Month: March 2023

Tyson Foods has announced that it will be closing two chicken plants that employ more than 1,600 people because of a drastic drop in sales over the past year, and in an effort to streamline its U.S. poultry business. The plants in Glen Allen, Va., and Van Buren, Ark., will be shut down on May 12th.

In a statement to CNBC, Tyson said “while the decision was not easy, it reflects our broader strategy to strengthen our poultry business by optimizing operations and utilizing full available capacity at each plant.” The Springdale, Arkansas-based company said it will work with its 692 employees in Glen Allen and its 969 employees in Van Buren to apply for open positions at other plants.

Tyson said operating inefficiencies were partly to blame for its lower-than-expected profit in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31. The company said its operating income dropped 68% to $467 million in the period. Tyson has recently made other efforts to consolidate its operations: last October, the company announced it would relocate 1,000 corporate staff from offices in Illinois and South Dakota to Arkansas.

Editorial credit: mark reinstein / Shutterstock.com

According to the U.S. military, a Russian fighter jet forced down a US Air Force drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday after damaging the propeller of the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, according to the US military.

A statement from U.S. European Command said that the Reaper drone and two Russian Su-27 aircraft were flying over international waters over the Black Sea when one of the Russian jets intentionally flew in front of and dumped fuel on the unmanned drone several times.  The aircraft then hit the propeller of the drone, prompting U.S. forces to bring the MQ-9 drone down in international waters. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in the statement: “Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9. In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”

According to CNN, the incident was the first direct contact between Russian and U.S. aircraft since the start of the Russia’s war in Ukraine. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said President Biden was briefed on the incident t by national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday morning.  Kirby said it was “not uncommon” for Russian aircraft to intercept US aircraft over the Black Sea, and said there had been other intercepts in recent weeks; however, he said the incident on Tuesday was unique in how “unsafe, unprofessional and reckless” the Russian actions were.

Editorial credit: Mike Mareen / Shutterstock.com

The Biden administration gave the green light to ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil drilling project on the North Slope of Alaska on Monday, while moving to reduce the overall footprint of the project. According to the Interior Department, the multibillion dollar project will be located inside the National Petroleum Reserve, about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and could produce nearly 600 million barrels of crude oil over the next 30 year. The White House denied two of five drill sites and called on Conoco Phillips — Alaska’s largest crude oil producer — to give up rights to 68,000 acres worth of leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that it acquired in the 1990s.

The Department of the Interior noted in announcing the approval that it reduced the scope of the plan by denying two of the five drill sites proposed by ConocoPhillips. The department estimated that the project could produce nearly a quarter of a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The oil industry and Alaskan lawmakers had urged the president to approve the project for its energy production potential and its ability to create jobs. Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer, in a news release that “This was the right decision for Alaska and our nation.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a statement that she could almost “feel Alaska’s future brightening” after the administration’s announcement. ConocoPhillips estimated that the project would create up to 2,500 construction jobs and 300 long-term jobs.

Editorial credit: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com