By Kyle Feldscher, CNN

Concord, North Carolina (CNN) — It’s a solemn day as tens of thousands of NASCAR fans are trekking to Charlotte Motor Speedway to remember Kyle Busch at the first race after since his sudden death.

The Coca-Cola 600 outside of the Queen City has been circled on race fans’ calendars for months as one of the premier races on the NASCAR schedule. However, it has turned into a sort of group memorial for 95,000 fans and hundreds of NASCAR drivers, crew members, and other officials as they mourn the passing of a legend taken far too soon.

The skies above Charlotte Motor Speedway are finally showing some blue after days of rain that followed the announcement of Busch’s death, just days after his final victory at Dover last weekend in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Busch’s family announced on Saturday that the 41-year-old NASCAR legend died from complications of severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. Sepsis is the body’s “overwhelming and life-threatening response” to an infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The condition can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. Sepsis can be triggered by any type of infection, even a minor one, and occurs when germs enter a person’s body and multiply, causing illness and damage to organs and tissues.

The loss has led to a sudden onset of grief at one of NASCAR’s signature weekends. Busch’s rapid decline stunned the racing world, inside and outside the track.

Busch was coughing up blood and experiencing shortness of breath on Wednesday while getting ready for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

According to a 911 call obtained by CNN in response to a request for recordings related to Busch’s medical emergency, a caller – whose name is redacted in the recording – asks for an ambulance to come to a training facility in Concord, North Carolina.

The caller states that Busch was lying on the bathroom floor and was awake at the time of the call. The caller requested that the ambulances approach the building with sirens off and gave directions on the quickest route to Busch.

The 911 call, made at 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, came almost exactly 24 hours before NASCAR, Busch’s family and Richard Childress Racing announced Busch’s death.

Busch’s No. 8 was painted on the infield of Charlotte Motor Speedway and became a place for drivers to come and spend a few minutes grieving their fallen competitor. The No. 8 car won’t be seen in NASCAR for some time; Richard Childress Racing announced it would suspend use of the number until Busch’s 11-year-old son, Brexton, was ready to start NASCAR racing. Brexton is training to follow in his father’s footsteps and is already an accomplished youth racer.

The atmosphere at a NASCAR speedway on race day is usually more like a tailgate ahead of a big college football game, only on steroids. Outside and inside the track, campers have been posted for days enjoying beverages and grilled meats of all kinds. The music is usually blaring, flags are waving and a festive mood fills the air.

It’s a little different in North Carolina this week. Days of rain have delayed the on-track racing multiple times and the campgrounds are full of mud.

But mostly, it’s Busch’s death that lingers over the place as the crowds and crews prepare themselves for the emotional moments that will come when the race begins around 6 p.m. ET.

A hint of what’s to come came yesterday when Busch’s team car — now adorned with No. 33 — was unloaded first off the trucks. Video from the scene showed the rollout turning into an almost ceremonial moment, as the garage stopped and watched in silence as the Chevrolet was whee

Análisis por David Goldman, CNN

El presidente Donald Trump dijo el sábado que la paz con Irán está cerca y que el estrecho de Ormuz será reabierto.

Ya veremos. Trump se ha convertido en el presidente que repetidamente anuncia la paz. Tras múltiples anuncios fallidos en los últimos tres meses, el mercado ha comenzado a ignorar el relato minuto a minuto de Trump y ahora espera señales concretas de un acuerdo con Irán.

Irán ha mantenido una postura dura sobre una reapertura total del estrecho, su principal herramienta de presión durante una guerra en la que fue superado militarmente. Pero Teherán ha utilizado lanchas rápidas, minas y drones mejorados para bloquear el paso de petroleros por el estrecho, privando a la economía global de una quinta parte de su suministro de petróleo.

Pero si realmente este es el fin de la guerra y el estrecho está a punto de reabrirse, ¿qué ocurrirá después?

¿Cuándo volverán los precios a los niveles previos al conflicto?

No será pronto. Casi con certeza no ocurrirá este año. Tal vez nunca.

Una vez el estrecho realmente reabra, comenzará una pesadilla logística.

Primer paso: despejar los cuellos de botella en el estrecho. Eso tomará mucho tiempo, ya que los petroleros se mueven aproximadamente a la misma velocidad que una bicicleta.

Primero deberán salir unos 166 petroleros atrapados en el golfo Pérsico, que transportan cerca de 170 millones de barriles de petróleo, según Matt Smith, principal analista petrolero de Kpler. Eso permitirá el ingreso de petroleros vacíos al estrecho para cargar petróleo y volver a salir.

El regreso a la capacidad total de tránsito de petroleros podría tardar hasta tres meses, según Victoria Grabenwöger, analista sénior de petróleo de Kpler.

Segundo paso: reducir las reservas acumuladas. Los barcos vacíos primero retirarán petróleo de los depósitos que fueron llenados porque los productores no tenían dónde más almacenarlo.

La buena noticia es que las refinerías actuaron de forma pragmática y nunca llenaron completamente sus reservas. Eso debería reducir parte del tiempo que de otro modo tomaría reiniciar el bombeo. Pero los inventarios, que siguen más altos de lo habitual, igualmente retrasarán el regreso de la producción petrolera a plena capacidad.

Tercer paso: reiniciar la producción. Gran parte de los pozos petroleros de Medio Oriente fueron cerrados durante la guerra. Reactivar la producción no es como encender un interruptor. Es un complejo desafío de ingeniería que implica procesos físicos delicados y semanas de trabajo.

La producción deberá reiniciarse lentamente para evitar el colapso de los depósitos de crudo, lo que obligaría a perforaciones adicionales y reparaciones importantes. También será necesario equilibrar nuevamente el agua y el gas inyectados en los pozos, un proceso complicado.

Debido a que los pozos en la región son grandes y están muy cerca unos de otros, reiniciar la producción requerirá una coordinación significativa entre compañías y países para mantener estable la presión del agua y el gas inyectados en múltiples pozos.

Cuarto paso: realizar reparaciones. Varias refinerías, productores de gas natural y algunas compañías petroleras sufrieron daños durante la guerra. Algunas reparaciones de infraestructura crítica dañada podrían tardar años, dijeron empresas del sector.

Hay mucho petróleo que debe volver al mercado: 12 millones de barriles diarios de producción de crudo y 3 millones de barriles diarios de productos refinados fueron suspendidos en Medio Oriente, principalmente en Arabia Saudita e Iraq, según Kpler. Y eso no será fácil.

Todo eso asume que la guerra realmente terminó y que no habrá nuevas interrupciones en el estrecho. Y todos sabemos lo que pasa cuando se hacen suposiciones.

Los últimos meses han estado llenos de anuncios fallidos de paz, lo que ha mantenido

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By Pete Muntean, CNN

Quonset State Airport, Rhode Island (CNN) — The small Cessna Caravan accelerates down the runway and climbs into the air, all while the pilot beside me keeps his hands off the controls.

“Let’s see those jazz hands,” jokes Tim Burns, chief technology officer at startup Merlin Labs, over the airplane’s intercom from a back seat.

On this flight, test pilot Matt Diamond in the left seat beside me is not controlling the airplane at all. Many of the normal tasks of piloting are instead being handled by artificial intelligence.

I am, legally speaking, a test subject — even the airplane is labeled “experimental.” The Merlin Pilot system handles much more than a traditional autopilot, using a natural language processing model to listen to instructions from a mock air traffic controller and responding over the radio using a computerized female voice. Test pilot Diamond says, “Authorize,” and the airplane begins turning to a new course.

As a pilot myself — and admittedly a bit of a control freak — surrendering control to a computer did not come naturally. But the demonstration is an important one as more aviation companies are looking to AI to usher in a new evolution in air travel by using it to automate tasks for pilots and perhaps one day enable fully autonomous flights.

Our flight is taking place as airlines worldwide are facing a growing pilot shortage. Boeing estimates that carriers will need more than 600,000 new pilots over the next two decades. At the same time, aviation safety officials are confronting increasing pressure on an already strained air traffic control system following a series of high-profile close calls and deadly accidents in recent years.

The push toward AI-assisted aviation is also gaining support in Washington. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has promoted artificial intelligence tools as part of the Trump administration’s broader push to modernize the nation’s aging air traffic control system.

“We are never going to outsource the national airspace to AI tools,” Duffy told CNN in a recent interview. “Controllers are going to control the airspace, but we can make their jobs easier.”

Duffy said the administration sees AI as a way to reduce workload for controllers and improve efficiency across increasingly crowded airspace.

Merlin argues artificial intelligence could eventually help address some of the same problems in the cockpit. “Eighty percent of accidents in aviation are still caused by human error,” Merlin CEO Matthew George told CNN. “If we can reduce that, that’s a pretty useful way to spend our time.”

The idea remains controversial. Commercial aviation has steadily added automation for decades, leading to today’s fly-by-wire systems in which computers interpret pilot inputs even during manual flight.

“Modern cockpits have quite a bit of automation already, but the automation is within a narrowly defined scope,” said Mykel Kochenderfer, whose research at Stanford University focuses on autonomous systems and aviation safety. Kochenderfer said newer AI-assisted systems are designed to handle a broader range of unexpected situations than traditional rule-based automation.

“Our experience shows this can be a very promising way to enhance safety,” he said, “but the industry has a long way to go to further harden the technology and establish the trust required for acceptance.”

Changing the minds of pilots might not be easy. Current in-flight automation systems place the pilot at the center, allowing them to intervene when necessary.

Capt. Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association which represents more than 79,000 pilots in the United States and Canada, says automation and AI should support pilots, not replace them.

“Technological advancements can improve aviation safety, but they will never be a substitute for

* WHAT…Northwest winds 20 to 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph expected.
Local gusts to 50 mph near Gaviota and Refugio.

* WHERE…Santa Barbara County Southwestern Coast and Santa Ynez
Mountains Western Range.

* WHEN…From 6 PM Tuesday to 6 AM PDT Wednesday.

* IMPACTS…Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree
limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.
Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high
profile vehicles. Use extra caution.

The post Wind Advisory issued May 24 at 11:08AM PDT until May 27 at 6:00AM PDT by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.