suffered bruising to their shoulder after being slammed with the monitor.

“Acts of violence against our team members are not tolerated by American Airlines and we are committed to working closely with law enforcement in their investigation,” the airline said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with our team member, and we are ensuring they have the support they need at this time.’

McMillie is currently facing charges of aggravated battery, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct.

Emily Rella

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December 21, 2022
China reopens borders after 3 years of COVID travel restrictions

China removed quarantine requirements for inbound travelers on Sunday, effectively reopening its borders three years after the COVID pandemic led to strict travel restrictions.

In addition to allowing travel to and from other countries, Beijing also reopened air and sea travel with the special administrative region of Hong Kong, allowing family and friends to reunite after years spent apart. Chinese and Western media outlets described massive queues stretching across Hong Kong international airport. The South China Morning Post reported that as of 8 p.m. local time on Sunday, more than 45,000 people had traveled by ferry across the border between Hong Kong and mainland China.

According to the Reuters news agency, the Chinese Ministry of Transport expects over two billion trips to and from China to take place over the next 40 days — an increase of nearly 100 percent — partly due to the start of the Chinese New Year.

This is the final step in Beijing’s ditching of its zero-COVID policy, by which the government used draconian lockdowns, mass testing and severe limits to travel to keep the level of virus transmission to a minimum among its population.

The U-turn, adopted in the wake of mass popular protests, has caused worry among some Western countries, which fear that the resulting surge in Chinese COVID cases might give rise to dangerous coronavirus variants.

Gian Volpicelli

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December 19, 2022
The Moroccan spy at the heart of the Qatar investigation

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PARIS — A Moroccan secret service agent, identified as Mohamed Belahrech, has emerged as one of the key operators in the Qatar corruption scandal that has shaken the foundations of the European Parliament. His codename is M118, and he’s been running circles around European spy agencies for years.

Belahrech seems at the center of an intricate web that extends from Qatar and Morocco to Italy, Poland and Belgium. He is suspected of having been engaged in intense lobbying efforts and alleged corruption targeting European MEPs in recent years. And it turns out he’s been known to European intelligence services for some time.

Rabat is increasingly in the spotlight, as focus widens beyond the role of Qatar in the corruption allegations of European MEPs, which saw Belgian police seizing equipment and more than €1.5 million in cash in raids across at least 20 homes and offices.

Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne last week provided a scarcely veiled indication that Morocco was involved in the probe. Speaking to Belgian lawmakers, he referred to “a country that in recent years has already been mentioned … when it comes to interference.” This is understood to refer to Morocco, since Rabat’s security service has been accused of espionage in Belgium, where there is a large diaspora of Moroccans.

According to Italian daily La Repubblica and the Belgian Le Soir, Belahrech is one of the links connecting former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri to the Moroccan secret service, the DGED. The Italian politician Panzeri is now in jail, facing preliminary charges of corruption in the investigation as to whether Morocco and Qatar bought influence in the European Parliament.

In a cache of Moroccan diplomatic cables leaked by a hacker in 2014 and 2015 (and seen by POLITICO), Panzeri is described as “a close friend” of Morocco, “an influential ally” who is “capable of fighting the growing activism of our enemies at the European Parliament.”

Investigators are now looking at just how close a friend Panzeri was to Morocco. The Belgian extradition request for Panzeri’s wife and daughter, who are also allegedly involved in the corruption scandal, mentions “gifts” from Abderrahim Atmoun, Morocco’s ambassador to Warsaw.

For several years, Panzeri shared the presidency of the joint EU-Morocco parliamentary committee with Atmoun, a seasoned diplomat keen on promoting Morocco’s interests in the Brussels bubble.

But it’s now suspected that Atmoun was taking orders from Belahrech, who is “a dangerous man,” an official with knowledge of the investigation said to Le Soir. It’s under Belahrech’s watch that Panzeri reportedly sealed his association with Morocco’s DGED after failing to get reelected to the Parliament in 2019.

Belharech may also be the key to unraveling one of the lingering mysteries of the Qatar scandal: the money trail. A Belgian extradition request seen by POLITICO refers to an enigmatic character linked to a credit card given to Panzeri’s relatives — who is known as “the giant.” Speculation is swirling as to whether Belahrech could be this giant.

The many lives of a Moroccan spy

Belahrech is no newbie in European spy circles — media reports trace his presence back to several espionage cases over the past decade.

The man from Rabat first caught the authorities’ attention in connection to alleged infiltration of Spanish mosques, which in 2013 resulted in the deportation of the Moroccan director of an Islamic organization in Catalonia, according to Spanish daily El Confidencial.

Belahrech was allegedly in charge of running agents in the mosques at the behest of the DGED, while his wife was suspected of money laundering via a Spain-based travel agency. The network was dismantled in 2015, according to El Mundo.

Not long after, Belahrech reemerged in France, where he played a leading role in a corruption case at Orly airport in Paris.

A Moroccan agent, identified at the time as Mohamed B., allegedly obtained up to 200 confidential files on terrorism suspects in France from a French border officer, according to an investigation published in Libération.

The officer, who was detained and put under formal investigation in 2017, allegedly provided confidential material regarding individuals on terrorist watchlists — and possible people of interest transiting through the airport — to the Moroccan agent in exchange for four-star holidays in Morocco.

French authorities reportedly did not press charges against Belahrech, who disappeared when his network was busted. According to a French official with knowledge of the investigation, Belahrech was cooperating with France at the time by providing intelligence on counterterrorism matters, and was let off for this reason.

Moroccan secret service agents may act as intelligence providers for European agencies while simultaneously coordinating influence operations in those same countries, two people familiar with intelligence services coordination told POLITICO. For that reason, European countries sometimes turn a blind eye to practices that could be qualified as interference, they added, so long as this remains unobtrusive.

Contacted, the intelligence services of France, Spain and Morocco did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

As to Belahrech: Five years after his foray in France, the mysterious M118 is back in the spotlight — raising questions over his ongoing relationship with European intelligence networks.

Hannah Roberts contributed to reporting.

Clea Caulcutt and Elisa Braun

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December 19, 2022
‘New chapters’ as Croatia joins euro and free-movement area

The boom gates at Croatian border posts swung up at midnight Sunday as the country joined Europe’s zone of free movement as the country also adopted the euro as its currency.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed “two immense achievements,” speaking alongside Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar at a border post in the town of Bregana.

“There is no place in Europe where it is more true today that it is a season of new beginnings and new chapters than here at the border between Croatia and Slovenia,” von der Leyen said.

“Nothing is the same after this,” said Plenković, noting the convenience that free movement and currency union will bring to Croatians.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the former Yugoslavian republic joining the EU. Von der Leyen praised the hard work of the Croatian people and singled out Plenković for pushing through the reforms needed to make the rapid ascension into the EU’s currency club.

She said the euro “brings macroeconomic stability and credibility” at home and abroad.

“Our citizens and the economy will be better protected from crises,” said Plenković.

But more than that, von der Leyen said, the euro coin imprinted with the pine marten — which gave its name to Croatia’s former currency, the kuna — is “a symbol of the successful union between your national identity and your European destiny.”

The adoption of the euro comes on the back of a long campaign to demonstrate that Croatia can adhere to the currency zone’s requirements for economic management. Croatian Finance Minister Marko Primorac told POLITICO last week that he expected the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio to fall steeply in the coming years as the recovery from the pandemic continues.

Shortly after midnight, Primorac withdrew the first euros from a Croatian ATM.

The entry into the Schengen zone means the removal of land and sea border checks with Croatia’s European neighbors. Airport checks from the 26 other countries that participate in the scheme will end in March.

The fall of these barriers to movement is “the final affirmation of our European identity, for which generations of Croats fought and fought,” said Interior Minister Davor Božinović, who opened the barrier at Bregana at midnight on New Year’s Day alongside his Slovenian counterpart, Sanja Ajanović Hovnik.

Parties were organized by citizens at the border. Von der Leyen said those living close to Slovenia and Hungary would see “tangible results” as they were able to travel freely across the frontier for employment and shopping. “Communities will grow closer together,” she said.

The Commission president also noted the responsibility that joining Schengen confers on Croatia, at a time when migration pressures are a matter of growing political tension between the bloc’s members.

“We will need to work very closely together to protect Schengen and preserve its benefits,” said von der Leyen. “In Schengen, we rely on each other and we know that we can trust you and that we can rely on Croatia.”

In a statement, Slovenia’s Hovnik congratulated Croatia on a “historic” step, which her country took just a year before, and tried to settle Slovenian anxiety about security along the newly open border.

“It is an event for which we have been preparing for a long time on both sides of the border,” she said.

Karl Mathiesen

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December 19, 2022
China’s three-week COVID case tally tops 253,000 and daily average is rising, government says

More than 253,000 coronavirus cases have been found in China in the past three weeks and the daily average is rising, the government said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

The trend is putting pressure on officials who are trying to ease economic disruption by easing strict controls that have confined millions of people to their homes.

China is the only major country in the world still trying to curb virus transmissions through strict lockdown measures and mass testing. The ruling Communist Party promised earlier this month to reduce disruptions from its “zero- COVID” strategy by making controls more flexible, but so far, progress has been slow.

Beijing, which announced its first COVID death in about six months over the weekend, has locked down parks, populous districts, stores and offices and many school kids have resumed online learning.

The past week’s average of 22,200 daily cases is double the previous week’s rate, the official China News Service reported, citing the National Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control.

On Tuesday, the government reported 28,127 cases found over the past 24 hours, including 25,902 with no symptoms. Almost one-third, or 9,022, were in Guangdong province, the heartland of export-oriented manufacturing adjacent to Hong Kong.

In the U.S., known cases of COVID are rising again with the daily average standing at 41,530 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 4% from two weeks ago.

Don’t miss: Confused about COVID boosters? Here’s what the science and the experts say about the new generation of shots.

Cases are rising in 24 states, plus Washington, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico. Washington state has replaced Nebraska as leader by new cases, which have climbed 423% from two weeks ago. That’s followed by Arizona, where they are up 110% and California, up 60%.

The daily average for hospitalizations was down 1% at 27,547, but again, the trend is not uniform across the U.S. Hospitalizations are up 60% in Alaska, up 47% in Arizona and up 30% in Wyoming.

The daily average for deaths is down 2% to 294.

Physicians are reporting high numbers of respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu earlier than the typical winter peak. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what the early surge means for the coming winter months. Photo illustration: Kaitlyn Wang

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• Japan approved an antiviral pill from Shionogi & Co.
4507,
+2.77%
to treat COVID after the company provided new data to show the drug’s efficacy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The treatment is the first locally developed alternative to Pfizer Inc.’s
PFE,
+1.45%
Paxlovid and Merck & Co.’s
MRK,
+0.93%
Lagevrio, which have been authorized for emergency use in Japan. Shionogi aims to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its pill in the U.S. Osaka-based Shionogi filed in February for emergency approval for the drug, known as Xocova, in Japan. The health ministry panel said in July it needed to see results from a larger human trial because data submitted at the time didn’t sufficiently show improvements in symptoms associated with COVID.

• Dubai International Airport passenger numbers surpassed pre-COVID pandemic levels in the third quarter of 2022, the airport’s chief executive said, causing the airport to revise its annual forecast by another 1 million passengers, the AP reported. Paul Griffiths, who oversees the world’s busiest airport, told the Associated Press the annual forecast at Dubai International, or DXB, is more than 64 million. The airport saw 18.5 million passengers in the third quarter of this year, up from 17.8 million during the first quarter of 2020—prior to and at the dawn of the pandemic.

• Get ready for long lines at U.S. airports and traffic jams galore—just like old times. Airports and roads may be “jam-packed” this year, according to the AAA. It estimates that 53.6 million people will travel for the Thanksgiving weekend, reaching 98% of pre-pandemic Thanksgiving travel. “Families and friends are eager to spend time together this Thanksgiving, one of the busiest for travel in the past two decades,” said Paula Twidale, senior vice president, AAA Travel. “Plan ahead and pack your patience, whether you’re driving or flying.”

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 638.5 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.62 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 98.4 million cases and 1,077,225 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 228.2 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.7% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 35.3 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 11.3% of the overall population.

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November 22, 2022
Snow pummels western New York as metro Buffalo digs out from up to 6 feet of accumulation | CNN

CNN
—

Heavy snow is expected to keep piling up in western New York state through Sunday after a historic storm saw the Buffalo area logging record snowfall totaling more than 6 feet in some areas.

Just after 11 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service in Buffalo issued a special weather statement warning a band of heavy snow accompanied by high winds was creating a “burst of snow” in western New York state. The band was moving south of the Buffalo and Rochester metro areas, the weather service said.

By Sunday morning, winds shifted more westerly, meaning the heaviest lake-effect snow bands are now south of Buffalo impacting areas from Cleveland to Dunkirk, New York. Buffalo is no longer under a lake-effect snow warning but remains under a winter weather advisory through Sunday evening for “blowing snow,” according to the weather service.

While the Buffalo area is used to dealing with heavy snowfall, this storm is delivering “much more than we usually get,” Mayor Byron Brown told CNN Saturday.

Erie County, which includes Buffalo, experienced its largest-ever amount of snowfall in a 24-hour period Saturday, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

“This was a RECORD-BREAKING storm that in some ways was more intense than Snowvember, the relatively quick recovery is a testament to everyone’s preparation and planning,” Poloncarz tweeted. “The proactive approach continues to work.”

“Snowvember” refers to a storm in the Buffalo area in November 2014, where nearly 7 feet of snow was dumped in three days. At least 13 people died in that storm and the weight of the snow caused dozens of roofs to crumble under the impact.

Two people have died in this storm from cardiac complications related to shoveling snow and attempting to clear the ground, Poloncarz said.

As the heaviest snow slid south of the greater Buffalo area into southern Erie and Chautauqua counties overnight, an additional 6 to 18 inches is possible in the region, especially across higher terrain, CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.

The heaviest snowfall Sunday will be east of Lake Ontario, where up to a foot of additional snow is forecast with localized areas potentially seeing even more.

Winds could gust as high as 45 mph across the Great Lakes region, which will lead to very cold conditions with temperatures feeling like single digits to slightly below zero.

Snowfall totals of more than 6 feet have been recorded in two locations, according to the weather service. Orchard Park, where the NFL’s Buffalo Bills play, picked up 77.0 inches in a 48-hour period, and Natural Bridge, just east of Watertown, picked up 72.3 inches – historic numbers for the area.

The multiday weather event has made travel in the region difficult, triggering the closing of roads, driving bans and flight cancellations the weekend before the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Saturday night, the weather service warned the latest band would make travel conditions severe in a matter of minutes.

Travel bans were in effect for much of Erie County, but as of Sunday morning New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted many roads in Buffalo and Watertown have been able to reopen and “traffic is starting to move again!”

Nearly 400 citations have been issued to drivers who have been found violating travel bans in the region, Poloncarz, the Erie County executive, said.

“If you’re trying to enter an area where a travel ban exists, you will meet a friendly neighborhood New York State trooper who will immediately give you a ticket for violating the travel ban,” Poloncarz said.

The New York State Thruway Authority tweeted, “Crews are out this morning on the Niagara Thruway (I-190) removing #snow from the shoulders. We have large snowblowers like this working around the clock to clear snow. Please use caution if you are traveling today. The Thruway has reopened to all traffic.”

While officials earlier said some vehicles had to be towed after being stuck on the side of the road or involved in accidents, Hochul thanked New Yorkers who adhered to travel advisories and stayed home.

“Thank you for just following the directions, staying off the roads, and as a result, all the major thoroughfares are open now in western New York and the north country, with some limitation,” Hochul said at a briefing Sunday morning.

Air travel also has been snarled by the record snow, with dozens of flights arriving and departing from Buffalo Niagara International Airport canceled as storm conditions worsened, according to the airport’s website.

The airport set a daily snowfall record of 21.5 inches Saturday, shattering the previous daily record of 7.6 inches set in 2014, the local weather office said.

It ranks as the fifth-highest single-day snowfall total on record for Buffalo and the second-highest single-day snowfall total for the month of November.

This month is already Buffalo’s third-snowiest November at the airport thanks to the storm, according to the local weather service office.

Hochul thanked local and state agencies for their preparation efforts in western New York for storm preparations after a record dumping of snow, as the region is forecast to expect more this evening.

Speaking at a storm briefing in Jefferson County on Sunday, Hochul said the area in upstate Oswego County is expecting another 2 feet of snow by 7 p.m. tonight, at a rate of around four inches per hour.

Hochul said, “This has been an historic storm, without a doubt, it’s one for the record books. And as someone who is from Buffalo and has lived in upstate my entire life, we’ve seen a lot of snow.”

Around 1,200 people have been impacted by power outages in the state. Hochul said this is a manageable number and “no one has been in the dark a long time.”

The governor said, “Given the scale of this storm I’m really proud of how the utility crews have stepped up.”

On Saturday, Hochul said she was doubling the number of New York National Guard members on the ground in Erie County to check on residents and help with snow removal.

She also signed a request for federal reimbursement through a Federal Emergency Disaster Declaration.

Nearly 6 million people across four Great Lakes states (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York) will remain under winter weather alerts through much of Sunday.

Brown, the Buffalo mayor, said the city could return to “some sense of normalcy” by Monday or Tuesday, assuming the worst of the storm passes through Sunday.

“This has been a very unpredictable storm with the snow bands moving, back and forth, north to south,” Brown said. “The snow has come down very fast, very wet, very heavy.”

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November 20, 2022
5 tips for taming travel tension over the holidays | CNN

Editor’s Note: Dana Santas, known as the “Mobility Maker,” is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of “Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief.”

CNN
—

For many people, travel is a necessary part of celebrating the holidays with loved ones. This means enduring all the stressful hiccups that can come with traveling and spending time away from the comforts of your own home.

Every year, my family kicks off the season by watching the classic comedy “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” starring Steve Martin and the late John Candy. In it, the two men are strangers who end up stuck together, dealing with a comically inordinate number of travel-related issues while trying to get home for Thanksgiving.

There’s a good chance your holiday travel won’t get as complicated as Martin’s and Candy’s, but you may face delays, diversions and many hours of sitting that can take a toll on you mentally and physically. So, whether you’re driving to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving or flying to see family in another country, try the five tips below to reduce stress and tension so you can enjoy the holidays.

When you sit for long periods while traveling, your posture often suffers. Given the intimate relationship of your breathing pattern and your posture, slumping while seated leads to shallow, rapid breathing, which incites your body’s stress response. It’s a vicious cycle that increases physical and mental tension.

That’s why it’s important to take control of your breathing at least once an hour while traveling to help restore your posture and cultivate a sense of calm. Taking just five or six long, deep breaths while focusing on getting your low ribs to move as demonstrated in this video can make a big difference!

Optimize your breathing with these tips

03:08

– Source:
CNN

Just 90 seconds of deep breathing elicits a relaxation response that decreases your heart rate, blood pressure and stress hormone production, according to research.

Those muscle cramps and achy joints you experience on the road may have a lot to do with your fluid intake. Considering that our bodies are mostly water, hydration is important for proper joint lubrication and circulation. But your hydration level doesn’t just affect you physically. When you’re dehydrated, it increases your body’s cortisol (primary stress hormone) levels, which can lead to feelings of anxiety, exhaustion and overall irritability.

Your access to drinking water may be limited while traveling, so it’s important to plan ahead. You can’t bring bottled water through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, and no one likes to pay the exorbitant prices for bottles of water at the airport. Thankfully, most airports have filtered water stations to refill bottles for free. So pack a reusable water bottle and, if you’re driving, don’t forget to bring a cooler with water.

Even when you aren’t traveling, the holidays make it easy to become dehydrated. With all the festivities, we often forget to drink as much water as normal, especially when cocktails are flowing. But alcoholic beverages are no substitute for water because they’re dehydrating.

Alcohol suppresses natural production of the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin, which keeps us from urinating too much. Without it, we find ourselves in the bathroom more often. Counter the dehydrating impact of alcohol by drinking one glass of water for every cocktail.

Studies abound regarding the health dangers of prolonged sitting, yet few people seem to make an effort to avoid it while traveling. Looking around the airport, you’ll find most everyone sitting at the gate waiting to get on their plane, where they will inevitably remain seated for at least a couple of hours or more.

Break up bouts of sitting by taking advantage of opportunities to stand and walk around whenever possible. At the airport, take a walk around your terminal. Some airports even have yoga rooms with public access. When traveling by car, find a park or even a mall on your route where you can get out and take a 10-minute walk.

Lots of sitting during travel also means compressed side waist muscles, overused hip flexors and tight low-back muscles. If you want to be more comfortable and avoid pain when traveling, you need to stretch out those muscles whenever possible.

My go-to travel stretch is the warrior hip flexor release.

Here’s how to do it:

Stand to the right of a wall, chair or other stable surface. Place your left hand on it for support.

Step your right foot back into a short lunge position, dropping your back heel and pointing your toes out slightly, as shown.

Bend your front knee to align above your ankle, while your back leg remains straight.

Inhale as you lift your right arm up and over your head.

Exhale as you side bend to the left, feeling your left lower ribs rotate inward.

Avoid arching your lower back.

Hold for three long, deep breaths. Repeat on the other side.

Check out the video at the top of this story for more exercises to combat the negative impact of sitting.

You might be so relieved to get to your destination that you think plopping down in a comfy chair is all you need. But it’s even more beneficial to get your legs up above your heart, which promotes venous blood flow and helps reduce lower-body swelling.

A great way to accomplish this is with the popular restorative yoga pose known as “legs up the wall.” You can do this on the floor with your straight legs up the wall or with your knees bent and calves resting on a chair seat. If you don’t want to lie on the floor, you can lay backward on your bed and put your legs up the headboard. Feel free to place a pillow or folded blanket under your head.

Once in the position, stay there a few minutes, taking some long, deep relaxing breaths.

In addition to changing your relationship with gravity to relieve tension, it’s important to get enough sleep. This is especially true if you have traveled to a different time zone. Work in naps, if necessary, to make up for any sleep deficits that could negatively affect your health and wellness.

Despite all the joys the holidays bring, it’s important not to overlook the ways seasonal trips can inadvertently drag you down. Using the five tips above will help keep travel tension at bay and your holiday spirits high.

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November 17, 2022
Climate activists block private jet runway at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam | CNN

CNN
—

Hundreds of climate activists breached a runway Saturday at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to try to stop private jets from taking off, in the latest demonstration by protesters aimed at drawing attention to the climate crisis.

Greenpeace Netherlands said “more than 500” Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion activists were at the airport, one of Europe’s largest, on Saturday afternoon, in a press release. A spokesperson for the Schiphol security forces could not confirm that figure.

There were about “more than 300” activists, the spokesperson of The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, the military force guarding the airport, told CNN.

Robert Kapel, acknowledged it was a “big scale” demonstration but said air traffic was unaffected as the runway was exclusively used for private jets and no flights are scheduled until late Saturday night.

“This morning activists gathered in the forest nearby, carrying flags and banners with slogans such as ‘SOS for the climate’ and ‘Fly no more.’ At the same time another group reached the airport from the opposite direction with bicycles,” Greenpeace said.

Images from Greenpeace show groups of dozens of demonstrators sitting down on the tarmac by multiple planes on the runway. Further images show demonstrations inside the terminal.

More than 100 arrests “and counting” have been made so far, Kapel said. He added that he thinks all arrests will have been made by 10 p.m. (local time), which is when he said the first flight is scheduled to take off. Security forces have blocked off the area and made it inaccessible from other parts of the airport, he commented.

Protesters “plan to keep air traffic from the private jet terminal grounded for as long as possible,” Dewi Zloch, spokesperson of Greenpeace Netherlands, said in a statement.

She continued: “The airport should be reducing its flight movements, but instead it’s building a brand-new terminal. The wealthy elite is using more private jets than ever, which is the most polluting way to fly. This is typical of the aviation industry, which doesn’t seem to see that it is putting people at risk by aggravating the climate crisis. This has to stop. We want fewer flights, more trains, and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets.”

Greenpeace warned authorities there would be some kind of action at Schiphol weeks in advance, Zloch, who was on the scene, told CNN. They did not disclose the exact location, she added.

Schiphol Airport CEO Ruud Sondag said activists should “feel welcome, but let’s keep things civil.”

He was responding to a previous letter from Greenpeace and stated his objective was to achieve “emissions-free airports by 2030 and net climate-neutral aviation by 2050”.

“However, this is only possible if we all work together”, Sondag said in a statement published Friday.

“Coming together for our environment, the government, and for society, clear laws, regulations, and proper permits are a necessity. We need clarity on that soon,” he added.

Elsewhere in Europe, two climate activists were arrested in Madrid in Spain after they each glued one of their hands to the frames of two Goya paintings in the Prado Museum on Saturday.

There was no apparent damage to the paintings, but the suspects are being charged with public disorder and damages, the Spanish National Police press office for Madrid told CNN.

The suspects, two Spanish women, wrote “+1,5C” on the wall between the artworks, which were Goya’s masterpieces “Las Majas,” according to the police.

Futuro Vegetal, a Spanish activist group, tweeted a video on the museum protest. The group is taking responsibility for the incident.

They described themselves as a “collective of civil disobedience and direct action in the fight against the Climate Crisis through the adoption of a food growing system based on plants.”

“Last week the UN recognized the impossibility of keeping ourselves below the limit of the increase, of the Paris Accord, of 1.5 degrees (C) temperature, with respect to pre-industrial levels,” Futuro Vegetal wrote in its tweet.

Security guards at the Prado quickly alerted the National Police, which has a unit dedicated to protecting the perimeter of the famed museum, and officers made the arrests in just minutes, the Police press office said.

The Paris Agreement, which was adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations’ COP 21 in December 2015, aimed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The protest comes just a day before the COP27 climate conference is due to start in Egypt.

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November 5, 2022
Northeast important to government’s plans of making air connectivity nation’s lifeline: Scindia

Union minister of civil aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that the northeast was an important part of the central government’s strategy of making air connectivity the country’s lifeline even as he launched several new flights within the region.

Informing that while in 2013-14 India had only 70 airports, the minister said the country currently boasted 141 airports, water aerodromes and heliports. Over the next four years, this would be increased to over 200 airports.

“The northeast is an important component of this expansion. In 2013, where we had only nine airports in the northeast,” he said, adding, “Today, under the prime minister’s directive, we have additional airports in Lilabari, Tezpur and Rupsi in Assam, Tezu, Pasighat and, very soon, the new airport in Hollongi, in Arunachal Pradesh, and Pakyong, in Sikkim. So, we have built close to about seven new airports in the last eight years.”

Scindia was speaking at the virtual launch of six new departures on the Imphal-Aizwal, Aizwal-Imphal, Lilabari-Ziro, Ziro-Lilabari, Shillong-Lilabari and Lilabari-Shillong routes in the presence of the union minister of law and justice, Kiren Rijiju, minister of state of civil aviation, Gen. (Retd) Vijay Kumar Singh and chief ministers of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya, and the state tourism minister of Mizoram.

The civil aviation minister noted that air connectivity was not merely about launching domestic and international flights, nor was it about launching flights between Tier-I cities, but it rather implied reaching every corner of India.

Fund for developing air connectivity in northeast

The minister said that a Rs 500 crore corpus had been set aside for enhancing both inter and intra-northeast connectivity. Of the 1,095 routes awarded under the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik-Regional Connectivity Scheme (UDAN-RCS), 136 or 14 per cent of routes had been awarded in the northeast.

“Under UDAN 4.2, out of 132 routes, 24 routes have been dedicated to the northeast. So, almost about 18 per cent of the total routes have been dedicated to the northeast,” the minister said.

Reiterating the role of air connectivity in advancing the potential of the northeast not only within the country but also overseas, the minister also announced two international routes from the region as part of India’s Act East policy.

“We would also like to announce that we will be starting two new international routes under international UDAN-RCS… Agartala-Chittagong-Agartala and Imphal-Mandalay-Imphal. We are expanding the scope from regional connectivity to national connectivity to international connectivity for the northeast,” he remarked.

He further mentioned how the convergence scheme involving eight ministries for the transportation of horticultural produce, Krishi UDAN, was helping reach chillies, jackfruit, lemons and grapes from the region to markets in the UK, Germany and the UAE.

The minister also praised Vineet Sood, the CEO of India’s largest regional carrier, Alliance Air, for taking the lead over other Indian carriers in enhancing regional connectivity.

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October 30, 2022
Suspicious device found at a Toronto airport has been disarmed and 2 people are in custody, authorities say | CNN

CNN
—

Two people were taken into custody after authorities located and later disarmed a possible explosive device at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, police said.

At around 4 p.m. Saturday, a device was found on a bicycle parked near the airport’s island-side ferry terminal, according to the airport’s social media account. Located on an island along Lake Ontario near downtown Toronto, the airport is largely accessed by ferry or pedestrian tunnel.

The ferry terminal and tunnel were closed “out of an abundance of caution,” the airport said, as the bike was removed by police. Passengers at the terminal were later evacuated and two Air Canada flights were diverted to nearby Hamilton, according to the airport.

As police dealt with “a potential explosive device,” according to the Toronto Police Operations Centre, at least two buildings near the airport were evacuated and several side streets were closed.

A controlled detonation was then conducted later that evening, Toronto police said.

“The device has been disarmed and Toronto Police Services has concluded their investigation and released the site,” the airport stated.

Two “persons of interest” are in custody, Toronto police said. Authorities have not released any additional details on the type of device found.

Airport operations and flights are set to resume Sunday morning, according to the airport. Billy Bishop Airport is roughly 10 miles southeast of the city’s busiest airport, Toronto Pearson International (YYZ).

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October 22, 2022
Donald Trump’s Boeing 757 rehabbed and back in West Palm Beach | CNN Politics

CNN
—

Whether Donald Trump is prepared to take-off on another bid for the presidency remains up in the air, but his fabled Boeing 757 is definitely getting off the ground.

According to flight data studied and analyzed by CNN and aviation experts consulted by CNN, Trump’s jet has spent several hours over the last week running pattern flights above a small airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana, likely testing various updated components before heading to the Palm Beach International Airport, where it arrived Wednesday evening. Trump has previously indicated that the plane would be in Louisiana for repairs.

The plane’s arrival in West Palm Beach comes less than three weeks before the 2022 midterm elections and with the political world on constant watch for Trump to announce another run for the White House. While Trump’s world has felt under siege with multiple investigations and legal actions open against him, the return of so-called “Trump Force One” to its home base could provide a jolt to Trump’s fans.

The arrival of the plane at the airport that’s just 15 minutes from Mar-a-Lago is a significant indicator that not only is it airworthy – the 31-year-old jumbo jet had been idle for the four years of Trump’s presidency and many months afterward – it may be getting prepped to assume its former life as Trump’s biggest campaign prop.

CNN has reached out to a representative for Donald Trump for comment on the plane’s activity and has not yet received a response. The plane appeared to be in use Saturday as Trump traveled to Texas for a rally, according to a tweet from Trump aide Dan Scavino Jr.

Trump’s jet has twice in recent days made a series of short flight loops at varying altitudes, taking off and landing at Chennault International Airport in Louisiana. Some of the flights lasted less than 10 minutes, according to the data, and did not go beyond altitudes of 3,000 feet. Others were longer, 20 to 30 minutes, at altitudes ranging from 9,000 to 23,000 feet.

“It is common after a plane has had upgrades – or other new equipment or general avionic tweaks – for pilots to make a series of test flights to ensure safety and function,” said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. “The series of passes at different altitudes, such as the ones completed in Louisiana, are indicative of standard checks.”

That the plane, which Trump purchased in 2010 from the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen, has been improved to the point of taking flight is a recent development. In March 2021, CNN was first to report Trump’s once omnipresent 757 was sitting idle on a tarmac at a small New York state airport with one engine shrink-wrapped, mechanically grounded. It remained just north of New York City at Stewart Airport in New Windsor, New York, for several more months before it was flown to Louisiana on November 1, 2021, according to flight tracker information obtained by CNN.

That flight was presumably made with an engine worthy enough for the plane to obtain a Special Flight Permit – or “Ferry Permit” – from the FAA, multiple experts told CNN. The permits allow registered planes to be approved for flight. According to FAA data, a reason for granting a ferry permit is for an aircraft to fly to a location where “repairs, alterations, or maintenance are to be performed, or to a point of salvage.”

CNN has requested a confirmation of the ferry permit issued for Trump’s plane, which is owned by DJT Operations LLC, from the FAA and has not yet received the information.

A standard passenger Boeing 757-200 series has about 228 seats. Trump’s custom 757 features 43 seats – along with a main bedroom, guest suite, dining room, VIP area and custom galley. Trump has mainly flown to-and-from various destinations on his much smaller, eight-seater, 1997 Cessna 750 Citation X. That plane does have a small Trump-family crest painted on the fuselage but lacks the giant Trump name on its outside.

According to flight records, when Trump is not on the Citation, he typically flies on chartered planes belonging to other people.

Yet in July of this year, the 757, a regular backdrop for Trump’s campaign appearances and rallies during the run-up to the 2016 election, was featured in a slick video posted by Eric Trump to social media. That video featured the 757 getting a new paint job at a hangar in Louisiana.

“She’s back,” he wrote.

In the caption of Eric Trump’s Instagram post of the video, the former President was quoted teasing the rebirth of his beloved private plane, saying the sparkly new exterior tune-up done so “Trump Force One” – the plane’s nickname – could be “back to the skies in the Fall of 2022, or maybe sooner.”

The reveal of the new paint job showed a fresh, gold “TRUMP” on the fuselage, and a new addition of an American flag on the tail. The paint job was completed in 26 days, according to Tyson Grenzebach, of Landlocked Aviation, who in a July interview with Louisiana Radio Network said his company did full “scuff, sand and paint” on Trump’s plane.

Though the interior, exterior and – as of Wednesday – the sky worthiness of Trump’s 757 appears to be updated, according to experts who spoke to CNN, the purpose of getting the plane ready for some sort of grand reveal near the midterms or a campaign announcement has yet to be confirmed by the former president.

For Trump, the plane is one of his prized possessions. He oversaw the hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars’ worth of renovations done to his prized possession shortly after he took ownership; any metal in the plane’s interior – lights, seat buckles, handles, latches, knobs – was plated in 24-karat gold.

In March of last year, following CNN’s story about the 757, Trump did release a statement confirming his plane was in “storage” and getting repairs.

“When completed, it will be better than ever, and again used at upcoming rallies!” wrote Trump wrote at the time.

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October 22, 2022
2 Black comedians file lawsuit over police jet bridge stops at Atlanta airport | CNN

CNN
—

Police officers stopped Eric André as he boarded a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles in April 2021 and, a few months earlier, the same thing happened to another Black comedian in the same place, a lawsuit alleges.

André and fellow comedian Clayton English filed the lawsuit claiming the stops were the result of racial profiling.

“Police officers came out of nowhere in like, almost like an ambush style and started, singled me out. I was the only person of color on the jet bridge at the time,” André said in a news conference Tuesday.

“They singled me out. They asked me if I was selling drugs, transporting drugs, what kind of drugs I have on me,” he said.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday by André and English alleges that this stop was part of an anti-drug trafficking program carried out by the Clayton County Police Department in Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that unfairly targets Black fliers.

“It was clearly racial profiling. The experience was humiliating and dehumanizing, degrading, I had all the other passengers squeezing by me on this claustrophobic jet bridge gawking at me like I was a perpetrator,” André said.

Police stopped English on a flight, also to Los Angeles, in October 2020.

CNN has reached out to both the police department and the Atlanta Department of Aviation for comment.

“I was almost on the plane when, in the jet bridge two officers popped out, showed their badges and started asking questions whether I had illegal drugs like cocaine, and I feel cornered in a jet bridge and I felt the need to comply,” English said in the news conference.

After the incident involving André, Clayton County police denied any wrongdoing, CNN affiliate WSB-TV reported.

The station published this statement released then by the police:

“On April 21, 2021, the Clayton County Police Department made a consensual encounter with a male traveler, later identified as Eric Andre, as he was preparing to fly to California from the Atlanta Airport. Mr. Andre chose to speak with investigators during the initial encounter. During the encounter, Mr. Andre voluntarily provided the investigators information as to his travel plans.

“Mr. Andre also voluntarily consented to a search of his luggage but the investigators chose not to do so. Investigators identified that there was no reason to continue a conversation and therefore terminated the encounter. Mr. Andre boarded the plane without being detained and continued on his travels. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Atlanta Police Department did not assist in this consensual encounter.”

The lawsuit claims that the Clayton County Police Department describes the “jet bridge interdiction program” as “consensual encounters” carried out at “random,” but argues that in a post-9/11 flying atmosphere, encounters with law enforcement in airports are unlikely to be seen as anything but required.

The two name multiple members of the Clayton County Police Department in their lawsuit and allege that the department carries out these stops and searches in a way that targets Black passengers. The filing cites Clayton County Police Department records showing 56% of passengers (or 378 individuals whose races are listed) stopped in this manner are Black.

“The Clayton County Police Department, along, sometimes, with the county district attorney’s office has been conducting interdiction of passengers on jet bridges as they’re getting on their airplanes to ask them about whether they have drugs on them,” Barry Friedman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in the news conference.

“It’s not a very successful interdiction program,” Friedman said. Clayton County Police Department records show that out of 402 jet bridge stops from August 2020 to April 2021, only three seizures were made, according to the lawsuit,.

“They’ve come up with very little drugs, but they’ve taken a lot of cash off of passengers,” Friedman said. The lawsuit filing calls the jet bridge program “financially lucrative.”

“Over the 8-month period in question, the program seized $1,036,890.35 in cash and money orders via 25 civil asset forfeitures,” the filing reads.

Civil asset forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize property they allege is connected to a crime. Organizations like the ACLU have criticized it as a legal way for police to steal from civilians, as obtaining one’s property after it’s been seized is notoriously difficult.

“Yet, of the 25 passengers who had cash seized, 24 were allowed to continue on their travels, often on the same flight, and only two were ever charged with any related crime.”

“The Clayton County Police Department has described this program as a drug interdiction program. For what we’re able to see by simply looking at the open records information that we’ve received, it seems to be a distinctly unsuccessful drug interdiction program, if that’s what it is,” Richard Deane, another member of the plaintiff’s legal team, said in the news conference.

“What appears to be happening is that this is organized largely in order to seize money from people, on the hope that they’re not going to thereafter make the claim for those funds,” he said.

André called the experience “traumatizing.”

“When two cops stop you, you don’t feel like you have the right to leave, especially when they start interrogating you about drugs. The whole experience was traumatizing. I felt belittled,” he said. “I want to use my resources and my platform to bring national attention to this incident so that it stops.”

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October 16, 2022
North Korea says missile tests are practice for ‘tactical nuclear strikes’ on South Korea | CNN

Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—

North Korean state media has broken its silence over the country’s recent spate of missile tests, claiming they were part of a series of simulated procedures intended to demonstrate its readiness to fire tactical nuclear warheads at potential targets in South Korea.

The Kim regime has tested ballistic missiles seven times since September 25, the latest of 25 launch events of ballistic and cruise missiles this year, according to a CNN count, raising tensions to their highest level since 2017.

Quoting leader Kim Jong Un, who oversaw the drills, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests, which coincided with nearby military drills between the United States, South Korea and Japan, showed Pyongyang was ready to respond to regional tensions with by involving its “huge armed forces.”

KCNA said the series of seven drills of North Korea’s “tactical nuclear operation units” showed that its “nuclear combat forces” are “fully ready to hit and wipe out the set objects at the intended places in the set time.”

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said North Korea’s announcements Monday indicated potential progress in its missile program.

“What I find notable is that these launches are not framed as tests of the missiles themselves, but rather of the units that launch them. That suggests these systems are deployed,” Lewis said on Twitter.

KCNA said on September 25, North Korea workers took part in exercises within a silo under a reservoir to practice what it described as loading tactical nuclear warheads to check the swift and safe transportation of nuclear weapons.

Three days later, they simulated the loading of a tactical nuclear warhead on a missile that in the event of war that would be used in “neutralizing airports in South Korea’s operation zones.”

On October 6, North Korea practiced procedures that could initiate a tactical nuclear strike on “the enemies’ main military command facilities” and, on Sunday, enemy ports, Pyongyang’s state media said.

Among the key military installations in South Korea is the US Army’s Camp Humphreys, the largest US military installation outside of the United States with a population of more than 36,000 US servicemembers, civilian workers, contractors and family members.

Experts say that North Korea has likely manufactured some nuclear warheads – “20 to 30 warheads for delivery primarily by medium-range ballistic missiles,” Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda of Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists, wrote in September.

But its ability to detonate them accurately on the battlefield is unproven.

Analysts noted that with Monday’s reports, North Korea broke six months of silence on its testing program. Before that, an announcement and images of the tests were usually made available the next day.

Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said Pyongyang had “multiple motivations” for making an announcement Monday.

Besides providing a “patriotic headline” for domestic consumption on the 77th anniversary of its ruling party, “it is making explicit the nuclear threat behind its recent missile launches,” Easley said.

“The KCNA report may also be harbinger of a forthcoming nuclear test for the kind of tactical warhead that would arm the units Kim visited in the field,” he said.

South Korean and US officials have been warning since May that North Korea may be preparing for its first nuclear test since 2017, with satellite imagery showing activity at its underground nuclear test site.

The KCNA report said the recent drills, from September 25 to October 9, were designed to send a “strong military reaction warning to the enemies” and to verify and improve the country’s fighting capabilities.

In the report, Kim called South Korea and the United States “the enemies” and said North Korea doesn’t need to hold talks with them.

Kim further emphasized that Pyongyang will thoroughly monitor enemies’ military movements and “strongly take all military countermeasures” if needed, KCNA stated.

The United States, South Korea and Japan have all been active with military exercises during the North’s recent wave of drills.

A US Navy aircraft carrier strike group participated in several days of bilateral and trilateral exercises with South Korean and Japanese units that ended Saturday, a statement from the US Navy’s Task Force 70 said.

“Our commitment to regional security and the defense of our allies and partners is demonstrated by our flexibility and adaptability to move this strike group to where it is needed,” said Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly, commander of Task Force 70/Carrier Strike Group 5.

South Korea’s National Security Council on Sunday “strongly condemned” North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches, and it said the South Korean military will further bolster its combined defense posture and deterrence through joint military drills with the US and trilateral security cooperation involving Japan.

Japan’s Joint Staff said the security environment around Japan was becoming “increasingly severe” and that drills with the US Navy were strengthening the alliance’s capability to respond to threats.

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October 9, 2022
How Lyft’s new CEO is ‘copying’ his former boss Jeff Bezos to turn around the company | CNN Business

CNN
—

David Risher had a rocky first week at his job.

Days after taking over as the new CEO of Lyft

(LYFT) last month, Risher announced plans to “significantly reduce” the company’s workforce and stressed that the decision was his. The next week, Lyft

(LYFT) revealed the extent of the layoffs: 26% of the staff, or more than 1,000 employees, would lose their jobs.

“It was a very, very tough decision and a tough, you know, set of days and weeks to go through, of course,” Risher told CNN in an interview Thursday. “Nobody likes it.”

“But,” he added, “It’s also really important for us to be a strong player.”

Lyft hasn’t seemed like such a strong player of late. The company has shed 90% of its market value since going public in 2019. It has lagged behind its chief rival, Uber

(UBER), in recovering from the pandemic shock to business. And Lyft has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs and management changes, including Risher taking over as CEO last month and the company’s two co-founders stepping back.

Now, Lyft’s new chief executive says he hopes to draw on the lessons from Amazon

(AMZN), where he worked very early on, and from his former boss Jeff Bezos in his efforts to turn the rideshare company around.

“We’re going to focus on customers,” Risher said, alluding to Amazon’s guiding principle. “That’s a fundamental, just truth of business – if you can create a business that, really, your customers love, you can do amazing things for the world.”

Many tech companies like to compare themselves to Amazon, but if anyone has the credibility to say it, Lyft is probably hoping it’s Risher. Risher was Amazon’s 37th employee, and his contributions are memorialized on the site with a thank-you note from Bezos, which can still be seen today more than two decades after Risher left the company.

In its first product update since Risher took the helm at Lyft, the rideshare company on Thursday unveiled new features aimed at taking some of the pain points out of the summer travel season. With the update, customers can preorder their Lyft rides from the airport the moment their plane touches the ground; Lyft then handles the rest of the logistics to ensure a driver is waiting for the customer as they exit the airport.

The airport preorder option rolled out at Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports on Thursday, with plans to expand to other airports in the near future.

“You can outsource a lot of that stress to us, that’s what we want to do. And that really is Jeff Bezos,” Risher told CNN. “I’m just copying his strategy that worked pretty well for Amazon. I think it can work pretty well for Lyft and our customers.”

But as Risher works to revive Lyft’s fortunes, he faces a rival, Uber, that has shown renewed strength in recent quarters. (Uber has also added features to make airport pickups less painful.)

When asked what went wrong for Lyft, Risher told CNN, “I think the pandemic went wrong with Lyft.” But the pandemic did not impact Lyft and Uber the same.

Under the leadership of Expedia veteran Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over after founder Travis Kalanick resigned following a long list of PR crises, Uber doubled down on diversifying its business with meal deliveries. That service has helped carry it through the pandemic and bounce back quicker as the economy reopened.

But in a previous interview with CNN, Risher seemed to dash hopes that Lyft would borrow from Uber’s playbook and branch into other delivery categories.

Risher told CNN’s Julia Chatterley he wants to make sure Lyft focuses on providing a great ride-hailing service and “not get distracted by delivering pizzas or packages or all sorts of other things that other companies are doing.”

For now, Risher and Lyft are focusing on the all-important summer travel season.

Another update unveiled Thursday helps customers get out the door to the airport at the best time by syncing their flight info from their smartphone calendar into their Lyft app to get reminders about booking airport rides. Risher told reporters Thursday that the basic idea for this arose because he and his wife could never agree on the best time to leave for the airport.

“Our focus right now as summer travel begins is really de-stressing the airport experience in particular,” Risher told CNN.

Risher demurred when asked if Lyft would be an independent company a year from now, after many industry-watchers initially thought news of his appointment was aimed at positioning the company for a sale.

“It’s not our focus to be part of somebody else’s company,” Risher said.

Uber may be outpacing Lyft today, but Risher believes customers are best served by having both companies around.

“My view is every single person who’s a rider should have both apps on their phone, I really believe that, because sometimes you want a choice,” he added, “but then we want you to choose Lyft, and the reason we want you to choose Lyft is because we think we can provide a better experience.”

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April 12, 2021