Tag: News

• Cargo vessels account for nearly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, underscoring a need for energy-efficient solutions.
• WISAMO from Michelin is a new automated wing sail design that harnesses the wind for propulsion.
• Its innovative design, with a goal of lowering carbon emissions by up to 50%, can propel the maritime industry to a more sustainable future.

Long before cargo vessels hauled millions of gallons of oil to fuel their voyages, merchant ships hoisted their sails using the wind. An innovative new design is bringing these sails back using groundbreaking 21st-century technology that could propel the maritime industry to a greener, more sustainable future.

WISAMO from Michelin — its name is a combination of the words wing, sail, and mobility — is an inflatable, retractable, and automated wing sail. While it's not intended to replace ships' engines entirely, it lightens their loads and decreases their dependence on fuel. According to Michelin, the company that manufactured the design, the goal is to cut carbon emissions by up to 20% for existing ships and up to 50% for newly-built models.

"It is a revolutionary design that harnesses the wind — a free, universal, and inexhaustible source of propulsion," Gildas Quemeneur, executive director of WISAMO, said. "Decarbonization has become a vital way to limit environmental impact, and solutions need to come in many different forms. WISAMO is an important innovation that can help the maritime industry reach its ambitious goals."

An industry ripe for transformation

Energy-efficient solutions are sorely needed in the maritime industry, which transports 90% of the world's goods. The average size of container ships has doubled in the last 20 years, and the vessels now account for nearly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

To improve its environmental profile, the International Maritime Organization has set a goal of cutting carbon emissions by at least 20% by 2030 and 70% by 2040, intending to reach carbon net zero by 2050. Ships must make drastic changes to achieve these goals — a daunting task considering that 99% rely on conventional heavy fuel oil. WISAMO was introduced as a solution at Michelin's 2021 Movin'On World Summit for Sustainable Mobility, a forum of over 5,000 public and private stakeholders seeking to solve the challenges of sustainable transportation. Michelin's engineers began testing WISAMO on French sailing champion Michel Desjoyeaux's yacht later that year. 

Designed to propel into the future 

Unlike a traditional sail, which has a flat surface, WISAMO from Michelin is inflatable, reducing mechanical stress and increasing durability. When conditions are suitable for capturing the wind, small fans inside the sail fill it with air as a telescopic mast raises it high above the deck. When the ship returns to port, passes under a bridge, or encounters winds above 55 knots, the mast lowers and the sail deflates into neat folds atop the deck. 

These actions are performed digitally and automatically, with sensors determining optimal settings for smooth, efficient sailing. The sail is simple to install and operate, and can be used by commercial ships and pleasure craft alike.

"The WISAMO wing sail has one of the broadest ranges of wind use on the market, with proven effectiveness on many points of sail. It is particularly efficient upwind," Gildas Quemeneur said.

Its automated operation is critical for cargo ships, which are sparsely crewed with staff who may lack sailing experience. Retractable sails make loading and unloading freight easy, especially for "ro-ro ships" that carry cars, motorcycles, buses, and other vehicles, which are typically rolled onto the deck and rolled off at their destination.

After gaining feedback from Desjoyeaux, Michelin began testing a second prototype on the Compagnie Maritime Nantaise ro-ro ship MN Pelican. The ship's routes include the Bay of Biscay, notorious for its rough seas and strong winter winds. The robust WISAMO from Michelin has stood up well to these conditions, and the Pelican's captain and crew say they are impressed with its efficient operation.

While the current model of WISAMO from Michelin measures 1,076 square feet, Michelin is developing a larger version that reaches 8,611 square feet. Large container ships could deploy as many as six of the large sails. The first commercial deliveries are planned for 2026. 

Carrying and using less heavy fuel oil could also help shipping companies save money, and Michelin estimates the WISAMO will pay for itself in about five years. After that, it will continue to generate additional savings throughout its lifecycle.  

With its automated, easy-to-use features, WISAMO from Michelin is a boon for commercial and pleasure ships seeking energy-efficient solutions. Its innovative wind sail design could speed the shipping industry toward its environmental goals and significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. 

Learn more about WISAMO from Michelin and other innovations here. 

This post was created by Insider Studios with Michelin.

• Companies are leveraging 5G, which requires new cybersecurity approaches.
• Professionals at the RSA Conference shared insights on securing 5G devices and networks.
• This article is part of "5G and Connectivity Playbook," a series exploring some of our time's most important tech innovations.

Increasingly, companies are leveraging 5G connectivity, whether through 5G mobile devices or Internet of Things technology. This means they need to evolve the way they think about cybersecurity.

Business Insider spoke with several cybersecurity professionals at the annual RSA Conference, which took place from May 6 to 9 in San Francisco. They shared advice on how companies could improve cybersecurity as they moved into the age of 5G.

"For the office, factories, sites, campuses, 5G should be seen as an active replacement for WiFi," Nathan Howe, the group vice president of innovation at Zscaler, said. "This requires some serious rethinking, but the advantages are massive — once you get past that initial shock in terms of difference. Private 5G networks will change the way in which everything connects."

Overall, professionals said that companies should think about cybersecurity from the beginning.

"It's much cheaper thinking about cybersecurity when building something rather than thinking about cybersecurity when it's already built," Andrea Carcano, a cofounder and the chief product officer of Nozomi Networks, said.

Here are cybersecurity professionals' best practices for securing 5G devices and networks.

Inspect and secure 5G devices

Many customers are still trying to understand how to fully use 5G. Increasingly, organizations purchase and manage their own private 5G infrastructure.

If they do this, they must conduct thorough security assessments, inspect the quality of the IoT products they use, and follow manufacturer guidelines on how to secure them, Boaz Gelbord, Akamai's chief security officer, said.

Additionally, professionals said companies should understand what's connected to the 5G networks they're using and hold their vendors accountable for security, ensuring they make updates to software and hardware and mend any vulnerabilities.

Use a zero-trust approach

Several professionals pointed to using a zero-trust approach, which means systems should never trust anything entering the network and should verify all devices, requests, and users. This includes security controls over which users can access the network and which systems on the network can communicate with each other.

"Zero trust really goes hand in hand with 5G," Donna Johnson, Cradlepoint's chief marketing officer, said. "Even as your attack surface widens, you've narrowed the potential impact of any attack that can get through."

As part of this approach, companies should have visibility into the traffic of their 5G networks and continuously validate and monitor end-point devices on those networks. That's because as more devices get connected to 5G networks, the bigger the attack surface becomes.

"From an attacker's perspective, the more things connected to it, the more gold mines there are for them to attack," Christine Gadsby, the vice president of product security at BlackBerry, said.

It's also important to have a powerful enforcement layer, including enforcement policies and controls over which devices are permitted to access the network, Darren Guccione, the CEO and a cofounder of Keeper Security, said.

"We make sure the right person, on the right device, at the right time, at the right location has access to very specific systems based on their role," Guccione said.

With more IoT devices, there are even more ways to communicate across 5G networks. Companies should use tools to check whether rogue devices are on their 5G networks.

"Because 5G includes IoT, it's going to open up a whole world of issues with monitoring communication," Megha Kalsi, a partner at AlixPartners, said. "As an industry, we also need to figure out how to monitor some of that communication using 5G."

Analyze risks

Finally, companies should analyze their risks, the services they use, and how much of their data is exposed. They should consider possible entry points for hackers and how they can mitigate issues as they transition to 5G.

This is crucial, given the significant gap between the speed at which bad actors can exploit vulnerabilities and the speed at which an organization can patch its vulnerabilities.

Companies need to "go above and beyond best practices," Jimmy Mesta, the chief technology officer and a cofounder of RAD Security, said. They need to monitor for anomalies, verify workloads, and properly configure the products they use. As generative artificial intelligence is increasingly used in cybersecurity, some tasks can be automated.

Increased use of 5G calls for updated security practices. "A lot of the standard practices today will not work," Carcano said. "That's the main risk. Someone will use 5G technology and try to apply old-school methodology to perform cybersecurity, but 5G will change and expand boundaries and work more in a zero-trust network when potentially everything is at risk."

• College athletes should be leveraging LinkedIn more, say athletes and experts.
• Student-athlete Sabrina Oostburg described the success she's had using LinkedIn to promote herself.
• NIL Athlete of the Year Chase Griffin also said even high-school athletes should be on LinkedIn.

The name, image, and likeness business has changed the game for college athletes who now need to self-promote on social-media platforms like Instagram and TikTok if they want to make money from NIL.

LinkedIn is another often-overlooked platform where student-athletes can promote themselves and score brand deals, athletes and experts told Business Insider.

The professional network has leaned into creator content and grown in recent years as a platform for influencers of all kinds.

Some student-athletes who have found success building their brands on LinkedIn include Tanner Maddox, a freshman football player from Villanova; Sabrina Oostburg, a track and field athlete from Belmont University; and Connor Printz, a former basketball player from Claremont McKenna College, according to Out2Win, an AI-powered platform for brands to evaluate athletes based on their marketability metrics, which tracked the frequency of student-athletes posting on LinkedIn.

While Instagram and TikTok are crucial for athletes to showcase their creativity and build an audience, LinkedIn is better for connecting directly with brands, said Jack Adler, founder of Out2Win.

"LinkedIn is a better platform for actually connecting with those businesses because that's where a lot of the marketers spend their time," Adler said.

Oostburg and Printz told BI they've used LinkedIn to secure NIL brand deals and connect with agents or other professionals they want to work with.

College athletes have used LinkedIn to get brand deals and sign with talent agents

Oostburg said she landed two sponsorship deals through LinkedIn, including with the Nashville Zoo and a startup called Backhat. One of the partnerships was paid and both offered free products. She's also connected through the platform with social-media managers and business owners — and even her current agency, Raymond Representation.

Oostburg said some of her peers have laughed at her for using LinkedIn and don't see the value in it.

"I'm like, 'What are you guys laughing at?'"she said. "They don't see the vision of how you can use that for NIL."

Printz, meanwhile, has used LinkedIn to help build his personal brand and prepare for a sports career after college. Two months ago, he posted on LinkedIn his story about gaining over 100 NIL deals and over 1 million followers across social media. He said the post opened a lot of doors for him.

"It kind of went a little bit viral on there and people were reaching out to me every single day just wanting to talk," said Printz.

While Printz hasn't used LinkedIn to get NIL deals, like Oostburg, he found his agent through the platform while seeking NIL representation about six months ago.

"When I was looking for an agent, I just posted on there and had many, many people reach out," he said. "Luckily, that's how I connected with my agent."

Samantha Green, who founded the Athlete Con convention and works directly with student-athletes, said she advises athletes to post about their current NIL deals and contact brands on LinkedIn for opportunities.

"If you think about it seriously, anybody that's a head of influencer marketing at any brand is often on LinkedIn," she told BI.

Green said athletes can also make more of a name for themselves on LinkedIn than on other platforms.

"There are a million athletes on TikTok. There are a million athletes on Instagram. But who are the ones actually putting a business presence forward and building a brand as a professional while still being a college athlete?" Green said. "Few and far between are on LinkedIn, so you'll really stand out."

Chase Griffin, a UCLA quarterback who was named the 2022 NIL Male Athlete of the Year by NIL Summit and Opendorse, is also proof of the opportunities athletes can get on LinkedIn. Griffin, who's scored more than 30 NIL deals during his career, landed his first through LinkedIn. 

He advises any athlete in college or high school to create a LinkedIn profile because it can set them up for future success. 

"LinkedIn can play a huge role in making sure that you have a network vesting while you're still in college," he said. "That way, once you leave your campus, you're still tied to your network, and you've been able to put your accomplishments and accolades out in front of the companies that you're going to work for."

Griffin said his LinkedIn presence has helped shape his early career, and he plans to continue building his audience and content on the platform.

 "If you're doing NIL or not, as a college athlete, you're also a college student," he said, "and LinkedIn is the spot to be for college students."

• Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash aboard a US-made Bell 212, according to reports.
• The helicopter was between 40 and 50 years of age, experts told Reuters, based on available data.
• US sanctions may have prevented Iran from adequately maintaining the helicopter, one analyst said.

The helicopter that crashed on Sunday with Iran's president on board was US-made and may have been in service since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to reports.

President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage were flying on a US-made Bell 212 helicopter, per Iran International, when it crashed into a hillside in Iran's mountainous northwest, killing all on board.

The group was returning from a ceremony marking a dam opening near the country's border with Azerbaijan, per Al Jazeera.

The US developed the Bell 212 in the mid-1960s in cooperation with the Canadian government, according to WeaponsSystem.net, and it was first put into service in 1971. Production ended in 1998.

Until the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran was one of the US' closest allies in the region.

Experts said that the few details provided about the accident suggest that the helicopter that crashed could have been between 40 and 50 years old, per Reuters.

If true, flying such a plane is "simply suicidal," said Julian Röpcke, Security Policy and Conflicts Senior Editor at Bild, a German tabloid.

(Bild and Business Insider share a parent company, Axel Springer.)

Roland Dangerfield, a former British Army officer and the CEO of Sentinel Aviation, said the helicopter's age and model were less important than its level of maintenance.

He told BI that aircraft dating back to the 1940s are flying over the UK "perfectly safely," while in the US B-52 bombers have been around since the 1950s.

"The key to this is whether the helicopter was maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's maintenance regime," he said.

But Dangerfield said that US trade embargoes and restrictions on helicopter parts may have prevented the Iranian regime from maintaining the Bell 212.

Iran's former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, drew a similar conclusion, saying US sanctions — which prohibit Iran from purchasing US-built aircraft and parts — could be partly to blame for the crash.

Raisi's death is just the latest incident involving helicopters and planes crashing while flying in heavy fog.

Bell 212 helicopters have been involved in 432 accidents, resulting in 639 fatalities, since 1972, including Raisi's crash on Sunday, according to a database updated and held by the Flight Safety Foundation.

• For over a century, Einstein's general theory of relativity has been key to understanding gravity. 
• But new research suggests this theory "glitches" in the farthest reaches of space. 
• That doesn't mean we're throwing Einstein's theory out the window. But it may need a slight tweak. 

Over the last 100 years, countless studies have proven that Albert Einstein's greatest theory — his theory of general relativity — is practically bulletproof, capable of everything from predicting black holes to guiding your GPS technology.

However, as scientists arm themselves with more powerful and sophisticated technology, capable of peering into the cosmos in unprecedented detail, they see phenomena they can't explain with Einstein's theory.

Einstein's general theory of relativity states that the curvature of space-time causes gravity. But zoom out to enormous scales like clusters of galaxies spanning billions of light years across, and the laws of Einstein's gravity theory appear to change.

"It's almost as if gravity itself stops perfectly matching Einstein's theory," Robin Wen, a recent University of Waterloo graduate, said in a university press release.

Wen is part of a collaboration between the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia who are on the hunt to solve the mystery, calling this discrepancy in Einstein's theory a "cosmic glitch."

Their new study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, suggests that gravity becomes about 1% weaker at very large scales. If gravity behaved according to Einstein's theory, then this 1% difference shouldn't exist.

Cosmologists won't be doing away with general relativity anytime soon. It's still a strikingly accurate framework for understanding gravity at smaller scales.

"It's not like we're breaking how your GPS works, or a black hole. We were only trying to see if there's any deviation at the largest possible scales," Wen told Business Insider.

If this glitch truly exists, it could help cosmologists explain some of the greatest mysteries of the universe.

Easing cosmological tension

The research team was combing through data of the cosmic microwave background when they discovered this apparent glitch.

The cosmic microwave background is a vast expanse of lingering radiation that was left behind by the Big Bang. Scientists use it to understand the earliest stages of the universe like how the first galaxies formed and what happened immediately after the Big Bang.

Wen and his colleagues used a model — based on fundamental physical laws like Einstein's theory of general relativity — and compared their model's prediction of what the CMB data should look like with observational CMB data.

Their scientific model didn't match the observations — what we actually see in the distant universe.

However, when they tweaked Einstein's theory to account for a 1% gravity deficit, their model aligned more closely with the observational data, Wen told BI over email.

A 1% adjustment may not sound like a big deal, but it's enough to suggest that Einstein's theory may need a rethink. And what's more, this glitch may help us better understand some confusing behavior in the universe.

The cosmos, as we understand it, is filled with tensions. Sometimes, different measurements of the same phenomenon don't agree with each other. One example of this is the Hubble Tension — a problem that's puzzled astronomers for years.

The Hubble Tension refers to conflicting measurements of the expansion rate of the universe. According to our standard model of physics, the expansion rate of the universe should be the same everywhere. However, observations of the nearby universe suggest that the expansion rate is faster than regions of the distant universe. Astronomers have proposed multiple possible explanations but haven't settled on one, yet.

Now, with this cosmic glitch, there's a new explanation on the table.

A 1% weaker gravity at large scales could reduce the Hubble Tension by bringing the universe's expansion rate closer to measurements from local observations, said Niayesh Afshordi, study co-author and professor of astrophysics at the University of Waterloo, in a recent YouTube interview.

Thinking outside the box

The fact that this cosmic glitch could potentially help astronomers resolve the Hubble tension is a good sign that it may truly exist. But this study doesn't offer definitive proof of a 1% gravity deficit at large scales, Wen said.

For now, there's still a chance that this glitch could be the result of statistical error. "With future data in the coming 10 years, we should expect to see if this is actually a real detection, or just fluctuation due to your statistical power," Wen said.

Valerio Faraoni, professor of physics and interim dean of science at Bishop's University, told BI it's reasonable to think the glitch could exist because general relativity has not been tested in the distant universe.

So, "it's quite possible, at least in principle, that we don't understand gravity on the larger scale," said Faraoni, who wasn't a part of the study.

He thinks that in order to resolve conflicts between predictions and observations of our universe, we need to think outside the box. And this cosmic glitch study does exactly that.

"We probably need something outrageous," he said. "It does look exotic, it does look strange. But I think we have to be absolutely open to all these strange ideas."

Next, Wen and his colleagues will take a close look at new data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI measures the effects of dark energy on the expansion rate of the universe, and has created the largest 3D map of the cosmos to date.

Moreover, DESI has found that, like gravity, dark energy doesn't behave the way astronomers expect at large cosmological scales. Wen wants to find out whether these two "glitches" are somehow linked, which would provide even more evidence for a need to tweak general relativity.

But even he is skeptical of general relativity's limitations. "If you asked me to bet on something, I might bet on GR still. GR works so well, right? For the alternative models, it's hard to tell at this stage," he said.

• Donald Trump's defense team is expected to call an ex-FEC commissioner as a witness in his hush-money trial.
• Bradley Smith, a Republican election-law expert, is being paid $1,200 an hour. 
• Smith was previously barred from testifying in the trial of fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.

As Donald Trump's criminal hush-money trial nears the end, the former president's defense team plans to call at least one witness — an ex-commissioner of the Federal Election Commission who's getting a whopping $1,200 an hour.

Bradley Smith — a Republican campaign-finance-law expert who has served on the FEC as commissioner, vice chairman and chairman between 2000 and 2005 — is expected to testify in Trump's historic Manhattan trial on Monday.

Manhattan prosecutors fought hard to keep Smith off the stand. Smith has twice been barred by federal judges from testifying as a defense expert, prosecutors noted in February — including in a 2014 case where he'd hoped to tell a jury that an average person may not know that "straw man" donations are illegal.

Smith didn't immediately return Business Insider's request for comment Monday morning.

Trump retained Smith, known for his opposition to campaign finance regulations, to provide expert testimony, advise the defense, and "engage in commentary with media organizations covering the matter," according to court documents.

Trump may not get his money's worth, though.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over the trial, dealt a blow to the defense on Monday when he greatly limited the scope of any testimony by Smith.

As a result of Merchan's order, Smith, who was appointed to the FEC by former President Bill Clinton, is essentially only allowed to explain to Trump's hush-money jury what the FEC is, what it does, and what the standard definitions are for such terms as "campaign expenditure" and "campaign contribution."

In fighting to keep Smith from testifying for Trump, prosecutors noted in February that he had been barred from testifying for the defense in two unrelated federal cases in Manhattan.

The judges in both cases found that the defense improperly wanted Smith to interpret campaign finance law to the jury.

One of those cases was the fraud trial of fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.

The other case where Smith was barred from testifying was United States v. Suarez.

In that case, Smith would have testified that "people often misunderstand the campaign laws" and that "it is reasonable for individuals to believe that the law allows 'straw man' donations," prosecutors in Trump's case complained in court documents filed earlier this year.

Trump — and his Save America PAC — were charged well over $2 million on expert testimony for last year's Manhattan civil fraud trial — including $1,350 an hour for New York University professor Eli Bartov, who testified he worked 650 hours and pocketed at least $877,500.

Bartov "lost all credibility" on the stand, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron wrote in December. "All that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say," Engoron wrote. 

Trump has been standing trial since mid-April on criminal charges related to a $130,000 hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has charged the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Prosecutors allege Trump illegally falsified invoices, checks, and other records throughout 2017, to disguise a year's worth of monthly reimbursement checks to his then attorney, Michael Cohen.

Once Trump's "fixer," Cohen had made the initial outlay of a $130,0000 hush-money payment that silenced Daniels just 11 days before the 2016 election. Daniels had threatened to go public with a story of a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 when his son with Melania Trump was only four months old.

Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.

Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, but the charge becomes a felony — punishable by up to four years in prison — if the records were falsified with the intent to commit or hide some other underlying crime.

Prosecutors have argued Trump orchestrated the payment to Daniels as part of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election in violation of state and federal election laws.

In putting Smith on the stand, Trump's defense team hopes to challenge the prosecution's argument that the hush-money payment breached those laws.

• Russia claims Ukraine fired Western-supplied missiles into its region of Belgorod.
• The White House said the claim is "Russian propaganda."
• Some Western countries are signaling they may be more open to their weapons being used on Russian soil.

Russia has claimed that Ukraine used French- and US-supplied missiles in an attack on one of its border regions.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that it had repelled an attack on the border region of Belgorod by four French-made Hammer missiles and two US-made HARM anti-radar missiles.

Its foreign ministry also claimed that Russian forces had earlier shot down multiple Western weapons, and said that British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and Czech Vampire rockets also featured in the attack.

While it did not specify where the weapons were fired, it said that Western nations "now authorize their use against Russia" and that they were "playing with fire."

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

In a statement sent to BI, the White House called the allegations "Russian propaganda."

It added that the US' "longstanding policy has been clear: we are focused on helping Ukraine defend against assaults it is facing from Russian forces every day, though we do not enable or encourage attacks inside of Russia."

Even so, it said that "Ukraine makes its own decisions about its military operations and how it uses equipment that it manufactures."

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Western weapons have been supplied to Ukraine for its defense on the understanding that they only be used on Ukrainian territory.

This has limited Ukraine's ability to take the fight to Russia.

Last week, Ukrainian officials renewed their pleas with the White House to be allowed to use US weapons in Russia, Politico reported.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was vocally critical of the US restrictions in a recent interview with Agence France-Presse.

The chair of France's foreign affairs committee, Jean-Louis Bourlanges, has recently called for such restrictions to be lifted for French-supplied weapons, saying that it would end the "unacceptable asymmetry" of the conflict, Le Figaro reported.

The French Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Russian claim.

The UK government has also increasingly signaled that it is open to allowing Ukraine to strike Russian soil with UK-supplied weapons.

The UK's Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the latest Russian allegations.

The reported attack on Russian soil comes as some NATO countries have begun reconsidering the possibility of sending troops into Ukraine.

Belgorod, the region Russia's foreign ministry claims was targeted by Western-supplied weapons, was the staging point for the country's recent assault on Ukraine's Kharkiv region.

Russia has reopened a front there, capturing one town with little resistance and threatening to push toward the city of Kharkiv itself.

Ukrainian sources told Politico that they watched 30,000 Russian troops amassing in Belgorod, and there was immense frustration that they couldn't strike because of the restrictions.

"We saw their military sitting one or two kilometers from the border inside Russia and there was nothing we could do about that," Ukrainian MP Oleksandra Ustinova told the outlet.

• Neuralink has gotten the FDA go-ahead for a second implant, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• This time, it's implanting the wires a few millimeters deeper to prevent retraction.
• Neuralink's first patient lost some function but has since greatly improved, the Journal reported.

Neuralink has gotten the go-ahead to implant its device into a second patient — and has settled on a fix for the error that plagued its inaugural trial.

The Wall Street Journal reports the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has okayed a second trial where the implant's wires — 64 total threads, each thinner than a strand of human hair — will be implanted even deeper into the brain to prevent them from moving out of place.

Neuralink is aiming to conduct its next implant in June — and a total of 10 implants this year, according to the Journal. Musk said Friday applications were open for a second participant.

"As a general matter, the FDA cannot discuss or disclose information related to any particular company's Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application or study under an IDE," an FDA press officer told Business Insider.

Neuralink did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The first patient to receive an implant, Noland Arbaugh, underwent a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Initially, Arbaugh — a quadriplegic — could control a computer cursor with his thoughts to communicate and play games.

But after a month, the device wasn't nearly as effective. That's because 85% of the threads that had been inserted into his motor cortex to relay signals had retracted due to brain movement.

Neuralink initially considered removing the implant, but the remaining threads ultimately stabilized and the company issued software changes — with Arbaugh telling the Journal it was now more effective than ever.

In the next trial, wires will be implanted 8 millimeters deep (as opposed to the three to five millimeters in Arbaugh's case), according to the Journal.

• Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to a statement released Sunday.
• The seafood chain's troubles include failed all-you-can-eat snow crab and shrimp promotions.
• Despite its current status, Red Lobster was once a pioneer in the casual-dining industry.

Red Lobster has filed for bankruptcy after years of financial and executive-level turmoil.

The seafood chain, which has been operating for about 56 years, has weathered its fair share of storms, from a bungled snow-crab promotion that tanked the company's stocks to the recent fallout from its daily all-you-can-eat-shrimp promotion.

However, Red Lobster wasn't always on the hook. As a pioneer in the chain-restaurant industry, Red Lobster became famous for its casual dining atmosphere and fan-favorite dishes like its Cheddar Bay Biscuits and fried shrimp.

Here's the rise and fall of Red Lobster through the years. Red Lobster did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

1968: The first Red Lobster opened in Lakeland, Florida.

Bill Darden opened the first Red Lobster restaurant in Lakeland, Florida (not pictured). He would later go on to launch Olive Garden, too.

At the time, there was a gap in the market for affordable seafood, especially in landlocked areas like Lakeland. Red Lobster's mission was to serve "delicious, high-quality seafood" to the masses, according to the restaurant's website.

"In most of middle America, you couldn't get decent seafood. Red Lobster brought it to the masses," Jonathan Maze, the editor in chief at Restaurant Business, told CNN. "Red Lobster was part of this casual dining revolution."

The restaurant's more relaxed environment and family-friendly prices cemented Red Lobster as one of the first casual-dining concepts.

1970: General Mills acquired Red Lobster and the business expanded across the country.

It was General Mills' first venture into the restaurant industry, according to the company's website.

General Mills put resources into the chain, allowing it to expand coast to coast and transforming the business into one of the first nationwide seafood-restaurant chains.

By 1978, Red Lobster had expanded to 236 restaurants and had made a total of $291 million in sales, CNN reported. By 1985, Red Lobster had expanded to almost 400 locations and $834 million in sales.

1980-1995: Red Lobster introduced iconic menu items like the Cheddar Bay Biscuits and held its first Lobsterfest.

In 1984, the company held its first Lobsterfest. The annual event celebrates lobster by releasing new and limited-time-only dishes.

Then in 1992, Cheddar Bay Biscuits, which remain one of the restaurant's most beloved items, were first released. Initially called "freshly baked, hot cheese garlic bread," they were served to people waiting for their tables in the restaurants' lobbies, per Red Lobster. But after a positive response, Red Lobster decided to serve them table-side instead, and five years after their launch, they were renamed Cheddar Bay Biscuits. In 2017, the restaurant reported that staff baked nearly 1 million biscuits every day.

Red Lobster founder Bill Darden died on March 29, 1994, at the age of 75. In 1995, after Darden's passing, General Mills restructured its restaurant division and changed its name to Darden Restaurants, Inc.

Red Lobster remained under the Darden Restaurants umbrella for almost 20 years.

2000-2003: Red Lobster continued to grow steadily through the early 2000s.

In December 2001, Darden Restaurants reported in a press release that Red Lobster had had "its 16th consecutive quarter of same-restaurant sales gains." Red Lobster made $534.9 million in sales for the quarter, an increase over the previous year, the company said.

"Red Lobster and Olive Garden enjoyed same-restaurant sales growth that once again surpassed the casual dining industry average," Joe R. Lee, then Darden Restaurants' CEO and chairman, said in the press release.

The restaurant chain was steadily adding restaurants and experimenting with promotional deals to bring value-minded customers through the doors.

2003: Red Lobster introduced its infamous Endless Snow Crab promotion.

In the summer of 2003, Red Lobster introduced its Endless Snow Crab promotion, which offered customers all-you-can-eat snow crab for $22.99.

But the promotion worked a little too well. Customers took advantage of the deal by ordering heaps of snow crab, and restaurants couldn't keep up.

Endless Snow Crab cost the company a reported $3.3 million in profits and the chain's then-president, Edna Morris, stepped down as a result. The New York Post also reported in 2003 that the bungled promotion cost Red Lobster a whopping $405.9 million of stock value in a single session after investors began rapidly selling off their shares.

The deal ended up being what Restaurant Business called "one of the biggest marketing blunders in industry history."

2004: The chain tried again with Endless Shrimp.

The shrimp deal, a much more affordable option at the time for restaurants to make all-you-can-eat, was a hit with customers and reinvigorated the brand.

The brand also made updates to its restaurants. Wood-fired grills were added to Red Lobster locations nationwide, and restaurant designs changed, inspired by the "historic fishing village of Bar Harbor, Maine," the restaurant said on its website.

2008: The economic downturn impacted fast-casual restaurants, and Red Lobster floundered.

The Great Recession majorly impacted the restaurant industry, and casual-dining brands took the brunt as people cut back on luxuries like dining out. Nationwide food-and-beverage chains like Bennigan's were forced to shutter, and others, like Starbucks, closed hundreds of locations, CBS News reported in 2008.

Restaurant Business reported that, after the Great Recession, Red Lobster was also struggling to make a comeback, putting pressure on Darden to turn away from the brand and focus on other restaurant concepts.

CNN reported that by 2008, Olive Garden's sales were outperforming Red Lobster's, and Darden was diversifying its portfolio of restaurants with fast-growing chains like Longhorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille, and Yard House.

Red Lobster was no longer Darden's darling.

2014: Darden Restaurants sold the brand.

In 2014, Darden sold the chain to Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion. At the time, the firm called Red Lobster "an exceptionally strong brand" with plenty of opportunities for growth.

On Red Lobster's website, the move was heralded as "charting a new course as an independent company."

To finance the deal, Golden Gate sold off Red Lobster's real-estate holdings to a separate company, meaning that Red Lobster would now be leasing its restaurants. Over time, this has proven costly for the brand.

2016: Thai Union Group, one of the chain's biggest shrimp suppliers, took over a minority stake in the brand.

CNN reported that Thai Union took a $575 million minority stake in the brand, and made efforts to become the main seafood supplier to Red Lobster and cut restaurant costs to increase profits.

However, many of the changes were begrudged by Red Lobster employees.

An anonymous former Red Lobster executive told CNN that Thai Union changed Red Lobster menus based on "cost-cutting decisions" and "executive opinion," rather than customer preferences.

Servers were also reportedly instructed to cover 10 tables per service instead of three in an effort to save on labor costs.

2020: Red Lobster leaned into to-go service amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Restaurants lost billions in sales in March 2020 alone, and two-thirds of people reported cutting back on fast-casual dining visits that month, Business Insider reported at the time.

Subsequently, restaurants and fast-food chains made major changes during the pandemic to drive business. Red Lobster was no different and began embracing pandemic-era initiatives like curbside pickup and to-go ordering.

Also in 2020, Thai Union assumed the majority ownership of Red Lobster after Golden Gate Capital announced its plans to sell its remaining equity stake in the chain.

2021-2022: Under new management, there was a period of unrest at Red Lobster, with multiple new executives leaving their roles.

Between 2021 and 2022, Red Lobster welcomed new executives into key executive positions, including CEO, chief marketing officer, chief financial officer, and chief information officer.

However, all of them departed from the company within a span of two years, CNN reported.

2023: Red Lobster expanded its Endless Shrimp to become a daily promotion, but it was a disaster.

In January 2023, Restaurant Business reported that Red Lobster had closed eight restaurants in the span of a few months as part of a routine review of restaurant performance. However, the worst was yet to come.

Initially a one-day-a-week deal for $20, Endless Shrimp became a daily promotion in summer 2023 to attract more customers as Red Lobster struggled to keep up with a changing industry.

However, inflation and the rising cost of seafood created rough seas for the chain. In 2023, Red Lobster raised the price of Endless Shrimp twice, eventually landing at $25 to cope with demand and improve profits.

Despite the increased price, the all-you-can-eat strategy backfired. The chain reported operating losses of $11 million and $12.5 million in the two quarters following the initial daily endless shrimp promotion launch.

In 2024, the deal is only available on Mondays.

However, Endless Shrimp isn't the sole cause of Red Lobster's demise, Business Insider's Emily Stewart wrote in an analysis of the chain's struggles over the years.

Changing tastes are also a major issue.

The seafood restaurant industry faces significant challenges in the US, Darren Tristano, the CEO and founder of Foodservice Results, a food-industry consultancy, told BI.

Many customers in the mood for seafood are more likely to seek it out at a steakhouse, rather than a seafood-specific restaurant or chain like Red Lobster.

"If anything, the Endless Shrimp deals are probably as much a symbol of just either desperation or poor management or both," Jonathan Maze told BI.

January 2024: Thai Union announced its plans to exit Red Lobster amid significant financial headwinds.

"The combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, sustained industry headwinds, higher interest rates, and rising material and labor costs have impacted Red Lobster, resulting in prolonged negative financial contributions to Thai Union and its shareholders," Thiraphong Chansiri, Thai Union Group's CEO, said in a statement.

"After detailed analysis, we have determined that Red Lobster's ongoing financial requirements no longer align with our capital allocation priorities, and therefore are pursuing an exit of our minority investment," he continued.

John Gordon, a restaurant analyst in San Diego, told BI, "They [Thai Union] were totally unprepared to hold a casual-dining restaurant."

April 2024: Reports emerged that Red Lobster was considering filing for bankruptcy.

Bloomberg reported that Red Lobster was considering a bankruptcy filing.

According to sources familiar with the situation who spoke to Bloomberg, opting for bankruptcy would enable Red Lobster to sustain its operations while reducing debts and expenses.

The report also indicated that Red Lobster was receiving legal guidance from the law firm King & Spalding, who didn't respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment.

Representatives for Red Lobster didn't respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

May 13, 2024: Reports emerged that Red Lobster would be shuttering over 50 locations.

According to previous reporting by Business Insider, California, Colorado, Florida, New York, and Texas were among the states affected by the restaurant closures. A restaurant liquidator confirmed to BI that the chain would be selling off kitchen items and furniture from closed locations.

Red Lobster did not make a public statement about the restaurant closures.

May 19, 2024: Red Lobster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Nearly a month after reports first emerged that the chain would file, it finally released a statement announcing it had voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Red Lobster said its roughly 550 remaining restaurants will "remain open and operating as usual during the Chapter 11 process."

It also explained that the chain will be using the bankruptcy process to "drive operational improvements, simplify the business through a reduction in locations, and pursue a sale of substantially all of its assets."

"This restructuring is the best path forward for Red Lobster. It allows us to address several financial and operational challenges and emerge stronger and re-focused on our growth," Red Lobster's CEO Jonathan Tibus said in the statement.

• A recession threatens to pummel households, businesses, and the stock market.
• Piper Sandler's Nancy Lazar warned of tighter credit and the full fallout from the Fed's rate rises.
• Unemployment has jumped in 19 states, making a national recession almost inevitable, Lazar said.

Get ready for a recession that hammers consumers, squeezes companies, and drags down stocks, a veteran economist warned.

"There is a very high probability of a recession," Nancy Lazar, Piper Sandler's chief global economist, told WealthTrack in a recent interview.

Lazar, the cofounder of Cornerstone Macro and ISI, cited the delayed impacts of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate rises, and credit drying up, as two likely drivers of a downturn.

"We just think this is a very risky economic environment," she said. "When banks are tightening lending standards and you clearly have higher interest rates, you've never had a soft landing. You've always had a hard landing."

Recessions strike an average of 10 quarters after the Fed begins a rate-hike cycle, but have arrived up to 16 quarters later in the past, Lazar said. The first hike of this cycle was in March 2022, meaning eight quarters have already elapsed.

Lazar highlighted several signs of economic trouble. She noted that 19 US states — accounting for 40% of national GDP — have recorded at least a 0.5 percentage point increase in their average unemployment, measured over three months.

Whenever that many states have recorded significant increases in joblessness in the past, there's been a nationwide recession, she noted.

Government figures show unemployment rose in 30 states in the 12 months through April. The national unemployment rate was 3.9%, up from 3.4% in April 2023.

Several parts of the economy are "really, really struggling," Lazar continued. She pointed to the NFIB survey of small business sentiment, saying it was "very deep in recession territory" and worse now than in the 1990 and 2001 recessions.

Meanwhile, lower-income consumers are dealing with slowing wage gains and inflated prices, Lazar said. Their credit card balances are "through the roof," and subprime auto delinquencies recently hit a record high, underscoring their financial woes.

'Tipping point'

In stark contrast, wealthy people are sitting pretty with the value of their stock portfolios and homes near record highs. They've been able to retain their cheap mortgages and largely escape steeper rates as they have few high-interest loans, Lazar said.

"We have a very bifurcated economy,  unstable economy," she added.

As for middle-income consumers, they're "at the tipping point" because if unemployment climbs above 4%, they could find themselves jobless with huge amounts of credit-card debt, Lazar said.

Given those warning signs, she predicted corporate revenues would weaken by the last three months of this year as consumers pull back and interest rates bite, fueling layoffs and smacking middle-income households.

Stash of cash

Lazar also cautioned that an economic slump would batter stocks.

"If we have a recession, inflation will slow," she said. "And if inflation slows, you're going to squeeze profit margins. And that creates risks for the stock market."

If inflation proves stubborn and the Fed is forced to keep rates high, that could exacerbate the rise in joblessness and worsen the economic pain, Lazar said.

"A little stash of cash may not be a bad idea right now," she said. "I'm not sure in my 40-year career I've ever really said that."