Investigator-in-charge John Lovell examines the area where the plane's door plug had been.
National Transportation Safety Board
Both Alaska and United Airlines reported quarterly losses this week.
But the airlines' bosses said they would've turned profits if it weren't for Boeing's door plug fiasco.
Alaska said it received $162 million from Boeing in compensation for the damages.
The Boeing door blowout in January tanked Alaska Airlines' first quarter earnings — and it's not the only airline to have been hurt by the incident.
Alaska said Thursday its results were "significantly impacted" by the door plug blowout and subsequent grounding of its fleet of 737-9 MAX planes.
Alaska reported losses of $132 million in Q1. But, excluding the grounding impacts, the company said it would have posted $5 million in adjusted income before taxes.
Alaska said it received $162 million from Boeing as "initial cash compensation" for the damages.
"Despite significant challenges to start the year our results have far exceeded initial expectations," CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement.
In addition to Alaska Airlines, United Airlines also reported significant losses that it said were related to the door plug incident. The airline said Tuesday its Q1 results were down $200 million because of the Boeing grounding — without which it said it would have turned a profit.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The Military Sealift Command maritime prepositioning ship USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo is anchored during a routine port visit to the Marathi NATO Pier Facility in Souda Bay.
Petty Officer 3rd Class John Martinez
A US Navy ship deployed to help build a floating pier in Gaza returned home after an engine fire.
USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo deployed to transport equipment to operate the temporary port.
The US plans to use the pier three miles off the coast to deliver more aid into war-torn Gaza.
The Navy revealed that one of the ships it deployed to support the mission of building a pier to deliver aid to starving residents in Gaza was forced to turn back last week after it suffered a fire in its engine room.
The incident comes as the Pentagon's self-imposed deadline of having the pier operational and delivering the needed aid by May rapidly approaches, and experts say there are other delays and problems cropping up with the mission.
The USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo "experienced a fire in the engine room while in transit to the eastern Mediterranean Sea" on April 11, and while the crew evacuated the area and used portable extinguishers to put out the fire, the ship had to return to Jacksonville, Florida, using just one engine, "for further assessment," according to a Navy statement provided Wednesday.
When the Pentagon first announced the plan to use the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, platform to construct the pier that would serve as a way to quickly deliver large amounts of aid to war-torn Gaza in early March, spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the pier would be operational in the next 60 days.
An M1A1 Abrams tank is off-loaded from the USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo off the shore of Pohang, Republic of Korea.
Cpl. Mark W. Stroud
Shortly after that announcement, a group of five Army ships left for the Mediterranean, followed by the MV Roy P. Benavidez, a military sealift command vessel that was carrying "heavy equipment and material needed to construct a temporary pier," according to a statement.
Finally, in late March, the Navy said that it would deploy Naval Beach Group 1 along with the Bobo and the USNS 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez. The unit and the ships would bring enough watercraft and equipment to operate a huge floating dock three miles off the coast of Gaza that would serve as the off-load point for aid.
Now, more than a month later, not all of the ships in the flotilla have made it to the Mediterranean, a tracker run by USNI News shows.
Sal Mercogliano, an academic and shipping expert, noted to Military.com on Wednesday that one of the Army Landing Craft Utility ships, the Wilson Wharf, seems to be stuck in Tenerife — a small island that is part of the Canary Islands cluster off the west coast of Africa. Plus, the Army's Logistics Support Vessel General Frank S. Besson spent a week in the Azores before finally making it to the Navy's base at Souda Bay in Greece.
USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo and USNS Pililaau anchor off the coast of Pohang, Republic of Korea.
US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua Fulton/Released
Mercogliano said such a long stay may indicate the ship had an engineering issue.
A retired Army chief warrant officer who has significant experience in the Army's watercraft community also told Military.com in an interview Wednesday that "if those boats don't have multiple major mechanical failures — I mean 'dead in the water' mechanical failures — I will be shocked."
"They're horrendously maintained. I've got videos of these things falling apart," the retired officer added.
According to the officer, the delays of the Bobo and the smaller Army ships mean "they're going to have a lot fewer pieces to work with as far as building the actual pier."
"The other rub point … is security arrangements," the officer said, noting that "these boats have next to no security."
"You've got a couple of .50 cals and small arms … and the vessel masters are not taught maritime tactics," the officer explained.
Australian dock workers secure USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo while members of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Australian Defence Force begin offloading.
Cpl. Scott Reel
When asked about the safety of the vessels, Ryder told reporters Tuesday that there will be "some Israeli support when it comes to the maritime aspect of security" and noted that the Navy's 6th Fleet has "capabilities there as well."
Ryder also added some nuance to the 60-day goal that he laid out at the beginning of March.
The Pentagon spokesman told reporters that the Defense Department is "still on track to have JLOTS achieve operating capability by the end of the month or early May" but went on to draw a distinction between an initial operational capability and full operational capability.
"Right now, we're tracking that it will be operational, which means it will have some initial operating capability, by the end of the month or early May," he said.
Ryder said the construction of the two piers will probably begin "in the next two to three weeks."
Pichai said the changes, which include merging different parts of the company, would help Google "simplify decisions" and move faster.
This includes further merging its central AI teams. Last year, Google combined Brain, a group that sat within its AI Research group, with DeepMind to form a new super-unit that would be laser-focused on building AI models.
On Thursday, Pichai said that teams within Research that work on building AI models will also merge with Google DeepMind. The Responsible AI teams, which develop rules for safely and ethically developing AI, will also move from Research to Google DeepMind, he said.
All told, it gives more control to Demis Hassabis, who leads Google DeepMind. Before last year's merger, Hassabis ran DeepMind at arm's length from Google — a distance he had long fought to maintain — and now he is front and center of the company's AI push.
Hassabis has quickly become Google's MVP, with his unit developing AI models such as Gemini that are helping the company compete with OpenAI and other encroaching competitors. He's also helping turn those models into products.
Interestingly, Pichai said this change should help by "concentrating compute-intensive model building in one place." That may also help with a problem that has been getting worse inside Google for a while: the fight for computing resources.
Rick Osterloh on stage at Google I/O 2023
Jeff Chiu/AP
Google's Pixel chief also gains more power
Google is also merging two of its large product units together. The devices and services group, which oversees hardware products such as the Pixel devices and Fitbit wearables, will merge with the part of the business that runs Android and Chrome.
That's big: these are two huge organizations that are now being pulled together under the banner of "Platforms and Devices." Rick Osterloh, who previously oversaw hardware, will oversee both groups. Hiroshi Lockheimer, who ran the Android and Chrome group, will remain at Google but run other projects across the company, Pichai said.
Sameer Samat has also been promoted to "President of Android Ecosystems" and will work with all of Google's Android partners. He'll be crucial in maintaining the firewall between the Pixel and Android groups, which has long served as a way not to let Google give its hardware special treatment over rivals (a firewall Osterloh promised The Verge would remain in place).
Expect more restructuring to come as Google continues to reshape itself around AI.
On Wednesday, Google's finance chief Ruth Porat informed staff in the finance group that there would be a reorg resulting in some job cuts, BI first reported. Porat said the changes were being made as the company realigns its priorities around AI, per an employee who saw the memo.
Are you a current or former Google employee with insight to share? Reach this reporter securely on Signal (628-228-1836).
Signs outside Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's office in West Columbia, South Carolina in February, 2024.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Conservatives are fleeing blue states in favor of red states.
And South Carolina is one of the fastest growing states for newcomers.
Conservatives are fed up with the cost of living, and the politics, in blue states.
Conservatives are flocking en masse from blue states to one Republican stronghold in particular: South Carolina.
Between 2017 and 2021, about a third of South Carolina's new arrivals came from blue stateswhile a quarter came from red statesand the rest came from divided states or outside the US, according to US Census Data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
And the majority of those newcomers — about 57% — are Republican, the Journal reported, citing data from a nonpartisan voter file vendor called L2.
In 2022, the top 10 states people moved to South Carolina from were North Carolina, Georgia, New York, California, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, and Maryland, according to US Census Data reviewed by The State.
Conservative Move, a real estate company with about 500 agents across the country, helps conservatives find homes near like-minded people — and South Carolina is becoming a big draw.
The group's founder Paul Chabot told Business Insider that while Texas and Florida are consistently the top locations his conservative clients choose to move to, South Carolina is the fastest growing. In the last two years, he said he's seen a big spike in Americans wanting to relocate to South Carolina specifically. Currently, he said, about 5,000 of his clients are considering moving to the state soon.
A lot of his clients are coming from places like California, Washington state, and Oregon, he said.
Chabot said the people his company helps relocate are fed up with living in Democratic-controlled states where liberal policies are making daily life less affordable — policies like, he said, the new $20 minimum wage law for fast food workers in California.
Conservatives' sense of safety is another major factor in their decisions to move away from liberal enclaves, Chabot said.
"They want to live in areas where they know that they're going to feel safe, that there's going to be a police response, that the police are respected," Chabot added.
One South Carolina real-estate agent based in Spartanburg, Brad Liles, told The New York Times that he and his colleagues have started calling the flood of Republican homebuyers in the state "the great migration."
A typical home in South Carolina sold for about $281,000, according to Zillow's median home price data as of February. By comparison, Zillow reported California's median home sale price at about $673,000, while Washington state's was about $526,000. South Carolina even has an edge above Texas and Florida, where the median sale price of a home for the same time period was about $316,000 and $363,000, respectively, according to Zillow.
It's not just about affordability. It's also about being surrounded by like-minded conservatives, some South Carolina transplants told the Times.
"When I walked inside banks or stores or schools, there was always Christian music playing in the background," Lina Brock, a conservative who recently moved from California to Greenville, South Carolina, told the Times about her new city. "I felt good, I felt welcomed. I felt like I was in the United States."
But the arrival of new residents to Greenville, in particular, has driven up housing prices, pricing out many longtime Black residents, the Times reported. Since 1990, Greenville's Black population has declined 22%, according to a 2023 study from Furman University. By comparison, the city's total population has increased 21% in the same time period, the Times reported.
Chabot said blue states need to take a page out of red states' playbook.
"States right now are really competing with each other for population," Chabot said. "And so if these blue states want to get better, then they need to look at what red states are doing to retain their populations and their businesses."
Some blue states are experiencing a loss of residents — in 2022, for example, California saw a net loss of over 300,000 residents, Forbes reported, citing census data, while Washington state had a net loss of about 15,000 residents, The Columbian reported, also off census numbers.
Some savvier readers will stop reading here because Some People On The Internet are always upset and if you read about everything that makes them upset, you'll never have time to do anything else.
But if you're still with me (thank you!), here's the deal: See these evocative images?
Well, 1) none of them are actually from the movie, and 2) supposedly, A24, the indie movie studio that made "Civil War," used AI to help generate them.
And to address those criticisms, I'd say 1) who cares? And 2) who cares?
But if you're still here: 1) It's weird that people who like movies from A24, whose brand is "arty but still accessible to lots of people" (think "Ex Machina" and "Midsommar") — are upset about movie marketing that's not 100% based on actual movie footage.
When did that literalism become a requirement? Is there a new law, or even a new ethos, that I missed? Because it certainly wasn't the case in the past.
I think the best complaint you could make might be, "Hey, these posters make it look like it's a video game-like movie featuring combat all over the United States, but, actually, the movie only (SPOILER ALERT) has one big video game-like combat scene, and it's in Washington, DC."
So, OK, then. If you want to get some sense of what "Civil War" is like, you can just stick to the trailer, which does feature Actual Scenes from the movie:
And 2) If we're going to have a real discussion about AI and how it should and shouldn't be used in art and commerce, we gotta grow up a bit.
AI may definitely be an issue for both movie-makers and movie consumers, and we'll be talking about it for a long time. But A24 obviously didn't create the marketing campaign and art from scratch — at best/worst, the team that created it may have used AI engines to help generate some of the images. But I'm using a MacBook to type this instead of a hot metal typesetter, and you're reading it on a screen instead of newsprint. It's going to be OK.
PS: If you do see this movie — it is very intense, and it may not be for you, and that's fine — make sure you see it in a theater, and one that has great sound. I've never heard sound like this in a movie.
These days, cadres of well-heeled and health-obsessed clients are flocking to longevity clinics: Centers that offer everything from genetic testing to cocktails of supplements.
"The best longevity advice is something only the rich have access to today," Matt Fellowes, an advisory council member at the Stanford Center on Longevity and cofounder of health insights platform BellSant, told Business Insider by email.
Consumer spending on wellness products and services has risen since the pandemic, contributing to a $5.6 trillion wellness market, according to the Global Wellness Institute. The unfortunate reality, however, is that many people could be wasting time and money on products or services that will never materially help them, Fellowes said.
One of the few exceptions is high-end longevity clinics that offer science-based and highly personalized guidance — though they're inaccessible to most people.
Even at its priciest tiers, the longevity space is not regulated, however, and even top clinics offer unproven treatments alongside methods accepted by the medical community. Still, the uber-rich are flocking to these clinics hoping to extend their lives by a few years.
Here's a look at some of the most exclusive longevity resorts around the world.
Hooke, a longevity center in London, says “early intervention can treat the vast majority of diseases.”
Hooke's mission is to treat chronic diseases via prevention by administering an advanced roster of diagnostic tests to clients.
Hooke
To that end, Hooke has developed what it says is "the world's most advanced health screening" to create continually evolving and personalized longevity plans for its clients.
It offers around 20 assessments ranging from a four-part MRI to bone density tests to whole genomic sequencing and cognitive assessments.
"Using long-term data from individual medical, fitness, nutritional and cognitive assessments, our programmes build a comprehensive and holistic 'big picture' view of wellness risks and weaknesses — providing the basis for evolving lifestyle and medical recommendations," Kate Woolhouse, Hooke's CEO, wrote to Business Insider by email.
And Hooke offers three tiers of membership to clients. Its popular Healthspan Membership is close to $40,000 a year. It comes with Hooke's extensive roster of diagnostic tests, bespoke nutrition plans, access to a scientific advisory board, proprietary supplements, and an Oura ring — just a glimpse at what is included with membership.
Hooke's clients range in age from 23 to 70, with an average age of 50, but over the past year, the center has seen an increase in clientele in their 30s, Woolhouse said.
Clinique La Prairie sits in a small resort town on coast of Lake Geneva, and is known as one of the world’s premier longevity destinations.
Clinique La Prairie's seven-day premium revitalization package might give you sticker shock at more than $50,000.
Its premium revitalization package — a seven-day, six-night experience recommended for those ages 35 and up — includes longevity consultations, sleep quality assessments, DNA tests, personalized nutrition guidance, and personal training sessions, according to the program brochure.
And that's just a smattering of the full program, which also comes with luxury accommodations, limousine service, access to the clinic's steam room, pool, sauna, and zero-gravity floating bed — where patrons can "dry float" and listen to sounds for stress relief, according to its brochure.
The program "stimulates cell regeneration, fights the signs and causes of aging, and reinforces the immune system through a four-pillared approach of medicine, nutrition, well-being and movement," a spokesperson for Clinique La Prairie told Business Insider by email.
Prices for this one luxurious week (in a room with a balcony and view of Lake Geneva) start at $53,000.
At Six Senses, a luxury resort in Ibiza, clients can book one-day, three-day, or seven-day programs through its longevity center, RoseBar.
Part of the appeal of RoseBar's most popular longevity treatments, like intravenous infusions, is the instant gratification factor.
RoseBar at Six Senses Ibiza
The seven-day program — about $4,700 per person, excluding accommodations and meals — includes advanced diagnostic tests, comprehensive wellness screenings, spa treatments, yoga classes, energy medicine sessions, and biohacking therapies, according to its website.
Some of the most popular treatments include intravenous infusions like "Ozone Therapy," which is said to increase oxygen levels in the body and help enhance cellular function, Dr. Tamsin Lewis, RoseBar's medical advisor, told Business Insider.
"The direct delivery of certain nutrients via the bloodstream serves to have an instant impact on vitality whilst forming part of a broader approach to living well for longer," Lewis said. One of the immediate benefits from Ozone Therapy is a visible change in blood color due to increased oxygen levels, and in the long-term, the treatment can help support immune function, Lewis said.
Lewis said she has seen an uptick in clients seeking longevity treatments in recent years in the "pursuit of wellness as a new luxury."
The Well is a chain of wellness centers with locations in New York, Connecticut, Cabo, and Costa Rica.
The Well at Hacienda AltaGracia in Costa Rica offers clients a four-day longevity retreat program that starts at close to $3,000 a person.
The Well
The Well's longevity-focused offerings include customized IV drips, infrared sauna sessions, cold plunges, and health coaching sessions.
The resort's four-day retreat program — around $3,000 per person — includes a series of longevity-boosting practices, including various types of bodywork and well-being consultations, according to a spokesperson for The Well.
Guests at Hacienda AltaGracia can also book immersive experiences in the nearby Blue Zone on the Nicoya Peninsula.
The growing interest in these types of exclusive longevity treatments has dovetailed with a spike in wellness tourism, a trend that's picked up among wealthy travelers in the past few years, as some of them forgo all-night clubs and beach parties in favor of spirituality retreats and resorts that prioritize personal care.
"While travel overall has started leveling out since the post-COVID boom, all the trends point to continued growth for demand in wellness travel," Megan Mulholland, The Well's vice president of Brand & Marketing, told BI.
Lanserhof Lans, located in the Eastern Alps, is not a longevity clinic for the faint of heart.
Lanserhof Lans' programs include several medical examinations as part of the center's aim to help patients achieve "thorough regeneration of the intestines to revitalize the vital forces."
ALEXANDER HAIDEN for the Lanserhof
The central focus of Lanserhof — launched in 1984 — is "the thorough regeneration of the intestines to revitalize the vital forces," according to its website. It relies on detoxification, purification, and deacidification programs that draw upon holistic medicine, psychology, and modern medicine to achieve this revitalization.
"The first days here are not easy with the diet — guests can sleep all day or have headaches," Dr. Katharina Sandtner, Lanserhof's medical director, told Forbes. "A few days later, energy comes back and this good energy stays with you for a very long time. It's incredible."
But the "good energy" comes at a cost. The one-week "Cure Classic" program, the center's most basic offering, starts at a little above $3,000 a person, excluding accommodations. The program includes numerous medical examinations, a body composition test, urine analysis, therapeutic massages, detox treatments, hydrotherapy treatments, medical lectures, group exercise, and relaxation therapies, according to the Lanserhof Lans program brochure.
The center's offerings are as extensive as a two-week long-COVID package that's aimed at guests who are struggling with the effects of COVID. The more than $5,200 package includes seven different medical examinations, respiratory therapies, foot reflexology, altitude training sessions, and group relaxation and exercise sessions to achieve "physical, mental and spiritual regeneration right down to the core," according to the brochure.
"Minus the hunger headaches, the experience is healing in every sense of the word," one patient wrote of the Long-COVID treatment program in Allure. Lanserhof Lans didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
You can book a high-tech longevity experience for $44,000 at the Four Seasons Maui.
The Longevity Protocol at the Four Seasons offers four advanced treatments that are designed to boost overall vitality.
Marianna Jamadi/Getty Images
Four Seasons Resort Maui guests can experience an elaborate multi-day longevity package, the Longevity Protocol, for $44,000. Since it launched last year, it has drawn at least half a dozen people, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The program — developed in partnership with longevity company NEXT|HEALTH — consists of four hour-long sessions designed to boost overall vitality by improving cellular communication and blood oxygenation and recharging the cell's powerhouses. Guests are recommended to spread the sessions out over three to four days.
"We're seeing increased interest from our patients in enhancing their longevity while on vacation and focusing more on their long-term health," Dr. Darshan Shah, NEXT|HEALTH's CEO, founder, medical director, and designer of the Longevity Protocol, told BI.
"Longevity treatments work better when you are in a relaxed state of mind, with minimal inflammation internally," he said.
Prosecutors allege that Trump lied on the documents to cover up hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
At times he was sleepy, with his eyes closed for minutes at a time. More often he was caught with a scowl. Occasionally, he was caught with a smile.
Here are some of those sketches:
On day one of his trial, Trump took the opportunity to smile at the pool of prospective jurors
In this courtroom sketch, former President Donald Trump smiles to the jury pool as he is introduced to them at the beginning of his New York criminal trial.
Jane Rosenberg/Pool Photo via AP
Before Trump headed into the courtroom for the opening of the trial, he slammed the case against him as "political persecution"
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is presiding over Donald Trump's criminal trial.
Jane Rosenberg/Pool Photo via AP
Trump's hush-money trial is expected to last for six weeks and he's complained that it's preventing him from hitting the campaign trail
In this courtroom sketch, former President Donald Trump turns to face the audience at his New York criminal trial.
Jane Rosenberg/Pool Photo via AP
And it'll be a long six weeks — reporters in the courtroom noted that Trump appeared to doze off, at times, during the slogging process of jury selection
Trump was sleepy in court at the start of jury selection in his Manhattan hush money trial.
REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
Trump was highly alert when New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan chastised him on April 16, warning him against intimidating potential jurors
In this courtroom sketch, former President Donald Trump is surrounded by his attorneys, court security and Secret Service seated behind him, during jury selection in his New York criminal trial.
REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
"He was gesturing and muttering something…He was speaking in the direction of the juror. I will not tolerate that," Merchan told Trump's lead lawyer, Todd Blanche
Former President Donald Trump sat while his lawyer Todd Blanche spoke during the second day of jury selection in his hush-money criminal trial.
Christine Cornell via AP, Pool
At times, Trump had to sit by and listen as his attorneys complained about anti-Trump social media posts made by juror prospects
In this courtroom sketch, former President Donald Trump attends the jury selection of his hush-money criminal trial in New York.
REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
By April 18, two of the seven jurors that had been empaneled in the trial were dismissed
Trump rarely smiled in court as jurors were picked for his trial.
Iranian Navy soldiers at an armed speed boat in Persian Gulf near the strait of Hormuz about 1320km (820 miles) south of Tehran, April 2019.
Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images
An Iranian ship suspected of providing intelligence to the Houthis is sailing home.
The MV Behshad spent several months near Yemen as the Houthis launched attacks.
Shipping data shows its back near Iran as Tehran braces for a potential Israeli retaliation.
An Iranian cargo ship that is suspected of having provided targeting information and intelligence to the Houthis for their Red Sea attacks appears to have sailed home this week.
The MV Behshad's return to Iran comes as the country braces for possible Israeli retaliation over Tehran's unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend.
The vessel has been at sea for nearly three years and spent several months earlier this year lingering near Yemen. But on Wednesday, it was seen sailing in the Gulf of Oman off Iran's coast, and it crossed the strategic Straight of Hormuz early on Thursday, according to ship tracking data reviewed by Business Insider.
The Behshad's destination is listed as the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on MarineTraffic.com, and the latest tracking data from Thursday afternoon local time shows that the vessel is in the general vicinity of the city.
Though it left its position near Yemen earlier this month, the Behshad did not broadcast its location until a few days ago, when it appeared on ship tracking sites off the coast of Iran, according to Bloomberg, which first reported on the vessel's movement.
In this handout photo provided by the Houthi media center, fighters participate in a military exercise on March 17, 2024, in Sana'a, Yemen.
Photo by Houthi Movement via Getty Images
While it was lingering around waters near the coast of Yemen, the Behshad is suspected of having provided intelligence to the Houthis that allowed them to locate and target commercial vessels in key international shipping lanes, NBC News reported. The Iranian vessel was also reportedly the target of a US cyberattack in early February.
The Houthis, which are supported and armed by Iran, have been firing missiles and drones at vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for months. US Navy warships operating in the region have intercepted many of these threats, although some of the munitions have managed to hit commercial vessels in transit.
Iranian officials have denied any involvement in the Houthis' campaign.
The Behshad's relocation to waters closer to home provides a certain degree of safety to the suspected intelligence asset, which might otherwise be a target of Israeli retaliation. An attack on a ship of this kind would not be a first for Israel. Back in 2021, its forces used a mine to strike an Iranian military vessel in the Red Sea.
The redeployment comes just days after Israeli officials vowed to retaliate for Iran's attack last weekend.
This undated photograph released by the US military's Central Command shows what it is described as a vessel that carried Iranian-made missile components bound for the Houthis in the Arabian Sea.
US Central Command via AP
Tehran and its proxies launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel, nearly all of which were shot down by the country and partner forces in the region, including the US military. The massive barrage came days after an Israeli airstrike in Syria that killed several high-ranking Iranian military officials.
Israel's Western partners have called for the country to show restraint in its response to Iran, warning that any retaliation risks an all-out military confrontation with Tehran and could plunge the Middle East even further into violence.
"We have to ask Israel for a restrained answer to the Iranians' attack. We cannot escalate," the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Thursday. "We cannot go step by step, answering every time higher to a regional war."
"I do not want to exaggerate," he said, "but we are on the edge of a regional war in the Middle East, which will be sending shockwaves to the rest of the world, and in particular to Europe."
Iranian officials have said that Tehran will respond to any retaliation.
House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Bob Good, a Virginia Republican, is seen here hopefully not smelling the caucus' FART team.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
House conservatives have organized a crack team to monitor to potential ways to undermine their power.
The House Freedom Caucus has formed a Floor Action Response Team.
Yes, they called it FART.
The far-right House Freedom Caucus has formed a crack team of conservative lawmakers to monitor the House floor lest Speaker Mike Johnson or other Republicans try to limit their power.
Naturally, the band of rabble-rousers that loves generating headlines for its members has called the group the Floor Action Response Team or FART. Because, why not?
According to Politico, this group will make sure that no other Republicans try to rush through changes that would make it harder for lawmakers to oust Johnson from power or that would strip three Freedom Caucus members of a powerful perch they all hold. The publication reported that the Freedom Caucus does not expect any such maneuvers but is remaining vigilant just in case any of their colleagues try to be silent but deadly to their cause.
Conservatives' tensions with Johnson have surged since the $1.2 trillion government funding bill to avert a partial shutdown. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and former Freedom Caucus member, filed a motion to potentially remove Johnson from power in response to the funding bill. The situation has only grown worse after Johnson made clear he would allow the House to vote on additional US aid to Ukraine.
Greene could force a vote on Johnson's future at any time. Earlier this week, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican with a libertarian bent, became the first Republican to pledge to join Greene's effort publicly. Massie is also not a member of the Freedom Caucus, whose membership is technically secret, but he does support many of the caucus' broader aims.
The team does not appear to be a new creation. The X account PatriotTakes, which frequently trolls Republicans, posted a clip in 2022 of Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican and Freedom Caucus member, discussing a FART team.
"Myself and other members of members of the House Freedom Caucus, we have a Floor Action Response Team," Boebert said during an appearance on a Blaze Media show. "F-A-R-T, I'm a mother of four boys, I can appreciate that."
Kevin McCarthy is partially responsible for the stink.
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy initially resisted setting the "motion to vacate" at the threshold of just a single lawmaker before reversing himself to wrap up the votes to what ultimately became his doomed speakership. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida made history by successfully using the motion to vacate to force McCarthy's ouster. Gaetz teamed up with seven other House Republicans and House Democrats to boot McCarthy from power.
FART is also worried that more centrist GOP lawmakers could move to strip Massie, Rep. Chip Roy, and Ralph Norman from the powerful House Rules Committee. In another McCarthy-era concession, Republicans allowed the three conservative lawmakers to serve on the panel responsible for determining how most legislation reaches the floor. In recent weeks, the trio has increasingly used their power to effectively block Johnson from carrying out his agenda.
On Wednesday evening, Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who represents a swing district, said the three lawmakers should either resign from the panel or be formally removed by their colleagues.
"They are there on behalf of the conference, not themselves," Lawler wrote on X.
Russian hackers are suspected of causing a Texas town's water tank to overflow earlier this year.
Cybersecurity experts say the likely culprit is Sandworm, a Russian hacking group.
The US has also previously accused Sandworm of attacks in 2017 on hospitals in Pennsylvania.
In January, a Texas town's water tank suddenly started overflowing, spewing a torrent of water to the ground below.
The deluge was contained within an hour. But it's raising concerns this week, after the cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Wednesday that Russian hackers were likely behind it.
Mandiant, which is owned by Google, attributed the attack in Muleshoe, Texas to Sandworm, a Russian hacking group.
Mandiant called the group a "dynamic and operationally mature threat actor that is actively engaged in the full spectrum of espionage, attack, and influence operations."
Security experts said they believed the group was likely connected to the Russian spy agency, GRU. While most state-backed "threat groups" specialize in specific areas, like collecting intelligence or network sabotage, Sandworm stands alone in trying to unify each capability into one full package, Mandiant reported.
Hackers calling themselves the Cyber Army of Russia Reborn — a group that Mandiant linked to Sandworm — have claimed credit for the attack. They posted a video to Telegram of themselves manipulating Muleshoe's water system, showing how they overpowered it and reset the controls, according to The Washington Post.
If validated, this would mark the first attack on a public American infrastructure system by this group, according to the Post. US officials blamed Iran for a separate attack on water systems in Pennsylvania last November, according to CNN.
Ramon Sanchez, Muleshoe's city manager, told CNN that the city's water tank overflowed for about 30 to 35 minutes.
Authorities have previously blamed Sandworm, which has gone by different names over the years, for various attacks around the world, including on Ukraine's power grid and on the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea.
The Justice Department also accused the men of creating a virus called NotPetya, which caused $10 billion in damage to computers worldwide, shutting down the power grid in Ukraine, and taking down the computer systems belonging to a chain of Western Pennsylvania hospitals.