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As Polestar 2 is already in production, Polestars 3 and 4 on the horizon and the Precept concept planned to become Polestar 5 in 2024, the Polestar company has just unveiled its latest idea for an electrified vehicle: the convertible concept. Polestar O2.

“Polestar O2 is our vision for a new era for sports cars,” Polestar design chief Maximilian Misoni said in a press release on Tuesday. “By mixing the joy of driving with an open roof with the purity of electric mobility, he unlocks a new mix of emotions in the car.”

It is reported that O2 will be built on the same “ordered” connected aluminum single-hull platform that the company uses for Polestar 5, and generally resembles the concept design of Precept, from which, according to Polestar PR, “shows how to develops the design of the Polestar language can be adapted to different body styles with a strong family resemblance. “That is, while the Polestar 5 will be a high-performance four-door touring car, the O2 will offer a more compact 2 + 2 sports car feel, although both are built on the same basic foundations.

Now you may be wondering how an EV convertible would work, given that traditional convertibles are quite inefficient – their frames are thicker and heavier to compensate for the structural strength lost by cutting the roof and their aerodynamics is a mess because again there is no roof – and that’s a great question. The company still has no drag coefficient data to share, but claims that “hidden design features such as integrated ducts that improve laminar airflow over the wheels and sides of the body, and taillights that act as air fins to reduce the turbulence behind the car “are being investigated in order to maximize the range of the vehicle.

With a shorter wheelbase and only rear seats, the O2 offers a sportier, more aggressive stance than the Polestar 2. And those wheels! The exterior is an exploration of sharp lines with a low-hanging cab located between corner fenders and a sharply sloping glass roof that folds back into a wide trunk. It seems that if you mix a Ford F40 with a Porsche 718 Spyder and then smooth out all the curves. Looks like a roadster you’ll see on the streets of Los Santos. I’m a fan.

The interior sounds equally flexible, including a “thermoplastic mono-material” everywhere for the hard parts, combined with recycled polyester as “the only material used for all soft components”. Because nothing is better than the feeling of sucking the seat when sitting on polyester and plastic in full sun with the roof down.

Drivers will also be able to film their adventures from top to bottom thanks to the integrated drone for O2 cinema. Developed in collaboration with Hoco Flow, this autonomous camera drone moves in an area of ​​negative pressure generated by an airfoil located behind the rear seats. The drone can follow it at speeds of up to 56 MPH and the shots can then be edited and shared by the central infotainment system once the car is parked. I mean, personally, I would prefer an eATV or even an electric skateboard if carmakers would combine secondary transportation with their vehicle offerings, but certainly the camera drone will definitely stay cool, new and useful after the first few flights. I mean, just look how good they turned out for the Renault KWID or Lexus LF-30 Electric Concept.

Like the prescription, we probably won’t see street legal O2 as it is now. Instead, Polestar plans to launch three new cars over the next three years, “each of which has the potential to gradually implement some of the ideas presented by these concept cars,” so watch out for low-flying drones.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Engadget.

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell has responded to calls for his company to freeze Russian cryptocurrencies amid its attack on Ukraine.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov has publicly asked all major crypto exchanges to freeze accounts in an attempt to further provoke Russia’s resources and end the war.

But the co-founder of one of the most popular cryptocurrency sites in the United States refused, explaining his position in a thread on Twitter. Although he has “deep respect” for the people of Ukraine, he said he believes crypto should impose individualism, not a nationalist union on a country.

“Furthermore, if we were to voluntarily freeze the financial accounts of people in countries that unjustly attack and provoke violence around the world, step 1 would be to freeze all accounts in the United States,” Powell said. wrote on Twitter. “As a matter of practice, this is not really a viable business option for us.”

6/6 Besides, if we were going to voluntarily freeze financial accounts of residents of countries unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world, step 1 would be to freeze all US accounts. As a practical matter, that's not really a viable business option for us.
/🧵

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) February 28, 2022

His comments received widespread support in the Reddit r / Cryptocurrency forum.

“I am [sic] The Russian and I were really heartbroken when people offered to freeze our Crypto. “We have never wanted a war, Putin is the cause of our suffering,” a Reddit user wrote. “Down the streets, we are also protesting against this invasion.

Powell said he would freeze the accounts only if he was legally obligated, an opportunity he believes could be inevitable as Russian attacks continue to intensify.

Many Russians have already invested in cryptocurrencies, and the country ranks 18th in the world in terms of acceptance.

This story was originally presented on Fortune.com

Index provider MSCI said it would pull Russian stocks out of its widely monitored emerging market indices, warning that the country’s stock market had become “non-investment” after its invasion of Ukraine led to crippling sanctions.

Traders were awaiting the decision, which was announced on Wednesday night after two days of consultations with asset managers, stock exchanges and other market participants.

Trading in Russian stocks stopped this week, with Russia’s central bank stopping trading in stocks and derivatives. Moscow has also temporarily banned foreign investors from selling their Russian assets.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is one of the most important benchmarks for traders and is another big blow for registered Russian companies. If or when markets reopen, the index provider’s decision makes it even more likely that fund managers will throw out their Russian stocks.

MSCI has said it will remove Russian securities from its indices after markets close next Wednesday at a “virtually zero” price. Minutes after MSCI warned traders of its decision, FTSE index provider Russell said it would remove Russian stocks from its benchmarks before markets open on Monday.

The moves follow similar decisions from other index providers, cumulatively affecting a huge number of investment funds that base their portfolios on such indices. MSCI estimates that more than $ 16 trillion has been compared to its indices.

MSCI said that the “vast majority” of participants in the two-day consultation said that the Russian stock market is currently non-investment and that [the country’s] the securities must be removed from the “indices.

Russian stock prices registered in other countries fell sharply, leading to temporary suspensions by the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Traders warned of difficulties in liquidating their Russian assets as sanctions ricocheted through markets.

On Monday, ICE Data Services said that the debt of all entities blocked under UK, US or EU sanctions would be removed from the indices at the end of March.

JPMorgan Chase, another major index provider, is still reviewing its indexes. On Tuesday, he said the new debt from sanctioned Russian entities would not be included in this month’s updated indices.

The move late Wednesday by MSCI came after a statement from rating agencies Fitch, which joined rival S&P Global in lowering Russia’s sovereign debt rating to rubbish.

Fitch downgraded Russia from a triple B rating to a single, deep garbage area, highlighting the high risks of investing in the country’s debt. Analysts from the rating agency have signaled that they may lower the rating further.

Fitch said the severity of the sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine “represents a huge shock to Russia’s credit base” and could “undermine its willingness to service public debt”.

“Development will weaken Russia’s foreign and public finances, severely limit its financial flexibility, significantly reduce its GDP growth trend and increase domestic and geopolitical risk and uncertainty,” Fitch said.

Moody’s, another rating agency, followed suit by lowering Russia’s rating from Baa3, one notch above junk, to B3, well below the investment rating threshold, and put it under review for further downgrading. Among other factors, he cited “the likelihood of lasting disruption to the economy and the financial sector from sanctions that restrict access to Russia’s international reserves designed to protect Russia from adverse shocks.”

Additional reports from Kate Duguid in New York

Greg Kelly, former CEO of Nissan Motor Co., enters Tokyo District Court, Tokyo, Japan, March 3, 2022. Zhang Xiaoyu / Pool via REUTERS

TOKYO, March 3 – A Tokyo court on Thursday sentenced Nissan Motor CEO Greg Kelly to six months probation for helping Carlos Gon evade pay from financial regulators, paving the way for the U.S. attorney to return to home after more than three years in Japan.

“The court finds the presence of unpaid remuneration” and non-disclosure of the “total amount” constitutes “false” reporting, the chief judge said.

The decision by him and the other two judges also blames a key prosecution witness, Toshiaki Onuma, for his role in Gon’s alleged failure to disclose $ 80 million in revenue in eight years.

Onuma, a Nissan employee who oversaw the details of Gon’s compensation, avoided the accusations in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors.

“Onuma’s statement is fraught with the danger that he will make statements that meet the wishes of prosecutors,” the judge said. “There was a danger that, as an accomplice, he would seek to transfer responsibility to Gon,” he added.

The court also fined Nissan 200 million yen ($ 1.73 million) for failing to disclose Gon’s pay. The Japanese carmaker №3 pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial 18 months ago.

More than three years after Kelly’s arrest, Gon and Gon put an end to a case that threatens to irritate relations between Japan and the United States, their close ally. Some Western observers have criticized the Japanese judiciary for its treatment of Kelly.

Suspects in Japan are not allowed to be present with a lawyer during interrogations and can be detained for up to three weeks without charge. And 99% of cases that go to trial end in a verdict.

“While it was three long years for the Kelly family, this chapter is over. He and Dee (his wife) can start their next chapter in Tennessee, “said US Ambassador to Japan Ram Emanuel in a statement.

Kelly has denied violating the law and says his only intention is to give Gon, who was also Renault’s chief executive, a compensation package to dissuade him from turning to a competing carmaker.

Bill Hagerty, a U.S. senator from Kelly’s home state of Tennessee, said he planned to meet his constituency at the airport.

“Greg has been subjected to circumstances that corporate America could never have considered,” Hagarty said. “Greg is innocent of the charges against him,” he added.

The court ruling does not mean the end of the legal problems facing the former head of Nissan and partner in the alliance Renault SA (RENA.PA), but may be closest to the court in Tokyo until the decision on Ghosn’s guilt.

Gon is out of the reach of Japanese prosecutors after fleeing to Lebanon in 2019, hidden in a box on a private plane, although he cannot leave without risking arrest.

In addition to the accusation that he hid his profits, Gonn is also accused of enriching himself at the expense of his employer by paying $ 5 million to a car dealership in the Middle East and temporarily transferring personal investment losses to his ex’s books. employer.

Gon denied all charges against him.

(1 dollar = 115.5900 yen)

Report by Tim Kelly and Satoshi Sugiyama; Edited by Jacqueline Wong and Grant McCool and Michael Perry

Our standards: ‘ principles of trust.

The allegations stemmed from a 2010 change in financial regulations that required executives earning more than 1 billion yen ($ 8.71 million) to disclose their pay.

Kelly has denied violating the law and says his only intention is to give Gon, who was also Renault’s chief executive, a compensation package to dissuade him from turning to a competing carmaker.

“While it was three long years for the Kelly family, this chapter is over. He and Dee (his wife) can start their next chapter in Tennessee,” US Ambassador to Japan Ram Emanuel said in a statement.

In addition to the accusation of concealing $ 80 million in profits over eight years, Gonn is also accused of enriching himself at the expense of his employer through $ 5 million in payments to a car dealership in the Middle East and temporarily transferring personal investment losses to books. to his former employer.

Gon denied all charges against him.

A JetBlue pilot was taken off the cockpit of a plane before taking off on Wednesday after agents from the Transport Security Administration noticed he looked damaged.

The JetBlue plane was about to take off from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Wednesday when Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police removed 52-year-old James Clifton from the flight after TSA agents warned them about a possible injured pilot, according to The Buffalo News .

TSA agents noted that Clifton may have been injured as he passed an airport checkpoint.

WITNESS UNLOCK FOUNDATION WITNESS OFFICER: “HE WANTED TO TAKE DOWN

A JetBlue pilot was taken off the cockpit of a plane before taking off on Wednesday after agents from the Transport Security Administration noticed he looked damaged, according to a report. (iStock)

NFTA police gave Clifton a breathalyzer and it was recorded with a blood alcohol level of 0.17%, which is more than four times the standards of the Federal Aviation Administration for pilots, according to the report.

The planned destination of the flight is Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to the report.

After the breathalyzer test, Clifton was detained by police before being released from JetBlue security.

FILE – This Thursday, May 15, 2014, photo file, JetBlue Airways’ Airbus A320-232 took off from Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida. (AP Photo / Chris O’Meara / AP Newsroom)

Clifton could face federal charges after the incident, the NFTA told The Buffalo News.

A JetBlue spokesman told FOX Business that the crew member involved in the incident was “removed from duty”.

STUDENTS AND PASSENGERS CONQUER AN UNBEATED MAN WHOSE MESSAGE IS TRYING TO OPEN THE PLANE’S DOOR ENTERS THE COCKPIT

The JetBlue Airways logo appears on the check-in counter at LaGuardia Airport in New York on April 5, 2012.

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“The safety of JetBlue customers and crew is our first priority. We adhere to all DOT rules and requirements regarding alcohol at all times and have a very strict internal policy for zero tolerance to alcohol. We are aware of the incident that took place this morning in Buffalo and are cooperating fully with law enforcement. We also conduct our own internal investigation. The crew member involved has been relieved of his duties, “the spokesman said.

Over the past five days, NVIDIA has been attacked by the South American hacker group Lapsus $, which has released confidential details about the company’s cryptocurrency-limiting cryptocurrency mining speed limiter (LHR) GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards. The group said earlier that it would provide access to data on software and firmware that promote LHR. The group says that unless NVIDIA pays more than $ 1 million, they will sell the software bypass tool at the highest price. This was originally announced by the online technology news site PC Magazine.

Hackers are threatening NVIDIA with a $ 1 million ransom to allow the technology giant to bypass the Light Hash Rate limiter for Ethereum and fully open all of the company’s GPU drivers.

NVIDIA LHR reduces digging capabilities by as much as 50 percent. The new Lapsus $ bypass will remove the Ethereum digging performance limiter, allowing full use of graphics card technology to increase Ethereum yields. While this is great news for cryptocurrency users, the main reason for initiating the LHR was to reduce the company’s popularity of GeForce RTX 30 graphics cards in the cryptocurrency community, allowing more inventory to be sold to both gamers and enthusiasts. .

Hackers claim to have caught NVIDIA’s LHR bypass, including GPU drivers, firmware, employee data, threatening to leak

However, as GPU-based Ethereum production still dominates the current market, the company’s GeForce RTX 30 reserves remain stagnant. Some selected GeForce RTX 30 graphics cards continue to sell to double their original MSRP on eBay and others. This practice is even with the decline in GPU prices from last year.

BISMARK, North Dakota – North Dakota’s largest oil well said Wednesday it would set aside $ 250 million to fund a proposed pipeline that will collect carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in the Midwest and pump it to thousands. feet underground for permanent storage.

Continental Resources, led by billionaire oil tycoon Harold Ham, has discussed a $ 4.5 billion investment in the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline at an ethanol plant in Casselton, eastern North Dakota. The plant is one of 31 ethanol facilities in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Dakota, where emissions will be captured and taken to western North Dakota and buried deep underground.

The summit project is one of at least two major CO2 pipelines planned for the Midwest. Navigator CO2 Ventures is planning a 1,200-mile pipeline (1,931 kilometers) through Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois.

Similar plans for CO2 pipelines are being considered elsewhere, after the federal government increased tax credits by 2026 to $ 50 for every metric tonne of carbon dioxide the company captures. Ethanol manufacturers are working to make the fuel more marketable on the West Coast, and especially in California, which requires distributors in the state to buy only low-carbon ethanol; companies that produce such ethanol may get a higher price.

The Summit pipeline system will stretch 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) and can carry up to 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, said Wade Boeshans, executive vice president of the Iowa-based pipeline developer. That equates to eliminating the annual carbon emissions of 2.6 million cars, he said.

Boeshans said Hamm’s involvement is likely to help raise capital and improve the project’s profile. Hamm’s company helped drive the renaissance in the U.S. oil industry by using horizontal drilling to release oil trapped in shale rocks. Continental is the largest producer and largest tenant in the Bakken shale formation, with more than 1 million acres (404,686 hectares) in North Dakota and Montana.

Hamm told the Associated Press that his company sees the pipeline project as more than an investment.

“We feel it’s the right thing to do at the right time,” Hamm said. “Carbon capture and storage will become more important every day as we move forward in America.

North Dakota is the third largest oil producer in the country after Texas and New Mexico.

Representatives of Continental and Summit said there were no plans to inject carbon dioxide into old oil wells to increase production, a process that has largely failed in North Dakota.

“It’s not part of our business plan,” Boeshans said.

North Dakota’s underground rock formations are ideal for storing carbon, said state geologist Ed Murphy.

In 2018, the Trump administration gave North Dakota the power to regulate underground wells used for long-term storage of waste carbon dioxide. North Dakota was the first state to be given such powers, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement. Since then, the state has invested heavily in carbon capture and sequestration technology.

North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgham praised the pipeline summit and other proposed carbon storage projects in North Dakota that are an integral part of the state’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Boeshans said the company began negotiations with landowners over the easement pipeline in December, although the company will not rule out the use of a prominent domain if agreements with landowners cannot be reached voluntarily.

“Overall, we are making progress with voluntary easements,” he said.

The company has not applied for permits in North Dakota for the pipeline or approximately a dozen underground wells needed for storage. The project could employ up to 17,000 people during construction and lead to 500 permanent jobs when it is expected to be online in mid-2024, Boeshans said.