Travel

The Heathrow airport shutdown will be expensive

Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world and a key gateway for US tourists visiting Europe. London’s Heathrow airport was shut down nearly all of Friday after a nearby substation fire prompted a monumental power outage. The damages from the shutdown could amount to over $100 million.

Last year, Heathrow handled almost 1.7 million tons of cargo and 84 million people, making it the fourth-busiest airport in the world. The airport serves more than 230 locations across almost 90 nations. Such a shutdown is unprecedented for an airport of its size.

Damaging blaze

As of Saturday, Heathrow was "fully operational." The fire started late Thursday at a substation near Hayes, just north of the airport. A transformer containing 25,000 liters of cooling oil caught fire, igniting a blaze (see video).

• As of this writing, authorities are still investigating what caused the fire, but suspect it was accidental.

Infuriated travelers, angered airlines, and worried legislators are demanding to know how one apparently unintentional fire could close the busiest airport in Europe.

So, how did it close the whole airport? A backup generator was damaged in the fire, and although the rest operated as intended, the backup systems are designed to support vital systems, not full airport operations.

It had a big effect

Planes were canceled and diverted following the fire, and airport terminals lost all power. Any arriving aircraft were able to be safely landed with help from the airport's backup generators, however:

• On Friday, the airport was expected to receive 1,351 flights and approximately 291,000 passengers.

• About 677 British Airways flights were canceled, and at least 120 planes had to be redirected to other locations or completely rerouted.

  • The shutdown had the greatest effect on British Airlines, which canceled 10 times as many flights as Virgin Atlantic, the second-most affected carrier.

Expensive estimate: With everything from lodging to operating expenses included, preliminary estimates of the shutdown's overall cost suggest it may reach over $100 million.

Space

Oxygen discovered in most distant known galaxy

Oh, how little we know about our own universe. Astronomers discovered oxygen in a galaxy that is proven to be the furthest from Earth, completely changing how scientists thought the earliest known galaxies formed after the Big Bang.

Astronomical discovery

The galaxy where the historic observation took place, known as JADES-GS-z14-0, was formed around 300 million years after the Big Bang. Discovered last year by the James Webb Telescope (see overview), the celestial body is so far away its light took 13.4 billion years to reach Earth.

How did they locate it? The finding, which was published in two different studies last week, examined the galaxy using information from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), or more plainly, an interferometer telescope array located in Chile.

• The discovery of oxygen allowed ALMA to pinpoint the galaxy’s distance from Earth “to an uncertainty of just 0.005%,” according to researchers.

ALMA’s data showed that the galaxy contains ten times as many heavy elements (like oxygen) than experts thought was possible, which has completely perplexed astronomers… but why?

The earliest oxygen

Current theories suggest that when galaxies begin their lives they start with young stars, which are full of light elements like hydrogen and helium. Heavier atoms like oxygen, however, would take millions of years to form.

The discovery of oxygen on JADES-GS-z14-0 challenges that belief:

• The presence of heavier elements implies that stars in the early cosmos lived and died to supply heavy elements to their surrounding areas, and far more quickly than astronomers initially thought.

Time to rethink: A 2024 study also raised similar questions about the speed at which galaxies formed in the early universe. Now, the latest research adds to this growing body of evidence, suggesting that our current understanding of galaxy formation after the Big Bang may need to be reconsidered.

Aviation

US unveils the most cutting-edge fighter jet to date

I’m just waiting for the UFO reveal. On Friday, the Pentagon announced that Boeing will be building the Air Force's first sixth-generation fighter jet, the F-47, which “far surpasses” anything in the US’ current fleet.

Next generation fighter

The jet will be the head of a fleet of future drone aircraft, known as Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, which uses a “family of systems” that work simultaneously to “ensure air superiority,” according to the US Department of Defense.

• The Air Force chief of staff, General David Allvin, stated that the jet will be “the most advanced, lethal and adaptable fighter ever developed.”

• An experimental version of the plane has been flying for almost five years, according to President Trump.

While other countries, such as Russia and China, have been developing their own sixth-generation fighter aircraft, it is believed the F-47 will be the most advanced of its kind in the world.

Computational competitor: The F-47 is designed to enter combat with a flock of drones that are currently under development by General Atomics and Anduril. The advanced fighting machine will feature a whole of cutting-edge tech, including its collaboration with unmanned aircraft, AI systems, propulsion, and stealth technology.

Betting on Boeing

The US has long utilized its relationships with credited aerospace manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Boeing to further its advancements in defense technology.

However, the latter beat out Lockheed Martin to win the $20 billion contract to create the jet that will replace the Air Force's F-22 Raptor, a supersonic stealth aircraft (built by none other than Lockheed Martin).

• Boeing has struggled with financial problems and safety issues in the past year, especially considering its Starliner aircraft left two astronauts stranded in space for over half a year.

Looking forward: The contract should serve as a confidence boost and a wake-up call for the company, and as a result of the news, Boeing's stock spiked 3%, while Lockheed Martin's stock fell 5.79%.

Grab Bag

Apple TV+ can’t compete with other streaming services

Not even the new season of Severance can save them. Apple TV+ is hemorrhaging cash, making it quite literally the only subscription service in Apple’s portfolio that’s not in the green, according to a report by the Information late last week.

Severance pay

While Apple TV+ reached over 45 million subscribers in 2024, the tech giant “is losing more than $1 billion annually” on the streaming service. Of course, Apple has declined to comment since the information was leaked by several anonymous individuals.

One of those sources was a former employee of Apple TV+, and shed some light on Apple’s situation:

• Since the launch of the streaming service, Apple has spent more than $5 billion annually on content.

  • Not all of it was a hit: Apple had to cut $500 million from its streaming budget due to a few expensive shows that bombed.

• In the first decade of operation, Apple believes it will lose $15 to $20 billion on Apple TV+.

It’s unpopular: Netflix attracts over 8% of all monthly TV viewership, next to Disney+ and Hulu’s nearly 5% share, and Prime Video’s 4% share. Apple TV+ sits behind Max’s 1.2% nugget, commanding less than 1% of all viewership.

Despite all that… Apple is in good shape. The $1 billion in losses essentially amounts to a rounding error for the tech giant that posted nearly $94 billion in net profits for its last fiscal year.

A snacking recession has officially hit the US

Americans needed to cut down at some point. Consumers are pulling back from snacking after unexpected economic uncertainty and a rise in food prices have emerged, causing food giants' sales outlooks to drop.

Slimming down

General Mills saw its net sales fall 5% worldwide in the most recent quarter due to what its CEO Jeff Harmening calls a "slowdown in snacking.” But General Mills’ sales aren’t the only evidence consumers are chowing down less:

• Convenience store sales in the United States decreased by over 4% at the end of February compared to the same time in 2024.

• Last month, PepsiCo (which owns Frito-Lay) revealed it fell short of its third quarterly sales target in a row.

  • The company said sales dragged among “snack categories.”

• In the most recent quarter, JM Smucker's (which owns Jif and Hostess) sales of sweet baked snacks dropped 7% to $278.6 million.

A rise in food prices is mainly to blame… government data shows that general food prices have shot up by 23% since 2021, while the average bag of potato chips has increased by an astounding 29%.

Looking forward: Companies may look to cut prices or reduce “foodflation” as consumers stop buying their products.

Fast Facts

Fish Feed: A Dutch city installed a "fish doorbell" in an online live stream that tells workers migrating fish need to be let through a hatch, allowing them to complete their migration.

Mile-Long-Migration: New research shows that a group of ancient iguanas traveled 5,000 miles on a drifting mass of trees and plants from North America to Fiji.

Tariff Time: To give itself more time to negotiate with the US, the EU postponed the imposition of its retaliatory tariffs on the US until mid-April.

Content Countries: The World Happiness Report ranked Finland as the happiest nation in the world for the eighth consecutive year. Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden, all Nordic countries, came in second and third, respectively.

Fresh Feature: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and TikTok are collaborating to add Amber Alerts to users' "For You" feeds. Surprisingly, Facebook and Instagram already have this feature.