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The union has refused to certify to the U.S. Department of Labor that the pilot positions, which start at about $50,000 a year, about half of what pilots at other regional airlines earn, meet “prevailing wage” standards. That certification is a crucial bureaucratic step and a requirement for the pilots’ green card applications.

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The union alleges the airline misrepresented its intentions to permanently hire these pilots and that there is no longer a shortage in the U.S., making the move to pursue permanent residency for the pilots unnecessary.

“They had such a hard time in 2023 finding pilots, they actually started hiring visa pilots out of Chile on an H-1B1 because they promised them citizenship, a green card verbally to come fly in America for 50,000 bucks a year,” Gregory Unterseher, director of the Airline Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, told Reuters.

“Because they’re having such a hard time keeping and maintaining pilots at such a low wage.”

Allegiant said it currently employs approximately 62 pilots from Chile, Australia, and Singapore through H-1B1 and E-3 visa programs, or about 4% of its overall pilot count of 1,345.

An Allegiant spokesperson said hiring pilots through visa programs is a small supplement to its broader workforce strategy, not a replacement for U.S. hires.

The union declined to provide the letter needed for the permanent labor certification application submitted by the airline. A Labor Department-issued permanent labor certification allows employers to hire foreign workers to work permanently in the U.S.

In a letter to pilots seen by Reuters, Allegiant wrote “as a result of the union’s failure to provide that information, we understand that the time to obtain your green card may be delayed.”

“The company condemns the union’s decision to harm you by refusing to provide the updated letter requested by the Department of Labor,” the letter said.

In a statement to Reuters, Allegiant said that “all of our hiring practices fully comply with federal labor laws, FAA regulations, and the collective bargaining agreements in place with our pilot union.”

The status of many of the foreign pilots hangs in limbo with some instructed not to leave the country as President Donald Trump cracks down on foreign-born workers, the union said.

“My heart goes out to them. They were told, I think recently that they shouldn’t even leave the country, right? Because they might not be able to get back in,” said Unterseher.

ATTRITION ON THE RISE

Attrition is on the rise at Allegiant, according to pilots, as some leave due to industry-low pay, frustrations with scheduling and a near-10-year-old labor contract.

“First officers at Allegiant in their first year in most cases are making less than flight attendants at other major airlines or TSA agents,” one pilot who recently left Allegiant told Reuters, on the condition of anonymity.

The carrier has expressed interest in expanding its operations, at one point discussing 1,400 more destinations it can add. But lack of staffing remains a sticky point, pilots told Reuters.

“For the last 18 months, there was nowhere to go. Now that people have options, you are seeing people leaving. I’ve got five or six friends just in my little small group of people that I know that are leaving,” the pilot added.

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SAO DOMINGOS DO NORTE, Brazil, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Amid the din of a chic coffee shop on Sao Paulo’s posh Oscar Freire Avenue, a barista pulls an atypical espresso. Extra creamy, with an aroma of cocoa nibs, the shot lacks the hallmark acidity prized in coffee made from the finest arabica beans.

That is because this premium espresso is made of 100% robusta beans, long derided in the coffee world as cheap filler better suited for instant coffee.

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“It’s a coffee that makes a wonderful crema … and has much more chocolatey notes,” said Marco Kerkmeester, co-founder of the Santo Grao coffee chain, noting the appeal of a variety cheekily labeled “0% Arabica.”

CHANGE ON THE FARM

As climate change threatens the arabica beans traditionally used in high-end brews, Brazilian robusta farmers are investing in harvesting and drying techniques to produce top-notch robusta that appeals to the most demanding consumers.

Brazil is the world’s second-largest robusta producer after Vietnam and top arabica grower. However, a 2022 study found that more than three quarters of Brazil’s best land for growing arabica coffee could become unsuitable by 2050 due to higher temperatures and drought.

With global coffee prices and consumption hitting record highs this year amid trade tensions and extreme weather, premium robusta beans also offer a way for roasters to lower the cost of espresso blends with more expensive arabica.

“My dad is from a mountainous region where they produce high-quality arabica coffee,” said Lucas Venturim, a coffee farmer some 500 miles (805 km) away in Espirito Santo state, whose beans went into that espresso served on a corner of Oscar Freire. “He never accepted that robusta coffee is bad just because it’s robusta.”

In the same spirit, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), which sets global specialty coffee standards, this year revised its evaluation course to appeal to would-be graders of both arabica and robusta beans. Now, anyone trained to assess top-notch coffee will be able to accurately describe and reward deserving brews, regardless of the species, or type of bean.

“We saw the writing on the wall,” said Kim Ionescu, SCA’s chief strategy development officer, citing growing consumer demand for premium robusta in Southeast Asia, for example. “It just seems like species is not the thing that we should use to define specialty or non-specialty.”

In 2026, SCA will begin to revise the lexicon of flavor descriptors used by coffee evaluators to include attributes associated with fine robusta, such as aromatic spice.

Brands like Nguyen Coffee Supply, which offers quality robusta from Vietnam, have already blazed a path in the U.S., while coffee shops from London to Berlin are showcasing robusta’s finer qualities.

FIRES OUT, DRYERS IN

The opportunity has kicked off a transformation in Espirito Santo, home to most of Brazil’s robusta production, which now prioritizes not just yield but the highest quality.

The state aims to produce 1.5 million 60-kg bags of specialty robusta annually by 2032, up from 10,000 currently, according to a presentation by the state agriculture secretariat seen by Reuters.

That amounts to about a tenth of the state’s current output, requiring wider adoption of the best post-harvest practices now common among arabica producers, according to Jose Roberto Goncalves, agricultural manager of Brazil’s top robusta co-op, Cooabriel.

In recent years, Cooabriel has participated in specialty coffee trade shows around the world.

While some growers once dried robusta beans indirectly with fire, where smoke and high temperature could negatively affect the taste, Cooabriel is teaching farmers the advantages of using modern dryers and careful sorting practices, Goncalves said.

Experts at state research agency Incaper and federal university IFES said they have seen a surge in robusta farmers looking to certify quantities of their beans as higher-priced specialty grade.

“If in the past robusta coffee was considered lower quality, that perception is changing,” said Douglas Gonzaga de Sousa, coordinator of the Center for Specialty Coffees of Espirito Santo.

The growing recognition of top-quality robusta in Brazil, along with historically high yields compared to arabica, has lured more arabica farmers to try their hand with robusta – bringing their savvy to the variety.

Espirito Santo’s undersecretary for rural development, Michel Tesch, said the traffic is largely one-way.

“We don’t have people leaving robusta to produce arabica,” he said.

Cooabriel is expanding its robusta nursery in Espirito Santo to produce around 10 million saplings per year, from 2 million at present.

PRICES JUMP

The rising quality of Brazilian robusta has translated into stronger demand and higher prices, said Marcio Ferreira, the head of national coffee exporter group Cecafe.

This year, the average price per bag of specialty Brazilian robusta surpassed $295 per 60-kilogram bag through October, more than double the average 2021 price, according to Cecafe data shared with Reuters. Robusta futures have risen over 80% since 2021 to around $4,370 per metric ton, while arabica futures grew by over 60% to $3.7254 per pound.

“Improving quality allows you to increase the percentage of robusta in blends around the world,” Ferreira said, adding that roasters are more openly noting the robusta qualities in their espresso blends as they pare back the share of arabica.

At the same time, specialty robusta is not trying to go toe-to-toe with arabica as a direct competitor, said Jordan Hooper, head of green coffee trading at Sucafina.

“The original approach to specialty robusta was to kind of try to compete with specialty arabica,” he said. “Now it’s like: robusta can be interesting in and of itself.”

Natalia Ramos Braga, the barista who pulled the all-robusta shot in Sao Paulo’s Santo Grao cafe, said Brazil is a natural hotbed for those tastes to evolve.

“People, especially here in Brazil, tend to prefer coffee with a fuller mouthfeel and a more bitter finish,” she said. “If someone prefers more bitterness and a fuller body, great, we have a coffee for that: robusta.”

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The Meta CEO said in a 2017 commencement address at his alma mater that the controversial site, Facemash, was “the most important thing I built in my time here” for one simple reason: it led him to his wife, Priscilla Chan.​

“Without Facemash I wouldn’t have met Priscilla, and she’s the most important person in my life,” Zuckerberg said during the speech.

In 2003, Zuckerberg, then a sophomore, created Facemash by hacking into Harvard’s online student directories and using the photos to create a site where users could rank students’ attractiveness. The site went viral, but it was quickly shut down by the university. Zuckerberg was called before Harvard’s Administrative Board, facing accusations of breaching security, violating copyrights, and infringing on individual privacy.​

“Everyone thought I was going to get kicked out,” Zuckerberg recalled in his speech. “My parents came to help me pack. My friends threw me a going-away party.”

It was at this party, thrown by friends who believed his expulsion was imminent, where he met Chan, another Harvard undergraduate. “We met in line for the bathroom in the Pfoho Belltower, and in what must be one of the all time romantic lines, I said: ‘I’m going to get kicked out in three days, so we need to go on a date quickly,’” Zuckerberg said.​

Chan, who described her now-husband to The New Yorker as “this nerdy guy who was just a little bit out there,” went on the date with him. Zuckerberg did not get expelled from Harvard after all, but he did famously drop out the following year to focus on building Facebook.​

While the 2010 film The Social Network portrayed Facemash as a critical stepping stone to the creation of Facebook, Zuckerberg himself has downplayed its technical or conceptual importance.

“And, you know, that movie made it seem like Facemash was so important to creating Facebook. It wasn’t,” he said during his commencement speech. But he did confirm that the series of events it set in motion—the administrative hearing, the “going-away” party, the line for the bathroom—ultimately connected him with the mother of his three children.

Chan, for her part, went on to graduate from Harvard in 2007, taught science, and then attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, becoming a pediatrician.

She and Zuckerberg got married in 2012, and in 2015, they co-founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization focused on leveraging technology to address major world challenges in health, education, and science. Chan serves as co-CEO of the initiative, which has pledged to give away 99% of the couple’s shares in Meta Platforms to fund its work.

You can watch the entirety of Zuckerberg’s Harvard commencement speech below:

​For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

Pakistan has announced its intention to launch its first stablecoin to be used within the country. Announcing the development, Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib states that the move is part of its effort to integrate digital assets into Pakistan’s economy.

Stablecoins are digital tokens whose values are always tied to fiat currencies, such as the dollar, making them more stable than the average digital assets like Bitcoin. Bin Saqib made this known as the Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, highlighting that the country has also been working on the creation of its Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

Pakistan announces plans to launch its first stablecoin

In his address, Bin Saqib mentioned that Pakistan sees stablecoins as one of the best ways to collateralize government debt. “We want to be at the forefront of this financial digital innovation that is happening. Why should we be at the tail-end of it when we have the muscle and the adoption?” he said. PVARA is an autonomous federal body governed by a multi-stakeholder board, including the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.

Other stakeholders in the agency include the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the Federal Board of Revenue. The agency was set up to curb illicit financial activities, protect users, and unlock several opportunities lying in fintech, remittances, and tokenized assets, while enforcing shariah-compliant innovation through regulatory sandboxes.

According to a post on X, the Pakistan Crypto Council also noted that Bin Saqib participated in a panel discussion on the future of digital assets and emerging market regulation. “He emphazised that for countries like Pakistan, clear and innovation-friendly crypto regulation is a key driver of economic growth,” the post read. “Pakistan’s work on stablecoins, data frameworks, and banking the unbanked can become valuable case studies for the world.”

Earlier this year, Bin Saqib revealed that Pakistan was working on its first government-led Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. He announced the initiative after delivering a keynote address at the Bitcoin Vegas 2025 event in Las Vegas, which had in attendance several high-profile personalities who have shown support for the crypto industry. They included United States Vice President JD Vance, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr.

Government ramps up usage of AI

In May, the Pakistani government also announced the allocation of 2,000 megawatts of electricity in the first phase of a national initiative to power Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence data. Meanwhile, in another report, Pakistan is set to deploy artificial intelligence to intensify its crackdown on illegal migration using fake documents. The government has also vowed to go after companies in the business of creating fake visas.

In a meeting held between the Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Chaudhry Salik Hussain, it was decided to make the protector issuance system better, with “reforms to be introduced in the immigration system to facilitate passengers.” The ministers asked those in charge to submit their final recommendations concerning the technology and its improvement in the next seven days.

Naqvi added that an AI-based pilot application would be launched in Islamabad from January to curb illegal migration. He noted that the technology will enable authorities to determine in advance those who are eligible to travel and those who are not. Naqvi highlighted that those who attempt to travel using incomplete or fake documents would be barred. He added that there would be zero tolerance for fake visas and agents, noting that those who are deported would not be reissued new ones.

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NuScale Power (SMR) has been on a choppy ride lately, with the share price down about 44% over the past month but still up roughly 21% year to date, leaving investors reassessing its long term nuclear story.

See our latest analysis for NuScale Power.

That sharp 30 day share price return of around negative 44% comes after a strong year to date gain and a near doubling three year total shareholder return. This suggests momentum has cooled as investors reassess execution risks around NuScale’s long term nuclear rollout.

If NuScale’s swings have you rethinking concentration in a single name, it could be worth scanning fast growing stocks with high insider ownership for other high conviction growth stories backed by committed insiders.

With shares still up strongly over three years yet trading almost 80 percent below analyst targets, investors face a pivotal question: is NuScale undervalued after the pullback, or already pricing in the next wave of nuclear growth?

With NuScale’s fair value pegged at about $38.35 versus a last close of $21.39, the most followed narrative paints a sizable upside gap.

With an NRC approved SMR technology and the commitment of over $2 billion towards its development and licensing, NuScale is uniquely positioned for immediate commercial deployment compared to competitors focused solely on demonstration plans. This potentially accelerates revenue growth once commercial operations commence.

Read the complete narrative.

Want to see what kind of revenue surge and margin shift could justify that gap, and why the future earnings multiple looks so aggressive? The full narrative unpacks a high speed revenue ramp, a sharp swing from deep losses toward industry style profitability, and a premium valuation normally reserved for market darlings. Curious how those moving parts add up to the projected fair value? Dive in to see the exact growth blueprint behind this call.

Result: Fair Value of $38.35 (UNDERVALUED)

Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what’s behind the forecasts.

However, persistent delays in securing firm utility orders and potential dilutive funding needs around ENTRA1 could quickly challenge that bullish fair value case.

Find out about the key risks to this NuScale Power narrative.

While the popular narrative sees NuScale as 44.2% undervalued, our DCF model points the other way, with fair value near $3.17 versus a $21.39 share price. That implies NuScale could be significantly overvalued if lofty growth and margin assumptions fall short. Which future do you believe?

Look into how the SWS DCF model arrives at its fair value.

Simply Wall St performs a discounted cash flow (DCF) on every stock in the world every day (check out NuScale Power for example). We show the entire calculation in full. You can track the result in your watchlist or portfolio and be alerted when this changes, or use our stock screener to discover 906 undervalued stocks based on their cash flows. If you save a screener we even alert you when new companies match – so you never miss a potential opportunity.

If you see the outlook differently or want to stress test the assumptions yourself, you can build a personalized view in just a few minutes: Do it your way

A great starting point for your NuScale Power research is our analysis highlighting 1 key reward and 3 important warning signs that could impact your investment decision.

Do not stop with a single thesis when the market is full of overlooked opportunities. Let Simply Wall Street’s powerful Screener guide your next smart move.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Companies discussed in this article include SMR.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com

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‘Completely surprised’

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