Good morning. Happy National Sticky Bun Day! I’m intruding to let you know I will be unable to post next week and will be back on March 7th. Ideally, you can enjoy a warm cinnamon roll as you read today’s edition. See you all in March!

Aviation

Air safety concerns rise after crashes and FAA layoffs

Eh, nothing a rum and diet and some headphones can’t solve. The Delta flight from Minneapolis that crash-landed in Toronto on Monday is the most recent aviation disaster that has raised safety concerns among flyers.

It was the fifth major plane crash this year, one of which was the deadliest US aviation incident in almost 20 years. Amid the panic, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has laid off around 400 employees.

Staffing shortage

The FAA has a serious understaffing problem, particularly among air traffic controllers, which industry experts have warned for years might be an impending recipe for aviation disasters.

• According to recent FAA data, over 90% of US airport towers are understaffed.

• The FAA’s number of certified controllers was 2,000 short of their goal, as of late 2023.

  • The agency has stepped up recruitment efforts, but becoming an air traffic controller takes years of work and training.

The FAA cited the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the reasons it has struggled to meet expansion goals at facilities across the US and that its hiring targets had been “significantly reduced.” That being said, the Department of Transportation says it is still hiring air traffic controllers despite the layoffs.

Aviation adjustments

While it’s unknown if the agency’s lack of workers has led to the recent crashes, around 400 employees will be off the job after the federal government’s latest round of mass layoffs.

That being said:

• Those with “critical safety” roles were not let go, meaning no air traffic controllers or other safety personnel.

  • The cuts only included “probationary employees” who have been with the FAA for less than a year.

• FAA Administrator Sean Duffy noted that the layoffs represent less than 1% of the FAA’s 45,000 employees.

The layoffs also leave room to direct funding elsewhere, like the FAA’s outdated systems and dilapidated facilities, which have garnered hundreds of complaints from air traffic workers.

• A team of SpaceX members visited the FAA Command Center in Virginia at the start of this week, promising to bring updated technology to the US aviation system.

Americans have lost trust in planes: Following the recent crashes, US adults’ confidence in air travel has fallen, with ~20% saying plane travel is “unsafe” or “very unsafe safe”, up from 12% last year, per an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Wednesday.

International

The US and Russia sit down for high-level talks

A potential end to the Ukraine war is in sight. After high-level negotiations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the United States and Russia pledged to work toward a resolution to the three-year conflict in Ukraine.

Peace talks

During their nearly five-hour meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio established several guiding principles for repairing US-Russian relations.

• The two nations explored options like reopening embassies, establishing a top-level team to assist with negotiations, evaluating economic and geopolitical unity following a ceasefire, and a pledge to maintain communication.

  • However, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, declared that he would not accept any agreements reached that don’t involve the country’s direct participation.

The discussions set the stage for a potential meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, representing the most consequential meeting of senior US and Russian diplomats since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It’s a big shift in US foreign policy: The Trump administration has said that Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO is unreasonable and that it may have to give up territory in order to end the war, both reversals from the previous administration.

Science/Tech

Microsoft invented a new state of matter

How many quantum breakthroughs can we have in a year? Microsoft researchers claim to have developed a chip that uses an entirely new state of matter that could give quantum computers unprecedented power.

Groundbreaking Tech

The chip, called “Majorana 1”, is the culmination of over 20 years of research. It uses a material that isn't a solid, liquid, or gas—which they call a topological superconductor—to create the components that can be scaled up into an extremely powerful quantum computer.

What are quantum computers? Quantum computers are considered the crown jewel of computing. They process information exponentially faster than traditional computers, allowing them to make important developments in the medical, cybersecurity, and AI industries.

So how is Microsoft’s different? Microsoft's technology hinges on several electrons moving in sync as though they were a single particle, in contrast to normal quantum computers that use small superconducting qubits.

• The method would enable qubits to be easily scaled for practical applications.

• It would also produce qubits that are significantly more noise-resistant, which is a major problem for quantum computers.

The study was published on Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature (see here) but did not, however, specifically verify the computations performed by topological states of matter, leaving some scientists skeptical.

Grab Bag

Meta is building the world’s largest undersea internet cable

What other reason than AI? In order to link the US, India, South Africa, Brazil, and other areas to bolster AI cooperation, Meta has revealed its plans to construct the longest undersea cable project in history.

Sea dweller

The undertaking, called Project Waterworth, involves a 31,000-mile (50,000km) subsea cable, which is 20% longer than the Earth’s circumference. The company said the cable would serve its AI efforts and use a 24-fiber-pair arrangement, giving it a higher capacity.

• These types of cables account for more than 95% of intercontinental internet traffic, Meta said.

Concerns have risen about sabotage or accidents given how much internet traffic relies upon the cables. Following damage to vital underwater cables last year, NATO started an operation in January to enhance ship monitoring in the Baltic Sea.

• Meta said it will the cables nearly 23,000 feet underwater and use “enhanced burial techniques” to avoid possible hazards.

The project will likely cost over a hundred billion, and the company says larger and stronger cables are needed to support the future of AI and provide “industry-leading connectivity” to the rest of the world.

Nikola, a prominent EV maker, has gone bankrupt

This one has some drama behind it. Nikola, an EV startup that specialized in electric and hydrogen-powered semi-trucks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday after its founder was imprisoned, sales plummeted, and a fraud scandal unfolded.

Not-so electric

Nikola was once the EV industry’s golden child, reaching a peak market cap of around $27 billion in 2020, making it more valuable than Ford. However, CEO Steve Girsky issued a warning in Q3 2024 that the company lacked sufficient capital to last through the first quarter of this year.

Why the fall from grace? Sales struggles, a plethora of drama (like the aforementioned fraud scandal), and a government investigation brought down the company soon after its IPO.

• A shocking report was published by the short-selling firm Hindenburg Research which showed Trevor Milton, the founder of Nikola, committed fraud, and the company staged promotional videos (watch here), among other things.

  • The report eventually led to Milton’s arrest and he was found guilty of securities fraud in 2022 for allegedly deceiving investors.

• It was also discovered the company lost hundreds of thousands of dollars with each car sold and only produced 600 total vehicles.

  • A series of incidents causing the semis to catch fire caused Nikola to recall every single one that was in service.

Hard to see why they just filed for bankruptcy. If that wasn’t enough, Milton falsely claimed the company got committed truck orders totaling "billions and billions and billions and billions" of dollars and said he could create his own hydrogen fuels at below-market prices.

EVs aren’t too hot right now: Even well-known automakers like Ford, General Motors, and Volvo have backed off from their EV pledges because of exorbitant prices, declining demand, and inadequate charging infrastructure.

Fast Facts

Meat Migration: Kentucky Fried Chicken will be moving its US headquarters out of Kentucky to Texas, in what literally everyone is calling the betrayal of the century.

Dino Discovery: Paleontologists discover 120-million-year-old fossils of apex carnivores previously found in South America in Australia. Some found include carcharodontosaurs, or “shark-toothed lizards.”

Cardinal Cough: Pope Francis will remain in a Rome hospital longer than expected due to a "complex clinical picture" from a respiratory tract infection, the Vatican announced. It’s his 4th hospitalization since his election in 2013.

Seven Steelers: Seven men were charged for allegedly breaking into several prominent NFL athletes’ homes, including Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Joe Burrow.

Computer Cure: The largest AI model for biology ever was released by Nvidia and the Arc Institute and could be used to create new genomes, find mutations that cause disease, and more.