Category: 3. Business

Australian households have rebuilt their mortgage buffers to withstand further interest rate increases and a prolonged conflict in the Middle East, according to the Reserve Bank’s semi-annual health check of the financial system.

The improved financial health of borrowers who are, on average, more than a year ahead of their mortgage payments, suggests that the risk of aggravating household stress is no impediment for the central bank in increasing the cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.6 per cent, as markets are forecasting.

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Last week, Samsung launched the new Galaxy S26 series — its most intuitive Galaxy AI phone yet. Consumer response has been stellar, with pre-orders moving quickly and excitement building around the device’s innovative features. As these cutting-edge devices begin arriving, it’s important to consider how you will take care of it. The average phone upgrade cycle has increased from 2.4 years to 3.5 years globally,¹ signaling a shift toward longer ownership.

This makes it smart to have comprehensive device care in place — especially as 23% of consumers now consider future resale value of their device when making purchasing decisions.² That’s where Samsung Care+ comes in.³ Not only does it preserve the future resale value of your device, it provides peace of mind and lasting value tomorrow.

Flexible and Personalized Choices for Every Lifestyle 

Not everyone uses their device the same way. Some need a complete peace of mind against everyday accidents. Others focus on long-term device reliability. Samsung Care+ gets this.

Samsung Care+ offers diverse plans that reflect the unique needs of customers with different lifestyles. This includes accidental damage cover that protects against certain knocks, drops and spills.⁴ For users prioritizing long-term performance and reliability, extended warranty coverage can help address certain mechanical or electrical failures well beyond the standard warranty period, which can become increasingly valuable as users hold onto devices longer.

Samsung Care+ also offers light option that deliver essential screen coverage at a more accessible price point. For frequent travelers and urban commuters navigating high-traffic environments, Theft and Loss coverage adds another layer of security.⁵

Payment flexibility matters too. Monthly plans spread costs over time, while upfront payment option is available. Your device, your choice.

Professional Service Without the Hassle

Protection is only valuable if you can access when needed. That is what matters most. Samsung Care+ delivers service designed to provide expert care in a simple, accessible way — wherever you are.

The claims process is designed for clarity. No complex forms. No confusing requirements to navigate. Samsung Care+ offers a streamlined claims process and priority queue, ensuring customers can receive the care they need without hassle and minimizing disruption to their daily routines.

Once your claim is submitted, Samsung-authorized service centers take over.⁶ Every repair is handled by certified technicians who know Samsung Galaxy devices inside out, using genuine Samsung parts. This approach does more than fix immediate problems — it maintains your device in working condition, preserving what you invested in whether you plan to keep it longer or eventually upgrade.

And here’s something people often overlook until they are traveling: your device goes everywhere with you, so your protection should too. Samsung Care+ provides comprehensive coverage both at home and abroad. You can receive Samsung-certified service in major cities around the world, including Seoul, London, Los Angeles and Barcelona.⁷

Peace of Mind, And Long-Lasting Value

The Galaxy S26 series is engineered to simplify the tasks you do on your phone through its most user-friendly Galaxy AI experiences. Samsung Care+ helps ensure it keeps doing that — delivering the peace of mind to enjoy your device to the fullest anywhere, anytime while maintaining its value over time.

Samsung Care+ subscription is available when you purchase your Galaxy S26 series on Samsung.com or Samsung Electronics Store, making it easy to add protection from day one. Already have your device? You can still enroll within 60 days of purchase by visiting Samsung.com or accessing Samsung Care+ menu directly on your device through Settings > About Phone > Samsung Care+.

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The U.S. Justice Department last October announced the largest asset seizure in American history: a cache of bitcoin then valued at $15 billion tied to the Cambodia-based Prince Group that prosecutors alleged oversaw an empire of human trafficking and industrial-scale scamming.

The news offered a rare glimmer of hope for victims of sophisticated cryptocurrency scams. In part due to the ease of laundering cryptocurrencies, these victims have had a notoriously difficult time recovering their lost life savings or even getting law enforcement to begin tracing such funds.

“By dismantling a criminal empire built on forced labor and deception, we are sending a clear message that the United States will use every tool at its disposal to defend victims, recover stolen assets, and bring to justice those who exploit the vulnerable for profit,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a joint statement.

But in the five months since the announcement, questions and frustrations have begun to swirl around the Justice Department’s handling of the historic cache of seized funds. The Justice Department has given little indication of what it plans to do with the 127,271 seized bitcoins, currently worth around $9 billion, as it has swiftly rejected claims on the funds made by attorneys representing hundreds of alleged victims.

Daniel Thornburgh and other attorneys representing hundreds of alleged victims of crypto scams say the government is not providing a viable path for returning seized funds to rightful owners.

Victims’ advocates and attorneys fear the agency may use the funds to capitalize President Trump’s national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a government crypto stockpile advocated by the cryptocurrency industry.

“This would lead to victims being revictimized by their own government,” said Thornburgh.

He is part of a growing number of attorneys and victim advocates who are calling for a special victim fund to take over responsibility for the historic sum of seized assets. They argue that this alternative offers a clearer path to victims receiving restitution.

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the case.

In November, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 36 partner publications released The Coin Laundry investigation that showed how cryptocurrency scam victims face immense difficulty recovering funds due to the rapidly expanding illicit crypto economy. In interviews, dozens of victims told ICIJ and its media partners that they faced financial ruin as criminals rapidly laundered their stolen funds through secretive crypto wallets. In many cases, reports to law enforcement yielded no response at all.

The U.S. seizure of billions in bitcoin from the Prince Group’s founder Chen Zhi stemmed from allegations that he operated a transnational criminal organization that used forced labor in scam compounds to defraud victims worldwide. After the group was hit with U.S. and U.K. sanctions, Chen was taken into custody in Cambodia and sent to China in January 2026.

Even as victim attorneys strategize how to get their clients’ money back, fundamental questions hang over the case, including how and when U.S. authorities obtained the funds in the first place. Attorneys say that more information could help victims make stronger claims on the assets, while the Prince Group argues the lack of detail points to a flimsy case for the government holding the crypto at all. Although the Justice Department declined to comment on how it obtained the Bitcoin, the Chinese government recently accused the U.S. of stealing it through sophisticated hacking.

The government’s indictment of Chen contains apparent irregularities that are especially striking given the case’s significance. Prosecutors’ evidence against Chen relied in part on photographs alleged to illustrate the Prince Group’s violent methods.

ICIJ confirmed that one disturbing photo included in the indictment showing a man bound to an overturned chair appears to have nothing to do with the Prince Group. The exact photo was part of a light-hearted post published on a Mongolian-language website in April of 2020, describing an unusual medical incident. In another case, a man portrayed in the indictment as a victim of the Prince Group told ICIJ in an interview he had never been the victim of organized crime.

Victim claims have been swiftly rejected

When government authorities seize assets, they can keep those assets for public sector use, distribute the assets to victims who lost money to the crime in question, or do a combination of both. The process of determining if and how assets should be returned to victims is complicated and can take years.

In the wake of the Prince Group seizure, one U.S. senator said the assets could be used in part to strengthen Donald Trump’s national strategic bitcoin reserve, a U.S. government stockpile of cryptocurrency that industry proponents say will help boost the prominence of bitcoin. At the same time an array of alleged scam victims and their lawyers flooded the Justice Department with claims on the seized assets.

The department rapidly rejected many of them, asserting a wide variety of reasons why the victims had no legitimate claims, including that victims had not put forth specific evidence linking their cases to the seized funds and that they had no legal basis to credibly claim the funds in the first place.

Victims and their attorneys told ICIJ that a troubling picture is emerging of a Justice Department that appears set on rejecting claims.

Without more information about the seizure, scam victims are at a disadvantage because the alleged laundering was highly complex, making it difficult to directly link any specific scam to the cache of digital currency, according to lawyers.

“What’s happening here is not normal at all,” said Marc Fitapelli, a New York-based attorney who represents victims of cryptocurrency scams. “There should be an independent person appointed by the court to have control over these assets.”

Thornburgh told ICIJ that recent conversations with Justice Department lawyers convinced him that the government was committed to denying victim claims, so he booked a trip to Cambodia on a long-shot mission to collect additional evidence linking his cases to the Prince Group. Thornburg said he spent a grueling week in early March interviewing dozens of former workers at the country’s notorious scam compounds, but had little luck finding the documentation to connect his client’s cases to the DOJ’s seized funds.

“It was an incredible amount of work to demonstrate what I probably already knew, which was: this was going to be impossible,” Thornburgh said. “Even if I was successful, victims or their lawyers should not have to travel all the way across the world to recover their assets.”

Thornburgh expressed concern about the Justice Department’s tactics in a separate high-profile crypto forfeiture action announced in June. Last month, government attorneys argued that victims did not deserve to recover funds from this seizure because the victims had freely given it away to scammers. “Although their voluntary transfers may have been induced through misrepresentations, those transfers were made voluntarily nonetheless,” the Justice Department said in a filing.

Several experts pointed to legislation as the most promising path to recovering victim funds. Erin West, the founder of Operation Shamrock, an advocacy group for victims of cyber scams, told ICIJ the organization would be working with partners to push for legislation that allocates the seized funds to victims. “We have an amazing opportunity to put found assets back into the hands of those who deserve it most,” West said.

Fitapelli said that a call with Justice Department lawyers last month yielded little in direct answers. “I was told that victims will be contacted by the government if/when the DOJ determines it is appropriate,” he said. “So victims should hope that some lawyer at the Justice department stumbles on their file and contacts them? This is so unfair.”

Deeper questions about the money

Scam victims aren’t the only ones seeking more information from the Justice Department about the case.

Almost immediately after the government’s announcement of the historic seizure, cryptocurrency experts began to ask basic questions about the origin of the enormous pile of bitcoin. According to the U.S. officials, the Prince Group’s alleged laundering methods diverted proceeds of fraud to fund a bitcoin mining company called LuBian that created new, “clean” bitcoins. Attorneys representing thousands of alleged victims of Iranian terrorism say that this bitcoin mining operation had extensive ties to Iran and are also making claims on the seized bitcoin.

But there is a twist in the history of these coins: On the blockchain, the publicly available ledger of most cryptocurrency transactions, experts could see that the huge sum of seized bitcoin, which was reportedly stolen by an unknown hacker in 2020 and then sat dormant in crypto wallets of unknown ownership for years. This crypto remained untouched between late 2020 and mid-2024, when the cache of bitcoin moved to a new set of wallets where it has remained since, crypto analyst Yury Serov told ICIJ.

The U.S. government filings that ICIJ reviewed do not provide details on how it came into possession of the bitcoin. This lack of an official explanation has created an opening for speculation among experts, interested parties and a rival superpower. A Chinese cybercrimes agency recently suggested that the U.S. government originally stole the bitcoin through sophisticated hacking in 2020.

Last week, lawyers representing Chen demanded that the Justice Department explain how it seized the funds.

The Justice Department’s asset forfeiture filing, which describes the government’s rationale for taking the $15 billion, has also created some confusion about which victims may be entitled to the funds.

After the government announced its seizure in 2025, analysts quickly pointed out that the $15 billion in bitcoin had sat dormant in crypto wallets for years after their reported theft in 2020. Chen’s defense attorneys have argued these dormant assets have had no opportunity to commingle with any money taken from scam victims after 2020. But, in its asset forfeiture filing, some of the government’s most specific descriptions of the Prince Group’s alleged scams involve frauds that took place in 2021 and 2022 — after the seized bitcoin went dormant.

Attorneys for Chen last week criticized the asset forfeiture complaint’s use of these alleged crimes to justify seizing money that had been out of circulation since 2020.

The Prince Group argues that the U.S. government somehow took the coins and then created a story to justify keeping them. “This indictment is simply air cover for a giant cash grab — one that both does a disservice to the victims of these crypto scams and injustice to an innocent man,” a spokesperson for the Prince Group told ICIJ in a statement.

“Prosecutors used exaggerations, deceit, and outright impossibilities to convince a court to retroactively approve their theft of Bitcoin and to convince a grand jury of everyday Americans to indict an innocent man, Chen Zhi,” the spokesperson said. “Not only did prosecutors use salacious rumors and innuendo to make wild accusations completely unconnected to Chen, they made serious errors, generated falsehoods out of whole cloth, and acted with egregious negligence all in an effort to justify their desperate, unfounded allegations.”

In court filings last week, Prince Group lawyers highlighted another possibly problematic part of U.S. authorities’ case against Chen. Several photos that the indictment claimed as evidence of wrongdoing appear to have no ostensible relationship to the Prince Group or its alleged crimes.

One of these photos, offered up by U.S. prosecutors as an example of the Prince Group’s violence, shows a man bound to an overturned plastic lawnchair. But ICIJ was able to confirm that the same photo was featured on a Mongolian-language website six years ago in a post about a man whose testicles became stuck in a lawn chair and had to be extricated from the chair by medical workers. This article contains no mention of the Prince Group or any wrongdoing.

Another photo in the indictment shows a purported victim of the Prince Group with blood flowing from a head wound. However, on a Zoom call arranged by representatives for the Prince Group, the man, who requested anonymity, told ICIJ that the photo depicted injuries he sustained in a drunken fight in 2015, and that he has never been the victim of violence by an organized crime group.

Hany Farid, a visual forensics expert at the University of California at Berkeley, confirmed that the man ICIJ spoke with via Zoom is the same person pictured in the indictment.

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the photographs.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas, March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) today celebrated the grand opening of its expanded Performance Products manufacturing facility in Petfurdo, Hungary, where operations were initiated at the beginning of this year. The successful completion of this investment increases Huntsman’s global capacity providing greater flexibility, and innovative technologies for the polyurethane, coatings, metalworking and electronics industries.

One of the world’s leading amine catalyst producers with over 50 years of experience in urethane chemicals, Huntsman has seen demand for its JEFFCAT® amine catalysts continue to grow across the globe. These specialty amines are used in everyday applications such as automobile seats, mattresses and energy‑efficient insulation for buildings. Huntsman’s latest product portfolio supports industry efforts to save energy, lower emissions and reduce odors in consumer products.

“This new capacity builds on our long‑standing investments in Performance Products and strengthens our ability to support customers in fast‑growing and evolving markets,” said Jan Buberl, President, Huntsman Performance Products. “The expansion unit enhances our manufacturing flexibility, enables next‑generation products and reflects our continued focus on sustainability, operational excellence and long‑term value creation. As demand grows for cleaner, more efficient solutions, this investment positions us to respond with speed, innovation and reliability.”

The project, supported by an investment grant from the Hungarian government, reflects the community’s confidence in Huntsman and our shared commitment to future growth. Government officials joined the celebration to mark this investment in the region’s long‑term success.

“We greatly appreciate the support of the Hungarian government and value the strong partnership that helped bring this project to completion,” Buberl added. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration as we advance economic development and manufacturing excellence in Hungary.”

JEFFCAT^® is a registered trademark of Huntsman Corporation or an affiliate thereof in one or more, but not all, countries.

About Huntsman:
Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of diversified chemical products with 2025 revenues of approximately $6 billion from our continuing operations. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 55 manufacturing, R&D and operations facilities in approximately 25 countries and employ approximately 6,000 associates within our continuing operations. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company’s website at www.huntsman.com.

Social Media:
X: http://www.x.com/Huntsman_Corp
Facebook: www.facebook.com/huntsmancorp
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/huntsman

Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain information in this release constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on management’s current beliefs and expectations. The forward-looking statements in this release are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the company’s operations, markets, products, services, prices and other factors as discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in the Huntsman companies’ filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Significant risks and uncertainties may relate to, but are not limited to, volatile global economic conditions, cyclical and volatile product markets, disruptions in production at manufacturing facilities, reorganization or restructuring of Huntsman’s operations, including any delay of, or other negative developments affecting the ability to implement cost reductions, timing of proposed transactions, and manufacturing optimization improvements in Huntsman businesses and realize anticipated cost savings, and other financial, economic, competitive, environmental, political, legal, regulatory and technological factors. The company assumes no obligation to provide revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by applicable laws.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/huntsman-marks-grand-opening-of-operational-unit-expansion-in-petfurdo-hungary-302718038.html

SOURCE Huntsman Corporation

Rolls-Royce has abandoned its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade.

The luxury car company launched its all-electric Spectre model in 2022, saying at the time that it would end production of its vehicles with V12 internal combustion engines by the end of 2030.

However, the chief executive, Chris Brownridge, who took the top job in 2023, said the company would continue to sell cars with the V12 engines as there was demand from clients.

“For every client who is unsure whether our Spectre is right for them, there will be one that says ‘I love it’,” he said. “We can respond to our client demand … we build what is ordered.”

Brownridge insisted that the company’s all-electric pledge under its previous chief executive, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, was “right at the time”.

His predecessor predicted in 2022 that Spectre would make up 20% of annual sales, with a goal of 70% of sales by 2028. Rolls-Royce did not disclose what percentage of its sales now come from its all-electric Spectre model.

“The legislation has changed,” Brownridge said. “That prediction was based on a different set of circumstances. We recognise some clients would rather have a V12 engine. The V12 is part of our history.”

It comes as global carmakers around the world grapple with the future of their electric car divisions. Bentley, another luxury carmaker founded in the UK and owned by a German parent, Volkswagen, pushed back its plans in 2024 to go fully electric to 2035 instead of 2030. This week it announced it would cut hundreds of jobs at its site in Crewe, Cheshire.

Meanwhile, a series of car manufacturers have booked multibillion-dollar write-downs on the value of their EV businesses. Honda told investors last week that it expects a hit of $15.7bn (£11.8bn) over the next few years as it restructured its electric car division. In February, Stellantis – the French car manufacturer that owns brands such as Fiat and Jeep – announced more than €22bn (£19bn) in charges, mainly linked to reversing course on its electric vehicle strategy.

Much of the luxury goods sector has also been shaken by recent geopolitical uncertainty, US trade tariffs and conflict in the Middle East.

“It’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen [in the Middle East],” Brownridge said. “We see a strong demand growth in the last five years from this region and we anticipate that to continue.

“For many of our clients who have vehicles that are expected to be delivered, we are working as best as we can with the logistics to facilitate that delivery.”

He added there was some evidence of very wealthy people moving outside the UK.

“If you zoom in, you see a mobility of ultra-high net worth individuals across Europe, particularly in the UK,” he said. “We’ve seen a number of our clients moving away from the UK to different locations, whether that be in Europe or other parts of the world.”

Rolls-Royce Motors, which is headquartered in Goodwood, West Sussex but is owned by the German car manufacturer BMW, makes about 5,600 cars a year. The company is expanding the Goodwood plant in a £300m project, in a move designed to strengthen its capacity to build more bespoke cars.

When sheriff deputies arrived at the scene of a late-night crash off a desolate Texas road in August 2024, they could see a giant pyre through heavy smoke.

According to police reports detailing the events of that night, the officers tried to approach the vehicle, but the fire burned too intensely. They saw it was a Tesla Cybertruck and couldn’t see anyone inside. So they combed the surrounding area for the driver.

As flames leapt more than 10ft high, one deputy attempted to use his fire extinguisher to combat the blaze, to no avail. When firefighters arrived, they tapped into a hydrant – but quelling the fire in the electric vehicle took time. The truck’s batteries kept reigniting.

Once the blaze was finally out, officers cautiously inspected the Cybertruck. That’s when they discovered human remains.

“The body inside was severely burnt and was completely unidentifiable,” one officer wrote in his report. “You could see a pelvic spine and ribcage laying across the front two seats, mostly in the passenger seat,” another wrote.

In the aftermath of the fiery scene, officers found paperwork scattered near the vehicle on which was the name Michael Patrick Sheehan. He was a 47-year-old nurse practitioner who had owned the Cybertruck for just three months. As his widow and parents work to uncover what fully happened, a look at other cases bearing the same grim hallmarks might provide clues.

The blaze in Baytown, Texas, was one of five known Cybertruck fires that the Guardian has tracked – a significant amount, considering the vehicle has only sold 60,000 units and debuted just two years ago. These incidents involve four fatalities, including the deaths of three college students in California, and have been the subject of four lawsuits against Tesla. In a comprehensive look at fire danger, particularly of Cybertrucks, the Guardian has obtained hundreds of pages of police, fire and autopsy reports and court filings and company manuals, as well as interviewed lawyers and safety experts. They – as well as the families suing Tesla – allege the Cybertruck’s design led to these worst-case scenarios where fires rapidly ignite, the vehicle’s electric door handles won’t unlock and passengers are trapped inside.

“He burned to death at 5,000°F – a fire so hot his bones experienced thermal fracture,” reads the complaint from Sheehan’s family. The lawsuit contends Sheehan could have survived the crash, if he had been able to open the doors and escape the blaze, which flared to temperatures hotter than most cremation ovens. “The crash forces themselves were survivable,” the lawyers wrote.

Fires that entrap passengers are a well-documented and recurring problem with every model in Tesla’s lineup of vehicles, but Cybertrucks appear to have a disproportionate number of known deaths. Safety experts have told the Guardian that the truck’s unique design amplifies the deadly issue. The vehicles come with high-density laminated windows that are harder to break than regular car windows, making escape and rescue difficult when doors won’t unlock. And the trucks are built with materials not commonly used in the industry, like stainless steel, which can complicate the work of emergency responders. The Cybertruck is also the first Tesla model to entirely eliminate door handles on the outside of the vehicle.

The hulking trapezoidal automobiles are a passion project for Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk. Despite having been subject to 10 recalls, most notably over faulty accelerators that would stick at full throttle, Musk constantly praises the Cybertruck, calling it an “incredible vehicle” and “our best ever from Tesla”. He says the trucks are “apocalypse-proof” and claims they can withstand bullets and have “armor glass” windows.

“Trucks should be manly. They should be macho,” Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan in an October interview. “And bulletproof is maximum macho.”

Michael Brooks, the executive director of the non-profit Center for Auto Safety, sees these traits differently: “A lot of it is this whiz-bang, cool tech features that might look really cool and might sell cars, but it’s like they didn’t do the backup human-factors research … to see how they would function in safety-critical incidents.”

Tesla did not return multiple requests for comment. In court filings, it has denied any wrongdoing and said the Cybertruck is compliant with federal safety standards and the company has satisfied its duty to warn customers about the risks and dangers of using its product.

Thermal runaway

Last April, just before sunrise, firefighters responded to reports of an uncontrolled blaze in a residential neighborhood in Los Angeles. They arrived at a paradoxical scene in which a crumpled Cybertruck engulfed in flames was being showered by a fire hydrant spewing water 50ft into the air. Laying in the water-soaked street was Alijah Arenas, an 18-year-old basketball star for the University of Southern California.

He’d been rescued from inside the burning Cybertruck after passersby worked to peel back one of the truck’s windows and pull him out. Because of severe smoke inhalation, though, Arenas had to be temporarily placed in a medically induced coma.

The basketball player later recounted the crash during a June press conference, saying he was driving home from the gym when the steering wheel became unresponsive. Unable to control the Cybertruck, he careened into the fire hydrant and a tree. Looking back at the camera feed, he said the vehicle caught fire upon impact.

“I wake up in the car after about three minutes,” Arenas said. “I had heard cracking noises like I was at a campfire.”

Arenas said it felt like an overheated sauna, and the passenger-side dashboard was on fire. The smoke was so thick, he couldn’t see outside. He tried opening the doors, but they wouldn’t budge. “I start kind of panicking and rushing to get out,” he said. He passed out once, then woke up. To stay awake, he bit his lips and dug his fingernails into his palms and started kicking a window working to get free. The window was slightly open and he could hear someone trying to break through it from the outside. Then he passed out again.

“It felt like I was in there for a couple hours, and it was only a couple minutes,” Arenas said.

When electric vehicles catch on fire, they burn much faster and hotter than gas-powered cars. If the internal cells in lithium-ion batteries become overheated, they can quickly combust in an uncontrollable domino-like effect. The term for the phenomenon, which can happen when there’s physical damage to the batteries, is “thermal runaway”. Battery fires also reach much higher temperatures than gasoline fires, making it easier for other parts of the vehicle to ignite.

“We have this new world of electric vehicles and most of the safety data suggests that the vehicles are as safe as internal combustion engines and don’t raise unique problems,” said Ann Carlson, a former acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and University of California, Los Angeles law professor. “But obviously, the batteries – when they catch on fire – are different.”

All of the five Cybertruck fires the Guardian has tracked burned with severe intensity. Two ended in fatalities, and it was a near miss with Arenas. Two of the incidents didn’t involve harm to humans. One in Harlingen, Texas, happened when a Cybertruck struck a fire hydrant, burst into flames and burned for hours. The other involved a Cybertruck towing a wood chipper in rural Colorado that caught fire and nearly started a brush fire – it took 30 firefighters to put out the blaze.

Tesla’s emergency response guide for Cybertrucks says “large amounts of water” must be applied directly to the battery to fight a fire – between 3,000 and 8,000 gallons for one vehicle battery. The company warns “there is always a risk of battery re-ignition”.

According to a report from the Los Angeles fire department, Arenas’s Cybertruck battery caught fire and then lit up the engine, suspension and wheels. The copious amount of water ejecting out of the damaged fire hydrant did little to halt the blaze. Firefighters kept dousing the wrecked vehicle until it could be removed from the scene. But after taking it to the tow yard, it exploded into flames again, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Arenas spent six days in the hospital and recovered without major injuries. His father, former NBA player Gilbert Arenas, said in a podcast interview that he believes the crash was due to the Cybertruck malfunctioning, which was made worse when his son couldn’t escape.

“If you are a parent and your teen has this car, you may want to put a hammer in that joint,” Arenas said. “Something that would break the window.”

Trapped inside a Cybertruck

When Tesla designed its first car in the early 2000s, Musk was deeply involved in the details. One element he insisted on was retractable electric door handles that sit flush with the car body. The Roadster, Tesla’s first vehicle, initially had latching handles like other cars, but Musk wanted something sleek that could open with a touch.

“They kept asking me why I was being so hardcore about every little curve of this car,” Musk told his biographer Walter Isaacson in the book Elon Musk. “And what I told them was, ‘Because we have to make it beautiful.’”

Three illustrated panels of instructions for how to open a Cybertruck’s rear doors from inside without power.

Decades later, more than a hundred incidents have been recorded in the US showing that when something cuts Tesla’s electrical system, doors can lock and trap people inside. Bloomberg has tracked more than 140 consumer complaints about Tesla’s locking door handles since 2018, a period during which Tesla sold around 3m cars. When doors lock, first responders on the outside have no easy way of getting in. And for passengers inside, the emergency manual-release levers – used to open doors when power is lost – can be hard to locate, according to safety experts.

Brooks, from the Center for Auto Safety, said most manufacturers have an intuitive mechanism to unlock doors from the inside during an emergency. Some vehicles open when someone pulls the door handle twice, and others work when someone yanks the handle extra hard.

“Those are motions of a person who is trying to escape,” Brooks said. “In Teslas, that doesn’t work, you have to find the manual release location to open the door.”

That manual release, which is detailed in the owner’s manual, is different in each Tesla model. The releases haven’t always been marked, but now the company is starting to add an open-door icon to the mechanism in some of its vehicles. According to an investigation by Bloomberg, the lever can be hidden inside door panels or speaker grills and underneath floor mats.

In Cybertrucks, the front door release is a lever by the window switches, and in the back, it’s inside the door pocket. To open the rear door, someone would have to remove the rubber mat at the bottom of the door pocket, then locate and pull a cable inside the door interior, according to Tesla’s emergency response guide. From outside the vehicle, the guide doesn’t offer any method to open Cybertruck doors, instead saying, “Extrication may be required.”

This system proved fatal for a group of Bay Area friends in November 2024. It was after midnight when Soren Dixon, home from college and partying with friends, decided to take his grandfather’s Cybertruck for a ride. As he sped through the hilly town of Piedmont with three passengers, another friend, Matthew Riordan, drove along behind. For reasons still unknown, Dixon’s Cybertruck plowed into a tree at around 58mph and immediately ignited, according to witnesses and a California highway patrol investigation.

Riordan jumped out of his car and ran to the chaotic smoke-filled scene, trying unsuccessfully to open the Cybertruck’s doors, according to lawsuit complaints and interviews with family lawyers. He could see his friends inside, desperate to get out. Riordan grabbed a tree branch and started hammering on a front side window.

“It’s not like one strike, he said it took 10 to 15 strikes with this very large branch,” said Roger Dreyer, a lawyer representing the family of one of the victims, Krysta Tsukahara, in a lawsuit against Tesla. “And you can imagine, just the level of adrenaline and endorphins that were firing in this young man, and how hard he was hitting on these windows. These were his very best friends.”

Riordan was able to rescue one friend from the front and then tried to pull Tsukahara, who was screaming for help, from the back, according to the complaint. As Riordan reached for her, they grasped hands, but the fire flared and they had to retreat. Riordan started banging on the back window with the branch, Dreyer said, and tried to peel away the glass with his bare hands.

“The fire was absolutely an inferno,” Dreyer said. “There was no way, humanly, he could stay there.”

Tsukahara, along with Dixon and a third friend, Jack Nelson, didn’t survive. According to autopsy reports, none of them had blunt force injuries from the impact of the crash. Instead, the reports note, they died of asphyxia from smoke inhalation and severe “thermal injuries”.

Matthew Davis, a lawyer representing Nelson’s family in a lawsuit against Tesla, said there is no way passengers are going to know how to manually open doors in a fire. And, he alleged, the lack of an intuitive escape mechanism is a major design flaw.

“The kids bear responsibility for the crash … They get in a vehicle, or drive a vehicle, when they’re intoxicated. That is inexcusable,” Davis said. “But after they crashed, it’s inexcusable that they couldn’t get out. And that’s Tesla’s fault.”

The sole survivor of the crash, Jordan Miller, filed a lawsuit against Tesla on Tuesday alleging the Cybertruck’s design led to the friends being trapped inside the burning vehicle. He spent five days in a medically induced coma and suffered severe burns to his airways and lungs. Miller also needed several emergency surgeries, including extensive skin grafts, spinal fusion and abdominal reconstruction. His lawyers said these injuries will affect him for the rest of his life.

In court filings, Tesla puts the blame on the group of friends, saying they were negligent and “knowingly and voluntarily placed themselves in an unsafe and dangerous position and therefore assumed all of the resulting risks of injuries”.

The company has indicated, however, that it’s looking into the door handle issue. Franz von Holzhausen, the chief designer for Tesla, told Bloomberg in a September podcast that the company was working on a mechanism to open doors if power is lost. “The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense,” he said. “You intuitively just grab the same thing, and you’re free.”

Tesla also revamped its safety page in December, adding a new section about “safer aftermath”. The company now says its doors will automatically unlock during a serious collision. Safety experts say that even if the doors are unlocked, it can still be impossible to use Tesla’s door handles without power, since there’s no latch to actuate.

The company didn’t respond to questions about whether these changes are in effect or when they will be made available.

Investigations and lawsuits against Tesla pile up

Cybertrucks score high ratings when it comes to crash tests. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the vehicles five stars in overall safety for the past two years. The fires tracked by the Guardian show passengers didn’t suffer severe injuries from the impacts of the crashes. But safety experts say that when it comes to egress – being able to get out of a vehicle after a crash – Cybertrucks can be dangerous.

The NHTSA hasn’t yet developed standards for egress, so it’s not factored into safety tests. After the Piedmont crash, the agency said it was gathering information from Tesla and law enforcement but stopped short of opening an investigation. The agency did, however, open recent investigations into Tesla’s electric door handles for its 2022 Model 3 and 2021 Model Y sedans. Regulators in Europe and China have gone a step further with plans to tighten rules around flush door handles.

Lawsuits against Tesla involving entrapment in its sedans have also piled up, with cases brought in Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and Washington. A Massachusetts wrongful death suit filed last month involved a 20-year-old man who died after being trapped in a Model Y that caught fire.

“How could Tesla keep selling vehicles that they know trap people inside their cars after a crash? They could have fixed it, but they refused,” Jacquelyn Tremblett, the victim’s mother, said in a statement. “Now my son is dead after suffering unmercifully.”

Tesla has fewer Cybertrucks on the road than sedans, but the trucks appear to have a higher rate of known deaths from entrapment. The company’s sedans are the top-selling electric vehicles in the US market, with more than 350,000 Model Y units sold in 2025. That’s compared with fewer than 60,000 Cybertrucks ever sold, according to Kelley Blue Book, with annual sales halving from 2024 to 2025.

Bloomberg tracked at least 15 people who’ve died in Teslas over the past decade after being trapped. At least four of those fatalities happened in Cybertrucks. And an investigation by the Washington Post analyzed at least a dozen cases since 2019 in which people were unable to open Tesla doors during fires, two of which involved Cybertrucks. With the five Cybertruck fires that the Guardian has tracked, at least three involved vehicle entrapment.

Complaints have been lodged against Rivian, Volkswagen, Ford, Fisker and Dodge over their electric door handles too, which have imitated Tesla’s aesthetic. There isn’t a compilation of how many complaints these manufacturers have received, however, making a direct comparison with Cybertrucks challenging.

The NHTSA maintains the database of consumer complaints for vehicles sold in the US. A spokesperson for the agency said it is aware of all the Cybertruck fires detailed by the Guardian and “is in touch with the manufacturer”. The spokesperson added that “the agency continually analyzes consumer complaints to determine whether a potential vehicle safety defect exists and will not hesitate to act to protect public safety”.

The Baytown crash

In the days after the late-night crash in Baytown, Texas, authorities began to piece together what happened. They determined Sheehan had been drinking at a local bar and was intoxicated. After 1am, he hopped into his Cybertruck and sped down that lone dark road. Just after an intersection, he veered off-course, hit a concrete culvert and flipped the truck.

There are still unknowns that could be revealed as his family’s lawsuit works its way through the courts. Their lawyers have requested records from Tesla for all camera, sensor and vehicle movement data to figure out why the Cybertruck crashed and why Sheehan was unable to escape. Tesla has been fighting to transfer the case to private arbitration, and has refused to turn over this documentation until the arbitration matter is decided.

In legal filings, the company has said Sheehan’s own negligence contributed to his death and has called the family’s requests for more information on the crash “dilatory” and “futile”, saying the case doesn’t belong in open court.

Lawyers for Sheehan’s widow and parents are adamant they are entitled to these records, which they say could provide vital details about the final moments of their loved one’s life.

Advances in lung cancer research over the past two decades have dramatically reshaped the clinical management of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). During a recent media interview with OncoDaily Dr. Haiquan Chen, Director of the Institute of Thoracic Oncology at Fudan University and Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, discussed how precision surgery, molecular oncology, and immunotherapy are transforming outcomes for patients with lung cancer.

From Uniform Treatment to Precision Oncology

According to Dr. Chen, one of the most important changes in thoracic oncology has been the shift from treating lung cancer as a single disease toward recognizing its biological heterogeneity.Historically, lung cancer treatment strategies were largely determined by anatomical staging alone. However, advances in imaging, pathology, and molecular biology have revealed that lung cancer encompasses a wide spectrum of disease states with distinct biological characteristics.

This improved understanding has enabled clinicians to identify early-stage disease more precisely and to tailor treatment accordingly. In patients with early-stage NSCLC, surgical approaches have evolved toward more individualized strategies, integrating tumor characteristics, radiologic findings, and molecular features to guide decisions about resection and local therapies.

These developments have also improved clinicians’ ability to determine which patients are most likely to achieve cure through surgery or other local treatment modalities.

Targeted Therapy and Immunotherapy Redefining Outcomes

Beyond surgical innovation, systemic therapies have also undergone major transformation. The discovery of oncogenic driver mutations—such as EGFR and ALK alterations—has enabled the development of targeted therapies that dramatically improve outcomes in selected patient populations.

More recently, the emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors has further changed the treatment landscape for NSCLC. Therapies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway have demonstrated meaningful improvements in survival across multiple disease settings, including advanced and resectable lung cancer. Building on this progress, next-generation approaches such as bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), including Henlius’ HLX43, a pan-tumor ADC candidate targeting PD-L1, are now being investigated to further enhance antitumor activity for lung cancer beyond checkpoint inhibitors.

Dr. Chen emphasized that these therapies are beginning to transform lung cancer from an acutely fatal disease into a longer-term manageable condition for certain patients, with survival outcomes improving significantly compared with historical standards.

China’s Growing Role in Global Lung Cancer Research

China has increasingly become a major contributor to global lung cancer research and innovation. Over the past four decades, the country has expanded its clinical research infrastructure and oncology capabilities substantially.

With its large patient population and rapidly developing biomedical industry, China has been able to conduct large-scale clinical trials efficiently and generate valuable clinical evidence. In addition, domestic pharmaceutical companies have introduced several novel targeted agents and immunotherapies that are now being studied in international research programs. Dr. Chen noted that in some therapeutic areas, Chinese researchers and biotechnology companies are now contributing leading innovations that help shape global oncology practice.

Multidisciplinary Care in Thoracic Oncology

Another key driver of progress has been the adoption of multidisciplinary team (MDT) approaches in lung cancer care. At the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, complex cases are routinely discussed by teams that include thoracic surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, and other specialists.

This collaborative model ensures that treatment decisions reflect the most current evidence and consider the full range of available therapeutic options. According to Dr. Chen, MDT care has become a routine component of daily clinical practice at leading cancer centers in China.

CheckMate-816 Trial: Serplulimab Plus Chemotherapy

Dr. Chen is currently leading a head-to-head clinical study evaluating serplulimab plus chemotherapy versus nivolumab plus chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy for patients with resectable stage II–IIIA squamous NSCLC. The trial builds on the treatment strategy explored in the landmark CheckMate-816 study, which demonstrated the potential of neoadjuvant immunotherapy to improve surgical outcomes.

The goal of the study is to evaluate whether different PD-1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy can further enhance pathological responses and long-term outcomes in patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

Preliminary observations from the study have shown encouraging signals, with major pathological response rates approaching 77% and pathological complete response rates around 50%, suggesting substantial antitumor activity in the neoadjuvant setting.

If confirmed in larger analyses, these results could further refine treatment strategies for patients with resectable NSCLC and help define the optimal immunotherapy-based regimens before surgery.

The Future of Thoracic Oncology

Looking ahead, Dr. Chen emphasized that continued progress in lung cancer care will depend on close collaboration between academic institutions, industry partners, and multidisciplinary clinical teams. Such partnerships will be essential to accelerate drug development, optimize treatment selection, and integrate emerging technologies such as molecular diagnostics and precision imaging into routine clinical practice.

As these advances continue, the combination of personalized surgery, targeted therapies, and immunotherapy is expected to further improve outcomes for patients with lung cancer worldwide.

Watch the full interview

 

Coupang’s coast-to-coast road show reached its grand finale last week under the bright lights of Las Vegas, where the company sponsored “Prosper: The Marketplace Seller Event.” Coupang designed its road show to help U.S. small and medium-sized businesses break into international markets simply and quickly, culminating at Prosper, one of the year’s largest gatherings of marketplace sellers and service providers. 

As a U.S. technology company and Fortune 150 leader in global commerce, Coupang joined Prosper in welcoming more than 1,500 sellers and service providers for three days of connection, collaboration and learning. Attendees explored the latest tools and strategies to grow their businesses across major marketplaces.   

“It’s been an amazing opportunity for Coupang to partner with Prosper, welcoming global marketplace sellers who are ready to think bigger,” said Adam Poole, managing director of Coupang Global Services. “Our goal throughout this road show has been simple: show U.S. businesses that expanding internationally doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right partner, it can be seamless.” 

Las Vegas marked the final stop in a cross-country effort that brought Coupang face-to-face with sellers and manufacturers in Florida, Illinois, Texas and California. 

Simplifying international expansion for U.S. businesses 

For many small and medium-sized businesses, international growth can feel daunting – filled with concerns about regulatory hurdles, labeling changes and shipping logistics in new markets. Coupang’s model is designed to eliminate much of that complexity. 

“We’re focused on making it easy to go global,” said John Dempsey, head of U.S. Business Development at Coupang. “From supply chain constraints to import regulation complexities to removing the need for regional-specific packaging, Coupang turns global expansion into a simple domestic transaction.”  

Throughout the road show, Coupang also debuted a streamlined sign-up process that significantly increased the number of sellers beginning their journey with the company. The simplified onboarding is part of the company’s broader commitment to innovation, powered by advanced technology and AI, and anchored in a relentless focus on customer experience. Many Prosper attendees signaled they were ready to join.

“Throughout our road show this year, we’ve seen stronger traffic and a large number of brands and sellers that are ready to dive straight into onboarding,” Dempsey said. “As the show sponsor at Prosper, we had a steady stream of collaborative conversations with sellers, brands and service providers.” 

Strengthening partnerships and powering American exports 

Each year, Coupang exports billions of dollars in American products to customers around the world and partners with thousands of U.S. businesses of all sizes. Events like Prosper play a critical role in strengthening those partnerships and opening doors for new ones. 

“The Prosper show provides an intimate setting that fosters face-to-face collaboration that sparks growth,” said Poole. “The ideas that we came to the show with evolved through  conversations with sellers, brands and service providers – often leading to the identification of another trade-off we can break on behalf of customers.” 

At Prosper, the Coupang team connected with a wide range of businesses – including many who manage multiple brands – creating opportunities for greater scale and more expansive partnerships. The company also highlighted its growing brand-development program capabilities. “With the recent launch of our Coupang-exclusive vitamin brand, Heart & Harvest, and another exclusive brand set to debut later this month, we’re expanding how we partner,” Dempsey said.  

As the curtain closed on Prosper 2026, Coupang emphasized its commitment to helping American businesses go global, spreading the message that international expansion doesn’t have to be complicated. With Coupang’s infrastructure,, technology and support, reaching customers across the globe can be simple. 

French engineering technology firm Technip Energies has purchased a minority stake in a large-scale green hydrogen-based sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) plant in Normandy, France.

Having invested in Verso Energy’s DEZiR project, Technip and its Rely joint venture with electrolyser firm John Cockerill will contribute technology and engineering measures for advancing the project toward operation by 2030.

The facility, expected to produce 80,000 tonnes of eSAF per year, was one of 13 hydrogen-based projects selected to receive a share of €2.9bn ($3.2bn) from the EU under its latest Innovation Fund round.

Rely is carrying out front-end engineering design (FEED) for the plant, while Technip will provide its Canopy carbon capture system, at industries near the site, enabling the use of captured biogenic carbon dioxide for the site’s eSAF production.

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