Tag: IFTTT

• The US is drafting sanctions on Chinese lenders, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• These could cut China off from accessing the US dollar and Western markets.
• Lawmakers are worried that China's commercial exports to Russia are helping its military industry.

The US is taking sharper aim at Chinese financial institutions, in an effort to stamp out a key source of support for Russia's military production.

Lawmakers in Washington are actively drafting a round of sanctions against such banks, the aim being to completely cut these lenders off from the global financial system, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Although this constitutes a more forceful step than seen before, the ballooning trade between Beijing and Moscow is feared to be helping Russia rebuild its war machine. While no weapons are exchanged, China has become the lead supplier of essential industrial components, from circuitry to aircraft parts.

For instance, exports of dual-use goods are estimated to have jumped from a few thousand to almost 30,000 a month in March, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Such volumes amplify concern that Russia could hold out in a war of attrition against Ukraine, especially as Kyiv falls deeper into an ammunition shortage. 

Previously, the threat of US secondary sanctions has already sparked a pullback in Chinese-Russian financial dealings, including restricted yuan payment transactions. But while this has added difficulty in facilitating trade, it hasn't stopped the two economies from drawing closer together. 

New sanctions could go as far as cutting China from accessing the US dollar, the linchpin currency used in global trade. This would essentially shun Beijing from Western markets, a threat US officials are hoping will induce change on China's part.

And for an economy roiled by debt and struggling to rebound, that would only add to issues. But it also means risks for Washington, as it could speed up de-dollarization efforts.

"China can't have it both ways," Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said last week. "It can't purport to want to have positive friendly relations with countries in Europe, and at the same time be fueling the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War."

He is headed for China on Tuesday. 

Beijing responded to the news by calling the US' approach as "hypocritical," Reuters reported. 

"China's right to conduct normal economic and trade exchanges with other countries, including Russia, is inviolable," Wang Webin, a spokesperson from China's foreign ministry responded to the sanctions threat in a Tuesday news briefing.

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• The US has spent $5 billion on a fleet of new helicopters to transport the president.
• But the VH-92 continues to scorch the White House lawn, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
• This years-long problem has sidelined the helicopters from carrying Biden for now. 

The new Marine One helicopters, part of a program that the US spent $5 billion on, still can't carry President Joe Biden because there's still a risk they will scorch the White House lawn, according to a new report.

The rotors and engine exhaust from the Sikorsky-manufactured VH-92 Patriot will occasionally burn the grass when it lands, an issue that was initially identified in 2018, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Because of this unrelenting problem, the new VH-92 is only carrying White House officials or Secret Service personnel instead of the president himself and is restricted to landing on paved surfaces, the report said. Older VH-3D Sea King helicopters will continue to transport Biden from the iconic, traditional South Lawn takeoff spot.

The executive-transport fleet consists of VH-3D and VH-60N helicopters, which are designated with the "Marine One" callsign when Biden is aboard. The US military sought to replace these aging aircraft with the newer VH-92 systems under the $5 billion program and has already secured 20 of them from Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky's parent company.

The VH-92's lawn-scorching problems were first discovered in 2018 during the Trump administration, kick-starting an effort to resolve the issue.

The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, noted in a June 2020 report on the matter that the military had "yet to demonstrate that it can meet the requirement to land on the White House South Lawn without causing damage."

"Heat from the auxiliary power unit and/or engine exhaust continue to damage the lawn under certain conditions," the GAO wrote at the time.

"The program is studying solutions," the GAO said, noting that those included certain "aircraft design changes, lawn surface treatments, and operational procedural changes to minimize landing zone risks."

In early 2021, the Department of Defense's operational testing and evaluations office determined that "the damage was found to be primarily due to engine exhaust, auxiliary power unit exhaust, and discharge of aircraft fluids onto the grass."

However, in its 2023 annual report, which was released earlier this year, the Pentagon said the VH-92 is "operationally effective for administrative lift missions" after the helicopter's "voice communications" were improved, without specifically mentioning the lawn issue.

Neither Lockheed Martin, nor the White House, immediately responded to Business Insider's queries on the reported continuation of the VH-92 problems.

A spokesperson for the defense contractor, meanwhile, told Bloomberg that the company thinks it has found a way to fix the issue.

"We have been working in close collaboration with our customer and have an agreed upon landing zone solution with testing planned to validate and ensure the aircraft meets that specific operational requirement," Melissa Chadwick told the outlet.

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• Captcha tests have been around for years, but they're getting more difficult.
• The "I'm not a robot" tests must evolve to keep up with advancing tech, experts said.
• But internet users are over trying to prove their humanity.

The days of simply identifying distorted letters and typing them out to verify your humanity are long gone.

Google's reCAPTCHA and other third-party Captchas are feeling more like a New York Times game nowadays. But instead of bragging to friends about solving it in two minutes, the reward is being able to pay your utilities bill or log into an account you haven't accessed in months.

The prompts ask us to identify pictures of motorcycles, crosswalks, or buses. Still, they're getting less simple in order to stay ahead of technology that knows how to outsmart Captchas, the Wall Street Journal reported. To put it another way: the robots are making it harder to prove you're not a robot.

So, if you're annoyed by the complex Captchas, prepare for them to get only more mentally taxing.

"Things are going to get even stranger, to be honest, because now you have to do something that's nonsensical," Kevin Gosschalk, founder and CEO of Arkose Labs, a firm that designs Captchas, told the Journal.

He added: "Otherwise, large multimodal models will be able to understand."

The acronym CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Some humans struggle more than others to pass such tests.

There's already a corner of the internet complaining about them.

"I keep falling into endless loops of non-stop 'prove you're human' tests. As in 12+ times I'm absolutely certain I know what a bloody car, bus or crosswalk looks like but they just keep coming," one Reddit user complained in a query about bypassing such tests.

"Can't wait to be violently humbled by one of those goddamn captcha things telling me I'm too dumb to tell a bus from a bike again tonight," an X user posted ahead of a Taylor Swift merchandise release.

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• Tesla EVs come with an adapter to charge at non-Tesla chargers. 
• But that adapter doesn't work with the Cybertruck, Tesla says. 
• This design flaw almost stranded me — until a Ford dealership came to the rescue. 

When I got behind the wheel of my 3-day rental earlier this month, I knew driving the Tesla Cybertruck would be unlike any other driving experience.

What I didn't expect was for the attention-grabbing truck to also give me a headache when I tried to juice up. After all, it's Tesla's newest product, the company's superchargers are seemingly everywhere, and EV charging is slowly improving across the board.

Boy, was I wrong.

In all of my naivety (despite editing articles every single week about electric cars and their associated infrastructure challenges), I thought the reporting trip would be a breeze. I would pick up the vehicle, test it out, charge it overnight, stop quickly at a Supercharger on the way to return it, and be on my way.

Not so fast.

Here's where my assumptions went astray, thanks to some design oversight from Tesla and a lack of contingency planning on my part:

I picked up a shiny new Cybertruck, one of the first few hundred made, in a Target parking lot in South Austin.

It was my first time using Turo, the peer-to-peer car rental app (more on that in a later story), and the pick-up was seamless.

I was staying at my parent's house in the Texas Hill Country, about an 80-mile drive, so I knew I would be fine on range for the first leg of this journey. I also made sure to research Superchargers — there wasn't one in my parent's town — but there were two within 30 miles, and some new third-party plugs in town I hoped to check out.

Given the truck's advertised 320-plus miles of estimated range, I didn't give charging much more thought.

As I settled in and came to terms with the contraption I was now responsible for operating, I made a mental note of the estimated range remaining: 218 miles

The truck's owner, whom I never actually met face-to-face, had a charging limit set at 80% to protect the battery pack's long-term health.

I also noticed the massive front windshield and sunroof actively soaking up the Texas sun, which would definitely affect the range if I cranked the climate control to cool off. Still, even with the AC blasting and some fun accelerating to investigate the truck's handling, I knew I would be fine mileage-wise.

The truck handled winding Texas backroads with ease, hugging corners and accelerating astonishingly quickly.

My excitement to test out "sport mode" and the truck's speed probably didn't help my range either.

I arrived in the heart of the Hill Country with 111 miles remaining, according to Tesla's onboard computer, plenty for another full day of testing every feature possible. Charging would be no issue, I thought, and I wanted to get the full experience.

Some more testing and photo-taking took my range to about 85 miles when I locked up the truck for the night.

To my surprise, I lost about 20 miles of range overnight. This meant starting the next day with 62 miles in the tank.

I later learned Tesla's sentry mode can eat battery life as it monitors the exterior cameras. That's when some of my anxiety began to set in. "I really hope this one public charger in town works," I thought as I prepared for a day of testing the truck. I headed over to the public charger first thing to check it out.

If it were my own truck, I would likely have a high-voltage outlet at home to charge overnight and start every day with a (mostly) full battery. But because it's a rental and my parents don't have an EV, that wasn't an option.

Unfortunately, the public charger was occupied. Time to get creative.

I opened PlugShare, a crowdsourced app that aggregates all EV chargers onto one map, and headed over to the local HEB.

The best US grocery chain (depending on who you ask) has installed chargers at many of its locations around Texas. The ones here were brand new from Volta. (So new they weren't yet showing on Volta's app or even Google Maps Street View).

HEB didn't respond to questions about how many chargers it has installed so far or of which brands.

This is where the problems started. I (wrongly) assumed Tesla's adapter would work for all CCS chargers. CCS is an industry standard that predates Tesla. But newer, second-generation CCS chargers have additional DC fast-charging pins that make the plug bulkier on the bottom to increase charging speeds.

Even with the adapter, the bottom part of the plug could not fit past the Cybertruck's plastic fender.

Before you send me hate mail, there’s an important nuance here: Tesla does, in fact, sell a CCS combo adapter for $250. It doesn't work with the Cybetruck.

So I was stuck with a measly "SAE J1772" charging adapter that comes with every Tesla. Silly me.

This is when panic began to set in. What if the car using the public charger in town was there all day? It could be hours, given how slow those are.

But deep down in my journalistic notebook of a brain, I remembered that Ford was installing EV chargers at many of its dealerships. The one in town showed up on PlugShare, and maybe, just maybe, that one would work differently or have different adapters, I thought.

I called them before heading over just to make sure the charger was working and available to anyone. They said come on over. I didn't tell them exactly what I was driving yet.

There's one thing you should know about pulling a Cybertruck into a Ford dealership in Texas. You're going to get lots of attention.

Their brand-new CCS fast chargers wouldn't work with the Cybertruck, either, thanks to the larger plug on this new generation.

As more automakers switch to Tesla's charging technology, now known as the North American Charging System or NACS, the adapter issue is only going to get worse. For now, the two standards largely operate at the same speed, with the plug shape being their main difference.

Luckily, the dealership had an old-school level-2 charger around back. They were happy to let me hang out for a bit if they could have a look at the truck. I was happy to oblige.

Charging on a car lot with no shade or amenities isn't fun, but it's better than being stuck.

"My new Bronco used to be what turned heads in this lot," one employee told me. "I can't compete with this!"

After about an hour, I had added nearly 30 miles to the truck's estimated range and decided to go try the public charging spot in town again.

An open spot this time! Maybe I wouldn't be stranded after all.

I didn't have high hopes after reading some reviews. And the station's appearance wasn't helping my anxiety. I pulled in and set to figuring it out.

I had never heard of LibertyHydra chargers, and their app was clunky at best. Still, I was able to pre-pay for charging increments up to 4 hours at a relatively cheap rate — $8.90 total in this case. (The company didn't respond to questions about uptime and maintenance on their system).

It worked! Once electrons started flowing I was getting about the same charging rate as at the dealership.

Some quick back-of-the-envelope math showed I could easily finish the day and make it to a Supercharger the next morning to return the truck with the same range as I picked it up.

Relief.

With (most) of my anxiety squared away, I set out to test another strange task asked of EV owners: Leaving a car for hours.

Luckily, nobody messed with the plug. (The app would have warned me if the truck stopped charging unexpectedly). But there were plenty of passersby still taking photos.

I was able to monitor the charging remotely on the app.

As the truck sat in the sun charging, temperatures inside climbed rapidly.

But the same way I could see this meant I could also start the AC on my walk over to pick it up, a handy feature for hot climates like Texas.

When all was said and done, I had 170 miles of charge for the next day's return trip to Austin with a stop at a Supercharger.

Tesla owners have told me for years that the Supercharger network was a huge selling point, and this trip proved that to be true.

Supercharging takes away most, if not all, of the hassles I encountered. (Charging overnight at home would have as well.)

On the return trip, I simply plugged in a Supercharger along my route into the computer and headed down the road. About 15 minutes away from the charger, the truck notified me it was pre-conditioning the battery for a faster charge, which seemed to mean no more regenerative braking but no other major changes.

I arrived at an empty — albeit stark — Supercharger in Johnson City, Texas, and plugged in with no issue. The truck immediately began charging at warp speed compared to my other two tries, adding 140 miles of range every hour. I was topped up in exactly 27 minutes to the limit pre-set by the owner.

On a brief walk to the local ACE Hardware and a doughnut shop (no amenities at this charger), the truck let me know that charging was almost finished and warned me of idle fees if I remained plugged in more than 5 minutes after.

The total came out to $17, my Turo host told me. Since it was a rental, I didn't even have to think about it — and he didn't request a reimbursement.

I dropped off the truck with about 125 miles of range right next to a Supercharger.

Was I truly stranded at any point? Not quite, but it was as close as I ever wanted to be. On my next road trip in an EV, I'll double-check my adapters — and not count on random ones to get the job done.

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• A US defense official downplayed the threat of China's new Xi'an H-20 bomber.
• The official said it's "not really" a concern, per defense media.
• That said, the US won't really know for sure how good or bad they are until it sees them fight.

China's new bomber, the Xi'an H-20, is intended to rival America's new stealth bomber, but a US defense official told reporters on Monday it's "not really" a concern.

"They want to show that they're a great, you know, military power," the official said during a background briefing, per Breaking Defense and other defense outlets, but "that doesn't necessarily mean it actually delivers them the kind of capability that they would need or at the quantity that they would need."

The official said that looking at the system design, "it's probably nowhere near as good" as US stealth platforms, "particularly more advanced ones that we have coming down."

There are still a lot of unknowns with the H-20. Still, the Pentagon's 2023 China military power report notes that the H-20 is expected to have a range of around 10,000 km, be able to carry both nuclear and conventional payloads, and be capable of being refueled aerially for prolonged flight. Those aren't insignificant capabilities, but without sufficient stealth, the bomber may not be worth the hype.

A Chinese military official recently told Chinese media that additional information about the bomber would be made public in the near future. "It's coming soon, just wait," People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Deputy Commander Wang Wei told Hong Kong Commercial Daily in March, adding that "it is worth the excitement."

China has been heavily focused on military expansion and modernization, advancing its aviation through its state-owned companies such as China Aviation Industry Corporation, which has previously produced bombers, heavy transport planes, and fighter aircraft.

Among the products this company makes that the US military has also shrugged off is the Chinese fifth-generation J-20 fighter jet. A former US Air Force commander said previously that it wasn't "anything to lose a lot of sleep over."

Although the US official said that the H-20 bomber likely doesn't match up to American capabilities, they clarified at the press briefing that "we're not going to know they're not good until they're shooting at us, and I don't want to be in a position where I find out, 'Oh, they actually are that good.'"

So the military may not be particularly worried, but they also can't make assumptions and have to be ready to match the threat and maintain overmatch.

The Pentagon unveiled a new stealth bomber in 2022 that is currently in production and will eventually replace B-1 and B-2 fleets. 

"As the world's first six-generation aircraft, B-21 forms the backbone of the future for US air power, delivering a new era of capability and flexibility through advanced integration of data, sensors and weapons, and is rapidly upgradable to outpace evolving threats," Northrop Grumman, the aircraft's manufacturer, said in in a statement earlier this year.

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• The founder of startup HeadSpin just got an 18-month prison sentence for wire and securities fraud.
• He admitted he gave investors wrong financial information, defrauding them out of over $100 million.
• Prosecutors said his sentence is a warning to other "fake it til you make it" Silicon Valley execs.

The founder of a buzzy Silicon Valley startup was sentenced to prison over a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme — and prosecutors want it to be a lesson to other "fake it til you make it" entrepreneurs.

Manish Lachwani, the former CEO of app testing company HeadSpin, was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison, plus three years supervised release, for wire fraud and securities fraud, the Department of Justice announced.

Lachwani pleaded guilty to the charges in April 2023, admitting that he had knowingly given investors wrong information on the company's financials and customer base.

Those false documents helped him dupe investors out of more than $100 million between 2017 and 2020, according to the DOJ.

Lachwani founded the software-as-a-service company — which gives clients software and tools to test out mobile apps — in 2015.

He served as its CEO until he was ousted in 2020 after the board launched an internal investigation into company financials, The Information reported. The company is still operating under new leadership.

Lachwani's defense argued in a court filing that "The Court has referenced a 'fake-it-till-you-make-it' mentality in Silicon Valley; HeadSpin has in a very real way 'made it' and HeadSpin's investors may still see a highly profitable exit."

But the judge and prosecutors would not let the "fake it" part of the equation slide.

"This defendant admitted he lied about his company's revenue and customers to attract funding from investors, including many in Silicon Valley," US prosecuting attorney Ismail J. Ramsey said in the DOJ's statement. "Today's sentencing should send a message to other entrepreneurs who may be tempted to cross the line into fraud and to 'fake it until they make it.'"

"This Office is committed to protecting investors—including those whose capital powers the engines of innovation in Silicon Valley—from start-ups that misrepresent their finances and try to cut corners," Ramsey said.

Lachwani's fraudulent behavior highlights how private startups can keep information from their backers.

Representatives for Lachwani and HeadSpin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• Higher life expectancy rates mean that some Gen Zers might be retired for 50 years, says UBS.
• A portfolio needs to beat inflation by 2 percentage points to retire well, the bank said.
• Rising longevity has become of increasing interest to economists in recent years.

Gen Zers could spend up to 50 years in retirement — so they should start investing as soon as possible, according to UBS.

The Swiss bank said that young people will be retired for up to half a century, based on recent Swedish research that argues artificial intelligence could prolong the average lifespan to about 120 years this century.

Typical investing wisdom posits that a retired person's portfolio should aim to keep pace with inflation.

However, in a scenario where someone is not working for decades, their holdings need to beat the rate at which prices are rising by about 2 percentage points to retire comfortably, according to a team of UBS strategists led by Lee Wen Ching.

"The traditional school of thought supports the thesis that investment returns must at least match inflation," she wrote in a research note. "But when taking spending into account, we conclude that a portfolio actually needs to earn at least 2 percentage points in excess of one's cost of living in order to last 50 years in retirement or more."

The cost-of-living crisis has also tended to disproportionately affect the rich — so those who want to retire and then live a life of luxury will need their portfolios to beat inflation by an even larger amount, according to Wen Ching.

"Lifestyle, preferences, education choices —these are all factors that determine our spending patterns," she wrote. "Dining at a Michelin-star restaurant would have cost 11% more every year, whereas having home-cooked meals could have been more cost-effective."

Rising global life expectancy, declining birth rates, and the rise of trends such as the FIRE movement have made longevity and retirement increasingly pressing issues for economists in recent years.

Last month, top economist Andrew J. Scott told BI that a rethink on aging could help to solve a potential retirement crisis.

"Clearly, climate change is a huge issue, AI is now an obsession about how we can adapt and change our future, but we never talk about adapting to aging," he said. "We've never invested enough in old age, because we thought we'd never get there — and now we will."

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• Tesla has laid off 2,688 workers at its Austin factory, nearly 12% of the site's staff.
• This is likely part of larger workforce cuts across Tesla that Elon Musk announced last week.
• The layoffs have also impacted workers at Tesla's other US and international locations.

Elon Musk's focus on Texas didn't stop him cutting jobs in the Lone Star State.

Tesla laid off 2,688 workers at its Austin factory, according to a regulatory filing under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The WARN Act requires most companies with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days of notice before a large-scale layoff.

The Texas site employed about 22,777 people before the layoffs — meaning Tesla cut nearly 12% of its staff at the site.

The permanent reductions will begin on "the 14-day period beginning on June 14, 2024," according to the notice, and are likely part of larger layoffs across Tesla. On Sunday night, CEO Elon Musk told staff the company was cutting more than 10% of its workforce. Within hours, laid-off workers were notified their employment had been terminated, effective immediately.

Tesla's Austin Gigafactory is the production hub for the company's Model Y and Cybertruck. The site also serves as the company's headquarters. Tesla is attempting to move the company's state of incorporation to Texas as well.

The broader layoffs appear to have affected workers across the country, as well as some staff at Tesla's international offices. Last week, a WARN notice revealed the cuts had impacted 280 workers at a Tesla facility in Buffalo, New York. At this point, it's unclear how many workers have been cut at factories in California and Nevada.

A Tesla spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com

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• I think HomeGoods is an interior designer's dream because of its accessories and decor.
• The store offers affordable, stylish options for bathroom accessories and plastic dishware.
• I love looking through the selection of chic light fixtures and colorful throw pillows.

Throw pillows easily freshen up a space.

One inexpensive way to freshen up any space is by adding some new throw pillows. I even have a closet full of throw pillows because I enjoy changing them out for holidays or seasons.

HomeGoods has a great selection of indoor and outdoor pillows that could bring new life to a sofa, chair, or bed. My store even has aisles of trendy, unique holiday pillows.

I've heard people say there's no such thing as having too many blankets, but I'm guilty of using that logic when it comes to throw pillows.

The right lighting fixture can look timeless.

Lighting fixtures can be really expensive and hard to fit into your space, as they come in a plethora of styles and finishes. Thankfully, HomeGoods has a variety of options, including ceiling fixtures and table and floor lamps.

I especially enjoy the versatility of the store's timeless frameworks. I recommend swapping out the lampshades that come with the fixtures to create a more personal touch. Plus, you can change the lampshades out to create a whole new look if your design style changes.

Felt hangers instantly upgrade the closet space.

The easiest way to upgrade one's closet is to replace plastic or wire hangers with felt ones. Having hangers in one color (I suggest sticking with a neutral shade) and material brings an overall less cluttered feel to the space.

Felt hangers are also better for many clothing materials, as they prevent creasing. I even hang sweaters on them since they don't stretch the material as much as plastic hangers do.

Though they're pricier than plastic or wire hangers, I think the HomeGoods selection is very affordable.

The plastic holiday dinnerware is pretty great.

Everyone wants to be the host with the most when having friends and family over for the holidays. Luckily, I find that the selection of plastic dinnerware at HomeGoods makes entertaining easy.

Whether you're having a Christmas party or hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, HomeGoods regularly stocks plates, cups, and napkin options that give a holiday feel without breaking the bank.

If you like creating a different place setting each time you host, the plastic-dinnerware section contains tons of options.

Aesthetically pleasing board games look fancy.

Instead of unusable trinkets and figurines, try decorating your space with board games. Not only do board games have a purpose, but also, the ones at HomeGoods are appealing to the eye.

I've come across a variety of games, from Monopoly to Chess to Connect Four, that seem to be designed with aesthetics in mind.

Many of the board-game boxes and covers come in neutral colors, retro designs, and wood tones to add a tasteful sense of playfulness to your space.

Nothing says you have your life together like a matching bath set.

Bathrooms can be one of the hardest rooms to decorate, but one way to do so is with a matching accessory set. A matching soap dispenser, trash can, tray, toothbrush holder, and dish is sure to wow.

HomeGoods has several options in a variety of materials, including glass, ceramic, and concrete.

The bathroom set I got from HomeGoods is made of concrete, so its natural-stone material creates contrast with my otherwise white bathroom.

Buy wall art or use the canvases to make your own.

Large canvases can make such an impact in a space and scream luxury, and HomeGoods has a vast variety of options.

From art with striking abstracts and soft, whimsical neutrals, HomeGoods seems to have it all at pretty reasonable prices. I've even seen canvases that are cheaper than plain white ones at some art stores.

If you want to save money and paint on top of a canvas with artwork, check out HomeGoods' clearance section. I purchased a few cheap canvases, repainted them white, and went over them with my own designs.

Add stylish pet beds to your space.

Let's face it: Our furry friends can destroy pet beds, toys, and furniture. Thankfully, HomeGoods has a pet section where some things are priced more affordably than at traditional pet stores.

The toys and beds specifically seem to be of great quality, and I've even seen the same styles sold at big-box stores. Investing a lot of money in a dog bed that's going to get chewed to pieces isn't practical to me, so getting one at HomeGoods is a great solution.

This story was originally published on September 26, 2023, and most recently updated on April 23, 2024.

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• A British Airways plane went on a "flight to nowhere" after experiencing a problem.
• After flying in circles for four hours to burn fuel, the plane landed back in Singapore.
• The delay had a knock-on impact on British Airways, leading to a flight from London to LA being canceled.

An already delayed British Airways plane that took off from Singapore landed back at the same airport five hours later after a technical fault forced it to turn back.

The plane, which was set to fly from Singapore Changi to London Heathrow on Tuesday as flight BA12, flew partway over Malaysia before turning back only about half an hour after takeoff, data from flight-tracking site FlightAware shows.

The aircraft, an Airbus 380, flew in circles over the Singapore Strait before landing. It circled for around four hours to burn excess fuel in preparation for its eventual landing.

Aircraft often jettison fuel during emergencies or when they need to land earlier than expected as landing with a full load of fuel is likely to be dangerous due to weight restrictions on landing.

"Planes are designed to land below certain weights," Business Insider previously reported. "A heavier plane is more likely to hit the ground hard and get damaged."

The plane set off at about 3:10 a.m. local time for a planned 14-hour flight and landed back in the city-state at about 8:30 a.m., per FlightAware data.

Passengers had already had to contend with a delay, as the plane was meant to depart at 11:20 p.m. on Monday night.

A Business Insider employee was on the flight and said passengers were initially told before takeoff that the plane's weather radar had failed and returned from the runway to an aircraft stand to fix the problem.

After around an hour, the problem was fixed, and the plane took off. Roughly 30 minutes into the flight, staff announced that the system had failed again and told passengers the plane would need to dump fuel before returning to Singapore.

"We are sorry for the delay to customers' travel plans after the aircraft returned to Singapore Changi Airport as a precaution following a minor technical fault," a spokesperson for British Airways told Business Insider.

"Our teams are working hard to get our customers where they need to be."

The BI employee on the flight said that passengers were provided with accommodation and food upon returning to Singapore, but they didn't have information on which flight they would be transferred to.

"We currently do not have a revised departure time for your flight," British Airways said in an email to passengers at about 9:15 a.m. local time.

The BI employee said a number of passengers had missed their connecting flights from Heathrow.

According to the British Airways app, the airline's next flight from Singapore to London was due to leave at 11:20 p.m. local time on Tuesday but is now not expected to depart until 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Flight cancellations and delays such as that impacting BA12 can cause a snowball effect on airlines, staff, and passengers, leaving crew members and aircraft in the wrong place and disrupting further flights.

In the case of the Singapore to Heathrow flight, the Airbus A380 used was meant to be flying on from London to Los Angeles on Tuesday. However, that flight had to be canceled, as British Airways did not have any other aircraft available.

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