Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

Throughout the pandemic, major retailers have warned about surging theft and a rise in brazen shoplifting attempts. But a top Walgreens executive now says the freakout may have been overblown.

“Maybe we cried too much last year” about merchandise losses, Walgreens finance chief James Kehoe acknowledged Thursday on an earnings call. The company’s rate of shrink — merchandise losses due to theft, fraud, damages, mis-scanned items and other errors — fell from 3.5% of total sales last year to around 2.5% during its latest quarter.

Kehoe’s message is a notable shift from comments about theft from Walgreens and other retailers like Walmart and Target over the last nearly three years.

Companies and retail industry groups have tried to draw attention to shoplifting and “organized retail crime” rings smashing windows and grabbing aisles full of merchandise off shelves, urging lawmakers to crack down. Incidents have certainly happened: Many political leaders and local and national news outlets, including CNN, have picked up on viral incidents of smash-and-grab robberies.

So retailers took action. Some began locking up more products like deodorant and toothpaste, adding extra security guards and even shuttering stores.

Last January, Walgreens

(WBA) said its shrink was up by more 50% from the year prior. The company blamed part of that spike on organized retail crime and closed five locations in the San Francisco area in 2021, claiming theft as the reason for their closure.

“This is not petty theft,” Kehoe said last January. “These are gangs that actually go in and empty our stores of beauty products. And it’s a real issue.”

But a year later, Kehoe said Thursday that the company added too much extra security in stores.

“Probably we put in too much, and we might step back a little bit from that,” he said of security staffing. The company has found private security guards to be “largely ineffective” in deterring theft, so instead it’s putting in more police and law enforcement officers.

Though Walgreens may have overblown the shoplifting threat over the last few years, it’s true that theft has always been a problem for retailers — and that it often spikes during recessions and other periods of economic hardship, when people are desperate and may feel the need to turn to petty crime to sustain themselves. What’s more, recent factors like shortstaffed stores and self-checkout can make it easier for thieves to steal.

The National Retail Federation estimated that shrink cost retailers $94.5 billion in 2021, up from $61.7 billion in 2019 before the pandemic. Shoplifting often does not go reported to the police, but companies have said theft has worsened during the Covid crisis.

“Along with other retailers, we’ve seen a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business,” Target

(TGT) CEO Brian Cornell said in November.

Walmart

(WMT) CEO Doug McMillon said last month on CNBC that “theft is an issue” and “higher than what it has historically been.” He warned stores could close if it continued.

However, it’s not clear the numbers add up.

For example, data released by the San Francisco Police Department does not support the explanation Walgreens gave that it was closing five stores because of organized retail theft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2021.

One of the shuttered stores that closed had only seven reported shoplifting incidents in 2021 and a total of 23 since 2018, according to the newspaper. Overall, the five stores that closed had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.

Similarly, a 2021 Los Angeles Times analysis of figures released by industry groups on losses due to organized retail crime found “there is reason to doubt the problem is anywhere near as large or widespread as they say.”

The monthly jobs report showed that some of the biggest gains were in industries such as leisure and hospitality, health care, and accommodation and food services, which all were hit hard during the pandemic.

There were also notable monthly job losses in technology and interest-rate-sensitive sectors that surged during the pandemic and are now rebalancing as consumers shift spending toward services. 

Industries such as information, finance, retail, transportation, and professional and business services all shed jobs between November and December.

Some of those losses are likely an effect of the waves of mass layoffs hitting the tech industry, said Ken Kim, a senior economist at KPMG.

“We are seeing a little bit of spread to other areas,” he told CNN. 

Jobs added by major sector between November and December 2022

Total: +223,000 to 153.7 million

Mining and logging: +4,000 to 644,000

Construction: +28,000 to 7.78 million

Manufacturing: +8,000 to 12.9 million

Wholesale trade: +12,000 to 5.9 million

Retail trade: +9,000 to 15.8 million

Transportation and warehousing: +4,700 to 6.5 million

Utilities: +1,600 to 544,400

Information: -5,000 to 3.1 million

Financial activities: +5,000 to 9 million

Professional and business services: -6,000 to 22.4 million

Education and health services: +78,000 to 24.9 million

Leisure and hospitality: +67,000 to 16.1 million

Government: +3,000 to 22.4 million

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

New York
CNN
 — 

The New York attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Thursday against the co-founder of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Networks for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of investors who deposited billions of dollars into the platform.

The lawsuit against Alex Mashinsky alleges he made false and misleading statements to encourage investors to place billions of dollars in digital assets with Celsius, which filed for bankruptcy court protection last year. Mashinsky resigned soon after.

The lawsuit is the latest action against a high-profile figure in the cryptocurrency industry, which faced a reckoning last year amid volatility in the market. It comes as regulators warn banks and investors about their exposure to the unregulated industry.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking damages, restitution, and disgorgement. In addition, she is seeking to ban Mashinsky from doing business in New York or serving as an officer or director of a company.

“The law is clear that making false and unsubstantiated promises and misleading investors is illegal,” James said in a statement Thursday.

James alleges that Mashinsky touted Celsius as safer than a bank, and said he would generate high returns by making low-risk collateralized loans to established institutions and crypto exchanges, among others.

As Celsius grew larger it had trouble generating enough revenue to pay the high returns and “moved into significantly riskier investments, extending hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollateralized loans, and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in unregulated decentralized finance platforms,” the lawsuit alleges. When faced with losses, the lawsuit alleges, Mashinsky hid them from investors and continued to tout the safety of the platform to recruit new investors.

“Alex Mashinsky denies these allegations. He looks forward to vigorously defending himself in court,” said Benjamin Allee, an attorney for Mashinsky.

James’ office alleges that, among the risky investments Mashinsky made, included $1 billion in loans to Alameda Research, the hedge fund backed by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. In extending many of the loans, Celsius accepted FTX’s token, FTT, as collateral. The value of FTT crashed, leaving the collateral on any still outstanding loans worthless. It is not clear how much of the $1 billion debt was still outstanding at the time.

Celsius is facing numerous lawsuits and investigations stemming from its collapse last July.

CNN
 — 

After community members searched for Wanbli Vigil in knee-deep snow and brush in Denver, authorities activated a statewide alert system on Tuesday to help find the missing 27-year-old Lakota man.

Vigil’s disappearance is the first case to activate Colorado’s new Missing Indigenous Person Alert (MIPA). The system was launched last week to address the state’s missing Indigenous people crisis. Colorado is among a handful of states that have created similar alert systems in the past year amid the nationwide crisis of unsolved Indigenous missing and murder cases.

“It’s needed, because we … as Indigenous people have been silenced too long, and abused too long and not taken seriously,” said Daisy Bluestar, a Southern Ute advocate and member of the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives Taskforce of Colorado, a grassroots group that lobbied for the creation of the new alert system.

Vigil was found dead on Thursday after police responded to reports of a deceased person at a site about a mile away from his apartment, the Denver Police Department said. Police said his death does not appear to be suspicious and an autopsy will be performed.

The Missing Indigenous Person Alert system did not play a role in finding Vigil, police said.

Vigil was last seen on December 29 around 2 p.m. as he left an apartment building in Denver and was reported as missing on New Year’s Day, his aunt, Jennifer Black Elk, told CNN. He was wearing blue jeans and a black jacket with white stripes, according to the alert issued by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Black Elk said Vigil walked out of their apartment after sharing “personal issues” and left the door cracked. She initially thought Vigil went to pray because he was seen carrying a chanunpa, a ceremonial pipe, she said.

“He’s pretty funny. He’s pretty laid-back, easygoing and helpful and just a good person inside,” Black Elk said of her nephew.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation launched the Missing Indigenous Person Alert system on December 30.

Its creation is the result of legislation passed last year to expand the investigation of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Bluestar and other Indigenous advocates like her worked with state lawmakers to draft and pass Senate Bill 22-150 despite pushback from some lawmakers and agencies in the state. Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law last summer.

The legislation also required the state to create an office of liaison for missing and murdered Indigenous people.

The alert system is designed to be activated when an Indigenous person is reported missing to law enforcement. The legislation requires law enforcement agencies that receive a report of a missing Indigenous person to notify the CBI within eight hours of a report of a missing adult or within two hours of a report of a missing child, according to the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

If an Indigenous child is abducted, an Amber Alert will go out statewide, pinging residents’ phones, the CBI said. An alert under the new system will be issued if an Indigenous child goes missing in a non-abduction case.

Once an alert is issued, local and state law enforcement in Colorado are notified, as well as media outlets and other stakeholders who might distribute the alert information via email or text, CBI said. Unlike an Amber Alert, state investigators say the Missing Indigenous Person Alert will not go out to cell phones.

“The CBI understands the importance and effectiveness of the various alerts that are in place in Colorado, and we are pleased to have been asked to develop this newest alert in an effort to quickly locate missing Indigenous persons and return them safely to their loved ones,” CBI Director John Camper said in a statement.

As the search for Vigil continues, activists criticized how the new alert system was activated this week and said it could have been done in a more timely manner.

Denver Police said Vigil was reported missing on Sunday, but the Missing Indigenous Person Alert wasn’t issued until Tuesday.

“We’re losing valuable time in locating this young man or finding evidence as to where his whereabouts might be,” said Raven Payment, a Ojibwe and Kanienkehaka activist and member of the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives Taskforce of Colorado who has joined the search for Vigil.

When asked about the time it took for the Missing Indigenous Person Alert to be issued, the Denver Police Department said its missing persons unit “opened a missing persons case and followed the notification procedure.”

When asked about the alert’s timing, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said it issued the alert when it received information from the Denver Police Department. “The Denver Police Department is the lead on this case, as they took the report, and may have been performing investigative tasks leading up to the request for the alert,” the CBI said.

“For us to get this pushed through was an accomplishment, major accomplishment. But right now, you know, we’re at this point where it still doesn’t seem like it’s important enough or urgent enough,” said Bluestar, the other advocate.

Colorado is among three states that have implemented alert systems aimed to locate missing Indigenous people. Last year, Washington became the first state to create one and California launched a Feather Alert to assist in search efforts for an Indigenous person who has been reported missing under suspicious circumstances.

Nationally, there were 782 unresolved cases of missing Native American people as of August 2022, according to data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the length of time authorities spent searching for Vigil before the alert system was activated.

New York
CNN
 — 

Peloton has agreed to pay a $19 million fine for failing to promptly report treadmill hazards and for distributing recalled treadmills, the Consumer Products Safety Commission said Thursday.

The fine resolves charges that the company had “knowingly failed to immediately report” to the US regulator defects with its Tread+ treadmill, it said in a statement. The civil penalty also settles charges that Peloton distributed recalled treadmills in violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act.

The commission said it had levied “one of the largest civil penalties in our history” due, in part, to the company “distributing recalled products with a lethal defect.” In May 2021, Peloton recalled about 125,000 of its Tread+ brand treadmills following the death of a 6-year-old child and dozens of other reports of injuries related to its machines.

But it had initially declined to do so despite an “urgent request” by CPSC in April. Such declines are extremely rare.

In May, then CEO John Foley said Peloton “made a mistake in our initial response to the CPSC’s request. We should’ve engage more productively with them from the outset. For that I apologize.”

The fine, according to the commission, reflected that initial refusal. Peloton had received reports of “entrapment” by its Tread+ treadmills as early as 2018, it said.

“By the time Peloton filed a report with the Commission there were more than 150 reports of people, pets, and/or objects being pulled under the rear of the Tread+ treadmill,” according to the commission.

Peloton did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The exercise equipment company, which had phenomenal sales growth during the height of the pandemic, has faced a myriad of problems since. The company has reacted with management changes and large staff and operations cuts.

Shares of Peloton Interactive Inc

(PTON) have crashed, falling from a high of about $167 in January 2021 to about $8 in after-hours trading following the CPSC announcement.

– Chris Isidore and Jordan Valinsky also contributed to this story.

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

Hong Kong’s flagship airline is more than doubling its flights from the city to mainland China after the easing of pandemic restrictions, raising hopes of a recovery after dramatically cutting operations and suffering losses.

Cathay Pacific Airways’ ramped up flight schedule was announced after China confirmed on Thursday that it will reopen the mainland’s border with Hong Kong on January 8, nearly three years after it was largely shut in an effort to contain the spread of Covid. From Sunday, quarantine requirements for international arrivals in China and a number of Covid restrictions on airlines will be scrapped.

Cathay will resume 61 return flights from Hong Kong to 13 cities in mainland China from January 14, according to a statement Thursday. It also aims to operate more than 100 return flights per week between the city and destinations in China by March.

The airline currently operates 27 flights a week from Hong Kong to the mainland, and 50 in the opposite direction. It said it expects to reach about 70% of pre-pandemic passenger capacity by the end of this year and a full recovery by the end of 2024.

From Sunday, up to 60,000 Hong Kong residents will be able to cross the border each day as a gradual reopening begins. The quota allows 50,000 people to travel via three land checkpoints, and 10,000 via Hong Kong International Airport, two ferry piers and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.

Another 60,000 people will be allowed to travel from mainland China into Hong Kong daily.

The cap does not apply to Hong Kong residents returning to the city from the mainland, or mainland Chinese traveling back from Hong Kong. All travelers will be required to test negative for Covid via a PCR test within 48 hours prior to crossing.

Pandemic border restrictions took a heavy toll on families and businesses with ties on both sides and there is huge pent up demand for travel. By 11 p.m. local time Thursday, more than 250,000 people in Hong Kong had applied to cross into the mainland, according to the city’s government.

Cathay Pacific suffered a serious hit from the pandemic as the once-bustling travel and financial hub of Hong Kong was largely closed off from the rest of the world as it followed China’s hardline zero-Covid approach.

The carrier reported a net loss of 21.65 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.8 billion) in 2020, followed by another net loss of 5.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($707.9 million) in 2021, according to its annual reports to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The airline laid off 5,300 employees in Hong Kong in 2020 and its usual capacity was reduced to just 2% at one point. Hong Kong gradually eased travel restrictions in the second half of last year and scrapped mandatory quarantine in September.

According to Cathay Pacific, the airline carried more than 526,000 passengers in November 2022, an increase of over 600% compared with November 2021 – though still nearly 80% down compared with pre-pandemic levels in November 2019.

CNN
 — 

Kevin McCarthy is the latest Republican leader to find out that it’s impossible to get ahead of his party’s inexorable march to its far-right extremes.

The Californian, who has lost a stunning 11 consecutive House roll call votes in his bid to become speaker, was the first major GOP leader to embrace ex-President Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

But on Friday’s two-year anniversary of the worst attack on American democracy in the modern era, he’s finding out that even that supposedly career-enhancing bet is insufficient to unlock the votes of Trump’s heirs in the chaos wing of the GOP.

McCarthy is becoming the latest example of a political leader consumed by a revolution the “Make America Great Again” radicals helped to stage. For the radical lawmakers now blocking his ascent to his dream job, he’s become the political establishment he once condemned.

Republicans won control of the House through democratic means in a free and fair election. But their far smaller-than-expected majority is offering extra leverage to the kind of pro-Trump extremists many voters appeared to reject in last year’s midterms.

But not even Trump himself – the author of the election-denying scam that led to the insurrection and who once could move the GOP in the House with a single phone call – could rally MAGA fundamentalists in the House for McCarthy. His failure to do so hints at diminished influence for the ex-president after his limp launch of a 2024 White House bid and a disastrous midterm election campaign for his chosen candidates. It might show that the wildest manifestations of Trumpism no longer need Trump himself.

Two years ago, scores of House Republicans refused to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and many spent years appeasing Trump’s lawless behavior. Yet after driving democracy to the brink, the GOP controls one half of Capitol Hill – or will if it eventually gets its act together and picks a speaker.

In another surreal scene on the Hill this week, one of those Republicans, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene – who has downplayed the insurrection and said rioters would have “won” if she was in charge – is complaining about the extremism of some of her colleagues who oppose McCarthy.

“That’s not serious. I don’t think that’s leadership, and I really see it as more obstruction than progress,” she told CNN’s Manu Raju on Thursday.

Marjorie Taylor Greene takes aim at Boebert for speaker vote ‘drama’

But even in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol, the right-wing media machine and a still-angry base of voters mean there are strong political incentives for disruptor politicians in the ex-president’s image.

Two of them, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida, are ringleaders of the fight to block McCarthy. The speakership stalemate is not just a fresh indication of the turmoil still racking the GOP after the far-right forced out two previous GOP speakers. It suggests the new GOP House majority will be perennially dysfunctional and – given the capacity of a few lawmakers to grind the chamber to a halt at any moment – chaotic political crises are likely to dominate the next two years.

Boebert on McCarthy: Trump needs to tell him he does not have the votes

Trump may no longer be in the White House but the circus-style politics that he built on a foundation of rebellion in the GOP is back and has tied Washington in knots again. As a mark of how bad things are, the impasse over the speaker has prevented the GOP from even properly taking power given that lawmakers cannot be sworn in before a leader has been selected.

Far-right Republicans have blocked McCarthy’s dream of becoming speaker in multiple humiliating roll call votes. The showdown is rooted in the same extremist ideological strain of Republican politics as Trumpism, which again has a vehicle in Washington now that the GOP holds a slice of power.

The conditions that provoked and empowered that small group of political opportunists on the right are only possible because of the ex-president’s poisoned legacy. McCarthy can lose only four GOP votes for his speakership bid, and the tiny Republican majority gives extremists great leverage.

But that narrow margin – which will also put the majority in a precarious position on must-pass legislation like funding the government and raising the debt ceiling later on – is the direct result of voters being alienated by the ex-president’s incessant, false claims of 2020 voter fraud and the party failing to deliver the “red wave” many Republicans had predicted.

By balking at handing unfettered power to the GOP – and a House majority that would have been workable for McCarthy – voters who wanted a period of calm have inadvertently created a scenario that breeds the instability they appear to disdain.

McCarthy has made multiple concessions to the rebels that risk rendering the office of the speaker toothless if he does win it. But by the time he had suffered more defeats in roll call votes on Thursday afternoon, it was clear America was watching one of its greatest political farces.

McCarthy’s concession could ‘put him on constant thin ice’ says analyst

Not all of those ultra-conservatives blocking McCarthy are making outlandish demands. Some, for instance, are demanding fuller debates, a return to regular order in committees and more power for individual members. But even if McCarthy can deal with this faction, he still has a problem with a more extreme bloc of lawmakers.

According to Boebert, the country was watching democracy in action, even as McCarthy repeatedly racked up around 200 votes from his conference while his various radical opponents could only attract around 20. (The defections made it impossible for McCarthy to get a majority of the House’s support since Democrats backed their own leader, Hakeem Jeffries, who routinely got more votes than McCarthy, but also short of 218).

“This is not chaos. This is a constitutional republic at work. This is actually a really beautiful thing,” Boebert said. She’s correct in that the messiness unfolding on the floor is based on rules and procedures – the most basic elements of governing that Trump had sought to disrupt with his efforts to overturn the certification of the 2020 Electoral College votes.

But her arguments founder on the reality of the rebels’ behavior. Many other Republicans have complained that it is not clear exactly what concessions the group around Gaetz, who have vowed to never support McCarthy, actually want.

“This ends one of two ways: Either Kevin McCarthy withdraws from the race, or we construct a straitjacket that he is unable to evade,” Gaetz, who cast his vote in the seventh round for Trump, told reporters on Thursday.

In other words, the most extreme hardliners will only accept a candidate that shares their no-compromise, Nihilistic form of politics that effectively makes governing impossible.

In many ways, these demands are the culmination of anti-establishment, anti-government forces first unleashed decades ago by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Republican revolution. They were also the genesis of the anti-Washington Tea Party movement in the 2000s. Trump then drove out much of the governing wing of the GOP as he effectively worked to bring down the institutions of government and accountability from inside as president.

McCarthy’s negotiators were locked in talks late Thursday with hardliners on even more concessions – suggesting an extraordinary desire on his part to secure the glory of the speaker’s gavel, whatever the cost. But given the extreme forces rocking the GOP and the intransigence of the Gaetz-Boebert chaos caucus, it seemed unlikely he could create a political foundation that would promote any kind of stable governance.

Still, a McCarthy ally, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, told CNN that he was confident that a deal could clear the way soon for a solution to the impasse.

“We are going to see the fever break a little bit in the next 24 hours,” Fitzpatrick said.

The problem, however, is that people have been saying that about the Republican Party for years. And it only ever keeps getting more extreme.

With construction projects often taking years to complete, delays caused by Covid-19 are still being felt. But 2023 nonetheless promises to be a year of remarkable new openings, whether it’s the world’s second-tallest tower or an interfaith religious complex in Abu Dhabi.

Here are 9 of the architectural projects set to shape the world in 2023:

National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel

National Library of Israel Credit: Herzog & de Meuron

Having outgrown its longtime home, the National Library of Israel — and its vast archive of books, manuscripts and photographs — is relocating to a brand new building next to the country’s parliament, the Knesset.

The building’s distinctive upper volume resembles a huge block of carved rock, with local limestone mixed into the cement as a nod to Jerusalem’s historic color palette. Inside, facilities including an auditorium, a youth center and various exhibition spaces, are configured around the 50,500-square-foot reading hall.

Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron’s design is intended to reflect the institution’s values of openness and accessibility, from a soaring circular skylight to the ground-level display cases that make items from the library’s collection visible to passersby.

Nordø, Copenhagen, Denmark

Nordø Credit: Rasmus Hjortshøj

Copenhagen has been designated UNESCO’s World Capital of Architecture for 2023, and the Danish capital is brimming with examples of sustainable design.

Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen’s latest addition to the neighborhood, Nordø, is emblematic of the transformation taking place. With a redbrick facade that honors to the site’s industrial past, sizable public gardens and a rooftop terrace, the 115-home development promises residents an “island oasis” with easy access to the district’s growing collection of restaurants and public spaces.

Lola Mora Cultural Center, San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina

Lola Mora Cultural Center Credit: Pelli Clarke & Partners

Nestled in a forest overlooking the city of San Salvador de Jujuy, northwest Argentina, the Lola Mora Cultural Center is dedicated to its namesake sculptor, one of the early 20th century’s pioneering female artists. In addition to a selection of her works, the institution will house an interpretation center, restaurant, library and atelier for visiting artists.

The building, whose form was inspired by a sculptor’s chisel, is described by architects Pelli Clarke & Partners as being “net-zero energy,” though it may go further still: With the help of on-site wind turbines and solar energy production, the center is expected to generate 20% more energy than it consumes.

Abrahamic Family House, Abu Dhabi, UAE (pictured top)

Abrahamic Family House Credit: Adjaye Associates

Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye’s firm, Adjaye Associates, said it looked to the faiths’ commonalities in its designs, though each of the three main buildings has a different orientation on the site.

Merdeka 118, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Merdeka 118 Credit: PNB Merdeka Ventures Sdn. Bhd.

Set to complete in the second half of 2023, the building (and the sprawling mall at its base) promises around 1 million square feet of retail space, as well an 1,000-seat theater, offices, a hotel and Southeast Asia’s highest observation deck.

Destination Crenshaw, LA, USA

Destination Crenshaw Credit: Perkins&Will

When a new portion of the LA Metro’s K Line threatened to cut Crenshaw Boulevard in two, locals in the historically Black neighborhood saw an opportunity to push for new infrastructure in an area that has long suffered from under-investment. The resulting $100 million public-private initiative, Destination Crenshaw, hopes to do precisely what its name suggests: to make the Crenshaw district a destination in its own right, not just a thoroughfare.

Designed by architecture firm Perkins&Will, the 1.3-mile cultural corridor will feature pedestrian walkways, ten new public parks, street furniture and over 100 artworks spotlighting Black art and culture. Among the murals, statues and permanent installations will stand African American artist Kehinde Wiley’s reimagining of a confederate statue.

It won’t all be completed by the end of 2023, but several major components — including the largest of the landscaped areas, Sankofa Park, and four “pocket” parks — are expected to be open by the fall.

AMRF First Building, Sydney, Australia

AMRF First Building Credit: Hassell

With the airport not due to open until 2026, there is a long way to go. But every new city begins with a single building.

The Aerotropolis’ first structure — appropriately named the Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF) First Building — is scheduled to complete in late 2023, acting as a visitor center and hub for the wider development. Built from prefabricated timber modules and inspired by the movement of water, the light-filled design was led by architecture firm Hassell in collaboration the Indigenous designer Danièle Hromek of Djinjama, a First Nations cultural research and design practice.

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, India

Kempegowda International Airport Credit: SOM/ATCHAIN

India’s third most populous city, Bengaluru, is set to welcome its long overdue airport expansion, with Kempegowda International’s 2.7-million-square-foot Terminal 2 entering operation early 2023. The project will increase the airport’s annual visitor capacity by an estimated 25 million, eventually rising to 40 million after the completion of its second phase.

Verdant airports like Singapore’s Changi have raised expectations of how terminal buildings can look and feel. And architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has taken a similarly nature-inspired approach it has dubbed a “terminal in a garden” — a series of interconnected buildings joined by landscaped spaces and populated with plants, bamboo-clad pavilions, indoor waterfalls and rattan furnishings.

Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza, Egypt

Grand Egyptian Museum Credit: Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP/Getty Images

Designed by Dublin-based Heneghan Peng Architects, the 5.2-million-square-foot structure features exhibition spaces, a conservation center and an atrium tall enough to house an enormous statue of Ramses II (with headroom to spare). Triangular forms dominate the glass-fronted facade and flow throughout the building, a motif that nods to the neighboring Pyramids of Giza.

Top image: Abrahamic Family House, Abu Dhabi.

This article was updated to clarify Hassell’s role and to name the firm that designed Destination Crenshaw

Veteran Brazilian surfer Marcio Freire died on Thursday while practising tow-in surfing on the giant waves in Nazaré on the central coast of Portugal, the local maritime authority said.

Support staff on jet-skis managed to get the 47-year-old to the beach, but all attempts to revive him failed.

Freire was one of the three Brazilian surfers who became known as the “Mad Dogs” after conquering the giant wave “Jaws” in Hawaii. They featured in the 2016 documentary “Mad Dogs.”

Tributes from other surfers poured in on Instagram.

“He surfed all day with a big smile on his face. That’s how I’ll keep him in my memory. Legend,” posted fellow big wave surfer Nic von Rupp.

“Today we lost a great man, a very good friend and a legendary surfer, Marcio Freire. He was such a happy spirit, always with a smile on his face…Rest in peace my friend,” wrote sports photographer Fred Pompermayer.

Nazaré boasts some of the biggest waves in the world. They are magnified by an underwater canyon 5 kilometers (3 miles) deep which ends where the North Atlantic meets the shoreline near the former fishing village.

Hawaiian Garrett McNamara put Nazaré on the map in 2011 when he set a world record for the biggest wave ever surfed at 78 feet (23.77 meters).

Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa bettered McNamara’s mark in 2017, also at Nazaré, and German Sebastian Steudtner broke the record again there in 2020, surfing an 86-feet wave.

CNN
 — 

The ruling Taliban has signed a deal with a Chinese company to extract oil from northern Afghanistan’s Amu Darya basin as the radical Islamist group attempts to bolster the South Asian nation’s increasingly impoverished and isolated economy.

The agreement with China’s Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co is the first major international energy extraction deal the Taliban has signed since taking control of Afghanistan in 2021.

The contract was signed in Kabul in the presence of Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, according to a statement from the Taliban government.

Baradar referred to the deal as being in Afghanistan’s best interests, adding that it would strengthen the country’s economy, the statement said.

“In terms of natural resources, Afghanistan is a wealthy nation. In addition to other minerals, oil is the wealth of the Afghan people on which the economy of the country can rely,” Baradar said.

According to the contract, the Chinese firm will invest up to $150 million a year, which will increase to $540 million in three years. “The project directly provides job opportunities for 3,000 Afghans,” the statement said.

While no country has officially recognized the Taliban, China has substantial investment in the region. Afghanistan is in desperate need to boost its economy and since the Taliban’s return to power, international funding has remained largely frozen.

One of the main issues for Western countries has been the new government’s marginalization of minorities and women. In December, the UN suspended some of its “time-critical” programs in Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s ban on female NGO workers.

The Taliban last month also suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan, drawing condemnation from around the world.