The best restaurant in the world is Central, in Lima. The dynamic tasting menu restaurant from chef Virgilio Martinez features ingredients from Perus very diverse landscape, from potatoes sourced from of the heights of the Andes mountains to sea urchin from the ocean and notes the latitude of each dish. 

The pronouncement from Worlds 50 Best, an independent organization, moved the restaurant worlds epicenter away from Copenhagen, which had claimed the top spot for the last two years: In 2022 with Geranium, an ambitious Scandi restaurant whose home is a football station. The year before, it was the reincarnated Noma, which had won the No. 1 ranking five times in its past and present incarnations.

The No. 2 restaurant is Disfrutar in Barcelona, run by chefs Oriol Castro, Mateu Casañas and Eduard Xatruch, who are all alumni of the famed El Bulli which features mind-bending dishes like a gazpacho sandwich. 

It was a very good night for Lima; The Peruvian capital had four spots on the top 50 list alone, including two in the top 10. (Maido came in at No. 6; Kjolle was No. 28, and Mayta No. 47.) Likewise, Spain could celebrate: Along with Disfrutar, it had six additional places in the top 50.

Another big winner on this years list: Dubai. For the first time, two restaurants from the city arrived in the top 50: Trèsind Studio, the modern Indian dining room, was at No. 11; Orfali Bros. Bistro, the innovative restaurant from a group of Syrian brothers was No. 46. Earlier this year, Orfali was named the top restaurant in the Worlds 50 Best Middle East and North Africa regional awards. 50 Best has put Dubai on the gastronomic map. It was already there but they needed someone to highlight, says Mohamed Orfali. It brings all kinds of people to Dubai and changes their perspective that Dubai is all about shopping, hotels, and beaches. Theres not just good food but delicious food.

All the attention to Dubais restaurants has been paying off: Spending by the superrich on fine dining in the Middle East rose 74% this year, according to a report released Tuesday by Julius Baer.

The awards were announced at a live event in Valencia on Tuesday night; last year they were set in London. We are delighted to partner with Visit Valencia to bring the awards to one of Spains most forward-thinking cities, said William Drew, director of content for Worlds 50 Best; he declined to comment on the details of the partnership.

Past No. 1 winners are no longer eligible to win, a decision made by Worlds 50 Best in 2019, to shake up the names at the top of the list. Now, places like Osteria Francescana in Modena, France, New Yorks Eleven Madison Park, and Noma, which has announced its closure at the end of next year, live in an emeritus category. 

Copenhagen didnt just lose its No. 1 restaurant ranking. It now only has one place in the top 50, Alchemist, at No. 5, which also won the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality award.The new list marked a slow fade for the era of Nordic cooking which has dominated the food world for the last decade, and a strong influx of energy from South America and Mexico. 

It was a mostly good year for the formerly dominant city, Paris. Two high-ranking spots dropped precipitously: Le Clarence fell almost 40 spots, from 28 to 67. And the acclaimed Arpège which has been a mainstay on the top half of the list, fell to 62, from 31. To compensate, Table by Bruno Verjus the idiosyncratic restaurant from a former blogger, claimed the Highest New Entry Award, at No. 10.

For the US the cause to celebrate was Atomix, the exceptional Korean tasting menu spot that rose up the charts to No. 8. (It was also named the Villa Massa Highest Climber, moving up from 33.) 

For the UK the news was good: there are now three places in the top 50, one more than last year. Along with last years spots Ikoyi (No. 35), and Clove Club (38), the unconventional Mexican restaurant Kol, catapulted up, from No. 73 to 23. 

Dedicated awards at the ceremony included Best Female Chef to Elena Reygadas of Mexico Citys Rosetta. Tatiana, New Yorks breakout hit restaurant from Kwame Onwuachi was given the Resy One to Watch award.

This years rankings were compiled from the votes from 1,080 restaurant industry experts, including food writers, chefs and restaurateurs and well-traveled gourmets. They represent 27 regions around the world; each region has 40 voters, and they can cast up to seven votes in that area. 

The UK-based company William Reed Business Media compiles the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list. Its celebrating its 21st year, having started in Restaurant magazine in 2002.

The second half of the list, restaurants ranked from 51-100, was announced in early June. Among the new entries on the full top 100 list is Bangkoks Potong, No. 88, headed up by Pichaya Utharntham, also known as Chef Pam. Thailand is very supportive of bringing in Michelin and 50 Best, its pushing younger generations to have dreams and to have a goal to work forward to, she said. This is an award that reminds you you are doing the right thing, and that youre on the right path. 

Here are the winning restaurants. Last years rankings are listed in parentheses; restaurants that newly made the top 50 are marked with an asterisk. 

1. Central, Lima, Peru (2)
2. Disfrutar, Barcelona, Spain (3)
3. Diverxo, Madrid, Spain (4)
4. Asador Etxebarri, Axpe, Spain (6)
5. Alchemist, Copenhagen, Denmark (18)
6. Maido, Lima, Peru (11)
7. Lido 84, Gardone Riviera, Italy (8)
8. Atomix, New York, US (33)
9. Quintonil, Mexico City, Mexico (9)
10. Table by Bruno Verjus, Paris, France (77)
11. Trèsind Studio , Dubai, UAE (57)
12. A Casa do Porco, São Paulo, Brazil (7)
13. Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico (5)
14. Odette, Singapore (36)
15. Le Du, Bangkok , Thailand (65)
16. Reale, Castel di Sangro, Italy (15)
17. Gaggan Anand, Bangkok , Thailand (*)
18. Steirereck, Vienna, Austria (13)
19. Don Julio, Buenos Aires, Argentina (14)
20. Quique Dacosta, Denia, Spain (42)
21. Den, Tokyo, Japan (20)
22. Elkano, Getaria, Spain (16)
23. Kol, London , UK (73)
24. Septime, Paris, France (22)
25. Belcanto, Lisbon, Spain (46)
26. Schloss Schauenstein, Fürstenau, Switzerland (40)
27. Florilège, Tokyo, Japan (30)
28. Kjolle, Lima, Peru (*)
29. Boragó, Santiago, Chile (43)
30. Frantzén, Stockholm, Sweden (25)
31. Mugaritz, San Sebastian, Spain (21)
32. Hiša Franko, Kobarid, Slovenia (34)
33. El Chato, Bogotá, Colombia (83)
34. Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy (12)
35. Ikoyi, London, UK (49)
36. Plénitude, Paris, France (*)
37. Sézanne, Tokyo, Japan (82)
38. Clove Club, London, UK (35)
39. The Jane, Antwerp, Belgium (23)
40. Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin, Germany (26)
41. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy (10)
42. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy (19)
43. Leo, Bogotá, Colombia (48)
44. Le Bernardin, New York, US (44)
45. Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Berlin, Germany (17)
46. Orfali Bros. Bistro, Dubai, UAE (87)
47. Mayta, Lima, Peru (11)
48. La Grenouillère, La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil, France (61)
49. Rosetta, Mexico City, Mexico (60)
50. The Chairman, Hong Kong (24)

Here are the previously announced winners from 51 to 100.

51. Narisawa, Tokyo (45)
52. Hof Van Cleve, Kruishoute, Belgium (27)
53. Brat, London (81)
54. Alcalde, Guadalajara (51)
55. Ernst, Berlin (62)
56. Sorn, Bangkok (39)
57. Jordnær, Copenhagen (38)
58. Lasai, Rio de Janeiro (78)
59. Mérito, Lima *
60. La Cime, Osaka (41)
61. Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare, New York (63)
62. Arpège, Paris (31)
63. Neolokal, Istanbul 
64. Aponiente, El Puerto de Santa María, Spain 
65. Burnt Ends, Singapore (94)
66. Turk Fatih Tutak, Istanbul *
67. Le Clarence, Paris (28)
68. SingleThread, Healdsburg (50)
69. Zén, Singapore (70)
70. Sud 777, Mexico City (52)
71. Core by Clare Smyth, London 
72. Sühring, Bangkok (66)
73. Cosme, New York (69)
74. Nusara, Bangkok *
75. Fyn, Cape Town (37)
76. Oteque, Rio de Janeiro (47)
77. Tantris, Munich (98)
78. Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen, Paris (58)
79. Nuema, Quito *
80. Flocons de Sel, Megève (99)
81. Azurmendi, Larrabetzu, Spain (55)
82. Enigma, Barcelona 
83. Sazenka, Tokyo (59)
84. Meta, Singapore (95)
85. Enrico Bartolini, Milan *
86. Lyles, London (54)
87. Ossiano, Dubai *
88. Potong, Bangkok *
89. Mingles, Seoul (71)
90. Wing, Hong Kong (100)
91. Kadeau, Copenhagen 
92. Neighbourhood, Hong Kong (76)
93. Kei, Paris *
94. La Colombe, Cape Town (81)
95. Ceto, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France *
96. Ricard Camarena Restaurant, Valencia *
97. Labyrinth, Singapore *
98. Saison, San Francisco 
99. Fu He Hui, Shanghai (64)
100. Maito, Panama City *

Twitter employees sued the social media company claiming it refuses to pay 2022 bonuses, despite promises that they would be paid out at 50% of their target amounts.

Twitter has a cash performance bonus plan that is paid out annually and in the months leading up to Elon Musks acquisition of the company in October, executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, said the bonuses would be paid, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court. 

Twitter refused to pay employees who remained employed by the company in the first quarter of 2023 any bonus, the employees said.

Since Musk took over, Twitter has lost more than half its advertising revenue as brands stopped trusting the site to remove violent, pornographic and hateful content. Twitter also shed more than 75% of its employees, through layoffs and resignations. The site has been roiled by technical difficulties, including during a recent launch of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis campaign for president.

The proposed class-action complaint on behalf of current and former Twitter employees employed in the first quarter of 2023 who didnt receive their bonus was filed by Mark Shobinger, who was Twitters senior director of compensation until late last month. The job entailed overseeing executive and incentive pay and in November expanded his responsibilities to include employee compensation globally, according to the suit.

Twitter has disbanded its media relations department and doesnt respond to requests for comment.

Since Musks acquisition, the company has been sued numerous times for allegedly failing to pay its bills, including rent, and by former employees for severance and back pay.

The social media company has traditionally set a target for its bonus plan, which is funded throughout the year and pays out at least 50% of the target annually, according to the lawsuit. 

Both before and after Musks acquisition was completed in October 2022, Twitters management continuously promised the companys employees, including plaintiff, that their annual bonus for 2022 would be paid under the Bonus Plan, the employees said in the lawsuit.

Because Twitter reneged on various promises to its employees, including its refusal to pay the bonuses, Shobinger said he quit. He sued for breach of contract.

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Electric vehicle maker Rivian says it will follow General Motors and Ford and join Teslas charging network next year.

The startup truck, SUV and delivery van maker says Tuesday that like GM and Ford, it will include ports with Teslas connector on future Rivian vehicles starting in 2025. It also will offer an adapter for owners of current Rivian EVs.

It is another domino to fall as the auto industry considers switching to Teslas connector, which it calls the North American Charging Standard. At present, nearly all automakers other than Tesla use what is called a CCS connector developed with the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Tesla has more direct current fast-charging plugs in the U.S. than any other network, and its stations are in prime locations along freeway travel corridors.

Other automakers also are looking into the switch. On Monday, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said his companys U.S. teams are studying the change and will make a decision in a few weeks.

We right now are evaluating that possibility, Tavares said in a brief interview with The Associated Press. It can have good things and bad things.

He said the good things are being evaluated, and the bad things include dependence on Tesla.

Currently Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, has no fully electric vehicles on sale in the U.S., but it does sell three plug-in gas-electric hybrids that can go short distances on battery power. The company plans to sell an electric commercial van this year, followed by an electric Ram pickup and other vehicles.

Rivian is a relatively small player in the U.S. automotive market, selling just under 30,000 vehicles from 2021 through the first quarter of this year. But the Irvine, California, company is viewed as a key Tesla competitor.

Like GM and Ford, Rivian owners will get access to more than 12,000 Tesla Supercharger plugs. In the U.S., Tesla has 1,797 Supercharger stations and more than 19,000 plugs, according to the Department of Energy.

Since the stations are direct current fast-chargers, they can charge EVs relatively quickly as people travel.

ChargePoint has the biggest charging network in the U.S. with more than 32,000 stations and 55,000 plugs, but most of them are Level 2 chargers that can take up to eight hours to get a battery up to a full charge.

The Energy Department says there are about 54,000 public charging stations nationwide with more than 136,000 plugs. While most are slower Level 2 chargers, the network of DC fast chargers is growing.

Still, industry analysts say there is growing momentum to switch to Teslas connector to become the standard in the U.S., although vehicles likely will need to be able to use both connectors for a while.

GM and Ford say theyre not paying Tesla anything for access to the network, but owners will pay Tesla to charge just like any other charging system.

Rivian said in a statement that in addition to joining Teslas network, it will continue to expand its own charging system, where it will incorporate Teslas connector.

Shares of Rivian and Tesla both rose about 4% in midday Tuesday afternoon trading. Tesla stock is up about 40% since Ford first announced it would join the charging network on May 25.

Supply of a common Adderall alternative is running low, further limiting options for US patients amid a national shortage of ADHD drugs that has lasted almost a year. 

Vyvanse, sold by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., is in low inventory due to manufacturing issues, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg News. Increased demand for Vyvanse in the wake of other ADHD medication supply shortages has limited our ability to have additional inventory on-hand to help mitigate potential supply disruptions, a representative wrote in an email. 

Three doses of the drug will be affected, according to a post on the drug makers website. For some doses, Takeda expects the issue will persist into September. The company declined to elaborate on the cause of the manufacturing issues. 

Drug shortages from cancer treatments to antibiotics are at a five-year high. Lawmakers and the White House say theyre working to address the issue.  

Across the US, people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have had trouble filling prescriptions for Adderall since August, after a labor shortage at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the largest manufacturer of brand and generic Adderall, squeezed supply. Since then, other ADHD drugs have seen surges in demand and experienced shortages of their own. 

At the beginning of 2023, Vyvanse prescriptions began to spike, and they remain well above the levels in previous years, according to data from Symphony Health. In May, 1.35 million prescriptions were dispensed at US pharmacies, compared with 1.04 million the year prior.

David W. Goodman, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a psychiatrist in the Baltimore area, said that he has been prescribing Vyvanse for patients who cant fill their Adderall prescriptions. Its relatively easy to switch from Adderall to Vyvanse, he said, because both are amphetamine-based drugs. 

That was a common clinical practice for me and my colleagues, he said.

Goodman wasnt aware of any supply issues. If thats something thats developed recently, weve got a new challenge, he said.

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Whether or not the Ukraine counteroffensive that began in early June 2023 succeeds in dislodging Russian troops from occupied territory, there are growing signs that the push has prompted anxiety back in Moscow.

Such unease was, I believe, detectable in Russian President Vladimir Putins meeting on June 13 with a group of influential military bloggers people who support the war but have at times been critical of the way it is being fought. The meeting was unusual: In recent months, Putin has avoided public statements about the war and postponed his annual Russia Day phone-in show scheduled for June. He similarly canceled both the June call-in in 2022 as well as his annual news conference in December.

And the set-piece events he has attended have been less than convincing. At the June 13 meeting with military bloggers and war correspondents, Putin faced some pointed questions. In answering, he used the term war a number of times deviating from his line that what is happening in Ukraine is a special operation and conceded that Ukrainian attacks across the border into Russia had been damaging.

On the defensive?

The meeting was Putins first public assessment of the conflict since Ukrainian forces took the war into Russian territory, with drone strikes on Moscow on May 1 and again on May 30 and shelling and forays across the border in the Belgorod region on May 22. The latter led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of Russian civilians.

These developments further undermine Putins argument that this is a special military operation and not a war, and that life can continue as normal for ordinary Russians.

At the same time, Putin is facing a political challenge from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the erstwhile chef-turned-mercenary leader. Prigozhin heads the Wagner Group, a private company that has recruited some 50,000 fighters for the Ukraine war on behalf of Moscow. They played a key role in the capture of the Ukrainian city Bakhmut, which fell on May 20 after a 224-day siege. After the fall of Bakhmut, polling indicated that Prigozhin broke into the list of top 10 trusted officials as seen by ordinary Russians for the first time.

Prigozhin has been openly critical of the way Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov are conducting the war. In May 2023, Prigozhin organized a series of town meetings across Russia laying out his demands. In an attempt to rein in Prigozhin, Shoigu ordered that all volunteer fighters must sign a contract with the defense ministry by July 1 something Prigozhin refuses to do.

Prigozhins business empire includes media outlets, the Internet Research Agency that the U.S. asserts interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, a movie series and social media channels that enable him to reach tens of millions of Russians. It forms what reporter Scott Johnson has dubbed the Wagnerverse.

Facing questions

With the background of more open criticism of a war that has now blown back across the Russian border, Putin faced some tough questions at the meeting with war correspondents.

One asked why is it that private military companies are not legal in Russia. Putin merely said that it is time to change the law.

Another asked why different regions are allowed to pay different bonuses to contract soldiers from their area. In response, Putin could only offer that Russia is a federal system, and regions spend what they can afford. One blogger pointed out that the border districts inside Russia are not considered part of the special military operation, which means that soldiers fighting there do not get combat pay. Another asked about troop rotation and when Russians will know that the war has been won. Putins answers were equivocal on both points.

One participant asked Putin about the problem of parquet generals, a term used by Prigozhin that refers to people sitting in comfortable offices far from the front line. Putin agreed that some generals are not up to the job, but he supported Shoigus order that all volunteers should register with the defense ministry.

It wasnt a full-on grilling, but neither was it a cozy chat.

Desperate measures

Judging by opinion surveys, there are few signs as yet that the military setbacks have caused any decrease in popular support for the war in Russia. Many Russians seem to believe that even if it was wrong to start the war, it would be a mistake to allow Russia to be defeated.

However, members of the Russian elite seem to share the growing unease aired among the bloggers. On May 20-21, Russian officials and policy experts attended a meeting of the influential Council on Foreign and Security Policy think tank. Judging by reports from people who attended, such as State Duma Deputy Konstantin Zatulin, there was a clear sense that the war is going badly.

In a June 1 speech, Zatulin, a prominent nationalist lawmaker, noted that none of the initial goals of the special operation have been realized and admitted that Ukrainians hate us because we are killing them.

Zatulin said that at the Council on Foreign and Security Policy meeting, one attendee suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Rzeszow the transport hub in southeastern Poland through which most of the Wests weapons flow into Ukraine. Indeed, Sergei Karaganov, the head of the council, published an article on June 14 in which he argued for the demonstrative use of a nuclear weapon to force the West to stop supplying arms to Ukraine.

In the 1990s, Karaganov was seen as a liberal who supported Russias integration with Europe. Now, he apparently believes that Russias inability to defeat Ukraine poses a serious threat to its security. Moreover, his talk of deploying nuclear weapons hints at an increasing view among Russian elites that the country cannot win by conventional means alone. Indeed, on June 16, Putin announced that Russia has already started transferring some tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.

In the meantime, mercenary leader Prigozhin remains a wild card. Rarely in history have mercenary generals been able to seize political power. Perhaps the most famous mercenary of all time, Albrecht Von Wallenstein, successfully commanded an army of 50,000 during the Thirty Years War. He became so powerful that his Hapsburg paymasters had him assassinated.

In Russias tightly controlled political landscape, there are no precedents for a figure such as Prigozhin. He seems to have few allies among the military establishment or regional governors. As such, it is hard to imagine a scenario where he would be allowed, for example, to create his own political party, still less run for the presidency in 2024.

Yet he is clearly proving to be a thorn in Putins side. And the lack of progress toward victory over Ukraine is seemingly making the Russian elite increasingly nervous about how to maintain social stability and stave off political challenges from nationalists who are arguing for more aggressive prosecution of the war.

Peter Rutland is Professor of Government, Wesleyan University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Dana Dolan was driving through her small Nevada hometown when she thought she had come upon a gory crash. The ground surrounding Elkos stretch of Interstate 80 looked as if it had been covered in blood. As the red color shifted and moved, she realized instead it was an infiltration of crickets, some bigger than her thumb.

Its almost like a biblical plague, Dolan told The Associated Press last week, laughing at the absurdity of the situation that is playing out in Elko, where shes lived for six years.

Tens of thousands of Mormon cricket eggs buried about an inch deep in the soil began to hatch in late May and early June. For weeks, the red critters have been invading swaths of northern Nevada and causing chaos, said the states longtime entomologist Jeff Knight.

The invasion of the cannibalistic crickets has hit especially hard in Elko, a small town of about 20,000 near Idaho and Utah known for its gold mining.

The big red bugs leave behind a stench so horrible, akin to burning flesh, that it forces residents to plug their noses while driving. The critters stick to tires and the bottoms of shoes, and their carcasses are everywhere, even in gyms. When they move, it sounds like rain, Dolan says.

Residents and workers have tried to use brooms, leaf blowers, pressure washers and snow plows to get rid of the crickets, only for them to return. State officials have erected signs throughout Elko County warning drivers of slick highways, a popular hangout spot for insects that wont think twice about eating their dead friends.

The red creatures blanket highways and scuttle over barriers, seeking food. They crackle and pop under the wheels of trucks, creating something like an oil slick, said Jeremiah Moore of Spring Creek, whose vehicle slid off the road after a highway encounter with the Mormon crickets.

I was coming home and as I came around the corner, I came around a little too fast and I about ended up in the ditch full of water, Moore said. It was pretty intense.

One hospital even hired four temporary, part-time employees whose main duty was to clear the campus of the crickets long enough for patients to enter the building. The group called itself the Cricket Patrol.

Were just trying to keep them moving on their way, said Steve Burrows, a spokesperson for Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital.

When the Cricket Patrol wasnt on duty, Burrows said, other hospital employees stepped in.

There was the medical worker in the cardiology unit who, still in his black scrubs, went outside the hospitals ambulance bay between seeing patients to swat crickets away with a broom, Burrows said. And the IT specialists who helped with clean-up efforts.

Outbreaks of Mormon crickets, which are native to the Great Basin and Intermountain West, have been recorded throughout history across the west from Nevada and Montana to Idaho, Utah and Oregon. There are records of infestations dating to the 1930s, according to entomologist Knight.

Legend has it the insects got their name when they started devastating crops planted by Mormon settlers who had moved into the Salt Lake valley in Utah, Knight said.

The settlers prayed for relief, Knight said. That came in the form of seagulls. Seagulls ate the cricketsThats also why theyre the state bird of Utah.

In Oregon, state lawmakers in recent years have allocated millions of dollars to assess the problem and set up a Mormon cricket and grasshopper suppression program.

The Mormon cricket is not a true cricket but a shield-backed katydid. They are flightless but travel together in bands that can range in size from 5 acres (2 hectares) acres to hundreds of acres, Knight said.

Yet the invasion in Elko this year isnt unprecedented for its size but for its timing.

The crickets hatched far later than their usual springtime birth, delayed by an especially wet spring and snow-packed winter in northern Nevada, Knight said.

Each spring or summer, in this case the crickets born that year will mate and lay a new generation of eggs in the soil. Those eggs are meant to hatch the following spring, but some will lay dormant in the soil for up to 11 years, Knight said. Eggs can accumulate in the dirt for years until a drought comes along, triggering the sleepy eggs to hatch all at once. And then the cycle repeats.

In his nearly 40 years working for the Nevada Department of Agriculture 32 of those as the state entomologist Knight said he can recall four invasions. The infestation in the early 2000s was most impressive in my mind, looking at the overall scope, he said.

Knight remembers one time driving from Reno to Utah on Interstate 80 and being surrounded by a swarm of red nearly the entire drive.

Then we can go almost 10, 15 years without hardly seeing any, Knight said of the crickets. From about 2008, we hardly had any crickets, until about 2019. 

Elkos new red residents wont be moving out until at least mid-August, much to everyones despair.

But where do the crickets go when they leave?

They die, Knight said. The male crickets after they mate. The female crickets after laying their eggs.

In response, on May 8, 2023, the Biden administration proposed new rules that would require airlines to compensate passengers whose flights are canceled or significantly delayed because of causes unlike bad weather that are under the control of the airlines. Under the new rules, the airlines would need to offer meal vouchers, overnight accommodations and ground transportation to and from a hotel when customers are stranded.

If enacted, those new rules would provide U.S. passengers with rights and protections more in line with those currently afforded passengers in the European Union and Canada.

As a professor of history who researches American aviation, Im aware that consumer advocates have pushed for greater passenger rights for airline travelers in the U.S. since at least the early 1970s when Ralph Nader sued an airline for bumping him from an overbooked flight. For the most part, especially since the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, such efforts have failed, and airlines have been able to set and enforce their own policies.

Limits of Rule 240

Ralph Naders suit, which unsuccessfully sought to end the practice of overbooking flights, highlighted that there were regulations already in place concerning passengers bumped from flights because of overbooking. Those regulations, however, did not cover passengers whose flights were delayed or canceled.

There was, however, something known as Rule 240. As part of the Civil Aeronautics Boards oversight of U.S. airlines, airlines had to submit information on all aspects of their operations, including their flight delay and cancellation policies. In these required documents, that information was often listed under Rule 240. However, each airline determined its own flight delay and cancellation policies under Rule 240. The airlines were not required to compensate passengers in any particular way, only to state what their policy was.

As U.S. airlines became deregulated in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many, though not all, included the provisions they had previously submitted to the Civil Aeronautics Board in their contracts of carriage the fine print associated with airline tickets. Many contracts of carriage stated that in the case of a delay or cancellation, the airline would book a passenger on its next available flight or place them on a flight on another airline that would get them to their destination sooner.

Rule 240 or its equivalent under the contract of carriage varies by airline and primarily focuses on rebooking passengers. Some airlines do offer meal vouchers and hotel accommodations, but only when the problem is caused by the airline and not something like weather or a labor strike. Consumer advocates encourage passengers to invoke Rule 240, but airlines will likely provide only what is stated in their contract of carriage.

Push for a passenger bill of rights

In recent decades, consumer advocates and even some lawmakers have sought to enshrine more substantial air passenger protections into federal law.

In December 2006, American Airlines held passengers on a plane on the tarmac in Austin, Texas, for eight hours with little food or water. Kate Hanni, a passenger on that flight, lobbied Congress to pass an extensive passenger bill of rights. In response, the Department of Transportation did announce new rules in 2009 that said airlines could not hold domestic flights on the tarmac for more than three hours and must provide access to water and lavatories during such delays.

Those rules were expanded in 2011 to reimburse baggage fees to customers whose bags are lost, increase compensation for passengers bumped from oversold flights, and extend the rule concerning tarmac delays to international flights, with a four-hour limit.

More recently, in November 2021, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut introduced Senate Bill 3222 to establish an airline passengers bill of rights. However, it never made it past the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

EU paves the way

U.S. passengers flying within the European Union can experience what it is like when passenger rights are guaranteed under law rather than left to the discretion of airlines.

EU legislation mandates that airlines provide passengers with certain levels of care including flight rebooking, meals, hotel vouchers and, in some instances, cash compensation which varies depending on the length of the delay and the distance of the flight. All travelers who are flying within the EU, or whose flight arrives to the EU on an EU carrier, or departs from the EU on any carrier, are covered under that legislation.

The Biden administration proposal would bring U.S. airline passenger protections more in line with the EU where such protections are mandated and not at the discretion of the airline. Such an effort, while likely welcomed by passengers, is also likely to meet opposition from the airlines which have enjoyed a long history of setting their own rules.

Janet Bednarek is Professor of History, University of Dayton.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  2. This family lives in a RV and travels across the countryand theyve built a following of over 2 million TikTok followers
  3. The Turing test for measuring A.I. intelligence is outdated because of ChatGPTs wizardry, and a new test would be better, DeepMindcofounder says
  4. Gavin Newsom ordered the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative to find out just how bad San Francisco's crisis is: 'People are homeless because their rent is too high'
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