The end of an Eras tour approaches, marking a bittersweet moment for Taylor Swift fansInovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. stock outperforms competitors on strong trading day
WACO, Texas (AP) — Georgia's Dasha Vidmanova and Columbia's Michael Zheng won NCAA singles tennis titles on Sunday. Vidmanova, a 21-year-old senior from the Czech Republic, beat DJ Bennett of Auburn 6-3, 6-3 for the Bulldogs' first women's singles championship since 2010 and the fourth singles champion in program history. Vidmanova is the only Bulldog in program history to win both the NCAA singles and doubles titles after winning the doubles with Aysegul Mert last season. It was the second consecutive season Georgia had a women’s tennis player reach the title match after Anastasiia Lopata lost to Alexa Noel of Miami last year. Bennett is the first player in Auburn’s program history to reach the finals in the event, besting Fani Chifchieva’s semifinalist finish in 2008 that was the previous best finish for a Tiger. Zheng, a 20-year-old junior from Montville, New Jersey, beat Ozan Baris of Michigan State 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to become the first Ivy League player to collect an NCAA men's singles crown since 1922. The final between Zheng and Baris was the first men's NCAA tennis singles final between two Americans since 2017. Zheng, the first men’s Ivy Leaguer to win the title since Yale's Lucien Williams over a century ago, is the first player to reach back-to-back finals on the men’s side since Steve Johnson of USC in 2011 and 2012. TCU’s Pedro Vives Marcos and Lui Maxted earned the men’s doubles championship while Virginia’s Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard won the women’s doubles title. Vives Marcos and Maxted beat Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay of Michigan 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 1-0 (10-2). The 10-point tiebreaker to determine the national champions featured five service breaks, including four by the Horned Frogs, who scored the final six points to seal their title. Young and Kittay became the first doubles runners-up in Michigan men's tennis history. Chervinsky and Collard beat UCLA's Olivia Center and Kate Fakih — both freshmen — 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-5) in the final to win the first NCAA Doubles title in program history. The Cavaliers' duo won each of their five matches at the championships in a third-set 10-point super tiebreaker. ___ AP tennis:The end of an Eras tour approaches, marking a bittersweet moment for Taylor Swift fansNEW YORK — Stoli Group USA, the owner of the namesake vodka , has filed for bankruptcy as it struggled to contend with slowing demand for spirits, a major cyberattack that has snarled its operations and several years of fighting Russia in court. The company in its bankruptcy filing said it is “experiencing financial difficulties” and lists between $50 million and $100 million in liabilities. Stoli vodka and Kentucky Owl bourbon will continue to be available on store shelves while the company navigates the Chapter 11 process, which only pertains to its U.S. business. Until 2022, Stoli was sold as Stolichnaya in the United States, which loosely translates to “capital city” in Russian. The company shortened its title following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and boycotts against Russian-branded vodkas . Stoli Group’s founder, Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler, was exiled from that nation in 2000 because of his opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Intel announced on December 2 that CEO Pat Gelsinger has resigned after a difficult stint at the company. The once-dominant chipmaker’s stock cratered as it missed the AI boom and was surpassed by most of its rivals. The liquor has long been marketed as a Russian vodka, but its production facilities have been in Latvia for several decades. Stoli Group is a unit of Luxembourg-based SPI Group, which owns other spirit and wine brands. “The Stoli Group has been targeted by the Russian Federation since it was formed nearly 25 years ago,” said Stoli Group CEO Chris Caldwell in a statement. “Earlier this year the company and our owner were both named by the Russian state as ‘extremist groups working against Russia’s interests.’” Its ongoing legal battle with the Russia government has forced Stoli to “spend dozens of millions of dollars on this long-term court battle across the globe with the Russian authorities,” according to its court filing. Caldwell also said that Stoli’s global operations has been a “victim of a malicious cyber attack” that has forced the company to operate “entirely manually while the systems are rebuilt.” A slowdown in demand for alcohol has crushed several company’s bottom lines following the pandemic when people were stuck at home and stocked up. Stoli’s filings said that it has seen a “decline and softening of demand for alcohol and spirits products post-Covid and especially beginning in 2023 and continuing into 2024.” Stoli Group USA, maker of Stoli vodka, has filed for bankruptcy due to slowing demand for spirits, a major cyberattack, and ongoing legal battles with Russia. The-CNN-WireTM & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
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Twelve electric rotors whirring, a van-size aircraft lifted vertically into a bright sky and cruised smoothly over an artichoke field. The 10-minute test flight in California, controlled from a nearby trailer, took Archer Aviation a small step closer to a future imagined for decades by dreamers, engineers and frustrated commuters: a time when it’s possible to soar over traffic in an air taxi. Archer is aiming to launch its first commercially operated flights with a pilot and passengers within a year in Abu Dhabi. Credit: Archer via AP Archer’s electrically powered mash-up of a helicopter and an aeroplane is among the first competitors seeking to earn certification to carry passengers under a category of aircraft envisioned under new rules by the US Federal Aviation Administration. Years after the world watched TV character George Jetson zip to work in his airborne cartoon commuter, the flying taxi may be on the cusp of reality. Archer is aiming to launch its first commercially operated flights with a pilot and passengers within a year in Abu Dhabi. A competitor, Joby Aviation, says it is aiming to launch passenger service in Dubai as soon as late 2025. Advancements in batteries and other technologies required for the futuristic tilt-rotor craft are moving so fast that they could soon move beyond the novelty stage and into broader commercial use in a matter of years. Both companies are laying plans to operate at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “They have created these amazing new aircraft that really 10 or 15 years ago would’ve been unimaginable,” said Roger Connor, curator of the vertical flight collection at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. “I think there’s something innately attractive about being able to leapfrog all of your terrestrial obstacles,” he said. “Who hasn’t wished that if you live in the suburbs that, you know, something could drop into your cul-de-sac and 15 minutes later you’re at the office.” Business success is by no means assured for these craft, called electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs. Scaling the industry from a novelty ride for the wealthy to a broadly available commuter option would take billions more in start-up money, executives said, including building out a network of takeoff and landing areas (called vertiports) and charging stations. It feels like the modern-day American Dream, where you can invent a technology and bring it to market even [if it’s] as crazy as what some people call flying cars. Some high-profile ventures have already faltered. A plan for air taxis to transport spectators around the Paris Olympics fizzled. And last month, Lilium, a German eVTOL company, announced it had filed for insolvency. Still, investors, including big names like Stellantis and Toyota, have poured money into Silicon Valley companies like Archer and Joby. Boeing and Airbus are developing their own versions. All are betting that quieter, greener and battery-powered aircraft can revolutionise the way people travel. Major US airlines including American, Delta, Southwest and United also are building relationships and planting seeds for deals with air taxi companies. “It feels like the modern-day American Dream, where you can invent a technology and actually bring it to market even [if it’s] as crazy as what some people call flying cars,” said Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein. Congress included several provisions aimed at bolstering the growth of air taxis in 2024’s FAA reauthorisation bill. The industry got a major boost in the northern autumn, when the FAA released standards for pilot training and certification. US President-elect Donald Trump appears to be supportive. In a 2023 speech, he said: “Just as the United States led the automobile revolution in the last century, I want to ensure that America, not China, leads the revolution in air mobility.” Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt said that, as the numbers of air taxis grew, they would become more accessible to the masses. But the multibillion-dollar question remains: Now that they’ve been built, can they be turned into a viable business? “Urban air mobility is the big prize for these firms,” said Connor. “But it’s also the hardest to implement.” On a recent morning, space heaters were blasting in what seemed like a vain attempt to warm the cavernous hangar at Salinas Municipal Airport that serves as the home for Archer’s four-passenger prototype aircraft, called Midnight. The morning’s test flight was scheduled for 7am, but shortly before the hour, it became clear that conditions were too windy. Each test flight requires specific weather to deliver the information the team is seeking, and on this day that meant winds must be less than 19km/h. There would be no pilot behind the controls the test; that will come later. It’s been programmed to autonomously fly a racetrack pattern above the agricultural fields near the airport. Its progress will be monitored by Archer’s own mission control, a team that includes a former US Air Force test pilot and several engineers, who sit in a nearby trailer. Shortly before 11am, the wind is just right. From a field across from the airport, a group of observers watches as the 12 rotors on the aircraft begin to spin, lifting the 2900 kilogram craft, which hovers for just a few moments before the rotors tilt from vertical into horizontal, and it zips over the landscape in flight mode. About 10 minutes and just over 22 kilometres later, Midnight turns back to the airport, hovers briefly as the rotors return to a vertical position and slowly touches down. About 37 kilometres from Archer’s operation in Salinas , Bevirt greets a visitor to Joby’s campus in Marina, California. The campus, based on a former army base, is not far from the Santa Cruz Mountains where Bevirt grew up. Over lunch, Bevirt talks about Joby’s plan to build out a network of air taxis and landing sites, starting with a few “nodes” and gradually expanding. He believes air taxis will one day revolutionise routine travel. Joby Aviation’s pre-production prototype aircraft. Credit: Joby Aviation “We had the transition from horses to railroads, and then from railroads to car,” said Bevirt. “And with each of those, it transformed our perception of distance and how far we could move in a day. And it allowed our cities to grow and to become more productive.” On a tour of Joby’s manufacturing facilities, Bevirt points to a corner where spools of carbon fibre material that will be “baked” into aircraft components. At one work station, a robotic arm blasts water against a component to test for flaws. There’s also a model skyport lounge, with glass walls and lounge chairs. The tour ends in a large hangar, home to three of Joby’s prototype aircraft, including the hydrogen-electric demonstrator craft that recently completed an 841 kilometre flight. Bevirt says ultimately what will drive a market for air taxi rides is the ability to avoid crushing highway commutes. “It won’t happen overnight,” Bevirt said, “but when it does, it will have really profound implications because it will allow us to change our relationship with space and time.” The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon .Charles Barkley is letting everyone know how he feels about Donald Trump voters. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Thanks for the feedback.