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These 80-year-olds are more in shape than you. Here’s how

NEW YORK – May McDaniel expects to live to be 100. That’s always been the plan. But when the Manchester, Georgia, resident was growing up, the idea of women’s physical fitness and exercise wasn’t often a priority.
“I’m old enough that when I was quite young, women didn’t sweat,” the 80-year-old tells USA TODAY, “so I was not encouraged – particularly by my family.” But one voice cheered her on in her goal to be fit: her great aunt Hilda, who stood 4 feet, 9 inches and lived to be 106 years old.
McDaniel is one of several 80-somethings who participated in the inaugural longevity competition the Super Age Games, which tested everything from balance to agility to functional strength in a Hyrox-style environment.
Another participant in her age range was Richard Graham.
“The science tells me I can live a long time now,” said Graham, his black hat, white T-shirt and black Under Armour sweatpants clinging to his fit, also 80-year-old body, “but my past history says I can’t.”
The Santa Barbara, California, resident and former automobile dealer used to be very out of shape. He retired 20 years ago, then his late wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He scrambled to find answers: Is there anything you can do for Parkinson’s disease to extend health longer? Just to give his wife a few more years? Then, he thought of himself, and what he could do to better his own health and be there for her.
“I said ‘maybe I better get in shape and see if I can stay healthy to help her.’ And my gosh, I just – it takes a long time. It’s hard, if you don’t work out for 60 years,” he said. “But I did. I got in very good shape over 10 years, and now with the science, the Buck Institute, Super Age Games. I’ve got another – I don’t want to say, but I got a long time.”
He added, “at 80 it is a blessing to be alive, fit and agile.”
A ‘fun’ but ‘grueling’ experience at the Super Age Games
McDaniel’s aunt Hilda never learned to drive, but she lived in town and walked from her house to town. Twice a day, rain or shine, and picked up a crisp Coca-Cola at the pharmacy uptown in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. She filled up a basket at the farmer’s market every weekend and grew grapes and flowers and figs in her garden.
“I grew up with that example, and I didn’t understand at that point in time how important that was,” McDaniel said, a sentiment that sends smiles across longevity experts’ faces. The simple things (and lucky genetics) keep us young.
McDaniel stayed fit throughout her life. She played tennis, she ran, she scuba dived, she sailed, she hunted, she hiked the Appalachian Trail solo at 71. She’s done it all. But once her husband went into assisted living some years ago – and died about two years ago – her activity waned. Then came the Super Age Games. “That would be something to kind of force my hand to try to get back in better shape,” she thought. She trained some, including weightlifting, but not as much as she would have liked.
“It became fun, even though it was grueling,” she said, “and I’m not nearly in the shape I was five years ago … but if I come back next year, I’ll be in a better shape.”
Graham found out about the competition on Facebook. “It sounded like one of those things that I should not be in,” he said. “But then they said any age you can start, and I know that now. I can prove it, with me.”
His wife died two years ago, but that hasn’t stopped him from keeping up with his healthy lifestyle.
“I want to show people, my friends, my family. I got 20 members of my family flew in from all over the United States, to inspire them that that there really is hope that we can live healthier longer,” he added.
‘I want to be you’
A 56-year-old woman came up to her early in the event and told McDaniel how glad she was she was there. “You are why I’m here,” the woman told her. Tears snuck up on her. Why? “Because I want to be you,” she said.
“Well,” McDaniel told her, “you’re doing the right things. You’ll be here.”
McDaniel’s next goal? A trip to New Zealand in March.

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UPS plane, Copa Airlines jet collide at Miami International Airport, officials say

A cargo plane and a commercial passenger jet collided at Miami International Airport Saturday night, officials said.
A UPS Boeing 767 and a Copa Airlines Boeing 737 reportedly collided at the airport, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said.
“At approximately 9:15 p.m., an arriving aircraft and a departing aircraft made contact with each other at the intersection of two taxiways. There are no reported injuries and flights are being directed to other taxiways, so there is no impact to airport operations at this time,” Greg Chin, communications director at MIA, said in a statement to CBS News Miami.
Chin said two patients were treated on the scene by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue for minor injuries and did not require medical transport.
UPS Flight 358 was scheduled to fly from Miami to Bogotá, Colombia, and Copa Airlines Flight 427 was arriving from Panama City, Panama. Copa Airlines is headquartered in Panama City.
The collision comes as MIA continues to experience delays and cancellations following Friday’s rare nationwide ground stop issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Friday night that flight operations would be slow to return to normal as airlines worked to reposition aircraft and crews.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Saturday that the U.S. air travel schedule should be back to normal by the end of Sunday.

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IRS raises the 2027 401(k) contribution limit by $1,000 to $25,500

The IRS has increased the amount workers can contribute to their 401(k), up $1,000 from last year.
The government inflation-adjusted the 2027 limit to $25,500, a boost from 2026’s $24,500 limit, according to a recent IRS release.
“Along with the Working Families Tax Cuts, this increase in the pension limitations will help American families keep more of their hard-earned income,” IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said in a statement.
“With the new adjustment in place now, the IRS is giving taxpayers and employers the information needed to make retirement planning decisions for the year ahead.”
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The limit for Individual Retirement Account (IRA) accounts will remain at $7,500.
For people 50 and over, the IRA catch-up contribution limit remains at $1,100. It was amended under the SECURE Act of 2022 to include an annual cost-of-living adjustment, according to the IRS.
The catch-up contribution limit for workers 50 and over with a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plans or the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan has gone up by $500 to $8,500.
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The IRA catch‑up contribution limit for individuals aged 50 and over, which was amended under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) to include an annual cost‑of‑living adjustment, remains $1,100.
The catch-up contribution limit that generally applies to employees aged 50 and over who participate in most 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plans, and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan is increased to $8,500, up from $8,000 for 2026.
And people 50 and over with most of those plans will be able to contribute up to $34,000 each year starting next year.
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Workers who are 60 to 63 years old under those plans can contribute $11, 750 due to a change made in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022.
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FAA ground stop latest updates: Saturday cancellations top 6,000; controllers’ union chief says communications with some planes were disrupted; Duffy blames L3Harris

Airlines canceled thousands more flights Saturday as they recovered from Friday’s nationwide ground stop, but the FAA said schedules should be back to normal by the end of Sunday.
More than 6,400 U.S. flights had been canceled Saturday as of 9 p.m. ET Saturday, according to FlightAware, well above the 4,000 to 5,000 that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford predicted. Flight-tracking app Flighty said the outage has now caused more cancellations than the 2024 CrowdStrike software failure. About 800 U.S. flights scheduled for Sunday had already been canceled, mostly by American and JetBlue. “I do think the worst is behind us,” Bedford said, and he apologized to travelers earlier Saturday.
The FAA halted departures nationwide for more than four hours Friday, the longest ground stop since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. About 12,000 flights couldn’t be completed, Bedford said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage began while L3Harris Technologies, which runs the network, was doing routine work to switch lines from copper wire to fiber at a remote FAA site. A router involved in the work flooded the rest of the system, disrupting communications with airplanes and radar. Officials told Reuters there may have been problems with routers in both Arkansas and Texas. Duffy said officials are working to determine “whether we had incompetence” by the contractor or a faulty router. “Until I can build” a new network, he said, “I’m stuck with L3Harris.” Bedford said the review will determine whether the router was installed or configured incorrectly, or was simply defective.
In a statement to Yahoo News, L3Harris said it is “supporting the FAA in its investigation” and “takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously.” The company did not address Duffy’s criticism or say what went wrong.
Asked why the work was done on a Friday afternoon, Duffy said work at small, remote sites is done during the day because it isn’t expected to affect the wider system. “There’ll be a reevaluation of when we do this work,” he said. Bedford said maintenance on the network is logged on paper, so officials had to search through paper records to figure out who was working where.
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told Yahoo News that communications with some planes were disrupted during the outage and that controllers moved flights to working frequencies. Asked whether work like Friday’s should be done during the day, he said, “If the worst outcome is we lose all of our frequencies, well, then that work should be done when there’s the fewest airplanes in the sky.”
The network’s problems aren’t new. A 2023 FAA-commissioned safety review called it obsolete, CBS News reported. In 2009, a technician for L3Harris’ predecessor, Harris Corp., misconfigured a router while moving the network to fiber, disrupting 129 air traffic facilities, according to a Transportation Department inspector general review.
Duffy is pressing Congress for more money to replace the system. President Trump has asked for $30 billion and Duffy has said he wants $50 billion, on top of the $12.5 billion Congress approved last year. Bedford said the router swap was routine maintenance, not part of that modernization effort.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on Duffy to resign Saturday. A White House spokesperson told Newsweek her demand was “a desperate attempt to score political points.” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois and a ranking member of an aviation subcommittee, called for an investigation.
Travelers whose flights were canceled are owed a refund if they choose not to fly, and most major airlines are offering travel waivers. Airlines’ promises of hotels and meals generally cover only disruptions within their control, which doesn’t include an FAA ground stop.

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Tesla Cybercab orders open at $29,990 with an autonomy subscription

Tesla is now taking orders from select customers for its Cybercab, as the automaker pushes to bring fully autonomous vehicles to the consumer market.
Tesla announced Friday on X that “select customers are now being invited to purchase Cybercab for personal use” at a price of $29,990, with a required monthly “Autonomy Subscription” costing an additional $299.
The post included an image of the gold-colored, two-seat vehicle, which features butterfly doors but no steering wheel or pedals. The Cybercab had previously been used only in Tesla’s robotaxi fleet in select U.S. cities.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X that the Cybercab would be available nationwide as the company receives regulatory approvals.
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He also said that the monthly fee is “too high,” adding that the price should be comparable to the combined cost of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software and connectivity services for other models, or approximately $115 per month.
Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, previously said the automaker plans to start selling its Cybercabs by the end of this year.
Tesla’s head of artificial intelligence said the Cybercab will ultimately be available in the same locations as the company’s robotaxi fleet, which includes Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio and Tampa.
The announcement comes after Tesla and Musk have pledged for years to make fully autonomous vehicles available to consumers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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Earlier this month, Musk said Tesla would end Cybertruck production at its Gigafactory Texas facility around the middle of next year as the company shifts its focus toward Cybercab production.
FOX Business previously reported that Tesla’s growing emphasis on the Cybercab comes as the automaker expands its focus on artificial intelligence and robotics, with the driverless vehicle expected to play a key role in its planned global robotaxi network.
Ticker Security Last Change Change % TSLA TESLA INC. 390.22 -7.23 -1.82%
Tesla’s self-driving technology has faced years of delays, but the company began offering paid rides in a small fleet of Cybercabs in Austin in September.
Federal auto safety regulators have also scrutinized whether Tesla properly self-certified the Cybercab’s compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an audit in September to review the certification.
Tesla has told NHTSA it believes the Cybercab meets federal safety standards.
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The two-seater robotaxi entered production earlier this year and remains a relatively small program for Tesla, which has listed an installed annual production capacity of more than 125,000 vehicles.

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With Starship catch, SpaceX still shows it can dazzle the world

STARBASE, Texas—The black and silver ship fell out of the sky, emerging from the cloud deck near the very end of its flight. Incongruously, the rocket flew horizontal until the last moment when three Raptor rocket engines ignited and it swooped into a vertical position.
Slowly, gently, haltingly, the Starship upper stage eased its way toward the waiting tower where two arms extended outward, awaiting expectantly. The margins are so incredibly narrow. Two nubs on either side of the rocket, each protruding only about one foot, were the only purchase the rocket would have on the arms.
Then, less than a minute after it came into view, the Starship upper stage was snagged by the launch tower, as snug as you like. And so it was all over. SpaceX, nearly a quarter of a century after its founding, had just taken a hugely significant step toward developing and optimizing a massive, rapidly reusable rocket.
We are dazzled
This was a breathtaking feat; a brilliant technical achievement that required the best engineering minds to think through a million different, difficult problems. And on Saturday evening, following a handful of practice runs into the Indian Ocean, they did it before the entire world.
Watching Starship launch from here a little less than a day earlier, and knowing it had orbited the planet multiple times, added to the sense of unreality in seeing this spaceship return to Earth under its own power, and be captured by the tower.
It felt like stepping into the future. SpaceX has dazzled us before, by landing rockets on barges and returning humans to space with Crew Dragon. But this flight took things to another level. Starships are huge. They carry a huge amount of energy coming back from orbit. And until a few years ago, it seemed beyond fantastical to think about capturing a rocket with what are essentially outsized chopsticks.
Nevertheless, it happened.
Rapid reuse is firmly on the horizon
Humans have built reusable spacecraft that flew into orbit before. In the 1970s, flush with confidence after the triumphant Moon landings, NASA designed and built several Space Shuttles. They had solid rocket boosters that were fished from the ocean and reused. The large orange external tank was not recovered after each flight, but the orbiters went to space for two weeks, or even longer, before returning to Earth and landing on a runway.
The shuttles were engineering marvels. But during the return to Earth they acted as gliders, not igniting their engines. And their heat shields were delicate flowers, requiring painstaking refurbishment after each flight. At the outset of the shuttle program, the space agency contemplated sending dozens of humans into space at a time, and carrying cargo at a cost as low of $25 per pound.
Reality never matched these rosy projections. The crew space capped out at seven astronauts, and the cost-per-pound was closer to $25,000. Each orbiter cost an extraordinary amount of money to build; NASA only ever built five that went to space.
SpaceX has five Starships in an advanced state of development at Starbase today; and its factory houses the components for a dozen more. The company can currently manufacture a Starship upper stage in its South Texas Starfactory every three weeks. The factory was sized to produce a ship every three days. When SpaceX founder Elon Musk discussed these build targets in an interview five years ago, he sounded mad. But he no longer does.
A proof of concept
The Space Shuttle was nearly a fully reusable space launch system, but it fell far short of low-cost, rapid launch. Over 30 years the vehicle made 135 flights. Within a few years SpaceX aims to fly 135 times a year, then thousands of times.
Such was the significance of Saturday. SpaceX aspires to fundamentally change the relationship between humanity and the heavens. The first step is to get the entire rocket back. SpaceX has now returned both elements of a Starship rocket safely to its launch tower. It will take time to reach a high rate of success with such landings, but Saturday’s safe return offered a proof of concept.
The landings will come with increasing frequency; and so will the launches. Over time SpaceX will perfect the heat shield that is likely to be the most difficult aspect of rapid reuse. And eventually, as difficult as it may be to believe, what we experienced with amazement this weekend will become routine. One day, we will take this all for granted.
But not today.

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