A “weird” river in the Himalayas may have pushed the peak of Mount Everest up by 164 feet (50 meters), scientists say.
According to a new study, a river roughly 46 miles (75 kilometers) from Everest was “captured” by another around 89,000 years ago. The erosion from this event carved away a huge gorge, leading to a loss of landmass that made the mountain experience a major growth spurt.
Few areas of the country are as steeped in history, architecture, culture, and outright revelry as New Orleans. It’s a tourist draw year-round. The compact French Quarter, boasting 500 eateries and 100 attractions, gained plaudits from a recent study naming the district the country’s most walkable.
That, of course, isn’t true for everyone—especially Americans with disabilities, mobility or otherwise. With the city set to host the Super Bowl on February 9, its eleventh, local advocates and leaders hope they can use the big game as a catalyst for change, and improve the city so that everyone can enjoy it.
More than 90,000 residents east of Atlanta were told to keep sheltering in place Monday a day after a chemical plant fire sent a massive plume of dark smoke high into the sky that could been seen for miles.
The haze and chemical smell had spread to Atlanta by Monday morning, prompting firefighters to use detectors to check the quality of air in various parts of the city, Mayor Andre Dickens said.
Closer to the source of the fire, officials said chlorine, a harmful irritant, had been detected in the air from the fire at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Georgia, the Rockdale County government said in statement early Monday. The plant is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Atlanta.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Visa, accusing the company of monopolizing debit network markets in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Visa’s dominance in the debit network markets has allowed it to maintain a monopoly through exclusionary and anticompetitive conduct, undermining choice and innovation in payment systems.
According to the complaint, Visa controls over 60% of debit transactions in the United States, generating more than $7 billion in fees annually from processing these transactions. The Justice Department claims Visa illegally uses its dominance to stifle competition by imposing restrictive agreements on merchants and banks, penalizing them for using alternative debit networks. These practices allegedly protect Visa’s market position and prevent the growth of smaller, lower-priced competitors.
“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything.”
A federal court in the Northern District of Illinois has permanently enjoined Sir Michael Joseph Davenport, a tax preparer from Joliet, Illinois, and his company, My Unity Tax Financial & Tax Preparation LLC (My Unity Tax), from preparing federal tax returns for others.
Davenport is also barred from owning or operating any tax return preparation businesses in the future. The permanent injunction was agreed to by Davenport and his business.
The civil complaint filed in this case alleges that Davenport and My Unity Tax prepared false and fraudulent federal tax returns with the intent to reduce customers’ tax liabilities or obtain undeserved tax refunds. The complaint claims that Davenport and his company regularly reported fictitious businesses, minimal or no income, and fabricated or manipulated expenses on customers’ tax returns to fraudulently reduce taxable income. According to the complaint, many of these businesses did not exist.
The US is planning to ban certain hardware and software made in China and Russia from cars, trucks, and buses in the US due to security risks.
Officials said they were worried that the technology in question, used for autonomous driving and to connect cars to other networks could allow enemies to “remotely manipulate cars on American roads”.
There is currently minimal use of Chinese or Russian-made software in American cars.
But Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the plans were “targeted, proactive” steps to protect the US.
SpaceX sent a letter to top congressional leaders on Wednesday denying allegations that it violated its launch licenses on two separate occasions last year, which has resulted in regulators seeking $633,009 in penalties from the company.
Instead, the company asserts that the inability of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) to process “relatively minor” license updates is further proof that the agency is unable to keep pace with the space industry’s — but chiefly SpaceX’s — rapid growth.
Apple Intelligence took another major step toward mainstream availability Thursday with the launch of the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 public betas.
Starting Thursday, those who are enrolled in Apple’s public beta program will be able to experience the generative AI-fueled platform the company has been talking up since June.
For the time being, Apple Intelligence is only available in U.S. English. The feature is also indefinitely unavailable in both the EU and the People’s Republic of China, owing to regulatory hurdles. Those in the States can access the feature with the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and any member of the newly unveiled iPhone 16 line.
Elon Musk’s sprawling empire — spanning everything from electric vehicles and social media to space rockets and miniature brain implants — may soon make him the world’s first trillionaire.
Musk’s business success has made him one of the most influential — and controversial — people in the world. The Tesla boss is already the richest person on the planet, with a fortune estimated at nearly $250 billion.
Now, Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire, a milestone that Informa Connect Academy says he’s on track to hit by 2027.
Informa notes that Musk’s net worth has been growing rapidly at an average rate of 110% per year, making him the “clear favorite” to hit the $1 trillion first.
Musk does face competition though.
Brexit is having “profound and ongoing stifling effects” on goods trade between the United Kingdom and the European Union, according to a new report that adds to evidence of the economic damage wrought by Britain’s exit from the world’s largest trading bloc.
Researchers at Aston University in England estimated that between 2021 and 2023, annual UK exports of goods to the EU were 17% lower than they would have been had Brexit never happened. Exports in most sectors have decreased since 2021, according to the report.
“The study highlights that the negative impacts of (Brexit) have intensified over time, with 2023 showing more pronounced trade declines than previous years,” the researchers wrote in the paper published Tuesday.
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