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The best Blu-ray players in 2024 make it easy to catch up on your favorite shows

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Best Blu-ray Players

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Physical media is far from dead. In fact, it’s a better time than ever to own your favorite TV series and movies, given that they often disappear from streaming services in the blink of an eye. So if you’re someone who collects Blu-ray discs for your home theater setup, you’re going to want to start with a great Blu-ray player first.

A great Blu-ray player can make all the difference when it comes to getting the most out of what you watch. With the advent of 4K and HDR, they’ve evolved to deliver crisp, crystal clear picture and sound quality. So no matter what you buy on Blu-ray, you can enjoy it to the fullest at home with the right player. 

But which Blu-ray player should you bring home? Whether you’re a casual viewer or a dedicated film fan, we’ve rounded up some picks.


The best Blu-ray players in 2024


Best Blu-ray player: Panasonic DP-UB820 

Panasonic DP-UB820

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If you’re looking for the best Blu-ray player for most users, look no further than the Panasonic DMP-UB820. This player has a nice balance of features, performance and value. That makes it the best choice for just about everyone who needs a Blu-ray player. 

It has full HDR support for vibrant colors, sharp textures and accurate black tones. Even when you play standard, non-4K Blu-ray or DVD discs, this player’s upscaling ability sharpens and enhances picture quality so it’s almost like seeing your favorites come to life in a new way. It also has Dolby Atmos support so it can fill your room with loud, clear sound. 

Aside from connecting it directly to your TV or stereo system, it can use Wi-Fi for video streaming and even has a dedicated HDMI audio output for even higher-quality sound. That means it should mesh well with just about any setup you have going on in your living room with little muss or fuss. 


Best premium Blu-ray player: Panasonic DP-UB9000

Panasonic DP-UB9000

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If you want the absolute best in home entertainment and have an elite home theater setup, the Panasonic DP-UB9000 is the ultimate 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player. Yes, it’s pricey, and that’s because it’s for the most elite cinephile. That’s why everything about it says “luxury” in many ways.

The heavy metal build and premium design make it clear that this player is in a class of its own. It supports all the key HDR formats, including HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision. You can also count on it for fantastic audio quality. With high-quality DACs, two-channel and 7.1-channel analogue outputs as well as support for Hi-Res Audio, this player has you covered in terms of audio. To top it all off, the DP-UB9000 comes packed with plenty of smart features.

This level of performance doesn’t come cheap, so you’ll absolutely be paying a pretty penny. But if quality is of the utmost importance to you, this is the Blu-ray player of your dreams.


Best budget Blu-ray player: Sony UBP-X700

Sony UBP-X700

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Don’t want to spend an entire paycheck on a Blu-ray player? You don’t need to. The Sony UBP-X700 is an affordable player offers an impressive array of features and performance that belies its budget-friendly price point.

Its exceptional picture quality may come as a surprise, given that this player is so afforable. But whether you’re watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster or a classic film, this Blu-ray player can offer a great-looking picture that you can be proud of, even if you’re watching only top-of-the-line 4K releases.

It supports multiple HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10, ensuring that you can enjoy the widest possible range of 4K content. While it doesn’t support HDR10+, this omission is hardly a dealbreaker considering the player’s affordable price point. Despite not being marketed as a hi-res audio player, the UBP-X700 can even play high-resolution audio files and supports various formats such as WAV and FLAC.

For less than $200, you really can’t do better than this Blu-ray player, so be sure to grab it if you want to have high quality at a low price. 


Best Blu-ray player and console combo: PlayStation 5 Slim

PlayStation 5 Slim

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If you need to play Blu-ray discs but want a multifunction player to handle it, you can’t go wrong with a PlayStation 5, namely the PS5 Slim, which means you can play movies as well as video games from the same device.

As a 4K Blu-ray player, the PS5 Slim is a great space-saving option for anyone who loves video games, movies and TV. It lets you enjoy your favorite movies and TV shows in high definition, then switch over to the latest and greatest games without having to get up and change the disc out given the PS5 Slim’s spacious hard drive.

You don’t need a remote since you can use the included DualSense controller, and given that there are tons of new games always releasing in tandem with films and TV, you can kill two birds with one stone with this device. Plus, you’ll have more space free, without having to have both gaming console and Blu-ray player. 




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Faulty or nonconforming parts go missing at Boeing, whistleblower says | 60 Minutes

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Most of you watching tonight have probably flown on an airplane made by the Boeing Company. That’s why you may have been more than a little rattled when a panel blew off the side of one of its airplanes in January, leaving a gaping hole and a lot of questions for the renowned American company.

Since then, four federal investigations have been launched and Boeing hired a new CEO to quote “restore trust.”

But that hasn’t stopped a steady stream of Boeing whistleblowers from coming forward. The FAA says over the last year, it’s received more than 200 reports from whistleblowers. Their safety concerns include mismanagement of parts, poor manufacturing and sloppy inspections at Boeing. 

You’re about to hear from some of those whistleblowers. They told us why they weren’t surprised when a Boeing airplane blew open in the Oregon sky.

This was the view from the cabin thousands of feet above Portland. for 14 terrifying minutes…nothing stood between the 177 people on the Alaska Airlines flight and the cold evening sky. 

The distress call came shortly after take off when a panel over an exit that’s only opened for maintenance…called a door plug…blew off three miles above the ground.

The plane…a Boeing 737-9 Max, just a few months old, landed safely and remarkably, no one was seriously injured. 

A month later, the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation revealed four bolts required to secure the “Max’s” door plug were removed during production at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington and never reinstalled.

Boeing says it can’t find any paperwork to explain how a plane left the factory broken.

Sam Mohawk works at that Renton factory. This is his first television interview. 

Sam Mohawk
Sam Mohawk

60 Minutes


Sharyn Alfonsi: So in January when you heard about the lost door plug incident? What was your reaction?

Sam Mohawk: Um I was not surprised. I was almost expecting something to happen. I was actually happy that it wasn’t a cata–catastrophic event that took down an airplane. That kind of put visibility, what was going on internally out to the public. 

Mohawk has worked for Boeing for 13 years on three different airplane programs. Months before the door plug incident, Mohawk says he warned Boeing and federal regulators about lapses in safety practices inside the Renton factory, which makes about 30% of the world’s commercial jet fleet. 

Sam Mohawk: The idea is to keep those airplanes moving, keep that line moving at all costs.

Sharyn Alfonsi: At all costs?

Sam Mohawk: At all costs.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Even safety?

Sam Mohawk: Unfortunately, yes. Yeah.

Mohawk says he started noticing problems during COVID when Boeing was ramping up production and dealing with supply chain issues.

Part of his job as a quality investigator is keeping track of defective airplane parts in what employees call quote “the parts jail.”

Sharyn Alfonsi: Why parts jail?

Sam Mohawk: Because they’re supposed to be under lock and key. And it’s supposed to be, like, a chain of evidence. We’re we’re following that whole part to make sure that that is not a bad part going to the back to the airplane.

But Mohawk says in an effort to keep production moving, some Boeing employees sidestepped protocol and took bad parts out of “the parts jail” when his team wasn’t looking.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Where do you think the parts are going?

Sam Mohawk: There’s so much chaos in that factory that um there’s a desperation for parts. Because we have problems with our parts suppliers. So, there’s, in order to get the plane built and out the door in time, I think unfortunately some of those parts were recycled back onto the airplanes in– in order to build keep building the airplane and not stop it in production.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You think that the faulty parts could be on Boeing airplanes?

Sam Mohawk: Yes, I do. yeah.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Are you talking about a couple bad parts being put on a plane, or is this happening repeatedly?

Sam Mohawk: I think it’s happening repeatedly. We have thousands of missing parts.

And it’s not just bolts but rudders, one of the primary tools for steering an airplane. Mohawk says 42 flawed or “non-conforming” rudders – that he says would likely not last the 30 year lifespan of a jet – went missing.

Sam Mohawk: Those parts came into the– our system. They’re huge parts. And they just completely went missing. Somebody, not through our group, moved all those parts away.

Sharyn Alfonsi: If they’re using non-conforming parts and they’re putting them on airplanes, what’s the concern?

Sam Mohawk: I think without a proper investigation it could– it could lead to a catastrophic event. It might not happen within the first year, but down the road they’re not gonna last the lifetime that they’re expected to last. It’s like Russian roulette, you know? You don’t know if it’s gonna go down or not.

Sam Mohawk’s story echoes another Boeing whistleblower, at another Boeing plant, John Barnett. He appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” in 2019. 

John Barnett spent three decades at Boeing. In 2010, he began working as a quality manager on the long haul 787 Dreamliner at the company’s South Carolina factory.

Barnett said managers there pressured workers to ignore FAA regulations such as not tracking defective parts properly, then retaliated against him for speaking up. Claims Boeing denies.

In 2017, he retired and reached out to Rob Turkewitz, a Charleston attorney who’s worked with dozens of Boeing employees over the last decade.

Rob Turkewitz
Rob Turkewitz

60 Minutes


Rob Turkewitz: John Barnett walked into my office and told me about what was goin’ on. And I asked him, I said, “Do you have documents? And he said, “Actually I do.” He said, “I’ve got thousands of documents.”

 

Turkewitz says Barnett had more than 3,000 internal documents, emails and photos from Boeing to support his whistleblower claim. Seven years later, John Barnett was in the final stretch of his case.

Rob Turkewitz: I think that John Barnett was probably the best witness I have ever seen testify. He knew the facts up and down. And the defense lawyer objected and said, “He’s– he’s not even looking at the documents.” And if I remember right, John said, “I don’t need to. I live this.”

Sharyn Alfonsi: He knew every detail of his case.

Rob Turkewitz: Absolutely.

John Barnett was scheduled to complete his final day of depositions on March 9 of this year.

Rob Turkewitz: And I tried calling John to see if he needed a ride and, you know, let him know I could pick him up at the hotel. And I got no answer. And when I got to the deposition at about 10 o’clock, he didn’t show up. 

He drove to John Barnett’s hotel and learned the 62-year-old was dead inside his truck with what police said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Turkewitz called John Barnett’s family, brothers Rodney, Robby, Michael and mom, Vicki.

Vicki: He was used to people caring and listening, and if somethin’ was wrong, they fixed it. And when he started in Charleston, that wasn’t the case. And he would try to go to his boss, who would not listen. And I guess that’s when he felt under siege, you know. He would be embarrassed at meetings.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What did the fight do to him?

Michael: He put up a good front with us, but you, you know, times when we really had heart-to-heart conversations, you could tell it just wore on him. You know, I’d ask him, “Why do you want to– why do you just keep pursuing it?” And he’s just, like, “Cause it’s the right thing to do. Who else is gonna do it?”

The Barnett family
The Barnett family

60 Minutes


The Barnett family is continuing John’s legal fight. His death inspired other Boeing workers to speak up.

One of them is Merle Meyers. He worked with John Barnett years ago.

Merle Meyers: When the stories came out about how he was treated by managers, some of whom I knew, I was really angry. And um he was just a really, uh, solid airplane man.

Meyers began his 30-year career at Boeing as a parts inspector. He was working as a quality manager at the company’s largest plant in Everett, Washington before he left last year.

He says his concerns first began in 2015, after he discovered defective 787 landing gear axles that had been scrapped were taken by workers and brought back to the factory.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Why were they just taking things?

Merle Meyers: Schedule driven. So that’s– that’s really, um, that’s the order of the day.

Sharyn Alfonsi: They needed a part, they didn’t wanna wait for it?

Merle Meyers: Right. Right.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What condition were these landing gear axles in?

Merle Meyers: They were corroded beyond, uh, repair.

In these photos provided to 60 Minutes, the axles are spray painted red. Meyers says he learned scrap parts marked like this had been taken without authorization for over a decade. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: If the faulty parts are spray-painted red, would you be able to look at a part on a plane and go, “that’s faulty?” Are they still red when they get on the plane?

Merle Meyers: Yeah, or it, it would get cleaned up. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: How do they clean it up?

Merle Meyers: Well, just cleaner. You know, chemicals. Chemical cleaners. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: Like wash it off?

Merle Meyers: Uh-huh (affirm). Yeah.

Merle Meyers
Merle Meyers

60 Minutes


Boeing says it thoroughly investigated Meyers’ claims and that the defective axles did not make it onto airplanes. But Meyers says the competition for airplane parts continued.

Merle Meyers: And they would talk openly about it at the stand-up meetings, senior managers– that– that flap on that plane ahead of mine is supposed to be on mine, and that was taken by a competing manager. So managers compete.

Sharyn Alfonsi: So they’re fighting for faulty parts?

Merle Meyers: Yeah. And good parts. They’re not too picky.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Wow. 

Merle Meyers: Yeah. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: And they talked about that openly?

Merle Meyers: Uh-huh (affirm). Yeah. And vice presidents would attend that meeting often, and they would hear this and do nothing about it.

Sam Salehpour might have more reason than anyone to do something about it. He’s worked in aerospace as an engineer for 40 years.

Sam Salehpour: I come from a Space Shuttle background. I don’t know if you’d remember the Challenger explosion, where we lost seven people. Ever since that explosion I have promised myself, “If I see problems that they are concerning, or safety-related, I am gonna speak up until my face is blue.”

Salehpour works on the 777 line in Everett. He says when the jet is assembled, pre-drilled holes are supposed to line up to join pieces together. When they didn’t, Salehpour told federal investigators he observed Boeing employees trying to make them line up.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What were people doing to get the holes to align? 

Sam Salehpour: Force. Crane forces, people jumpin’ up and down to align the holes.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Jumping up and down?

Sam Salehpour: Yeah. They were jumping up and down like this. When I see people are jumpin’ up and down like that to align the hole, I’m sayin’, “We have a problem.”

Sharyn Alfonsi: What happens then if you’ve got that pressure on these parts?

Sam Salehpour: That’s like going one time more on your paperclip, okay? And we know that paper clip doesn’t break the first time, the second time, the third time. But it may be breaking’ on you the 30th or the 40th time.

Sam Salehoupour
Sam Salehpour

60 Minutes


Sharyn Alfonsi: You’re saying this is– was happening over and over again?

Sam Salehpour: It’s still happenin’ right now. Even right now it’s still happening.

In a statement to 60 Minutes, Boeing said it carefully investigates all quality and safety concerns, including those of the whistleblowers we spoke to, telling us:

“Some of their feedback contributed to improvements…and other issues they raised were not accurate. Based on investigations over several years, none of their claims were found to affect airplane safety.”

Sharyn Alfonsi: NTSB safety reports show Boeing plane accident numbers have declined over two decades, that they’re safer than they’ve ever been.

Sam Mohawk: Yeah.

Sharyn Alfonsi: How do you view that?

Sam Mohawk: Right now the MAX is a new program. So these airplanes that are having the quality issues are brand new to the fleet. We don’t know what’s gonna be coming in the future.

Workers at the Renton factory…where they make the Max….. returned to work last month after a 7-week strike… but the FAA says- they  have not resumed production and are focused on training and quote “making sure they have the supply chain sorted out.” Sam Mohawk still works there.

In June, he filed a federal whistleblower claim to protect him from possible retaliation.

Sam Mohawk: I put a big target on my back in there.

Sharyn Alfonsi: So why’d you do it?

Sam Mohawk: ‘Cause I’m concerned with safety. Like, at the end of the day my fam– my friends and family fly on these airplanes.

The FAA is still investigating Sam Mohawk’s claims along with hundreds of others related to the Boeing company. 

Produced by Lucy Hatcher. Associate Producer, Jessica Kegu. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Robert Zimet.



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Boeing missing parts situation like “Russian roulette,” whistleblower says | 60 Minutes

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When a panel known as a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight minutes after takeoff earlier this year,  a quality investigator at the factory where the Boeing plane was manufactured says he wasn’t surprised; he said he  was almost expecting something like this would happen. 

Whistleblower Sam Mohawk is speaking publicly for the first time about the problems he’s seen during his 13 years working in quality assurance at Boeing’s commercial airplane factories. Months before the door plug incident, Mohawk said he warned both Boeing and federal regulators about lapses in safety practices inside the company’s Renton, Washington factory, which is responsible for building about 30% of the world’s commercial jet fleet. Mohawk believes defective or “non-conforming” parts are not being properly tracked there and could be making it onto Boeing planes – a concern he said could lead to a catastrophic event without a proper investigation. 

“It might not happen within the first year, but down the road they’re not going to last the lifetime that they’re expected to last,” he said. “It’s like Russian roulette, you know? You don’t know if it’s going to go down or not.”

“A desperation for parts” at Boeing’s Renton factory 

A month after the Alaska Airlines incident, the National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded the four bolts required to secure the door plug that blew off the Boeing 737-9 Max were removed during production at that Renton facility and never reinstalled. After an extensive search, NTSB investigators determined the records to document the removal of those four bolts don’t exist.  Boeing said it can’t find any paperwork to explain how a plane left its factory without the bolts. 

Mohawk said he started noticing problems at the Renton facility during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Boeing was ramping up production and dealing with supply chain issues.

Sam Mohawk
Sam Mohawk

60 Minutes


“The idea is to keep those airplanes moving, keep that line moving at all costs,” he said. 

As a quality investigator, part of Mohawk’s job is to keep track of defective airplane parts in what some employees call “the parts jail.” It’s called that, Mohawk said, because the parts are meant to be under lock and key and tracked like a chain of evidence. But Mohawk says that amid pressure to keep production moving, some employees sidestepped Boeing protocol and took bad parts out of the “parts jail” when his team wasn’t looking.

Mohawk’s concern is that those bad or “non-conforming” parts he says are getting lost or taken, could be ending up on planes.

“There’s so much chaos in that factory,” Mohawk said. “There’s a desperation for parts. Because we have problems with our parts suppliers. So there’s, in order to get that plane built and out the door in time, I think unfortunately some of those parts were recycled back onto the airplanes in order to build, keep building the airplane and not stop it in production.”

Mohawk believes it’s happening repeatedly.

“We have thousands of missing parts,” he said. 

It’s not just parts like bolts that are going missing, according to Mowhawk, but also rudders, one of the primary tools for steering planes. Mohawk said 42 flawed or “non-conforming” rudders, which he says would likely not last the 30-year lifespan of a jet, have disappeared.. 

“They’re huge parts,” he said “And they just completely went missing.”

NTSB safety reports show the number of Boeing plane accidents has declined over the last two decades, but Mohawk is still concerned. 

“Right now, the Max is a new program,” he said. “So these airplanes that are having the quality issues are brand new to the fleet. We don’t know what’s going to be coming in the future.”

The Max line, certified by the FAA in 2017, has drawn scrutiny since its first year in service.

Workers at the Renton factory, where they make the Max, returned to work last month after a seven-week strike, but the FAA said production has still not resumed,  and Boeing is focused on training and making sure the factory has “the supply chain sorted out.” Mohawk still works there. In June, he filed a federal whistleblower claim to protect himself from potential retaliation. Mohawk also reported his concerns to the FAA, which is investigating his claims, and hundreds of others directed at the company. 

“I put a big target on my back in there,” he said.

Despite that, he felt it was important to come forward. 

“At the end of the day my friends and family fly on these airplanes,” he said.

Stories out of Renton echo those in Charleston

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, whistleblowers at Boeing submitted more than 200 reports over the last year. Their safety concerns include mismanagement of parts, poor manufacturing and sloppy inspections at Boeing. 

Mohawk’s story echoes another Boeing whistleblower at another Boeing plant, John Barnett. He spent three decades at Boeing and began working as a quality manager on the long-haul 787 Dreamliner at the company’s South Carolina factory in 2010.

Barnett said managers there pressured workers to ignore FAA regulations, such as not tracking defective parts properly. He said Boeing then retaliated against him for speaking up. Boeing has denied his claims. 

In 2017, Barnett retired and contacted Charleston attorney Rob Turkewitz, who’s worked with dozens of Boeing employees over the last decade. Turkewitz said Barnett had more than 3,000 internal documents — emails and photos from Boeing — to support his whistleblower claims. 

Rob Turkewitz
Rob Turkewitz

60 Minutes


Seven years later, Barnett was in the final stretch of his case. 

“I think that John Barnett was probably the best witness I have ever seen testify,” Turkewitz said. “He knew the facts up and down.”

Barnett was scheduled to complete his final day of depositions on March 9. He never showed. 

Turkewitz went to Barnett’s hotel to search for him and learned the 62-year-old whistleblower had been found dead inside his truck. Police said it was a suicide. 

Turkewitz called Barnett’s family, including his mom, Vicky Stokes, and his brothers, Rodney Barnett, Robby Barnett and Michael Barnett. 

The Barnett family
The Barnett family

60 Minutes


“He put up a good front with us, but you, you know, times when we really had heart-to-heart conversations, you could tell it just wore on him,” Michael Barnett said. “You know, I’d ask him, ‘Why do you want to — why do you just keep pursuing it?” And he’s just, like, ‘Because it’s the right thing to do. Who else is going to do it?'”

The Barnett family is continuing his legal fight. 

More Boeing workers speak up

Barnett’s death also inspired other Boeing workers to speak up. Merle Meyers, who’d worked with Barnett, said he was angry when he learned how Barnett was allegedly treated. 

Meyers started his 30-year career at Boeing as a parts inspector. He worked as a quality manager at the company’s largest plant, located in Everett, Washington, before he left last year. Meyers’ concerns first began in 2015, when he said he discovered defective 787 landing gear axles that had been scrapped, back at the factory.

“They were corroded beyond repair,” Meyers said. 

Meyers said workers, driven by schedule pressure, took the axles to avoid stalling production. 

Photos provided to 60 Minutes show the axles spray-painted red and clearly marked as “scrap.” Meyers said he learned scrap parts marked like this had been taken without authorization for over a decade. Sometimes people used chemical cleaners to remove the paint, Meyers said. 

Boeing says it thoroughly investigated Meyers’ claims and that the defective axles did not make it onto airplanes. But Meyers says the competition for airplane parts continued.

“They would talk openly about it at the stand-up meetings, senior managers,” Meyers said. 

Merle Meyers
Merle Meyers

60 Minutes


They’d compete for parts, both good and bad, he said. 

“They’re not too picky,” he said. 

Meyers alleges company vice presidents were at those meetings and would do nothing about what they heard. 

“Speak up until my face is blue”

Boeing employee Sam Salehpour worked in aerospace as an engineer for 40 years. Earlier in his career he worked on rockets, including for companies supporting the Challenger Space Shuttle, which exploded in 1986, killing seven people, though Salehpour didn’t work on the Challenger.

“Ever since that explosion I have promised myself, ‘If I see problems that they are concerning, or safety-related, I am going to speak up until my face is blue,'” Salehoupour said. 

He now works on the 777 line in the Everett factory, where Meyers worked. Salehpour says when the jet is assembled, pre-drilled holes are supposed to line up to join pieces together. Salehpour told federal investigators that when they didn’t, he witnessed Boeing employees trying to force them to line up. 

Sam Salehpour
Sam Salehpour

60 Minutes


“They were jumping up and down like this,” Salehpour said. “When I see people are jumping up and down like that to align the hole, I’m saying, ‘We have a problem.'”

Salehpour described how he believes that kind of pressure on parts could impact the lifespan of a plane.

“That’s like going one more time on your paperclip, OK? And we know that paper clip doesn’t break the first time, the second time, the third time,” Salehoupour said. “But it may be breaking on the 30th or the 40th time.”

Salehoupour alleges this is still happening at Boeing. 

Boeing responds to whistleblowers 

In a statement to 60 Minutes, Boeing said it carefully investigates all quality and safety concerns, including those of the whistleblowers 60 Minutes spoke with. Boeing said:

“Every day, thousands of Boeing airplanes take off and land around the world, and we are dedicated to the safety of all passengers and crew on board. Our employees are empowered and encouraged to report any concern with safety and quality. We carefully investigate every concern and take action to address any validated issue. 

The current and former Boeing employees interviewed by 60 Minutes previously shared their concerns with the company. We listened and carefully evaluated their claims, and we do not doubt their sincerity. Some of their feedback contributed to improvements in our factory processes, and other issues they raised were not accurate. But to be clear: Based on investigations over several years, none of their claims were found to affect airplane safety.

Commercial air travel is the safest form of transportation – and our industry continues improving its exceptional safety record – in part because people do speak up about potential issues. We encourage and welcome employees’ feedback and will continue to incorporate their ideas to make Boeing better.”



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Crypto industry flexed its political muscles in 2024 election | 60 Minutes

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Rarely in American politics has a new industry spent so much money, with such apparent impact, as the cryptocurrency business did in the last election. “Cryptocurrencies” like Bitcoin, are digital assets, created and maintained by networks of computers. Mystifying to some and mesmerizing to others, they’re used for transactions and as high-risk investments with potentially high rewards. At least 17 million Americans own crypto, and how the industry should be regulated in the U.S. has been the subject of much dispute. With an important piece of legislation now before Congress, perhaps it’s no surprise that big crypto companies were among the top donors in this past election. And since the election, the price of Bitcoin has hit record highs. It isn’t clear whether the crypto industry will get Congress or the incoming Trump administration to craft the regulation or the legitimacy that they seek. But they’ve been investing a whole lot of their own cash to get something….

In the final months of a hotly contested race for a Senate seat in Ohio, Republican Bernie Moreno received $40 million of positive ads from a political action committee known as a super PAC.

The ads didn’t mention cryptocurrency at all, but they were paid for by crypto companies. and they helped Moreno defeat Democrat Sherrod Brown

… the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and an outspoken critic of crypto.

Margaret Brennan: In a close election that kinda money makes a huge difference, particularly in the end of a cycle. Do you think you tipped the scales?

Brad Garlinghouse: Do I think that putting that amount of money in the Ohio election had an impact? Absolutely. 

Brad Garlinghouse is the CEO of a company called Ripple, whose cryptocurrency XRP became the third-largest in the world this past week. Ripple and two other companies contributed $144 million to super PACs that supported pro-crypto Republicans and Democrats. 

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse

60 Minutes


Brad Garlinghouse: Do I think we had an impact to elect a Democratic senator in Michigan– Elissa — Slotkin? Yes, absolutely. Do I think we had an impact in Arizona? A Democratic senator in Arizona, Gallego, absolutely. 

Overall, crypto companies contributed one-third of all direct corporate contributions to super PACs. Of the 29 Republicans and 33 Democrats the industry backed in congressional races, 85% won.

Brad Garlinghouse: It’s incredible.

Margaret Brennan: So you see this election as a major victory?

Brad Garlinghouse: For sure.

Margaret Brennan: But some people will look at that and say, “You teamed up and bought an election.” 

Brad Garlinghouse: At the end of the day, voters voted. We– we– we educated voters, as many industries do, about candidates.

Margaret Brennan: But you helped supercharge the candidates with the money in the coffers, right, on whatever it is–

Brad Garlinghouse: We absolutely did.

Margaret Brennan: –they wanted to talk about.

Brad Garlinghouse: That’s absolutely right.

Margaret Brennan: So, in your mind, is the message for any lawmaker looking to run for office that they have to take your industry seriously? Fear your industry?

Brad Garlinghouse: I think all citizens should want people in Congress, in the Senate and the House, who are going to look to how do we use technologies in ways to benefit citizens. 

But the best news for the crypto industry came at the top of the ticket.

Margaret Brennan: Before this cycle, in June of 2021, Donald Trump was saying, “Bitcoin seems like a scam.” Do you understand what happened with that transformation?

Brad Garlinghouse: I didn’t have a front-row seat to that. I think it’s clear that Donald Trump embraced crypto and crypto embraced Donald Trump.

Three weeks before the election, Trump announced the launch of a new digital coin that he had a financial stake in. 

Margaret Brennan: Is that a conflict of interest in your point of view?

Brad Garlinghouse: Whether or not it’s a conflict of interest, the voters have knowingly said, “We want this person to be our president. The voters have spoken more so than I have.

Trump’s Cabinet picks have had very positive things to say about crypto. Here’s what his choice for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told Fox Business News…

Bessent on Fox Business News: “Crypto is about freedom and the crypto economy is here to stay”

Perhaps most significantly, this past week Trump selected a new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Paul Atkins – a former SEC commissioner who’s done some consulting for crypto companies, is expected to take a very different approach than Biden-era Chair Gary Gensler, who filed more than 120 lawsuits against crypto companies. Last year, Gensler told the House Financial Services Committee ….

Gensler: “I’ve never seen a field that’s so non-compliant with laws written by Congress”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says the SEC’s approach was the main reason his company and two others created the biggest industry super PAC, called Fairshake.

Brad Garlinghouse: People are like, “Wh– why did– why did these companies come together and organize and say, ‘This matters'”? And– it– it’s a reaction to a war on crypto.

Margaret Brennan: So if the– if there had been a different SEC chair than Gary Gensler–

Brad Garlinghouse:I’m not sure Fairshake would exist.

Margaret Brennan: Really?

Brad Garlinghouse: I’m– absolutely.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse

60 Minutes


In response, an SEC spokesperson said: “any amount spent by the crypto industry on legal defense or influence peddling pales in comparison to the savings lost by crypto investors to frauds and failures.”

John Reed Stark: It was definitely a war on crypto.

John Reed Stark, former chief of internet enforcement at the SEC, says he owns no cryptocurrency and has never worked for the industry. Like Garlinghouse, he believes voters have given President-elect Trump a mandate to govern.

John Reed Stark: As far as these election results are concerned, the clear mandate is the SEC needs to lay off crypto And that’s exactly what’s gonna happen.

But that doesn’t mean this former SEC official thinks the agency’s actions were wrong.

John Reed Stark: crypto is a scourge. It’s not something that you want in your society. It has no utility. it’s just pure speculation. Remember, there’s no balance sheet to crypto. There’s no financial statements. 

Margaret Brennan: You’re talkin’ about SEC filings. There’s no public disclosure mandate.

John Reed Stark: Exactly. Nothing. But also there’s no audit, inspection, examination, net capital requirements– no licensure of the individuals involved. And there’s no transparency into it. that creates real systemic risk, not just risk for investors But the other part that people don’t really talk about enough are the dire externalities that are enabled by crypto.

Margaret Brennan: What do you mean?

John Reed Stark: Every single crime you can conceive of is easier to do now because of crypto, especially ransomware, human sex trafficking—sanctions evasion, money laundering. North Korea is financing their nuclear weapons program using crypto.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction for fraud at one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world is a case study of what can happen without proper oversight. Based in the Bahamas, the FTX exchange collapsed in 2022, imperiling $8 billion of customer assets, much of it beyond the reach of U.S. regulators. 

Margaret Brennan: There were crimes there. There was fraud there.

Brad Garlinghouse: I view that as not t– dissimilar than if we say Bernie Madoff went to jail, that doesn’t make every hedge fund manager– a criminal.

Margaret Brennan: Of course–

Brad Garlinghouse: The– there’s a lotta good actors in crypto.

Ripple’s CEO says his company employs 900 people and has been working with regulated financial institutions to create a faster and cheaper way for people to send money overseas. XRP is the digital currency it uses to do that. But Ripple also sold the digital currency XRP to investors, and XRP now trades on exchanges, where people can buy or sell it in the hope of making a profit.

Margaret Brennan: So the SEC sued your company in December of 2020. That was the tail end of the Trump administration. Why?

Brad Garlinghouse: Well, their allegation was that Ripple and our sales of XRP represented the sale of an unregistered security. 

Margaret Brennan: A security like a stock or another asset class?

Brad Garlinghouse: Correct.

Garlinghouse says Ripple has spent over $150 million fighting the SEC in court, arguing that the digital currency XRP shouldn’t be subject to the agency’s registration and disclosure requirements, as if it were a stock offering.

Brad Garlinghouse: I went to Harvard Business School. I think I’m reasonably intelligent about something like, “What is a security?” So never once had I considered the possibility– that, “Okay, maybe XRP’s a security.”

John Reed Stark: I’ve read every case. I’ve read every motion. And judges have said over, and over again that these are securities. And they haven’t said it like, “This is a close call.” They said, “This is an obvious call.”

Margaret Brennan and John Reed Stark, the former chief of internet enforcement at the SEC
Margaret Brennan and John Reed Stark, the former chief of internet enforcement at the SEC

60 Minutes


Brad Garlinghouse disputes that. He also argues that existing securities laws don’t fit well with the new technology, and Congress needs to draft new rules for these new digital assets.

Brad Garlinghouse: We haven’t been asking to be deregulated. We’ve been asking to be regulated. So we have been saying, “Hey, look, just give us clear rules of the road.”

Margaret Brennan: So w– what was your strategy with putting money to work in the election? Was it to then go write those rules of the road that you want written?

Brad Garlinghouse: No. Our– our goal has been to simply get rules written. I mean, the– the good news is there was–

Margaret Brennan: I mean, not just any rules.

Brad Garlinghouse: Well, th– there was– a bill passed this summer– in the House, bipartisan support called FIT21.

Margaret Brennan: Uh-huh.

Brad Garlinghouse: it was a Republican bill. Seventy-one Democrats supported it.

FIT21 tries to create a new regulatory framework for digital assets. While the SEC will still play a role, the legislation gives more responsibility for regulating cryptocurrencies to the CFTC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees futures markets for everything from gold to pork bellies…and already has some jurisdiction over bitcoin.

John Reed Stark: the SEC is about– maybe ten times the size of the CFTC. The SEC’s mandate is one of investor protection. They have legions of attorneys who go out and do these inspections, examinations, and audits. The CFTC is more about the integrity of the marketplace. I don’t blame the crypto industry for wanting to be under the CFTC. It’s a much easier regulatory regime.

Margaret Brennan: It had bipartisan support, and it passed the House.

John Reed Stark: Doesn’t surprise me at all that it has the support it has because–

Margaret Brennan: Why?

John Reed Stark: It doesn’t pay for a member of Congress or the Senate, whoever you’re talking about, doesn’t pay for them to be (laugh) anti-crypto. There’s no– there’s no one that’s gonna give them contributions because of that

Lawmakers from both parties told us crypto firms will not escape scrutiny, since there are consumer protections in the bill. And while it’s not clear whether republican leaders will reintroduce FIT21 in the new Congress, there is bipartisan agreement that something must be done to plug regulatory gaps and prevent confusion in a market that already exists.

Brad Garlinghouse: Where is the United States better served? Are we served by creating clear rules of the road and having this industry thrive here at home? Or should we push it offshore where people are less protected?

Margaret Brennan: But even some of the big financial names on Wall Street have been skeptical of crypto. Jamie Dimon called it pet rock 

Brad Garlinghouse: There are big skeptics I think anytime a new technology, a new industry– emerges. The counter to what you’re describing is the most successful ETF ever in the United States–

Margaret Brennan: Exchange-traded fund.

Brad Garlinghouse: –was the Bitcoin ETF. The Bitcoin ETF went live I think in January of this year, and attracted more assets in– in a f– s– faster amount of time than any ETF ever before.

Exchange traded funds, or ETFs, are like mutual funds. Offered by well-known investment firms and big banks, they make it easy for people to invest in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies without directly buying it themselves. Even Jamie Dimon’s bank offers clients investments in these assets he once described as pet rocks. 

John Reed Stark: Am I surprised that these big banks have gotten into the crypto space? No, because there’s huge amounts of money to be made in fees. 

Margaret Brennan: Do you think that everyday people who want to make money in the crypto space understand the risk that they assume?

Brad Garlinghouse: I think many people understand it’s a volatile market. And I think many people, you know, choose to participate. Many people choose to participate in the gambling market, also very risky. Should we, as– a government, tell people how they should and shouldn’t use the– their hard-earned money?

With the value of Ripple’s XRP currency up more than 300% since the election, Brad Garlinghouse recently announced the company was putting another $25 million into the industry super PAC Fairshake. With that donation, Fairshake already has $103 million to spend on pro-crypto candidates in the mid-term elections two years from now.

Produced by Andy Court. Associate producers, Annabelle Hanflig and Richard Escobedo. Broadcast associates, Grace Conley and Musa Ali. Edited by Warren Lustig



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