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Boeing CEO Ortberg cancels Paris Airshow trip after India crash

9 hours ago

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BOEING Co. Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg has canceled plans to attend the Paris Air Show after Thursday’s Air India crash that killed all but one of the 242 people aboard a Dreamliner plane in the deadliest aviation accident in more than a decade.

Boeing commercial aircraft head Stephanie Pope also won’t attend the Paris show — the global aviation industry’s most important annual gathering — according to a company memo seen by Bloomberg News. GE Aerospace, whose engines powered the doomed plane, has cancelled a June 17 investor day.

The 787-8 Dreamliner, bound for London, crashed shortly after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. The aircraft entered a slow descent shortly after taking off, with its landing gear still extended before exploding into a huge fireball upon impact. Video footage shared on social media showed a plume of smoke at the crash site. It had plunged into a dining hall at a medical school as students ate lunch.

Officials earlier said that emergency responders had recovered more than 200 bodies at the crash site, though they didn’t immediately say how many were passengers, crew or area residents. They said the toll could rise as emergency workers comb through the wreckage.

The crash site of the Air India flight in Ahmedabad on June 12. (Bloomberg)

“We have found 204 bodies, we are looking for more bodies,” Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told Bloomberg. “There is a chance that there may be survivors. 41 injured are being treated. These include people who were staying in the residential area.”

The official death toll will be announced after DNA verification, Amit Shah, India’s federal home minister, told reporters.

Flight AI171 was carrying 12 crew and 230 passengers, most of whom were Indian and British nationals.

The aircraft’s tail could be seen wedged into the building as fire crews hosed down blackened rubble.

Following Thursday’s accident, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at Ahmedabad suspended flights. Gatwick Airport, the second-largest in the London area, said the aircraft had been due to land in the UK capital at 6:25 p.m. local time. The airport has set up an emergency assistance center for those affected by the crash.

The twin-engine plane had reached an altitude of 625 feet (191 meters) at a speed of 174 knots, or about 200 miles per hour, according to data from Flightradar24.

The pilots in command issued a mayday call immediately after takeoff to air traffic controllers, according to India’s civil aviation regulator. The aircraft was in the command of captain Sumeet Sabharwal and first officer Clive Kundar, who had 8,200 flying hours and 1,100 flying hours of experience, respectively, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

According to air traffic control data, the jet departed from Ahmedabad at 1:39 p.m. local time using runway 23. After the initial mayday call, there was no response from the cockpit to subsequent calls made by controllers on the ground.

The accident extends a series of serious and fatal incidents in the civil aviation industry this year, including a midair collision in Washington early in 2025 between a military helicopter and an aircraft.

Air India is in the middle of a strategic turnaround that includes a huge aircraft order as it seeks to tap growing demand from a rising Indian middle class.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the accident is “heartbreaking beyond words,” according to a statement, adding that he’s been in touch with ministers and authorities assisting the salvage operation.

India’s civil aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, told reporters the nation would conduct a fair and thorough investigation. “We are not going to leave any stone unturned.”

US President Donald Trump said the US is willing to help India after the plane crash.

“I let them know that anything we can do, we’ll be over there immediately. But it was a horrific crash,” Trump told reporters during a White House bill-signing ceremony.

Thursday’s crash marks the first-ever complete loss of a 787, a plane Boeing introduced more than a decade ago with advanced lightweight composite materials that improve fuel efficiency. The 787 has become a crucial source of revenue for Boeing, with 1,148 of the jets in service globally.

Boeing shares fell 4.8% in New York on Thursday, the biggest decline of any stock in the S&P 500 index.

Ortberg said in a statement issued Thursday that he has spoken to Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran and that Boeing is ready to support the investigation.

Scott Stocker, who runs Boeing’s 787 program, told employees in a memo seen by Bloomberg that the company’s thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and everyone affected.

“For now, the best thing we can do is focus on our work and avoid speculation,” he said in the memo, adding that Boeing has a technical team assisting Air India and global investigators.

Among the 242 people on board, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were British citizens, one 1 was Canadian and seven Portuguese, according to Air India.

Based on the number of people on board, this is the worst commercial airline crash since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, which was shot down over Ukraine, killing 298 people, according to Aviation Safety Network, which tracks fatal crashes. The last crash of this magnitude for Air India was Flight 182 in 1985. That Boeing 747 aircraft was destroyed by a bomb over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people on board.

Boeing has been involved in several accidents in recent years, including two fatal crashes with Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. Early last year, a nearly-new 737 Max aircraft lost a door panel during flight. While there were no fatalities, the accident plunged the company into a deep crisis.

The aircraft involved in Thursday’s accident, registered as Air India VT-ANB, was almost 12 years old. The plane was powered by two General Electric Co. GEnx engines. GE Aerospace said in a post on X that it is assembling an emergency response team to go to India to support the investigation.

Initial assembly of the Air India Dreamliner began in August 2010, according to the All Things 787 blog that tracked Boeing’s production at the time. The jet was delivered more than three years later, a typical lag for Dreamliners requiring extensive modifications.

“It is still too early to tell what happened, though it seems this was not likely a manufacturing or design issue given the age and usage history of the aircraft,” Citi analyst Jason Gursky wrote in a client note. “The stock will likely trade down until we learn more.”

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the department was sending a team of Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board personnel to assist the investigation led by India’s government. US air safety officials typically provide support in crash probes involving an American-built aircraft.

Air India operates 34 Boeing 787 aircraft, according to data from aviation consultant Cirium. Their age ranges from just over 2 years to nearly 14, with most more than a decade old. In all, the airline has 192 Boeing and Airbus SE jetliners in its fleet. In 2023, the Tata Group signed a massive 470-plane order to refresh the aging models they inherited with new planes and position the airline for growth.

Tata Group will pay out 10 million rupees ($116,830) to the families of each person that died in the crash, according to a post on X citing Chandrasekaran, who is also chairman of Tata Sons, the group’s holding company.

Under international rules for aviation crash investigations — known as “Annex 13” — a probe is led by air safety authorities in the country where the crash occurred, with assistance from other countries. Investigators typically issue a preliminary report within a few weeks. A final report, which includes safety recommendations, is then released a year to two later. –BLOOMBERG

Thursday, June 12, 2025

London-bound plane crashes in India with 242 on board

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Flames and smoke in aftermath of crashed India passenger jet

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At least 265 dead in India plane crash, one passenger survives

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The back of Air India flight 171 is pictured at the site after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad (Photo by Sam PANTHAKY / AFP)

AHMEDABAD (INDIA) – A London-bound passenger jet crashed in a residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, killing at least 265 people on board and on the ground — but one passenger has miraculously survived.

An AFP journalist saw bodies being recovered from the crash site, and the back of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner — which had 242 passengers and crew on board — hanging over the edge of a building it hit around lunchtime.

The government opened a formal investigation into the cause of the crash, and rescue teams worked into Friday morning scouring the charred wreckage with sniffer dogs.

“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after Air India’s flight 171 crashed following takeoff. “It is heartbreaking beyond words”.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai told reporters said that “265 bodies have reached the hospital”.

That suggests that at least 24 people died when the jet ploughed into a medical staff hostel in a blazing fireball — and that the toll may rise further as more bodies are located.

‘Devastating’

The AFP journalist saw a building ablaze after the crash, with thick black smoke billowing into the air, and a section of the plane on the ground.

“One half of the plane crashed into the residential building where doctors lived with their families,” said Krishna, a doctor who did not give his full name.

“The nose and front wheel landed on the canteen building where students were having lunch,” he said.

Krishna said he saw “about 15 to 20 burnt bodies”, while he and his colleagues rescued around 15 students.

India’s civil aviation authority said two pilots and 10 cabin crew were among the 242 people on board.

Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes from the crash were “devastating”, while the country’s King Charles III said he was “desperately shocked”.

‘Sole survivor’

But while everyone aboard the flight was initially feared killed, state health official Dhananjay Dwivedi told AFP “one survivor is confirmed” and had been hospitalised.

Air India said in a statement that the “sole survivor is being treated in a hospital”, adding that the “survivor is a British national of Indian origin”.

The survivor is believed to be 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah told reporters he was speaking to them “after meeting him”.

The BBC and Britain’s Press Association news agency spoke to Ramesh’s family members.

“He said, ‘I have no idea how I exited the plane’”, his brother Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, told PA in the British city of Leicester.

‘Devastating’

The plane issued a mayday call and “crashed immediately after takeoff”, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

Ahmedabad, the main city of India’s Gujarat state, is home to around eight million people and the busy airport is surrounded by densely packed residential areas.

“When we reached the spot, there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames,” resident Poonam Patni told AFP.

“Many of the bodies were burned,” she said.

The AFP journalist saw medics using a cart to load bodies into an ambulance, while a charred metal bed frame stood surrounded by burnt wreckage.

US planemaker Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood “ready to support them” over the incident, which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.

The UK and US air accident investigation agencies announced they were dispatching teams to support their Indian counterparts.

Tata Group, owners of Air India, offered financial aid of 10 million rupees ($117,000) to “the families of each person who has lost their life in this tragedy”, as well as funds to cover medical expenses of those injured.

India has suffered a series of fatal air crashes, including a 1996 disaster when two jets collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people.

In 2010, an Air India Express jet crashed and burst into flames at Mangalore airport in southwest India, killing 158 of the 166 passengers and crew on board.

Experts said it was too early to speculate on what may have caused Thursday’s crash.

“It is very unlikely that the plane was overweight or carrying too much fuel,” said Jason Knight, senior lecturer in fluid mechanics at the University of Portsmouth.

“The aircraft is designed to be able to fly on one engine, so the most likely cause of the crash is a double engine failure. The most likely cause of a double engine failure is a bird strike.”

India’s airline industry has boomed in recent years with Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), last month calling it “nothing short of phenomenal”.

The growth of its economy has made India and its 1.4 billion people the world’s fourth-largest air market — domestic and international — with IATA projecting it will become the third biggest within the decade. –AFP

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News World

Japan firms face fines if they fail to protect workers from heat

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TOUGHER rules being enforced in Japan will see employers fined if they fail to take adequate precautions to protect workers from extreme temperatures.

The revised legislation, which came into effect June 1, is a rare global example of a national-level policy on heat safety for employees and comes after 30 workplace deaths and roughly 1,200 injuries last year associated with high temperatures, according to the Health Ministry’s data. Most of those affected, worked in construction or manufacturing.

Japan’s government moved to strengthen protections following last summer’s searing heat — which included the highest July temperatures on record, the ministry said in a statement. Businesses will face potential penalties including fines of 500,000 yen (RM15,000) if provisions aren’t sufficient.

Heatstroke is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by dangerously high body temperature that can result in severe organ damage if not treated quickly. There were almost half a million heat-

related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019, according to a report last year by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Along with public health impacts, higher temperatures can impact worker productivity and there’s growing concern about the economic toll that heat waves have on economies. Global average temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in 2024 and new highs are forecast to be recorded over the next five years, according the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Japan’s legislation requires employers to implement protocols to quickly spot and aid workers showing symptoms of heatstroke. Policies encourage companies to use a buddy system at work sites, distribute wearable devices to monitor staff and provide emergency transportation to hospitals or clinics.

Employers are urged to monitor the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature index, a gauge of heat stress in direct sunlight that takes into account factors like temperature and humidity. Specific measures are required for work sites where the index value exceeds 28°C or an atmospheric temperature of 31°C for more than one hour, or for a total of four hours or more in a single day.

A worker performing moderate work intensity loses half of their work capacity at 33°C to 34°C, according to a 2019 study from the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The same report estimated

the economic impact of heat stress by 2030 at US$2.4 trillion (RM11.3 trillion) if greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) aren’t cut.

“We are working on measures such as taking breaks according to the heat index and measuring internal body temperature using wearable devices,” said a spokesperson for Shimizu Corp, one of the nation’s largest general contractors, which employs more than 20,000 people. The company said it is constantly updating its heatstroke policies.

Parcel delivery service Yamato Transport Co plans to distribute 75,000 fan-equipped vests to workers, including those who use carts and bicycles to drop off packages. It’s also installing 3,000 wet bulb index measuring devices at business locations to better track working conditions. The measures are not in response to the new law, the company said.

Japan’s updated policy has “great potential to reduce the fatalities from exertional heatstroke,” said Yuri Hosokawa, an associate professor at Waseda University who studies the impact of heat on athletes.

California and Washington are among US states to have developed similar rules on worker protections and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed setting a federal standard. There were an average 40 recorded fatalities a year in the US related to environmental heat between 2011 and 2020, according to the Department of Labour. — Bloomberg

This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition

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Life & Arts News

How ‘coffees’ made with chickpeas, barley compare

10 hours ago

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Atomo beanless coffee in light, medium and dark blends( pics: Bloomberg)

With coffee prices already rising due to drought and new US tariffs, alternatives like these are slowly starting to pop up in cafes, office canteens and supermarket blends

by EMMA COURT

THE steaming liquid in the cup is thin and brown, with a familiar if not exceptional taste. “Like the coffee you’d get in a deli,” as one of my coworkers put it.

Only the label of this medium roast blend by Atomo Coffee betrays that, in addition to coffee beans, the brew also contains things like date seeds and carob.

Spread out on a Bloomberg conference room table are three other coffee alternatives, part of an office tasting of an emerging category of products made with ingredients such as chickpeas, barley and even bread. Sources like green tea supply the caffeine hit.

With coffee prices already rising due to drought and new US tariffs, alternatives like these are slowly starting to pop up in cafes, office canteens and supermarket blends. Netherlands-based Northern Wonder has sold its coffee-free coffee since 2023 at more than 500 of the Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn’s stores.

“People say, ‘This cannot be good,’” said Northern Wonder co-founder and CEO David Klingen. “And then they try it and then they’re very surprised how coffee-like we are already.”

With climate change threatening to slash coffee production in the coming decades, the companies that make these products are betting they could represent the future of the beverage.

At the Bloomberg office tasting, bean-less products largely tasted just like the real thing. “I would pick this over the cold brew I had this morning,” my co-worker said of one made by Voyage Foods.

For them to take off, though, producers first have to convince consumers to give them a chance.

Minus’ instant oat milk latte

What Exactly is ‘Beanless’ Coffee?

Start-ups are deploying techniques like fermentation and roasting borrowed from the coffee-making process to add flavour and complexity to ingredients like chickpeas and date pits. Blends also lean on components like barley and chicory for coffee-like taste and depth.

It’s not a completely new idea. Chicory, a type of dried root, has been used as a coffee alternative in Europe since at least the 19th century. (It became a supplement to coffee in New Orleans during Civil War-era trade disruptions, and the mix of the two is sometimes called New Orleans style.)

Cost is a key draw. Voyage’s coffee alter- native can be as much as 75% cheaper, said Adam Maxwell, the company’s founder and CEO. Northern Wonder sells a roasted filter blend that includes lupin — a type of bean — barley, chickpeas and chicory for €5.39 (RM26), or around US$6 (RM25.50). But other beanless products remain pricey. The 50/50 blend from Atomo costs US$16 for 12 oz, about as much as a premium bag of real beans. A bag of Minus instant oat milk latte, made by Compound Foods, meanwhile, will run you US$35.

In the future, the pricing gap between real coffee and coffee alternatives could widen. Warming temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are expected to shrink areas suitable to grow the coffee crop by 2050, and demand is only expanding.

But coffee companies have other options to manage costs, such as sourcing lower-quality beans, before they adopt coffee alternatives, said Kelsey Girard, senior food and drink analyst at Mintel, a market research firm.

Coffee is “a routine and a ritual drink for consumers,” she said. Changing those habits and getting them to adopt a less familiar product “will be kind of a trickier proposition.”

Voyage Foods’ coffee alternative includes chickpeas as an ingredient in their bean-free beverages

Convincing Customers

For now, only a small share of coffee drinkers seems to be interested in alternatives — a little over 20% in the US, according to a Kantar Profiles/Mintel survey done last year. Young people — from ages 25 to 34 — were among the most receptive, while seniors were the least.

That’s probably because in most places, prices at supermarkets and stores haven’t risen as much as in the commodity markets. Global retail prices rose by around 8% on average between 2023 and 2024, compared to a nearly 24% commodity price hike over the same period, according to Euromonitor data.

So far, retailers selling beanless coffee report limited uptake. Customers need to try the product as much as possible for it to become a more consistent habit, said Bluestone Lane’s chief marketing and people officer Andy Stone.

When the coffee chain began offering Atomo’s espresso as part of a promotion last year, it got an enthusiastic reception. But interest has waned since the promotion ended, said Stone. It now costs 50 cents more to sub Atomo into a coffee drink.

Another coffee shop that had been serving Atomo Gumption Coffee, which has locations in New York City, Australia and Singapore — stopped in April.

For Northern Wonder’s offerings at Albert Heijn stores, which include the €5.39 filter blend, sales are “not really impressive,” said Klingen.

“People don’t understand enough why they would buy it,” he said. “The people who have an interest in the product from the sustainability perspective, they have a really high standard of drinking coffee and we cannot match that standard yet.”

To get over that hurdle, some companies are marketing to the health and fitness crowd. The Minus instant oat milk latte contains about half the caffeine of a typical coffee, plus protein and the supplement L-theanine.

Given how hard it’s been to sell directly to consumers, some start-ups have also switched to selling to big food manufacturers interested in combining it with real coffee. For now, you’re likely to encounter coffee alternatives as part of a mix with regular coffee or on their own in hotels, office break rooms and private label products at supermarkets.

“We were trying to work with some of the big companies a couple years ago and they were just kind of like, ‘We’re going to wait until things hit the fan.’ And I’ve definitely felt a very tangible shift in 2025,” said Compound Foods CEO Maricel Saenz. “That’s the main reason that they’re open now. It’s definitely because of cost.”

Coffee alternatives are reimagining the classic hot beverage ditching the beans with ingredients such as turmeric and himalayan salt

Will you Know if Your Coffee is Beanless?

A blue and white bag of Bluestone Lane’s “Flagstaff Remix” reads clearly across the front: “50% Arabica | 50% beanless coffee.” An iridescent label at the top describes it as “a sustainable collab with Atomo.”

Not all beanless coffees are likely to be so clearly labelled. Start-ups say they can’t control their partners’ packaging. And while the US sets “standards of identity” regulating what foods from milk to fruit pies and fish can contain, coffee has no such requirements.

Many countries require companies to spell out ingredients on pre-packaged food labels. But consumers may not think to turn a container of instant coffee around to check for say, chickpeas (an allergen, albeit a less common one.)

While the consumer products Bloomberg tasted were labelled as beanless and outlined their ingredients, it’s not clear how consumers would know they’re drinking coffee alternatives at a conference or hotel breakfast buffet.

Price-conscious coffee drinkers won’t be too picky, according to Ding Jie Tan, co-founder and chief technology officer at Prefer, a Singapore-based bean-free coffee start-up. Tan, who has worked as a fermen- tation consultant at restaurants and cock- tail bars, helped devise Prefer’s blend from soy puff and spent barley, byproducts from tofu and beer production, and surplus baker y bread.

“Particularly in South-East Asia, it’s going to be iced, it’s going to be with milk, it’s going to be with sugar,” he said. “Folks then don’t really care about the provenance.”

But Northern Wonder’s Klingen worries that the shift toward mixing beanless coffee with regular beans undermines the emerging industry. “It’s not tasty enough to be sold standalone, that’s the conclusion one could draw,” he said. “It’s apparently very hard to mimic that premium coffee flavour.” — Bloomberg

This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition

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News Opinion

Working until 70 isn’t so bad provided you feel 55

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DENMARK’S recent move to increase the statutory retirement age to 70 for those born after 1970 — the highest in Europe — highlights an obvious and potentially troubling reality: Most of us are facing longer working lives, but that also means we need to remain healthier for longer.

While linking the pensionable threshold to improving longevity is fair, up to a point, doing so risks exacerbating health inequalities because the poor become sick and die sooner than the rich. So, the focus must be on extending healthy life expectancy for everyone.

Closing the gap between lifespans and so-called health spans can help build public support for later retirement, because fewer years are spent with serious illness or disability, leaving more quality time with grandchildren or on the golf course or at the bingo hall. It can also benefit government finances by reducing pension expenses and costs associated with chronic disease and elderly care, while ensuring workers are able to keep working.

When Otto von Bismarck’s Germany became the first nation to offer old-age social security in 1889, the official retirement age was also 70; but at the time, his compatriots were fortunate if they lived past 45. Today, life expectancy for German men and women is around 78 and 83, respectively, meaning men receive a state pension for around 19 years, while for women it’s about 22 years, or around 60% longer than in 1980.

The rate at which life expectancy improves has slowed in recent years, and not just because of the Covid-19 pandemic; 65-year-olds now gain nearer one additional year with each passing decade compared to around 1.5 years previously, according to the OECD.

Nevertheless, most of us will live longer than our parents and grandparents. (The UK government’s online calculator suggests your 42-year-old columnist will expire at 84, with a one-in-four chance I’ll reach 93. Fingers crossed.)

While this is obviously good news, it will put even more pressure on pay-as-you-go social security systems which face a growing imbalance between the number of retirees and employees. Germany’s statutory retirement age is set to increase to 67 by 2031, but its new government has postponed a politically awkward decision on what happens after that. It should consider indexing the retirement age to longer lifespans, as Denmark does, to help avoid a political row about working longer. (Reforms to lift France’s retirement age to 64 from 62 led to widespread protests in 2023.)

Denmark introduced a quasi-automatic adjustment mechanism in 2006, and variants of this indexation system have been adopted by several European countries. For Danes, an extra year of life expectancy translates to a full year of additional working time, based on a principle that on average, workers should spend 14.5 years in retirement. This feels harsh when Portugal, Finland and elsewhere apply a two-thirds ratio, meaning employees leave the workforce eight months later for every year of extra life expectancy, thereby preventing a compression of the proportion of life spent in retirement.

In theory, most of us should be able to work longer because in general we’re healthier than previous generations were at the same stage in life. Citing survey data from 41 advanced and emerg- ing economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) argued in a report in April that, on average, the cognitive abilities of a 70-year-old in 2022 are comparable to those of a 53-year-old in 2000, while in terms of physical frailty a 70-year-old in 2022 is comparable to a 56-year-old two decades ago. So there really is no justification for ageism in the workplace.

But it’s not all good news. There’s evidence, for example, that recent cohorts have a higher prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, and while we’re living much longer, many of those years are spent in ill health. A study published in December in JAMA Network Open found that during the past two decades the gap between health spans and total lifespan has widened to 9.6 years compared to 8.5 years across 183 World Health Organisation (WHO) member countries.

The US and UK had two of the largest gaps at 12.4 years and 11.3 years, respectively. Moreover, the affluent and more educated are ageing better those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In 2022, the Health Foundation think tank found that 60-year-old women in England from the most deprived decile have roughly the same level of diagnosed morbidity as 76-year-old women from the wealthiest decile; meanwhile, men from the most deprived areas die around a decade earlier than the most affluent.

Deteriorating health is a big reason why people exit the workforce early, potentially exposing them to poverty, and raising the statutory retirement age can be regressive because wealthier people end up drawing a pension for longer than the poor. Furthermore, telling a construction worker

to stay on the scaffolding until 70 clearly isn’t the same as telling an office worker to keep driving a desk. Setting a pension age that accommodates this heterogeneity isn’t straightforward, though a combination of disability benefits and retraining can help.

But why not index the retirement age to health span rather than lifespan, as the longevity author Andrew J Scott has suggested? “If we set up a national target for healthy life expectancy we would see much more focus on reducing inequality,” Scott, who is director of economics at the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford, told me via email. “We have a health system overly focused on disease which is not the same as keeping people healthy.”

Regrettably, just 1% to 6% of OECD countr y health expenditures currently goes toward health promotion and prevention, according to the IMF.

Public health campaigns to improve diets should be a priority — US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s focus on ultra-processed food is encouraging. And as an advocate for strength training — which slows muscle wasting and improves bone health in the elderly — I think governments should fund public gyms or subsidise access, as Singapore does.

It shouldn’t be just a privileged few that live longer, healthier lives. While working longer looks unavoidable for many, how fast we age and how long we spend in ill-health are adaptable, too. Longer lifespans are great, longer healthspans even better. — Bloomberg

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition

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News Opinion

Students need more challenges, not fewer tests

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Taking extra time to practise out of class is important for a child’s learning (pic: TMR)

Not all assessments are fair, but the best way to help low-income students is to emphasise discipline and educational fundamentals

SAN Francisco announced and then swiftly reversed a new “grading for equity” initiative two weeks ago. The rapid reversal is a sign of a resurgent moderate wing of urban politics — and of a growing anxiety among Democrats that they are losing their traditional status as the party the public trusts on education.

There are many dimensions to this issue, but central to it is the idea that “equity” in education has come to be code for low standards and a lack of rigour. The proposal itself included ideas like making it easier for students to retake tests, excluding factors like lateness and participation for final grades, excluding consideration of homework from grades and relying on “summative” testing to assess student learning.

Grading for equity sparks intense controversy wherever it pops up, because it sounds to many parents like simply giving up on education and standards for school performance. An indication that Democrats are taking it seriously is the reaction of representative Ro Khanna of California, whose Silicon Valley district doesn’t even include San Francisco.

He teed off on an aspect of the proposal that would lower the bar for what it took to get a grade of A, observing that when he scored 90% on a test, “my immigrant dad asked me where the missing 10% went”. The idea of awarding As to students who average 80% and don’t do homework, he said, “betrays the American Dream and every parent who wants more for their kids”.

The case for grading for equity, it should be noted, is more nuanced than a simple lowering of standards. But make no mistake: There are inescapable trade-offs between the pursuit of excellence and a focus on purely egalitarian outcomes. There is also precious little evidence that faddish progressive ideas about equity actually improve things for students at the bottom.

The “equity” proposal starts with an observation that I sympathise with: When you give kids homework, especially younger kids, you are evaluating the parents as much as the students.

My 10-year-old attends a public school in a once-poor, now increasingly affluent gentrifying neighbourhood. The school recognises that the kids come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, and as a result does not assign that much homework — and the homework it does assign doesn’t count for much.

Taking extra time to practise out of class is important for a child’s learning. But as an assessment tool, it is mostly telling you about the home environment rather than the child. The “equity” perspective on this makes sense to me. What’s more, given the ongoing rise of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and other digital technologies, the whole concept of homework probably needs to be rethought.

All that said, the equity framework doesn’t adequately address the problem.

Go back to Khanna’s comment. His point — and I think most people would agree — is that it is good that the elder Khanna held his son to high standards. It is genuinely unfortunate that not all parents can be as focused and disciplined about this sort of thing, whether because they have to work, have other family obligations or simply aren’t interested. It is important to create positive incentives for both children and their parents to take education seriously and apply themselves.

Meanwhile, the hypothetical student envisioned by the grading for equity movement — the kid who fails to turn in work on time all year but performs well on year-end assessments — seems largely hypothetical. And if she does exist, it’s because she’s a prodigy who could probably be doing even better if she were challenged to do consistent hard work.

It’s hard when a student gets a negative evaluation based on family circumstances outside their control. But many academic assessments evaluate students on the basis of innate talents that are also outside their control. For students to learn, they need rigorous assessments. And the whole point of such assessments is to make distinctions among students, a concept that is fundamentally at odds with a focus on equity.

The good news is that acknowledging this trade-off doesn’t have to mean short-changing the most disadvantaged students. In fact, the best success stories for low-income kids — whether the “Mississippi Miracle” in reading or the high-performing charter schools — emphasise discipline and old-fashioned educational fundamentals. These policies don’t necessarily generate “equity” — some kids still do much better than others. But they do deliver better results for kids at the bottom. During the No Child Left Behind era, when Congress held schools accountable for poor kids’ results, the “achievement gap” didn’t actually close because students up and down the spectrum did better. After Congress reversed course on accountability in 2015, results for everyone got worse, even as progressive jurisdictions started adopting increasingly esoteric equity strategies.

Sometimes it’s necessary to state the obvious: Every kid is different, as is every family. The best schools make rigorous assessments and hold students to high standards — and while their outcomes won’t be fully equitable, they’ll be better for disadvantaged kids than those of dysfunctional schools. — Bloomberg

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition

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News World

Highways reach 70°C as heatwave bakes China to the US

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Tourists shield themselves from the sun with umbrellas during a heatwave in Beijing on May 19 (pic: Bloomberg)

Rising temperatures threaten food supplies, power and economies across three continents

IN NORTHERN China, road surfaces have soared to 70°C. In California’s Central Valley, temperatures are reaching above 40°C. Across much of Spain, the mercury has risen so high that it’s prompting warnings for tourists.

Weeks before the official start of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, signs are emerging that the coming months will be blistering in North America, Europe and Asia. There’s even a chance that the season could shatter global high-temperature records, said Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The scorching conditions threaten to tax power grids, wilt crops and send energy prices soaring across three continents. Hot, dry weather is also elevating the risk of wildfires, with blazes already erupting in Alberta, the epicentre of Canada’s oil industry. The human and economic consequences are dire: Extreme heat is expected to inflict about US$200 billion (RM940 billion) in annual losses in the US alone by 2030, a number that will more than double by 2050, according to one estimate.

All three northern continents face sweltering temperatures fueled by climate change — particularly the western and central US and Canada, as well as western and northern Europe, Swain said. Because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, these regions will also see areas of intense rain and flooding, he said.

“I’d expect to see further instances of extreme to record-shattering downpours and flood events in regions prone to heavy precipitation during the warm season,” Swain said.

In the Atlantic, the heat is raising ocean temperatures, boosting the odds of an unusually active hurricane season. The absence of El Niño, a warming of the equatorial Pacific that can cause storm-wrecking wind conditions across the Atlantic, also means more hurricanes and tropical storms may develop and grow in the Atlantic and Caribbean, including oil and gas (O&G)-producing areas along the US Gulf Coast.

From 1980 to 2024, tropical storms and hurricanes caused more than US$1.5 trillion worth of damage and killed at least 7,211 people in the US, according to the National Centres for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Due to kinks in the summer jet stream, there is a rising chance of derechos — wide arcs of severe thunderstorms that can travel hundreds of miles and cause billions of dollars in damage — across the Midwest and northern Plains, said Paul Pastelok, lead US long-range forecaster at AccuWeather Inc. This turmoil across the continent may also leave the Gulf Coast, particularly Texas, vulnerable to more hurricane strikes.

The sizzling weather will increase energy demand. About 89 million people across three grids spanning parts of the central US are at elevated risk of power supply shortfalls this summer, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC). Power prices across the grid stretching from Chicago to the Mid-Atlantic are likely to rise with sustained heat because of low coal stockpiles, Bank of America analysts led by Francisco Blanch wrote in a note to clients. New England power is also vulnerable to spikes, the analysts said.

US natural gas price gains have

been muted so far despite the prospect of hot weather and rising exports of the power-plant fuel to Europe and Asia. But the chances of gas reaching US$4.60 per million British thermal units this year — a jump of more than 30% from current levels — are rising as the heat could limit stockpile increases, leaving the market primed for a rally before winter heating demand kicks in, according to analysts with RBC Capital Markets LLC led by Christopher Louney.

Extreme heat also threatens to wither crops and shrivel rivers, raising food prices as the cost of goods and services remains elevated. Drought has been intensifying in areas of the US where soy, corn or wheat is grown. If the parched conditions persist, water levels on the Mississippi River could drop, roiling barge traffic that’s crucial to transporting crops across the country.

Dry Europe

Across Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, little rainfall and early drying has set the stage for intense heat waves, droughts and dangerous wildfire conditions, commercial meteorologists and government forecasters say.

Forecast models favour high-pressure weather patterns emerging and enduring this summer, similar to ones that

plagued the continent during the first few months of the year. Those patterns suppressed wind speeds and cloud cover, leading to low wind generation and record solar power in Europe — a scenario likely to repeat this summer, according to Atmospheric G2 (AG2).

The high pressure is also likely to block North Atlantic ocean moisture, boosting the risk of heat waves and worsening drought, said Andrew Pedrini, a meteorologist with the weather analytics firm.

“I personally fear that we will hear a lot about extremes this summer,” he said.

In Portugal and Spain last two weeks, one of the hottest air masses in more than three decades pushed in from Africa, sending temperatures above 40°C. The heat comes after an April 28 blackout left the Iberian Peninsula without electricity for hours, hitting public transport, telecommunications systems and other services.

With high pressure isolating regions from the cooling effect of moist westerly winds, temperatures in central and southern Europe could climb especially high. While that pattern is expected to reduce the chances of rain, rising heat could supercharge storms that do manage to form with torrential rain and damaging hail.

Though water levels on the Rhine River have improved after rains in recent weeks, a recurrence of drought could upend a crucial trade route and send barge rates soaring.

Long-term forecast models show conditions could support heavy rain in western Norway and the Northern UK from June through August, according to data from Europe’s Copernicus satellite programme.

Asia Outlook

In Asia, Japan will likely have a warmer-than-normal summer, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). SouthEast Asia (SE Asia) will also be hotter than average, the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre said.

China, with the exception of some far northern areas, is expected to bake this June as well, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said. Drought in the northern part of the country has hit the wheat crop during a key growth period, threatening output of a staple food grain just as Beijing remains entangled in a trade war with the US, a major agricultural products supplier.

Though rains are forecast in the region, providing some relief to the parched farm fields, the quick swing from dry to wet raises the risk of floods, landslides and crop damage.

Already, intense heat in parts of China has sent asphalt temperatures surging. The National Energy Administration expects peak electricity demand to be about 100- gigawatt (GW) higher this summer than last year, the equivalent of needing to turn on all the power plants in the UK at once.

Across the Northern Hemisphere, the extreme heat is a reflection of how much warmer the Earth is compared with a few decades ago, Swain said. Since 1959, Europe in particular, but parts of the Pacific Northwest, northeastern Canada, as well as parts of Mexico, Africa and the Middle East have seen a marked increase in summer heat.

“An increase in heat extremes is the most obvious symptom of climate change,” said Karen McKin- non, a professor who studies the statistics behind climate change at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “Even seemingly small changes in temperatures of a few degrees can make summers feel substantially more extreme.” — Bloomberg

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PR Newswire

Norfolk Southern board of directors elects Richard Anderson as chair

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ATLANTA, June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Norfolk Southern Corporation’s (NYSE: NSC) Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Richard H. Anderson, the former CEO and Executive Chairman of Delta Air Lines, President of Optum Health, CEO of Northwest Airlines, and most recently President and CEO of Amtrak, as the independent chair of the board, effective immediately. Anderson has served on Norfolk Southern’s board since May of 2024.

Norfolk Southern Corporation Logo (PRNewsfoto/Norfolk Southern Corporation)

Anderson will also serve as chair of the Executive Committee and the Strategy & Planning Committee.

In addition, Jack Huffard, co-founder and director of Tenable Holdings, Inc., has been appointed as chair of the Compensation and Talent Management Committee. These appointments are also effective immediately.

The board has agreed to reduce its size to 12 members and remaining committee chairs will continue in their existing positions.

“Since the very beginning of his time on our board, Richard has contributed deep, experience-based business insight and a collaborative style that has helped drive cohesion among the newly-constituted Board,” said Mark George, President and CEO of Norfolk Southern. “I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to build on Norfolk Southern’s strong momentum, advance our strategic priorities, and deliver long-term value for our shareholders, customers, and employees.”

Anderson said, “During my year on the board, I’ve seen firsthand how the Norfolk Southern team has propelled the company forward — delivering strong performance for stakeholders and becoming an even safer, more efficient railroad. Alongside the management team and dedicated employees, the board remains focused on delivering value for all our stakeholders.”

More about Richard H. Anderson is available at norfolksouthern.investornewsroom.com

About Norfolk Southern 
Since 1827, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) and its predecessor companies have safely moved the goods and materials that drive the U.S. economy. Today, it operates a 22-state freight transportation network. Committed to furthering sustainability, Norfolk Southern helps its customers avoid approximately 15 million tons of yearly carbon emissions by shipping via rail. Its dedicated team members deliver approximately 7 million carloads annually, from agriculture to consumer goods. Norfolk Southern also has the most extensive intermodal network in the eastern U.S. It serves a majority of the country’s population and manufacturing base, with connections to every major container port on the Atlantic coast as well as major ports across the Gulf Coast and Great Lakes. Learn more by visiting www.NorfolkSouthern.com.

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SOURCE Norfolk Southern Corporation

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PR Newswire

Blue Acquisition Corp. Announces the Pricing of $175,000,000 Initial Public Offering

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NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Blue Acquisition Corp. (the “Company”) announced today the pricing of its initial public offering of 17,500,000 units at a price of $10.00 per unit. The units are expected to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Market (“Nasdaq”) and begin trading tomorrow, June 13, 2025, under the ticker symbol “BACCU.” Each unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one right (the “Share Right”) to receive one tenth (1/10) of one Class A ordinary share upon the consummation of an initial business combination. There are no warrants issued publicly or privately in connection with this offering. Once the securities constituting the units begin separate trading, the Class A ordinary shares and Share Rights are expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the symbols “BACC” and “BACCR,” respectively. The offering is expected to close on June 16, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. The Company has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,650,000 units at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments, if any.

The Company is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, amalgamation, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Although the Company may pursue an initial business combination in any business or industry, it intends to focus on identifying a business combination target within a manufacturing company or data center that aligns with green energy initiatives and sustainable industrial practices, as well as software development in emerging technologies like AI, Cybersecurity and energy management.

The Company’s management team is led by Ketan Seth, its Chief Executive Officer and a director, and David Bauer, its Chief Financial Officer and a director. In addition, the Board includes General (Ret.) Wesley Clark, Dino Dario Ferrari, DR. Kenneth Moritsugu, and Nadim Qureshi. Glenn Hill, Mina Janeska and Francisco de Borbon Graf von Hardenberg are Special Advisors to the Company.

BTIG, LLC is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering and Roberts & Ryan, Inc. is co-manager.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the prospectus may be obtained from BTIG, LLC, Attention: 65 East 55th Street, New York, New York 10022, or by email at [email protected], or by accessing the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov.

A registration statement relating to the securities has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and became effective on June 12, 2025. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements,” including with respect to the proposed initial public offering and search for an initial business combination. No assurance can be given that the offering discussed above will be completed on the terms described, or at all, or that the net proceeds will be used as indicated.

Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s registration statement and preliminary prospectus for the Company’s initial public offering filed with the SEC. Copies of these documents are available on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.

Company Contact:

Blue Acquisition Corp
1601 Anita Lane
Newport Beach CA, 92660-4803
Attn: Ketan Seth, CEO
[email protected]
[email protected]
(646) 543-5060

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SOURCE Blue Acquisition Corp.

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PR Newswire

Santacruz Silver Reports First Quarter 2025 Results

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VANCOUVER, BC, June 12, 2025 /CNW/ – Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. (TSXV:SCZ) (OTCQB:SCZMF) (FSE:1SZ) (“Santacruz” or the “Company”) reports its financial and operating results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025 (“Q1 2025”). The full version of the Q1 2025 financial statements (“Financial Statements”) and accompanying Management’s Discussion and Analysis (the “MD&A”) can be viewed on the Company’s website at www.santacruzsilver.com or on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Q1 2025 Highlights

Revenues of $70.3 million, a 34% increase year-over-year.
Gross Profit of $27.9 million, a 6882% increase year-over-year.
Net Income of $9.5 million, a 93% decrease year-over-year¹.
Adjusted EBITDA of $27.5 million, a 2202% increase year-over-year.
Cash and cash equivalents of $32.5 million, a 706% increase year-over-year.
Working Capital of $51.7 million, a 7530% increase year-over-year.
Cash cost per silver equivalent ounce sold ($/oz) of $17.84, a 16% decrease year-over-year.
AISC per silver equivalent ounce sold of $22.34, a 8% decrease year-over-year.
Silver Equivalent Ounces produced of 3,688,129, a 5% decrease year-over-year².

___________________________

1. The decrease in Net Income is related to an extraordinary gain recorded in Q1 2024 from the adjustment to the consideration payable. Please refer to Note 10 of the financial statements for further details.

2. The Full Q1 2025 production results were released in a news release dated June 9, 2025.

Arturo Préstamo, Executive Chairman and CEO of Santacruz, commented: “Q1 2025 represents a strong beginning to the year, reflecting our continued emphasis on operational efficiency and financial discipline. We achieved a notable year-over-year improvement in profitability and cash generation, with gross profit, and adjusted EBITDA all registering substantial growth. These results underscore the strength, flexibility, and scalability of Santacruz’s business model. We remain firmly focused on driving long-term value through disciplined capital allocation and a commitment to safety and operational excellence.”

Mr. Préstamo continued, “We maintained a strong liquidity position at quarter-end, closing with $33 million in cash and cash equivalents. This was achieved despite a $10 million payment under the voluntary acceleration plan and the settlement of more than $19 million of 2024 current income tax. These outcomes reflect the strength of our underlying cash flows and our prudent approach to financial management, which continue to support our strategic priorities as we strengthen our balance sheet integrity. Backed by a seasoned team in Mexico, Bolivia, and Canada, along with a flexible and efficient operating model and a strong track record of execution, we are well-positioned to take advantage of today´s metal prices and keep delivering sustainable, long-term value for our shareholders.”

Selected consolidated financial and operating information for Q1 2025 and Q1 2024 and Q4 2024 are presented below. All financial information is prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”), and all dollar amounts are expressed in thousands of US dollars, except per unit amounts, unless otherwise noted.

2025 First Quarter Highlights (CNW Group/Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.)

2025 First Quarter Production and Costs per Mine (CNW Group/Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.)

Production

In Q1 2025, the Company processed 471,773 tonnes of ore, producing 3,688,129 silver equivalent ounces. This total includes 1,590,063 ounces of silver and 20,719 tonnes of zinc.

Q1 2025 vs Q4 2024

In Q1 2025, ore processed was slightly lower than in Q4 2024, reflecting the typical seasonal slowdown, particularly across Bolivian operations, as well as scheduled mine sequencing and temporary constraints that modestly impacted throughput. Notably, Zimapán had a 3% increase in processed mineralized material, supported by sustained operational efficiency and continuous optimization efforts. Silver equivalent production was 10% lower, primarily due to reduced head grades and throughput. Silver output declined by 10%, while zinc production was 11% lower, consistent with the expected mine plan for the quarter. Despite these lower volumes, the Company remained focused on maximizing margins by prioritizing higher-silver-content zones. With temporary constraints now resolved and silver prices trending favorably, operations are well-positioned to deliver strong cash flow generation throughout the year.

Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024

In Q1 2025, consolidated operational performance remained stable year-over-year, with total tonnes processed virtually unchanged compared to Q1 2024. Silver equivalent production was 5% lower, reflecting the impact of temporary operational constraints and expected ore body variability at certain Bolivian operations. Despite these factors, silver output remained flat, supported by higher silver head grades at key operations and improved metallurgical recoveries, particularly at the Caballo Blanco Group. Zinc production decreased by 9%, primarily due to lower throughput and head grades at Porco and Caballo Blanco, partially offset by strong results at Zimapán, where zinc output rose 23% year-over-year. Zimapán also led overall growth, increasing material processed by 9% and silver equivalent production by 14%, highlighting its operational improvements, as we develop and prepare level 960 now with all required underground equipment at site. The strategic reorganization of the Caballo Blanco and San Lucas, particularly the reallocation of Reserva mine’s output, also contributed to improved metallurgical efficiency and stable margins. These results highlight the flexibility provided by the Company’s diversified asset base and its focus on maximizing recoveries.

Cash Cost and All-in Sustaining Cost per Silver Equivalent Ounce Sold

Starting January 1, 2025, Bolivian operations adopted a new exchange rate methodology supported by IAS 21, replacing the fixed official rate (6.96 BOB/USD) with a market-based spot rate (average 12.20 BOB/USD) obtained from banks. Under IAS 21, entities should estimate a spot rate at which an orderly exchange transaction would take place between market participants under prevailing economic conditions. Recording BOB denominated transactions in USD using the market-based rate, provides a more accurate representation of the economic reality of the underlying transactions.

Q1 2025 vs Q4 2024

Costs improved notably in Q1 2025 when compared to Q4 2024, with consolidated cash cost and AISC per silver equivalent ounce sold decreasing to $17.84 and $22.34, respectively, from $22.38 and $27.83. This improvement was mainly driven by the Bolivian operations (Bolívar, Porco, Caballo Blanco, and San Lucas) which reported significant reductions across all cost metrics. Caballo Blanco Group saw the most considerable improvements. In contrast, Zimapan’s AISC increased from $27.13 to $34.32/oz, as a significant portion of its annual capital budget was deployed during Q1 to accelerate key investments aimed at increasing future production at Carrizal mine level 960.

Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024

Compared to Q1 2024, there were substantial cost improvements during Q1 2025. Consolidated cash cost decreased from $21.19 to $17.84/oz, and AISC from $24.27 to $22.34/oz. The most notable improvements came from Caballo Blanco, where AISC dropped significantly due to better metallurgical performance as a consequence of achieving improvements and efficiencies at underground and milling operations. Zimapán, however, recorded an increase in AISC to $34.32/oz (from $22.59), as a substantial portion of its budgeted CAPEX was executed in Q1 to bring forward investments that support higher production in upcoming quarters at Carrizal mine at level 960.

Webinar Details

CEO Arturo Préstamo and Interim CFO Andrés Bedregal will present at a webinar hosted by Adelaide Capital on Thursday, June 19th at 2:00 pm ET. Investors and shareholders are invited to participate in the webinar.

Registration Link: https://streamyard.com/watch/FayzTiuRwtTm.

The webinar will also be live-streamed on the Adelaide Capital YouTube Channel, where a replay will be available after the event: https://bit.ly/adcap-youtube.

Questions can be submitted during the session or in advance to [email protected].

Qualified Person

Qualified Person Garth Kirkham P.Geo. an independent consultant to the Company, is a qualified person under NI 43-101 and has approved the scientific and technical information contained within this news release.

About Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.

Santacruz Silver is engaged in the operation, acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties across Latin America. In Bolivia, the Company operates the Bolivar, Porco, and Caballo Blanco mining complexes, with Caballo Blanco comprising the Tres Amigos and Colquechaquita mines. The Reserva mine, whose production is provided to the San Lucas ore sourcing and trading business, is also located in Bolivia. Additionally, the Company oversees the Soracaya exploration project. In Mexico, Santacruz operates the Zimapán mine.

Non-GAAP Measures

The financial results in this news release include references to non-GAAP measures, which include Cash Cost of Production per Tonne, Cash Cost per Silver Equivalent Ounce Sold, All-in Sustaining Cash Cost per Silver Equivalent Ounce Sold, Average Realized Price per Ounce of Silver Equivalent Sold, and Adjusted EBITDA. These measures are widely used in the mining industry as a benchmark for performance but do not have a standardized meaning and may differ from methods used by other companies with similar descriptions. The data is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP and GAAP measures, please refer to the “Non-GAAP Measures” section in the Company’s Q1 2025 Management Discussion and Analysis, which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

‘signed’
Arturo Préstamo Elizondo,
Executive Chairman and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Information

This news release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of the management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “intends”, “expects” or “anticipates”, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “should”, “would” or will “potentially” or “likely” occur. This information and these statements, referred to herein as “forward-looking statements”, are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, statements regarding the Company’s payment of the Acceleration Option.

These forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, risks that the Company may not have sufficient funds to exercise the Acceleration Option, risks related to changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets, changes in applicable laws, and compliance with extensive government regulation, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company’s disclosure documents filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedarplus.ca.

There can be no assurance that any forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information or statements, other than as required by applicable law.

Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. logo (CNW Group/Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.)

SOURCE Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.

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