On Sunday, Lufthansa Airlines CEO Jens Ritter announced on LinkedIn the delivery of the airline's first-ever Allegris-equipped airplane — an Airbus A350, registered D-AIXT and nicknamed Leipzig.
The airline said it would start flying the A350 and Allegris on select flights to North America in May, first to Vancouver and then to Toronto.
Lufthansa told the Runway Girl Network on Monday that these routes would be part of "the introductory phase, lasting several months." Routes to the US — the first planned to Chicago — are set to begin by "late summer 2024," the airline told RTN.
The rollout will touch economy, premium economy, and business class. A first-class cabin is also planned, but Lufthansa told RTN that supplier challenges have delayed its launch until late 2024.
Lufthansa did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Here's a closer look at Lufthansa's new Allegris cabin design, featuring everything from double beds to minibars.
Lufthansa first announced Allegris in 2017, but at the time planned to launch the new cabin on the Boeing 777X — not the A350.
A Lufthansa Airbus A350 airplane, which is set to sport the new Allegris cabin.
Lufthansa has shifted Allegris to the rival A350 amid the delays, the first spending weeks at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France before being delivered to Lufthansa on Saturday, Ritter said on LinkedIn.
Some 27,000 seats across Lufthansa's fleet are set to be configured with Allegris.
The new Lufthansa Allegris economy seat, shown in a rendering.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa plans to eventually fit the cabin onto more than 80 future aircraft, including Boeing 787-9s, the 777X, and more A350s.
The Boeing 747-8 double-decker fleet, which has notoriously dated premium cabins, also will see a retrofit, the airline has said.
Allegris covers four cabins: economy, premium economy, business class, and first class — the latter absent from Lufthansa's first A350s.
The dated current first-class cabins can be seen aboard one of Lufthansa's A380 aircraft; it's also aboard its A350 fleet.
Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images
Lufthansa has postponed the deployment of Allegris first class to the fourth quarter of 2024.
According to the German media outlet Travel-Dealz, Lufthansa told reporters in December that it would install extra economy seats in lieu of first class on the initial A350s jets flying with Allegris while it waits on the cabin supplier.
Once eventually installed, first class is set to boast private suites with double beds, closets, and giant televisions.
Single suites, shown in a rendering, are set to feature 32-inch TVs, while the Suite Plus TVs will be a whopping 43 inches.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa said in a March 2023 press release that the ceiling-high walls, 40 square feet of space, and the fully closable door in first class convey the "feeling of privacy and individuality similar to a hotel room."
The cabin includes single suites and double suites, the latter is dubbed "Suite Plus" and is set to feature a wide couch that converts into a double bed big enough for two people.
Three suites will be available per A350 plane, Lufthansa said.
The single suite option in Allegris first class aboard Lufthansa, shown in a rendering.
Lufthansa
Each suite is temperature controlled, with passengers having the option to choose to cool or heat their individual cabins.
Moreover, a side table, storage, lighting, a minibar, and a control panel will be available to enhance traveler comfort inside the suite, the airline said.
While Lufthansa awaits its most lucrative offering, flyers can book Allegris business class — and it's a big upgrade from current offerings.
The current 2x2x2 layout in Lufthansa's Boeing 747-8 business class doesn't offer direct-aisle access to window seat passengers.
Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
Lufthansa has a notoriously mediocre business class, with many of its widebody planes — like the Boeing 747, the Airbus A330, and the Airbus A380 — sporting cabins in 2×2×2 layouts lacking direct-aisle access and privacy.
According to the airline, its new business class offers seven unique seating options, starting with the "Classic" seat.
A new "Classic" Lufthansa seat, shown in a rendering.
Lufthansa
The basic option is called "Classic" and has the expected bells and whistles of business class, like a lie-flat bed and direct aisle access.
Each also offers "generous" shoulder space to optimize sleep comfort, as well as the same heating and cooling system offered in first class, according to Lufthansa.
Building on the Classic seat, Lufthansa offers six other options in business class.
Extra-privacy window seat (top left), extra-long bed (top right), extra-work space (bottom left), and baby bassinet seat (bottom right).
Lufthansa
These include single and double suites in the first row, seats with extra work surfaces, high-privacy window seats with or without a baby bassinet, seats with extra-long beds, and a double berth in the last row.
The first-row suites are the only business class options with a door.
This design strategy gives Lufthansa's Allegris business class passengers more choice.
First-row suites with sliding doors in Lufthansa's Allegris business class.
Lufthansa
According to RTN, the Classic option will represent the base price of Allegris business class, with extra-amenity options costing more.
This unbundling approach means travelers who don't want a seat with more work space or a longer bed, for example, don't have to pay for things they don't need.
A majority of those enjoying Lufthansa's new Allegris cabin are those flying in premium economy or regular coach.
Lufthansa's newly delivered A350s will be equipped with Allegris.
Joel Serre/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus
Premium economy is not completely new to the Lufthansa Group, with Switzerland-based SWISS, one of its brands, getting a similar cabin in the spring of 2022.
Premium economy features fixed-shell seats where the recline does not impede on the person in the row behind.
Lufthansa's new long-haul premium economy, shown in a rendering, reclines within its shell.
Lufthansa
According to Lufthansa, its Allegris premium economy features more legroom and a legrest and can be "adjusted even further back than the current model."
The seat offers about 39 inches of pitch.
Passengers flying in the cabin will enjoy noise-canceling headphones, wireless charging, and an amenity kit, among other perks.
The premium economy seats set to debut in Lufthansa's Allegris cabin.
Lufthansa
A large 15.6-inch television with Bluetooth connectivity, a USB port and universal power outlet, an adjustable headrest, leather armrests, and a cocktail table between the seats also will await flyers, the airline said.
Although the lowest-end option, Lufthansa's new coach product offers plenty of comforts.
The seatback screens and tablet holder in Allegris coach, shown in a rendering.
Lufthansa
Each regular economy seat has an adjustable headrest, a tablet holder, charging ports, and a Bluetooth-enabled television that measures 13.3 inches.
Travelers can choose from three different coach seats: classic, legroom, and neighbor.
Lufthansa coach seats with have an adjustable headrest and legroom comparable to other European carriers.
Lufthansa
Like business class, the Allegris economy cabin has several variations that build upon a classic option.
As the name suggests, the legroom seats, reserved at the front of the cabin, offer passengers more leg space. The "free neighbor seat" option means a passenger's adjacent seat will be empty for the flight — essentially a 2-in-1 booking.
While Allegris will represent the next era of comfort for Lufthansa, it is not the airline's first cabin upgrade in recent years.
The 1x2x1 business class on Lufthansa's ex-Philippine Airlines A350s.
Philippine Airlines
Lufthansa has taken on Boeing 787 and A350 airplanes from other airlines that have comparatively better business-class cabins than what is seen on its traditional widebody fleet.
These are interim cabins the company got from Hainan Airlines and Philippine Airlines, respectively, and are not the same as the Allegris seats coming in May, The Points Guy reported.
Still, similar to Allegris, they offer comforts like direct-aisle access and ample privacy.
In her story, Haberman wrote that "Trump appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest." Other outlets such as CNN and The Washington Post made similar observations of Trump.
Imagine committing so many crimes, you get bored and doze off at your own trial. -Jon Stewart pic.twitter.com/qlGStcbEFW
"He appeared to be asleep and repeatedly his head would fall down," Haberman told CNN's Jake Tapper on Monday.
"Hey Jake, what part of 'head down, eyes closed, drool coming out of his mouth' do you not get over here? He's snoring. He's doing the honk shoo," Stewart said on his show before imitating the snoring sounds made by cartoon characters.
"There's a piece of paper going up and down and up and down in his mouth," Stewart added. "He's asleep."
But this wouldn't be the first time Trump has appeared to fall asleep while in court, Haberman told CNN.
"There have been other moments in other trials like the E Jean Carroll trial which was around the corner in January, where he appeared very still and seemed as if he might be sleeping but then he would move," Haberman said.
Haberman was referencing the defamation case that Trump lost earlier this year. Trump now owes $83.3 million in damages to Carroll, a writer that a jury ruled last year he had sexually abused.
Haberman: Trump appeared to be asleep. His head would fall down… He didn’t pay attention to a note his lawyer passed him. His jaw kept falling on his chest and his mouth kept going slack. pic.twitter.com/Y9niQfZc3W
The Trump campaign later issued a statement to The Independent refuting Haberman's report, calling the idea that Trump would fall asleep in court "100% Fake News."
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
WithumSmith+Brown resigned as Trump Media & Technology Group's auditor, just a few months after they were appointed in 2021, per the Financial Times.
Adam Gray/AFP via Getty Images; Scott Olson via Getty Images
WithumSmith+Brown quit being the auditor for Trump Media just months after being appointed.
The firm didn't want to be associated with Donald Trump and his company, per the Financial Times.
Trump Media's share prices have plunged in the weeks since it went public.
The accounting firm that was first hired to audit former President Donald Trump's social media company quit just months after it was appointed, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
WithumSmith+Brown was appointed to vet Trump Media & Technology Group's financials soon after it was founded in early 2021. But the firm resigned before the end of 2021, the FT reported citing people familiar with the matter.
According to the FT's sources, WithumSmith+Brown no longer wanted to be associated with Trump and his company after several months on the job.
The accounting firm declined to comment on why it had resigned when approached by the FT.
"Apparently, the Financial Times' business model is to charge its subscribers $75 per month for the privilege of reading outdated stories touting irrelevant information," Trump Media said in a statement to the FT.
In January 2022, Trump Media instead turned to a smaller accounting firm to conduct the audit, BF Borgers, which has less than stellar record with regulators. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said it identified multiple deficiencies in every audit it had reviewed from BF Borgers in the past two years, per Bloomberg.
Representatives for BF Borgers did not respond to FT's request for comment.
The news surrounding Trump Media's auditors come amidst a volatile time for the company's stock price.
The company's shares initially skyrocketed when it went public in March, only for prices to plunge just a week later. Trump Media's shares had fallen again on Monday, per Axios.
A sustained rally would have provided a much needed boost for Trump's finances, considering his growing legal debts. Trump had a posted a $175 million bond on April 1 for his new York civil fraud case. He was originally supposed to pay a bond of $454 million before an appeal courts reduced the amount.
Trump is also on the hook for $83.3 million in defamation damages to E. Jean Carroll, a writer that a jury ruled last year he had sexually abused.
Representatives for WithumSmith+Brown and Trump Media & Technology Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Chinese President Xi Jinping at the fourth plenary session of the National People's Congress on March 11, 2023 in Beijing, China.
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
China's economy grew 5.3% in the first quarter of 2024, surpassing analyst expectations.
Despite this, March retail sales and industrial output fell short of forecasts.
China's property market struggles persist, with 1Q new home sales falling nearly 31% from a year ago.
China reported robust economic growth for the first quarter of 2024.
The world's second-largest economy grew 5.3% in the first quarter of this year from a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics — beating a 4.8% growth analysts polled by Bloomberg had forecast and the 5.2% growth it chalked up in the fourth quarter of 2023.
"We have got off to a solid start," Sheng Laiyun, the NBS' deputy director, said at a press briefing in Beijing, per Bloomberg. He said industry was an important contributor to growth, contributing to more than one-third of first-quarter growth.
Despite the rosy figures, a closer look at the figures indicates there's still pain ahead.
March retail sales rose 3.1% from a year ago, missing Bloomberg forecasts of 4.8% growth. Industrial output for March also missed forecasts, coming in at 4.5% — well below the 6% predicted by analysts.
In particular, China's property market continued to be in the dumps amid a debt crisis, with first-quarter new home sales by value tanking nearly 31% from a year ago.
Notably, the data did not include China's youth unemployment rate, which hit a record high of 21.3% in June 2023 before Beijing revamped the methodology for the metric to exclude full-time students.
China has a growth target of around 5.0% this year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump (C) appears with his legal team Todd Blanche, and Emil Bove (R) ahead of the start of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, 2024 in New York City. Former President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial.
Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images
Trump's lawyer was repeatedly bench-slapped on the first day of his trial.
Lead lawyer Todd Blanche, suffered a quintet of rebukes for his lawyering.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan called out the lawyer at least five times Monday.
It took New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan four hours to dispense with pretrial matters before starting jury selection in Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial on Monday.
In that time — and as an international press corps watched and took notes — Trump's lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, suffered a quintet of rebukes for his lawyering.
Merchan didn't hit Blanche as hard as a federal judge in Manhattan has hit Trump lawyer Alina Habba for her lawyering. During the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial in January, Judge Lewis Kaplan bench-slapped Habba 14 times during a single day of testimony.
Merchan, like prosecutors, may be wearying of Trump's nearly one-dozen trial-delay attempts and what a prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, on Monday called the defense team's "thousands and thousands of pages of frivolous motions."
Here, in chronological order, are five of Monday's judge-burns — ranging from minor to scorching to merely comical — that would be enough to make any lawyer blanch.
1. "I've noticed that the font has been getting increasingly smaller."
On March 8, Merchan devised a rule to rein in pre-trial motions. He ordered from that day on, instead of filing new motions, the parties needed to ask his permission by first filing what he called a "pre-motion letter."
These pre-motion letters had to describe what relief was being sought, and for what reason, in only a single page. Only if the judge approves can the full motion be filed.
In a minor, humorous burn from early Monday morning, the judge noted with a smile that the defense has kept to the one-page limit. But they did so at the cost of legibility.
"I think that Mr. Blanche is clear now that a pre-motion letter is one page," Merchan began. (Blanche's first pre-motion letter had been filed with a 51-page motion and 214 pages of exhibits attached).
"But I notice that the font has been getting increasingly smaller," and the margins increasingly smaller, too, the judge quipped.
2. "Well, I don't know how you managed to get all those motions filed then."
Later in the morning, the parties argued over trial exhibits. The defense had still not told prosecutors what exhibits they planned to show jurors at trial.
"Amazingly," Steinglass, the prosecutor, complained, "we have yet to receive a single designated exhibit" from the defense.
When Blanche countered that the defense has just been too busy, Merchan hit him pretty hard.
"Here's where we stand," Merchan told the lawyer. "You have 24 hours, and whatever you do not identify within 24 hours, you will be precluded from introducing, frivolous or not."
The judge continued.
"The defense team was very busy actively filing numerous motions, some of which were really motions to renew and reargue decisions that this court had already made," he said.
"So you have made decisions regarding how you are going to use your time, and that's fine. That's your decision to make. You have 24 hours."
"Whatever is not received by the People in 24 hours will be precluded," he added. Period."
Blanche kept balking, though.
"We're expected to comply while we're in court the rest of the day, and all day tomorrow?" he complained.
"Well, I don't know how you managed to get all those motions out," the judge snapped back.
"Literally one Sunday you got three pre-motion letters to me with exhibits and attachments," all filed within 30 minutes, the judge added.
"The way you choose to use your time is your business. My order was clear. You are directed to do it, and you are directed to do it immediately."
Donald Trump at his hush-money arraignment with attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles.
Reuters/Timothy A. Clary
3. "Please direct me to the portion of the original gag order or the subsequent gag order, where it makes any exception if Mr. Trump feels he is under attack. I don't recall inserting that anywhere in either gag order."
Prosecutors on Monday accused Trump of violating his gag order by targeting key witnesses — Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels — in a trio of Truth Social attacks that the former president posted earlier in April.
A fourth Truth Social post attacking both Daniels and Cohen went live Monday at 9:12 a.m. — that very morning, prosecutor Chris Conroy complained.
"It's entirely possible that it was done from this courthouse," Conroy added.
Blanche countered that Trump had little choice but to strike back against Daniels and Cohen.
"The two witnesses themselves have been talking about their testimony in this case, President Trump's ongoing reelection, and just generally making disparaging threats constantly," Blanche complained of Daniels and Cohen's "barrage of attacks."
The judge told Blanche to file a response, in writing, explaining why Trump should not be held in contempt for violating the gag order.
"When you respond," the judge snarked, "direct me to any portion of the original gag order or the subsequent gag order that says that there is an exception to the gag order if Mr. Trump feels if he is being attacked."
The judge paused, then added, with some sarcasm, "I don't recall inserting that anywhere in either gag order."
4. "Counsel, it's important to keep breaks at a given time."
Merchan chided Trump's lawyers after they were slow to return to court after their afternoon break.
"Counsel, it's important to keep breaks at the given time to keep things moving, he told Blanche.
"Yes, your honor," Blanche replied meekly.
"We can get the jury so we can keep moving."
Former U.S. President Donald Trump (C) appears with his legal team Todd Blanche, and Emil Bove (R) ahead of the start of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, 2024 in New York City. Former President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial.
Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images
5. "You don't think he should be here at all right now?"
Before court wrapped for the day — without a single juror being selected — Blanche made another request of the judge.
He asked if Trump could take off next Thursday to attend the US Supreme Court hearing in another one of his criminal cases.
The justices are set to hear arguments over the former president's sweeping claims of immunity that he says protect him from charges brought by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The April 25 Supreme Court date was set in early March, but Trump's lawyers didn't raise the issue until Monday.
Joshua Steinglass, one of the prosecutors, told Merchan that Trump should be required to be present for his case in New York — like all other criminal defendants.
"I think we've accommodated the defense enough already," Steinglass said.
Merchan acknowledged that "arguing in front of the Supreme Court is a big deal," but "convening a jury of 12 jurors and 6 alternates is also a big deal."
Blanche protested — saying that Trump's litany of criminal cases against him made his situation "incredibly unusual" — and said he doesn't think Trump "should be here at all right now."
"You don't think he should be here at all right now?" Merchan asked incredulously.
Blanche explained that he only meant that he didn't believe the trial should happen during "campaign season."
"I have already ruled on that," Merchan snapped. "Your client is a criminal defendant in New York County Supreme Court. He is required to be here. He is not required to be in the Supreme Court."
A Tesla Cybertruck owner said his accelerator got stuck on full throttle while he was driving.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it's in touch with Tesla over the issue.
The Cybertruck owner called it a "serious problem" but said he still likes the vehicle.
Federal regulators are looking into a potential safety issue with Tesla's Cybertruck after an owner of the vehicle said in a video that part of his accelerator pedal came loose while he was driving and jammed the accelerator into the full throttle position.
Jose Martinez, who is based in California, posted a video to TikTok on Sunday, saying he experienced a "serious problem" with his Cybertruck and describing what happened. In the video, he said he was driving a couple of days prior when what appeared to be a cover on the accelerator pedal slid forward, effectively wedging itself in a way in which it could not be released.
"It held the accelerator down 100%, at full throttle," he said. "I was lucky enough, had a clear mind, didn't panic. And holding the break down overrides the pedal, so I was able to stop the car. But anytime I'd lift the break it would start accelerating again."
"Somebody that panics, that could be pretty dangerous. Crazy," Martinez added.
The video quickly went viral, apparently attracting the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In a statement provided to Business Insider, the NHTSA said: "NHTSA is aware of this issue and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information."
NHTSA looking into the issue was first reported by CNBC.
Martinez told BI he still likes his Cybertruck and thinks "it's a great car." He also said he was surprised to see his video get so much attention.
Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Since the first Cybertrucks started rolling out to customers in November, the distinctive vehicles have attracted celebrities and die-hard Tesla fans, but the vehicle's launch hasn't been without hiccups.
Cybertruck owners have raised concerns about other aspects of the car, from door panel gaps to rust spots to handprints. In one of the latest complaints, several owners said that shortly after their Cybertruck was delivered, it began beeping and flashing a red alert that said, "PULL OVER SAFELY Critical steering issue detected."
Still, some Cybertruck owners say they love the vehicle despite some issues.
"I think Tesla gets away with a lot of stuff because the driving experience is that good," Donald Green, a Cybertruck owner in Texas, previously told BI. "Once you start driving Tesla, you never go back."
President Joe Biden smiles waves after speaking at Stupak Community Center in Las Vegas.
Ian Maule/Getty Images
The White House released the tax returns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, reported earning $619,976 in 2023.
They paid $146,629 in federal income tax. Biden made $400,000 from his annual salary.
President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, reported earning $619,976 in adjusted gross income in 2023, according to their newly released tax returns.
The White House released the tax returns of the president and first lady late Monday afternoon, as well as returns for Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
The vast majority of the Bidens' combined income — $400,000, to be exact— was attributed to President Biden's annual salary, as set by Congress under President Bill Clinton.
As for Jill Biden, she reported earning $85,985 in 2023 through her teaching role at Northern Virginia Community College. She appears to have received a raise: while teaching in 2022, she made $3,650 less. The First Lady also reported $4,155 in additional income from book royalties.
The rest of Biden's earnings came from taxable interest, pensions and annuities, Social Security benefits, and IRA distributions.
In total, the Bidens reported paying$146,629in federal taxes.
Looking to Biden's second-in-command, Harris, she and her husband reported earning $450,299 and paying $89,071 in federal taxes.
As vice president and president of the Senate, Harris reported earning $218,784 on her return. Emhoff reported making $174,994 in 2023 as a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for Technology Law and Policy.
The VP and second gentleman paid $15,167 in California income taxes, and Emhoff paid $11,599 in District of Columbia income taxes.
A tale of two presidents
Though the Biden Administration has uploaded copies of Biden and Harris' tax returns each year they've been in office, the previous president was not nearly as open with his finances.
During former President Donald Trump's presidency, he repeatedly said he wasn't allowed to release his own returns due to an ongoing IRS audit. The House Ways and Means Committee ultimately released several years of his in late 2022, showing Trump lost millions in 4 of the 6 years from 2015 to 2020.
In 2020, The New York Times notably reported that Trump only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.
Upon releasing their tax returns, the White House noted this, saying that the release of Biden's taxes reflected "his commitment to being transparent with the American people."
The Justice Department could sue Live Nation, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, as soon as next month following a probe into its handling of venue and ticket negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The company has long faced criticism over its stranglehold on the live event industry, high fees, and practices of forcing venues to sign exclusive long-term contracts, drawing ire from fans and artists alike.
The department is prepared to file the antitrust suit alleging Live Nation leveraged is dominance in the market to suppress competition, The Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Ticketmaster holds a whopping 80% of the market for event sales in the country's largest venues, holding exclusive contracts with multiple stadiums and arenas, per the outlet.
Violating antitrust laws can carry both criminal and civil penalties, with criminal penalties capped at 10 years of jail time and $100,000,000 per violation, according to the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.
Representatives for LiveNation and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
The investigation into the company gained steam following massive outrage from fans when the Ticketmaster website crashed during a presale of Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" event in November 2022.
Swift released a statement shortly after the incident saying she was "pissed off" and described the outage as "excruciating," The New York Times reported at the time.
"It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse," The Times reported Swift said. "There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I'm trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could."
Some Swifties took up the mantle against the company at the time, filing suit against the ticketing giant for violating antitrust laws and "intentionally and purposefully" misleading fans, Billboard reported — prompting a closer look from federal authorities.
The company has denied any wrongdoing.
"Ticketmaster has more competition today than it has ever had, and the deal terms with venues show it has nothing close to monopoly power," a Ticketmaster spokeswoman said in response to the news of the anticipated suit, per the Journal.
The $2.4 billion mission landed the rover in Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake. It's the ideal spot to search for the fossils of Martian microbes that may have existed when the planet was lush with lakes and rivers.
The remains of an ancient river delta at the edge of Jezero Crater, captured by the ESA's Mars Express orbiter.
ESA/DLR/FU-Berlin
Perseverance's main mission is to collect samples of the rock and sediment along the lake bed and the crater rim, in hopes of finding a sign that life once thrived on the red planet. The rover has done a fine job — so far it's secured 24 samples — but NASA no longer knows how it's going to bring them to Earth for analysis.
Those aren't light sabers, they're Perseverance's sample tubes, stashed on the Martian surface.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA's original design for the retrieval mission, called Mars Sample Return, has fallen apart. The agency is asking companies to step in and propose better ideas.
"We are looking at out-of-the-box possibilities that could return the samples earlier and at a lower cost," Nicola Fox, head of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a press briefing on Monday. "This is definitely a very ambitious goal. We're going to need to go after some very innovative new possibilities for design, and certainly leave no stone unturned."
NASA's old plan costs $11 billion and takes too long
Perseverance used its sample-collection arm to try coring a Mars rock on August 6, 2021.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
NASA's original proposal for the Mars Sample Return is "mind-bendingly complicated," David Parker, director of space exploration at the European Space Agency, said in 2021.
The idea was to launch two rockets toward Mars, one carrying a lander and one carrying an orbiter.
The lander would be the largest ever sent to Mars. It would touch down near the stash of samples that Perseverance set up, deploy a rover to fetch the sample tubes, and load them onto a small rocket attached to the lander.
An illustration shows a concept of how NASA's Mars Sample Return mission would launch Perseverance's samples from the surface of Mars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Then the rocket would launch the samples into Mars orbit, where it would eject them toward the orbiter, which would be the largest spacecraft NASA ever sent to Mars.
This illustration shows a concept for a rocket (left) releasing a sample container (right) high above the Martian surface.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The orbiter would have to grab the samples, journey back to Earth, and drop the sample vessel on a fiery plummet to our planet's surface, where a team would retrieve them.
The mission plan relied about $4 billion in new technology and a decade of mission design and construction.
But the projected cost has ballooned to $8 to $11 billion since Perseverance touched down at Jezero Crater. Independent reviews have also concluded that instead of one decade to bring the samples to Earth, it would take two.
"The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive, and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the briefing. "It's the decade of the 2040s that we're going to be landing astronauts on Mars."
At the current price tag, Mars Sample Return would "cannibalize" other NASA missions, Nelson said. So the agency is calling all hands on deck, inside and outside of NASA, to come up with a new plan.
NASA wants companies with 'tried-and-true' technology
Fox said that NASA needs to see short proposals from companies or laboratories by May 17. Then the agency will choose a few of those competitors to further develop their ideas over a 90-day period, with complete proposals on NASA's desk by late fall or early winter.
Some of NASA's most tried-and-true contractors include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and SpaceX. Startups like Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are getting their foot in the NASA door through the agency's new moon program.
"What we're hoping is that we will be able to get back to some more traditional tried-and-true architectures," Fox said. "Anything requiring huge leaps in technology usually, from experience, takes a lot of time."
As for the return trip from Mars to Earth, that will be a technological leap no matter what.
"We've never launched from another planet, and that's actually what makes Mars Sample Return such a challenging and interesting mission because it really is the first of a kind," Fox said.
YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee gave a scathing review of Humane's new AI pin.
One Humane staffer conceded the feedback was "honest" and "solid."
Some X users said Brownlee's review would mark a death knell for the company.
Marques Brownlee, the massively influential YouTube tech reviewer whose channel moniker is MKBHD, delivered a scathing review of Humane's new AI Pin Monday, which he titled "The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed… For Now."
While one Humane employee took the feedback in stride, the video sparked a firestorm on X, with one detractor calling it "almost unethical" for Brownlee to have posted the review given his vast influence and ability to dent an emerging company.
It's intended to complete daily tasks: answer questions, make calls, and take photos, for example. It can even project an interactive screen onto users' palms.
In his review, Brownlee applauded the build and craftsmanship of the device. He said he loved the concept of an AI assistant and respected the Humane team for attempting to create something new.
In practice, though, the device was slow and often returned the wrong answers, Brownlee said, with an inconsistent battery life and poor photo and video quality.
The YouTuber's review garnered strong reactions on X.
Sam Sheffer, Humane's head of new media, called Brownlee's review "honest" and "solid." He added that "feedback is a gift" and said the company would "continue building."
In another viral tweet, however, the user Daniel Vassallo called Brownlee's review "distasteful" and "almost unethical" given his huge following. "With great reach comes great responsibility," Vassallo wrote. "Potentially killing someone else's nascent project reeks of carelessness."
Vassallo told Business Insider he wasn't defending Humane and actually thought the substance of Brownlee's review was "fair and balanced." His main issue was with the title of the video.
"The power to crush a company shouldn't be taken lightly, and that headline is what most people will see," Vassallo told BI.
Others concurred the review had the potential to dent Humane — though they didn't dispute Brownlee's right to post it.
"MKBHD bankrupted a company in 41 seconds," wrote the user Alex Finn. "This clip will be the gravestone for Humane."
Alex Kehr called the review "devastating for the future of Humane," adding, "The most trusted tech reviewer saying it's the worst product he's ever reviewed is going to eviscerate sales."
Neither Brownlee nor Humane immediately responded to requests for comment from BI.