Month: January 2023

Man Crushed to Death Under Outdoor Urinal in London

LONDON—A pop-up urinal crushed a man to death in London’s theater district Friday, police said. Firefighters used a winch to free the man after he became trapped under a hydraulic urinal at Cambridge Circus, a busy intersection in the city’s West End. The Metropolitan Police force said the man “is thought to have sustained crush…


Lawsuits in North Carolina Plane Crash That Killed 8 Settled for $15 Million

The families of five passengers killed in a 2022 plane crash off the North Carolina coast have settled wrongful death lawsuits against the companies that owned the plane and employed the pilot and the pilot’s estate for $15 million, family representatives announced Friday. All eight people aboard the Pilatus PC-12/47 died when it descended into…


Germany’s Defense Fund Not Enough, Sending Fighter Jets ‘Ruled Out’: Defense Minister

BERLIN—Germany’s 100 billion euro ($108 billion) special defense fund is no longer enough to cover its needs, the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung published on Friday. Pistorius, who took office last week after his predecessor resigned, said Germany would also need to raise its annual regular defense spending…


US Treasury Sanctions Chinese Firm Supplying Intelligence to Russia

A Chinese satellite manufacturer was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday for supplying satellite imagery to Russia for the Ukraine war. A further investigation has revealed deep relations between the Chinese firm and the Chinese state-owned defense industry. Spacety, or Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co. Ltd., has allegedly provided satellite images…


Green Comet Zooming Our Way, Last Visited 50,000 Years Ago

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—A comet is streaking back our way after 50,000 years. The dirty snowball will come within 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) of Earth Wednesday before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years. So do look up, contrary to the title of the killer-comet movie “Don’t Look Up.” Discovered less…


AmEx Profits Fall 9 Percent as Customers Fall Behind on Payments

NEW YORK—American Express saw its fourth-quarter profits fall by 9 percent, as the credit card giant had to set aside significantly more money to cover potentially bad loans. The company saw charge offs and delinquencies rise, a troubling sign for a company whose customer base is usually well-to-do and extremely creditworthy. But the company did…


Utah Legislature Votes to Ban Transgender Surgeries and Puberty Blockers for Children

Utah lawmakers voted on Friday to ban most youth from receiving transgender surgery and puberty blockers. The bill, SB16, passed the state Senate with a vote of 20–8; two Republican state senators joined with the chamber’s six Democrats in voting against the bill. Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has ten days to decide whether to…


Walmart, CVS Health Adjust Pharmacy Hours Amid Labor Crunch

Walmart Inc. said on Friday it would adjust working hours for its U.S. pharmacy team and implement it nationwide in 4,600 locations, with drugstore operator CVS Health Corp. doing the same for about two-thirds of its retail pharmacies, amid a tight labor market. The United States has been experiencing a nationwide labor shortage since the…


Chevron Annual Profit Hits Record but Q4 Miss Hits Shares

HOUSTON—Chevron Corp. on Friday posted a record $36.5 billion profit for 2022 that was more than double year-earlier earnings, but the bottom line fell shy of Wall Street estimates, undercut by asset writedowns and rising costs. The second largest U.S. oil producer’s adjusted net profit for 2022 exceeded its previous record set in 2011 by…


FTX Opposes New Bankruptcy Investigation as It Probes Bankman-Fried Connections

ZURICH/LONDON—FTX has objected to a U.S. Department of Justice request for an independent investigation into the once-prominent crypto exchange’s collapse, saying it is already conducting a wide-ranging probe that includes family members of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX said in a court filing in Wilmington, Delaware, late on Wednesday that the DOJ’s proposed review would…