Nancy Pelosi’s flight to Taiwan crashes flight radar

Published

6 months ago

August 3, 2022

The flight carrying the third most senior political figure in the U.S. has become the most-tracked flight in history

As U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was high above the clouds, users began flocking to the popular FlightRadar24 smartphone app.

It’s understood 2.92 million people were on the app and website to follow the U.S. Air Force jet with the callsign ‘SPAR 19’.

“Because of unprecedented sustained tracking interest in SPAR19, Flightradar24 services are under extremely heavy load,” FlightRadar24 said.

The jet was forced to detour over Indonesia to avoid any potential issues in the South China Sea.

Beijing warned the U.S. against the Taiwan visit, as authorities prepare to hold military drills across six areas near the democratically-ruled island.

“Some users may currently experience issues accessing the site, our teams are working on restoring full functionality to all users as quickly as possible.”
FLIGHTRADAR24

The Boeing C-40C landed in Taipei, with 708,000 people tracking the flight when it touched down.

The average flight time between Pelosi’s origin of Kuala Lumpur to Taipei is around four hours. However, SPAR19 took over seven hours to reach Taiwan.

“Unfortunately, due to the volume of users, it was necessary to deploy our waiting room functionality, which meters access to Flightradar24 for non-subscribers,” the website said.

After SPAR19 touched down, access was restored quickly for FlightRadar24 users.

“We continue to make improvements to our systems to provide additional capacity for flights of extreme interest,” the website said.

Companies to pay extra for verified Twitter accounts

Published

3 hours ago

February 6, 2023

ticker NEWS

Elon Musk has announced that companies and brands will have to pay $1,000 per month – plus an additional $50 per sub-account – to get verified check-marks on Twitter

The new pricing falls under the new Twitter Blue for Business service.

Within the next few months, only paying Twitter customers will have verified status.

Twitter has stacked on $12.5 billion in debt, and this move hopes to increase subscription revenue to meet Musk’s obligations.

Advertisers halted spending on Twitter after the takeover, but Twitter has since announced partnerships with two brand-safety vendors to win back marketers.

Musk also announced that Twitter would start sharing ad revenue with creators for “ads that appear in their reply threads”, but didn’t provide further detail.

Business

BMW to invest €800 million in Mexico

Published

3 hours ago

February 6, 2023

ticker NEWS

BMW is set to invest €800 million in Mexico, to produce its next generation of high-voltage and fully electric batteries

The carmaker is looking to convert more than half of its sales into all-electric cars by 2030.

Construction will begin next year with production beginning in 2027.

The announcement follows several other major expansions from the automaker in recent months, including a $1.7 billion investment in the United States.

The move will add around 1,000 new jobs to its Mexico operations.

Business

A British digital currency “later this decade”

Published

1 day ago

February 5, 2023

ticker NEWS

The Bank of England and Britain’s finance ministry think the UK is likely to need to create a central bank digital currency later this decade.

“On the basis of our work to date, the Bank of England and HM Treasury judge that it is likely a digital pound will be needed in the future,” the Telegraph quoted BoE Governor Andrew Bailey and finance minister Jeremy Hunt as saying in the joint report.

“It is too early to commit to build the infrastructure for one, but we are convinced that further preparatory work is justified,” the Telegraph quoted the report saying.

The BoE declined to comment on the Telegraph article, but said a joint consultation on CBDC issues would be published shortly.

A government source said the report would be published next week.

BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe is due to give a speech on Tuesday to update the finance industry on the BoE’s CBDC work.