Tag: News

• In a move likely to anger the US, Modi is visiting Russia.
• The move signals strong ties between Delhi and Moscow, and shows the world India is pursuing its own agenda.
• Modi is aiming to correct the trade imbalance and address China's Indo-Pacific activities.

In a move likely to anger the US, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Russia on Monday for his first bilateral trip after winning a historic third term in office.

Modi's two-day visit to Russia — where he is scheduled to meet with President Vladimir Putin — is significant in that it signals strong ties between Delhi and Moscow. It also shows the world that India is not afraid to pursue its own agenda.

Vinay Kwatra, India's foreign secretary, told reporters in New Delhi that issues between Russia and India have "piled up" and "need to be addressed," per Bloomberg.

Russia's relationship with India goes back to the Cold War, and trade between the two countries has grown since Russia started the war in Ukraine. India is a major buyer of Russian oil. Russia is also India's biggest arms supplier.

Kwatra underscored that the two countries' trade relationship has remained "resilient."

Still, Modi's trip will "rankle many Western observers," Ved Shinde, a researcher and contributor to Australia's Lowy Institute think tank, wrote in a note on Wednesday.

"Since the Ukraine war began, India's purchase of cheap oil from Russia has been seen as profiting from troubles in the heart of Europe," Shinde added.

Modi's visit to Russia will make the US look bad

Just like Putin's visit to supply-chain hot spot Vietnam, India's engagement with Russia isn't a good look for the US, as it comes while Washington is isolating Putin's regime.

The US has raised "some concerns" about India's relationship with Russia with New Delhi, Kurt Campbell, the US Deputy Secretary of State, said last month.

However, Washington acknowledges that India's ties with Russia are different from its ties with the US.

"We have many areas of alignment, but it is not surprising that there would be areas where we've had perhaps different perspectives, views, historical ties," Campbell said about America's relationship with India.

India, for its part, is looking to balance its relationship with the world's key powerbrokers — the US, Russia, and China.

"There are different degrees in India's multi-alignment. Make no mistake — the United States and its allies are more consequential for India's future than its relationship with Russia," wrote Shinde.

India needs to leverage its historical ties with Russia to secure its economy and security, so Modi isn't just in Russia for a goodwill trip.

Reducing the trade imbalance

A key agenda item for the visit is to reduce a huge bilateral trade imbalance, said Kwatra.

India imports about $60 billion of goods a year from Russia, but Russia buys less than 10% of this amount from India, per Bloomberg.

Modi may also touch on China's activities in the Indo-Pacific region, said Kwatra.

India is trying to manage its relationship with China, which has been testy since a border dispute in 2020. Modi skipped the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakhstan last week.

There's also the matter of Russia's ties with China.

At the summit last week, Putin said Russia's relationship with China is in the "best period in history."

Modi now needs to cozy up to Putin to counter China's advances.

"The reason for the time-tested stability in India-Russia ties is to maintain a continental balance in the Eurasian heartland. That is, to balance China," wrote Shinde.

"Or to put it another way, don't go around making new adversaries when there are already two open fronts — China and Pakistan," Shinde added.

• Joe Biden may have taken a leaf out of Donald Trump's tanning playbook.
• The president has appeared very bronzed in recent appearances.
• He hasn't always been this orange, and certainly wasn't during his disastrous CNN debate with Trump.

If you think President Joe Biden has been looking a lot more orange, you're not alone.

Biden's complexion has changed remarkably since the start of his term, with his skin now emitting a Trump-esque glow.

The orange hue appeared all the more stark in his Friday interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

On July 4, he appeared tanner than usual while speaking from the South Lawn of the White House.

The pronounced tan was obvious in multiple photos from the event.

And Biden's orange glow was apparent on July 3 too, when he was awarding the Medal of Honor to two Civil War soldiers.

Same here on July 1, when he was speaking to the media at the White House following the Supreme Court's ruling on charges against former President Donald Trump.

And the change seems recent. The president, aged 81, was not nearly this orange at the start of his term in 2020.

For example, speaking at the COP26 United Nations climate change conference in Scotland in November 2021, his face showed no hint of a spray tan.

Biden has appeared slightly more tan in the summertime, as one does when the sun's out. He was lightly bronzed during a speech in June 2023 about affirmative action in higher education. But super-orange Biden moments have been few and far between.

The change in his visage has sparked memes and jokes on social media, with users on X calling him "BidenPumpkinHead" and "Spray Tan Joe."

"Next time Joe, just let an Alabama sorority girl apply your spray tan," said another X user on July 1.

Moira Coops, an experienced makeup artist and stylist who has worked with numerous politicians and CEOs, told Business Insider that Biden's orange hue was more likely to be makeup than spray tan.

She said that people Biden's age — especially when they are feeling unwell or haven't seen the sun in a while — tend have a sallow complexion. Biden's team probably bronzed him up to make him look "more healthy," she added.

But the makeup was a "little bit too strong" for her taste, Coops said, adding that Biden's makeup crew "could have gone one shade down."

If Biden did get an image adjustment, it was fairly recent. His face was an entirely different color during his debate with Trump on June 27.

On the CNN cameras, his face appeared pale — and that, coupled with his slurred speech and jumbled lines, sparked concerns about his fitness to run for reelection.

Post-debate, anonymous sources told Politico that the Biden family had expressed anger about the president's on-camera appearance, blaming the network's makeup artists for making him appear too pale and drawn.

To be sure, Trump has also been known to go hard with tanning.

"I know exactly what he does to himself — the tanning bed, the spray tan, he wears the goggles and you can see the hyper-pigmentation around his eyes," Jason Kelly, a Cleveland-based makeup artist who was hired to work at 2016's Republican National Convention, told Harper's Bazaar in June 2016.

Trump's intense tan has also been something his critics have used against him. His former fixer turned nemesis, Michael Cohen, once called him a "Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain."

Representatives for Biden didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

• Boeing agreed to plead guilty to defrauding the US on Sunday. 
• In May, the DOJ accused Boeing of violating a 2021 settlement over two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes.
• An attorney for the victims' families said he has filed an objection to the plea deal.

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to defrauding the US, essentially admitting to accusations that it violated an earlier agreement to strengthen its safety measures in the wake of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.

"The parties have agreed that Boeing will plead guilty to the most serious readily provably offense," the Justice Department said in a court filing on Sunday night.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that federal prosecutors had offered Boeing the choice of either accepting the plea deal or risk facing trial.

Under the plea deal, Boeing will have to pay a fine of $243.6 million. This is on top of the $243.6 million Boeing had already paid as part of the 2021 settlement it breached.

Besides the fine, Boeing will be required to "invest at least $455 million in its compliance and safety programs." In addition, the government will appoint an independent compliance monitor to oversee the company for three years.

"We can confirm that we have reached an agreement in principle on terms of a resolution with the Justice Department, subject to the memorialization and approval of specific terms," a spokesperson for Boeing told BI in a statement on Monday morning.

Paul Cassell, an attorney for 15 of the victims' families, told BI on Monday that he has filed an objection to the plea deal.

"This sweetheart deal fails to recognize that because of Boeing's conspiracy, 346 people died," Cassell said in a statement. "A judge can reject a plea deal that is not in the public interest, and this deceptive and generous deal is clearly not in the public interest."

Boeing had initially avoided a fraud charge related to two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes — one near the coast of Indonesia in 2018 and another in Ethiopia in 2019 — after it struck a $2.5 billion settlement agreement with the DOJ in 2021.

Notably, the 2021 agreement did not impose an independent compliance monitor on Boeing.

The DOJ said in a statement then that a monitor wouldn't be necessary because "the misconduct was neither pervasive across the organization, nor undertaken by a large number of employees, nor facilitated by senior management."

But the DOJ accused Boeing of violating the terms of the agreement in May, just months after a door plug from a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out mid-flight.

The incident, which took place in January, prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to order the grounding over 170 such planes.

"The plea agreement will not provide Boeing with immunity for any other conduct, including any conduct that may be subject of any ongoing or future Government investigation of the Company," the DOJ said in its filing on Sunday.

• An Iranian frigate capsized while undergoing repairs at Bandar Abbas, a coastal city in the Strait of Hormuz.
• State media reported that it took on water and lost balance due to a "technical failure."
• Photos show the ship turned on its side amid merchant ships also docked at Bandar Abbas.

Several people were admitted to hospital after an Iranian warship capsized at the port city of Bandar Abbas on Sunday, Iran's state media reported.

The Sahand, a domestically produced Moudge-class frigate, was undergoing repairs when it lost balance and partially sank, per the Mehr News Agency.

The mishap was due to a "technical failure," Mehr reported.

A separate report several hours later by the Islamic Republic News Agency cited the country's military saying water had leaked into the Sahand's tanks, causing the vessel to turn over.

The military added in IRNA's report that the ship had since "returned to balance." Both news agencies are owned by the Iranian government, which described the vessel as a "destroyer."

Photos released by the agencies show the Sahand floating on its side next to several docked merchant ships. Other images on social media appear to show the vessel tipping over.

The lasting damage sustained by the vessel is not immediately clear.

The Sahand was launched in 2018 and is named after another Iranian ship that was destroyed by the US in 1988's Operation Praying Mantis.

The original vessel was one of two Iranian naval ships sunk by the US Navy in retaliation for the mining of the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts.

Iranian media reports said the new Sahand is equipped with torpedoes, anti-air munitions, cruise missiles, a point-defense system, and close-range weapons that can fire up to 7,000 rounds per minute.

Its capsizing on Sunday is the latest in a string of mishaps for Iran's navy in recent years, including a 2020 friendly fire incident involving a ship of a similar class.

The Iranian frigate Jamaran was testing an anti-ship missile when it struck the support vessel Konarak in the Gulf of Oman, killing 19 sailors and injuring another 15.

In late 2021, another Moudge-class frigate, the Talayieh, was videoed capsizing at a flooded dry dock in Bandar Abbas.

In June of that year, the Kharg, one of Iran's largest naval vessels, caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman after firefighters tried for 20 hours to save the ship. It had embarked on a training mission at the time, local media reported.

Another Moudge-class frigate, the Damavand, ran aground in 2018 and was damaged beyond repair. It had been launched just three years prior.

In a Sunday report covering the Sahand's capsizing, Iranian state media channel Al-Alalam noted that the US also suffered a capsizing in 2022 involving a ship called USS The Sullivans.

But USS The Sullivans is a museum ship that saw service in World War II and the Korean War, and was retired in 1965.

It nearly sank in April 2022 due to a hull breach, but it was repaired and reopened for visits in August 2022.

• Paramount agreed to merge with Skydance Media after tumultuous acquisition talks.
• But the Hollywood megamerger may face FTC scrutiny.
• Under Lina Khan, the FTC has brought antitrust lawsuits against companies in a variety of industries.

Paramount, the media giant that owns Nickelodeon and MTV, has finally agreed to a deal with Skydance Media, the companies said late Sunday.

The deal includes an acquisition of National Amusements, which holds the controlling stake in Paramount, and a merger of Skydance and Paramount Global.

The announcement wraps up the long and confusing Hollywood mega-merger with two personalities at the center: Shari Redstone, who owns the controlling stake in Paramount via National Amusements, and David Ellison, the CEO of Skydance.

But the drama is not over yet, because the Federal Trade Commission could step in with antitrust concerns. Companies have to review large mergers with the FTC before deals can close.

Pleasing the agency might not be easy.

The FTC and its chair, Lina Khan, have been examining deals more closely and pushing for more aggressive competition policies under the Biden administration. Plus, Khan already has Hollywood on her radar.

Speaking on an August podcast from digital media company The Ankler, Khan said that Hollywood was already being hurt by unfair market conditions caused by consolidation. She also suggested that her agency would unfavorably view further concentration of power in the sector.

Khan blamed consolidation and vertical integration for creating a "market structure where we hear about how writers and producers and showrunners are all making less, even as companies are charging customers more."

National Amusements engaged antitrust attorneys at the law firm Ropes & Gray in the lead up to the agreement, the law firm said on Sunday. One of the partners involved, Michael McFalls, worked as attorney-advisor to the FTC's chairman from 1998 to 2000, according to Ropes & Gray's website.

Skydance, Paramount, and Ropes and Gray did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, sent outside standard business hours.

Tech and consumer companies in the FTC's crosshairs

Khan's FTC is targeting various industries, not just Hollywood. Last month, Khan said in a conference that her agency was going after the "mob boss," investigating tech companies that create the "biggest harm."

In April, the FTC sued to block the $8.5 billion acquisition of Michael Kors' parent company Capri Holdings, by Tapestry, which owns Coach and Kate Spade. The FTC said that the proposed merger would deprive millions of American consumers who benefit from competition-induced discounts and innovation.

Under Big Tech critic Khan, the agency has also brought several lawsuits against tech giants.

In 2022, the FTC repeatedly tried to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a leading video game developer. The agency said that the $69 billion deal would suppress competition in gaming.

Earlier this year, the FTC sued Apple for anticompetitive behavior and Adobe for violating consumer protection laws.

The US government has also filed similar recent lawsuits against Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, and Meta.

• Joe Biden could be trounced by Donald Trump this November, says an ex-Obama advisor. 
• David Axelrod said that Biden is "dangerously out-of-touch" with the ground sentiments. 
• "He's not winning this race," Axelrod told CNN on Sunday. 

President Joe Biden may have brushed aside concerns over his electability, but a former Obama advisor thinks the 81-year-old could be headed for a calamitous defeat this November.

"The one person that no one can outrun is Father Time," David Axelrod told CNN's Pamela Brown on Sunday. "There are certain immutable facts of life, and those were painfully obvious on that debate stage, and the president just hasn't come to grips with it."

"He's not winning this race. If you just look at the data and talk to political people around the country, it's more likely that he'll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race," Axelrod, who is also a senior political commentator for CNN, added.

Axelrod's scathing assessment comes after a week of turmoil for the Biden. The presumptive Democratic nominee has faced growing calls for him to step down following a disastrous presidential debate with former President Donald Trump on June 27.

In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that aired Friday, Biden dismissed his poor performance as a "bad night."

"It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn't listen to my instincts in terms of preparing," Biden said.

But that explanation didn't seem to convince Axelrod, who was a key strategist behind former President Barack Obama's victories in the 2008 and 2012 elections.

On Friday, Axelrod said in an X post that Biden is "dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have about his capacities moving forward."

"If the stakes are as large as he says, and I believe they are, then he really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is," Axelrod told CNN on Sunday.

To be sure, this isn't the first time Axelrod has criticized Biden's candidacy. In an X post published in November, Axelrod said that the decision on whether to run or not was Biden's to make.

"If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it's in HIS best interest or the country's?" Axelrod wrote.

Axelrod later clarified those comments in an interview with Politico, which was published a week later.

"It's overreacting to say I told him to drop out," Axelrod said. "I didn't do that."

Representatives for Biden didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Sen. Lindsey Graham says he thinks presidential candidates should all take cognitive tests. 
• Biden and Trump should both have to prove their fitness to run for office, he said to CBS. 
• His comments come as Biden faces mounting pressure to quit the race over health concerns.

Sen. Lindsay Graham says he thinks anyone running for president should undergo a cognitive test — including his longtime ally, former President Donald Trump.

Speaking on CBS' "Face The Nation" on Sunday, the South Carolina Republican said that given "70% of the public believes that President Biden is not mentally and physically capable of being president," he should take a cognitive test to prove his mental capabilities.

CBS host Robert Costa then asked if Graham thought Trump should have to take the test as well.

"Yes, yes, I think both. All nominees for President going into the future should have neurological exams as part of an overall physical exam," Graham said.

He added: "Here's what I worry about, that our allies see a compromised Joe Biden, that our enemies see a compromised Joe Biden, and I'm offended by the idea that he shouldn't take a competency test given all the evidence in front of us."

Trump challenged Biden to take a test as well before the CNN presidential debate that saw the latter delivering an abysmal performance.

Speaking at a Turning Point Action convention in Detroit on June 15, Trump said: "He doesn't even know what the word 'inflation' means. I think he should take a cognitive test like I did."

Trump took says he took a cognitive test in 2018, and has since bragged about how he "aced" it "very hard."

However, the test's creator said the assessment Trump likely took was "not meant to measure IQ or intellectual skill in any way," but instead to detect if someone has possible cognitive problems like memory issues.

Any adult without cognitive issues should get a high score, per the creators of the test. Trump has also not taken the test again after 2018.

Graham's comments come as Biden grapples with intense backlash after his bad debate performance on June 27.

Several of Biden's supporters have called for him to step aside from the race.

Five House Democrats have called on Biden to quit the race, predicting that he would lose to Trump in the November elections.

However, Biden has stayed resolute despite the mounting pressures. He called his mumbling and incoherent sentences during the debate a "bad episode" and "no indication of any serious condition," in an interview with ABC News on Friday.

Since the debate, his campaign has put forth a series of reasons trying to explain his less than stellar performance, including a cold, jet lag, and bad prep.

Representatives for Biden, Trump and Graham didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

• "House of the Dragon" is no stranger to death, murder, or even fratricide. 
• Some of the show's most tragic deaths are tied to children and childbirth.
• From King Viserys' death to Prince Lucerys, we've ranked the top 10 saddest deaths. 

Warning: Major spoilers through season two, episode four of "House of the Dragon."

If you're watching a show in the "Game of Thrones" universe, you should know you're signing up for some pretty devastating character deaths.

"House of the Dragon" is no different from its predecessor: it's full of striking, surprising, and extremely sad deaths, frequently carried out by members of the same family. Children are murdered on dragonback and in their cribs, husbands kill their wives to secure more advantageous marriages, and women tragically die in childbirth. Rhaenyra and Aegon II Targaryen's war over the Iron Throne isn't pretty.

We've ranked the 10 saddest deaths in "House of the Dragon" seasons one and two below,

10. Viserys died after a long bout of illness.

Hear us out: We loved Paddy Considine as Viserys, but his death was so written on the wall that it couldn't even bring much surprise or sadness. For one, it's necessary to kick off a war of succession. But more importantly, it was preceded by a long, leprosy-like illness.

Over the first season of "House of the Dragon," Viserys' health gradually declines as his children grow older and the issue of his succession grows more salient. By the end of his life, his illness has progressed to the extent that you're kind of hoping the guy will die. Too bad his final words brought about such a huge misunderstanding that it launched an entire Targaryen family civil war. Whoops!

Still, we mourn Viserys and the comparative peace of his era — but without his death, we really wouldn't have a "House of the Dragon."

9. Daemon murders his first wife, Lady Rhea Royce.

We barely got to know Lady Rhea in season one of "House of the Dragon," and most of what we knew of her came from Daemon's mouth. Given that he referred to her as the "Bronze Bitch" and refused to consummate their marriage, most of those words weren't very kind.

We meet her briefly in season one, episode five, shortly before Daemon, well… murders her. Rhea seems independent, capable, and unafraid to taunt Daemon. That is until she clearly realizes that he's come to kill her and attempt to marry Rhaenrya.

Though Rhea's death comes off more as a shock, given her little screentime, it's tragic to see her merely as a casualty of Daemon's ambition and cruelty.

8. Lyonel and Harwin Strong die at Harrenhal, in a plot orchestrated by Larys Strong.

Ser Harwin Strong and his father Lyonel, for some time the Hand of the King, weren't particularly beloved characters. But their tragic death at the hands of one of their own — Larys Strong — was still rather striking.

After the birth of Rhaenyra's third son, Joffrey, Harwin got into an altercation with Ser Criston Cole after Criston insinuated that Harwin was Jacaerys and Lucerys' father. In the wake of the event, Lyonel attempted to resign from his position as Hand, citing the dishonor that Harwin brought on their family. Viserys rejects his resignation but allows him to escort Harwin back to Harrenhal. Unfortunately, Larys' plot is waiting for them: both men die in a fire once they make it back to the castle.

Harwin, despite clearly being hot-blooded, seems like an alright guy — and it's pretty cruel to kill him right after Jacaerys realizes that Harwin is his father. And compared to other Hands (i.e. Otto Hightower), Lyonel seemed relatively unbiased when it came to the affairs of the crown.

7. Jahaerys Targaryen is murdered after a miscommunication.

Season two kicked things off by adapting an infamous murder from "Fire and Blood," as Daemon sends two mercenaries, Blood (Sam C Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart) to murder Aemond in revenge for the death of Lucerys.

When the duo fails to find the prince in the Red Keep, they instead go to plan b: "a son for a son." They find Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) and force her to point out which sleeping toddler is her son. Although she briefly tries to fool Blood and Cheese by pointing at her daughter, they call her bluff and descend upon Jaeharys with knives, cutting his head off in his crib.

Thankfully, the audience doesn't see the horror unfold because Helaena flees the room. But the extent of the brutality is displayed for all of King's Landing to see during Jaeharys' funeral procession.

Regardless of the conflict between the greens and the blacks, an innocent child was slaughtered because of the squabble over the throne, and it's clear to everyone that the conflict has been taken beyond the point of no return.

6. Arryk and Erryk Cargyll killed each other after ending up on different sides of the war.

Though Arryk Cargyll and Erryk Cargyll had more control over their deaths, since they chose to fight till the end, that doesn't make their deaths any less sad.

In season one, the twins work together as Kingsguard protecting the royal family. But when the Greens usurp the throne, they are split for the first time. Arryk sides with Aegon II while Erryk leaves and joins Rhaenyra's Queensguard.

When Criston Cole sends Arryk to slay Rhaenyra in episode two, the brothers' impending showdown begins. The scene is a messy, vicious fight, and it is hard to tell which twin wins.

After slaying his brother, Erryk stabs themselves with their sword after realizing what he has done.

It is heartbreaking that these twins are forced to pick duty over their own kin. Their deaths highlight how painful and destructive this civil war will be for the non-royal members of Westeros.

5. Joffrey Lonmouth was brutally beaten to death by Criston Cole.

Joffrey Lonmouth's death was the first time that we really saw Ser Criston Cole's true colors, and man, were they ugly.

When Rhaenyra and Laenor Velaryon were wed, they both had an understanding that would allow them to pursue their other lovers: Criston and Joffrey. At their wedding, Joffrey confronts Criston.

"You don't know me, Ser Criston, but we are both deeply invested in this union," Joffrey says. He tells Criston that Laenor is "dear" to him, and that he understands Criston and Rhaenyra's relationship. It's a strategic move meant to unite them all in the shared secret of Laenor and Rhaenyra's marriage.

But that's not what happens. Instead, in the middle of the revelry, Criston brutally slays Joffrey, striking Laenor in the process. While we didn't know him particularly well, Joffrey didn't do anything wrong — certainly nothing to merit Criston beating his face into a bloody, lifeless pulp.

The suddenness, brutality, and abject loss on Laenor's part of Joffrey's death merit its place on this list.

4. Laena Velaryon ordered Vhagar to kill her by fire.

The first season features a second agonizing pregnancy-related death, as Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell) takes her own life in episode six.

After marrying Daemon and moving to Pentos, Laena struggles with a complicated birth, and her husband is offered the same choice that Viserys had: save his wife, or save the baby. However, Laena takes control of the situation and decides her own fate.

She goes to her dragon, Vhagar, and commands him to burn her alive with the "dracarys" command. It's upsetting because Laena is forced into that situation, albeit at least it's her own decision. But seeing how reluctant Vhagar is to kill his rider just makes the whole scene even more upsetting.

3. Rhaenys sacrifices herself and her dragon, Meleys, at Rook's Rest.

As soon as Rhaenys headed off to Rook's Rest, there was already a sense that she wouldn't make it.

In season two, episode three, she conversed with her husband about their legacy. Criston Cole and Aemond Targaryen clearly had a secret plan up their sleeves. There were too many warning signs.

But that doesn't make her death at the hands of Aemond and Vhagar any less tragic. Across the two seasons, Rhaenys has been brave, virtuous, loyal, and a bit of a badass, making her a favorite among fans.

Even when she realizes that she cannot defeat Vhagar at the battle of Rook's Rest in season two, episode four, she doesn't run away. Instead, she straps herself tighter in her seat and fights valiantly till the end.

One of the true noble warriors in "House of the Dragon" is now gone, and to quote Otto Hightower, We (the audience and Westeros) "are poorer for it."

2. Queen Aemma dies during childbirth after Viserys orders his son to be cut out of her.

"House of the Dragon" made a bloody debut in the premiere episode of the first season with the heartbreaking death of King Viserys' (Paddy Considine) wife, Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke).

When Aemma goes into labor, the baby gets stuck, and Viserys is forced to decide whether to save his wife or the baby. The King chooses his unborn child hoping to get a male heir to the Targaryen throne.

The maesters cut Aemma's belly open to save the child, killing her in the process. It's tragic because Aemma's agency is taken away from her, and she's completely disregarded for the possibility of a male heir.

The devastating scene is only made worse when the baby, Baelon, dies just one day after being born.

1. Lucerys is the first major casualty of the Dance of the Dragons.

Lucerys and his dragon Arrax's deaths are truly the biggest tragedies of "House of the Dragon."

Though the Greens and the Blacks were preparing for an eventual war, there is a possibility that they could have found another way to settle the throne debate after a cooling-off period. But there is no reconciliation once Lucerys, a child and an heir, is slain.

Not only did Lucerys' death essentially kick-start a terrible civil war, but it was entirely accidental.

The death scene itself is almost like a horror movie, with Aemond and Vhagar stalking and taunting Lucerys and Arrax in the dark, rainy skies. Aemond sees this as an opportunity to toy with and harm Lucerys as revenge for his eye, but Vhagar goes too far.

There is a short moment where Lucerys thinks he has escaped, and then Vhagar leaps out of nowhere and rips the dragon and its rider apart.

Lucerys may have lost his life, but Aemond now has to live with the weight that an accident caused the death of a relative and a civil war.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders was asked if he would replace Biden if the president withdrew from the race.
• Sanders believes Biden can defeat Trump but acknowledges Biden's age as a challenge.
• Public concern over Biden's health grew after his poor debate performance and confused interviews.

Sen. Bernie Sanders sidestepped a question asking if he would replace President Joe Biden in the 2024 election if the president withdrew his candidacy.

Public concern over the president's health has grown recently after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27. An interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, during which Biden dismissed his performance as a "bad episode" and said he remained determined to stay in the race, failed to do much to quell those anxieties.

On CBS News' "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday, Robert Costa asked Sanders if he would be willing to accept the Democratic Party's nomination if Biden "ever decided to withdraw from the race."

"Right now I am running for reelection to the great state of Vermont as their senator," Sanders said. "That's where my focus is right now."

However, Sanders said that Biden "can clearly defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in the history of this country."

Biden, 81, is the oldest US President to ever hold office. Sanders, 82, acknowledged Biden's age as difficult for the president moving forward.

"Biden is old. He's not as articulate as he once was," Sanders told CBS. "I wish he could jump up the steps on Air Force One. He can't."

On Friday, Dem. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia reportedly organized a group of colleagues in the legislature to ask Biden to drop out of the race. The meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday.

When asked if he received an invite to the discussion, Sanders indicated that he did not and had no plans to attend. Sanders also described Waner as "one of the more conservative members" of the Democratic caucus.

"Look, I understand. Biden had a terrible debate performance. I think he's done better since, he's got to do better again."

Despite Sanders' one-year age gap over Biden, questions about a potential candidacy for the Vermont senator are not completely out of left field.

Sanders, a Democratic socialist, ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016 and 2020.

In 2022, the senator's 2020 campaign manager wrote in a memo that Sanders would consider another run if Biden did not seek reelection.

• The latest episode of "House of the Dragon" featured a pivotal moment for Rhaenys. 
• BI spoke with actor Eve Best about Rhaenys' decision to fly her dragon Meleys into battle. 
• She compared unleashing dragons in Westeros to nuclear warfare in the modern world. 

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for season two, episode four of "House of the Dragon."

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen knew that she was embarking on a suicide mission.

At least, according to Eve Best, the actor who's played Rhaenys for a season and a half on "House of the Dragon." Best's Rhaenys is pragmatic and a bit chivalric — and given that she could have burned King Aegon II to a crisp in season one and chose not to, it feels almost like penance that she's the one who must introduce dragons to the battlefield in season two.

In episode four, Ser Criston Cole marches on Rook's Rest, a modest castle close to Dragonstone. It's a blatant provocation, but it works: Rhaenyra knows that she needs to send a dragon to counter Cole. Though both Rhaenyra and her son Jacaerys volunteer to go, it's Rhaenys who claims the responsibility.

"You must send me, Your Grace," Rhaenys says, leaving little room for argument. And in the moment, even for those who didn't already know Rhaenys' fate, her departure feels profoundly final. Rhaenys will not — and does not — return from this mission.

Best spoke with Business Insider about Rhaenys' decision, the implications of unleashing dragon warfare in Westeros, and the practicalities of filming emotional sequences while on mechanical dragonback.

Rhaenys was the only choice to fly to Rook's Rest

In season one, Rhaenys escapes King's Landing with her dragon Meleys, bursting into King Aegon's coronation on dragonback. In that moment, she decides not to kill him, telling Daemon that the war was not hers to start.

Best says showrunner Ryan Condal told her that in the world of "House of the Dragon," dragons are akin to nuclear weapons.

"She deliberately, at the end of episode nine, chose not to start a nuclear war, very rightly," Best told BI. "And she spent the whole of season two doing everything she possibly can to steer everybody away from nuclear war. She's the one person, the one voice of sanity, and reason, and wisdom, and experience, because she and Corlys are the only grown-ups left in the room."

By episode four, Rhaenyra has exhausted all other options to evade war, including traveling to King's Landing herself to plead with Alicent. By the time Criston advances on Rook's Rest, she's no longer reluctant to send out her dragons.

Best told BI that on a practical level, Rhaenys was the right choice — and the moment allowed her to fulfill one of her desires for the character.

"She's the equivalent of Rhaenyra's Lancelot," Best said. "She's their best knight. And it's the honorable, warrior choice. I said to Ryan at the end of season one, 'I really want in season two for her to go full samurai,' because in season one she'd been absolutely ambiguous. She'd kept her cards so close to her chest, she'd played the political game."

Best told BI that the small council scene in which Rhaenys volunteers to fly to battle wasn't always so clear-cut. In the original draft of the scene, Rhaenys tells Rhaenyra, "Send me." But the production revisited the sequence during reshoots, leading to a small but impactful dialogue tweak courtesy of producer Sarah Hess: "You must send me."

"Then it becomes an instruction, and it's then the final piece of guidance to Rhaenyra," Best told BI. "What she's doing is showing her how to be a good leader and how to rule, and this is what you do. You don't go in yourself because that's too risky for the bigger picture. You send in your best fighter."

Still, Rhaenys knows that she's crossing the point of no return, Best said. Though she's confident in volunteering herself and Meleys, she doesn't expect to come back.

"It has to be a sacrifice, because I feel that for Rhaenys, she's done everything to not have this war," Best told BI. "Whoever crosses that line can't continue. There's no living after that. It has to be a sacrificial mission."

Rhaenys still exercises restraint during her final battle

Rhaenys' actual death comes during a three-way dragon fight between Meleys, Vhagar, and Sunfyre. The emotional impact of that battle hinges on Best's performance. Director Alan Taylor, who also directed the series premiere, doesn't hesitate to cut in close to her face as it becomes increasingly streaked with ash. Best effectively communicates Rhaenys' resolve — and her resignation to death — over the course of several stark close-up shots.

What makes it more remarkable are the conditions under which Best acted out Rhaenys' last moments. It took Best two weeks to film the sequence, working alone while on a mechanized mount. Rhaenys' final moments were filmed amid the chaos of wind blowing in Best's face and shouted directions as she mimicked difficult maneuvers on dragonback while "clinging on for dear life."

"You are having to do the whole story in your head," Best said. "Not just the battle, and seeing everybody and responding to the physical nature of the battle, but also obviously the emotional part of what's going on inside, which is challenging in the context where there's just nothing to relate to."

During the battle, Best says that Rhaenys is still reluctant: despite the fact that they're trying to kill her, Aegon and Aemond are still part of her family. During that sequence, Rhaenys is very specific in her commands to Meleys: she only orders the dragon to attack Sunfyre and Vhagar, even as her nephews commend dracarys — fire — with little discipline.

"It seemed to me that every time anybody was on a dragon and was saying dracarys, the human or person riding had reached a level of really high emotion, and it was very chaotic, and very vengeful, and very angry — not a lot of control," Best said.

"It was very important to me that she was different from all of those others, that she was an utter pro to the last, with precision," she continued. "That grace characterizes her."