Latest news with #Jennings
Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Climate
- Newsweek
Dragon Bravo Fire Map: Blaze Grows to 71,000 Acres
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Dragon Bravo fire has grown by nearly 30,000 acres in the span of three days as record-low humidities create challenging conditions and decrease the containment firefighters have secured over the past three weeks the flames have been burning. Why It Matters A lightning strike ignited the Dragon Bravo fire in the Grand Canyon's North Rim on July 4. In the three weeks the fire has been burning, there have been no injuries or fatalities, although 100 structures in the North Rim have been destroyed, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge. The fire prompted National Park Service (NPS) officials to close the North Rim entrance for the season. There have been 1,000 evacuees. At any one time, 1,000 firefighters are combatting the flames. What to Know As of the most recent update, the fire is at 71,000 acres in size and only 9 percent contained. On Sunday, the fire's size was 44,429 acres and it was 26 percent contained. A map shows the boundary for the Dragon Bravo Fire burning in the Grand Canyon's North Rim. A map shows the boundary for the Dragon Bravo Fire burning in the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Inciweb "Progress on the Dragon Bravo Fire is moving in the negative direction - the fire saw nearly 20,000 acres of growth overnight," KUTV2 News reporter Olivia Kelleher posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. "The containment was downgraded from 26% to 13% and then again to 9% a few moments ago." Southwest Area Incident Management Team Public Information Officer Lisa Jennings told Newsweek that weather is posing the biggest challenge to firefighters. As historically dry conditions contribute to the fire's rapid growth, firefighters have been unable to keep up with containment. "With the huge amount of fire activity over the past several days, we have had to reduce our containment because of the growth of the fire," Jennings told Newsweek. "As the fire grows in size, we have not been able to increase our containment at the same pace the fire is growing." Jennings was unable to provide an estimate on when the fire might be completely contained. What People Are Saying Jennings told Newsweek: "This is the driest it has ever been for the month of July. It just keeps breaking those records day after day." The most recent fire update said: "The strategy for fighting this fire remains full suppression. Firefighter and public safety remain top priorities. Unpredictable fire behavior requires crews to remain aware of and quickly respond to changes in their situation. Firefighters will continue their operations on the fire's flanks to protect values at risk in the area. Efforts are being made to keep the fire away from State Route 67." What Happens Next Fire suppression efforts will continue. Some light rain showers were expected on Tuesday, but fire officials warned significant precipitation wasn't likely.
Fast Company
7 hours ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Cash App wants you to throw your money in the pool (literally)
BY Listen to this Article More info 0:00 / 2:13 Cash App wants you to take a dip into its newest feature: Pools. The company announced the launch of a new 'pools' feature Tuesday, which allows users to—you guessed it—pool their money and make group payments. For instance, it can be used to pay for a dinner with friends, a vacation, or even to collect money for a birthday or wedding gift. Owen Jennings, Business Lead at Block, Cash App's parent company, says that implementing pools was something of a no-brainer, since they were able to simply look at how their users were utilizing the app, and create a new feature to facilitate the behavior the Cash App team was seeing. 'It's really, really common behavior, we see more than half of our customers engaging in pooling behavior,' he says of Cash App users sending money to each other to pay for a single, larger expense. 'To some extent, we've just built something that's custom for this specific use-case.' Jennings adds that what he's particularly excited about, in terms of pools, is that 'for the first time, we're allowing out-of-network contributions,' which means some users don't even need to have Cash App in order to participate. In those cases, their friends can send them a link to a Cash App pool, and the out-of-network participants can use Apple Pay or Google Pay to contribute. While pools is an active feature for a subset of Cash App users currently, there is a wider rollout planned for the coming months. Jennings also mentions that launching new features and products, such as pools, is the primary way that Cash App, and Block at large, have grown its customer base and deepened engagement with current customers. 'Folks typically come in because of our peer-to-peer features,' he says, 'and increasingly attach to additional features.' In that sense, the company is seeing a payoff. Block—which was founded by CEO Jack Dorsey (perhaps most well-known for founding Twitter) in 2009 and is also the parent company of Square, Afterpay, TIDAL, Proto, and Bitkey—has grown enough to become the latest entrant into the S&P 500. Investors evidently liked that news, too, because the company's stock has popped recently—shares are up nearly 24% over the past month, as of writing. The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sam Becker is a freelance writer and journalist based near New York City. He is a native of the Pacific Northwest, and a graduate of Washington State University, and his work has appeared in and on Fortune, CNBC, TIME, and more. More
CNBC
11 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Cash App opens up to Apple Pay and Google Pay for the first time
Cash App is going on the offensive in peer-to-peer payments. The Block-owned payments platform on Tuesday unveiled Pools, a new peer-to-peer feature designed to make group payments simple. It's the company's first major P2P product launch in nearly two years. "This is the first time we're going into out-of-network payments with Pools," said Owen Jennings, Block's head of business, referring to the feature's ability to accept contributions via Apple Pay or Google Pay from people who aren't on Cash App. Pools allows users to create and manage a shared balance for group payments — whether splitting a dinner bill or collecting funds for a group trip. Contributions can be made through Cash App or via Apple Pay and Google Pay, which opens up the experience to users outside the app for the first time. By sharing a Pool link, organizers can collect funds even from friends who don't use Cash App, making out-of-network participation easier. The launch comes as Cash App races to regain momentum in a high-stakes rivalry with Venmo, which has been steadily growing under new leadership at PayPal. PayPal reported its second-quarter results before the market opened Tuesday. Venmo had another knockout quarter, with revenue growing more than 20% year over year — its highest growth rate since 2023. That followed a similarly strong first quarter where Venmo's revenue growth doubled the pace of payment volume, driven by rising adoption of debit cards, instant transfers, and online checkout. The gains were fueled by heavier use of Venmo debit cards, instant transfers, and online checkout integrations. PayPal does not break out Venmo revenue. For Block, the debut of Pools is a strategic reset. The company posted disappointing first-quarter results in May, missing revenue expectations and admitting it had lost focus on growing Cash App's user base. "Money is fundamentally social in nature," Jennings said. "We want Cash App to be the financial operating system for the next generation… to essentially be the money app where a customer can run their entire financial life," added Jennings, who was previously Cash App's chief operating officer. That includes reinvesting in the peer-to-peer features that first made the app popular, and now aiming to make them more social and accessible — functionality that's central to Cash App's broader growth strategy. Jennings said opening up access to Apple and Google accounts is an opportunity to get more active users and bring people into the ecosystem. The company sees each non-user who contributes to a pool as a potential convert. "This product is fundamentally geared at network expansion and improving the virality of our peer-to-peer products," he added. "It's the foundation of Cash App — it's how Cash App started, but it's also the growth engine that fuels everything else." Internally, the rollout represents a cultural shift at Block. The feature went from idea to launch in just a few months, driven by what Jennings described as "high velocity, high quality" development powered in part by internal AI tools like the company's open-source assistant, Goose. "The pace of development on this and our ability to get it in customers' hands feels really different this year," Jennings said. "Especially in the past three or four months, relative to how things felt about a year ago." He added that the shift isn't unique to Block. "You'll probably broadly see that in the industry, where the pace of development is going to pick up as the marginal cost of a great line of code continues to fall. And this is just a great example of how we were able to move really fast." The launch also reflects CEO Jack Dorsey's call to return Cash App to its core growth engine. On the company's first-quarter earnings call, Dorsey acknowledged the platform's recent underperformance "I just don't think we were focused enough and had enough attention on the network and the network density, and that is our foundation," he said. While Cash App continues to expand its banking and lending products — including its FDIC-approved Borrow program — Dorsey emphasized that the app's success still hinges on peer-to-peer engagement. "We of course want to deepen engagement with our customers through banking services and Borrow," he said. "But at the same time, we need to make sure that we continuously grow our network, and that starts with peer-to-peer." Pools is designed to drive organic user growth — not direct revenue. "We're not looking at this from a profit maximization perspective," Jennings said. "This is very geared at network expansion and getting back to a place where actives are growing at a healthy clip." The tool comes with built-in progress tracking, seamless integration with Cash App's banking tools, and the ability for organizers to set a target amount and share a link to collect contributions. Pools is currently available to a limited set of Cash App users, with a broader rollout expected in the coming months. For Block, it's the start of what Jennings described as a new chapter — one focused on making money feel "more multiplayer."
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Sky Sports presenter hits back at Chelsea fan YouTuber after ‘you have no idea who your club are' rant
SKY SPORTS presenter Olivia Buzaglo has pushed back on comments made by Chelsea fan personality Rory Jennings. Jennings went on a rant on TalkSport regarding fans who wear club shirts to matches. Advertisement 3 Olivia Buzaglo is a sports presenter for Sky Sports and DAZN Credit: INSTAGRAM @oliviabuzaglo 3 Buzaglo rebuked Jennings after his rant about fans showing support for their clubs by wearing their kits Credit: PA Jennings suggested that an adult should not wear their club's shirt to matches, and likened the practice to 'fancy dress". Jennings later took to X to double down on his comments, implying that wearing a kit could be a sign of being a fake fan. He said: "I'm all for a scarf or a precisely placed pin-badge. "But if you're over 15 and you're wearing a club shirt it's quite often the biggest tell-[tale] sign that you actually have no idea who your club are or what they represent." Advertisement READ MORE ON CHELSEA Sky Sports presenter and fellow She pushed back on his comments by stating her intention to don Chelsea's new kit at Stamford Bridge when the Blues host Crystal Palace for their first game of the season. "I never really wear shirts anymore but love having them and best believe for our first game of the season vs Palace, I will absolutely be wearing a World Champions 25 shirt. "Will be the first and last time I wear it but it has to be done." Advertisement Most read in Football BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK 3 Buzaglo, 31, is a Chelsea fan herself, and plans to wear the club's kit to their opening game of the Premier League season Credit: Getty The presenter, 31, has also worked for DAZN across multiple sports, She also covered Chelsea's run at the Club World Cup earlier in the month, where she watched the Blues Advertisement Chelsea launch bid for £52m Ajax teen sensation Jorrel Hato | Transfers Exposed Chelsea's World Champions 25 shirt which Buzaglo plans to wear features a gold decal commemorating their Club World Cup victory.
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Sky Sports presenter hits back at Chelsea fan YouTuber after ‘you have no idea who your club are' rant
live and let liv Sky Sports presenter hits back at Chelsea fan YouTuber after 'you have no idea who your club are' rant SKY SPORTS presenter Olivia Buzaglo has pushed back on comments made by Chelsea fan personality Rory Jennings. Jennings went on a rant on TalkSport regarding fans who wear club shirts to matches. Advertisement 3 Olivia Buzaglo is a sports presenter for Sky Sports and DAZN Credit: INSTAGRAM @oliviabuzaglo 3 Buzaglo rebuked Jennings after his rant about fans showing support for their clubs by wearing their kits Credit: PA Jennings suggested that an adult should not wear their club's shirt to matches, and likened the practice to 'fancy dress". Jennings later took to X to double down on his comments, implying that wearing a kit could be a sign of being a fake fan. He said: "I'm all for a scarf or a precisely placed pin-badge. "But if you're over 15 and you're wearing a club shirt it's quite often the biggest tell-[tale] sign that you actually have no idea who your club are or what they represent." Advertisement READ MORE ON CHELSEA Palm Reader Cole Palmer tipped for shock Man Utd transfer by ex-Fergie coach Sky Sports presenter and fellow Chelsea fan Buzaglo quoted Jennings in a post of her own. She pushed back on his comments by stating her intention to don Chelsea's new kit at Stamford Bridge when the Blues host Crystal Palace for their first game of the season. "I never really wear shirts anymore but love having them and best believe for our first game of the season vs Palace, I will absolutely be wearing a World Champions 25 shirt. "Will be the first and last time I wear it but it has to be done." Advertisement BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK 3 Buzaglo, 31, is a Chelsea fan herself, and plans to wear the club's kit to their opening game of the Premier League season Credit: Getty The presenter, 31, has also worked for DAZN across multiple sports, turning heads when she presented at Oleksandr Usyk v Daniel Dubois last week. She also covered Chelsea's run at the Club World Cup earlier in the month, where she watched the Blues lift the trophy. Advertisement Chelsea launch bid for £52m Ajax teen sensation Jorrel Hato | Transfers Exposed Chelsea's World Champions 25 shirt which Buzaglo plans to wear features a gold decal commemorating their Club World Cup victory.
