 Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin said it will delay its upcoming crewed spaceflight by about a week, to March 29. The company also announced that Pete Davidson will not be among the passengers to travel to the edge of space on Blue Origin's rocket. More: - The Saturday Night Live performer was initially chosen as an "honorary guest" for the flight.
- The company didn't reveal the cause for Davidson's exit or the reason for the launch delay of its New Shepard suborbital rocket.
- Blue Origin said it will announce a new sixth crew member, to replace Davidson, "in the coming days."
- The other paying passengers are investor Marty Allen, philanthropists Sharon and Marc Hagle, professor Jim Kitchen, and George Nield, founder-president of Commercial Space Technologies.
- The NS-20 mission will mark the fourth crewed space tourism flight for Blue Origin. It has previously launched high-profile passengers including William Shatner, Michael Strahan, and Bezos himself, who was on its inaugural crewed flight to the edge of space in July.
THE NEW YORK TIMES 
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Four Democratic U.S. senators introduced a bill that intends to sanction foreign cryptocurrency firms that do business with blacklisted Russian entities. The Digital Assets Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act would allow the U.S. president to add crypto firms based abroad to a sanctions list if they help their clients evade U.S. sanctions. More: - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced the bill along with co-sponsors Jack Reed, D-R.I., Mark Warner, D-Va., Jon Tester, D-Mont., and others.
- The bill aims to address concerns that Russian oligarchs can conceal their assets through crypto networks.
- By restricting cryptocurrency transactions, they hope to stop Russian state actors from circumventing U.S.-government sanctions.
- It would give the Secretary of the Treasury power to block U.S. digital asset platforms from transacting with Russian crypto users.
- It would require U.S. taxpayers to report offshore crypto transactions above $10,000.
Zoom-out: - Reuters reports that the bill is "unlikely to become law anytime soon" but could place more pressure on crypto exchanges.
- The Biden administration has said that it's unlikely that Russia is using cryptocurrencies to fully evade sanctions.
- Meanwhile, crypto advocates have called the bill "unnecessary and unconstitutional."
COINDESK
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GameStop said it plans to launch its NFT marketplace by the end of July. The company provided the update in its Q4 and full-year 2021 results released on Thursday. More: - The electronics retailer reported higher net sales but a deeper net loss in 2021 compared to 2020.
- Its net sales rose 18% to $6B last year. Its net loss of $381M was greater than its $215M loss in 2020.
- In Q4, its net sales were up 6% to $2.25B. Its net loss was $148M.
- The company still had $1.3B in cash and cash equivalents at the end of January after raising $1.67B in capital.
- In February, GameStop confirmed its plans to launch an NFT marketplace in partnership with Australian blockchain startup Immutable X, whose platform uses the Ethereum network.
- Immutable X will provide up to $150M in Immutable X IMX tokens to GameStop once certain milestones are achieved.
- The marketplace is scheduled to launch by the close of its fiscal Q2 quarter, which ends July 31.
- GameStop shares are down more than 40% this year, after gaining nearly 700% in 2021.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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 GOOD NEWS: Amazon and Target are pursuing net-zero certifications for two of their stores. The credential from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) awards buildings powered completely by renewable energy and that use less carbon in their construction materials, plus other criteria. To receive the certification, the stores have to meet ILFI's standards for a full year. More: - Amazon opened its Fresh grocery store in Seattle on Thursday.
- The store has a CO2-based refrigeration system to lower greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 38 metric tons per year
- It's powered fully by renewable electricity from Amazon's renewable energy projects.
- The store has lower carbon concrete flooring and free EV charging for customers.
- Meanwhile, Target is testing its first net-zero energy location at a redesigned store in Vista, Calif.
- It has 1,800 solar carport panels and another 1,620 solar rooftop panels to power the entire store.
- Like Amazon, Target's store uses carbon dioxide refrigeration, which Target wants to bring to all of its stores by 2040.
- The store is expected to generate up to a 10% energy surplus every year that can be transmitted back to the power grid.
PYMNTS.COM
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 A message from CALIBER Keep More of Your Capital Gains (Even on Crypto) -- Unlock Remarkable Tax Incentives & Make An Impact Did you know that there are now very attractive ways to keep more of your cap gains and put them to work, while turning the tax man away for years? But there are specific deadlines to be aware of based on your unique situation. If you are expecting a hefty tax bill on gains from the sale of a business, stock, incentive stock options, BTC, real estate, or other investments, Opportunity Zone investing can unlock these benefits: - Defer paying your cap gains taxes until the end of 2026
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 Meta says it will bring its Ray-Ban smart glasses to more markets overseas. The company will update the software to double the amount of video recording time that the glasses can handle, from 30 seconds to a minute. More: - The sunglasses, called Ray-Ban Stories, debuted in the U.S. and other countries in September and will now roll out in Austria, Belgium, Spain, and France.
- Meta, Facebook's parent company, also announced new color and Transitions lens combinations that will arrive next month.
- The company will also turn on the ability to use voice commands to take photos and videos and check the status of battery and storage.
- The glasses, a competitor to Snapchat Spectacles, were created in partnership with eyewear giant Luxottica, which owns the Ray-Ban brand. They start at $299.
Zoom-out: - The glasses use dual integrated 5MP cameras to take photos and videos. Users can make and answer phone calls, send messages, and listen to music with built-in speakers.
- An LED light on the frame lights up to show people nearby that the glasses are recording.
- However, privacy watchdogs in Ireland and Italy have expressed concerns that they could invade people's privacy and don't provide sufficient enough warning to others that they're being recorded.
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The Pew Research Center polled Americans about "human enhancement" technologies and found that they're most concerned about computer chip implants that could improve brain function. Of the 10,000+ people surveyed, 80% said they would not want a brain chip implant, like those being developed by Elon Musk's Neuralink. More: - The other technologies were facial recognition, social media algorithms, robotic exoskeletons, driverless cars, and gene editing.
- After brain chip implants, respondents were most concerned about driverless passenger vehicles and social media algorithms, rating them as a "bad idea for society" more so than the other technologies.
- However, 77% said they would support brain implants in medical applications, for example, to restore movement for paralyzed people.
- Facial recognition to detect criminals had the best response, with 46% calling it a "good idea for society."
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
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Quick Hits - Connect with racing fans, car enthusiasts, and real racing legends.*
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a new bill into law to legalize crypto in the country.
- Australia's competition watchdog sued Meta, claiming that the Facebook parent failed to stop scam crypto ads featuring celebrities that may have misled users.
- Toyota is suspending operations at more than half its Japanese plants due to supply issues prompted by this week's 7.4 magnitude earthquake.
- Google released its latest Developer Preview for Android 13, which adds a requirement for apps on the platform to seek permission before sending notifications.
- Amazon has closed its $6.5B deal to acquire the movie and television studio MGM. The acquisition went ahead after FTC antitrust investigators abstained from challenging the deal before a deadline passed this week.
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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Learn how OZ investments unlock tax incentives and compounding on your cap gains. Start here. | |
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