On Monday, a Delta flight from Minneapolis made a crash landing in Toronto, flipping upside down on the runway. All 80 passengers and crew members survived, and only 21 people suffered injuries that warranted a hospital visit.

Worries over flight safety are getting harder to suppress with a glass of airport wine and noise-canceling headphones blasting The Goat Rodeo Sessions. Monday’s incident comes after four other high-profile aviation incidents this year, including the deadliest commercial crash in the US in nearly two decades.

FAA overhaul

For years, industry experts have warned that severe understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), specifically among air traffic controllers, could be a ticking time bomb for air travel disasters. It’s unclear if that has contributed to any of the incidents this year, but recent moves from the federal government have increased those concerns.

This week, President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) laid off an estimated 400 FAA employees:

• In a post on X Monday night, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted that the laid-off employees represented a small portion of the nearly 45,000 total employees at the FAA, and no air traffic controllers or “critical safety personnel” were let go.
• The union representing employees condemned the firings, which included researchers and analysts, saying they were let go without cause.
• The Department of Transportation says it is still hiring air traffic controllers.

Big picture: A team from Elon Musk’s SpaceX visited the FAA Command Center in Virginia on Monday, promising to upgrade the outdated US aviation system. Duffy also said earlier this month in a post on X that DOGE would “plug in” to modernize the FAA.—MM

The US and Russia talked (without Ukraine). Senior officials from both countries, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, met in Saudi Arabia yesterday for the first high-level talks in years to discuss the war in Ukraine. Notably absent were any Ukrainian officials—namely, President Volodymyr Zelensky, who postponed a different trip to Saudi Arabia to protest being left in the cold. The US’ allies in Europe and experts around the world have expressed concern that the talks are likely to end on favorable terms for Vladimir Putin and Russia. In addition to negotiating how to end the war, the officials also reportedly discussed the potential to rekindle business ties between the two countries, which were largely severed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Record-breaking cold is sweeping the US. It’s a good time for people who are really into watching videos of hot water freezing before it hits the ground and a bad time for everyone else. This week, an Arctic blast is expected to set records for the coldest temperatures on record this late in the winter in some regions, including the Plains, where the wind chill could reach as low as −60 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service. Cold advisories are in effect for 111 million people.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul mulls removing NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Hochul met with leaders in the Democratic Party to determine if Adams is fit to remain mayor in the wake of corruption allegations. Meanwhile, a federal judge ordered Adams and Justice Department prosecutors to appear in court today to explain the DOJ’s request to dismiss those charges. Danielle Sassoon, an interim US attorney and a Trump appointee, resigned last week rather than carry out the DOJ’s order. Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from his post, could make a decision shortly after Adams meets with the judge today.—AE

Nike is hoping that Kim Kardashian can help it rebound. The struggling activewear giant is partnering with Kardashian’s shapewear brand to launch NikeSkims this spring in a rare partnership that aims to bring together Nike’s expertise in “innovation” and “sport science” with Skims’s “obsession for the female form.”

Despite bringing in CEO Elliott Hill last year to revitalize the brand, Nike’s struggled to bounce back from a historic slump: Sales were down 8% last quarter, and the stock has lost more than 25% of its value in the last year. Nike is betting that Skims—and Kim—will boost its stock with a key demographic it’s been losing:

• Nike recorded ~$8.5 billion in revenue from female apparel last year, compared to ~$21 billion from male apparel. It estimates that 40% of customers are women.
• The company continues to lose market share to competitors like Lululemon and new, flashy companies that cater to women, like Alo and Vuori.

It’s good for Skims, too. The company reached a $4 billion valuation in 2023, and there have been rumblings that it may IPO. Nike will help bring the brand, which has a mighty but relatively small audience, to a mass market.—CC

Foodies who crave something more refined than Applebee’s chicken wonton tacos might not want to write off OpenTable anymore. The legacy restaurant reservation app is luring back the trendiest eateries from its younger competitors Resy and Tock.

Founded in 1998, OpenTable used to be the go-to for connoisseurs chasing after a table at the latest gastropub.

But over the past decade, OpenTable’s $1-per-diner fee (charged to restaurants), its antiquated tech, and lack of marketing options got some of the trendiest names to ditch it for the upstarts Resy and Tock. Once American Express bought Resy in 2019, it began offering top establishments cash in exchange for allowing premium AmEx cardholders to get dibs on tables.

Now, OpenTable is clawing back its status as a hotspot for haute spots—winning over standout names like San Francisco’s Nisei and New York’s Estela—by wooing restaurateurs with dozens of new features:

• It added notifications for table openings, and an “Icons” tab to allow the finest restaurants to distinguish themselves, introduced more flexible pricing, and beefed up its customer support team.
• Meanwhile, a recent Visa partnership allows it to shower restaurants with cash for switching to the platform and holding tables for Visa Infinite cardholders, per Grub Street.

The reservation rat race…is intense, as more people are booking ahead than they did pre-pandemic. Some desperate diners are paying reservation resellers hundreds of dollars for spots at the glitziest restaurants.—SK

If you haven’t heard, this AI thing is kind of a big deal. Such a big deal, in fact, that Meta announced it’s building a 50,000 km (~31,000 miles) subsea cable connecting the US and India to foster AI innovation. That’s about 20% longer than the circumference of the Earth.

The venture, which Meta is calling Project Waterworth in case you forgot what the sea is made of, will cost many billions of dollars and is expected to be complete by the end of the decade, Business Insider reported. These types of subsea cables account for 95% of intercontinental internet traffic, according to Meta, and bigger and stronger ones are necessary to support the AI-enhanced future.

Meta says it will use “enhanced burial techniques” to protect the cable from ship damage. But that may not save it from acts of sabotage, which are increasingly becoming an issue.—AE